Shadow Pawn, page 11
“Here.” She thrust the phone at him face down, relieved to be done with her part. The rest was up to him.
“Hey. It’s Adam,” he said after a few moments. “I have a question for you.”
There was a pause that seemed to go on forever as he listened to the person on the other end of the phone call.
Finally, he said, “We can discuss all that later. This is more important. There are two guys outside the safe house on Jeju at this very moment. I need to know if they’re yours or not.”
She held her breath as she waited for the answer along with Adam.
“You sure?” he asked, his tone saying more than his words as her heart thundered. He continued after another long pause. “I’ll take care of it. My way.”
He took his eye away from the lens long enough to end the call, but he was back at his post again immediately as he held the phone back toward her.
“Power it down and take the SIM out again.”
“What’s going on?” she asked as she crab walked over to take the phone.
“She says they’re not hers.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that most likely these are the bad guys.”
“Because I sent that email,” she whispered, as much to herself as to him.
“Possibly. Probably. I don’t know. I don’t trust anyone at this point. Not the people who hired me. Not the captain of that ship who is obviously willing to accept cash for anything, including selling the information about where he took us. I’m not even sure about you.”
That last sentence had her drawing back. “What do you mean?”
“I mean what are you involved in that has everyone after you?”
That was the one question she couldn’t answer. She could count on one hand the number of people who knew. Yet it was still too many. Obviously.
Somehow, someone somewhere had found out and that person thought the information was worth kidnapping her for.
She couldn’t tell Adam. As much as she wanted to share the burden of this secret. To give him the information that might help him keep them both safe. She couldn’t.
“I can’t tell you.”
Now he did take his eye away from the lens long enough to glare in her direction before he resumed his position.
“I’m sorry,” she added.
His only reply was a sniff.
“What are the men doing?” she asked to break the silence when he said nothing for what felt like forever but was probably fewer than five minutes.
“They’re inside the house.”
“Doing what?”
“Looking for clues I’d guess.”
“We didn’t leave them any clues.”
“Didn’t we? The shower will still be wet telling them you were there very recently. The remains of your meal for one is in the garbage, which might have convinced them you were there alone. But then there are the sheets I took off the bed…which are proof you were not.”
Memories of how those sheets got dirty hit her hard. That seemed like another lifetime. And the way Adam was now compared to then… it was like he was a different person.
“What do we do?” she whispered to the man who felt more like a stranger now than ever.
“We wait for them to leave. Then we get the hell out of here.”
“And go where?” she asked, trying to take comfort in the fact that as least he seemed to have a plan.
“Airport.”
She frowned. “I can’t get out of the country without ID.”
“We won’t be flying commercial,” he said simply. She didn’t have time for a follow-up question before he said, “They’re coming out.”
Her stomach roiled.
What if they searched all the neighboring houses? That question was quickly followed by the obvious answer as her gaze cut to Adam manning the gun. She had no doubt what he’d do if those men came through that door.
Then what?
What happened to Americans accused of murder in South Korea?
She really didn’t want to find out.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“What did whoever was on the phone say to you?” Angela asked as they waited for the two men to drive away.
“Later,” he said.
This wasn’t a conversation he wanted to have here and now.
Not while he had his crosshairs trained on the man behind the wheel of the car as he called someone. He could make a pretty good guess who. No doubt that call was to the person or organization who’d hired them to go after Angela.
He didn’t envy the man having to report to his boss that their target was gone. Vanished into thin air.
At least that’s what he hoped they thought. That she was long gone. Already halfway to the port to hop a ship out of there.
Of course, he was in as much trouble as them with his boss. Charley did not sound at all happy that he was still in Korea. She’d questioned why, right before she’d ordered him to put a bullet into the heads of the two men currently sitting out front unaware of his presence.
There were a couple of reasons he wasn’t going to do that. The main one being, this wasn’t a war zone and he was no longer an active-duty operator. This was the tourist capitol of South Korea. He had no back up, limited resources and even fewer ways to get him and her off this damn island.
Make no mistake, if these men came at him or Angela, he’d have no problem putting a hole or two in them. But that was a last resort. He’d rather not leave a trail of bodies behind. He didn’t need the authorities after him too. It was bad enough her kidnappers had found them.
Fucking email. He’d thought Angela was smarter than that.
Hell, she was smarter than that. But she was frightened. Desperate.
She’d panicked. And that was on him for leaving her alone. All because he’d listened to Charley even though his gut told him it was the wrong move.
He could hear Angela breathing, quick and shallow, down on the floor behind him. She was scared.
Of course, she was freaking scared. He could only imagine what she was thinking.
An hour ago they’d been in bed. Now, as far as she could see, the man she’d spent the night with was about to kill two people just for walking up to the door.
The car’s engine starting was a welcome sound. The red glow of the taillights as they drove away had him breathing out in relief.
No bodies today.
But they weren’t out of danger yet. Far from it.
“They’re gone,” he told her.
Her breath came out in a whoosh. “Thank God.”
He wasn’t a praying man, but right now, he couldn’t agree more.
“What do we do?” she asked.
Luckily for him, he had an answer. The pilot was spending the night on Jeju Island. And Adam had his cell phone number. The man was ready to fly them both out of there and back to the mainland if he needed him to.
As it turned out, they needed him to. No way was he going to sit around and wait for Charley’s exfil. She’d said on the phone she’d been waiting for things to cool down before they moved Angela.
Well, things were too damn hot here now that the bad guys knew where Angela was. It was riskier to stay than to go. Time to get off this damn island.
“I make a phone call, then we boost a car,” he told her, happy with his plan.
“You mean steal it?”
“Yup.” He didn’t want the paper trail taking a taxi would leave. “Don’t worry. We’ll park it nice and safe when we’re done with it. The police will find it in a day or two and the owner will get it back. No harm done.”
“Okay…” She didn’t sound okay. “Um, Adam?”
“Yeah?”
“Would you have done it? Shot them?” she asked.
And there it was. The reason for that odd tone in her voice. The reason she was still all the way on the other side of the kitchen, far away from him.
“Yup.” No doubt about it. And he wasn’t going to lie to her about it.
If it came right down to it and it was a choice between her or them, he’d take them out and she needed to know that.
“Oh.” It was a single word, but it conveyed so much. Judgment. Fear. Shock.
He shouldn’t be surprised by her reaction.
If she didn’t like the idea of him borrowing a car, of course his eliminating those men was out of the question in her mind. Barbaric, even.
It was a good thing he hadn’t had to. She would have totally lost it then.
Letting out a sigh, he flipped up the legs on the rifle, swinging it onto his shoulder with the strap. “Come on. I want you close to me in case they didn’t go far.”
He moved to where she still sat on the floor, her back pressed against the wall, and extended a hand to her. She hesitated but finally took it and let him pull her upright.
Oh, how things had changed. Even without seeing her face he could sense it. A wall had gone up between them. She saw him differently now.
He guessed he wouldn’t be getting any more loving from her, even after they reached safety.
Maybe that was a good thing. For both of them.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Adam was either really good at his job, or he was being helped by someone behind the scenes pulling the strings.
That was the one explanation Angela could come up with for the fact he made one phone call and a couple of hours later they were landing in Seoul.
No ID. No TSA. No questions asked about the armory worth of not-so-well-hidden weapons Adam carried on the plane.
Of course, it was a private plane judging by the tiny size. And he did hand over a whopping wad of Korean bills to the pilot.
Maybe money could buy anything.
As she followed Adam across the tarmac, she read the sign for Incheon International Airport.
International. Was she finally going home? She didn’t dare hope. She still didn’t have any ID to fly commercial. So what were they doing there?
Maybe Adam was hoping to buy her a fake ID. There had to be more counterfeiters here in the capital of South Korea than on Jeju Island.
That was as good a guess as any. Stranger things had happened to her since being taken. Buying fake ID on the streets in Seoul wouldn’t even rate in the top five.
She turned to Adam, squinting against the bright sun. “What are we doing here?”
“Hopefully, we’re getting you home.”
She nearly teared up with hope she was afraid to feel.
“How?” she asked, her voice breaking on the single word.
“I have a couple of ideas.”
A couple. As in more than one.
That was pretty amazing because aside from her fake ID guess—which wouldn’t work if she were alone since she wouldn’t even know where to begin finding a forger—she didn’t have any.
She wasn’t sure she believed him.
“Would you care to share?” Frustrated, she asked the question with a bit more attitude in her tone than she’d realized would be there.
He shot her a sideways glance. “Plan A is to find someone who looks enough like you and lift her ID.”
Her eyes flew wide. “Steal someone’s ID?” She glanced around after she said it to make sure, granted a bit too late, that no one was in hearing distance.
“Yup.” He nodded.
Apparently, nothing was off limits for Adam when it came to stealing. Cars. Identification. If he landed them both in jail—
Jaw clenched, she glared at him.
“If that was your plan, why didn’t we just do that at the JeJu airport?” she asked.
“They’ll be watching that airport. No one will think to look for you here,” he answered as he opened the glass door for her to walk through.
That explained why they’d driven in the stolen car to meet the private plane at an airfield that looked like it had seen better days, rather than to the real airport.
Adam was smart and careful when it came to this cloak and dagger stuff. Unfortunately, she wasn’t sure his plan A was smart or careful.
“Will it work? The stolen ID?” she asked.
“We’ll see.” He shrugged.
Jeez. Not at all comforting.
“What’s plan B?” she asked, not sure she’d like it if it ranked lower than the very questionable plan A.
“The US Embassy is in Seoul.”
She tripped over her own feet as she stared at him at the possibility of going to the actual authorities. “You said we couldn’t go to the local police in Shanghai or on Jeju because they could be corrupt.”
He leveled a stare on her as he held open one of the many lockers available for rental in the airport. “If the reach of whoever took you spreads as far as the US Embassy in Seoul, we’re all in a shitload of trouble.”
Adam was right about that.
She watched as he shoved the bag containing the weapons—including her taser, the one modicum of security she’d clung to, besides Adam—into the locker and kept only his backpack on his shoulder as he slammed the door.
He turned and saw her watching him. “If we can get on a flight, we can’t travel with that bag. If we can’t, it’ll be there for us to come back and retrieve it.”
So they would waltz into the US Embassy with a sniper rifle, two knives, a pistol and a taser? That should be fun.
Her expression must have conveyed her doubt. He took a step forward and laid his hand on her shoulder. “We’re fine.”
She swallowed. “Okay.”
Fine wasn’t exactly the word she would have chosen. But she was alive and free and no longer alone. That was about as good as she could wish for considering.
The weight of Adam’s hand brought back visceral memories of the hours they’d spent tangled up together, causing a twisting low in her belly.
Now was not the time for thoughts like that.
Circumstances. That was what she could attribute these feelings to. Nothing more.
For better or worse, Adam had been her one lifeline through this whole inconceivable situation. Of course her emotions were heightened.
If she were home, at work and living her normal life, there wouldn’t be this tug of attraction between them. Not that their paths would have ever crossed back home in the normal world.
Unless, for some crazy reason, she needed to hire a mercenary for the company.
Of course, after this, maybe that was exactly what she should do. A personal bodyguard. After this nightmare, the idea had appeal.
So did Adam…
Pushing that pointless thought aside, she concentrated on what might actually help her get home again and glanced around.
There were lots of people swarming around them in the terminal. In particular, lots of Asian men in suits. That demographic wasn’t going to help her get home.
It must be the time of day, or the day of the week. These were mainly business travelers when what she needed was a female American tourist who looked enough like her she could pass for her with airport security.
Yeah, that wasn’t too tall of an order.
“This isn’t going to work,” she said, more to herself than to Adam.
“We’ll see. Give it time.” His hand on her elbow made her hyperaware of him. “Let’s find a restaurant and sit down. I could use some food.”
She stared at him wide eyed. All she wanted to do was go home. And every time she thought she was one step closer to getting there, it seemed to get farther away. Like a nightmare where she was running and running and getting nowhere.
“If there’s one thing I know about Americans, it’s that they like to eat and drink. If there are any in this airport, we’re likely to find them there,” he explained.
“Okay.” She sighed.
She didn’t argue with him as he steered her past a bunch of places serving traditional Korean food and into someplace touting their burgers and chicken wings and looking like it could be located in the airport back home in Baltimore.
As he chose a table near the front so they could see both who was inside the restaurant and outside walking, she pulled out a chair and sat. “Who would come to Seoul to eat a hamburger?”
“Americans,” he said simply while sweeping the establishment with his gaze.
He was probably right. Not everyone was adventurous when it came to their cuisine.
“Now what?” she asked, glancing around and still not finding anyone who looked like her for them to rob.
Just the thought nearly had her mind boggling at the absurdity of it all.
God, how her life had changed.
“We order. And we wait.”
He had an annoying habit of breaking things down to the most simplistic. There was nothing simple about any of this.
But since she wanted desperately to get home, more than she’d ever wanted anything else, she picked up a menu.
It seemed ridiculous but she’d do as he suggested. She’d order. And she’d wait.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
He might be shoving his face with the last bit of the hamburger he’d ordered, but Adam’s focus was not on the food.
His staring at the throngs of travelers walking past the window next to their table might look like casual people watching to an observer but it was anything but.
So far, his diligence had yielded nothing.
He supposed they could order dessert even though Angela was still picking at her food. Doing more rearranging it on the plate than eating. Maybe he should order a beer while he waited for the perfect woman to walk by. It could be a while.
And if she didn’t ever appear? A woman who looked close enough to Angela. Then what? How much longer could they sit there waiting?
Going to the embassy was the last resort, because although he didn’t think the bad guys had infiltrated the US embassy in Seoul, they most definitely could intercept any communication the embassy sent back to the states regarding Angela.
That much had been proven by the two armed men in the black car who’d paid the safe house a visit in the middle of the night. He had no doubt that was a direct result of the email Angela had sent during the half a day he’d been away from her.
