In the Lawman's Protection

by Janie Crouch

  He’d had both audio and partial video of Andrea and Brandon’s discussion with Natalie. The questioning had gone down like he’d expected it would: without any cooperation from her.

  “Maybe we should’ve pushed harder,” Brandon said, sitting in the van’s only other seat and pulling his wife onto his lap.

  “No.” Ren shook his head, glancing at the feed they had of the front of the house. “We needed to keep the situation open. Make Natalie think that she has options, can still get word to Freihof if she wants to. Maybe run to him and both of them flee the country.”

  Whatever she did, they would be watching.

  “I don’t think she’s working with him,” Andrea said. “I should’ve brought up the not-married aspect earlier. That was key, I realize now. If I had been able to see her when I said that, I’d be able to tell a lot more about her.”

  Andrea was a gifted behavioral analyst. Her abilities to read people’s nonverbal cues were uncanny.

  “Do you think she was upset that she’s not legally married to him anymore?”

  She gave a small shrug. “I don’t know for sure, since I wasn’t able to see her. But the news definitely affected her. Her knuckles were white in her grip and she stopped pushing on the door because she wanted to hear what I had to say.”

  “She could’ve been upset because Freihof hadn’t told her about the divorce. Any wife would be pretty miffed to get that news.”

  Andrea nodded. “That’s possible, certainly.”

  Ren studied her. “But you don’t think so.”

  Brandon curled his arm around his wife in support. Out of everyone in Omega Sector, these two had had the most contact with Damien Freihof. Freihof had written letters to Andrea while in prison, then had come after her once he’d escaped.

  “Freihof is obsessive. Controlling,” Brandon said. “Hell, the man once saved Andrea’s life just because he wanted to kill her himself.”

  Andrea nodded, leaning into Brandon. “Freihof is a master puppeteer. He’s been collecting people who have some sort of gripe with Omega for months. Inciting them to violence. Getting them to do his dirty work for him. Or at least trying to.”

  The number of people connected to Omega who had been hurt or killed by either Freihof or one of his puppets over the last few months had been pretty staggering. Omega was still reeling. It was the reason Ren was on this case personally.

  “Agreed.” Ren nodded. “But what does this mean with Natalie? She didn’t even admit to being Natalie Freihof much less give any info on him.”

  “There’s something we’re missing,” Andrea said. “Honestly, I’m not sure exactly what it is, but I know it’s important. We don’t have all the information.”

  Ren didn’t need all the information to make his move. “It doesn’t matter. Your presence shook her up. She’ll do something now. Hopefully lead us directly to her not-husband husband.”

  Andrea tilted her head to the side. Ren could feel her studying him. Gauging his nonverbal behavior. “And if she doesn’t know where he is? If she’s been dead all this time to get away from him?”

  “She’s been running three businesses without anyone even knowing she’s alive. She’s either one hell of a businesswoman or she’s doing it for Freihof.”

  Andrea shrugged again. “All I’m saying is that we’re missing pieces of information. Important pieces.”

  “That’s why I’m going to be ready for anything. She’s going to run. Hopefully trying to get somewhere where she thinks it’s safe to contact Freihof. Where she’s forced to contact Freihof. We’re just going to make sure we control that spot when she does.”

  “And if she really doesn’t know where he is? If she’s been trying to stay away from him all this time? Hide from him?”

  Highly unlikely, but Ren was willing to consider it. “Then we go to plan B. If she can’t take us to Freihof, then we use Freihof’s obsession to get him to come to her.”

  “That may be risking her life,” Andrea said quietly.

  “Natalie is a criminal here. Let’s not forget that. She could’ve gone to law enforcement if she wanted to get away from her husband. It’s much more likely that the two of them have been in on this together the whole time. That Freihof is trusting her to run her businesses to get him money.”

  “She didn’t recognize Omega Sector at all when we mentioned who we were with,” Brandon said. “Even I could tell that, and I’m not nearly as gifted at reading people. If she’s working with Freihof, he’s keeping huge chunks of information from her.”

  Or maybe she was just a much better liar than they were giving her credit for. Trained by Freihof to completely school her nonverbal reactions so they couldn’t read her. “Look, I don’t have all the answers. All I know is we’re out of time, especially now that Freihof has those canisters. We shook things up, caught Natalie unaware. That’s good. Now I suspect that tonight or early tomorrow she’s going to make a break for it. We watch carefully and—”

  Ren’s words were cut off by Brandon’s muttered curse. He pointed at the screen. “Actually, looks like she’s already on the run.”

  The screen showed Natalie, the small backpack she always carried over one shoulder and a larger one over the other, already on the move, coming out her front door.

  “Damn it, I wasn’t expecting her to move that fast. Get Lillian Muir on the phone and tell her to get in place down at the bus station.”

  Andrea stood and grabbed her phone.

  “There weren’t any calls from the house phone or the taps would’ve automatically turned on,” Ren said. “She must have already had an emergency plan in place. Which doesn’t strengthen the case for her being an innocent party.”

  “Unless she’s just that scared,” Brandon reasoned.

  “Lillian will be at the downtown bus station in fifteen minutes,” Andrea said, disconnecting the call. “It might be cutting it a little close if Natalie goes straight there, but Lillian should make it.”

  “Good. Muir is a good choice. If you don’t know her, her size helps her come across as very nonthreatening. Natalie will respond to the suggestion more easily.”

  They needed to direct Natalie’s path without making her suspicious.

  “Brandon and I want to stop Freihof more than anyone,” Andrea said, staring at him. “Trust me, I can still feel the explosives he strapped around my neck. So I hope you can get what you need from Natalie, Ren. And in a lot of ways I hope you’re right and she is working with Freihof.”

  “You do?”

  “Yes. Because if not, we’re about to ruin an innocent woman’s life.”

  * * *

  NATALIE HAD BEEN taking the bus from the Santa Barbara oceanfront to downtown since she started house-sitting two weeks ago. She’d always been cautiously aware of anyone around her.

  Now she was downright suspicious.

  Were some of these people cops? Were they following her? Did they work for that Omega-whatever that Brandon and Andrea mentioned?

  Nobody seemed to be paying any attention to her, which she hoped was a good sign. Maybe she had gotten out faster than the cops had expected. She’d grabbed her bug-out bag and left.

  That was the point of a bug-out bag, right? So you could bug-out the instant you needed to.

  Her bag wasn’t a true survivalist kit, but it had changes of clothes, all her spare cash, some nutrition bars and a bottle-size water filtration system. It even contained a high-end sleeping bag that folded into the size of a bowling ball, but only weighed a pound and a half. She’d balked at the price at the time, but now took comfort in knowing that if she needed to walk or hitchhike out of California, she could. Although her paints would have to go if she did that, which she hated to even consider, hoping to one day get the courage to use them again.

  But there was no way she was staying here, even though she was losin
g her only means of employment. There had to be somewhere she could go where law enforcement wouldn’t find her. She wasn’t a violent criminal. Her picture wasn’t going to show up on some Most Wanted list at the post office.

  But she wanted to get as far away from here as possible. She would start heading to the East Coast—Boston or New York or Atlanta—somewhere where she could get lost in the crowd.

  Flying was out since that required an ID, but she was hoping to get a jump on her escape by catching the first bus out. Hopefully it would take a day or two before the agents came back—and Natalie had no doubts they’d be back—and discovered she was gone.

  Fifteen minutes after she left the beach house she was stepping off the bus in downtown Santa Barbara. The bus station, pretty tiny and nondescript, was another quarter mile down the main drag, far enough away from the tourist section to not be an eyesore.

  The station was really just a large room with a series of benches and hard plastic chairs, and a small office where the ticket seller sat behind a glassed-in counter. The room was empty and the man working behind the counter was reading a magazine.

  The first thing she needed to decide was where she wanted to go. But honestly, she didn’t care. She would just see what was available.

  “Can I help you?” the guy asked without looking up from his magazine as Natalie stepped up to the counter.

  The door opened behind him. “Hey, George. Need you out here.”

  George turned from Natalie. “What? Who are—”

  “The main office is on the line and some bigwig asked for you by name.” The dark-haired woman in her midthirties, wearing the same uniform as George, walked into the small office and squeezed his shoulders, obviously urging him to stand. “Dude, just go. Rick’s got the call on hold in his office. He sent me in here to relieve you.”

  George just looked confused. “But who are—”

  The woman glanced over at Natalie and rolled her eyes with a look that screamed, Men. Am I right? “George, honey, I don’t know who it is. But I’m thinking promotion, so just go.”

  George stood. “Yeah, okay. A promotion would be good. Um, you’re okay here?”

  The woman rolled her eyes again before shooing him out. “No need to mansplain it. Lily’s got it handled.” Once George was out the back door, Lily turned back around to Natalie. “Okay! What can I do for you now that we’ve got the dead weight out of the room?” She winked at Natalie again.

  Despite the panic crushing down on her, Natalie had to smile at the pocket-size woman who’d handled George so deftly.

  “I need a ticket.”

  “That I can do. Where’re you headed and when do you want to go there? We’ve got some great sales coming up next week if you want to go north.”

  “No, next week won’t work. I know it will cost me more, but I need to go today.”

  Lily smiled. “No problem. Where to?”

  “What are my options?”

  “We have daily buses that go to Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas. From any of those you can get to just about anywhere. Where are you ultimately trying to get to?”

  Natalie shifted back and forth, finding it difficult to look the friendly woman in the eye. “East Coast. Honestly, anywhere. But I was thinking Atlanta or maybe Philadelphia. I just need to get out of here today.”

  “I see. Well, do you prefer Atlanta over Philadelphia?”

  Atlanta would be less cold and didn’t tend to get snow. “Sure. Atlanta. But just...it’s important that I leave as soon as possible.”

  Lily nodded, a little more solemn. “Okay, hon. Let me see what I can find.”

  Natalie waited as Lily began typing. After a few moments, a frown marred her forehead and a minute after that she began to grumble.

  “Is there a problem?” Natalie finally asked.

  “There’s a California drivers’ strike affecting buses from both LA and San Francisco. So neither of those are available for the next few days.”

  “Okay. What about Vegas?”

  Lily nodded. “I’m checking that now.”

  The woman’s fingers flew along the keyboard. Her grimace didn’t reassure Natalie. “Completely full until Saturday. I’m so sorry, honey. What about flights? I know our municipal airport isn’t much, but they have some flights. Or renting a car?”

  Natalie could feel the panic clawing up inside her again. Neither of those would work; both required identification that would put her in the system, making note of where she started and where she ended.

  To her utter dismay she could feel tears welling up in her eyes. God, she could not lose it in the middle of this tiny busy station. She just needed to get out. She would hitchhike or walk.

  “No, that won’t work. Thanks for your help,” she muttered, trying to wipe her eyes before the tears fell.

  She was almost to the door when Lily called out. “Hang on there a second, hon, do you have any problems with trains?”

  Natalie stopped and turned slowly. “Trains?”

  Lily motioned for her to come back to the window and she did. “Look, you can’t mention this to anyone here, and we need to handle it before George gets back from his big promotion or whatever.”

  “The bus station sells train tickets?”

  She shook her head. “No, but we have access to information and ticketing about flights and trains in case of emergencies. Normally I wouldn’t even mention it, but since you need to leave today and can’t get out on a bus...”

  “I didn’t even know there were trains around here.”

  “Yeah, this one is a little weird. It’s actually a freight train, but it has one passenger car. Sells up to twelve seats that can recline for sleeping. It’s no frills...you have to bring food or grab some at the scheduled stops. One shared bathroom. But it’s not too bad. My cousin took it a couple months ago—she’s afraid of flying—and enjoyed it. Goes from here to Saint Louis. Takes four days.”

  A train. Natalie had never even thought of that possibility.

  “What would I need to get a ticket?”

  “Just cash or a credit card, just like a bus ticket.” Lily quoted the price, which wasn’t much more than a bus. “It only runs on Wednesdays, so you’re pretty lucky. But if you’re really trying to get out of here today, it sounds like it’s your best bet. As long as you don’t mind not having many people to talk to.”

  “Actually, that sounds kind of perfect. I just need some time to myself.”

  Lily grinned. “Every woman does at one time or another, sweetie.”

  Within five minutes Lily had printed her a ticket and given her directions to the train station. Natalie had to walk quickly to grab a sandwich and snacks at the grocery store and make it to the south side of town in time for departure. She was pretty nervous when she arrived at the train yard, hoping she hadn’t made a huge mistake. But an employee pointed her in the right direction and a few minutes later she was climbing into the passenger car with just five minutes to spare.

  She could barely believe her luck. It was perfect. Wide seats in groups of four—two each facing each other—with a table in the middle. They would be much more comfortable than the cramped constraints of a bus. Plus large windows where she’d be able to see as they crossed the country. There were three groups of seats, and Natalie’s ticket was for one of the empty groups. Even better. Maybe no one else would get on.

  There were only three other passengers. Across the aisle was an older woman reading a book and a younger man in a hoodie with headphones on sitting across from her. Natalie shifted so she could see the seats behind her.

  Her breath caught in her throat at the man sitting in the seat. He looked up from the papers and computer on the table in front of him to glance out the window as a whistle blew, giving Natalie a view of his carved jaw and strong chin. His brown hair was thick and full, a little messy lik
e he’d been running his fingers through it.

  She knew she was staring but couldn’t quite help herself. There was a ruggedness about his face that drew her. He looked away from the window, catching her ogling, his green eyes pinning hers. Before she could look away with embarrassment, he nodded slightly, then resumed the reading of his papers.

  At that moment the train gave a little jerk as it started forward. Natalie took her seat and watched out the window as she left Santa Barbara behind.

  No one knew she was here. No one knew where she was going.

  Then why did she feel like she was in more danger than ever?

  Chapter Four

  Lillian Muir deserved an Oscar. Ren had watched as the woman quite deftly handled George even though Natalie had beat her to the bus station by a couple of minutes. If Lillian hadn’t been able to get George out of the office she would’ve never been able to lie to Natalie about all the buses and get her on this train.

  Score one for Omega Sector. And given how Lillian Muir didn’t usually do undercover—she was a kick-ass SWAT team member who could kill any given person a dozen different ways with her tiny bare hands—she truly had been amazing. The perfect blend of friendly and business that had sold Natalie on this venture.

  A venture that wouldn’t have even been an option without the funding of Joe Matarazzo, another member of Omega Sector who also happened to be a multimillionaire. Joe wanted Freihof caught and behind bars so he and his pregnant wife could live in peace without worrying that they were next in line for a madman to attack. Funding this little field trip had been a no-brainer for Joe.

  They’d been on the train nearly thirty-six hours. Natalie had kept to herself all of that time, mostly just staring out the window. The other two people in the car were both Omega personnel. The older woman, Madeline, was a retired agent who now worked as an analyst. The younger guy was Philip Carnell, not Ren’s first choice, but he was someone who wanted Freihof off the streets pretty badly after getting stabbed a few weeks ago by one of the villain’s cronies.