“Yeah. Her cell.”
“Text it to me and I’ll call her.”
“You got it. I’m jumping in my car now. Wherever Penny’s going, we’ll need backup.”
“We gotta do it quietly. Penny is terrified, and if she knows we’re behind her, she’ll kill whatever this deal with Heath is. Nobody calls her. Let her think we don’t know where she is.”
“For how long?”
“Until we have Colin Heath either in handcuffs or a body bag.”
* * *
IF PENNY’S LUCK had changed, she didn’t know it. Not with the four-car pileup that had cars snarled on the highway, according to the local a.m. news report. Yep. Stopped dead in the middle lane, trapped by bumper-to-bumper vehicles, twenty miles from the Wisconsin border. No way to escape. A gurgle of hysterical laughter squeaked out and Penny slapped her hand over her mouth. As if that would keep her from completely losing whatever sanity she had left. Heath would be calling at any second, expecting her to be closer to the state line.
Well, he should be checking traffic, because she couldn’t control horrid drivers. Even if the rain had stopped and the sun battled the afternoon clouds. All she wanted was her brother back. Lie. She didn’t just want him back—she wanted him back alive. And unharmed.
If it took destroying the tentative beginnings of a relationship with Russ, she’d have to make that sacrifice. If he were half the man she hoped, he’d understand the impossible position she’d been faced with.
Still, in the back of her mind, she wondered if she should have clued Russ in earlier. Let him know what she was thinking. Maybe together, they could have figured out how to double-cross Heath.
Too late now. Her need to get Zac back twisted her mind, sent her spiraling into a situation she failed to control. “So stupid, Penny.”
She’d been too caught up in her emotions, not thinking clearly and had made a rash decision. Something completely out of character in her professional life. Her personal life was a different story, but never when it came to her clients.
On the seat beside her, the cell phone chirped. Heath. She scooped it up and hit the speaker button. “Hello?”
“Lovely Penny. What is your location?”
“I’m twenty miles from the border. Major traffic jam. We haven’t budged in thirty minutes.”
“Are you lying?”
How stupid would she be to lie about something like this? “Of course not. Check the traffic reports. I’m good, Heath, but I’m not good enough to airlift a car from bumper-to-bumper traffic.”
“I see. When you cross into Wisconsin, pull into the first rest stop. Wait there for instructions.”
“Where—”
Click. Dead air. “Hello?”
He’d hung up. She hurled the phone back onto the seat. “I’ve had enough of his nonsense.”
And worse, she’d stolen her father’s car. By now, he’d know and would be frantic. How much more could she put her family through? It had to stop. She slid a glance at the phone again. Contemplated calling her father. If she did, he’d have the number, and no doubt, Russ had already gone to him and convinced him Penny was in danger. That was all her father would hear and he’d cooperate. Whatever information the FBI needed to save his children, he’d offer.
No calls.
She was stuck. In traffic. With no idea where she was heading.
And she was alone.
How many smart-girl rules could she obliterate in one day? Apparently a lot. She slapped her hands over her face, took three deep breaths and let the last one out slowly. Her mind went quiet—better—and she slid her hands away to find the traffic ahead starting to move. Finally.
“I can do this. Heath wants this as much as I do.”
Didn’t he?
Chapter Eighteen
Russ drove into the rest stop where Brent had told him Penny parked. Visitors flowed in and out of the single-story brick building, some carrying food bags and drink cups, some rushing back to their cars. A young woman chased a toddler around the flagpole, and Russ watched for a second, hoping to hell Heath wasn’t in this lot somewhere ready to open fire when he spotted Penny.
Not wanting to risk Penny seeing him, even if he had switched to another FBI undercover car and was on the other side of the busy lot, he nabbed the first available spot and scooted low in his seat while dialing Jenna.
“What’s up?” Jenna asked.
“Do we have any idea where she’s going?”
“No. She hasn’t called me. Should I call her?”
Not in this lifetime, she shouldn’t. Calling would only arouse Penny’s suspicion. Then again, if she were communicating with Heath via the cell Jenna would call, chances were she wouldn’t pull the battery on it. Couldn’t risk it. “No. Let’s just stay on her.”
Stay on her he did. Twenty minutes after Russ had parked, Penny cruised her father’s fancy Mercedes out of the rest stop and back onto the highway.
“Where the hell is she going?” he muttered.
His guess was rural. Nothing too urban. Rural gave more opportunities to stay out of sight of law enforcement. Also made it easier to spot a tail. Like Russ.
And Brent.
And Jenna.
A flipping convoy. Not to mention the Milwaukee FBI field office that had been put on alert. This had to be his worst-nightmare scenario. Flying blind into a situation where he didn’t know what kind of layout they’d face, how much firepower they’d be up against, and Penny, a woman he’d known he shouldn’t get emotional about, would be in the middle of it.
Way to destroy a case.
If he walked away from this with a low body count, he’d have himself a minor miracle. But the media storm would be catastrophic. The headline would read “The Man Who Brought Down the Chicago Field Office.”
Not the career notoriety he’d hoped for. Do something. Anything to figure out where Penny was heading. Right now, all he could do was follow her and hope he devised a plan before she wound up dead.
* * *
PENNY TOOK THE EXIT for Crowe, a town she’d never known existed. That wasn’t saying much. Outside of the area where her parents owned their lake house, Wisconsin may as well have been a foreign country.
At the bottom of the exit ramp, she braked at the stop sign. Heath had told her to make a left and drive ten miles, at which point she’d receive her next set of instructions.
What she didn’t like, aside from the entire godforsaken episode, was how incredibly rural this area was. To her left, the highway’s bridge spanned a two-lane road. Beyond the bridge was a gas station circa 1949. She swung her head right. Cornfields. Miles and miles of cornfields. No trees as far as she could see. No cars or people, either.
How about a horse or even a damn rabbit? Can I at least get an animal? Some form of life?
Nothing.
The barren road and lack of activity made her itch, made the fact that she was alone in an unfamiliar area all too real.
This is wrong. All wrong.
And suddenly, the stress of the past few days brought the situation into sharp focus. Her terror over losing Zac had convinced her that allowing Heath to remain in control was the correct choice and she’d literally come to a crossroad. Now she needed to decide whether she’d call for help or drive straight into what might be the end of her life. Why should Heath let her or Zac live? Yes, she had evidence and maybe she could save herself by using that evidence as leverage, but Zac? He could easily become collateral damage.
She gripped the steering wheel, stared straight ahead at the adjacent ramp leading to the highway and knew she’d botched this.
Royally.
Assuming Heath might be watching from some hidden location, she turned left onto the rural road. In her cup holder sat her cell phone, n
ot the one Jenna had given her, but her own.
The gas station loomed to her immediate right and she glanced at the gas dial. Half a tank. If she stopped, it would buy her time to shove the battery back into her phone. Someone, hopefully Russ, would then be able to locate her.
Without a doubt, at this moment, she needed Russ. He’d know what to do. As furious as he’d be with her, he wanted Heath and she could deliver. In the process, they needed to save Zac and give Elizabeth and her son their lives back.
Penny shook her head. These thoughts. Too much.
She drove into the gas station, where an attendant glanced out the window of the mini-mart. Grabbing her credit card from her purse, she got the pump started and jumped back into the car, where she dug out her phone’s battery. She held it, wrapped her sweaty hand around it and squeezed.
It had to be the right thing. She glanced back at the pump. Two gallons so far. Slow pump. If ever there was a sign, that had to be it. Keeping her arms low and out of sight, she slid the battery into her phone, stared at the black screen and ran her index finger along its smooth surface.
Russ would help her. He had to. She checked the pump. Five gallons. No more time to spare. Leaving the phone in the cup holder, she finished with the pump, settled back in the car and pulled onto the road while pressing the power button on her phone.
* * *
RUSS’S PHONE BEEPED just as he hit the exit ramp where Penny had gotten off the highway. Realizing how quiet the exit was, Brent had driven past and immediately alerted Russ that Penny had left the roadway, which he’d already known because Jenna was monitoring Penny’s location from her own phone. All in all, this screwy team worked well together.
The phone beeped a second time and he checked the screen.
Penny Hennings.
A roaring blood surge left his arms and fingers and neck tingling. He hit the button just as he came to a stop at the bottom of the exit ramp.
“Penny?”
“Russell,” she said. “I’m so sorry. Please. I don’t know what to do. I thought I knew, but I don’t and I’ve messed this whole thing up. It’s all my fault. Heath threatened everyone. Zac, Elizabeth. You. Everyone I care about. I thought I could fix it.”
Words flew at him—my fault...Heath threatened...fix it—and he took it all in until the stream finally stopped. “Penny?”
Another brief silence led to a sharp breath. “Please, Russell. I know you hate me.”
“I don’t hate you. You’re too far inside your own head and you’re not thinking straight. I’m pissed, but I don’t hate you.”
“I’m so sorry.”
As mad as he was, he needed Killer Cupcake back on point. “This isn’t your fault. As much as you want to believe that, it’s not. Stop thinking it and concentrate. Where are you going?”
“I don’t know. Heath keeps sending me to checkpoints and then he calls with instructions. I’m in Wisconsin.”
“I know.”
“You do?”
“The phone Jenna gave you, it’s one of hers. We’ve been tracking you.”
“Huh,” Penny said, sounding fairly irritated.
Maybe later he’d laugh about that. Maybe. “I’m at the bottom of the exit ramp you just left.”
“You are?”
“I don’t know where the hell we’re going, but I wasn’t about to let you do this alone.”
“Heath told me to make the left at the ramp and drive ten miles. I think he must be watching.”
That, Russ was sure of. “I’m staying back. Just keep the phone line open so I can hear everything, okay? You must be getting close to wherever we’re going. Once you know, we’ll figure out a way out of this.”
“Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me yet. We’re not nearly done.”
* * *
PENNY GLANCED DOWN at the car’s odometer. Nine miles. One to go. In the next few minutes she’d be receiving another set of instructions. Typically, those instructions came by phone and there’d been no indication that would change.
She eased up on the gas pedal as the trees on the right side of the car cleared and the road dipped to a harsh, sloping hill. From her vantage point, she couldn’t see beyond the slope, but a steel rail guarded the shoulder. From the battered look of it, more than a couple of cars had sideswiped it.
The blaring ring of Jenna’s pseudodisposable phone filled the silent car, the sound causing Penny to flinch. Yeesh. She snatched the phone, hit the speaker button and pulled to the side of the road before her nerves sent her careening into the much-visited guardrail.
“Hello?”
“Lovely Penny. Look to your right. See the quarry?”
Quarry. Okay, then. “Yes.”
“Follow the road for one mile and turn right. Keep driving until you see the green shack of an office. I’m watching.”
The line went silent.
Hung up. Again. Before she spoke, Penny pressed the end button, then did it again to make double-sure the call had disconnected.
“Russell?”
“I’m here,” he said from his end of the other phone.
Penny held her hand over her lips in case anyone watched and could see her talking. “He’s sending me into the quarry.”
“I heard. I see it on the GPS. We’ve got backup and I’ll have Brent get us a dump truck or something. We’ll drive right in.”
That’ll be interesting. “Where is he getting a dump truck?”
Russ laughed. “Honey, he’s a U.S. marshal. He’ll go back to the highway, stop the first truck he sees and we have a truck.”
I love this man. He had a spine of steel. Absolutely no challenge was too big to conquer. “Right. Good idea. What do I do?”
“Follow your instructions. We’re here for you. You won’t see us, and hopefully they won’t, either, but we’re here.”
Just ahead, off to the right, a large sign with a giant red arrow pointed into what had to be the access road to the quarry. As she neared, the washed-out blue letters on the sign read Branley Stone.
Branley. Could be a town name. Or perhaps the owner’s. She might never know.
“I’m turning in.”
“I’m here.”
I know. “Russell?”
“Yep.”
“I love you.”
Russ went quiet. They’d yet to talk about the first time she’d told him she loved him. Somehow she didn’t mind. Or maybe she was afraid of what his reaction would be when they finally did discuss it. After what she’d done, he’d never trust her again.
“Penny,” he finally said, and a small spark of hope lifted her mood, “you need to focus.”
So much for hope. “I know.”
“We’ll talk about us later.”
Fool. Had she expected him to return the sentiment? If Russ was the smart man she knew him to be, he’d run fast and far from the craziness known as Penny Hennings.
“Penny!”
She lurched. “Don’t yell at me, Russell.”
“Then pay attention.”
She came to the open quarry gate and drove through. A single-lane road had been blown out of the quarry walls and dipped right. She slid a glance sideways to the drop-off that led to a half-mile-wide and five-hundred-foot-deep hole in the earth. She clutched the steering wheel, holding it steady while she navigated the road that lined and lined and lined the outer rim of the quarry. Before she reached the bottom, where several trucks, tractors and odd pieces of equipment were scattered, she’d circle the entire thing. A shaft of sunlight broke through the clouds and blinded her. She squinted—stop the car—and pressed the brake, jerking the car to a stop. Breathe. She peered into the pit below, where the sun bounced off the steel roof of a rectangular building.
Sh
e’d have to battle the blinding sun the entire way. And pray she didn’t nosedive off the road.
“You okay?” Russ asked.
“I’m adjusting to the sunlight. The green building is in the far corner toward the back.”
“I know. We have agents up on the northeast bluff. They’ve got you. I’m coming around the back entrance.”
“Thank you. Be careful of the road. It’s so narrow, I’m afraid I’ll roll off the side.”
“You won’t. There’s nothing you can’t handle. You’re a hassle that way. You never give up.”
Penny smiled, felt the rush of Lawyer Penny’s return. “Oh, Russell. You’re too good to me.”
“I know. Now let’s get your brother.”
* * *
RUSS DROVE PAST the back entrance to the quarry. Heath had to have someone guarding the rear entrance. But what Russ banked on was the intel from the agents on the bluff that told him a thousand yards past the entrance was a field he could cut across to reach the road beyond the back entrance.
If Russ needed anything, he needed those agents to be right. He stormed down the country road, sun shining all around, and spotted a house a quarter mile down. Zac might be in that house. Might not.
Quarry.
Down deep, where his instincts guided the hard decisions, he knew Zac was in that quarry. To his left, a grassy field bumped against the perimeter of his target location and Russ swung into the field. As much as he wanted to hit the gas, he backed off as his bureau car bounced and thumped along the rutty ground.
When the field flattened out, he pressed the accelerator and the quarry came into view. Two minutes and he’d be there. He glanced to his left, but the rear entrance gate—and the man guarding it—couldn’t be seen. If Russ couldn’t see him, he couldn’t see Russ.
The quarry walls and narrow road came into view. Killer Cupcake wasn’t kidding about that road. Russ hit the brakes and surveyed the area.
Damn it. The pit ahead was big and open, with only that one narrow strip of road circling it. If he continued on, he’d be burned. From his current spot, high on the bluff, he wouldn’t be seen from below.
THE DEFENDER Page 18
