it would keep them from sending her to the hospital, she could play all the Mozart concertos with Beethoven thrown in on the side. She’d do whatever was necessary to evade the danger that encroached on all sides. From the thugs in the van to the vicious storm to her unnamed fear of being hospitalized, everything appeared to be against her. She felt as doomed as a skier racing downhill, trying to escape a churning, roaring avalanche. Her chance of survival was slim.
Through the ragged curtain of falling snow, FBI Special Agent Spence Malone spotted headlights approaching. “About time,” he muttered.
Spence wasn’t running this operation, but his directions had summoned two vans—one for the local SWAT team and another from the FBI—to this isolated mountain cabin with a dark blue van parked in front. It had been twenty-seven minutes since he called for immediate emergency backup.
His tension was epic. When it came to making sharp, street-smart decisions, he trusted the instincts he’d learned at an early age in foster care. But this assignment was different. Not only was he dealing with a global situation, but his partner was the woman he loved.
Spence feared that he’d made the wrong decision by not going after her when he found the van. He could easily have followed her tracks into the forest. But he’d wanted to make sure these four thugs were apprehended and secured. Backup was required.
He bolted from his rented SUV and charged toward the vans. The SWAT commander and an agent in an FBI jacket joined him on the road. A wall of pine trees separated them from the cabin.
After introductions, Spence filled them in. “My partner is missing, and I think these men grabbed her.”
“Her?” Ramirez, the agent, yanked off his FBI watch cap and combed his fingers through his thick black hair.
“Agent Angelica Thorne is NSA, not FBI. We’re partners for the duration of this assignment.” And the assignment was top secret. They didn’t need details about Angelica. “I followed her tracking signal to the van and checked inside, where I found evidence.”
“Evidence?” Ramirez questioned.
“Her prints and hairs,” Spence said dismissively. “Trust me, she was in that van.”
“But not anymore,” Ramirez said.
“As far as I can tell, she’s in the wind. But she left these four goons behind. I’ve been observing them with a heat sensor. They’re all in the kitchen.”
The SWAT commander gave a quick nod. “Armed and dangerous?”
“Yes,” Spence said. “I’ve got questions for them and would appreciate if you keep them alive.”
“Consider it done,” the commander said. “I’ll deploy two snipers in the trees, just in case. And we’ll storm the house from the front and side.”
“Go for it,” Spence said. “I’m sitting this one out.”
He and Ramirez returned to his SUV, where he picked up his rifle, infrared goggles and a backpack. He needed to hurry. Dusk had fallen. Soon, it would be dark.
“Should I come with you?” Ramirez asked.
“Not necessary.” If Spence couldn’t find Angelica, he might as well throw himself off the nearest cliff. He wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt if he lost her. “I need you here to take those four into custody.”
“No problem. We’ve got a cage at headquarters that’s just the right size.”
Ramirez chewed on his lower lip. Spence guessed the other agent was fighting to suppress his excitement. There probably wasn’t much action at the FBI offices outside Colorado Springs. Spence held up his cell phone. “Call me when they’re in custody.”
Ramirez exchanged numbers with him. “Tell me about the NSA agent. How did she get grabbed?”
“This is the first time Agent Thorne has been in the field.”
“Inexperienced,” Ramirez said with a disgusted shake of his head. “Am I right? The chick is a typical rookie.”
“Don’t say chick.” Spence retrieved his phone. “And there’s nothing typical about her.”
“Sorry, man.” Ramirez raised both hands, placating. “I’ll call when we’ve got these guys.”
Spence took off at a jog, heading into the forest in the direction he had already tracked. It wasn’t her fault that she was missing. It was his. He shouldn’t have left her alone, not even for a minute. If his brain had been working, he would have refused to be her partner in the first place. This assignment wasn’t the type of thing she was accustomed to handling.
Angelica worked in the Cyber Security branch of NSA. She’d been there for three years and had a reputation as an outstanding hacker. Though she usually stayed behind her desk, she was chosen for this assignment because her dad was a retired general in the air force who lived in the area. People around here knew her family, and the gates of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, complex were more likely to open for somebody familiar and friendly. As soon as they’d arrived, she’d proved useful in cutting through military red tape. He wasn’t sure if that was due to her high-ranking contacts or her dynamite body.
He saw her footprints in the snow. Branches had been broken on the pine trees. She’d come this way. He dug into his pocket for his GPS device. The blip from her implanted tracker was loud and clear. She was close, less than a mile away. He dared to hope that she’d be all right as he moved quickly through the trees.
She’d charmed him six months ago, on the first day they’d met at Quantico, where she’d come to do a consultation. If he’d been a movie producer looking for a woman to play the part of a secret agent, Angelica would have been number one on his list. She was five feet nine inches tall with long, slender legs and classic curves. Her black hair fell straight and sleek to her shoulders. And she was stylish in high-heeled boots, tailored clothes and expert makeup that showed off her mysterious green eyes. One thing was for damn sure, Angelica didn’t look at all like a computer geek—which was exactly what she was, an NSA expert called in to advise on an FBI hack.
To say that he and Angelica got along well together would be an understatement. From their first kiss, he’d known that she was special. They’d started dating after that first case was closed, which shouldn’t have been a dating-in-the-workplace problem because he never expected to work with her again.
Behind his back, he heard the sounds of the SWAT team assault on the cabin. His shoulders tensed as he listened for gunfire. First, there had been three loud explosions from flash bangs. Then there were loud shouts. He counted gunshots. One. Two. A spray from an automatic, two more, then there was silence. The whole thing had taken less than five minutes, a good sign. Quick operations were usually successful.
He hoped that his and Angelica’s mission would also be swift and effective. They were investigating an attempted hack at the supposedly impregnable NORAD complex. With Angelica’s technical expertise and his experience in undercover ops, their collaboration should have gone smoothly, except that she’d been abducted within
