Still The One (Family Stone #4 Jack) (Family Stone Romantic Suspense) (16 page)
Read Still The One (Family Stone #4 Jack) (Family Stone Romantic Suspense) Online
Authors: Lisa Hughey
Tags: #romantic thriller, #romantic novella, #military romance, #romantic suspense
I returned my gaze to the kidnapper. Subject was male, small head, blond hair gelled into little spikes, crescent-shaped birthmark below his right ear.
The car rolled to a stop. The rocking intensified my queasy stomach. I ignored it.
“We’re here.”
Here
was a warehouse near the water. The guy wasn’t rough but the sudden motion as he lugged me out of the SUV caused my stomach to roil.
I breathed in the cold, damp air through my nose, trying to quell the nausea. As he led me toward a semi-truck trailer, I noted the parking lot was empty except for one other truck and a car, too far away and too dark to make out details. The warehouse, constructed with long cinder block walls interrupted by doors at twenty foot intervals, was to my left and behind me.
The trailer was modified from a regular shipping container, doors locked up tight in the back, with another entrance on the side. It looked as if the stairs were all one solid block which could fold up into the interior of the trailer.
The recessed entrance looked exactly like an old-fashioned front door complete with screen door. A porch light flicked on. The screen door wheezed open as a dark-haired woman in a white coat stepped out onto the platform.
The light behind her filled the doorway with shadows. I couldn’t make out her features but I caught a furtive movement, the light illuminating her hand as she tucked a syringe into her pocket.
“Thank you. You can go now.” She nodded regally to the man holding me. Her melodic voice held a hint of Asia, probably second-generation American.
He promptly let go of my arm and walked away. They must believe that the plastic restraint cuffs would be a big deterrent to resistance. The click of his heels echoed in the silence as she stared at me, her hands clasped tightly in front of her, so tightly her knuckles showed white.
There was something in her stance--tension, stress? I eased back a step.
“Welcome.” She put a hand on the railing and took a step down. Then she hesitated and glanced back at the open doorway. “We won’t hurt you.”
I thought about the syringe in her pocket.
No thank you.
I’d had drug resistance training but honestly I didn’t want to put it to the test. At least, not yet. Although if that scenario became unavoidable and they pumped me full of drugs, the transmitter in my ring guaranteed I would get the information Carson and the NSA needed.
All of the kidnapped agents had an unidentified drug in their bloodstream and unknown consequences from those drugs. We had no idea what national secrets they’d given away or what kind of long-term effects were possible from the drug cocktail most likely in that syringe. My job was to get myself kidnapped, acquire the drugs, identify the perpetrators, and get out before they could accomplish their objective.
I wobbled as if unsteady on my feet and eased back two steps, assessing my position.
As the Suburban left, the beam from the head lamps shone on her. The shape of her face and the tilt of her eyes marked her as Chinese. Lines of strain curled around her mouth, the expression was supposed to be a smile but came off as more of a grimace. “Come with me.”
I don’t think so.
I’d expected the kidnapping, the intel suggested that Staci Grant would be next. I’d planned to resist at first. I didn’t want to make it too easy for them to subdue me. Carson was supposed to have a team on standby waiting to capture the kidnappers after I completed my objectives. But since we hadn’t planned for a cross country abduction–all of the other kidnappings had been local and accomplished within a matter of several hours–it would most likely take a little time before the extraction team got here.
If they got here.
I pivoted and ran for the warehouse door nearest me. Her footsteps rang on the metal steps as she followed.
“She’s getting away.” A man’s shout, older, deeper, slightly frantic, registered as I reached the door. Two against one. More difficult, but not impossible. Woman, older man. Until I saw his physique, I couldn’t judge who was more dangerous.
“I’ve got it,” the woman replied and sprinted toward me.
I yanked on the handle, flung the door open, and slid inside. The heavy metal swung shut with an ominous clang.
Obviously, the drugs were making me melodramatic.
The warehouse was dimly lit. Industrial metal lights hung from the ceiling, their muted pink glow making the surroundings blurry. Metal shelving separated the concrete floor into long, wide aisles. Three tiers of jumbo shelves housed wooden pallets of goods. I stood at the end of one aisle.
I hustled over two aisles, pulling the knife from the sheath at my waist as I went. The restraint cuffs at my wrists took a few swipes before slicing clean through.
I grabbed some small ceramic rice bowls and shoved them into my jacket pockets. Mistake number four. They’d let me keep my jacket.
The door banged open.
“Don’t let her escape.” I could hear the man huffing, and a rhythmic thumping noise as they pursued.
“She won’t escape,” the woman replied grimly from somewhere behind me.
I stalked down the industrial cement aisle, my footsteps silent. Glancing around, I searched for another way out.
“Please don’t try to escape, Agent Hunt.” The man’s plea had a desperate edge to it.
My legs faltered. I wanted to stop, stand rooted to the floor. Only training kept me moving.
He’d spoken my real name. My
real
name, not the cover I was using for this assignment. So who did they really want?
Me, Jamie Hunt, NSA agent? Or Staci Grant, CIA officer?
Books by Lisa Hughey
Black Cipher Files Romantic Suspense
The Encounter, A Prequel to Blowback
Zeke & Sunshine’s book, coming Spring 2013
The Seven
Archangel Zach, coming Spring 2014
Snow Creek Christmas Anthology
One Silent Night
Family Stone Romantic Suspense
Stone Cold Zero, (Jess, Family Stone #1)
Carved in Stone (Connor, Family Stone #2)
Heart of Stone (Riley, Family Stone #3)
Still the One (Jack, Family Stone #4)
About Lisa
Lisa Hughey has been writing romance since the fourth grade, which was also about the time she began her love affair with spies. Harriet and Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys later gave way to James Bond and Lara Croft and Jason Bourne. Exploring the complex nature of a profession that requires subterfuge and lies fascinates her. She loves combining her two passions into fiction. As evidenced by her Black Cipher Files series.
Archangel Rafe was her first foray into the paranormal but after spending time in the Angelic Realm, it won’t be her last. At their heart, the Seven novels are about the dynamics of family relationships. But the really hot Archangels don’t hurt.
And recently she’s been immersed in the Stone Family novellas, four stories about a blended family of brothers and sister who have a lot more in common than they realize. But of course she couldn’t just write about family and romance. There are complex plots, bad guys, and suspense too.
Lisa loves to hear from readers and has various places you can connect with her, although, shh, Twitter is her favorite.
Her Group Blog, the Pens Fatales