Against the Tide (27 page)

“The GPS was hidden under the bumper,” Olivia said. “How could they have found it?”

“I don't know. It was a more sophisticated device. Nick said Lee Heng worked for Microsoft. He's got to be good with computers. Maybe the signals from the GPS triggered something. If we could pick them up, maybe he could, too.”

“So they found the device and left the motel like Zach said. Maybe they drove up to the house on Dewey Court.”

“It's possible, but I doubt it. If they know we've been tracking them, they know we know about the house. Odds are Trent and his wife have packed up and left just like their friends did.”

“If they're actually involved.”

“Yeah. Another one of our many ifs.”

“What do you say we take a ride? A little trip up the hill to Dewey Court?”

He started to tell her no. No way was he driving her into what might be a hornets' nest, and after the attack yesterday, it wasn't safe to leave her in the house alone.

His phone rang, postponing the argument he figured they were about to have. He glanced down, didn't recognize the caller ID. “Brodie.”

“Noah Devlin. I flew down with Derek Hunter. We're out at the airport. We could use a ride into town.”

Rafe knew Devlin and Hunter. They were good friends of Nick's. Ex-military. Boot-leather tough and as loyal to family and friends as a pair of old hounds. “I take it my brother called.”

“That's right. He's worried about you. Said you might need a little backup.”

“I might. I might not. Depends on how things shake out.”

Derek took the phone out of Noah's hand. “From what Nick says, you're in some deep shit, buddy. Now come and get us so we can help.”

Rafe chuckled. “On my way. If I didn't say so before, I'm glad you're here.” Rafe hung up the phone. At least now he'd have men he trusted to help him keep Olivia safe.

“What's going on?” she asked.

“You wanted to go for a ride. Help just arrived out at the airport. Noah Devlin and Derek Hunter. Friends of my brother's.”

She stopped on her way back down the stairs. “Cops?”

“Ex-military. A couple of real badasses. You definitely want them on your side, not the other way around. Derek flew them down. We're picking them up at the airport.”

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Olivia climbed into the Expedition next to Rafe. He'd chosen the bigger vehicle, which had more room to haul the men and their gear. She leaned back as the big SUV rumbled over the road toward the airport, told herself it was good the men had come. Still, her nerves were buzzing again at the thought of what their arrival might mean.

First Scotty's murder and trying to find out who'd killed him. Then being attacked and nearly raped by a man who knew her most terrifying secret. Now they were in the middle of something that might involve terrorism. She wasn't sure how much more she could handle.

It was dark by the time they got to the airport, parked, and walked out on the tarmac. Rafe introduced her as Olivia Chandler, said she owned the Pelican Café. The solid arm he slid around her waist and the way his dark eyes claimed her, made it abundantly clear she was his.

As much as it should have annoyed her, instead it made her feel safe.

“Nice to meet you, Olivia,” Noah said politely, taking her hand in one the size of a ham. He was huge, six-five, she figured, his chest and arms bulging with muscle. He wasn't just handsome, he was gorgeous. Dark brown hair and blue eyes, even a set of dimples. Every bit as hot as Rafe.

Derek Hunter was about six-two, equally great-looking, with a lean, hard-muscled build, dark hair, and green eyes.

While the bigger man was all power and dynamic movement, Hunter was more laid back, taking things in stride while those green eyes never missed a thing. The way he was sizing her up marked him as a ladies' man, but when he shook her hand, she sensed the respect he felt for Rafe, and that he wasn't a guy who would poach on a friend's territory.

As handsome as they were, Liv preferred Rafe's sexy good looks and calm control, the feeling that no matter what happened, he would take care of it. That she would be safe as long as she was with him.

She wondered how much Nick had told the two men, wondered, with everything going on, how much longer she would be able to keep her secret. She wondered how long it would be before the police showed up at her door.

“It's nice to meet you both,” she said, “and it's okay to call me Liv, like everyone else.”

Noah grinned, showing off his dimples. He and Derek tossed their duffels into the back of the Expedition, then loaded a heavy rectangular box they took out of the plane.

“I don't even want to know what's in there,” Rafe said.

“If we need it, you'll be glad we brought it.”

Rafe's mouth edged up. “I'm already glad. Where we're going, we might even need it tonight.”

“Yeah?” Noah said. “Where's that?”

“House on the other side of town. Could be these guys' headquarters.”

Rafe told them about the GPS that had been located and destroyed, told them the men had checked out of the motel. “Security camera showed one of them making a call. I figure they were warning their friends. By now they're probably long gone. We'll just take a look and see.”

He didn't mention Olivia's attacker, though she caught them eyeing the bruise on her cheek. She wondered if Rafe was worried they'd climb back in their plane and fly off the way they'd come if they knew.

Though she had to admit, they looked like they could handle whatever trouble they ran into. Noah's worn camouflage pants molded to his powerful thighs as if he wore them every day. Beneath his jacket, Derek was dressed in jeans and an Army-green, long-sleeve T-shirt, his long legs encased in high-topped leather boots. Both had the quality she had recognized in Rafe. They were men who knew how to handle themselves.

Unconsciously her hand came up to her cheek and she remembered the hard, dark, evil man who had attacked her. She thought of Scotty lying dead with his head bashed in, thought of Rafe getting hurt or killed, and her chest squeezed.

Whatever happened, she was also glad the men were there.

Rafe drove the Expedition toward the west side of town, Noah riding shotgun, Derek in the backseat with Liv, where she would be safer if they ran into trouble.

“We'll just do a drive-by,” Rafe said. “See if it looks like they've bailed. If they're still there, we'll come back, set up some kind of surveillance, take shifts, keep track of their movements from now on.”

“Sounds good,” Derek said. “How 'bout you bring us up to speed on the way?”

“Be best if you'd start at the beginning,” Noah added. “Your brother told us as much as he knew. Filled us in on the guy named Lee Heng, his background, and his connection to JAT. We need to hear the rest.”

“All right.” As they drove toward the house, Rafe laid out the information they had gathered, their suspicions and possible conclusions.

He left out the attack on Olivia. He wasn't sure it was connected and he wanted to protect Liv's secret as much as possible.

“There's something you aren't telling us,” Noah said. “You're working hard to skirt around it. We know about Olivia's past. Nick wouldn't risk our lives by withholding that kind of information.”

He should have known. His brother trusted these two men with his life. He wouldn't put them at risk without telling them everything he knew.

“Sorry,” Rafe said. “We still aren't sure that what happened to Liv is connected.” Rafe flicked a glance in the mirror. Even in the dark he could see the pale hue of her face.

“We can't work blind,” Derek said. “We can't help if we don't know what we're up against.”

“Liv . . .” Noah's deep voice sounded oddly gentle as he turned in the seat to face her. “If Rafe believes you didn't kill that guy in New York, that's good enough for me and Derek. For now, let's concentrate on stopping these people from doing whatever it is they have planned.”

She took a deep breath and nodded. “All right. Yes, we have to do that.”

“Good girl. Just tell us what happened.”

“Yesterday while I was out running, a man attacked me. I thought he was there to kill me.”

“Why is that?” Noah asked.

“I didn't kill my ex-husband. There are people willing to kill me to keep me from telling who did. The man knew my real name, knew about the murder. I assumed he was some kind of hit man, but all he wanted was sex.”

“What'd this guy look like?” Derek prompted. “Can you describe him?”

She concentrated, trying to bring back details. “He was big. Powerful, you know? Light-skinned African American. He wasn't a gangster type, though. He spoke well, seemed intelligent, but there was something really scary about him. He was totally sure of himself, sure he could force me to do whatever he wanted.”

“How'd you get away?” Derek asked.

Rafe grinned, caught Derek's eye in the mirror. “She stun-gunned the bastard. Gave him a jolt of something a helluva lot hotter than sex.”

Noah boomed a laugh and Derek grinned.

“I'm starting to like this lady,” Noah said.

“The thing is, if he wasn't supposed to kill me, why did he come after me?” Olivia filled them in on as much of the details as she could recall.

Rafe hadn't realized the men were armed until he heard the sound of metal as they dropped the clips on their semi-autos, shoved them back in, and racked the slides.

“Rafe . . . ?” Olivia's uncertain voice floated toward him from the backseat.

“Take it easy, sweetheart,” Noah said before Rafe could answer. “That bruise on your cheek ought to be enough for you to know these guys are dangerous. Always better to be prepared.”

“Yes, of course. I'm sorry.”

“So I guess you think this guy is part of it,” Rafe said, voicing the notion he had been mulling over himself.

“If he'd been paid to shoot her,” Noah said, “he could have done it. I say there's a good chance he's here for something else.”

Devlin and Hunter asked a few more questions, then something in the distance snagged Rafe's attention.

“What's that?” Noah asked, his gaze going up the hill.

As Rafe drove over Mineral Creek, he could see the orange-red glow in the sky above the mountain. “I've got a hunch I know.”

He turned off Egan onto Front Street, slowed at the turn onto Dewey Court, saw the house at the end of the road fully engulfed in flames. “Sonofabitch.”

Fire licked out the windows. The front porch blazed. Streamers of red licked up the walls into the black night sky. The roof was a wall of solid red flame.

The fire trucks were already there but the firemen were fighting a losing battle. The fountain of water they poured on the blaze turned into columns of thick, black, choking smoke.

“Looks like they took off with their buddies,” Derek said.

“Burned down the house and any evidence they might have left behind,” Noah added.

“Evidence of what?” Rafe said grimly. “We don't even know why they're here.”

Noah's big frame shifted in the seat. “And they've just made sure we won't find out. No fingerprints, no DNA, nothing that could give us a clue as to what, when, why, or where.”

“This all just seems so surreal,” Olivia said, staring at the blaze.

“So I guess your brother made the right call getting us down here,” Derek said.

“Looks like,” Rafe agreed, somewhat grudgingly, since as good as Nick was, he was still Rafe's little brother.

They watched the fire for a while, in case anyone showed up who looked suspicious. But clearly there was no one in the house, and the only people on the street appeared to be neighbors or firefighters, most of them volunteer.

Certain they wouldn't gain anything by staying, Rafe backed up the SUV, turned around, and drove back down the hill to his house.

Olivia brewed a second pot of coffee. It was after one o'clock in the morning, but no one was sleepy. She carried the pot into the living room and refilled the guys' mugs. The men were going over the information they had discussed before, reviewing it in even more detail.

Olivia refilled her own cup, returned the pot to the burner, then went in to join the others, taking a place next to Rafe on the sofa. His arm slid comfortingly around her.

“Any chance they scrapped the mission—whatever it was—and just took off?” Rafe asked hopefully.

“Not likely,” Noah said. “My guess, they've got a bug-out pad somewhere. A place to go if something came up and they needed to change locations.”

“So they're going ahead with whatever it is they've got planned.”

Noah nodded. “I was in Afghanistan and Iraq. If they're fanatics, they're committed. They won't get this close and back away.”

“You think that's what they are?” Olivia asked, her fatigue fading under a shot of adrenaline. “Fanatics?”

“Heng is connected to JAT,” Noah reminded them. “They're bad motherfuckers. So, yeah, I think they could be.”

“You still think the guy who attacked Liv is part of this, right?” Rafe said.

Noah took a drink of his coffee. That it was scalding hot didn't seem to bother him. “Let me lay it out the way I see it. Your friend, Scott Ferris, gets murdered. Good guy, from what you said, no enemies. They arrest some local but it doesn't add up. Which is why you and Liv got involved.”

“More or less.”

“But you still don't think the guy in jail killed him,” Noah said.

Rafe set his coffee mug down on the table. “My hunch says no.”

“So there's a chance the killer is the big guy who tried to rape Olivia.”

“He fits the fuzzy image on the security camera of the man seen leaving the dock after the body was dumped.”

“Also similar to the hazy figure Olivia spotted in the motel room,” Noah said, “next to where the murder was actually committed. The same place Heng and his buddy were staying.”

“That's right.”

“Best guess, your friend Scotty stumbled onto something he shouldn't have. He heard or saw something, the big guy killed him and dumped the body. You with me so far?”

Rafe nodded. It was something they had talked about, but when Noah said it, it seemed to make the pieces come together.

“Heng worked for Microsoft,” Noah said. “Guy's a college grad, computer nerd. When Olivia goes back to the room asking questions, he gets nervous, starts digging into her past, looking for a little insurance, something they can use to get her to back away. He hits the jackpot. Heng tells the killer—a member of the group—that she's wanted.”

“Sounds good so far,” Rafe said.

“Here's where the theory takes a twist. Big Guy, desperate for a piece of ass since he's been ‘up here for weeks'—his words—goes off the reservation and tries to blackmail Liv for sex.”