Chemical agentLachlan thought and voiced his concern over the comm.
Gina and Malcolm did not come out the front door.
“Stay back,” Lach said. “One, you’re circling to the back. Two, you’re staying out front. I’m going in.”
Lachlan prayed One would see Gina and Malcolm stumbling out the back door on their own if not already outside and safe. Lach held his breath and pulled his shirt over his nose and mouth as he raced in. A few people inside were getting up off the floor, utterly confused by what had just happened. They seemed to be recovering, which made no damn sense at all for an airborne chemical agent.
Lachlan searched the bar, He saw only one patron, a small man on the floor heaving out his guts. The bartender pulled himself up from behind the bar looking ghostly pale.
“A huge man and a woman with golden eyes,” he said through his shirt. He spotted two drinks sitting side by side on the bar. One of the bar stools was tipped over.
The bartender only blinked at Lachlan and said, “Deutsch.”
Lachlan started to repeat himself in German when a man called out behind Lach. He’d been one of the patrons still on the floor.
“They were. Taken out. The back.” Then he dry-heaved.
One’s voice came over the comm. “Eyes on the principal. They’re being loaded into a tuk-tuk by four men.”
“Follow them but proceed with caution. We have no idea what the hell affected all those people.”
* * *
Now, hours later, Lachlan waited outside an old building for the signal that the power had been cut.
It turned out that Sana, former princess and current badass, had all the military branches covered. She had what she called the Swiss Navy consisting of at least one yacht and one speedboat, a one-jet Swiss Air Force, and now her very own Swiss Army Spec-Ops unit had covertly surrounded the building where Jeremy was holding Malcolm and Gina.
And Elissa,Lachlan prayedAnd please let not a hair on the lass’s head be harmed.
He couldn’t let himself picture Gina unconscious and sick or he’d lose his focus and do something stupid that would get her killed.
This part of the city was already dark and deserted. He pulled up his night vision goggles just as he got the signal that the power was off and in they went, Lachlan in the lead. He took out one man quickly with a stab to the throat and kept moving while he heard fighting behind him.
“Found a woman bound and gagged,” Lach heard over the comm as he raced down a hall.
Gina or Elissa?
His question was answered moments later when he turned a corner in a hall and found a closed door. He kicked it open and counted three people, two in chairs and one standing. He pulled off the night vision glasses just before he was hit in the face with a beam of light—the standing man’s phone.
“Lach—” was all Jeremy Heath got out before Lachlan was on him. He had a gun in his hand, or so Lach assumed that’s what it was. He’d only gotten a glimpse of it before Heath had tried to shine his cell phone in his face.
“Don’t let him shoot,” Gina said, her voice weak and shaky.
Not a problem since Lach’s knife was already buried in Jeremy’s heart.
* * *
The rest of the team rushed into the room along with one small, very pissed-off member of Watchdog.
“Tell me you killed that motherfucker,” Elissa shouted.
Lachlan’s heart unclenched just a little when he heard her voice. She sounded fine.
“Lights,” he growled as he raced to Gina. He quickly unbound her as the lights came back on. He cradled her to his chest, hating how she collapsed into his arms.
“It’s all right, Sunshine,” he crooned. “What the hell did he do to you?”
“I don’t know. My head.” God, she sounded weak.
