Page 71 of The B-Team

“I’m beginning to think I’m with the wrong team,” Rodrigo said as they jogged up the stairs to the front entrance. It’d been quite some time since he’d had this much fun. “You London guys sure know how to enjoy yourselves.”

“You’ll get there,” Ryan said as he held the door open for Rodrigo. “Takes time for a team to bond enough to take the ribbing.”

“Yeah?” Rodrigo asked. “How long?”

“Six years,” Ryan said with chuckle.

Rodrigo shook his head as he followed Ryan through the wisps of smoke to the reception desk. They weren’t armed, but then neither were the UK cops—something Rodrigo couldn’t get his head around. Anyway, they didn’t need weapons. This was a stealth mission: Get in. Get the info. Get out.

They were using Julia’s phone to talk to Katrina. It was in Ryan’s back pocket, but Rodrigo could hear her because they’d split a pair of earbuds between them. It was about as low-tech as they could possibly go without using hand signals.

“There it is.” Ryan pointed to the white desk lamp. “Keep an eye out while I grab the code.”

“On it,” Rodrigo said as Ryan rounded the reception desk.

“Katrina,” Ryan said. “How’re things going down there?”

“They’ve found the instruction manual and are arguing over the hokey-pokey step. The general consensus is that part’s a joke. Maybe. One of them thinks there are sensors set to record the dance as part of the disarming process.”

Rodrigo couldn’t help but laugh. “Where did he get that idea? WatchingSpy Kids?” he asked Ryan.

“You guys need to hurry up,” Katrina said. “Any minute now, they’ll press that big red button, and I’ll have to fake a reboot.”

“Got it.” Ryan held up a piece of paper with a shit-eating grin.

Then, as Rodrigo watched, his face went slack, and he let out a strangled groan. Clutching his head, Ryan dropped to the floor.

Rodrigo ran to his side, took the paper from Ryan’s grasp, and secured it in his pocket while Ryan writhed on the floor, holding his head.

“Katrina, we have a problem,” Rodrigo said to his teammate. “Ryan’s having some kind of seizure.”

“Can you carry him to the car?” Katrina sounded worried.

“I can try.” He bent to lift Ryan, but lights flashed on the other side of the glass front doors.

He ducked behind the reception desk and slid Ryan closer so no part of him stuck out from behind the desk.

“Somebody’s out there,” Rodrigo whispered. “Have you got a visual on the outside cameras?”

“Damn. It’s more police.” Now she sounded panicked. “Two officers with flashlights. They must’ve been sent to check on their colleagues.”

Beside him, Ryan groaned.

“Katrina, if you have any ideas, now would be the time to voice them,” Rodrigo said evenly as a flashlight beam scanned the reception area.

“I’m thinking.”

There was a rattling sound as someone tried the locked doors.

“Think fast,” Rodrigo told her.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Rachel wasnothappy. Things werenotgoing to plan. The suite she’d booked to have her baby in wasn’t available because she’d turned up at the hospital two weeks early. The room they’d given her was lovely, more like a hotel room than a hospital room, but it wasn’t a suite. And it definitely wasn’t the suite she’d viewed before booking it.

She glared at the obstetrician, who stood in the doorway while two nurses cowered behind her. “You need to give me something to stop these contractions,” she demanded. “This pregnancy has to get back on schedule.”

“That’s not how this works,” the doctor said in that snippy tone the help sometimes got when they had degrees to back up their job. “There’s no drug that can miraculously refill your gestational sac with amniotic fluid. Your water broke. This baby is coming, and the sooner you accept that, the smoother this process will be.”