“Yes, ma’am.” She gave Elias a polite smile and once again left the office.
Maggie came around the desk again and handed a copy of the document to Elias in an envelope. “I’ll file this immediately. You should tell your executor where the will is so he can find it if necessary.”
“I’ll give him a copy this afternoon.”
She shook his hand. “Good luck on your assignment, Elias. I’d rather I didn’t have to use this will soon.”
“So do I.” He smiled, even though inside he was resigned to his fate. He knew the world he was going into. Unless you’d lived it, you didn’t understand the life and the danger that accompanied it. “Thanks for your help, Maggie.”
When he left her office, the alertness so familiar to him during operations settled on him like a mantle. That alertness had kept him alive during ten years of active duty as an Army Ranger and ten years as a police officer.
Now, he served with his unit as a black ops team for Fortress Security, and that alertness remained a tool to keep him alive. That same awareness told him someone waited for him to emerge from this building.
So, what was he to do? Face it head-on or slip out the back and find the culprit to have a chat? His lips curled. He didn’t run from anything or anyone. Time for a little in-your-face conversation with his watcher.
After stepping off the elevator, Elias walked to the back of the building and slipped out a door into an alley. He slid hisenvelope into a cargo pocket and set off down the alley toward a cross street.
He focused on the task at hand instead of the amazing woman who’d entered his life a few months earlier and turned his world upside down. Ironic that he’d meet the woman who was his at what probably was the end of his life.
He clenched his teeth. No use feeling sorry for himself. He’d had a good run, and now he’d do something good with what was his to give. She would understand his reasoning but still be ticked off that he’d left everything to her. She wouldn’t keep it. He knew that. She had several charities that she donated to regularly, though, so they would benefit.
Nearing the cross street, Elias slowed, watching for any interest in his movements.
Nothing.
Rather than making him feel better, his uneasiness grew at an alarming rate. Not good. He should have brought one of his teammates on this errand. If not for his paranoia, he would have. Nothing like trying to hide giving millions of dollars to a woman you weren’t dating. Anyone else would think him crazy. His best friends wouldn’t.
He hadn’t wanted to share the information yet, especially since he and the lady in question weren’t an official couple. He’d planned to change that. Thank God he hadn’t.
Elias pressed his back against the wall of a vacant building and peered around the corner. He quartered the area.
Still nothing. So why was his gut screaming that danger was near?
Fine. If the enemy wanted him, he could come and get him. Elias hid from no one. His lips curved. Except one woman. Man, he was such a sap. Ah, well. Time to face trouble and deal with it before it ambushed him from behind.
Elias stepped out of the alley and walked down to the corner. After a careful study of the street in front of Maggie’s office, he set off at a good clip like a man with things to do and people to see. As he walked, he remained alert.
People crowded onto the sidewalk as he headed for the garage where he’d left his SUV. Elias hated parking garages. Too many places for an enemy to lie in wait unseen.
On the street, no one seemed interested in him or where he was going. Disappointing. He could use a good fight.
Despite moving along at a slower than normal pace, no one took him up on his silent offer to confront him. Too bad. Resigned to working off his frustration and aggression on the punching bag at the Fortress gym, Elias entered the parking garage and took the stairs two at a time to the third floor, where he had parked his vehicle.
On the third-floor landing, he glanced through the window, then opened the door wide enough to be sure someone wasn’t waiting to jump him when he walked out of the stairwell. Still too many places to hide for his peace of mind.
Nothing moved in the shadows, and he was running out of time. If he didn’t leave downtown Nashville now, he would be late for training. Didn’t matter if they were going off deployment rotation this week. Seth Dixon didn’t believe in cutting back on training.
He couldn’t argue with the result, though. Among the black ops teams, Echo unit was one of the best-prepared teams in the company, right alongside Artemis, their counterpart team and partner for most missions.
He caught movement in the deepest shadows in his peripheral vision. Elias kept moving toward his SUV as though unaware that anything was amiss.
Twenty feet from his SUV. Fifteen. Ten. Five feet. Elias unlocked his vehicle with the remote.
A footstep to his left had Elias spinning to face the man bearing down on him at full speed. He pulled his Sig, knowing as he did that he was too late.
The linebacker-sized man raised his weapon and fired.
The impact of the bullet sent Elias flying back against his SUV, setting off the alarm. Pain exploded in his body as he slid to the concrete floor and into darkness.
