Asher nodded in agreement.
“Good luck,” Eden encouraged as Leland strode out the door. She bent and checked Suzanne another time, even though the woman tried to wave her away.
“You’ll be doing good once we get some ice on you again.” Then she stood up and looked at Asher. “Is that thing on?” she nodded to the radio.
Ash nodded.
“The people you saw are Heinrich Becker, he’s the IMF Chairman, you know Carlson, the tall blond woman is Dr. Gerta Nilsson. Gerta may or may not be in cahoots with Becker.” She looked up at Asher. “Your computer genius is following Becker’s money to see if he has anything going on with Maduro, right?”
Ash nodded at Eden. He was less than happy, because his friend the guru was late.
“So, who else?” Ezio’s voice came through the radio.
“Kaito Nakamura is the Japanese man. He’s our international stock market expert.”
“Do you speak Japanese?” Asher asked.
“Some. But Kaito’s fluent in English.”
“Ezio, we’ve got Eden York, Leland Hines, and Suzanne Azua here in the basement. At least we did. Leland just left to get ice for the Señora’s neck wound. Let us know the second anyone leaves the office.”
“Roger that.”
Asher clicked on his radio. “Raiden. What’s the status with the elevators?”
“Give me two more minutes, and they’ll be disabled. No explosives necessary.”
“How in the hell did you manage that?” Asher demanded.
“These are an old brand with a specific hoist motor and pendant controller. Nic was able to YouTube how to cripple it. It’ll take new parts to fix.” He could hear the pride in Raiden’s voice.
Gotta love you some YouTube.
Eden heard Asher’s radio click again. It was the first guy, the one who had eyes and ears on Suzanne’s office.
“Another guy just joined the party. He’s American. He’s holding a bag of ice. He and Carlson are yelling at one another.”
Fuckity fuck fuck. I’m not going to scream.
What is Leland doing in there? He needs to be coming down here with ice for Suzanne.
Suzanne started to cough. Asher had moved to the door of the office when Leland had left so that he could monitor the stairs. He rushed back to Suzanne’s side when she started to cough.
He hit the button on his radio. “You done with that elevator, Raiden?” His voice was clipped.
“One more minute. What’s up?”
“Need a medic down here. Stat.”
“Nic, finish up,” Eden heard the man say. “Asher, I’ll be done to the basement in less than a minute. I’ve got my med kit.”
Thank God.
Eden looked down at her hand and was amazed it wasn’t trembling. She’d talked a good game to Kane, but the idea of having to perform a tracheotomy on Suzanne Azua scared the shit out of her.
“I’m going to direct Raiden this way,” Asher said before he ran out of the office.
Suzanne wheezed.
“Help will be right here.” Eden grabbed the one bottle of water they had and cleaned off as much blood as she could from where she judged Suzanne’s windpipe to be. Suzanne whimpered and Eden wanted to cry.
She gripped Suzanne’s hand and looked her dead in the eye. “It’s going to be okay. These guys are supermen. Don’t pay any attention to all the shit I’ve been giving them, they will save your life, do your dry cleaning, and then cook your dinner. You’ll see.”
She saw Suzanne’s eyes sparkle before her face suffused with pain.
Fucking hurry!
A door slammed.
Almost before she could turn around, a big, rough-looking man was skidding on his knees beside Eden, knife, and tubing in his hand.
“Good job on wiping the area clean,” he said as he grappled with his utility pouch. He yanked it off his tactical vest and shoved it at her. “Grab the antiseptic wipes.”
“Asher, down here. Help me get her on the floor.”
“You got it Raiden,” Asher answered.
As soon as Suzanne was lying prone, he cupped her cheek. He put his ear next to her mouth and grimaced.
“Gotta do this now.”
Eden handed him the moist towelette.
“Have gauze ready,” he commanded. Then he cleansed the area and wiped off the knife. He wasted no time in making a deep cut in her neck. As soon as he pierced her windpipe, Suzanne’s chest heaved upwards as she took in a deep breath. Raiden was inserting the surgical tubing as Eden tried to work around him and stop the flow of blood around the cut.
“Slower,” Eden told Suzanne as she brushed back her hair. “You have air now, don’t take tiny breaths, nice even breathing,” she advised. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched as Raiden applied tape to the surgical tubing to keep it in place.
“What now?” she asked Asher.
“Now, we get her to a hospital, just like we said in the beginning.” His smile was calm and soothing.
“Just going to walk on out the front door and put her in an ambulance, are you?”
He turned to Raiden, “Sarcasm is how she deals with stress,” he explained.
“Answer the damned question.”
Asher came closer and put his hand on her shoulder and squeezed. Eden was surprised at the amount of comfort she took in the act, especially since he hadn’t proven himself to her yet. But hasn’t he? Hadn’t she finally met somebody cut of the same cloth as the men in her family? At last?
There was something about Asher Thorne that made her want to lean on him. Something about him that made her ache to believe in him. She shrugged it off; she needed to focus on the fact that they were still stuck in the bank, and Suzanne still needed to get to a hospital.
“We’re going to get Señora Azua out the same way we came in. My lieutenant will be waiting
