Puppeteer

by Schultz, Tamsen

  “You're not planning on going against my orders are you?” Drew asked. He didn't think so. He was almost certain the little exchange he'd just watched wasn't a plot to go after Frey, but he wanted to hear it from Ty.

  “Feeling a little paranoid?” Ty laughed.

  “It happens when Dani doesn't respond the way I'm used to her responding. It makes me nervous.”

  Ty laughed again. “No, we're not plotting to go after Frey ourselves. As tempting as the idea is, I think I've convinced her you must have a plan. Which,” he added, with a little tilt of his head, “I imagine you do. And I can even understand why you're not telling Dani about it. But, I'll give you fair warning—if you are keeping something from her, it's one more thing she'll hold against you and, sooner or later, you will need to deal with it.”

  The advice was half personal, half professional, and wholly unnecessary. Drew knew that by keeping the information to himself, he was causing a rift in the working relationship he and Dani had so carefully developed over the years. On a personal level, she might be able to forgive his omissions, but professionally, she'd have a much harder time accepting his decision. She'd see it as sign of faltering trust between the two of them. It could pose a problem down the road. Drew knew this—had calculated the risk and chosen his course of action. He'd have to deal with it when it was all over.

  “I'll consider myself warned.”

  * * *

  Dani stirred as Ty slipped under the blankets and pulled her next to him. She wrapped an arm around his chest and sank back into the pillow, enjoying the feel of him beside her.

  “Is everything okay?” she mumbled.

  “Yeah, Fawkes and his team are in. They should be on shore and in position within the hour,” he answered, moving his hand down her arm.

  “They'll check in?”

  Ty chuckled, “Yes. Between me and Drew, I don't think anyone is going anywhere outside the lines on this one.”

  “Because of me,” she said.

  “Yes, because we care about you. We want to get Frey as much, or almost as much, as you do. But also because every player in there—Getz, Taylor, the militia, Frey—needs to be taken off the streets and out of action. Everyone knows how unstable the situation is, from drugs, to bombs, to arms dealing. We'll all sleep a lot better knowing all the players are accounted for.”

  Dani rested her head against Ty's arm and thought about what he'd said. She knew it was true. She knew everyone on the team, hers and the assorted others they'd collected along the way, was loyal and committed to the United States and had pledged their lives, at one point or another, to protecting it. She didn't doubt everyone wanted all the bad guys off the streets, but she also knew, in her heart of hearts, that everyone would go the extra for her. She would for them. And she knew Ty was only trying to do some preventive assuaging of guilt. If anything happened to anyone on the team because of something they did that was above and beyond the call of duty, but was done for her, it would be hard to live with.

  Intellectually, she accepted they were all adults and each person out there made their own decisions, but emotionally, well, there was no doubt in her mind she would feel responsible if something happened to someone. Ty was reminding her that she wasn't the only reason they were going after Frey—that there were other, very valid reasons they were going into this mission.

  She didn't think this reasoning would work if someone actually did get hurt, but she appreciated his effort.

  Dani turned her head and glanced at the clock. “An hour,” she said. That was all they had before they needed to be up and preparing for the raid. Everything was in order. All the equipment had been checked and double checked, but she would check it again in the morning, as well as go through all the scenarios with Cotter and Spanky one more time. They'd review their ‘shit list’—the list of the worst scenarios they could think of and prepare for—a few more times. And over the night, someone would have come up with a few more scenarios to add to it.

  Ty murmured something and his hand slowed its progress up and down her arm. For a moment, her mind went back to that first night. But then she realized his movements had stopped altogether. And judging by his breathing he was close to falling asleep. Dani sighed and tucked herself in closer.

  They hadn't had sex, or made love, or whatever it was they were going to call it, since that one night a few weeks ago. If asked that Monday morning when she'd walked into the Portland police department what they'd done, she would have unequivocally said they'd had sex. It had been a mutual giving and taking of satisfaction with no promises. Neither had asked or expected any more. But now, now if they did what they'd already done, she wouldn't be able to call it sex. Physically, that's what it would be, but emotionally, it was more. Much more.

  But the thought of rolling over and saying ‘let's make love’—well, she couldn't even think it and keep a straight face. Maybe it was the newness of it, the idea that she'd never before put herself on the line enough to even consider what she did with a man as something with the word ‘love’ in it. Something about the term made her think of Michael Bolton and all the power ballads of the late eighties.

  But all the giggles aside, she admitted to herself that being with Ty now, physically, would involve love, or something like it. Never having been in love before, never having even contemplated she would ever be in love, she wasn't certain what she did feel for Ty was love. But, she was certain that, with every day, he meant more to her than anyone, other than her family, ever had. He'd broken down walls and boundaries that were so thick, she wasn't even aware they existed. She knew she was a better person for having met him and was a better person with him in her life. His steady presence calmed her, like a port in a storm that was her life. He made her laugh and held her when she cried. And no one had ever looked at her quite the way he did.

  So, given that she knew this, why wasn't she turning to him and suggesting they use this hour to get reacquainted with each other? The gung ho part of her personality cheered her on to do just that. But a new, steadier side of her was urging her to wait until they were alone. Wait until they had more than an hour. Wait until there were no other distractions, nothing to take them away from each other. Dani didn't think she would always need the kind of focus she now desired, but once she'd identified this new feeling, she knew she wanted their first time back together to be more than a quicky in her sister's guest room with a house full of CIA agents just outside the door and a ticking clock to a major raid sounding in their ears.

  And, as if reading her mind, Ty's hand dropped to her behind and he gave her a little pat. “We'll get there,” he mumbled and then dropped off to sleep.

  Chapter 20

  “I'VE GOT A CLEAR SHOT.” One of Cotter's sharp shooters checked in.

  Dani glanced up at the monitor in the back of the van where she, Drew, Ty, and a couple of men from Cotter's team B sat. The monitor showed the boats rounding the bay and heading toward Getz's boathouse. The wheelhouses weren't visible on their small monitor, but Dani knew Marmie and company would be enhancing the images, looking for weapons or other little surprises, even before the boats reached the dock.

  “Here comes number two,” the voice came through again and, on schedule, the second boat made an appearance.

  “I've got one,” came another sharpshooter.

  “Covering two,” answered the voice of the first.

  “Four in one, six in two,” came Roddy's voice as the boats moved closer to the boathouse.

  “Sonny's in two,” Fawkes added. “Taylor and his cousin are in one.”

  “Marmie?” Drew prompted.

  “Shoulder holsters on four of the six in two. Sonny's not armed. Can't ID the weapon but at least we know it's not a rocket launcher,” she added with almost a hint of sarcasm.

  “Good to know,” Ty interjected.

  “And one?” Drew asked.

  “All four in one are armed.”

  “Guys?” Drew prompted Fawkes and team.


  “They're going in. Getz's men are there. Everyone on the boats is handing over their weapons,” he supplied. “At least the visible ones,” he added.

  “Okay, Fawkes, ready?” Drew prepped.

  “Ready.”

  “Cotter?”

  “Ready.”

  “Good. Fawkes, on your call,” Drew directed.

  Thirty seconds passed and then they heard the call. “Now.”

  Dani's heart pounded in her chest and it wasn't because of Getz. Over the years, she and Drew and their team had taken care of people far worse than Getz in situations far uglier than this idyllic bay in Southern Maine. Not that she didn't have a healthy sense of self-preservation, but this raid was chump change compared to some of the things she'd done in the past. No, the pounding in her chest and anxious energy that was making her jumpy was because of Frey and what he might tell her—what she might learn after all these years.

  From her position in the woods along the driveway, she heard Cotter's men calling out, warning those inside the house that law enforcement was present and that they were being busted. She heard the distant roar of an engine and a single shot followed by the sound of the engine dying and more shots being fired.

  In a crouched run, Dani made her way up the drive, sending a little prayer upward that no one on her team had been hurt by the shots. With Ty at her side, she made her way to the front door, rammed open by Cotter's team moments ago.

  As efficient as she knew Cotter to be, even she was surprised to find a number of Getz's men already gathered in the kitchen, unarmed and flanked by two of Cotter's men and their weapons. Getz's men didn't look like they were interested in putting up too much of a fight and most just stood there, waiting to see what would happen next.

  “Manny? Are we clear?” she asked one of Cotter's men, standing with his gun trained on the group.

  “Clear upstairs, and we got this,” he replied with a jerk of his head toward the men. She nodded and her heart gave a little skip. She would have stayed if he'd needed her help, no question about it, but the fact that he didn't and she was free to continue through the house put her that much closer to Frey.

  Dani moved past the kitchen and recognized the sounds of the helicopter they'd arranged for and the additional police support now arriving up the drive. She ignored both and focused on her next move.

  She and Ty came to the top of a set of stairs that led to the lower part of the house and then down to the boathouse. She called out her name and agency, giving anyone at the bottom a heads up, and then began to make her way down. She glanced out a window and saw Roddy, gun in one hand, unhappy Getz in the other, headed back toward the boathouse. It looked like the man had tried to cut and run. He'd been shot in the knee and, from the look on Roddy's face, Dani could tell Getz was complaining about it. A smile flickered across her face knowing that at least one of the three men they sought was accounted for. She gave another quick scan and saw Cotter skirting his way along the rocks, running with an agility that shouldn't have surprised her, but did. She wondered for a brief second who he was after, but then turned her attention back to her own descent.

  They made their way through the rest of the downstairs, searching for people, knowing a more thorough search for drugs and weapons would follow once the house was secure. Finding no one unaccounted for as they finished the search, Dani's heart rate began to beat a steady pulse. The house was secure, she could hear the police upstairs taking care of the men in the kitchen. There was no one downstairs. Which meant everyone else, including Frey must be in the boathouse.

  Stopping to take a moment to collect herself, she glanced at Ty. Ty who had been at her side almost since she set foot in Maine. He was studying her face and, no doubt, reading her thoughts.

  “Ready, Ella?” he asked. She took a deep breath and then nodded.

  Ty took the lead and called out their entrance before stepping through the open door of the boathouse, gun ready. Dani followed, close on his heels, and took in the scene. Getz was propped up against a wall looking like the condemned man he was. He wasn't shouting or protesting but was huddled, hands tied, leg bandaged, scowling.

  Ten members of the Eagle's Wing group were kneeling in a line, hands tied and silent. There was something eerie about their silence. Getz's silence was that of man who knows it's best not to speak, whereas the militia members' silence had a martyred air to it, like they would almost be happy to die at the hands of the government, if only to prove a point.

  Dani scanned the faces and her eyes came to rest on Sonny Carlyle. She didn't know what she expected, maybe to see a fraction of the grief that had ripped her apart when her parents had been murdered? But whatever it was, it wasn't there. He knelt with his colleagues, staring straight ahead, not acknowledging anything going on around him.

  Despite his look of misplaced pride, Dani felt a wave of sympathy for him. She didn't know what his relationship with Frey was, but she'd bet, hands down, that Sonny had been played.

  She walked in front of the group, measuring her pace, until she stood in front of Sonny. She stared at him and wondered what he was thinking, what he was feeling. She wondered if he'd been close to his father, if he missed him. As if feeling her scrutiny, his eyes flickered up and caught hers. And held.

  And in that moment, Dani knew Sonny had loved his father and that whatever he was doing with the Eagle's Wing wasn't who he really was. That Frey had made him into something he wasn't.

  “Nicholas Frey killed my parents.” She saw the recognition in his eyes. “Gunshot, to the head. I was thirteen. I watched him do it,” she added.

  Sonny opened his mouth, then closed it. She didn't know what he saw in her eyes but his gaze wavered, then turned down.

  “Do you know where he is?” she asked, her heart in her throat. It hadn't escaped her notice that, of all the men under armed guard, Frey was nowhere to be seen. He couldn't have gotten far, not on the peninsula, but she wanted to set her own eyes on him.

  Sonny's eyes darted to the open boathouse doors and then back again. Dani didn't bother following his gaze, whatever was out there, whoever was out there, would have run right into Fawkes, and she knew Fawkes would never let Frey get past him.

  She repeated the question and Sonny's face turned down as a few of the militia members began to shift, warning him against speaking.

  “Has anyone seen Cotter? He hasn't checked in,” Drew entered the boathouse and demanded.

  Dani kept her eyes trained on Sonny who, unlike everyone else who had turned at Drew's entrance, kept his gaze on Dani. Watching her, he let his eyes travel back in the direction they had the first time she'd asked him Frey's location. Realization dawned and she glanced out the door. There was nothing there, no one around, and no sign anyone had been there.

  And then she remembered the flash of Cotter's movement she'd seen earlier. He'd been running along the rocks, toward the mouth of the bay, chasing something. He would have been out of sight of both of the men posted at the entry to the bay. Cotter would have been shielded from view by the rocks on one side and tucked too close to the cliff side on the other.

  “Drew, you need to see this.” Roddy caught the director's attention as the room filled with the backup support. “Ty, come take a look. I haven't seen some of this kind of stuff in years,” he added. As the men moved toward the room behind the heavy door Dani had photographed earlier, she used the whirlwind of activity to make her own escape. She didn't think, she didn't stop, she just left.

  Bolting out the door, following the path she'd seen Cotter on, she ran. Keeping her gun drawn, she forced her sense of panic down. Cotter caught up with him, she told herself over and over again. They couldn't lose him.

  Dani ran, keeping as low as possible as she scrambled over the rocks. She ran until she couldn't run any farther. A big boulder blocked the tip of the bay and, unless she had gear to climb it or gear to swim around it, she wasn't going further. The tide was on its way in but not that fast. Cotter and Frey had co
me this way less than ten minutes earlier. The water would have been lower but still not low enough for them to make it around. Which meant Cotter and Frey were somewhere behind her.

  It didn't make sense. She'd kept her eyes open the whole time and hadn't seen a thing—no cave, no boulders big enough to hide behind. But then again, she remembered the ledge Ty had shown her, maybe she wasn't looking at her surroundings in the right way.

  She began to backtrack, sticking as close to the cliff wall as possible. If there was a cave or hole in the cliffs, it wouldn't be big. It would be small enough to go unnoticed at a casual glance. About a third of the way back, she found something that looked promising. A small crack, not a large entrance, but big enough for a man to slip through. Dani paused and looked. It could go nowhere, which meant she might waste precious time. Or, it could lead her to Frey and Cotter, which would be good, but she was beginning to get a bad feeling about the situation.

  She didn't have a light and didn't like entering a cave, if it was in fact a cave, without one. She'd be a sitting duck while her eyes adjusted to light. If someone were sitting inside, she'd never even know it. On top of that, it wasn't feeling right that Cotter hadn't checked in yet. She had her earpiece in and she would have heard. But she hadn't. And she didn't like it.

  Giving the side of the cliff another quick sweep with her eyes, she decided to bite the bullet, hopefully not literally, and step inside. She turned sideways and scooted in a few feet. It was a tight fit for her, it would have been difficult, though not impossible, for Cotter.