Dawn Read online

  “I truly think there’s something to the ant venom. It somehow pulled her from the grasp of the pharmaceutical formula.”

  My phone buzzed. I recognized the name as one of our Sparrows, one I’d recently seen.

  “Murray,” I said, connecting the call.

  “Mr. Murray, this is Sam.”

  A smile curled my lips at the memory of Sam at the warehouse with the baby. “Sam, what’s happening?”

  “Sir, I can’t reach Mr. Pierce. I’m here with Marsha, near the mile marker he said. We found the ambulance.”

  “The one on the side of I-90?”

  Chicago ranked last of the five largest cities in the United States on the number of ambulances per one hundred thousand people. It didn’t make sense for one to be left abandoned.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Did you find anyone with the ambulance?”

  “We don’t know. We’re near it. Mr. Pierce said to call him before getting close.”

  My mind went back to the bunkers and how Mason had known they could be booby-trapped. “Sam, hold on a minute.” I put the phone on mute and relayed to Sparrow and Laurel that we had Sparrows at the abandoned ambulance. “Mason told them to call him when they arrived. Sam said Mason hasn’t answered his call.”

  “He didn’t answer for him either?” Laurel asked, small lines of worry forming around her eyes.

  “Put Sam on speaker,” Sparrow said.

  I hit the button and laid the phone on the corner of the desktop. “Sam, Murray here. I’m also with Mr. Sparrow.” I looked at Laurel and shook my head. It wasn’t that she didn’t matter or that having a woman with us was a weakness—Sam was with Marsha. It was that when you are in the presence of the king, the rest of us are less significant.

  “Mr. Sparrow,” Sam said, “from a distance, the ambulance looks safe. It’s the standard box-like style. The windows in the back and side door are darkened and we haven’t gotten close enough to see inside. There’s no driver or anyone in the front cab.”

  Sparrow took a deep breath. “Sam, who’s your backup?”

  “Marsha, sir.”

  Sparrow nodded. “Have Marsha take your phone and change to video. I want to see what you’re seeing.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  I muted the call while projecting my phone via Bluetooth to the large screen overhead.

  “Back in Montana,” I said as we waited for their video to connect, “Mason knew or suspected that the bunkers were a trap—that they were rigged. I’m wondering if he asked Sam to call because he thinks the same thing is possible about this ambulance.”

  “It could be,” Laurel replied.

  “Or simply a decoy to waste our time,” Sparrow said.

  “We” —I motioned between Laurel and I— “think they used the ambulance to get Ruby out of the hospital. It makes the most sense. What if she’s still in it?”

  “You said her trackers were with Mason,” Sparrow said, “and I sure as fuck don’t want to lose two Sparrows to a decoy.”

  The screen came to life as I unmuted my phone and spoke, “Murray.”

  “Let me try Mason again,” Laurel whispered.

  The video feed began. Sam’s description of the ambulance was accurate, standard-fare white box with Chicago Fire Dept. on the side, red and yellow reflective lines surrounding the back two doors, and one side door near the front on the passenger side. The cab was similar to that of a van. The waning and waxing roar of passing cars came through the speakers.

  “Walk around the ambulance from a distance. Don’t touch it,” Sparrow instructed.

  Laurel shook her head, indicating she couldn’t reach Mason. “Voicemail.”

  My heart thumped in my bruised chest as Marsha walked around the ambulance. “Do you have a mirror?” The mirror I was referring to was similar to a giant dental mirror—a mirror on a long stick angled to see beneath vehicles. The secret service used them regularly to check vehicles that came near people they protected.

  “No, sir,” Marsha replied.

  “Fuck,” Sparrow muttered.

  “Boss, I can check underneath.” It was Sam’s voice.

  Sparrow’s head shook. “Sam, you’re a big man. You touch a trip wire by mistake and I’m down a fucking good Sparrow, and your wife and kid are down someone they love.”

  In the midst of all the tension, I had to smile. Sterling Sparrow had literally thousands of people who worked under his umbrella, and yet he knew as much about Sam as I learned the other day.

  “Mr. Sparrow,” Marsha said, turning the camera around on her. “I can get under there and see what’s happening. As a bonus, I’m well versed in explosives.”

  “First, can you see in the windows?” I asked.

  With the camera in hand, Marsha lifted it higher to the windows in the back of the ambulance.

  “Hold right there,” I said, catching a flash of something within. “Sam, you’re taller. Do not touch the ambulance. Tell us what you see.”

  Marsha stood back and videoed as Sam approached the back doors. The large blue ambulance decal partially hindered the view. His head shook. “Boss and Mr. Murray, there’s a body bag in there. It looks like there’s someone in it. Either that or it’s blankets all bunched up to look like a body. Whatever it is, it’s not moving.”

  “Ruby?” Laurel asked.

  “Can you see a face?” Sparrow asked.

  “No, boss. The body bag is zipped up tight and strapped to the stretcher.”

  My eyes shut and images of Ruby floated behind my closed lids. I looked again at the trackers. They hadn’t moved from where they were ten minutes ago. “It’s not her,” I proclaimed. “Her trackers—”

  “They fucking knew to take Araneae’s and Lorna’s shoes.” Sparrow said, interrupting me. He turned and spoke toward the phone. “Marsha, there’s not much of a clearance to get under the ambulance.”

  “I can do it, sir.”

  “She’s petite,” I whispered. “About Lorna’s size.”

  “Be careful,” Sparrow said. “You’re also important to the Sparrows. I sure as fuck don’t want to lose you either.”

  “Not my plan, Mr. Sparrow.” Marsha handed Sam the phone as she stripped off her outer jacket and reached for the Velcro on her Kevlar vest.

  “No,” Sparrow said. “Don’t take that off.”

  “It adds bulk. Without it I’ll lose at least two inches.”

  “It fucking saved my life,” I volunteered. “Be careful.”

  We all waited as Marsha knelt down and turned onto her back. With snake-like movements, she crawled where the height was a little greater, beneath the back bumper. Seconds became minutes as time ticked extremely slowly, and silently, we watched the scene unfold.

  Finally, Marsha backed out from under the back of the vehicle. Stepping away, she brushed the gravel and dirt from her vest and slacks. “Mr. Sparrow, Mr. Pierce was right to be concerned. The ambulance is rigged. The configuration of the explosives isn’t overly sophisticated. It’s attached with a magnet. There’s only one setup and it looks like a standard VBID with a tilt fuse set to activate when any of the back doors are opened or it’s jostled. If someone drove off the road and hit this vehicle, they’d both go up in flames.”

  “What about the front doors?” I asked.

  “They’re not triggered, sir, but that tilt fuse could easily ignite with movement from within. Getting a body out of there could cause the vehicle to move and we’d have the same result.”

  I looked again at the screen showing the trackers. There were none. “What the fuck?”

  Sparrow’s dark stare came my way in an unspoken question.

  “The trackers disappeared.” As I spoke, they reappeared, on the move again away from the ambulance. “Fuck, they’re back.” I ran my hands over my eyes, making sure I wasn’t hallucinating. “The interruption could have been a disruption in the satellite signal.” Sometimes signals become momentarily blocked by other satellites or even debris floating around in
space.

  “Do you think that could be Ruby in that ambulance?” Sparrow asked me.

  “I wish I could answer that with some sort of certainty. If we could reach Mason...” I took a deep breath. “Without visual, Ruby could be either place or neither.”

  “Marsha,” Sparrow said louder to the phone, “will the explosive device detonate if we wait?”

  “Not unless the tilt fuse is activated. Like I said, boss, if a car hit the vehicle or even if what we see in that body bag is a person and that person wakes and freaks out...” She sighed. “Miss Kelly isn’t a big person, but if it is her, she could rightfully panic and there would be movement. Sir, I can’t be certain.”

  Sparrow’s frustration at the lack of definite answers showed in the strain of his jaw and the way the muscles strained on the sides of his face. He took another breath. “Marsha, I’ve heard some stories about you. Are they true?” Sparrow asked.

  “That depends on what you’ve heard.”

  “You said it’s a standard improvised explosive device.” She’d used the acronym, but that was what she meant. “I don’t want to lose you or Sam, but I need to know that isn’t my niece in that body bag.”

  His niece.

  “I can disarm it,” Marsha replied, the camera moving to her face and showing her determination.

  “If it blows, I’d lose both you and Sam and the person inside if there is one.”

  “I can do it, boss. Let me get a few tools from our car.”

  “Sam, stand back,” Sparrow said, “and keep the video running.”

  Lorna

  “Hey,” Araneae said, standing in the doorway to her and Sparrow’s bedroom as I pulled the sheets from their bed.

  “Having trouble concentrating?” I asked.

  “Yes. All I can think about is Ruby and Madeline and the hell Patrick must be going through right now.” Araneae came in the room and opened the large drawer containing a fresh set of sheets. “I can help. These big beds are a pain in the ass alone.”

  A grin came to my lips. “I prefer to be in a big bed with a big man.”

  Her brown eyes met mine as her lips curled. “That wasn’t what I meant, but I agree.”

  Together we went through the motions, stretching the bottom sheet, securing it in the corners, and fluffing the flat sheet as it landed like a parachute over the oversized mattress. As we finished the job, Araneae stepped onto the platform near one side and turning, sat on the edge of the freshly made bed.

  I hadn’t given it a lot of thought, mostly because this bed had been in the penthouse master bedroom suite since I moved in, but as I looked at my friend wringing her hands as she lay back, it occurred to me how Araneae was taller than me and yet on this bed she appeared small. The bed wasn’t only a California king, it was also ridiculously high.

  As a means to keep myself occupied, I asked, “Doesn’t it bug you how high this bed is?”

  Araneae grinned as she sat back up. “Sterling is tall.”

  It wasn’t really an explanation, but it made sense.

  She let out a long breath. “I admit it. Besides being worried, I’m jealous.”

  “You? You’re the queen.”

  “Not much of a queen when I’m sequestered.”

  “Since we’ve all been sequestered for nearly the last month, I’m going to guess that you’re jealous of the fact that Laurel is down in the man-only zone?” I was pretty certain that was her issue. God knew, the same thought had been rattling around in my head for the last few hours.

  “Yes. It isn’t even that I want to be down there; I want to know what’s happening.”

  “Have you called your husband?” I asked.

  Araneae shook her head. “No. When there are things happening, I’m always afraid to be a bother.” She grinned. “Not because of him or his reaction. Sterling’s never said that. It’s that I know how I get when I’m involved in work. I know what it’s like to be interrupted.”

  “You’re the one person who I’m certain Sparrow doesn’t mind interrupting him.”

  “Still, if he’s on the phone or with someone...” She looked at her watch, the kind that did everything from emails and texts to steps and heart rate. “I keep checking for a text or something.”

  Holding on to one of the four posts surrounding her bed, I sighed. “More than being jealous, I’m so damn scared.”

  Her eyes met mine. “Me too. I don’t want Ruby to experience anything we did.”

  I nodded. “That’s what I keep thinking about.” My fingers went to my cheek. “Does she know how to fight?”

  Araneae shrugged. “Instinct.”

  “Do you remember the name of her bodyguard when she was with the bratva?” I asked.

  “Oleg or Oreg...something like that.”

  “I bet he taught her.”

  Stepping down from the bed, Araneae walked to the wall of windows and stared out at the city and lake. “Sterling should have insisted that Ruby have someone with her.” She spun toward me. “Garrett or Christian, a Sparrow who the men trust. Hell, there are female Sparrows too.”

  Coming up beside her, I too looked out at the city below. “Patrick was with her.”

  “Why would she walk away?”

  Unable to answer, my lips came together as I shook my head.

  When Araneae turned my way, her eyes glistened with unshed tears. “I was so scared—when we were taken.” A tear trickled down her cheek. “I don’t want Ruby to be that scared.”

  For a moment, we stood in silence until our phones both buzzed. “It’s Patrick,” Araneae said, looking at her watch.

  I pulled my phone from my back pocket and read the text message aloud.

  * * *

  “THE DOCTOR WAS JUST IN. SHE SAID WE’RE GETTING CLOSE.”

  * * *

  I texted back:

  * * *

  “THANK YOU FOR THE UPDATE.”

  * * *

  I looked up at Araneae. “I wonder what Madeline knows about Ruby?”

  “I can’t imagine welcoming one child into the world while worried sick over the other one.”

  “Araneae, Lorna,” Laurel’s voice came from the first floor of the penthouse.

  We both hurried from the master bedroom to the grand staircase. “We’re up here. Did you find Ruby?”

  Laurel was holding the end of the banister. Her smile bloomed as she nodded. “Yes.”

  Araneae and I met her at the bottom of the stairs.

  “Where was she?”

  “First,” Laurel said, “she’s safe.”

  “Tell us what happened,” Araneae said, leading us all to the living room. “I want every detail of every second.”

  Laurel nodded. “Well...”

  Laurel

  Forty-five minutes ago in the command center...

  * * *

  “Keep the video running,” Sterling commanded, his eyes set on the screen above.

  “Laurel,” Reid said as we all waited for Marsha to return with the necessary tools. “May I use your phone?”

  I pulled it from my pocket, activated the screen with the recognition scan, and handed it his way. “Of course.” When it came to anything electronic, I had no reason to doubt Reid. I knew my number was blocked and secured.

  I stood beside Sterling with my arms crossed over my chest and my lip secured between my teeth, watching the ambulance with the sounds of interstate traffic in the background. Anxiety and concern emanated from the man at my side. Whether Ruby was in the ambulance or not, if Marsha didn’t disarm the explosives exactly right, she would be dead, risking her life for a task Sparrow had requested. She would be another casualty in this recent battle in the never-ending Sparrow wars.

  “Is she experienced?” I asked, more to break the tension than receive an answer.

  “She is,” Reid replied.

  “She’s not our best,” Sterling said quietly. He turned toward me. “That would be your husband.”

  “Maybe you should wait—”
r />   “No,” Sterling interrupted. “You heard what Marsha said about the tilt fuse.” He didn’t wait for me to respond. “If a person is alive in that ambulance, we can assume he or she is unconscious. If that person wakes and panics...”

  “It could cause the explosives to ignite,” I said, finishing his sentence.

  “Garrett, where are you?” Reid said into my phone. “I need someone I can trust. I’ll send you the exact mile marker. Ruby’s tracker, Mason’s phone, and Romero’s phone were in the same spot for over twenty minutes and now they’re moving fucking fast, headed south on I-90. If there is a Sparrow closer, contact them and let me know.”

  There were pauses between his phrases. Though I couldn’t hear Garrett, I was certain he was responding. With each phrase, my stomach twisted until I had knots upon knots. I tucked my fingers beneath my arms, trying to regain circulation and warmth. Sterling wasn’t the only one stressed.

  “She’s back,” Sterling announced to us. Speaking to the phone, he said, “You could take the phone with you under the carriage. Give us the deets on the explosive; Reid can talk you through disarming it.”

  I looked over to Reid. Despite Sterling putting him on the spot, he didn’t appear concerned. His fingers were flying across a different keyboard. “Marsha, I need as much information to determine how many modules you’ll need to disarm,” he said.

  “With all due respect, boss, time won’t be my friend when I get under there. Like I said earlier, the explosive is attached magnetically. It would make it easier to break that bond with a stronger magnet and disarm it out here. I don’t have a stronger magnet, and even if I did, the process would certainly trip the tilt fuse.” She walked closer to Sam, the camera set on her determined expression. “I’ve seen similar devices. It doesn’t appear much different from the IEDs used in Iraq.”

  “Most of those were homemade,” Reid said quietly.

  “If you need anything,” Sterling said, “let us know. Sam’s going to keep filming. If you think you did something wrong and you have time, get the fuck away.”