Deadly Cargo

by Jodie Bailey

  It stood open. The interior of the house held an eerie silence that screamed he might be too late.

  Will peeked into the kitchen. No one was there.

  Lord, help me save her. I can’t do this by myself.

  From the living room, a woman’s voice lilted to him. “Jasmine? Come out, come out wherever you are.”

  His fingers tightened on the pistol grip, finger slipping toward the trigger. Dasha Melnyk was taunting Jasmine.

  His anger gave way to a flash of relief. She was alive and was somewhere in the house, but there was no way to tell how much time she had left.

  Hardly breathing for fear of giving himself away, he slipped into the kitchen, rolling his footfalls on the linoleum, praying the floor wouldn’t squeak. He hated walking in alone with no plan, but he had no other choice.

  Will pictured the layout of the duplex as he advanced. Once he rounded the corner at the bar, the wide-open doorway that led from the kitchen into the living room would leave him with no cover. He had to be ready for anything.

  He forced his training to the forefront. Controlled breathing. Controlled steps.

  As he neared the sink and the pass-through over it, he paused and eased forward slightly.

  A dark-haired woman crept slowly up the stairwell, her back to Will. In her hand, she held a pistol fitted with a silencer. She was the same height and build as the assailant who’d attacked him out on the frontier.

  It was likely his theory was right. The brothers and Melnyk had both been after Jasmine.

  Will gave a quick prayer of thanks that the woman hadn’t shot Poppy or Stormy. Still, it was clear her sole intent was to take out Jasmine.

  Time ticked faster.

  With one last deep breath, Will slipped past the small window and walked to the bar. Raising his weapon, he rounded the cabinet, leaving himself exposed if Melnyk chose to turn.

  Dressed in jeans and a dark windbreaker, she disappeared around the corner into the upstairs hallway.

  Will ground his teeth together. Jasmine was likely upstairs with no way out, and he was the only one who could save her. He couldn’t wait for Sean to get into position.

  Praying Melnyk wouldn’t hear him, Will hurried for the stairwell and placed his foot on the bottom step, ready to climb.

  From above, a shout, a thud, and the whiff of a silenced gunshot broke the stillness.

  Time had run out.

  Taking the stairs two at a time, he rushed into the hallway as the cartel leader stumbled out of a bedroom doorway. She shook her head as if to clear it and, with a calculated smile, raised her weapon.

  “Alaska State Trooper.” Will identified himself as he took aim. “Drop the weapon.”

  Dasha Melnyk whirled toward him, eyes wide with panic. Blood streamed from a gash on the side of her head. She glanced frantically from Will to the bedroom, then turned and bolted, rushing into the bathroom at the end of the hall and slamming the door.

  Before Will could pursue her, there was another muffled gunshot, a thud, and silence.

  * * *

  For the moment, Jasmine was alone, having waved off EMTs and concerned Fairbanks police officers. She needed a minute to process what had just happened.

  What had almost happened.

  From her perch on a picnic table in the duplex’s back yard, Jasmine stared at her hands. They shook with a tremor that she hadn’t been able to stop. Less than fifteen minutes ago, she’d wrapped those hands around a stump-turned-weapon and had struck another human being.

  A human being who was trying to kill her. One who had died moments later by her own hand.

  In her entire life, she’d never hit another person. Well, other than her brother when they were kids and occasionally got into sibling shoving matches.

  Her brother.

  The pain in her chest sharpened, and she dropped her hands into her lap. If Dasha Melnyk had found her, then there was no doubt that Anton Rogers also knew her identity.

  No doubt that she would have to move and become a new person again. One more step removed from her brother, from her parents...

  And from Will.

  Near the back door of the house, a small contingent of K-9 troopers huddled around Poppy, who had been hefted onto a gurney and was about to be carted around the house by EMTs who’d arrived only moments before. From the triumphant smile on her face, she was going to be okay.

  But Will was nowhere to be seen.

  He’d burst into the bedroom to find Jasmine still holding the cypress stump that had delivered a glancing blow to the side of Melnyk’s head and had likely saved Jasmine.

  Sean had been right behind him and had taken over the scene so that Will could escort Jasmine downstairs. He’d led her to this picnic table, but before he could speak, another trooper had called him away, to the front of the house. He’d left with a squeeze to her hand and a look she couldn’t read.

  Maybe he’d left already. It was for the best if he had. She couldn’t bear to tell him goodbye. It would hurt too much. Because at some point over the course of the week, she’d lost her heart to him.

  And there was no way she would ever get it back whole.

  Jasmine shut her eyes and buried her face in her hands. She pulled in a deep breath and steeled herself for what came next. Deputy US Marshals would show up on the scene, men and women she’d never met before. They’d whisk her away, train her in her new identity, and drop her into another city and state with a whole new story to keep straight. A whole new person with a fake memory to add to her already scrambled memory banks.

  She balled her fists. She could leave the program. Return to her family. Confess her feelings to Will and try to start a life with him.

  But Anton Rogers would always be there. And if he couldn’t make her suffer personally, he’d find a way to harm the people she loved.

  No. She had to flee again. She had to—

  Someone sat down on the bench where her feet rested. “How’s the hero?”

  Will.

  Her heart rate spiked then dropped again. He might be here now, but their time together was short. She’d have to soak in what she could in the few minutes that they had.

  Opening her eyes, she turned her head and met his gaze looking up at her, his dark brown eyes revealing nothing. At his feet, Scout sat panting, a happy dog if she’d ever seen one.

  If only she could join him in that joy. She sniffed. They needed to talk, but she wasn’t ready for the big conversation. She’d start small. “Poppy said the operation with Darrin and Keith was a success.”

  He nodded and scratched Scout’s ear. “It was. There was more than enough at the airfield and on their computers to take them down. I had a quick chat with Eli a couple of minutes ago. He thinks there’s sufficient intel on their computers to track down their suppliers, too. We might break this thing wide open more than we ever thought.”

  Jasmine gave him a small smile. At least her work with him hadn’t been for nothing.

  But Will frowned. He reached up and rested a hand on her shoulder. His touch was likely meant to comfort, but it warned her that more bad was coming. “Jasmine, Anton Rogers wasn’t behind any of what happened to you. Darrin tipped Dasha Melnyk off to your new identity.”

  With a gasp, she sat straight up, and his hand fell from her shoulder. The cut was deep, straight to her heart. “Why?”

  “Money.” This time, Will slipped up to sit on the table beside her and took her hand between his. He ran his thumb along her fingertips, watching the motion instead of looking at her. “Eli found evidence that Darrin was trolling around the Dark Web, looking for some quick ways to make money. Apparently, Dasha Melnyk had put a call out for your location. She wasn’t about to trust an assassin to come after you, though. She wanted to do the job herself.”

  Her stomach twisted. She was going to be sick. Her li
fe was in shambles because someone she’d trusted, someone she’d loved like family had betrayed her to line his pockets. Biting her lip, she looked away from Will and watched the paramedics wheel Poppy around the corner of the house.

  It hurt too much to think about herself. “Is Poppy going to be okay?”

  “Yeah. She took a good smack to the head, but she’s going to be alright.”

  “Why didn’t she kill Poppy?”

  Will sniffed, watching the activity near the gate. “There are some really bad actors out there who still won’t touch a cop. They somehow think one LEO will make more fire rain down on their heads than ten civilian murders. I know it’s a messed-up way of thinking, so I try not to dive too deeply into it.”

  Regardless of the twisted thought process, Poppy was still alive, and for that, Jasmine was grateful.

  When Poppy and her crew disappeared through the gate, Jasmine finally felt like she could look at Will again. “Is that why you called me a hero? Because I cracked a killer in the head?”

  “Sort of.” He was still staring at their joined hands, and his fingers tightened on hers. “It was more because you saved the life of the woman I love.” When his eyes lifted, they bored straight into hers, the message in his gaze as clear as his words had been.

  He was in love with her. Impossible, but true.

  And it ripped her heart in two. They loved each other, and there was nothing they could do about it, not if they were both going to survive.

  “Will.” His name was ragged, dragged out of a throat raw with tears that threatened to choke her. “You can’t run with me. You and Scout have a life here, more people to protect. Anton Rogers is still alive. He might not have been the threat this time, but he’s acted against me before. He will again.”

  “Anton Rogers is dead.”

  The words didn’t penetrate at first. They were just syllables. Gibberish. Impossible letters strung together. She jerked her head to the side and stared at the gate where Poppy had exited. “What?”

  Two people were dead.

  But she had life.

  “We’re still piercing intel together, but it seems Dasha Melnyk was ready to rebuild her empire, but she wanted revenge first, to prove to her rivals that she could reach anybody, anywhere. Once she found out where you were, she coordinated an inside hit on Rogers, then came after you herself. When she was cornered, she took her life.” Will released her hands and laid a finger on her chin, turning her face toward his. “You’re free, Jasmine,” he whispered the words almost too low for her ears to catch.

  But her heart definitely heard. She could be herself again. No more split identity. Just one whole person, living a real life. “It’s Yasmine Carlisle.”

  Will slid his fingers along her skin until his palm cupped her cheek. He leaned closer. “It’s nice to meet you, Yasmine Carlisle.” The words were a whisper against her lips, and then he kissed her.

  It was so much different than their first kiss. Now there was hope. There was freedom.

  This was her real self, shared completely with him.

  He backed away slightly, and his smile reached all the way into his eyes. “I talked to Deputy Marshal Maldonado. He’s the one who called me when I walked away earlier. He’s working on getting your family here on the first possible flight.”

  “Will.” Her heart jumped. For the first time in years, she felt the stirrings of hope, as though life had possibilities again. She could hug her mother and her father. Even her brother. She had her life back. She had her family back.

  But Will... She bit her lip, then pulled his hand from her cheek and held it between them. “I don’t know what’s going to happen next. Not where I’ll work or live or anything. I mean, my job is gone now.”

  “Well, Anchorage has plenty of freight services in need of experienced bush pilots.”

  The corner of her mouth lifted and her heart responded to his teasing. “Really?”

  “They do. If you wanted to continue flying.” He ran his thumb along the edge of her hand, the feeling both calming and exhilarating. “And if you wanted to see what it’s like to be with me when nobody’s shooting at us.”

  Jasmine bit her lower lip, partially to hold back tears and partially to hold back a smile. “I’d like that. Because I’d like to know who Yasmine Carlisle is when she’s with you.” She had a feeling the best part of herself could be found with Will.

  “Same for Will Stryker. You seem to bring out the best things in him, the ones he’d forgotten were there.”

  “I guess I just decided to move to Anchorage.” And probably anywhere else he decided to go.

  Will’s smile was soft, yet it melted the last of her icy fears. “Hey, I know you just got to be Yasmine Carlisle again, but what if someday, in the future, you decided you wanted something different? Something new?”

  She blinked too many times, and the world almost went dark. Change her name again? Who would she be if she couldn’t go back to—

  Will’s arched eyebrow and mischievous grin swept away her rising panic. He wasn’t asking her to give up her name.

  He was asking her to consider taking his.

  She dropped his hand and slipped hers around his waist. “To Yasmine Stryker? Sounds like somebody had a random name generator for cops.”

  “Or for hero bush pilots.” He pressed his forehead to hers. “Think you can live with one more name change someday?”

  Instead of answering, Jasmine pulled him closer and pressed her lips to his, promising him that, even with an entirely new name, she would love him forever with all of her true self.

  * * *

  Look for the next book in the Alaska K-9 Unit series, Arctic Witness by Heather Woodhaven.

  Alaska K-9 Unit

  These state troopers fight for justice with the help of their brave canine partners.

  Alaskan Rescue by Terri Reed

  Wilderness Defender by Maggie K. Black

  Undercover Mission by Sharon Dunn

  Tracking Stolen Secrets by Laura Scott

  Deadly Cargo by Jodie Bailey

  Arctic Witness by Heather Woodhaven

  Yukon Justice by Dana Mentink

  Blizzard Showdown by Shirlee McCoy

  Christmas K-9 Protectors by Lenora Worth and Maggie K. Black

  Keep reading for an excerpt from Undercover Protection by Maggie K. Black.

  Dear Reader,

  I cannot tell you how much fun I have had writing this book and participating in this series with so many other amazing authors. I wish you could have peeked into our behind-the-scenes brainstorming and discussions. We have had a wonderful time together!

  Jasmine’s story really spoke to my heart. I write a lot of books that deal with overcoming fear, and Jasmine certainly had to do that. But it was her sense of identity that really worked on my heart. We’ve all had those moments where we wondered who we are and why we’re here. For Jasmine, her questions were complicated by living life as two different people. But, did you notice? Her ultimate identity was in Christ, and that kept her rooted even in those moments when she felt like everything was out of control. I’m so glad Christ does that for me...and I hope He is the center of your life as well!

  Thank you for spending your time with Jasmine and Will. I hope you’ll stop by jodiebailey.com to say hello and to “meet” some of my other favorite characters! And I hope you’ll continue on with Will’s teammates on the Alaska K-9 Unit. There are more surprises ahead and more clues to be uncovered!

  Jodie Bailey

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  Undercover Protection

  by Maggie K. Black

  ONE<
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  As Leia Dukes stepped through the old familiar front door of her family’s darkened farmhouse, she felt a pair of beefy hands grab her roughly from behind. A second figure pulled some sort of fabric over her head to blindfold her before she could even scream. Her purse was yanked from her shoulder, and as she felt herself propelled across the floor of her childhood home, she suspected that whatever was happening to her now, farmhand Jay Brock was somehow behind it. That man had lied to her last summer, broken her heart and whatever trouble he was mixed up in might have also put her life in danger.

  Save me, Lord! Nobody even knows I’m here!

  Prayers for help battled the fear inside her. Why had she just shown up alone like this? Why hadn’t she prepared herself for trouble? She’d already suspected that Jay seemed like the kind of untrustworthy man who’d have enemies. Not that she’d realized that until after she’d been taken in by his good-guy routine a year ago and foolishly fallen for him. He was the reason she’d driven up from Toronto late at night to talk some sense into her sister Sally. The ruggedly handsome yet infuriatingly evasive man had been originally hired by her widower father for a few weeks last year to fix up some stuff around the century-old farm.

  Secretly, she and Jay had also become such close friends that he’d actually convinced Leia he’d fallen in love with her—during a sweet whirlwind summer romance that they’d barely managed to hide from her family—before suddenly calling it off, breaking her heart, changing his phone number and disappearing from her life. Although she’d caught a glimpse of a figure who looked an awful lot like him lurking around her father’s graveside last month.

  Even then, she hadn’t realized she might’ve been taken in by a con man until a colleague at the public defender’s office Leia was working at to save for law school encouraged her to do some digging just in case he was wanted by the police. That’s when she found out there wasn’t a trace of him on social media and none of his former employers claimed to have heard of him.