“You sent the coordinate.” Joey rattled off the physical address also. “Text said you hoped we got there before the CT boat got in range.”
Mitch’s gut clenched. Chills raced across his shoulders. “I didn’t text anyone. Don’t come. Contact St. Louis headquarters to lock down. Notify the other agents to stay at a safe distance until further notice. Tell them to stay off any messages that say they’re from me.”
“The boat sounds like a threat. Want me to track it?” Joey was the tech guru of OPAQUE.
Keith had been the sonar expert on the Shades of Leverage team. His background had included sonar and radar during his time in the Navy. Anytime there’d been a question in OPAQUE’s tech tracking department that couldn’t be solved, they’d contact Keith for an outside-the-box idea. Made sense there might be a glitch in the system without his input.
“Yeah. Track it and get back to me. I’ll check on this end.” Mitch ran back toward Liz. “Have you picked up Cat from Ft. Myers yet?”
“Not yet. We’ll contact her to be waiting at the airfield for quick pick up and head straight to headquarters.”
“Sounds good,” Mitch said. “Sign off.”
The phone went quiet a second before he whistled loud and shrill. Circling his arm above his head, he glanced up the beach then down. As if from nowhere, Reese and Stealth ran in his direction. Josh had disappeared from the deck, and the folding windows leading inside were slowly closing.
Standing next to the beach umbrella, Liz looked puzzled.
Mitch dashed to her, grabbing her hand as he pulled his gun from the waterproof holster he’d brought to the beach. “Come on. Come on.”
“What’s wrong?” She yelled as she ran, her feet sinking in the silky white sand.
“Get in the house.” He shielded her from the Gulf side.
As Reese and Stealth closed in on them, Mitch wrapped his arm around her waist and half carried, half dragged her the rest of the way up the dune. There was no time to lose. Coercion Ten knew where they were hiding. They were luring agent after agent to this place. What the hell was going on?
Good he’d called in the reinforcement arsenal, along with Stealth last night. Things were going to get dicey and what they didn’t have, they’d improvise.
Could contacting Joey have been the start of another game? Or was the Liz game still in play? Or had Mitch been right all along that the elite of OPAQUE were the target?
Only one way to find out for sure—find the CT rat in OPAQUE.
Nobody was above suspicion. Nobody.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Liz could do nothing but let herself be manhandled as Mitch tucked her against his side and carried her toward the house. Her feet barely touched the ground, and the tightness of his arm pinched her side. Gasping for breath, she fought the onslaught of fear bombarding her. Ignored the pinpoint prickles from the back of her neck.
She could feel the danger ratcheting up with each passing second. But she focused on the fact that Mitch had her. He would never let go. Never leave her. Never let anything happen to her as long as he was alive. Never—
“Grab the umbrella! Towels! Everything!” He never slowed a step, and the tone in his voice told her he was thinking on the run. Giving orders without second thoughts. “Clear the beach.”
Reese and Stealth grabbed the items and closed in rapidly, providing protection from the rear. She knew the house was right there, only steps away, but for some reason it seemed a million miles. Maybe farther. Fear tried to grab a foothold around her mind, but even though she was afraid, she would not be panicked this time.
Mitch…these men…they were confident and ready to fight in order to save her life. She’d be damned if she didn’t do the same for them in return.
At the top of the dune, Mitch released his hold, and she ran for the door, not stopping till she was inside the house. The men followed her, dumping the gathered beach items into the entry closet.
“Why did you bring everything in?” she asked, panting to get her breath from the run.
Stealth glanced in her direction. “Umbrellas can be a weapon. Towels can be a weapon. Trash can be a weapon.”
Mitch had gone straight to the sighting scope tripod and moved it in front of the closed wall of windows leading onto the deck. “That was Joey on the phone. He and some other agents received a text purportedly from me saying get here ASAP. Joey’s checking OPAQUE sonar for a boat CT put into the message.”
Josh glanced up from the computer he’d been pecking away on. “Do I need to blast a message to all OPAQUE?”
“I told him to get headquarters on lockdown. He’ll alert the agents to watch their backs. And I sent him to pick up Cat. But it couldn’t hurt to send a shelter-in-place blast message to everyone.” Mitch glanced over his shoulder. “You make damn sure that blast message is in heavy encryption.”
Josh nodded then went back to his computer.
