Harlequin Intrigue June 2015 - Box Set 1 of 2: To Honor and To ProtectCorneredUntraceable

by Debra

  “A problem like how we keep killing his men?” Julia asked in an amused voice.

  Cam settled on one point—she’d said we, and he believed she actually viewed the situation that way. She put her body in as a team member’s.

  He didn’t hate that comparison.

  “Why are you walking around?” Julia hadn’t left her safe spot next to the wall. She stood there, anchored and not moving. “The shooter could still be up there.”

  Shane shook his head. “He’s long gone.”

  “How do you know that?” She glanced up at the spot where Holt had just been looking. “He could be waiting, just like he’s been doing all day.”

  Cam knew the answer to that, but he wasn’t sure telling her would ease her worry. He debated. Went back and forth and then spelled it out. “He wanted Ned here.”

  “If he wanted the rest of us, we’d be dead.” Shane took a second to go over to her. He patted her shoulder, and from the way she flinched after each pat, Cam guessed Shane wasn’t clear on how much force he used.

  “Is that supposed to be comforting?” She rubbed the spot where he’d knocked against her with his palm.

  Cam thought she was probably talking about the words and not the awkward bonding moment. “Poor Shane.”

  “No kidding,” Holt whispered.

  She left the sanctuary of the wall and joined them closer to the middle of the room, or warehouse floor or whatever it was. “It’s scary to me that you’re the best with people of the three of you.”

  “We used to have a fourth team member. A woman.” Cam smiled when he thought about Erica. She’d been recently divorced and a sharpshooter. She could nail a target from distances that left others gawking. “She played the role of human-emotion interpreter.”

  Julia tried to ask a question and stumbled. She got it out the second time. “What happened to her?”

  The confusion made sense. A lot of times people didn’t think about women being lethal. Erica was, even though she looked as if she made a fortune in tips tending bar. “Assignment with a bodyguard agency. She loves it, so I’m thinking we’ve lost her forever.”

  “Then I’ll take over the female role.” Julia pulled up straight and stared them all down. “For now.”

  Holt glanced over at Shane. “She’s bossy.”

  Cam nodded. “I still like it.”

  “I’m thinking the only person she cares about here is Cam,” Holt added.

  “Enough.” Cam seriously considered banging their heads together. “She is in the room and capable of talking.”

  Julia saved her smile for Holt and Shane. “You two are growing on me.”

  * * *

  RAY LOOKED AT the message on his phone. It wasn’t like the boss to leave a trail of any sort. Not that any phone they used could trace back to the guy. He was careful and he knew how traces worked. No way would he let something as simple as a phone trip him up.

  But the words crawled across the screen and Ray could not ignore them. He had to drive out past that falling-down farmhouse and all the outbuildings on the shipyard property. He’d cleared the men out in an attempt to restore the shipyard and not raise questions. Some of the men carried loads on trucks and had coordinates for safe houses.

  Everything had been split up so no one would benefit by going rogue and trying to smuggle the contents out on their own. Not that they could or that the boss would tolerate the loss anyway. All anyone had to do was ask Rudy. The boss demanded loyalty and got it.

  And what the boss wanted mattered...for now. Because according to his message, he’d be there in a few minutes and he had a plan.

  Chapter Seventeen

  They all stood around while Holt and Connor, the one she’d never met and still only saw via a tiny screen, had some sort of virtual meeting. They talked facial recognition and drugs and something about trucks. Julia had trouble keeping up because she could barely hold her eyes open.

  The danger hadn’t passed, but it sounded as if the drugs were on the move, which should mean the people connected to the drugs were looking for a way out. That seemed like good news to her, even though the Corcoran guys looked ticked off that they couldn’t capture someone to take to the police.

  She balanced her hands behind her on what used to be a windowsill and watched Cam approach. That sure walk was back in place and his newest round of aches and bruises had been cleaned up in about two seconds by Shane. She guessed injuries suggested weakness, so these guys willed the pain away.

  “Hey.” That was all she had left. A simple greeting. Not even a full sentence.

  Cam stood next to her and scanned the room as Shane and Holt moved around, with Shane taking photos and Holt talking to his watch.

  For some reason none of it struck her as weird. Shooting, killing and chitchatting via watch seemed normal. The fact that people out there still wanted Cam dead and her captured didn’t even register anymore.

  Cam pressed in close enough for his body to touch hers from arm to thigh. “Any chance I can talk you into taking one of those ferries today?”

  He just kept playing this refrain. Each time it got a little more tempting to say yes and demand he go with her. She was on a leave of absence and had a little time left, but this wasn’t exactly her idea of a vacation. “Are they running?”

  Cam crossed one ankle over the other and continued to stand there. “Connor is working on it.”

  She looked at Cam and saw competence. She’d heard about Connor and wondered if the guy was even human. He seemed to be able to pull off any errand or favor. He might be the leader of the team, but it sounded more as though he should lead the country.

  “I have to meet your big boss.” Though she’d be tempted to give him a bill for all the therapy she feared she’d need in the future thanks to this operation of his.

  “You’d like him.” Cam smiled. “You’d probably like his wife even more.”

  His...wife... “He’s married?”

  Cam winced. “Yeah.”

  For some reason that information stopped her. After the “no commitments” lecture from Cam and the lack of rings on Shane and Holt, she’d assumed the whole team had a hands-off policy. The reference to a wife blew that idea.

  “I guess that means he found time to date at some point.” And only Cam hid behind that crazy excuse.

  She was joking, but the thought of that and his pledge and his strange insistence that going out with him could only be a one-off thing started an ache in the center of her chest.

  He closed one eye as if he were thinking of the comment only. “I’m impressed with your ability to fall back on an argument from earlier as if we never finished that conversation.”

  “And win it in a landslide.” She wanted that clear. She made her point and kept making it.

  He nodded. “That, too.”

  She thought about picking at that topic a little more. She could demand an answer about the next time they saw each other, ensuring that there would be a next time. When the idea of something happening between them past tomorrow rose, he panicked. Got all twitchy and started shifting around. It was cute...and a little insulting. Here she was, so in tune to him that she could sense his moods, and he dwelled in this fear that she would start demanding things.

  Looked as though she was not the only one with a trust issue.

  Wading through the personal, she went right to the workday stuff. “What happens now?”

  “Connor called in law enforcement. Some are on the way to the island and others have arrived but are stationed at the ferry, watching the docks and any way on and off the island by water. Ray thinks he has control of the boats, but he doesn’t. If those trucks move, we should get them.”

  She tried to imagine how the privacy-protecting citizens of Calapan would take being infiltrated by law-enforcement types. Then a bigger question popped into her mind. “Are these law-enforcement folks going to make the murder charges against you go away?”

  “Unless I tick off Connor.”
>
  She laughed then and all three of the men stared at her. “So probably not, then.”

  “Call is almost over.” Shane walked up, already talking. “Connor is searching for more information on Ned.”

  “How does that help?” she asked because she honestly didn’t know. The guy was dead and for her that ended the line of questioning. But what did she know?

  “If we know about him, we might be able to find a string and trace it back to the leader of this drug show.” Shane didn’t name a name or tag Sandy as a possible suspect. He just laid the facts out and then walked away.

  Not the chattiest guy she’d ever met.

  She leaned into Cam. When he didn’t push back or show any signs of feeling uncomfortable with the innocuous touching, she put her head on his shoulder. “Your job is exhausting.”

  “We rest eventually.”

  Shane spun around and stared at Cam. “Heads up. We have company.”

  “How does he know that?” The guy had just been standing there.

  “He’s spooky like that.” Cam stood up and took her along with him. “Who?”

  No one answered, but the room seemed to spin with sudden motion. They could scatter, but it would be too easy for someone to see them and follow the weakest link, which she feared was her.

  Cam, Holt and Shane all stood with weapons. They formed a barricade of sorts by standing in a line. To her that made them targets, and none of them raced around to hide. But they did stand in front of her. She had to go up on tiptoes to see what was happening in front of her.

  Cam’s voice broke into the quiet. “We need to find better assignments from now on. Stick the Annapolis guys with the drug stuff.”

  A second later Chief Kreider showed up at the far end of the long room. He held a gun but didn’t have any men with him. None that she could see, but they could just be off waiting somewhere. Totally possible and a little creepy.

  “You can start thinking about that new job right now.” Kreider aimed his weapon at Cam, clearly ignoring the fact that he was outnumbered by a decent margin. “Hands in the air. All of you.”

  None of them moved. Julia looked around and Holt and Cam wore similar expressions of disbelief. Shane whistled. Actually whistled. They didn’t appear ruffled or impressed with Kreider’s big show. She didn’t like the guy either, but a gun was a gun.

  “Maybe we should all stay calm.” That applied to her as much as them, but she felt the need to say it.

  The chief didn’t take his eyes off Cam. “Ms. White, you are in no position to demand anything, but you would be wise to step on out here and come to me.”

  Cam’s arm shot out. “No. She stays with me. Always.”

  Something about the way he said it had those nerves jumping around in her stomach calming just a bit. The urge to run and throw up still tried to overtake her, but she beat it back and focused on Kreider. The man hadn’t changed in years. Still grumpy and demanding and generally hating women.

  “Tell your friends to drop their weapons and get on the ground or I will open fire.” Kreider talked to her as if they got along.

  She couldn’t think of one time when he’d sided with her or helped her. He was too busy protecting his old friends to actually do anything to keep Calapan a place where people would want to live. The drug issue was only the example of his inability to do his job.

  Holt frowned. “No one is threatening you. What would justify the use of force against any of us?”

  “The dead men all over Calapan Island.”

  She had to admit Kreider had a point. Even if he wasn’t guilty on the drug charge—and she was not ready to say that yet—he couldn’t let Rudy’s death and those of the others pass without any discussion.

  But for a man who had supposedly been tracking them for days, it sure had taken him a long time to find them. Made her wonder why now. “Why are you here?”

  Kreider barely spared her a glance. “You’re not the one asking questions.”

  “What about me?” A strong male voice echoed down the other end of the room.

  Another man in uniform walked into the building from the opposite end. They were surrounded by law enforcement, even though this second one wasn’t real. He hadn’t been real police when he shot at Cam and chased him to her father’s house. Hadn’t been real police when he brought two of his goons into Dad’s house and scared her.

  “Ray Miner. You and Chief Kreider are quite the pair.” Cam made a face. “It’s like the worst welcome party ever.”

  Kreider crowded in toward the still body in the chair, and the men parted to let him pass. Kreider did a check of the pulse, then called it in on his radio as a murder. Never asked for backup or explained what was happening. An interesting choice for someone who was supposed to be keeping the whole town safe.

  Then he turned back to Cam. “What a surprise, Roth. I find you and end up tripping over another dead body.”

  Cam nodded in Ray’s direction. “And you brought a fake law-enforcement official to this unwanted meeting. Good call.”

  “Again with that argument.” Kreider shook his head. “Miner here is legitimate. I called and checked his references myself.”

  “What did you use for verification? Because it’s wrong,” Shane said.

  But Cam was already off and running. “You can’t be this bad at your job. You just can’t.”

  Every word sliced through her. The Corcoran men were tough and ready for almost anything, but their guns weren’t up, and bad-mouthing a police officer was never a good idea. On the tiny island of Calapan it was really bad.

  “Can we all put the weapons away and talk this over?” She hoped Cam would ignore the all part and keep one on him just in case.

  “My weapons stay with me,” Shane said.

  “I don’t think so.” Ray approached Holt first. “Weapons on the floor or Ms. White will pay the price.”

  Cam glanced at Holt before returning his attention to Ray. “For the record, that doesn’t make you sound legitimate even with the uniform.”

  She knew that look. There was a plan in motion. She didn’t know what or how she could help, but she sensed motion coming.

  She did what she could to stall for time. “Wouldn’t just talking, without the weapons, be a better use of our time?”

  Kreider ignored her and started his own conversation. “Why are you all here? This is private property.”

  “Are you afraid the corporation will get upset?” Cam asked.

  Kreider frowned at him. “Last I checked, an individual owned the property.”

  She listened, fascinated, as the team picked up pieces of information without a full-on interrogation. Just went to prove that most people liked to pass on what they knew. They talked and shared and made a mess of everything.

  “We came to town for a meeting with Rudy, who is now dead, but we know there is a drug problem here.” Cam held out his arms. “That’s why we’re here. We needed to find the operation, and now we have.”

  “I checked the grounds and there’s nothing here,” Ray said.

  Kreider looked up and down the room. “Yeah, Roth. You see something I don’t?”

  “It’s mostly been cleaned out,” she said.

  She hated that part. After all they’d been through, it only seemed fair that they would get to the end of the chase and find a room full of something and be able to point to it as proof of her innocence.

  Ray chuckled. “Convenient.”

  “Not really,” Cam said as he folded his arms in front of him.

  Something in the way he moved suggested Ray was getting twitchy. He widened his stance and pulled out a zip tie. “This is the last time we’re telling you to get on the floor.”

  “Or?” Holt asked.

  That tone. Those expressions. She was prepared to dive out of the line of battle if it came to that. “Maybe if we went with fewer threats.”

  “Swab the walls and floor. Check the buildings and those trucks outside. You’ll find the evidenc
e of a drug lab.” Cam’s gaze did a quick bounce to Ray before coming back to settle on Kreider. “We have nothing to hide.”

  Ray shook his head. “I’m taking you all in, including the woman.”

  “Hold up.” Kreider held out a hand. “They’re mine.”

  “Actually, gentlemen—” Holt’s husky voice cut through the arguing “—we’re not going anywhere.”

  “I’m tired of this.” Ray raised the gun and fired.

  Kreider hit the floor and the team pulled their weapons. She was the only one without a gun in her hand, but she barely noticed. The shock of seeing the chief fall back, just wither and slide, echoed in her head.

  By the time she looked up again, Ray had one gun on the men and one aimed at her. She shifted and the barrel followed.

  Ray’s smile turned feral. “Now are you all ready to listen?”

  “You just killed your boss?” Cam asked.

  “I think we can both agree I’ll make a better boss.” Ray kicked Kreider’s foot. “I managed to trick him and most of this dumpy island into thinking I was a police officer.”

  “Why?” Julia wasn’t even sure what question she was asking. Why do this, why the killing and the lying? Why use poor Calapan as his stomping grounds?

  “I’m stronger, smarter. More efficient.”

  When he went with his ego she wasn’t sure how to respond. She glanced at Cam and he shook his head. Slight but she saw it.

  “So this was all you.” Cam shifted his stance. The move put him closer to her. “The setup and production, all you?”

  “Yes.”

  Cam’s eyes narrowed. “Transportation and breakdown.”

  Ray waved off the question. “We’re done talking.”

  “It’s four against one,” Shane pointed out.

  She liked those odds. She’d seen what Cam could do when he was on the one side, and she thought this had to be better.

  “Not really because, first, I’m not alone.” Ray continued to aim a gun at her. “And second, anyone comes near me or if I feel even a twinge from a muscle cramp, I will assume you are at fault and punish the woman.”