Elena had pulled up so that the driver’s door was facing away from the building. She cut the lights on the borrowed car and picked up the cell phone. Clutching it in her hand, she exited the vehicle, keeping it between her and the warehouse. Would the thin metal sides stop bullets? Probably not, but it helped that she was on the wrong side of the car to get ambushed. At least not yet.
“Bring my brother out,” she said into the phone.
“You first.”
“Not until I see Alesandro,” she said, wondering how Mr. Big was working this. Was he here at the warehouse, or was he giving someone inside directions? She thought it was more likely the former than the latter since he was so anxious to get his hands on the S&D program.
She looked back the way she’d come. Did Shane and the Rockfort men even know where she was? Maybe not, so maybe she was on her own.
A flash of light at the warehouse drew her attention. The door at the top of the stairs opened, and three men came out. Two of them looked tough and capable. The middle one was Alesandro, and the two other guys were holding him up. They each grasped one of his arms with a large hand. In the other, they both held automatic weapons.
She took in the trio at a swift glance. The two on the outside both had buzz cuts and were wearing neat slacks and dark-colored button-down shirts. Her brother’s dark hair was matted, his face was covered with bruises and dried blood, and his clothing was rumpled, with a tear in one arm of his shirt. As she stared at him, the world seemed to sway around her. He looked like he’d been to hell—and hadn’t been able to claw his way back.
The voice on the phone brought her to her senses. “Come and get the miserable slug,” Mr. Big growled.
Keeping her voice hard as steel, she answered, “I’m not coming any closer. I want him to walk down the stairs by himself and come toward me.”
Again there was no response.
She waited a beat before saying, “You don’t get the information until I get my brother.”
“Now that you’re here, we could just shoot him.”
She felt her throat clog. “And you won’t get what you dragged me here to deliver. I can still get back in the car and drive away.”
“You won’t.”
“I will if you shoot him. Send him to me.”
“How do I know you won’t do it when he gets to you?”
She dragged in a breath and let it out, knowing she was about to take a big risk. “I’ll give you the car keys.”
Mr. Big’s voice brightened. “Great suggestion. Toss the keys toward the steps.”
“When my brother is halfway here.”
There must have been a conference among the men that Elena couldn’t hear. One of the tough guys let go of Alesandro, and he wavered on rubbery legs, then grabbed the railing to keep himself from falling. When he was almost steady on his feet, he started down slowly, his hand gripping the rail, and she thought he looked like he’d aged fifty years since the last time she’d seen him in her apartment.
As he descended the steps, he raised his face to Elena. She watched his mouth as his lips formed the word “run.”
Dios, he was telling her to leave him. But she couldn’t do that, because she knew he wouldn’t get out of this alive.
She focused on her brother’s shaky progress toward her, which was probably what the men had intended. But something warned her to look up, and she saw one of the men raise his arm.
When it registered that he was pointing a gun at her, she ducked behind the vehicle as a bullet slammed into the wall in back of where she’d been standing.
The weapon she’d taken from her purse was already in her hand before she had made a conscious decision, and to her relief, she noted that her brother had dropped to the ground.
Reaching above the top of the hood, she returned fire.
Obviously the man who had shot at her thought she’d be an easy target. And he certainly didn’t think she’d be armed. Not after that remote-control strip search at the last warehouse. But she’d hidden her movements from the camera when she’d gotten the SIM card from the purse.
Now she had a clear shot at the two men who had come out of the warehouse with her brother. She pulled the trigger and one of them dropped. The other one was already firing at her. He ducked back up the steps, shooting as he went and weaving a zigzag pattern across the open space, heading for the door from which he’d exited the warehouse with Alesandro.
She heard her brother cry out, but she couldn’t go to him, not when the thug was still laying down a spray of bullets, intent on getting back into the building before she could drop him.
It was then that she heard the roar of an engine. From out of the darkness, a vehicle with its lights out came barreling down the access road toward the scene of the confrontation.
But who was it?
Shane or reinforcements from Mr. Big?
Elena gasped as she saw it speeding toward her brother, who was lying where he’d fallen in the middle of the blacktop—halfway between her and the bad guys.
“Alesandro, watch out!” she screamed.
Chapter 30
The vehicle skidded to a stop, its wheels inches from Alesandro’s head and shoulders.
Shane jumped out the driver’s door. Max flew from the passenger side.
Jack came from the back.
“They’re inside the building,” Elena shouted.
“Are you all right?” Shane called urgently.
“Yes.”
He turned toward the warehouse as the loading-dock door opened, followed by a blast of gunfire.
Elena screamed. She couldn’t see Shane, and she dashed around the borrowed car, using the SUV for cover.
As she peeked around the fender, she saw the Rockfort men crouching below the level of the loading dock, using the concrete barrier as a shield.
Shane had a backpack with him. He set it down and reached inside, pulling out something and tossing it through the open door into the warehouse interior.
It exploded inside with a terrible noise, a burst of smoke, and a concussion that shook the surrounding area.
He tossed in a second, then pulled a gas mask over his face. The other Rockfort men followed suit before dashing up the steps and pulling the door open.
Gunfire rattled through the smoke. The Rockfort men went in shooting, and Elena could see nothing. But she heard the sounds of battle.
Shane led the way up the stairs. Instead of pulling the pedestrian door open, he eased around to the garage opening. Beyond was a large room with cinder-block walls and industrial shelving clustered in several locations. At the back were spaces partitioned off into what might be offices. One of their opponents lay on the floor about halfway between the front and back of the open area. Jack moved toward him and rolled him over.
“Dead.”
As he spoke a burst of gunfire came from the back of the building.
While Jack retreated to the staging area, Shane and Max were already leaping toward the nearest shelves. They pulled them away from the wall and toppled them on their sides. Using the barrier as a shield, all three Rockfort men began to advance on the back of the building, pushing the shelves in front of them.
“It sounds like only one guy firing,” Shane said.
“Hopefully, the rest are dead,” Jack answered.
They kept moving toward the lone gunman, who must be holed up in one of the offices.
“Wait,” the gunman shouted.
“For what?”
“I’ll cut a deal with you.”
“Now? After you’ve spent so much time going after S&D?”
“Because Kinkead has something worth billions.”
“What?”