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But it wasn’t Maddox. Not Romalov.
It was a ghost.
Jordy’s gangly fifteen-year-old phantom hovered in the shadows. As always, he stayed silent, but his sad eyes moved to track down an adjacent hallway. Then he disappeared.
Moe squeezed his eyes shut for half a second, took a deep breath, and motioned for Colton to move ahead as they cleared the hall. Several doors lined each side, and a large room filled the end.
One by one, they cleared the rooms, finding nothing but more office equipment. Mouth dry, Moe halted Colton from advancing into the dark room at the end. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up, and he didn’t like the idea that Maddox might be inside, gun trained on the door. There was no other way to exit.
In his ear, Jeb relayed information. “Target at six o’clock. Coming in fast.”
Parker ordered Trace to lie in wait for him, leaving Cal inside the building with Colton and Moe. Trace responded in the affirmative and Cal asked Moe for a sit rep, but he couldn’t give it without alerting Maddox of their presence.
All he could do was let everyone know where they were, and what they were about to do. “We know you’re in there,” he called into the dark interior. “Your attempt to steal the watch and its contents has failed.” He took a wild guess at what might irritate Maddox the most. He was good at hitting people’s triggers. “Lydia is in CIA custody spilling her guts about everything. Lori is in ours and more than willing to cooperate with the deal she’s been offered. You’re surrounded and Romalov is about to be apprehended. Your best move is to give yourself up. You and I have history together that we need to discuss, so I’ll make sure that any bullets that fly your way aren’t fatal.”
There was a long, pregnant pause. So long, in fact, Moe wondered if he was talking to the walls. Was he wrong about Maddox being inside?
The muffled but distinct sound of a motorbike trickled through the building, then the crack of a rifle. The bike engine revved and fell silent. The timing couldn’t have been better to emphasize Moe’s words.
A soft chuckle teased his ears. “Bloody hell, I surrender,” a male voice said.
Colton sent him a crooked grin. Moe’s guts churned. “Put down your weapon and kick it out here to us.”
A clatter and then a black H&K came sliding across the linoleum. Colton’s grin widened as he confiscated it.
“That’s it?” Spies rarely carried a single weapon and could turn most anything in reach into one.
“I wasn’t planning a war,” Maddox said with a tinge of self-righteousness.
“Hands up,” Moe ordered. There was no way they were walking into that kill box regardless. “Turn your ass around and come out backward.”
He wasn’t sure who was more surprised, him or Colton, when the man did exactly that. As he emerged, hands in the air, Colton grabbed his wrists, jerking his arms behind him and zip-tying them so fast Moe barely had time to blink.
Colton spun Maddox around and Moe was suddenly face-to-face with his father. It felt like looking into a mirror and running into a concrete wall at the same time. His father’s eyes were brown, but the brows, the nose, the chin… Moe scanned them again. Holy hell.
There were crow’s feet in their corners, his hair was beginning to gray around his ears, and his jawline showed a few days’ worth of stubble. His expression was reserved, but something in the look he gave Moe suggested he wasn’t surprised in the least to discover one of his captors was the spitting image of him. “Well done, ol’ boy. Where’s your mum?”
A hundred different emotions broke free inside Moe’s chest. He turned his gun around and jammed the butt of it into the bastard’s gut.
THIRTY-ONE
“Stand down,” Parker yelled into her comm, shoving her tablet into the pocket of her vest. She started forward, pointing a finger at Lori. “You stay here.”
“Bullshit.” While she was miked up, she did not have one of the team’s listening devices in her ear. She had witnessed the video, however. “That’s my son. I’m coming with you.”
Before she got two steps from the helicopter, Parker was in her face, invading her personal space and shoving her against the craft. “What happened to following orders?” Lori opened her mouth to speak and Parker grabbed one of her wrists, slapping on a handcuff. Before the woman realized what was happening, Parker hooked the other end to the door handle.
“Hey!” Lori tugged at the restraint, livid. “What do you think you’re doing?”
Parker snagged the tablet once more as she took off for the building, cursing at the scene unfolding onscreen. Maddox was on the ground with arms raised over his face to protect himself. He curled into a ball as Moe pummeled him over and over.Dammit. She tapped her comm. “Sniper 1,” she said to Jeb, “if my prisoner does anything besides breathe, you have permission to shoot her in the kneecap.”
He smirked in her ear. “Roger that.”
Next, she yelled at Colton as she sprinted for the entrance. “Shinedown, intervene and stop your partner.”
There was a pause, only the sound of a fist hitting flesh and grunts from Maddox before he responded with fake static noises. “Can’t…here…you… Breaking…up.”
“You heard me just fine.” She was near the front door. “Restrain your partner now or I’ll court martial you.”
