Second Nature (When Seconds Count) (21 page)

Digging in, he
channeled his training, something he hadn’t had to do in a decade. From a dark place deep inside, a violent tempest of anger and resentment was born. Severing any ties to the useless, crippling feelings of love and sympathy he’d only recently discovered, he shut down every other emotion he possessed one by one. He embraced the rage that tore its way to freedom and locked on to the trained killer he’d spent the last year and a half trying to destroy. Every nerve ending, every cell hummed to life in perfect unison. He felt the moment it happened, the moment when everything else fell away and nothing else mattered but the mission; the moment when the beast inside him surfaced from a deep sleep and took its first breath in over a year. He welcomed it, giving it full rein and control. It was like an alcoholic tasting a fine whiskey after years of abstention. A warm calm fell around him, bringing with it a lethal clarity he was shocked to discover that he’d missed.

He filtered the last ten minutes through fresh new eyes
, and Grant laughed as he saw the many flaws in this idiot’s demand. If Jauhar knew he was coming then he also knew he no longer had the thumb drive. This douchebag had been left behind to rot and he didn’t even know it. A new plan unfolded before him, his thoughts firing with a sharp intensity he hadn’t had in months. It felt good. He laughed again, not because there was anything funny, but because he couldn’t believe they actually thought him to be that stupid. And because he felt fucking incredible!

“She could already be dead for all I know.” He forced himself to look at the
screen. Nothing but vengeance filled his soul as he watched Thalia flail like a fish on that goddamn table, her clothes being cut from her body piece by piece. “Take me to her. Let me see that she’s still alive.” He turned his venomous glare away from the horrid scene playing out in front of him and focused it on Jauhar’s hired hand. “And if she walks away with so much as a single scratch, so help me God, the contents of that thumb drive will be front page news in every newspaper on the face of this planet. Jauhar will have every agency known to man crawling up his ass to—”

“Ma
ybe you didn’t hear me, Mr. Kendal.”

The blast
of three consecutive gunshots filled the room, plastic from the bullet-riddled monitor ricocheting off the hand-carved book cases to pepper the marble floor beneath his feet. Grant walked over to the desk and picked the bastard up from the floor, shoving him into the leather chair before he put a bullet in his left kneecap, the right one already blown to smithereens. “Call me Lieutenant.” 

This asshole may have thought he knew who he was dealing with, but he’d just pissed off the wrong damn assassin. Not a single tremor was evident in Grant’s outstretched hand as he held the gun to the loser’s head. The calm, smug expression on his face had shifted just a bit. If Grant was a betting man, he’d call odds that he’d just pissed his sarong. It was actually refreshing to watch as shock gave way to understanding and reality finally set in, the first hint of alarm blooming in his eyes as he realized just who he was dealing with.
That’s right you fucking piece of human garbage. You’re going to die today.

“Until I see her with my own eyes I’m under the impression
that I hold the only important card in this fucked up game you’re playing. You got that? She dies, no drive. She doesn’t walk away under her own volition, no drive.” He took a slight step in the asshole’s direction, taking aim at his throat. “One shot and I sever your head from your spine. Make the call, Mr…?”

“
Hinjal.”

“
Mr. Hinjal.” Grant nodded and pulled the phone to the edge of the desk and punched the speaker button, the sound of a dial tone filling the room. “Make the call to Jauhar. Explain your new circumstances and arrange for transport or I kill you where you stand and find her myself.”

He watched the dead man dial
the number, under no misconception he was gambling with Thalia’s life. These bastards had her. If they hadn’t already killed her they would. The only way to win was to not play their game. He was playing his own game now. His rules.

A
fter a series of beeps connected the call, a voice Grant recognized immediately resonated over the line with a curt greeting.
Don Lalia.

“Jauhar
…please.” Hinjal’s pleading voice quaked, his eyes darting nervously between Grant and the phone. So Don Lalia was Jauhar’s new bitch
.
Grant masked his reaction to the revelation, careful not to reveal that he knew exactly who had answered the call. Considering what Thalia had told him, he wasn’t surprised to confirm his suspicions that they were working together.

“Did you kill him
?”

Grant pushed the muzzle of the gun deeper
into Hinjal’s jugular and kicked his dangling lower leg with the toe of his boot. Hinjal swallowed back a scream, his bloody hands grasping the edge of the desk for purchase. “Jauhar! Ahh, dammit! Get Jauhar on the bloody phone!”

A few moments passed, only the melodic sounds of Hinjal’s pain-filled breaths hissing through his clenched teeth filling the room before Jauhar’s voice came over the open line.

“Good evening, Lieutenant. I trust you have made yourself at home. How do you American’s say it? Mi casa, es su casa?”

“
That’s Spanish you stupid fuck.”

“You knew?” Hinjal growled into the phone. “You fucking knew who he was and
you set me up!”

Jauhar chuckled.
“You are not the only one cleaning up loose ends, Hinjal.” The connection grew eerily silent, his tone reflecting no such humor when he continued. “You have failed me for the last time, my friend. I have no further need of your services. Oh, and thank you, Lieutenant, for returning my property to me. You have been quite useful. I am very grateful for the opportunity to reacquaint myself with her.”

Grant
lunged for the phone when he heard the click, Jauhar disconnecting the call.
No!
He pushed Hinjal from behind the desk, dumping the worthless pile of garbage onto the floor. He picked up the receiver and punched in Diver’s number, what seemed like a lifetime screaming by as he waited for a secure connection to go through. “Come on, come on,
come
on
! Pick the fuck up!”

“Where the hell have you been? I’ve got
sixteen different kinds of hot shit piling up here. Fuck me six ways to Sunday if—”

“You’ve got fifteen seconds to run a trace on the last num
ber called from this phone or you won’t have a dick to fuck with come Sunday.” Grant pulled drawer after drawer from the desk as he barked orders at Diver, dumping the contents of each one until he found the gun he knew Hinjal had been counting on using. “I want an eye in the sky and real time updates on that location sent to this number.” He walked over to Hinjal, pulling a cellphone from his front pocket and flipping it on to give Diver the number.

“I can’t get clearance for a UAV, boss. This is off the books, remember?”

“Isn’t everything we do off the damn books?”
Shit!
“Contact Deputy Director Keller and get him to authorize it. And make it happen yesterday, Diver!”

“We’ve got a lock on the girl, if that’s what this is about.”

Grant’s spine stiffened, his fingers tightening around the receiver until the plastic cracked. “What? Where? Why the hell didn’t you say you had her?”

“As I said. I’ve been waiting on you to check in
.” Grant pulled the receiver from his ear and looked at it, his blood pressure rising to critical levels. He wished desperately that he could reach through the damn phone and squeeze the idiot’s throat until his eyes bled. “I’ve got it. The call was routed by a cellular tower thirteen miles southwest of your location near downtown Mumbai. Give me two more seconds and I’ll tap the GPS.”

“The girl
, dammit! What’s her location and how the hell did you find her?” Grant pinched the bridge of his nose and tried to take a deep breath.

“The redhead. The
clothes she gave the girl had a tracking device sewn in. Director Keller is already on the ground in Navi. No visual confirmation, but his whole team is about to move in.”

Navi? That
’s almost forty kilometers from Mumbai.
Grant turned and stared at what was left of the video monitor, his mind racing to pick apart the details of what he’d seen. The bastard on the screen had removed her clothes. Shredded them. If he hadn’t killed her, Jauhar wouldn’t leave her there. So why the hell were he
and
Don Lalia forty kilometers away in Mumbai?
What kind of game are you playing?
Had Thalia been moved to a different location? Or had they already killed her?

His fingers tightened around the receiver
again, his other hand scrubbing over the rough stubble on his jaw.
Christ!
With the help of his Washington partners, Jauhar had been calling his every goddamn move. Would he have anticipated the call trace and was trying to lead him away from her? Or had they found the tracker in Thalia’s clothes, moved out, and left Keller’s team to walk blindly into an ambush? He could feel the seconds bleeding away as he tried to figure it out. If Thalia was still alive, they were seconds he knew she didn’t have.

“
Warn the team it could be a setup and get me that location in Mumbai.” Grant couldn’t take the chance that he was missing something and have Keller’s team pull out. If she was still in Navi, he wanted her out yesterday. He’d cover the Mumbai location on his own until they could make a visual confirmation.

“
Shit! You think so?”

“I wouldn’t have said so if I didn’t think it was important. Christ, Diver. Get your head out of your ass and get me that address!”

Diver blew out a frustrated breath and Grant bit back another curse. All he wanted was that damn address. “I just sent the digits to the cellular number you gave me. It’s an apartment building on the lower eastside.” Grant opened the message and entered the location into the mapping app already loaded on Hinjal’s phone. “If we can’t get a bird in the air, I’ve tapped what few traffic cams are posted nearby. I’ll let you know if anything moves in or out. Give me some time and I’ll see if I can get a visual inside.”

Thank fuck!
That was the best piece of news Grant had heard in weeks. “If the team pulls a dry run in Navi, get them to Mumbai. I’m on my way there now.”

Not one to break a promise, even to himself, he turned to the
pile of human trash lying on the floor, blood and urine staining his once pristine white sarong. Unmoved by the pleading look on the coward’s face, he crouched down next to his lower legs and admired his work, the gun he’d found in the desk leveled steadily at Hinjal’s forehead.

“I don’t have much time.” He glanced at the clock on the wall then back to the dead man breathing. “Seconds, really. So unfortunately for me I’m going to have to make this quic
k.” He reached out with his gloved hand and grabbed a handful of the shattered bone protruding from Hinjal’s knee, shoving his thumb beneath what was left of his kneecap. His grip tightening as the man squealed and flailed on the floor like the trapped pig he was, he glanced back at the clock. The seconds tick by as Hinjal’s screams filled the room, Grant’s patience running thin as he watched Thalia’s time tick away. Without one second of remorse, his finger tightened on the trigger, his deadly gaze conveying his message loud and clear.
Die screaming, mother fucker.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

She had suspected Grant’s motives were less than noble when she first learned he had taken the thumb drive and abandoned her, but Thalia’s heart wouldn’t allow her to fully accept the traitorous thoughts. Deep down she still believed he wouldn’t betray her. She had been so wrong.

After she was stripped of her clothes
, she had been led into another room, stumbling repeatedly with her injured ankle and her hands bound tightly in front of her. Once the blindfold was removed she got her first look at her worst nightmare. Hamisi’s evil chuckle sent a chill down her spine as he brutally yanked her arms above her head and hooked them to one of the many chains dangling ominously from the low ceiling above.
Oh shit.

Just as she thought he was about to
rearrange her face the same way she had his, a sharp order was barked from the opposite side of the room. Hamisi growled in frustration, but turned away immediately as an imposing figure stepped confidently from the shadows.

“Jauhar,” he spat through his teeth, giving him
a curt nod of respect.

Jauhar.
Hatred boiled in Thalia’s veins, her body lunging toward him despite her restraints. Her shoulders alighted with fire when the chain was pulled tighter above her head to halt her advance.
One step closer, you murdering bastard.
He didn’t seem affected by her savage response to his presence. If anything, he appeared amused. His tall, thick frame relaxed as he approached, his hands lazily resting inside the pockets of his crisp dress slacks. His beige shirt looked almost white against his dark skin as he passed beneath the overhead spotlights, his dark eyes dancing with laughter as she hung there seething with desperation and rage.

“Some things never change
I see.” His lips curled into a grin and Thalia wanted nothing more than to blow his damn head off. “Your Issa was a fool to spoil you as his own.” She bit back a curse, watching his every move as he stalked a wide circle around her naked body, stopping just short of kicking distance. “We will address his error later, my pet. Right now I have a few questions about your friend.” Holding out his hand, he took the stack of papers Hamisi handed him, his cold, calculating eyes never leaving hers. “I believe the ankle cuffs are in order, Ham. I would not want her to cause herself any more trouble than she already has.”

Despite her suspicion of betrayal, she covered for Grant as long as she could. When Hamisi and Jauhar demanded she hand over the thumb drive she denied having it, telling them nothing of him. She refused to acknowledge his involvement, even when they showed her a few dark and grainy pictures of him carrying her limp, feverish body from his boat. Another of him leaning in to kiss her forehead after he tucked her into the passenger seat of the vehicle he’d stolen. She remembered nothing of that moment. Her heart ached at how far he’d gone in his ruse, even when he didn’t need to act the part.
Why would he kiss me if he didn’t have to?

A loud crack of a whip snapped her attention from the confusing thought.
“I don’t know who he is. I woke up in a clinic and ran when
Ham’s
men blew it up.”

Hamisi lunged toward her, Jauhar stopping
him with a single, clipped rebuke. Jauhar’s previously forgiving expression hardened to one of impatience as he stepped closer to her, so close she could nearly taste his breath when he spoke. “You and I have quite a few things to settle, pet.” His warm finger trailed delicately along her hairline, his touch sending bile rushing to the back of her throat. She swallowed it back as he continued his sick game, caressing her cheek before curling his finger under her chin, forcing her to look him in the eyes. “But you must first understand you have choices to make.” She strained to meet his gaze. He stood there silent as he studied her for a moment longer, his expression shifting once more. A deep crease appeared between his eyes, his hand tightening on her lower jaw until she’d had no choice but to open her mouth. A bitter taste coated her tongue before he released her jaw. Whatever it was had dissolved before she could spit it out. “Until the day you choose not to lie to me, pet, we will have to use a bit of persuasion to get to the truth.”