Like Arrows (Cedar Tree #6)

by Freya Barker

When I resurface, Emma and Kim are sitting at the counter, chatting away and Katie throws me a wink from behind the stove, where apparently breakfast is cooking.

  Kim

  "We have to go."

  Kerry is arriving in less than half an hour and I want to meet her at the airport. Emma and Katie are arguing about the little Elvis outfit Emma spotted in the store window that she wants to buy Mattias for next Halloween. Katie isn't having it. Mal is leaning against the wall, his arms crossed over his chest looking bored, but his eyes are always scanning.

  I finally throw up my hands. "Fine you guys, you stay here and shop. I'll go pick her up."

  "Wait!" Emma cries out when I turn to go. Mal pushes off the wall to follow me. "We'll come."

  "I'm serious, why don't you guys hang around here in the mall for a bit? Mal and I can pick her up and bring her back to the condo and we'll figure out dinner then?"

  "I'm good with that," Katie says, shrugging her shoulders, but Emma still looks unsure.

  "But that seems rude."

  "Doesn't make sense for all four of us to sit at the airport waiting, especially since she's not really expecting anyone at all. Go. Do your thing. We'll see you later."

  Mal loops his arm around my shoulder and tucks me to him when we start moving in the direction of the parking lot.

  "You know it's a real turn on when you get all bossy," he rumbles by my ear. I slap his chest in mock reproach but can't stop the little smile from forming. I'm elated to introduce Kerry to Emma and Katie.

  Half an hour later, I've lost the smile.

  There's a notice on the screen when we enter the airport terminal, that the flight from Durango, via Denver, was delayed by half an hour. That wasn't an issue, we simply grabbed a coffee and found a spot to sit and wait. Mal next to me, his arm tucking me close, and a decent cafe latte in my hand is not a bad way to spend half an hour. No, the problem starts when two women sit right across from us, ignoring the plentiful number of empty seats all around us. It's not a stretch to figure out why they pick those seats in particular. He's a beautiful man, but dammit, I'm not invisible am I? Reminding myself I'm the one sitting here with his arm around me. I try to focus on his thumb stroking my hip, when suddenly I feel his body freeze. My attention peaked, the hushed conversation the two women have carried on starts penetrating.

  "....there's something wrong with that. Only thing that makes sense is if she's rich."

  "Still, look at her, she's gotta know there's no way she can hold on to a man like that. Not looking the way she does."

  I'm stunned—and mortified but mostly stunned. Mal, who must feel the shift in my body language, leans in and whispers, "They're blinded by their own bullshit. Don't let it get to you."

  But it's too late, they have gotten to me, and when Mal turns to them, apparently ready to lash into them, I put a restrictive hand on his chest. This is my battle and I'm sick of cowering to people who think it's okay to belittle me because I'm not perfect. Fuck them.

  I stand up and walk over to stand directly in front of them, looking each of them in turn, in the eyes. One of them snickers nervously while the other tries to look anywhere but at me.

  "Is there something you'd like to say to my face, ladies?" I challenge, only to get a stupid little giggle in response when they turn to the other for reinforcement, I imagine. Both sets of eyes suddenly fly over my shoulder and I know Mal has walked up behind me, not saying anything just standing there, letting me fight my own battle. Still, I'm grateful for feeling him at my back. "You seemed to have plenty of an opinion just now, I'd love to see if you have the guts to say what you did out loud, but you two are obviously the cowards I already knew you were. Sitting there, judging people from a distance. You know nothing!" I spit out the last sentence before I turn away from the bitches.

  "No way someone like you has what it takes to hold on to a real man like that. It's clear to anyone who looks, you're out of your league," one of them pipes up and stops me in my tracks.

  My eyes find Mal's and his are filled with anger. Not at me, at the women behind me. I grab his hand and turn back to face them.

  "It's no wonder you two have to put up with each other, with personalities that ugly. It's no wonder I'm the one standing here with a good man, a decent man"—I lean in for more emphasis—"and yes, a gorgeous man at my side. There isn't a man worth his salt who would put up with such ugliness." Mal tugs at my hand but I'm not done. "You think you can tell from the outside what a person represents? What their life is like? You think you know by just one look? Well feast your eyes as my fat ass walks away with my amazing boyfriend. And in case you were wondering? He's hung like a stallion and knows how to use it." I feel no small amount of satisfaction as my last remark seems to resonate, when one claps her hands over her mouth and the other gives Mal another look once-over. I don't care. I'm done. Done with them, done with this, done with me feeling less than anyone else because of vile words spit my way. I'm done.

  I march away, not quite sure where the hell I'm going but I don't care, as long as it's away from those venomous tarts. I'm forty, not twenty. I should know my worth by now and am determined to start living it.

  "Whoa," Mal's voice rumbles behind me, his hand still in mine as I drag him through the terminal. Okay, drag is possibly a slight exaggeration since his long legs could easily overtake my stumpy ones, but still. "Slow down, tiger." Pulling me in, he releases my hand and with his arm around my shoulders keeping me close, he directs us into a hallway leading to the bathrooms. He backs me into the wall and turns me to face him, and before I can voice an objection, he has his mouth on mine in a blistering kiss. My need for air soon has me pulling away, and I lean my head back to look him in the eye.

  "What brought that on?"

  He holds my chin between his thumb and fingers and with fiery eyes scans my face.

  "The mouse in you is already sexy as hell, but babe, when you let loose that tiger you keep hidden, you are fucking phenomenal. So hot, I almost came in my pants."

  I'm in a public hallway outside the bathrooms at an airport, and all I can think about is dropping to my knees and making him come in my mouth.

  "Killing me here, honey," he growls. "You lick your lips like that, like you want to have me for dinner, and my control is gone."

  The passing of an elderly gentleman on his way to the bathroom, doing his best to ignore us, brings me resolutely back to our situation. "Let's check the board," I suggest and stand up on my tiptoes to kiss him softly.

  It's an hour after Kerry's plane finally landed that I start to get worried.

  She hasn't come through the gate yet and the earlier flow of people has dried up. I pull out my phone to call her but there is no answer. I then try Greg, her husband, while Mal gets up to check with the airline. When he comes back I tell him what Greg told me: he dropped Kerry off at the Durango airport an hour before her plane was scheduled to leave and assumed she would've arrived by now. He's been waiting for her call.

  "She would've called him or me if she missed her connection in Denver, I'm sure of it," I tell Mal who immediately pulls out his phone.

  Another hour later, after several phone calls back and forth with Greg and with Gus, who Mal contacted right after finding she'd never boarded the plane, I know I have reason to be afraid. Kerry's suitcase was found abandoned in the bathroom at the Durango airport, but there was no sign of her.

  Kerry's disappeared.

  CHAPTER FIFTEEN

  "You did what?!"

  He jumps up from his chair, knocking a stack of papers off his desk. In his rage, he picks up the glass paperweight and hurls it at the door, where it leaves a dent before bouncing, intact, to the floor. Fighting to reign in his anger, he takes in a few deep breaths before he starts talking again in a deceptively calm voice.

  "I thought I explained that we can't afford to draw anymore attention. You think that maybe snatching someone from an airport might stand out?" He pulls his free hand roughly through his hair, mak
ing the decision right then and there, he will have to go and take matters in his own hands.

  "No. That is not what I told you to do. I told you to see what you could find out discretely. This hardly constitutes as 'discrete.' I don't want any blowback on this. My silent partner is getting restless and we don't need to aggravate him more. At least tell me she won't be able to identify you... Good. Damage control. I want you back here tomorrow."

  He sits back down in his chair, feeling his control of the situation slipping like sand through his fingers. The instant the phone rings on his desk, he knows who's calling and for the first time he feels the cold chill of fear squeezing his airway.

  Mal

  "Give us five minutes," Katie says as she follows Kim into her room to help her pack her things. I'd called her right away to fill her in. She suggested canceling the flights, and proposed we'd be home faster if we all piled in my truck. With the extended cab we'll all fit and not needing to drop them off at the airport and arranging for a pick up on the other side would save some serious time and manpower.

  Kim had been reluctant to leave the airport and spent the short ride back to the condo quiet and withdrawn. I suspect she's barely hanging on.

  While the girls pack, I head back down to the truck to clear any junk out of the backseat and make room. I'm just pulling some empty discarded coffee cups from under the seats when my phone rings.

  "Caleb, what's up?" I answer, after checking to find the familiar number on the screen.

  "Got a witness who saw a woman being carried out of the bathrooms by a big man, bridal style. When she approached the man he told her his wife was unwell and he was taking her to the hospital. She offered to call an ambulance, but he told her that would take too long. She's given us a detailed description of the guy. Identified what sounded to her to be a slight Texas twang and she watched them get into a maroon Ford Edge."

  "These guys aren't too smart if they're still trucking around in that same rental," I point out. After the break-in at Kim's, everyone had been on the lookout for the maroon Ford. Only yesterday we'd manage to trace it to an Avis location at the Durango airport. I thought they would have ditched it somewhere by now—that probably would've been the smart thing to do.

  "We've got Durango police on the lookout, as well as the state troopers. And Mal? Just a head's up, the feds are coming to town." The way my brother says it sends warning flags up.

  "Great. Don't tell me, Damian Gomez?"

  GFI had several run ins with Special Agent Gomez fairly recently on a case that involved Beth's son Dylan. The only good thing coming out of that was that Dylan had been given a chance to turn his life around, and he'd joined the FBI.

  "Bingo. Breezed into town maybe an hour ago. He's been in with Drew ever since. At least according to Carol."

  Carol worked the front desk at the Montezuma County Sheriff's Office and since Joe left the sheriff's position in Drew's hands to come and work with GFI, we were kept up to date on all goings on. Woman is older than dirt but has bigger balls than many men I know.

  "I have no doubt he'll be hitting Gus next to get his take. Better be on standby in case there's any bloodshed, brother," I caution him.

  Caleb's deep chuckle warms me. It still surprises me that after almost a lifetime of being considered the family's black sheep—a grim albeit justified label—I was so easily forgiven and accepted by my big brother.

  "I'd better grab the girls and get on the road. Keep me informed. I'll be on hands free, though, so watch what you're saying."

  "Drive safe, Mal, and tell Katie to give me a ring when she has a chance."

  "Will do. See you in a few."

  Tucking the phone back in my pocket and throwing out the last of the garbage from the floor of my truck, I head inside to grab the bags.

  Kim

  "Hey... wake up, Kim."

  The combination of a hand stroking my face and the low rumble of Mal's voice makes me want to linger here in that half-conscious state, which seems to keep all negative emotions at bay. Reality sneaks in anyway, and I suck in a deep breath and shoot up straight in my seat.

  "Any news?" I want to know, rubbing sleep from my eyes and surreptitiously wiping my mouth to make sure no drool marks are visible. I look at Mal who smiles at me gently before turning his eyes back to the road.

  "They're tracking down a lead on the Ford, just north of Durango. That FBI agent I told you about? Gomez? He's on it with his team, but keeping Gus informed. So far nothing, but it's early yet. In the meantime we've just passed Cortez. We're almost home."

  I look at the vague landscape passing outside my window. It's dark outside, must be getting on midnight, and I can barely see what I'm looking at. We'd stopped at a gas station just before crossing the Utah border and stocked up on some drinks and food, since none of us had had a chance to eat anything. By now though, the threshold of my bladder has obviously reached its limit and I'm squirming in my seat.

  "Me too," I hear Katie quietly talking to Emma from behind me and I look around at her. "Bathroom," she clarifies and I nod.

  "Ahhh, don't say the word," Emma complains from the backseat. "I'll take the bushes at this point, I don't care!"

  "Two minutes, ladies, and you can all breathe easy." Mal's mouth twitches, fighting a grin. To me he says, "We're meeting Gus at Caleb and Katie's. Easiest, since Caleb has the baby and the two dogs.

  We pull into a tree-lined driveway that opens up to a beautiful old barn. A rather massive structure with a red steel roof and big arched windows in place of the barn doors I'd expected. A door is opened to the side and I recognize Caleb stepping in the doorway, a large dog by his side and my Boo trying to sneak a peek from behind him.

  Mal is still getting Emma her walker when Katie starts pulling me inside, yelling over her shoulder, "You grab the downstairs bathroom, Em!"

  I barely have a chance to say hello to Boo or look around me, before I'm being dragged up the stairs and pointed down the hall to a bathroom. Boo is still miserably wining at the bottom of the stairs when I come back down, so I give my baby the attention he deserves. He responds by promptly knocking me on my ass.

  "Boo." The firm use of his name does little from me, but when Mal says it, he immediately responds. Traitor. With a firm yank of Mal's hand, I'm back on my feet before the other dog comes sniffing. This thing may not be quite as tall as Boo, but looks a whole lot fiercer. Dark grey unruly fur and a lanky build, but the bright blue eyes scrutinizing me show a high level of intelligence. Not a dog to mess with. I'm obviously deemed acceptable when he saunters and plops down in front of a fire in the massive stone fireplace. It's much colder here than in Vegas and I'm drawn to the heat of the fire.

  -

  "Anything?" I ask Gus, who's settled in with his wife tucked closed and a steaming mug of coffee in his hand across from me.

  "Not yet. Neil is back at the office, monitoring the scanner. If Gomez doesn't call, Neil will let us know when something happens. Waiting is the worst part, honey. Hopefully we'll know something soon."

  The words no sooner leave his mouth before the phone starts vibrating on the table in front of him.

  "Talk to me."

  His forehead creases and his eyes flick to me as he listens to what's being said on the other side. Cold starts penetrating my body again and I shiver. The look on his face is not promising.

  "Have you notified the husband?"

  Mal's arm pulls a little tighter around me.

  "No offense, don't mean to tell you how to do your job, but find the second guy and make fucking sure you don't put holes in this one. We need him alive." With that, Gus ends the conversation and looks around the room, his eyes coming to rest on me.

  "Found your girl. She's alive, but worked over. She's on her way to the hospital. Her man's been notified and one of Damian's guys is driving him up."

  I jump up and plan to go straight for the door when Mal grabs my hand and pulls me back down. "Where are you going?"

  "I've gott
a get to Durango. See Kerry—be with Greg." I struggle to get my hand loose but he won't let go.

  "Kim, look at me," Gus says and I lift my head to face him. "I'm sorry, honey, but one of the guys who was willing to shoot at FBI agents, got killed as a result. There's a second guy out there somewhere, probably pissed as hell, and we don't even have a good take on who they are or who they work for. They want you. That's clear. They went after Kerry to find you. Trust me when I say it's very likely they'll have eyes on her, which means if you go near, they'll have eyes on you too."

  Realization starts sinking in. They took her...because they wanted me. I'm not a stupid person, but this is so far out of my comfort zone, it takes me a while to grasp the crazy turn my sedate and safe life seems to have taken.

  Mal

  "Sleep, baby. It's almost two in the morning, and as soon as they know more we'll get a call."

  Kim had gone very quiet after Gus shut down her plans to go to the hospital to see her friend. I'm not sure what's going on in her mind, but I'd rather have her cry it out than watch her shut down. When I tried to get her to talk though, she only gave me perfunctory answers. Short and for the most part, monosyllabic. We left the barn at the same time as Emma and Gus, who wanted to get back to the office and monitor things from there. Boo seemed reluctant to leave his newfound buddy but once we got back to Beth's house, he plopped on the floor in the bedroom and was out like a light. I'd gone back out to grab our stuff from the truck and spent some time locking up the house before coming back up to the bedroom to find Kim already in bed.

  "I don't understand any of this. I mean, I know on a practical level what's happening, but I just don't get it. This is not me. This is not my life. She's hurt, Mal, because of me?"

  There they are, the tears I've been waiting for, rolling down her face as she turns to me. Without a word, I pull her in my arms. Nothing to say. Softly stroking her hair, I hold her until the tears finally subside and other than an occasional sniffle, she falls asleep on my chest.