Ultimate Prey (Book 3 Ultimate CORE) (CORE Series)

by Kristine Mason

  “How are things going?” Dante asked as he stepped into the room.

  “Same as ten minutes ago when you went to make coffee,” Rachel said, then lifted her mug and tilted it. “Does it really take that long? I’m on E and could use a pick-me-up.”

  “Sorry, I forgot to make it. My wife called, and I was filling her in on where we’re at with the situation.”

  “That’s okay.” Rachel pushed her chair back, then stood. “I could use a break. I’ll make the coffee. While I’m gone, maybe you can look over what I found in Ian’s files. There was an unfamiliar name that popped up in the first few and I don’t know who he is.”

  John shifted his gaze to Dante’s. Holy shit, Rachel nosed around Ian’s office?

  “You went through Ian’s personal files?” Dante asked, pressing his palms against the table. “He’s not going to like—”

  “I don’t care,” she said, crossing her arms. “He can reprimand me when he gets back here. You were the one who said we needed to do everything we could to find out who’s behind this hunt.” She shrugged. “So, I went through his files.”

  Ian was old school when it came to certain things—like secrets he didn’t want people knowing. John had been aware that Ian had kept certain files locked in a safe in his office—they all knew about it—but he’d never questioned the contents of that safe because it hadn’t been any of his business. Curious, he asked, “What’d you find?”

  “Don’t answer that,” Dante said. “If Ian wanted us to know he’d—”

  “Ian’s not here,” he reminded Dante. “And I don’t care about what he might have on each of us. I care about bringing him home. My wife cares about seeing her dad again—alive.”

  “I don’t have any secrets.” Dante took a seat. “I’m not sure about the rest of you, but—”

  “Who gives a crap?” Rachel glanced to her husband. “Owen, is there anything you’re hiding?”

  He shook his head. “Nope.”

  “See?” She cocked her brow and shifted her gaze to Dante’s. “Everyone is good with this but you.”

  “We should see what Hudson thinks,” Dante countered.

  “Fair enough,” she said. “I’ll stop in his office after I get the coffee going.”

  After she left the room, they all stared at the stack of manila folders. “I wonder what name Rachel was talking about,” John said, his fingers itching to grab one of those files. He didn’t care what Ian had on him. His fellow agents knew his history and what had forced him to leave the FBI and join CORE. He also didn’t care if his coworkers had secrets he hadn’t known about. He trusted these people with his life. For years, they’d worked side by side, and he doubted any secrets that might be divulged would take away that trust.

  “Since she didn’t say anything about us, maybe we should have a look,” Owen suggested.

  Dante looked away from the stack of folders. “We wait for Hudson.”

  “Screw that.” John grabbed the top file. “Hudson isn’t going to give a shit.”

  “Damn it, John. I said—”

  “I heard you. I just don’t care.” He opened the folder. “I doubt Ian will, especially if this helps bring him and Cami home.”

  While Dante said something under his breath, John glanced at what was a five-page report on a case they’d investigated seven years ago. “I think I know what name Rachel was referring to,” he said, glancing at Dante.

  “I’ll bite. Who is it?”

  “Jordan Marquette.”

  “Talk about a blast from the past.” Owen moved his chair closer and reached for another file. “He quit about the same time I came on board, right?”

  “About six months after,” Dante said, picking up a file and opening it. “This is a case Jordan had also worked.”

  “The one I’m looking at is another one of his cases and…” Owen flipped the page. “Ian highlighted a couple of notes. Do you remember Jordan being involved in a serial murder case in Youngstown, Ohio?”

  John looked up, and nodded. “I can’t remember the suspect, but I know Jordan killed him while trying to save one of the victims.”

  “Not according to this.” Owen handed him the file. “Look what’s been highlighted.”

  As he read through the report, his stomach twisted with unease. “Jordan planted evidence. The suspect, Austin Michael Creevy, was unarmed and…hell, the man Jordan saved wasn’t a victim, but Creevy’s accomplice.”

  “What are you talking about?” Dante asked. “I remember that case. There was no accomplice.”

  “It gets better. The accomplice was Creevy’s cousin, Kenneth Holmes.” John flipped the page. “Because Jordan screwed with the evidence and there was nothing found to support that Holmes was working with Creevy, he was never brought up on charges. But Ian notes here that CORE would continue to follow up on Holmes’s whereabouts.”

  “As far as I know, no one from CORE has ever looked into this guy,” Dante said. “Could be Holmes has an issue with CORE because Jordan killed his cousin.”

  Hudson walked into the room carrying a mug of coffee. Hopefully Rachel would bring the entire pot with her. After being up all night, John needed the caffeine boost.

  “Rachel said you guys have Ian’s secret files,” Hudson said, taking a seat and grabbing a folder. “Nice to see you all waited for my vote.”

  “Do you care?” Owen asked.

  “Hell, no.”

  “Good.” Owen grinned. “We were just talking about a case Jordan Marquette worked on seven years ago.”

  “Marquette? He was an asshole and hated Ian. He should definitely be on our list of suspects.”

  Dante leaned back in his chair. “Jordan wasn’t going on the list, but Kenneth Holmes, who’d been involved in—”

  “Holmes?” Hudson shrugged. “Maybe. I know exactly what case you’re talking about. My money would be on Jordan before Holmes, though.”

  “Why do you say that?” Dante asked. “And why don’t I remember this case?”

  “Because it went down the same week Jessica gave birth to Sophia,” Hudson said with sympathy in his eyes.

  John went back to the file he held and pretended to read it. Each time anyone brought up Dante and his wife’s beautiful daughter, the reminder of their loss was there, carving misery and anguish onto his friend’s face. Now that he had a little girl of his own, he couldn’t imagine the pain Dante and Jessica had gone through when their daughter was abducted. The not knowing—was she still alive, was she safe—would likely drive him to an early grave.

  “I see,” Dante said, a dark edge to his tone. “I wonder how many other cases I’m not aware of, due to the personal leaves I had to take.” He hardened his jaw and shifted in his chair. “I should probably look at the investigations that were running when I was dealing with…finding my daughter.”

  Hudson blew out a breath. “Sorry, man. I didn’t mean to bring up Sophia.”

  “It’s okay. But I don’t like being out of the loop on this. Hudson, why did you say your money would be on Jordan and not Holmes? It was my understanding Jordan quit because he couldn’t hack working violent crimes.”

  “The day Jordan quit, I overheard him arguing with Ian. After he stormed out of Ian’s office and left, Ian came out wiping blood from his mouth.”

  “He hit Ian? Doesn’t sound like someone who quit on his own accord.”

  “That’s because he didn’t,” John said, as he honed in on the notes Ian had added to the end of the Creevy and Holmes file. “Ian wrote, ‘Due to the way Jordan Marquette has mishandled this case, along with several others, he has become a liability to CORE. Jordan Marquette has agreed to resign from CORE without severance or letters of recommendation. Whether he follows through with my suggestion to enter into a rehab facility for his drug and alcohol addiction will be up to him.’ A copy of Jordan’s signed resignation is stapled to the page.” He looked between his coworkers. “I think that was Ian’s gentle way of saying he would have fired Jordan if he h
adn’t resigned.”

  Dante rubbed his jaw. “So, Jordan gets pissed off and takes a swing on his way out. We need to find out what he’s been up to and where he is now.” He glanced from Ian’s files, to the dozens of others sitting on the table. “I was focused on finding suspects from old cases, I didn’t even think about past employees.”

  “What past employees?” Rachel asked, as she entered the room, thankfully carrying a pot of coffee with her.

  Owen quickly filled her in on what they’d discovered about Jordan. Afterward, she set the coffee pot on the table, then took a seat in front of her computer. “Interesting. Since I’ve never heard any names outside of all of you—well, except the guy I replaced—I didn’t realize Ian had employed other agents. How many are we talking?”

  Dante looked to the ceiling as if it had the answer. “Six.”

  “Six?” She hiked up her brows. “Should we keep our concentration on these six people and set aside the list of suspects we’ve been compiling?”

  “I don’t think we should discount the suspects we’re investigating,” Dante began, “but I like the disgruntled employee angle.”

  John closed the folder. “I do, too. Again, think back to what the kidnapper said during the call.”

  “Right. He knows us,” Hudson said. “He not only has a vendetta against Ian, but CORE.”

  Owen tapped a pen on the table. “I agree. This is definitely personal. I can see where a criminal we’ve helped apprehend might want to go after whichever one of us had been part of their case, but why go after Ian?”

  “And hunt him, no less.” Rachel began tapping away at the keyboard. “What’s Jordan’s last name?”

  “Marquette,” Owen answered. “He’s probably around forty-one, was single at the time he was working for CORE, and a former cop for the LAPD before moving to Chicago.”

  Rachel typed a few more keys, then turned the laptop toward her husband. “I have a driver’s license photo. Is this him?”

  “Yeah, and you guys aren’t going to believe this.” Owen looked between them. “Jordan is currently living in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.”

  John’s earlier unease returned with full force. He didn’t believe in coincidences, and this one was a little too convenient to ignore.

  Rachel tapped at the keyboard, then stopped. “And it’s only an hour and a half drive from Fort Lauderdale to where Ryan found the GPS device from Ian’s rental.” She looked up. “This could be our guy.”

  “Jordan was also former military. Army, if I remember right.” Dante scrubbed a hand down his face. “Okay, finish up the case files you’ve already started. Meanwhile, Rachel, dig up whatever you can on Jordan. I think we just found our new number-one suspect.”

  “What about the other former employees?” Hudson asked. “Remember Rory Darnell? He didn’t leave CORE on good terms with Ian.”

  “Talk about an asshole,” John said with a sigh.

  “What did he do?” Rachel asked.

  “Rory talked two female clients—that Ian had no knowledge about—into letting him do investigative work for them in exchange for sex, and tied CORE’s name into it. What’s worse is that he had a hidden video camera and used it to blackmail one of the women into giving him money, or he’d send the video to her husband.”

  “What a total jerk,” Rachel said, frowning. “Didn’t Ian screen this guy before hiring him?”

  “Rory used to be FBI and worked with Ian,” Dante replied. “He’s well-trained and could also be a possible suspect.”

  John remembered the fallout that had ensued after Ian had discovered what Rory Darnell had been doing. “What’s even stranger about all of this—Jordan was the one who told Rory’s wife why Rory and Ian parted ways. After that, she promptly divorced him.”

  “Rory could definitely be holding a grudge. We should check on him, too.”

  “I don’t think we need to spend much time on Rory,” Hudson said. “He’s a womanizer, and even though he only worked here for a few months, I remember him being lazy. If he wanted to get even with Ian, I doubt he’d go through the trouble of doing it in the Everglades.”

  “Good point.” Dante reached for another file. “Check on him, anyway.” He opened the folder. “Let’s finish going through Ian’s files and the other ones Rachel pulled together for us, and narrow our list of suspects even further. We need to know who we’re up against. Once we do, I want one of us down in Florida.”

  John met Dante’s gaze and, for the first time in hours, he smiled. “I’ll be the first to volunteer.”

  Dante furrowed his forehead. “I appreciate that, but Ian probably wouldn’t want his son-in-law risking—”

  “Ian puts my life at risk all the time.” Dante was his friend and he respected him, but Ian’s right hand man could go to hell if he thought he was going to tell him what he could and couldn’t do. “You don’t live with his daughter. If I have the chance to bring Dad home, I’m doing it. I see divorce in my future if anything happens to Ian and Cami, and Celeste finds out I sat here on my ass doing nothing about it.”

  Dante’s mouth slid into a small smile. “Then I guess we better find a reason for you to go to Florida.”

  Chapter 6

  Somewhere in the Everglades, Florida

  Thursday, 7:22 a.m. Eastern Standard Time

  “READY TO GET wet?” Ryan asked, shucking his pack off his shoulders.

  Breathing hard after running through the woods, then slipping and sliding down a dirt slope, Lola bent forward to catch her breath. She looked up just as Ryan pulled off his t-shirt. The morning sun hit his tanned, muscle-toned chest and she quickly looked away. If they were anywhere but here, she’d have taken the opportunity to enjoy the enticing view. But knowing her mom must have tackled the same slope—likely wearing her pajamas—and having a piercing cramp in her side trumped Ryan’s half-naked body.

  “Are you going to swim across?” Harrison asked. “Dude, that’s frickin’ crazy. Aren’t you worried about the snakes?” He shivered. “Or leeches?”

  Ryan began unbuckling his belt. “The snakes swim above the water. If I see one, I’ll be swimming in a different direction.”

  “This is crazy,” Lola said, as Ryan unzipped his dark green cargo pants. “Are you seriously stripping down?”

  “I’m not going to get my clothes soaked if I don’t need to. I figured one of you could carry my pack. I’ll swim over and see if I can pick up Ian and Cami’s trail where it left off from here.” He pointed to the tracks they’d found. Her gaze wasn’t on the ground though, but to where Ryan’s pants hung open. “You guys can go along the shore and we’ll meet on the other side.”

  Since she didn’t want to swim fully clothed, with snakes and leeches, she nodded. “It’ll save time, especially if we pick up their tracks along the shore,” she said, then quickly turned when he gripped the top of his pants.

  Growing up in LA around actors and actresses, she’d seen her fair share of unclothed people. But because those people had been changing on set, she’d looked at their semi nudity as part of the job. Only she wasn’t in LA or on a set, and Ryan wasn’t some pretty-boy actor who’d spent hours in front of a mirror to look good for the camera. Although she didn’t know him, she couldn’t picture him posing for a camera—which was a damned shame. Rugged, good looking and quick with an easy smile, if women knew about him, and photographs were available, they’d be adding his pictures to their sexy-man-candy boards on Pinterest.

  “Vlad,” Ryan said. “Mind carrying my pack?”

  The Russian moved past Lola, then returned with the pack and Ryan’s clothes and boots. “Put in Harry backpack.” Vlad handed Harrison the clothes and boots.

  While Harrison complied, Ryan said, “See you on the other side.”

  Lola turned, and was given an amazing view of Ryan in a pair of black boxer briefs. He waded in the water for a few moments, then the muscles in his back bunched just before he dove.

  “He’s going to be ahead of us,�
�� she said, tearing her gaze away from Ryan. “Let’s go.”

  “That guy is nuts,” Harrison said, following behind her.

  “But he’s right,” she countered. “If he can’t pick up a trail, there’s no point in going in that direction. If we find—look.” She pointed to boot marks in the mud.

  “We couldn’t see if Ian was wearing boots during the Skype call.” Harrison crouched and studied the print. “I’m assuming your mom’s feet aren’t that big.”

  “I doubt Ian’s are either,” she said. “Come on, let’s follow them.”

  The prints disappeared into the marsh, where they came across another slope and she stepped into the ankle-deep water. As much as she didn’t want to wade through the tall weeds and lily pads, she also didn’t want to climb back up the uneven incline. Midway through the outer shore of the marsh, Ryan let out a low whistle.

  She looked up and over. Oh. My. God.

  Ryan stood at the edge of shore, the early morning sun caressing his tanned skin. He ran a hand through his wet hair and slicked it back, drawing her attention to how the muscles along his chest and arms moved in a way that made her hands tingle for a chance to touch the deep grooves.

  He waved them over. “Looks like he found something,” she said, tearing her gaze from him. “He’s way ahead of us, so let’s pick up the pace.”

  Vlad swung his mud-covered boot up and over a rotting log. “Mud like quicksand.”

  “Quit whining,” Harrison said, then ducked and swatted a huge dragonfly buzzing past his head. “What the hell was that?”

  “Dragonfly,” Lola said, and finding level ground, stepped out of the water. “They don’t bite.” She stopped and stared at the imprints in the soft earth. “Look. I think I found another boot print.” She continued forward. When she found the next impression, she pointed. “Our hunter skipped swimming and took the long way around.”

  “How much you wanna bet he’s carrying a buncha crap with him, too, and didn’t want to get it wet.” Harrison stepped over a boot print. “His feet are as big as Vlad’s.”