by Desiree Holt
“Let’s go.”
Scooping up his cell phone, he grabbed the duffel with one hand, her arm with the other, and raced through the house with her. Dean and Keith were waiting by the back door, holding it open. All four of them dashed through into the backyard just as a loud thunk echoed in the night air followed by the sound of breaking glass and an explosion.
“Grenades,” Keith hollered, looking over his shoulder. “Rocket fired.”
For the second time in as many nights, Zak found himself the target of flaming debris and flying objects. But this time, he couldn’t worry about protecting himself because he had Zoe to think of. His fingers tightening around her wrist like a manacle, he dragged her through the yard, following Dean’s racing figure.
Shots echoed behind them, and he knew it was Keith, laying down covering fire to forestall anyone who might leap out of the van and come after them. At the far corner of the yard, Dean pushed the shrubbery aside until he found a keypad, tapped it, and an invisible gate hidden by the bushes slid open.
Dean was through it before it stopped moving, Zak behind him towing Zoe with him. A dusty SUV was parked in a vacant lot between two houses, nose to the street. Dean lifted his hand, pointed a remote at the vehicle, and the locks snapped open. Zak shoved Zoe into the front seat and told her to keep down, then jumped into the back. In seconds, Keith was beside him, slamming the door shut. In less than ten more seconds, Dean had them rolling.
“Damn, damn, damn,” Zak swore, yanking out his gun.
“Van’s coming around the corner,” Keith reported, shifting to his knees to steady his aim on the back of the seat.
Zak leaned over the back of the seat as Dean slid down the rear window. Two guns bucked as they aimed for the tires on the pursuing vehicle.
“Got ’em,” Keith said with satisfaction as the van began to slew sideways, the right front tire punctured.
Zak shot twice more, getting the other tire, and one of the rear ones as the van continued to slide sideways.
“Push it,” he yelled at Dean. “I don’t want to give them a chance to call in reinforcements. Besides…” He looked around as lights popped on in houses around them. “The cops will be here before long, and we definitely don’t need a conversation with them.”
They all breathed a little easier when at last they hit the Interstate. There wasn’t much traffic to get lost in at that hour, but Dean pulled off and on enough times to assure them they didn’t have a tail.
“Those guys meant serious business,” Keith said, putting a fresh clip in his gun. “Your average crook doesn’t carry grenade launchers around with them.”
Dean caught Zak’s eye in the rearview mirror. “Why do you suppose they waited until now to attack?”
“I’d say they wanted to be sure everyone on the street was in bed, all the lights out, so they didn’t risk being noticed.”
“But we could have moved Miss Lombardo before they got back.”
“You can bet they were someplace keeping an eye on the house,” Zak told him. “They aren’t the kind of people to leave anything to chance.”
“Seeing you arrive was a bonus for them,” Keith pointed out.
Zak speed dialed a number on his cell. “Reno?”
“It’s got to be urgent for you to call me at three in the morning.” Reno Sullivan’s voice was edged with traces of sleep.
“Yeah, sorry to wake you again. I’ll try not to make a habit of it, but we’ve had an…incident tonight.” He summed up what had happened as briefly as possible. “I need a crew out there. Cops are probably all over the place by now, and the fire department, so you’ll have to lie low until they finish.”
“I’ll get a crew on it,” Reno promised. “We just need to manipulate around the crime scene tape.”
“Yeah,” Zak agreed. “I know. But you know we always manage to figure a way around it. Maybe the team you send can find any fragments of the grenades and see where they can lead. Also, someone needs to review the security tapes. I want to know if there’s a visible license plate for the black van. Call me in an hour and let me know where things stand.”
He hung up and raked his fingers through his hair. What an incredible mess. How had he slipped up? What had they done wrong?
“I’m assuming the cameras fed to the hard drive on that computer in the den?” Zoe asked him. “Wouldn’t that all be destroyed in the fire?
“Probably, but we’re set up so everything from the computer also feeds to the office. Someone monitors all that stuff twenty-four/seven.”
“I’m impressed,” she told him in a voice still shaky. “Big time stuff, Zak.”
“Just part of the service, ma’am.” He was doing his best to lighten the mood, without much success.
“They’ll have trouble doing anything with police all over the place,” Keith pointed out.
“Whoever Reno sends will figure it out. They always do. But what I want to know,” he went on, “is how the hell these people found us. We covered all our tracks. We’re the only ones who knew Zoe was here, and we sure didn’t tell anyone. Hardly anyone even knows about this house.”
“Someone at the office?” Keith asked.
“No. Not even Carol. Especially not Carol. Not that I wouldn’t swear by everyone at Guardian anyway, but no. No chance for a leak there. And I know there wasn’t a tail when you drove here this morning, Keith. I made sure I wasn’t followed tonight, too.”
“So did I,” Dean added.
“Then how—”
“Zak?” Zoe’s voice was so low he almost didn’t hear it.
“Yeah, kitten? You okay?” He reached over the back of the seat and squeezed her shoulder. It seemed such an insignificant gesture to him. What he really wanted to do was yank her into the back seat and crush her in his arms. “I thought for sure I had you stashed someplace invisible. Sorry about this.”
Zoe wet her lips and tried to swallow the sudden nausea rolling up from her stomach. She could hardly get the words out, knowing in advance what Zak’s reaction would be.
Idiot, idiot, idiot.
Well, go on. Just blurt it out and get it over with.
“I…I think it was me.”
“What was you? What are you talking about?”
She’d have given anything not to have to confess her incredible stupidity, but she knew she was the problem. Zak was truly going to kill her. “I think they found us through me.”
“That’s crazy. You’ve been with one of us every single minute.”
Just get it out fast. Spit it out. “I—I called my mother.”
The SUV lurched as Dean’s foot slipped on the accelerator, then steadied again.
“Boss,” Keith protested. “She never got away from me. I swear it.” Then he smacked his forehead. “Of course. The damn shower. Great place to hide. Boss, I am so damn sorry.”
When Zak spoke, she heard controlled fury in his tone. “Your mother? You called your mother? Please don’t tell me you used the cell I gave you.”
She nodded silently. He had every right to be mad. She’d be mad, too. Maybe insane with someone who was supposed to be so smart and did something so completely stupid.
Zak rubbed his hand over his face, anger radiating like flames in his body. He wished he wasn’t sitting in the back behind Zoe where he couldn’t see her face. “Pull off this next exit and find a place to stop for a second.”
Silently, Dean did what he was told, and in seconds, Keith was in the front passenger seat and Zoe was in the back.
Zak gripped her arms tightly. “Did I tell you not to use that phone to call anyone except me?” He shook her slightly. “Did I?”
One dip of her head was all she could manage. The rage flowed from him in palpable waves. She wanted to sink through the floorboard and disappear. It wasn’t as if she was unaware of the danger or the apparent intelligence of the people weaving a diabolical frame around her.
“And it didn’t occur to you that both the police and the killers might have a tap on your
mother’s phone?” He lifted his hands from her, as if fearing what he might do and rubbed his face, his eyes avoiding hers.
Zoe’s stomach twisted into a cold knot. “I got off very quickly.”
All the warmth and connection from earlier in the night had disappeared. She felt as chilled as if she’d been trapped in a block of ice. She’d done an incredibly stupid thing, put not only herself, but Zak and his men as well, in jeopardy and violated his trust by doing so. There was nothing he could say that she wasn’t already saying to herself.
Nobody said a word in the long silence that followed. The elephant in the room filled up the vehicle until Zoe could hardly breathe.
Finally, Zak shifted, grabbed her shoulders again and forced her to look at him. “I gave you that cell because it was clean. Unregistered. A throwaway. No one could trace the ownership and the number doesn’t show up anywhere. I thought I made myself clear on that point.” His hand tightened on her chin. “The only way someone could locate it would be if you called a phone they already had a trace on. Did you understand that?”
“Yes.” She wanted to cry, but she refused to give in to the weakness. “I said I’m sorry. I know that isn’t nearly enough, and I know I put us all in danger—”
“Yourself, Zoe,” he ground out. “Forget about us. You put yourself in danger. What you did completely negates all the effort we went to in stashing you away someplace safe.”
“Zak, I—”
“Cell phones can be triangulated,” he went on as if she hadn’t spoken. “Especially if you have one point of origin. And if people are ready and have very good equipment—which, by the way, I’m sure everyone after you does—it can take them less than a minute to get a specific address. We’re just lucky the cops hadn’t yet gotten a warrant to tap your mother’s phone or we’d have had them on our doorstep, too.” He shook his head. “Although, at this point, you might be safer with them after all.”
“Zak, no,” she cried. “You don’t mean that. Anyway, I know all about triangulation, but I—I didn’t realize they could locate the source that quickly.”
She tried to look away, but he refused to let her.
“So what exactly were you thinking?” he demanded.
“I wasn’t,” she admitted. “I knew when I did it, I was being stupid. But Zak, my mother is so upset. She’s so worried. I had to let her know I was okay.”
“Listen to me. This may sound harsh, but forget your mother. She has Ivan and the rest of the Demoffs to take care of her. She’ll be ten times safer than you are. You can not afford to worry about anyone but yourself. Do. You. Understand?”
She wrenched her head away. “Yes.”
She used her own anger to cover her shame at her stupidity and the awful realization of what had happened because of it. For a smart person, she was really dumb. Zak was right. Given a choice, her mother would have preferred not to hear from her rather than have her do what she did.
“Yes, I understand. It was dumb and idiotic, and I’m a lot smarter than that. I let my emotions and my concern for my mother get the best of me. It won’t happen again.” She turned back to look him in the eye. “For any reason.”
And I hope you got the meaning behind that message, Zachariah Delaney. Tonight should never have happened. That’s clear now.
“Damn straight it won’t.” He leaned forward and tapped Dean on the shoulder. “We have work to do, but first I need to stash Zoe someplace where she’ll really be out of danger. Call Marty. Tell him to get himself together ASAP, then head for the airport.” He leaned back in his seat.
Zoe knew she should keep her mouth shut, but since she’d never been able to do so before, she didn’t think she’d be starting any time soon.
“Where are we going?” she asked. Where could they take her now? She didn’t think Guardian Security would be anxious to put another of their safe houses at risk.
Zak gave her a piercing look. “Someplace where all you’ll have to worry about are cowboys and Indians.”
****
They drove down a narrow road to a private airfield surrounded by a high fence. Zoe was convinced that, if someone didn’t know where they were going, the facility would be impossible to find.
“Why all the secrecy?” she asked as she climbed out of the SUV. “And a location so far out of the way?”
“We need the privacy and security.” His words were short, clipped. It was obvious he was still angry with her. “A lot of our clients need to come and go without eyes on them. Also, I need the same situation for some of my teams I send out on special assignments.”
Yes, being part of Guardian Security had taken Zak a long way from where he’d been. Maybe even beyond what Zak expected, although his own company had been nothing to sneeze at.
A sleek black helicopter that bore the legend Guardian Security was waiting on the tarmac at the front of a private hangar. Zoe had never flown in one, and she wasn’t sure she wanted to this time, especially taking off while it was still dark. However, it didn’t seem she had a choice. Zak literally dragged her across the pad and handed her into the helicopter, throwing the duffel in behind her.
A broad-shouldered man in the pilot’s seat with headphones on nodded at Zak. “We’re cleared to go.”
“Good. Give me a minute.” Zak stood by the SUV talking briefly with Dean and Keith, then he climbed into the copilot’s seat and shut the door. The whine of the rotors starting cut through the air, and in seconds, they began slipping off to the west, the ground falling away below them. Zoe took one look through the window at the SUV and saw it pulling away, then tried to get comfortable in her seat.
Zak turned around and shouted, “Where’s the cell phone? The one you called your mother on?”
“In the duffel.” She pointed behind her.
“Can you reach it?”
She nodded.
“Get it and give it to me.”
She maneuvered enough to reach the bag and fish out the phone. When she handed it to Zak, he took it apart, cracked the window in his door just enough and pushed the pieces through. Well, no one would be able to trace it now, she thought, still feeling sick at what she’d done.
Trying to distract herself, she stared out the small window beside her at the lights of San Antonio getting smaller and smaller. Soon there were sparse stretches of black nothingness broken just briefly by small clusters of lights or sometimes a lone spotlight. She knew from the direction in which they’d taken off and the stretches of emptiness that they were flying over the Hill Country, a landscape of pastures, miniature mountains, and thousands of acres of hay.
She’d traveled through it plenty of times taking the famous Texas Wine Trail tour, wandering through the antique shops in the little towns, and driving past thriving cattle, sheep, and goat ranches. Each time she’d enjoyed herself, discovering new places. She didn’t think she’d be doing much sightseeing now. She’d be lucky if Zak didn’t chain her up in a closet.
Nausea at what she’d done rose in her throat. The situation at Nate’s and the explosion at her house should have been enough warning for her that she was way out of her league. By waking up too soon in Nate’s house, she had become a liability to whoever killed Nate. They would do whatever they needed to get rid of her and leave no trace. To the police, she would be another fugitive on the run. They might shoot first and ask questions later.
Zak was right. Uncle Ivan would take care of Mama. She had to take care of herself and, at the same time, not endanger the people kind enough to help her with that.
When they got to wherever they were going, she’d knuckle down with the laptop. See if she could figure out what was going on with the simulations and go through the information on Caz and Max again. She wasn’t brainless. Computer software—writing it and exploring it—was her area of expertise. Somehow, she’d find answers for Zak. Maybe she could find a way to redeem herself.
The helicopter dropped, and Zoe’s stomach dipped with it. The gray light of dawn was fina
lly spreading over the landscape, and she squinted to see what was below. They appeared to be arriving at a ranch with a low single-story house, a cluster of buildings to the left, and pasture stretching off to the horizon and the distant hills.
They landed in a clearing next to the house, and Zak was out the moment the skids touched land. A man in jeans and a denim shirt came running toward the helicopter, spoke to Zak, then reached to help Zoe step out. Bending low to avoid the rotor wash, Zak leaned in to take the duffel bag, slammed the door, and the helicopter took off.
A light breeze tickled Zoe’s face, and from the barns, she could hear the faint neighing of horses and stamping of hooves. She didn’t see any cattle, but they could be in a distant pasture. She wondered exactly how big an operation the ranch was and who it belonged to. Was she putting yet another person in danger?
“Let’s go.” Zak’s voice was flat. Uninflected.
He had come up beside her, his footfalls covered by the sound of the helicopter. His fingers felt like bands of steel as he wrapped them around her upper arm and pulled her toward the house. The other man jogged ahead of them, opening the side door to let them in.
Zak led her into a small den and pointed to a chair. “Sit.” He turned to the man with them. “Frank, this doesn’t fall under your job description, but do you think you could put on a pot of coffee? We’re sort of sleep deprived, and we still have a lot to do.”
“No problem. Just give me a sec.”
When the man had left the room, Zoe looked at Zak, her fists clenched. “I know you are hugely ticked off at me and with good reason, but will you at least tell me where we are?”
Zak was at the desk, booting up a computer, and answered without looking at her. “My ranch.”
She was sure her jaw had dropped so much it would hit the floor. “Your ranch? Since when do you have a ranch?”
“Since last year,” he told her, his fingers busy on the keyboard. “Can you just sit there quietly for a minute, please?”
Oh, yeah. He was well and truly pissed at her. She thought of a hundred smart answers and wisely swallowed them.
When the printer began spitting out paper, he turned to her, legs stretched out, fingers laced together over his belt buckle. “I bought the ranch last year so I’d have some place to get away from things. It had a small, thriving cattle operation, and I’ve expanded it some.”
