Damage Control Read online

  “Olivia.”

  She winced at the sound of his deep voice. “Yes.”

  He tipped his head up, grabbed her hand. “I’m waiting.”

  She didn’t speak, couldn’t, and he arched a black brow. The move had an effect, like a dart, and she suddenly felt twenty and such a marshmallow near him. “I told you. I’m here on business.” She held his wrist, slapped a cloth in his hand and placed both over his wound. She walked away. “It’s confidential.”

  “I know you work with Noble. And considering he’s been kidnapped and people are dead, right now you’re high on my shit list for not coming forward.”

  His words stabbed. She had a problem with that, too, but she was bound by her oath. She hoped the director was offering information to the police, but she didn’t know. When she didn’t respond, he stood, looming over her.

  “Don’t start this way, Livi. I was at his cottage. I know it was sanitized.”

  Damn. She popped open the medical kit and found bacitracin. She stood still, waiting for him to sit again, then applied the salve and finished with a butterfly bandage. “You could use a stitch.” She thought of the ones in her arm and how she got it. She could handle China; this would be a snap. Right.

  “Stop.” He forced her to look at him. “I found field-stripped cigarettes in the woods near Noble’s cottage and across the street from this place ten minutes ago. He was waiting to kidnap you, or take you out. A knife is a quiet kill.”

  She crumbled. “I know.” She still felt its weight against her stomach, saw those hollow blue eyes. Dead inside. He’d enjoyed her torment. “He threatened to disembowel me or he’d send Noble back in pieces.” A chill shot up her spine. If Sebastian hadn’t intervened…God. She was so out of her element right now. “Early this morning, I saw him trashing the cottage and ran. I was a good hundred yards away before he spotted my car, but I didn’t see another tail.”

  “That’s the whole idea.” He flipped open a cell phone, dialed, eyeing her darkly. “Max, I’m at the manor. Pick us up.” A pause and then, “She’s coming with us.”

  He closed the phone, giving her a look that said don’t push him. Something in her struck like a match and she opened her mouth, then clamped it shut. They both had the same goal. Find Noble. The man she’d married had skills, now he had more. “Fine. But we go to my hotel. The Sand House. Because I’m not going anywhere with three men.” She cleaned up the trash and resealed the medical kit.

  “That hurts, darlin’. And the way you handled that guy, I’m surprised you’re worried.”

  She looked up, then pushed her hair out of her face. That crooked smile made her stomach tumble.

  “Who taught you that move? Your brothers?”

  She scoffed. “You did.” His soft chuckle danced down her spine as she turned away to put the medical kit in the cabinet. “We should leave.” She flicked a hand at the beautiful blue period gown hanging on the back of the door. She’ll look great in that, she thought. “Liz doesn’t need us here now.” She grabbed her satchel, slinging it across her body, and Sebastian went suddenly very still, staring at it.

  His gaze flicked to hers. “Noble has one just like that.” He touched the smooth calfskin, her initials burned into the tan leather. But his reverent motion told her so much more, and her heart simply ached for him. Noble was like his dad.

  “He gave it to me for my birthday.”

  Only his gaze shifted.

  “Yes, we work together, and we both took an oath of confidentiality.” His expression darkened like a cloud passing over it. “I know you understand oaths, and my need to keep it, so save your breath.”

  He leaned in, crowding her. “Then you’re attached to my hip till I find the truth.”

  She pushed on his chest. “You don’t scare me, Sebastian, you never did. You forget I have brothers? Talk all you want, I can’t say more than Noble was transla—”

  The door flung open and Liz rushed in, glancing between them. “There are two men out there flashing your picture, on a cell phone.” She looked at Olivia. “Yours.”

  Sebastian pushed past them out office door and down the short hallway. The double doors separating the estate house from the newer offices and loading docks were open a few inches and he searched beyond the grand dining room. Visitors crowded the madrigal singers who were the center of attention in the foyer. Behind the group, a man slowly walked, ducking and weaving to look at each woman. He searched for the second man and found him near the front door. The guy put his hand on his ear. Rookie, he thought, but the motion opened his leather jacket. He spotted the pistol stock. He turned back to the offices, thinking the rules just changed.

  He motioned to Olivia. “We need to leave now. Thank you,” he said to Dr. MacNamara. “Is there an outside exit to this office?”

  “No, but at the end of the hall is the fire door.”

  He shook his head. “Alarms will go off. We don’t need a panic.”

  “I can shut it off for one minute. No more because it sends a signal to the firehouse. You have to go through the old barracks to the fire door leading outside.” She went to a panel near the door, running her finger down the switches. “I’ll count to ten before I switch it off, then you’ll have to run.”

  “Excellent.” He stepped into the hall and nodded to her, mentally counting till he stood outside the door. Olivia slipped off her shoes and stuffed them in her bag. He pushed through. The next door was at the other end of an arched stone corridor and the entire length of the manor. He ran, Olivia right behind him as they splashed through puddles to reach the secondary door. The thing was refitted and looked like a vault. He turned the dial and threw his shoulder into it. His ears popped with the suction and sunlight blinded. He pulled her through and shoved it closed. The manicured grounds were populated with tents and festivalgoers. Few people noticed them.

  “How the heck did they get my picture?” she said, putting her shoes back on.

  “Cell phone probably, but with two more inside, they’re closing ranks and being obvious. You’re a target to them now.”

  Her expression pulled tight, fear flickering in her eyes. She should be scared. These guys meant business in a big way. He walked around the right side. The newer section of the catering kitchen and offices jutted out and blocked the view to the street. Olivia hurried behind him as he rushed to the corner, the smell of exhaust strong as trucks pulled in. He looked at her.

  “Stay out of sight. I’ll be right back.” He walked around the edge, then across the front of the trucks, sidestepping workers unloading trays of food. He met the edge of the stone manor, and scanned the people not in costume.

  “What do you see?”

  He groaned and glanced over his shoulder. “You need to behave when I tell you. These guys are armed and communicating with each other.”

  “My car is in the front, on the right near the gate. It’s blue, a BMW.”

  He inched out, looked toward the gates, then lurched back. “Not an option. Two inside, two at your car.” They had to hoof it out of here and worst case, get a cab. Hopefully Max would be back with the rental car. He suddenly patted his pockets, then clutched the keys to Noble’s heap. “We go out the gate and back down that street.” He pointed to where they’d started this. “You ready?”

  She met his gaze. “Thank you.” His brows knit. “For stopping that guy, for this. I don’t know where I’d be now if you hadn’t been here.”

  Not with him now, he thought, and that Olivia was in the middle of this still rocked his world. He grasped her hand. She clutched back. “Let’s just get out of target range.” He started walking with her beside him and let his eyes do the roaming. “On the left, inside the gate under the tree. Green T-shirt?”

  She glanced. “Oh crap. Personal role radios?” He looked at her, a little more than surprised. She just shrugged. “I’ve been busy.”

  He walked quickly, the thickening crowd heading to the estate forcing them apart. She tried to cross the crowd,
and he pushed through, grabbing her jacket sleeve. He threw his arm over her shoulder. “Running?”

  She laughed without humor, glancing back. “Ha. I’m not stupid or armed and I want to get Noble back as much as you do. Staying alive is, I don’t know, a major plus.”

  He chuckled, the sound rumbling in her ear, and Olivia felt the threat jump a notch with the tightening of her spine. Avoiding Sebastian wasn’t an option—not that she could anyway.

  He stopped at an old Austin Allego. It was Noble’s and a piece of junk. “Does it run?”

  “It did an hour ago.” He quickly slid behind the wheel.

  She strapped in. “This is not how I imagined the day going.”

  “Your attacker called you, didn’t he?” He turned over the engine and pulled into traffic.

  She met his gaze. “Yes. My phone’s clean. It was a reroute. From Noble’s phone.”

  “We figured they had it. They only left his suitcases and clothes behind.” He checked the rearview.

  “How do you even know all this?” He flashed a sly glance. “Forget it,” she muttered. His military career was getting into places no one else could. She shouldn’t be surprised, she thought, and watched her side view. She saw the man in jeans and a green T-shirt rush across the street, another man on his heels. “They’re going mobile. White Fiat, blackwalls.”

  “Oh yeah, this will be fun.” Sebastian drove, turning down a street, then maneuvering them back to the main road. “They’ve got to have more watchers on foot.” They knew this car. His speed increased and he took a sharp corner. The Fiat was right behind them and driving so recklessly that pedestrians jumped off the street.

  “We’ve got to get out of the village before they kill someone.”

  “I’ll lose them, but your hotel’s not an option anymore.”

  The Sand House was out in the open, almost standing alone on the Irish coast. He looked at her. “Yes, go.”

  “I wasn’t asking permission, just seeing if you’re going to go ape shit on me or something.”

  “I promise, no ape shitting.” He snickered under his breath, then scowled at the mirror and smacked the gas pedal. The car lurched sharply and she slapped the dash, catching a glimpse of the Fiat barely miss hitting them broadside. The other car spun while they fishtailed and he braked, then made a deep right, speeding toward the highway. “Sebastian, he’s got a silencer.”

  “I see that. We need to stay a moving target and out of his range.” He sped over eighty. She watched behind. No sign of the Fiat.

  Then suddenly it darted out from a side road and headed toward them. “He wants to play chicken?”

  He let out a diabolical chuckle as he aimed toward the on-coming car. The other wasn’t giving up. “This car will peel him like a grape.”

  “Oh, let’s not do that.” She put her hand on the dash, muttering, “OhGodohGodohGod!” as the man lifted a gun and took aim. “Sebastian!” She ducked.

  “Hold on!” Sebastian veered left, coming so close they sheared off the side view mirror, then creamed the right rear. The jolt threw her back into the seat, but Sebastian never stopped, struggling to keep the car on the road and moving. The other guy wasn’t so lucky and hit the shoulder. The car’s rear end slid sideways and flipped on its side. It rolled twice and was still sliding as she sagged into the seat.

  She patted his shoulder. “Good driving, oh jeez that was hairy.”

  He kept speeding. “We’re not done.”

  Another car, this one black and from the direction of the village, jumped on the road behind the wreck. “Man, I wish I had some charges,” he murmured as he took a hard curve around a lush hillside, the Allegro swerving. He gunned it and nothing happened. The engine sputtered. He looked down. “Horrible mileage, Donovan? We just ate half a tank.”

  He glanced in the rearview, then veered off the road and down a slope. The ride felt like an earthquake, rattling her teeth till he drove between rows of narrow trees. The car struggled up the hillside, thirsty for more gas.

  He thumb dialed his cell. “Base, open up, we’re coming in. Got company.” He glanced her way. “Female. Noble’s boss. No, I didn’t kidnap her. Leave a weapon ready.” He closed the phone and looked at her. “All I want is to find Noble and bring him home. It ends there. So if you’ve got some classified project you need to keep quiet, fine, give me an oath to sign if that makes you happy. But I will learn it all.”

  “Are you saying you know people?”

  His smile was infectious. “You could say that.”

  “Believe me, the only thing holding me back is my boss. I’d rather not get fired for breaking protocol.” Not after she’d worked so hard to get to this point. “But I’m not alone.” His brows shot up. “My assistant, Cruz DeGama. He’s at the hotel, waiting for me and probably going nuts because I haven’t called. If they followed me from there, they’ll find him and trust me, he’s not capable of defending himself by any means.”

  “I’ll get him safe.” He told her to call him, prepare for Max and Riley, and make him ask for IDs.

  He was on the phone to his friends while she spoke to Cruz. “Bring your equipment, everything,” she told him, ducking as the house came into view. It fit the landscape, the house reminiscent of a castle. It even had a tower, though the three-car garage threw off the aesthetics. The engine suddenly died and momentum slid the car into the garage.

  “I don’t like this. Neither will Ross. Just who is this guy, Olivia?”

  She looked at him. Someone I used to love, she thought. “All you need to know is that I trust him.” Sebastian met her gaze, looking like he was going to say something, then left the car. The garage door leveled down as he scraped a gun off a worktable. He peered out the carriage window.

  “Have Ross run a deep search and alert the director. I need you here with me.” She closed her phone and climbed out, frowning at the pair of motorcycles in the next section, and farther down, a massive SUV you didn’t normally see in Europe. He took a duffel out of the backseat, then opened the trunk, stuffing something in before he went to the door leading to the house to reset the alarm system. They went inside.

  While the outside looked medieval, the interior said it was a new house. An expensive one, she thought as she walked through a designer kitchen that blended with a massive family room. The rich, jewel tones were gorgeous, and it made her ache for home and weeks of just screwing off. The place was fully furnished, and on the left were tall windows offering a clear view down the twisted hillside to the road. Whatever he does for a living, it sure paid well, she thought. The house sat on a hilltop surrounded by miles of rolling green peppered with clusters of trees. The shoreline was a mile away, but the view was spectacular. The sun was starting to set over the bay.

  Her gaze strolled over the computers and flat screens, more electronic equipment on tables drawn together, and a double row of duffel bags on the floor near a hall. Some equipment was running, but still in their big black cases.

  “You really need to see this satellite image,” a dark-haired woman said, coming toward them.

  “Give me a few minutes.” Sebastian ushered her into a small office and shut the door. He dropped the duffel on a chair and leaned back against the door. “Talk.”

  She stared back, mutinous, pulling off the satchel and letting it drop to the floor.

  “Fine, then you listen. The American Research Institute is an NSA front, a think tank. There’s nothing on you after your doctorate, no job record, not even a bank account. That says government work.” She blinked, startled, and he scoffed. “I learned that much in ten minutes, darlin’. The man who attacked you was Spetsnaz trained, Russian black ops.”

  Olivia eyes widened, but she didn’t doubt him. His Marine career was validation enough.

  “Damn it Livi, talk to me. Noble understood the danger. He knew he was hunted.”

  “How can you be so certain?”

  Sebastian unzipped the duffel and dug. “Because he mailed this just befo
re he disappeared.” He upended a package on the desk.

  Olivia approached slowly, and a wash of anguish swept over her as she recognized the leather book. “Oh my God.” Her eyes burned. There lay the reason for his kidnapping, for the brutal slaying of two innocent men.

  The monk’s diary.

  She didn’t touch it and sat in the chair beside it. Tentatively, she reached, laying her palm on it, then drawing the book to her lap. “Oh Sebastian, I’m so sorry. I sent him to Surrey for the Aramina’s log.” She choked, and something clutched inside her. “If it wasn’t for me, he’d be here with us.” She sniffled and searched her pockets for a tissue. “I should have gone myself.” One appeared before her face.

  “Then you’d likely be dead.” She looked up. “These people know everything you do and are willing to kill. That”—he pointed to the diary—“is not worth lives.”

  “None of this is. I want him back safely, too, and I’ll help any way I can, I swear it. But I’m not the enemy.”

  He sighed hard, then cupped the back of her head and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I know you’re not, cherie. Forgive me.”

  She folded a little more, and smoothed her fingers over her name written on the torn seam. Then she went still. “He sent this the day of the auction.”

  “I don’t know how you’d ever know of it because he sent it to himself. I’m the only one on his express account.”

  “Maybe he knew you’d come looking for him.”

  “I need to know what I’m up against, Olivia.”

  She caught the edge in his voice and sighed. “Yes, we’re NSA, but it’s not what you think. Let me talk to my superior first.” He started to protest, and she cut him off. “Come on, you know the drill better than I do. I need to inform them about the last hours before I break protocol for you.”

  His lips tugged in a half smile. She’d known she would the minute she recognized him, and she accepted she was a little out of her league right now. And scared, if she’d admit it. She clutched the book, then brought it to her nose and inhaled.