“I was in a cell earlier, and I try never to end up in a cop’s bedroom.”
“I should have known you’d have a different excuse than most for ending up where you do. So what’s the problem? Did you kill a guide for ruining your underwear or something?”
Jenna’s eyes swiveled to Josh, who looked back, surprised. “Don, either you’ve got a really, really good spy, or that was an extremely lucky guess.”
“Don’t need a spy with you, girl. You’re predictable.”
“Well, how’s this for predictable? I did not kill said guide. However, Dale did get killed. I didn’t do that, either.” Sometimes the best way to break bad news was just to come out and say it. Even so, that was probably the all-time worst delivery.
“Did you say Dale got killed?” Don asked slowly and quietly.
“Dale was shot right in front of me. He bled on me. Lewis was also shot, but it was a graze. He’s okay and currently in the hospital. Ada is off-her-face messed up because of it. The rest of us are trooping on. Oh, and thanks for the clothes. I got some super-expensive but super-cute boots.”
There was the unmistakable sound of fabric rustling. When next Don spoke, it sounded as if he’d leaned over the desk toward the phone. “Did you say Dale was shot? Are you pulling my leg, Jenna?”
“No. Literally, Dale got shot. In the back, from a distance.”
Don was silent for a second as he processed. The man had a brain like an computer. It was currently cycling through any number of things.
“Call me back via the bat phone without the authorities present.” The phone clicked off.
“He doesn’t like cops,” Jenna said to the room. Erika and Mike nodded.
“Well…” Jack said, looking at Jenna like she was an alien.
“Will you tell us what he says?” Josh asked from the window. “Without hedging?”
“I will not say anything that might get Don in trouble.”
“Even to catch Dale’s killer?” Jack asked incredulously.
“I hated Dale. I like Don. I’m not going to get him in trouble.”
“Jenna,” Josh said. He just barely stopped himself from putting his hands on his hips, Jenna could tell. “Don has undoubtedly done some fairly illegal things. That’s not what we are interested in. I understand the position you are in. Would it help if you just told me and I filtered? I have no legal authority.”
“He’s your Navy buddy; you aren’t going to filter.”
“I don’t think I’ll have to. But I will omit if I need to. Will that work?”
Jenna thought about it. “I’ll call, but no promises what comes out of my mouth.”
Josh’s eyes hardened, but he nodded. Apparently he hoped she trusted him a little more than that.
“Old habits,” she murmured.
He didn’t so much as blink. He stared at her for a beat longer before he turned back to the window.
Jenna picked up the office phone, then hesitated. “Is this bugged?”
Jack snorted. “You watch too much TV.”
Jenna looked through the directory in her phone, which now had service, since they were in civilization again, and found the number she needed. Don picked up on the first ring.
“Jenna?”
“Yup,” she said distractedly as she looked through her text messages.
“Are you alone?”
“Don, don’t be ridiculous. The cop is, like, three feet away. I won’t incriminate you. They are convinced this isn’t over, and they think I am the one they are after. So I ask you, what the fuck?”
Don’s sigh was loud. She imagined him putting his head in his hands and his elbows on the desk.
“It’s getting real. Looks like we uncovered a rat’s nest. I have the jump on the planning commission and the council. The yahoos I am going to bat against think I play by the rules now. That was their first mistake.
“We are about a week away from locking it down. Firm lockdown. I’ve had to grease some wheels to get that done. Big wheels. It took some serious white-collar know-how. I have to stay vigilant, but the building will get made on that location.”
“You didn’t put a hit on me, Don, did you? Because if you did, I might be slightly offended.”
“Shut up. Here’s the deal. I am dealing with heavy hitters. I figured I could send you away and problem solved. I didn’t think they had the resources to track and find you. So. That was my first mistake.”
Jenna stood. “That better be your only mistake, Don. Our lives are on the line here.”
Everyone in the room jumped. Don was quiet. Jenna waited him out.
Finally he said, “They think that if they take down the designers, the building dies.”
There was something more to his words that he wasn’t saying. She didn’t have time to digest it, though, because what he’d said was plenty scary. “That’s what Erika and Mike said. It is stupid, Don. All the structural plans are done. We are on the lipstick and rouge. We are close to handing it off to the engineers for the last bits. If they kill us all, you can hire someone else to come in and fix it up.”
“Well, here’s the bitch of it. I’ve been selling you with the building. I’ve said you are the miracle worker behind this. You are a PR dream. You’re beautiful, you take a great picture, and hey, you are the brains behind the operation. It was largely your idea and it is certainly your baby. It was just lucky that you can also be on every billboard from here to Mars. So…they take you out, and I have to start spinning a new web. I am good, Jenna, but I don’t have the time. You die, it is very possible this project dies with you.”
“Don, you expect me to believe our company will just roll over with all the money they’ve already put into this? Or that you won’t walk in there the next day with all my plans and say, ‘It’s cool, everybody, we’ve still got her brain, we just need builders.’”
“That is exactly what I’d do. But I would have to hire a new staff. A good one. They would have to recreate your twisted way of thinking. All that takes time. I have about a week before I green-light this. We will start building immediately. You won’t be completely done by the time we are tearing a neighborhood down. But by then, it will be too late. I don’t have you, I don’t have momentum, and then I won’t have a building site. Capiche?”
“So…they kill me, and that is it. Show’s over. They have no reason to take anyone else down.”
“Well now, if we have the plans and your crew, we can still get things moving. So hope might not be completely lost, but that would be dicey. I might be able to sell Erika. She doesn’t have the experience or the poise, but she has the face. Dale I could lose. Ada, even. I need the rest of you for optimum performance, but if they go and you are left, I can swing it. Vice versa, maybe. Otherwise, I’m bent over and stuck like a pincushion.”
“Ew. At least I’m not in this alone. How many out to get us?”
“No idea, but probably not too many. They have limited resources, and there is a spotlight on them, so they can’t veer too far. They know lots of scum, though. Guys with the hook in and a couple felonies, willing to trade a favor for a few bills and an eightball. Good news is those types of guys miss as often as they hit. Bad news is—well, there are more of them in supply.”
“How many would you send?”
“Without a spotlight, as many as I needed. With a spotlight…one, maybe two.”
“Are these the type of people that would show up in a missing persons report?”
Josh looked at her hard. Jack leaned back, and then looked at Josh with a warning.
“If they disappeared, definitely not. If they showed up somewhere, not unless it was obvious who put them there. Do you hear what I am telling you?”
“Don, I’m not stupid.”
“Yes, but you aren’t up for this kind of thing, kid. I know a lot about your past, but you aren’t up for this. We gotta hide you.”
“I might know someone who will help me.”
Josh turned from the window slo
wly. His eyes burned into hers. She lifted her eyebrows, asking if she could count on him. Hoping she could count on him. She was getting used to leaning on him. Used to his quiet support.
The light from the window fell in a cascade over his face and shoulders, illuminating his sunburst eyes cloaked in thick black fringe.
He nodded.
He would stick with her. Trouble was coming, but she wouldn’t have to brave it alone. Something in her relaxed a little.
“One week?” She was asking both Don and Josh at the same time.
“One week and we are hitting the ground running,” Don said. “Don’t tell me who or where this person is. As for Mike and Erika, figure it out. You keep you alive, Jenna. I’ll make this up to you.”
“I want my building and I want a big bonus, Don. As in, huge.”
“Stay safe, kid.” The line went dead.
Jenna delicately rested the phone onto the cradle, and stared at it for a moment. Couldn’t she have a normal life? She wasn’t getting paid enough to be chased around the woods by a crazed lunatic.
She took a deep breath to collect herself. This wasn’t the time to show how absolutely freaked out she was. She was supposed to be strong. If she wasn’t, then everything would come tumbling down, and she’d worked too hard at this life to start over. Or let it go without a fight.
“So,” she began, crossing her legs. “There is good news and bad news. Good news is, Don is winning the fight to get the plans approved. He’s thinking another week should see us to the groundbreaking—”
“Groundbreaking? We aren’t even done yet!”
Jenna made a show of checking her ear for hearing loss after Mike’s shriek. “No, we aren’t. But we’re close. All the structural stuff is ready, and Don doesn’t have time to lose. Before they get to work on leveling, they have to take out a city block of crappy dwellings. That’ll take ages. By the time they’re ready for us, we’ll be ready for them. And by that time, it will be too late to stop our progress. We’ll be up and rolling. Killing the designers won’t matter. We win.”
“What’s the bad news?” Erika asked.
“Don didn’t figure the lives of his design team would be in jeopardy if we weren’t readily available. I’m sure he’ll bust some heads, egos, or whatever he’s got to work with to put a bigger spotlight on misdeeds, but we are targets. All of us being taken down would be ideal, but they probably don’t have that much manpower. I’m numero uno because Don’s a real gem and put my face on everything. After that, you all get the limelight.
“One thing, though, and this is very important…” Jenna looked hard at Mike, who was pale, and then at Erika, who was trying not to cry. “If I…die”—they winced—“I want you two to make sure, promise me, that you’ll get that building constructed, okay? It is all I ever wanted to do with my life—build something beautiful. That is it. I want it completed. Please do that for me.”
“Well, since you said please…” Mike looked away.
Erika stared down at her hands as she picked her nail.
“Promise me, Erika. Make it happen. Stay strong until it’s finished, then you can say you told me so, okay?”
Erika nodded, but didn’t look up. Jenna ran her hand over her face, a chill taking root deep in her gut. “Okay, that’s that.” Josh was staring at her with fierce eyes and that loose body posture that she’d come to know as “ready for action.” He didn’t like her talking the worst-case scenario, obviously, even though he must’ve been thinking about it, given his past profession.
She pushed those thoughts away. “Jack, Don doesn’t know who, specifically, is after us. Josh was right—they aren’t professional. They’re probably users with a record, and they’re expendable. That’s all I know. Mike and Erika, we need to find somewhere to stash you. Ideas?”
“I have a time share in Mexico.” Mike rubbed his eyes. “I can get a flight to Texas and drive from there. By the time I get there, get drunker than I have been in about ten years, and eat a bunch of red meat, I can drive back. I doubt they, whoever they are, will go after a moving target.”
“True, great idea.” Jenna refrained from following Mike’s example and rubbing her eyes. It wouldn’t help wipe away the bone-weary fatigue that was dulling her thoughts. “Erika?”
Erika’s eyes, newly dry after crying over Jenna, started leaking again. “Um…I guess I can go to Phil. He might be able to look after me…” She didn’t sound confident. Her body shuddered with suppressed tears.
Jenna’s defensive instinct kicked in. “Absolutely not. No way. Sorry, sweetie, he is a nice guy, and I definitely approve of him to help build your picket fence, but he is a bit small time, you know? He’s more Barney Fife than Rambo. Which is great for a husband, don’t get me wrong, but not so great for keeping my best friend alive, okay?”
Erika wiped a trail of tears off her cheek. Her lips trembled.
“No crying,” Jenna said distractedly. “No crying. I will think of something. I know—how about my father’s summer home in the Hamptons? They’ll never expect you to go there.”
“But they will expect you to go there,” Josh said in a calm, even voice. The man really held up well in a crisis, she’d give him that.
“Right, okay.” Jenna gave in and tried to wipe the sand out of her eyes. As expected, it didn’t help un-fog her brain. “Let’s see…”
“It’s okay.” Erika shrugged in resignation.
“No! No, I will think of something. I know people, Erika. I just want to find one that won’t take advantage of your emotional state.”
“She can go with me,” Mike said.
“What would your wife think about that, Mike? Plus, you two need to split up. We all need to split up.”
“How about me?” Jack sat forward and balanced on the edge of his seat. “I can do it.”
Erika glanced up from under her wet lashes. Jack’s eyes glued to her. A soft look took over his face.
Uh oh.
“Probably not a good idea,” Jenna said warily.
“Why not?” Jack asked.
“I don’t trust you.”
“Wow, tell me how you really feel,” Jack said dryly.
“You trust me, and I trust him,” Josh said, power and command riding his words. He was trying to pull rank. “If he says he’ll keep her out of harm’s way, he will keep her out of harm’s way. He’s saved my ass more times than I can count.”
“No way.” Jenna sat straighter, ready to take him on.
“I don’t understand,” Jack said in disbelief. “I’m a police sergeant with military training. How much better can you get?”
“You are a man, first and foremost, and she is a cute, vulnerable woman. You might keep her safe from bullets, but can you keep her safe from yourself?” Jenna raised an eyebrow.
“I don’t see you complaining about Josh,” Jack said.
“I’ve already been with Josh. When I was of sound mind. This is a different situation, and I don’t have anyone waiting for me back home. I can have a naked romp any time I feel like it and my conscience will be clear.”
“Who’s Josh?” Mike asked.
“Enlightening.” Josh turned away.
An unsuspected flood of guilt threatened to drown Jenna. She watched Josh’s back as he looked out the window: straight, broad, and layered with muscle. She took a steadying breath to ebb the tide of emotion, confusion seeping into her awareness. She didn’t understand her reaction. She didn’t understand his.
She also didn’t have time to figure it out right now.
She held herself tall and pushed away emotional troubles. She had bigger problems than a bruised heart. A gunman, for a start.
Focusing on Jack, she analyzed the situation. He was an attractive guy—no Josh, surely—but he had a cute, boyish face that became adorable when he smiled, which was often. He moved both with confidence, and like a predator. His hair was slicked back, but small curls were trying to escape, which meant that his dirty blond hair was probably u
nruly. She could see that working for him.
Apart from appearance, she knew that Jack had a better job with higher ranking than Phil, but he was in a small town without a lot of action, so that didn’t really set him ahead. But if Jack had similar training to Josh, he was a force to be reckoned with. She didn’t know either man all that well, but if she had a split second to choose, it would be Jack. Jack would be the best choice to keep her friend safe. If she happened to stray, then Jenna approved of her choice there, too. She remembered Jack’s hard stomach—he was definitely a powerhouse underneath the extra couple pounds. She could see Erika having some fun with that.
Coming to a decision, she said, “Okay, fine. Jack, you take her. Anything happens to her, and you will have more than a few thugs coming after the price tag on your head.”
Josh turned back to her with molten eyes. She had no idea why.
Jack leaned back in his chair. “Are you threatening a police officer?” he growled.
“Oh yeah,” she answered, “I had forgotten you have a badge to hide behind. No bother. How’s this? You fail to do your civic duty and get my friend killed, and I will get one of the best lawyers in the country breathing down your boss’s neck to strip you of all your titles. Better?”
Jenna was preparing for a standoff, which she planned to win, when Jack gave a lopsided grin. “Guerrilla warfare, city edition. They should make a video game out of you.” He looked at Erika and the grin failed. “I’ll keep her safe. From the threat as well as from me. You can trust me.”
“Good.” Jenna stood, stretched out her aching back, gave Erika a hug, and then unceremoniously pushed her toward Jack. It was sink or swim time. “She’s all yours.”
Jack jumped up in surprise as Erika nearly fell on him. Then, to Jenna’s astonishment, Jack folded her in his arms with the delicacy of handling a baby. He murmured something in her ear, to which she nodded, before getting her a blanket and gently wrapping her up. Her eyes met Jenna’s.
“Damn it, Erika. Stop crying!” It was hard to be a cold bitch when your best friend was in pieces. It made Jenna want to sink into a puddle of her own sorrow and failure. “We’ll have a pity party with lots of wine when this is over, okay?”
Unexpected Hero (Skyline Trilogy Book 1) Page 23
