On the way to the vault, Kristic slowed, waiting for Cam to draw to his side.“There’s more security on the floor than we accounted for.”
Not as many as Cam would have liked but Kristic had noticed.He’d missed the deadliest, though.The woman.Mel.
“Only a few extra,” Cam said.“And not mine anymore.”
“Good.Abigail, dear, wait a moment.”
Abby halted a few steps ahead with Becca, and when Cam and Kristic approached, the other man lifted his hands.He appeared to be adjusting a cufflink, but in fact, he was showing Cam a hidden trigger.He tapped it once and a soft glow lit the pendant on the necklace he’d insisted Abby wear.“You’re going to have to prove it, Agent Byrne, or two taps and Miss Monroe will pay for your ruse.”
Fuck, she was wired with some sort of explosive.
The light died in the necklace, explosive inactive since Kristic hadn’t tapped the trigger a second time, but Abby remained deathly still, staring at Cam with unguarded terror in her eyes.He tried to impart in his stare that he wouldn’t let her down, but she looked unconvinced.And absolutely repulsed when Kristic looped his arm through hers, tugging her along.She glanced back over her shoulder, and Cam mouthed,It’ll be okay.
As they moved through the crowd toward the exhibit antechamber, Cam dipped a hand in his pocket, getting a better sense of what Jamie had dropped in there.A button of some sort.An SOS transmitter?A trigger to create a diversion?An EMP that would kill all the power?Maybe also kill the signal from Kristic’s cufflink to the bomb around Abby’s neck?He prayed for the latter and prayed he’d be able to time it just right if the moment presented itself.He still wanted to catch Kristic red-handed, to lock up Aidan and Nic’s case airtight.He assumed that was why the FBI also hadn’t moved in.They were letting him drive this, and he had to do so very carefully.
The docent led them into a private room that backed up to the wall where the artifacts would be displayed.Midway along the wall, there was a latch and a pass-through door through which the artifacts would be transferred and arranged in a glass exhibit case on the other side.It’d make for a good reveal if Kristic had any intention of actually revealing them.In the middle of the room, two rolling carts sat side by side, one prepped with a velvet display tray, the other transporting the voice-activated safe.
The docent held his hand out toward the safe.“Mr.Kristic, I understand your translator will be able to provide the necessary access.”
Nodding, he approached the safe, went through the sequence to get to the voice prompt, then he and Abby spoke the unlock phrases in Serbian and Romani.The safe door opened.
“Very good, sir,” the docent said.
Kristic drew out the tray of valuable items—the shining cloth and jewels bright, the papers carefully tucked in leather.Abby tried to step back but Kristic tightened his arm, still in the curve of hers.The first sign things were about to go sideways.As they’d sketched out the plan this morning, they would wait for the docent to turn his back, to roll the cart over to the display case, and then Becca would knock him out.
Instead, he’d put out his hand for the tray, and Becca, who’d circled behind him, shot the docent in the back.The other cart broke his fall, but in doing so, the racket drew another docent through the door.
Jared shot him in the chest.
“I said no shots!”Cam shouted low, crouching next to one then the other docent’s body, feeling for a pulse.He felt that and the rough edge of Kevlar vests on both.He patted once, signaling them to stay down.“They’re dead,” he said, standing again, then to Becca and Jared, who was handing a spare gun to Kristic, “No more shots or you’ll draw more men down on us.”
“They’re already here,” Kristic said as voices and the thunder of foot traffic approached from the back of the museum.“We need to get out of here,” he said, folding the fabric around the leather binders and placing them and the jewels into a satchel he’d pulled from inside the safe.“Becca, let’s go!”
She grabbed him by the arm, gun in her other hand, positioning them to look like hostage and hostage-taker once they opened the door to the main gallery.
“Give me Abby!”Cam demanded, determined to get her away from Kristic and get that bomb off her neck.
“I don’t think so, Agent Byrne, and I say with complete certainty that you never went rogue.If I had to guess by the racket outside, the FBI’s waiting for me on the other side of that door.”Kristic dragged Abby closer.“She’s my insurance for getting through them, and then she’s going to bring this whole place down on top of everyone, including you.”
No third party needed when Kristic could do the job himself.
“Let me go!”Abby struggled in his hold, trying to kick and claw her way free, but Kristic silenced her fight with a finger over his cufflink trigger.“Not another move.The door, Jared,” he said with a nod.
Jared pushed open the door, exiting first.
A flash of red streaked by—the flutter of silk swirling around the wearer’s lightning-fast combat moves, her arms and legs moving in precise, deadly fashion—and Jared collapsed onto the floor.
Becca charged out next, gun raised, her other arm around Kristic’s chest, pretending to drag him and Abby.“I’ve got Kristic and his translator!”she shouted.“Hold your fire or I’ll shoot them.”
In her haste and perhaps shock at Mel’s surprise attack, Becca had lost sight of Cam behind her.He kicked a leg up, hitting the pressure point at her wrist and knocking the gun free.He grabbed it out of the air and Mel grabbed Becca, tearing her from Kristic and tossing her to the floor next to Jared.
Kristic spun, clutching Abby in front of him, using her as a shield against Cam, who had his weapon trained on them, and a dozen other FBI agents also aiming guns at him.While they’d been in the antechamber, the patrons had been cleared out and the scene secured.
Kristic’s number was up, and he knew it, his desperation escalating.“I have a bomb,” he shouted, ripping off the cufflink and holding it up, exposing it as the trigger.He tapped it once and Abby’s necklace glowed.
“Hold fire!”Aidan hollered from the rafters.
“You let me walk out of here with the artifacts and no one gets hurt.”
