by Jodie Bailey
“His ex-wife. Pretty sure he regrets the ex part, though.” It was obvious from the way Sean spoke of Ivy on the rare occasions when he did. A couple of months ago, his teammate had reached out to Ivy for help finding the family of Eli’s godmother, but he hadn’t spoken much about the interaction. He’d been slightly off his game ever since, though. Not in a major way, but enough that Will had noticed.
“Okay, the food will be here in a little under an hour.” Sean came into the room, holstering his phone. He’d also changed into civilian clothes, and it was clear they were all ready to relax for the evening, if they could. “Have you talked to her yet?”
Jasmine stood. “Talked to me about what?”
This really wasn’t a conversation he was looking forward to. Will sensed she was the kind of person who didn’t offer her trust lightly but, once she did, she would be loyal to the end. He was about to present her with a gut feeling and no evidence to back it up. If he wasn’t careful, he could shake her faith in him and in Sean, just when he needed it most.
He glanced at his teammate, who sat on the end of Jasmine’s bed.
Will took up a similar seat on the second bed in the room.
Jasmine followed suit, sinking into the chair behind her. Her expression was tight and suspicious, maybe even a little bit fearful. “What’s wrong?”
Flight was probably running through her mind again, and Will didn’t know a way to stop that. He could reach for her, but Sean was already asking questions about the nature of their relationship and, honestly, Will wasn’t sure how to answer them. When it came to Jasmine, his entire world had been rocked.
He focused on the case instead. Bracing his hands beside his hips, he got straight to the point. “What can you tell me about Darrin and Keith Hawkins?”
Jasmine’s head jerked as if something flew by her nose. “I’m sorry? Darrin and Keith? My bosses?”
“Yes.” Sean leaned forward and rested his elbows on his knees. “We’re just trying to cover every angle, to make certain we’re looking at all the people who could possibly be involved in smuggling drugs to the frontier. They run an air freight service. That makes them natural suspects.”
“There are a lot of air freight services in the area. It could be anyone.”
“Humor us.” Sean was easygoing, but he was also ready for answers.
Will was glad he’d taken up the pushier role.
With a heavy sigh, she pressed her palm against her forehead and stared at the ceiling as though she was trying to hold a headache at bay. “They’re regular guys. Darrin’s the friendlier one. Keith’s usually pretty quiet, unlike today. They started the company right out of college and have built up a pretty big business. Big enough that I don’t think they’d jeopardize it by smuggling anything, and especially not drugs.” She shrugged. “I’ve never seen anything to make me think they’re up to something. What makes you suspect them?”
“Like Sean said, the job makes them natural suspects.” Will couldn’t explain the why. Not yet. There was just something about Keith’s reactions, about his insistence that Will not fly with Jasmine, that raised red flags. Because if he was so concerned with her safety, he would have been more concerned with bullets flying in her direction than with a man shooting up his plane.
Will sat straighter. A man shooting up his plane...
Both Sean and Jasmine seemed to lean closer. She held her hand out then dropped it before she touched him. “You just thought of something. Something not so good for me.”
Will turned to Sean. “What exactly did Keith say to you about his plane? In the hallway before you walked into the office?”
Scanning the ceiling as though he could see a replay there, his teammate lifted one hand slightly from his knee. “He was upset the plane was a mess. Said he had two planes grounded now. Wanted it fixed and wanted to know who would pay for it. Said ‘the fool shot...’” Sean’s voice trailed off and his eyes snapped down and locked on Will’s. “He literally said, ‘The fool shot up my plane.’”
That was it! That was the thing that had Will’s gut churning. He shot to his feet and walked to the outside door, staring at the fire exit map without seeing it. It wasn’t some fool or a fool. Keith had said the fool. “That sounds like familiarity. Like he knows who did it.”
“Impossible.” Jasmine’s voice broke through his thoughts. “First, I’ve been there two years. I think I’d have noticed anything hinky going on. And second, it can’t be true because that would mean...”
There was no need for her to finish the sentence, and she wouldn’t with Sean in the room anyway. Because that would mean she’d run straight from the murderous sights of one drug kingpin into the employ of another.
“Is there anything you can think of that Keith or Darrin or anyone at the airfield has done that seems strange. Or out of character?” Sean took over the questions, probably sensing they’d come out more professionally from him. His emotions weren’t involved, and it was becoming clearer by the second that Will’s definitely were.
She sighed. “We’re a family. Once a month when it’s nice outside, we have a cookout for lunch. When it’s nasty weather, we do potlucks. We take care of each other when somebody’s sick. I missed work for a week and a half with some virus and they paid me anyway, even though Keith and Darrin had to take turns flying my routes.”
“Flying.” Will faced the room again. “Does either Keith or Darrin ever fly?”
“Darrin takes passengers up when we have passenger flights. He enjoys the touristy part, being with people and all. He was with a flight today, which is why he wasn’t at the airfield. Keith’s more of a numbers and files guy, but he loves to fly. He takes a few of the freight flights each week.”
Sean gave him a knowing look. “Any pattern to those flights?”
“I don’t know.” Jasmine pressed her lips together as she thought. “I’ve never paid that much attention, to be honest.”
“Something feels off.” Sean’s tone was grim, and Will now knew that this was more than just a gut feeling. And if they were right, it could be potentially devastating for Jasmine.
“I’m telling you it’s not them, and if you keep looking in their direction you’ll miss the real smugglers.” Her voice rose and took on a tone he typically often heard when family defended family.
His stomach dropped. She wasn’t romantically involved with one of them, was she? If she was, it would be natural to cover for them. He didn’t want to ask. Oh, how he didn’t want to ask.
But he had to. “Jasmine, are you dating Keith or Darrin?”
Her nose wrinkled as though he’d suggested she lick the carpet. “No.”
Sean swallowed a laugh. “Are they that offensive?”
“What? No!” She shook off the look and almost seemed to blush. “They’ve always treated me like a kid sister, so it’s like you asked me if I was dating my brother.” The slight amusement seemed to die at the mention of her brother.
She’d left her brother behind when she started her new life, but Sean didn’t know that. The air in the room stilled.
Sean looked between the two of them. “Is there something I need to know?”
“No.” Jasmine’s denial was abrupt, and she stood. “No one at Kesuk Aviation is running drugs.”
Sean didn’t look convinced, but there was nothing Will could do. Jasmine’s WITSEC status had to be guarded, even from his teammate, if she had any chance of keeping her current identity when this was all over.
But what if he was wrong? What if, by keeping that secret, he was putting all of them in even deeper danger?
ELEVEN
Cradling the cup of coffee Will had handed her on the way out of the hotel, Jasmine leaned forward and peered up at the sky through the windshield of his SUV. The early morning sun swiped paintbrush strokes of color along streaks of cirrus clouds. It promised to be a beautifu
l day for flying, and she wished she could be in the pilot’s seat. She itched for the feel of the yoke in her hands and the gentle bobbing of a plane coasting the sky in fair weather.
Up in the air, with the clouds, she felt truly safe. Bullets couldn’t reach her there. Faceless assailants couldn’t sneak up behind her. No one could tamper with her plane as long as it was in the air.
Then again, someone had managed to get to her plane, but other than a long night in the wilderness, the danger hadn’t been too scary. Had she been flying over water, then...
Forget thinking like that. There was enough trouble around her without borrowing more. Cautiously, she took a sip of hot coffee, hoping it would fill in the gaps where her restless sleep had failed to bring restoration. She pulled in a deep breath. It was going to be a long day.
“You okay over there?” Will’s head turned slightly. Even though he wore sunglasses, it was easy to tell that he was surveilling their surroundings, his vision constantly shifting.
He was watching out for her. She’d hoped never to be in a situation like this again. “Just shaking the feeling of déjà vu. I’ve been here and done this before.” She dared to turn straight toward him. “It did not end well the last time.”
The corner of his mouth tipped slightly. “I don’t know about that. You’re still breathing. I’d say it went pretty well.”
“Not if I’ve been found.”
Reaching across the console, Will tapped her hand where it was wrapped around her coffee cup. “I realize you feel like you’re facing down your worst-case scenario, but the evidence says you’re not. It seems someone thinks you know something, whether you realize it or not. I’m trusting the evidence.”
“I thought you trusted your gut.”
He chuckled. “My gut’s usually working on the evidence my brain doesn’t see outright. Subconscious at work.”
Well, he might trust his subconscious, but hers was screaming she was on the verge of disappearing. She gripped the fragile coffee cup tighter, then forced herself to loosen her grip before she crushed the thing and made a caffeinated mess of Will’s front seat. “I wish I was flying today.”
“I know.” His voice was gravelly as he slowed to make the turn at the airfield. “It’s your safe place.”
The understanding of his words rested on Jasmine like a warm blanket on a cold day. It almost felt like she could do anything as long as Will was around.
But he wouldn’t be around forever. Either she’d be relocated, or he’d move on to another case. Their days together were numbered.
Days were numbered was a bad choice of words. Lord, please. Take this fear away.
“Are you praying?” Will’s voice cut her God conversation short.
“Does that bother you?”
He shook his head. “No. It’s just different.”
“How so?” Jasmine wrinkled her forehead, grateful for the distraction from her thoughts. While she wasn’t practiced in talking about God, He was a natural part of the rhythm of her life.
“I guess I never thought about praying all the time. I know there’s something in the Bible about praying without ceasing, but you have to live, too. You can’t stay in your Bible all day.” Overhead, a scattering of ravens broke the cloud-dusted sky.
Jasmine really did wish she was flying. Life was easier in the air. It was also easier when she prayed. “I’m not in my Bible all day. I pray when I need to. God’s always there. Maybe if you broke free of your six o’clock appointment, you’d see that.” She hadn’t meant for the words to be accusatory. “I didn’t mean—”
“You didn’t mean what? That you know God better than I do?” He didn’t seem angry. He sounded almost curious, as though he was coaxing out her thoughts.
“God doesn’t want us checking boxes. He wants all of us. All of the time. We live life beside him, not with occasional side trips to him. He’s always listening, and I always need Him.” She poked her finger into his shoulder. “I promise I’m not judging you. I just see it differently. I guess we all have a unique relationship with Him, or we wouldn’t be individuals.”
“Maybe.” The word came out slowly, but when he hooked a right into the airfield parking lot, he switched topics. “That Ford Expedition. Is that Keith and Darrin?”
“It’s Darrin’s, but they usually ride together. They don’t live far from each other.” As Will coasted to a stop in a parking space close to the office building, Jasmine unbuckled her seat belt and watched Sean glide into the space beside them. “I still think it’s a waste of time to look at Keith and Darrin. Kesuk Aviation makes good legal money. I’ve seen the financials. Risking that kind of profit to run drugs would be counterproductive.”
“Greed is a strange beast.” He switched off the vehicle and faced her, his brown eyes serious. “Do you have any idea what one OxyContin pill can go for in some of the remote villages?”
“No.” How could she? “I know the drug problem is rampant in Alaska. Shutting down one supply line won’t stop it, not when something like fifteen percent of the population has admitted to using.” She flicked the plastic lid on her coffee cup, then wiped away a rogue drop with her thumb. “It’s being flown in, snowmobiled in, mailed in... It’s so big.”
“It is. But shutting down one line can lead to others. We can never stop it, but we can slow it down.”
This was what Will and Scout did. They tried to dam up a river with a chain-link fence. “It’s hard on you, isn’t it? Knowing you can’t save them all.”
He watched Sean climb out of his SUV. “I’d love to put a stop to the whole trade, but I’ll never be able to.” He shook his head and seemed to come back to the present. “I do what I can to save as many as I can.”
Because he couldn’t save his own mother. Jasmine wanted to take his hand the way he’d taken hers so many times, but she held back. Will didn’t need her comfort. He needed her cooperation. “So how much does Oxy go for?”
“Enough to tempt anyone. Opportunism and greed know no bounds. Neither does evil.” He shoved open his door and looked over his shoulder at her as he stepped from the vehicle. “Outside of Alaska, you can pick up a pill for about ten bucks. On the frontier where the supply is thin, and the routes are iffy? We’ve had reports of one pill going for four hundred dollars.” The truck rocked as he shut the door behind him.
Jasmine sank into the seat and stared unseeing out the windshield. Four hundred dollars for one pill? A legal thirty-day prescription could go for twelve thousand dollars. Someone could buy hundreds of pills in the lower forty-eight and transport them here for a profit that tested her math skills.
And that was just one drug. There were dozens of others that likely brought big money as well.
She covered her mouth and let her chin fall toward her chest. Not only were people’s lives in danger, but their livelihoods were as well if they were willing to pay that much for a momentary high. The villages weren’t prosperous places. Most folks scraped to get by. So many had children. She knew from experience with some of her former students that, when addiction struck, parents would neglect their families to get the fix they needed, even to the point of homelessness.
Or worse.
These perpetrators were taking advantage of people in order to get rich. They were trashing the lives of people on the frontier who were simply trying to survive in a land that was already stacked against them.
She was in Alaska because of men like that. She’d actively participated in taking one of their killers down at a cost almost too high to bear. Lord, forgive me for being afraid. For forgetting I gave my life to You to do with as You wish. You didn’t bring me to Alaska for no reason. You saw all of this coming from the moment I was born. You put me here to help. You brought Will in because You knew I could do more if I joined him in this investigation. So I will.
I will.
* * *
Something about Jasmine had changed.
As he held the door to Kesuk Aviation open and ushered her inside, he could feel it in the tilt of her head and the straightness of her spine.
There was no doubt where this strength had come from. He’d seen the same behavior in soldiers and law enforcement officers he’d worked with over the years. He’d felt it in himself. It was the thing that drove him.
Jasmine was a warrior. When Will had informed her how lucrative the illegal drug trade was, that fierce valor had kicked into high gear. She saw what he saw...lives wrecked not only emotionally and physically, but financially as well.
There was no doubt she was done being afraid. She was ready to fight.
When the door closed behind him, he shifted his thoughts to the mission. What she’d said about God and prayer resonated, but he’d always been that guy who spent time in prayer first thing in the morning, waited for his marching orders, and went on with his day.
Was it possible God wanted more?
In the hall, Jasmine eyed him with a silent question.
He nearly smiled. That was one brave, selfless woman. He wouldn’t mind being partnered with her for the rest of his life.
His toe caught on the heavy mat inside the door, and he stumbled. The rest of his life?
Absolutely not. The last time he’d trusted his heart to a woman, she’d crushed his emotions and nearly derailed his career. He wasn’t making that mistake again.
Even if Jasmine didn’t seem the type to play that game.
Yeah, he hadn’t thought his mother or Beth was capable of that either.
“Are you with us, Will?” Sean stepped up on his heel and kept his voice low.
His teammate was right. He couldn’t afford to walk into this situation, where they were trying to figure out if Keith and Darrin were involved, without his mind fully engaged. If Keith’s words yesterday were aimed at the shooter, then this was a dangerous game, and he couldn’t afford to take his eye off the ball.
The cost might not be his life.
