by Avery Flynn
Even if Tamara didn't realize it, most of the B-Squad already knew more than a little of her story. Now they just wanted to get to the solution side of things. It sounded like a damn fine plan to him.
"So let me get this straight," Lexie said, her fingers flying across the keys of the laptop resting on top of a three-drawer filing cabinet. "Your sister married a cult leader who runs his own militia group. She managed to get out and was fighting for custody of her teenage daughter when she died. You got shared custody of Essie, but Fane owns almost all of the judges in the area, so you took off with the girl before he could win the court battle for full custody and force her to marry one of his toadies. She's hidden somewhere with someone you trust. Now Fane has found you, and it's only a matter of time until he grabs you and does whatever it takes to force Essie's location from you. Do I have that right?"
Tamara blanched but held her ground. "Pretty much."
"And you figured you'd wait until now to ask for help because…?" Keir asked, getting straight to the burr that had clearly forced its way under everyone's saddle, judging by the annoyed expressions on eight of the ten faces looking out at them. Taz and Bianca were the exceptions.
Tamara gripped her hands tight in front of her, but her voice remained steady. "Lash helped me set up security at the house and I figured that would be enough. I didn't want to involve anyone else in my mess more than I already had"
Vivi snorted. "Last night's almost-gunfight in front of our building pretty much took care of that."
Tamara turned crimson.
A responding protectiveness rushed through Isaac. He didn't mean to take a step in front of her, but he did. He couldn't stop himself. "That wasn't her fault."
"No one said it was, Camacho." A smile tugged at the edges of Bianca's lips. "So we need a three-pronged approach. We need to build a case against Fane, keep a twenty-four/seven watch on Tamara, and get Essie here so we can protect her."
"She's safe where she is," Tamara said, her knuckles turning white from her grip.
"No, she's not," Bianca said, her voice understanding. "If Fane found you, he can find Essie."
Like magic, even though it was just Lexie pushing a switch, a screen came down from the ceiling. On it was a photo of Jarrod Fane and a bio in bullet point form listing his age, known aliases, and closest advisors, along with a brief listing of law enforcement officials believed to be in his pocket.
Tamara's eyes widened for a fraction of a second before reality sank in. She might not have realized it up until that moment, but the B-Squad had taken her in as one of their own. Whether she thought she deserved it or not, she had a place with them, and that meant they'd help—even when she didn't ask.
"You're right." It cost Tamara to say those two words, but she hid it well—only the tightness around her mouth gave her away.
Taz nodded. "Go with Lexie and Vivi, they'll need all the information you can give them to work up a preliminary dossier so we can narrow down potential vulnerabilities."
"I can help," Isaac said. "I've been doing a little research on my own." Okay, a lot, but he didn't need to go into that in front of everyone.
"Imagine that," Lash said, not bothering to hide his smirk. "I suppose you think you'd be the best one to be her twenty-four/seven."
"Stop busting his chops, Lash," Bianca said, all business as she nailed Isaac to the floor with a piercing gaze. "This isn't like other freelance jobs. This is for one of our own. It's a team effort.No on goes lone wolf on this one."
Lone wolf? Is that what they wanted to call it? He didn't play well with others. He did what was right, not what he was told. It had cost him his rank. His livelihood. His brothers in arms. And if he had to go back and do it again, he wouldn't hesitate to pull the trigger. This wasn't Afghanistan, though, and the members of the B-Squad weren't a scared, mentally broken Marine with a gun to a four-year-old girl's head. In this specific instance, he could do the one thing he swore he'd never do again. Be a team player.
He nodded. "Understood."
Taz gave him a long, hard look, as if the former boxer was sizing him up before they stepped into the ring. "I sure hope so."
Heat flared in a primitive part of Isaac’s brain, the one that responded to direct challenges with fists and firearms. It took a second, but he managed to push it back. Taz was just looking out for Tamara.The entire B-Squad was. They weren't the enemy. Jarrod Fane was. Still, the whole inquisition chapped his ass.
"If you're done lecturing me," he said with only the barest hint of a snarl. "Let's get this show on the road."
"Elisa and Marko, you'll tag-team as backup on this one," Bianca said, rattling off orders like she'd been born to run a team like this. "Get packed and be ready to go first thing in the morning. I'll call Jake Warrick with Absolute Security and tell him we need the jet back from Dry Creek, Nebraska ASAP. While you're getting Essie, the rest of us will monitor from here while we develop the case against Fane. Keir, you'll take lead on that. Pump your contacts for everything you've got, and I need it yesterday."
Isaac didn't wait for a dismissal. He had his orders. In a moment of complete non-verbal understanding, he and Tamara turned as a unit and strode across the room. Vivi and Lexie were already headed out into the hallway. He and Tamara followed out the door behind them. They'd taken a few steps into the hallway when Tamara slowed to a stop.
"What was that all about?" she asked.
He could tell her all about that night, peel back his skin and show her all the invisible scars that were still as jagged as they were in the heartbeat after he'd fired that kill shot. He could tell her. But he wouldn't. Some ugly was best left buried.
"I'm a man of mystery." He'd tried the good old boy grin, but it felt crooked on his face. So he did what he always did. He walked.
She curled her fingers around his forearm, stopping him. "No, you're not, you're—"
A muffled version of “Flight of the Valkyries” sounded from her purse. All the blood drained out of her face as she skipped rooting around for the phone and dumped it out in the middle of the hallway instead. She squatted down, shoving through the receipts, tubes of lipstick, and stray receipts until she retrieved her phone with trembling hands.
"Essie, what's wrong?" she asked, her voice pinched.
He couldn't hear the answer, but whatever it was made Tamara sink to the floor, her long hair covering her face.
Chapter 15
Tamara
Blood rushed through her ears so fast that she could barely hear Essie's voice on the other end of the line of the burner phone. She'd given the number to Essie to call in case of emergency.
"Did you hear me, Aunt T? I think daddy found me."
Panicking—though tempting beyond words—wouldn't help. So Tamara sucked in a hard breath through her nostrils and let it out in one long exhale through her mouth. The roar in her ears quieted. Better. Much better. She could feel Isaac hovering above her, but every ounce of her attention needed to be focused on her niece.
"I heard you, Essie." Damn, she sounded totally calm and together for a woman sitting on her ass in the hallway on the verge of an anxiety attack. "Tell me everything."
"I was walking home from the library today and was a few blocks away from the house when I noticed a blue sedan going kinda slow. I figured it was probably a total creeper, so I stopped at one of the boutiques on Clifton Street and watched through the store window. One of the men in the car looked like a guy that used to hang around daddy."
This should not be happening. How in the hell had Jarrod managed to track Essie down? Tamara thought she'd been so careful. Then again, he'd lucked into finding her too. If he managed to get his hands on Essie, the bastard would use both instances as proof to his followers that God was on his side—if the man really was part of Jarrod's cult. It could be mistaken identity or a coincidence, but Tamara's twisted up gut didn't think so.
"The man in the car, was he part of the Crest Society?" she asked.
"No, bu
t he did work for daddy. The kind of work that usually meant someone was in trouble."
"Are you sure it was him?"
"No, but I'm scared." There was more than just fear in Essie's voice. A fine thread of hysteria ran through each word.
Tamara eased herself back into a standing position, her back to the wall and Isaac in front of her, no doubt filling in the blanks of Essie's side of the conversation. "Where are you now?"
"After the sedan went by, I went into the store and out the back way. I ran through the alleys back to Albert's house. I didn't see the car again."
Good news—probably as good as they were going to get today. "Stay put. I'll be there as soon as I can. We're going to bring you to Fort Worth."
"But I thought hiding separately was the safest plan."
Tamara glanced up at Isaac. She really hated it when someone else was right, but she couldn't deny it in this case. "It was until your dad found me."
"Shit."
"Don't curse." It came out automatically, almost in her sister Amelia's voice.
"That's what you're worried about right now?" Essie's voice cracked over a stressed laugh.
"No. You know it's not." But the control freak in her demanded something not be out of whack, and if that meant enforcing her sister's rules on proper language then so be it. "I love you Essie."
"You too, Aunt T."
"Tell Albert to be on the lookout for us. You two stay safe and stay inside. Don't open up the doors for anyone. I'll be there tonight."
They said their goodbyes and Tamara hung up. She gathered up the guts of her purse that had spilled all over the floor until she could get her heart under control. Now that she was off the phone with Essie and free to freak out, her body was good and drunk on the speeding-pulse-shot-of-adrenaline cocktail.
"That didn't sound good," Isaac said, bending down to help her clean up.
"It's not. Essie thinks she spotted one of Jarrod's men."
Something dark and dangerous passed over his face, deepening the fine lines and hardening his jaw. "How soon can you leave?"
She dropped her favorite tube of Maraschino Red lipstick into her purse and stood up, nerves as steely as they were going to get until she had Essie safe. "Right now. My go-bag with the money in it is in my office."
"I'll tell the team the schedule just got moved up. We can't wait for the jet to get here. Meet me in the garage. We leave in five." He cupped her chin and tilted her face up. "Don't worry. We'll get Essie."
God she hoped he was right. "Tell the team to hurry and to pack for bear."
He grinned and brushed a quick kiss across her lips. "That's my girl."
She wasn't, but as she watched him sprint back into the briefing room part of her wished she could be.
* * *
Isaac
Twelve hours of driving time separated the Devil’s Dip Gym and Hamilton, Colorado. Isaac was betting they could do it in ten. That meant instead of being comfortable in his truck, he was cramped inside a midnight blue Camaro with Fort Worth in the rearview and Amarillo out in the distance. Tamara sat in the passenger seat, her back ramrod straight and her hands clasped tight enough in her lap to make every knuckle in her fingers turn white. She'd been like that since they'd pulled out of the Devil's Dip Gym, and it was starting to make him twitchy.
"It's gonna be a long drive," he said, zipping around a family minivan with more dents than a back country road. "You might want to give your fingers a break."
She slowly turned her head to face him, her face set in a do-not-fuck-with-me expression. "Are you telling me to relax?"
"I guess so," he said, keeping his voice neutral enough to really tick her off.
"That's about the most ineffective way of getting me to do that."
"I don't know." He shrugged, loving the incensed spark in her blue eyes. "You're thinking about something other than what will happen if we don't get to Essie in time."
"That's your genius plan?" Her eyes narrowed until they were little more than slits. "Piss me off enough that I stop thinking about everything that could go wrong?"
"Pretty much."
She turned away from him with a huff, but her hands lay flat and relaxed in her lap. "Your plan sucks."
Texas passed in a brown and blue flash as the miles flew by. Country music filled the car with stories of good times, bad love, and everything in between. By the time they were headed toward New Mexico, the tension had mellowed into a comfortable silence, punctuated by music that grew ever scratchier as the highway went on. Time to use the mood to his advantage and do a little digging for information.
"Tell me about Essie."
Tamara kept her gaze on the scenery, resting her head against the seat. "She's smart. Everyone in the Crest Society homeschools their kids, but Amelia always found a way to teach Essie a little bit more than was expected. Most of the girls on the compound never get past middle school. Essie got her high school equivalency degree right before Amelia died."
Pride rang in her voice. She sounded like his mom whenever she started bragging about her kids, no matter how much it would embarrass him or his sisters.
"So what do you do with a super-smart sixteen year old when you're on the run?"
Smart kids sometimes meant more trouble than the dumb ones. They always figured out new ways to entertain themselves.
"Part of the reason I went to Albert for help is because Hamilton has a small liberal arts college that would be perfect for Essie to attend." She let out a bittersweet sigh. "I thought maybe next year, if we hadn't heard from her father, she could enroll."
It was a sweet—if totally naive—hope. "So much for that."
She snorted. "Exactly."
After that it was a fast-food drive thru, a fresh tank of gas just south of the Colorado state line, and small talk about music and movies. It was a straight shot north from the state line to Hamilton. The GPS predicted five and a half hours. At their current pace, they'd be there in four and a half. He lowered the sun visor and pushed it against the driver's side window so it helped block the setting sun coming in from the west.
"So what's the deal with this Albert guy?" he asked, holding the steering wheel a little tighter than necessary. "Is he an old boyfriend?"
"You mean you don't already know everything about him?" She said it jokingly, but the question had a punch to it. There was no way she was happy baring her secrets.
"Since I just found out about his existence today, no. I'm good, darlin' but I'm not that good. You managed to do a damn fine job of hiding Essie if I couldn't find her location until you gave it up."
"Fat lot of good it did. How in the hell did Jarrod manage to find her?"
"If he did." He had to say it even though that sixth sense that warned of something bad just around the corner was going nuts.
She brought her knees up to her chest and curled her arms around her legs, making herself a small, tight ball on the passenger seat. "My gut says the clock is ticking."
He got that, and he knew just how frustrating it was to know part of the equation but not the rest. Good thing they had nothing but time right now to unravel the mystery.
"Then let's figure it out." He tapped his thumbs on the steering wheel in time with the slow song playing on the radio. "If Fane sent out Wolczyk to sniff around your ex-husband who you hadn't seen for years, then he's leaving no stone unturned. Who is Albert to you? An old lover?"
That made her laugh. "Not a boyfriend that's for sure. Albert Glad-Lovatt is the secret weapon of every beauty queen who has ever won one of the major tiaras in the past thirty years. And I don't play for his team."
"He runs beauty pageants?"
"No." She shook her head. "He runs the girls."
He whipped his head around and gaped at her. Now that was not the answer he'd been expecting.
"Not like that," Tamara said, her eyes wide. "He's not a pimp. He's a pageant consultant— the best one there is. Even after I stopped doing pageants, we kept in touch. He'
s the closest thing I had to a mentor. When things got bad with my mom, I could always count on Albert."
Okay, that made sense. Perhaps what had kept Tamara safe all this time was the fact that she wasn't close to many people. As far as he could tell she’d only had Amelia, Albert, and Essie before landed with the B-Squad.
"Who knew you two were close?" he asked. Someone had to. If it had been an easy connection to make, he would have made it. That Fane may have gotten the drop on Isaac gnawed on him.
"My mom, who I haven't spoken with in years. A few of the girls from the pageants, most of whom I'm not in touch with. The others, it's only enough to make small talk at parties where we cross paths. No one else. Not even Taz."
"Albert didn't come to the wedding?"
"Taz and I eloped. It seemed very romantic at the time."
"And now?" He didn't mean to hold his breath, he just couldn't help it. What she said next mattered.
Tamara sighed and laid her cheek on top of her kneecap. "It seems like I was running away as fast as I could."
The air whooshed out of him and his shoulders eased down. "We're all guilty of that sometimes."
"Oh yeah? What are you running from?" she asked. "What was that whole pissing contest about following orders during the meeting?"
He should have known she wouldn't let it go. She wasn't the type. Her bulldog attitude was one of the things he liked about her best, but that didn't mean he wanted his past to be the bone she wouldn't let go of. Silence thickened the atmosphere inside the Camaro as the sun-parched scenery of southeast Colorado flew past. He opened his mouth to tell her in no uncertain terms to mind her own business, but that's not what came out.
"I met Lash in the Marine Corps. We were in the same unit until he rotated back to the states and got out. His replacement was…different."
