Hot Ice (A Hostile Operations Team Novel - Book 7) (32 page)

Grace pushed herself up, scanning for Garrett, her heart thudding hard. And then she saw a shape running along the edge of the water, and another shape in front of him, sprinting along the edge. She didn’t know which was which, but the pursuer launched himself and caught the man he was pursuing. The two of them rolled back and forth, and Grace took off at a run. If it was Garrett, she had to help him.

But someone caught her arm and spun her around. She screamed and then a hard hand clamped over her mouth. It took her a second to realize she was looking up into the dark eyes of Colonel Mendez. She went limp and he let her go.

“Goddammit, that boy is going to fuck this whole thing up,” he grated out. He whipped his phone to his ear and barked a command into it.

“You have to help Garrett.”

“I
am
helping him, Dr. Campbell.”

Two men in combat gear flew past them and toward the place where the men rolled on the ground. The helicopter’s lights were visible now, the air beating loudly with its approach. Colonel Mendez looked up with a growl of frustration.

The lights illuminated the men locked in combat. Garrett and Ian Black punched each other, then dropped back and surged forward again. The men who’d gone to help were nowhere to be seen, and Grace realized they were hanging back because of the helicopter.

A disembodied voice came over the loudspeaker, telling the men to separate and lie on the ground with their hands on their heads. Garrett and Ian did not comply, however. They kept fighting, rolling and punching and rolling some more.

Police cars rocketed up the street, and Colonel Mendez took her firmly by the hand and dragged her away from the scene.

“You can’t leave him,” she gasped, tugging on the colonel’s hand and trying to look over her shoulder at the same time. “You can’t let him get arrested.”

“What do you think your father will do to me if
you
get arrested?”

“I don’t care!”

“Well, I do. Now come with me so I can untangle this fucking mess before it gets any worse.”

Just then, several voices shouted over the sound of sirens and the helicopter. Grace turned—and a shot rang out. One of the men on the ground seemed to slump—and then they rolled into the water and out of sight. Grace yanked her hand free and ran toward where Garrett and Ian had fallen into the dark pool.

The helicopter’s spotlight flicked back and forth over the Tidal Basin, searching. The water rippled and sloshed, but no one appeared. The police surged toward the pool’s edge, guns drawn. Grace stumbled to a stop and put her hand over her mouth, holding back the scream that threatened to break free.

Her heart leapt into her throat and her stomach boiled. Hard hands grabbed her shoulders gently and turned her away.
 

“We have to go, Grace. Now.”

* * *

“The virus,” Grace said once they were in the car and driving away from the scene. “It has to be destroyed.”

She was numb, but she knew that much. Had Garrett been shot before he’d gone into the water? Or was it Ian who’d been shot? Why hadn’t they come up again when the spotlight searched the water?

She clasped her hands together and tried not to fall apart. There was no evidence, no proof. She had to be calm. Garrett knew what he was doing. He had a plan.

“I sent a team. It’s being done now.”

Grace’s head whipped around. “But you don’t know where to find it. Only I do.”

“Your computer was remarkably helpful.”

Grace couldn’t speak. She could only gape at the terrible, beautiful man sitting so calmly in the driver’s seat. She’d told Garrett’s teammates where her computer was hidden when they’d arrived, and she knew they’d retrieved it from the Jeep. It had only been out of her sight for a few minutes—but that was enough, apparently.

Clearly they’d broken into it and discovered all her secrets. And if they could do that, what could her enemies have done if they’d gotten it instead?
 

The colonel sent her a glance. “Don’t look so shocked, Doctor. Destroying that virus is a national priority, and it was best for you not to go back to the lab. My people will destroy it safely and quickly.”

“I’m stunned. Did you intend to tell me?”

“Once this was over, yes.”

“I guess I should be relieved. It can’t hurt anyone now.”

“No, and all the evidence of it ever existing will be destroyed as well. The men who came for you today won’t attempt it again. I’m sorry, Doctor, but you’re about to be thoroughly discredited in the eyes of the research community.”

She would have laughed if she weren’t so numb. “I was planning to do that anyway.”

“Yes, but it’s better if we do it. Seems less like you covering your tracks and more like the truth.”

Grace swallowed. “I suppose so.”

But that didn’t really matter to her when compared with what had just happened at the Jefferson Memorial. Garrett might be dead. He’d been fighting with Ian, the police had come, shots were fired—and he was gone. She couldn’t stop thinking about it.

“Is he dead?” she asked very quietly.

“I don’t know. I’m working on finding out.”

She bit down on her lower lip and told herself not to cry. They didn’t know anything yet, and there was no use getting upset until they did.

“You care about him, don’t you?”

She nodded.
 

He reached over and squeezed her arm. “I care too, believe it or not. For all my troops. They’re like my kids in a way.”
 

“I think Garrett’s scared of you.” She couldn’t talk about him in the past tense.

Mendez laughed softly. “If I’m doing my job right, they all are. But I care about them more than they think I do, and I’ll fight for every last one of them. It’s what I do.”

She hadn’t paid much attention to where he was driving until she realized they were headed up Capitol Hill.

“Where are we going?”

“I’m taking you to your parents’ house.” He glanced at her. “The danger is over now, Grace.”

Panic slid deep inside her, twisting and coiling like a snake. Staying with her parents after everything she’d just experienced would feel like being wrapped in cotton wool and slowly suffocating.

“If that’s true, I’d rather go to my own home.”

“It is true. The details are classified, but trust me, no one is going to bother you now. As for staying with your parents… well, that’s between you and them. I promised to deliver you to your father, and I will.”

“I need to know what happened to Garrett.” She could hear the panic in her voice, and she was certain he could too.

“Your things have been delivered to your parents’ house, including your cell phone. You can use it again. I’ll call you as soon as I know something.”

“Do you promise?”

He turned onto her parents’ street and came to a stop in front of the elegant Georgian town home on one of the best streets in northeast DC.
 

“I promise, Dr. Campbell.”

The front door was ajar, and her father came striding down the walk. He opened the gate and came over to swing the car door wide. She got out in a daze and stood there while her father bent down and spoke with the colonel.

The cold air frosted in front of her, making her shiver in spite of the hoodie and her jacket. All she could see was the black water of the Tidal Basin closing over Garrett’s head, taking him away from her forever. Tears filled her eyes, and she swiped them away with her sleeve.

Her father wrapped his arm around her and propelled her up the walkway. Her mother stood in the door, her beautiful face concerned and sweet. Grace did something she hadn’t done since she was a child—she fell into her mother’s arms and wept. Her parents mistook her crying for an emotional breakdown over her ordeal and fussed over her quite a bit. She didn’t bother to tell them otherwise.

Her mother fixed tea and brought some cookies, just like when Grace had been twelve, and her father finally disappeared into his office and took phone calls. She didn’t know for certain, but she suspected those calls were about her.

She went up to the guest room around one in the morning, but she couldn’t sleep. When her cell phone rang at two, she nearly dropped it before she managed to answer.

“He’s alive.”

She clutched the phone tight and pressed a hand to her churning stomach. “Alive is good. But there are degrees to alive, Colonel. I’d like to know which degree we’re talking about.”

Mendez snorted. “Alive and well, Doctor. Except for the boot I’m about to put in his ass. But he’ll survive that too.”

“Thank you for letting me know.”

She sounded brittle. She hoped he hadn’t heard, but of course he had.

“You’ll be all right, Grace. You’re tough and strong, and you’ll weather whatever difficulties are coming your way. If you weren’t a civilian, I’d want you on my team. We can always use strong, courageous people like you.”

She knew it was a compliment of the highest order—but she didn’t feel any better as she hung up the phone.

* * *

Garrett was cold, though at least he wasn’t wet anymore. He’d thought he might freeze to death before he was pulled from the water, but the police had found him and Ian Black and dragged them back to the station where they’d given them clothes and made them change.

Which was how he found himself back at HOT HQ wearing prison duds and shivering while he waited for Mendez to see him.

“Dude, you need a blanket.” Flash was watching him carefully. They were in the ready room, waiting for Mendez and everyone else to arrive.
 

“Yeah, maybe I do,” Garrett replied.
 

Flash disappeared and then returned with a blanket that Garrett shook out and wrapped around his body.
 

Some of the other guys filtered into the room then, looking tired and elated all at once. Lucky and Victoria were there too, and Garrett wondered, not for the first time, how Victoria had ever managed to work for a dick like Ian Black.

He knew better than to ask her, however. Nick Brandon didn’t react well to questions like that, even if Victoria jabbed him in the ribs and told him to shut up while she turned cool eyes on the questioner and made him feel like the worst kind of asshole for even asking.

Garrett knew why she’d done it. They all did. Her baby sister, who was currently studying at Georgetown and trying to repair her life. Victoria had been trying to rescue her, using any means necessary to get close to her sister and the terrorist she’d married.

The door opened again and Mendez breezed in. He didn’t look particularly thrilled at the moment. Everyone snapped to attention and Mendez growled, “At ease.”
 

Then he rounded on Garrett.

“When I give you an order to stand down, soldier, I fucking mean it!” he shouted. “Do you have any idea how many asses I’ve had to kiss tonight to get you out of police hands? Fucking hotheaded is what you are.”

Garrett merely glared as he clutched the blanket to him. He’d heard the colonel yell at him when he’d taken off after Ian Black, but he’d kept running. How could they let the motherfucker get away again? They’d had to let him go in Qu’rim when they’d had him, but now that he was here, threatening Grace, there was
no fucking way
Garrett wasn’t going after him when he had the chance.

“You got anything to say?” Mendez demanded.

“He threatened Grace, sir. He needed to pay for that.”

Victoria gave Lucky a significant look. Garrett didn’t even pretend to know what it meant.
 

Mendez raked a hand through his hair and snorted. “Every fucking time. If there’s a woman involved, you assholes lose your mind.”
 

The women in the room didn’t say a word, though Lucky put her hand over her mouth, ostensibly to cover a yawn. Garrett was pretty sure it was really a grin.

Mendez turned back to the door and opened it. “You want to come in and talk to these motherfuckers?”

Ian Black strode into the room—and chaos erupted.
 

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

GARRETT LAUNCHED HIMSELF AT BLACK’S throat.

Flash caught him before he could throw a punch and wrenched him backward. Brandy was next, but Victoria had her fist wrapped in his shirt and jerked him away. The room was a swarm of angry words. There was no telling who might erupt next, but Black just stood there as calmly as a general surveying his troops.

“Stand down! All of you!” Mendez shouted as Garrett broke free of Flash’s grip and surged toward Black again.

Flash wasn’t gentle as he caught Garrett again and shoved him into a chair. Black stood there, looking about as tired and abused as Garrett felt. His eye was swollen and his lip split. The only difference was that he belonged in the prison outfit he was wearing.

“Hey, Vic,” Black said, his gaze going to the only marginally friendly face in the room. “You’re looking well. If you ever miss working with me, I still have a place for you.”

Victoria put a hand on Brandy’s arm when he growled. “I’m happy here, thanks. But then again, I’m happy to see you too. If you’re here, I can only assume that means you’re on the right side of things after all.”