Page 74 of The B-Team

“Hurry,” she hissed.

In the far corner of the room, a thud sounded on the control room door. Then another. Someone shouted for help. The cops were getting annoyed.

Rodrigo rushed past Katrina, straight to one of the beds, and plopped Ryan down on it. As Katrina closed up the panic room, Rodrigo settled Ryan onto the narrow bed and felt for a pulse. It was steady.

On shaky legs, he walked over to grab a bottle of water from the refrigerator and sat at the table. His muscles literally vibrated from carrying Ryan.

“I need to do more fitness training,” he said before gulping down the water. “Being out of the spy life has made me lazy. For some reason, I thought Benson Security would be an easy gig, and I wouldn’t need to keep up the same level of fitness.” He glanced at Ryan. “I was wrong.”

With effort, he stood and crossed the short distance to stand behind Katrina—who clearly wasn’t listening to a word he said as she watched the computer screen in front of her.

“This is the control room computer’s screen,” she said. “I’ve mirrored it so we can see what they see.”

Rodrigo glanced up at the monitors and saw a bunch of angry cops trying to find a way out of the control room. “What are you going to do?”

“Watch.”

As she typed, a box popped up on her screen and on the one in the control room. “Surprise!” it read. “Joke’s on you, Isobel, but don’t worry. The system will reset now. Consider us even, Ryan.”

Katrina hit another button, and the lights came back on, communications were re-enabled, and the doors unlocked.

“It’s the best I could come up with at short notice,” she said. “I’m hoping the police will think they somehow triggereda prank Ryan intended for Isobel. I also hope they’ll be too embarrassed to tell anyone about it.”

Rodrigo grinned. “Genius.” He went to pat her shoulder but remembered she didn’t like being touched and stopped himself in time. “You’re an absolute genius.”

Her cheeks flushed a faint shade of pink as they stood watching the security monitors.

A group of disgruntled officers filed out of the control room.

“I can’t believe the whole thing was a joke,” one of them said. “Pretty sick sense of humor, if you ask me.”

“We must have triggered s when we were searching the building,” another said.

Katrina heaved a sigh of relief while Rodrigo grinned beside her.

“You don’t think it will happen again, do you?” another asked.

“No, I think it’s done now,” came the reply.

As they watched, one of the officer’s radios sounded. “Grayson, you there?”

On another monitor, they saw the two outside police officers making their way to the front of the building. Obviously, they’d noticed all the lights were back on.

“I’m here,” Grayson said.

“We came to check on you guys, but we can’t get in,” an outside cop said into his radio.

“False alarm,” Grayson said as he followed his colleagues up the stairs. “We triggered a prank, and we’re heading back up to reception now.”

Rodrigo turned away from the monitors to perch on the desk beside Katrina. Ryan still hadn’t moved.

“You did great,” he said. “Now we need to figure out what’s happening with him. Should we call a doctor?”

“No.” She shook her head. “Dimitri told me about this. Ever since Ryan got shot, he’s had blinding migraines that often knock him out. They come on fast and are unpredictable. He said they’re getting less frequent, but there’s nothing Ryan can do except live with them.”

“Damn.” Rodrigo considered the other man. “That’s a migraine?”

“It is for Ryan.” Her voice was filled with sympathy.