Facing Home (The Clover Series Book 4)

by Danielle Stewart

“I go left, you go right. Let’s try to keep one of them alive.” I let her see the look of desperation on my face, just for a flash.

  We’re on our feet and splitting up as we round the corner of the SUV. One man, bald-headed and dressed in a suit, raises his gun and, despite Maggie’s orders for him to drop it, he sends off a round that nearly hits her. She shoots him directly between the eyes. At the sight of this, the last man drops his gun and sends his hands high into the air in surrender. I’m on top of him in a flash. I flip him over and secure his arms as I hear the charging footsteps of the tactical team around us. Maggie is kicking the weapons out of reach even though the remaining men are dead.

  “Check the SUV,” I beg her, and as the rest of the team approaches she does. Thirty seconds later she’s hopping out with a somber look on her face. The only thing worse than Jordan not being in there would be if she was but not letting off any heat to be picked up by the infrared scopes. She’d be dead.

  “Clear,” Maggie tells the tactical team and then turns toward me. “She’s not in there.”

  I grab the man by the collar, lift him, and then slam him down. “Where is she?”

  “Go to hell,” he shouts back as he spits out the dirt that’s just been crammed into his mouth. “Arrest me, I don’t give a shit.”

  I pull my weapon and press it to his head. “I’m not a cop. I’m her fiancé. Tell me where she is or I will give you a matching hole in your head.” I gesture over to his dead buddy lying next to us.

  Two of the tactical operations team members point their weapons at me but Maggie orders them down. “Let him do it,” she shouts and the man looks up at her like she’s crazy. Like we’re all crazy.

  As the men lower their guns I cock mine so that he knows I’m serious. At this point, I really am. “Wes has her. He was keeping her alive for his own reasons. I don’t know what.”

  “Where is he?” I shout, slamming him down into the ground again.

  “I don’t know. He said he’d be close. He was watching to make sure we got the job done.” I release the man and get to my feet, looking around to see where he’d be most likely to have positioned himself. The tactical team had been in place prior to the meeting and they had the best line of sites covered.

  “You guys didn’t see anyone else pull in here or in the surrounding areas?” I ask one of them as I try to think frantically of what to do next. The phone in the dead man’s pocket starts to ring and I lunge for it.

  I connect the call but don’t say a word. I don’t need to because the man on the other end of the line is already talking. “Nice show you put on. I knew she tipped you off. Now you’ll never get her back.”

  “She didn’t tip us off. When the meeting site changed I knew something was up. Then she wasn’t answering her phone.” Jordan is at this man’s mercy and I’ll be damned if my actions will cause her to be punished. “Just tell me what you want.”

  “You’re about to expose me as a corrupt federal official. The only thing I want now is to get the hell out of here, which I’m well on my way to doing.”

  “I can still bury this. Meet with me, let her go, and we can make sure this thing never sees the light of day.”

  “I believe you’d be willing to do that, but any agency you had with you there shooting my guys today won’t be willing to trade her. To them she’s not worth it.”

  “Then take me instead. Trade her for me.”

  “Yeah, I’m going to trade her for the guy who was taking out my men from underneath a car. No thanks. Plus, I can have fun with her; I’m not really interested in having fun with you.”

  A few things run quickly through my mind. He can’t be far if he saw everything that went down just now. Two, Jordan is still alive. And three, if I catch this man it’s going to take every ounce of my willpower not to kill him. I turn as Maggie pulls on my arm and mouths silently to me that they’re tracing the call and I should stall.

  “Is that the only way a guy like you ends up with a girl like Jordan? You have to kidnap her?” I don’t have to work hard to let the seething anger I’m feeling come through in my voice.

  “Oh please, she’s not worth the trouble. Especially now that she’s not so pretty anymore. I made sure of that. Her looks were all she had going for her.”

  “If you lay another finger on her I’ll hurt you in ways you never knew existed. This is your last chance to change your mind. Otherwise this day will end with me staring you in the eye as I steal the last breath from your body. There’ll be nowhere you can hide from me.”

  “Tough guy, huh? Good luck finding me. I’ve known for some time this thing could blow up. I’d be an idiot not to have an exit strategy. When I’m done with her I’ll make sure to leave her body somewhere you can find it. That is, if anyone can recognize her.”

  I start cursing as my fist clamps down tight over the phone and I hear Wes disconnect the line.

  “We got a hit,” Maggie says, pulling up the GPS signal that’s just been sent to her phone. He’s about four miles from here. He’s heading north.”

  “Want to come for a ride?” I ask Maggie as I holster my weapon and pull the man on the ground to his feet. He’s got a bullet wound in his knee and he cries out in pain as I lift him. “Shut up,” I bark at him as I slam him against the SUV.

  “Absolutely,” she replies as she pulls the keys from her pocket. “Just let me update the Tac Ops team. I’ll have my team keep tracking the cell phone and, as long as he doesn’t ditch it, we should have a line on him.”

  “I’m sure he will ditch it. Get the car and I’ll be there in a minute.” I grab the wounded man by the throat and pull him forward toward the dumpsters in the corner of the parking lot.

  “What’s he doing?” one of the tactical guys asks Maggie, but she waves him off. “He’s got this under control,” she assures them as she jogs toward the car.

  When the man starts to fight me, I spin his body so I have him in a headlock and I’m dragging him, his feet trying unsuccessfully to dig into the pavement.

  When we’re behind the dumpsters I slam his body to the ground and come down hard with my knee to his chest until I feel a hard puff of air forced out of him. “What’s his plan?” I demand, and when the man doesn’t answer I pull my weapon and dig the barrel into his temple. “I will kill you. You aren’t worth anything to me unless you can help me find her. So you chose, live or die?”

  “You’re not going to kill me,” he snipes back as he tries again to get out from under my grip.

  “I have killed so many men before you. I have the stomach for it if that’s what you’re worried about. Out here, behind this dumpster, it’s just you and me and I’ll make sure I tell a damn good story of why I had to stick this gun in your mouth and blow your brains out of the back of your head. I doubt they’ll question me at all. Not for a shithead like you.”

  When he doesn’t answer again, I pry open his mouth and jam the gun inside, smashing it against his teeth. “Last chance.”

  “Okay,” I hear him try to say from around the metal of the gun. When I pull it out he starts talking. “He’s got an uncle with some property near the Canadian border. He knows a way to cross without having to hit any of the checkpoints. But he has to go in the morning. He’s got it timed against different patrols. So if he’s headed there now he’ll have to stay in the cabin for the night. The town’s called Bleacher or something.”

  I stand and kick my sneakered foot into the side of his ribs. I’m missing my combat boots. Maggie is over my shoulder a moment later.

  “He ditched the phone. Did you get anything out of this guy?”

  “Yes, I know where they’re going but we need to hurry.” I lean down again next to the man on the ground and whisper, “If she’s dead, I will find you and I will kill you with my bare hands. No jail cell will keep you safe from me.”

  “He drives a black Mercedes that’s not registered to him. I don’t know the plate number but it’s registered under a dummy company of his. Energi
st. There are only two vehicles. This SUV and his.” Funny how the man can’t seem to tell me enough now that he knows his life hangs in the balance.

  “What do you want to do for backup?” Maggie asks as she grabs her radio and readies to ask for more men.

  “He’s heading toward Canada. Put a BOLO on his car. This asshole says the name of the town is Bleacher or something. His uncle owns property up there so see if your team can track the address down and get it to us.”

  “What about more men? This team will need to be debriefed but with Bill’s approval there can be another team on the road within an hour.”

  “Have him do it, but we’re not waiting for them.”

  Maggie and I run toward the car as she calls out orders for someone to restrain the man behind the dumpsters and bring him in. I hear someone calling my name but I don’t want to slow down. It isn’t until Jonah is right on my heels that I give in.

  “What?” I ask breathlessly through gritted teeth. “Why are you here?”

  “Let them handle this, Click. Look at them; they’re prepared. You can’t go after her like this. It’s too personal and you’ve got too much on your mind. I can’t let you go.” He makes eyes at me as though he’s speaking a code no one can decipher. I know he’s talking about the PTSD, but I don’t care.

  “You’re supposed to be under agent protection somewhere. Who brought you here?” I’m too pissed now to sort out who I’m angriest at, so I just direct it all toward Jonah.

  “They told me what happened. That Jordan wasn’t here and I told them I needed to talk to you. That it was important, so one of the agents brought me.”

  “Jonah, I will knock you out if I have to. Look me in the eye—you know I’m serious. Our family needs you right now, but Jordan needs me.” With a laser beam stare I finally get Jonah to back up a couple steps while I hop in the driver’s seat and Maggie rides shotgun. “You’re my just in case, Jonah. You’re the guy that makes it easy for me to leave because I know they’ll be all right as long as you’re around.” I close the car door and speed off as I see Jonah drop his tired head in surrender. Whether he believes me or not, it really is, and always has been, easier leaving when I know he’s there to take care of my family. I’ll never be able to thank him enough for that.

  “At least she’s still alive,” Maggie states as she pulls the high heel shoes from her feet. “Thanks for not killing that guy behind the dumpster. I was sticking my neck out for you when I told them to let you go.”

  “To be honest, the only thing that kept me from killing him was he told me what I needed to know. Otherwise you’d be cursing and cuffing me rather than thanking me right now.”

  “I joined the force when I was nineteen because my boyfriend and I were robbed coming out of a movie and he was shot and killed.” Maggie pulls her hair out of the tight bun and shimmies out of the suit jacket. “If you’d have killed him, I’d still have let you go try to find her.”

  Chapter Twenty-Six

  Jordan

  I know Wes was talking to Click on the phone, but I didn’t make a sound. Wes had already told him I was alive and I don’t know where we are going since I’m blindfolded, so nothing I could have said would have helped him find us. Plus, I don’t want my screams for help to be the last words Click hears from me.

  Maybe I’m defeated because I’m not even trying to think of a plan to get away at the moment. I’m in too much pain to even consider what it would take to be free of him. Not to mention I have no clue where we are. I shift uncomfortably in my seat as the ache in my side grows unbearable.

  “You brought that on yourself. Your damn boyfriend shot every single one of my men dead. Now I’m stuck doing this by myself.” He’s grumbling, acting like he’s talking to himself, but I know he’s trying to get me to respond. My gut tells me to lash out at him verbally but I’m trying to think less like me and more like Click. What would he tell me to do in this moment? He’d want me to hear the clues. To try to understand Wes and what motivates him. I know how to do that. It was my job with clients for years. He’s still talking about something when I realize what kind of guy dates a bunch of girls at once. What kind of guy surrounds himself with a bunch of men to help carry out his plans. He’s complaining in a worrisome voice about having to do this alone. And with that I see my angle.

  “Do you know why I never called you back when we were dating?” I ask, cutting into his words.

  “You didn’t think I was the right guy for you. I wasn’t making enough money and didn’t have enough power to get your attention.”

  “That’s not it. I thought you were great at your job and very successful. It’s because I found out you were seeing those other girls and it broke my heart. I thought we had something and it hurt that it meant less to you than it did to me.” I’m making my voice small and more passive than usual which is intentional, but the way I jump when he yells back at me is completely genuine.

  “Bullshit. I don’t believe you.”

  “It doesn’t really matter at this point if you believe me or not. It’s not like there is a future for us or anything. This situation is too messed up for that. I just thought you should know the truth. You were the longest relationship I’d had up until then. You understood me.”

  “I did,” he agrees then changes his tone to an angry one. “Your boyfriend wouldn’t be too happy about this conversation.”

  “We’re really different people, he and I. He doesn’t know what it’s like to stand in front of all your peers and find that one game-changer deal. He doesn’t understand the adrenaline that comes from uncovering the one thing everyone else has overlooked. I miss it so much.” I raise my taped hands and scratch at the blindfold as if it’s extremely uncomfortable and Wes suddenly yanks it off my face.

  “Then why are you with him?” Wes sounds incredibly guarded, but I can hear him begin to crack slightly.

  “I was trying to convince myself I could be someone I’m not. At the end of the day, whether it was morally correct or not, I loved what I did for a living. I was damn good at it.” I bring my taped hands to my face and try to move my hair aside but it’s too soaked in drying blood to be tamed. “I just felt like you not only understood that but you actually liked that part of me.”

  “I’d never seen anyone work the way you did. I thought you were so far out of my league. Like you saw me as just a chump who was toeing the line and being a good guy. That’s why I was dating those other girls. I knew you’d call it off, and I wanted to look like I didn’t give a shit.”

  “But you did?” I ask, trying to look hopeful and sincere.

  “It doesn’t matter now. Like you said, there’s no future for us.” I can see him glancing over at me from the corner of his eye, waiting for my reaction to that leading statement.

  “Ouch,” I groan as I touch the open cut above my eye.

  “I wish you hadn’t tried to get away. It’s not like I enjoyed doing that to you.”

  “I know that. You’re not that kind of guy. I didn’t give you much choice. I was just scared. But can I tell you something?” With every word I speak the tension is slowly releasing from his shoulders. His grip on the steering wheel is loosening, and I know I’m on to something. He shrugs as an answer to my question, so I continue. “As bad as all of this is right now, there’s actually a part of me that’s relieved to be in a car heading away from there. Away from him. I was feeling so trapped and suffocated and, even though these circumstances are all screwed up, I still feel like maybe I’m meant to be here.”

  “Really? You can’t mean that.”

  “I shouldn’t have said it. Maybe I’m not thinking straight. It’s not like we could do this together or anything. I mean, you have your plan, and I’m certainly not in that equation. I’m just confused I guess.” I let out a heavy sigh and sniffle a bit.

  “You’d try to get away the first chance you got.”

  “You were just on the phone with my boyfriend, and I didn’t say a word to let him
know I was even here. I could have screamed or tried to tell him something, but I didn’t.”

  “So what? You’d just come with me and then what?”

  “Start over? I don’t know.”

  “Prove it.” He scrutinizes my battered face.

  “I can help you. I know how they’ll try to find you, and I can keep us from getting caught.”

  “I’ve got that under control.”

  “Just hear me out. Where are you going? What’s your plan?”

  He looks at me while a battle of conflict rages behind his eyes. “I’m headed to the border. Once I cross over into Canada I’ve got ways to disappear.”

  “At this rate you’ll never make it to Canada. We need to switch cars. Every cop on the east coast will have your picture and this car up on their screens by now.”

  “This car isn’t registered to me. I’ve got a dummy company for this stuff. They won’t be able to track it.”

  “When you pulled me in the car and I was yelling, I’m sure someone grabbed the plate and eventually they’ll make the connection. Plus, the SUV you had me in first, the one your guys took and left at that meeting, was it registered through the same dummy company?”

  I see a flash of panic buzz across his face before he answers. “Yes.”

  “Then they already know about this car, and I’m telling you someone will spot it. We need to get off the main highway and switch vehicles.” I’m not thinking this will be my chance to get away. I’m just considering how to stay alive long enough for Click to find me. That’s my job.

  “But . . . I . . .” Wes stutters nervously. “Where are we going to get another car?”

  “Pull into a mall,” I say, shifting again in my seat as I groan in pain. “I’ll distract the person and you take the car. We need something that won’t link right back to us.”

  “You’ll just bolt. You’re looking for a way to run. I’m not a fool.” His voice is sharp as nails and I have to force myself to breathe so I can speak.

  “You’re not a fool,” I assure him as I reach my hand over to his forearm and touch it gently. “I promise I won’t run.” Wes got involved with the bad guys because he was overlooked in life and in business. His bravado is a shield, masking an enormous amount of loneliness and insecurity. He began to think the only way he’d get ahead is if he crossed these lines.