Seeking Worthy Pursuits: A Dark Romantic Suspense Novel (Alace Sweets Book 2)

by MariaLisa deMora

  Chin to his chest, he reached for the car keys, hand hesitating just above where he’d shoved them into the ignition switch. Alace had sent the tablet, he believed that to be fact. She’d known his car was here, something he’d volunteered the first hour they’d talked on the trail. Alace had taken that info and provided it to someone so they could break in and leave the box.

  Alace had no reason to hurt him. He knew it deep inside. Her actions had been helpful, not malicious.

  Still. Someone had been in his car. In and gone without leaving any trace, other than a factory-sealed box of electronics.

  Unable to shake the sudden sense of unease, Owen climbed out of the car and dropped to the ground alongside, gaze sweeping the undercarriage for any evidence of tampering. Nothing.

  Why the feeling of unease, then? He stood and stared out at the woods just yards away. The trees were thick here, a lower elevation plateau scraped flat and modified for the forestry service’s use. All around him the trunks were broad and tall, rising dozens of feet into the air, blocking out even the view of the surrounding mountains.

  I have no reason not to trust her.

  Back in the car he rolled down the window, took a deep breath and held it, then twisted the key. The car engine started immediately, running smoothly. He let the breath out with a small hum.

  Why am I so spooked?

  His gaze flicked to the mirror and he saw exactly nothing in the rest of the parking lot, precisely as it had been when he arrived. Reversing from the parking spot, he maneuvered to the middle of the lot, creating a fifty-yard buffer of open space on all sides of the vehicle.

  Better, but not enough.

  The body of the car created blind spots he couldn’t stand right now. He killed the engine but left it on auxiliary power and grabbed the tablet and Wi-Fi, getting out and leaving the door open behind him, the charge cord trailing behind like a tether.

  Owen used the frame as a step, then the window, and swung his ass on the roof, lifting his legs to fold them crisscross. From here he had the advantage of being able to both listen to the surrounding forest and still sweep the tree line with a twist and a glance.

  Better.

  The tablet had gone into hibernation mode, and as he woke it his brain unhelpfully supplied, Unless there’s a sniper here, in which case I’ve just made myself a clear target. “Shut up.”

  Fingertip to the installer icon, he let the app guide him through the two steps needed, leaving him staring at the log-in screen of a video chat software. The document held few clues, just two words: Install me—something he’d already done.

  Owen racked his brain for ideas, knowing Alace had provided him all the clues he’d need. He just had to see them. After reviewing the information so far, he settled on using the recipe title as the name, and the complicated folder name as the password. He breathed a heavy sigh as the software began to load, then laughed when he saw a single contact in the address book within the software. A. Divine had made a second appearance, it seemed. He tapped the name, grimacing when the message appeared: Sufferin’ Succotash is calling A. Divine. “I hate you.”

  The tablet buzzed in his hands and the video slowly resolved, one strip of the image drawing in at a time until he was looking at an empty chair. Shadows moved across the far wall, the corner of a table and lamp in view. There was the low murmur of quiet talking, nothing urgent, just the rise and fall of normal conversation. He muted the sound from his end, increasing the volume for the speaker to more clearly hear what was going on at Alace’s end.

  “No, I’ve tabled everything else for now. Todd’s kidnapping takes precedence over anything else I had going. With August out of the country, Owen is the only one I trust with the gig. I’ll evaluate his condition when he finishes hiking out and we’ll go from there.”

  “Beloved.” While the previous speaker had been Alace’s distinctive voice, her tone even and calm, almost reasonable, the new entrant into the conversation uttered a single word so resonant with emotion it sounded intimate. It also sounded deeply concerned. Whoever the guy was—and Owen had an idea just from the one word—he was heavily invested in getting Todd Worthson back safely. “You can’t go. Not you. Not with things as they are. The doctor said it was a warning, but one we should take care and heed. You can’t go. If Owen can’t do it, then we call in the police.”

  “Not a good option, and you know why, Eric.”

  Identity of the second speaker confirmed, Owen decided this would be an opportune time to interrupt and decide for himself if the idea of rescuing a judge was one he wanted to take on. Tablet unmuted, he held the microphone opening near his mouth and cleared his throat. Loudly.

  An instant later, Alace appeared, hair rumpled amusingly. It almost looked like she’d just risen from bed to answer the call, and he searched the background for any clues. The table he saw could be a nightstand, he supposed, which would indeed put her computer in her bedroom. Interesting, especially when paired with her husband’s comment about the doctor and Owen’s suspicions based on Alace’s behavior while on the trail with him. Now to decide if he wanted to show his hand this early in the mission. Owen gave himself a mental shake. Alace wasn’t the mission, she was the boss lady, and he couldn’t think in terms of restricting her access to anything. He’d never know what might be the bit of info that she could later turn to his benefit, including his knowledge about her condition.

  “There you are.” He gave her a minute to catalogue the injuries she could see. Bruising on his face underneath the unwashed layer of dirt and grime from the days of hiking, the tear in his shirt along the shoulder, that being on the side where the ribs still made their presence known with a bone-deep aching. At least the worst of the pain had passed, but he wouldn’t turn down a hot shower to help soak out what remained. “Show me.” Owen rolled his eyes at her demand, then adjusted the angle of the tablet as he pulled up his shirt. The tiny image in the corner of the screen gave him a glimpse of the bruising he hadn’t been able to visualize, not without twisting painfully. Dark purple spread in an oblong pattern along his ribs, telling him that his guess of bouncing off a tree as the cause was probably correct. “Damn, boy. That looks like it hurts.”

  “You done, Momma?” The screen froze and he stared until he realized the shadows were still moving behind her. It was Alace that had locked into place, not even a breath disturbing the statue-like stillness at his response. “I’m okay.” He shrugged, and when he didn’t bother to hide the wince, saw her take in a slow, careful breath. “Ish. Good enough for what we gotta do. Bring me up to speed. Let’s chat.”

  A man’s hand circled her shoulder, fingers wrapping around her upper arm and pulling her sideways. Alace’s head dipped forwards, breaking their technologically enhanced stare-down, and she lifted a hand to scratch at the crown of her head, fingers threading through her hair repeatedly. Partly out of frame at first, the man inched his way onto the screen until he was glaring at the camera and Owen. His words weren’t for Owen but carried more than a hint of anger as Eric asked, “You told him?”

  “Dammit, Eric. You’re not supposed to engage.” Alace’s words lacked the sting of true rebuke.

  “Oh, hey there.” Owen shook his head, keeping a grin off his face with effort. “No, sir, she did not. I just picked up on the clues. I’m right though, right?” He nodded at the camera. “I’m Owen. Your woman and I work together.” That last was just to dig at Alace a little; reducing her to an object owned by the man as well as an equal of Owen’s would make her respond, and hopefully move the conversation along. Owen still felt profoundly vulnerable and exposed here in the clearing that composed the parking lot and wanted back inside the car and away from the woods. That feeling of unease was as annoying as an itch that couldn’t be scratched.

  “Owen, stop it.” Alace hadn’t lifted her head, and he saw an unfamiliar expression on what he could see of her face. Resignation, and anger, but with a hefty mix of embarrassment. What the hell?

  Eric
didn’t move, even when Alace shrugged her shoulder. “Eric.”

  “I’m just trying to get a sense of the guy who spent two days with you but didn’t pay enough attention to see what you were doing to yourself.”

  Owen had only a few cues from the guy: the possessive but not restraining hold, the masculine posturing, the distress on his face and in his voice. Something had happened after Alace returned home. Something that threatened this relationship he’d built with Alace. It must have something to do with the pregnancy.

  “Is everything okay?” A medical emergency of some kind fit what he knew and filled in certain gaps of what he didn’t. Alace’s unaccustomed silence for those couple of days, the computer in her bedroom, and Eric’s presence at home in the middle of what should be a workday. “You good, Alace?”

  “I am.” She leaned her cheek against Eric’s chest, and her shoulders sagged the slightest amount. “Everything’s fine.”

  “Then tell me what’s goin’ on, boss lady.” It was a better idea to reestablish his and Alace’s working relationship than earn points with her hubby, and he flashed the man a grin that hopefully shared his admiration for the woman who connected them in this tenuous way. “What do you need?”

  Her fingertips made another pass through the hair on the crown of her head, and Owen watched as Eric brought his lips to the thin skin at Alace’s temple, pressing a kiss there. “Beloved.” The murmured word was scarcely loud enough to be picked up by the video software, and the intimacy caught at something inside Owen, a quiet longing he hadn’t paid attention to in a long, long time.

  Not something I have time for. He squashed the thought, instead focusing on Alace’s face.

  “From what I overheard, should I take it the subject remains unaccounted for?” Gimme something. Anything. “Do we still believe the perpetrator is the one sister, the one I saw in the clearing? I don’t know how she could have gotten there in the timeframe you’ve established for the abduction. Help me out here, Alace. Tell me what’s going on.”

  “No changes. Worthson is still missing. There’s been zero activity on the system I have at his house. I’ve got street-level footage of the two approaches to the suspect location and have seen only the one actor heading in and out.” She looked at the camera, and he saw a microscopic frown tightening the skin around her eyes.

  “You don’t believe that. Not totally.” Her gaze sharpened and he grinned, wide and goofy, the one that had disarmed so many targets in his careers. The tension left Eric’s arm, although it remained in place around Alace’s shoulders. “They’re twins, right? Are you sure it’s the same one each time?”

  “No.” The admission freed something in Alace, her brows lifting a fraction, showing surprise. “But I haven’t observed two departures without an arrival in between, so if it’s both of them they’re taking turns, which is a serious amount of caution given the fact no one officially even knows Worthson has been abducted.”

  “You said you had video?”

  She quirked her lips. “I do.”

  “Can you screenshare it? Two eyes, and all that.”

  Alace leaned forward, Eric’s arm slipping away even though he didn’t move out of frame, standing as a solid bulwark behind her. Owen chanced a guess the positioning was more than symbolic, given everything the couple had been through.

  “I can share.” Her hand disappeared from view, closer to the computer than the camera could capture, and it was only a moment before the screen split, half still showing Alace and Eric, half showing the contents of a document folder. The cursor entered the screen and touched an icon, then that half of the screen went black. Alace cursed under her breath, her arm shifting, and the dark portion of the screen came back to life, showing an elevated view of a kitchen.

  The icon in the corner of the video surprised him, and Owen involuntarily asked, “Nostago?” Alace nodded and he whistled. “Pricey system.” Muscles around the corners of her mouth tightened and he grinned at her suppressed smile. Then the figure came into view on the footage, and he was glued to the interplay between the woman and the man he assumed was Worthson.

  “I’ve spliced things.” Alace was still, not shifting in her chair as the viewpoint changed to the garage. “Patched in the street-view stuff, too.”

  He nodded, stunned by what he saw captured by the cameras he assumed Alace had planted. Whoever the tiny woman was on the screen, she exhibited significant strength, something he hadn’t expected. And something else was off. When the woman lifted a hand and shoved hair back from her face, he realized what he’d seen and barked out, “Freeze it.”

  “What?” Even through the camera he felt the intensity of Alace’s stare.

  “Zoom in on her hand.”

  Alace did, the high resolution of the camera holding true enough to see the woman’s fingers, hidden behind a hank of hair.

  “Advance slowly, just until we can see her nails.”

  “What are you looking for?” Alace didn’t wait for a response, manipulating the view a couple of frames at a time until her fingers, including nails, were in view.

  “Woman I met on the trail had carefully tended nails.” He didn’t have to explain anything. The raggedly bitten nails and cuticles on the woman who’d kidnapped Worthson said it all. “That’s not her.”

  “No, it is not.” Alace rolled her top lip between her teeth and bit down, flesh turning bloodless and white from the pressure. “Lemme see if I can get a shot of hands from the street vids. It’ll take me a little while to go through it all.”

  “I can be driving.” He straightened his spine, the roof of the car underneath him creaking and bending as he shifted. “My first stop is gonna be food.”

  “You didn’t find the cache left for you?” Alace wasn’t looking at the camera any longer. Owen was amused to find Eric had moved away while they were engrossed in the video, and he hadn’t noticed until the man appeared back in view with a stool he plunked beside Alace. When seated on it, he came up shorter than Alace, his head slightly lower. Owen was surprised by the positioning, given the man’s masculine posturing earlier.

  “What cache?” Owen started the process of climbing down from the roof, the tablet tossed into the driver seat for a moment, no doubt showing a stellar view of the ceiling. “The tablet was the only thing I saw.”

  “Your passenger seat has a swing case now.” She still wasn’t looking at the camera, something Owen noticed when he thrust his head into the car to stare down at the tablet. “Lifts from the back. Code is the IPv6 number minus the zeros and letters.”

  Eric was smirking, gaze fixed straight at Owen.

  He leaned across to shove the bag out of the way, suppressing a grunt of pain as his ribs caught at the movement, then lifted the bottom cushion of the passenger seat from the rear. It had been hinged along the front edge, and the space underneath filled with the smooth surface of a custom-built safe.

  “How long has this been here?” The ten-key lock blinked once when he input the digits, and the lid lifted an inch. It hinged opposite the cushion, creating easy access to the contents. He saw two bottles of water, another bottle of his favorite diet soda, packets of tuna and corned beef, and half a dozen portions of his favorite jerky. “Doesn’t matter. You’re the bossest boss lady I’ve ever had, Alace. This is golden.”

  “I’m the only boss lady you’ve ever had. Still, I take care of my boys.” When he glanced down at the tablet, Alace was looking back at him with a tiny smile, while Eric was once again glowering in the background. “Eat up, then you need to roll. There’s a burner in there, too. I’ve texted it from a new one here, so let’s keep contact clean, hmm?”

  “I’m not a boy.” Really, Owen? He held up a hand, palm towards the camera. “Don’t respond. I’m gettin’ hangry.”

  Alace made as if to say something, then caught herself, bottom lip curling in on one side, trapped between her teeth. An expression of resolve developed on her face, jaw firming and chin lifting. “There’s a tracker in
the burner. Passive, only runs when the battery’s engaged.”

  “I like insurance.” He shrugged and picked up the tablet, folding into the driver seat as he reached into the cache of food. “Thanks for helpin’ keep me safe, boss lady.”

  Her tight nod expressed her gratitude for his easy acceptance, and he gave her one in response before the secure call disconnected.

  A glance around at the trees crowding the lot decided him, and Owen turned the key in the ignition, the engine rumbling steadily. He ripped open a package of jerky with his teeth, tore off a big chunk and leaned his head back, chewing happily. Once that first swallow hit his stomach, he picked up the soda and used the edge of his hand on the twist-top, letting it drop discarded into the open cache as he upended the bottle and drained it.

  Something vibrated in the safe, and he leaned over to see the phone’s screen had lit up from an incoming text. An address. Owen grunted and chomped off another big bite of jerky. The phone lit up again, and he laughed aloud at the incoming message.

  As he tapped in a brief response, Owen muttered, “Patience is a virtue, boss lady.”

  Chapter Twenty

  Owen

  “Body camera.” Owen waited a beat for Alace’s response, that freeze-frame effect the only indication he’d surprised her. “And an earwig.”

  “You want me in your head while you go in?” Alace’s ear tipped towards her shoulder, and she shook her head slightly. “Why?”

  He’d made better-than-average time on the drive, cleaning out the food cached in the car along the way. Two and a half hours ago, he’d pulled into a no-tell motel, paid cash for a room, showered, changed clothes, swapped out weapons to the favorites he’d stashed under the false well of the trunk, and crashed for two hours. The nap had taken the edge off his exhaustion, and the hot shower had worked wonders for the remaining soreness in his shoulders and ribs. So had the pain pill he’d swallowed. He’d also woken with the beginnings of a plan, and after studying the blueprints Alace had gotten of the house they suspected Todd was being held in, those beginnings had moved to more solid.