Given the choice, Asher Adams preferred darkness to light, and tonight was no exception. It had taken him Fourty eight hours to find the lady and her kiddnapers, but he had waited another Fourty Eight before going to rescue her—just so he could learn about their schedule and then go in the night.
He liked shadows, the silence, the fact that most people were asleep. Even those awake were on the low end of their energy cycle —although not his men. He made sure of that.
Asher checked the time, then glanced back at the two story house. After nearly two weeks of watching over the woman, the guards had grown sloppy and complacent. They patrolled the estate on a schedule now, instead of at random intervals. After so many days of quiet, they no longer expected trouble. All the better for him. He thought.
He reached for his night vision binoculars and trained them on the second story bedroom windows. The third one from the left had drapes open, which allowed him a view of the darkened room. A woman paced there —restless, worried, scared.
Not too tall, she moved with the grace of someone trained in dance... And the lifestyles of the rich and famous. Brown hair, beautiful and worth millions.
Oh yeah. He knew pretty much everything about her and he wasn't impressed. Even now, he didn't shift his binoculars to her. She was the target, but incidental to the moment. What he really needed to know was who else was in the room with her. How many watchers had been left on duty?
There were a total of five assigned to her—usually working in shifts of two. Except at night. From midnight until seven, there was only one woman keeping watch.
He scanned the room and saw the guard sitting in a chair in the corner of the room. From the tilt of her head, he would guess she had fallen asleep.
Very sloppy, he thought. If she worked for him, she would be fired. But she didn't, and her bad habits were his gain.
He turned his attention back to the prisoner. Kimberly Blake crossed to the French doors and opened them. After glancing over her shoulder to make sure her keeper continued to doze she stepped out into the night and walked to the railing.
Her life had taken a turn for the unpleasant, Asher thought without sympathy. Two weeks ago she had been living in her rich woman world and now she was held captive, threatened and never left alone. That was enough ruin anyone's day.
"Red two, go" a voice murmured into Asher's earpiece.
Asher tapped the tiny device by a way of response. He was the operative closest to the house. Until it was time, he wouldn't be doing any talking.
Kimberly lingered by the railing. Asher tucked his binoculars in his backpack. There was no point in looking at her—he had spent the past four days studying everything about her. He knew her age, her relationship status, distinguishing marks, where she liked to shop and what she did with day. She might be worth enough to keep a man in style, but she wasn't his type. Not her pedigree, not her life.
Rich women tended to be very high maintenance and spoilt.
He checked his watch again. Nearly time. He talked once on his earpiece, then reached for his gun.
The modified pistol in his hand shot strong, incredibly fast sedatives. They incapacitated in less than five seconds. He preferred something a little faster, but he couldn't risk the potentially fatal reaction to a quicker acting chemical. Mr Hillary Blake had insisted on no dead bodies.
Pity, Asher thought as he began to creep toward the glass doors on the side of the house. He didn't have much sympathy or patience for kidnappers. The outrageous ransom Fourty million of unmarked bills had annoyed him so much.
He hated when criminals watched too much TV and took their ideas from bad spy movies. To his mind they should either act like pros or stay out of the game.
He reached the glass doors and waited. In less than three minutes, two things occurred simultaneously. Tanner, their alarm maestro, tapped the "All clear" signal on his earpiece. A quick double click told Asher that the system was down. Tanner was good enough to keep the cameras moving back and forth while all the red lights continued blinking just as they should. The only difference was that the alarm wouldn't go off.
The second thing that happened was that a guard strolled by, right on time.
Dumb ass. Asher thought as he spun silently, popped the guy full of sedative and held him immobile for five seconds. He dropped the dead weight not too gently onto the patio and rolled him out of sight next to the planter. There wasn't any sound.
He touched his earpiece twice. Three more individual clicks followed.
"Red two, go" a soft voice came again.
James Wardwell, Asher's best sniper, sat up high in a tree, out of range of the action. He kept an eye on everything happening. Only an idiot walked into hell without an angel watching for trouble.
Asher moved to the locked glass doors and removed a small container from his utility belt. One minute later, the custom acid mixture turned the locking mechanism to mush and he was in. He pulled on night vision goggles, double clicked his earpiece to tell the team that he had completed the next phase of the operation and headed for the stairs.
At the top of the landing he encountered and immobilized another guard. But he didn't head to the door midway down the hallway. Not until he had heard three more individual clicks, followed by a soft "Red two, go"
Still clear.
Asher emptied his mind of everything unessential. The floor plan of the suite had been etched into his brain. When last he had seen Kimberly Blake, she had been on the balcony. Given her few freedoms in the past couple of weeks, he doubted she would have moved. Her guard would still be sleeping on the job. One shot would take of her. With a little luck, she wouldn't know what hit her.
He turned the container he still held and shot the second blast of acid from the back end. A slow count to ten, then he eased the door open.
"Man on the stairs, Asher. Watch your back"Asher swore under his breath. There was an extra man on duty tonight. Wasn't that always the way?He left the door, pivoted and pressed his body into the shadows. Someone walked into view, his gun drawn."Hey, Mildred, are you alright? There's been some trouble. Chase is missing""What?"When things went to hell, they did so at light speed. Kimberly's female guard aka Mildred, stumbled from her seat. Asher heard the sound just as he zapped the guard. Unfortunately she tried the door and found it unlocked. There was the sound of a pistol being cocked.Asher dropped the guard onto the landing and waited for Mildred to come out, hoping she was just stupid enough not to follow orders. That rather than staying with her prisoner, she would venture onto the landing.Sure enough, the door cracked open. He got her in the arm before
As they rose high in the sky, he checked his man. One gunshot in the leg. Damn it all to hell. He thought grimly and glared at the young lady huddled in the far seat. There were things worth getting shot for, but saving someone like her wasn't one of them.The other team members had already started emergency first aid. Asher moved back to give them room. He picked up a headset and motioned for Kimberly to do the same."I need to get my man to a doctor" he told her, speaking into the attached microphone.Her gaze moved from him to Paul then back to him. "Of course" she said. "I can stay with you at the hospital"There was no point telling her that they weren't going to a hospital. Public health facilities required too much paper work, and the staff would have too many questions. Asher had his own state of the art medical center with trained specialists —all former students military doctors &mdas
Kimberly stared at him and bit her lower lip. Wondering what she had done to make the man dislike her so much. It wasn't her fault she got kidnapped and she didn't force him to come rescue her. She was sorry about his friend if that was what he was so mad about... And she was grateful for their helpBut that wasn't her fault either.She breathed deeply."Mr Adams" she said. "I'm assuming my father hired you to find me? You didn't answer me before and I just wanted to be sure"He nodded and crossed his arms over his chest. "Yes, your father came to me a week ago. He didn't want to contact the police because he didn't want to spook the kidnappers. He hired another company to locate you after the kidnapping, but they didn't have much luck." He raised one shoulder and let it fall. "I'm better""How is he?.. My father" she asked.He shrugged. "Really worried, obviously. His dau
He watched her take a step back and smiled inwardly. For some reason he just felt like they were in some kind of fight. Like she was taking something from him. Something he knew he shouldn't let go of, and he just had to fight to hold on to it."Or would you prefer to get kidnapped again?" he continued. "If you do, that's your problem, not mine. But I'm getting my money from your dad first. Then if you wish to get kidnapped again, suit yourself. So that means that for now, you are stuck with me. And if this place isn't good enough for you.... Well, you are just going to have to suck it up"For once she didn't reply. He was a bit surprised, she seemed to have a reply to almost everything. But she just stared at me him. Her beautiful eyes shone. She didn't move away from him anymore and he was standing right in front of her. He leaned towards her. She didn't flinch. He had to acknowledge that she had some backbone. And she wasn't a screamer. T
It would be very weird if she woke up suddenly and found him staring at her like some kind of creep. He thought. Hell, he felt like a creep. Standing there and fighting the urge to reach out and tuck her hair behind her ears. Most of it covered a part of her beautiful face.He wanted to.. But he didn't.He turned and left the room as quietly as he had come in. Careful not to wake her.-----------------------Kimberly walked back and forth in the small room until her legs and back ached, then she perched on the edge of the bed and stared at the door. One again, she had no idea how much time had passed or when Asher Adams would return. She only knew that she was afraid and desperately needed to go home.One thing she had learned in the past few days was that she wasn't ready to die. And she didn't trust her rescuer. She rested her elbows on her thighs and dropped her head to
Asher's eyes dropped to his chest where she had poked him, and then back to her. His eyes widened and his mouth opened.Kimberly watched him. Wondering what he was going to do to her. He looked like he was about to say something when a woman, probably one of his team members appeared in the doorway. She held a bag in her hand which she handed to Asher."James told me to give you this" the woman said."Thanks, Madison" Asher said and the woman nodded and left.He handed the bag to Kimberly but she didn't take it from him, so he dumped it on the bed."Just things you should freshen up with. And a change of clothes too. I will be down the hall in the kitchen. You should eat something before we leave"He turned and walked out, leaving the room open this time.Kimberly opened the bag. It contained a toothbrush, paste and the normal bathing stuff. She was surprised
Someone rang the bell and Asher went to check the security camera monitor and recognized the man standing on the front porch. It was James."What's the word?" Asher asked, after letting the other man into the house.James, a tall , dark man with steely gray eyes and a scar that ran down his neck, shrugged. "Paul is doing fine" he replied. "They got the damn bullet out. Doctor says he is good. But he lost some blood""Any damage?" Asher asked.James shrugged. "I didn't want to hear anything bad so I didn't ask. I'm sure it's fine though. If there were any problems, they would have told me"Asher nodded. He understood. He wouldn't have asked either if he had been in James shoes. "You okay taking care of the other job?" he asked."Sure thing" James replied. "We got teams there already. And if the uncle gets any close to the kid, I will take him down"&nbs
"Do you live here?" she asked, still looking out"No I don't . It's a safe house""Who else do you bring here""None of your business" he replied."Of course" she nodded. "But I still wonder. What exactly do you do with your life that you own a house like this?" she asked."I prepare in advance for what my clients might need" he said simply.Their eyes met. He read questions in hers. No fear, though, which he respected. She wasn't what he had thought. Maybe not as useless as most women like her. She has backbone and more than a little —He felt it then. Subtle at first, but growing. It filled the room, pressing in on him, stealing air, heating breath.Awareness.Of her. The scent of her skin, the way she moved. Exquisite. He thought to himself, indulging in a brief erotic fantasy that involv