Hell on the Heart

by Nancy Brophy

  “Good. Where can my team find you?”

  SAIC Greenberg gave his phone number and location before signing off. Stillwater dialed Skeet’s number to fill him in.

  “This sets us back another step. They’ll be off the radar for another couple of weeks while they set up in a new location,” Skeet said when Stillwater finished.

  “True, but it also means they are running scared. Otherwise, why go to the trouble of destroying the house and killing the workers?”

  “They have more to lose. What’s the first thing you’d do in this circumstance?”

  Stillwater scratched his head as he thought about his answer. “For them, everything headed south when they met the gypsies. I’d be plotting revenge, big time.”

  “Good point.”

  “Send everyone but Dare to Mexico. I need him here,” he said. “Then have the rest of the team join us as soon as possible.

  “Will do.”

  Stillwater rose from the bed and quietly dressed. He had a lot to do to be ready.

  # # #

  Santa Fe, New Mexico

  Cain held his breath and focused on identifying the voices in the room. His shoulder hurt, a sharp pain would impede him if he had to move quickly, but his brain’s lack of clarity worried him more.

  Where was he? Nowhere he knew. Had he arrived here with friends or enemies?

  “His color looks better.” That gruff Bostonian accent was easy to identify. Herod. Cain relaxed, but didn’t open his eyes. He wasn’t sure that he could. Each eyelid weighed a million pounds. Besides by playing possum he might learn something he didn’t know like why they weren’t in Mexico. The smell was different - less hot air. What day was it?

  “He’s still out of it. What the hell did you give him?” Eli spoke from across the room.

  “A little breakfast cereal.”

  Adam spoke, but it was Herod who laughed, then clarified, “Special K. He’s not in pain.”

  The bed eased with the weight of a warm body. “You wanted him to make that trip awake? He’ll begin to snap out of it in a day or two.” Adam. He should’ve known by the stench. With Adam this close, he was glad others were in the room, not that it would offer him any protection.

  A rumbling electronic noise came up from the floor. “Eli, the guys are back from the store. Go down and give them a hand unloading.”

  Now he knew for sure they weren’t in Mexico. This bedroom was over a garage. The garage in Mexico was detached.

  Footsteps followed by a closing door. Eli was gone.

  “You’re giving him another injection?” Herod spoke as a warm hand grabbed his arm and pushed up his sleeve. A cold wet cloth dabbed his forearm. Before he could brace himself, a prick followed and the hand dropped his arm.

  “Less this time. He’s not coming out of it as fast as I anticipated, but I’m buying us time. Did you find any of his off-shore accounts?”

  “I have a lead in the Cayman’s. I hope to know something in a couple of days.”

  Cain’s head began to swim as color seeped out of his world. He concentrated harder on distinguishing each word. Cayman Islands. Accounts. His accounts. His three million dollars. Had he covered his tracks well enough? He thought so. Still it worried him.

  The bed eased again as Adam stood. Someone shuffled stuff on the nightstand next to his head.

  “The Mexico explosion made the paper.” Herod’s voice came from the direction of the far wall. “The FBI claims they know who we are.”

  “If they knew who we were, they’d already be here.” Adam said. “If he wakes while I’m gone, note the time.”

  “Where are you going?”

  “To Denver to pick up some sodium pentothal.”

  “Sodium pentothal? Truth serum?”

  The voice floated away. Were they leaving? Or were the drugs messing with his mind?

  “If you can’t find Cain’s accounts, we’ll try another way.” Adam again.

  “What about work? Are we going to pick any girls?”

  “Our buyers are running scared. We’ll lay low for a few weeks, while I look for another base of operation and another revenue stream.”

  “How’s our cash supply?”

  “We’ve got a little leeway, but it’ll be better when we find Cain’s stash.”

  Cain struggled to open his mouth to protest, but nothing came out. Darkness swept him away.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  Swallowtail Hollow

  The pounding on Cezi’s door woke her from a sound sleep and a delicious dream. She pulled a robe over her camisole and groped her way to the front door. Annoyed she flung open the door, prepared to give the hapless victim a few words to remember.

  Her cousin, Tomas, the youngest of Uncle Luca’s sons lounged against the door jam. He spoke before she could lambast him. “Just thought you’d want to know. The Indian split about an hour ago.”

  John left for the second time without saying goodbye? An ugly pattern was developing. “Which car did he take?”

  “None. Left on foot, walking toward town.”

  What? This wasn’t a good sign. She stuck her fingers into the tangled mess of her hair, attempting, without success to comb through. Tomas snickered and she rolled her eyes in annoyance.

  Was John leaving for good this time? She’d called this one. No matter how affectionate he appeared yesterday, she was another one-night wonder. Better to be annoyed with Tomas than wear her heartbreak on her sleeve. Imagine how fast that’d make the rounds.

  You’re wrong.

  When he whispered those words to her, what had she thought? Exactly what he wanted her to think. That their relationship, if one could go so far as to put a label on it, meant something to him. Yeah, it meant one more opportunity to double dip yesterday afternoon.

  Out of remote curiosity, she asked, “Did you offer him a ride?”

  The get-real look he shot her made it clear her cousins lacked certain social qualities. But considering it was Stillwater, he probably lacked them as well.

  “I’m not his mother. If he wanted to borrow a car he could have asked.”

  True. “Is that all?”

  “Sheesh, girl. I thought you’d want to know. Since you aren’t answering your phone, I trucked my ass all the way up here to tell you.”

  “Thanks.” Cezi shut the door and wandered back to the bedroom, snatching her phone from the charging unit on the way. For the first time in several days, she turned it on. Seventy-two missed messages, sixty-four from John Stillwater.

  In exchange for sixty-four messages, he got another notch on his bedpost. Lucky him. And she got another rejection.

  She crawled back in bed and pulled the covers over her head, knowing she had to get up. It wasn’t in her nature to stay in bed one minute longer than she needed to, but a few more seconds under the covers wouldn’t kill anybody.

  The loud thumping on the door woke her for the second time. She glanced at the time as she threw the robe over her shoulders. Noon. She didn’t even bother to close the robe as she pulled the door open. “What now?”

  “Not a morning person?” Stillwater’s broad shoulders filled the doorway. The lazy amusement in his voice sent goose bumps up her arms.

  He hadn’t left. He was here. Without thinking she sprung into his arms and kissed him repeatedly. One could never say the man was slow. By the time she’d left the ground he’d braced himself, opened his arms and took the kisses measure for measure as though they greeted each other this way all the time.

  His tongue coaxed hers out to play offering her unseen delights. She followed willingly where he led. The guy could kiss.

  Whether they’d been lip locked for three seconds or three minutes she had no idea. Time had been reduced to the heavy pulse of blood, sluggishly churning through her veins. Kissing him could continue forever as far as she was concerned.

  A throat cleared. He wasn’t alone. Cezi froze as Stillwater’s arms loosened. He pulled back and helped her find footing. A good thin
g, too, because she was none too steady on her feet.

  She craned her neck to look behind him and relief poured through her. The other man was a complete stranger and not a member of her family. His companion rested his jean-covered ass against the banister of the porch railing, tilting his blond head skyward as though he hadn’t paid any attention to the spectacle she’d made of herself.

  “Czigany, this is Agent Dare Jacobsen, our team medic. He’s set up an appointment with an allergy specialist online to look at your asthma.”

  A medical exam? If this got out, she’d be toast. She gestured with her hand for Stillwater to lower his voice while snatching his shirt and pulling him inside.

  Dare picked up a large duffle from the floor and followed as she sized him up. He wasn’t a pretty boy like Agent Lassiter and didn’t have the combatant scars Stillwater boasted, but still he had the stance of a man used to being in charge.

  “I like your wind chimes.” He said as he stepped through the door. “I notice you only choose those with high notes.”

  Cezi nodded, surprised he’d noticed. “Thanks. To me they sound like angels laughing.”

  Dare murmured to Stillwater, “I can see why you were so eager to get back here.”

  She rolled her eyes. Men were the same everywhere. The kiss was a mistake - one of many.

  “Coffee?” she asked.

  “No,” Stillwater said. “Sit at the table.”

  “Let me put on some clothes first.” The floral satiny camisole set she slept in revealed too much skin and the robe was almost transparent.

  “What you have on is acceptable.” Dare held the chair away from the table, then set the computer in front of her. “You’ll be on webcam, so the doctor can see you as I administer the tests.” He knelt in front of her and slid the robe off her shoulders. His fingers brushed her skin once or twice, but the impersonal touch did nothing for her. The blood pressure cuff came out of the duffle and wrapped around her upper arm before she understood the extent of what was happening.

  “Wait. We don’t need to do this. I’ll be okay,” she pleaded with John. “It’s Rolf who needs you. He was shot two days ago. When I saw him last night he was still unconscious.”

  John tilted his head as he swung a leg over another kitchen chair and settled in behind the medic. “Will Luca let us see him?” In his position, the webcam wouldn’t pick him up, but he could see everything that happened.

  She thought about what he asked. Would Luca allow an outsider to see his son? If Rolf was coherent, he’d be all for it. They’d long agreed the healer’s methods were out of date. “I think so, but it’ll be a problem if Vadoma finds out.”

  Dare pumped the bulb and pressed a stethoscope to the crook of her elbow. “Why isn’t he in the hospital?”

  “It’s not our way.” Cezi thought about the number of instances she’d said those words since she’d met Stillwater. Each time she wondered more and more, why the gypsies were so insular. America was the melting pot, but not if one never interacted with other Americans.

  “We’ll see what we can do,” John said before Dare could comment.

  Relief filled her - a real doctor for Rolf. Now, she only had to convince Luca.

  Dare winked. “If your blood pressure is higher than normal, I’ll attribute it to your enthusiastic hello.”

  His face caught her attention. Freckles, he had tons of freckles even on his eyelids. His lashes were sunshine yellow as was his short, spiked hair. Had he not been as tan as he was, he would have looked peculiar.

  “You know,” she leaned forward in the chair, “You shouldn’t be good-looking, but you are.”

  He choked back a laugh. “Thanks.” His warm hazel eyes met hers as he removed the cuff and typed on the keyboard. “Breathe deep.”

  “You’re the first man I’ve met with yellow eyelashes.” This time Dare didn’t bother hiding his amusement. “Do your brothers and sisters also have them?” she asked, as though it never occurred to her that she might be crossing a line into TMI.

  John was amazed when Dare began to talk about his family. “Two of my three brothers do.”

  “Are you the oldest?”

  Stillwater sat back in his chair working to keep his face impassive. Of all his team, Dare was the quiet one and in a group of quiet men that was saying something. Within minutes, she’s discovered things about the man that had taken John years to find out. Like he had three older brothers who ran the family farm in Nebraska.

  He wanted the team to like her, but she’d transformed Dare into chatty-Cathy. Every time his teammate touched her, John fought the urge to jump up and snatch his hand off her bare, silky shoulder.

  Sex with her had shifted his perspective.

  When she publicly spurned him last night, he believed he’d lost her. But her kisses today changed his thinking. He wasn’t going to lose her. She needed him. Although with her mercurial personality it could be a challenge, one he wouldn’t mind seeing though to the end.

  Since she’d already cut with her family, why go to a town where she knew no one? Why not enroll in a college in the DC area. He would watch out for her. Maybe take her out to dinner occasionally. Not enough that she got the wrong idea. He wasn’t looking for marriage or even commitment.

  This would be convenient. If things progressed, maybe they could look at more – like her spending weekends at his condo. Eventually she’d want to come back home, of course. That was good. A definite end would mean neither set their expectations too high.

  Dare held a long hose with a paper tube at the end. The hose attached to a machine with digital numbers adjusted for the doctor’s vision.

  “Take a deep breath and then exhale as hard as you can into the tube until I tell you to stop.” Dare rubbed small circles in the middle of her back. “Exhale now. That’s it. Keep going. You’re doing good. You can give me more. Keep going. You’re doing fine. Whoops.”

  John studied the wood grain boards in the floor. He couldn’t watch Dare cheer her to victory and comfort at the same time. At Dare’s change in tone, he raised his gaze and saw her slumped against him. Her eyelids rested against her cheeks as Dare spoke gently to her. “I’ve got you. You’re going to be fine.” He had his arm wrapped firmly around her otherwise she would have slid to the floor.

  John leaped up, knocking the chair to the ground and rushed to her side. Her lips had a bluish tint. “You pressed her too hard.”

  “No, he didn’t. In order to get a measurable read on this test it takes pushing like that. She’s not the first to pass out. Strong men have told me they see spots before their eyes,” the doctor said. Cezi blinked as she began to come out of it.

  John bit his lip to keep from snapping at the doctor. He picked up the chair and took a seat.

  “How’re you feeling?” Dare asked.

  Crooned like he would to a lover, holding her close in his arms. John rose a second time and crossed the room.

  “I need some air,” he said to no one in particular and stepped outside.

  Why he expected the hot air to cool him down he had no idea, but as he leaned on the railing of her porch, he tried not to think about how foolish his actions had been.

  She was just a woman. He needed to let her go. And he would. After he fixed her asthma and arrested Cain. She might need his help moving and getting settled into a new place, because he was sure that pink couch was a treasure she wouldn’t be able to live without.

  The wind chimes sounded in the gentle breeze. Angels laughing? Yeah, he could understand how it would give a motherless girl some comfort. Actually it was soothing him now.

  Taking a deep breath he stepped inside the small cabin in time to hear the computer voice say, “a lot of new medications are available which will help get your asthma under control. What’s the name of your pharmacy?”

  “My pharmacy?” Cezi’s voice squeaked.

  “For a prescription.”

  Cezi glanced wildly around the room. “Send it to me in the mail. I�
��ll have to wait to get it filled when I move to Huntsville.”

  “Why?” John asked, coming across the room to confront her.

  She shook her head. “One more problem I can’t face.”

  John sighed and spoke over his shoulder to the computer “Put the prescription in my name. I’ll get it filled for her.”

  “Can’t do that, but I can overnight you samples that’ll hold her for a few months. Let’s try that and see how the medication works.”

  Cezi wanted to protest. John watched her mouth open and then close. He was learning to read her mind and knew exactly what she was thinking. Once Cain was caught, it wasn’t like John would ever be back.

  John’s eyes met hers. “More unexpected things have happened.”

  As he answered her unspoken question, a startled look crossed her face followed by a frown. In his mind, John hit an imaginary high-five.

  Far from down and out, she kicked his shin in retaliation.

  # # #

  El Paso FBI

  “We’ve got something,” Ciggy told Twylla as he studied the monitor. “The property owner’s listed as Adam Smith. I’ve traced it back as far as I can. Like all the other names it’s an alias, but he paid for the property with a cashier’s check drawn on Los Alamos National Bank, Santa Fe, New Mexico.”

  “How does that help us?” Twylla glanced up from the tax records she’d been unraveling for the past hour.

  “The money came out of an account number written on the check and that current account has over $96K.”