by Desiree Holt
Great. Just fucking great.
She was sitting with her fingers gripping the steering wheel so hard he could see the whites of her knuckles even through the glass. Either she was oblivious to his presence or ignoring him, so he rapped on the window. She jerked up straight, hard, as if she’d been shot. But she kept her eyes focused straight ahead, so he rapped again, wondering if she could grip that wheel any tighter. What the hell was going in there? Who got that tense over a car breakdown?
“Hello?” He didn’t want to shout and scare her half to death, but he couldn’t figure out why she was ignoring him. “Hey! We need to get your car moved before someone rams into it.”
That got her attention. She turned her head and lowered the window a couple of inches. Crap! Were those tears tracks on her cheeks? He wondered if her skin was normally that pale.
“What?”
Oh, great. Another idiot. At least this one wasn’t related to someone they owed a favor to.
“Your car.” He did his best not to growl at her. “It’s blocking the road. You have to move it. What’s wrong with it, anyway?”
When she wet her lips and gripped the wheel again, he began to get the feeling she wasn’t just an idiot but someone with a real problem. He studied her through the window and an itch crawled between his shoulder blades. This woman was in a panic about something, and her obvious fear of him went beyond what she might feel for a stranger on the highway.
Good going, Charlie. You always get the women in distress.
“I…It just conked out. Steam came out from beneath the hood, and I’m not sure I know what to do about it. It won’t start now.”
Charlie swallowed a sigh. “Let me check it out and see if I can figure out what’s wrong. Hit the hood release button.”
For a brief moment he worried she might not know where it was, but again, he didn’t think she was stupid. Just scared. And getting more frightened by the minute, as evidenced by the glances she kept stealing over her shoulder.
“Are you looking for someone?”
“Y-No. No, I’m not.” She wet her lips. “Do you think you can fix the car?”
“Let me check it out.” But one glance under the hood told him this wasn’t a roadside repair job. The motor was a damn mess. This baby needed a tow. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you need to call the garage in Eagle Rock for a tow. This is beyond a quick roadside fix.”
Her face turned whiter than his sheets. “But I can’t— I mean, I don’t—”
Charlie waited, but she just sat there, biting her lip, fear growing in her eyes. He wanted to ask her what the hell was going on, but he was pretty sure she wouldn’t tell him.
He sighed and tugged his phone out of his jeans pocket. “Listen. I know the county sheriff real well. How about if I call him, and he can vouch for me. Then maybe I can get you some help.” He paused. “Whatever kind you need.”
He could see her debating the situation. Again, he wished to hell he knew what she was so frightened of that even calling the sheriff was a problem. Was she running from the law? She sure didn’t appear as if she was, but Charlie well knew that looks often lied.
Then her shoulders slumped. “I guess that would be the smart thing to do. But I’ll call the garage myself. You can go on to wherever you’re going.”
“At least let me push you fully onto the side of the road. Someone’s going to come along and clip you, otherwise.”
“I— Okay. What should I do?”
“Put the gearshift into neutral. I’ll do the rest.”
As soon as she nodded, she raised the window again. He gave a mental shrug, put his muscle into it, and managed to get the car enough off the asphalt so nobody coming by would knock into her. Then he rapped on the window one more time and motioned for her to lower it. Taking a business card from his wallet, he handed it to her.
“You call Sheriff Tate. Ask him about us.” He turned the card over. “That’s my cell number on the back. If you decide you need any kind of help with…whatever, just give me a call.” He paused. “And don’t wait too long to make those calls. This might be peaceful territory, but you never know when trouble can come along.”
“Thank you.” She whispered the words, but the expression on her face was more fear than gratitude. Again, she glanced behind her, checking the road for vehicles.
What the hell?
He cleared his throat. “This is none of my business, but if someone’s out to hurt you, maybe I could—”
“No!” The word was almost a shout. “No, please. I-I’m fine.”
She sure didn’t look fine. He’d have been irritated if not for the sheer panic on her face. He got the feeling she was almost as afraid of him as she was whoever or whatever she was running from. “Okay. I’ll be on my way.”
As he pulled out onto the asphalt and drove toward his house on the other side of Eagle Rock, he couldn’t get the woman out of his mind. That itch between his shoulder blades was stronger, but it was an itch he couldn’t scratch because he had no idea what the fuck was causing it. He just couldn’t get rid of a bad feeling he had about the whole business.
He’d noted her license plate in his cell phone. When he got home, he’d call Hank and ask him to use the setup in the office to do a search. See who it was registered to. Hank might even know the owner. Even though Charlie had also grown up in the area, he didn’t have his finger on everyone’s pulse the way Hank did.
He was barely at the edge of Eagle Rock when his cell rang. The number on the readout was unfamiliar. He hit the button to accept.
“Zero,” he barked.
Silence.
“Hello? Anyone there?”
“Um, is this the man who pushed my car off the road?” The voice was faint and more than nervous. Just plain scared, he’d say. “It says here your name is Charles Zalman. Is that you?”
Did she think he handed out cards with fake identification on them?
“It is. Change your mind?”
He waited through a brief pause, wondering if she’d hung up. What the hell was with her, anyway?
“Yes. Can you come back here right away? I-I think I’m in trouble.”
Of course she was. Besides the obvious signs, did he know anyone who wasn’t?
He pulled out his calm, reassuring tone of voice. “I’ll be right there. Stay in your car with the doors locked like you were. Hang on. I’m on my way.”
But first, he texted the license plate to Hank with a request to see who it was registered to.
There were no cars on the road other than his, so he made a wide U-turn and hit the gas, pushing the speedometer past eighty. He passed a couple of cars coming from the other direction. He wondered if any of them had stopped and how the woman had handled it.
Then he was there, making another wide turn so he could pull up right behind her. He jogged up to the driver’s side of her car, and there went his antennae again. She was still sitting in that same rigid pose, as if relaxing would cause her to fall apart. Her face was even whiter, if that was possible, her hands clenched into fists in her lap. When he rapped on the glass, she jerked as if hit with an electric wire. She opened one hand to lower her window.
“Did you call for a tow?” was the first thing he asked.
She shook her head. “No. I… Just… No.”
“All right.” He swallowed his questions and pulled out his cell. “Let’s take care of that first.”
Charlie felt marginally better when Reggie Forman said he’d head out right away. He stashed his phone and turned back to the woman. “We’ll wait for him, but—”
“Wait for him?” If possible, her face grew even paler. “Can’t we just go?”
Charlie lifted a brow. “Go where? And we have to give him the keys.”
“We could drop them off. I—” She swallowed. “I really want to get out of here.”
She was doing the checking-over-the-shoulder thing again. Yeah, definitely spooked.
“Okay.” He mad
e his voice as low and even as possible. “Come on. Get out of the car and bring the bag in the back seat with you.”
She stepped out of the car and reached for her bag. Her hands trembled so much it almost fell from her fingers. Charlie took it from her, gently, and guided her into his SUV. She couldn’t have been much over five feet and, at the moment, looked extremely fragile. She also had the faint scent of some kind of flowers clinging to her, tantalizing him and making his hormones dance.
Fuck!
“Hold on a sec,” he told her and went back to grab her car keys from the ignition. Then he called Reggie. “He’s okay with us leaving them at the garage,” he told the woman. He said he’s almost here, anyway. Do you have someplace I can take you? Anyone who can provide transportation or whatever?”
She shook her head. “No.” Her voice was so soft he had to strain to hear it.
“Do you know anyone around here?”
She bit her lip then, after a long moment, shook her head. “No one I can go to.”
Wasn’t it just his damn luck? Charlie swallowed a sigh then punched another number on his cell.
“Hank? Hey, it’s Charlie. Yeah, I was headed home but change of plans. I’m bringing a guest to the office. The woman who belongs to the license plate I sent you. She’s spooked by something and has no place to go. Maybe we can help.”
Hank chuckled. “Another stray?”
Charlie ground his teeth. It was a joke among the agents that he drew strays like magnets drew metal. He chose to ignore Hank’s comment.
“We’ll be there in twenty.”
“See you then. Oh, and by the way, something very interesting came in while you were still gone. Something I’ll want you to be part of. This is a Zero specialty.”
“Okay.” A sour taste filled his mouth. Hank’s words meant whatever this was had to do with guns and drugs, two things Charlie had a personal reason to hate.
“You sent him my license plate?”
He felt the fear rolling off the woman next to him in heavy waves. “Professional habit. In our line of work, you learn to check everything about everyone you come in contact with. You never know what might come back to bite you in the ass.”
“And now you’re taking me someplace. I—” She stopped. Let out a breath. “Can you tell me where we’re going? Are you kidnapping me?”
If the situation didn’t have danger written all over it, Charlie might have chuckled.
“Look.” Charlie made his voice as gentle as possible. He had much experience with skittish women, unfortunately. “You said you have no place to go. It’s obvious something’s scared the crap out of you. You saw that card I gave you. Brotherhood Protectors is a group of former special forces military who work to help and protect people. I can assure you we’re all safe. If someone’s after you, there’s not a better group to take care of you. And maybe you’ll feel safe enough to tell us what this is all about. Okay?”
“Okay.” She gave one sharp nod of her head.
“You know my name. How about telling me yours?”
She was silent for so long, he wondered if she would tell him.
“Alix,” she said at last. “With an I.”
“Well, Alix with an I, I’m taking you someplace where you’ll be out of harm’s way. Then maybe you’ll feel safe enough to tell me what’s got you so spooked.”
The Brotherhood Protectors’ office was in the basement of Hank and Sadie’s new house, just outside Eagle Rock. There might even be a couple of other agents there, too, prepping for new assignments. He hoped to hell they didn’t scare the woman beside him. She was strung so tight, he thought almost anything might set her off, and the Protectors could be intimidating.
He wondered just what kind of trouble this woman was in. And how the ever lovin’ hell he’d explain this to Hank.
Chapter Two
Lee Bonner was in a rage. There was no other word to describe his mood. The euphoric satisfaction he’d enjoyed after the meeting and the pleasure of good Cuban cigars had disappeared like smoke when he’d walked through the living room and found the receipt from the spa on the floor. He crumpled it in his hand with such a vicious move that his fingernails dug into his palm. The damning evidence was still frozen on the television screen so of course she’d seen it.
God damn that woman. Just fucking damn.
He strode into the kitchen to get a glass of water, something to cool down his temper.
“Lee?”
He looked up to see Jorge Balboa had followed him.
“Yeah?” Lee was doing his best to get his rage under control.
“Is something the matter?” The man frowned. “I thought we settled everything to our satisfaction.”
Lee frowned. “Not with the feds suddenly taking an interest in us. And how the fucking hell did that happen? We’ve been so careful. Operating the way we do is what’s made us so successful.”
Jorge frowned. “Possibly one of our new partners drew attention to himself?”
“That’s why I wanted this meeting, and why I gave you and Noble a heads up. I wanted to see if any of them would tip his hand.”
“Well, it hasn’t happened. Either they’re all very clever or truly innocent. In which case we still have a hole somewhere. And we only have two more key people to eliminate before the entire West is ours.”
“That’s going to be a touchy situation.” Lee took another moment to gather himself. “I just have a small problem that needs attending to. Give me a moment, and we’ll be all set.”
“Is this a private meeting?” Noble Strickland joined them in the living room.
Lee shook his head. “No. Not at all. Jorge just came to check on me.”
Noble frowned. “Problem?”
“Only needed a break from trying to figure out if any of our newer partners is a mole.”
Better to focus on that than to mention Alix and what she’d seen.
Noble looked at each of them in turn. “You think they could be responsible for this sudden interest in us?”
Jorge shrugged. “It’s a possibility.”
Noble shook his head. “We vetted them from top to bottom. If there’s a plant there, he’s damn fucking good at it.”
“That’s the truth,” Jorge growled then glanced at Lee. “It has taken us a long time to get to this point, mi amigo. A lot of sweat—ours—and a lot of blood—theirs. Only a bit longer and all our competition will be out of circulation, as they say. Provided we are still able to enjoy it.”
Lee had to agree with them. It still amazed him how the three of them had come together at a bar in Helena on a night they just happened to all be there at the same time. They’d known each other already, through business. Lee transported goods for the other two in his commercial trucks. They were doing okay, all of them still a little rough around the edges but working their way up in the world.
The television over the bar that night had been on, showing a news report on the breakup of a drug-and-gun smuggling ring and the arrest of the leaders.
“That’s because they’re fucking stupid,” Noble commented as he took a swallow of beer. “You need a real businessman to run these things. And run it like a real business.”
Jorge laughed. “I suppose you’d do it a lot better.”
“Damn straight. You have to know who to pay off, who to contact, and how to make it appear respectable.” He studied his two friends. “Shit. If I had someone besides myself to count on, I’d put it together and make it work. Why should other people make all that money?”
They might have been joking around at the time, but their new partnership was born of that conversation. They’d taken a year to set everything up, including the network of distributors, the “clients” who wanted large quantities of drugs and guns transported, and the places to house the females until they were auctioned off. They even began to add what Lee liked to call “spare change,” picking up people smuggled over the border from Canada and transporting them to their destinatio
ns.
Now, five years later, they had brought in other people with the right connections and created an operation that ran smooth as silk. Guns, drugs, women, young girls, whatever the buyers wanted, the three of them procured it, and Lee transported it in his vast network of trucks.
The business was lucrative beyond his wildest imagination. As the money flowed in and he expanded his legitimate business, he shed his roughneck image as did the others, and smoothed out the edges. They had all married women who fit their new positions of wealth. Women who legitimized their images. Lee had been the last one to marry, mostly because he hadn’t found a woman he could live with. Jorge and Noble put the pressure on at about the same time Alix walked into his life. Talk about a lucky happenstance.
He’d had the feeling lately, however, that his performance as a loving, attentive husband might have been slipping. Alix—even the name fit the image—showed signs of irritation at his many absences and lack of attention. He’d planned to do something about that, right after this meeting to celebrate their newest level of success and plan their next moves.
This slip of paper blew that out of the water. He had to take care of the situation in a hurry. If the men he was meeting with knew his wife had up and left him, disappeared, he’d be in a shitload of trouble. If he couldn’t handle one woman, what did that say about his ability to handle the logistics of their business?
He turned to Jorge.
“I just need a few minutes to make a couple of calls. Then I’ll arrange for food and drink. Can you do me a favor? Pour everyone some more of that good brandy and toast our new ventures while I handle a couple of things.”
They had slowly added three more men to their very tight group, a lucky move since they arranged for most of the muscle their enterprise needed.
“Of course. If you need anything…” He let the words drift off.
“No, no. Thanks, anyway. I’ll be finished in just a few minutes.”
As soon as the other man left the room, Lee called the spa where Alix had supposedly been staying for the weekend.
“Yeah, hi, this is Lee Bonner. I’m just checking on my wife. She said she might be coming home early, so I wanted to see if she’d left and what time.”
