Here Comes the Rainne Again (Invertary 6)

Megan couldn’t take it anymore. She walked across the room from where she’d been standing beside the window and sat on the bed beside Dimitri.

“I’m sorry,” she said. “That’s awful.”

She covered his clenched fist with her hand. Dimitri stared into her eyes for a moment, then surprised them both by turning his hand and linking their fingers. Megan faced her friends and family and mentally dared them to say something. It was only hand holding. A little comfort for a distraught man. Nothing more.

Lake eyed her thoughtfully before talking to Dimitri. “What’s this got to do with Claire?”

“Rudi wants Claire delivered to him. I don’t know why. But he ordered her specifically. I got in on the job because Reynard was an idiot. A rank amateur who was hiring guys without checking them out. He’s worked with Rudi before and wanted to curry favour to get higher in the organisation. He didn’t have a clue what he was doing. Most of the guys he hired were wannabe soldiers. He put together a mini-army for one snatch and grab.”

Megan stiffened beside him. “You weren’t actually going to help him take my sister, were you?” Because it sure as hell sounded like he wasn’t impressed by their professionalism.

Grunt made a loud growling noise from deep in his chest. It went a long way towards proving Megan’s theory that he was related to King Kong. She noticed her frowning sister did nothing to soothe the beast. From the fury in her eyes, Claire was pretty close to growling herself.

“No,” Dimitri said hastily, his eyes on Grunt. “My plan was to foil his attempts while gathering intel.”

“You know you’re really crap at planning.” Megan remembered his promise to come up with something when she was taken. She hadn’t been impressed.

Dimitri shrugged. “There were plenty of times in the past week where we could have lifted Claire. I made sure it wasn’t possible.”

“And we should thank you?” Megan was really beginning to regret holding the guy’s hand.

“No. But you should listen.” He looked at Grunt. “He’s got it in for you. Reynard told me that Rudi wants Claire to get back at you. He had a buyer set up for her. A guy in the Middle East who is known for going through slaves. He planned to put Claire in place and then feed you the information. There was talk of photos and video.”

Grunt stepped away from the armchair, turned and put his fist through the door. He then retracted his fist, perched on the chair beside Claire and wrapped his arm around her as though nothing had happened.

“Nobody touches my wife,” he said.

Claire smiled and snuggled into her husband. They were both nuts.

“Yeah,” Joe said. “We’re all getting that, big guy.”

“Why is this Rudi guy after you?” Lake asked as Kirsty and Megan shared a wide-eyed look over Grunt’s show of strength.

If Megan was reading the girl-look correctly, and she was fluent in girl-looks, then Kirsty was just as impressed, and slightly disturbed, as she was.

“It was one of the first jobs we took when we went out on our own,” Joe answered for Grunt. “A client in the US wanted us to escort his daughter home from Romania. He said she was in a bad relationship and feared for her life. He wanted protection for her when she made a move to leave the guy.” Joe let out a sigh. “We went to Bucharest, met up with the woman in a back-street café. She had a black eye and swollen lip, and that was just the damage we could see. She wanted to go back and pack her stuff, but we intervened. It was clear she had to get out of there straight away. She didn’t even have a passport on her, said the husband kept it in his safe. We figured we could smuggle her over the border into Moldova or the Ukraine, then contact some people we knew and get her papers made up so we could get her on a flight to the US.”

Joe looked at Grunt, who was staring, stony-faced, into the distance. Every muscle in his body was tense while Claire petted his chest and made cooing noises.

“She had guards,” Joe said. “She didn’t even know she was being followed until they attacked when we left the café. I got her out of there while Grunt dealt with the guards. One of them got away.” He looked at Grunt, whose jaw was tight. “It wasn’t your fault. The cops turned up and the whole situation went to hell.” He looked back at Lake. “We foun

d out later that the girl was Rudi’s wife. And Rudi had Grunt’s face on camera. It stands to reason he would have eventually tracked him down. He’d want payback. The sick bastard would see it as quid pro quo—we took his wife, he takes Grunt’s.”

“I don’t like his thinking,” Claire said, stating the obvious. “I don’t even know this Rudi guy. I don’t want to be his pro anything.”

“I won’t let him take you,” Grunt promised.

“I know.” Claire looked perfectly relaxed as she snuggled closer to her man.

“As much as I appreciate your declaration,” Dimitri said to Grunt, taking his life in his hands and proving he wasn’t the sharpest tack in the box, “Rudi isn’t going to quit. He’ll keep coming until he gets what he wants.”

“Or gets dead.” Grunt’s dark eyes dared Dimitri to object.

“I don’t hear anything about anyone killing anyone,” Matt said into the silence that followed Grunt’s declaration. Megan’s brother rubbed a hand down his face. He looked beyond tired after an evening gathering statements and sorting out prisoners. Invertary was far too much work for one cop. He stared Dimitri down. “You’re going on the record, saying this was a kidnapping for hire. That will sort out a lot of my paperwork. The last thing I want to see are charges brought against Lake and his guys.”

Dimitri shook his head. “I can’t.” Everyone in the room became instantly tense. “I can’t blow my cover. I need to go back to Rudi. I need to find my sister.”

“We’ll find your sister,” Joe said. “We’ll do it when we deal with Rudi.” He looked at Grunt, who nodded his approval.