Mike was already on his cell phone.“I can contact the local police in Santa Lucia, have at least two unmarked units stationed outside the warehouse.Have SWAT on standby.It’s not ideal, but it’s what we’ve got on such short notice.”
Gabe nodded tersely.As they headed for their vehicles, a plan began forming in his mind—desperate, dangerous, but it might be their only chance.
“Listen to me,” he said as they reached the parking garage and climbed into Rafe’s SUV.“Banner wants me.This whole thing has been about getting to me through Nica.So, we use that.”
“Gabe—” Mike started.
“I go in alone, make myself the target.Draw Banner’s attention while you and the backup move in to get Nica out.”
“That’s suicide,” Rafe said bluntly.
Gabe met his brother-in-law’s eyes, seeing his own determination reflected there.“Banner isn’t going to kill me.He wants me to suffer the way he’s suffered.To have a long life, having to live with the fact that he took the love of my life away from me.For me to die would take away his revenge, his need to bring me to my knees.But if I die, then I’ll die knowing she’s safe.It’s a trade-off I’ll make every time.”
The drive to Santa Lucia passed in a blur of tense radio chatter and desperate prayers.Gabe’s hands were fisted in his lap as they followed Mike’s directions to the warehouse.The area was rundown, the streets pockmarked with potholes and weeds growing up through the sidewalks, where there was sidewalk.Graffiti from local gangs or artists decorated most of the buildings, which looked abandoned.Gabe couldn’t help thinking it was the perfect place to hide in plain sight.The warehouse district felt like a graveyard of abandoned industry, hulking buildings standing like tombstones against the star-scattered sky.They found the textile plant at the end of a dead-end street, its broken windows staring down at them like empty eye sockets.
Gabe flung open his door before it fully stopped, but Mike’s hand on his shoulder pulled him back.
“Wait,” Mike hissed.“Give us five minutes to get into position.”
Those five minutes felt like hours.Gabe crouched behind a rusted dumpster, watching the building for any sign of movement, any indication Nica was inside.A faint light glowed from a second-floor window, the only sign of life in the otherwise dead structure.
When Mike’s voice crackled through the radio earpiece—“Go”—Gabe was already moving.
He walked straight to the front entrance, making no attempt at stealth.The door was unlocked, opening into a cavernous space filled with the ghostly shapes of abandoned machinery.His footsteps echoed in the darkness as he called out.
“Banner!I know you’re here.You wanted me—well, here I am.”
A slow clap echoed from the shadows above, and then Julian Banner stepped into view on a metal catwalk, his silver hair gleaming in the dim light.Even from a distance, Gabe could see the satisfied smile on the man’s face.
“Dr.Gabriel Summers,” Banner called down.“So good of you to join us.Though I must say, your performance at the hospital today was rather disappointing.I expected more of a fight from you.”
Gabe forced himself to remain calm, even as every fiber of his being screamed at him to charge up those stairs.“Where is she?”He could see Banner’s men patrolling the ground floor, some holding AK-47s while others held pistols.Since he’d come in unarmed, he didn’t even consider trying to taken any of them out.
“Safe.For now.”Banner gestured casually to his left, and Gabe saw her—Nica, unconscious and frighteningly pale, lying on a makeshift bed in what had once been the plant manager’s office.
“She needs medical attention,” Gabe called up, fighting to keep the desperation out of his voice.“Her surgeon says she’s developing sepsis from her surgical site.Without antibiotics, she’ll keep getting sicker.”He refused to tell Banner she might die.That would be putting far too much power into the other man’s hands, and right now, he held all the cards.
Banner’s laugh was cold, devoid of any human warmth.“How poetic.The great Dr.Summers, helpless to save the woman he loves.Tell me, Doctor, how does it feel to watch her slip away, knowing there’s nothing you can do?”
“Let her go, and I’ll give you whatever you want.”
“What I want,” Banner said, his voice dripping with menace, “is to watch you suffer as I have suffered.You destroyed my life, my family, my whole world.Now you’ll know what that feels like.”
Gabe was vaguely aware of movement in the shadows around the building’s perimeter—Mike and the backup units moving into position.But his attention was focused entirely on the pale figure lying motionless in that office.
“You’ve already won,” he called up to Banner.“My life in California was destroyed because of you.My job, my reputation.Even though I wasn’t responsible, I had to walk away.Leave everything behind.Move halfway across the country to try and get my life back in order, to try and start over.But that wasn’t enough for you.It’s never going to be enough, is it?You’re a monster who hurts innocent people.Nica never did anything to you.This is between us.Let her go, and I’ll do whatever you want.She doesn’t deserve to be the target of your vengeance.”
Banner’s face twisted with rage.“Everything is between us!She’s a part of you now, which makes her a part of this.I will admit, you married a woman who loves you.She defended you, sang your praises.Tried to convince me that I was wrong.But it’s too little, too late.And when she dies, you’ll know—”
The sharp crack of splintering wood cut off Banner’s words as SWAT officers burst through the building’s rear entrance.Chaos followed—shouts, the thundering of boots on metal stairs, the bright white beams of tactical flashlights cutting through the darkness—Gabe saw his chance.
He sprinted for the staircase leading to the office where Nica lay, taking the steps three at a time.Behind him, he could hear Banner screaming orders to his men, the sounds of a struggle as law enforcement closed in.Gabe ignored it all, his only thought to get to Nica.
Gabe burst into the office just as one of Banner’s men—a hulking brute with dead eyes—raised a gun toward the approaching officers.Without thinking, Gabe launched himself at the man, and they went down hard among the scattered debris on the metal landing outside the office where Nica lay.
The gun skittered away across the floor as they fought, and Gabe threw punch after punch, pummeling the man who lay flat on his back, writhing to get away, but Gabe was relentless.This man had abused his wife, taking her from the hospital.He finally stopped when the man beneath him went flaccid, unconscious.Gabe took a deep breath, before launching to his feet, his entire focus on getting to Nica, on reaching her side before it was too late.
When a gunshot rang out, echoing through the building like thunder, Gabe’s blood turned to ice.For a heart-stopping moment, he thought one of Banner’s men had gotten to Nica.But then he saw Mike standing, illuminated in the light shining through the broken-out window, smoking gun in his hand, the would-be shooter crumpled on the floor behind Gabe.
