by J. M. Madden
Amberly had to be okay.
13
Zed was dying.
There was a bullet hole through his right upper chest that was fatal. This far out of town, there would be no squad to save him. At this point, he would need to have a surgeon inside the bar with an equipped operating room in the back in order to live.
The man’s eyes were a startling shade of bright green, something she hadn’t noticed before, and they were frantic. “You have to check my daughter. She doesn’t know anything about what’s going on. Please,” he gurgled, blood flowing from his mouth.
“What does Cole have planned, Zed? Help me save lives.”
“Help my daughter,” he pleaded.
“Tell me what he has planned and I’ll save a bunch of daughters. And yours as well. I promise.”
Zed dragged in a breath, and it looked difficult. “He’s got these ideas,” he said, wheezing.
“What are his targets, Zed?”
“Ri-Riverview Preparatory school, the Academy of the Holy Cross, the Martin Luther King Jr. Library, and more I can’t remember. Children and women. It’s wrong. There’s a maternity building.”
The man blinked, staring straight up at the sky, and Amberly knew she was running out of time. “Are there explosive devices in the phones?”
Zed nodded. “Just some of us got them. And he made us give them to our family. Leverage.”
“Who is the little girl at the school in Fort Collins?”
Rocking his head from side to side on the gravel, he grimaced in pain.
“Devlin!” she screamed, praying he was okay. This information was too important to leave. The country could literally depend upon this man’s dying words.
“Zed, who is the little girl?” she demanded.
His hand had fallen to his side, and she didn’t know what to do for him. “I’ll help your daughter,” she promised.
His eyes flickered. “The girl is the granddaughter of his contact at the CIA, the one that got us out… He wanted leverage, just in case…”
Zed’s hand lifted and he handed her his phone. “One one six four.”
Those green, green eyes closed for the last time and his hand fell away, the cell phone skittering in the gravel. She checked his carotid to be sure and there was no more beat.
“Fuck…” Amberly breathed, sitting back on her heels, then reached out to snatch up the phone. She didn’t have time to mope or look at it, because Devlin was out there in the night somewhere.
Pushing to her feet, she shoved the phone in her pocket and took off running toward where she’d heard the last gunshots. People were peering out of the bar. “Someone call 911,” she yelled.
Gun in hand, she pushed on, looking and listening for any sounds of fighting or altercation. She didn’t hear anything. “Devlin?”
“Here,” she heard, and rounded the front corner of a van. Dev was leaning against the quarter panel, looking dazed. Blood covered him at the midsection, but when she started digging at his shirt, he pushed her away. “It’s not mine,” he told her. “It’s his. I think I’m fine, other than a knock to the head.”
Gripping his chin in her hand, she looked up into his dazed eyes. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah, my balance is shit, though. He seriously rung my bell.”
Hoisting his arm over her shoulders, Amberly led him back across the lot to their car. Zed’s body lay where he’d died, and she thought she could hear sirens way in the distance. She wasn’t going to stick around to find out. Digging in Devlin’s hip pocket, she found the key fob and unlocked the car. She guided Devlin to the passenger side and dropped him down into the seat, then stretched the seat belt across his chest. Circling the hood of the car, she climbed into the driver’s seat, reaching for her own seatbelt.
She tore out of the lot, tossing Zed’s cell phone into the back seat. They needed to look at it and get it the fuck out of the car as soon as possible. She was sure she could get into his Google and track his movements, and hopefully that would tell her exactly where Cole Regent was.
Amberly had to pull over once to allow Devlin to puke, then they were on the road again. They needed to get to Zed’s daughter. Devlin had a concussion, but she doubted he would allow her to take him to a hospital. They had too much to do.
Devlin reached into his pocket and pulled out his cell phone, then started swiping through screens. His eyes were squinted, and she had a feeling he was in a huge amount of pain right now. “How did you get the concussion?”
“That big fucker hit me. One time,” he complained. “That’s all it took. Not sure if you noticed or not but his fists were damn near twice the size of mine.”
Amberly snorted. “Okay…”
Devlin had his head down, reading a text. “Charley says a team has been dispatched to collect Zed’s daughter.”
“They need the bomb squad or something to dispose of the cell phone,” she told him quickly. “It has a small explosive device in it, like we thought. I have Zed’s. We need to look at it as soon as possible.”
“Well, pull over. This is as good of a place as any.”
Yeah, he was right. There was nothing around here, just scrub bushes and sand. There was also a dirt road on the right, so she turned there, then stopped after about a mile and parked at the side of the road, leaving the headlights on to illuminate the area in front of them. Reaching for the phone in the back seat, she climbed out of the car and walked into the scrub a bit. Devlin followed along behind, looking pale and ill. “Are you okay,” she asked, genuinely worried.
“I’ll be fine,” he murmured. “How are you going to get into it?”
Amberly snorted. “He gave me the code before he died.”
She keyed it in, opening the phone, and started searching through the history. “It looks like he’s been mostly in Sheridan, though there are several trips up to Billings, and it looks like two trips out to a wildlife preserve north-east of Bozeman. I bet that’s where Cole is, out there beyond roads and towns.”
“He has to be close enough for cell-phone service, though. How else could he carry his threats out?”
“True,” she murmured, scanning. “It looks like he stayed in the same place each time he went to Bozeman.”
“Give me the address,” Devlin said, pulling out his own phone. She read it off and he keyed it in. “Got it. Where else?”
She reeled off a couple of other addresses, then got into his contacts and text messages. Tension constricted her chest, because she knew that this phone could explode in her hands at any moment.
So, when a new text came in, making the phone beep, she might have let out a very un-CIA like scream. Devlin outright laughed at her, then gripped his head in his hands. “That was funny. I bet it’s Cole. Open it.”
It was Cole.
listen to me you son of a bitch, you’d better respond. Your daughter is dead. Are you next?
She realized then there were a line of unanswered texts. “It says his daughter is dead. Should I respond?”
“Yes, tell him… something…”
Amberly paged back through the old messages. Neither one of them were much for grammar. with the contacts. Give me a minute. Please dont kill my daughter.
Devlin was texting on his phone. “Charley says the daughter is safe but the phone exploded outside the house before the bomb squad could get there.”
Well, at least the daughter was safe.
Amberly paged through the messages, pulling out pertinent details and reading them off to Devlin. He was typing them into texts, she assumed to this mysterious Charley. Or maybe on a notes app. It was going in writing somewhere.
Zed?
yeah, she typed off.
She found the downloads section and starting looking through it, just in case… Nothing. She went to the camera app and starting looking through pics.
“Oh, get your camera! Video!” she told Devlin quickly.
A picture of a picture on a phone was never perfect, but she couldn’
t afford to take the time or risk of connection to send it directly to his phone. She started flipping through pictures, pausing just long enough for it to still, then moving on. It looked like Zed had been the one to take the original pictures. Obviously, as soon as he’d gotten out of prison, he’d been sent on errands.
The phone rang in her hand and she gasped. It said Cole.
“We can’t answer it. Keep paging through pics.”
She did as told and kept flipping. Some of the places were familiar to her and others were not. Anxiety beat at her. “I think he’s going to blow it. He has to know something is up.”
Devlin continued to record as she flipped, but Amberly felt like she was out of time. With a jostling move, she sent the phone flying. It landed in the dirt about twenty feet away.
Nothing happened.
Devlin gave a raspy chuckle. “I think you were a…”
The blast that struck them was just strong enough to knock them on their asses. Amberly gasped, then choked on dust, coughing. She sat up first, brushing burning debris from her clothes. “What the fuck! That’s overkill. No pun.”
Devlin moaned, holding his head as he lay in the dirt. Amberly brushed crap off of him, too. “Are you okay, babe?”
“I feel like a roadside bomb just went off beneath me.”
He rolled to his side and retched. Amberly frowned. That was one of the signs of a serious concussion. “Well, it was kind of a roadside bomb. It was beside the road, anyway.”
She looked at the remnants of the phone. It had blown a hole in the dirt about five feet across, and flattened the straggly grass for another twenty feet around. The grass nearest the center was burning. She would need to stomp that out before they left.
“Fuck,” she hissed, scraping her hair back.
Wrapping her arms around his shoulders, she helped him to his feet. Then she held onto him, because he had a definite sway. Devlin wrapped his arms around her shoulders and braced his head on top of hers. “Hold still just a minute, please,” he said softly.
Amberly held him. Actually, she kind of sagged into him. Or they sagged into each other. What a fucking unbelievable night. Tiredness beat at her, but excitement too. They now had more information than they ever had, and she wanted to move on it. Their bodies were not keeping up with their determination, though. They needed sleep and food, and maybe a damn shower. And she still had only dirty clothes to put on.
For just a moment, the task of what lay before them hit her. The entire country was depending upon them, and she needed to go to the bathroom.
14
Dev’s phone survived the blast, though it did have a few new scratches across the screen. He’d tried to watch the video, but his head was reeling. If he could get some solid mattress time, he would probably be okay, but they really needed to stop and take a breath. After all the traveling they’d done, the stakeout of Zed’s house, the bar scene, killing the Russians, and almost being killed themselves, they needed to take a breath.
Amberly was driving, and she didn’t look a lot better than he did. Her dark hair was a straggly mess across her forehead, and there was a bruised look around her eyes. It hadn’t been an easy day mentally, either.
The car began to slow and he cracked his eyes open. They were pulling into a quaint little motel, conveniently located next to a small, beat down strip mall. “Bed,” he nodded, “food, a discount store, and laundry. You couldn’t have done any better, babe.”
Amberly gave him a tired smile as she pulled into the lot. “Right?”
Dev watched as she went into the office of the motel. He wondered how much cash she had, because he didn’t have much either. As a last resort, he could probably use his bank card, but it would be a glaring red flag to anyone looking. They should probably lose the car, soon, as well.
Maybe after he’d had a chance to sleep. Closing his eyes, he waited for Amberly to come out of the office.
He woke to tapping on the glass by his head, and she waved a key.
The room was on the ground floor and was spotlessly clean. “Wow,” Amberly breathed, walking in and dropping her dirty bag to the floor. “I don’t even want to touch anything until I get a shower.”
“Go ahead,” he said. “I’ll secure the door and look at the video for a few minutes.”
Indecision crossed her face. “Actually, I’m going to run to the discount store for something clean to wear, then get my clothes into a washer. I’m sick of being grimy, and this clean room really makes me want to be clean.”
He snorted. “Okay. Do what you need to do. I think we’re fairly safe here.”
“No one followed us that I saw. When I come back from the store, I’ll park the car around back. We’re going to need to change it out. Do you have laundry you want done?”
“I’ll grab it. Yeah, I know,” he said softly, digging into his bag. “I’d already decided to go scouting after I get some sleep.”
They were still jiving on the same wavelength, all these years later. He handed his clothes off to her and caught her hand before she pulled away. Deliberately, he stepped into her space and leaned down to give her a kiss. “I’m very glad we survived tonight. There isn’t anyone I would rather have at my side in a firefight.”
Incredibly, her cheeks went pink, and she grinned. “Yeah, you’re not too bad yourself, old man.”
Dev groaned as he chuckled. “I’m totally feeling my age tonight. Go get your clean on so we can get some sleep. I’ll shower while you’re gone.”
“Okay.”
Leaning up, she gave him a quick kiss on the lips, then disappeared with his dirty laundry.
Taking his phone and his weapon into the bathroom with him, Dev stripped down and stepped into the hot running water. Oh, it hurt so good. There was a convenient bench along the back wall, so, adjusting the head, he angled the water to fall over him. He watched the dirty water swirl down the drain, then closed his eyes.
Dev jerked awake as he was tipping forward in sleep. Catching himself, he sighed. Maybe he was tired. Ripping open the fresh soap, he lathered up and rinsed, then stepped out of the stall. Rubbing the towel over his not sore areas, he got mostly dry, and stepped out of the room. Amberly hadn’t returned yet, but he’d expected it to take her a while to get things done. Or at least started. He doubted she would sit there and watch the clothes wash.
Tucking his gun beneath his pillow, he rested his spinning head to the soft cloth, pulled the sheet over his damp body and was out almost immediately.
Amberly let herself into the motel room quietly, which was hard to do with the bags she was carrying. Latching the door behind her, she slid the deadbolt home, and set the bags on the two person table by the front window.
After she’d bought her supplies, she’d gone into the discount store bathroom, done a quick wipe down with baby wipes to get the worst of the blood and dirt off of her, then changed her clothes. She was clean-er at least, as she pulled on the granny panties and gray sweats. All of her clothes were in the dryer now, as well as most of Devlin’s. She would go get them in about forty minutes, then have a proper shower before she allowed herself to slow down.
Opening one of the paper bags, she retrieved an aluminum container with a white cardboard lid. The all-night diner hadn’t been much to look at, but it had smelled amazing. So, she’d ordered two of the specials. It was lasagna with garlic bread, and as she worked off the lid, she was so glad that she’d gotten it. The scent of garlic was like ambrosia, and she inhaled deeply. Ripping the plastic fork from the wrapper, she dug in, almost inhaling the food. They’d eaten apps at the bar, but they’d expended a huge amount of energy tonight which needed replenished.
Devlin murmured in his sleep, but didn’t wake, even over her rustling the plastic. She would give him an hour, then wake him up. If he did have a concussion, he needed to be checked regularly.
The lasagna was delicious, and she felt guilty for eating the entire entree. Whatever. There was one for Devlin, too. She glanced at
the clock on the bedside table. She had about ten more minutes before she could go get her clothes. Moving to the side of the bed in front of him, she rested her hand on his arm. “Devlin.”
A slow smile spread across his lips as his eyes cracked open, and it was so sweet. “I’ve missed you waking me. Sometimes when I was falling asleep, I would hear you call my name, and I would jerk awake. I always wondered if you needed me then, and I just wasn’t there for you.”
Unexpected tears filled her eyes, and she had to blink them away. She’d had nightmares as well, that he was blaming her for giving up on them. Or that he was being shot, and she turned away and walked into her office. That one was very vivid in her mind. This sweetness was more than she deserved, because she had literally and figuratively walked away from him. “I had similar dreams,” she admitted, running her hand up through his hair. His eyes sagged closed again, though the smile stayed.
“I missed you touching me like this,” he murmured, so she continued to run her hand through his hair and down his head. She’d checked for knots earlier, and could only find the bruise on his jaw. It was darkening to a deep purple now. “There’s food on the table if you want it. I’m going to go get the clothes from the dryer.”
“Okay. Be careful, my heart.”
And he breathed out, already asleep.
Amberly wiped at her eyes. That was what he had called her when they were in love. My heart.
Moving quickly, she went and retrieved their laundry, bundling it into a bag. She would fold it when she got back. Then she returned to the motel room. Devlin hadn’t moved while she was gone. Securing the door with the dead bolt and a chair, she made sure every inch of the window was sealed, then finally moved to the bathroom. She cranked the hot water, almost vibrating with anticipation. The granny panties went in the trash. There was one more pair out in the bag that would be her absolute last alternative. Then she shucked her clothes. Grabbing the little bottle of shampoo and body wash, she stepped beneath the water.
