Safe Before Dawn Read online

  “She escaped.”

  “How did that happen?”

  “Vickers showed up.”

  “Interesting development.”

  “I thought so.”

  “Watch him. He’s very good at what he does.”

  “Yeah, well, so am I.”

  A tense silence ensued, then Liam asked. “Where are they now?”

  “Somewhere in Chinatown,” Aidan replied.

  “I don’t like this. You need to find them. If you have to, kill the woman now. She’s expendable.”

  “With all due respect, I think that would be premature at this point. She’s our ace in the hole.”

  “I’m willing to sacrifice her to get my hands on Vickers. I want that son of a bitch on his knees and begging when I put a bullet in his brain.”

  “Rest assured, he’ll beg. If not for his own life, for hers.” Aidan thought of the woman’s condition and smiled. “She’s pregnant.”

  “His?”

  “The timing is right.”

  “No matter. He’s weak when it comes to women. The child’s parentage won’t matter. When we kill her, it will have even more impact.” He made a sound low in his throat. “What about the other part of the mission?”

  The bomb, Aidan thought, and smiled. He’d planted the high-power explosives himself in a very central location that would have a maximum impact of terror on the good citizens of Boston.

  “Done,” he said.

  “Excellent.” Liam Shea sighed. “I’ve waited a long time for this.”

  “It won’t be long now.”

  “Let’s stick to the plan as closely as possible, but if you have to divert to get the job done, do it.”

  “Understood.”

  “Find them, Aidan.” Urgency laced his father’s voice.

  “I’ve got two of our best men on it. They’re like bloodhounds. I’m certain Vickers and the bitch are here in Chinatown. I’ve got a couple of snitches with sharp eyes. I’ll ask around. Rest assured, we’ll find them.”

  “Let me know the instant you do. I want to be smiling when Vickers dies.”

  “Wouldn’t have it any other way.” Breaking the connection, Aidan clipped the phone to his belt and set out to find Vickers and the pregnant woman.

  * * *

  “LILY.”

  Chase placed the paper plate of crackers, cheese and fruit on the beat-up table next to the cot where she lay sleeping. He’d been gone only a few minutes, but already she was out cold, a sure sign of complete physical exhaustion.

  Taking in the pale cast of her complexion, he felt a quick and savage twinge of guilt. Intellectually he knew this wasn’t his fault. Not directly, anyway. But he’d always known his work with Eclipse might catch up with him one day. He’d known it could place the people he cared about at risk. It was one of the reasons he avoided close relationships.

  But those dangers hadn’t been enough to keep him from his work. It sure as hell hadn’t been enough to keep him from getting involved with Lily.

  Lowering himself onto the cot next to hers, he put his elbows on his knees and rubbed at the ache behind his eyes. “What a mess,” he muttered.

  Remembering the cell phone he’d commandeered from the Asian man, he pulled it from his pocket and again dialed his half brother, Shane Peters. When it went to voice mail, he left another message and dialed Ty’s number. Another layer of uneasiness washed over him when Ty didn’t answer. It was unusual for either man not to answer. What the hell was going on?

  Chase forced his mind back to the ambush in the limo and tried to think of who might be responsible and why. A frightening number of faces and names came to mind. Vicious men he’d played a role in bringing to justice. Had one of them targeted Lily in the name of revenge? If so, who had the resources for such a well-orchestrated attack?

  Chase racked his brain, but time and time again he found his eyes straying to the woman a few feet away. In the shimmering yellow light of the battery-powered lantern, her face looked angelic. She lay curled on her side with both hands tucked beneath her pillow. Her knees were drawn up slightly. She was so beautiful it hurt just to look at her. The pain twisted like a dull knife between his ribs.

  He could just make out the soft curves of her full breasts and the bulge of her belly. The reality that she was pregnant hit him like a sledgehammer. He couldn’t get that out of his mind. He still couldn’t quite believe it.

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” he whispered.

  But Chase knew why. She’d never approved of his penchant for risk taking, the secret work that took him away and sent him home battered and bruised. In the past he’d always written off her lack of support as a lack of understanding, or an over-reaction based on emotion. Now that he’d brought danger into her life, he knew he’d been wrong. He’d placed her baby—his baby—in jeopardy. The only question that remained was how he was going to keep them safe and make things right.

  Chase didn’t have a clue.

  He’d been half in love with Lily Garrett from the moment he’d laid eyes on her three years ago. She was everything he was not, his polar opposite in every way. While he liked being on the road, bouncing from one city to another, one foreign country to the next, she tended to be a homebody. She preferred routine and familiarity. He thrived on danger and living life by the seat of his pants. She had a level head. He was as reckless as a storm-tossed sea.

  He’d always believed those contrasts were one of the reasons they’d been drawn to each other with such power and passion. While that was true in many ways, those stark differences were also what had ultimately torn them apart. The truth of that hurt more than he wanted to admit.

  Raised in a series of foster homes since the age of ten, Chase had never known the familiarity and comfort of family. The series of families who’d raised him had been virtual strangers—and they’d treated him as such. He’d grown up alone with a chip on his shoulder and no close ties. Then he met Lily and for the first time in his life he knew what it was like to connect with another human being.

  He met her when a mission left him with a broken arm. His brother had taken him to the New England Medical Center emergency room. While Chase sat on the gurney, Lily walked in and began treating him. He hadn’t been able to take his eyes off her. He liked to laugh about it now, but he’d always secretly thought that was the night he’d fallen in love with her.

  It took six tries in the following weeks, but he’d finally convinced her to go out with him. Once she did, his fate was sealed. She was the only pure and innocent thing in his life, and he’d always looked upon her with a sort of reverence. She was like a long, deep breath of fresh air after weeks of stagnant city smog. A month into their relationship he’d invited her to his cabin home on the jagged Maine coast. He’d taken her for a ride on his speedboat. She’d asked him to slow down; he’d gone faster. That night, they’d made love for the first time. The experience had rocked his world. That was when Chase realized he was in over his head. Him. Mr. Independent. Mr. Love ’em and Leave ’em. Lily, the levelheaded emergency room nurse who thrived on all that was normal in the world, had become the center of his.

  Over the next few months, he saw her as much as he could between missions. But after the first year or so, the injuries he sustained while on missions, his disappearing for weeks at a time without a word, began to take a heavy toll on their relationship. Finally, when he came back from North Africa with a closed head injury, Lily had asked him to choose: her or his work. Instead of listening with his heart, Chase had listened with his ego. In the end she’d walked away, and like the ass he was, he’d let her go.

  It was the beginning of the end.

  For months, he’d assured himself he’d done the right thing. He didn’t want a woman telling him what to do or how to live his life. During that time, his tactics during missions became increasingly reckless. He volunteered for the most dangerous assignments. Assignments most sane men did their best to steer clear of. It was almost as if he were
tempting fate to take a swipe at him. Then a shattered femur laid him up for several weeks. Alone in his cabin with nothing but time to think about his life—about Lily and all he’d lost—he realized how foolish he’d been for letting her go.

  With his leg in a cast, he’d driven from Maine to Boston and gone directly to her apartment. There had been no romance or flowers or even a candlelit dinner. One look, one kiss, and he’d taken her down on the floor, where they’d made desperate, passionate love. Afterward, realizing what he’d done, Chase left before daylight. That had been seven and a half months ago, and he hadn’t seen Lily since.

  Until tonight.

  As he looked at her sleeping form, a yearning for something profound but elusive tugged hard at him. The only time he felt whole was when he’d been with Lily. He’d tried to find fulfillment elsewhere by throwing himself into his work. But he hadn’t succeeded. Now she was in danger, his baby was in danger, and it was his fault.

  “Vickers, you’re an idiot,” he muttered into the darkness.

  Sighing, Chase pulled the cell phone from his pocket and checked his service. Three bars. Why, then, weren’t Shane or Ty calling him back?

  Undeterred, he called the only other person he could think of: Ben Parker, an FBI agent stationed in the Boston area, whom he’d met several months ago through Shane.

  Ben picked up on the first ring with a curt utterance of his name.

  “Are you the only person in this friggin’ town who answers his phone?” Chase asked.

  “Busy night, bro.”

  “What’s going on?”

  “You mean aside from all hell breaking loose?” Ben’s laugh was strained. “Someone tried to get to Shane tonight.”

  Chase closed his eyes. “He okay?”

  “Narrow escape, but he’s fine.”

  Relief swept through him with such force that for a moment he couldn’t speak.

  “You there?” Ben asked.

  “Yeah.” But his mind was reeling. That he had been ambushed just an hour ago was no coincidence.

  Concern trickled through Chase as dark possibilities rose like a storm inside him. “They tried to get to me, too, Ben.”

  The other man’s curse burned through the line. “You in one piece?”

  “I’m fine.”

  “You able to ID them?”

  “There was something familiar about one of the men, but I’m certain I’ve never seen him before.”

  “How did it happen?”

  Chase described the ambush. Thinking of his limo, he frowned. “Wrecked Irma.”

  “Hopefully the looters won’t get her.”

  “Thanks for planting that thought.” His next statement made the hairs on the back of his neck prickle. “Ben, they tried to kill Lily.”

  “Lily Garrett? The nurse you—”

  “That’s the one,” Chase interjected, not wanting him to finish the sentence.

  “Damn. Is she all right?”

  “She’s with me.”

  “Good. Keep her with you. I don’t have to tell you these bastards mean business.”

  Chase glanced down at the graze on his arm where the pain was coming to life. “No, you don’t.”

  “If they tried to get to Lily, that means they tailed you. They researched her.”

  “If they were able to tail me without me noticing, they’re probably professionals. They’ve probably got some connections.”

  The other man fell silent. Tension traveled through the line. Chase got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. “Any idea who might be behind this?”

  “Not yet, but we’ve got people on it,” Ben said after a moment. “I don’t know if this ties in, but the vice president has been kidnapped.”

  “I heard.” He got that prickly sensation again. “Vice President Davis was at the black-tie affair where I picked up the client who ambushed me. There’s got to be a connection.”

  “We’re trying to figure out what it is.”

  “You think the blackout is part of this?”

  “I hope not, but we’re not ruling out anything at this point. We’ve got BP&L crews working on both power stations.”

  “I didn’t realize there were two plants.”

  “One in Charlestown, across the river, and the other in South Boston.”

  “You think it was sabotage?”

  A pause ensued. “We’ve had unsubstantiated reports of simultaneous explosions, but nothing has been verified as of yet. Because of the power outage, communication has been hit or miss.” He paused. “We’re vulnerable, Chase. And prime for another attack.”

  The news struck him like a ton of bricks. Chase almost couldn’t believe it. His mind scrolled through possible explanations. Random terrorism from some fanatical group. The kidnapping of the vice president by some homegrown political nutcase. But when you threw in synchronized ambushes on him and his brother, he knew there was another possibility that hit much closer to home.

  The actions were connected, intentional—and aimed directly at a select group. A group from the past.

  “Do you want to come in?” Ben asked him. “I can set you and Lily up in a safe house.”

  The thought appealed, but only because of Lily. Chase much preferred the freedom to move independently. But if the ambush was part of a conspiracy that reached all the way to the vice president, chances were the thugs had inside help. The FBI couldn’t necessarily keep her safer than he could.

  “No,” he said. “We’re safe for now.”

  “Where are you?”

  Silence roared for an instant. Chase knew it was crazy not to trust Ben Parker, but his instincts told him not to answer. “Not over an open line, Ben.”

  “No problem. But, Chase, let me know if you want to bring her in.”

  “I’m not going to let anything happen to her,” he insisted.

  “If anything develops, I’ll let you know.”

  At that the two men disconnected, and Chase was left alone with his thoughts, a woman he had once loved more than life itself, and a terrible fear that he might not be able to keep his word.

  * * *

  LILY JERKED AWAKE, her heart pounding. For a moment she was disoriented and didn’t know where she was. Then the memory of everything that had happened rushed over her in a torrent. The blackout. The man with the gun. The ambush at the hospital. Chase’s hand over hers as he shepherded her away from the danger.

  Chase.

  Struggling to a sitting position, she looked around to find the other cot vacant. Where was he? On the table next to her sat a plate heaped with crackers, cheese and some fruit. That he’d thought to bring her food shouldn’t have touched her, but it did. Chase had always affected her that way. She saw the good in him above all else. She saw his flaws and human imperfections only when confronted with them.

  He was the only man she’d ever met who could make her act first and consider the consequences later. A cautious person by nature, Lily had never understood her reaction to him. It scared her almost as much as the power of her feelings for him.

  She knew he cared. As much as he could, anyway. His background explained some of the reasons he was unable to give her the stability she needed. Chase didn’t talk about it much, but one rainy night, lying in her bed, he told her about his childhood. He told her about his father disappearing without so much as an explanation when he was just a boy. He told her about his mother dying when he was only ten years old. About his half brother, Shane, going off to college and leaving him to the foster care system. A system that hadn’t worked for an angry kid full of resentment and pain.

  The truth of the matter was she cared for him. Too damn much if she wanted to be honest about it. But there was no way she would let her feelings for Chase dictate her life. Not ever again.

  The baby chose that moment to kick, driving home the knowledge that there was no place in her world for the kind of dangers Chase presented. She had no desire to live her life wondering when, or if, he would return home from one of
his secret missions.

  It crossed her mind that now was probably a good time to steal away. But even though he represented all the things she didn’t want in her life, deep inside she knew if anyone could keep her safe in the face of danger, it was Chase Vickers.

  In a physical sense, anyway. Lily wasn’t so sure about her heart. Despite her efforts to free herself from him and everything he represented, something profound remained between them. A special bond she hadn’t been able to sever no matter how hard she tried. A link she could try to deny until forever. But she knew that no matter what happened, there would always be a special place for him in her heart.

  Her weakness for him only proved she’d done the right thing by walking away. Once electricity was restored to the city and the gunmen were caught, she planned to walk away again.

  But in the darkness of the homeless shelter, knowing there were men with guns who meant her harm, that knowledge was little comfort.

  Setting her hand on her abdomen, she swung her legs over the side of the cot and struggled to her feet. The ache in her back had eased, but only marginally. The most pressing matter, however, was her need for the ladies’ room, the bane of her pregnancy.

  Taking a final look at the empty cot, she moved down the darkened hall toward the main room. Beds filled with sleeping bodies lined the walls. Several privacy dividers had been set up. Relief slid through her when, in the glow of battery-powered lanterns, she saw the Restroom sign at the far end of the room.

  The ladies’ room stood in near darkness, the only illumination coming from a battery-powered night light. Quickly she took care of business, then washed her face and hands. She was midway down the hall when the shuffle of shoes just beyond in the main room stopped her cold. She wanted to think it was Chase, looking for her, but inexplicably, her heart began to pound.

  On impulse, Lily stopped and pressed her back to the wall. Peering around the corner, she saw the silhouettes of two men. Muffled voices reached her. But it was the sight of the gun that sent her heart into her throat.

  All she could think was that they’d found her. But how? She couldn’t imagine anyone getting the drop on Chase. Then again she’d never imagined an ambush at the hospital, either. She wanted desperately to find him, warn him, but there was no chance of doing so without being seen. All she could do was hide and hope they didn’t find her.