by B. J Daniels
“He’s gone to a funeral,” a pretty, redheaded young woman told him.
That threw him. “Whose funeral?”
“Officer Paul Brown.”
The name was like a lightbulb coming on in his face. Paul Brown. He was also on the list.
“I just heard on the radio about a woman’s body being found by the river.” He held his breath. “Tell me it isn’t Lily McCabe.”
The woman dispatcher frowned. “Lily? No. But I can’t give you—”
Not Lily. He felt his heart rate drop some. Not Lily. Not yet. “Where is the funeral?”
The dispatcher hesitated.
“I wouldn’t ask but it’s urgent,” Tag said. “Another woman has disappeared.”
“By now they would be heading for the graveside. Sunset. It’s between Bozeman and Belgrade on the old highway. If you hurry—”
But Tag was already out the door.
* * *
LILY WOKE TO darkness, dying of thirst. Her mouth felt as if it had been stuffed with cotton balls. She tried to swallow as she sat up and blinked at the blackness around her.
At first she’d thought she was in the bedroom and Tag was beside her. But in a flash, the earlier events came back with the terror of her abduction.
Panic overtook her like a blizzard. Where was she? Her hand touched something cold and she recoiled. As her eyes became more adjusted to the dark, though, she saw that it was only a water bottle.
She snatched it up and drank half of it before a thought surfaced that made her quickly pull it away from her lips.
What if it was drugged? Or poisoned? Or all the water she had for however long she was going to be trapped here?
She didn’t kid herself that she could climb off this mattress and walk out of here. The edges of the room began to take shape as her eyes adjusted to the darkness. Knotty-pine walls, dark with age, a linoleum floor. No apparent windows. One door. She could make out a tiny strip of light around its frame.
A basement, she thought, in some older house or cabin. Probably a cabin, which might mean she was still in Big Sky.
She considered yelling for help only an instant before she heard heavy footfalls coming down what sounded like stairs above her.
Lily thought about getting up, hating to be at such a disadvantage on the bed, but when she tried, she found she was too weak to stand. Sliding on the mattress until her back was against the wall, she stared in the direction of the single door in and out of the room. She told herself that the person wasn’t coming to kill her or he would have already done that, but she knew killers probably weren’t logical.
Whoever was outside the door put down something on the floor. It made a shadow under the door. Then she heard the key being turned in the lock. The door swung open along with blinding light before a large figure filled the doorway.
* * *
STANDING AT THE edge of the graveside service, Marshal Hud Savage tightened his grip on his hat held at his side as he saw Tag Cardwell pull up and get out of his father’s old pickup.
Hud was in no mood for trouble and yet one look at the young man’s face and Hud knew that was what was heading for him. He stepped a few feet back from the others. “Not here,” he said under his breath as Tag reached him.
“Here or you come with me now,” Tag said quietly under his breath. “Your choice. Unless you want everyone here to know about you.”
Hud gave him a sidelong glance. “I could have you arrested—”
“I have what you’ve all been looking for. Set up a trade for Lily. Now.”
That got Hud’s attention. He turned and headed toward the old pickup Tag had arrived in. Once there, he turned on the man. “What the hell are you talking about?”
“Lily McCabe. I know you have her and if you hurt her—”
“Tag, I don’t know what you’re talking about. Is Lily missing?”
“I’m tired of playing games with you and my father and uncle,” Tag said, and swore.
Hud listened as Tag told him about seeing the leather jacket on his father’s couch, catching his father in a lie, seeing Hud and Harlan the day Mia Duncan’s body turned up.
“You’ve got it all wrong,” Hud said when Tag finished.
“Yeah, that’s what my father keeps telling me. Where is he, by the way?”
Behind them, Hud heard the graveside funeral procession breaking up. “We can’t talk about this here. What was that that part about a thumb drive?”
Tag smiled. “So you did hear me. Make the call. As soon as I see Lily—”
“I can see how you might think I’m involved in all this—”
“We don’t have time to—”
“I’m telling you the truth. Show me what you have. Maybe between the two of us we can—”
“So help me, if you have touched a hair on her head—” Tag swore, and grabbed Hud by the throat. A minute later he was being pulled off the marshal by two other law enforcement officers who’d been at the funeral. A minute after that he was in handcuffs in the back of Marshal Hud Savage’s patrol SUV on his way to jail.
* * *
“YOU’RE BEING CHEATED.”
The raspy words entered Camilla’s right ear, the hoarse whisper sending a chill down her spine. She was standing in the prison chow line, not that she was hungry. She ate because food kept her strong. If she ever had a chance of getting out of here, one way or the other, she needed to keep up her strength.
“Don’t turn around.”
She fought the urge.
“She shouldn’t be charging you.” She could feel the woman’s breath on her neck, hot and damp and putrid.
Camilla waited. Prison was teaching her patience and she’d become an astute student since she hadn’t killed anyone yet.
“Just nod your head if I’m right.” The woman moved closer. Camilla had to steel herself not to shudder. “You’re paying Grams for a hit on a cowboy cop, right?”
Just like in high school, rumors ran rampant. This one just happened to be true.
She gave a short nod and could no longer contain the shudder.
The woman behind gave a snort. “His name was already on the list.”
Camilla turned in her surprise to find Snakebite behind her. Their eyes met, Snakebite’s as hard as obsidian. She turned back around as the line moved and felt sick to her stomach. Not because Grams had planned to charge her and someone else for the same hit. But that Marshal Hud Savage was about to be killed and it wouldn’t be her doing.
She wanted to howl out her pain and yet she couldn’t even step out of line. She shuffled forward, the smell of some awful casserole filling her nostrils and making her even more nauseated.
I have to get out of here.
Not just out of the line, but out of the damned prison.
I have to get out of here.
Camilla hadn’t realized she’d said the words aloud. Not until she heard the raspy voice answer.
“I thought you might say that.”
* * *
MARSHAL HUD SAVAGE pulled off onto a narrow snowy road that ended at the river’s edge.
“You should take off my handcuffs,” Tag said from the back of the patrol SUV. “Might look more believable that I made a run for it when you kill me.”
Hud cut the engine and turned to look at him in surprise. “You think I’m going to kill you?” He let out a curse and shook his head. For months he’d been telling himself he’d lost his edge. That he wasn’t any good at this anymore. He’d never felt more assured of that than at this moment.
“I’m not a dirty cop,” he said, feeling himself hit bottom. “Why would you think—”
Tag snorted. “I saw my father give you an envelope the morning Mia Duncan was found murdered. Tell me that envelope
wasn’t filled with money.”
“It wasn’t.” He thought of the paperwork Harlan had finally turned over to him. The agency was always holding out on him. With a shock, he had just been told that he had a dead agent on his hands and Harlan had still wanted to keep secrets. They’d argued until Harlan had finally given him some information.
“Look, I don’t care, all right?” Tag said. “I just want to find Lily.”
“So do I. That’s why you have to help me with what you know.”
“You expect me to trust you after all the lies you’ve told me? I know my father was seeing Mia Duncan.”
“You have it all wrong.”
“So you all keep telling me,” Tag snapped.
Hud took off his Stetson and raked a hand through his hair. “I don’t know how you managed to get so deep in all this.” He met Tag’s gaze. “I pleaded with Harlan to tell you the truth, but he didn’t want you involved.” With a sigh, he said, “Mia was an agent. Your father was working with her.”
“An agent?” Tag let out a laugh. “And my father was working with her? What would Harlan—”
“Harlan and Angus are retired, but they often help when needed.”
Tag shook his head in obvious disbelief. “You’re telling me my father and uncle are...agents?”
Hud nodded. “They’ve always worked undercover operations because they had such perfect covers with their band. Apparently Mia was getting close to busting a murder ring.”
“Murder ring?” he said, sounding disbelieving.
“We’re wasting time. You want to find Lily, you have to tell me about these names you said she had.” He could tell that Tag didn’t believe him. “You have to trust me if want to find Lily.”
“Take off my handcuffs. If I can trust you, then trust me.”
He hesitated. Tag was a loose cannon. He’d gotten involved and now Lily McCabe was missing. Hud already had two dead women. He hoped he wasn’t making another mistake.
“I know you don’t trust me, but I have reason not to trust you, either,” Hud said as he got out of the patrol SUV and opened the back door. “You show up just before Mia is killed and we only have your word that she left with some Montana cowboy in a pickup.”
“You can’t be serious. Take off my handcuffs. I think I have what everyone is looking for.”
Hud lifted an eyebrow, then unlocked the cuffs and watched Tag rub his wrists. He’d taken a chance with one of Dana’s so-called cousins and almost gotten his family killed. And here he was again, taking another chance, one that could get him killed, as well.
* * *
TAG’S HEAD WAS whirling. He still wasn’t sure he believed Hud, let alone trusted him. But right now he needed all the help he could get finding Lily.
“I have a partial list of some names that came off a thumb drive that I now believe Mia Duncan put in my coat pocket the night she was murdered.” He dug out the scrap of paper with only a few of the names and handed it to the marshal.
Hud stared down at it, his eyes widening.
“You recognize the names?”
“Two of them are men who were recently released from prison,” the marshal said as he turned the scrap of paper over, no doubt looking for more names. “One of them is dead. The other one, Ray Emery, is from around here. I don’t recognize the others. Where is the rest of this sheet?”
Tag felt his heart hammering in his chest. He hoped he wasn’t making a mistake that would get Lily killed—not to mention himself. He reached in his pocket and handed Hud the complete list from the thumb drive that Gerald had provided.
KYLE FOSTER
GEORGE MOORE
FRANK MOONEY
LOU WAYNE
CLETE RAND
RAY EMERY
PAUL BROWN
MIA DUNCAN
CAL FRANKLIN
LARS LANDERS
HARLAN CARDWELL
HUD SAVAGE
He heard the air rush from the marshal’s lips and watched him swallow.
“This is the murder list,” he said. “You say Mia put this in your coat pocket at the bar that night? Those names.” He pointed to the ones on the top. “Those are the killers.”
“And the names on the bottom?” Tag asked, his heart in his throat.
“Those are the hits.”
“My father’s name is on that list.”
Hud nodded. “So is mine.”
“How many of them are already dead?”
“Two that I know of. Paul and Mia. But Cal and Lars could already be dead by now.”
“Then my father might be next.” He met the marshal’s gaze and let out a curse as he had a terrible thought. “You don’t think they took Lily, not for the list, but...”
“As bait to flush out your father. Harlan said if you hadn’t come by his cabin when you did, he would be dead. They wanted the thumb drive, but they didn’t want him dead until they had the list that incriminated every prisoner who’d been released.”
“I don’t get why it’s so important.”
“In order to get released prisoners to kill for them, they had to promise their anonymity. If word got out that the feds had gotten hold of one of the lists...”
All Tag could think about was the fact that his father’s name was on the list and the ones above might already be dead.
“Where is Harlan now?” When Hud hesitated, Tag said, “It’s too late to hold out on me now.”
“I honestly don’t know. Apparently Mia had been working with a prison snitch. She’d heard that several prisons had started a type of co-op. For a fee, you can have someone on the outside killed. A recently released inmate kills someone he doesn’t know, has no connection to. In return he gets either money or a favor. The idea is that the former inmate won’t get caught because he has no motive.”
Tag got it. His heart pounded as he realized why they were so desperate to get the thumb drive. “This list links the hits with the former inmates.” This was incriminating stuff that could shut down the murder ring.
“I know Lily knew Mia and was the one who discovered her condo had been ransacked, but why do you think her disappearing has anything to do with the murder list?” Hud asked.
“Lily was with me when I found the thumb drive in my pocket. Once she took a look at what was on it, she determined it was written in some kind of code.”
Hud frowned. “How did they know she had the thumb drive—let alone that she’d decoded it?”
Tag felt his heart drop. “I don’t know. I thought she and I were the only ones who knew about it.”
* * *
AS THE MAN entered the room, Lily was blinded by the sudden light for a moment. He carried a tray and she caught the smell of a microwave dinner. Her stomach growled. She was surprised that she was starved. It seemed odd to her to think about food at a time like this.
Her gaze went from the tray to the man. He was big and bulky with hamlike hands and arms covered with tattoos. Over his head, he wore one of those rubber Halloween masks, this one of an ogre.
She didn’t miss the irony as she watched him put down the tray on the end of the mattress. She thought about jumping up and making a break for the door. Or grabbing the tray and attempting to hit him with it.
But even if she hadn’t felt so weak from whatever they’d knocked her out with, she knew either attempt at escape would be wasted effort. Better to eat the food he’d brought, get her strength back and bide her time.
He didn’t say a word as he turned and walked out of the room. Nor did he appear to be worried about a surprise attack from behind.
She thought she probably should have tried to make conversation with him. Hadn’t she heard somewhere that in a situation like this you needed to make yourself as human as possible to your abdu
ctor?
But Lily was smart enough to know that this wasn’t a garden-variety abduction. The fact that they hadn’t killed her outright probably meant they were holding her hostage.
Just as she surmised that this had to have something to do with the thumb drive and Mia’s murder—as she and Tag had guessed.
The thought of Tag brought tears to her eyes. Why hadn’t she admitted that they’d made love? They would have been in her bedroom at the house in each other’s arms—instead of her being here.
She’d let fear keep her from him. But she’d never seen herself the way she was with Tag last night. Nor had she ever felt as close to another human being. She ached for Tag Cardwell, and that scared her, too, because she feared Gerald was right and Tag was all wrong for her. A mathematician and a Texas cowboy? Their lives were miles apart in more than distance.
And yet she couldn’t get him out of her racing heart. She tried not to let herself think about what would happen if these men didn’t get what they wanted as she dragged the tray over to her and dug into the food. It was as wonderful as it was awful. She thought of Gerald and his contempt for any food that wasn’t four-star-restaurant quality.
She actually smiled at the absurdity of it all since she practically licked the cardboard container clean. The food made her feel a little stronger. But what boosted her more than anything was the knowledge that Tag would be looking for her.
Lily hugged herself, thinking about last night and their lovemaking. He was the kind of man who would ride in on a big white horse and save her. A sob escaped her lips. What if he hadn’t gotten her message? Or worse, what if these men had already found Tag and taken care of him?
She assured herself that the cowboy wouldn’t let her die without a fight.
Chapter Twelve
Everything could be bought for a price. Camilla had learned that at an early age. That price though was often very high—and too often wasn’t monetary. So she’d spent her life paying dearly.
