Exposure - Kelly Moran Page 0,108

The red dot hadn't moved. Why the hell hadn't Soreno taken her out of town? Why hole up in the shack unless…?

Unless she was already dead.

"Soreno never planned to get out." He pounded his fist on the console, frustration pummeling, his head about to explode from pressure. "He planned to hurt her to get back at me, then lure me there." Cursing, he shook his head. Ground his jaw. Fisted one hand in his hair. This waiting was killing him, eating the lining of his gut. "Christ, Max. He… Fucking Christ."

Max's fingers tightened on the wheel. "We'll get her back, Mr. Caldwell."

Tension knotted his shoulders, his spine. He looked out the window, not seeing anything but her perfect face, hoping to hell fate could bestow him just one request. He hadn't asked for any of this. Raven sure hadn't either. Throwing fairness around mattered not. Little in his life had been fair but, damn it, Soreno and Rizzoli couldn't take her away from him. Not when he'd finally had a chance with her.

"Be alive, baby."

Max cut through the southern strip of town and onto the port access. The SUV screeched to a halt several yards before the bend where the road ended. Noah got out and met McCannon at his car behind theirs. The rest of his security team followed.

McCannon's gaze swept the perimeter. "It's up that hill?"

Noah nodded. "If you follow the curve, the shack should be visible."

They ran in silence to the dead end and crouched at the base of the hill. Lowlight peeked through the slats of the shack, but he couldn't make out any sound or movement.

McCannon looked at his agent. "You go in from that end," he said, jerking his chin toward the open expanse just left of the location. Trees and boulders would offer them some cover. He pointed at one of Noah's guards. "Take him. Stay low. No shots, no one moves, unless I command."

The two men, veering left, climbed the hill in a low crouch and ran for the cover of rock.

McCannon pulled out his cell. "Cops and medics are on the way." He shoved the phone in his pocket. "How steep is the drop-off on the other side?"

Noah tried to recall. "The far end? Maybe four feet down. Not far. The other side slopes right to the water. No drop-off." The fall wasn't the problem. The temperature of the water and the currents were.

"All right," McCannon sighed. "You stay here. We're going up."

"Fuck that. No." He held out his hand to Max. "Give me a gun."

Ignoring McCannon's balking, Max pulled a 9 mm from an ankle holster and passed it over to Noah, then removed a 22 from under his coat to arm himself. His bodyguard glared at the agent. "He won't stay here. And we're wasting time."

McCannon ground his jaw and rose to check the building before ducking back down. "You two take the front. We'll come in from the right. On three. One…"

Raven's scream pierced the air, stopping Noah's heart for the third time tonight. An uneven breath frosted before his face.

He didn't wait for orders. He climbed the hill, kicking up snow in his wake. As he secured his footing atop, wood splintered. The crack echoed off the water and bounced back. The door to the shack burst wide, catching in the wind.

Soreno appeared from the opening with…Raven.

Noah's relief was short-lived. The bastard had wrapped her hair around his fist and had a gun to her side. But hell, she was alive. Noah stopped in his tracks, barely resisting the urge to run to her.

"FBI. Freeze!" McCannon stepped forward, gun trained.

The two men they'd sent ahead emerged from the left, weapons ready.

Soreno pulled Raven in front of him and pressed the barrel to her temple. Easing backward, he stopped at the edge of the clearing with her as a shield and the black ocean behind them. "She's dead if you come any closer."

Noah fisted his hand around the handle of his gun. Sirens wailed in the distance.

"You're surrounded," McCannon shouted. "Let her go."

They crept forward, Noah following their lead, until Soreno jerked Raven's head back and she whimpered.

"I repeat, hand her over. You have nowhere to go."

Stopping twenty feet or less from them, Noah got a good look at her for the first time. The entire right side of her face was swollen to the point her eye wouldn't open. Her wrists and ankles were red, as if Soreno had her restrained. A trail of blood dripped down