Ruthless Game (GhostWalkers #9)(78)
Author: Christine Feehan

Jacob threw the rope to Javier, who tied them off so they could step from the boat. He handed them both a warm blanket, greeting them with a cocky grin, although Kane could see the worry in his eyes. “You two look like hell.”

“Popsicles,” Jacob said. “Damn cold water.”

“That’s why you don’t see me in it.” Javier shoved the body of the man who had taken Sebastian onto the deck and watched it roll over, his expression impassive.

“Thanks for the warning, Javier,” Kane said. “I owe you one.”

Javier shrugged. “My nephew, my sister. Fuck the bastards. Lucas and I will take care of this mess.”

Lucas emerged from the fog with the body of the driver rolled in a tarp. “Walked him right through the market crowd; no one asked a single question.” He tossed the body on top of the one Javier had rolled onto the deck. “Looks like a damn garbage dump.”

“Whitney needs to realize if he’s going to come at us, he’d better send men who can handle the heat,” Jacob said as he wrapped a blanket around his shivering form.

Kane frowned as Javier rolled the last body into the boat. “What about the men on the rooftops?”

“Gideon and Ethan are disposing of them. We can’t risk dragging more dead bodies through the streets. Someone had to have reported shots fired. And there’s blood in the SUV sitting right in front of the warehouse. No body, but plenty of blood,” Javier answered.

Javier stepped aboard the boat. Kane and Jacob watched as he disappeared into the fog. Lucas lifted a hand and headed for the slip where their boat was. He would follow Javier and bring him back after they sank the boat and bodies.

Kane and Jacob entered the first story of the warehouse from the bay side. The door was layers of steel. Kane punched in the code, and they entered the first secure room where full body scanners sent information to Jaimie’s monitors on the second floor. The door had a retinal scanner, and Kane leaned in.

Jacob laughed. “Our little sister loves these gadgets.”

Kane flashed him a grin. “By the time you start working on your building, she’ll have security so tight, none of us will be able to get inside any of our homes.”

The three-story warehouse was nearly thirteen thousand feet of space and had been sold to Jaimie without any interior walls. They stepped inside the first-story space Kane had converted into his home. It was a good four thousand square feet with a high ceiling and wide-open spaces.

“Take a shower, Jacob,” Kane suggested. “I need to check on Rose and the baby.”

Jacob didn’t object. The shivering made his teeth chatter. Kane pointed him in the right direction and rushed on through to the bedroom, kicking off wet shoes and pulling off soaked socks. He stripped off his shirt and left it in a sodden heap on the floor.

Where the hell is my woman?

Rose was nowhere to be found, and neither was Sebastian. For a moment his heart hammered a protest before he realized Mack and the others would never leave her. Eric had set up surgery on the second floor, and the team would be guarding all the fallen team members. He took the stairs two at a time, rushing up, needing to see with his own eyes that his family was alive and well.

He felt the hushed tension the moment he opened the door. Jaimie sat at her desk, viewing the security tapes over and over. Mack stood behind her, watching with her and occasionally leaning down to whisper in her ear. They’d freeze a frame and study it. Neither Rose nor the baby was on the second floor. He skirted around the makeshift surgery, nothing more than a sterile tent erected to the left of Jaimie’s work space. He noted Marc was frantically working on Brian and there was no sign of Eric.

Mack looked up as he approached, fingers still curled around the nape of Jaimie’s neck. His eyes were troubled as his gaze swept over Kane, taking in his wet body and dripping jeans.

“You smell like fish,” he greeted. “Paul’s with Sebastian and Rose. He said Rose is coming out of it slowly. He’s helping to push the drug through her system faster.”

“What the hell happened?” Kane demanded.

Jaimie swung around in her chair. “I’m looking at all the surveillance tapes both outside and inside. We’ve got cameras installed on most of the buildings along this street. The SUV was down the block for thirteen minutes. Javier spotted it while he was outside practicing his moves with his boys. He patrols the streets and gets the locals used to him hanging out. He spotted the SUV moving into position just outside your main front door and sent out the alarm.”

“We were lucky he was out there,” Mack said. “We’re going to have to set up regular patrols. We’re getting too complacent, using just one spotter on the roof. It’s too busy an area to just have only one pair of eyes.”

“How did they get into my house?” Kane asked.

“You do know you’re leaving a puddle of water in the middle of my office,” Jaimie pointed out.

Kane scowled at her. “Cough it up, Jaimie. They tried to take my son and Rose.”

“Definitely the physical therapist. He slipped something into the locking mechanism when you opened the door for them. I can’t quite figure out what it was, but it’s thin and fit right over the lock, so the door appeared to engage, but in reality, the lock wasn’t fully engaged.”

“Why didn’t the alarm sound? Shouldn’t it have?” Kane rubbed at his wet hair with the edge of the blanket.

“Yes.” Jaimie sounded affronted. “Whatever they used simulated the lock enough that the monitor accepted it as real. I’ve never seen anything like it. The way it should work is, if anything, even a thin piece of paper is slipped in, the electronics don’t engage and the alarm goes off. They have some tool that fools the electronics into believing the circuit has been engaged.”

“So they planned this carefully. They knew about the lock and how it worked,” Kane stated the obvious. “They were prepared.”

“How?” Mack asked. “We don’t have that many visitors. A few construction workers, but we checked them out thoroughly. Deliverymen.” He looked at Jaimie. “Who else?”

“We’ve had the cops here a few times,” she said. “Something about the surveillance tape really bothers me, but I can’t put my finger on it.” She swung back to study the footage. “Go up to our home, Kane, and take a warm shower. Mack’s jeans will be short, but you can fit into them. In fact, I think there are a couple of pairs of your jeans left from when you were staying with us while your house was being built. Look in the clothes closet. This is going to take a while to figure out.”