Blake said, "Alpha, with me to secure the house; Delta, with Agent Armstrong, verify there are no hostages in the barn. We go live in five. Four. Three. Two." The helicopter landed. "Go go go!"
The eight men fanned out from the chopper. Noah led Delta to the barn. When they were in the sky, the fire appeared small; now it raged, the heat pushing them back.
Noah got as close as he could and heard a shout from inside.
"There"s someone inside!" he called out to the team. "Cover me!"
The fire could easily be a trap, and two men scanned the area to cover Noah in case he drew fire. His partner, Lance, helped Noah push open the double doors. The fire nipped at them as smoke billowed from the structure.
A man was coughing. Noah could see little through the smoke, but one man was down on the ground. The haystack behind him was smoking. Noah grabbed the man under the arms to drag him out. He was handcuffed to steel rings on the floor.
Noah motioned to Lance to take one cuff and Noah focused on the other. The burning hay filled the barn with thick smoke. He could barely see the hole in the handcuffs. He removed a lock pick and managed to pop the lock quicker than he"d thought. Good thing because the dry structure was beginning to fall around them.
"Got it," Lance said a half-minute later.
Noah and Lance half-carried, half-dragged the coughing victim from the barn as the roof collapsed.
They stumbled over to the fence, out of the direction of the smoke. Noah said in his com, "We need an ambulance!"
Noah had never met Duke Rogan, but the man who lay on the ground in front of him was an older version of Sean. "Duke Rogan?" Noah said.
"Yes." His voice was hoa.r.s.e from smoke inhalation.
"Don"t talk."
Jack Kincaid ran over. "Duke, it"s Jack."
"Jack." Duke coughed, smoke coming from his lungs. Noah sent two men back to the helicopter for the emergency medical kit, which included a small oxygen tank.
"Where"s Lucy?" Jack demanded.
"Back off," Noah said.
Jack didn"t budge.
"Lucy?" Duke shook his head. "I didn"t see her."
"Sean?"
"He left. Early. Couple hours later the barn began to burn. I didn"t see anyone." He paused to catch his breath. "A truck came; then two trucks left. I didn"t see them."
"Give him a minute," Noah said.
"We don"t have time!" Jack exploded. He took several steps away and stared at the house.
The medical kit arrived, and Noah let the team medic minister to Duke. He walked over to Jack. "Kincaid, we will find them. Give Duke a minute. He nearly got roasted alive."
Jack turned to Noah. Though his face was hard, his eyes were full of emotion. Lucy had the same dark eyes. Jack didn"t say anything, but he didn"t have to. Noah felt the same pain and determination.
Duke batted away the oxygen mask a minute later. Noah turned to him and said, "I"m Agent Noah Armstrong. Tell me what you know."
"Do you know about the dead FBI agent in Sean"s apartment?"
"Yes. We know you were abducted from there. Kurt LeGrand is behind this-do you know who he is?"
Duke shook his head and took the water that was offered.
"LeGrand"s men kidnapped Lucy from Sean"s house in D.C. We tracked them here."
"Lucy? What has Sean got her into?"
"Sean?"
"Sean was helping them because they had me. Now they have her? I overheard-they"re breaking into the FBI evidence archive in Brooklyn. RCK installed a new security system last year; Sean can hack it, given enough time."
"We have a team at the evidence locker trying to figure out what they want. Do you have an idea?"
"Ten million dollars, at least."
"We don"t keep cash in the facility."
"Codes, bank numbers, maybe hidden in something innocuous." Duke took a few big breaths. "Find my brother. He"s reckless, and I worry."
"Reckless?" Noah said. "Actually, that"s the one word I probably wouldn"t use to describe him."
Jack said, "You didn"t see Lucy?"
"I didn"t even know they went after her." Duke asked, "Is it true Sean was undercover for the FBI?"
"Yes. He got us everything we wanted," Noah said. "More than I expected. We didn"t know that Skye Jansen was working with LeGrand to kidnap Sean and force him to break into the evidence locker. She set him up."
"My brother-he has a bad habit of doing the wrong thing. Jack-I"m sorry Sean got Lucy into this mess."
Noah stared at Duke. He was about to say something when Jack knelt next to Duke and said, "I"ll forget you said that. Sean"s the best thing that"s ever happened to my sister, and I"m going to find them."
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE.
Sean couldn"t think about his brother. He willed himself to believe Duke was alive, because if he lost him, especially with how they left things, Sean didn"t know how he could forgive himself.
Duke was resourceful. He was smart. He"d have been working on getting out of the handcuffs.
Sean had to focus on Lucy.
They were tied in the back of a pickup truck. They"d bounced over country roads for fifteen minutes before they turned onto a smooth highway. Little light came through. The hard plastic cover that topped the truck bed made it impossible to sit up.
At first Sean thought Lucy was dead. She wasn"t moving and was tied to the side of the truck with nylon rope. Duct tape covered her mouth. She was barefoot and wore only sweats and a tank top. Sean"s hands were tied behind him, but as soon as they locked him in he rolled over to her.
"Lucy." He put his ear to her chest. She was breathing. Thank G.o.d. Why was he thanking G.o.d? Lucy was the churchgoer, not him. What G.o.d would let this happen to her? "Hasn"t she been through enough?" he whispered.
He needed her to wake up. Whoever tied his hands did a far worse job than they"d done with Lucy. Sean was out of the rope in only a couple minutes. He removed the duct tape from her mouth and Lucy startled awake. She fought her restraints and cried out.
"Shh, Lucy, it"s Sean. I"m going to untie you."
"Sean?" Her voice was scarcely a whisper; he felt his name against his cheek more than heard it. She gasped. "My head."
"I think they tranquilized you."
It took Sean several minutes to untie Lucy; then he held her shaking body in his arms. "You"re so cold."
"They broke into your house." She burrowed into him, her teeth chattering. Her feet and hands were like ice.
Sean would kill Kurt LeGrand.
He told her everything he knew while he held her as close to him as possible.
When he was done, Lucy said, "Sean, I"m so sorry about Colton. And Duke-but there"s a chance he made it, right?"
Sean didn"t believe it. "As long as I don"t lose you. Lucy, I can"t lose you. I"m so sorry."
"This isn"t your fault. Don"t even think it. Skye set you up. Kurt LeGrand wants revenge because of Martin Holdings."
"Did I tell you that?" He didn"t think so.
"I figured it out last night. Rick and Noah know. They"re on top of it. And last I heard, Jack was flying into New York because Duke"s missing."
"I didn"t even think of the security problem Duke"s disappearance would cause."
"Let"s figure out what we"re going to do. We have time-they can"t break into the evidence warehouse until tonight." She hesitated, then said, "Is this something you can do?"
"Yes," he said without hesitation. "It won"t be easy. And they"re not going to tell me what they want until game time. It"s money, but I can"t imagine the FBI would leave millions of dollars lying around. And I wouldn"t be able to transport it alone."
"It"s not money," Lucy said. "LeGrand and Skye worked for a mortgage brokerage that padded mortgages with additional fees and insurance. They found out about it, siphoned off the illegal money, then LeGrand turned state"s evidence and became a whistle-blower. The FBI believes between six and ten million is missing, but they don"t know where it is or how it disappeared."
"I get it, it"s a code or pa.s.sword-"
"Or account numbers. Something that they could have hidden in plain sight that no one would recognize."
"Why didn"t they take it with them before the FBI came in?"
"Maybe they didn"t realize that everything is boxed up for processing."
"Or they couldn"t get to it," Sean mused out loud.
"How many are there?"
"I saw four at PBM, plus LeGrand. One other guy, I think."
"Four were in D.C., but I think they were hired just to get me. One is dead."
"I"m so sorry," Sean repeated. He kissed her forehead. "I know it"s not all my fault, but you should have been safe at my house. I knew something was wrong. I didn"t trust Evan, but I had no idea Skye was spearheading this. I should never have gone to PBM."
"Why did they move it up a day?"
"After Hunter was killed, Colton panicked. He wanted it over. Then Skye shot him in cold blood. Like they hadn"t been friends for twelve years."
Lucy had her hands on Sean"s cheeks. He couldn"t see her, but he could feel her, taste her; she was here, and she was alive.
"I"m going to get you out of this," he said, his voice cracking.
"We"re going to get out of this."
"One more thing-they stole some sort of bio-toxin from the lab. I got a glimpse; it"s a liquid. Maybe a liter."
"Why?"
"I have no idea."
The truck slowed down and the quality of the light and road changed. "We"re in a tunnel," Lucy said.
"Going into Manhattan. One of the guys mentioned a warehouse. They can probably drive right in."
"Brooklyn. They"ll want to be close to the evidence warehouse." Lucy kissed him. "Sean, they"re going to kill you when you"re through. You can"t give them what they want."
"I"m more concerned about you. He wants to make me suffer. G.o.d, Lucy, if anything-"
"Shh. I know. But I"m alive. We"re going to figure this out. And don"t forget, Noah and Jack and Rick are all looking for us. They know about the evidence warehouse."
"But you"re their leverage. I don"t think LeGrand thought Duke was strong enough leverage for me to do this-but you are. If Noah stops me, they"ll kill you. I have to get it for them."
"We"ll figure this out."
"I love you, Lucy. I"m not going to let you die."
He felt her staring at him, though he could only make out shadows. He held her close, needing to be in direct contact with her.
"We"re not going to die," she said. "Neither of us. We"ll find a way out."
"First chance you get, run."
"I"m not leaving you behind."
"Lucy, I can get out of anything if I know you"re safe."