Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 105825 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105825 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
She shook her head. “Promise me.”
I glared at her. I didn’t want to say it, didn’t want to give that idea life. But she stared back at me, those gray eyes hard as diamonds.
“I promise,” I said at last, my voice rough. Then I grabbed her and pulled her into a tight, tight hug, kissing the top of her head. Without letting go of Lorna, I touched my earpiece. “Kian, how are you doing?”
Kian’s Irish accent sounded in my ear. “In position.”
“Gabriel, where are you?” I asked.
“Nearly there,” said Gabriel. “One of us ain’t built for speed.”
“Fuck you, pretty boy,” panted Colton. “It’s sixty floors!” A few moments later, he came on the radio again. “In position, boss, one floor from the top.”
I looked up at the crane, high overhead. It was so tall, I couldn’t even see Cal. “Cal, you ready?”
“All ready,” said Cal, “got a good view of the roof but I don’t see anyone. They must be lying low.”
I pushed back from Lorna and took her hands in mine. “Alright,” I said gently. “Let’s do this.”
66
LORNA
Rattling and shaking, the construction elevator crawled slowly up the side of the building. With every floor we ascended, my heart rate ratcheted a little higher. I hugged myself, shivering: the mesh walls didn’t do much to stop the wind and rain and my suit was already soaked.
We passed the last floor before the roof and I glimpsed Kian and Bradan through the open side of the building, crouched and waiting at the bottom of the final flight of stairs. Then we were on the roof. I slid open the door and looked around. It was a mess: the big, open area was scattered with construction equipment. Work lights threw out blindingly bright, cold white light and left everything else in an inky shadow. Generators to run the lights and other equipment were scattered around, surrounded by barrels of diesel fuel. At one end of the roof, steps led up to a boxy, concrete building that would one day be a fancy restaurant with amazing views.
I couldn’t see anyone. Where are they hiding? Then a male voice, heavily accented. “You alone?”
“Yes,” I managed, my voice tight with fear.
Two of Radoslava’s men appeared from the shadows and came over. They looked inside the elevator and confirmed I was alone, then motioned me forward.
JD’s voice in my ear, warmly reassuring. “Don’t go with them. Tell them you want to see Cody.”
“Where’s my son?” I asked.
One of the men scowled. “Will take you to him,” he told me in fractured English, and motioned impatiently.
“Don’t,” said JD in my ear. “We need to know where he is. It could be she’s got him stashed somewhere else. Insist.”
It was so hard not to glance up. JD was three feet above me, stretched out under a tarpaulin on the roof of the elevator. I planted my feet. “I’m not moving until I see my son.”
The men looked at each other. Then one of them spoke in Polish into a radio. He listened to the response, then pointed.
I followed his finger. In one of the windows of the restaurant, Cody’s face had appeared. My legs buckled in relief and I had to fight the instinct to just run straight towards him. Then I saw another face, peeking out from directly behind him. Radoslava.
“Cal?” JD asked instantly. “Can you take her out?”
“No,” Cal told him. “Wind’s changing too fast. I could hit Cody.”
“OK,” said JD. “Then we’ll run in and take ‘em. Everybody ready?”
The team sounded off one by one. It looked good: Radoslava and her two men were all looking my way. The two stairwells were behind them so the team could take them by surprise.
“On three,” said JD. “One. Two—”
“Hold! Feckin’ hold!” Bradan’s Northern Irish accent cut through everything.
Radoslava’s men motioned me forward again. I walked slowly forwards, out of the elevator and into the full force of the pouring rain and howling wind.
“What’s the problem?” demanded JD.
“Tripwires,” said Bradan breathlessly. “They’ve booby-trapped the top of the stairwell. Claymore mines, you can barely see ‘em in the shadows.”
“Gabriel, check yours,” JD said quickly.
Silence for a second. Then Gabriel whistled softly. “He’s right, they’re on our stairwell, too. We touch a tripwire and we’ll be blown apart.”
My heart was crushed with a cold fist. Four of the team were now trapped and useless, stuck one floor below us. Our careful plan was in tatters.
“I’ll do it on my own,” snarled JD.
“That’s suicide,” Cal told him. “They’re all looking right at the elevator. You’d be cut down as soon as you stood up. There’d be no one to get to Radoslava. She could kill Cody.”
I could hear JD panting, debating. He didn’t want to risk Cody but he couldn’t let me go to my death, either. I kept walking, and looked down at the ground so that Radoslava’s men couldn’t see my lips move. “You promised,” I whispered.