she told Brad. “I guess our time together is ending. My sister always thought that you were smart, but you’re not so smart.”
She got up. A dead body was a lot harder to work with, so she figured as soon as the sun went down they’d toss him in the van, drive back to DEA headquarters (or maybe … Lucy’s house?) and kill him there. Yeah … on Lucy’s front lawn. That would totally mess her up.
She went into the garage and filled a bucket with ice, then filled it with water from the sink. She walked back into the “prison” and dumped it on Brad.
He screamed.
What a beautiful sound.
* * *
Nate heard a faint scream—distinctly male—from inside the garage.
He was already on the move. “Call it in now,” he ordered Aggie. “Then wait for my signal that it’s clear.”
He had his gun out and ran from their hiding spot on the other side of a retaining wall only thirty yards from the garage. They hadn’t seen anything for the last twenty minutes, when a van had arrived with two men they identified as Donny and Pablo. Aggie called in the sighting to SAPD and they were putting together a team, but Nate didn’t know how long it would take for them to get here, and he wasn’t going to lose Brad now when they were so close.
Nate entered silently through the side door of the garage, which was surprisingly unlocked. He was cautious, expecting a trap, but he entered without incident.
The garage had no cars inside and was smaller than it appeared on the outside because of an internal room in the rear. He waited a heartbeat, listened. He heard an adult male sputtering from the other room. He didn’t know who else was inside the room, so with his back against the wall, he walked to the partly opened door and peered inside.
Brad was naked and chained to a desk, drenched in water. Ice cubes surrounded him. He was bloodied, bruised, and extremely pale.
Nate stepped in and gave a low whistle.
Brad struggled to look up. One of his eyes was swollen shut.
His voice was raspy. “Coming back.”
Nate stepped inside the door and stood flush against the wall. Years of military and SWAT training made him calm; every sense heightened. Sound. Sight. Smell. He heard the door leading from the garage into the house open, a mere click of the lock, a faint scrape from the hinges. The footfalls were heavier than those of the petite Elise Hunt, so he prepared himself for what he now expected.
Donny Valeria stepped inside as he spoke, “Elise says it’s time, we’re—”
He noticed Nate far too late to do anything about it. “Shit!”
He had a gun in his hand and he brought it up, aimed at Nate, which was his fatal mistake.
Nate fired three bullets to his chest. Donny didn’t get one off before falling to the floor, dead.
The takedown was too noisy, which put Nate at a disadvantage.
He kicked Valeria’s gun away and peered out the door. He and Aggie had determined there were at least four people inside the house, but they hadn’t been able to confirm the number.
He looked around for a barrier, anything he could put in front of Brad to protect him from flying bullets. There was nothing. The room appeared to be a music studio based on the soundproofing. Or maybe Elise had built it just so she could torture people, hell if he knew. But there was nothing here except a folding chair next to Brad and the desk he was chained too.
“Behind the desk,” Nate ordered.
Brad struggled to move, but was making some progress to protect himself.
Nate looked back into the garage. No one was coming through either door.
He heard two gunshots inside.
He was not going to leave Brad unprotected.
He tapped his earpiece and called Aggie. “If clear, follow my path, I’ll cover you as soon as you get inside.”
“Roger.”
Thirty seconds later, he heard in his earpiece, “Hunt is leaving in the van. I can stop her.”
“No! Stand down! That’s an order, Jensen!”
He didn’t hear anything except the ignition turn.
Nate glanced at Brad, then left the room, closing the door behind him. He looked at the house door—no one was coming through.
He ran out the side door and heard Aggie shout, “Federal agent! Stop!”
Aggie stood at the corner of the garage, gun out.
Nate ran up behind her. Elise had backed the van out of the driveway so she had a direct line of fire at