Fiancé by Friday (The Weekday Brides #3)(70)
Author: Catherine Bybee

Neil froze, his nose flared as his vision went red.

“Bastard,” Rick murmured as he drew in tighter.

“Stay the f**k back, Smiley.”

“Or what?” Rick finally spoke.

“Or I press this button and put in the order for Lady Gwen’s unfortunate accident.”

Neil’s hands started to shake.

“He’s bluffing,” Rick whispered.

Neil shook the rain from his head and forced his head to clear. Major Blayney?

No.

“You never were a good liar, Mickey,” Rick said.

“Is that so?”

Neil closed his eyes, the pain in his head intense. Blonde? Blondie? Who’d said that recently?

“Know who I was banging before Operation Raven? The operation that Mac and Billy f**ked up?”

Hearing that aloud hurt, even though Neil knew it was bullshit.

“Why do I care who you were with?”

Neil regrouped and opened his eyes again. Mickey stood two hundred yards away, Rick less than a hundred from him.

“The name Annie mean anything to you?”

Annie?

Blondie…Chuck’s question came back to Neil. “How did you get Blondie to come with you?”

“Told her that someone from my past was using her to get to me.”

It came back to him now. The lack of surprise on Chuck’s face, the ease with which he accepted everything. His eagerness to expedite his departure. And damn it, Gwen’s hair was brown when they arrived at Fort Carson. Fucking brown, not blonde.

“He’s not bluffing,” Neil told Rick.

“How do you know?”

“Chuck’s daughter is Annie. The major is calling the orders for our death. And he has my wife.”

“Oh, no,” Rick said.

They needed to finish this…

“Figured it out, didn’t you, Mac?”

“Hurt her, and you’re a dead man.”

“I’m half dead already.”

Let’s see if I can help you with the other half. Neil dropped to the ground and moved closer.

“Back up, Mac. My finger is inching on this switch. Let’s let Blayney know he’s clear to take your woman out.” Mickey waved something in the air. Neil couldn’t tell what it was from his angle.

“What’s he got in his hand?” he asked Rick.

“Hard to say. Looks radio controlled. Could be a signaling device. Could be a detonator.”

“What do you want, Mickey?” Time to change tactics. Let Mickey think he had their attention.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about. How about you and your sidekick here move on up to your perch. You know, the one you’ve been sitting on for three days looking for me from.”

“And then?”

“And then I call the boss and ask him what he wants me to do.”

Neil backed up a few yards and moved slowly in the direction Mickey wanted him to go.

“Feels like a trap.” Rick stated the obvious.

“Probably booby-trapped our fallback. Stay wide.”

“Why does Blayney want us dead?” Neil yelled.

“Keep moving, Mac. I don’t see your ass on that ledge yet.”

Neil stopped, looked over his head. If Mickey had been scouting them for three days, he probably could have come in closer sooner. Yet no shots had yet been fired. “Still think he needs to make this look like an accident?” Neil asked Rick.

“More than ever.”

“Move soldier.” Mickey’s voice rose above the rain hitting the leaves on the trees.

“Tell me why, Mickey.”

“How should I know? Wants you gone…wants Annie’s husband gone. Makes room for me.”

Neil cringed. Blayney was playing Mickey, too. Probably planning on killing him as soon as he and Rick were out of the picture.

“You stupid f**k,” Rick yelled. “Think Blayney’s gonna hand over his daughter to a gullible prick like you?”

Rick’s words struck a chord. Mickey pivoted and fired off a couple of rounds in Rick’s direction. The air around them exploded, the noise raising every testosterone charged cell in Neil’s body.

Neil took cover, cocked his weapon.

“I never liked you, Smiley.”

“Lousy shot, too.” Rick laughed.

“Call your dog off, Mac. Getting rid of you isn’t an option. Your woman, however…Blayney might let her go. If she thinks you died by accident.”

Neil’s mind raced…Would the major kill her? Neil didn’t think Chuck was capable of being behind this. There had to be something going on that Mickey had no idea about.

One thing was certain to Neil. Keeping Gwen alive would be Chuck’s only insurance should Mickey fail. And Mickey was going down.

“Draw him out,” Neil told Rick. “I’m moving in.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

The lightning let up long enough for Blake to touch down in Colorado Springs. His pilot dealt with airport security and arranged for the jet to refuel. Blake informed his pilot that they might need to leave at a moment’s notice.

“I’m on the ground,” he told Carter as he searched the arrival lobby for the driver he requested to meet him.

“I’ve arranged clearance for you at Fort Carson. It’s up to you now.”

Blake waved at a driver with his last name on a large white card.

“Any idea if Major Blayney’s on base?”

“I didn’t get that information. The guards at the base will ask you what your business is. Tell them you need to speak with Blayney.”

“And if he’s not home?”

“Chances are they won’t let you in.”

Blake covered the receiver on his phone to speak to his driver. “I’m on my way to Fort Carson. You know where that is?”

“Yes, sir.”

Blake nodded and returned his attention to Carter while he followed the driver out of the airport.

“Then what?”

“I don’t know…hit a local bar, ask around. Neil was stationed there for a while. Someone was bound to have seen him. Maybe know where he’d be holding out.”

“Needle in a haystack.”

The driver opened the back door to the town car and Blake slid into the seat.

“Thanks, Carter. We’ll find them.” They had to.

“Good luck.”

He’d need it.

The base wasn’t twenty minutes from the airport. Two guards in slickers stood at a closed gate, military rifles in their hands. Another man sat in a booth and watched as they approached.