Savage Redemption - By Alexis Morgan Page 0,68
what was going on.
The room they were standing in wasn’t really cold, but she shivered anyway. Careful not to jostle Conlan’s gun hand, she eased closer to him. He immediately wrapped his free arm around her shoulders and pulled her close.
He whispered, “We’ll wait here for a few minutes. If the danger passes, Dwayne will let us know. Otherwise, we’ll follow the tunnel out of here.”
“Where does it go?”
“It comes out underneath another property Dwayne owns. He’ll catch up with us there when he can. If he can.”
The joists overhead creaked and groaned as someone walked over their heads. Several someones.
“Move into the tunnel.”
Conlan’s words were little more than a breath near her ear. She didn’t want to leave the safe harbor of his embrace, but she’d promised to follow his orders. She swept a cobweb out of her way, ignoring her usual squeamishness when it came to creepy-crawlies. A few spiders were small potatoes compared to the real killers of this world.
Now they could hear the mumble of voices. The discussion above had obviously escalated into a full-blown argument, but it was impossible to make out anything but the tone of the voices.
The footsteps finally moved on, maybe checking out the other rooms off the same hallway. If any of them had secret escape routes, they didn’t lead to this place. Finally, silence settled in above them again. Conlan motioned for her to remain where she was before he began climbing the ladder again. When he got as far as he could without opening the door again, he cocked his head to one side to listen long and hard.
He climbed back down and headed straight for her. “Time to get the hell out of here. Even if those guys have left the building, one of them probably stayed behind to watch it. We’ll pick up Dwayne’s transport and swing back here. If we can spot the watcher, we might get some answers out of him.”
* * *
Cyrus downed a couple of pills, hoping they’d do something about the fire in his stomach. He deliberately kept his assistant waiting. If he had to be miserable and frustrated, he wanted to share the feeling. Finally, he took a seat and stared across the expanse of his desk at the younger man.
“Richie, for your sake, I hope you have good news for me.” The younger man was back to squirming uncomfortably in his seat, so the obvious answer was no. How had he ever thought the fool would make a suitable assistant? Not only was he incompetent, but he lacked the kind of focus and courage it would take to reach their mutual goals.
Right now the only reason Cyrus could think of for letting Richie continue to breathe was that if the situation continued to deteriorate, he might just need a scapegoat. One who could die without being missed. He poured himself a tall glass of his best scotch and a much shorter one for Richie.
Cyrus leaned forward, steepling his fingers, and waited for Richie to come up with an answer.
When the fool finally spoke, the words came pouring out fast and furious. “One of our men almost had Kat Karr in his custody this morning, but she threw scalding coffee in his face. By the time the others joined in the hunt, she’d disappeared. They’re still searching the area, but there’s no sign of either her or Shea.”
“Any idea where they’d been hiding?”
Richie swallowed hard and nodded. “Maybe, but we have no proof at this point. As you suggested, we did a title search in the Coalition records and found out Rafferty O’Day’s wife owns a condo in that neighborhood.”
A flash of defiance flashed through Richie’s eyes so quickly that Cyrus wasn’t sure he’d actually seen it.
“I had dutifully relayed your orders not to risk making the situation worse by attacking the place directly. As a result, our men had no choice but to cruise the streets, hoping to catch sight of either Kat Karr or Conlan Shea.”
He stopped to sip his scotch before continuing. “As soon as they recognized her, they made an attempt to apprehend her.”
“And yet these expensive, top-of-the-line mercenaries you hired couldn’t manage to grab one human woman. Amazing.”
Not to mention infuriating. He would’ve been better off hiring a bunch of children to pick her up. All those expensive weapons and equally costly gear Richie had insisted were necessary were turning out to only be a huge financial drain with no return on his investment. Maybe it