On the Hunt

by SUE FINEMAN

  Dave turned to Kowalski. “Where is the ship headed?”

  “To the other side of the world, where a beautiful blonde will bring an excellent price, especially if she’s a virgin.”

  “Give me five minutes,” said Mia. She rushed out to the restaurant and ordered sandwiches and coffee to go, and then ran upstairs to change clothes and retrieve her gun and a few personal items. She wouldn’t go into another dangerous situation unprepared.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Mia found Dave getting into his SUV with Stipes. As she walked up, he said, “You’re staying here.”

  “The hell I am.”

  “Mia, you can’t come this time. I want you to stay here with Kowalski.” He started the engine and backed out, leaving her standing in the parking lot steaming mad.

  Mia took the take-out bag from the restaurant to her own car. She didn’t need him. She’d work this case her way, without the FBI and most definitely without Dave Montgomery.

  She followed Dave’s car down the winding mountain road. Who in the hell did he think he was, ordering her around? She didn’t work for him. He’d been a little distant since he talked with Greg at the hospital. Had those two come to an agreement about how to handle her? How to keep her safe?

  The more she thought about it, the more she knew that was what had happened. Greg wouldn’t push her to go to Texas as long as Dave kept his distance and kept her out of the action. To hell with them both. She’d go back to her apartment and study the arrest records.

  She’d made a huge mistake getting so close to a man she knew could never love her, one who obviously cared more about his best friend than about her.

  Her mind wasn’t on the traffic when an old red pickup pulled up beside her and bumped the side of her car. Some fancy maneuvering saved her, but the pickup slammed into Dave’s SUV, his wheel caught the gravel on the side of the road, and he lost control. Stunned by the scene playing out in front of her, Mia skidded to a stop and pulled off the road. The pickup kept right on going, and Dave’s car rolled side over side down the steep hill.

  “Noooo,” she screamed, and the sound of her anguished cry filled the car. With shaky hands, she made the 911 call and grabbed the flashlight out of the glove box. She jumped out of the car and slid down the steep hill toward Dave’s car lights. The car had stopped rolling and now rested nearly upright on the side of the hill, with the passenger side tipped against a tree. The wheels on the driver’s side hung a few inches off the ground, and they were still spinning.

  The roof and sides of Dave’s car were smashed in, and the windows had shattered. Both men sat inside with their seatbelts fastened and deflated airbags hung from the dash and steering wheel. She didn’t see any sign of blood, but the men weren’t moving. She reached through the broken window and put her hand on Dave’s neck. His pulse felt strong. “Dave, can you hear me? Come on, wake up. Talk to me.”

  “I’m awake.” He moaned and, without moving his head, glanced at Mia. “Are you real?”

  He remembered her asking him that question when she woke up in the hospital, and she took it as a positive sign. “What hurts? Are you bleeding? Is anything broken?”

  The car rocked slightly. If that tree gave way, the car and both men would tumble on down the steep hill into the ravine, and they wouldn’t make it out alive. Injured or not, she couldn’t wait for the paramedics. She had to get them out of the car. Right now. “Can you move?”

  He pushed on the door. Instead of jamming closed, the lock had popped loose. The bent hinges didn’t want to move, but after a brief struggle, she managed to get the door all the way open. “Slow and easy,” she said.

  Stipes groaned and moved enough to make the tree creak and the car rock. “Don’t move,” she yelled. “Dave, is your pack in the car?”

  “In the back.”

  Mia pulled Dave’s pack through the shattered back window and dug through it until she found climbing rope. Looping one piece through the back axle, she tied it to a tree, and then tied the front axle to another tree. The rope wouldn’t hold it for long, so she had to work quickly.

  “Dave, unfasten your seatbelt. No quick moves. Stipes, are you all right? Anything broken or bleeding?”

  “Nothing significant, but I’d feel a whole lot better if you could find a can opener and get me the hell out of this thing.”

  “Don’t try to go out your door. There’s nothing out there but air and one very overstressed tree.” He’d have to climb up and over Dave’s seat to get out.

  “That’s reassuring.”

  “Mia, stay back,” said Dave.

  “Shut your mouth, Montgomery. I’m in charge of this operation. Can you turn slightly and put your left foot outside the car?”

  Again, the tree creaked, but Dave slowly put his foot on the ground and stepped out of the car. “Okay, Stipes, it’s your turn,” said Dave. “Get your butt out here.”

  Stipes released his seatbelt and leaned over Dave’s seat, pulling himself toward the door. A sharp crack from below the car said the tree had broken, and Mia knew the ropes wouldn’t hold the full weight of the car. One rope started to snap, one strand at a time.

  “Come on, Stipes,” said Dave. “Get the hell out of there.”

  As the first rope snapped, Mia grabbed Stipes’ right arm and Dave grabbed the left one. The second rope snapped and the car began to roll. One sharp jerk and Stipes landed on the ground on top of Mia. The car rolled away and crashed through the trees and brush, until it settled at the bottom of the ravine. The light from the headlights gave an eerie back glow in the darkness before the lights flickered and went out for good.

  Mia couldn’t move with Stipes on top of her, but she didn’t want to push him off and hurt him more.

  “Hey, get off my girl,” said Dave.

  “Go to hell, Montgomery.” Stipes lifted his head and gave Mia a big kiss. “Baby, why don’t you ditch the yuppie and find yourself a real man, like me?”

  “I’m not his girl.” If she was, he would have taken her with him to Seattle.

  Dave grabbed the back of Stipes’ coat and pulled him up and off Mia. “I said back off.”

  Stipes reached for a tree and pulled himself to his feet. Mia played the flashlight over the two men, looking for injuries. Stipes had a cut on the side of his head and his neck bled a little from the seatbelt. He didn’t put any pressure on his right leg. “Did you hurt your leg?”

  “It’s just bruised.”

  A bruise wouldn’t hold this tough guy down. “Can you make it up the hill?”

  Stipes blew out a breath and stared at the steep hill. “I don’t think so. Get out of here, both of you. Call Kowalski to come and get me. I’ll wait right here.”

  Mia knew Dave wouldn’t leave one of his men behind, and she wouldn’t either. Dave’s pack lay on the ground nearby and she had an idea. With a little help from Dave, Stipes slid inside the sleeping bag and Mia zipped him in. She hoped his leg wasn’t broken, but they had a more pressing problem. She’d called 911 nearly twenty minutes ago, and no one had come even though they were only five minutes from town. Someone working with Knight could have taken the 911 call. If so, the bad guys would come back to finish the job. She’d left her car, their only means of transportation, on the road above them, so they’d be easy enough to find. How much time did they have before those men came back?

  Dave grabbed one side of the sleeping bag, and she grabbed the other, and they began the climb to the road, pulling Stipes up the hill behind them. But Stipes was a big man, and the bushes kept snagging on the sleeping bag. It would take another twenty minutes to get him up to the road.

  “Mia, where’s your phone?” asked Dave.

  “In the car. Where’s yours?”

  He waved his hand toward the bottom of the ravine. “Down there with the car.”

  Mia looked down at Stipes. His forehead beaded with sweat. He was in pain. She held up her hand for Dave to stop, and he dropped into a sitting position on the hill. She hunkere
d down beside Stipes and brushed her hand over his forehead. “I have some coffee and pain pills in the car. Maybe I should go—”

  “We don’t have time,” said Dave. “I don’t even have a gun on me. Do you?”

  “It’s...”

  “In the car,” they all said together.

  As lights came down the road toward them, Dave pulled Stipes to the side and into the bushes. Mia ducked into the bushes on the other side of the crushed vegetation where the car had rolled down the hill.

  The red pickup pulled off the road and stopped behind Mia’s car. Where in the hell had she gone? Glancing up toward the road, Dave saw bushes rustle near the top of the hill directly beneath her car.

  “Is that her?” whispered Stipes.

  “If it is, I’ll kill her.” Instead of moving away from the enemy, she’d walked right up to them. It was a gutsy, dangerous move.

  “She’d make a good Marine.”

  “Don’t give her any ideas,” Dave whispered.

  The door opened on the vehicle above them and he heard a man say, “The car with the feds is gone, but where in the hell is the girl?” One of them pulled out a flashlight and played it over the hillside.

  “I’ll bet she’s at the bottom, trying to save lover boy,” the other man said. “We need to finish the job and get the hell out of here.”

  Dave’s heart dropped into his shoes. If those men came down the hill far enough, they’d surely spot him and Stipes, but he couldn’t move Stipes now. The slightest movement could give away their position. If they started shooting, there wasn’t a damn thing he could do to save himself or Stipes. He prayed Mia wouldn’t take unnecessary chances and get herself shot. Stipes made the sign for Dave to get away, but he couldn’t leave one of his agents alone to be killed. What he wouldn’t give for a gun.

  He glanced up toward the road to see the two men slipping and sliding down the hill. Mia crouched beside a big tree about ten feet from the road. As the men moved past her down the hill, she worked her way up to the car. Less than fifty feet separated the two men from Dave and Stipes when Mia opened her car door and the dome light came on, distracting the men. She ducked and one man fired at her. She shot back, a man yelped, and the other one ran into the bushes. Dave crept to the injured man and grabbed his gun. “Keep your mouth shut or I’ll shoot you again,” he whispered, and the man stayed quiet.

  Rolling back into the bushes near Stipes, Dave watched for movement on the hill, but he couldn’t see anything in the dark. The second man didn’t make a sound.

  Seconds later, Mia’s car door slammed and the man shot toward the car, giving away his position. One shot from Dave brought a cry of pain, but sounds of movement said the man wasn’t dead. Dave wanted to check on Mia, but he couldn’t give away his position.

  The engine on the pickup started, drawing more fire from the man on the hill. Dave held his breath and prayed the guy didn’t hit her. She backed up and positioned the truck so the lights pointed to the dark area of the hill where the man hid. Dave took aim and, as the man moved, Dave fired once. The man dropped to the ground and didn’t move again.

  Mia turned off the engine and left the lights on in the pickup. She yelled, “Are they both down?”

  “Yeah. Are you okay?”

  “Yes, what about you and Stipes?”

  “Okay.” It wasn’t entirely true. The accident had wrenched his shoulder and neck, and dragging a big man like Stipes up the damn hill made it worse.

  Dave checked the man he’d shot. No pulse. “Stipes, how you doing over there?”

  “Okay, except for my leg. Hurts like hell.” Stipes wouldn’t admit that unless it was bad. He probably had a broken leg.

  Mia slid down the hill mostly on her behind. “Kowalski is on his way with the paramedics. Apparently my 911 call went astray.”

  The man Mia shot moaned. Mia pointed the flashlight at his face. “Who are you?”

  “None of your fucking business,” he replied, and she recognized his voice.

  “It is very much my business, since you tried to kill me. Dave, this is the man from the strip club. I can’t think of his name right off hand, but I’m sure Kowalski will find out.”

  “The other one is dead,” said Dave.

  “We could kill this one before the others get here. Can I do this one? Pleeease? You got to kill the other one.”

  Stipes said, “Aw, I thought we’d get to torture him first.”

  Mia hunkered down beside the injured man. “Who are you and who do you work for?”

  “Go to hell.”

  “If you want medical help, you’ll answer my questions. If you don’t, we’ll leave you here to die.”

  “All right. I’m Calvin Shaker. I work for Assad.”

  Dave leaned over the injured man. “Who else in Clover Hills is involved besides Knight?”

  “Fred, the bartender. Assad sent him from LA.”

  “That’s all?”

  “All I know about. Fred works for the police sometimes. He took the 911 call.”

  “Where are the girls from Clover Hills?” asked Mia.

  “Hell, I don’t know. Ask Assad. I just do what I’m told.”

  A siren sounded down the road, help on the way. Mia shared a long look with Dave. He held his left arm a little funny and she realized he’d been hurt, but he wouldn’t say anything to her about it. Part of her wanted to hold him and comfort him, and the other part burned that his friendship with Greg meant more to him than his relationship with her.

  Stipes yelled, “Hey, Mia. I’m putting you in for a commendation. You are one hell of a cop, lady.”

  Former cop, she wanted to say. She’d shot a man tonight, and from the amount of blood on the ground around him, he was in bad shape. But she’d saved Dave and Stipes from rolling on down the mountain. Without her, they both would have died.

  Mia’s head pounded, but she couldn’t stop now. The paramedics would take care of Dave and Stipes. “Where do I go and who do I contact in Seattle?”

  “No one,” said Dave. “You’re not going.”

  She said, “Go to hell,” and began climbing the hill to her car. He didn’t have transportation, and if he thought she’d let him take her car, he had another think coming.

  “You idiot,” said Stipes. “What did you do, cook something up with Greg?”

  “Shut up, Stipes. Mind your own damn business.”

  Mia had climbed nearly to the top when the paramedics started down the hill. She pointed to Dave. “Check that one’s neck and shoulders, and the man in the sleeping bag has a broken leg. The one I shot is in the worst condition, and there’s a dead man down there somewhere. Dave will show you where. I’m on my way to Seattle.”

  “The hell you are,” yelled Dave.

  Kowalski came partway down the hill and reached for Mia’s hand, helping her up the last steep stretch. “Am I glad to see you,” she said. “Since Dave and Stipes are both hurt, why don’t you and I go to Seattle together?”

  Kowalski looked past her to Dave, who yelled, “She’s not going anywhere.”

  She looked over her shoulder. “Are you going to stop me?”

  “If I have to.”

  “Nobody needs to go to Seattle,” said Kowalski. “The two men are in custody and the four girls are being debriefed. Meredith Cooper’s parents are on their way to Seattle right now. Initial reports say the girls are unharmed.”

  “Tonya Ayers?” asked Mia.

  Kowalski shook his head. “She’s not with them. The dead girl has been positively identified from hair analysis and dental records. I was with her parents when you called, Mia. Someone needed to tell them before it hit the news.”

  “What about Al and Arnie?” asked Dave.

  “Last seen in Vegas,” said Kowalski.

  “Fred the bartender works for Assad, too,” said Mia. She walked around her car and opened the dented door.

  “Mia, wait for me,” called Dave.

  “Why? You didn’t wait for me.” Sh
e sat in her car, slammed the door, and put the key in the ignition, but she couldn’t go anywhere without him. With her eyes closed, she tried to will her headache away. She’d bumped the back of her head again when they pulled Stipes out of the car.

  She washed a pain pill down with coffee and waited for it to work. Minutes later, Dave opened the passenger door and slid in beside her. He wore a neck brace, and he looked a little pale. Thank God he wasn’t still in that car.

  The ambulance pulled away with Stipes and Shaker. Without a word, she started the engine and followed the ambulance down the mountainside to the regional hospital about ten miles away.

  The doctor stabilized Shaker, and he was airlifted to another hospital, where other FBI agents would take charge of him.

  Mia sat with Stipes while the doctor put his leg in a cast. Stipes lay on the table wearing nothing but his shorts and a hospital gown that looked like a doily on him. He was a bodybuilder like Greg. His muscles glistened in the harsh overhead light, and the table looked puny under his strong body.

  “Don’t shut him out, Mia. Dave may be a pain in the ass at times, but he’s a good guy, and he needs you.”

  “No, I don’t think he does.” Dave hadn’t said a word to her since he’d gotten into her car, and she didn’t know what to say to him. Without giving any consideration to her feelings, he’d made a deal with Greg. She didn’t need another man in her life who couldn’t love her, and she didn’t want to compete with anyone’s friends and family.

  Stipes reached up and wiped a tear off her cheek. “Go check on Dave. Tell him I said if he doesn’t treat you right, it won’t matter that he’s my boss. I’ll punch his lights out.”

  She gave Stipes a gentle kiss on the lips and left the room. Dave sat on an exam table and the neck brace was gone. Pain reflected in his bright blue eyes. He looked over and caught her eye, and the silence between them grew into a wall.

  A doctor nudged her aside and walked in to examine his patient. He pulled the curtain, shutting her out.

  She sat in the waiting room and closed her eyes. Her head throbbed, and the events of the evening played over and over in her mind. Had they hurt Stipes more by pulling him out? What other choice did they have? They didn’t have any trained emergency response people at the scene. Dragging him around had definitely hurt him, but she didn’t regret any of her actions tonight. She’d acted purely on instinct, right down to shooting a man.