By Honor Bound (27 page)

“And if you’re wrong?” She didn’t sound very confident in his reasoning.

“Then I won’t touch it, but if I’m right, we might be able to get up those stairs.”

“And do what?”

“Divide and conquer.”

“Using what?” she snorted. “We have one knife between the two of us.”

“First we need to see if we can even get off this floor, then we’ll worry about how to take out the unfriendlies.”

Mace opened the door to the closet to let some of the light from the hallway in. He didn’t want to go searching for the knife blindly. Annie was standing right behind him wearing only the sports bra and her pants. He felt his cock stir yet again. Damn, how could he want her so badly when he had just spent himself inside her?

Her blonde hair was completely loose now and it hung down in a shimmering fall. What the hell was wrong with him? He was supposed to be concentrating on a freaking bomb, not the way the sports bra seemed to push her breasts upward. The adrenaline must be getting to him or something. He’d never had this much trouble focusing on a job before.

“Come on, let’s look at that bomb again,” he said more gruffly than he intended.

Grabbing the knife off the shelf, he turned and walked out. Annie followed him silently. At least she wasn’t tossing out sarcastic comments.

His brain had been churning ever since he heard the scanner pick up the terrorists’ transmissions. These guys weren’t that sophisticated if they didn’t know their conversations could be overheard with regular police scanners. Either they didn’t care that anyone could listen in, or they didn’t have the ability to scramble the signal.

The more Mace thought about it, the more he realized he might have been suckered. C4 was incredibly stable. Hell, the guys in ‘Nam used it in their fires for fuel. There was a good chance he could defuse that bomb; if he could focus his mind on it and not the way Annie’s body had milked his.

Don’t go there, buddy!
Now was not the time to be thinking about sex. If he thought with his dick instead of his brain he could blow them to kingdom come! Another whiff of Annie’s perfume invaded his senses. Maybe this was why the Rangers didn’t allow women to join? One whiff of perfume and even the best-trained soldier lost his head.

Mace turned to look at Annie. “Stay behind me, and don’t go running off without telling me. We don’t know that these guys can’t get back down here somehow and I don’t want you to get grabbed.”

“Yes, sir!” She gave him a mock salute, reminding him that essentially she did outrank him.

“I’m not trying to be bossy, I just don’t want to have to worry about you, and I will if I think you are putting yourself in danger.” Why was he explaining himself?

“I’ll stand right by the door and keep my mouth shut. I don’t want to do anything to compromise the situation.”

Mace turned around and closed his eyes. He needed to get focused and devote all his brainpower to the bomb. Using the same ritual he employed when getting ready for a mission, Mace pulled himself into his zone.

Taking a deep breath in, he held it for a count of three, then let it go slowly. He did that three times before approaching the door. Looking at the bomb again, he noticed that the wires didn’t have any recognizable pattern.

Initially, he had taken that to mean that the terrorists had created a sophisticated pattern that he didn’t understand. But maybe they were just decoy wires put there to confuse him. If he could find the one that connected the timer to the fuse and disconnect it without detonating the C4, they’d be home free.

If it picked the wrong one, they were dead.

Put that out of your mind. Don’t think negative thoughts.
The guys he knew on the bomb squad had always told him it took more ego to do bombs than to fly helicopters. If you thought for one minute you’d blow yourself up, your confidence was shot and you wouldn’t trust yourself.

Hell, he operated million dollar birds, bringing Ranger teams in and out of places most sane people wouldn’t even fly over. He could pull one little wire, no sweat.
Right
.

Looking closer, Mace traced the path from the timer to the fuse. There were several wires wrapped together confusing the trail. Gently feeling each wire, he waited until he found one that was hot. Two of the wires vibrated, and the other three were cold and quiet.

Carefully scraping away the cold wires, Mace examined the timer again. If he could identify the one that led to the timer he’d be golden. He wiped sweaty palms off on his pants and looked again. Three wires to choose from. Only one of them was the right one.

“Can you get me a pair of wire cutters from the closet?” he asked over his shoulder.

“Here you go. I thought you might need a pair.” Annie’s hands shook as she handed the cutters to him, but her face didn’t look the least bit uncertain.

He took the cutters and turned back to the wires in front of him. A drop of sweat slid down his nose. One wrong move— He couldn’t think like that! Confident; he had to be confident he was making the right choice.

The three wires that were left were black, green and red. Normally it was “cut the red and you’re dead”, but these guys made up their own rules. This configuration of wires made no sense whatsoever. Either they were dumb as stumps or so supremely clever they were bluffing him completely.

Mace touched the wires again. All three led from the timer to the C4. The black one was hot, and the green and red ones vibrated. Holding onto the red one Mace waited for a sign. His gut was telling him it was this one, but the limited training he’d had said otherwise. The timer kept ticking away, counting down the seconds until the decision would be out of his hands.

Ticking. That’s it! The vibration of the red wire matched the ticking of the timer. Mace carefully took his fingers off the wire. Could the green one be a double timer? He rubbed his fingers against his pant leg and touched the green wire.

This one had a steady vibration, probably hooked to the battery just to throw him off. The red one was it. Taking a steadying breath, Mace lined the cutters up and took a deep breath. Praying to the powers that be, he closed his eyes and cut.

The silence was deafening.

“I did it,” Mace croaked out.

“I never had any doubt,” Annie said from behind him.

Her face was pale and her lip showed teeth marks, but her smile was beautiful.

“Let’s kick some ass.”

Chapter Five

Annie used a strip from her ruined shirt to tie her hair back, and another one to strap a screwdriver to her leg. She would have preferred a knife, but the janitor didn’t have one lying around. Mace had another strip of the shirt wrapped around his ribs to soak up some of the blood from his oozing stitches. He didn’t seem to be in much pain, but he didn’t want to leave a blood trail either. So far he hadn’t showed any signs of slowing down from his injury. Screwing her brains out hadn’t fazed him.

“Let’s go over the plan one more time.” Mace turned to her, looking intently into her eyes. His emerald green gaze blazed into her.

“It’s not complicated. I act as bait and you take the guy out.”

“And you don’t do anything even vaguely heroic. I don’t want you getting in the way of a stray bullet or trying to take the guy out yourself.”

“I’m not an idiot. I think I can handle it. You just worry about how we’re going to get to the next floor. If all the doors have bombs on them we are shit out of luck.”

“I don’t think they’re motion-activated. Let me worry about the bombs, okay? Are you ready?”

“As ready as I’ll ever be.” Annie reached forward and kissed him on the cheek. She wanted to plant one on his oh-so-sexy lips but didn’t want to get too carried away. She’d never been good with morning-afters.

“What was that for? Not that I’m complaining.” Mace brushed his fingers down her cheek.

“For luck. Lead the way.”

There was no way she was going to tell him it was because she was afraid they wouldn’t make it out of this. She’d keep her self-defeating thoughts inside. Mace had enough on his mind without worrying about her not holding up her end of the deal.

Her gut clenched as Mace opened the door, but nothing happened. Annie tried to let out the breath she’d been holding as quietly as possible. There was a reason she’d gone into nursing instead of the bomb squad. When it came to blood and guts, she was steady as a rock. Explosives were another story.

The irreverent thought that she’d never be able to tell Blayne about this because he’d laugh his ass off popped into her brain. Of course, that would be after he kicked Mace’s ass for touching his baby sister. Good thing he was on his honeymoon.

Mace’s bare feet made no noise as they climbed the metal steps in the fire exit. The next level up was the surgical unit. Luckily they didn’t perform surgery at midnight or who knows how many people would have died.

Annie held back while Mace tested the door. When he deemed it safe, he carefully opened it.

“Follow me. I’m going to do a recon, prepare to duck and run if I give the word.”

She nodded her answer and followed his broad back down the hallway. The rooms showed signs of hurried exits and there were medicine carts knocked over in the halls. Were they trying to get to the narcotics? Those were kept locked up in a computerized unit.

“Wait a second,” Annie hissed at him. “I want to grab something.”

Annie scurried to the narcotics unit and entered her password. Was this on the emergency energy system? She racked her brain trying to remember if the generator powered this or not.

Apparently it was, because the door swung open with a hiss. Annie grabbed a syringe and two vials of Demerol, then hurried back to where Mace was waiting.

“What are those for?” he whispered.

“Insurance.”

Mace raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything else. As they approached the nurses’ station he raised a hand in warning, then shooed her under a desk. Annie crouched as low as she could and held her breath. Just because she didn’t hear anything didn’t mean there was nothing there. Mace had already proved his hearing was much better than hers.

Seconds passed and Annie thought her heart would come out of her chest. The blood roared in her ears until she was sure it would alert whoever it was they were hiding from. Her nerves were stretched to the breaking point when a faint echo of boot heels caught her attention.

The footsteps got closer and closer. Annie fought to keep her breathing quiet and even. The screwdriver blade was digging into her leg, but she didn’t dare move it. The steps were almost on top of them now.

Then, they stopped. Biting her lip to keep from making any sound, Annie strained her ears to listen for any clue of their discovery. The sound of plastic crinkling was loud in the otherwise silent corridor, and the click of a lighter echoed like a gunshot.

A lighter? Was this guy smoking? In a hospital? Was he really that dumb? This was a surgical floor, for God’s sake! There was oxygen in every room. If C4 didn’t blow them to hell, this idiot would. Sure enough, the smell of burning tobacco tickled her nose, making it twitch with an impending sneeze.

Not now! She refused to blow this because she was allergic to cigarette smoke! Fighting the urge to sneeze, Annie pressed her face to her thighs and prayed. A drip of cold sweat slid down her back.

Just when she thought she couldn’t hold on any longer, the footsteps moved away.

Mace motioned for her to stay still. She was happy to comply. It was going to take a few moments for her legs to reform after being scared boneless. He waved his hand in her direction, telling her to come to him. Annie shook herself out of her fear-induced paralysis and crept over.

“See if you can get him to chase you past that room over there,” he whispered directly into her ear.

Annie nodded her understanding and crept out on shaking legs. It was one thing to talk big about being bait; it was another thing altogether to be the one on the hook.

Walking along, Annie tried to make her soft-soled shoes thump as loud as they could in the hall. They were made to be silent so as not to wake sleeping patients, it wasn’t easy to get them to make noise. Giving up, she finally just kicked a plastic basin that was lying on the floor. It rattled loudly in the silence of the hallway.

The pounding of feet sounded coming around the corner.
It was about time.

“Hold it right there!” The gun-toting goon still had the cigarette in his mouth.

Annie turned and ran back the way she came, praying he would chase her instead of shooting. Her shoulder blades twitched with the anticipation of getting hit by a bullet, but she ran anyway. She wasn’t sure if it was her heart pounding or footsteps, but she was almost in front of the door where Mace was waiting in ambush.

“I said hold it!” A strong hand grabbed her shoulder and spun her around.

The goon had enough time to give her semi-clad state an evil look before Mace hit him over the head with a portable oxygen tank.

“Get me something to tie him up with. I’ll search him,” Mace ordered.

Running to the nurses’ station Annie snagged a pair of restraints and came running back.

“Put him on the bed and I’ll tie him down.” Annie drew up a syringe of the Demerol while Mace heaved the unconscious man onto a bed.

Slapping the soft cuffs on the goon’s wrists, Annie tied him as tightly as she could, then jabbed the needle into his arm.

“There. That should hold him for the next six hours.” Annie brushed a loose strand of hair off her forehead and faced Mace. “What’s next, boss?”

“Same thing next floor. I got his radio so we’ll be able to monitor their movements.”

“Could you find out anything about him?” Annie asked. She’d better grab a few more vials of Demerol. If they had to do this on every floor of the hospital she was going to need a lot more drugs. She grabbed a towel off a nearby cart to hold her supplies.

“From what I could find out before your bondage tendencies came out, I think he’s probably in some group of fanatic militia.”

“Militia?” She would not even think about the image he called to mind when he mentioned bondage tendencies.