by Desiree Holt
She gripped the arms of her chair. “How do you know this? Maybe you’re making a mistake.”
Yet, deep down inside, she knew he wasn’t. It would certainly explain the direction their personal relationship was headed, and why it seemed to have evaporated.
“No mistake,” Hank told her. “Your husband is in a deep pile of shit.”
Chapter Three
Lee was doing his best to maintain a calm exterior for the people sitting on the patio with him. Inside, he was a raging maniac. Somehow, someone had ratted on them to the feds.
Not for the first time, he gave thanks for the mole he had in the Denver office of the DEA, someone he paid a lot of money for information. When he, Noble, and Jorge had gone into business together, that was one of the first things he’d ferreted out. Life had taught him there was always someone who could be bought. You just had to know how to find them. When their mole had given them the word that DEA and ATF were joining forces to destroy their lucrative business, he’d nearly had a stroke. Then he’d huddled with his original partners to figure out a way to find out how this had happened and kill it. Prison had never been on their agenda.
At first, he’d thought it might be Alix. He found out less than a month after they were married. Lee knew how to question and where to check, and Alix came up clean. But he was damned determined to find the rat and make an example of him.
He stood at the grill, watching the steaks, a cigar clamped between his teeth, turning things over in his mind. And wishing to fucking hell Frank would call. Lee knew better than to call him. He might be someplace where the ringing of a phone would be a distraction or a dead giveaway. Frank would call. Lee just hoped it was before anything else happened.
What the hell had Alix been doing home from the spa a day early, anyway? He went over everything from the past week in his mind. Okay, so he hadn’t been the most attentive husband. He only got married to get Jorge and Noble off his back. He was used to having several women, using them as they best fit his mood, and never having to get wrapped up in the strings of a relationship. It had suited him for years, from his early days as a trucker to his present situation. But Jorge would have none of it.
“Wives give us respectability,” Jorge kept saying. “Yes, a lot of wealthy men go from woman to woman, which is what you’ve been doing for years. But they are also under a lot of scrutiny. We want that veneer of respectability. It will be worth it.”
Alix did have her good points. She was classy, showed well on his arm, made a good hostess when he needed one, and was no slouch in the sack. But the “relationship” stuff gave him heartburn. And now she’d run off somewhere, knowing who the hell knew what, and could do a ton of damage if she passed along word of what she’d seen on the television screen.
Yes, it might have been dumb of them to leave it up there, but he hadn’t expected anyone at the house other than the six of them. Alix was supposed to be safely tucked away at the spa.
“Hey, how are those steaks coming?” George Asherton hollered, waving his beer.
Lee gave himself a mental shake. “Coming right along. Get yourself another beer, and by the time you take two swallows, the food will be ready.”
Thankfully, Frank had left a salad prepared in the fridge, and Lee had thrown baked potatoes on the grill right after he sent Frank on his errand. Days gone by, he’d had to do it himself, and some things are never forgotten.
He had just turned the steaks over when his cell buzzed in his pocket.
“I gotta take this call, guys. Noble, can you keep an eye on the steaks?”
Noble gave him a searching look but nodded. “Sure thing.”
Inside the kitchen, he closed the sliding door to the patio and accepted Frank’s call.
“Tell me you found her.”
“I wish I could.” Frank sounded disgusted. “We gotta move away from this one-horse burg, Lee. Nobody knows nothing about nothing, but they sure are nosier than shit.”
“What do you mean?”
“I’ve been asking questions just as low-key as you can please,” Frank told him. “Even drank a cup of the diner’s lousy coffee to see if I could pry anything loose from the gossips. Not only didn’t I find out anything, but I also got quizzed in a way so expert we should hire these people. Why did I want to know? Was she okay? She’s real nice when she comes into town. We’d hate for anything to happen to her. You get what I mean?”
“Yeah, unfortunately. You took the other GPS locator with you?”
“Yeah, but it ain’t worth shit out here. I tracked her a little ways out of town then the signal just up and disappeared.”
Lee ground his teeth. “What do you mean, disappeared?”
“Just what I said. It’s like someone swiped a brush over it and erased it.”
“That’s impossible.” He thought for a minute. “What’s out there where you lost it, besides all those ranches?”
“A couple of houses here and there, land owners, not ranchers. Not even anybody we know, and I’ll bet a dime not anyone Alix knows. She never hides anything, right?”
“Right.” At least he’d been sure of that until now. “And there wasn’t anyone at the garage who knew about her car except that it’s there?”
“Reggie says he was coming back from a job, saw it on the highway, and towed it in. Lee, the people in Eagle Rock are like that. They do for each other.”
Or do them in.
“So, Reggie was just doing a neighborly thing, and my wife has disappeared into thin air. Is that what you’re telling me?”
“That’s about it. I’m gonna hang around a while longer, see if I can catch any gossip without appearing too obvious.”
“Keep checking back with me. And see who owns all those ranches. I can check them out.”
“On it.”
Lee shoved the phone back into his pocket. He needed to feed these men, see what he could sniff, out and then get rid of everyone but Jorge and Noble. And maybe them, too. They’d be some damn pissed that he couldn’t control his own wife.
Fuck, fuck, fuck.
*****
Charlie kept his eye on Alix, knowing her stress level had to be through the roof. She rubbed her forehead as if trying to chase the beginning of a headache.
“So, someone tipped the government off about what Lee and his partners are doing?”
Hank nodded. “Yes, they did. After checking out the tip, they put together a task force of agents from Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Drug Enforcement Agency to gather evidence and take them down.”
“And how do you happen to know all this?” she demanded. “Did the government call you up and tell you?”
Hank and Charlie exchanged glances.
“Tell her,” Charlie said. “We need it all on the table right now if we’re going to protect her.”
Alix glanced over. “Protect me?”
Without thinking, he took one of her hands. “Alix, you know you can’t go home, and that Lee is probably scouring the countryside for you right now. We need to get you someplace safe until the feds do their takedown.”
“And when will that be? It could take months. Right?”
Hank shook his head. “No. Not now. You want to know how we got dialed into this?”
“Please.”
“One of the DEA agents on the case is a former SEAL. We were in the teams together. He knows all about the Brotherhood Protectors and got an okay from his boss to call us and ask for our help. We know the area and the land, and we can keep an eye on Lee Bonner while the task force gets ready to move in. Report everything we see.”
Alix was so pale Charlie was afraid she’d faint. “I feel like I’ve stepped into a nightmare,” she whispered.
He looked at Hank. “When are you starting that? And how long do you think it will last?”
“If all goes well, no more than a week. Maybe even just a couple of days if everything comes together. Right now, we’re setting up a tap on his phones. The feds don�
�t want to apply for a warrant and tip their hand, but we can do it with no sweat and, hopefully, sweep up his business partners at the same time. If we’d been ready to go this morning, we might have caught his company and your flight from the house.
“They’ve got people tracking the trucks our inside source told us are getting ready to pick up some goods and transport them. We need to stash you for a week until this is all over.”
“But where? My husband keeps tabs on me and knows this area so well. Where can I go that he won’t find me?”
Charlie could see Alix was getting to the end of her rope.
“We’re done here,” he told Hank. “Look at her. She’s about to pass out from all the stuff you’ve hit her with, not to mention what brought her to this point.”
“Yeah, well. She hasn’t heard the rest of it.”
“The rest of what? What else is there?”
Hank studied her for a moment, as if to reassure himself she wasn’t going to faint or anything like that.
“Here’s the kicker, and if it were me, I’d celebrate.”
“Celebrate what?” Charlie persisted. “Jesus, Hank. Get it out there.”
“Alix, I don’t know how else to say this, but you’re not married to Lee Bonner.”
Shock hit Alix like the slap of cold water. She dug her fingernails into her palms so she wouldn’t pass out.
“What? That can’t be possible? We filled out the application for a marriage license and had a ceremony. Everything.” Breathe, she told herself. Just breathe.
“I don’t know who the person was who married you,” Hank said, “but I can tell you the certificate was never filed. We checked every legal paper with his name on it, and there is no record of this marriage, anywhere.”
“I don’t understand.” Breathe, she told herself again. “I’m not a stupid person, although I seem to have done some very stupid things in the past few months. But I’m pretty sure I know a marriage ceremony, especially one that involves me.”
“Don’t beat yourself up, Alix.” Charlie’s reassuring voice was like a warm blanket. “You had no reason to suspect anything.”
She shook her head. “I should have asked to see the official certificate. I should have asked why we didn’t have anything with my name on it. No credit cards or checks. The only card I have is in my maiden name. Lee said he preferred using cash for everything. Now I can guess why. You can’t know how unbelievably stupid I feel.”
“That puts a new wrinkle in things, however.” Hank glanced at Charlie again. “If he decided to get rid of her, he wouldn’t have the problem of filing a death certificate for his wife.”
“Get rid of me?” Alix caught her breath. “Are you kidding me?”
“Uh-uh.” Hank’s face was dead serious. “Alix, you’ve become a liability. You did the minute you left that spa today. First, because you did something not on the schedule, which would make him suspicious anyway. Then because you can bet he now knows you were in the house and saw the stuff on the television. I’m sure the place has security cameras everywhere that caught you.”
Nausea rolled up into her throat. The cameras. Of course. Only an idiot like her wouldn’t have thought about them. Of course, at the time, she hadn’t been focused on anything except her husband not acting very husbandly.
“He has a state-of-the-art system. He said it’s because we were outside of town and he wanted us to be protected.” She swallowed back the sick feeling. “It sounded so logical at the time.”
“But the situation has changed. Now he does not have any idea what you know and what you might do with the information. And since you aren’t officially married to him, there is nothing preventing you from testifying to what you saw in court.”
“Think about this,” Charlie added. “Except for the few people you’ve met in Eagle Rock, Alix, and whoever you keep in touch with from before, no one even knows there’s a so-called Alix Bonner.”
“Any family?” Hank asked.
Alix shook her head. “Both parents are dead, and I was an only child. Except for one friend, I really shut everyone out while trying to make myself a star in the hospitality business.”
“There you go,” Charlie pointed out. “If you disappeared and anyone asked, he could just say the marriage was a mistake and you’d left for parts unknown. “
If Alix thought what she’d felt before was fear, what gripped her now was real terror. She could disappear off the face of the earth, and no one would even miss her. Except maybe Gina, but what could she do against someone like Lee? It frightened her to realize how little she actually knew about the man she supposedly married.
“We need to stash her,” Hank said again, addressing Charlie.
“Wait.” Alix held up a hand. “I’m sure you don’t do all this for free.” She waved an arm around. “It costs a bunch of bucks for a setup like this. I don’t know what you charge, but I can give you all the cash I’ve got with me, and when it’s safe, I can get more out of my bank account. Just tell me how much. If I don’t have it all, I can figure out a way to get it.”
“Let’s take her to the rental house in the next town.” Charlie went right on as if she hadn’t spoken. “Eagle Rock makes her too accessible.”
“I agree. Another plus is we’ve had people using the house, even for one night, often enough that it won’t look conspicuous.”
Alix stared at them “Did you hear what I said? I need to know how much this is going to cost. Maybe I could find a place myself to hide away.”
“Not happening.” Hank dismissed her objection with two words.
“We don’t always do this for money,” Charlie told her. “Taking down a scumbag like Lee Bonner is payment enough.”
“Besides,” Hank added, “since the feds brought us into it, you’d have shown up on our radar anyway. And once we determined you weren’t involved, part of the whole process would be getting you someplace safe. End of discussion.” Without waiting for her to say anything else, he turned back to Charlie. “We need to assign someone to stay with her until this is over. You got some suggestions?”
“Yeah. One. Me.”
Hank frowned. “You just came off an assignment that turned out to be pretty hairy. You’re slotted for some down time.”
“Listen.” Alix wet her lips. “I’ll be fine by myself if you just put me up somewhere until this is all over. I don’t want to make anyone angry or uncomfortable.”
“No fucking way.”
The two men said the words simultaneously. In any other situation, Alix might have laughed.
“I’m not letting anyone else handle this,” Charlie insisted. “She already knows me.” He grinned at her. “For a whole two hours.” Then the grin disappeared. “It’s my gig. I brought her here, so it’s only natural.”
For the first time since she’d seen those frightening pictures in her house, Alix felt a measure of security. She was still trying to come to terms with all the information they’d given her about Lee, but even without knowing more about these men than she did, she knew she’d be safe with them.
Hank shrugged. “Okay. It’s yours. You’re the best for this kind of stuff, anyway. You can take her in at night, right into the garage, and lock yourselves up in there.”
“Sounds good to me.”
“The house is stocked with fresh food,” Hank told them. “Let’s keep her there at least a couple of nights and see what happens after that. By that time, I’ll have a better assessment of Bonner’s situation and know when the feds will be making their move. Alix, did you take anything with you besides that purse you’re holding when you left the house?”
“My overnight bag from the spa was still in my car. Charlie got it out for me, though.”
“Okay. Charlie, go grab it and bring it here.”
“Is there something wrong with it?” she asked.
“We’ll find out.”
Charlie was back with her suitcase in what seemed like seconds. He and Hank took it along with he
r purse to a table off to one side and dumped out all the contents. Then they began going through the items one by one. Most of the stuff she didn’t mind, but Alix felt uncomfortable about them going through her undies and personal hygiene products.
“Wait a minute.” She hurried over to where they were working. “What’s going on? Why do you need to check my personal stuff?”
Charlie turned and gave her what she supposed was meant to be a reassuring smile.
“We’re checking for bugs,” he explained.
“Bugs? Like cockroaches and things? You certainly won’t find them there.”
He shook his head. “Electronic bugs. Anything that could be implanted so Lee can track you wherever you are.”
Alix sat down in the nearest chair, blood suddenly draining from her head.
“You mean he’s been able to follow me every place I’ve been? Everything I’ve done? He’s tracking me?”
Hank nodded. “I’m sure it was of particular importance whenever he was away on business. He’d be able to tell wherever you were every single minute.”
“Oh, my god!” She was shaking, her adrenaline high with a mixture of anger and fear.
She noticed that as Charlie separated her things on the table, Hank was running a tiny electronic gizmo over each item. Suddenly, it began emitting a series of beeps. The more he moved it around, the more it beeped.
“You found something.” Oh, god. She felt sick.
“Yes.” Hank’s face was set in anger. “I found transmitters in your cosmetics bag, your overnight bag, the heels of your shoes, your purse, your—”
“Stop.” She held up a hand. “That’s enough. I don’t want to hear any more. Do you have any idea how violated I feel?”
“We do.” Charlie put down the belt he was holding. “Here’s what I can tell you. A man like Lee Bonner, who makes most of his living from dirty, illegal businesses, doesn’t trust anyone. Period. Where’s your cell phone?”
