Abby knocked on the door and then entered. Lola looked up, her eyes going round, and tears began to fall again. How could someone so little cry so much? Surely she’d shrivel up soon.
“I am so sorry! I didn’t know Chet lied about you. I didn’t know they were trying to kill you.”
Abby was slammed into by the young girl, who was only eight years younger, but who seemed both completely naïve despite the indescribable horrors at the hand of Chet that she was only now coming to realize.
“I’m just thankful you came forward. I am sorry for what Chet did to you, Lola. He’s tried to kill me a couple times now, and you’re just learning who he is. That must be a shock to you.”
“What can I do to help?”
“Your parents will be here in a few hours. I know you’ve been talking to my mother and to Dylan. And I hate to do this to you, but I have some questions of my own.”
Abby looked down and saw the ripped shirt. “My friend is here. Do you want your tattoo changed? He can do it while we talk. However, I need you to face the camera while he does it in case we need to prove Chet marked you. I understand you might not want to do that though, after what Chet did.”
“Who will see?” Lola asked as if she were a little child.
“I’ll clear the room, and we’ll be the only ones there,” Abby’s mother said soothingly.
“Thank you, Bridget. If it’s only you two in there, I’m okay with it.”
“You’re a very brave girl, Lola. I’ll send in Lucas and clear the room. I’ll knock on the window when it’s all clear.”
Dylan touched Abby’s arm. “I have my phone if you need me.”
“Thank you,” Abby said over Lola’s head.
Lola let go and grabbed for Dylan. Abby almost moved to take her down until she realized she was hugging Dylan. “Thank you. You saved me.”
Dylan patted Lola’s back. “You saved yourself when you decided to tell the truth. Your parents weren’t mad, by the way. They are eager to see you. Your mother was so happy she cried.”
Lola nodded her head and stepped back. Abby noticed she was standing taller and her face had a determined set to it. “Then let’s talk. I’ll answer everything I can.”
Dylan held the door open for Lucas who came in with a tattoo kit. “Hi. How do you feel about polar bears?”
22
Abby had everything she needed to take Chet down and she was ready to wage war. Her boss was happy with the evidence. The president ordered a full attack on all of Chet’s assets in the US and overseas. Lola’s parents had been tearfully reunited with their daughter who was sporting a fresh tattoo of a very cute polar bear on her chest now. And Kale had unearthed the original video footage of a burning warehouse in Albania.
“One of Chet’s shell companies owns it. The footage is authentic. The building burned three weeks ago and a hundred and four children under the age of eighteen died. You are also real, but your clothing and location were manipulated. When I took off the layers, this is what you have.”
Abby looked at video footage of her from the first party she attended. “This is at Chet’s in Costa Rica.”
“I guessed that. He used some pretty good editing to get this good a production. He deleted the background, changed your hair color and clothes, and manipulated your body movement. It’s top-notch work. Hackers have started to work on this since celebs have locked down the sex tapes and naked selfies on their phones. These deep fake porn videos are all the rage. Hackers take the celebrity’s face and attach it seamlessly to a porn star’s body. It looks like they used the same technology to put you in front of the burning building.”
“Thanks, Kale. Did you send me all of that information?”
“Yeah, and I sent it to your boss.”
“You’re the best, even if you do eavesdrop.”
“Learned it from you, sis!” Kale called out as he jogged down the hall.
There may be a kernel of truth in that. She looked around for Dylan but didn’t see him, so she made her way to the main security room. “Have you seen Dylan?”
“He’s with your father,” one of the soldiers said with a nod of his head in the direction of the small conference room.
“So this is the plan?” Abby overheard her father say as she entered the room.
“What plan?”
Dylan and her father looked up from the table as Dylan casually picked up the papers. “To allow Lola’s parents some visitation time.”
Abby didn’t believe him for a second. She needed to get her hands on whatever it was he was hiding from her.
“Okay. So, what’s the plan now?”
“I say we go get a couple hours of sleep. It’s almost morning,” Dylan said as he went to hug her.
“In your own beds,” Ahmed ordered as Abby rolled her eyes.
“Yes, sir. No sleeping in bed together. Got it.”
Dylan placed his hand on the small of her back and Abby enjoyed the warmth of it as they made their way outside. “Wyatt, what are you doing here?” Abby asked as they came across a very tired Wyatt Davies.
“Just delivered the first foal of the new year,” Wyatt said with a sleepy grin. “A beautiful chestnut colt. What are you guys doing at four in the morning?”
“Work,” Dylan answered for them. Wyatt didn’t bother asking more. He knew all too well the crazy lives of those from Keeneston.
“Hey, are you okay?” Abby asked him. Wyatt wasn’t his normal cheerful self.
Wyatt let out a long tired breath and shook his head as if to wake himself up. “Yeah. I’m afraid I’m going to have to either sell the farm or give up being a veterinarian. Trying to do both is killing me.”
“Can’t you hire someone to run the farm?” Abby asked.
“With what money? I’m sinking everything I earn into horse care, barn maintenance, and landscaping. I swear I ran the mowers every day all the way up until three weeks ago. I had no idea it costs that much to maintain a farm.” Wyatt placed his medical bag in the back of his truck and leaned against it. He rubbed his hands over his face before dropping them to his sides. “Sorry. It’s just been a lot. Mom and Dad have offered to help, but I really don’t like the idea of coming to them for money at my age. I just need to suck it up and find a way to make it work.”
“Did Mrs. Wyatt not leave you anything to help out?” Dylan asked about Wyatt’s great-grandmother. She and her husband, Beauford, had owned the farm, which she left to Wyatt when she passed away. The farm had been in the family for generations.
“Some. And that’s maintained it for the first year and a half. She left some money to my mom and then donated the rest of it to the Daughters of Elizabeth. We were kinda shocked since the charity didn’t even exist when she passed, but her will asked for it to be left to Elizabeth, and Sydney knew exactly what that meant. We all did after Sydney showed us the family history. And I thought I didn’t need any more. She left me some, and I was well off. Was being the key word. And the thing is, Great-Grandma Wyatt left me one hell of a colt. She’d paid for breeding in advance. He was born a year ago and can start racing next year. Though I have no trainer, no manager, and no money to hire them.”
“I can kidnap you a trainer,” Abby offered. That made Wyatt smile. Wyatt was different from her and Dylan. He was always the good kid. He was the rule follower, the one who came to the rescue to patch up a scraped knee at recess, the one who made sure they didn’t stay out past curfew in high school, and the one who always stood up for those weaker than himself. He was the living definition of “Southern gentleman.”
“I’m thinking of selling the colt to Mo, but I really want to keep him. If he’s as good as I think he is, I could make enough racing him to build up the farm and then retire him. Using his stud fees, I would maintain the farm for decades.”
“He’s that good at as a yearling?” Abby asked Wyatt. She might not be a horse person herself, but you didn’t grow up on a farm and not know anything about them.
“Yeah,
he is. Best I’ve ever put my hands on. All the potential is there just waiting to be set free.”
“Then you need a trainer.”
“I’ve tried, but when I tell them I can’t pay up front, they go running,” Wyatt said with a defeated grin.
“Have you tried looking outside the normal places?” Dylan asked.
“What do you mean?” Wyatt pushed off the side of the truck and crossed his arms over his chest.
“Well, look at Cady Woodson at Barrel Creek Distillery. She’s young, just in her mid-twenties, and all the master brewers ignored her because she was a young woman and didn’t have the usual qualifications. However, she was the daughter of one of the most famous distillers around. She lived and breathed bourbon making her whole life and probably knows more than any current master distiller. She went outside the box and started Barrel Creek Distillery herself when no one would give her a chance,” Dylan explained as Abby nodded.
“Yes, don’t look at the normal candidates,” Abby said encouragingly. “Besides, normal doesn’t really go over well here.”
Wyatt was quiet for a moment as he stared off into space. “That could work,” he finally said. “And I know where to start looking. Thanks, guys.” Wyatt shook Dylan’s hand and gave Abby a hug. He opened the truck door and leapt inside.
“I hope this works. I’d hate to see him have to choose between the farm and his veterinary practice,” Abby said as Dylan wrapped his arm around her waist.
“We’ll be here to help him if he needs us. I guess if our cover is blown and we don’t want to take a desk job, I could run the farm and you could train the horses. Wouldn’t we be cute working together?”
Abby laughed as she rested her head against his shoulder. “It would be nice working with you. I must admit I feel as if I’m wishing for the moon. I wish our covers weren’t blown. I wish we could keep our jobs. I wish we could work together. And at the same time, I wish we could be a normal couple.”
“As you said, Keeneston doesn’t do normal. We can have a wonderful life together, but it would be our wonderful life that makes us happy. Not someone else’s idea of what a normal life is like. Does that mean you’re asking me to marry you?”
Abby thought he was serious until he snickered. “You’re so bad.”
“See, what’s the fun in being normal?” Dylan winked at her as they approached her house. He grinned and she knew he was up to something. “I bet normal people don’t do this.”
He grabbed her as his lips took hers in a searing kiss. Abby wasn’t even paying attention that he was steering her backward until she was pressed up against a tree in her front yard. “Dylan,” she gasped as his lips left hers and trailed his lips slowly down her neck. “Anyone could come from the security building,” she managed to say as his hands caressed their way under her shirt and up to her breasts.
“I know. But we’re not normal people, Abby. Why should we have a normal relationship? I want a happy, loving, fulfilling one. And while that end is normal, the way we get there will be very different.” Dylan’s fingers rolled her nipples as the stars brightened in her eyes. “Are you happy?”
“Yes!” Abby gasped. She didn’t even notice the cold when he pushed her shirt up and dropped to his knees. “Are you fulfilled?”
“Not yet,” Abby said saucily as she looked down into his eyes through the dark side of morning. Dawn had not yet broken and they were nothing more than two shadows in the dark.
The cold air felt alive on her skin as he spun her around. Her hands grasped the tree trunk as she felt him tug her pants off and stand. His warm body moved against hers. With his hands covering her breasts and their heated breaths mixing to dance along the night air, Abby swallowed a scream as Dylan worked relentlessly to fulfill all her dreams.
23
Well, they hadn’t slept together in bed so Dylan had kept his promise. He looked across the kitchen table at her and winked. Her face flushed as she almost choked on her coffee. They’d had two hours together and it had been perfect. It had also been all too easy to envision a future together.
Ahmed and Bridget had stumbled in at six in the morning, both exhausted from handling Lola’s interview and her parents. They had found Abby’s head on a pillow in Dylan’s lap as they slept on the couch. His neck was cricked from sleeping while sitting up, but he’d learned to sleep anywhere at any time. And being able to hold Abby for that short time while they slept was worth any aching muscles he had.
“Dylan, a word please,” Ahmed said, standing up and tossing his napkin onto the table. Bridget gave him a stern warning glare, but Ahmed just kissed the glare from her face.
“I’ll be back in a minute,” Dylan said to the rest of the table. He wasn’t worried about Ahmed any more. It was as he expected, underneath all the bite was a teddy bear. Well, at least someone who loved deeply, and Dylan knew when he saw his daughter happy, he’d stop freaking out as much.
Dylan followed Ahmed to his office. Ahmed had some papers spread out on the table and motioned for him to look at them. “I looked over your plan and the information we got from Lola. What do you think?”
* * *
Abby ignored her brother’s teasing and wished, not for the first time, that she had her own place in Keeneston. If she weren’t out of a job soon, maybe she’d look into buying a small house in town.
“Dad’s probably murdering Dylan. You know that, right?”
“Shut up, Kale.” Although he did have a point. There was a high probability that was actually occurring right then. Abby pushed up from the table and Kale snickered.
“Honey,” her mother said as she took a sip of juice. “I really don’t think your father is killing Dylan. We all love him, your father included. We have since you were kids. You know your father is a sucker for kids looking up to him, and Dylan worshipped him. It’s why your father taught him so much. So, if you feel the need to spy, go ahead. But sometimes you won’t like what you find. Let the boys do whatever they need to do. It makes them feel good.”
“Like ignoring the fact you and Annie like to donate your expertise to the DEA?” Abby whispered to her mother who grinned in return.
“Yes, exactly like that. It makes us feel good. And the same way I know Cade, Miles, Marshall, Cy, and sometimes your father, do little favors for the government and let it go as well. To each his own.” Abby rolled her eyes and her mother patted her hand. “And how a mother knows everything.”
That froze Abby as she thought about everything her mother could know. Yikes. That was a lot. She tried to swallow and remain calm. Really? How did the trainer at her CIA academy think he had anything on the people from Keeneston? Her mother cut her to the core, got into her head, and was about to spill all her secrets in a matter of one whispered conversation. Waterboarding was for amateurs.
Abby stood up and shrugged. She hoped she appeared nonchalant, but when her mother smiled into her orange juice, she knew she’d been busted. She looked back at the hall Dylan and her father had disappeared down.
“Fine. I’m going to the bathroom.” A bathroom that happened to be right next door to her father’s office.
Her mother didn’t say anything as she tried to walk away. Abby slowed her steps as she heard her father talking.
“Lola said Chet’s driving around everywhere since it’s easier to get from location to location without the authorities seeing him. He doesn’t have to file FAA plans and the government has already locked down his planes. There may be a helicopter that Lola bought that he’s also able to use at low altitudes.”
“I’m assuming Rahmi security has radar over the farm to monitor aircraft and weapons,” she heard Dylan say a second before she heard someone walking toward the office door and closing it. Ugh!
Abby hurried into the bathroom and audibly shut the door. She scrambled on top of the vanity, making sure not to knock anything from the countertop, and angled her ear toward the vent on the ceiling over the sink. If she turned her head the right way, she could
hear what was going on in her dad’s office.
“You take the Lipston road and I’ll take the road into Lexington,” she heard Dylan say. “You sure it’ll be tonight?”
“Lola seemed positive that it would be late tonight while everyone was sleeping. We’ll rest today and be ready for tonight. Meanwhile, I’ll have Rahmi specialists glued to the radar to make sure we don’t miss a helicopter landing in the area,” her father said.
She heard Dylan laugh. “So, the radar covers the whole town and not just Rahmi airspace?”
“Did you think it wouldn’t?”
“No, I’m just surprised it doesn’t also cover Lipston and Lexington.” There was silence and then Dylan laughing again. “It does cover that area, too?”
“Protecting our royalty is a serious matter.” Abby rolled her eyes at her father. He used that excuse to ignore most of the laws he found inconvenient.
“You haven’t told anyone, right? I want to keep Abby as far away from this as possible.” Abby clenched her jaw when she heard Dylan. Away from the takedown? It was her takedown! It was her mission, her assignment, and her bad guy.
“No one knows. And I like your idea of being far out of town. They won’t expect the ambush there, and it will protect the town as well. But I worry about you not having backup.” Wait, did her father say he was worried about Dylan? And why was that idiot not taking backup with him?
“You don’t seem concerned that you don’t have backup.”
“I was actually thinking it might be a good idea to read the brothers in.”
Abby fumed. They weren’t going to tell her about their plan to capture her subject, and they were going to bring in outside help instead of her!
“Just make sure they don’t tell Abby,” she heard Dylan say as her blood pressure rose to the point she was afraid steam would escape her ears soon. That’s it. She was going to see the plans if it was the last thing she did.
Forever Notorious: Forever Bluegrass #11 Page 18
