Shadows and Light: The Complete Series, page 84
“Mac!”
“Hold on!” He skidded into the SUV in front of him, and at the same time, yanked his Glock from under his sport coat. When the truck didn’t slow, he began to fire out the driver’s side window. The roar of the gun going off numbed everything and the scene in front of her played out in slow motion.
Her hands shot out and she braced herself just as the trash truck rammed into Mac’s door. A flash of white smoke ignited in the cab. Mac’s shoulder crashed into her left arm as he tried to spin out of the way of the trash truck. Over the stench of burning rubber and whatever chemicals ignited when Mac’s airbag deployed, only one thought cut through Lexie’s foggy brain.
Ryan! He was coming for her and didn’t care how messy it got.
The truck latched onto Mac’s vehicle and hauled it across the intersection. He yelled something, but she couldn’t make out what he said.
Somehow Mac was able to control the spin and the sedan broke free. But instead of being in the clear, the momentum sent them sliding sideways out of control until they bounced off a parked vehicle and spun back into oncoming traffic. The second FBI vehicle hit them head on, trapping them between the SUV and the trash truck.
Gunfire sounded in the distance as if it were a long way away until the front window shattered. Lexie lunged head first into Mac’s lap. A fear like she had never known sliced through the instant she became aware Mac wasn’t moving. Twisting, she noticed that his head was tilted toward his left shoulder and his eyes were closed as blood streamed down his face from a wound in the middle of his forehead and left eye. Her heart plummeted.
“Mac?” Lexie screamed his name several times as her hands struggled to unlatch his seat belt. Her only thought was getting him below the dashboard. The sedan rested sideways in the middle of the intersection as a gun battle roared around them.
After several tries, she got the clip undone and yanked hard onto Mac’s blazer to pull him down onto her seat. “What the hell, Mac. Wake your ass up now. You’re not leaving me,” she screamed as she ran her hands over his arms and chest, looking for bullet wounds.
The passenger door opened and someone grabbed her arm. “No, I have to stay with Mac.”
The next yank was so hard, her arm felt like it had been wrenched from its socket.
“Get out now, Lexie, or I’ll place a slug between his eyes.”
She kicked her legs out, hoping to catch Ryan’s groin. “You bastard! You could have killed him. What the hell is wrong with you?”
He cocked his weapon. “Get out.”
Ryan released her seat belt and dragged her from the cab of the truck, shoving her toward the passenger door of the silver Lexus. A sweltering temper ignited deep within her. She fisted her hand like Rico had taught her and slammed it into Ryan’s nose. “Fight your fucking war without me. I’m not doing this again.”
“Yeah, you are.”
“Damn it, no!” Lexie took another swing.
“I warned you.”
The words registered the instant his fist connected with her right cheek. A piercing pain shot through her head and her knees came out from under. Before she could scream Mac’s name, everything went black.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Mac shot up from his seat, knocking his brother’s hand off his forehead. “I need that fucking feed now!”
He swiped the moisture streaming down the left side of his eye. The coppery stench of blood filled his nostrils as the room began to spin. Overwhelming nausea swept over him. He grabbed the edge of the conference table until he regained his equilibrium.
Jason pressed down on Mac’s shoulders hard, shoving him into the chair.
“Mac, if you don’t allow me to finish dressing your eye, I’m going to get the med team in here. They’ll order you to the hospital, which is exactly where you should be.”
A groan escaped from the back of Mac’s throat. “Careful with my damn shoulder.”
Mac glanced down at the nail scratches and bruises on the top of his wrist and forearms. Ryan must have grabbed Lexie as she tried to pull Mac out of the line of fire.
And there was no doubt in Mac’s mind that this was a kidnapping. Her screams that yanked him back to reality would live with him a long time. Fear ate at his gut but he couldn’t allow himself to give into it. Lexie’s life was a ticking bomb, and he had to stop Ryan before he lit the fuse.
Mac scanned the area outside the conference room. The third floor of the FBI building was swarming with activity. But as far as he was concerned, no one was moving fast enough. “Slap a bandage on it.” He glared at his brother. “No hospital. And where the hell is Sarah?”
Jason placed the last piece of tape over the bandage and stood. “She’s on her way up now.” He planted both hands on either side of the arms of Mac’s chair. “I know you’re pissed and scared to death for Lexie, but if you take this shit out on Sarah, you going to have a busted lip to go along with two black eyes. Got it?”
Mac shoved his brother back and stood. A hint of reason slipped through his consciousness. The last thing in the world he would do was hurt Sarah.
“Got it.”
“Mac, we have the street footage of the attack,” said one of the agents across the table.
“Play it.”
The next several minutes were hell on earth. His brother stood close behind him, his body shaking with tension. It had been less than a year ago that Sarah was taken by a madman. Mac stood by Jason, and for the first time, he understood completely the horror of what those two went through.
The instant Ryan’s fist hit Lexie on screen, something lethal exploded inside Mac. He could feel Jason’s hand on his shoulder, but everything else in the room narrowed to a tunnel vision. His guilt mutated into cold, hard rage. “I’m going to kill the fucking bastard.”
“Easy, Mac. Find your control because this isn’t what Lexie needs right now.”
Mac glued his fist to his side to keep from lashing out at his brother. He ached to hit something, hard.
Jason didn’t back down but held his stance. “I know where your head is at. Shut it off and act like an agent-in-charge before I have you removed from the room.” His stance eased. “She’s a fighter, but she’s counting on us to find her.”
Closing his eyes, Mac focused on Lexie as he sucked in several deep breaths. Jason’s words slid past the rage, and Mac’s lungs began to fill with healthy air. When he opened his eyes, the pinpoint vision changed and the entire screen came into focus.
Ryan had set up the roadblocks, practically mirroring Mac’s route. “Rewind the tape back one minute.”
It was like watching a well-choreographed dance. Each player had a job and they executed it to perfection. From the moment Mac’s convoy exited the MoPac, Ryan’s men manipulated their route.
Mac glared at each member of his team. The men and women sitting around the table were like family to him. Could one of them have betrayed him?
“What do you see?” Jason asked quietly at his side.
“We have a mole feeding information to Mick Ryan.”
“I agree,” Sarah said from the doorway. “But maybe not the kind of mole you are referring to.”
“What are you talking about?” Jason said, taking the car carriers she held.
Mac glanced at the sleeping babies, and the rage in him subsided a little. Nothing like a reminder of the best this world could offer to give a man a new perspective.
“Ryan somehow found a back door into our system, and he had our plan the instant it was texted to you. I don’t know how he did it, but until I do, I suggest we go black.”
Díaz stormed into the room. “Sarah, I promise you’ll get some time alone with your children soon.” Without missing a beat, he asked Mac, “Should you be in the hospital?”
“No, sir.”
“I know Ms. Trevena means something to you, but we are quite capable of—”
“Lexie means everything to me. She needs me here, not stuck in a fucking ER waiting for an X-ray I don’t need.”
Díaz studied him for several moments, then said, “So show me how we need you.”
Mac reached for one of the laptops on the table, but Sarah slammed the lid shut just as he was about to type.
“Black, remember. Use mine.”
Mac grimaced and held his chair out for his sister-in-law. “Are you tracking the silver Lexus?”
“Of course. If it passes by a traffic camera, we’ll see it. It would be difficult, but my only concern is Ryan could crash the traffic camera network. If that happens, we’ll lose him.”
“Can you continue to track Ryan and pull up a map of the Texas-Mexico border?”
“Sure.”
The scene of the attack disappeared and the map replaced it.
“No one is seeing this but us, right?” he asked Sarah.
“Completely secure.”
Mac took the next five minutes to fill Díaz in on what Lexie witnessed on the walls of the ranch house. “Our assumption that Ryan is trying to force a full-scale border closing is looking more valid. Lexie noticed a red flag pushpin somewhere in this region.” He used a pointer to highlight a small area in northern Mexico around Nuevo Laredo. “From what she told me, I think the next drone attack will come from the land controlled by the Tortello cartel.”
“Is Tortello working with Ryan?” Díaz asked.
“No, sir. I think he’s setting them up just like he set up Lexie. If he released the drone from that territory into the United States as well as from this area around El Paso, it would appear like the cartels have joined together to retaliate against the drone attack in Matamoros a couple of days ago.”
Díaz hissed out a breath. “That would force us to send in the military to guard the borders from Brownsville to San Diego.”
Mac nodded. “And the Mexico military, instead of fighting the cartel war, will be reassigned to the borders.”
“But Ryan has possession of only one drone.”
Sarah cleared her throat. “That we know of. He could have one of every shape and size. Ryan could attack several areas at once with a drone small enough to be a centerpiece on this table. He couldn’t launch rockets from a small drone, but he could load it with C-4. Flying it into the right location could take out a building.”
“Sir, Lexie noticed lines from the spot on the map connected to the three major border crossings. There just isn’t enough information to predict what he’s going to do, but my gut tells me the next attack will come from Mexico into United States.”
“Taking Lexie from us in plain daylight was messy.”
“I agree,” Mac said. “Ryan’s making his move today. Whatever is going on is happening now.” His own assessment sent a chill down his spine. So many people had let Lexie down in her life. He wasn’t going to add his name to that list. There was only one person who could shed some light on this nightmare. He turned toward one of the agents across the table. “Has Senator Ramirez been released from the hospital?”
“Yes, this morning. He’s giving a press conference at one.”
“Are you sure?” Mac demanded.
“He wanted to assure everyone he’s fine and working to find out who did this.”
“The idiot. What’s he thinking?” Mac shoved his fists in his pockets. “Where is the conference being held?”
“The Capitol building.”
“Shit! That’s it!” He shot a stare at Sarah. “Pull up the Capitol building.”
“What is it?” Jason stood.
Mac glanced at his watch. “Ryan will use Lexie to make Senator Ramirez confess his involvement with the cartels on live television.”
“Ryan couldn’t predict the news conference,” Díaz said.
“Yeah, he could, sir. That was the plan all along—to steal a drone and send it into the home of the man he hates. Ryan knows everything there is about Ramirez, especially the senator’s love of the limelight. It would be easy to predict that Ramirez would plant his face in front of a camera.” He paused, then said almost to himself, “He planned the fucking thing down to the last note, and we’re all playing our parts so well. The only thorn in his side was that I took Lexie and he had to get her back.” Mac yanked his torn sport coat off the back of his chair and charged for the door. “Ryan and Ramirez can fight it out, but I’m getting Lexie out of the middle of their fucking war.”
“Mac! Wait.” Sarah’s voice was edged in panic.
Mac paused. “What?”
“The drone just came on line. I don’t know how long it’s been airborne, but it signaled its location.”
“And where is it?”
“Let’s just say if you’re right, Mac, you have only a few minutes to rescue Lexie.”
“Can’t you stop it?”
“Have you heard of GPS spoofing?”
He shook his head, the adrenaline pumping through his veins made him impatient enough to jump out of his own skin. “Do I need to know about it now, Sarah?”
“Only that I’ve never done it before. I have to create a false GPS signal that will trick the drone’s GPS receiver into thinking nothing is off. If I can do that, I’ll be able to direct the drone on a new navigational course.”
“And what are the odds you can do that?”
“Next to none without Ryan’s tech team finding out and working against me. Get her out of there, Mac.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
As dreams go, this one sucked. And since when did dreams come with the stench of burning rubber, blood, and pain.
Lexie tried to lift her hand so she could press it against a stabbing ache on her right cheek. Crap, that hurts. A groan escaped from her throat just as full consciousness hit. Everything rushed back at once: Mac’s eyes closed, his head tilted to the side as blood streamed down his face. Fear crushed down on her heart and she sucked in a hard breath. Dear God, let Mac be alive.
“That’s it, Lexie. Now open your eyes.”
Ryan, the bastard.
She tried to talk but couldn’t get her mouth to move. Something thick pressed her lips tight against each other. Her eyes flew open and she came face to face with Senator Ramirez. A man she didn’t recognize stood at his side. Nothing else registered except the pain in her cheek and her throbbing shoulder.
“There you are. I didn’t think I slugged you that hard. You dropped like a rag doll.”
Ryan’s voice came from the public address system. The creep didn’t even have the balls to stand before her. Instead, he hid like a filthy rat in his hole.
Lexie looked down at her hands and fear sharpened her focus. Her arms and legs were pinned down with several wraps of duct tape. The bastard had even circled her waist with tape, shoving her spine against the hard slats of the wooden chair. The senator was tied to his chair in a similar fashion.
She scanned her surroundings. It had been years since she had toured the Senate Chamber. They both sat in the middle aisle in front of each other, Lexie facing the dais podium while Ramirez looked toward the back of the chamber. Several men with assault rifles roamed the floor, their postures alert and ready for attack. Between her and the senator was a large camera connected to a free standing tripod. Two men lay, either dead or unconscious, next to it. Her stomach flipped over. Ryan really did plan to use her to force a confession from the senator.
She jerked on her arms and feet, but she was locked so securely, she couldn’t move an inch.
“You’re struggling for nothing, dear Lexie, and making this harder on yourself.”
When she attempted to speak, only a muffled sound came from her mouth.
“Remove the tape.”
Lexie searched the chamber, trying to locate Ryan as the man closest to her picked at a corner of the tape. His hands smelled of garlic and machine oil. The scent caused the nausea in her stomach to churn up into her throat. He peeled back enough to get his fingers on it and gave it a quick pull. It felt as if half her skin went with the tape.
“You sick bastard. If you hurt Mac, I’m going to kill you with my bare hands.”
“I don’t think so.”
Lexie never wanted to hurt anyone more than she did Ryan. “Let me go.”
“No.”
The man began to replace the tape and Lexie twisted her head.
“Where the hell are you?”
“Where I have always been. Watching. We all have to do our part to keep our country safe. It’s now your turn.”
“That’s a noble speech from a man who doesn’t have an honorable bone in his body. You’re a disgrace to the men you served with.”
The man again tried to cover her mouth and she made the same evasive move. “You’re just a chickenshit, with balls the size of peanuts. What do you hope to gain? This―whatever the fuck this is―isn’t how you get what you want.”
“Lexie, stop.”
She turned toward the senator. She still refused to think of him as her father, even though deep concern edged in his features.
“Just relax,” the senator pleaded.
“Don’t you dare try to tell me what to do. You have no right.” How she wished his mouth was taped as well, but how could he give Ryan the confession with tape across his mouth.
“I know.” Ramirez’s eyes filled with tears.
If anything, his tears only made her angrier. The signs of another major panic attack were only moments away. She couldn’t break here, not in front of the bastard who helped give her life. As for Ryan, she wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of seeing her weakness.
“Lexie, remember the mantra I taught you at the ranch house? Use it.”
“Fuck off.”
“Lexie, please!” Ramirez’s voice came out in a hoarse whisper and his eyes darted to the men beside her.
A man she wasn’t aware of came from behind and placed both his hands on either side of her head. She tried to yank free, but he just tightened his hold. The steroid-induced goon in front of her pulled off a wide band of duct tape and pressed it against her lips.
She tensed her muscles and allowed the shiver to slice through her.
Mac, where are you?
Lexie had to find her calm and fast, but closing her eyes was out of the question. Instead, she located a point on the balcony over the dais and focused everything on Mac, his strength, his integrity, even his sexy-as-hell body. He was alive because her heart would know it if he weren’t. He had asked her to trust him more times than she could remember. This was put-up-or-shut-up time. She trusted that stubborn, opinionated, warmhearted agent-in-charge. He would get her out of here, and when he did, she wasn’t ever going to let him go.
