Blue Ridge Ricochet

by Paula Graves

  But he knew who he was now. He knew where he was. He knew it was night, it was cold and if Nicki came back to her cabin now, she’d walk in on an ambush.

  He couldn’t let that happen.

  Pushing aside the pine boughs covering his makeshift fort, he rose to his feet and headed back toward Nicki’s cabin. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do when trouble came, but he’d do something even if it killed him.

  He’d done all the cowering he planned to do for a lifetime.

  * * *

  “I DON’T THINK possums hide in caves.” The voice of the unknown man carried into the cave.

  Nicki flattened her back against the cave wall and tried to breathe quietly, despite the ache in her lungs. She couldn’t risk drawing the attention of the men outside. There was nowhere to hide. Nowhere to run.

  And if Del McClintock caught her in here and saw what she’d been hiding all these weeks, she’d never get out of River’s End alive.

  “I wonder if Craig and Ray are done at the cabin yet.” Del sounded curious but not worried.

  What cabin? Nicki wondered.

  “You sure she’s not there?” the other man asked.

  “Her shift ended at nine, and you know Trevor keeps his crew workin’ for another hour or so, spit-shinin’ everything for the next day. She ain’t gonna be home for another hour. They got plenty of time to take a good look around.”

  Oh, no. No, no, no.

  Two of Del’s boys were at her cabin, doing a search?

  Dallas was as good as dead.

  “There’s a place down the mountain a ways where I think I saw a possum nest last spring. Want to take a look there?” Del asked.

  “Sounds good.”

  Nicki kept her feet until she could no longer hear their footsteps crunching through the leaves. Then she slid down to the cave floor and took deep gulps of breath while her heart rate slowly returned to something close to normal.

  Oh, God. That was so close.

  She didn’t let herself fall apart for long. She had to get to her cabin and find out what the hell was going on.

  She hurried down the mountain to retrieve the Jeep, wishing like hell she had put the phone back on her bedside table. She just hadn’t quite trusted Dallas enough to leave him alone with a line to the world outside, and that lack of trust had just come back to bite her.

  She tried not to speed on her way home, well aware that in a town as small as River’s End, even a traffic ticket managed to find its way into the town’s grapevine sooner or later. Someone might wonder why she’d been on that particular road when it wasn’t the most direct route home to her cabin. Or why she’d been so frazzled when she was pulled over.

  Easing her foot off the accelerator, she took her time, concentrating on the one good thing that had come from the conversation she’d overheard. The head of the Virginia BRI was seriously considering taking her on as his personal caretaker. That meant she would find out who he was and would be uniquely positioned to find out what kind of trouble they were planning these days.

  Unless Ray and Craig found something incriminating at her cabin. Like Dallas or that envelope full of messages from Quinn.

  Stupid, stupid, stupid! Why had she held on to those messages?

  Because they made you feel less alone.

  Not a good enough reason. Not nearly good enough, especially now.

  The gravel park in front of her cabin was unoccupied when she arrived. That meant nothing, however, she realized as she pulled the Jeep into its usual parking space. Ray and Craig didn’t live that far away. They could have easily come here on foot to do their search of her cabin.

  She should have been expecting something like this, she realized. She was a terrible excuse for a spy.

  The front door was locked when she turned the knob. Which meant they had a copy of her keys. The thought made her skin crawl, and she made a mental note to change the dead bolt the next chance she got. And then make sure her keys were never out of her possession.

  She unlocked the door and entered cautiously, in case they were still inside. There was a light on in the front room and also in the kitchen. Her cabin was isolated enough that she hadn’t thought it necessary to warn Dallas to keep the lights turned off. Who would be passing by?

  Craig Lafferty and Ray Battle, as it turned out, she thought grimly, some of her fear eclipsed by a rush of blazing anger. How untouchable did they think they were, that they could just break into her cabin at will and go through her things?

  They’re criminals, Nicki. What do you expect?

  She clicked a button on the small black remote on her key chain. Most people assumed it was a remote entry device for her Jeep. It wasn’t. Instead, it was some contraption the security guys at The Gates had come up with to detect both trackers and listening devices. If there was a bug in her cabin, this little device would detect it.

  Nothing. Whatever else Craig and Ray had done, they hadn’t put a listening device in the cabin.

  She pocketed her keys and made a slow exploration of the cabin, room to room, trying to hold back the acid panic eating a hole in her chest. She had to keep her head. Think clearly rather than react.

  She had to give the boys credit—they had been careful not to leave a big footprint with their search, but she spotted subtle signs that someone had been inside the cabin. Her hairbrush wasn’t on the same side of the bathroom sink where she normally put it. In the bedroom, the closet door was closed completely, where she left it open a crack during the winter so the heat from the bedroom could keep her clothes warm for those early morning drives to the diner.

  And worst of all, there was no sign of Dallas anywhere in the house.

  Had they found him here? Had they taken him captive once more, to inflict God only knew what kind of tortures on him? Or had they taken him into the woods out back and killed him?

  Stop. Stop thinking the worst. Just keep looking.

  She entered the kitchen and looked around. One of the chairs at the table was out of place, but there was no sign of a struggle here any more than there had been anywhere else in the house. That was a good sign, wasn’t it? Dallas wasn’t in top form, but he wouldn’t have let those guys grab him without a fight.

  So maybe they hadn’t found Dallas after all. But had they found her messages from Quinn?

  Holding her breath, she checked the niche between the refrigerator and the counter.

  Her heart sank.

  The envelope was gone.

  That was that. Big break or no big break, she’d just worn out her welcome in River’s End and it was time to pull up stakes and get her tail back to Tennessee while she still had time to get there alive.

  She knew how to travel light, and this was clearly one of those moments where speed was more important than thoroughness. She grabbed a backpack from her closet and threw in a couple of changes of clothing and a few pairs of sturdy shoes. The strappy high-heeled sandals she’d bought in Abingdon last month would have to stay in the closet, along with the dress she’d splurged on because it went so well with the shoes.

  There was a first-aid kit in the back of the Jeep, and a Leatherman tool in the glove compartment. There was a Swiss army knife in her purse. She grabbed a few snack bars from the cabinet and a six-pack of bottled water from the refrigerator.

  That should be enough to get her safely to Purgatory, Tennessee, by sunup.

  The sound of the back door opening made her nerves jerk, and she whirled around, ready to swing the six-pack of water like a bludgeon.

  Dallas Cole stood in the doorway, looking haggard and pale. He was shivering but a slow smile spread across his face, digging dimples into his lean cheeks. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

  “Are you all right?” The urge to throw herself in his arms almost overcame he
r good sense.

  “I’m freezing to death and I just spent an hour trying to figure out how to take on two big mountain men with just my sparkling wit and winning personality. But other than that, I’m just dandy.” He closed the distance between them, raising his hands to her face. His fingers were icy and she gave a little start, but when he started to pull his hands away, she put the water bottles down on the table beside her and put her own hands over his, holding them in place.

  “You got out in time?”

  “I did.” His brow furrowed. “You already knew, didn’t you?”

  “That someone came in here while I was gone? Yeah.” Was it her imagination or was his face suddenly a lot closer?

  “Because I was missing?” His breath warmed her lips.

  “That was one reason.” Damn it. Her heart had just managed to get back to a halfway normal rate and he had to go all smoldery on her. She needed to get her scrambled brains back in order. She was forgetting something important—

  “Lucky for me, I was back here in the kitchen when I heard them come in. Even then, I barely had time to get out.”

  He’d gotten out in time, but what about the messages from Quinn? That’s what she’d been forgetting. “Please, please tell me you took the messages from Quinn with you. Because they’re not where I left them.”

  He dropped his hands from her face and reached under his sweatshirt, pulling out the manila envelope. “I did. But you shouldn’t have kept these, Nicki. Today should have made that very clear.”

  He was right. Hadn’t she told herself the same thing on her drive home? “I know.”

  She took the manila envelope and headed down the hall toward the front room. Dallas followed, sticking close enough that she could feel his nervous energy behind her. She put the envelope on the mantel and bent to pick up the fireplace lighter.

  “You’re going to burn them?” he asked quietly.

  “Should have done it a long time ago.” She put the envelope on the logs still lying in the hearth and touched the lighter flame to the edge. It caught fire and she set the lighter on the mantel.

  She turned to look at Dallas. He was watching her movements, his dark-eyed gaze intense. “Are you okay? You’re still sort of shivering. Come sit in front of the fire and tell me everything that happened.”

  He pulled up one of the chairs and sat in front of the hearth. The logs beneath the burning envelope had caught fire, the warming blaze impossible to resist. Nicki pulled up a chair as well and sat close to him, holding her hands out in front of the flames.

  Something about Dallas had changed while she was gone. It wasn’t anything big or obvious, just a subtle difference in the way he held himself. The way he spoke.

  The way he looked at her.

  Focus, Nicki.

  She cleared her throat. “The men who came in here used a key, didn’t they?”

  “I think so. I heard what sounded like keys in the lock. For a moment I thought it could be you, but it was too early.”

  “So they’ve made copies of my keys.”

  “Clearly.”

  She sighed. “Those sneaky bastards.”

  “You had to know it was a possibility. You’re here as an undercover operative and you’re trying to get inside their operation. They’re going to give you a closer look, right? Maybe that’s a good sign.” The warmth of the fire seemed to be doing its job on Dallas. His earlier shivers had subsided, and his pale face had begun to take on a healthy color that she didn’t think she could chalk up to the fire glow.

  “It is a good sign,” she agreed, remembering her own ordeal in the cave. “In fact, I think I know why they came here.”

  “You mean besides trying to see if you’re up to something?”

  “Well, that, obviously. What I mean is, there’s a reason why they’re doing it now.”

  “Something’s changed, hasn’t it?” He shot her a narrow-eyed look.

  “Yeah. See, there’s another reason I knew someone was here in my cabin. While I was picking up my message from the drop site, I heard people coming, so I hid. As it turned out, it was a good thing I did.”

  “Someone you knew?”

  “Someone who may be key to getting me where I want to be on this assignment.” She picked up the fire poker and gave the logs a nudge, igniting a shower of sparks. “His name is Del McClintock, and he’s been my link to the people higher up in the BRI.”

  “Your link how?” The look Dallas slanted her way held an odd sort of vulnerability, as if her answer held a great deal of weight.

  “Well, we’re not sleeping together, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  “But you’re seeing each other.”

  She sighed, leaning back in her chair. “It’s complicated. We’ve been out a few times. Kissed a couple of times. I told him I was coming off a bad relationship and I didn’t want to rush into anything.”

  “Kissed?”

  Trust a man to latch on to that detail. “A couple of times. I think maybe it intrigues him—a woman who doesn’t fall into his bed as soon as he looks her way.”

  “It can be very intriguing,” Dallas agreed. “But how patient do you expect this guy to be?”

  She sighed again. “Not very. But I’m not a little girl. I can handle myself with Del. And, apparently, what I’m doing is working better than I hoped.”

  He turned to look at her, his eyes narrowing. “Why do you say that?”

  “Because when I was hiding from Del, I overheard him talking to another guy. And Del told that guy that his boss is very interested in me.”

  Dallas’s brow creased. “What are you saying?”

  “I’m saying, I think I’m finally going to get what I came here for. If I passed the test—I think that’s what the search of my cabin must have been—they’re going to hire me to be the man’s medical caretaker.” She smiled, torn between elation and sheer terror. “I’m about to find out who the head of the Virginia BRI really is.”

  Chapter Nine

  Dallas took a step back, digesting Nicki’s news with a sinking heart. Intellectually, he could acknowledge it was a significant turn of events in her investigation. He hadn’t been on the front lines of the battle against the Blue Ridge Infantry and its attempt to build a complex and brutal crime syndicate in the guise of a homegrown militia, but anyone who worked at FBI headquarters knew what a coup it would be to position someone inside the group, feeding vital information to people with connections like Alexander Quinn had. He might be a civilian now, but Quinn still maintained a whole lot of ties to people inside the US justice system.

  Nicki could be a real asset to the ongoing investigation.

  She could also be embarking on a suicide mission.

  “You might be getting into something you can’t get out of,” he said finally when the silence between them began to grow tense.

  She sighed. “I know. But it’s what I came here to do. I knew going in it wasn’t going to be a trip to the beach.”

  “You don’t know all they’re capable of. I don’t even know what they’re capable of, and I was their unwilling guest for weeks.”

  She put her hand on his arm, her fingers warm. “I know. But I’ve come this far. I have to see it through.”

  He wanted to shake off her hand, wanted to put distance between them as if he could somehow forestall the anxiety already rising in his gut like a poison tide. He knew more about what people like the BRI were capable of than she did. It hadn’t taken captivity in their mountain enclave to acquaint him with that level of ruthlessness.

  As bad as they were, the BRI wasn’t that different from any gang of backwoods thugs out there. Sure, they’d upped their game by co-opting groups like the black bloc anarchists they’d brought into their fold, but they were still small-minded punks, no better
than the meth cookers they had strong-armed into submission.

  All the talk of patriotism and sovereign citizenship didn’t change that fact.

  “What are you thinking?” Nicki’s voice was as warm as her touch, seductive without trying. His resistance began to crumble under a swelling tide of desire.

  He didn’t dare tell her what he was really thinking. So he opted for what he’d been mulling before her touch had stoked a fire in his belly. “I was thinking the Blue Ridge Infantry isn’t that different from people I grew up with back in Kentucky.”

  Her blue eyes narrowed slightly. “I suppose they’re not. I’ve known a few like them myself. Back in Tennessee.”

  “They’re mean. But they’re also not nearly as smart as they think they are. I’m hoping we can use that against them.”

  She dropped her hand to her side. His arm felt cold where her hand had been, as if she’d taken all the warmth of the world with her. “I managed to leave the message for Quinn.”

  “How soon do you think your contact will show up?”

  “I don’t know,” she admitted. Suddenly her eyes widened. “Oh. I forgot.” She reached into the front pocket of her jeans and pulled out several folded sheets of paper. “Quinn had left me a message, but after I nearly ran into Del and his friend, I forgot all about it.” She unfolded the papers and scanned them quickly, her brow furrowed.

  “What is it?” Dallas asked.

  “It’s, um, just some notes.” She darted a quick look at him.

  “About me?”

  She nodded. “Quinn isn’t sure whose side you’re on.”

  “And you’re telling me that?”

  Her gaze leveled with his. “I’m convinced you’re on my side. If I weren’t, I’d have told the boys from the BRI where to find you.”

  “Ruthless,” he murmured, strangely unoffended.

  “Would’ve earned me some points, don’t you think?” She flashed him a quick smile that made his insides twist.

  Maybe she was better prepared to deal with the BRI than he’d thought. “Anything else from Quinn?”

  “He said to use my own judgment.”