by Mary Alford
She remembered the time. “You’re right. Liam was distracted back then. Actually, for a while. At first, I wasn’t so worried. You know how Liam throws himself into his mission to the point of being consumed by it. But his behavior became increasingly more withdrawn as the weeks went by. Then he showed up at my house...and you know the rest.” She shrugged. “I think Iraq was just a staging location, though. He was heading behind enemy lines.”
“It makes sense. The fewer people who know about where an agent is going, the better chance they have of surviving. The last time we talked, he told me a little of the same things he told you. About this new player coming onto his radar. He seemed really worried and alluded to the fact that if they couldn’t find out his identity soon, it could have deadly consequences.”
Rachel shivered at the implication. Had Liam tracked the identity of the person and found out it was one of his own people?
As they rode along, a tree branch snapped close to the edge of the trail, immediately drawing Rachel’s attention back to the moment. Was it just an innocent animal roaming the woods nearby? Or had an enemy found them and was closing in quickly?
* * *
Alex reined in his mare and listened carefully. Nothing but silence followed. The sound had come from just up ahead. Slowly, he dismounted and drew his weapon. Rachel did the same.
Close by, the dog growled and headed for the woods in the direction of the sound, sniffing the air.
“Stay, Callie,” Rachel ordered and stopped the dog with that verbal command. Callie sat back on her haunches, her guard up.
“Stay behind me,” Alex said and then eased into the treed area. Once inside, he stopped for a second to take stock. At one time, he had known these woods like the back of his hand. He and Liam had hunted just about everything the forest provided since they were kids. Alex could recognize the different sounds made by animals that roamed the mountains, and the noise he’d just heard earlier didn’t belong to any of those animals.
To the right, another twig snapped, riveting both their attentions that way. A mule deer stood frozen in place not far from the spot, staring at them. Rachel let go of a breath, relieved. Yet Alex couldn’t share in it, because he was positive the previous sound hadn’t come from the deer.
Rachel turned to look at him and saw the truth in his eyes. He barely had time to shake his head before something charged from the bushes nearby and right for them.
A man dressed completely in black, with a ski mask covering his face, hit Alex full force before he had time to react.
The momentum of the man broadsiding him sent both of them sprawling across the rocky ground. Alex’s weapon flew from his hand. The man had slung an assault rifle behind his back.
As Alex struggled for control, his attacker temporarily gained the upper hand, and they wrestled back and forth. In the hand-to-hand combat that ensued, the man’s assault rifle slipped off his arm. They were now both unarmed. Alex was relying on physical strength alone.
Out of the corner of his eye, Alex saw Rachel struggling to get a clear shot off. With them grappling back and forth, there was no opportunity.
Alex managed to free one hand and he slugged his attacker hard. The man’s head spun sideways and he yelped in pain. The fury in his eyes was pure evil as he clutched Alex around the throat, trying to strangle him. Alex fought free and punched the man hard once more. This time, he slumped to the side, stunned by the blow. It was enough for Alex to get away. Jumping to his feet, he searched the ground for his Glock. He recalled the general direction it had landed, but it was nowhere in sight.
Rachel fired off a warning shot as Alex’s attacker regained his senses. “Stay where you are,” she ordered. The man didn’t listen.
Before Alex located the weapon, the man lunged for him once more. This time Alex was prepared. He set his feet and grabbed hold of the man’s arms.
His assailant was yelling at the top of his lungs. It wouldn’t be long before his buddies zeroed in on the direction of the noise and came to his aid.
Before Alex could slug the man again, Rachel slammed the stock of her gun hard against the man’s temple. He didn’t have time to register what had happened before he slumped to the ground at Alex’s feet.
It took a second for Alex to gather his breath and then he knelt next to the man. Yanking the mask off, he recoiled when he got a good look at him. He recognized the man from somewhere.
“Do you know him?” Rachel asked in amazement, seeing his reaction.
“I’m not sure.” A quick search of his pockets produced a driver’s license with the man’s name on it. Alex wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting. Certainly not that something about the man’s face would be familiar. The name, on the other hand, was elusive. He stared down at the man, racking his brain to come up with how he might know him, but he just couldn’t place it.
Alex handed the ID to Rachel. “It says his name is Victor McNamara. Does it ring a bell to you?”
She studied the photo for a second, then shook her head and handed it back to Alex. He shoved it in his pocket and then slung the assault rifle over his shoulder.
“Let’s go. The way he was carrying on, everyone within a two-mile radius will have heard him.”
They hurried past the waiting dog, who leaped to her feet. Once they were both back in the saddle, Rachel nudged the mare forward, and Alex followed.
While the horses made their way across the uneven countryside, Alex tried to make sense of what had just taken place. Why did this man look familiar? He was positive he recognized him from somewhere. He needed to figure out where and soon. Their lives and Liam’s depended on it.
The fact that they were coming after Rachel with such force gave him some hope that Liam might still be alive and had gotten away somehow. They’d need her to find her brother. Yet if Liam were still up on Midnight Mountain and if he was hurt, he could be in danger from more than just the men hunting him. The temperature at night up at the higher altitude could plunge well below freezing.
On the back of the capable mare Esther, Alex took in the passing countryside as they steadily climbed. It amazed him that through it all, Callie kept a careful stride behind them. The dog reminded him a lot of a mutt he’d had as a kid. He’d loved that dog until the day she’d passed away.
Alex took a second to gain his bearings. They were almost to the top of Plume Mountain, one of the many mountains neighboring Midnight Mountain.
He couldn’t figure out how Victor McNamara or any of the events that had taken place related to Liam’s disappearance. He was positive the name was a fake.
Frustrated, Alex shook his head. It was beyond him at the moment. Right now, with the steady climb, it took all his skills and concentration to keep on the mare.
After they’d put sufficient distance between themselves and the men hunting them, Rachel slowed the horse’s speed and Alex caught up to her.
Her brown hair was windblown. Her cheeks flushed from the ride. And she had never looked more beautiful to him...or more worried.
“Are you okay?” Alex asked when he got a good look at her expression.
She shrugged. “I don’t know anymore. What was that about back there, Alex? Why do these people want us dead? And why is someone trying to kill Liam? Liam is a patriot. He would never compromise his loyalty to our country for anything. So, if those men are CIA, why do they want him dead?”
“I don’t think it’s a matter of Liam compromising his values, but someone else compromising theirs. That man back there, to name one. I’m not sure what Liam uncovered, but he’s in serious danger because of it.” He hesitated before voicing his concerns. “Rachel, we can’t do this alone, especially when we really don’t know what we’re up against. We could both end up dead. Let me call in my team.” He pressed when she didn’t answer. “I promise we can trust them.”
She stared at him as if he ha
d lost his mind. “We can’t. Even if we can trust your team, who’s to say that someone won’t mention what’s happening here to a colleague? We could all end up dead because of it. Please, we can’t reach out to anyone connected to the CIA.”
He understood her reluctance was because of what Liam had scribbled on the back of the map, but that didn’t change the fact that they were grossly outnumbered.
“All right, I’ll go along with it for now, but the sooner we get some breathing room between us and those thugs back there, the better.” He expelled a weary sigh.
She smiled over at him and squeezed his arm. “Thank you, Alex. And thank you for coming so soon. I know it couldn’t have been easy.”
To be honest, he hadn’t even thought about it. He’d just come. Her call had left him shaken. He’d gone against every instinct screaming inside of him that told him he was making a bad decision by not looping in his CIA Scorpion commander, Jase Bradford. He’d simply left Jase in the dark as to why he needed a few days off for personal time. Then he’d borrowed his buddy Aaron Foster’s plane and left Colorado right away, because something had happened to Liam and Rachel needed him.
“You know I’d do anything for Liam and for you. You guys are like family.” He watched her draw in a breath, her eyes clouding with some unnamed emotion he’d give anything to understand. There was a time when he knew what her every little expression meant. Back before he’d screwed things up.
“We should probably keep going. They could have men stationed farther up this mountain,” she murmured, looking away, breaking the spell.
Before he could answer, Rachel nudged the mare and headed up the trail once more. After a moment, he followed, while rebuking himself over letting his emotions get the better of him. He had to stay focused. The past was over and done. He was here for Liam.
So far, it didn’t appear that anyone was following them, but Rachel was right. They could have men everywhere. Until they had a better handle on what they faced, they needed to stay on the move. They’d be harder to track that way.
It took more than a heart-pounding hour before they summited the top of Plume Mountain, one of the lesser mountains that was part of a chain of them stretching through the area. There was still a long ways to travel before they reached their destination of Midnight Mountain. Rachel reined to a stop and took out the binoculars once more to scan the area below them where Willow Creek was located before handing them to him.
“I don’t see anything. Not even Tom.” She got off the horse and stretched out the kinks in her back.
After he’d checked the area and was satisfied they were safe for the moment, he did the same back stretches. He had finally gotten a sense of where he was again. He’d been away for years. It took a while to reacquaint.
“He should have been here long before us. I don’t see his truck and trailer.” She turned to Alex. “I don’t like it. What if he was being held hostage? What if they followed him here?”
He went over to where she stood and placed his hands on her shoulders. He could feel her grow tense in reaction to his touch and he hid his hurt with difficulty.
“Hey, we don’t know anything’s happened yet,” he said, and yet as much as he tried to reassure her, Rachel was right. By vehicle, the drive shouldn’t take more than a half hour.
“Where would he normally park?” he asked while trying not to show his concern. If these people were somehow CIA, they’d have the full resources of the Agency at their disposal. They could make people disappear...for good.
She pointed to some trees close to a trailhead. “Tom and his wife come here quite often. When my husband was alive, he and I would ride horses with them up here. Tom always parked over there.”
The mention of her husband was a painful reminder of the things that could have been his. He found himself being jealous of a dead man. Pitiful.
“Let’s not think the worst until we know for sure. Anything could have happened. A flat tire. Maybe it took him longer to load the four-wheeler than usual.” Alex tried to sound positive, but his worst fear was that the men coming after them had gotten to Rachel’s friend.
“Wait, I see something.” She pointed down below, then took up the binoculars once more. “That’s him. But he’s riding the four-wheeler... I thought he would pull it on a trailer behind his truck,” she said with a bewildered frown. “Something’s not right.”
Rachel headed back to the horses, ready to ride down into the valley, but he stopped her.
“Hang on a second. We still don’t know if he’s here alone or by his own will, for that matter. Like you said, something’s not right.”
She stared at him for the longest time. “There’s no way Tom would set us up.”
He didn’t break eye contact. “Maybe not willingly, but he may not have had a choice.”
She drew in a breath. “All right. What do you suggest we do?”
He scanned the area below them once again. “Let’s leave the horses up here and go the rest of the way down on foot.” Alex pointed to the left. “There’s plenty of tree coverage through there. If there’s someone else with him, we’ll be better able to take them by surprise.”
“Okay,” she agreed, and then led the mares into the woods to find a location where they could tie them off with plenty of grass for grazing.
Once they’d strapped on their backpacks, with Callie glued to their heels, Alex took the lead. “Stay close to me and if anything happens, get back here and ride out as fast as you can,” he told her, knowing she wouldn’t do any of those things. She was a soldier at heart and a soldier would never leave a fellow comrade behind.
The hike down the opposite side of the mountain proved just as treacherous as the summit had. All the while, Alex couldn’t get the man who had attacked him out of his head. Was he CIA? They were sworn to protect, but it wouldn’t be unheard of for one of their own to go rogue. Still, why come after Liam unless he’d uncovered the traitorous threat? Was it possible this new terrorist had gotten Liam involved in something way over his head?
Once they reached the valley, Alex stopped long enough to bring out the binoculars and scan the area. There didn’t appear to be anyone else around but the man who had dismounted the four-wheeler and stood looking around with a rifle in his hand.
The dog had stuck close to them the whole way down, as if sensing something was off.
“I don’t see anyone but your friend.” He drew his weapon and turned to her. “Just in case,” he said in response to her raised brow.
They stepped from the cover of the trees close to the man with the four-wheeler who stood at full alert. His body language alone seemed to confirm something had gone wrong.
Callie spotted Tom and galloped toward him, tail wagging. A twig snapped beneath the dog’s paw and the man whirled at the sound, shotgun ready to fire.
The moment he spotted Rachel, he visibly relaxed, then reached down and patted the dog’s head. When he saw Alex with a gun in his hand, his demeanor changed immediately. He clutched the rifle tighter. Alex had no doubt he was skilled at using it.
“It’s okay, Tom. He’s my friend,” Rachel said, and then rushed over to give the man a heartfelt hug.
Alex watched her with the older man and it was easy to see that she loved him.
She stepped back and turned to Alex. “Tom, this is Alex Booth. We grew up here together. He and Liam are good friends.”
Alex tucked the Glock behind his back and shook the man’s hand. “Good to meet you, sir.”
“You, too,” Tom said with a firm handshake. He watched as the dog went to explore a nearby plant. Alex could tell the man seemed distracted by something.
“Has something happened, Tom?” Rachel obviously saw the same thing he did.
After a moment or two of silence, Tom looked at Rachel. “I wasn’t able to bring the truck. I used the four-wheeler to slip out th
e back way.” The man shook his head. “I’m not really sure what to make of it, but it scared me. I haven’t seen anything like it in my seventy-plus years.”
He paused for a breath and Rachel shot Alex a worried glance.
“Right before you called, a couple of men showed up at my place asking a whole bunch of questions about Liam and you.” The concern in Tom’s eyes was real enough. “They had IDs.” He shook his head. “They said they worked for the CIA... Rachel, they said Liam did something terrible. They said he wants to hurt a lot of people.”
All the color drained from Rachel’s face. “That’s not true. Tom, you know it’s not true. Liam would never hurt anyone.”
Tom’s expression softened and he managed a smile for her. “I know that. I’d trust Liam with my life. Jenny, too. But these men seemed determined to lay the blame on him for something. They said he betrayed his country.” Tom spat the words out and shook his head. “Jenny was in the kitchen when they showed up. I wasn’t going to let them inside, but they pretty much forced their way in. Something about them just worried me. When you called, I went in the other room. That’s why I couldn’t talk much.”
He stopped for a second. “Anyway, Jenny told me after they’d gone that she’s pretty sure she saw at least a half dozen more men in the woods surrounding the house. They were coming from the direction of your place. She said they were armed to the teeth.”
He blew out an uneven breath. “They’re coming after you, too, Rachel. And they’re not going to stop until they find you and Liam. And I don’t think they care if that’s dead or alive.”
THREE
It felt as if the ground had been yanked out from beneath her feet. Was it possible that this whole thing was all about someone trying to frame Liam for a crime they had committed? What were they trying to cover up?
“You saw their IDs? They were definitely CIA?” she asked in shock.
