Page 248 of Deep Cover

35

Cole

Morning two weeks after they took Annie. Half an hour after learning Kie wasn't dead.

"Sir! I've got the staff at the Phoenix property online." That was a tech who looked cliché – covered in crumbs of snack food, needing a haircut and a shower. He was good. He was fast.

"Mr. St. Martin! I've found a trace. Phone calls between the fiancé's phone and a Portland mental hospital."

I swore, listening to the others reporting in.

Kie was on the move, headed our way.

The Arizona house was up and running. We'd take choppers there, set up housekeeping, put together an operation to retrieve Annie.

New guards were on their way but held up getting weapons.

That I didn't like.

I liked even less that Kie was already in the west.

"Get me Annie at the hospital. Use her fiancé's name." By now whatever protocol the hospital had in place, they'd be used to calls from Mark.

"Sir? There's – "

And the tech just stopped talking. The screens mounted on walls of the communications room showed the outside perimeters.

There was no point in sending extra guns and men. Or another way of looking at it – they needed to hurry.

Kie had arrived and her men had just taken out four of eight of mine. She arrived with a crew there wasn't time to count and they came in and opened fire.

Now they stood outside the compound doors, demanding entry.

There were reasons to hold out. I could get to the roof and to the helicopter, but she could get her men to the roof from the outside.

I could bring in my new team, they were already on their way, and techs were already sending out messages about what they were walking in to, but it would take them time to gather their weapons.

Or I could let her in. Because Annie wasn't here and Annie was who she wanted. Letting her in, that put her on my turf, even if at the start, I wasn't in control. When she didn't have Annie, I didn't think she'd kill me straight off.

And when she came in, I'd be in body armor and armed as well. Standoff. Waiting for the compound's reinforcements.

Waiting on Annie, which I had been anyway.

And finding a way to take down Kie. This time I'd be certain she was dead. Because this time I'd do it myself.

"Open communications with exterior," I said, then "No, don't. Not yet."

It was time to call Annie.

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