The Hitman's Pregnant Bride: A Baby Romance by Alyse Zaftig Page B

actually show any accessible doors or passages leading from any level into the house itself. Memorizing the layout, tracing with his finger several routes through the estate, he sighed. He knew that it still wasn’t going to be easy. He needed to get his wife first; the retrieval was secondary. He hoped that he could do both.
    He only had one more job after this one. He was almost done.

30

Exchange
Andreas
    T he next day , the ride to the estate was incredibly tense. Harold and Andreas hadn’t spoken for the entire ride. Both of them were suffering from a chaos of thoughts. Was the exchange the right thing to do?
    At least they were doing something. Andreas hadn’t told Mr. Kaine about his secondary mission. Harold hadn’t talked much about this decision. The retrieval wasn’t all that important.
    He was going to lay down his life for his daughter’s. Andreas understood and respected the sacrifice; if it came down to it, he’d do the same thing for Phoebe’s sake. He was just much less valuable than an FBI agent. It was a necessary sacrifice, although Andreas wished that he didn’t have to play it that way. But he would do his best to make sure that the Kaines were safe.
    Andreas parked in an empty cornfield.
    “Text if you get a call.”
    They exchanged a meaningful glance.
    “I’ll be back.”
    Harold nodded but said nothing at all, not even, “Good luck.” For a man about to die and/or be tortured, it fit.
    Managing a grim smile, Andreas stepped out and let the door slam behind him. He neede dto get to the tunnels.
    He didn’t envy Harold, sitting alone in the car. He didn’t know what he’d told his wife, but Andreas was not looking forward to going back to his mother-in-law without his father-in-law.
    He headed to a small shack that concealed an entrance to the underground tunnels. Harold thought that Andreas was going to be helping Phoebe out; he had no idea that Andreas was going to be on the estate, too.
    He followed the track that the Agency had highlighted on the blueprint. He passed a small waterfall. The estate was built around a small valley, but the tunnels radiated beyond the valley. It was probably an ideal setup for smuggling.
    He was relieved that there didn’t seem to be any cameras detected by his bug finder. It made sense, if they were this close to the Pentagon. He shook his head. The Pentagon was so careful to protect its own secrecy that it ended up concealing the people that it was afraid of.
    He hurried through the first two tunnels until he reached the third one. He took a glance around, looking at all the corners. There hadn’t seemed to be any direct entrances into the house on the map, not even a ventilation system that would bring him upwards.
    Frowning, he turned his attention to the circled area on the map. It was a picture of the Grand Canyon in a frame. There had to be something besides that, which suggested that the Agency had some kind of contact and could have helped him way more than they actually had.
    He wound his way through the tunnels until he got to the painting. There was a small flash drive in the frame. He put it in his pocket.
    He ran back towards the car, knowing that he shouldn’t leave Harold stewing there for too long. When he got back to the car, one look told him that Odhran had already called.
    Harold looked as if he had looked death in the face.
    “Let’s hurry up and drive there. We’ve got an hour to wait.” He was pale, but Andreas respected him for keeping it together.
    Drawing in a sharp breath, Andreas looked forward as the car lurched to life and headed towards the rendezvous point. He felt as if he had failed Harold, but there weren’t any entrances leading from the tunnels into the estate. He would’ve been pushing his luck to try the other tunnels, not knowing what kind of surveillance might be on the other paths. Phoebe was his priority, not Harold.
    Andreas’ heart was tight in his chest when they finally got to the rendezvous