The Temptation Read online

  I tried to calm myself but it wasn’t working. Thinking about what had happened to my sister added to the frustration and anger locked inside me just bursting to get out.

  Maybe I should go to the gym and spar with some of the guys who were into mixed martial arts like I was. It would feel much more satisfying taking someone down than just running.

  By the time I was close to home again, I had jogged a good seven miles. I was quite a ways down the street when I saw that a white van was parked in front of the trip. I watched a couple of men hurry out the front door and rush toward the van. One of them had something slung over his shoulder. I squinted, trying to make out what it was.

  And then I realized it wasn’t a something, it was someone with dark hair, wearing fuchsia pink and dark blue.

  Rori.

  Shock pierced me and my skin felt like it was on fire as I sprinted toward the men and the van. I couldn’t see the men well enough to give a decent description. They wore blue jumpsuits and one had longish dark hair while the other appeared to have blond hair in a buzz cut.

  “Police!” I shouted to get their attention, but the men only seemed to move faster. I didn’t think I was close enough for them to hear me well. They didn’t even turn to look at me. “Stop!”

  Panic made my heart beat faster and I put on a burst of speed as they shoved her limp body into the van before they both climbed in. I was still a hundred yards away when the van’s tires squealed as it pulled away from the curb.

  As I got closer I tried to get the license plate number but it was mud-spattered and I couldn’t make out even a partial. It took two seconds to mentally note the approximate year as well as the make and model of the van and to look for anything else that might identify it. The rear bumper was scraped on the right hand side but that was the only damage that I could see.

  “Rori!” I shouted even though the van was already headed away from the trip.

  Stunned, I watched the vehicle leave, a sick feeling clenching my gut.

  I didn’t stop moving. I didn’t have my gun with me, but I had my keys and cell phones in the pack I wore at my waist.

  I wanted to climb into my Jeep and chase the van and the men down but they were long gone by the time I reached my vehicle. I had to slow my pace to unzip the pack and grab my work phone. I pressed the speed dial number for RED.

  RED’s dispatcher came on the line and I told her to dispatch the emergency team for an agent in trouble. As I spoke to her, I hurried up the stairs to my apartment to make sure I hadn’t been mistaken and to make sure that Rori really was gone.

  The door to my apartment was wide open and there were clear signs of a struggle. The bottle of Mountain Dew I’d left her with was on its side, the contents spilled and soaking the carpet. Pecan sandies were on the floor and ground into the carpet, a chair was overturned, and the glass in my coffee table was shattered.

  I tried to keep calm as I called Zane and Ryan. Thank God they each answered their phones. I explained what had happened and heard all pretense of calmness leave my voice. They both were on their way at once.

  Then I called Nick.

  “My sister’s been abducted,” I said the moment he answered. I was shaking as my mind tried to make sense of it.

  “I’m on my way.” Nick’s tone was tight, angry. “Tell me what happened.”

  “They must have been after me.” I looked at the mess in my living room as I rushed my words. “It’s the only thing that makes sense. Unless her boyfriend followed her to my apartment, and I don’t think that’s the case since he’s a pilot who is supposed to be on his way to Hawaii.”

  “Start from the beginning,” Nick said.

  “Rori stopped by to talk about something bad that happened to her. She was raped by her boyfriend and another woman.”

  Nick growled as he said, “She was raped?”

  I gave him a brief summary as I paced my living room that was in shambles. Rori must have put up a good fight. “It seems too farfetched to be her boyfriend kidnapping her from my apartment. I think someone was after me.”

  Siren’s approached and I knew it must be RED.

  “I can’t believe this is happening.” The urge to cry nearly overwhelmed me, but of course tears would not come. They never came no matter how badly I wanted them to. “My sister is an innocent.”

  “Like mine was.” Nick bit out each word and I could hear the fury in his voice.

  The memory of the horrors that his sister had gone through hit me hard and I felt ice crawl down my spine. What if these men were going to do something similar with Rori?

  My door was still open and my brothers arrived one behind the other, followed by a team from RED.

  “I’ll see you when you get here, Nick,” I said and disconnected the call.

  Zane and Ryan looked as stunned and angry as I felt. They both had hard looks like they were ready to kill. I certainly was.

  I explained everything to my brothers and the senior agent who led the RED task force that had been dispatched. Other agents were looking for clues and dusting for fingerprints.

  The descriptions I gave of the men to the senior agent were vague since I hadn’t been able to see them well. All I could provide was their hair color, approximate build, and what kind of jumpsuits they were wearing. I gave him the make, model, color, and approximate year of the vehicle, but couldn’t give him the license plate number since it had been obscured by mud.

  It felt like I was breaking a vow to Rori by telling my brothers and RED about the rape, but if by chance her boyfriend had been responsible they needed to know what had happened.

  I don’t think I’d ever seen my brothers so angry. Ever. Rori was our little sister and we were out for blood. Her boyfriend would likely never be able to have sex again once we got through with him.

  When Nick arrived, he put his hands on my shoulders. “Are you all right?”

  “No.” I shook my head. “I won’t be okay until we get Rori back.”

  I thought about her as a little girl and how she’d liked to follow me around. But I was a tomboy where she was a girly-girl, so as we grew older, we grew apart and she played with dolls instead of tagging along after me. I was several years older than her and we never did have a lot in common.

  A lot of moments we had shared went through my mind. Times I’d pushed her on the swing at the park, or when I had to play tea party with her and her dolls when she was little. I thought about the times I’d tried to teach her basketball and baseball and how she’d tell me she’d rather play with dolls.

  She hadn’t always been the most level headed of us, and she tended to cry when she was upset, or angry, or hurt, or even happy. I, on the other hand, couldn’t cry at all.

  “We’re wasting time.” I pushed my hand through my hair in frustration. “We have to do something.”

  “Did you get the name and number of the sonofabitch she’s been dating?” Ryan asked.

  “I got his name and I know he’s a pilot with the same airline where she works.” I was pissed at myself for not finding out more about him. “I figured there would be time later today to get more from her when she’d had a chance to calm down.” I gritted my teeth before saying, “This is my fault. If I weren’t a RED agent then this would never have happened. The chance that someone in my family could get hurt—”

  Zane grasped my upper arm. “It’s not your fault, Lex. Don’t start thinking that way.”

  Ryan looked from Zane to me. “Now that I’m with RED I know a good deal of what you’ve done, Lexi, which is a lot of good in the world.”

  Of course he didn’t know of all the horrible things I had been forced to do before RED.

  I studied each of my brothers. “What are we going to tell Mama and Daddy?”

  A ringing came from the pouch at my waist, where I’d put my work phone after I’d made all of the calls. It was my personal phone that was ringing.

  My scalp prickled, like a warning. I drew out the phone and looked at the
display and saw that the number was blocked.

  When I answered it, the prickles spread down from my scalp and over my body as a familiar man’s voice said, “This is Karl Bachmann. I believe we have something of yours.”

  Chapter 8

  Hell and fury

  A cold chill went through me. “What have you done with Rori?”

  “Nothing…” Bachmann said calmly, letting the words drag out, “…yet.”

  “You want me.” I gripped my phone so tight my hand ached. “Tell me where you want me to meet you and I’ll be there. Just let Rori go and don’t hurt her.”

  “Whether or not I hurt your sister depends on my mood.” He gave a harsh laugh. “And my mood hasn’t been very good since our meeting, Lexi Steele.”

  I looked at my brothers and Nick. Ryan had his hands clenched into fists and Zane’s jaw was set. Fury was in both their gazes. Nick looked just as angry as they did.

  “Tell me what to do.” I took a deep breath. “I’m all yours.”

  “Getting your sister is certainly a bonus,” Bachmann said. “She’s being brought to me at this very moment. Of course they were supposed to get you. This will actually be more amusing…seeing you suffer won’t make up for what you and your agency have done to me.”

  My spine felt like cold steel as he spoke. “You can do whatever you want to me, just let my sister go.”

  “I will be calling you.” Bachmann’s voice had an edge to it, his Swedish accent pronounced. “I will let you know where to meet me.”

  My jaw hurt and I realized I was clenching it. A sick feeling shot through my belly. If he hurt her, I’d never forgive myself.

  “I really must be going,” Bachmann said. “I will be calling you within the next one or two days.”

  My heart beat like it was going to explode out of my chest. “Why so long?”

  “Because I have plans.” There was an evil smile in his tone. “You shall see exactly what I have in mind.”

  I wanted so badly to reach through that phone and choke the life from him. When I finally got my hands on him, I’d make sure he wouldn’t be around any longer to hurt anyone else.

  The connection went dead.

  I slowly lowered the phone, my belly feeling like sludge lined it. “He’s going to call in a day or two to make the exchange. He said he has something planned for me that he needs to prepare for.”

  My brothers cursed and Nick had a dark look. This was hitting home for him, I was certain.

  “What if he does something to her?” My throat felt raw. “What if he hurts her?”

  Zane met my gaze. “We need to find him before he does.”

  I slipped the phone back into the pouch. “We need to go see Oxford.”

  “There’s clearly a leak,” Zane said. “And a big one if Bachmann was able to track you down to your home.”

  “It has to be someone who knows about RED.” I shoved my hand through my hair. “And that’s a really short list.”

  Nick gave a nod, his gaze dark as he studied me.

  “What about Mama and Daddy and our brothers?” I swallowed. “Do we tell them? Evan’s a detective with BPD and he might suspect something if we don’t.”

  Zane put his hand on my shoulder. “We need a couple of days to get her back and then we’ll tell them something so that they can help Rori through the repercussions.”

  “We don’t know how this is going to go down,” Ryan said. “And with Mama’s illness, it’s for the best to keep Rori’s abduction from them.”

  I nodded. “At least for now.”

  Still, I wondered if it was the right thing to do. This wasn’t a RED op and her kidnapping could be explained in other ways. But if we did tell them, it could make things more difficult for us to do our job in getting her back.

  After I took a five-minute shower and changed into jeans, a T-shirt, and athletic shoes, we rushed to RED’s HQ. I called ahead and told Darlene we needed to see Oxford and was told she’d be expecting us.

  Once we got to Boston HQ and made it into the building, the elevator couldn’t take us up fast enough.

  This time Darlene didn’t glare at me. I don’t know if it was because I had three gorgeous males with me or whether it was because she’d heard about Rori and felt badly for us.

  When we walked into Oxford’s office, she was standing behind her desk. Her expression was unreadable as always, but her dark eyes seemed darker yet.

  “I understand your sister has been abducted,” she said when the four of us were in her office. “That is unfortunate.”

  I wanted to yell “Unfortunate? That’s what you call it?” but instead I said, “It was Bachmann. He called me. He wants me but he plans to hold off for a couple of days before we make the trade.”

  “We can’t let him take Lexi and we have to get Rori back,” Zane said, his expression tight.

  I clenched then flexed my hands. “We need to re-open operation Big Bad Wolf and find him first.”

  Oxford said nothing as she looked to each one of us. Finally, she said, “I just got off the phone with SAC Carter. RED resources cannot be used to locate your sister and we cannot re-open the Bachmann operation.”

  For a moment there was stunned silence.

  “What the hell?” Zane said.

  “Bullshit,” Ryan said.

  Nick looked angry but said nothing.

  My skin burned hot as I looked at her with incredulity. “That can’t be right. RED would never let a family member be abducted and not do anything about it.”

  “Unfortunately we can do nothing to help your sister.” Oxford remained calm. “This will have to be left to the BPD.”

  Ryan, Zane, and I all spoke at once, anger in our words. I was on fire.

  Oxford held up her hand to silence us and her expression grew dark. “If you need to take a leave of absence, Lexi, I will grant you one.” She glanced at Zane and Ryan. “You will need to take it up with your respective ASACs. That is the best I can do.”

  I wanted to scream and hit something. I could barely think rationally, but a part of me knew her hands were tied and that the call had come from above. It wasn’t right for me to take it out on her. I could never forget how much I owed her.

  But how hard had she fought for my sister?

  “Not only was my sister taken,” I said, “but Bachmann knows who I am and where I live. There has to be a leak somewhere. RED should be very concerned about that.”

  “I’m sorry, Agent Steele.” Oxford met my furious stare. “You may go now.”

  “Thank you,” I said, trying to control myself. I wanted to protest, rant and rave, but I turned and walked out the door, followed by my brothers and Nick.

  We went to my office. Once Nick had closed the door behind us, it was like an explosion went off as we all started to talk at once.

  “What the hell is going on?” Zane’s expression was furious. “Since when does RED back off something like this?”

  Ryan clenched and unclenched his fists at his sides. “If I’d known this kind of shit went on with RED, I would never have signed on.”

  “This is the first time something like this has happened since I came on with RED.” I clenched my hand in my hair, wanting to pull it out. “I don’t understand it.”

  “We can use my operations center.” Nick’s voice caught our attention and we stopped talking. “I’ve been mirroring Big Bad Wolf since I came back to Boston and RED.”

  “Operations center?” Zane said.

  “Nick has a high-tech war room in his home.” I took a deep breath. “I didn’t realize you were working on the op on your own,” I added to Nick.

  “I have a vested interest in tracking down Bachmann.” Nick looked at my brothers. “Bachmann’s organization abducted my sister and she was put through hell before we found her.”

  “Hell is an understatement. We can only pray that something similar doesn’t happen to Rori.” My stomach twisted as I picked up our family photo from my desktop and looked at my s
ister’s smiling face. Like Kristen, she was an innocent. “And we have to find Bachmann as soon as possible.”

  After Nick gave Zane and Ryan his address, my brothers went straight to their floors to talk with their respective ASACs about a leave of absence. Nick and I headed to his home after he talked with Oxford about time off. Surprisingly, she gave him a few days.

  It was starting to get dark by the time we were on our way to Nick’s. We took both vehicles and I parked my Jeep in front of his brownstone, behind his SUV with its spider-webbed front window. Anger still burned through me as I walked at his side up the short set of stone steps and he unlocked the front door.

  Anger and more anger. A pain so deep that it cut right through my soul had taken residence inside me. My sister had been taken. She had no idea what was happening to her or why.

  And what was Bachmann doing to her? The thought gave me chills. If I had never worked for RED this wouldn’t have happened.

  But FAS had held my family’s safety over me when I was forced to be an assassin. So if it wasn’t for Oxford and RED, something could just as easily have happened to any one of them then. Maybe all of them.

  I wondered about our decision to not tell our parents or other brothers that she was missing. It was the right thing to do, I told myself. To put Mama through the pain of wondering what might happen to her youngest daughter would be cruel and possibly detrimental to her health.

  The interior of his home was cool and dim but he flipped the light switch and a couple of lights came on. Nick’s home was spotless, unlike my disaster of an apartment. This was a different brownstone than the one his sister had lived in before her abduction, but I had been here many times before we split up. Before he’d left Boston for Arizona.

  When the door was closed behind us we both paused in the foyer. I looked up at him and it hit me how much I’d missed him and the comfort of his embrace. He seemed to read my mind. He took me in his arms and held me as I buried my face against his T-shirt.