Targeted (Hostage Rescue Team Series Book 2) (21 page)

A pale, slim hand emerged, palm out, wide-spread fingers trembling slightly. A slender arm followed, then a little face topped by dark brown pigtails appeared beneath it. The little girl stared up at them, blue eyes huge in her pale face. Her gaze locked on Celida, so wary and full of hope that it made Celida’s heart ache.

“It’s all right, Marlee,” Celida coaxed. “Come on out and I’ll take you someplace safe with your mom.”

Still uncertain, the girl slid out of the small space the slightly cracked open door allowed, then stopped and reached back. “Mommy…”

“It’s okay, baby, I’m right behind you.” Catherine squeezed out slowly, both hands up, and focused on Celida, blinking against the bright sunshine.

“Get the supplies,” Spivey ordered from inside. Celida still didn’t have a visual on him yet. He obviously knew there were snipers in position. The woman and child took a few steps toward them, still clearly afraid.

Celida tensed and waved for the hostages to come out fully, watching the black slice of space between the edge of the door and the stone wall. If she’d had a weapon maybe she could have rammed the door open enough to get a clear shot on Spivey and end this all now, before anyone else got hurt.

“I’m supposed to check the bags first before I hand them over,” Catherine said in a small voice. She sounded both apologetic and as though she was on the verge of bursting into tears. Her daughter stood a few steps away, her back pressed against the stone wall as she watched her mother with anxious eyes.

Shit. Being taken out of the transfer would take away Celida’s opportunity to get a good look inside. “That’s fine, Catherine,” she answered, her voice calm even though her heart was pounding against her ribs. Spivey was
right there,
somewhere behind the door, just out of view. Did any of the sniper teams have a decent visual now?

Slowly, Celida shrugged out of the backpack and handed it to Catherine. “It’s gonna be fine,” she said to the woman, whose eyes were welling with tears. “As soon as you hand over the supplies we’re gonna get you and Marlee to safety, okay?”

The woman nodded, lips trembling. “Ok-kay.”

Gunderson took off her backpack and set it on the ground. Catherine edged forward to take both bags and when she bent to unzip one, Celida seized her opportunity to try and get a look inside. Tuck and the others needed
something
. She had to find a way to help them. Catherine had been inside for a while. Surely she’d know or have heard or seen something of use to them.

While Catherine rummaged through the contents Celida stepped as close to the door as she dared, peering into the dimness beyond. From what she could see, only a few emergency lights were on at the very back.

She caught a faint glimpse of the hostages at the opposite end of the bank, all seated on the floor, appearing to have their hands tied behind them. She could see the door for the first office in the back, but couldn’t get a visual on anything else. All the blinds on the windows and front doors were fully in place, barely any hint of daylight seeping around the blackout blinds. There were two large vents in the ceiling an entry team might be able to make use of. No obvious explosives of any kind around the windows or—

“Get back,
now
.”

Shit!

Her breath caught in her throat and she took a hasty step back as her gaze swung to her left. Ken Spivey stared back at her, not five feet from the door, his expression filled with menace. He held a pistol aimed at her head—and a dead man’s switch in his other.

He took a threatening step toward her, face set in a cold mask, and Celida automatically reached for Catherine’s shoulder, grabbing and shoving her back out of range.

“Ken, we’ve brought you the supplies I promised,” Gunderson said, her calm voice doing nothing to slow Celida’s racing pulse. “Let Catherine hand them over and let us take her and Marlee back with us.”

The pistol never wavered from Celida’s head and it was like facing her nightmare all over again. Her blood iced over in her veins, her gaze welded to the black hole at the end of the muzzle.

The weapon was nearly at point blank range. If he fired there was no way he could miss. And if he decided he wanted her for another hostage he could easily grab her. All the self defense skills in the world wouldn’t help her against a man his size with that kind of training, and a struggle only increased the likelihood that he lost his grip on the dead man’s switch.

“Quickly,” he snapped, his order a low growl.

Standing still, barely daring to breathe, Celida kept her hands raised and avoided Spivey’s gaze as Catherine checked the second bag. “There’s only water and protein bars,” Catherine told him as she straightened. “No microphones or cameras or anything.”

He never looked away from Celida as he spoke to Catherine. “Take everything out and throw it along the floor, away from the door. Then leave.”

Catherine did as she was told, emptying the bags and tossing everything inside away from the door. When she was finished, Spivey spoke again to Celida. “Step back slowly.”

She did.

“Keep going.”

She slid her right foot back, then her left, all the while watching that pistol, aimed dead center on her face. Gunderson was behind her, scooping the little girl into her arms.

“Gunderson.”

The negotiator froze, looked back at the door, into the blackness beyond it where Spivey stood hidden in the shadows.

“I’ve held up my end of the bargain so far. I want DeLuca on the phone in the next fifteen minutes, or I’ll start making this ugly. If he doesn’t call I’ll kill a hostage at sixteen minutes.” He switched his gaze to Catherine, jerked his chin at her. “Shut the door and go.”

Not needing to be told twice, Catherine reached for the door handle and slammed it shut. Celida flinched at the sudden bang, but thankfully there was no explosion. It took a moment for that to sink in.

Safe. You’re safe.

She exhaled the deep breath she’d been holding. Though her knees felt weak she lunged for Catherine, seized her by the upper arm and took off at a dead run away from the building, back toward the command trailer. Gunderson was a few yards ahead of them, carrying Marlee, the little girl’s pigtails flying behind her.

They reached the interior perimeter. Other agents rushed forward to take the hostages. Celida followed Gunderson on rubbery legs, fighting the flood of adrenaline lashing her system.

Travers was at the command trailer waiting for her with DeLuca, her boss’s shrewd blue eyes sweeping over her once. “You okay?”

No.
She nodded and proceeded to rip the Kevlar vest off, then sat down on the curb. The rush of cool air over her sweaty skin, the relief of the weight taken off her chest, helped a bit. Her hands were shaky as hell as she peeled the wire away from her damp skin, her breathing choppy.

“You’re okay. Just take a minute,” Travers said, his voice surprisingly gentle, setting a hand on the back of her head and pushing down a bit.

Celida shook him off and closed her eyes, gritting her teeth as her jaw trembled, hating that both he and DeLuca were seeing her like this. Hell, her entire body was shaking in the aftermath, her mind still telling her what could have happened. She wanted to call Tuck, hear his voice on the other end and personally warn him about what he would be walking into.

Thankfully Travers didn’t say anything more, just went about his business, issuing orders until she got herself under control a minute later. “He’s got a dead man’s switch,” she blurted when she got her breath back, drawing Travers’s attention back to her.

His eyebrows drew together. “Figured he might. What else?”

She wiped a hand over her sweaty face. “All the other hostages seem okay. Did the sniper teams see anything?”

DeLuca shook his head, his mouth a thin, flat line.

Damn.
“I couldn’t see any wiring on the windows and doors but there are a couple of vents in the ceiling. Might be the only option, but as of right now the snipers or even a breach are out.”

“Not necessarily,” DeLuca said, drawing her and Travers’s gazes.

As though they had some sort of unspoken code, Travers nodded at him. Then he took her hand, helping her to her feet. “This asshole’s counting on a breach,” he said, stating what she was already thinking.

The manifesto made it clear that he wanted retribution and was prepared to die here today. His demands and lack of willingness to negotiate merely solidified it. Whatever he was planning, he wanted DeLuca specifically to know about it.

Anticipate it. Witness it.

That last part made Celida’s blood run cold, because it meant Tuck and the others would be in direct danger.

“If we don’t give it to him, he’ll force our hand by killing hostages,” Travers said.

Releasing her, he turned away. “We’ve got some time before the deadline. Let’s go talk to Catherine and put everything we can together so DeLuca can brief his boys with something useful after.”

As his phone’s work ringtone went off Tuck straightened and grabbed it from his pocket. He’d been expecting this call for a while now.

When he saw Celida’s number instead of DeLuca’s, however, his heart rate kicked up a notch. His sniper teams had been in position for the past hour. He’d known the moment when Celida and the other agent had approached the bank to make the exchange. What he’d seen in the video from one of the spotters had made his blood run cold.

“Hey.”

“I’ve got an update,” she blurted. “DeLuca’s finishing up interviewing a hostage we just retrieved—”

“The woman?”

“Yes, and her young daughter,” she added, her voice calm even though he detected the hint of a tremor in it.

From what he’d learned about Spivey so far, the man wasn’t just your ordinary psychotic asshole. However twisted his reasoning about this situation and however fucked up his mind was, his conscience was still alive in there somewhere. In some ways that made him even more dangerous because they couldn’t predict what he’d do.

“DeLuca’s getting you all the inside intel he can, but he’s got to call Spivey within the next seven minutes or he’s threatened to kill a hostage.”

Ah, shit, that shortened their timeline by a whole bunch, and it also explained why he hadn’t heard from his CO in nearly twenty minutes.

“He’s asked me to update you and your team in the meantime,” Celida continued. “Can you put me on speaker?”

Her voice sounded a little shaky, and it was no wonder why. “Are you okay?” Going into that situation blind, unarmed, would have shaken any agent, but her especially, considering what she’d just gone through a few weeks ago.

As he awaited her answer he was aware of his teammates gathered around the table all watching him and he didn’t care. He needed to know she was truly all right before they moved onto the briefing.

“Yes. Put me on speaker,” she insisted in an impatient tone that made him smile. In spite of everything she was in full operational mode, ready to take this fucker down. His girl had brass.

Whatever she had to say was obviously vital to the team’s preparations, so everything else would have to wait, but he was definitely continuing this conversation with her in private later. He set the phone down on the table strewn with maps and blueprints and put her on speaker. “Okay, go ahead.”

“This is Agent Celida Morales. I’m updating you on behalf of DeLuca, who’s questioning a female hostage we just retrieved from the bank.”

Tuck could hear other agents talking in the background, heard phones ringing and guessed she must be inside the command trailer.

“Spivey’s trying to replicate the Denver op. He’s wearing a suicide vest and holding a dead man’s switch. He had a Glock on him but I’m unsure what other weapons he’s got in there. We know the security guard he took hostage had a Beretta that Spivey must have taken as well. The female hostage didn’t see any other weapons but she said he’s got a backpack and we don’t know what’s in there. Based on his background and training it could be anything from a submachine gun to grenades to more explosives.”

He hated knowing that she’d been confronted once again by a man holding a weapon on her. Tuck’s jaw clenched as he remembered her walking up to the bank to retrieve the hostage and coming face-to-face with Spivey and his weapon.

His frown turned into a scowl.
Hell.
Without pause he mentally locked his emotions down. He had to focus on the job now, nothing else.

“I couldn’t see any wiring around the doors or windows but we have to assume they’re all rigged as that’s what Spivey told the hostages. Entry through any of those are out, and given the dead man’s switch, so is a sniper shot.”

“Okay, we’ll work around it,” Tuck said. Their specialized equipment meant they still had a few options open to them at least. “Anything else?”

“So far all the hostages are in good shape and they now have food and water. DeLuca’s call will hopefully stave off an execution in the next few minutes but it’s pretty clear this guy’s not going to be talked down. He only let the woman and child go because they reminded him too much of his own dead family.”

So from here on out things were likely to escalate. They’d been prepping for an assault since they’d gotten word about the hostage incident, but the way things were going Tuck didn’t think they’d have a lot of time to pull a plan together. “What’s Spivey’s interest in DeLuca?”

Celida blew out a harsh breath. “He was CO the day of the op in Denver that killed Spivey’s wife and son.”

“I know. What else?” None of the men standing in the room with him right now had been on that op, but they all knew about the woman and little boy being killed in the crossfire to bring down the hostage-taker after he’d killed two others, forcing the assault team to act.

“We won’t know for sure until DeLuca calls him but right now it’s pretty clear Spivey holds him responsible for what happened to his family. He’s gotta know we’d never allow DeLuca to exchange himself for more hostages, even if Spivey demands that, so right now the thinking is that
you
guys are his target. He wants to make a statement, force a breach so he can attack the team.”