Chapter 23

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

Jason had only been in the office a few minutes and barely had time to wash the dust from the explosion off his hands and face when he got a call from Mick Hadley.

"I found the van that took Dominic Ilyin," Mick said shortly.

"What? How do you even know about that?"

"It doesn't matter. I'm behind a container store at Howard and Davis Street in Hollywood. Ilyin is dead."

"And the kidnapper?"

"There's no one else here," Mick said. "I'm sending you a photo."

He checked his messages as a photo appeared of a man bloodied and beaten lying in the back of a van. "It looks like Ilyin," he muttered.

"He gave me an address before he died. I need you to get a team together and meet me there."

"Wait a second. He was alive and gave you an address? I thought you said he was deceased."

"He talked before he took his last breath. You're wasting time, Jason. I'd do this myself, but it's your turf."

"We almost got killed chasing a lead. How do I know this one is better? "

"Because it is," Mick said. "You're going to have to trust me."

He would never trust Mick, but he had to go. What choice did he have?

"I'm sending you the address," Mick said. "I'll be there in fifteen minutes. Don't stall on this, Jason. I don't think Novikov will be there much longer."

"I'm on my way." He ended the call and walked into Flynn's office where Flynn and Beck were talking. "Hadley found Ilyin dying in a van in Hollywood. Before he passed away, he gave Mick the location of where we can allegedly find Novikov." He handed his phone to Flynn so he could see the photo of Ilyin.

Beck moved around the desk to take a look as well.

"It looks like someone tortured that information out of him," Beck commented. "Is this Hadley's work?"

"I don't know. But I have an address. Mick is meeting me there. I realize this could be a distraction or another setup, but it could also be real."

"I'll go with you," Beck said immediately. "We'll grab whoever else is still here."

"I have a meeting with Homeland Security, so you two run this," Flynn said, picking up his phone. "I'll give the HDU team the address as well."

He appreciated the fact his new team was willing to do whatever needed to be done, even though his last lead had not panned out. "Thanks," he told Beck as they left Flynn's office.

"No thanks required. This is what we do, Jason." Beck paused. "Did you tell your former partner about this lead?"

"I haven't seen her since we got back. I'm sure she heard about the explosion and knew she wouldn't be my favorite person to talk to right now."

"She could have been set up."

"Which is why I wanted her out of this from the beginning," he said. "But she's the least of my concerns right now."

"You're working with him?" Alisa asked in shock, staring at the woman in front of her. "But you're an FBI agent. You said you were Jason's partner. You were there when his father was killed. And you were in the hospital for weeks. I don't understand. How did you go from being Novikov's victim to being his accomplice?"

Stephanie gave her a look that was impossible to decipher. She didn't seem apologetic or trapped. She wasn't trying to explain or make excuses. She was just there, as if she belonged there. "You don't need to understand," Stephanie said coldly.

"You were the one who orchestrated my kidnapping, weren't you? What if I hadn't asked you to go to the cafeteria with me? What were you going to do?"

"It doesn't matter," Stephanie replied, stepping forward, her limp no longer as pronounced as it had been. "You made it too easy for me, Alisa. I prefer a challenge."

"You're a traitor."

"You should be careful what you say. Your life might depend on it."

"Oh, please, I'm not going to make it out of here alive, no matter what I say, so you might as well hear the truth. Jason cares about you. He's been worried about you for years. He thought you were the best agent he'd ever worked with. And you were a fraud, a traitor. You didn't deserve his respect."

Stephanie's face tightened. "He didn't know what I went through. I did what I had to do."

"Silence," Novikov said. "We are done talking." He turned to her father. "Are they ready, Alexei? Or do we need to inspire you by showing your daughter what pain feels like?"

"They're ready," her father said quickly, motioning to the two cylindrical canisters on the table.

Novikov nodded to two of his men.

They walked toward her father, one with a vest in his hand. They forced her father to put on the vest, strapping his arms to his sides, and she suddenly realized his plan of detonating the bombs before they reached the complex had just ended. There was no way he could reach for a remote in his pocket.

Then her stomach flipped over when she saw them put one canister inside the pocket of the vest with the timing device showing through an open slit. Her heart stopped. Her father was going to be a suicide bomber. He would be sacrificed. He would be killed with everyone else, and there wasn't a damn thing she could do about it.

After ensuring the vest was in place, the other man forced her dad to put on a coat that would cover the vest. Now, he would look like any other guest at the hotel.

"No, Dad," she said, tears filling her eyes.

"I love you, Alisa," he said, his voice breaking. "You are the best daughter a man could have."

"I love you, too," she said as he was taken out of the room, leaving her alone with Novikov and Stephanie. "How can you do this? How can you want to hurt so many innocent people? What is wrong with you both?"

"Innocent?" Novikov spat. "Your father was never innocent, and his betrayal cost my brother his life. Did he tell you that?"

"He didn't tell me anything, and I can't stop you. I can't hurt you. Just let me go." It felt wrong to plead for her life when her father was about to be killed, but she had to beg because there was nothing else she could do.

"You will stay here, and you will remain alive until I'm ready to destroy this city."

"How can you want to kill so many people you don't even know: women, children, babies?"

"They are the means to an end," he said with a shrug.

"The end to what?"

"Power," he said simply. "Money. Control. That's all that matters, and it's mine for the taking. It always has been. No one can stop me. I'm invincible."

He was completely insane and without a soul. She could see why he was one of the most wanted men in the world .

"And you're going to help him?" she asked Stephanie in bewilderment.

Stephanie gave her a long look, then said, "A long time ago, I had to choose a side."

"And you chose his side?"

Stephanie didn't answer as the two men who had taken her father out of the room returned to carefully remove the other canister and put it in a backpack. They left again, and Novikov nodded to the man remaining in the room. "When it's done, I'll send the order."

Send the order? As Novikov and his associate looked at her, she knew what that order would be. They would kill her.

Her breath came fast and furiously as she hyperventilated from anxiety and panic. She might have only a few minutes of her life left.

When Novikov and Stephanie departed, the man gave her an evil smile. "We can have some fun while we're waiting."

She swallowed hard, terrified of what was coming but also determined. She would have to fight. And if she had a chance to kill him before he killed her, she needed to take it.

Jason's heart was pounding against his chest as they raced across town. He had Beck in the passenger seat, with Savannah and Nick in the back. The HDU team was en route. Mick had texted one minute earlier that he was waiting for them on the corner of Rossmore and Carville.

He hoped to God this was not another false lead, another setup, another distraction. But he had to follow it. If the intel was good and Alisa and her father, maybe even Novikov, were inside, they had to go for it. Every minute that they waited or debated was another minute Alisa would have to endure, and he had a continual prayer going through his head, begging for her to be okay .

He parked a block away from the designated address and jumped out,withthe rest of his team following. Mick came forward, dressed in black jeans and a black T-shirt, a weapon in his hand. It was seven-fifteen, and all the other buildings in the area appeared to be closed. It looked like a good location for Novikov to be holed up, building his bombs. But there were a lot of these areas in the sprawling city of Los Angeles. Hopefully, this was the right one.

"What have we got?" he asked Mick.

"One guard watching the front door, another at the back. Not sure how many are inside," Mick said in a terse tone. "There are two cars in the lot. One is registered to Stephanie Genaro."

Jason sucked in a breath of shock. "And the other vehicle?"

"Carl Hodges. Nothing on him. Could be stolen."

"And you're sure this intel is good?" he asked, still reeling with the thought that Stephanie was inside. Had she gotten another lead? Had she come on her own?

"It's good," Mick replied. "Novikov is either in that building now, or he's been there recently."

"Okay. Let's do this."

With humans guarding the doors, there was little doubt in his mind there was someone or something inside worth securing. The presence of security also implied the building was not rigged to explode.

They'd already geared up and developed a tactical plan in the car. Now they just had to execute. The HDU team would check in with Mick when they arrived and wait to be called in.

The four of them would take out the guards at the front and the back and make their way into the building. While Nick and Beck took the front, he and Savannah once again went around the back.

The guard at the back door was looking at something on his phone.

Savannahfeigned a stumbleinto the light, drawing the guard's attention .

"Who's there?" the man asked, looking in her direction.

"Can you help me? I'm lost," she said.

Jason used her voice for cover, sneaking up behind the man, and using his weapon to knock him out. The guard barely got out half a groan before he slunk to the ground.

The door was unlocked, and as they made their way inside, he heard a shrill and terrified scream. His heart stopped.

Alisa was here, and she was in trouble.

He raced toward the sound of her voice, through a loading area and down a dark hallway, her frantic, panicked cries piercing his heart with each step. She was so close. He could not be late. He could not lose her now.

And then the sound of a gunshot rocketed through him, and there was no more screaming.