Dangerous Deceptions: A Christian Romantic Suspense Boxed Set Collection

by Lisa Harris

  Sienna shook her head.

  “We’re ordering pizza. What kind do you want?” Leland asked.

  “I don’t want any,” Earl said.

  “Famous last words. I’ll get you pepperoni—your favorite. What about your friend?”

  “Anything is fine,” Sienna said.

  “Okay,” Leland said. “What do you need?”

  “Encrypted USB. We want to know what’s inside.”

  “When do you need it?”

  “Tonight.”

  Leland laughed. “We’re swamped tonight. How about tomorrow?”

  “No. Sorry. We need help now,” Earl said.

  “When can you get the USB over here?”

  “We’re five minutes from your office.”

  “No kidding. You’re practically knocking on my front door, huh?” Leland laughed.

  “One more thing.” Earl glanced at Sienna.

  “Nope.” And Leland hung up.

  Earl drew a deep breath. “She’s never been rude to me. Must have a lot on her plate.”

  “You must know her well if you’re making excuses for her,” Sienna said.

  “Well, I’ve worked with her before. We all have. She’s the go-to tech person whenever Hu Knows needs something.” Earl pulled into the parking lot of a large office complex. “We’re here, but give me a second. I need to make a call.”

  Sienna nodded. What else could she do? She had no idea where they were.

  Earl parked the car and called Deshon. “Everything okay?”

  Listening, he nodded a few times. “Good. Keep my SUV there for the weekend.”

  Sienna could not hear the other end of the conversation.

  “Yes, there’s one more thing. This afternoon, a woman by the name of Dana Nesbitt was shot in her home.” Earl gave Deshon the home address. “She was transported to Grady. Could you please find out what her status is?”

  Sienna sniffled. She quickly prayed for Dana, that God would heal her and not let any harm befall the baby in her womb.

  “I know, right? I never imagined being an accountant could be deadly,” Earl said on the phone. “No need. Just text me as soon as you find something. Yeah. Okay. Thanks, man.”

  After he hung up, Earl turned to Sienna. “Deshon is going to let us know about Dana’s status. He’s heading to the hospital.”

  “Thank you.” And she meant it.

  Chapter Eight

  “A whistle from the whistleblower.” Cayson Yang studied the whistle USB that Sienna had handed over to him. He spun around in his ergonomic chair.

  Earl sat next to him in another chair, but Sienna chose to stand as she ate her stir-fried shrimp noodles right out of the box using a pair of chopsticks. Earl had offered her his seat earlier. He had found a big chair to sit in so that he could share it with his messenger bag. The strap was still around his shoulder.

  As for dinner, Earl had gulped down his chicken lettuce wrap quickly, tossed out the containers, washed his hands, and sat back down next to Cayson, who barely started on the whistle. Sometimes his colleagues said he ate too fast.

  “You don’t find it funny?” Cayson’s eyebrows rose. He glanced over at his cousin as if to get support. Leland Yang-Joule waved him off.

  “Find what funny?” Earl shook his head.

  “I said this is a whistle from the whistleblower,” Cayson repeated.

  When no one reacted, Cayson brushed them off. “Never mind.”

  There were other people in the machine room, but they didn’t talk to Earl or Sienna. They were in the middle of some project that Earl wasn’t privy to.

  “Should we wait here and watch you crack open that USB drive?” Earl asked.

  Before Cayson could answer, the door opened and in walked BBI Special Agent Stella Evans with a stack of pizzas.

  “Stella,” Earl said. He knew immediately that the project was related to the federal government.

  Sienna looked surprised that Earl had called the agent by her first name. Earl didn’t feel the need to explain. Maybe later. Or not.

  Stella ignored Earl. She turned to Sienna. “You must be Sienna. You didn’t specify a topping, so just take whatever you want.”

  “Thanks,” Sienna said.

  “That smells good,” Earl said. “How are you and your partner doing?”

  Stella put down the pizza boxes on an empty table near a coffee maker. “Jake’s over the moon. His wife is due in a few weeks.”

  “Already?” Earl remembered when he had accompanied FBI Special Agent Jake Kessler to California a few years before to hunt down clues to the lost Amber Room. Stella wasn’t directly involved, but Earl had met her later. They had gone out exactly once, but Stella allowed him to call her by her first name.

  Earl figured he probably needed to stop going out with every woman he met on the job.

  “I know, right? It has been a few years since they got married,” Stella said.

  “I got it started,” Cayson announced. “But this is military grade encryption worthy of NSA.”

  “Meaning?” Earl asked.

  “Meaning it’s going to take a while,” Cayson replied. “Who encrypted this?”

  Earl looked at Sienna.

  “I don’t know,” she said.

  “You went to Arun.” Earl kept his voice low so that he didn’t scare Sienna. He was still getting to know her and wasn’t sure what she could or could not handle. “Do you think your Printer Guy might know?”

  Sienna drew a deep breath. “I was hoping that Arun could read it for me, but he got miffed and asked why Dana gave it to me.”

  “So he knew that the whistle came from Dana.”

  “Sounds like it.” Sienna didn’t say more.

  Perhaps there was nothing more to say. The smell of pizza distracted him.

  Stella placed two slices of pepperoni on a paper plate and handed it to Earl. “I knew your lettuce wrap was just an appetizer.”

  Earl shrugged.

  “How does she know what you ordered?” Sienna asked.

  “Well, she’s FBI. She knows everything,” Cayson said. “Having dated each other also helps.”

  Earl watched Sienna’s face. Was she jealous at all? He couldn’t detect anything of that sort, but he kept staring because there was something about Sienna. In spite of the pain and pressure, she still appeared calm. Perhaps she had a natural poker face. If so, what was she thinking? What was she hiding?

  She had been forthcoming on the drive here, but there was still a whole lot more Earl needed to know. What could Sienna tell him about Zachary Gavard?

  Earl’s phone buzzed. He read the text message from Deshon. He called him back. “What?”

  “Texted you.”

  “I know. I couldn’t believe it. If the ambulance didn’t get to Grady, where did it go?” Earl asked.

  “I called Helen, but she said it will be a while. She left a message for Leland.”

  “Leland?” If Helen needed Leland, then it was all above their pay grades. “I’m in Leland’s office building. I’ll ask her myself.”

  “About your SUV,” Deshon said. “There are two sets of bugs and one tracker. Plus cameras everywhere. How did they get inside your vehicle?”

  “I gave Agent Kimball my key fob outside Dana’s house so she could move it for me.”

  “Makes sense then. There was another tracker under the SUV. A classic piece. That one might not be FBI.”

  “No fingerprints, of course.”

  “No. And no way to trace back to whoever did it. It was encrypted.”

  “Ah, that word again. No idea when it was planted?” Earl asked.

  “No way to know.”

  “Thanks, Deshon. Good job.”

  “No problem. I’m going home now to get some shut-eye. Anything else you need?” Deshon asked.

  “I think that’s all for now.” After Earl hung up, he realized that all eyes were on him.

  “What about Leland?” Cayson asked, nibbling the crust of his pizza. “I heard
you mention her name.”

  “My associate is unable to find out where Dana has been taken,” Earl said. “She has a gunshot wound. And she’s visibly pregnant. Kimball said they were taking her to Grady. She never showed.”

  “Kimball?” Stella asked.

  “Agent Mariana Kimball. You know her?”

  Stella shook her head. “I can find out.”

  “Kimball or someone called the ambulance—that’s my guess,” Earl said. “Now Dana has disappeared.”

  “Or in another hospital,” Stella said. “If you can tell me more, I’ll find out for you.”

  Earl almost forgot about Sienna standing there. She was frozen in place. As Earl summarized for Stella, he reached out for Sienna’s hand. She let him hold it.

  A smile escaped Stella’s mouth. “You two together?”

  Sienna dropped Earl’s hand.

  “We’re pretending,” Earl said.

  “Some acting there. I couldn’t tell.” Stella swiped her phone. “Let me see what’s going on.”

  Sienna glanced at Earl. “Agent Kimball…”

  Earl nodded. “Stella, could you ask without Kimball knowing? We don’t know if we can trust her. Perez, you know.”

  “I got that.” Stella frowned, as if she didn’t like being told what to do.

  “I wasn’t trying to tell you what to do. I was just reminding you, that’s all.”

  Stella continued frowning. “That’s why it didn’t work out between us.”

  Earl dared not look at Sienna. He didn’t want to know her reaction.

  While Stella was on the phone, Earl called Helen. Before he could say anything, she switched to video.

  “Arun Dhillon.” Helen’s hair was wrapped in a towel and she was sitting on her balcony in Santorini. Behind her was the blue morning sky and the Aegean Sea.

  “How did you know?” Earl asked.

  “I’m ahead of you.” Helen smiled. “He used to work for the Indian military. Left for a cushy job in the corporate world to appease his girlfriend, who was scared he’d die in the military. Soon after, she dumped him and married his best friend.”

  “Ouch.”

  “With a H-1B visa, Arun came to the USA. He’s in his fourth of six years here.”

  Earl nodded. “Somehow he ended up fixing printers for GOOP?”

  “He did that and more for Gavard.”

  “Mr. Ford, you mean.”

  “No, Zachary Gavard,” Helen repeated. “He had Arun’s private phone number that no one else in the company had.”

  Interesting. So far they had focused on Finnegan Ford, the CEO of GOOP. The shadow in the dark might just be Zachary Gavard.

  “I’ll send you more information as it comes in,” Helen said.

  “Thank you.” Earl hung up. He was about to tell Sienna something when he caught the tail end of her conversation with Stella.

  “That can’t be. She was injured and pregnant.” Sienna turned to Earl. “The ambulance never went to Grady’s, unlike what Agent Kimball said. This confirms what Deshon told us—that no one by the name Dana was in the hospital.”

  “They can still treat her somewhere else,” Stella replied.

  “Like where? Another hospital?” Sienna asked.

  “Weird.” Earl waited for Stella to tell him more. He recalled asking Kimball about it on his drive from Conyers. “Why would Agent Kimball lie to us?”

  “I can’t tell you much more,” Stella said. “All I can say is that the US Marshals got involved. You know what that means.”

  “Can you tell me if she’s safe though?” Earl asked.

  Stella barely nodded.

  That told Earl everything. Dana might be in protective custody or she might be in WITSEC. If so, then was the shooting at her kitchen window staged?

  “I don’t understand,” Sienna said. “Where is Dana?”

  “My guess is she’s in WITSEC,” Earl said to her. Stella didn’t refute him.

  “WITSEC?” Sienna said. “That means she helped the FBI then?”

  Earl nodded. “And that her life was in danger.”

  “Have they identified the second attacker?” Earl asked Stella.

  “I have no idea, but he is dead.” Stella picked up another piece of pizza. “I think you need to talk to Agent Kimball.”

  “Do you trust her?”

  “I think so.”

  Earl nodded. “Okay. I take your word for it. Thank you.”

  “Don’t mention it.” Stella sat down on the other side of Cayson.

  There was nothing Earl could do. If Stella was untrustworthy, she’d probably tell Agent Kimball where they were. “About Agent Kimball, could you hold off telling her where we are right now?”

  “Sure. I’m not involved,” Stella said.

  “Remember three years ago, there was a mole in the FBI?” Earl asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Well, the bureau might not be totally sanitized yet.”

  “Oh?” Stella did not look surprised.

  “You knew.”

  Stella didn’t reply.

  “Be careful,” Earl said.

  Stella nodded.

  Earl stood up and stretched. “I need to get some sleep. Is the lounge available?”

  “Sure,” Cayson said. “You know where everything is.”

  “Thanks.”

  To Sienna, Earl said, “There’s a kitchen there and some seats where you can catch a nap.”

  “No. I have to stay with the whistle,” Sienna replied. Her voice was cracking.

  “Are you okay?” Earl reached for her.

  Sienna wiped her eyes. “I’m glad Dana is in WITSEC. For her sake and her baby’s.”

  “We’ll get to the bottom of this.” Earl gently wiped a tear from her cheek.

  Sienna nodded.

  Chapter Nine

  Bones aching, Earl dragged himself down the hallway toward the lounge. He made it there just as Leland was making coffee in the break room that took up a third of the area. The rest of the space was filled with chaise lounge chairs, hammocks, sofas, and recliners.

  “Want some Kona?” Leland asked.

  “Not right now. Thanks. I need to get some sleep.” However, Earl walked into the break room toward Leland instead of to the lounge area. “May I ask you something?”

  “Anything for Helen.” Leland washed a couple of mugs that had been left on the countertop near the kitchen sink.

  Here was one of the world’s most formidable hackers, washing mugs by hand. Leland’s humility and helpful spirit were why Earl respected her.

  “I don’t want to take advantage of you,” Earl said.

  “But.”

  “Someone wants to kill my whistleblower, but we don’t know who the enemy is,” Earl said.

  “Go on.”

  “This afternoon, we went to see her friend—who was fired from the company. She got shot while standing at the kitchen sink. She’s pregnant. The FBI came, and so did the ambulance. She was alive when we left her—according to Agent Kimball, who also told us they were taking her to Grady. However, Deshon went to the hospital and Dana never arrived. Helen told Deshon that we have no access to hospitals. Stella called around but she couldn’t tell us anything.”

  “You’re telling me that because you know I love a mystery.” Leland dried the mugs.

  “There’s more. When we got to the safe house, someone had killed Agent Perez and taken her place. We escaped—long story—and then I found out that my SUV was bugged by two different entities. So we took another car here. And the FBI is already here.”

  “Stella?” Leland asked.

  “I don’t know what to think.”

  “Stella is here to observe Cayson’s project. I’m actually leaving in twenty-four hours for another project.” Leland poured coffee into a clean mug. “You sure you don’t want any coffee? This is the best.”

  Earl shook his head. “Twenty-four hours.”

  “Enough time to do something.” Leland sipped coffee. “Is th
at what you’re asking me?”

  “I’ve owed you so much.”

  “Someday I’ll call for help and you’ll come running, right?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “What do you need?”

  “Are you sure? It might cross the line.”

  “I’ll knock. If the door doesn’t open, there’s nothing I can do.”

  “Fair enough.” Earl glanced this way and that. They were the only people in the break room. “I need to know whether Dana Nesbitt is alive and if her unborn baby is okay.”

  “Logically, if the FBI did not follow through with the missing ambulance, what’s the first thing that pops into your mind?” Leland asked.

  “WITSEC.”

  “Then we’ll start from there. Give me everything you have. Dana’s home address, contact information, anything.”

  Earl realized his phone was still in his SUV. His burner phone was of no help. However, he still had his laptop inside his messenger bag, which never left his shoulder. At the kitchen counter, he booted up his laptop and gave Leland all the information she needed.

  Leland pointed to the clock on the wall. It was almost one in the morning. “When do you need the information?”

  “Sienna and I are supposed to fly out to Savannah at eight o’clock in the morning for a conference,” Earl said. “It’s possible that the FBI would be waiting at the airport for us.”

  “Are you harboring a fugitive?”

  “Sienna is not one.”

  “Is the FBI coming after you?”

  “They weren’t. Now I don’t know. On the one hand, Agent Kimball is supposed to be on our side. On the other hand, they were infiltrated by a fake Agent Perez.”

  “Why don’t you drive to Savannah? It’s only five hours.”

  “I drove from there to here yesterday. However, Sienna’s boss is on the flight. We don’t want him to be suspicious.”

  “Earl.”

  “What?”

  “I’m sure he’s already suspicious—if not of your girlfriend, but of an ex-employee such as Dana, right?” Leland drank her coffee.

  “I’m glad I talked with you. You helped me clear my thoughts,” Earl said.

  “If you had gotten enough sleep, you’d have come to the same conclusions.”

  “Would I?”