Page 53 of Heston
Heston stayed dead on his heels. He’d no more than cleared the entry when Mark Houston slapped a tactical headset at him and told him, “Put this on. You’re tip of the spear today.”
“Me? Why? Where’s London?” Heston asked as he inserted the tiny device deep into his ear.
“Here,” someone bit out from behind The TEAM’s customer service desk.
“Where?” Heston bellowed. London wasn’t anywhere in sight as far as he could see until—
Oh, God. There. On the big screen. Behind the desk on the wall. A vicious growl percolated up his throat when his eyes zeroed in on the still image of a bloodied and battered London Wilde. She was hanging by her cuffed arms, the chain of the cuffs draped over three pipes in the ceiling wherever she was. Dressed in her clothes from the day before, she was unconscious. The side of her face that he could see was shiny with blood, her hair was wet with it. Dark bruises marked her face and neck. She was gagged.
“Who did this?” Heston bellowed, unable to control the raw panic clawing up his spine. “Where is she? Do we know?”
“Not yet. Mother’s tracking—”
“Not good enough! I will kill the bastards who did this!”
“Heston,” a calm voice of authority spoke.
“What?” he snarled, needing to run and rescue London. Needing to hit something.
Just. Not. Alex. Who, with that one spoken word, had gotten through to Heston. He still couldn’t control his mouth. “What are you doing here, Boss? Where’s Kelsey? Why aren’t you still back in Washington with her? What’d you do, leave her?”
A quiet hush fell over the crowded lobby at that vehemently tossed insult.
Until Alex quietly enunciated, “Kelsey is here. At TEAM HQ.”
Heston’s panic was so far out of control, he didn’t comprehend what ‘here’ meant. “She’s” —he looked around— “where? I don’t see her.”
“She’s here, downstairs in The TEAM clinic, you dumbass,” Murphy snarled, “Judy and Libby are with her. So’s Doc Fitz. Maybe you oughta think before you smart-off again.”
Heston looked around the lobby. Okay, yeah. He was pissed, but he shouldn’t’ve taken it out on Alex. Looked like everyone was there. Every agent. Some of their wives. Each of them fierce enough to start a war all by themselves. Or finish one.
“Taylor Armstrong, Gabe Cartwright, and Maverick Carson are also with Kelsey,” Mark added gently. “They’ll protect her and the ladies if anyone breaches this facility.”
“Which ain’t gonna happen,” Beau Villanueva cut in. “Not while I’m breathing, gawddamnit. I’ll blow the sons of bitches back to Hell!”
“As will every TEAM agent here,” Mark continued calmly. “We all know what you’re feeling, Hes. Kelsey’s in good hands, and soon London’ll be in good hands, too, because she’ll be with you. Take a breath, brother. Let us explain.”
“Hurry,” was all he managed to spit out. His chest was hollow and his ribs were caving in. He couldn’t breathe.
He was nearly out of his mind when Harley spoke up. “The hospital in Washington was no longer safe. We couldn’t control all exits or entrances, and the hospital administrator didn’t appreciate Alex taking over. So we brought Kels home last night. If you’d call in a sit rep once in a while, you’d know that.” He waved his hand dismissively. “Not like it matters, but after that last threat—”
“Christ! Another one?”
Heston got a stern head shake from Harley. “No, the same threat the caller made when he told Alex he could get to Kelsey anytime, that the next time he’d kill her.”
“We knew we had to move her,” David Tao said quietly. “Just needed to make sure we could do it quickly and safely. She’s just undergone her second craniectomy, and she’s a critical care patient. Moving her had to be done correctly.”
“My wife’s making sure Kelsey gets the care she needs,” Beau declared.
“As are Judy and Libby,” David added.
Heston inhaled a shallow breath. “Good. Okay. So Deck—”
“Not Decker. His helo’s too small for the task,” Mark interrupted. “Adam Torrey flew her home. He was already on standby, and we knew we’d need more equipment than Deck’s helo could handle. We snuck Kelsey and her equipment out through the hospital maintenance elevator—”
“And now she’s where she belongs,” Harley cut in. “With us.”
Heston all but bellowed, “But where’s London?”
