Read The Vigilante's Lover: A Romantic Suspense Thriller (The Vigilantes Book 1) Online

Authors: Annie Winters,Tony West

Tags: #bondage, #near future, #007, #Fifty Shades of Grey, #serial, #JJ Knight, #spies, #high tech, #romantic suspense, #James Bond, #thriller, #cliffhanger, #romantic thriller

The Vigilante's Lover: A Romantic Suspense Thriller (The Vigilantes Book 1) (12 page)

BOOK: The Vigilante's Lover: A Romantic Suspense Thriller (The Vigilantes Book 1)
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I step to the door and put the key against it, near the frame. The scanner begins its journey down my body, but I quickly tap a command. A second later it beeps, and the scan stops. The door pops open. I release my held breath. Sam is a genius.

The hallway beyond is empty. I pull the key off the door and walk back toward the central silo. If I guessed right about their security protocol, no one there will pay me any mind as long as I don’t draw undue attention to myself. Time to test that theory.

I enter the central silo and pause for a quick glance, looking for an unoccupied station. I spot one on the next level up, across from where I am. Staying close to the wall, I circle the silo and head up the stairway. At the top I stand aside to let someone pass by on the stairs. He looks at me with a blank expression and I give him a polite nod.

“Pardon me,” he says, and continues on his way down.

I breathe a sigh of relief. Another test passed. As long as I don’t encounter anyone who actually knows me, I’ll be fine. None of the hallways have glass screens that will give away my name or fugitive status as I walk. The rooms are another matter, but I don’t plan to enter any.

I arrive at the empty terminal. The interface is familiar, and I pull up a map of the complex. Nothing is labeled, but it looks like the entire east wing is an addition to the original military installation. Carter said Mia was going to the “East Room.” She’s probably somewhere in that addition, but where?

The tracker.

I told Mia the sticker on her neck was capable of all sorts of tricks, but really it’s nothing more than a GPS locator, seriously old tech. If I still had my Blackphone this would be child’s play, but even without it I can find her if the system here is set up like the ones on the West Coast. I tap through a few screens. Tracking a person would require a log-in that would compromise my identity. But I’m just doing an inventory check on the devices, same as any low-level worker could do.

Bingo. The screen lights up, showing the location of trackers in the complex. A cluster of them are together far below, probably a storage room. But one is all by itself. In the east wing.

Mia.

I memorize the layout of the complex. We can’t go out the front door, obviously, but there are six emergency hatches. Four of them have scanners for access and actual guards. Two are in an unused section of the silo. Probably permanently sealed. I can probably take out the guards, although it’s risky with Mia in tow. I may have to take a chance on the others.

Between Mia and the unused hatches are a number of those scanner doors, but I should be able to pop them open with the skeleton key. Until they figure out I’m gone and put the whole silo on lockdown.

No time to waste.

I set the terminal back to what it displayed when I found it. Another trip up the stairs takes me down a connecting passage to a second missile silo. Unlike the one I just left, this silo is still bare concrete, just a huge circle that once housed the actual missile.

Below me sits a helicopter at the ready. Too bad that thing would light up like a Christmas tree on every Vigilante sensor if I flew it out of here. It would be a great means of escape otherwise.

No, on foot is the only way. I will take pleasure dragging Mia through the woods in her ankle-breaking shoes. Nothing will be too harsh for that murdering liar.

Down the corridor to the east wing, I pass two young women in Phase One white suits. We exchange pleasantries as we pass. I try to picture Mia in one of their outfits, but it’s no use. She was never a Vigilante. She’s the enemy.

At the entrance to the east wing is one of the scanner doors. I think this one will be as simple as the one to the interrogation room.

But this one starts scanning me several feet away, costing me precious seconds. I slap the key on the frame. The green line sweeps down as the key’s display lights up and flashes different codes. A second crawls by. The beam is below my waist. I’m not sure what will happen if it IDs me. If we go into lockdown, I’m screwed.

Just as the beam hits my knees, the key beeps and the beam vanishes. The door slides open. I grab the key from the frame and say a silent thanks that it got me through another door.

But this journey is taking too long. I sense my time is about up.

I hurry down another hallway, this one much more modern than the others and decorated in soft blues and grays. Another turn and the room should be straight ahead. No one else is in this wing, at least so far. That’s a good thing, because every inch of the place has glass on the walls. My info screen is displayed for anyone who will pass by. The pulsing red of the fugitive label is visible at a good distance.

Obviously, unauthorized guests are regular visitors to this section of the silo. Quite possibly the system has already sent out a silent alarm. When I was director, my silo did not have a wing like this, so I do not know the protocol.

Mia’s room should be dead ahead. Yes, I see it. It has a window looking in. Probably a one-way mirror. I approach it carefully.

Mia passes in front of the window and my stride falters. I am so angry at her. I know she had a hand in killing Klaus. But now that I see her again, I remember how innocent she looks. How lost.

I stuff it down. She is the enemy.

Just as I walk up to the door, an alarm goes off. Damn it. Mia looks around at the noise.

I slap the key on the door. The display lights up and scans through the codes, then gives me a discouraging noise. I reset it and try again.

Nothing. The door won’t open. Lockdown. Shit.

The one-way mirror. Can I break it? I have nothing to protect my hand, so I rear back and give the window a solid side kick. It vibrates but otherwise doesn’t budge. Mia looks at it, startled. She backs away.

“Mia!” I shout. She doesn’t react to my voice, but stares at the mirror from her side. I kick it again and she jumps back. The window holds.

I look around, pushing the panic down and taking deep, calming breaths. There must be something nearby I can use to smash this window open. Nothing. The hall is empty.

I hear a door open and whirl at the sound, expecting a horde of Vigilantes barreling down on me.
 

“Jax?”

Mia stands in the open doorway.

“Jax,” she says again, “what are you doing?”

My mind snaps back to attention. She can’t think I’m on to her, or she won’t come with me.

“We’ve got to get out of here,” I say. Without waiting for her response, I grab her hand and pull her back down the hallway. She comes willingly. She’s somehow traded her high heels for a pair of Phase One Trainee uniform shoes, so we take off at a run.

Once I have her out of this silo, she’s going to pay for what she’s done.

20: Mia

Thank God I got the shoes off Katya. I can’t wait to tell Jax how. He’ll be so proud of me, I think. Maybe it’ll prove I’m worthy of staying with him.

Jax drags me down the hall at a breakneck pace. We approach another door and he sticks a bit of tape to it, or something, then pounds on the steel when it refuses to open. I lift my bracelet and the panels smoothly slide apart.

He stares at me a moment, dumbfounded. “That shouldn’t work during a lockdown.”

I give a little shrug. “I’m special.”

Jax takes his tape again and we head down another hallway, this one unfinished with bare concrete.

We come to another door, older, with an actual handle. There is no scanning device above it. I shake my bracelet at it, but nothing happens.

Jax grins. “We’re not in Kansas anymore.”

I have no idea what he means, but he turns and delivers three swift kicks to the handle. The metal groans and dents in.

He braces both hands on the lever and jerks it swiftly down. Something snaps inside, and the door opens.

“Low tech,” he says.

The lights are dim in this hall, and I can hear the drip of water.

“This way,” Jax says. We run along the concrete walls until we come to a rusting ladder. He glances down at my shoes. “Lucky break.”

I want to tell him luck had nothing to do with it, but he’s already halfway up the ladder. It disappears into a dark circular space. I’m hesitant to follow.

“Come on,” he calls down. “Don’t make me come for you.”

I hear a crashing sound down the hall and figure they’re on to our location even without their fancy gadgets. I stick my foot on the bottom rung and heave myself up.

The tunnel we’re climbing is dank and musty smelling. Jax is waiting a few feet up. “Don’t get us caught,” he hisses.

“Just cloak us or something,” I hiss back.

“We’re escaping the old-fashioned way,” he says and starts climbing again.

“So they took your toys,” I say.

“Something like that.”

Once we’ve climbed a little way, it’s fully dark. “How are you even going to see to get out of here?” I ask. I’m not loving trying to feel my way in the pitch black on a slippery ladder with a long fall if I miss.

My hand brushes against his shoe. He’s stopped.

“They can shoot up this ladder, you know,” I whisper.

“We’re at the hatch,” he says.

He moves around a little, then I see a strange rectangle of light with a few images on it. It’s his sticky tape he’s been putting on all the doors. I guess he got to keep one toy.

“Go back down about six rungs,” he says.

Going down is way worse than going up. I fish around with my foot to find each bar, terrified I will lose my grip.

“Any day now,” he says, his voice low and angry.

Above us, an electrical flash momentarily blinds me.

“What was that?” I squeal.

“Trying to break the latch seal,” he says. I hear his shoes clanging on the metal as he goes back to the top. The device still emits a bit of light, enough to see shadows.

Jax grunts, pushing up on the hatch. After a moment, a rim of light appears around the edge, then it widens.

I see sky.

“Oh, my God!” I say. “We’re out!”

“Take care,” Jax says. “They may be ready for us.”

I clutch at the ladder. I’m so glad I’m away from those people and back with Jax, I could cry.

Jax crouches on the ladder, then springs up and out in one powerful movement, like a lion.

I pause, waiting for the sounds of fighting or gunfire. Nothing.

He peers back down. “Come on. We’re clear, but they have our heat signatures again, so they’ll be here any minute.”

I hurry up the ladder. The feel of dirt and rocks beneath my fingers as I stumble out is amazing. We’re back in the woods. I want to kiss the ground.

“They can’t get a visual in the trees, so keep moving.” Jax grips my arm as we race ahead.

“But they can follow our heat,” I say.

Jax races toward a huge boulder. I don’t know why he’s dragging me that way. It’s wide open, without any trees to hide us.

“Not for long,” he says. Without warning, he scoops me into his arms and races across the stone surface.

Then we’re falling.

I clutch at him. The air is cold on my face as we hurtle down. I try to open my eyes and look at him. What has he done?

Then we’re underwater.

I break away, fighting for the surface in my heavy sweater dress. I’m dragged down by the weight of it. I haven’t been swimming in years, not since my parents died. After their boating accident, I didn’t go into the water anymore. I thrash around, panicked.

Strong arms come around me.

My face bobs above the water. Jax holds me against his chest, kicking us closer to the shore, working with the current.

“You should learn to swim,” he says.

“You should ask before throwing women off cliffs,” I snap back.

“We need to stay in the water as long as possible,” he says.

“Do you even know where the car is from here?” I ask.

“Of course I do.”

We float along another minute. I try to catch my breath. Above us, the sky is bright blue. Birds flit over the river, as if the people below them are simply going for a swim after a romantic picnic.

I’m freezing, my teeth chattering, and the dress is so heavy I almost want to take it off.

“Nearly there,” Jax says.

He guides us toward the riverbank.

I pull away from him. “I can swim,” I say. “Just not when I’m surprised.”

“Doesn’t matter now.”

I understand what he means when my feet hit bottom. The edge of the river is littered with leaves and bramble. I fight my way through it to get to solid ground.

Jax stops me with his hands.

“We should stay cold enough to escape detection as we get to the car, but they may have already confiscated it. Be prepared to be captured. I have no communication devices. We’re out here on our own skills.” His blue-gray eyes pierce mine. “If you have any special training, now would be a good time to tell me what you can do.”

I don’t know what to say. “I can make sailing knots.”

His face flickers for a moment with some unreadable emotion. “Fine. We’ll see how it goes.”

He takes off at a loose run.

I grab the dripping base of my skirt and hitch it up over my knees so I can keep up. “We’ll see how it goes?” I ask. “That’s all you’ve got? The big tough Vigilante with all those fancy gadgets?”

“That’s all I’ve got,” he says, his voice cold.

I want to jump on his back and pummel him, but the situation is too dire. If they take us back to the silo, what then? Will I still be special? Or a fugitive like him? The crystals still tinkle on my wrist.

Jax hears them and halts. “Damn it,” he says. He snatches the bracelet and splits it apart. The crystals fall all over the leaves.

Of course. They can track me with it.

He takes off at a sprint now and it’s all I can do to keep him in sight ahead of me. When I think I can’t go another step, I see the car ahead. Thank God.

Except, the tire is still flat.

Jax stands by a tree off to one side.

I come up next to him, sucking in air. “They took your keys, didn’t they?”

“I’m not that foolish.” He emits a high-pitched whistle.

“Do they come when you call them?” I ask.

The key chain falls from the tree neatly into his hand. “Something like that,” he says. “Now get in.”

BOOK: The Vigilante's Lover: A Romantic Suspense Thriller (The Vigilantes Book 1)
11Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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