Dungeon Royale (Masters and Mercenaries) (46 page)

Baz stood behind Penelope, one hand on her shoulder and the other behind her back. He could only imagine that Baz was holding a gun on her. The second time in a week someone had threatened to kill her. “You can’t imagine what I want from you.”

Someone shouted in German behind him, and Damon watched as Penelope’s eyes flared. She knew what they’d said and it meant something to her. Her lips pursed.

She was planning something. She might be the translator, but he’d learned to read her body language. He was an expert in Penelope Cash, in the way she looked when she was happy or mad, or just about to do something incredibly stupid that would make him want to toss her over his knee and blister her bottom.

After they made it to the embassy, of course.

He had to keep Baz talking. He’d said something about Damon not knowing what he really wanted.

“You’ll have it. All you have to do is let her walk away from this.” Damon took a step forward. “Think about it, Baz. You can make your bosses very happy with you and you’ll have me on a leash, ready to do anything you want.”

The thought made him nauseous, but he would do it. He would be Baz’s slave right up until he got the chance to cut the bugger’s throat and watch him bleed out.

“Are you offering to fuck me, Damon?” There was no way to mistake how hot Baz’s eyes got.

“If you let her go, yes. Haven’t you figured it out? Do you remember when we used to talk about the things we were willing to do for our country? I said anything. I was wrong. She’s the one thing I can’t sacrifice. She’s the one thing I’ll do anything for. Every man has something he wants above everything else. I want Penelope to live.”

A bitter laugh huffed from Baz’s mouth. “You don’t know a bloody thing. You think I want a quick fuck? I wanted to be the thing you would never sacrifice. I wanted that. And if I can’t be that to you, then no one can.”

“Penelope!” Damon moved forward, screaming her name.

But she was already on the move. She threw herself to the side, her head ducking down even as Baz fired.

A splash of crimson formed on her right arm, blood blooming.

“
Halt!
” a new voice rang out. A tall blond man moved with the grace of a natural predator. He held a Ruger in a two-fisted grip and spoke in accented English. “You will lay down the weapon.”

German intelligence. He never thought he’d be happy to see them.

Baz stopped, his jaw clenching.

Damon reached down and helped Penelope up. “Are you all right?”

Of course she wasn’t all right. She’d been shot. But she simply nodded. “I think so. It hurts, but I think it grazed me. The bleeding isn’t bad at all.”

He looked at her side, and it was more of a burn than anything else.

Taggart walked up behind them with another German in tow. “Thank god. I thought we’d lost him. Damon, this is Agent Eberstark. I told him we’d been tracking Bennett in a joint MI6/CIA mission. I think you’ll find that the Agency has been in contact with your bosses, but we can settle everything up once we get this fucker in custody.”

Bloody bastard.
There was a reason he loved Tag. The man was cool under pressure and he could lie like a pro. Damon made sure to stand in front of Penelope. He didn’t want her in the line of fire one second longer. “Bennett, you should give it up now. You’re surrounded. There’s nowhere to go.”

Baz frowned, his gun still up. “I’m not Bennett and you bloody well know it.”

The first German stared, keeping Baz in his sights. “I thought Bennett was an American.”

“He’s turned out to be a master of disguise,” Taggart said in a perfect British accent. He grinned a little and was back to sounding as American as apple pie. “British accents aren’t hard. He was trying to get to England.”

“His accomplice is in that black van over there. She’s actually British,” Penelope said. “You should arrest her.”

Eberstark smiled. “How did he catch you, Miss Cash? I thought you were in the suite. We checked it out to see how many of the team Knight here was leaving behind.”

Penelope’s hands rested on his hips. “He knew we were about to catch him so he had his partner drug the tea you brought up. He figured out that Damon and I are closer than normal partners so he thought he could use me to get away.”

Eberstark nodded. “Ah, well, I would try to save that fucker there, but I’m certainly not sleeping with him.”

Damon went still as he felt Penelope’s hand slide into his pocket. What was she doing now?

“The game is up, Bennett. We’re not going to allow you to sell your work on the black market.” Damon needed to get Penelope out of here. The bullets could start flying again at any moment.

Taggart looked over at Damon. “I’m damn glad I found you. Jake’s back at the embassy talking to Ten. He knows the plan went all to hell and he’s ready to help. I suspect we’ll spend a lot of time in debrief with our new friends.”

He might not always understand Penelope, but thank god he spoke spy fluently. Jake was waiting for him. He needed to get to the embassy, the American one this time. It was the only shot they had at carrying out the plan to destroy the drive.

“I am not Walter Bennett. They’re playing you. Damon’s got the package. He’s got it in his pocket. Check it.” Baz wasn’t letting up. Even with three guns on him, because Taggart had his out now, he wasn’t backing down.

Oh, his girl was a smart one. He reached into his pockets and pulled them out, showing everyone they were perfectly empty. “Would you like to check my jacket?”

Eberstark shook his head. “Not at all. We’ll take this one into custody and have a nice long chat. Taggart, you will come with us? We don’t want to cut our allies out of anything, as you would certainly never have cut us out.”

The last was said with a definite zing, but then everyone knew the game.

And Baz knew that it was over.

He pulled the trigger and fired straight into Eberstark’s body, felling the German agent with a single bullet to the neck.

Eberstark’s partner fired back, but Baz was on the move and now tourists were screaming and running, making the entire park a dangerous mess.

“Go!” Taggart yelled, his SIG in his hand. “Get her out of here. You know what to do.”

Damon took Penelope’s hand. She was his mission. Getting her out alive was the only thing that mattered. He ran with her, directly back to the memorial where he could lose them both. The slabs started out around his knees, but then the ground sloped down and before long the sun was obscured as they went underground. They raced along the narrow square-set path.

“The embassy is to the left,” Penelope said.

“Give me the package, love.” He held out his hand. He didn’t want her caught with it, didn’t want her to have anything at all to do with what was going to happen.

He’d just pocketed the drive when he felt a burning sensation in his arm. He turned and Baz was running across the tops of the slabs.

“If I’m going down, you’re going with me, Damon.” He took aim, but Baz’s right shoulder was thrown as a bullet slammed into him. Baz yelled as he threw himself to the ground.

“Go!” Taggart said. He leapt from one slab to the next. He had to be four or five meters off the ground. “I’ll deal with this fuck. If I can find him, damn it.”

He took Penelope’s hand and broke to the left. His heart was thudding in his chest as he ran up the sloping path. By the time they made it out of the memorial, his breath was sawing in and out.

He would make it. He couldn’t see the embassy from where he stood, but it was close. Right behind the building ahead.

Sirens wailed all around him. Another threat. The German police wouldn’t care that he had a mission. They would only know that a couple of Brits and a yank had been firing in the middle of tourist central.

If they were taken in, they would have no idea who to trust.

“Run, love. You can go faster than me.” He jogged beside her, letting go of her hand.

Penelope didn’t speed up. “No. We go together.”

He would slow her down. “Please. Go. Get Jake. He’s at the American Embassy. Do you know where it is? Please, love. I need him. I won’t be able to make it.”

“I love you, Damon.” She took off.

He had to try. Damon forced his legs to move. He still had the package. He couldn’t give it to her, couldn’t give her that responsibility. If they were going to come after someone, it had to be him. Even if it meant he died because he couldn’t live in a world that didn’t have her in it. Jake knew the plan. Jake would come and get him.

Pain flared through his system as his right shoulder took a bullet. Blood spat from his chest, and he felt his knees weaken and then crack as he hit the stone under him.

His vision blurred as he fell forward. His gun bit into the muscles of his gut. He could already feel the blood pooling.

He was right back there again with blood and death all around him. The first time he nearly died, vengeance had kept him alive.

The vision he had this time was quite different.

“I told you. If I can’t have you, no one can.” Baz kicked him hard, rolling him over.

One chance. His whole body shook but he had one last thing to do. He forced his finger to pull the trigger.

Baz stared down at him as red splashed across his belly. A dumb look came over his eyes and he started to aim again.

Another crash hit Damon’s ears and a hole was suddenly where Baz’s heart should have been.

His greatest enemy was dead and the only reason Damon cared at all was because Penelope would be safe.

He let his hand fall to the side, staring up at that brilliant sky. So blue. Like Penelope’s eyes.

“No you don’t, you bastard.” Taggart shoved his gun into the holster, and Damon groaned in pain as Taggart hauled him up. “You hold on, you son of a bitch, because I can’t take this slow. They’re coming up on us fast. Do you have the package?”

“In my pocket,” he managed. “Do you trust Ten?”

Someone was shouting behind them in German. The police had arrived, and they seemed to be after Taggart.

The man didn’t hesitate. Even with Damon’s weight, Taggart sprinted. “It’s going to be fine.”

And Damon endured. Pain wracked his system, but he held on.

Damon forced his head up. They were clear of the memorial and the large buildings that surrounded it. He could see the police running, but they were losing ground.

“Damon!” Penelope’s voice rang out.

Damon suddenly found himself in the cool of a building.

“Motherfucker’s heavy.” Taggart eased him onto what felt like a couch. “He took at least two. We need to dig them out.”

A warm hand was suddenly in his, and Penelope’s face loomed in his vision.

“Damn it. I thought y’all were going to avoid an international incident,” a man with a slow Southern accent said. “I’ll go try to find a doctor. I swear if you two hadn’t managed to bring in the package, there would likely be hell to pay.”

Damon’s brain was muddled. There were so many faces around him. “The package…”

He had the package. Something about the package.

Tennessee Smith looked straight down at him, his face deeply serious. “Your girl brought it to me. Well, she gave it to Jake who brought it to me. I gave it to the head of the Agency who came here himself, you understand? That’s how important it was. We’re grateful, of course.”

Ten stared down at him, his eyes saying everything he couldn’t because they were all being watched. Damon understood that much.
Don’t give it away. Keep your mouth shut.

“Of course.”

Ten nodded. “I’ll be back with a doc, and we’ll see what we can do to smooth things over with the Germans.”

“I think you’ll find Walter Bennett is dead in the square.” They had a shot at Bennett having a life if Ten would just go along.

Ten frowned, his voice going low. “Really? That’s the way we’re going? Tag, get Miles on it and fast because they’ll be looking. I’d tell you to use Chelsea, but she’s still asleep.”

“Everyone all right?” God, he didn’t know what happened. Pain was wracking his system, but he wanted to know what happened to his team.

Penelope was crying, her tears hitting his chest. “Everyone’s fine. Stop worrying about that.” She turned to Ten. “He needs a doctor. He needs to go to hospital.”

She was so pretty when she cried. He held her hand. The last thing he felt as the darkness took him was Taggart pulling the actual package free.

He would destroy it. Damon had no doubt. He knew he should. He’d never trusted anyone. Another thing Penelope had given him. Taggart would take care of things.

Damn, but it was bloody good to have friends. The darkness took him again.

Chapter Twenty-Two

London, England

One week later

Penelope threaded her hands together as she took her seat in Nigel’s office. “You asked to see me?”

Nigel stared at her across the desk. “Yes, I did. I need to understand what happened in Germany.”

She managed not to wince. She’d been dreading this meeting ever since they’d made it home to London. They were all back at The Garden, recuperating. The McKay-Taggart team had only left a day before. “You read my report.”