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“I don’t think—” he started, but Elle stood and glared at him.
“No, you don’t think,” she said. “Neither of you do. Look at the two of you. You’re huge, over six feet of solid muscle and attitude. You walk out of here at night and it never even occurs to you that someone would look at you and think you’d make a great victim. You’ve never been on a date where the guy won’t take no for an answer. You’ve never had someone you trust turn on you just because they know you can’t fight back.”
Rachel stood. “You’ve never been out for an evening and taken a drink someone has tampered with and then lived with the gap in your memory and the possibilities of what might have happened during it.”
Julia sobbed again. “You’ve never cowered because you knew that even if you hit back it wouldn’t make an impact.”
“Jules.” Joe’s voice sounded strangled. He took a step towards Julia, but she turned her face to the wall and he looked as though he’d taken a blow.
Megan took a deep shuddering breath full of fury. “You two are doing what you do best, I get it. You’re knights in shining armour, desperate to ride to the rescue. You’re big, you’re bad and you can be terrifying. But one thing you will never be is a woman at the mercy of a man. To answer your question, we’re taking this very seriously. We’re taking it very personally. And we will make sure that this man pays for what he’s done.” She sneered at them. “Even if we have to deal with you two idiots to get the job done.”
She looked at the other, equally furious women. Elle had her arms around a sobbin
g Julia.
“We’re out of here,” Megan said to them.
“My place,” Rachel said. “We need a night without testosterone stupidity.”
“Amen, sister,” Elle said.
“We’ll be back in the morning. Maybe you should spend tonight thinking about how insulting your little slideshow was and how bloody arrogant you were to think it was a good idea.” Megan gave them one last disgusted look before following her friends. As she left she heard Dimitri’s voice.
“That didn’t go as planned,” he said.
“No kidding, Einstein,” Joe said. “I think we may have made things worse.”
Megan rolled her eyes. She was dealing with idiots.
Chapter Sixteen
Dimitri wished he had a hangover. But instead of spending the night getting lost in a bottle, after the spectacular failure in the conference room, he’d spent it going over the details of the op. In between stressing, double-checking and worrying, he’d managed to grab a couple of hours sleep. He’d done more complex jobs on less, but he still felt like hell.
“Let’s go over this one more time from the top,” Callum said as he stood at the front of the conference room.
There was an aerial map of Rudi’s house pinned to the rolling whiteboard at the side of the table.
“Ryan and I will take up sniper positions, here and here.” He pointed to the positions they’d scoped that covered the two main entrances to the property. Callum’s vantage point in particular gave him a good view right to the front door and behind one of the garages.
“Joe will be on the ground, here.” He pointed at the driveway two properties over from Rudi’s house. The owners were out of town and Callum had pulled strings to enable Joe to park his car there without private security blowing his cover. He was close enough to get to them should they need someone covering their backs fast.
“Dimitri and Megan will drive up to the property in the Ford Sedan we bought for that purpose.” Callum looked at everyone in turn. “The car cannot be connected to Benson Security. It has no tech in it. That’s because we know it will be searched and scanned. Most likely tagged as well. You won’t touch that car after you leave the property.” He rubbed his face. “You will also be scanned for bugs when you enter the property, that’s why you aren’t being wired for this op. It would never make it past the first checkpoint.” He pointed at the guardhouse inside the gate. “Your phones will be confiscated along with anything else that’s even remotely electronic. You’ll lose your weapons. From there on in, you’re on your own. Naked in a hostile environment.”
“I really hope you don’t mean literally naked,” Megan piped up, pulling a smile from one or two people.
Her anger from the previous day was gone and she didn’t seem to be bearing a grudge. Which was suspicious. The Megan he’d come to know was real good at bearing a grudge. He eyed her thoughtfully and earned a sunny smile. Maybe he was reading too much into the situation. Maybe. Wrenching his eyes from her, he concentrated on Callum.
“You have twenty minutes to get in, get the information and get out.” Callum studied Dimitri and Megan. Dimitri read everything he couldn’t say in his eyes. This wasn’t a good situation. They were literally walking into the lion’s den without backup or weapons. “I can’t give you more than that.”
“Why not?” Megan said. “What if it isn’t long enough to get the ring? What if Rudi keeps us waiting in the hall for the whole twenty minutes?”
Callum stared at her. “Then you leave. Twenty minutes is all you get. If you don’t succeed in that time, then we try again another way.”
“But why twenty? It doesn’t seem long enough.” Megan looked worried.
The sight melted Dimitri’s resolve to keep his distance. For some reason he hated it when Megan experienced discomfort of any kind. He reached over and covered the back of her neck with his palm. He rubbed tiny circles in her tense muscles with his thumb, gratified when the gesture seemed to comfort her.
“Twenty minutes,” Dimitri told her, “is the maximum he can give us in case we’re injured and need help. Any more than that and we might not survive a trip to the hospital. It’s also the minimum amount of time it would take Rudi’s security to fully mobilise.” Well, they could probably do it in less than twenty minutes, but they were accounting for the time it would take before the alarm was sounded.
