Verifiable Intelligence

by Kaitlin Maitland

  “Jace?”

  Dayne’s husky whisper was accompanied by a view of her worried face peeking through the racks of clothing.

  “I’m here.”

  “You okay?”

  “I’m still alive.”

  She pushed all the way through. “I’ll consider that a bonus, then.”

  “Who is this guy after?” Jace asked quietly.

  She didn’t answer at first. Instead, she leaned down and ripped what was left of his T-shirt off. Shoving it into the farthest corner of the room beneath another rack of clothing, she began carefully probing the back of his shoulder.

  He tried to focus on the problem, the pain, anything but the way it felt to have her palms grazing his skin. It had always fascinated him that she could live the life she did and still have such soft hands.

  “It’s hard to tell what this guy wants, Jace.”

  He sighed. “Your contract or my history?”

  “Honestly, I don’t think we’re supposed to be dead…yet.”

  “What?”

  “Think about it. You were a sitting duck out there and he didn’t even wing you. I expected you to at least get a graze out of that.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Seriously, I’m not saying we aren’t in danger. But I think they’re trying to keep us off balance. It feels a little like being herded. Don’t you think?”

  He had to admire the clarity of her brain. She had a viable point. Then he noticed she was alone. “Where’s Ryan?”

  “He’s fine. I stashed him on the steam engine.”

  “You what?”

  “In fact, we really need to get a move on because we’ve got to grab him on our way out of here. Can you keep moving?”

  Jace was really in no position to rail at her for her actions. He was as dependent on her as Ryan was, for the time being.

  “You’ve stopped bleeding,” she said.

  “I can’t run around out there shirtless.”

  She slanted him a teasing smile. “To think I was looking forward to that.”

  Was she serious?

  A baggy, homespun cotton shirt hit him in the face. Jace arched an eyebrow and lurched to his feet using the racks on either side of him for support. He’d never been fond of the lace front look, but it wasn’t as if he had much choice in the matter. He could hardly expect to find many costumes that would fit a guy his size.

  “Wow, that’s a drop dead sexy look for you.”

  “Glad you’re noticing my desirability. Now can we get Ryan and get out of here?”

  Something about the twinkle in her gray eyes made him wonder if she weren’t enjoying herself a little too much. Dayne had always been a bit of an adrenaline junkie. He was well aware that she didn’t lead an assassin’s life because she liked to be bored. But he could hardly afford to take extra chances just for kicks anymore. He had Ryan to think of.

  Chapter Ten

  Jace’s face seemed stuck in that introspective expression. Dayne had seen him relax half a dozen times since they’d met up, only to sober almost immediately. But she had no time to sit around and reflect on how guardianship had changed him. She had to keep thinking four steps ahead and get them all out of there alive with all parts present and functioning.

  “You think he’s changed position?” She stole a glance around the large tree that was nicely hiding her valuable body parts. They were now waiting for the train to appear around the bend.

  “He’s had plenty of time.”

  “I don’t think he saw me put Ryan on the train.”

  “Unless you were right earlier when you said he isn’t trying to kill us.”

  “Terrific. Shall I just waltz up there and collect your brother?”

  He chose not to respond to her smart-ass remark. She didn’t care. She was busy trying to decide how best to get Ryan off the moving train. Although it would’ve been a lot simpler to get him when the train made a stop, it would’ve been a longer trek to her truck.

  “I think I’m going to do this the direct way,” she said thoughtfully.

  “Dare I ask what the direct way is?”

  She ripped another piece from the hem of her flannel shirt and tied it, bandito fashion, around her nose.

  “Holy hell, you can’t be serious!”

  “He’s in the very back of the last car, in the very last seat. I’m going to get the train to stop. You get him off. Just do it quietly or we’ll have the whole kidnapping thing to get around again.”

  “You’re insane. You know that, right?”

  “Don’t tell me you’re just now figuring that out.”

  She briefly wondered if Jace weren’t more right than he realized when it came time to step out onto the railroad tracks. The air was heavy, though it was hard to tell if it was from the standard Missouri humidity or the hissing steam billowing off the approaching engine.

  The train tracks ran a vaguely circular pattern around the entire park but veered inward to avoid the busy entrance. There were only two stops. She had ushered Ryan aboard at the southern station. By now, he was on his second trip around the route.

  She knew timing was critical. The engine house had quick access to the employee parking lot and doubled as a tunnel on the route. The engine would be at a slower speed coming off the turn just prior to entering the tunnel. It was the only chance she was going to get.

  The track began to vibrate, the sensation strong enough to make her feel as though her teeth were going to leap right out of their sockets. A train whistle rent the air, and she knew it was time.

  Pulling her gun, she fired four shots to gain attention. Before the third round had cleared the chamber the train was braking. It slowed like an angrily hissing snake, easing to a halt with slow precision.

  Oddly enough, Dayne realized she would’ve never had the guts to rob a train in the old west. Watching the massive black engine’s snub nose approach was nerve-racking. She couldn’t fathom what it would be like if she were actually trying to force a wily, experienced engineer to pull over or be killed.

  “What the hell are you doing, mister? Get off the track!”

  The engineer was young, probably early twenties. Most likely a college student working a part-time job, he had more fear than resolve in his voice. He was leaning far outside the window, the engine having just cleared the engine house.

  “Don’t you know a hold up when you see one?” Dayne asked with forced bravado.

  “A hold up? You can’t be serious.”

  A chorus of raucous laughter and shouts echoed behind the engineer. Dayne had been counting on the passengers. They weren’t going to disappoint her. To them it was just another part of the experience, another special effects show.

  She scrambled for her next line. “I’ll be taking the monkey, and then you can go. If you cooperate, nobody will get hurt.”

  On an earlier trip around the park with Ryan, she had noticed a large stuffed chimp dressed in gray and white striped overalls sitting in a place of honor just behind the engineer on the coal car. So, as she obviously couldn’t demand valuables, she went with the next best thing.

  A smile played at the corners of the engineer’s mouth. She saw him visibly relax. He’d apparently decided that somebody was playing an elaborate hoax on him.

  The engineer picked up his microphone. “How about that, folks, our mascot, Tommy, has just volunteered to exchange his life for all of yours! Give him a round of applause!”

  When the train ground to a halt, Jace forced himself to wait another five seconds in silence. It was tempting to rush onboard and make certain Ryan was safe and still in one piece but he needed to be certain all eyes were on Dayne first. Of course, he’d have to make time later on to sit down and discuss her suicidal behavior. The woman was going to drive him daft before it was all over with.

  “Ryan?”

  Jace kept his body well below sight level. Most of the cars were sheltered beneath the engine house. A brilliant move on Dayne’s part as it kept the passengers�
�� focus toward the action at the front of the train.

  “Jace?”

  His heart nearly seized when he heard his little brother’s voice. “Crawl toward me, Ryan.”

  A small hand reached out of the dimness and gripped his forearm. Ignoring the pain in his shoulder, he tugged the rest of his brother into view. Though scratched and dirty, he didn’t look any worse for the wear.

  “Can you climb down?”

  Ryan nodded, his eyes wide in his pale face.

  He backed down the steps and waited. Another look at his brother’s expression told him there was no way the ten-year-old could make the leap from the last step of the car to the gravel of the track bed.

  “Get on my back, Ryan.”

  “But you’re hurt.”

  “Just do it.”

  Jace knew he should appreciate the way Ryan gingerly gripped his shoulders. It was just too hard to think around the red haze of pain in his mind. The weight of his brother’s husky frame might as well have been the entire train.

  He forced himself to concentrate on the shaky footing in the gravel bed, paying close attention to where he placed each foot as he climbed the ditch to the base of the tree-strewn hillside. When Jace finally stopped, Ryan slid down to the ground.

  “Are you all right, Jace?”

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine.”

  “Where’s Dayne?”

  “Is the train still sitting there?”

  “No, it’s leaving.”

  “Then she’ll be here in a minute.”

  Seconds later a stuffed chimp dressed in engineer’s clothing came flying out of the trees, smacking Ryan right in the face.

  “What the hell is that?” Jace asked in a clipped voice.

  “My hostage,” Dayne responded flippantly. “Let’s get a move on.”

  She’d already started up the hill with Ryan in tow when she seemed to realize Jace wasn’t moving.

  “See that big tree up there, Ryan?”

  The boy nodded.

  “Take the chimp and go stand by that tree. Don’t move when you get there, okay?”

  “Sure.”

  Jace watched the little boy scramble up the hill and wondered when the thing had grown to such mythic proportions. It looked like Everest from where he was standing.

  “Hey.”

  Her voice was soft. He tried to read the meaning behind her word and tone, but his brain was already on overdrive.

  “You need a hospital, Jace.”

  “You know the rules about hospitals.”

  She sighed. He wondered if he were going to have to argue that point any more. Hospitals were required to report gunshot wounds. They had no time to waste with some half-assed local investigation. Especially since the investigation was likely to end up with both of them in jail and Ryan in foster care.

  “Jace?”

  He hadn’t realized he was bent at the waist, face pointed at the ground and hands braced on his knees, until he felt her hands on his back. A groan slipped out when she began to knead the knotted tension from the lower half of his spine. Forcing his body to obey, Jace stood upright.

  “You’ve got to make it up the hill, Jace.”

  He knew she thought he was going to pass out. There was no other reason to use his name every other second. But he liked the way it rolled off her tongue. In fact, when it came down to it, he liked the way a lot of things rolled off her tongue.

  “I’ll make it,” he managed.

  “Come on, Jace.”

  Dayne took his hands in hers and tugged gently, and he responded by remembering how to take a step forward. He found it odd that she remained facing him. It left him a complete view of her face. He couldn’t lie to himself. She’d always been beautiful, he’d just managed to ignore it. But in moments like these, when the rest of the world was hazy and intangible, certain things took on a strange clarity.

  Her features were classic. Heart shaped face, stubborn chin, a light sprinkling of freckles across her ski jump nose, full lips that could form an effective pout, and wide gray eyes.

  She paused to shove a piece of reddish hair out of her way. Her long hair had always been a secret fascination of his. He had seen her in any variety of wigs thanks to their profession, but he truly liked her natural color best of all. The sun had a way of catching red highlights within the deep brown and making them burn with life. It was very similar to the way he viewed her personality.

  “You’re beautiful, Dayne.”

  Her gray eyes widened, and a distinctly suspicious look crossed her face. “You’re delirious.”

  He heaved another step forward, now distracted enough to ignore his discomfort. “No, I mean it.”

  It was obvious she didn’t know how to respond. Whether it was because she was unused to compliments or because it came from him, he couldn’t decide. She’d been loosely attached to Ramsey Vitale when he met her. Refusing to see how thoroughly the Russian bastard had been using her, she hadn’t liked it when Jace broached the topic.

  Then there had been that one lapse in judgment on a South Texas beach. One heated moment after a no-holds-barred disagreement that had changed things between them forever. It’d been almost a year ago, and he had only seen her a handful of times since then.

  “Ryan, stay with your brother.”

  He hadn’t even realized they’d reached the top of the hill. But he returned to the present to find himself leaning precariously against a tree while Ryan looked on with no small amount of worry on his face.

  Jace wanted to reassure his brother. After all, it was a through and through. It wasn’t as if he had a slug stuck in his shoulder blade. He’d be ready to roll in no time. He just needed a few hours of rest and a few hundred cups of coffee.

  Chapter Eleven

  “What the hell happened to him?”

  Dayne didn’t answer Antonio. She was too preoccupied trying to drag Jace’s huge frame from the cab of her truck without giving him another concussion.

  “Hang on, Dayne. Let me give you a hand.” Antonio reached out to keep Jace from crashing to the floor while barking orders at his flunkies.

  Antonio and his boys struggled to settle Jace on the couch where Dayne had spent the previous night. Ryan slid down from the truck and hurried to his big brother’s side. Obviously worried about Jace, he hovered around the scene like a sugar-loaded hummingbird.

  “Go to the bathroom, Ryan,” Dayne told him.

  “I want to stay with Jace.”

  “Look, I get it, okay? But we need a minute to figure out how to fix him. And you’ve been whining about needing to pee for the last twenty miles.”

  “Okay.”

  She ignored the boy’s pout. It was fortunate he was only ten. Just a little older and he would’ve been immediately suspicious of the words “figure out” and “fix.”

  Antonio’s quiet voice interrupted her inner thoughts. “He needs a doctor.”

  “You know the deal, Tonio.”

  “Dayne, this isn’t a graze. He’s lost a lot of blood.”

  “I know.”

  Antonio sucked in a deep breath and let out a huge sigh. Stabbing his fingers through his hair, he glanced back at Jace’s prone form. “What do you need?”

  “I don’t know. Do you have a first aid kit?”

  “We’re way past band-aids here, Dayne.”

  “Spare me your sarcasm. Just get me something helpful.”

  Dayne had developed fairly advanced nursing techniques since joining the ranks of the hospital-avoidant. She’d sewn closed her fair share of gashes and had even gone as far as studying medical books and taking online nursing courses before performing a couple of minor surgeries on herself. But this was a lot more complicated. What Jace really needed was blood.

  Antonio parked a wheeled cart beside Dayne, silently handing her a packet of latex gloves. He was already pulling a bag of sterile dextrose solution out of the cart and attaching it to the pole. She didn’t bother to express her thanks. She’d worry about owing
Antonio later. Making certain Jace didn’t die on her first was more important.

  The first thing that registered in Jace’s brain was discomfort. He attempted to struggle his way into a sitting position. That idea was quickly abandoned when a streak of white-hot pain lanced from his shoulder all the way to his fingertips.

  “Hey there, Sleeping Beauty.”

  “Go screw yourself, Herrera,” Jace croaked.

  Antonio deftly opened the screw top on a bottle of water before handing it to him. Throwing back the bottle, Jace enjoyed the cool kiss of water on his parched throat.

  “We weren’t altogether certain you were going to wake up.”

  “I haven’t made it this far because I die easy.”

  Jace shifted, realizing that there was a persistent weight on his midsection. Preparing to push it away, he stopped when he realized it was Dayne. She was snoring away, head resting comfortably on his stomach.

  “She was bound and determined not to lose you,” Antonio said quietly.

  “Stubbornness is only one of her many flaws.”

  Though he knew she was riddled with flaws, Jace couldn’t stop staring at her. In sleep she managed to look almost sweet. He reflected that she would probably bristle and throw a colossal fit if she knew that description had ever entered his mind. Dayne was a hard case. No other woman in his life had managed to so thoroughly get under his skin.

  Antonio pulled up a chair and relaxed into it, propping his feet on the coffee table. “I couldn’t get much out of her last night. What happened?”

  “There was a sniper.”

  “Just one?”

  “Hard to tell, could’ve been more. But I don’t think either one of us were really expecting somebody to go that far. So let’s just say we were paying more attention to staying upright than what the guy looked like.” Jace frowned. “The shooter was experienced, though.”