“The police captain? You don’t think he was investigating—” She turned her attention suddenly to the phone conversation. “Yes, Eric? Can I talk to my sister?”
“No, I don’t think he was investigating,” Chris answered her unfinished question in a whisper, gripped the steering wheel tightly, wishing he’d seen past Dick’s veneer sooner.
Alyssa posed the question to her sister. An instant later, she ended the call to tell him what he’d already gathered from her side of the conversation. “Yes, that was the name of the drug smuggler. Dick. She didn’t hear a last name, but it fits with everything else.”
“It fits,” Chris admitted, regretting he’d never doubted his former superior officer before. “We trusted him because of his position, but he was using that position to stay ahead of the law, wasn’t he? That’s why he didn’t want us asking questions at The Flaming Pheasant—because he’s smuggling drugs and working with kidnappers.”
TEN
Alyssa wanted to scream. “The police captain has been smuggling drugs out of my garage with my sister’s keys, which he stole from her after his buddies kidnapped her?”
“That’s what it looks like to me.”
“I’m going to throw up. What a low-life dirty crook!”
“I concur. But we’re going to catch him.” Chris had taken the next road that ran parallel to the back side of Dick’s property and now pulled to a stop half a mile from Dick’s house, well hidden by the woods. He turned off the Jeep and pulled out his phone. “I’m calling the DEA.”
Alyssa sat, fuming, wishing she could capture Dick Edwards that very moment, hoping the agents would hurry, and yet, at the same time, terrified because they’d driven past the smuggling kingpin’s house. What if one of the men recognized Chris’s Jeep? What if they came after them?
Chris ended the call after relaying all the vital information. “They’re sending a team out, but it could take a while for them to arrive. We’re in a remote location.”
“So, now what do we do? Those guys are moving out. If they leave before the DEA agents get here—”
“I know.” Chris opened his door. “We can’t let them do that.”
“Where are you going?” Alyssa jumped out and met him behind the Jeep, where he was rummaging in a duffel bag in the back end.
“Can you hold these?” He handed her a pair of binoculars from the bag, then made a face. “I don’t have my camera. I’ll have to use the one on my phone. I just hope the zoom is good enough.” He pulled out a small notepad and a pen.
“You’re going to spy on them and take pictures? Isn’t that dangerous?”
“If they leave before the DEA agents get here, we’ll need to gather as much intel as we can now. That means pictures of faces, if I can get a clear shot. License plates. Identifying marks. Evidence we can use to get a warrant later.” He reached for the binoculars and paused as his fingers clasped hers. “You may want to stay with the Jeep.”
“What would that accomplish? It’s not like I could drive through the woods to pick you up if they spotted you—the trees are too thick.”
“I just want you to be safe.” He met her eyes.
For a moment, she couldn’t breathe. The way he said the words, the concern on his face—no, it was more than concern. Or did she simply want it to be more than concern?
“I won’t be safe until these guys are behind bars. Let’s go.” She held the notepad and pen, while Chris carried his phone and the binoculars.
They hiked quickly through the woods, pausing now and then for Chris to focus the binoculars in the direction of Dick’s house. As they drew nearer, their pace slowed and they paused more often.
He focused the field glasses for a long moment. “I can see the license-plate numbers. Write these down.”
Alyssa wrote as Chris told her the letters and numbers. She was so focused on getting the combinations correct, she didn’t notice the vehicle approaching on the road they’d left behind them until she heard the distinctive sound of a car door closing.
“Who’s that?” she asked, glancing backward, where a red car had come to a stop near Chris’s Jeep. A couple of guys got out and headed for the woods.
“That looks like Mitch’s car.” Chris lifted the binoculars to his eyes again. “It’s Mitch and some other guy I don’t recognize.” He tugged on Alyssa’s sleeve. “Get down.”
Already afraid that they may have been seen driving past Dick’s house, Alyssa put the pieces together. “Mitch is working with Dick?”
“Of course.” Chris shook his head regretfully. “He’ll recognize my Jeep for sure. He knows we’re out here.”
Alyssa glanced around frantically. While too thick to drive through, the woods didn’t offer sufficient cover to hide them if they tried to run away. Most of the trees were narrower than her hips—not promising cover to hide behind. And the bushes had lost their leaves for the fall. “Where are we going to hide? We can’t run toward Dick’s house—there are more guys there than here.”
“We’ll have to make a run for the Jeep now that the guys have left their car and are looking for us in the woods.”
“They’ll see us for sure, then.” As it was, she figured it was only a matter of time before Mitch and his buddy got close enough to see them. But what other choice did they have?
“There’s enough of a ridge between us. If we run along this side of the ridge, parallel to the road, and then turn back to the Jeep, we may be able to get to the vehicle ahead of them.” Chris pulled his face closer to hers as he spoke, dropping his voice to a hollow whisper.
“Unless they have a gun.”
Defeat crossed his face. “Fine, then. We both run. If they spot us or shoot, you run for the Jeep and I’ll try to divert their attention.” He pressed his keys into her hands.
She refused to take them. “There’s no way I’m leaving without you.” Still, she tore the page with the license numbers from the notepad and began to copy the digits onto the next page to give to Chris. Not knowing what might happen, she wanted the important information in as many hands as possible.
Distantly, the sounds of shoes crunching through leaves and undergrowth reached them through the woods. The men were searching for them, no doubt about it, but with half a mile or so of woods, they had a lot of ground to cover before they reached them.
“Don’t be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows,” Chris whispered beside her.
“Hmm?” Alyssa finished jotting down the numbers and looked up to see a pair of sparrows sitting on a branch nearby. “Do you think God is trying to tell us something?”
“I think God is watching over us, always.”
Something in the reassuring tenor of his words or the way he spoke them, his bluish-gray eyes focused on her face, sent a foreign shiver down Alyssa’s spine. It wasn’t a frightened shiver at all, but a warm, reassuring feeling of being cared for. God cared enough to send a pair of sparrows to reassure her. And Chris cared—how much, she didn’t know, but he’d made too many sacrifices on her behalf for her to believe he was simply doing his job.
She held out the paper she’d copied. “Does that mean everything will be okay?”
“I don’t know.” Chris reached for the paper and wrapped his fingers around her hand. “I know He brought your sister back—and I didn’t think we’d ever see her again. I think God keeps working even when we’ve given up hope. He is more faithful.”
“He is more faithful.” Alyssa repeated the words in a whisper as the sounds of the men crashing through the woods drew progressively closer. She drew in a full, steadying breath, grateful for the sparrows and her sister’s return. But God hadn’t just sent the birds—God had sent Chris into her life, hadn’t He? The timing had been perfect. She wouldn’t have known how to handle her nephew without Chris’s help.
And she
enjoyed his company, too. Even now, in the woods, with dangerous men stomping toward them, she felt an uncanny sense of peace just knowing Chris was with her. God had sent him to protect her, too. She was sure of it. And just as surely, she knew she’d miss him when he was no longer by her side.
Chris rose up slightly on his heels and glanced in the direction of the sounds. “They’re moving away from us, searching in that direction,” he whispered, his hand still holding hers.
“Should we run?”
“At my signal.” He shoved the paper into his pocket.
Alyssa could hear the sound of the men approaching, but she couldn’t see anything from where she and Chris crouched, and she didn’t want to stick her head up for fear of giving away their location. Still, it sounded as though the distance between them and their pursuers was as broad as it might get. She mouthed the words in a near-silent whisper, Should we run now?
This is our best chance, Chris mouthed back. Stay low.
He kept hold of her arm for the first couple of steps, then let go as his pace increased.
Alyssa ran alongside him, her attention focused on the uneven, leaf-covered forest floor as she tried to plant each step strategically to avoid making noise or slipping and falling.
Behind her, she could hear crashing noises as Mitch and his buddy took off after them, heedless of the noise they made.
They’d been spotted!
* * *
Chris glanced back. Mitch and the other dude were way too close already, easily within accurate shooting range, even if he and Alyssa were moving targets. If it had only been Mitch behind him, Chris might have tried to fight him, but as it was, he was outnumbered, and he couldn’t stand the thought of Alyssa getting hurt.
“This way!” Abandoning the ridge, he leaped downhill, changing direction, intent on reaching the Jeep. He’d stayed tight by Alyssa’s side, but now, his goal the driver’s door on the far side of the vehicle, he sped up ahead of her, intent on reaching it in time to have the engine started and the Jeep in Reverse by the time she jumped inside.
The sounds of pursuit crashed behind him, but thankfully, he hadn’t heard any gunshots yet. Then a softer crash sounded far too close, and Chris looked back to see Alyssa flattened on the ground.
Had she tripped?
Or were the men shooting, using a silencer?
Chris leaped back to her side just as she lifted herself up.
“You okay?”
“I’m fine. Run!” Alyssa regained her feet, but already the men, who’d been so close at their heels before she fell, were upon them.
One grabbed Alyssa’s arms. “Run!” she shouted again.
Chris saw the fear on her face, understood what she meant. She wanted him to run to safety, to turn in the license-plate numbers and tell what he knew. To do whatever he could, if he could, to catch the bad guys. He needed to do all that.
But he couldn’t turn his back and leave without her.
In that moment’s hesitation, Mitch leaped around his partner and tackled Chris, holding him roughly with both arms behind his back. “What are you doing out here?”
Chris clamped his mouth shut, thinking quickly. Maybe he could talk his way out of trouble. Maybe there was still a chance.
But Alyssa glared at their captors furiously. “We already called the DEA,” she growled. “They’ll be here any minute. If you want to save yourselves, you better run now.”
Chris might have smiled at her bravado had their circumstances not been life-threatening.
“The DEA, huh?” Mitch sneered. “Who’d you talk to?”
Unsure why Mitch would ask, but nonetheless feeling compelled to back up Alyssa’s story—which was buying them time for the DEA agents to arrive, if nothing else—he shared the name of the person he’d spoken to on the phone.
“I’ll see about that.” Mitch pulled out his phone and dialed.
Chris listened to the one-sided conversation, mystified. He initially assumed Mitch was calling the guys at the house, telling them to abandon whatever was left and make a run for it. But nothing Mitch said matched that scenario. Instead, his side of the conversation made it sound as though he was actually talking to the same person in the DEA office that Chris had spoken to, confirming the story.
“Yup, that’s all. Tell them to hurry. Thanks.” Mitch ended the call and looked at Chris with narrowed eyes. “What made you think it was a good idea to move in on armed drug smugglers? You’re way outside of your jurisdiction.”
Chris might have reminded Mitch that he was, too...only now he wasn’t so sure. “Let me see your badge.”
Mitch held it out—not his police badge, but a very official-looking badge that indicated he worked for the DEA. The guy who was with Mitch showed his badge, as well.
“Undercover?” Chris asked Mitch, though the answer seemed obvious now.
“We knew Dick Edwards was involved with the drugs. We just didn’t know how. Now that his human-trafficking associates have been captured, we have enough witnesses to bring him in. My guys will be here shortly. I need you to get out of the way.”
Chris let out a relieved breath. Mitch wasn’t working for the smugglers—he was actually a DEA agent who’d been working undercover, investigating. That explained his mysterious arrival from the city, the tension between him and Dick—it explained everything.
He and Alyssa were going to be okay? It was almost too much to accept so quickly, no matter how glad he was about the news. But Mitch’s badge was real, no doubt about it, so Chris dipped his head in acknowledgment. “We’ll do that.” Then he glanced at the road, quickly considering his options. “Which way do you want us to go?”
Mitch looked up and down the road in both directions and scowled. “Head down the road that way. Don’t come around this way—you’ll have to go around the lake and north. I don’t want you anywhere near my men. This could get messy.”
Chris agreed and took Alyssa’s hand to help her back to the Jeep, leaving Mitch and his fellow officer behind. “Are you okay? That was quite a tumble.”
“I tripped on a branch. My ankle isn’t too happy about it, but I don’t think it’s sprained or anything—just wrenched. You should have kept running.”
They reached the Jeep, and Chris opened the passenger-side door for Alyssa. “Run away and leave you?”
“Run away with the license numbers so the authorities could catch those guys. If Mitch really had been working for the smugglers, he’d have us both right now.”
“I couldn’t leave you.” Chris moved his hand from the Jeep door to Alyssa’s shoulder.
She didn’t shrink away at his touch but looked at him in wonderment, the anger fading from her eyes. “That was a really stupid thing to do,” she chided him, her voice soft. A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth, but she fought it back. “I just hope they catch all those guys so my sister can come out of hiding.”
At that reminder, Chris remembered that, though the two of them may have gotten away from Mitch, nonetheless, they were still in dangerous territory. “We should head down the road.”
Chris climbed into the Jeep and drove slowly, in silence, wondering where everything stood. He wanted the DEA guys to catch all the smugglers, but at the same time, if the smugglers were out of the picture, Alyssa wouldn’t need him around anymore. She didn’t even need his help with the baby because her sister had returned.
Her life was full now, fuller than it had been in years.
And he couldn’t recall when he’d felt so acutely alone. He wanted to be part of Alyssa’s life, but he’d known her such a short time. If the smugglers were all captured, would he ever see her again?
* * *
Alyssa sat with her ankle in the most comfortable position and tried to catch her breath. She could have kicked herself for the words she’d
said. But frankly, she hadn’t known how to respond when Chris said he couldn’t leave her behind. He’d risked his life to stay by her side. True, it had been a stupid move on his part, but it was also incredibly chivalrous.
She couldn’t leave things the way she had. He’d done too much for her. “Chris, can you stop a second?”
The Jeep slowed immediately.
“Oh, I didn’t mean literally.” Alyssa started to apologize but then decided she had to plow ahead with what she needed to say if she was going to have the confidence to say it. “I just wanted to tell you, that was actually really cool what you did back there, coming back for me. I mean, it could have ended badly, but you did it, anyway. And helping me with the baby and everything. I don’t know what I would have done without you.”
The Jeep rolled to a stop, and Chris turned to face her, his dimple winking at her from his cheek as he spoke. “I enjoyed getting to know you. I’m glad I was able to help.”
Alyssa looked into his eyes for a long moment, a giddy happiness rising inside her. Then, self-consciously, she looked past him out the window. Her mouth fell open.
“You can see everything from here. They’re here. They’re moving in!” She realized she’d interrupted Chris at a terrible moment, but there was nothing else for it. They’d driven past the woods to a place where an open field rolled between hills, giving them a perfect view of the house and the battle that was going on in the driveway and yard. Agents tackled smugglers, subduing them on the ground and cuffing their hands behind their backs.
“Oh, wow. There were a lot of them, weren’t there? I had no idea.” She watched, fascinated by all that was unfolding little more than a mile away. “Uh-oh. One of them is getting away.”
“I see him.” Chris raised his field glasses and zeroed in on the man who’d burst from the patio doors of the walkout basement, riding a four-wheeler. For a moment, he seemed to go unnoticed by the agents. One tried to chase after him on foot but was quickly outdistanced. Two others ran for their vehicles, but the cars were parked on the front side of the house. They’d have to go around by way of the road. It would take them a while to catch up—assuming they were even able to follow the ATV before it sped out of sight.
Twin Threat Christmas Page 18
