Fire and Ice (Guardians) Page 21

  Lee was silent for a while. "I'm in the lobby. I didn't want to show up at your hotel room and have you thinking I'm after a booty call. Could you ... can you come down and talk."

  "Lee ..."

  "I hate the way it ended between us. I just want to understand so I can move on."

  Maia felt guilty. She did owe him that.

  "I'll be right down."

  She spotted Lee immediately. He was wearing the same clothes she had last seen him in. His face looked haunted, his jaw was bruised, and his eyes were bloodshot.

  Maia's heart clenched. She had done this to him.

  He walked towards her and hugged her tightly, kissing the side of her forehead.

  "I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry what I said to you," Lee whispered.

  "You have every right to hate me," Maia replied.

  Lee heaved a deep breath. "Can you walk with me? Along the Inner Harbor?"

  "Of course I could. I'll just let the guys know where I'm headed."

  "Guys?"

  "The whole place is on surveillance."

  Lee's eyes widened. "Uh, your room?"

  "Just the hallway," Maia assured him, not wanting him to know of the taped audio Jack had of their little romp.

  "But you got Peter, right? All the danger is over?" Lee asked.

  "Not yet. We're still after this Russian—Colt's boss. I can't really tell you much," Maia responded as she typed a text message to the surveillance team.

  Lee nodded as they exited to the street.

  "So I went through all of what happened in my head," Lee began. "You were trying to keep me out of it. From the very first night, you discouraged me."

  Maia wanted to come clean. "The original plan was to get your attention. You were the main draw at Addison Music Hall. This Russian drug lord already knows who I am and he hates me, I mean really hates me. If he knew I was close to his cash cow, that would make him nervous."

  "You used yourself as bait?" Lee said angrily. Same reaction as Jack. Men!

  "I can take care of myself."

  Lee grinned. "Come to think of it, what you did last night was pretty hot."

  "I almost got you killed," Maia reminded him.

  "No, if I recall you were pulling me back. You knew something was wrong, didn't you?"

  Maia shrugged and then shivered a bit.

  "Cold?" Lee murmured. She nodded as he wrapped his arms around her.

  "So the reason you turned me down at Bali, was it because you thought I couldn't handle your job?"

  "It's not that. I just didn't want a relationship. You could be used against me by my enemies."

  Lee laughed humorlessly. "That's a shitty life to live, Maia."

  "It's the life I chose."

  Lee stopped walking and put his hands on Maia's shoulders, gazing deeply into her. Maia winced at the sheer agony in his eyes.

  "I still love you, Princess," he whispered. "I hate it that your job is dangerous and I know I can't live with that thought of you in constant danger. So where does that leave me?"

  Lee bent down and brush his lips gently on Maia's.

  "I'm afraid to get lost in your kisses again," Lee said ruefully. "All those feelings, all those years, they just came roaring back."

  "I'm sorry Lee. You shouldn't see me again after this," Maia choked back a sob. Her heart was breaking with what she had done to someone she cared about.

  "No. No, Princess. Don't say that," Lee said and smiled wryly. "After all, most rock stars become successful because they're broken in some way."

  "That's not funny."

  Maia's phone dinged with a text message. She glanced down and saw a short message from Jack.

  "WHY THE HELL DID YOU LEAVE THE HOTEL !!!"

  Damn those surveillance guys. They must have woken him up.

  "Fuck," Maia muttered.

  "Everything all right?"

  "Yes," Maia sighed. "We better head back before Jack rips your head off."

  Lee's eyes narrowed. "Jack?"

  "You know him as Craig."

  "Ah," Lee said in recollection. "So what is he to you?"

  "It's complicated."

  Just then, a dark SUV sped up behind them and screeched to a halt, blocking their way.

  Armed men spilled out.

  "Run!" Maia screamed at Lee as she pulled him to try to get around the SUV. She drew her side arm and pointed it at the big guy blocking her way.

  A cold voice arrested her attention as a blonde man stepped out of the vehicle. "You've been—what do you call it—a pain in the ass, Maia Pierce. I should just kill you right here."

  "Let him go and I will go with you peacefully," Maia nodded to Lee.

  "Maia, no fucking way!" Lee growled.

  "Lower your weapon," Reznikov instructed her.

  Maia did as she was told; almost all the guns were pointed at Lee, she had no choice.

  "Let. Him. Go," Maia repeated.

  Reznikov stared at her malevolently and ice chilled her veins.

  "Kill him."

  "No!" Maia screamed as she lunged at the man who was going to shoot Lee. The gun fired just as she had barely nudged it. She saw Lee jerk back as the bullet hit him.

  "Nooooo! Lee!" she screamed again in anguish.

  "Maiaaaa!"

  A blow to her head had her buckling to the ground. Even as she fought for consciousness, she felt herself being lifted. Before realizing that it was Jack who was calling her name, she blacked out.

  CHAPTER FOURTEEN

  "They took her! God damn it to hell! They fucking took her!" Jack roared at Derek Lockwood when his friend showed up at the scene of the abduction.

  A paramedic was loading Lee Isaac into the ambulance. He had taken a bullet to the shoulder and had lost a lot of blood. They had refused to let Jack question him which contributed to his outburst.

  Derek got into Jack's face. "Man, I need you to get control of yourself or I'm going to have to lock you down."

  He glared at his friend. "If that motherfuckin' Isaac hadn't played the lovesick fool, Maia wouldn't be in this situation."

  "That's hardly sympathetic, Jack. The man got shot."

  "Fuck that!"

  A Baltimore police officer approached them and said tentatively, "Gentlemen, I need a statement."

  "This is a Federal matter," Derek told the cop. "You'll need to talk to the DEA representative in Baltimore."

  "Do you have a license to carry that, sir?" The police officer asked as he eyed the 9mm tucked behind the waistband of Jack's jeans. He had thrown on a long-sleeved henley over his jeans after he got the call from the surveillance team that Maia had left the hotel with Lee Isaac. He had not bothered to wear a jacket to conceal his firearm.

  Jack scowled at the cop.

  "Maryland is a licensed open-carry state, sir," the cop added uncomfortably.

  "I'm under the jurisdiction of the DEA on this assignment," Jack said impatiently. "Wouldn't that give me license?"

  "I'm not sure..."

  "Let's cut the crap, officer. An agent had been abducted by the Russian mob," Jack said forcefully. "I'm sure you're aware of the raid last night at Addison Music Hall. Well, this is the mob paying us back."

  "Jesus Christ," the police officer muttered.

  "Exactly. Anything else?" Jack asked curtly.

  The officer shook his head and stepped aside.

  Jack turned on his heel and stalked back to the hotel. Derek sighed and followed his friend.

  "We're fucked," Jack ground out. "Maia and Rick were the leads on this case."

  "I'm calling Viktor." Derek pulled out his phone. "He needs to know about this ASAP."

  Scott jogged up to the two men. He had been trying to track Maia's phone. He handed Jack the device.

  "They got rid of it a mile from here. Sorry, Jack."

  Jack accepted the phone, a lump forming in his throat as he remembered how pissed he had been Maia left the hotel with Lee. He sent that angry text with a mixture of jealousy and worry. He felt hi
s eyes sting as he recalled their unforgettable moment the night before. Sex was sex with anyone else, but what he felt for Maia went beyond anything he had felt for anyone. Consuming passion and intense need: he knew right then and there that he had fallen in love with her. Deeply. Irrevocably.

  And now she had been kidnapped by the man who wanted to cause her the most harm. Jack didn't believe in fate, he believed you made your own destiny. But somehow, if fate was real, it was really cruel. Giving him Maia for a short time only to take her away in the blink of an eye, he could just howl at the injustice of it all.

  He must have made an anguished sound because Derek immediately grabbed him around his shoulder and pulled him aside.

  "Get a grip, McCord. This is not over yet."

  "I love her. Fuck. I'm in love with her."

  Derek stared at him, obviously stunned by Jack's sudden confession. "Oh, man."

  "What did Viktor say?" Jack cleared his throat as he tried to keep focus on finding Maia.

  "What they got from Colt was useless. Reznikov had already abandoned the warehouse. Forensics is at the site right now gathering evidence."

  "I'm surprised he talked at all. According to Maia, he was spitting in the face of his interrogators yesterday."

  "They tracked down his wife and two-year old daughter."

  "Christ, what did the DEA do?"

  "I didn't ask. I don't wanna know."

  "Jack," Derek continued, eyeing him carefully. "DEA is calling this a dead end."

  "What are you saying?"

  "They're abandoning the operation in Baltimore. They have no new leads. Addison is shutdown and the owners are being held for investigation."

  Jack stared at Derek, incredulous. "You've got to be kidding me. Are you saying they're abandoning Rick Grayson?"

  "No, they're forming a smaller team to look for Rick. I think they've established that they've disrupted Reznikov's operation and he's on the run."

  "They can't just finish this half-assed!" Jack said angrily.

  "I'm with you on that, man."

  "And Viktor?"

  Derek clenched his jaw grimly. "No way Viktor is abandoning Maia. I can assure you of that."

  Jack, at least, felt a degree of consolation in that.

  ***

  "Wake up! Wake Up, Maia!"

  The voice dragged her from the depths of unconsciousness into a dimly-lit room and the worried face of Rick Grayson.

  "Rick?"

  "Hi sweetie."

  "Hi sweetie?" Maia muttered as she struggled to sit up. Her hands were bound behind her back and her feet were also tied together. "That's all you've got to say? We were worried about you! If you have asked me to back you up I would have ..."

  "Whoa! Whoa!" Rick chuckled. "I didn't know you missed me that much."

  "Glad you find that amusing," Maia retorted and winced at the ache on the back of her head. She looked at Rick: his face was bruised so they must have roughened him up a bit, but at least they didn't ...

  "My fingers are all there," Rick said reading her mind.

  "Any idea where we are?"

  The room was small and dank with no furnishings but there was a toilet attached to the room. A lone incandescent bulb in the middle of the ceiling was the sole source of light. There were some basement windows near the top of the ceiling which gave them an idea as to what part of the structure they were in. Basement. Rick and Maia were sitting on the cold cement floor, not exactly the luxury-hotel treatment.

  "No." Rick said, his face turning all serious. "But I know you guys got him running scared after blowing up his operation at Addison's. And I heard you got the bastard Colt too. Now he's working blind since Colt took care of most of his contacts. Some of his men had lost confidence in him and had scattered. He still has his chemist working in a lab somewhere in this place although I have a suspicion he is working under duress."

  All of a sudden she remembered Lee. "Oh my God. Lee!"

  "What happened?"

  "They shot Lee Isaac. I'm not sure if he is okay."

  "Is that how they caught you?"

  "Yes, I broke protocol and left the hotel with Lee."

  Rick snorted. "Bet Jack was thrilled with that."

  "Shut up! This is not funny. Reznikov double-crossed me."

  "You trusted him?"

  "Not really. But I didn't have a choice."

  She could worry about Lee later. For the moment, she needed to figure out how to use their current situation to her advantage. There is a silver lining in this after all. No more looking for Reznikov, she was exactly where he was. And he was on the run and desperate.

  "So how many men do you think he has left?" Maia asked.

  "I would say six mercenaries and two regular soldiers."

  "How well armed are they?"

  "Carbines and semi-automatic pistols from what I've seen."

  They both fell silent when they heard the sound of approaching footsteps.

  The door to the room swung open and Sergei Reznikov walked in, flanked by two guards.

  "Good, you're awake."

  "What do you want, Sergei?" Maia asked acidly.

  The Russian exploded in anger and walked up to Maia and backhanded her viciously.

  Rick tried to lunge at Reznikov but was held back by the barrel of an M4.

  "I ask the questions, suka!" Sergei spat out the Russian slang for bitch.

  "Where is Peter Coltrane?"

  "The DEA has him."

  "How did you manage to capture him?"

  Maia laughed mockingly even as Rick looked at her like she had lost her mind.

  This infuriated Reznikov even more and he hit her again, at the same time kicking her repeatedly.

  "You are pathetic, Sergei," Maia sneered. She had collapsed on the floor from the blows and spat out the blood that bubbled up to her mouth. "Didn't you know Gavlik sent some men after you?"

  Maia noticed how Reznikov's two guards exchanged uncomfortable, frightened glances.

  "Yes, I have to thank them for working Colt over for me so I could wrap him up prettily and hand him over to the DEA," Maia said.

  "You are lying. Where are they now?"

  "I killed them. But don't worry, I'm sure Gavlik will send some more." Maia looked at the guards. "If I were you, I'd get the hell out of here ..."

  "Enough!" Sergei screamed at her, drawing his pistol from its holster.

  "No," Rick shouted as he freed himself from the guards to shield Maia with his body.

  "Hold him!" Reznikov ordered as his goons pulled a struggling Rick off of Maia. Sergei bent and pointed the muzzle of his gun at Maia's head. He racked the slide, his hand trembling as Maia regarded him mutinously, daring him to pull the trigger.

  "I should kill you now and get it over with," he snarled. "But something tells me I still have use for you."

  He uncocked his gun and looked at one of the guards. "Stepan, guard the door." And then he left the room.

  Rick wiggled over to Maia, an incredulous, pissed-off look on his face.

  "You are crazy, you know that?" Rick rasped. "What the hell was that? Are you trying to get yourself killed?"

  "Reznikov is a coward," Maia explained. "He doesn't know how to do his own dirty work."

  "Doesn't mean you should try to piss the guy off enough to shoot you."

  "Trying to rattle his cage is all," Maia said, but grimaced as she tried to smirk. Sergei had a mean backhand.

  "Are you all right?"

  "I've been better. My insides are burning," Maia admitted as she started coughing up more blood.

  Rick grunted.

  She lowered her voice further. "I have a plan."

  ***

  "Hurry up, Rick," Maia whispered. She kept a blade under the sole of her shoes for situations exactly like this. Rick had been working on her restraints for over twenty minutes. Since the blade was small, it was taking a while adding to the fact that with his hands tied, the whole task was challenging. "Ow, ow, that's my arm."
r />   "Fuck, sorry," Rick said apologetically.

  "I got it, I think I can work them out," Maia rubbed her hands free and quickly took the blade from Rick to work on his ties. Once free, they both worked on their foot restraints, loosening them but not quite removing them.

  "You ready?" Rick asked.

  Maia nodded. She lay down on her side in a fetal position with her front facing the door. Her unbound hands were hidden behind her back.

  Rick sat back against the wall also with his arms behind him.

  "Hey, you out there! I need some help!" Rick called out. "I think something's wrong with her."

  Stepan poked his head through the door. "What do you want?"

  "I think Sergei kicked her too hard. I think she has internal bleeding."

  Maia moaned softly but remained very still.

  "We don't have a doctor, there's nothing we can do."

  Stepan closed the door and walked away.

  The two prisoners looked at each other, chagrined.

  "Okay, that didn't go over very well," Maia muttered.

  "I guess that old trick had been overused," Rick replied dryly.

  Just then they heard footfalls shuffling quickly back towards their room and they moved back into position again. The door opened. Stepan walked through with another guard. They spoke in Russian, but Maia understood.

  "Maybe the doctor can help her."

  "She is a chemist not a medical doctor."

  "Let's just take her, huh?"

  "Shouldn't we ask Sergei first?"

  "He's in an important conference call and asked not to be disturbed. If she dies, he won't be happy."

  The other guard gestured for Rick to move back. Stepan bent down to pick Maia up. When he was close enough, she struck. She flipped into a push up position and swept her feet under him causing him to fall on his back.

  Out of the corner of her eye, she saw that Rick had surprised the other guard.

  Not giving Stepan time to recover, she bore down on him with the weight of her body and jabbed her elbow into his larynx. While he gasped for breath, Maia got on top of him and broke his neck.

  Rick, in the meantime, had subdued the other guard by rendering him unconscious.

  "You can't leave him alive," Maia said flatly.

  "Sorry if I'm no cold-blooded killer," Rick snapped back testily.