Moving Target (11 page)

"Understood." The cop nodded, and said, "Get back on that stretcher and we'll take you both out to one of the ambulances."

"No. Back an unmarked unit up to the doors." Daniel looked to the cop. "Full protection around her on the way out of here."

The police officer spoke into her radio and in seconds two other cops were there. Quickly, the officer explained as much as she knew. The other officers headed off to make the arrangements.

The paramedics backed off when Daniel barked at them that he was okay. "I'm walking on my own steam." He looked to Ani. "You're sure you're okay?"

"Just a little banged up." She pushed up her cap and he could see her face more easily.

Ani had another scratch on her face, in addition to the one she'd received yesterday morning when they were ambushed in the Tucson hotel parking lot. This one was on her forehead. But what was worse was the side of her face—it was bright red and looked like it was starting to turn purple.

What the hell had happened? Two Deputies had checked the vehicles and said they were clean.

But that whistling sound before each explosion—

No, it wasn't bombs that had destroyed the cars. Fuckers had to have used some kind of long-range rocket-propelled grenade launcher.

By silent agreement, the cops moved to the front door with Daniel and Ani. Daniel kept his hand near his right hip, under his overshirt, close to his Glock.

Until they reached the hotel and got to their room, he didn't feel that Ani was one damn bit safe.

By the time they walked out of the building, dusk had turned to darkness. The flashing red and blue lights reflected off each of the cars in the lot. They were escorted to a black car similar to the one they had been in before all hell broke loose.

"Watch for a tail," Daniel said to the cops in the front seats as he pulled out his cell phone. He had to adjust so that his weight was on one hip and off his ass cheek.

The cop at the wheel looked over his shoulder. "On it." He eased the car from the hangar and kept the emergency lights off.

When he called headquarters, Daniel quickly apprised them of the situation. He was assured Deputy Marshals would be at the hotel whenever they arrived, and would of course be undercover.

After he put his phone back in its holster, Daniel studied Ani. She looked pale, other than the growing bruise on one side of her face, and he was afraid she was going to go into shock. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her up against him so that her head rested on his chest. She was shaking hard enough that he felt it.

"This is insane," she mumbled against his shirt. "So many people . . . and all because of me."

"Shhh, honey." Daniel had to keep himself from looking any less professional by kissing the top of her head. "Stop blaming yourself. It's the Russians who are doing this. Even before you made that call, they were likely planning on using any means of technology they have to track you down."

She sighed. "Yes, but—"

"No buts about it." He rubbed her shoulder with his palm and she winced. "They're going down with your testimony, and they know it. The Russian Mafia is brutal, and they don't care who they take out, including law enforcement officers. If we were dealing with the Italian Mafia, we'd have a different set of problems. The Italians avoid killing cops because they know it will bring more trouble down on them. The Russians don't live by the same set of rules."

"How did they manage to get bombs on all three of those cars?"

Daniel tensed. "I think they used RPGs, not bombs."

She looked up at him, her face dirt streaked, her eyes rimmed with red. "What are RPGs?"

"Rocket-propelled grenade launchers."

Ani looked puzzled. "How?"

"I'm guessing they had someone posted at one of those hotels across the way. Possibly from one of the balconies."

She buried her face against his chest again. "This is a nightmare. I keep hoping to wake up and find it's all a dream."

He looked out the window as they sped out of the terminal. "Unfortunately this little nightmare isn't going to end anytime soon."

Daniel instructed the cops to take them to a large hospital in Manhattan after driving around a bit to make sure they weren't being followed. The farther they were from the airport, the better off they were. And the larger the hospital, the harder it would be to locate them. Not that he had any intention of registering Ani under her real name or her other identity.

"How do you feel?" she asked. "Really."

"Hurt like hell." He shook his head. "How about you?"

"I think I made out a little better than you did," she said with a hint of humor in her voice. "At least I don't have a hole in my ass and an egg on my head."

He smiled and squeezed her to him. Fact was, he did hurt like a sonofabitch, his body aching like he'd been in a heavyweight fight and knocked out for the count.

When they reached the hospital, they were taken to the emergency entrance. They both limped as they made it into the room. Daniel's muscles had stiffened during the ride and he imagined Ani's had, too.

The cops arranged for them to be treated without registering. "We aren't here," Daniel told the nurse in charge as he showed her his credentials. "We were never here."

She glanced from his creds to the cops behind him. "This way, Mr. and Mrs. No-name."

Despite incoming casualties from a four-car accident, it wasn't long before Daniel and Ani were patched up, but he sure felt like shit.

The nurses had used the medical version of Super Glue to seal wounds on both of them since the wounds weren't too deep. The liquid bandages were waterproof and would eventually dissolve on their own once the wounds healed. Daniel had been treated in two places on the backs of his legs and on one side of his ass. He and Ani both had liquid bandages in several other areas from minor lacerations.

"Raggedy Ann and Andy," Ani said as they limped out of the hospital with the two Deputy Marshals who had arrived and replaced the cops. It was already close to midnight. "We're like a couple of patched-up rag dolls."

Daniel managed a smile. "I don't think I've ever looked so forward to a nice clean hotel bed in my life."

"I'm falling facefirst into bed." She glanced up at him and then to his ass, and he gave a soft chuckle when she added,

"Looks like you'll be doing the same."

Before they left the hospital the Deputy Marshals checked out the immediate vicinity. When they were sure it was clear, the Deputies drove a black unmarked SUV up to the ER entrance, then guided the vehicle from the hospital parking lot.

Ani hadn't realized how homesick she'd been until they passed through Times Square. The place was lit up and alive with flashing signs, the huge Trinitron, and people still out and about as if it were midday. What a difference it was from the little town of Bisbee that she'd been living in for the past year, where everything closed at five or six in the evening.

New York City was alive twenty-four hours a day. Skyscrapers dominated the landscape, but as she passed them it was the small places, like her favorite deli and the pastry shop she loved that made her feel like she was home. She used to purchase her fitted jackets and skirts in a dress shop they drove by. A few doors down was her favorite place to buy shoes.

From the time she was a little girl, she'd been to so many Broadway and Off Broadway shows, she couldn't begin to count them.

She swallowed and her heart sank down to her belly. This had been home. A part of her everyday life before the Russians took everything away from her.

At that thought, fury seared her veins. The bastards. She would do all she could to make sure the Russian Mafia paid for what they'd done to her family and what they'd done to all of the Deputy Marshals they'd killed at the airport tonight.

Daniel must have sensed the way she was feeling, because he looked at her and squeezed her hand. "How are you holding up?"

His hand was so warm over hers, and she wanted to turn her palm over so that she could interlock her fingers with his.

Instead she tried a halfhearted smile. "Good, considering we've been shot at, chased, evacuated, and almost blown up. All in a day's work for you?"

He gave her a cockeyed smile. "Something like that." She wished she could see his brown eyes in the darkness. He had a way of looking at her that made her feel like everything would be okay.

The Deputies took them to the Hotel Martinique on Broadway, a block from the Empire State Building. Ani was familiar with the area.

In another life, another time.

At that thought, she remembered Jamie, the boy who needed money for burn treatment. Hopefully Tammy had been able to get a hold of George Hanover. Her heart clenched at the thought of that boy with burns covering all but twenty percent of his little body.

Before Daniel would let her out of the SUV, he and the two Deputies got out. Daniel scanned the street then held out his hand and helped her out of the vehicle. They no longer had his duffel or her backpack, both items casualties of the bombings.

Tension cramped her shoulders as one of the Deputies handed them a key card. "Only one room was available," the Deputy said. "Hotel is overbooked. We've registered you as Mr. and Mrs. Johansen."

"Thanks, Dobson," Daniel said in a low voice, and the other man gave a nod in response.

As they walked away, Ani looked over her shoulder to see the Deputy was gone. Like he'd never been there at all.

This was the third hotel in as many days, and Ani was beyond exhausted from everything that had happened. A creepy sensation still crawled along her spine, like they were being watched. Part of her felt like no matter what they did, they'd never escape the Russian Mafia.

When they entered the elevator, two men followed them. Both had casual expressions on their faces, but Ani sensed they were anything but casual.

For some reason her adrenaline spiked even though she was so exhausted it was almost all she could do to hold herself up as they rode the elevator to their floor. The men followed them out of the elevator and she looked up at Daniel. He didn't seem concerned, just tired.

By the time they reached their door, Ani was shaking double time. The men came to a stop beside them and Ani's heart beat like crazy when she looked from them to Daniel with wide eyes.

"Oh shit." Daniel dragged his hand through his hair and gestured to the pair in the hallway with his free hand. "I'm sorry.

Forgot to introduce you to our door guards." He gestured to the first man. "Deputy Thompson." Then to the next man.

"Deputy Baldwin."

Relief flooded through her. "Er, hi," Ani said as Daniel opened the door. Both Deputies nodded, but didn't say anything.

Daniel guided her through the now open door. Ani stumbled and would have fallen if he hadn't had such a good grip on her arm.

"I'd climb right into that shower, if I wasn't so wiped out." She kicked off her jogging shoes, not paying attention to where they landed, then peeled off her socks. "Right now, I have to say I don't give a damn."

He held on to the edge of the television cabinet and toed off his shoes before taking off his own socks. "Nothing to sleep in but what we've got on."

"I don't know about you," she said as she pulled off the filthy shirt covering the body armor. "I'm sleeping in my underwear."

"Sounds like a good idea to me." Exhaustion was heavy in his voice. He drew the bed covering and sheets back on his bed, then slid his handgun under his pillow.

Not caring about anything but sleep, Ani slipped out of the body armor, tugged down her jeans and took off the undershirt so that she was only in her bra and panties. Her body ached, her head ached, her eyes ached. She went into the bathroom to at least wash her face, and winced when she ran the wash-cloth over the scratches on her cheek and forehead, and the bruise on one side of her face. Boy, was that going to look good in the morning. Not.

When she came back out of the bathroom, Daniel was already in his bed, lying on his belly with his face turned to the side on the pillow. His eyes were shut and it looked like he'd conked out.

It wasn't until then that she realized she had stripped down to her underwear and hadn't even thought about her burn scar or what Daniel might think about it.

Right now it didn't matter. They were alive.

Natasha jumped up and down and clapped her little hands as she watched the model yacht races on Conservatory Water in Central Park. Yegor smiled at his granddaughter's delight, warmth spreading throughout his chest.

Alyona sat on a grassy spot nearby, playing with the new porcelain doll he had purchased for her from F.A.O. Schwarz.

Natasha's matching doll lay near the Alice in Wonderland statue.

Early morning sunshine threw a soft glow on the girls' blond ringlets. The scents of grass, trees, and water washed by him in a chill breeze.

The chirp of Yegor's cell phone drew his attention away from the girls. He withdrew the phone from his inside suit pocket and answered it with a short, clipped,
"Chto?"

"It is done." Piterskij's voice held no inflection. "Last night the King woman was eliminated."

For the first time in two years, the weight he'd carried began to lift from Yegor's shoulders. "Are you certain?"

"Our operatives 'convinced' a man named Richardson to give us the required information. He provided the jet's scheduled time of arrival and the number of cars that would be waiting to escort the woman and the Marshals from the hangar,"

Piterskij said. "One of our associates used an RPG to take out the three cars. However, he was captured by the Port Authority police."

Yegor glanced from one granddaughter to the next to reassure himself they were both safe.

His thoughts immediately turned back to Piterskij's statement. "Ensure the associate will never have the opportunity to speak to anyone about this matter."

"As you command," Piterskij said without hesitation.

"Now tell me of the King woman's death".

"We believe," Piterskij said, "that none could have survived the explosions."