Deadly Ties

by Vicki Hinze

  Disappointment hit him hard. He tried to shake it off. Think steel. Of course he was wishing more into this than she intended. Lisa needed to feel safe and secure more than most.

  Have a little faith. Just a little. Ask her.

  Asking her anything would be stupid. He’d be setting himself up to crash and burn.

  Ask her what she means, what she wants.

  The urge burned strong. He tried to squash it, but it wouldn’t go away. Maybe he could earn a little of her love. Not too much, but maybe just a little. That would be enough for a man like him. Any would be more than he deserved.

  Yet the hunger for just a little love spread and seeped into his bones. His mouth went dry, and the muscles in his throat quivered.

  Will you just ask her?

  When she leveled him, it was going to hurt. He stiffened, preparing himself for the impact. “Um, how long will we do this, do you think?” He motioned back and forth between them. “Pass the sand dollar?”

  “That depends.”

  “On what?”

  She gave him an enigmatic smile.

  “Oh, man, she’s got it.” Sam warned Joe. “See, there it is.”

  “There what is?” Nick asked.

  Tim smiled. “The look.”

  “She’s in love with him?” Joe couldn’t believe it, glanced at Tim for confirmation.

  He nodded. “Oh yeah.”

  “Did I tell you or what? Man, I know the look.” Sam sighed. “He’s a goner.”

  Joe crossed his arms. “I got a twenty that says they’re passing that sand dollar back and forth for about fifty years.”

  “If her stepfather doesn’t kill her.”

  The others glared at Nick.

  He shrugged. “I’m just saying.”

  “Twenty, huh?” Tim studied Mark and Lisa for a long moment. “He still thinks he has to earn his way on everything.”

  “That’ll include her heart.” Joe worried his lip with his teeth. “I understand why, but it isn’t going to work.”

  Tim nodded. “ ’Course not. But she’s into him, so I’m predicting he’ll figure it out or she’ll just tell him. Either way, I’m not taking that bet.”

  Peggy Crane cleared her throat. “I know you’re not standing here gambling when we’re about to walk into the chapel.”

  “No ma’am,” Joe said. “No one would take it.”

  She gave him her best straighten-up-right-now look. “Come this way, Joseph.”

  “Joseph,” Nick whispered. “If I were you, I’d make Sam taste-test my tea for a while.”

  Joe nodded. “Yeah, I will.”

  The group filed into the chapel, and, standing in front, Lisa held out her hand. “Come here, Mark. It’s your night too.”

  He took a place at her side and faced the group, hoping his face wasn’t red.

  “Thank you all for coming.” Lisa smiled. “I think we surprised Mark with our joint celebration.”

  “More than I can say,” he admitted. “Thank you all very much.”

  Lisa’s delight bubbled, and then she stilled and sobered. “After we say Mark’s birthday prayer and before we head over to Three Gables, I want to thank you for all you’ve done for me. It’s a blessing to be a part of the tradition, praying for me in practicing medicine. I need God’s wisdom, guidance, and direction.” She let out a nervous little laugh. “He hears all of you in ways I’m not sure He hears me, and I need all the help I can get.”

  Ben stepped forward. “Our prayers and love are always with you both.”

  Lisa and Mark sat in the front pew, and as Ben began to speak, Lisa clasped Mark’s hand, twined their fingers, and held on tight.

  It was the best night of his life. Thank You, Father. You said to be still and wait. To be patient. Well, it’s taken a long time, but You were right. If ever there was a time to ask, tonight was it. Never had he felt more favored.

  Bless her, Lord, in caring for others and herself. Protect her. And, please, please help me keep her and her mother safe. Don’t let me fail either of them.

  He’d never survive killing another woman important in his life.

  7

  K arl Masson shifted in the front seat of his Lexus and tapped his sun visor. Just after six o’clock on a Friday night, and traffic was heavy. It was already dark, and the glare from oncoming headlights was giving him a headache. Half a block up the street, Annie Hauk came out her front door dressed to the nines.

  Dutch had figured she wouldn’t miss Lisa’s party, and unfortunately for Annie he’d been right.

  A man paying to have his wife worked over when she was a respectable woman scraped at Karl’s sense of decency, but the orders came down, and his choices were limited. Follow them or die.

  Since he wasn’t yet ready to die, he’d follow orders—at least until he got rid of Kelly Walker and wasn’t reliant on NINA’s goodwill and protection to stay out of jail. If he went to jail and wasn’t there to care for the kids, Angel would never forgive him.

  He dialed his cell phone, waited.

  On the third ring, the boss answered. “Yes?”

  Raven. “Lone Wolf.” Karl identified himself. “Verification request on Shifter, Target Number Two.”

  “Transfer is complete. Target is approved.”

  Annie Hauk was bought and paid for. That left only one thing. “Authorization code?”

  “Stand by one, Lone Wolf.” A pause, then Raven came back on the line. “Alpha 263891. Target Number Two. Kill order.”

  Karl double-checked the code written on a cigarette butt in his ashtray. It matched. But a kill order? “The client personally requested that, if possible, the target survive.”

  Static filtered through the line, and then finally she responded. “That was not a mutually agreed-to term in the original contract.”

  NINA was huge on sticking to contract terms. No one at headquarters liked unnecessary changes on active missions. Least of all Raven, who had a reputation for ruthlessness that gave even hardliners like Karl the shakes. “Is that an official refusal to comply with the client’s wishes?”

  Another pause. A longer one. “Not yet, no. Was the request made to you firsthand?”

  “Affirmative.”

  “Why does the client want to alter the contract terms? There will be no price reduction.”

  Only Raven would conclude the client wanted a discount on a murder. “He didn’t mention money, ma’am.”

  “What did he mention—specifically?”

  “He’s decided he loves the woman, and if possible he wants her to live. Provided her living doesn’t negatively impact our orders on Target One or in any way hinder the overall mission.”

  “How very kind of him.” Raven’s voice turned to steel. “He should know better.”

  “He does.” Karl pinched the ache at the bridge of his nose and then checked to make sure no neighbors were watching. He didn’t see a soul except Annie. “The problem is, she’s his wife.”

  “Hmm.” Raven paused, then added a sigh. “Well, I guess we can’t expect emotional stability from a man making these types of purchases for his wife, now can we?”

  “I guess not.” Karl waited. Raven alone would make the call, and what it would be Karl wouldn’t hazard a guess. She was just as apt to order Karl to kill both targets and the fickle client. One never knew exactly what to expect from her. That made her effective, mysterious, and dangerous.

  So far no one in NINA knew Raven’s decision-making criteria. Just as no one below Raven knew the full details of any operation. Operatives like Karl knew what he needed to know, when he needed to know it to perform his assigned duties. No more, no less. That made for great security but also for totally unpredictable decisions above and below.

  “It’s imperative that the target be immobilized until the shift is made. If you can do that without killing her, fine. I’ll authorize the contract revision. If you can’t, then kill her. And, Lone Wolf, be warned. If she hampers the shift in any way, she and the client w
on’t be dying alone.”

  Karl broke into a cold sweat. “Understood.”

  “Raven out.”

  Karl hung up the phone. Raven out, all right. And if his judgment proved anything less than perfect, he’d be out too.

  Popping his phone onto its dash mount, he glared out the windshield at Annie walking up the street. He didn’t much care for being threatened, but NINA was NINA. It protected itself above all else, and if push came to shove, to spare herself or NINA, Raven would sacrifice every cleaner and operative in the entire organization in a finger snap.

  Annie was halfway down the street, leaving her cove-front cul-de-sac on foot rather than in her car. Dutch must have taken her keys. The guy was sick in the head, treating his wife as he did. Too bad she’d ended up with him. Her first husband, the do-gooder doctor, really messed her up dying when he did. “Sorry, Annie. You’re a pretty woman, and you make a mean pot roast.”

  He cranked the engine of his car, wishing she didn’t remind him of Angel. Wishing he didn’t know what she’d endured to protect her daughter. His own daughter still missed her mom. Lisa would miss Annie too. With what was to come, much more so and far more often.

  He shook off their similarities. There was no help for it. This was just a job. He didn’t care what happened to their family; he cared about his own.

  “Bottom line is, I can’t risk something going wrong. Raven doesn’t make idle threats. That means it’s you or me.”

  Annie paused to pluck a weed out of the crack on the sidewalk.

  “Don’t worry, Annie. Angel will be there to meet you.”

  The calendar might say it was January, and it might be six o’clock in the evening, but it was still hot and muggy.

  The snowbirds that flocked to the village to winter in the south likely loved the heat, but Annie Harper Hauk had been here through a sweltering summer—all of them, actually, for her whole life—and she needed a cool-weather reprieve.

  She wiped the sweat from her brow, silently seething. The next-door neighbor who spied on her for Dutch had seen her leaving her yard and had the nerve to ask if she needed anything.

  That annoyed her, but no more so than finding a strip of tape on her right rear tire. If she moved the car an inch, Dutch would know it. If she opened the garage door, he would know that too. But she was onto his tricks, and it would take more than silly pieces of tape to catch her. He relied on her weak heart keeping her confined. But when he was gone, she walked every day, inside where she wouldn’t be seen. Lap after lap around the house until she’d walked a mile, and then two. Now she was walking five miles every time he left home, which was most days. She had to be ready for days like today, when she needed the strength to get where she needed to go.

  It was a shame she would be all sticky and sweaty in her delicate peach-and-cream dress when really seeing her daughter for the first time in twelve years, but Lisa wouldn’t mind, and it sure didn’t matter to Annie, though she’d worn the dress for Lisa and it would have been nice if it had remained fresh. Lisa had always loved peach and cream.

  Twelve years of distant and stolen glimpses of her daughter were enough to get Annie through the separation, and for the last three years, thanks to Mark, getting to talk with Lisa on the phone. But all that ended tonight. Tonight Annie would see and talk to Lisa.

  She swallowed hard, her vision blurred. That, not being hot and wilted, mattered. Finally. Finally, she would get to hug her daughter again. Oh, but she’d hung on to that hope for years. And she was a mere hour from realizing it. Thank You, God. Thank You so much.

  Her heart suffered a squeeze. All the years away … missing out on so much in Lisa’s life. Annie had done what she thought she had to do to protect her child, but, oh, she had been so blind. Why in the world hadn’t she trusted God to provide for her? Marrying a man she barely knew. A horrible, horrible man. Tears burned the backs of her eyes and she blinked hard. She would not see Lisa Marie with streaked mascara.

  Annie had made the mistake, and Lisa, her beautiful Lisa, had paid the highest price for it. They both had sacrificed so much—all because Annie had been so afraid of starving that she refused to trust in herself and in God. Regret pumped through her, pounding deep inside, swelling in every nook and cranny.

  She stiffened against it. Why things had to be this way, only the Lord knew. Losing Charles so suddenly and then losing her baby, too, was a lot for one woman to take. But it was less than Job had lost. God saw far more than she did, and He deeply loved them both, so He surely had His reasons. It made sense in her head, though in her heart she still had a hard time day to day, but she learned her lesson. And she grabbed tight and held on to trust enough to get through this.

  One more week and then it’ll be over. She had made it all these years. She could make it one more week, and then finally the healing could begin. She wouldn’t divorce Dutch. That would be an even bigger mistake. The Bible was very clear on the matter, despite what Lisa said. God didn’t want women abused, that Annie had finally come to believe, and it was why she was willing to leave Dutch. But divorce? Never. Never! He would kill Annie and Lisa both. There was no doubt in her mind, and even Mark Taylor couldn’t protect them against a determined Dutch.

  At Highway 98, Annie paused. All the excitement wore her out and her heart raced. On the other side of the highway, hotels and restaurants speckled the sugar-white beach, and beyond the sand was the Gulf. Seas looked three to five feet today. Breaking pretty close in. To her left was the harbor. A lot of the boat slips were empty, and a fleet was lined up waiting to come in through the pass. The harbor was unusually busy for the off-season. Must be having some kind of fishing rodeo or something.

  Her heart calmed after her rest, so she turned right, stepping onto the sidewalk, and saw one of Dutch’s stores. Parched, she debated stopping in to get a cool drink, but no, best not. Someone would surely tell him. A cold drink would be heavenly, but it wasn’t worth the risk. She’d get a drink at the party.

  She could call someone there to come and pick her up, but it was better not to get anyone else involved. Not that they’d mind. Mark, Lisa, Clyde, Nora, Peggy, or Ben would gladly come and get Annie, but if word got back to Dutch that she was at Lisa’s party—and chances were pretty good that it would—then Annie wanted his anger restricted to her. He could be a mean and spiteful man, and he would be to anyone who helped her in any way. She couldn’t deliberately turn him loose on someone else. She alone had made the deal with the devil, and she alone would take the brunt of his worst. That was only right. Besides, she’d endured since the day they had married, and she would endure this last week.

  Then she would never have to endure again.

  The thought had her giddy. Pulling a tissue from her purse, she dabbed at the sweat beading on her brow, sliding down the sides of her face and soaking her throat. Oh, but she was thirsty. She stared back longingly at the storefront but again decided against it. This was a special day, and if she went in there, she’d have to look at those horrible human-trafficking signs Dutch always taped inside the front window.

  A chill raced up her spine, set the roof of her mouth to tingling, and an image of Lisa at seven filled her mind. “God, please don’t let her remember. Please never let her remember.”

  Yet Annie never forgot anything from that dark time. But today was not a day for bad memories. It was a fine, excellent, extraordinary day for Lisa, and that’s all Annie would remember.

  Shoving hard, she buried the bad memories deep and put them under lock and key in a distant place like the therapist had suggested all those years ago. Then she turned her thoughts to Lisa: her courage, her trials, and this fabulous triumph. In spite of everything, with the unstinting support of Susan and Benjamin Brandt and Mark Taylor these last few years, Lisa had reached her dream and become a doctor.

  Pride spread through Annie. Her baby had done it. She’d done it! Charles would have been so proud. And Susan too.

  “Annie,” a man called out.
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br />   She swung toward the voice and saw Karl behind her on the sidewalk. For the life of her, she couldn’t recall his last name. Had she ever heard it?

  “What a surprise.” What was he doing here?

  “I thought that was you.” He smiled and caught up to her. “Why are you walking down the highway? Did your car break down?”

  “My garage door wouldn’t open. I think there’s a short in the opener. How are you, Karl? I haven’t seen you in some time.”

  “Oh, I’m staying busy, like everyone else.” He let his gaze slide down her. “You’re all dolled up. Pretty dress. Going someplace special?”

  “Thank you.” What did she do now? She’d never been any good at lying, and she really hated doing it. But if she told him the truth, he’d burn up the phone lines calling Dutch. “It’s our regular church ladies’ monthly meeting night.” That was true enough, but they had canceled the meeting to attend Lisa’s party. Still, many of the church ladies would be there.

  “Ah, well let me give you a ride. It’s way too hot and dangerous for you to be walking out here on the highway.”

  “I’ve lived here all my life. The village has a very low crime rate. I’m fine.”

  “I insist.” He held out a hand.

  “I’m not stranded.” Annie smiled. “I don’t want to put you to any trouble.” How was she going to get out of this?

  “It’s no trouble at all.” He clasped her arm.

  Out of excuses and backed into a corner, she gave in. Not that she had much choice. The only way to get away from him would be to pull away, and that would be rude.

  Don’t do it, Annie.

  That small, quiet voice inside her sounded loud and clear.

  Something’s not right. Don’t do it.

  “You go on, Karl.” She patted his arm and pulled away. “I missed my treadmill walk this morning. The exercise will do me good—and it’s just a few more blocks.” Spotting his black car on the opposite side of the road, she got inspired. “I’ll be there before you can get your car turned around. But thank you so much for offering.”