by Desiree Holt
They were back in the vehicle, each with a large black coffee, when Charlie’s cell phone rang. He checked the screen on the dash. ,. He pressed the button on the steering wheel to answer.
“Where do we stand?” he asked without any greeting. But then, he and Hank didn’t need one. “And before you say anything, I’ve got you on speaker, and Alix is right here next to me.”
“Good. She’ll want to hear this, anyway. Two dead at the so-called safe house. Them, not us. Three that we scooped up who may be part of this whole system under investigation so I called my friendly neighborhood fed in Colorado. We’re transporting them to the local sheriff, and the feds will pick them up from there. All part of this package they’ve got under investigation.”
“But someone got away,” Charlie guessed.
“Yeah.” Hank sounded disgusted. “He’s probably hightailing it back to Lee Bonner as we speak.”
“That actually might be good,” Charlie said. “Let him know we don’t mess around. He can think we let one loose to carry the tale back to him.”
“I’ve got three of our boys keeping tabs on Bonner. Word is he’s got shipments about ready to move. And the people he does business with don’t like it if their schedules aren’t met.”
“So, what are you planning to do?”
“We just got another report from whoever is feeding the information with the times and places of those shipments. We got the tap on Bonner’s phones. Even if they can’t be sued in court, they’ll help the feds make their case. I’d say they’re getting close to wrapping this up. Alix, you probably picked the best weekend to want out of this situation. No telling what you’d be caught up in with all that’s going on.”
“I keep thinking that.” She sipped her coffee. “It was my lucky day when Charlie stopped on the road to help me.”
“True that,” Hank agreed. “Charlie, you keep her out of sight and safe until this is over with. And don’t tell me where you’re taking her.”
“No worries there. Just keep in touch.”
“Of course.”
Charlie disconnected the call and glanced over at Alix. “You doing okay?”
She gave a rough little laugh. “Oh, yes, as good as I can, what with finding out the man I’m not married to is the scum of the earth and about to wind up in federal prison. And that he’d easily kill me to get rid of me and save himself.”
“Actually…” Charlie wasn’t sure if he should tell her this, but she had a right to know. “I think he wanted to hang on to you and use you as a bargaining chip. By now, he knows what’s up with the feds, and he needs a way out of here.”
Alix just shook her head. “This whole thing just gets worse and worse. I feel like I should jump in a hole and pull the dirt over my head.” She took another swallow of coffee.
Charlie actually smiled. “I have it on good authority hole jumping isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.”
“Oh? Have you tried it yourself?”
“You might say. We can debate the merits when we get where we’re going.”
“And just where would that be?” She stared out the windshield. “Are we in the mountains?”
“Close enough. We’re going to my cabin. I promise you no one will find us there.”
*****
“Is everyone around me just fucking stupid?”
Lee was in another of his rages. Everyone had left except Jorge and Noble, and both of them were keeping silent. Especially Jorge, since it was his men who were part of the clusterfuck they’d just gotten a report on. He had bitched at first about his men being killed or captured, but Lee had shut him up with a reality check.
“Lee.” Noble cleared his throat. “Calm down a little. I’m guessing it was beyond their control.”
Lee looked at Jorge. “You assured me your men were experienced at this. That it was just a simple snatch and grab, and there was only one man to deal with.”
“Don’t put that on me,” Jorge objected. “Your man is the one who gave us the information.”
“He’s right,” Noble agreed. “Where the hell is Frank, anyway?”
Lee ground his teeth. Frank was supposedly checking out the aftermath of the situation. Finding out who the men were that took Jorge’s people, and where they had come from. And grabbing Alix to bring her back to him.
“And what do you hear about this thing with the feds?” Noble pressed. “We could all be out of business and on our way to a federal prison if we can’t find a way to save our asses.”
“I’m waiting on word, now,” Lee assured him. “The last I heard it might be as soon as the next twenty-four hours. At least my tipster in the DEA office is reliable, which is more than I can say for almost everyone else involved in this clusterfuck. And I am waiting for delivery of my bargaining chip.”
“If we don’t get those shipments out,” Jorge pointed out, “we might not even make it to prison. If you’re into praying, now would be a good time.”
“Are we satisfied that our new partners aren’t involved in any of that shit?” Noble bit off the end of a cigar and spat it into an ashtray. They had moved from the patio into Lee’s den as night fell and the air chilled.
Lee nodded. “I think we can safely say they’re clear. Besides, the way my tipster tells it now, the investigation began before we brought them in. I was just making sure today.”
At that moment, his cell phone rang, and he snatched it off the desk.
“Frank? It’s about fucking time you called. Where the hell are you? And what the fuck is going on?”
“I’m trying to keep a low profile here, Lee,” the man told him. “I wanted to find out who the hell these guys were who screwed everything up and where they’d sent Alix off to.”
“She’s gone?” He balled his hand into a fist. “What do you mean, gone? You were supposed to grab her.”
“Listen, Lee. These guys who showed up way outclassed Jorge’s people. They’re warriors. Probably all former military. They don’t mess around.”
“And we do?” Lee wanted to smash something. “Okay. Listen to me. I’m going to see if that specialized GPS tracker can find out where she’s been taken. Then I want you to reach out to your friends. Let me know when you’re ready and I’ll give you the information. And it damn well better be soon.”
“Nothing?” Noble asked.
Lee shook his head and took the little device out of his desk drawer. He turned it on, waited for it to boot up, and pressed the button for it to search.
“What’s that?” Jorge asked.
“It’s a specialized GPS locator. Alix doesn’t know it, but I bugged everything she owns. Can’t be too careful, you know. I wanted to know where she was at every minute.”
“Are you saying even with all that you lost her? Maybe she found it in the things she was wearing.”
Lee shook his head. “She wouldn’t think to search for them or know how to do it if she did. Anyway, the little device I used is very tiny. It had to be to fit where I put it. And there is stuff surrounding it that could disrupt the signal. But it was the only one I could get that fit my purpose.”
Noble snorted. “Jorge, I think we ought to start checking our clothes when we leave here.”
“Not necessary. If Lee can’t trust us, he’s really up shit’s creek.”
Lee checked at the tracker again. The dot was still steady. Okay. Time to drop the hammer on that fucking bitch. Only this time, he wasn’t going to depend on Frank, who couldn’t seem to get his shit together. He scrolled through his phone for the number he wanted, one of the people he sold his “merchandise” to. They’d take care of this and get rid of whoever had snitched on him, too.
Chapter Seven
The night was fading, and the beginning light of morning was coloring the scenery. Alix watched as they turned off the highway and began to wind their way into the foothills of the Crazy Mountains. The peaks rose majestically, like sentinels guarding the land, and their surface was filled in many areas with thick clu
sters of evergreens. Here and there, she spotted a mountain goat. A scene she would have been much more enthralled with if not for their current situation. But she concentrated on it because it was better than thinking about Lee Bonner and the mess she’d gotten herself into.
When she’d asked Charlie if any of the Brotherhood Protectors had been injured in the episode at the house, he’d lifted an eyebrow as if to say, “You’re kidding, right?”
“Where are we going?” she asked. “Just out of curiosity, that is.”
“My place.” He flashed her a grin that transformed his entire face and made all the places in her body he’d touched tingle with anticipation for the next round.
“Oh!” That wasn’t what she had expected.
Nor was their destination, although she didn’t know what she had actually thought about where he lived. He turned off the roadway and onto a narrow road—almost a lane—with thick trees on either side. Then they burst into a clearing, and there was his house.
“My god.” Her jaw dropped. “This is the most incredible log cabin I’ve ever seen. Who built this?”
“Uh, I did.” The words were said with obvious reluctance.
She stared at him. “By yourself?”
“Yeah.” He scratched the back of his neck, then explained with obvious reluctance. “It was, uh, part of my healing process after my medical discharge.”
She couldn’t take her eyes off the building. “All those logs. Did you polish them yourself?”
He chuffed a short laugh. “Damn straight”
“But your arm must have been killing you.” More and more she was realizing how much inner strength this man had.
“ Some of the Brotherhood helped, when they had time. We got the job done.”
There was so much in those two short sentences. More and more she wanted to peel back Charlie Zero’s outer layers and get a good look at what lay beneath the surface. She’d known Barry for four years and Lee four months, yet in twenty-four hours she’d seen a depth in this man the other could not even come close to. Oh, how she wished that when this nightmare was over she didn’t have to leave.
He helped her out of the SUV, taking her backpack from her, and led her to the front door. When he opened it and gestured her inside, she gave a little gasp of pleasure.
“Oh!” She touched her fingertips to her mouth. “This is incredible.”
She looked up at him and saw the pleasure on his face. “Not what you expected, right?”
“Please don’t take this the wrong way, but not at all.” She walked over to the long window he’d had made for one wall. “What a magnificent view of the mountains and the land where it falls away at that side. And all those trees. And, Charlie, those wisps of clouds look as if they were about to land on the peaks.”
The downstairs was one large room, like a rustic family room, with an efficient and immaculately clean kitchen at one end. A ladder led up to a loft, and she looked at Charlie with a raised eyebrow.
“Bedroom and bathroom. At some point, I want to show you that view, too.” He gestured to another long window. “You shouldn’t miss it.”
They stood there, neither of them able to move, the heat between them so strong it shimmered in the air. Then he cupped her face with his palms and rubbed his thumbs over her cheeks. This was happening so fast, but then maybe that’s the way it was supposed to be, for both of them.
“When this is all settled, you really need to see the view from upstairs. At night as well as in the daytime.”
“I’d love that,” she whispered. Then she blinked and studied every inch of the main room again. “This place is incredible.”
“I tried dark and gloomy,” he joked, “but this works a lot better.”
And she wasn’t all that sure he was joking.
“Let me check in with Hank.” He picked up a satellite phone from the counter. “The reception up here isn’t always so great, but the sat phone works better than a cell. Yeah, Hank. Hey. We’re here. What’s the latest? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Yeah. Got that. Okay. Keep us in the loop.”
“What?” She studied his face, sensing he’d learned something he might not want to tell her. “Whatever it is, please don’t try to hide anything from me. I’ve had people keeping things from me for way too long now.”
“Here it is. You know the Brotherhood has been tapping Lee’s phones because the feds had trouble getting a warrant in a hurry.”
“And?” She made a “come on” gesture with her hand.
“He’s called one of the men identified as a major buyer of young girls for the sex trade and asked him for some heavy muscle. With firepower. He must be desperate.”
“If he knows the feds are closing in on him, I don’t doubt it. But how could he know that?”
“The same way everyone finds out anything. He has a snitch somewhere that he pays a lot of money to.”
She dropped down into his big easy chair, color leaching from her face. “I think I’m going to be sick.”
“Deep breath,” he told her. “We’ll get through this. How about some coffee?”
“Sounds good.”
*****
Lee stared at the phone in his hand and then at the man standing in his house. One of his major buyers had just called to tell him the truck delivering his merchandise—in this case, the guns—had been stopped on the highway and confiscated by federal officers. And Lee better head for cover because there was a price on his head now.
“What the fuck?”
“I’ll take that phone, Bonner.” The agent held his hand out for it.
“Like hell, you will. This is my property.”
The agent reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a folded sheet of paper. “This is a warrant that allows us to confiscate anything in this house and on the premises that we believe is connected to your trafficking in illegal merchandise.”
“Just how the hell did you even decide to do this? You’ve made a big mistake here. I’ll get my lawyer on this and sue the ass off the federal government.”
“Give it up, Lee. It’s over.” Frank stepped through the front door and into the living room.
“What the fuck? Frank, what the hell is going on here?”
“I’ll take great pleasure in telling you how much I enjoyed giving the information to the feds that they needed. Good riddance, I say.”
Lee stared at the man who had worked by his side for four years.
“What’s going on here? How come you’re not under arrest, too?”
“Frank’s been our point man,” the agent told him. “He came to us four years ago with his plan, and it turned out to be a good one.”
Lee wondered if he was losing his mind. “But why? For what purpose?”
“Five years ago, your men swept through a nightclub in Dallas, drugged a bunch of young girls, hauled them out to a truck, and sold them off like so much meat. One of those girls was my sister. She tried to get away, and your men killed her. I’ll be sitting front row at your trial every day and laughing when they send you off to prison.”
Lee just stood there, shocked, while handcuffs were fastened around his wrists and another agent led him out of the house.
The first agent shook hands with Frank. “Thanks for all your help. We couldn’t have done it without you. Your sister would be proud.”
“It won’t bring her back, but at least I’ll get some satisfaction out of this.”
*****
“I keep wondering how Lee found us at the house we left. He could find us here the same way, right?”
Charlie rubbed his hand over his hair. “That’s something we’re all wondering. No one knew about that house except the Brotherhood. We took all your clothes, everything you had with you. Anything that could hide a transmitter.” He walked around the chair, studying her. The rising sun caught the gleam of something at her throat, and he stopped. Stared.
“What?”
“What’s that around your neck?”
She reached into
the T-shirt she was wearing and pulled out a heart-shaped pendant on a chain.
“This? It’s a locket my mother gave me years ago. It has pictures of her and my dad in it. I’ve worn it ever since the day they were killed in a plane crash.” Sorrow washed over her face for a moment. “It makes me feel close to them.”
“Do you ever take it off?” She shook her head. “Never. Not even to shower.” Then she covered her mouth with her fingers. “Oh god. That’s not true.”
“What?” All Charlie’s senses were on high alert now. “What are you remembering?”
“See this diamond in the center on the front? It used to be a rhinestone. Lee took it about a month after we were married and said he was having it reset with a diamond for our one-month anniversary. I thought at the time it was so romantic and thoughtful. Oh, Charlie.”
“I need to take it off, Alix.”
“Yes. Please. Get it off right now.”
He reached behind her and unfastened the chain. When he carried it over to the kitchen counter, she followed him, watching as he took a tiny instrument of some sort from one of the drawer and very carefully pried the stone loose. He took out a magnifying glass and a flashlight and studied the place where the stone had been set.
“God damn it.”
She frowned. “What? What’s wrong?”
“See right there? Into that dimple in the metal. There’s a micro-transmitter in there. Very high quality. The kind that needs a special GPS tracker.”
“Oh my god.” What little color was left in her face drained away. “No wonder he’s been able to find me. I never had one second of privacy the whole time we were married, did I.”
He wanted to tell her different, but he knew she saw the truth on his face.
“We have to get out of here.” She was frantic now. “Leave the damn locket here and let’s go.”
But Charlie’s ears picked up sound, sound that he didn’t want to hear.
“Too late.” He threw the brace across the front door and urged Alix up the ladder. “Get up there and stay there. You’ll be safe.”
