AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Ignoring our exchange, Blake adds, “We need you to be here for Alana if we pull her out, Damion. Which is why our actions and Adam’s actions must operate in unison. Savage is with me in case Alana needs medical attention when we pull her out of the basement.”
In case Alana needs medical attention…This statement punches me in the chest and then reaches inside me and rips my heart out.
“One of our men is nearby,” Blake continues, not allowing me time to linger on the implications of Alana’s captivity and potential injuries. “He’ll pick you up after you do the handoff with Adam. Be careful, both of you. We have to assume they’ll be watching. Go now.” He disconnects without my approval of the plan, but he has it. Blake was right from the beginning. Alana never left the building, and my gut instinct otherwise was both right and wrong. My father would never approve any action that was obvious.
That basement was off the grid.
It’s not at all obvious.
“What’s our plan?” I ask, with Adam already cranking the engine.
“As Blake said, you’re being watched. You drive to the bank on your own. Withdraw the money. I’ll be in the bathroom. We’ll switch clothes and do the money exchange.” He, too, doesn’t give me time to answer. He exits the vehicle, and I follow.
By the time I’ve rounded the SUV to claim the driver’s seat, he’s gone.
***
Fifteen long as fuck minutes later, I’m finally in possession of a leather bag filled with cash when I enter the men’s room at the rear of the bank lobby. As promised, Adam is there waiting on me, and wordlessly, we exchange clothes—him changing into my suit and me into his jeans and a T-shirt, as well as a baseball cap—before I hand him my keys and the bag of money. “Wait five minutes before you exit,” he instructs. “You must give them time to follow me. One of our men, Casey—he’s an ex-black ops agent and damn good at what he’s doing—is waiting on you. He’s in a black SUV, one block down, in front of Starbucks.”
“And Alana?”
“Blake’s going in as soon as I tell him I’m in your vehicle. Casey will park two blocks from the building and wait for Blake to call.”
There will be no waiting, but I keep that to myself.
As if he reads my mind, his jaw clenches, and he points at me. “Listen to me, asshole, and wait five minutes. Do not cross me on this. We can’t risk anyone watching to figure out I’m not you. Wait,” he repeats, and then he heads to the door and exits.
Fuck.
I have to wait.
I grind my teeth and glance at my watch, hitting the timer button for five minutes before I start pacing. Five minutes that feel like an eternity to me right now. I can only imagine what it must be like for Alana. Every second ticks by with excruciating pain until the buzzer goes off, and I’m already at the door when it does. It’s all I can do to pace myself as I walk through the bank lobby and exit to the street. Once there, I weave in with the bustle of the crowded walkway, and it’s not long until I’m inside the black SUV with Casey introducing himself and offering me confirmation of who I’m with. He’s a big guy with dark hair, and a deadly enough stare for me to find his involvement acceptable.
“Anything?” I ask, not wasting words at this point. I don’t want niceties. I want Alana back.
“We’ve entered the basement,” he says, pulling us onto the road. “And no, I don’t know if she’s there. We’re in operational silence until they clear any hostiles.”
Hostiles.
The one who’d use and abuse Alana in their captivity.
I curse and curl my fingers into my palms, needing to punch someone right now, and that someone would be my father. My jaw tics, my head throbs, and when the vehicle once again ends up trapped in hellish traffic, I’m not living this shit again. I open my door. “I’m taking the subway,” I announce, and this time, I don’t wait for approval.
Five minutes later, I’m already on the train. Another five, and I’m exiting the tunnel a block from Alana’s mother’s building, and one glance at the packed roadways in all directions and I doubt Casey has moved at all. I run the remainder of the distance between me and what I hope is Alana. I arrive at the front door of the building, and one of the Walker men waits on me, introducing himself as Smith. As expected, he’s on par with the rest of the Walker crew: tall and fit, with sharp, unreadable eyes, but unlike the rest of them, he has a whole hell of a lot of good news to deliver. “Alana’s down there and alive,” he announces. “We have one hostile in custody and currently cuffed to a chair.”
Relief washes over me hard and fast. “What does safe mean? Is she injured?”
“She’s talking to us, but she’s in a locked room that we’re trying to get inside.”
“Make the bastard give you the key.”
“It’s electronic, and he swears he doesn’t know the code. Blake’s hacking it now.”
“Holy fuck,” I murmur, scrubbing my jaw in utter consternation. I can barely believe the way history is repeating itself, and not in a good way. Alana’s locked in a room with a password-protected door that isn’t working. I can only hope like hell it’s not pitch dark in there.
“Can I go down?”
“Yes. Blake is asking for you.”
