Dead End

by Lisa Phillips

  “If you’re going to argue about it,” Mason said, “why don’t we make it a party and all go in?”

  Wyatt laid his hand on her shoulder. “Nina has been fighting this guy for years. I don’t want her near him, though I can understand why you’d want to be part of the takedown of the man who traumatized your daughter.”

  Mason said, “Seems to me like she’s holding up pretty well under the circumstances.”

  Nina couldn’t believe he was brushing it off. Maybe he just needed to feel like things were better than they really were, or convince himself he was making it that way. Or he didn’t want to be the bait, and he just didn’t want to say that.

  But Mason had to wake up, or Emily would be so far gone off the rails he’d never be able to get her back.

  Nina said, “He gets in your head. Emily knows that, I know that. He’s tied himself to her in the same way he tied himself to me. He thinks he helped us, or that we should be grateful.” She swallowed down the hot rush of emotion, determined not to lose control. “This thing consumed my entire life, and now I finally have the chance to end it so that the same doesn’t happen to Emily. You think I wouldn’t gladly be bait?”

  “No.” Wyatt squeezed her shoulder. “You’re not doing this, Nina. I’m not going to let you.”

  “Well, then, who is?”

  “I am.”

  * * *

  Wyatt caught her gaze and motioned with his head for Nina to step to one side with him. They’d spent hours planning. Now it was time to go.

  But not before they talked.

  Nina frowned, but went with him. She’d barely spoken to him since his declaration that he go in alone. The plan had coalesced to him and Mason, with it being broadcast over the airwaves that Nina and Emily were with them, just to make it all the more tempting for Steve Adams.

  Wyatt took her to one of their conference rooms and shut the door. He braced himself for her ire. She hadn’t been happy that he was the one to risk himself, while she waited in the van. It was likely this would hurt as much as their conversation in the plane. He was putting himself on the line, along with Mason, to help her fix her problem. She had to realize that.

  Wyatt pushed away his twisting thoughts and faced her down. “I just wanted to check in and make sure you’re good with the plan.”

  Nina shrugged. “Why wouldn’t I be? Of course you need to be the one to do the takedown.”

  He didn’t miss the sarcasm in her voice, but chose to continue on. “I want you to stick in the van with Parker.”

  “I’m not going to jeopardize this operation. I have more professional experience than that.”

  “Look.” Wyatt sighed. “I know you wanted to be in on this, but I want you to be safe.”

  Wyatt had seen over and over agents who had to witness an innocent get hurt just to obey an order. When they couldn’t take it and disobeyed the call to hold their positions, things always went wrong. Parker could control Nina, but if she made up her mind and he was distracted for a second, then she could slip away from him and wind up getting hurt.

  “Nina—”

  “No, I think we’re done with this conversation. You seem to think I can’t be a professional, like I’ve forgotten all my training in the last few weeks.” She stuck her hands on her hips. “Just because you’re the bait doesn’t mean you’re the only one in the line of fire. Once we sight him we’ll be moving in, and I’ll be in the lead. You think you’re shutting me out, but you’re the one who doesn’t see that this is a team effort. It won’t be just you out there. It’ll be all of us.”

  Wyatt stepped closer and reached for her.

  Nina took a step back. “I don’t think so.” She shook her head. “You thought I was mad you overruled me. You don’t get to make accusations like that and then feel bad just because I pointed out that you’re being unreasonable.”

  “Well, I do feel bad, okay?”

  “Doesn’t matter. I’m pretty sure you’ve made your true feelings clear. You’re the big man doing the takedown. I’m just the little woman sitting safe in the van.”

  Seriously? That’s what she thought? “Nina, I care about you. I would have thought that was pretty obvious by now. I’m still here. Now tell me why it’s bad I want you to be safe?”

  “There’s no way you could get out of this without us ending him...as a team. But apparently you’re not interested in that.”

  What she said clicked in his brain. “So you do want him dead.”

  “He wants us dead.”

  “You know, you might have to face the fact that he’s going to be arrested. I won’t kill him unless he makes a move to kill me, Mason, or any other officer. It has to be justified, but that’s nowhere close to what I’m aiming for. It’s not justice if he wants to be dead so he can escape the punishment he’s due.”

  Wyatt took a step back, glad he finally knew what page they were on. “He’s controlled your life for so long I don’t think you even realize how bad it is at this point. He’s sucked you in, made you consider things you’d never even have thought of if the desire to get revenge for what he did to your family wasn’t so strong.”

  “This isn’t revenge. It’s justice for the team to take him down.”

  “You think he cares about that? He’s got you so twisted around it’s like you want to form some kind of club with Emily Pierce. Yes, you both went through something traumatic. But that doesn’t make you...what, sisters?”

  “I can’t care about her?”

  “You want to think this is healthy, but it isn’t. I think it’s gone on so long you don’t know how to live without the shadow of Steve Adams in your life. You say you have this great teaching job lined up for your future, but you can’t even get in a real relationship.” He dropped his hands, realizing he was edging into hurtful territory and ready to shut it down. And he would, in one second. “If you could, things between us would be a whole lot different. But instead I have to shut you out, and you have to stay in the van.”

  He really, seriously was worried about her. Wyatt wanted good things for her, but it was like she had been damaged by Steve Adams. Maybe a kind of PTSD, he didn’t know exactly. But he’d seen it in his father’s inability to function when he realized a little girl had died because he hadn’t moved faster in the case. True or not, it was how he had processed what happened to him.

  Nina was doing the same thing, and she didn’t even know it.

  Wyatt didn’t want to say anything else that would get her upset, so he left.

  It was time to go, and as it was he barely made the coordinated meet with Mason Pierce. The whole situation had been orchestrated, and it had to go down right, or they would lose the element of surprise with Steve Adams.

  The team element Nina had mentioned wasn’t lost on him. That was why Parker and the rest of the guys were there. But Nina would be safe, Wyatt had made sure of that.

  She might not want to accept it, but somewhere in all this Wyatt had fallen for her.

  Wyatt drove Mason to a house on the edge of town, the place they’d broadcast was the new safe house for Emily and Theresa. Of course it was totally empty. They were taking a lot of chances trying to convince Steve Adams of an elaborate untruth, hoping it would draw him out.

  The house was furnished, but with that musty smell of being closed up for too long.

  Mason paced the downstairs living area. Wyatt checked his phone, a burner Parker had supplied him with, then clicked his radio. “In position.”

  Parker answered. “Roger that. Switching to radio silence.”

  Wyatt didn’t want to think about the fact that Nina was in the van, two streets over. They’d set up surveillance, but it was limited to ensure Adams didn’t catch onto it.

  “Dude, you look like someone kicked your cat.”

  Wyatt glanced
at Mason. Lighthearted in a situation like this? The man was totally military. He knew when to get serious, but he could take the hit of adrenaline and keep on joking. “Sure I don’t know what you mean.”

  “Let me guess. She turned you down?”

  Wyatt shook his head.

  “Got you all tied up in knots and then shut you down. Seen it before. Dude, it even happened to me. Honestly one of the biggest surprises of my life.” Mason blew out a puff of air. “One moment everything’s fine, video chats, phone calls. Emails. Then it slows down. Eventually it’s a trickle. Then I get divorce papers in the mail. In Afghanistan.”

  “Harsh.”

  “You have no idea.” Mason shook his head. “Now my kid’s a stranger, my wife is the shadow in the room no one wants to talk about and my days are filled with trying to put back together something that’s still going to be incomplete when I’m done.”

  Wyatt nodded, unsure what to say.

  “Then I realize I got Emily out of it. Even if I’ve got nothing but trust issues, an estranged daughter and some good memories mixed in with a whole load of crappy ones—I still have a child. A precious daughter I will twist myself inside and out to win back.” Mason went so still it was like he was a statue. He started to talk, made one incomprehensible noise and collapsed.

  Wyatt whirled around. The barbs of a Taser imbedded themselves in the vest he wore, but one hit the skin of his neck. The shock of it made his breath catch. The force of the voltage coursed through him, and he blacked out for a second.

  He came to when Steve Adams pulled the gun from the holster on Wyatt’s hip and shot two rounds into Mason Pierce.

  SIXTEEN

  The next blast of high voltage bent his body up off the floor. Wyatt could barely think, the pain was so excruciating. When he was finally able to comprehend anything past the agony, he was jostled. Steve Adams’s shoulder landed in the center of Wyatt’s stomach, air expelled from his lungs in a rush and he realized he was being carried.

  How in the world had Steve Adams managed to get past their perimeter? Granted that had been the plan, but it was never supposed to have gone down like this. Wyatt prayed—actually prayed—that Mason Pierce wasn’t dead. That Parker had realized the man was shot and was rallying to get him medical attention. Steve Adams hadn’t killed Wyatt, though. He was taking him elsewhere.

  Not good.

  Wyatt couldn’t even move his fingers but a twitch. He was essentially incapacitated, though fully aware of what was going on. Really, really not good. God, I know You’re real. I always have, even if I didn’t want to admit it. You’re Lord of Parker and Sienna’s lives. Lord of Nina’s life. I want to know more about that before I die. Whether that is in an hour or in fifty years. Keep Nina safe. Don’t let Mason die, Emily needs him. And, if You want, could You help me, too?

  Wyatt wasn’t above begging for his life. Not when God might be able to preserve it. He’d never thought he’d be the guy who prayed only when he thought he was going to die, but why not? It seemed like a good enough time to him. Especially if it helped.

  Wyatt heard a click. Steve Adams shifted and dumped Wyatt into the trunk of a car. He couldn’t move. He tried to yell, but no noise came from his throat. He reached for his cell phone. Where was it? He couldn’t even move.

  Street lamps cast a shadow across Adams’s face so that Wyatt couldn’t read anything in the man standing over him.

  Where was the sound of running? Parker should be yelling in his earpiece. Was it still in his ear? Questions swirled in his head. How had Adams done this? How was he getting away with it? Wyatt would die and there would only be more questions left with his demise. Nina would have even more reason to spend her life trying to bring down this killer—her guilt that she’d caused yet another death before she could stop Adams.

  They were alike in that way, at least.

  Nina.

  His heart cried out for her, even as he tried to convince himself she didn’t care for him the way that he cared for her. Still, he wanted to see her.

  Steve Adams leaned down. “Time to get the girl and wrap this up.”

  Wyatt strained to see in the dark night, then something sharp pricked the outside of his upper arm. There was nothing he could do. The trap had been a trap of Steve Adams’s own making—taking Wyatt to draw out Nina so that he could get the real prize.

  And he had no way to warn her.

  After injecting him, Steve Adams threw down the trunk lid and shut Wyatt inside.

  The car rumbled to life, and Wyatt descended into blackness.

  * * *

  “What do you mean, something’s wrong?” Nina glanced at the surveillance cameras onscreen. “There’s nothing on video. No audio.”

  “Exactly.” Parker was already out of his chair. He flung the van door open and jumped out.

  Nina shut it behind her and raced after Wyatt’s partner. “You think Steve Adams got in already?”

  When he didn’t answer her, Nina said, “That’s not possible. We would have known. Heard it. Seen it. He couldn’t have accessed our remote feed and given us false information to make us believe everything was fine. Radio silence was your idea. Steve Adams couldn’t have known that.”

  They should have been a team, performing the takedown together. Nina had been satisfied with her part, even while she knew why Wyatt had arranged things like that. And now Steve Adams had destroyed it.

  “The target would have accounted for either way.” Parker keyed his radio, which put him in contact with the team at large. “Position one to all positions. Check in.”

  Nina’s earbud crackled and one by one they checked in. Except Mason and Wyatt.

  “All positions converge. Something’s wrong.”

  Nina heard boots before she saw anyone. Two team members met them in a covered position close to the front door. A faint light in the front window was the only light in the otherwise abandoned house.

  “Go.”

  Parker led the way and they cleared the dining room first. The light she’d seen outside came through from the living room. Which meant someone else would have seen Steve Adams if he’d walked through the area of the house where Wyatt and Mason had been.

  “Here!”

  Nina followed the call to find Mason on the floor, his hair disheveled and his face flushed and damp. Blood had pooled from a wound on his thigh to stain the wood floor. Parker held a balled-up jacket against the injury.

  Nina collapsed to her knee beside the wounded man. “Where’s Wyatt?” Parker was already on his phone, calling for an ambulance, but there was no sign of his partner. Didn’t he want to know what had happened?

  Mason blinked, the lines around his mouth deepening as his face pinched with pain. “Adams shot me and then took him.” He shifted and groaned.

  Parker said, “Hold still.”

  Mason nodded and his gaze flickered back to her. “Guess I wasn’t the prize.”

  Nina squeezed his shoulder and looked up as Jonah strode into the room. His boots clipped the wood floor to them. “Steve Adams took Wyatt.”

  Jonah lifted his hand, a cell phone in it. “We found Wyatt’s phone on the grass at the side of the house. We can’t track him, but we’re on this and he won’t get far. Canvassing the streets, knocking on neighbor’s doors. Someone will have seen something.”

  Nina doubted that. The man was apparently able to slip past them, even with surveillance in place. This was supposed to have been a foolproof plan, but instead of getting out ahead of the man they were still playing defense. When was this going to end?

  Jonah crouched in front of her. “We will find him.”

  Nina chewed her lip. She didn’t want to say the words. She didn’t want to be the one who lost faith right when believing counted the most. But she’d seen Steve Adams’s work before
. If he was determined to end Wyatt, there was nothing she or any of them would be able to do to stop it.

  She took Wyatt’s phone from Jonah and stood. An ambulance pulled up outside, but she ignored the EMTs, walking onto the sidewalk and down the street. She should call Wyatt’s cousin, the FBI agent. Parker probably knew what the pass code to Wyatt’s phone was, and his cousin might be able to help them locate where Steve Adams had taken him.

  She spun back to the house. Parker was inside, and she could see him pace back and forth in the dining room. He looked like he was yelling into his phone. He probably knew about Wyatt’s cousin. They probably had a system in place for precisely if something like this happened. A plan that didn’t include her, and didn’t require her help.

  Parker looked up, out the window. He saw her and shook his head as he shrugged like, what are you doing out there? Nina turned back to the street. She sat on the hood of a car parked at the curb and pulled out her own phone.

  Wyatt had been gone for who knew how long. Probably up to half an hour, if not more. What was he thinking? Was he even still alive?

  Was it her fault?

  If she’d been the bait, then maybe Steve Adams would have taken her and left Wyatt...or shot him like he’d shot Mason. And wasn’t that the reason Wyatt had assigned her to the van? But what if this, too, was part of Steve’s plan?

  Nina choked down the emotion and pulled up her contact list and found the number Steve Adams had been contacting her from. She opened a new message and typed, Where is he?

  She tapped the phone on her leg and waited. She hoped he was busy and that she could distract Adams somehow, maybe even long enough to find the two of them before Wyatt was killed.

  Even while she wished it were she who’d been taken, Nina was glad she was the one who got to put all her skills toward finding Wyatt.

  If anyone could, it was her.

  Bile rose in her throat. She hung her head to suck in big gasps of breath. He was going to die before she could tell him that she loved him. He’d gotten completely the wrong idea about what was happening between them. Not to mention seriously misinterpreting her, assuming she thought a certain way without even asking her.