Betrayal of the Dove (Men of Action) (23 page)

“I thought you were alone at first,” Petrof continued speaking; maybe he was trying to explain his actions—or his failure to accomplish his goal. “When I walked to the back of your lot this morning and only saw your car, I thought you had fired the other guy and you were alone. But then Gary came into my bistro to verify catering for his stupid art show and he mentioned that you had some big guy in your store looking out for you. That ruined my afternoon visit,” he laughed and she felt her anger rising. He didn’t even care that what he had done was wrong. He didn’t even care about the pain he had caused to Shatrel.

“Thought my store didn’t have anything worth anything to you,” she heard the bitterness in her tone. She really was starting to hate this guy. He seemed so innocent when she met him; so guy from the high country in Sedona turned guy from the valley who wanted to make a place for himself in the elite areas of Scottsdale. He was nice, always respectful, and usually too busy to make a lot of social calls, but everybody loved him. She could honestly say now that judging the proverbial book by its cover was a phenomenally dumb idea. The guy was a monster.

“Your stuff is getting up there in popularity—might be worth something some day. But I was more interested in you than your products. I’ve liked you since you moved in here. Shatrel was practice, a distraction if you will because I’ve read they profile based on stereotypes. I figured if I did Shatrel first, then came back after you they’d start looking for more than just a robber. Let’s face it,” he laughed. “Everybody knows I’m gay—or at least they think they know that. A man puts on nice clothes and actually cares about how he looks and people assume things they shouldn’t. But hey, it worked to my advantage. None of you idiots even suspected me. And she was just so stupid, staying open an hour later even with the robberies going on when none of the other shops were open. She should have closed up and went home when everybody else did.” he laughed until she applied more pressure of her heel on his spine, then he started squealing like a baby.

“You can stop talking now,” she said because she was sick of hearing his voice, his excuses, his unfeeling and highly calculated insults. That was the problem with a lot of people in this world; they never took responsibility, it was always somebody else’s fault.

It didn’t take long for the cops to arrive, although it felt like an eternity, it really wasn’t. And once they did, they arrested Petrof and read him his rights the entire time he just laughed. She couldn’t even fathom the kind of crazy it took for somebody to do what he did and laugh about it. She didn’t even want to think about what tactics his lawyers might use to get him off with a light sentence—or no sentence at all.

“I knew you’d come back eventually,” Nevin pointed his nine mil at Shane’s back. “Turn around slow,” he said. Shane turned slowly to access his options. He could either go for his weapon and get shot in the back or he could go for hand to hand, provided the option presented itself to him. His primary concern was Alyssa. She and Leo should have been inside his home and if Leo wasn’t coming out ready to fight a battle then something had already gone wrong.

“Should have known it was you,” Shane looked at the short, lanky man in front of him. “You always were a shady bastard.”

He laughed. “Yeah, well, you all didn’t think I was good enough and look what I’ve done. I took out two
Dove Team
members, and you’re next. Or maybe I’ll kill your lady first and let you watch.”

“Where is she!?”

“Up there,” he nodded his head in the direction of the mountains. “And if the rattlers and cougars haven’t got at her yet I plan to. You see, you and your team hurt me, and now I’m going to hurt all of you. You should have approved my application.”

Shane felt the rage threatening to eat him from the inside out. Even if he could get the upper hand he couldn’t kill the bastard because he was the only one who knew where Alyssa was. He needed him to take him to her. “You killed Leo?”

“Wasn’t that hard with one well-placed shot.” He grinned. “I told you all I was good.”

“It was never a question of your skills, Nevin. The question was whether or not you had brains to accompany that brawn. Clearly you don’t. You kill a member of the Japanese mafia and you think you’re going to continue to breathe? Smooth,” he said. “I see why Rick denied you entry.” Rick had been so sure Nevin was wrong for the team. He remembered because Nevin was great, initially anyway, on paper. He had decorations, served significant time in the Army and was one of the best cryptologist enlisted, but it was what sat behind the initial read through that pushed him out of the running. There were a few things in his file, the deeper they looked, the more they found. And then when he interviewed with Rick there was clearly something that made Rick decide he wasn’t worth the risk. When Nevin had come to Shane, asking that he override Rick, because as everybody knew, he could override the decision given his rank and his position on the team, Shane said no. He trusted Rick’s instincts, and he also trusted his own. Two minutes with Nevin and he knew something wasn’t right about the guy. He didn’t care how many forms of martial arts he was skilled in, how many languages he spoke, or how great he had been in the field, the man simply wasn’t
Dove Team
caliber. He would probably sell his own mother to the Devil if it came down to him or her, and that’s not the kind of man they wanted on their team.

“You abandoned a man in the field.”

“He was dying,” he snapped as if that should have justified it.

“Dying, but not dead. You don’t leave a man behind.”

“Yeah well they didn’t kick me out of the Army for it.”

“That was their mistake,” he said. “We weren’t required to follow suit.” There was no way the man should have been allowed in service. He was a complete disappointment to the uniform, to the code, and they should have booted him out from the start. His stay probably had more to do with his father, a New York senator. He didn’t care why the Army left the man in; he only cared about one thing. “Tell me where she is and I might let you live.”

Nevin laughed as hard as he could while keeping his weapon trained on Shane. “Turn around and walk, but don’t do anything stupid because if you do, she will die up there.”

Shane couldn’t risk it. When Nevin got him to wherever he was holding Alyssa then he could kill the bastard, but right now he needed to play it safe. He needed to find her—preferably alive.

Alyssa and Leo pulled up outside Shane’s place. The cops and all the reports had kept them at her store longer than she would have liked, but she understood the need. “I didn’t know he was getting back today?” She looked at his truck, with the door wide open, but there were no lights on in the house. Her heart nearly skipped a beat. “Leo?”

“I see it,” he mumbled. He, like she, saw the papers from the file folder on the ground, the truck door still open and no Shane in sight. Something was wrong, very wrong. She hopped out the car the moment she put it in park and she ran over to his truck. Leo bent down and looked at the ground that her car’s headlights were still illuminating. “At least one man,” he said as he inched forward carefully and looked at the ground behind Shane’s truck. “They went that way.” He pointed ahead of them.

“How do you know that?”

“The ground is hard, but there’s dry dirt here and no wind. Footprints are still visible. I’m going after him.” He pulled his weapon from his boot. Shane had given him one of his guns for his protection detail for keeping her safe. Leo had brought a few knives with him, but he hadn’t brought his gun because he was flying commercially and as he had said, he didn’t want the hassle of getting it onboard.

Alyssa reached into the truck and checked underneath the passenger seat where Shane kept a spare weapon. She knew about it because she had dropped her bracelet when she was taking it off in his truck and she saw it there. “I’m going with you.”

“No. Get in that house and stay,” he said.

“Look, I know how to shoot like a Marine because a Marine taught me, so I won’t be a liability to you, or somebody you have to watch out for. That’s my man out there,” she said. “And I’m going whether you want me to or not.”

“All right, Wonder Woman; when you shoot you shoot to kill or you don’t shoot at all. Got it?”

“Got it,” she nodded. “By the way, don’t ever call me Wonder Woman again.”

“Whatever you say, Wonder Woman.”

“Seriously? Can you be serious for two seconds?”

He snickered. “Flashlight?”

“Glove compartment of my car.” She felt her heart racing with fear. She was afraid that they might not get to him in time. “There’s no way he would just let him take him,” she heard her own voice trembling.

“Unless he thinks he has you.”

“My car wasn’t even here.”

“He had you parking in the garage, remember.” Leo was right. Shane had insisted she take the slot in the garage even though he always pulled his truck in there. It was big enough for two cars, but he had a workstation against one wall so only one car would fit. She told him not to ruin his perfect paint job by leaving his car out there in the sun. Her paint job had long ago lost some of its luster. While her parking areas in back of her store were mostly shaded in the day by tree cover, she hadn’t parked around back. He wouldn’t hear her reasoning and he had insisted she pull her car in the garage, so she did. He must have thought that’s where it was when he pulled up. She wasn’t even home yet; well, his home anyway, because they had been stuck giving statements and waiting for the cops to say they were free to go.

As they walked through the desert she thought of all the things she wanted to say to Shane; all the moments she wanted to share with him. The only thought in her mind was that she needed to find him alive. “God, please let him be okay?” She whispered, yet Leo still heard her. The man had dolphin hearing because there was no way he should have heard her whispered plea.

“He’ll be okay,” he said. “And if he’s not I’m going to kill the bastard myself.”

Chapter Thirteen

S
hane knew the moment Nevin made him stop walking that he had no intention of taking him to Alyssa. Maybe he knew it before then too, but he hoped. He needed to see her; needed to know she was still alive. “Where is she,” he turned around and looked at the man ready to take his life. The man who blamed him for not getting what he wanted.

“Hell if I know. You got home first,” he said. “I’m going to enjoy killing you. Maybe a bullet in your leg, and then your arm, maybe shoot off your toes,” he laughed. Shane felt rage overtake him and he lunged for Nevin. He struggled for control of the gun and it went off, one shot up in the air and another out to the side as he managed to knock the gun out of Nevin’s hand. They fought, each man using years of combat and martial arts training; each man adequately holding his own.

Shane was starting to get the upper hand when Nevin threw a patch of dirt in his face, knocked Shane down and then went for his weapon. By the time Shane’s vision cleared what he saw was a man standing over him ready for the kill shot.

“Godspeed,” he said dryly as he eased his finger back on the trigger. Shane heard one loud pop, but instead of him being dead, he saw the bullet in Nevin’s head before he fell to the ground. He rolled to see who was behind him and what he saw surprised him. Leo was standing behind Alyssa, yet Alyssa was the one holding the gun that took the kill shot. She put the safety back on and ran to his side.

“Oh my God; baby, are you okay?” She knelt before him and frantically checked his body for injuries. He would be lying if he said having her hands roaming his body wasn’t turning him on right now. “Are you all right?”