Kelly yanked on jeans and her shirt and started toward thedoor but Xena threw herself in front of it butting Kelly with her head.
“What now?” She threw up her hands. “You want me to bedressed but not go outside? What is it, Xena?”
“Let me go take a look,” Rick told her.
He reached for his own clothes and had his jeans pulled onwhen the satellite phone on the bedside table rang.
* * * * *
Mike had angled out over the ocean, then turned back in tofollow the coastline as he headed south. He lifted the traveler mug that Kellyhad fixed for him and sipped at the good, strong coffee. Far from being sleepy,his mind was spinning in a dozen different directions.
The media was having a field day with the story about thestolen weapons and their possible sale to the enemy by Phoenix. Like hispartners, Mike was so angry he could barely keep his temper reined in. Theagency had built a strong reputation since its inception, not a breath ofscandal of any kind ever touching it.
Now arrows were coming at them from every angle. Governmentagencies wanted to comb through their records. The DOJ was issuing a subpoenafor Rick. Rick’s life was in danger. Even calm, levelheaded Matt Caldwell waswondering if Rick hadn’t gone rogue and pulled this stunt. In his quiet voicehe’d pointed out how it made sense if only they’d take an objective look at it.
Objective, my ass.
Mike snorted. Anyone who knew Rick Latrobe would know hewould never, ever do something like this. No, he’d have to get his braincranking in the cabin while the rest of them did their thing and try to put thepieces of this puzzle together. He just hoped Xena, the wonder dog, could keepthe man alive until they got to the bottom of this.
Sitting in the darkness he pulled his cell phone from hispocket. He rarely turned the phone off but he wanted to be able to focuscomplete on Kelly and Rick. Now he scrolled through his message, thankful therewas nothing urgent and returning the calls that couldn’t wait until morning.Finally he cranked up the helo, listing off into the darkness and headingsouth. He was just passing the lights of Bangor when he saw what looked like anexplosion off to the north of the city. Vibrations shimmied their way upthrough the air.
Swearing, he banked the helo and turned back the way he’dcome, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. He flew over the spot threetimes, double checking the coordinates just to make sure, before he picked upthe sat phone and punched the button for Rick.
The nightmare had just gotten worse.
Chapter Twelve
Rick put the phone down and walked around to where Kelly wasstill tussling with Xena, rubbing the grit from her sleep-deprived eyes. Whenhe crouched down next to her, taking one of her hands in his, her stomachknotted. This wasn’t good.
“What? Who was that? It’s something bad, isn’t it?”
“That was Mike.”
Xena had stopped pulling at Kelly and now rested her head onRick’s knees. The sound she made was one of great distress. Rick rubbed thehuge head. “Yeah, sweetheart, I know,” he told the animal. “You knew about it,right? That’s what was bothering you.”
Kelly rubbed at her arm with her free hand. Now, instead ofbeing overheated she was suddenly chilled. “What’s going on? It’s bad, isn’tit? I can tell by the look on your face.”
Rick squeezed her hand. “Don’t freak, okay? Yes, it’s bad,but we’ll take care of it.”
“Please tell me what he said,” she cried.
“He was just flying over Bangor when there was an explosionbelow him. He circled over it several times just to make sure he knew what hewas seeing. Kelly, I know where the heat is coming from. It’s generating fromXena. I get her message. I’m sorry, Red but someone blew up your farm and thewhole place is on fire.”
She felt every bit of blood leave her head and dizzinesswash over her. She tried to say something but no words would come out of hermouth. Her farm? The only home she’d ever known? The farm her great-grandfatherhad built? Gone? That would be like erasing most of her life.
“This is a joke, right?” she asked when she could make herthroat muscles work. “It’s a mistake.” She grabbed his arm and forced him tolook at her. ”Tell me it’s a mistake.”
Wincing slightly, Rick pried her fingers off and curved hisarm around her, drawing her against him. “I wish it was, honey. Believe me. I’mso sorry. And I hate the fact that this is all our fault. Every bit of it. Wenever should have gotten you involved.”
She pinched back the tears that stung her eyes and her nose.“Your fault? Did you blow it up?”
“No but if you weren’t mixed up with me—with us—this probablywouldn’t have happened.”
She shifted slightly so she could look at him. “You thinksomeone did this because I’m here with you? Xena and me?”
“I can’t think of any other reason.” He forked his fingersthrough his sleep-disheveled hair. “Damn it, I wish I could. But I’d bet moneythey either wanted to draw the two of you away from me or maybe get you and meout in the open and have another chance at us.”
“You’re right. The heat was transference from Xena.” Kellyswiped at her eyes with the back of her hand, then suddenly leaped off the bed.“I have to get down there. My God, I have to check everything out. I have toget down there. Right now.” She cursed under her breath in frustration as shefumbled with the buttons on her blouse.
“Stop.” Rick’s hand was firm on her arm. “Red, stop rightnow and listen to me. You can’t go down there.”
“No, I have to. Please.” She tried to shove his hands awaybut her own hands were shaking too badly. “Oh, God, I don’t even have a carhere to get there.” She looked up at Rick, feeling completely helpless.
He gripped her shoulders in his big hand and turned her toface him. “Take a deep breath, Red and listen to what I’m going to say. I toldyou. This is exactly what they want. To draw you out so they can get to you.And me.”
She tried to steady herself but her breath was coming sofast she felt lightheaded.
Rick sat her down on the bed, his hands firm on her arms.
“I’d say there are three options to their plan,” he went on.“None of them acceptable as far as I’m concerned. One, you show up and theypick you off. Maybe they think that will drag me out into the open so they haveanother chance at me. Second, you don’t show up but you get the message. Stayaway from Rick Latrobe. Or third, we both show up and they get rid of both ofus, me especially.”
“This is all to keep me and Xena away from you? Or make youleave your hiding place?”
He nodded. “That’s about the size of it. Somehow they’vefound out about you and done their research or they wouldn’t have targeted thefarm. That means they probably know about Xena too. Whoever was casing my houseobviously took pictures and they searched you out.”
“But how could they know about Xena’s special abilities?”Her voice held a plaintive note.
“Ever been interviewed? Ever talked about her? Not tomention the fact that the internet is full of information about Ovcharkas.Whoever is running this show is smart enough to put two and two together.”
“That place is my life, Rick.” She sniffed back the tearsstinging her nose. “It’s my family’s legacy. I can’t not go down there.”
Shoving her feet into her shoes, Kelly headed for the door,only to be stopped by Xena’s enormous bulk. The dog punctuated her displeasurewith three loud barks.
“She wants you up and dressed but not out of the cabin,”Rick pointed out. “Like I said, they’ve obviously Googled the dog. Read storiesabout the Psi abilities. They may not believe in them but Xena’s thwarted themtwice now and they can’t afford any more screwups. Even if this doesn’t bringme out into target range, Red, if they can eliminate you, or shake you up badlyenough to walk away, they’ll take away one of my safeguards. And a big one atthat.”
Kelly dropped into the chair, stunned. Her pulse was racingand she still couldn’t seem to get her breathing under control. “I guess theydon’t know me too wel
l. I don’t run away from things.”
“Maybe not but we ought to take another look at the dangerwe’ve put you in.”
“My choice,” she insisted and Xena, now sitting next toRick, gave an approving bark.
Rick shook his head. “We’ll discuss it when Mike gets backhere.” Visibly ignoring his pain, Rick squatted down in front of Kelly and tookher hands. “Listen, Red, he’ll be here in a minute. He called 9-1-1. They knowhim. This cabin was his grandfather’s and he used to come up here a lot in thesummer. It won’t set off any alarms if he tells them he was flying up here andsaw the explosion.”
“But what about my people? Graham and Sandy will hear thesirens and know where they’re headed. There isn’t much out on this road, as youwell know.”
Rick handed her the sat phone. “Call them. Tell them afriend was in the area and called to let you know what was happening.Everything’s under control. They should just stay away.”
“They won’t want to do that,” she protested. “This placemeans almost as much to them as it does to me. Anyway, you know this is a smalltown. The police and fire department will think it’s weird if they don’t showup.”
Rick threw up his hands. “Okay. Call them. Tell them what Isaid about things being under control. If they need to take a look, fine. Butthey should then go home and wait for you to call them.” He pressed the phoneinto her hand. “Make them understand. You can do that.”
She took the phone from him and gave him a watery smile.“Thanks. Then I guess I’d better make some fresh coffee. I hear the chopperright now.”
As she finished buttoning her shirt, she watched Rick snaphis jeans and pull on a shirt, swallow three more aspirin from the bathroom andleave the room to disengage the alarm. The man had a constitution like a blackbear but she hoped tonight didn’t set back his recovery at all. They were allgoing to need whatever strength they had to get through this thing.
* * * * *
Denny Hammond drove until he reached the outskirts of Blue Fork,the small village where the farm was located. Pulling into the darkened lot ofa closed service station, he plucked his cell phone from his pocket and speeddialed a number.
“It’s done,” he told the man who answered.
“Was she there?”
“No. You said it didn’t matter as long as everything elsewas destroyed. There’s no way she can keep away from this when she’s notified.I’ll get her then. After she leads me to Latrobe.”
“I almost think you’d be better going for the dog instead ofher. She’s supposed to be the one with the weird abilities.”
Denny snorted. “Don’t tell me you believe in that shit.”
“I don’t have to as long as they do. Let’s take away theirmagic link and see how well they do.”
“And if no one shows up?”
“Someone will. I promise you. It would be almost too much tohope for, the woman, the dog and Latrobe in one fell swoop but we take what weget. Did you leave the note I told you to?”
“Yes. And signed just as you dictated. I’ll wait aroundthrough the day to see what happens. There’s a diner here when I can spend agood bit of time. But then I’m outta here.”
“Very well. Report in before you leave. Do you have yourlaptop with you?”
The man nodded, even though he knew his caller couldn’t seehim. “Always.”
“Check your offshore account. The money’s there, waiting foryou.”
“You’ll have my final report by tomorrow,” Denny told him.“Pleasure doing business with you, as always.”
The man on the other end disconnected the call and sat inhis darkened den for long moments. This was getting worse and worse. A simpleoperation had turned into the biggest screwup of all time and he could see itleaking toward him. That was unacceptable. He’d kill everyone if he had to, toprotect himself and his family.
He regretted destroying the woman’s farm and home butpigeonholed it as collateral damage. There was likely to be a lot more beforethis was over. He just hoped he wasn’t on the receiving end.
* * * * *
Xena almost didn’t let Mike back into the cabin, finallyplacing herself directly in front of Rick, seated but poised to leap ifnecessary. It took both Rick and Kelly a good ten minutes to make sure the dogunderstood that Mike was still one of the good guys. Then Kelly poured coffeefor everyone and they sat around the small kitchen table.
“All right, let’s have it,” Rick said at last. “Whateverdetails you’ve got.”
“Not much at the moment. In a few minutes I plan to take theJeep we keep out in the shed and drive down, scope it out for myself.”
“I really want to go with you,” Kelly tried again.
“We’ve been over that, Red.” Rick covered her hand with his.“Mike will take lots of pictures and get a damage assessment from the firedepartment. And he’ll do his own evaluation of the scene, checking things theymight not be looking for.”
“Everyone’s out of there, right?” Mike asked.
Kelly nodded. “Safe and sound. Like I told Dan when I got toMaryland, Graham and Sandy are both on paid vacation. And I’ve called andtalked to them.”
“Good, good, good.” Mike took a healthy swallow of coffee.“Then let’s take a hard look at the whole situation.”
“Greg Jordan’s not pulling the strings on this,” Rick spatout. “He’s a string being pulled himself. Someone with a lot more brains andpower is calling these shots. That’s pretty obvious.”
“Okay but let’s look at Greg for a minute. No doubt in mymind that he’s the one who took the shot at you but since then he’s disappearedoff the planet. Andy wrote a new program to, shall we say, ‘tap into’ somedifferent databases and see what he could find.”
Sometimes they wondered how they’d ever functioned withoutAndy, geek extraordinaire. He was a friend of Faith’s and her contribution tothe agency.
“Find the money,” Rick pointed out. “You can bet he got ashitload for this. He was the man on the line over there. Wherever the moneyis, that’s where we’ll catch up with Greg.”
”You know he’ll have a new identity and have buried himselfas deep as he can.”
Rick’s mouth twisted in a cold smile. “That’s what we haveAndy for.”
“The next thing we have to figure out is who all the majorplayers could be.”
Kelly was listening carefully to the men, absorbing the backand forth before intruding into it. “Has anyone found out anything about thepanel truck that caused Rick’s accident on the interstate?” she asked. “Couldthis Greg Jordan have arranged it from Iraq? Does he have those kinds ofcontacts here? Or are we dealing with more than one faction?”
Both men turned to look at her. “She has to come to work forus,” Mike said. “She can still do her dog training thing, maybe even work itinto our protocols. And certainly train more Ovcharkas. But we can’t miss outon a mind like this.”
“I told you.” Rick grinned.
“Hey, wait a minute, guys.” She held up her hands, not aboutto let them steamroller her into something she hadn’t given a lot of thought to.“I’m just brainstorming here with you.”
“And with an extra special brain, Red,” Rick told her.Despite the fact that Mike was sitting right there he leaned over and placed alight kiss on her lips, breaking away before the instant heat could consume them.
Mike studied the coffee in his mug, carefully ignoring thetwo people across from him.
Rick whispered, “Later, Red,” against Kelly’s lips, thenstraightened up. “Okay, back to business.”
Kelly lowered her eyelids, wondering what kind of vitaminsthis man took, that despite what they’d shared earlier, despite, the fact he’dhad little sleep and was still recovering from the wound that nearly killedhim, he obviously wanted her again. “Masculine” was too weak a word to describeRick Latrobe.
Mike rose from his chair and carried his cup to the sink.“Time for me to check out the scene at the farm. Take those pictures. Do alittle low-key snooping.�
��
“Tell whoever is there you know me,” Kelly said. “That wemet through my grandfather. You were up here, called me and I asked you to seewhat’s going on.”
“Okay but like I said, they know me around here.” He pulledhis jacket back on, opened a cupboard door and pulled a ring of keys off ahook. “On my way. Rick, if you’re up to it, you two better start making listsand checking them twice. We need to know just how many factions we could bedealing with here.”
Kelly cast an appraising glance over Rick after Mike left.Despite his earlier words, she could see that everything was taking its toll onhim. She pushed her chair away from the table. “Let me get you some more coffeeand those pain pills.” When he started to protest she shook her head. “Just onepill. That’s all I ask. Then we’ll work until you can fall asleep again.”
Rick told her where to find yellow pads of paper and plentyof pencils and pens.
“You know,” he said, when she sat down again, “the longeryou stay involved the more danger you’re in.”
“Well, lucky me, they didn’t get what they wanted thistime.” She looked across at him. “Okay. We’re going to solve this riddle solet’s get started.”
* * * * *
When Zarife’s phone rang at three in the morning he wastempted not to answer it. The phones, both of them, had become instruments ofhell. Each time he received a call, his simple life got worse and worse.
“What is it?” he asked, snapping open the cell.
“I have not heard back from your father,” the dreaded voicesaid. “He is supposed to making contact with people in the States to handleRick Latrobe once and for all.”
“I am sure he is doing his best,” Zarife said. “These thingstake time.”
“Doing his best doesn’t cut it. Have you seen thenewspapers? The story’s front and center every day. And television newschannels constantly lead off with it. They’re worse than the government when itcomes to looking into all our dirty little secrets.”
Zarife could hear the edge of danger in the man’s voice andnausea choked him. “We are working on it. He is working on it.”
Scent of Danger Page 21
