Clinch (The Underground Book 2) (27 page)

A shot rang out, piercing the air.

Leo swerved around and lifted his weapon, not quite sure where the shot came from, but thinking it was from the hallway behind Ivan.

It couldn’t have been friendly fire, because no one got hit. The FBI wouldn’t miss. They shot to kill. Could be the police. Or even SWAT. But none of them would miss, either.

Ivan twisted around, obviously thinking the shot came from the same direction. He still held Christianson under the chin, not giving a shit if the man took a bullet. His gun was aimed at the hallway.

“What the fuck,” Boris muttered. “You said—” Whatever he was going to say was cut off when another shot hit him in the leg, and he screamed and dropped his gun as he slid down the wall to the floor.

Leo ignored Boris and his whimpering to focus on the hallway where the second shot definitely originated. It was dark, and someone was in one of the rooms. Must have been reaching around the doorway to take aim and then ducking back behind the wall.

Someone fucking brave. Who the hell was it? He hoped whoever it was was on their side and it wasn’t a coincidence that Boris was the first man hit.

A shot close to Leo’s left arm was next, and he jerked his gaze to find Erik holding his weapon in front of him, his arms shaking. He glanced down at where Boris lay on the floor moaning and holding his leg.

Another shot from the hallway hit Erik while he wasn’t looking. Erik lowered his face to his stomach to find blood oozing out of his belly. “Oh fuck.” He lifted his gaze, a crazed gleam in his eyes, and then lifted his gun toward Leo again.

Ivan took the shot, right to Erik’s forehead before the man could pull the trigger at Leo.

Boris reached for his gun.

Ted screamed.

Another shot came from the hallway, hitting Boris in the arm.

Whoever it was either had bad aim or wasn’t looking and got super lucky.

Ivan backed up, still holding Ted around the neck, although the man was struggling hard to escape.

Leo aimed his weapon at Boris and reached out swiftly with his foot to kick his gun out of the way.

Leo jumped back, but the shooter didn’t stop. Another shot rang out. And another. And then two more wild shots that hit nothing. That was eight.

Silence. Was the shooter out of rounds?

Leo took a step forward as the back door flung open and two men in full SWAT suits entered the house, guns drawn, aiming at everyone.

Out of the corner of Leo’s eye, he saw Ted lift a gun out of nowhere as if in slow motion.

Ivan had no idea.

Before Leo could shout a warning, Ted had the gun in the air and Boris had his hand on the weapon Leo hadn’t kicked far enough. The man was an imbecile and had already been shot twice, but he wasn’t going to go down without a fight.

Both Ted and Boris aimed at the SWAT team. Both were taken out in less than a second simultaneously.

Leo felt someone at his back and glanced around to find Mikhail had joined them from the front of the house, gun lifted. Not surprising. He would have headed their way when the first shot was fired. It had all happened so fast.

Ivan dropped Ted and then nodded toward the hall, looking at the two new guys in black. One of them spoke into a mic on his sleeve.

Leo couldn’t hear the words. But he grabbed one man by the arm and spoke over the ringing in his head, hoping his voice was heard and that he wasn’t screaming. Apparently the last shot that took out Ted was too close to Leo’s ear. “Presumed friendly fire coming from first room on the right.”

Ivan didn’t wait for the all clear. Neither did Mikhail. They lurched forward. On a mission. There was no way for whoever was shooting at them to know if Ivan and Mikhail were on the side of the good guys or the bad.

Leo groaned, dropped the SWAT member’s forearm, and followed his friends.

Ivan crept to the door, his body flat against the wall. He glanced at Mikhail and held up three fingers. There hadn’t been another shot fired for several moments. Whoever it was had to be reloading or out.

Mikhail nodded.

Ivan lowered each finger in succession. When the last one went down, both of them jumped into the open door.

Leo followed at the rear, and what he found shook him to the core and shocked him beyond belief.

A pale, thin, red-headed woman hovered in the corner of the room. She wore navy scrubs as if she were a nurse or a doctor. She held her hands over her head and whimpered. A Sig Sauer lay at her feet. Her hair stuck out in wild disarray, the curls in need of a comb.

Mikhail lowered his gun and rushed forward. In less than two strides, he had the mysterious woman in his arms and hauled her against his chest. “You’re okay. You’re safe now.” He crouched low to hold on to her.

The woman clung to Mikhail, gripping his shirt. She sobbed, not lifting her face. “Please. Please. Get me out of here.”

Two officers pushed past Leo to get to the woman. They kneeled in front of her where she gripped Mikhail as if he were a lifeline.

One of the police pulled out a pad of paper. “Ma’am, can you tell us your name?”

She jerked her gaze toward him and blinked. “Haley Sullivan.” Tears ran down her cheeks.

“Is this your gun?” The other officer held up the Sig with a gloved hand.

She shook her head. “No. Found it in the bedside table.”

“Is this your house?” the officer asked next.

“No. I was kidnapped.”

Leo sucked in a breath. Shit. What the hell was Ted Christianson doing with a kidnapped woman in his home?

A member of SWAT came to the doorway. “Haley Sullivan?” He must have overheard her. “The police have been looking for you for weeks.”

Tears ran down her cheeks. She didn’t release her grip on Mikhail, as if he were her long lost friend or lover or husband. Not a stranger. She looked confused.

No. Drugged.

In fact he could see bruising on her arm that indicated she was either a junkie or she’d had blood drawn. Lots of it.

Or…she’d received injections against her will…

Jesus. What the hell was Ted doing with this woman?

“Have you been in this house for two weeks?”

She shook her head. “No. Just a few hours. I think. I fell asleep. Woke up when I heard men arguing.”

“Where were you before today, then?” the officer asked, still scribbling notes on his pad.

“Some sort of warehouse or medical building.”

Fuck
.

“Okay. An ambulance is on the way. We’ll need to ask you more questions at the hospital.”

She jerked upright, releasing the grip she had on Mikhail’s shirt for the first time. “No. No hospitals.” Haley was freaked out.

And Leo couldn’t blame her. He suspected she’d been in the hands of Yenin for the past two weeks. If that was the case… Had she been in his lab? Jesus.

“We could take her to the clinic my girlfriend owns. Might be less stressful,” Leo suggested.

The officer stood and stretched his legs out after crouching down so long. “Jot the address down.” He handed Leo his pad while he pulled a phone from his pocket. “Wait right here a second.”

The officer stepped into the hallway, speaking in low tones.

Leo wrote down the information for the clinic, keeping half an eye on the officer.

Finally, the guy ended the call and returned. “We’re going to need to speak to all of you,” he stated, his gaze landing on everyone in the room one at a time. “But we’ve been given clearance to meet you at Dr. Kathryn Schwan’s clinic.” He took the pad of paper back from Leo. “We’ll be there shortly. Don’t stop anywhere else.”

Haley gripped Mikhail with both hands again. “I’m done being poked and prodded.” Her eyes were wide.

“This is your best option. Trust me.” Mikhail picked her up, held her against his chest. No one would ever know the man had four broken ribs. Either he really had healed too fast to contemplate, or his adrenaline rush was covering the pain.

Leo had to jump out of the way of the determined man. He followed Mikhail and Ivan out of the room.

One of the officers stood from a crouched position over the three dead bodies.

Leo turned around and stared at Boris and Erik on the floor. He cringed inwardly at the idea of having to tell Katie about her friend Ted.

“Meet you at the clinic,” Leo shouted at Ivan as Mikhail climbed into the back seat with the mysterious redhead.

Leo ran toward the car, his heart plummeting when he didn’t see Katie sitting in the front seat. He picked up the pace, his gaze scanning the area. Had she gotten out? Hidden somewhere when gunshots rang out?

When he reached his Trans Am, he yanked open the door, and there she was, huddled on the floor in front of the passenger seat. Her eyes shot wide, her mouth open.

Leo slid into his seat.

Tears stained her cheeks. She stared at him like he was a ghost for several moments. And then she blinked.

He reached for her, not wanting to rush her. She was in shock. And he couldn’t blame her. After all the gunshots, she probably assumed he’d been killed.

“I’m fine.” He lifted both arms. “Not a scratch.”

Her gaze roamed his body.

He pulled the door shut, started the engine, and reached a hand out again. “Touch me.”

She stared at his hand for several moments again. Disbelief?

“Babe, I’m not injured. Come here.”

She didn’t speak.

“Katie,” he prodded with more force. “Come here.” He prayed the command in his voice would get her to shake out of it.

He couldn’t blame her for her stance. She’d sat in this car listening to multiple gunshots and assumed the worse for several long minutes. Who wouldn’t freak out?

“Katie,” he repeated louder. “Take my hand.”

Finally she reached out her small shaking fingers and set them in his. Immediately she relaxed. “You scared the hell out of me. Don’t ever do that again.” Her voice was soft and hardly audible. And the best music he’d ever heard.

He hauled her up from under the dash and across the console onto his lap. He pulled her cheek against his chest. New tears ran down her face to soak his shirt. He didn’t care. She fisted his T-shirt in her hands. He didn’t care about that, either.

He stared out the windshield and rocked her back and forth. Ivan was gone. Police were everywhere. The FBI was not visible, but Leo knew they were close-by. People were standing in the street, pointing at the house where the gunfire had occurred. A few people stood near Leo’s car, staring at him quizzically.

He. Did. Not. Care.

Katie held on to Leo forever. “I thought you had been shot. Killed.” She sobbed again.

“I know, babe. But I’m fine.” He cupped the back of her head and tried to soothe her with his words and the stroke of his fingers on her scalp.

She heaved for more oxygen and let another stream of thoughts escape. “You could have died. You could have been killed in there.”

“But I wasn’t.”

“I need you.” She sat up finally and stared at him, meeting his gaze with red, swollen eyes. She shook him, grabbing his shirt, clutching it harder, trying to make him see reason. “Don’t do that again. Don’t ever fucking do that again.”

“I won’t.” He shook his head and cupped her face. “Promise.”

“Never. Ever. Never ever do that again.”

“Katie, I won’t.” It hurt. His chest hurt. He’d scared her nearly to death. It would take her awhile to overcome this shock. But they needed to move. Haley would be waiting for her at the clinic.

She sighed, defeated. “You…”

“I know.” He pushed her hair off her face and gave her a gentle kiss. “I’m sorry.” He paused a moment. “We need to go.”

She sat up straighter and twisted her body around, grabbing the steering wheel to hold herself. “Are we not safe? Are they coming after us?”

“No, babe.” He pried her fingers off his steering wheel. “They’re all dead. We need to follow Ivan and Mikhail. There was a woman. Mikhail has her. She needs your help. We need to meet them at the clinic.”

That snapped Katie out of it. She met his gaze, and her clouded blue eyes cleared. She scrambled off his lap and onto her side of the car, grabbing for the seatbelt in the same movement. “Go. Hurry.”

He smiled and shook his head. Leave it to his woman to find comfort in the fact that a patient needed her.

He drove just over the speed limit. Getting pulled over would do them no good. There was no way to explain the last several hours to any cop.

Katie sat rigid, holding the dash and the door again. “Who is she? What happened to her?”

“I honestly don’t know. We found her in the house. Or she found us really. Woman had spunk. She shot Boris and Erik.”

Katie’s eyes widened. “She shot them? Did she kill them?”

“No. That lucky job fell to the SWAT team. Although I think Ivan might have shot Erik.” He cringed. He had to tell her about Ted. Now?

Maybe not yet. Later.

Obviously Katie had no idea this was Ted’s house or that anyone besides Boris and Erik had been inside.

He refocused her on the redheaded woman. “Everyone was killed, except the woman who started the gunfire. We found her nearly catatonic in a bedroom. She ran out of bullets. Mikhail has her.”

He covered Katie’s hand with his and pulled his cell out of his pocket. There was no longer a connection with his contact. “I need to call in. You okay?”

She nodded.

He tapped the screen and waited for the ringing.

His contact picked up after several rings. “Leo. Thank God. We got disconnected. I heard Mikhail bolted from the house with a woman. Who the hell was she?”

“Haley Sullivan. Been missing a few weeks. She grabbed onto him and begged him to take her out of there. He, being Mikhail, did as she demanded.”

The man groaned. “Where are you headed?”

“The clinic.”

“Okay. Was the woman hurt?”

“Not physically, I don’t think. Drugged, though.” That part had been clear.

“I assume the police are meeting you there?”

“Yes. I’ll call you when I know more.”

“I don’t know how you got clearance to leave the scene. Someone with the FBI must have really trusted you because I didn’t pull that favor.”