by Dana Mentink
“You should get some rest,” he commented. “You look exhausted.”
Her lips turned downward in a delicate frown, and he mentally kicked himself. Wrong choice of words, genius.
“Thanks. I’m sure you’ve looked better, yourself.” She squinted and stepped closer. “You know you’ve got blood all over your shirt, right?”
“Just a flesh wound,” he quipped.
“Right.” Lexie rolled her eyes and flicked a finger at his walkie-talkie. “We take care of the situation downstairs and then you get to medical.”
“Only if you get some actual rest. In a real bed, with a guard posted.”
“Aren’t the staff stretched thin enough as it is?”
Shaun pressed his lips together and exhaled. “I meant me.”
“And you’ll sleep when?”
“When this is over and everyone is safe.” Before she could argue, he placed a hand on her shoulder and directed her down the hallway, back toward the passenger elevators. “Come on. We’ve got a minute to get back there to meet Parsons, and a guy tied up in the engine room.”
Never a dull moment, he thought as they turned the corner to the elevator hallway. Standing alone in front of the doors was security team member Josh.
Josh held a weapon in his hands, and he had it aimed at Lexie.
Shaun grabbed Lexie’s shoulder and pulled her behind him, blocking her body with his own. “Hold on,” Shaun said, trying to keep his voice calm and steady. “I thought we were on the same side.”
Confusion followed by relief played across Josh’s face, and he lowered the weapon. He holstered it, allowing Shaun a glimpse of the object. A stun gun. Not a gun with bullets, but just as painful and potentially deadly. Did all the security staff have them?
Josh held up his empty hands. “Sorry. Getting a little jumpy is all. I got punched in the stomach by a passenger a half hour ago when I told him we’re almost out of bacon in the restaurant.”
“Bacon?” Shaun came forward slowly, keeping Lexie behind him. “Is that in your job description, updating passengers on the availability of their buffet options?”
Josh chuckled and pressed the call button for the elevator. Creaking and grinding came from within the elevator shaft as the car made its way to their floor. “No, but you try telling a guest that they can’t devour two pounds of bacon because there are other people aboard who need to eat, too, and no way to get more food until we hit shore. The guy seemed to think we could just call a helicopter to bring in another pig. Have it land on the ice or throw packages of bacon onto the top of the ship. Or send it in by parachute, I don’t know.”
As weird as it sounded, Shaun believed him. People tended to act strange when afraid, even if the fear wasn’t entirely rational. “Did you tell him you’d be happy to hire a door-to-door helicopter bacon delivery service if he paid for it?”
Josh lifted the corner of his shirt, where a massive red welt had swollen on his abdomen. “Naturally. And he showed me exactly what he thought of the suggestion. Huh. Maintenance really needs to spray some WD-40 on these passenger elevators, eh?”
“Compared to the maintenance elevators, this is a symphony.” The noisy elevator came to a stop, doors opening. To Shaun’s surprise, Parsons and Reed were already inside. “Got a head start on the ride, did you?”
Parsons stepped back, making room for the three waiting persons to board. “We were still on the upper decks, figured it’d be faster to meet up this way. Reed thinks he’s found our trespasser, too, for what it’s worth. The guy entered room sixty-five about ten minutes ago. Won’t be hard to check the manifest and page him to the office once we’re done with this business. Or we can just haul him out of bed, whatever works. Coming?”
Shaun shot a glance at Lexie, who offered him a brief, encouraging smile. Finding the passenger was extremely good news—they just might have earned two solid leads in under an hour. Gaining any solid intel from either of the two men could blow three years of guesswork and baby steps wide open, and save Maria’s life in the meantime.
They boarded the elevator and descended in silence to the engine deck. Shaun led the way to the engine room, Lexie close beside him. In any other circumstance, he’d be enjoying her nearness. Right now, seeing the exhaustion and paranoia plain on her face, he wondered if he shouldn’t have left her upstairs in the medical center.
“We tied up the man who attacked us,” Shaun said, addressing the other men as they reached the door. “It’s a little old-school, but it worked. He was unconscious when we left, but should be awake by now. I didn’t put him out for long.” Shaun sensed, rather than saw, Lexie’s eyes roll behind him.
Parsons nodded, a gesture of understanding between two professionals, despite their different positions and levels of service. Shaun had worked plenty of field and recon assignments where he and his team had gone head-to-head with local law enforcement, and it always made everyone’s jobs that much harder. As much as he’d complained earlier to Jack about working with a couple of security guards on this highly sensitive case, Parsons had displayed nothing but professionalism the entire time. It’d certainly help to have Parsons backing him up in the inevitable police investigation once they reached Argentia. He’d have to buy the man dinner to say thanks, maybe ask why he’d gone into the security business over a law enforcement career.
“Is this our guy?” Parsons asked, crossing his arms. “The one you briefed us on?”
“One of them.” Shaun braced his shoulder against the door, half-turned with his attention on the rest of the group. “Not the Wolf, but our attacker mentioned having a boss. Once we get in here, it’s my job to confirm that boss’s identity. You three take point around the room and ensure we’re not ambushed. Lexie sticks with me.” He nodded acknowledgment to each man in turn, ensuring they’d understood his instructions. “I doubt his boss will be willing to take on a group of five, or at least that’s what I’m counting on. This shouldn’t take long.”
Shaun pushed the door open, holding it in place with his shoulder as he turned around to face the room—and froze.
Lexie’s small frame bumped into him from behind, followed by a grunt of annoyance from one of the other men.
“Don’t move,” Shaun said, keeping his voice low and steady. “Parsons, come around. Don’t let Lexie—”
“No way, buddy.” Lexie pushed past him to see into the room and immediately let out a cry of horror. Shaun grabbed her arm and pulled her tight into his chest, covering her face.
The man they’d left tied up still sat on the chair, about ten feet from the door. Blood covered the man’s body and the floor around the chair, with a scarlet red trail leading to a clear message written on the engine room floor. WHO’S NEXT?
*
Lexie shook, her whole body trembling as Shaun held her upright. Her legs felt weak and rubbery, and though she closed her eyes to block out the memory, all she saw behind her eyelids was the disturbing, horrifying image of their bloodied attacker tied to the chair.
And the message. Who would write such a thing? No one but a cold-blooded killer—someone who didn’t care one whit for humanity, who saw people as commodities to be bought and sold—could craft such a disturbing scene. If this man, this Wolf, was willing to kill his own associates, what else would he do to protect his interests?
“My stomach,” Lexie mumbled, waves of nausea and heat washing over her from head to toe. “Shaun…”
Shaun held her at arm’s length. “Should we get you a bucket? I know that sounds insensitive, but I don’t want to send you to a washroom alone.”
She took a deep breath through her nose and swallowed down the bile that rose in her throat. This would make poor timing for a panic attack, but she felt sick to her stomach more than anything. “I’m not sure. Give me a minute.” The question she didn’t want answered leaped unbidden from her lips. “Is he dead?”
Shaun sighed and glanced over her head. She knew what that meant.
Inside the eng
ine room, the security men were arguing about protocol. She’d let them handle it. For once, she didn’t need to be a part of this. “Should we call the Coast Guard? Or radio the police, or… I guess you are the police. Sort of. Right?” She clamped her lips together to stop rambling, but the motion did nothing to stop the rest of her body from trembling as guilt tumbled onto her conscience like a bag of bricks. “What if we hadn’t left him here? What if we’d just taken him upstairs, or—”
Shaun took her chin in his hand, forcing her to meet his gaze. “Stop. There are no what-ifs, here. The man who did this is willing to go to extreme lengths to protect his interests, and no speculation on what we could have done will change that.”
“But I don’t understand. Why kill someone who’s helping you? Why not just untie him and help him hide or have him come after us again?”
Shaun sighed again, heavier this time and released her chin. Lexie wished he hadn’t. The warmth of his touch had helped to steady her nerves, though guiltily she couldn’t help but wonder if he’d led Nikki on with similar gentle embraces and caring gestures. Couldn’t her sister ever stay out of her thoughts?
“Information,” Shaun said. “And to send a warning. It’s possible he assumed the man talked when we captured him, or he saw the man as a weak link in his operation. This is a message about interference, since we didn’t heed the first one.”
“But…who’s next?” Lexie clutched her middle, feeling the acid of the coffee and lack of food roiling around in her insides. How long had it been since her last meal? How long since she’d slept? It felt as if she’d driven her car onto the ferry’s parking deck a week ago. “What does he mean? Is he talking about us?”
Shaun’s throat bobbed as he swallowed and broke eye contact with Lexie. He knew something he didn’t want to tell her, and she recognized that look. He had seen this before. How was that possible? How could a person see this kind of thing over and over and not lose their mind?
Or, on the other hand, how could he see such horrible things over and over again and not be changed?
ELEVEN
This changed everything. Shaun held Lexie tight, sheltering her from the gruesome scene as he fought to control his own emotions. Anger threatened to consume him, the temptation to give in to its destructive power nearly overwhelming. With this promising lead on the Wolf gone, time was running out faster than ever. This man had purposefully shown them his willingness to kill to protect his operation. If Shaun and Lexie’s investigation led them too close, who could say whether the Wolf wouldn’t take the life of his current captive if it meant preventing his entire operation’s exposure?
For the past three years of this mission, CIA intel had tagged the Wolf simply as a clever but dangerous trafficker who moved people as cargo across land and sea. The man’s operation posed a threat to the daughters, cousins and mothers of the United States and elsewhere, and he’d stayed one step ahead of Shaun and the Agency this whole time. Shaun had pegged this as part coincidence and part intelligent strategy.
But with one look at the bloodied man before him, Shaun had to change his entire perspective. The Wolf had revealed himself as a true murderer under pressure—staying one step ahead through fear and violence. If that kind of violence could be applied to the people the Wolf worked with en route, it also had to include the women in his care.
Shaun had seen this kind of thing only once before, when he’d come within a hairsbreadth of catching the man in Spain. Shaun’s team had extracted everyone—captives, accomplices, civilians who hadn’t known any better—except for one person. That one person had been left, just like this, to send Shaun’s team a message…but they’d never been able to definitively prove it as the Wolf’s handiwork. Still, that death had been one death too many. This second one threatened to make Shaun blind and livid with rage at the absolute waste of life.
Shaun glanced over at the scene again. It had been a messy, disrespectful way to end anyone’s life, criminal or not. The only good to come out of this was the knowledge that they had to be close. No one disposed of an ally unless they were desperate, which meant they had their target running scared.
While Shaun wished he could help Lexie un-see the scene before them, the stark truth of the matter was that Shaun’s three-year operation to take this man down—and save hundreds, if not thousands of lives—could be coming to a close.
The awareness of this truth sent a ripple of determined excitement through Shaun, which lasted until the moment he looked down at the woman in his arms. She’d asked him a question and now gazed up at him with wide, red-rimmed eyes, tears slipping down her cheeks even as she set her jaw in resolve. She was struggling to stay strong, but a scene like this would shake anyone, regardless of their experience or constitution. It was only a stomach like iron that kept him upright at a moment like this. He longed to kiss each tear away if it meant erasing the image seared onto her eyes.
Lexie had asked him who the message referred to, but he didn’t want to answer. He couldn’t bear to be the one causing her any more fear. Honestly, Shaun believed it could refer to anyone who’d been involved in this ship-wide search since yesterday evening, but considering the bulk of attacks had focused on Lexie thus far—regardless of whether or not the Wolf actually wanted her dead, despite what their attacker had claimed—Shaun couldn’t deny that she had to be in the greatest danger of all.
*
Back in the medical bay, Lexie watched from her gurney as a nurse cleaned and stitched Shaun’s bullet wound. With his back to her, she observed how muscled and strong he really was, though several wide, jagged scars sliced across an otherwise pristine surface. He’d given her the impression of a man fully dedicated to his job, and every so often she’d caught a glimpse of sadness on his face when he thought no one was looking. Still, she’d never fault someone like him for being too devoted to his work. If anything, she understood and felt the same way about her own career choice.
She struggled to find the right words to say, to communicate with him after what she’d seen downstairs. They’d come here together in silence after Shaun chatted briefly with Parsons and his team in the engine room, Shaun only telling her that the other men would take care of things while he kept to his word and got checked out by the nurse. He hadn’t said a word to her since.
The nurse finished taping down a bandage to his shoulder, and Lexie waited to speak until she’d disappeared into an adjoining room with another waiting passenger. “Shaun? I’m sorry if I said something wrong.” She couldn’t imagine what that might have been, but he’d seemed almost angry with her. “I’m just…well, I’m scared. I admit it, I’m scared. I had no idea when I took the reins on Lead Me Home that I’d cause someone to be…”
She ran out of words as Shaun swung his legs around on the gurney, pulling his shirt back on. He hopped down and leaned against the bed, arms folded across his chest. “It’s not your fault a man was killed. You need to understand that. It’s no one’s fault but the people who’ve decided that they can treat other human beings like disposable objects.”
She shook her head, trying simultaneously to make sense of the scene and erase it from her memory. “He didn’t deserve it. No one deserves death, even terrible people.”
Shaun took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. “That’s one argument, though I know plenty of people who feel differently. As for myself, I prefer justice—real justice. Ultimately, I know that God is the one who brings eternal justice, but it sure would be nice to have some here on earth right about now.”
Lexie gaped at him. “Eternal justice? What are you talking about?”
“In the end, God is the only judge who counts. The Bible says—”
“Sorry, I thought we were trying to stop someone from killing an innocent woman, not sit back and wait for some nebulous eternal justice to be dealt out.”
“There’s nothing nebulous about it. That’s what keeps me going, day after day. I can only do so much, Lexie. I have to trust that God w
ill do the rest.”
Ire rose in Lexie’s gut. How could he talk to her about God with a straight face, after the things he’d done? After the things he’d seen? God didn’t care about any of this, because if He did, He’d have kept Nikki away from Shaun in the first place. Maybe Nikki would have participated in the mission trip the way she was supposed to instead of chasing after Shaun, and taken the straight and narrow path to adulthood. Maybe she’d have learned that the world didn’t revolve around her after all.
If only Lexie hadn’t dragged Nikki along on the mission trip to try and help her in the first place. God of justice? More like God of apathy, if He even cared at all. “You can believe what you want if it makes you feel better, but that’s not good enough for me. We need to find this guy and take him down, but on the other hand, if we continue and he’s angry, what will that mean for Maria?”
Shaun called the nurse back into the room. “There’s no we now, Lexie. I’m going to have medical escort you to the captain’s quarters. They’re vacant at the moment, as the captain has volunteered to take your other room to ensure your safety. His quarters can only be accessed with a new security code known by myself, the captain and the mate. You’re going to get some sleep and some food and stay safe until this is over.”
Lexie blinked, bewildered by his complete change of heart. “I thought we were sticking together on this. You agreed.”
“I was wrong. I am wrong. I’ve been putting you in extra danger, and that ends here. We’ve learned that this man is willing to kill, and kill brutally, to get his point across. I will not have you become his next victim.”
Lexie hopped off her gurney and stormed across the room to face him, fists balled at her sides. “So that’s how this is going to be, huh?”
