Startled, her attention went from the elevator to him. “Keep your eyes on me. Stay quiet or everyone is fucked.” He kept his voice low, a mere thread of sound, but it was commanding. He meant it.
She stayed tense, her eyes bouncing beneath those swollen lids. The sight of her so terrified turned his stomach. He had to gain control, get her to choose his brand of authority over her terror of her captors.
“Zara, you fuckin’ do what I tell you. You look only at me. No matter what happens, you keep centered on me. I’ll get you out.”
Her breath came in ragged, labored puffs, her fear of whoever was in the elevator so strong, he didn’t think he could overcome it long enough to get them to safety.
“You don’t stop, you give me no choice but to knock you out.” He’d put pressure on her carotid artery and give them a few seconds to clear guards and make a run for it. “Look. The fuck. At me.” He enunciated each word when her terrified gaze started to slide toward the elevator.
It took a moment before she settled and it was infinitely slower than he would have liked, the seconds ticking by, seconds they didn’t have. The group kept moving though. They had to be on the roof before the elevator reached the top floor and anyone realized anything was wrong.
Take out the guards. Ezekiel issued the command, knowing full well they were racing the elevator.
Diego, Draden, Rubin and Ezekiel went on the hunt, moving fast now, counting on the element of surprise as they came right up on the five guards exiting their card game. Four darts went in accurately and Rubin hit the fifth guard as he was lifting his gun. They double-timed it, moving fast, heading for the stairs.
One guard approaching the stairs.
Hell. A shift change? They’d taken out the guard on the stairs entering the building. If this was his replacement, the elevator could be holding an entire new set of guards. The sound of boots hitting the floor was loud as the guard ran toward the stairs, calling out in his own dialect.
Why haven’t you answered? He’s on his way up.
Whoever that guard was, he had tried to warn the guard in the stairwell of presumably Cheng’s or Zhu’s arrival. When the guard didn’t answer, he’d rushed to warn him in person. Diego shot him with a dart as they rounded the corner. He didn’t bother to pull the body out of sight. They just stepped over it and kept going up the stairs to the roof.
Gino glanced at the elevator. They only had two more floors before Zara’s torturer would join them. He was tempted to hand over Zara to one of the others, fall back and put a bullet in the fucker’s head, but he kept going, holding her close, trying not to jar her as he took her up the stairs fast.
Draden jammed the door to the roof after them as they all raced to their power paragliders. Ezekiel took Zara as Gino strapped himself in. Then she was put into the harness as carefully and quickly as possible. Ezekiel clipped her to Gino’s torso.
“Hold on as best you can. Keep your face buried in my jacket. The wind is going to feel fierce. We’ve got a distance to go,” Gino told her.
Diego and Rubin were away, heading toward their destination, a park about thirty miles from the building. They had to have favorable winds to make it and Gino sent up a quick plea to whatever gods might be listening as he took his glider right off the building, following Diego and Rubin. Behind him, Ezekiel and Draden trailed them.
They weren’t out of the woods. Ordinarily, Gino would have kicked back and enjoyed every second of soaring through the night sky. He loved it. He’d always loved the peace up there, especially at night. It was quiet. Serene. He wasn’t a laid-back kind of man. He spent a great deal of time watching, always on guard, and up here, in the sky, he could fully relax, even with a woman strapped to his chest. Unfortunately, he knew it was possible they wouldn’t quite make the park, not unless the winds rushing behind them, pushing them, were favorable. Even if they made it, they still had to make the run, a quarter of a mile at least, to the embassy.
Whoever was in that elevator would find the tranqed guards and know they had to have used the roof to escape. Cheng had a lot of clout with the government. He wouldn’t be able to say he had taken Zara prisoner, although he might claim she was an industrial spy. Gino kept his eyes on the woman as they rode the night together.
She hung limply in the harness, and that worried him. He didn’t have a way to reassure her. He could only watch over her, and hopefully she felt him there, felt his resolution to keep her safe. She probably equated him with Zhu, talking so roughly to her. He was rough. He didn’t have it in him to be gentle and refined like his father had been. He had no charm. That hadn’t gotten his father anywhere.
It had been Joe’s father and the three bullets that had nearly ended Gino’s life along with the dead bodies of his family that had shaped who he was. He was more Ciro’s son than Joe was. Joe was more Gino’s father’s son. Maybe they’d been born into the wrong families. Hell. Gino found his gaze drifting back to the woman.
There was a pull that had never been between him and a woman before. It was strong. Too strong for his liking. He fucked hard. He fought harder. He did whatever job had to be done without flinching. Women didn’t influence him. He had been taught respect, first from his own father and then from Joe’s, but no one led him around by his dick. This one … He shook his head trying to figure out what the pull was and why it was her. It had been there since the moment he saw her picture and read the file on her.
Landing was going to be an issue. He needed to stay out of the trees inside that park and away from any objects on the ground. They hadn’t been able to check out the park itself, so there were no specific landing marks to hit. He had to trust their leaders, Rubin and Diego, to find them a clearing for all five of them to put down, drop gear and make a run for it.
Their contacts at the construction company had a large van already waiting and the men would pack away the power paragliders and rush them back to the construction site where they would be broken into pieces and put into the bins with broken equipment to be shipped back to the United States. If it wasn’t clear, the driver would keep moving. There was no way to trace the gliders back to the construction company.
The glider came in low over the park, skimming brush. He winced, hoping his woman didn’t have her bare, dangling feet ripped up by leaves and twigs. The soles of her feet had been damaged by the cane and there had been three whip lacerations where Zhu had torn the top of her foot open. Gino found that strange when the man had taken such care not to leave lasting evidence on her body. Her feet were never going to be the same.
Rubin and Diego dropped their paragliders and ran back to help him as he guided his to ground. They caught at Zara, unhooking the clip and harness before Gino had a chance to stop the thing moving altogether. Between the two men, they managed to pull her free and out of the way. Already men were hauling Rubin’s and Diego’s gliders to the van.
Gino heard Zara cry out, a small, keening wail that tore at him. He wanted to rip Rubin and Diego in half. He dropped the equipment, went straight to her and gathered her up, swinging her into his arms and set off at a jog toward the embassy, Rubin and Diego running in front and back of him, matching his pace exactly. Ezekiel and Draden caught up, Ezekiel moving into position directly behind Gino so that Diego brought up the rear. Draden added into the formation, not missing a beat, jogging right past Gino and the others to take the lead position.