Harlequin Intrigue June 2015 - Box Set 1 of 2: To Honor and To Protect\Cornered\Untraceable (7 page)

She set the radio on the small table. “Yes.”

“And?”

“I'll tell you on the way.”

He knew that face, knew it was all he'd get until she was ready to share. “We have everything from back there.”

“Great. Thanks.” She pulled a cooler out of the corner and packed a few supplies from the fridge.

“Come on, Andy.” He held out his hand. “Let's you and me get the boat loaded and ready.”

“Wait.”

He turned, saw the debate play out across her features. Her pale blue eyes were clouded with worry. “Andy can help me with the cooler.”

“That's a girl job,” Andy protested.

“Since when is food a girl job?”

Drew came to his rescue. “I think Andy means we're in Transformer mode. I'll send him back up to help you with the cooler the second we're done with this load.”

She shot him an assessing look so long that he nearly begged for her to give him an inch of trust.

“Drew?” Andy piped up. “It takes me longer than a second to get up the stairs. I timed it.”

“Go on,” Addi relented. “If you're Transformers, I can find my super strength.”

“You're sure?” Drew hefted the bug-out bag onto his shoulder.

“The sooner we get going, the sooner we all get s'mores.”

That was all Andy needed to hear as he yanked Drew toward the door.

Andy got a tremendous amount of glee out of the rubber boat Drew had used to reach the shack. But he surprised Drew when he asked about taking the boat his mom had brought along.

“What boat?” Drew had assumed, with no evidence to the contrary, that Addi's friend Nico had brought them out here and left with the only boat.

“Over here.”

Andy trotted up the bank and pulled back a screen of leaves, revealing an old flat-bottomed boat with a fairly clean motor and a full canister of gas.

“Nice.” He'd looked around in the daylight and walked right by it. When had Addi learned to do that? Maybe he was as useless as the army claimed. “We can take both.”

“I'm riding with you.”

Drew was flattered but refused to leave Addi out of that equation. “If your mother agrees.”

The little shoulders rolled back, determined. “I'll ask nice.”

“That's the best policy,” Addi said with a little huff as she joined them on the wobbly dock. “What's the question?”

“If we take two boats, may I please ride with Drew?”

Drew held his breath while he waited for her answer, surprised at how much he wanted her to say yes.

“I suppose.”

She didn't sound thrilled about it, but Andy's enthusiasm made up for any lack on his mother's part. Drew wondered if it meant she was trusting him, or if it was simply more expedient to agree. Of course, she had yet to reveal their next stop.

He knelt in front of Andy. “You'll have to sit still.”

The boy's head bobbed up and down. “I will.”

“And we'll need to be very quiet when we're on the water. Can you do that?”

Andy mimed locking his lips and throwing away the key.

Getting to his feet, Drew looked to Addi. “Lead the way.”

They pushed the boats into the water and paddled quietly away from the bank. The motors weren't worth risking the unwanted attention.

Though she was only a few yards ahead of him, he could barely see Addi's boat and he followed her more by sound than sight. Weak moonlight shifted through the treetops and splashed across the black water. The mirrorlike surface shifted with ripples each time Addi's paddle dipped under, rose and dipped again.

Her years of city living and corporate success hadn't dimmed any of the skills she'd mastered in her youth. She was as at home out here as he remembered.

Moving through the night-covered swamp, with the subtle sounds of Addi's paddle ahead of him and Andy's soft breath behind him, his mind wandered back to the day he'd met her.

He'd come down to New Orleans with a few army buddies to celebrate Mardi Gras. Ready to party, he hadn't been ready to fall for the gorgeous blonde with the wide smile and pale blue eyes. Back then he didn't have a thought to spare for luck or destiny when his group of friends met up with hers in a blues bar in the French Quarter.

Over strong drinks and the sexy, low pulse of music, the soldier and the law student found some common ground despite their differences. Smart as a whip, only her soft Southern drawl gave away her Mississippi farm-girl roots.

He could still remember calling the next day, sweating as he wondered if she'd given him a bogus number and grinning like a fool when she'd eagerly accepted his invitation to lunch. From that moment, they'd been inseparable, holding hands, exchanging hot, breath-stealing kisses and longing for more of each other. By the end of the week, they were all but engaged, overlooking the tough romantic geography of her law school and his career keeping them apart.

That day, that first sweet memory and all the memories that followed had kept him going through every dark moment as a prisoner. His captors hadn't broken him because he'd had her in that sacred part of his mind, heart and soul. And while he'd had her, she'd had their son.

“You okay back there?” he asked, pitching his voice low.

“Yes,” Andy whispered. “Is Mom okay?”

“She's doing great.”

“How much longer?”

“No idea, but we'll have s'mores when we get there.”

“Promise?” Andy asked around a yawn.

“I guarantee it.” Drew balanced the paddle across his knees, listening. “Quiet for the rest of the way.”

“'Kay,” Andy whispered.

The swamp opened up and the sky above sparkled with starlight between the thick line of trees marching along the banks. It seemed the world held its breath, watching Addi guide her little boat around islands of cypress trees weeping with Spanish moss. He followed closely, keeping his boat on the same line as hers, unwilling to risk areas that might be too shallow.

They made it to the far side without any trouble and into another narrow waterway. At the slow pace, the only strain was on his patience, but he wanted to get far enough from the shack so he could determine the risk to her and Andy.

At last, she paddled for the shore, using a low-hanging limb to pull the boat in snugly. Her feet landed in the soft mud of the bank with a quiet smack and she had the boat out of the water before he could help. He had no idea what landmark she was using, but he was grateful to see the shadow of a smile on her face when they were all ashore, along with their gear.

“You really want to camp?” He had two tarps in the duffel.

“No. Our accommodations are just a short hike in.”

He looked past her but couldn't make out anything but tall grass. Tipping his head toward Andy, he asked, “How short?”

“Five minutes,” she answered. “You can time us,” she said to Andy.

At just over four minutes per Andy's watch, Drew stared into what looked more like an abandoned survivalists' meeting place instead of a secluded spot to hide.

“This way,” Addi said, adjusting her grip on the cooler. She turned into the trees and led them across a narrow strip of firmer ground into a clearing. With her flashlight, she spotlighted the modest, solitary square shack with cypress trees as footers.

“That's a tree house,” Andy said.

“Another of Nico's engineering marvels.” She climbed the stairs and nudged open the door.

She turned on the light and illuminated a one-room cabin with a half-size refrigerator, a two-burner stove and a pot for coffee on the miserly counter. At the other end of the room, two bare twin-size mattresses were balanced on plywood and cinder blocks. He couldn't decide immediately which shack he preferred.

“It's the best option,” she explained. “No one's used the camp for years.”

“If you're sure.” Drew didn't like being so far from the boats. As soon as they were settled he would go back and hide them. “I'll build that fire for s'mores.” Uneasy, he renewed his commitment to convince her to cooperate with Casey.

Andy dropped his backpack on one of the beds and spun around, clearly the recipient of a second wind. “Can I help?”

“Sure. C'mon.”

Once they'd settled in for the night and Andy was asleep, Drew knew she'd ask him what he'd found that prompted the move. He also knew she wouldn't like the answer. Although the hard evidence was circumstantial, his gut instinct said Craig Everett or his associates were steady on her trail.

Chapter Eight

Washington, DC, 8:10 p.m.

Director Casey's phone vibrated in his pocket. He hesitated to interrupt dinner with his wife, but with so much on the line he had to check.

“I know what I got myself into,” Jo said. With her warm and wry smile she waved him off to take the call. “Go on and do your thing.”

Standing, Thomas rounded the table, bent down and brushed his lips across her soft cheek. “These days are numbered, I promise,” he whispered against her ear.

She only grinned at him as he made his way out of the dining room.

The display on his phone showed a missed call from Deputy Holt but no message. That likely meant they had problems on an operation.

Thomas returned the call, cautiously hopeful the news wouldn't be awful.

“I know you're at dinner,” Emmett began, “but this couldn't wait.”

“Fill me in,” Thomas ordered, braced for the worst after hearing the gravity in his deputy's voice.

“Craig Everett was spotted near the University of Mississippi, but we couldn't drop a net over him in time.”

“He's not even trying to hide his identity?”

“Not a bit.”

In a case like this, a fugitive behaving as though he were untouchable increased the odds of serious complications. “We expected him to search for Addison. He must be hoping she reached out to someone there. We thought the same thing at first.”

“Yes.”

There was a “but” coming and Emmett's reluctance meant Thomas wouldn't like it.

“Our tech team recently discovered alterations in Addison's personal history,” Emmett said.

Damn it. “Financial?”

“To start.”

“Crap. He's working to discredit her if she ever testifies against him.”

“She must know more than she's already shared.”

That would be good for the case, but it meant Everett would do anything to silence her. Thomas couldn't help thinking about the latest school picture of Addison's son in the file. Drew had to get to her first.

“He's afraid,” Thomas said, thinking out loud. “He must believe she's capable of eluding him.”

“Agreed.” A world of concern weighed down the single word.

“How far did our team get before they lost Bryant?”

Emmett laughed. “They lost him just outside DC. Picked up the GPS in the car we provided again near Oxford, Mississippi, but lost him on the highway south. We assumed he was aiming for New Orleans. That man hasn't lost a step, no matter what the army thinks.”

Addison had a few childhood connections in the New Orleans area, though no one who'd heard from her recently. “Then he's still our best chance at saving Addison and her son, so we can use what she knows to take down Everett and whoever he's working with.” Thomas prayed the fast and loose plan wouldn't blow up in their faces.

“Whoever the leak is on the inside,” Emmett said, “he's covered his tracks with a damned cloaking device.”

“That will make it all the more satisfying when we expose him,” Thomas pointed out.

“True.”

He appreciated Emmett's determination to see justice served to a traitor. “Drew will find her. He'll bring her in.” Thomas had to say it, if only as an affirmation.

“I took another hard look into Addison's life,” Emmett said.

“What did we overlook?” If he'd dragged Bryant into this unnecessarily...

“Nothing, really. But she struck me as the sort to cover all contingencies.”

“All right,” Thomas agreed, curious now. Picking over the facts hadn't led them any closer to where she might be hiding. “That led you where?”

“Ole Miss law school is a pretty tight community. One of her classmates works for the FBI now.”

Thomas didn't need the file in front of him to recall those details. “You think that friend lied in the interview to protect Addison? She said she hadn't heard from her.”

“It might be a matter of not hearing from Addison
yet
. This woman is a hard-core overachiever. She doesn't leave anything to chance. It's one thing to send out the information authorities needed to make the arrest. But she's not stupid. She didn't blow the whistle on Everett without understanding all the implications.”

“Keep going.” They'd talked through this before he'd brought in Drew. What was Emmett leading up to?

“She has to recognize if not who, at least how Everett was connected to his so-called investors. She sells her car and drops off the radar, but the big what-if is playing through her head the whole time.”

“What if Everett wriggles off the hook,” Thomas supplied.

“Right. The man knows her weakness is the little boy. Addison's a tiger, she's got something in place to make sure her son is safe and provided for if the worst happens.”

“With Drew out of the picture, who would she trust with that kind of insurance?”

“I've reached out to a buddy at the FBI. He can check with Addison's friend. But I don't believe Everett would bother with the law school unless Addison mentioned someone there.”

“She's got the family farm in Mississippi she inherited.”

“Still no action there. Not even Bryant went through, as far as we can tell. I want to keep eyes on this law professor at Ole Miss. The file said he was supposed to give her away at the wedding.”

“Another ‘yet factor'?”

“If we're careful, I think we can ask again without tipping off Everett's connection.”

“Don't put Addison's friends in jeopardy,” Thomas warned. “We know that connection has significant access.”

“Okay, I'll wait on that. One more thing,” Emmett said. “About New Orleans.”

Hope sparked in Thomas's chest. “Tell me it's good news.”

“We lost Addison heading east from Arizona. Everett has been nosing around in Mississippi. Drew was last seen on the road to New Orleans. What if we set a trap Everett and his insider informant can't refuse?”

“Dicey.” But he knew if it worked, Drew would be off the hook and Addison and her son would be safe. “We don't even know where she's hiding.”

“No one does. That's exactly why it has potential. It gives us a chance to corner Everett with some discreetly placed bread crumbs.”

Resigned, Thomas listened to the deputy director's idea, considered his available Specialists and gave his deputy the green light.

As he walked back into the dining room, Thomas felt the full weight of taking this chance.
Dicey
was an understatement, especially with the gross lack of real leads on Everett's government insider or even which department he served. But Emmett's daring plan, taking note of who responded and how, might be just what they needed to start peeling back the layers of the convoluted situation.