The Sniper
Page 16
Jaci drifted in a black cloud of nothingness and relief followed by the realization that she no longer felt fear or worry or anything. All the events of the past week had disappeared like mist in the warm sunshine and she was happy to float in oblivion for a while longer. If she were dying, wasn’t her life supposed to flash before her eyes? She saw nothing. Surely her life had contained enough to create a highlight reel, right?
Or maybe she wasn’t dying but simply refusing to return to consciousness. Yeah, that was probably it. Too many people dying. Right in front of her. She couldn’t handle it. And to think, her biggest worry at one time was whether she’d eaten too many carbs at lunch. Who was that girl? She didn’t know any longer. That girl seemed light years away from who she was now.
Jaci turned and closed her eyes against the faint sound of someone calling her name. No. Her lids popped back open. She didn’t want to go back. But the caller became more insistent and the black, comforting fog began to lift. Nooo! Jaci startled as something sucked at her feet, drawing her out of her sweet oblivion and popping her back into the here and now. She opened her eyes and this time, Nathan’s face came into view, his expression panicked as he lightly tapped her face in an annoying fashion. She swatted at his hand as she came to and he helped her to sit up. “I fainted, didn’t I?” she asked.
“You hyperventilated and passed out. That’s why I was telling you to breathe.”
“All I was doing was breathing and that seemed to cause the problem,” she retorted, irritated. She squinted at the sudden pain throbbing behind her temple. “Ouch. My head hurts,” she complained, shooting him a dark look. “How hard did you tap my face?”
“Not hard enough to give you a headache,” he answered with a scowl. “When you hyperventilate it causes a loss of carbon dioxide from your body, which causes the headache.” He waited a minute then asked, “Are you okay?”
“No,” she admitted with a shake of her head. “I want to be okay but every time I think I can handle this, someone else dies right in front of me and unlike you, that’s not a regular part of my day. I freak out when I hit a squirrel on the road. I’m not cut out for all this crazy stuff,” she confessed with a sad sniff, hating that she wasn’t the Rambo girl she wanted to be for him. “I’m sorry.” The silence in the truck made her sorry for saying anything. Did he regret meeting her? Had she totally disappointed him? She wouldn’t be surprised; she’d disappointed herself. She sniffed. “They make it look a lot easier in the movies,” she observed, risking a tiny glance at him.
“Yeah,” he agreed, pulling away to stare out the window at the passing cars on the street. “I can’t promise things won’t get worse. Hell, I can’t even guarantee your safety at this point, Jase. The only way I can figure to keep you out of danger is to send you away. I have plenty of cash and you have your passport. Your idea of Mexico is sounding pretty good right now.”
“You mean, you and I splitting for Mexico,” she asked in a small voice. “Or...just me?”
He wouldn’t look at her and she had her answer.
But this time...she didn’t argue.
* * *
Nathan knew this was the right decision but as he shoved wads of cash into a duffel for Jaci, he felt sick to his stomach. Maybe it was because he knew this was probably the last time he’d see her. Chances were he wouldn’t make it out of this mission alive. Whoever he was up against had considerable power and she had a distinct advantage in that he didn’t have a clue who she was. All he knew was that it was a woman calling the shots—and an evil one at that.
He wanted Jaci far away from anyone like that.
“Don’t stop until you reach the border. I don’t care what you hear, okay? Just get in the car and keep driving. A moving target is far less vulnerable,” he instructed her sternly, focusing on the task of putting her in a safe place. “Once you cross the border, there’s a hotel in San Felipe called the Casa en el Mar. Ask for Alejandro and tell him I sent you. He will take care of you until I can join you.”
She lifted her gaze to him and in her eyes he saw the question she was afraid to ask. What if he didn’t make it back to her? His throat closed. He couldn’t lie to her and offer false assurances even if it would make her feel better in the short term. “Trust no one but Alejandro. You should have enough cash to last you for at least six months. Don’t come back any sooner. Do you hear me?” Tears sparkled in her eyes and she nodded. He ought to put her in the car and hope for the best. But when she found her way into his arms, he held on for dear life. He kissed her crown, inhaling the scent of coconut and cucumbers from her favorite shampoo and wished he could bottle up her scent to take with him. He pressed a quick kiss to her forehead and then reluctantly put her into the cheap car he’d bought with cash. “Remember...”
“Trust no one,” she murmured with a nod of understanding. She caught his hand and kissed it before he could push away from the car. “Be safe and get this finished.” Her eyes glittered with unshed tears as she said with a brave smile, “I’ll be waiting for you. I’ll be the girl in the green-striped bikini.”
I love you. I love you. I love you. He nodded, unable to get the words past his lips as he watched her pull away.
He turned his back on her retreating car and switched modes.
Time to hunt down an out-of-control bitch and put her down.
For good.
Chapter 22
Nathan needed help finding more about Tessara and he knew just the person to do that but as he bounded the stairs to James and Jaci’s apartment, he found the door kicked open and the interior destroyed. He did a quick perimeter search and finding nothing, split the scene. He dialed the burner phone and hoped James had had the good sense to grab it before he hightailed it out of the apartment. The phone rang four times but just as it was about to switch to voice mail, James came on the line, agitated and freaking out. “Is that you, Jase?” he asked.
“No, it’s Nathan. What happened to your place?” he asked, getting straight to the point. “Are you hurt?”
“I’m fine but I sensed someone was tailing me and so I packed up my laptop and a few essentials to hide out for a while until things chilled out. I thought maybe I was overreacting but then I went back to my place to get a few things and saw that someone had totally trashed it!”
“You’ve got one helluva guardian angel on your side,” Nathan murmured. “Okay, we have to meet. Things have gotten hot and I need your help finding information on the company Tessara Pharmaceutical. Got that?”
“Yeah, Tessara Pharm. That ought to be easy,” James said. “Haven’t you been watching the news?”
“I’ve been a little busy,” Nathan bit out, irritated. “So what’s the deal with this company?”
“They’ve had some kind of medical breakthrough for cancer research. The company is worth billions.”
“Billions?” Nathan repeated, thinking of Tom and how he’d been living the high life for a while. “Has there been anything on the news about a man named Tom Wyatt? Remember? He was part owner of Tessara.”
“Yeah, tough break for him. Heart attack right before this big announcement.”
“It was no heart attack,” he muttered. “He was shot and killed but I’m guessing the story released to the press is a bit more whitewashed.”
“Papers said that Wyatt was found in his home by his housekeeper, dead of a heart attack in his bed.”
More smoke and mirrors. “I need you to find out more about the remaining owners of Tessara. The last words a source uttered to me before he blew his brains out were to dig more deeply into Tessara. The answers are there somewhere. In the meantime, I’m going to tap a resource I have within the Department of Defense. I think it’s time to bring in some additional firepower.”
“It must be nice to have friends in high places,” James said. “I have a friend who works at Mic
rosoft but he can’t even get me free programming.”
“I wouldn’t call this person a friend...but he might be willing to make a few inquiries. I helped him get into the officer training program a few years ago. We’ll see how far that gets me.”
“How’s Jase holding up?” James ventured and Nathan felt himself bristle before he could stop it. He had to stop being so possessive about her. Before he could answer, James said, “I didn’t like that you were back in the picture but, man, I’m glad she’s with you. When I saw my apartment trashed, all I could think of was how glad I was that Jaci wasn’t anywhere near when it happened. No telling what the thugs might’ve done to her.”
He grunted in agreement, not sure how to accept James’s gratitude when he’d been seconds away from biting the man’s head off for even asking about Jaci. He rubbed at his forehead. “Yeah. Me, too,” he said, switching subjects abruptly. “Call me as soon as you find something and do yourself a favor and stay out of open spaces.”
He heard James audibly gulp as he said, “Thanks for the tip, man.”
“Don’t mention it,” Nathan muttered and ended the call.
Nathan dialed a number that he had never expected to call and he sure as hell could bet the man on the other end wasn’t going to throw a party when he realized who was calling.
“Hey, Jake...I need your help.”
* * *
Nathan hadn’t exactly been honest with Jaci about his brother’s whereabouts but with a little brother who worked for the Department of Defense in a highly classified branch of the government, he felt it was better to simply make up a story rather than go with the truth. Besides, it wasn’t as if they were chummy and went out golfing together on Sundays. Fact of the matter was, Jake probably preferred to forget he had a brother at all.
Jake, a tall man built similarly to Nathan, exited his car and scanned the underground parking garage, his eyes sharp and wary. Nathan felt a pang of pride that he had no right to feel at seeing how well Jakey had turned out.
Nathan emerged from the shadow of the cement pillar and Jake’s expression didn’t change. His brother had grown up. Gone was the chubby-cheeked boy who had followed him around, pestering him incessantly until Nathan wanted to punt him off a bridge. Now not a hint of that baby fat remained on his carved angular cheekbones. Hell, his brother was almost pretty. If situations had been way different—as in different childhoods and born to different parents—maybe they might’ve ribbed each other but as it was, they were strangers. The only reason Jake had even shown up was because he didn’t like owing anyone anything—not even his brother—and he wanted to cash in that chip and be done with it. “I don’t recall you being melodramatic so I assume you’re in a heap of trouble to have put so much effort into not being seen,” Jake said. “What’s going on?”
“You look good,” Nathan said and Jake’s expression flickered but he didn’t return the sentiment. Nathan read between the lines clearly. “Listen, I wouldn’t involve you if I didn’t think I needed you but there’s something rotten going on in ID and I know you’re about the only person I can trust with the information.”
At the mention of ID, Jake’s lip visibly curled. “If it were within my power, I’d shut down that whole department.”
“Well, this might be the chance you’re looking for,” Nathan said, surprising Jake with his frank answer.
“I’m listening.”
“Tom Wyatt is dead.”
“Yes, I read that in the papers. Heart attack.”
“Not a heart attack. He was murdered.”
Jake’s brow rose a fraction. “How do you know this?”
“Because I caught his body as a sniper buried a round in his skull. He was killed to shut him up just as Miko Archangelo opted to kill himself rather than face whoever is calling the shots behind the scenes. I don’t have a way to prove it but I have a hunch that someone higher up the food chain is using ID as their own personal hit squad.”
Jake’s gaze narrowed. “And what would the motivation be?”
“If I were to take a guess? Greed. Tom was part owner of Tessara Pharmaceutical and as of the recent deal with Hashimoto Inc., it’s worth billions. I did a hit on a man named Harrison Winslow—”
“The man the papers said was connected to the opium trade?”
He nodded. “The very same, but I don’t think that was correct information. I think I was lied to about his guilt and it was to get Winslow out of the way of Tessara’s deal with Hashimoto.”
“Makes sense,” Jake murmured, concerned. “Who else have you talked to about this?”
“Not many. The people with information keep ending up dead.”
At that Jake paused and a ghost of a smile passed across his lips. “Well, it’s a good thing you’re hard to kill, right?” he said.
“Yeah. But my luck’s about to run out without a little muscle behind me. You’re above me in clearance. You can get into files that I can’t.”
Jake paused and then said, “You know you’ve given me enough information to shut down ID? You’re good with that?”
Nathan didn’t need to think hard on that one. Too many people dead and too many bad memories stuck in his head. “Yeah. It’s time to turn out the lights. I used to think I was one of the good guys.... I don’t think that anymore.”
Jake nodded and climbed back into his car. “I’ll be in touch.” And then he pulled away, his tires echoing inside the underground garage.
* * *
Three days into her fake vacation, Jaci was ready to lose her mind. The first day she’d remained cloistered in her room, too terrified to venture out for fear of who might see her but on the third day, she had a raging case of cabin fever and needed to get out before she went insane.
The sugar-white, isolated beachfront property was a perfect hideout for someone who didn’t want to be found. Quiet and peaceful, the place almost made her forget that her life had been tossed upside down and her heart was bleeding. It didn’t take much to remind her—a scent, a memory, the sound of a man’s voice too similar to Nathan’s—and suddenly she was swamped by feelings of extreme remorse for agreeing to leave him. How stupid could she be? She shouldn’t have been such a damn coward. So she’d seen a couple of dead people... Was that reason enough to run screaming in the other direction when the man she loved faced imminent danger? She had half a mind to climb in her car and head back to Los Angeles but Nathan’s stern instructions to stay put always squashed her reckless impulse. He was right; she’d probably just get herself killed if she tried heading back but she hated not knowing if he was safe. He hadn’t called—would it kill him to pick up a damn phone and let her know that he was okay? And her email was empty of anything but spam. She had no choice but to sit like a caught bird in a cage—a nice, pretty and mostly relaxing cage but a cage nonetheless.
She couldn’t do this. Her brain needed activity. Jaci wrapped her sarong around her hips and padded barefoot back into the airy hotel foyer to use the hotel computer. She smiled at Alejandro and logged on using the complimentary Wi-Fi password.
She idly typed in Tessara to see what would pop up and not unexpectedly, news of Tom’s death rose to the top but not ahead of the bigger news of megacorporation Hashimoto Incorporated offering to manufacture Tessara’s newest wonder drug. She flipped through pages of news articles, nothing sparking a flame of curiosity, until she accidentally hit Images when she went to click on the URL bar to use a different search engine. There she found a photo that made her sit a little straighter. She zoomed the image. It was a group shot of the owners of Tessara, which included Tom Wyatt. She opened a new tab and cross-referenced Tom Wyatt to see if he popped up in connection with anyone else in the past and that’s when she found success.
“It all goes back to Operation Sundial, I see,” she murmured, double-clicking the old photo. There, standing
arm in arm with a young Tom Wyatt, was a fellow soldier with the name that triggered her memory.
Penelope Granger.
“What have you been up to since your soldier days, Miss Penelope?” Jaci asked in a small voice as she did a search just for Penelope. It seems the woman had been busy since hanging up her military stripes.
But the most surprising find?
Her married name: Penelope Winslow, society matron extraordinaire and wife to one slain Harrison Winslow. Could the connection be as simple as a love affair gone wrong? Tom could have axed Harrison because he wanted to poach another’s territory, but then why involve so many other people? Unless the risk was deemed worth it—as in worth billions?
Jaci gasped and jumped from her chair, causing the rattan to clatter to the tiled floor. “Are you all right, señorita?” Alejandro asked, alarmed. She jerked a nod and righted the chair, forced a bright smile and then babbled an excuse about needing a bathroom. She was too focused on reaching the burner phone she’d left in her room to realize she wasn’t alone until it was too late.
Chapter 23
Jaci awoke with a sour taste in her mouth and a roaring headache. She blinked away the fuzziness and stared hard to reorient herself with her surroundings but she didn’t recognize any of the posh furnishings. Gone were the rattan and cotton sofa and chairs. They were replaced with delicate French chairs with gilt edging and odd tassels hanging from the ends of the cushions. It was no doubt expensive and most certainly ugly.
Jaci rubbed her head and sat up slowly only to find a stately older woman sitting across from her, watching her with a faint amount of disdain. “Finally, she wakes.”
Her tone delivered the message that Jaci’s drugged slumber was somehow an inconvenience to her and Jaci couldn’t help but snap, “Well, sorry I’m not used to being drugged and kidnapped. Next time I’ll be sure to be a better hostage.”