Someone was knocking. King sat up in a rush, breath leaving him as he took in the silence of the room.
Allie was gone. He grabbed his Kimber and threw open the door. A man was standing there holding King’s buzzing sat phone. His heart dropped. Goddamn it!
He took the phone and nodded, slamming the door as he answered the ringing summons.
“King.”
“She’s in the wind, McNally, heading to Madrid,” Loretta said in a hard voice. “What did you do to her?”
King rubbed a hand down his face. Madrid—why Madrid? “I haven’t done anything…yet. When I get my hands on her though…”
“I’ve got someone meeting her plane. Go back to your Endgame Ops games. I’ll take her from here,” Loretta said, acid dripping from her voice.
“Whoever the fuck you’ve got meeting her, call them off. Tell them she went to another location. I’m not shitting you, Loretta. We can’t risk Savidge being all over her. Call your man off now,” King bit out.
“You have no idea how close Savidge is to grabbing her. You obviously can’t hold her. My man is a good operative. He has no dog in this fight, and he isn’t in Savidge’s or Dresden’s pocket. Back off, McNally,” she warned him.
King disconnected. He immediately dialed Jude, got no answer, and then dialed Rook.
“Your Highness,” Rook answered drolly.
“I need a contact in Madrid,” King said hurriedly into the handset. He pulled out his laptop, booted it up, and put the phone on speaker.
“Knight knows some people. I’ll get him on it. Who’re we looking for?”
“Allie Redding, but she’s probably flying under the assumed name of Dara Filipovic.”
“Damn, hoss, you lost her already?”
“Fuck you, Rook.” King tapped into the main database for the Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport. He ran a query on Dara Filipovic and found her outbound flight to Madrid. “She’s heading in on flight 904, Air France.” It was disturbing that Loretta had that information.
“Give me a few, and I’ll let you know what’s what. Do you need Vivi on this?” Rook asked.
“Not yet,” King bit out and disconnected.
He slammed the laptop closed, shoved it in his backpack, and gathered everything up. She’d left. Son of a bitch, but the woman was a sandwich short of a picnic. What if Savidge had someone watching for her? What if he’d gotten her?
What if he knew where she was headed even now?
King headed for the door between Jude’s suite and his, pounding on the thin wood. Harrison Black answered, Jude right behind him.
“She’s gone,” King bit out.
“What the hell?” Black exclaimed. “How did she get past us?”
“You weren’t looking for her to sneak out. Now she’s making a beeline for home through Spain,” King said on a sigh.
Jude went deathly still. “We still a go for Savidge?”
King really wanted Savidge. Badly. But the taste of desperation in his mouth was all for Allie. “You’re still a go. But I’ve got to find her and get her home. Damn woman will be the death of me.”
“Jude and I can keep the original plan. Meanwhile, do your best to find your girl.”
His girl. “She’s not a girl,” King responded automatically, wincing as Allie’s words came back to him.
“Well, Your Highness, we definitely noticed that,” Jude drawled.
“Fuck you, Jude—now get out and do your jobs. I’m ordering recon only on Savidge’s place outside Beirut. Keep tabs on the bastard until I can meet up with you both. I’m going to track down our wayward Ms. Redding, and I’ll meet you in Lebanon as soon as I can.”
“That’s a big ten-four,” Jude responded.
“Aye,” came Black’s affirmation.
King walked into the bathroom and saw the gown he’d purchased for her hanging on the back of the door. Adam had set him up with a woman who worked in the high-end department stores, and she’d personally handled his purchases. He’d seen the gown and wanted to see Allie in it. It’d been an impulse purchase—no rhyme or reason behind it—a purely selfish move.
He threw it and everything else she’d left into the bag, shoved that into his duffel, and headed out the door.
King hadn’t known fear since he received his last beating at the age of fourteen from his daddy. He’d hit a growth spurt that summer and grown much taller and broader than his father. He’d just gotten too damn big to hit, and the fear had ended.
Right now, he was as close to the emotion as he ever wanted to venture again. He headed to the lobby and checked out. Appearances were everything. If he’d left without paying, he’d never be able to stay here again, regardless of which fake identity he used. He’d been forced to use one of the credit cards because apparently she was a sneak and a thief. She’d stolen over five thousand dollars.
You should have been honest with her, told her all your plans, his conscience admonished.
She didn’t need to hear it all, his mind warred. For some reason, she hadn’t trusted him as much as she’d let on.
Either way, she was now on her own, miles away and without protection. He flagged down a cab and answered his nagging sat phone.
“Talk to me, Rook.”
“Knight has one of his contacts meeting her. I need you to forward me a pic ASAP. He has to know who to look for when she exits the terminal. He’ll be taking her to the Westin Palace. I need to know for sure what name she’s traveling under.”
“Dara Filipovic, and I’m sending the picture as we speak. Tell your man to be aware that a Company man might give him some shit. Apparently, Allie Redding is great buddies with Loretta Bernstein,” King told Rook as he pressed a button on the phone and shot his man a picture he’d snuck of her on the plane.
“Well, shit. If Bernstein’s involved, your girl should be fine, right? Hold on, the picture’s coming through. Damn, she’s hot. Doesn’t look like a spook, but neither does her daddy. Listen, let me get this information to Knight, and I’ll let you know when she lands.”
“The second she does. And Rook, I don’t trust anyone in the CIA, least of all Loretta. Tell your man to watch his back.”
“Yes, Your Highness,” Rook said and hung up.
King rubbed his hand over his eyes. He’d needed sleep, and she’d taken advantage of that. Was she okay? Scared?
Why was he feeling anything other than anger right now?
He made it to the airport only to find the next flight to Madrid didn’t leave for another four hours. So he hunkered down in a café and got busy. There were plans to make. He needed to get her on U.S. soil ASAP. The woman was a hazard to herself.
He could coordinate Endgame’s next moves from Madrid, but after he dropped Allie back home, he’d need to hustle ass to Beirut. There was no telling how long Savidge would stay in one place. Though Jude’s and Adam’s intel suggested Savidge was holing up for a long visit, intel sometimes changed rapidly. After they eliminated him, they would begin working in earnest on Dresden. How scared would the bastard be, knowing they’d gotten to his number one man? King relished the thought of it.
Dresden had grown in power over the last two years and was making moves into Russia’s underbelly. He’d infiltrated the Russian mob and had them kowtowing to him. Anything for money. Dresden had his hands in every dirty pie in the world, it seemed.
King really hated that son of a bitch. He was a scourge. King owed him for so much, but if Allie was in his sights, there was going to be trouble all the way around. Because King had realized something when he’d woken and found her gone.
She’d become important to him.
He didn’t contact Loretta. She was a dead end now. Indeed, she had her own agenda, and while she might care for Allie, care what happened to her, Loretta’s and King’s objectives didn’t align enough for him to keep her in the loop.
He gave a passing thought to contacting Broemig but discarded it as soon as it popped into his head. No doubt Loretta had already been in contact with Allie’s dad. Instead, King boarded his plane, stowed his carry-on duffel, and waited for Rook to call him.
An hour into his flight, the call came through. “She’s landed. Knight’s man has her and is transporting her to the closest hotel. There was a tagalong for a few miles, but they drifted away.”
“Tell Knight not to engage,” King ordered.
“Already done,” Rook said with a sigh. “I know how this game is played, King.”
King groaned. “I know you do, Rook, but she’s…”
Rook snickered. “She’s what? Important?”
“She’s what she is. If Knight’s man harms her or she’s hurt on his watch, I’ll gut his ass. Groin to throat. He’ll never see me coming. Tell him, Rook. Warn him.”
“Never thought I’d see the day King McNally took a nosedive.”
“This coming from the man who can’t keep his woman in one place.”
“Goddamn woman is gonna be the death of me, McNally,” Rook said, and his voice rang with both irritation and fondness.
“Savidge is in Beirut. Have you located Dresden?”
“Not yet. But we’re close. I’m locked up with Vivi. He makes a move toward my woman, I’ve got a bullet with his name on it,” Rook promised. “Hey, have you talked to Jude or Chase?”
“Chase is back in Burundi following a lead. Jude is working with Black and was just in Serbia with me. We had a helluva lead on Savidge, but then Ms. Redding hit the high road. I made a promise that overrides my desire to have Savidge’s head under my gun. But make no mistake, Rook, Jude could go rogue at any minute. He’s keeping his eye on Savidge right now, but I’m worried. Word is Ella-Bella didn’t kick the bucket when we went boom in Beirut. Heard those rumors?”
“I have. In my bones, I know he’s been chasing after her between jobs, Your Highness.”
“If Jude has even an inkling she’s alive, he’ll go in guns blazing and blow this whole thing to smithereens.”
Silence stretched between them before Rook asked, “Have you given any thought to using your woman as a pawn?”
King growled. “She isn’t my woman, Rook. She’s an operation. I thought she was Savidge’s courier. Found out she’s Broemig’s daughter. If you think I hadn’t given that some thought, you’re stupider than I gave you credit for.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah, I hear you. You might want to give that some more thought before you do it. Broemig is a straight-up killer. You’ll be on his shit list forever if you use her and it doesn’t pan out. Hell, if it works out, you’ll still be on his shit list. Could make holidays rough.” Rook paused. King rolled his eyes before the man started up again. “Speaking of panning out, Vivi traced back a trail that leads pretty high into the White.”
Holidays? King had only recently admitted to himself he liked Allie, and Rook was talking about them having holidays together? Oh, who was he kidding? He way more than liked her. He pushed those thoughts aside for now.
“Damn,” King breathed out. The White was code for the White House. “Is she following it?”
“Yeah, man. We ain’t stupid. Did you bump your head really hard when we crashed that helo?”
King’s lips curved. How many smiles did that make since he’d met Allie? Ten? Twenty? She was changing him. “I’m out. Watch your six, shoot to kill.”
Rook laughed then. “Don’t be brave, be accurate.”
“Hooyah,” King said softly before he hung up and leaned his head back. He glanced at his MTM tactical watch and noticed he had another five hours in this flight.
He closed his eyes. Maybe he could get some rest, but chances were slim. Worry had lodged in his gut, and it was churning. He couldn’t see her, wasn’t there to protect her. It was unacceptable.
Because she’d become something more to him than part of a mission.
And that too was unacceptable.