Chapter 25

Aaron pulled up to the gate at seventeen hundred, frowning at the police cars parked by the curb, their lights flashing. "What's going on?" he asked the armed guard, showing him his military ID.

"Someone unauthorized gained access to the premises earlier this afternoon. There was a robbery a couple of blocks down, and while I don't think it's related, the detectives asked to search the area. They're going door-to-door since the two victims were hurt. An older couple was taken to the hospital."

"Thanks," Aaron said, giving him a wave as he pulled through. He didn't see Emersyn standing by the front doors, but given the commotion, it wouldn't surprise him at all if she chose to wait inside. Parking his truck, he shot her a text.

Aaron: I'm in the parking lot. I'll head over to the front doors to wait for you.

Worry coursed through him as he climbed out and slammed the door. He crossed the asphalt in long strides, eager to get eyes on his girl. She still hadn't responded, but he had her office number programmed into his cell. While Emersyn couldn't bring her cell phone to the secure area of her building, if she was down in the lobby, she would've texted him back.

He swiped the screen on his phone, calling her desk as he watched police officers looking through shrubbery. The number rang and rang, eventually going to her voicemail. He frowned, looking through the glass again.

The police officers continued to the next area of landscaping, the DEA security watching them. "Excuse me," Aaron said. "Where did the robbery occur?"

One of the officers gave the location, and the men continued on their way.

A DEA Special Agent came out the front doors, and Aaron realized it was the same man he'd seen crossing the parking lot this morning. "You're Emersyn's boyfriend," he said, looking confused. "I remember seeing you with her this morning in your truck. Did she forget something? I can run back up and grab it since you don't have access to our vault."

Aaron felt a chill wash over him, the hair on the back of his neck standing up. "What do you mean? I'm here to pick her up."

The man looked surprised. "But she left at lunch. Rick got a text from her saying she wasn't feeling well and had to go home."

"Shit," Aaron said, shock spiking through his system. "She wouldn't have left without telling me. She's staying at my place and doesn't even have a key yet."

"Unless she went back to her own apartment?" the man asked.

"No. She would've called me. We were texting at lunch, and she was fine. There's no reason she'd have texted her boss after that and not me."

The agent looked him dead in the eye, a hint of sympathy mixed with anger in his gaze. "There was someone unauthorized who gained access to the building earlier. A man snuck in when some of the janitors were taking the trash out. Security noticed him on our cameras, but by the time they went to investigate, he was already gone."

"What time did that happen?" Aaron asked urgently.

"Noon."

A flash of terror washed over Aaron, white hot and piercing pain soon following as agony roiled through him. "Someone took her!" he said, his voice hoarse. "They used her phone. Pretended to be Emersyn and said she was sick. She left on her lunch break and never came back!"

***

Emersyn mumbled, trying to get her bearings. Her hands were restrained, and as she tried to move, she realized her ankles were tied, too. Tears spilled down her cheeks as she realized she was lying on the floor in a dark space. She couldn't see a damn thing, but if she moved slightly, she could feel a stack of boxes at her back.

Groaning, she hefted herself up to a sitting position, leaning back against a large cardboard box behind her. It felt like the room was spinning around her—not that she could see a single thing. The ropes bit into the skin at her wrists, and she struggled to free herself, realizing they'd been tied too tightly.

She looked around in the dark, trying to get a sense if she was alone. There were sounds in the distance—a road or highway. Cars driving by. She didn't even know how much time had passed. Struggling to sort through her torrent of thoughts, she remembered the janitor in the courtyard.

He was familiar.

She knew him, didn't she?

He'd knocked her out with something strong, and it was like her mind was struggling to come back on track.

The rumbling sound of a garage door sliding open made her freeze in shock. Footsteps sounded, reverberating on the metal floor, and then a light was turned on. A lone bulb hung from the ceiling, casting a dim light around the storage space. And the man staring down at her looked livid.

She blinked, trying to remember all the details of his face in case she got away from him. White. Possibly mid-thirties. Balding. Slim nose. Hard eyes that practically bored into hers.

Alarm bells starting going off in her head. She did know who he was. She just couldn't figure out why he'd be here.

"You're Eric," she murmured.

"Damn fucking right I am! You've been investigating me. Tracking the Sinaloa's Cartel's contact with American tourists. Monitoring my involvement with them. That was your first mistake, honey. I'm smarter than everyone else at DEA, and I'm damn well smarter than you!"

She shrunk back as he shouted, her mind trying to catch up. Most of what this guy was saying sounded senseless.

"I had to leave Mexico!" he raged. "Me! The guy who planned it all! The mastermind! No one knew what I was doing. No one cared. I'm just the IT guy, fixing everyone's damn fucking computer."

"So you started working for a cartel?" she asked in disbelief.

"They appreciated me. They paid me handsomely. Flew me down to Mexico on their dime. Let me do what I wanted with their women. Did I trade secrets for cash? Hell fucking yeah! I moved merchandise for them, too. No one ever thought to question me, the nerdy IT guy. I flew under the radar until I tried to disappear. Then suddenly everyone wanted to know where I am!"

She blinked, staring at the vein bulging on his forehead. His entire face was turning red, and he began to sweat as he paced the storage locker. "Why are you here in Hawaii?" she asked. "A team was sent to rescue you in Mexico, but you were gone. Why would you fly thousands of miles to come here?"

"Alejandro Lopez told me I was useless to him now! The only way for me to live is to end you and the agents involved in arresting his cousin!" Wilder yelled. "You cost him millions, and for that, you'll never be forgiven!"

"Do you even hear yourself?" Emersyn asked, her voice shaking.

"I worked too damn hard to become Alejandro Lopez's next victim. If I don't kill you and the others, he'll end my life. Mine! I've got millions stashed away. I've got everything planned! After this visit to Hawaii, I'm never setting foot in the United States again."

Emersyn sucked in a breath, trying to follow his crazed rambling. "You kidnapped me," she said. "Why did you bring me here? Where are we?"

His gaze grew hard as it swept the space. "A storage locker filled with thousands of pounds of drugs. I'm going to end your life, but it's going to be where it'll hurt Lopez. He double-crossed me thanks to your meddling. I'm going to send him a photo of you by his most prized possessions, his fucking drugs, and then I'm going to send this whole place up in flames!"

Her gaze landed on his hand as he pulled something from his pocket, and she realized he wasn't joking. He had a cell phone in one hand and a lighter in the other. If he left her to die in this small room, she'd be lucky if smoke inhalation killed her first. Otherwise, she'd be burned alive.

"Eric, wait," she pleaded, her heart pounding erratically. "I work for the DEA just like you. I can help you. We'll tell them it was all a mistake and you were forced to work for the cartel. You might get some jail time, but you won't be on the run for the rest of your life."

Eric moved to the backpack she hadn't seen earlier in the dark, pulling out a bottle of lighter fluid. She froze, watching as he began to squirt it all over the boxes, spinning around like a maniac. His backpack fell to the ground, off-balance without the bottle of lighter fluid, and she stared in surprise as her phone tumbled to the ground. Was he really that careless? If it was still turned on, Aaron could track her here. She wasn't sure how much time had passed, but he was supposed to pick her up from work at five. Her colleagues would've noticed she never returned from lunch. Aaron would realize she wasn't there when he showed up. But would he find her in time?

A box crashed to the floor as Eric stomped to the other side of the space, and the fumes from the fluid began to fill the air. That crazy man was emptying the entire bottle into the storage unit. When he squeezed the last liquid from it, he tossed it to the ground, muttering and swearing under his breath.

Quickly crossing the room, he snatched his bag, smirking as he shoved her phone back inside. "Guess you won't be needing that anymore. Alejandro's about to find out he messed with the wrong guy." Eric held up his phone, snapping a picture of Emersyn tied up and sitting on the floor. He chuckled as he took a video of the boxes stacked around her, opening one to show the drugs packed inside. "Hope he's ready for a good show. Time to die, bitch."

"Wrong." Aaron's cold voice filled the storage locker, and Emersyn gasped in surprise. She hadn't even heard him come in, but relief, sharp and immediate, flooded through her as she saw him standing beneath the open garage door, every muscle in his body tense.

Eric turned toward the entrance, and suddenly Aaron was flying through the air, tackling Eric to the ground. The much-smaller man instantly crumbled beneath him, yelping in pain, no match for Aaron's size or strength.

"He poured lighter fluid everywhere!" Emersyn yelled. "He's going to set the whole place ablaze!" She fought against her restraints, trying to stand up.

Aaron flipped Eric over, easily pinning his arms behind his back as Eric howled in rage. Aaron seethed above him, a look of anger on his face that Emersyn had never seen before. He'd come straight from base, dressed in his camo gear and combat boots, and as he looked up, his gaze raked over her. "Are you okay?"

"He tied me up. Knocked me out with some chemicals. We have to get out of here!" she said, her voice shaking.

Footsteps sounded in the corridor, and then Hudson and Sawyer burst into the storage locker. "We need to hurry," Hudson said in a clipped tone, sniffing the air. "One spark, and this entire place will go up in flames."

He was already hustling toward Emersyn, crouching down and lifting her up into his strong arms like she weighed nothing. Hudson looked into her eyes in surprise for a beat, shaking his head, then began moving quickly to the door. "I'll cut the ropes off outside once we reach the parking lot. We need to get you far away from here. And damn. For a second there, you looked just like Layton."

Emersyn didn't question it, just watched as Sawyer moved toward Aaron, each man yanking Wilder up by one arm and hustling him out of there. Sawyer was already on the phone, calling 911, as they rushed out of the building and toward the parking lot, leaving the storage unit a good distance behind them.

Aaron used Eric Wilder's own rope to restrain him, tightly tying his wrists together as Hudson gently set Emersyn down in the grass, pulling a large knife from its sheath to free her. Eric yelled and raged as he was restrained, and Aaron turned, punching him right in the face.

"You almost killed her!" Aaron yelled, losing his careful control. "We should've left your lying ass in that goddamn place to die!"

He tossed the rest of the rope down to the ground, leaving Sawyer to watch over the man who'd betrayed them all. Who'd chosen money over loyalty to his country. Aaron stalked toward Emersyn, and she could practically see the anger rolling off him. He'd kept his cool while he'd quietly slipped into the storage unit, but now he looked ready to murder Eric Wilder.

As Emersyn stood in the grass with Hudson, a light flipped on in another storage unit, looking bright in the darkness around them. The explosion that followed from the unit saturated in lighter fluid lit up the night sky, the boom and accompanying heat terrifying. Aaron leapt forward and took her to the ground, turning so he took the brunt of the fall, then rolling them over so his big body shielded hers as debris filled the air.

"Holy shit!" Sawyer yelled. "The mother fucker blew up the goddamn building!"

"No!" Eric yelled. "No, no, no!"

Hudson was rising to his feet beside them, rushing to see if anyone had been hurt in the explosion.

Emersyn lay still beneath Aaron in the grass, clutching onto his uniform. "Holy hell," he said, looking from the raging fire back to her. "I thought I lost you." His voice was thick with emotion, and there was a fear in his eyes that she'd never seen before.

"How'd you find me here?" she asked tearfully. "My phone?"

He nodded, swiping away one of her tears. "When I showed up at your office and you weren't there, Special Agent Mathers and I quickly figured out what was going on. The perp had texted from your own damn phone. He told your boss you weren't feeling well and left for the day." Aaron shook his head as the sound of sirens filled the air, the storage unit still blazing hot in the distance. "We were able to track your cell. Mathers stayed to update DEA. I told him my teammates would have my back. We rushed over here as fast as we could."

"I still can't believe you got here in time," she said, her voice full of emotion.

"You're it for me, Emersyn. The one. I already told you I loved you, but I want you to know how much I mean it."

"You risked your life for me," she said in amazement.

"I rescued you once before," he said, his lips quirking. "I wasn't about to let all that hard work go to waste." He brushed a strand of blonde hair back from her face, his touch tender. She knew they should probably get up and move, help, give their statements to the police, but it felt too good to lie here safe in Aaron's arms.

Emersyn smiled through her tears, looking up into the eyes of the man she loved. "That's sound logic, sailor. Might as well protect your investment and all. Take me home so I can show you how thankful I am."

"If I take you home, I might never let you go," he said, his eyes sparking with heat and something softer beneath.

"That's more than okay with me."

Aaron gently caressed her cheek and then kissed her, slow and sweet, right there on the grass, with commotion and sirens and emergency vehicles around them. They were meant for each other, and nothing and no one would keep them apart.