Betrayed (Hostage Rescue Team Series Book 9) (5 page)

For one, he was still suspicious as to what Rycroft’s end game really was. The agent had told him he wanted to recruit Georgia for the agency, but Bautista wasn’t stupid. There had to be more to it than that, especially if the NSA was desperate enough to bring
him
into the fold.

As far as Briar went, he didn’t have a good enough handle on her yet to know what he thought of her. If she’d truly been friends with Georgia though, then her inclusion on this mission was a bonus and could only help them.

First thing they had to do was find Georgia, and from what he already knew, that wasn’t going to be easy. Even though the NSA had leaked his survival to certain sources, it would take a while for word to spread. She might not even hear about it before they caught up to her.

For now, it was just the three of them involved with the op, along with some higher ups and analysts hand-picked by Rycroft at the NSA. They could call in backup at any time. Keeping the team small made it less of a risk that Georgia would spot them and get scared off.

At the swanky hotel they went directly into the security center, where the head of the department was waiting for them. Bautista stayed close to the exit with his back to the wall. Being locked in a room with strangers was something he’d never be comfortable with again, but standing here without a weapon made him feel completely naked.

Rycroft wouldn’t arm him, though the agent had to know Bautista could disarm any number of people in the room if he chose to. For right now though, he was going to play by their rules. Until he saw a reason not to.

Rycroft and Briar stood at a desk before him, watching security footage on a series of monitors. Bautista took it all in, automatically scanned through the recorded crowd filing past the cameras to see if he could spot Georgia. If she’d even come here.

Three or four women on screen caught his attention, but when he moved forward to take a closer look, he saw they didn’t have the right build and didn’t move like Georgia did. She had an innate confidence, a kind of swagger that was impossible to miss.

Even if she disguised her normal gait, he was sure he’d be able to spot her. During their brief, albeit intense physical relationship, he’d committed every detail about her body to memory.

“Anything?” Rycroft asked. Both Bautista and Briar shook their heads. “Let’s take a look outside,” he said to the head of security, who pulled up footage from the cameras outside and scattered throughout the parking lot.

On the one screen still showing footage of the event in the main ballroom, Bautista got his first good look at David Rossland. The former CIA officer-turned-politician looked to be in his early fifties, with a muscular build, short graying hair and light brown skin.

He was onstage giving a speech to the audience, dressed in a tux, his imposing image and bearing broadcasting that he’d been former military. Bautista bet he’d been much more than that, but again, he was on a need-to-know basis and the NSA didn’t think he needed to be informed about whoever Rossland really was.

Rossland had been high up on the list of probabilities for Georgia’s targets though, and that alone made Bautista want to know more about him. Bautista stared at the man as he spoke to the crowd, his arrogance evident even without hearing what he was saying.

If Georgia wanted him dead, he reasoned, then there had to be good motive. She didn’t strike him as the frivolous sort, wouldn’t risk her life unless going after him was worth it. What had he done to her? Rycroft and Briar hadn’t told him why Rossland was on their list, but he could guess.

Revenge.

That was a concept Bautista was intimately familiar with. So if Georgia wanted Rossland dead, it meant he’d either hurt or wronged her in some unforgivable way.

His eyes shot back to the screen showing the speech and his hands curled into fists beneath his crossed arms. If Rossland had hurt her, Bautista would make sure he paid.

****

Nico checked himself in the staff bathroom mirror one last time, smoothing a hand over the tie he’d tucked beneath the overlapped lapels of his black suit jacket. The two Glocks he’d brought were hidden beneath it in his custom-fitted shoulder holsters. His other gear was stashed in a hiding spot behind the hotel, ready if needed.

If he got an opportunity to carry out this hit tonight, he’d take it.

Satisfied that his disguise and fake hotel ID were perfect, he exited the bathroom and headed down the hall toward the security room. There was a high percentage chance that his target would be here tonight. Somewhere. He didn’t know who she was after or why, and he didn’t care.

His job was to kill her, the sooner the better.

She not only knew things that if turned over to the wrong hands could threaten his entire organization, but she might also be out to assassinate one or more of its members. He had to take her out before she could do either. And so far, Georgia Randall had proved she wasn’t an easy mark.

For almost four months now he’d been trying to track her, with no real success. Twice he’d gotten close, but she’d always slipped out of his reach before he could act. Reviewing the hotel’s security footage might give him the break he needed to help locate her. Because she’d been annoyingly elusive up to now.

Guests and other staff members barely paid any attention to him as he strode down the wide, brightly lit hallway, the soles of his polished dress shoes sinking into the thick carpet. This place was fancier than anything he’d ever set foot in before, aside from an abandoned palace in Kabul back when Nico had been in the Army. But after receiving a dishonorable discharge eighteen months ago, he’d found a better and far more lucrative job where he could put his military skill set to use.

Man, Melissa would love this place. Their wedding was only four months away. After this job he’d have enough money to put them up in a place like this on their honeymoon to the Maldives as well as the lavish wedding she’d been dreaming about since she was nine. She didn’t know about the side jobs he took on and that’s the way he wanted it to stay.

This one was way bigger than all the rest. He’d told her he had to go out of town for business, which wasn’t a lie. The payday made all the risks worthwhile.

He turned sideways to avoid bumping into a well-dressed couple heading toward the ballroom where the benefit was being held, scanning the people he passed on the small chance that Georgia might appear before him. She was good with disguises though; better than anyone he’d come up against before. The challenge of it was exciting.

He studied each female face carefully, but didn’t spot her. Not that he was surprised.

The door to the security room was fifty feet up the hall, to his left. It opened as he approached and three people exited, two men and a woman. He stared at her in startled recognition.

Briar Jones, who’d once been in the same program as his target.

Tearing his gaze off her for a moment, he looked at the men. The first man was older, middle-aged, and the younger one—

Nico stopped dead, quickly moved back against the wall and pretended to be looking at the guests at the other end of the hallway, his heart rate kicking up. He couldn’t believe what he’d just seen.

When a large group of people moved between him and the security room he risked a glance back to confirm his suspicions. And sucked in a swift breath as the truth slammed home.

Holy
shit
. Bautista.

And the legendary enforcer was not only alive, he was with that other female operative and whoever the older guy was.

A warning buzz started up in the pit of his stomach. This changed everything. And it was an added complication he wasn’t equipped to deal with right now.

He didn’t dare pull out his phone to take a picture. It would look too suspicious and if Bautista saw him…

Nico turned and headed back the way he’d come with long strides. Not too hurried, because that would get him noticed and he didn’t want any more attention on him than he was currently getting. He rushed to the bathroom, grabbed the change of clothes he’d left stowed in a locker, then headed straight out to his vehicle on the south side of the hotel.

Trying to locate Georgia would have to wait. His boss would want to hear about this new development.

When he was safely on the road a block from the hotel, Nico called him on a secure cell phone.

Diego picked up with a brusque, “Yes.”

“I’ve got some new intel.”

“Just a second.” Nico heard the high-pitched chatter of teenage girls in the background. “Got a birthday sleepover situation going on here. Gimme a minute to get to my office.”

Nico knew from personal experience that Diego’s office was soundproofed, and that he swept it for listening devices three times a day. That constant state of vigilance and paranoia had saved his life more than a few times.

Footsteps echoed in the background, then a door shut. “Okay, let’s hear it.”

“Bautista’s alive,” Nico said without preamble.

A shocked silence crackled across the line for a few heartbeats. “What?” he croaked out. “That’s not possible.”

“I just saw him leaving the hotel security room, along with Briar Jones and some other guy I didn’t recognize.”

“It can’t be. You must be mistaken.”

He barely withheld a snort. “I’m not mistaken. I know what I saw.”

“I would have been told.”

“Well I guess someone forgot to send you the memo.”

He could practically hear the wheels in Diego’s head turning as he awaited a response. “Send me a picture. I want to see him myself.”

The insistence didn’t surprise Nico. “Sure.” All he needed to do was to go back into the security room and access the security camera footage. He could be in and out in under ten minutes. “What do you want me to do after that? I know the girl was your first priority, but now—”

“Get me that picture,” he commanded. “If it’s him I want you to find out who else he’s with, and why, whether he’s working for anyone.” A pause. “If he’s with Jones then he has to be going after the target.”

Nico nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I thought too.” The intel he’d been given said that Bautista and Georgia had been lovers for a short while, up until the day Bautista had been killed. Or, as it seemed now, just badly injured. Things must not have ended well between them if Bautista was after her now.

“So you still want me to go after her?” A part of Nico almost felt sorry for her. He would make it a clean kill. A single bullet through the heart, maybe the head. Quick. Almost instantaneous, barely any time for pain to register. Unlike most of the kills his former mentor had done.

Bautista was a known sadist. As the notorious
el Santo
he had enjoyed inflicting the worst kind of pain on his victims, usually carving his trademark halo into their flesh before they died. If he got to the target first, she’d beg for death a hundred times over before he finally finished her off.

Diego grunted. “He’ll find her before you do. I’d tell you to just follow him and make it easier on yourself, but we both know how futile that would be.”

Nico set his jaw at the slight, even as he acknowledged that the man was likely right. Bautista was the best in the business. No one had ever caught him, not until the day the FBI’s HRT had taken him down. “Just tell me who you want me to follow so I can get moving,” he muttered, out of patience. They were wasting time.

“Her,” came the immediate reply. “Then wait until he shows up.”

Nico frowned, confused. “So you don’t want me to take her out?”

A tense pause followed, then a heavy sigh, full of regret. “Take them both out. I want all loose ends tied up as soon as possible.” He hung up.

Whoa. That was one order he hadn’t expected.

Nico absorbed the news as he set his phone down in his lap and took a right at the next corner, heading back toward the hotel. He’d send Diego the image he’d asked for, do a little digging then try to pick up Georgia’s trail and follow her.

Diego might not have much faith in him being able to find Bautista, yet he’d just ordered Nico to kill him. The toughest assignment he’d ever been given, and he was going to have to be at the top of his game to pull it off.

But the truth was, even though Bautista was a nearly impossible target, Nico had a better shot at finding him than anyone.

Once upon a time, Bautista had taught him everything he knew about how to hunt and kill a target.

Still in the security room, Bautista’s gaze fell on the folder lying open on the desk, the picture of Georgia’s face staring back at him.
Where are you?
he wondered. He just hoped she was still okay.

“Here’s another view of the parking lot,” the security manager said.

Bautista moved to stand beside Briar and turned his attention to the new footage, focused on the people coming and going at or near the front entrance. He and the others had already looked at the layout of the hotel before coming here.

The back and side entrances were too enclosed for Rossland’s security team to risk taking him out that way. They’d have to use the front. So if Bautista had been setting up for a shot, he’d do it from one of the far corners of the front parking lot.

“Can you get a better view of the far northeast corner?” Rycroft asked, mirroring Bautista’s thoughts.

“Sure.”

The camera angle switched. On screen cars entered and exited the parking lot through the closest access point, located in the north end. Mostly new vehicles, many of them pricey ones like Lexus, BMW a few Teslas.

He only saw a handful of older models, but all the vehicles were all too far away from the cameras for him to get a decent look at the drivers’ faces and he didn’t see movement in any of the parked ones.

He was becoming convinced this was a complete waste of time, when Rycroft took another call and his head snapped up, his gaze locking on Briar and Bautista. “Go on,” he said to the caller. “Did you get a plate number?” A moment later he snapped his fingers to get the head of security’s attention and pointed at the camera showing the far northeast angle. Oh yeah, he definitely had something. “Zoom in there.”