Dark Abyss (16 page)

Caleb went over the wall and landed lightly in the shadows. Before he could move away from the wall, however, he spotted a pair of guards rounding the back corner of the compound, heading toward the front. After glancing quickly to his left and right and discovering there was no cover for several yards, he dropped to a crouch and stilled, his finger on his trigger while he watched the men advance slowly, scanning the grounds.

He thought for a moment he’d been spotted when both men stopped almost directly in front of him, but after exchanging a few words, one continued toward the front and the other headed to the back once more. Easing his finger from the trigger of his gun, he moved to cover, scanned the roof and then the grounds and sprint toward the house, flattening himself against the wall between two windows. There were low growing plants near the house, but they were few and far between and not tall enough for concealment unless he crawled on his belly. Worse, the house itself was built of pale stone and his gear was black. After flicking a quick look through both windows and discovering both opened to the same empty room, he debated for a moment and decided to try the windows.

The first he tried was unlocked. After he’d paused to check for any sign of motion detector or alarm and found none, he pushed the window a little higher and hoisted himself through. He checked the room again once he was inside and closed the window.

He touched his communicator. “I’m in.”

* * * *

Ian studied the four men standing together at the rear of the compound, waiting for them to move and give him an opening. When he tired of waiting, he checked his surroundings and moved to the corner of the wall, running north along it for several yards before he checked the compound again. He was still within sight of the knot of men he’d first spotted, but they had their backs to him. After checking the compound as far as he could see for any others, he went over the wall, paused to make sure none of the men would turn in his direction and raced toward the corner of the house where a spindly tree offered some cover.

Dragging his gaze from the group after studying them again for several moments, he scanned the house for an opening and saw light spilling from a door or window perhaps three yards from where he stood. He debated briefly whether to wait where he was for the men to get tired of standing around with their thumbs up their asses or move and decided to move. Dropping, he crawled toward his goal, stopping just before he reached the square of light beneath what he saw now was a window.

When he turned to check the position of the guards again, he saw the four had split up into pairs and set off in opposite directions. The first pair reached the corner and turned it before the second. Waiting only long enough to see if they would turn around and pace back, he pushed away from the ground and into a crouch, and then straightened.

He heard muted voices coming from inside before he’d come fully erect and shifted to the side of the window, taking a quick sideways glance inside.

He couldn’t see the men talking, but he could hear them well enough that he decided it wasn’t a recording of any sort and it was men’s voices. Although he strained to hear, he didn’t detect a woman or more than two men, he decided. After glancing quickly in both directions for the guards, he ducked beneath the window and moved to the other side.

Caleb’s voice whispered through his earpiece as he changed positions, alerting him to the fact that he was inside. He depressed his own communicator. “Two men, rear of the building, first floor.” He glanced back in the direction he’d come from. “South west corner.”

The minute he raised up high enough for another quick look inside, his heart skipped several beats. He could see a monitor displaying at least a dozen positions that were clearly inside the house itself. “Cameras in the corridor!”

He hadn’t even gotten the warning out when he saw Caleb step from one of the rooms, saw him freeze at the warning and scan the ceiling and then dart from his position toward a stairway.

A quick search of the room for the men talking sent a brief flicker of relief through him. Neither of them were guards and neither man was looking directly at the screen. Even as he watched, however, the man sitting with his back to him glanced toward the display. Ian jerked a look back toward the screen and discovered with relief that Caleb had made it up the stairs and ducked into a room.

He was about to leave when the man he’d been watching stood up. He recognized him instantly from the image Anna had created for them—Miles Cavendish.

He wasn’t certain who the other man was, but suspected it was the bastard that had tried to run them down with the boat.

His focus on the men inside nearly cost him dearly. Two guards rounded the end of the building nearest where he stood. It was too late to move. The movement itself might alert them to his presence and they hadn’t seen him—yet. He froze, easing his hand very slowly toward his revolver.

He realized after a moment that the light spilling from the window was enough to make it impossible for them to see him on the other side, but they were still moving. In a few minutes that wouldn’t be the case. He’d just cast a quick look for cover when he heard Joshua on his communicator. “Two more nearly at the corner. You want me to take them out?”

Ian shook his head ever so slightly and slipped slowly toward the ground, flattening himself behind a scrubby plant that was no more than a foot high or much more than that across. Hoping the deep shadow from the building itself would conceal him, he eased his revolver slowly from its sheathe.

The two pairs crossed paths, paused to exchange a few comments and continued.

Ian let out the breath he’d been holding when they reached the corner.

“Got her! Second floor, north east corner,” Joshua said abruptly.

“Are you in?” Simon asked.

“Negative, no hole.”

“Caleb?” Simon asked.

“Second floor, first room at the top of the stairs. They’ll probably spot me the minute I step into the corridor again. Go or no go?”

Ian glanced up, calculating the distance. There were false balconies over the windows on the second floor, curved, decorative ironwork that were as much of a barrier as ornamentation. “Give me five,” he said abruptly.

As he stood up to sprint toward the end of the house where Joshua had spotted Anna, though, he threw a last glance inside the room where he stood. Cavendish was pushing at what looked like a section of the bookcases that lined the wall at that end of the room. He had something in his hand, but Ian didn’t wait to see what it was. The guards had taken roughly two minutes to reappear once they rounded the corner. Unless they were moving faster ….

He took a running jump toward the ornamental railing around the last window on the east side of the house, hoping to hell it was well anchored into the wall. It would’ve been a much easier leap if he could’ve run straight on. Running parallel to the wall of the house, he counted himself lucky to have caught a hold at all. Gritting his teeth, he pulled himself up by one arm and caught the top edge to hoist himself upward just as the guards rounded the building again.

It was too much to hope they wouldn’t see him, he supposed. Hearing a half uttered expletive below him, he hauled himself upward, ducked his head and used his back to take out the window.

Gunfire accompanied the sound of breaking glass. Anna, he discovered, was halfway between the bed and the window, her eyes rounded, her mouth forming an ‘O’ of surprise.

“Ian!” Anna gasped, rushing toward him.

Ian scrambled toward her at a half crouch, catching her around the waist and carrying her to the floor. Caleb burst into the room through the door just as they hit the floor. Within seconds the sound of gunfire escalated to a deafening roar around them.

Bullets shattered the glass of the other windows and plowed into the walls, the molding and the ceiling.

Caleb flicked a quick look at the two of them as he slammed the door and then glanced around the room. “This lock isn’t going to hold them long!” he bellowed at Ian.

“Stay down!” Ian growled at Anna as he lurched up to a half crouch and headed toward the piece of furniture closest to the door. The Armoire shattered as he shoved it over, but neither man waited to see if the pile of broken pieces would be enough of a barricade.

“Coming in!” Simon bellowed, slamming against the door, flying through the narrow opening he’d made in a diver’s arch, and rolling to a stop at the foot of the bed.

Ian kicked the door shut behind him and shoved a heavy dresser in front of it.

Anna, after looking around a little frantically for a safe place to hide, scurried under the bed just about the time Simon snatched the mattress off, pitched it toward the door and reached back for the support panel beneath it.

He froze for a split second when he lifted it and saw Anna staring back at him from beneath the bed. “Get in the bathroom and into the tub!” he bellowed when he’d glanced around for a place for her.

Rolling onto her stomach, Anna crawled out from under the now empty bed frame and raced for the bathroom.

“Get down!” Caleb bellowed at her just about the time she stubbed her toe on the threshold between the bath and the bedroom and sprawled out on the tile. Fortunately, the tub stopped her. When she’d recovered enough to figure out she was lying against the tub, she crawled over the side and flattened herself the best she could against the bottom. Bullets seemed to be flying in every direction, however. She’d barely settled when a bullet ricocheted through the room and shattered the edge of the tub near her feet.

Screaming instinctively, she jerked her feet up closer to her body and then rolled to her side when she saw that position put her knees higher than the rim of the tub. It didn’t seem to be working all that well as a shield, but it was certainly better than nothing!

For a while the barrage of gunfire seemed to escalate and then, so subtly she didn’t notice at first, it began to subside.

“You alright in there, Anna?” Caleb called out.

“Yes,” she said weakly. “What are we going to do now?”

Simon appeared in the doorway, staring down at her. “Stay put. Our men will have everything under control shortly.”

She was reassured, briefly. Even as she lay listening to the sporadic gunfire as men died or fled the scene, listening to Simon and the others as they discussed the possibility of finding evidence against Cavendish, an unknown uneasiness began to churn in her stomach.

“He’s a got a vault, or maybe just a secret room off his office on the first floor. I didn’t see enough to tell which, but that might be the best place to start,” Ian said.

Anna rolled out of the tub as the uneasiness congealed into a terrifying conclusion. “Simon, wait!” she gasped, crawling frantically toward the door.

She discovered when she reached the bedroom that he and the other men were shoving their makeshift barricade away from the door. “Wait! Wait!” she gasped, pushing herself to her feet and rushing the door when she saw Simon ease the door open and take a quick look outside. “He blew up my house, Simon! He had a bomb in it!”

Simon sent her an impatient look. “I know. We were there.”

“But …he blew it up to make sure there was no evidence, Simon!”

All three men stared at her blankly for a moment as that settled in their minds.

“Get her out of here!
Now!
” Simon barked at the others. “I’m going to see if I can grab anything useful!”

The relief that had flickered through her vanished. She lunged at Simon and grabbed him. “Come with us! Please! You can come back!” she begged him.

He studied her for a long moment, his expression stony, and then abruptly jerked her upward and covered her mouth with his. As long as she’d hoped desperately that he would kiss her, she was too anguished and in too much shock to really register anything until he’d let her go. The heat and pleasure of his touch swept over her then in a backlash that rocked her to her core and abandoned her just as swiftly. “I’m sorry, Anna,” he whispered harshly when he put her away from him.

Someone grabbed her arm, hauling her toward the window Ian had come in through. “Simon! Please!” she called after him.

“I’ll go after him,” Caleb growled, surging toward the door.

“Don’t!” Anna covered her mouth with her hand as Ian swept her up into his arms, but she saw it was too late. Caleb had darted down the hall behind Simon.

“Hold on, baby,” Ian said grimly, “this is going to be a jolt.”

Anna twined her arms around his neck instinctively as she felt him leap. Having braced herself to fall, the sensation of rising up instead sent a disorienting jolt through her. She discovered Ian had leapt up onto the ornamental railing just as he leapt off of it.

It was amazing enough that he landed solidly on two feet, but he almost instantly launched himself forward at a run. “Joshua!”

“Here!”

“Take her and get her over the wall! Anna thinks there might be explosives in the house!”

He had to pry her loose. She knew the moment he spoke that he was heading back inside.

“Any sign of Cavendish?”

“Not yet!”

Anna made a grab for Ian again the minute he peeled her loose.

“Go with Joshua!” he said harshly.

Before she could think of anything to say, Joshua hauled her across one shoulder and took off at a run. The jolting of his shoulder against her belly knocked the breath from her, but that was nothing beside the jolt she got when he sprang upward, paused briefly on the top of the wall surrounding the compound and then leapt down. Pain seared through her. She didn’t have time to recover either. He hit the dirt running.

She thought she was going to pass out, but she never quite achieved blackout.

They hadn’t reached the end of the wall before a horrendous explosion erupted so close it deafened Anna. She wasn’t certain if Joshua threw her to the ground or if the concussion of the blast knocked him off his feet, but he rolled on top of her, shielding her face with his hands and his own head.

Debris rained down around them. Between the pain and her deafness from the explosion, Anna wasn’t even aware of it until a burning board landed across Joshua’s back. He rolled with her. When he stopped, she was beneath him again, still deaf, but she could smell burned hair and fabric even above the other smells of burning things.

Despair filled her. She felt it all the way to her soul just before she lost consciousness.