Grace walked into the vault with the branch manager, clutching the key to the safe-deposit box in her hand. This was the day of reckoning. Riley must have stored something very important in the box. In Grace’s way of thinking, it could be a life-or-death revelation.
Her mouth dry and her heart racing, Grace followed Mr. Jordan into the room with the safe-deposit boxes. He searched the numbers until he found the one that matched the key she held. “This is the one. You’ll need to use the key to open the box.”
“Could I have a moment alone?” Grace asked. She didn’t want the bank manager to see whatever it was she was supposed to retrieve from the box. Not knowing what it was, she wasn’t sure anyone else should know.
The man’s smiled slipped. “I’m sorry, Miss Lawrence, a bank employee has to witness the removal of anything from the safe-deposit boxes. If you don’t mind, I have work to do. Could you hurry it along?”
Grace frowned at the man’s rudeness, but she got on with the reason she’d come to the bank in the first place. Riley wanted her to get something out of the box. If she was that concerned about retrieving the item, it had to be important.
Her hand shaking, Grace slipped the key into the lock and turned it.
Mr. Jordan stepped up beside her. “Here, let me help you.”
“That won’t be necessary. I can manage on my own.” She gripped the handle and pulled the drawer out of the wall of boxes far enough so she could reach inside.
The box was high up the wall, so Grace couldn’t look down into it. She pulled it out and set it on a table in the center of the room for this purpose. Nothing was inside the drawer except an envelope, which she quickly retrieved.
Clutching the envelope in her hand, Grace slid the drawer back into the wall of safe-deposit boxes and removed her key. “I’m finished here. I’m ready to go.” She turned to leave.
A hand wrapped around her face, covering her mouth.
Grace tried to scream, but the hand clamped tighter, muffling her attempt.
“Give me the envelope,” Mr. Jordan said, his voice hard and steely, not at all like the accommodating manager who’d shown her into the vault.
An icy shiver ran from the base of Grace’s skull all the way down her back. Using one of her self-defense moves, she twisted free of Mr. Jordan’s hold and turned to face the bank manager, a frown pulling her eyebrows together.
“You heard me.” He held a wicked-looking knife in his right hand and motioned with the left. “Hand it over.”
Grace shook her head, her fingers curling around the envelope. “But it’s just a piece of paper.” With something small and square inside. And Riley needed it. “Why would you want something so personal?”
“Your roommate has been duping us for the past few months. It’s time she gave us what we paid good money to acquire.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You don’t need to know. Just hand over the envelope.” He grabbed her wrist in a vise-like hold.
Using the self-defense techniques she’d learned from a police officer at the local YMCA, Grace twisted her arm and thrust it downward and out, breaking the man’s hold.
He swung the knife at her, catching her sleeve, the tip nicking her upper arm.
Grace eased backward toward the vault door. “You’re not the branch manager, are you?” One step at a time, she edged toward the exit, still holding the envelope in her hand.
“Give me the damn envelope,” he demanded and lunged.
Grace screamed and dove for the door, and she would have made it out, but the man with the knife was fast and had longer legs. He threw himself at her, tackling her like a pro football player.
Grace hit the marble-tiled floor hard, the air knocked from her lungs.
“Give me the envelope,” he said, his voice low and dangerous. “Or I’ll slice into your jugular.”
“It’s mine,” Grace cried and kicked at the man’s hold on her ankle.
He let go long enough for Grace to jerk her leg free and scramble to her feet.
She made it all the way to the threshold of the vault before he caught her by the hair and yanked her back against him.
He pressed a knife to her throat and growled into her ear. “Make any stupid moves, and you won’t see your precious roommate ever again.” He pressed the tip of the knife into her skin.
Sharp pain made Grace freeze. She didn’t dare scream again for fear the man would carry through on his promise. “Take the envelope,” she said, lifting it up for him to grab.
“I will,” he said. “But you’re coming with me as collateral. I know your boyfriend has this place surrounded with his buddies. They won’t let me out of here unless I take out a little insurance policy.” He let go of her hair and wrapped his arm around her middle, still pressing the knife to her throat. A warm, wet trickle dribbled down Grace’s neck.
With her heart racing and her knees shaking, she struggled to keep her wits about her, searching for any opportunity that might present itself to make an escape. If her abductor would just not press the tip of the knife so hard into her skin.
From behind, he walked her through the vault door and nearly ran into Declan.
“Get back!” the man behind her yelled. “Get back or I kill the girl.”
Declan raised his hands. “Okay, okay. Don’t hurt the woman.” He eased backward. “Let her go and I promise you won’t be harmed.”
The man snorted. “I’m not letting go of my little insurance policy. She’s coming with me. Now, move out of my way or I stick it to her.” He increased the pressure on the knife and more blood trickled down Grace’s neck.
“All right. Calm down.” Declan’s nostrils flared and he stepped to the side. “Just don’t hurt her. We’ll give you whatever you want.”
“That’s more like it.” Grace’s captor half lifted, half shoved her forward. “Tell your men to stand down.” He kept moving forward. “Now!”
Declan raised his voice, “Mack, Gus, stand down.”
Grace couldn’t turn her head left or right to see Declan’s guys, but no one came running to help her. And she was glad they didn’t. If the hand at her throat tightened any more, that knife would slice right through her jugular vein and she’d bleed out before they could call 911.
She kind of liked her jugular vein intact. “I’ll be okay,” she tried to assure Declan, though she had no idea how she could possibly be fine. The man would have no more use for her once he got away from the bank and claimed whatever was in the envelope Riley had asked Grace to retrieve.
“That’s right,” her abductor said. “Play your cards right and I’ll let your girlfriend go when I’m well away from here.” He squeezed his arm hard around her middle. “Call the police, and I’ll take her apart, one piece at a time.”
Declan’s fists clenched and he took a step forward.
Her captor faced him with Grace between the two of them. “Don’t think I will?” His voice deepened to a low, dangerous growl. “Try me. Maybe I’ll take her pretty ear first.” He trailed the knife up to her ear.
Grace closed her eyes and gritted her teeth, prepared for the pain sure to come.
“No need. I believe you,” Declan said.
Grace opened her eyes and stared into Declan’s.
“I’ll get you out of this,” he promised.
She gave him a weak smile. “I’m counting on it.” Her eyes stung with unshed tears. She couldn’t see how he would be able to help her. Until the man holding the knife put down his arm, she was his to toy with, to threaten and use as a shield.
“I’ll need a car and a fifteen-minute head start.” Her captor returned the knife to the base of Grace’s neck, where her pulse beat a thousand times a minute. “If all goes well, you’ll see your girl again. If not, well, it’s on you. Make sure I get out of here, and I’ll go easy on her.”
Grace doubted the man would keep his word, but she didn’t have much of a choice. She’d have to go with him unless she found an opportunity to run before he got her into his car. She braced herself, ready to react at the slightest chance she might get away.
DECLAN COULD HAVE kicked himself. How had the man gotten into the bank before Declan and his guys? The only way he could have done it was if he’d had prior knowledge that Grace had found the key and was going to the bank. Perhaps he had tapped Grace’s apartment or had some way of listening in on her conversations with Riley or Declan. However he’d done it, the fact was he had Grace and would use her to extricate himself from the bank and from any confrontation with the police.
Declan had failed Grace and now had to find a way to get her out of the danger she faced. He’d been on fire with worry when he’d heard her scream for help earlier.
“Let me go ahead of you to let my guys know you’re coming out.” Declan hurried to the lobby doors and stepped outside. He spotted Snow and Mustang standing at the corners of the building and Cole leaning against an SUV, pretending to talk on his cell phone.
When they saw Declan, all three men straightened.
“Grace is coming out. She’s not alone, but don’t make any sudden moves.” He stood back and held the door. “My guys won’t get in your way,” he assured the man holding Grace.
The man led Grace through the door, his eyes narrowed, the wickedly sharp, military-grade knife firmly pressed to Grace’s throat.
If Declan dove for the man’s arm, he might be able to knock the knife loose. Or he might bump the man’s hand and be responsible for the knife slicing into Grace’s jugular vein. He couldn’t take that risk. The thought of anyone slicing into Grace’s long beautiful neck made his stomach roil.
He couldn’t take a shot at the man for fear of hitting Grace, or missing and the man following through on his promise to slice her throat.
Declan couldn’t do a damned thing but let the man go...with Grace.
The abductor walked with Grace into the parking lot, turning again and again, his gaze on Declan’s men, his lip pulled back in a feral snarl, daring them to make a move.
Each time Grace faced Declan, he died a little more. The man was getting away with the woman Declan felt could change his life for the better. She was everything he could have wanted in a woman and more. So beautiful, inside and out. He couldn’t let it end here. He wouldn’t.
A car whipped around the end of a row of parked vehicles and drove up beside Grace and her captor. The passenger door was flung open from the inside.
Still holding the knife to Grace’s throat, the man backed into the seat, forcing Grace to sit on his lap, blocking any chance for anyone else to get a bead on him and blow him away.
A moment later, the car burned rubber, speeding out of the parking lot.
And Declan’s heart slipped like a bag of rocks to the pit of his belly.
Grace was gone.
His men gathered around him.
“We can’t just let him get away with her,” Mack said.
“If we go after them, he’ll know and kill her,” Cole reasoned.
“Now that he’s gotten away, what’s to keep him from killing her anyway and tossing her body out in a ditch?” Mustang said.
Declan shot a murderous glare in his teammate’s direction. “He’s not going to kill her. And we don’t have to follow closely. I have her phone on a tracker.”
“What if he finds her phone on her and he tosses it out of the vehicle?” Gus asked.
“Then we’re sunk.” Declan punched the code into his phone to find Grace. When the screen came up, he could see that the phone was still moving. “For now, she still has it.” He ran toward Grace’s SUV. “Let’s move.”
Before they could get out of the parking lot, a plain silver sedan pulled in and blocked the exit. A woman with auburn hair leaped out and waved them down. “Any of you Declan O’Neill?” she asked.
Declan shifted into Park and flung open his door. “I am.”
“I’m Riley.” She glanced around. “Where’s Grace? Did she get the envelope out of my safe-deposit box?”
“She did.” Declan’s jaw tightened. “And someone got her and the envelope.”
Riley swore beneath her breath. “I should have gotten it myself.” She glanced around. “I can’t stay out in the open. Where can we go to talk?”
“Get in the car. We were about to follow the tracker on Grace’s phone.”
“Thank God.” Riley pulled her car to the side and jumped in with Declan.
He handed her the phone with the tracker. “Navigate. We have to catch up before they discover her phone on her.”
Riley shook her head. “They’re not going to be happy with the memory card they have.”
“That’s what was in the box?” Declan asked. “A memory card?”
“A very small memory card, packed with the data they wanted all along.”
“What the hell’s going on? Why have you been on the run? And why do they want this card?” Declan wanted all the information he could get. Grace’s life was on the line, and the more he knew about his adversaries, the better equipped he’d be to face them.
“I’m working on a secret project. I can’t tell you exactly what it’s about, but I can tell you that I was approached by the FBI to help them find out who was stealing secrets from Quest about this particular work. I didn’t know how to do it other than to create two sets of data. One good set and one bad set. I presented the bad set. It was the one that was being sold to whoever was buying. I figured I’d keep putting out the bad data until we found the culprit.” She stared out the window. “I didn’t think it would take so long for the seller to surface. And I never considered it would put Grace in danger. I thought I was the only one committing to the undercover sting.”
“Did you figure out who was selling the data?”
She glanced his way. “I think Moretti was in on it. But I didn’t think he was smart enough to orchestrate the deals. Someone with a better understanding of what this idea is worth has to be behind it. Someone with connections to foreign buyers.” She shook her head. “Moretti isn’t that guy. He doesn’t like traveling outside the region, much less the country. Oh, he was involved, but I think he was just a middle man. He took the fall for someone else.”
“Any idea who?” Declan asked.
Again, Riley shook her head. “I was getting close to finishing the project with the good data and knew I wouldn’t be able to hold out much longer. The program team was at the point they needed my work to complete the project. It was key to making it all work.”
“I take it whoever was buying the bad data figured out it was bad.”
Riley nodded. “I got a text just as I got to my office two days ago. The message said to get out.” She pressed a hand to her chest. “I’ve never been so scared in my life. I got up from my chair, grabbed my purse and walked out of the office, out of the building and kept walking. Another text told me to lie low, find a hotel, but pay cash. In other words, I had to disappear. I couldn’t even call Grace to let her know what was happening.” Riley sighed. “Until I bought a burner phone.”
“Were you the one who warned us to get out of the bar?”
She nodded. “I didn’t know if they’d come looking for me at my apartment. If they did, they’d find Grace. So I’ve been shadowing her since this all began, staying far enough away to remain in hiding, but close enough to warn or help out, if I could. I was meeting with my FBI handler this morning when you and Grace were on your way to the bank. I left that meeting as soon as I could. I never thought anyone would dare to cause trouble at a bank. Outside the bank, maybe, but not inside a bank.” Riley banged her fist against her palm. “I should have gotten the key from Grace and gone into the vault myself. I didn’t even tell the FBI handler about the spare memory card. I was afraid a double agent might be working against me.”
The road they followed led toward Baltimore. Soon they were passing through a warehouse district and shipyards where cargo and containers were stacked neatly on the shore.
“Is the memory card Grace retrieved encrypted?” Declan asked.
“Yes,” Riley said. “They won’t be able to break into the data. We don’t have to worry about them getting into the information.”
“You might want to revisit that idea. If they can’t get into that information, they might kill Grace out of anger.”
Riley shot a fierce frown in his direction. “Damn.” She glanced at the screen, her eyes widening. “The cell phone locator blinked off.” She looked up.
“Damn,” Declan echoed. “Without the locator, it will be impossible to find her. She could end up anywhere.”