“Any problems?”
“None from the kidnapper, but Carmichael has been a major pain in the ass.”
“Why doesn’t she just go home and get protection from the FBI, DC police, or a private bodyguard?”
Burke gave him a hard stare. “Why don’t you ask the lady yourself?”
He crossed his arms across his chest. “How does your buddy feel about her staying here? Any personal…complications?”
Burke glanced away. “I’m trying to get a read on his personal interest myself. Luke’s using his vacation days so he can be around to help her, which means she’s important to him. And…uh…oh yeah…he wants to stay here with her.”
“Do you people think I’m running a damn bed-and-breakfast?”
“I doubt if they’re expecting a hot breakfast. Donuts and coffee should be fine.”
“Real funny.” Jake groaned. “Shit. A reporter and a deputy. You really are trying to put me in jail.”
Burke laughed. “Is that a yes?”
Chapter 15
What did Stone say?” Luke asked immediately when he answered Sean’s call.
“Elle can come if she doesn’t mind staying in the guesthouse,” his friend said. “It’s located on the other side of the pool from the main house. He showed it to me. It’s laid out like a real nice studio apartment. Very private because there’s a tall bougainvillea hedge and rose garden between it and the pool.”
“I don’t give a damn about the floor plan or landscaping. Is it secure?”
“Oh yeah. Wired into the main house’s security systems, so it has all the same bells and whistles, but also an independent control panel. At least, I think it’s independent.”
Luke glanced at Elle. Her eager expression was disconcerting. Maybe she was ready to be rid of Deputy Helpful after all. Trying to ignore the sting of disappointment, he strolled into Karla’s kitchen out of earshot. “Did you ask Stone about me?”
“Yeah. If you agree to wash his cars and mow the lawn, you can come, too.”
“You ass.”
Sean laughed. “He also wants me to stay as a chaperone.”
“Fuck you.”
“Buddy, it’s not me you want to—”
“Shut up, Sean. When can we move in?”
“Now you’re moving in together? I thought Elle was hiding.”
Luke’s jaw clenched. “Back. Off,” he said in his steeliest voice.
“Okay, okay, just messin’ with ya.”
“This isn’t funny.” He glanced toward the living room and lowered his voice. “Some asshole in a white Ford truck followed us this morning. Did you notice him behind you?”
“Hmm, yeah, but he wasn’t there long. Think he joined us only a minute or two before I turned off. You sure he was following you?”
“Yeah, but I don’t want Elle to know I’m sure. I also confirmed the plates were stolen.”
“Shit. Did she recognize him or the truck?”
“Nope.” Luke scratched his head. “How would someone know we’d be on that stretch of road? I could understand finding us at the Ramona Sheriff’s station or somewhere else in town. But out there, no way. Unless he knows where I live.”
“How could he?”
His hands curled into fists. “Carmichael. He’s made no secret of his suspicions. He could’ve been blabbing about it at the coffee shop, or hell, the dude could’ve followed Carmichael to my place last night. Then hid until he saw my truck pass.”
“What do you want to do about it?”
Luke tunneled his fingers through his hair. “I don’t have enough evidence to do anything. But Elle and I shouldn’t be running back and forth to my place. I only brought a single change of clothes, so before we drive over to Valley Center, we’ll stop at my place one last time to pack up some more stuff. I’d like you to be at Stone’s place when we get there. What time would be good?”
“I usually head for home by four so I can miss the real shit traffic on I-15. Why don’t you plan to be here by three?”
“Works for us. I’ll call if there’s a change in plans.”
“Fine. Text me right before you leave Ramona, and I’ll send you directions.”
“Thanks, Sean. I owe ya.”
“Big time, bro.” His friend chuckled before disconnecting.
Luke gathered his thoughts before returning to the living room. He didn’t like keeping his concerns about the white truck from Elle, but he didn’t see how it helped anything by alarming her. He also wasn’t happy about leaving his property unprotected, but Sean had helped him install an awesome security system a couple weeks ago. If he moved a few more files into his safe and set all the features of the new system, his place would probably be okay. It wasn’t like the kidnapper was after Luke or his stuff. Carmichael was more of a risk in that regard.
“It’s a go…for both of us,” he said as he strolled back into Karla’s living room with two Cokes. “We’re supposed to meet Sean and Jake Stone at three, but I want to swing by my place again before we drive over.”
“Sounds good to me.” Elle smiled. “I’ve decided to call my IT department. As you said, they may have just deactivated my account, so I’ll have them reactivate it.”
“Great idea.” He leaned back on the couch with his drink and watched her in action.
After finally getting to the right person, she explained the situation. Her hardening expression revealed things weren’t going well.
“Okay, I understand why you deactivated my account, but I’m no longer missing. I need access to my files in our cloud…now.” While she listened, Elle tapped her foot. “What do you mean you don’t think it’s wise to use a stranger’s computer? Deputy Sheriff Luke Johnson isn’t some wacko. He’s the hero who saved me.” She gave him a thumbs-up.
But it was the sincerity in her beautiful hazel eyes that he appreciated the most.
“Okay, so if I buy a computer today, you’ll reactivate my account, right?” Her eyes blazed. “Why the hell not? When I dropped my laptop into the pool in Hawaii and bought a new one, you didn’t give me this kind of runaround. Why now?” Her eyes narrowed to slits. “What do you mean ‘this is different’? Oh, forget it. This isn’t really about the damn device or my account; it’s about me working.” She slammed the phone on the coffee table.
“No go?”
“No go, no way. My father got to them. I know it. He probably threatened to sue USA Report for causing my kidnapping by pressuring me to work in dangerous neighborhoods or some other nonsense.”
They spent the next two hours brainstorming ideas about the kidnapper but had no major breakthroughs. Karla came home and ate lunch with them. After his sister returned to work, they reviewed everything Luke knew about Jake Stone, which wasn’t much. They researched him online, but he was as much a ghost in cyberspace as he was in real life.
About 1:30 p.m., they packed everything into Luke’s Ram and headed back toward his house. The sunny day made the truck uncomfortably hot, so he lowered the windows to let in the cool breeze. Southern California weather made it tough to remember it was November. Hard to believe the holidays—a time he and Karla dreaded—would arrive soon. He glanced across at Elle, who had her eyes closed and her face turned into the wind from the open window. Did the strained relationship with her parents make the holidays difficult for her, too?
He watched for the white truck, especially when he passed the point where Sean thought it had joined them earlier. But the suspicious vehicle was nowhere to be seen.
After he made the last turn onto the deserted homestretch to his property, a familiar Hummer shot out from behind a large stand of eucalyptus trees on the opposite side of the road. The Palmers’ vehicle careened into Luke’s lane, and the driver slammed on the brakes.
Elle screamed.
With only seconds to avoid a collision, Luke yanked the steering wheel to the right, hit the brakes, and fought to keep the Ram from rolling over into the ditch beside the road. His truck stopped on the grave
l shoulder with a violent jerk custom-made to cause whiplash.
He grasped Elle’s arm to steady her. “You okay?”
She coughed a couple times before she nodded.
As he did a quick visual inspection to convince himself Elle wasn’t injured, he heard the Hummer pull up close alongside. Figuring the Palmers’ troublemaking, teenaged son had skipped school and taken his dad’s car for a joyride again, Luke drew a deep breath and resolved to handle the situation calmly. Relatively calmly, at least. Maybe the kid wants to apologize. That’s better than just speeding away and leaving the scene. Well, apology or no apology, the stupid little shit is going to hear my opinion of his jackass driving.
“What the hell were you thinking, Kevin?” Luke snapped and whipped his head around. “Did you even look—”
The words died on his tongue when his gaze landed on the business end of a pistol.
“Fuck,” he hissed. His eyes slowly rose from the gun to the driver, confirming his worst fears.
The man wore gloves, a long-sleeved shirt, and a black ski mask. “I want Elle! Now!” he shouted through the open windows of the side-by-side vehicles.
“Oh God,” she gasped.
Luke’s eyes never left the face of the man who had to be Elle’s kidnapper, but his hand inched to the console where his gun had been lying—only to discover it was gone.
“Both hands high on the steering wheel so I can see them,” the guy yelled at Luke. “Elle, get the hell over here or I’ll have to shoot your new friend.”
“No, she stays here. What do you want?” Luke asked.
“All I want is Elle. Now. Hurry up, woman, before I do something you’ll regret.”
Luke heard her fumbling with the seatbelt and turned. “You’re not going with him.”
Her terror-filled eyes met his. “I will not let him shoot you. You’ll find me…I know you will.”
“No talking,” the kidnapper ordered. “Bitch, get over here now!”
When she pushed the truck door open, Luke reached across to grab her.
Her eyes and mouth opened wide, but her scream was drowned out by the blast.
* * *
Luke pitched forward toward the passenger seat of the Ram, his cowboy hat falling to the floor. Elle’s heart pounded like a timpani drum at the sight of blood gushing from his left arm.
“Leave him. Get in my car now or I’ll finish him off,” the kidnapper hollered.
She looked up to find the man leaning closer so he could aim at Luke’s prone body. “I was coming, you asshole. You didn’t have to shoot him,” she screamed.
“He’s not dead, but he will be, if you’re not in this car by the time I count to ten. One.”
“I’m so sorry, Luke,” she whispered and kissed the top of his head before climbing out and racing around the rear of the Ram. She headed for the back door on the driver’s side of the Hummer.
“No. In the front seat,” the jerk snapped.
The words did not compute. She froze with her hand on the back-door handle.
The man swung around to yell at her through his side window, his gaze and gun no longer trained on Luke. “Up front with me, bitch, so I can—”
His words were cut off by another blast.
He shrieked with pain and grabbed the steering wheel with his free hand. The Hummer lurched forward. Tires squealing, it took off.
The sudden motion knocked Elle to the ground, her head bouncing hard on the asphalt. Black edged her vision, and bile rose in her throat. Dazed, she couldn’t make her limbs move.
Another bullet shattered the Hummer’s back window as the vehicle sped away, but she couldn’t discern through the fog in her brain who had fired the last shot. She turned just in time to see the top of Luke’s head sink below the level of the Ram’s windowsill.
“Luke! Luke! Are you all right?” she called, but the words came out garbled.
“Elle, you…okay?” he responded after a moment.
Her teeth began to chatter and her body to shake. Her eyes filled with tears of relief. “Yeah. You?”
“Damn…scratch, but it hurts…like hell.”
She laughed through her tears. “Don’t…move. I’m…coming.” At least she hoped she was. Sprawled in the middle of the road wasn’t the best place to be for many reasons.
Elle rolled onto her stomach and let her vision clear a little before pushing herself up with her hands. Pulling her knees under her one at a time was a struggle. Too dizzy to stand, she crawled back to the passenger side of the truck with her head bowed. When she reached the open door, she raised her head.
With a grim expression, Luke peered down at her, almost bringing her to tears again. His gun lay beside him, and his bloody right hand was clamped around his even bloodier left bicep.
“Does insurance…cover blood damage?” he asked through clenched teeth.
“That’s what you’re worried about?” She huffed. “I’m calling an ambulance.”
“Not for me.”
“Of course not. I wouldn’t want to offend your machismo.”
Still kneeling beside the truck, she found the borrowed phone on the floor mat and dialed 911. After providing the pertinent information, she disconnected and set the cell down so she could cling to the doorframe with both hands. Fighting a wave of dizziness, she managed to stand up to examine Luke.
His arm wasn’t bleeding profusely anymore, but steady trickles of blood were seeping between his fingers covering the wound. Thinking tourniquet or bandage, she lifted her T-shirt over her head.
“What the hell? Now you do a striptease for me,” Luke said.
“Funny guy. I need to stop the bleeding.”
“Not with that you don’t.”
“You’re delirious. Why not?”
“Ambulance. Paramedics. Put it…back on.”
The reason for his insistence took a moment to register. The man had been shot, and he was concerned about her modesty. If she hadn’t been so dizzy, she would’ve rolled her eyes.
“Fine.” She glared at him as she laid her shirt on the dashboard. Before he could object, she whipped off her bra. His eyes looked ready to pop out of his head.
“N-no, n-no,” he stammered.
Intentionally not putting her shirt on first, she leaned over him to tie the bra around his left arm. She yanked it a little tighter than probably necessary. He scowled at her when she stepped back.
“Shirt,” he hissed.
She angled her head and peered down the road. “Sirens?”
“Shirt…on…now,” he ground out.
“Oh, right,” she said, smiling sweetly as she pulled it over her head.
Chapter 16
Jake Stone sipped Jack Daniel’s from a crystal tumbler and watched on a security system monitor as Sean Burke’s truck barreled down the steep, winding driveway. After getting the call about Luke Johnson being shot, the man had flown out of the Rogue Security office in Jake’s house like the proverbial bat out of Hell. His reaction to the news was more like a brother’s response than a friend’s. Burke and Johnson obviously shared a special bond.
Jake leaned back in the chair and put his feet up on the desk. Had he ever shared a similar bond with a friend? Perhaps not with a friend, but definitely with his Navy SEAL team. Of course, there was also Salami. Years ago, Jake had taken a bullet for his fellow CIA assassin. At the time, he had simply reacted on instinct to save the other man’s life, but maybe there had been a band-of-brothers bond between them that Jake had just failed to recognize. Salami might’ve felt it back then because he’d never forgotten the incident, and the loyal guy had done anything Jake had ever asked of him…and more.
He sighed. Since leaving the CIA, though, Jake had steadfastly been a lone wolf—in more ways than one—until recently hiring Burke. The metamorphosis continued to require more effort than he had anticipated.
Burke’s strong relationship with Deputy Luke Johnson scored points for the soon-to-be guest because Jake trusted his new employe
e’s instincts. Despite his confidence in the ex-LAPD detective, Jake still wasn’t completely comfortable with having the deputy and the reporter staying on his property. He also wasn’t pleased Burke had picked up on Jake’s interest in the Bradley kidnapping and used the insight to his advantage. Burke was damn smart; Jake would have to keep a close eye on him. And on this Johnson fellow, if he was anything like his buddy.
Jake set his empty glass on the desk and dropped his feet to the floor. Time for work. With Burke in the office earlier, he hadn’t been able to do the necessary research on his future guests. Hopefully, he would even have time to do a little snooping around about Elle Bradley’s kidnapping.
He grabbed the TV remote from the desk, opened a small panel on the back, and pointed it at the built-in bookcase. With a slight creaking noise, the whole piece of furniture slid slowly to the right, revealing a vaultlike door. Jake punched several numbers on the door’s keypad and small indicator lights flashed. After he entered more numbers, the mechanism clicked and whirred before the steel door opened.
Once inside the safe room, he closed and secured the door. He smiled at the memory of Burke’s reaction when he had first seen Jake’s “happy place.” The man had been thoroughly impressed. After joining the agency, Burke had suggested that since two people would now be using this place to do their most sensitive and often marginally legal work, they should rename it.
The room now called the Inner Sanctum was the size of a spacious studio apartment. Tables covered with laptop computers, printers, monitors, and other equipment filled one end. A server sat in a corner. Locked file and storage cabinets stood like sentries along a wall. A massive, padlocked gun rack and a second one in the bathroom held enough guns and ammo for a small army.
The other end of the room was furnished with a king-size bed, an armoire, a love seat, a recliner, and a mounted TV. A well-equipped kitchenette occupied another wall.
Only Obsession (Rogue Security Book 3) Page 13
