Hidden Impact (Safeguard #1)(19)

*

Back in the car, the silence was killing Maylin. She’d huddled low in the middle seat of the SUV as they’d left the parking garage and only sat up once Gabe had given the okay.

They were out of the downtown area and on the highway before anyone spoke.

“No sign of a tail,” Marc reported from the backseat.

“Roger that.” Gabe’s acknowledgment came out harsh, angry.

The entire car was quiet again after that. Maylin watched mile markers go by, the tension inside her winding tighter and tighter. This wasn’t the way they’d come into the city. Maybe Gabe was taking them on a more roundabout way home.

She couldn’t sit still anymore. Reaching for the big, soft cooler bag she’d packed this morning, she tugged it up onto the seat next to her and started digging inside.

“Maylin, dear. What are you doing?” Victoria didn’t sound displeased but her tone was gentle, the way one would talk to somebody fragile.

Maylin wasn’t fragile. She was practical. And silence the whole car ride home was a waste of time.

She pulled out a sandwich wrapped in wax paper and held it out to Victoria.

The blonde mercenary blinked. “What?”

“It’s been hours since any of us ate. I made muffuletta sandwiches just in case we got hungry.” Maylin wiggled the package in front of Victoria. “There’s salami, ham, mozzarella, provolone, and olive salad. I raided the bigger kitchens over on the training side of the complex earlier this morning.”

“Seriously?” Marc snagged the sandwich out of Maylin’s hand. “I’m starving.”

Maylin quickly grabbed another wrapped sandwich and handed it to Victoria, who accepted it with a smile. Two more went up front to Lizzy and Gabe. Once everyone had a sandwich, Maylin took out one for herself, unwrapped it halfway and took a bite.

Savory, salty flavor burst across her tongue as she chewed. The olive salad had just the right punch and she loved the combination of the Italian meats. It wasn’t just a sandwich, it was a meal, and every bite should be packed with flavor and interesting.

Immediately, the atmosphere in the car edged away from icy tension to more relaxed.

Gabe paused in eating his sandwich. “Lizzy. Status?”

“Minor. Just a graze.” Lizzy took a minute to chew and swallow. “Shots came in a low spread across the kitchen. I’m thinking they saw vague movement through the curtains and took a chance they’d hit to injure.”

“Looks like they’re trying to wound our genius cook here, rather than kill her,” Marc said around a mouthful of bread and olives.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad whoever it is isn’t trying to kill me, but why?” Maylin took smaller bites in case something one of them said might make her choke. It’d been that kind of day.

“Couple of reasons come to mind.” Victoria licked olive oil from her bottom lip. “If you’re injured and an ambulance is called, it’d be easy to intercept and snag you before you ever made it to the hospital. No one at your apartment would think to look for you at the hospital for quite a while, am I correct?”

Victoria was right. Maylin swallowed hard. “Everyone would assume family or friends would meet me at the hospital. None of my neighbors know me well enough to know An-mei’s missing or that she’s the only family I’m in touch with.”

“Easy way to catch you off guard and whisk you away, then.” Victoria took a hearty bite of the sandwich. “This really is delicious, dear.”

Maylin smiled.

It was a kind of relief to know someone wasn’t trying to kill her. Only a marginal one, though, because being kidnapped was a close second on the scale of things that freaked her out.

“Well, we’ve learned a couple of other things about our mystery friends.” Marc took the napkin Maylin held out for him with a nod. He’d inhaled the sandwich. “Those devices are completely enclosed, tiny, and custom made. Probably limited range, so we’re okay now that we’ve put a few miles between us and their receiving device. But I won’t feel completely good about it until I can take what we’ve got apart and disconnect whatever power source they’ve got. I’ll try to do that while we’re on the move, before we get back to our base of operations. I’ll know more about any signature the maker might have once I take them apart, but those details alone are telling.”

Gabe looked up into the rearview mirror so he could see Marc. “Lay it out for us.”

“First, the clean and enclosed packaging means whoever did this had these ready for this specific purpose or for regular use. Either way, the maker put a lot of tech into tiny devices, which says to me some deep financial pockets. That kind of work isn’t cheap.”

Maylin put her half-eaten sandwich down. She wasn’t sure how she was going to counter adversaries with such money at their disposal.

“The smaller a device is, the shorter range it has, so the listeners had to be close.” Marc cleared his throat. “They were close enough to have eyes on the apartment, and even with the curtains drawn they could see enough shapes to take a shot at someone in the kitchen. I’m going to propose they thought it was our Maylin here, since anyone who’s observed her for more than a few hours knows she tends to hang out in there.”

A grunt came from Gabe up front. “Go on.”