by Jodie Bailey
As soon as the door closed behind Sean, Jasmine stepped in carrying her backpack and a gym bag. “Where are we going?”
“I’ll tell you when we get in the car and we’re on the way.” He couldn’t risk the room having been bugged in their absence. The only safe house he could think of at the moment belonged to a former army buddy who’d been stationed at Fort Wainwright. He was deployed at the moment, but Will had crashed at his place before and knew where there was a spare key. While he hadn’t wanted to risk using a buddy’s home as a safe house before, they were running out of options now.
The trick would be getting to the house undetected, which would be tough given how conspicuous their SUVs were. But, if he remembered correctly, Kelvin had a garage. That would help. And he’d have a washer and dryer, and a yard for the dogs.
Although, hopefully, they would bring down their killer and their smuggler and they wouldn’t have to stay for very long.
He started to tell Jasmine they’d leave as soon as Sean returned, but as he opened his mouth, he really saw her for the first time since she’d stepped into the room. Her face was pale. Her mouth was tight.
This time, he couldn’t stop himself from going to her and offering comfort. Everything about her situation tugged at his heart. Dropping his backpack onto the bed, he closed the space between them and pulled her to him. “It’s going to be okay.”
“Is it? Because it doesn’t feel that way.” Her mouth moved against his shoulder, her words so low he wouldn’t have caught them if they’d been spoken any farther from his ear.
He wanted to tell her he was doing the best he could. That he’d put himself between a bullet and her if he had to. Of course, he’d do that for any civilian, wouldn’t he?
Adrenaline shot through his heart and quaked into his veins. He’d protect anyone who needed him, but he’d rather die than know he’d failed Jasmine. If he failed her, he wouldn’t be able to take it, not just because he’d allowed something to happen to her on his watch...
But because he couldn’t imagine a world without her.
Involuntarily, his arms tightened around her, and he laid his cheek against her hair. Somehow, without his permission, she’d found her way into his heart.
The emotion ached from the inside out. He couldn’t do this. He couldn’t feel this. It went against everything he knew to be true. She’d use him. Hurt him. Turn her back on him.
Yet despite everything, he couldn’t believe any of that was true about Jasmine. It made no sense he’d feel this way. He’d known her for only a few days.
But he’d handed her pieces of himself and of his story that he’d never offered to another living soul.
And she’d protected them, even seemed to cherish them.
She saw him. Really saw him. And she treated him in ways Beth never had. In ways no one else ever had.
And now, he—
Running footsteps outside shattered his emotional rambling. Dropping his arms, he backed away from Jasmine and stood between her and the door, hand near his weapon, ready to draw if danger came knocking.
But it was Sean and Grace who entered, and his face was even grimmer than before.
He tossed his keys to Will, who caught them overhanded. “Take my car. Go.” He glanced at Jasmine and winced. “There’s an explosive device under the passenger seat of your vehicle on the exterior. I’ve called EOD here in Fairbanks. Get her to safety. Now.”
* * *
This was the thing Jasmine feared the most.
She sat on the sofa with her head in her hands, staring down at the beige carpet in a duplex that belonged to Will’s army friend. The blinds were closed. The door was locked. In the neighborhood around the duplex, plainclothes state troopers stood watch. She didn’t know how many.
Will had taken her laptop when they arrived here and had wired it into a secure router he produced from that infinitely deep backpack of his.
If things weren’t so serious, she’d call him Mary Poppins.
From some remote location far away, his teammate Eli was scanning her hard drive, searching for clues to what she might know. If her brain couldn’t reveal it, maybe her computer’s storage could.
Or maybe she didn’t know anything. Maybe Anton Rogers had managed to find her and exact his revenge.
It was so much like when she’d been asked to testify. Everything was upside down and out of control. Her life was no longer hers...again. Someone was definitely trying to kill her...again. She would likely have to change her name...again.
It had been a vague fear before, but now the horror had come to fruition. Bullets flying toward her at the airfield were one thing. They could be attributed to local drug smugglers simply trying to take her out for knowing something she honestly didn’t know she knew.
But a bomb? Under a state trooper’s SUV? That was the exact reason she’d been offered protection in the first place, a bomb wired to her beloved Ford Bronco.
It felt like Rogers was sending her a message, one that said she’d better enjoy every breath, because each one might be her last.
Now her worst nightmares were really coming true. She wouldn’t even be able to fly as scheduled tomorrow, not with her life and the lives of everyone around her in danger.
Worse, once the federal marshals took over her protection, Will would likely be off duty.
The one person she trusted, the one person she counted as a real friend who truly knew her, would be gone, never to be seen again.
Jasmine wrapped her arms around her stomach. That pain might be the worst of all. She’d allowed herself to settle into a friendship with Will. Had allowed herself to open up and to be herself with someone, and now she was going to lose him.
It shouldn’t hurt as bad as it did, but this was a whole new kind of pain. One that dug into her gut and tore at her heart.
Because somewhere along the way, she’d started seeing Will Stryker not only as a friend, but as someone she could trust with her heart. Someone she could walk beside and share life with if things were different.
How had that happened?
A soft rustle came from the kitchen door to her right, and then the couch cushion beside her sank. “With Kelvin deployed, the pickings in the kitchen are slim, but I did find some coffee. One of the other troopers is picking up some of the basics so we’ll have food for a few days.” Will set a coffee mug on the table and rested a hand on her back. “I can’t promise the cuisine will be fabulous, but it will be something.”
His hand was warm between her shoulder blades, the sensation seeming to soak its way through her until it lodged around her heart, settling her disturbed emotions. She couldn’t begin to guess how much longer he would be by her side, but he was here now, and she’d take his presence for as long as he offered it.
Without considering the action, she leaned toward him. Right now, she just wanted to feel safe, and Will was the only safe place she had left.
Her shoulder rested against his chest, and he slipped his arm from her back to her waist, pulling her closer. “I know this isn’t easy, Jas. It’s terrifying. But I’m here. I’ve got this.”
“For how long?” As much as she didn’t want to know, she needed to be prepared.
Will rested his chin on the top of her head. “I’m not sure. Technically, my assignment is to bust up the smugglers running out of this area into the frontier, but I kind of dragged you into it, so you’re part of that now.” He pulled in a deep breath and tightened his arm around her waist. “But I also can’t stay locked inside forever with you, no matter how much I want to. I have to get back out there and figure this out. And if the marshals do determine that this has more to do with you than with my investigation...”
He didn’t need to finish the sentence. “I don’t want that.” While her mind spun, her heart wrapped around his earlier words, the ones that said he wanted to stay here w
ith her, to be beside her. That spoke of more, of some of the same emotions that were twisting her own emotions into knots.
“Neither of us want that. I’m sorry I got you involved. I should have told you no when you offered to let me fly with you.”
She couldn’t let him take the blame. Jasmine sat up and pulled away from his touch. Pivoting so that one foot rested on the floor and her other leg was bent between them, she reached for his hand. “Don’t. I volunteered. I’m the one who talked you into it. And I’d do it again. I’d do it for the people, and I’d do it for...you. And, otherwise, I wouldn’t have gotten to know you. And I needed to know you.”
She did. Because of his willingness to listen to her heart and to encourage her, she had begun to find pieces of her real self that she’d thought were lost forever. She had begun to realize her identity was not her name or her job, but who she was inside. No matter what happened with WITSEC, she would always be herself inside. And she’d have Jesus. She would always be who He said she was, no matter what the world thought.
And she’d also always have the memory of this man, who could have been so much more to her if life had been different.
When she’d left her family behind and been told to avoid contact, her heart had been torn in two. She was left without her loved ones, without her support system. Jasmine would never know her brother’s children or get to be with her parents as they aged. That was a grief she still carried every day.
But the idea of leaving Will behind and never being able to contact him again was a different kind of pain. It was a ripping tear that threatened to steal her breath. How could it be that a man she’d met only a few days ago had lodged himself so deeply inside of her that it felt like her heart would be left in tatters when he was gone?
“Jas?” Will’s voice was low, barely a whisper and ragged with an emotion her soul recognized and gravitated toward.
She realized she’d been staring at him as her thoughts ran wild. That somehow, she’d locked eyes with him without even realizing it. He was bound to be able to see every whirling, spinning thought she was thinking.
And she didn’t care.
Narrowing his eyes as though he was trying to make sense of what he saw, Will tightened his fingers around hers. He brushed her hair from her face, tucking it behind her ear. His thumb lingered against her cheek, then dropped to trace her lower lip. His eyes followed, then lifted to look into hers, asking for permission.
Jasmine gave a slight nod and met him halfway.
It had been years since she’d kissed a man. Since she’d dated. Or simply allowed herself to let go. And in this moment, all the joy and wonder that she hadn’t been able to feel for so long unlocked and exploded in her chest, flowing between her and Will. Her free hand grabbed the front of his shirt and held on, not wanting him to leave. Not wanting to lose him.
Not wanting to retreat into the emptiness that had engulfed her for too long.
FIFTEEN
Will silenced every alarm bell that tried to ring in his head. He no longer wanted to think. Thinking had landed him in a vast frontier all alone, cynical and cold-hearted for too long. Right now, all he wanted to do was to feel the things that his past had denied him for too much of his life.
He wrapped his hand around Jasmine’s on his chest and held on, pouring his heart into hers. There wasn’t a time he could ever remember truly feeling, not since he was a little kid. Kissing this woman was like the warmth of a childhood summer afternoon. Calm, warm, yet exhilarating with all the possibilities life had to offer.
He hadn’t realized how isolated and closed off he’d been until this moment. He never wanted to leave.
But the alarm bells rang louder.
Jasmine gasped and pulled away suddenly, as though she could hear them, too. “Will.”
The sound wasn’t coming from his mind. That noise was real, and it came from his phone.
Will tore his gaze from hers. He’d forgotten who he was, who she was, where they were and what they were doing.
He’d forgotten that her life rested in his hands.
“Jasmine, I—” There was really nothing he could say. He’d overstepped. Allowed his heart to rule the show for the first time in recent memory. It had been incredible.
But he couldn’t let it happen again.
Disengaging his hand from hers, he pulled his phone from the holster at his hip and pivoted away from her as he answered. “Stryker.”
“I’ve found something.” Eli sounded like he was out of breath.
It must be good. Nothing got the tech guru more excited than finding something technical that someone else wanted to keep hidden. Will was on his feet. “A something that’s going to break open my case?”
“Maybe. If I’m right, it might be enough to get you a broader search warrant and enough evidence to put this thing to rest. You may want to get Jasmine and get to her computer. She’ll be able to explain a couple of things to me that I need to put some pieces into place. I’ll see if my theory holds any water then.”
Will looked over his shoulder at Jasmine, who sat on the couch, watching him. Her expression was guarded. He swallowed the need to discuss what had just happened. It would have to wait, even though it felt like the most immediate issue in his world at the moment.
He tipped the phone down, away from his mouth. “Eli’s found something. Wants you to grab your laptop and walk him through a few things.”
Pressing her hands against her knees, she rose slowly then followed him into the kitchen, where the laptop sat on the island, hooked to a secure hotspot Will had set up.
He laid his phone on the counter next to the laptop and hit the button to put the device on speaker. “We’re both here and we can both hear you.”
“Let’s rock and roll.” Eli had remoted into the laptop from his office in Anchorage after Will downloaded an app the other man had perfected. Eli was able to control the machine as if he sat in front of it.
It always freaked him out a little to watch the cursor seemingly move by itself. Windows opened and shifted on the screen to form a square. He pressed his palms against his thighs to keep his hands from reaching for the laptop.
Beside him, Jasmine shuddered, probably feeling that same sense of eeriness. She watched the screen for a moment then leaned forward, her brow furrowed. Her hand moved toward the laptop’s track pad, then hesitated and dropped back to her side. “Wait. Eli?”
“Yes?” His voice held an uptick that said he already knew what she’d seen.
“That box on the top right. Can you make it bigger? Full screen?”
As if her words had sway with the computer, the requested window filled the screen.
Lips pursed, she studied what appeared to be a schedule built on a spreadsheet.
“Tell me what you see.” Eli was searching for something, it was clear. Like any good investigator, he wanted to hear it from the witness, not direct their thoughts in any particular direction.
“That’s the flight schedule. Darrin usually sends us a file for each week and emails it out to us on Fridays. This is his full spreadsheet, though, for the rest of the year. He hasn’t sent that before. I’d have noticed this flight schedule sooner, but I haven’t bothered to look at it, since I’m off next week.” Her elbow bumped Will’s arm as she pointed at the screen. “I’ve never seen it color coded like this, though. Eli, can you scroll to this week?”
The view shifted, and Will studied the spreadsheet that appeared. Days and times ran across the top, corresponding with the current week. Locations ran down the left side. Several names filled the grids, but Jasmine’s and Keith’s stood out to him. Of Keith’s four flights, three were highlighted in green: the one he’d departed with this morning, one scheduled for takeoff the next morning and the one that coincided with the flight Jasmine had taken earlier in the week, when Will had boarded her plane.
&n
bsp; His eyes narrowed. Jasmine’s flight, the one he’d received the anonymous tip on, was highlighted in orange.
“What’s that?” Jasmine aimed a finger at Keith’s flight from today.
“What’s what?” There was no way for Eli to see what she was doing, a fact that was easy to forget in a situation like this.
“Zoom in on Keith’s flight for today. Make it bigger.” She flapped her hand in front of her as though she was impatient to do the work herself. “It looks like there’s something in small print in that cell under his name.”
The indicated cell zoomed in until it took up most of the real estate on the screen. Keith’s name loomed large on the highlighted green cell. Underneath, in the tiniest of fonts, was a note. AAS 543 Kod.
Will pulled his phone from his pocket and scanned the text the colonel had sent him earlier, detailing the anonymous tip that had come in. “Eli, look up Ammituq Air Service out of Kodiak. See if 543 means anything.”
The only sound over the line was the tapping of Eli’s keyboard, then he drew a deep breath. “According to their published schedule, 543 is a small freight and passenger flight that flew out this morning at 8:27, headed for Cold Bay.”
Will fought the urge to pump his fist in the air. The Ammituq flight’s time coincided with Keith’s green-highlighted flight from this morning, if he hadn’t taken off early. He scrolled to his case notes and looked at the screen again. “Roll back another week, Eli.”
“On it.”
Will waited as the spreadsheet updated, and another green highlight appeared. Keith’s highlighted flight had lifted off at the exact time as the Sea-Bush Air flight he had investigated the week before. “Make Keith’s green flight bigger.” Once again, the flight number matched the anonymous tip.
Jasmine gasped, her hand going to her mouth. Clearly, she’d seen the same condemning evidence that Will and Eli had seen. Every anonymous tip lined up with a highlighted flight piloted by Keith Hawkins. Green for money, for smuggling runs. Jasmine’s was the only flight in orange, because it was their own, one they’d tagged to deflect suspicion from themselves.
