Conceal, Protect

by Carol Ericson

  “If she put something on my laptop and you have the laptop, then just open it.”

  The man tsked. “It’s not that easy. Our Abby was a computer genius, wasn’t she? She put safeguards on this file.”

  “Don’t you people do this sort of thing for a living? You can’t crack a password on a file? Abby once told me it was easy to do.”

  “This is a different kind of password. We need your voice.”

  J.D. swore under his breath. That Abby Warren was a piece of work. She’d involved Noelle at every level.

  Noelle dug her fingernails into the denim covering his leg and hunched her shoulders. She hadn’t realized the full implications of the password.

  “I don’t understand. Why do you need my voice?”

  “Your clever roommate installed a voice-activated password on this file. We need you to say the code into the microphone of this laptop to unlock the file.”

  “Are you kidding me?” The nails dug deeper. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know any voice-activated...”

  She released her grip on his thigh and covered her mouth.

  The man on the phone pounced. “You do know it, don’t you? Abby would’ve had you say something into the mic to set this up.”

  “I don’t remember.” She shook her head at J.D. “I don’t remember what it is. She did have me read a set of words or names into the microphone, but she told me it was just a test. She didn’t install the voice-activated security on any of my own files.”

  “You’d better remember, and we’re here to help you remember. We have your brother, Noelle. We’ll kill him if you don’t join us and unlock this file. Then we’ll kill you and that cowboy bodyguard you have hanging around you every minute of the day.”

  Noelle swallowed.

  “Come alone. Tomorrow night. You unlock this file and we’ll be out of your life, and you can take your brother with you.”

  “What’s in the file?”

  “You don’t need to worry about that. Secrets. Every country has them. I don’t even know what’s in the file. I just have orders from my superior to get it. You and I? We don’t need to concern ourselves with all of that.”

  “Where are you? Where do you have Ted?”

  “Oh, no. It’s not going to be that easy. We give you our location and you tell the sheriff or the cowboy and we get ambushed. A few of us will pick you up, and the rest will stay with your brother. That way, if anything unplanned happens to us, the others will execute your brother.”

  J.D. squeezed her wrist and mouthed No.

  She shook him off. “Where? Where will you pick me up?”

  “We’ll be in touch.”

  The phone went dead, and Noelle dropped it onto the table. “What are we going to do?”

  “We’re going to wait for further instructions on the meeting place tomorrow, and then I’m going to go out there like the welcoming committee from hell.”

  The adrenaline was already coursing through his veins at the thought of getting close to Zendaris’s men.

  “You can’t do that, J.D. You heard him. They’ll kill Ted.”

  “You don’t think they’re going to kill him anyway, and you, if you go out there? You don’t even know the password, and you don’t want to know how they plan to get it out of you.”

  “So you go to the meeting place instead of me and start shooting? Then what? The people holding Ted will know. They’ll kill him. And what about me? What if you die instead? What happens to me then?” Her words ended on a sob.

  He dropped to his knees in front of her and wrapped his arms around her waist. “I’m not going to die. Trust me. I can get other agents out here for backup. We can save Ted, too.”

  “Other agents?” She touched his face. “How long is that going to take? They have Ted.”

  “Even if they can’t get here tomorrow night, we have a lot of time. They need your voice to unlock that file. They’re not going to hurt Ted before you get there. We can do this. Prospero can do this. We’ve been waiting four long years for another crack at Zendaris.”

  “What if I go first as the bait, and then you and your agents follow me in?”

  “No. I don’t want you anywhere near these guys. We’ll figure out something.”

  She blinked her long, dark lashes. “A-are you sure?”

  “I’m positive, darlin’. We can do this.” His skin prickled as a warm flush stole over his body. It was the adrenaline high he always got before a mission.

  If they captured even one of Zendaris’s men it would be the biggest lead they’d had in the four years since they had disrupted his first major arms deal. They needed this win.

  Noelle’s fingers tangled in his hair, and she cupped his jaw. “I trust you, J.D. I know you want to bring this guy down.”

  “And keep you safe. I want to keep you safe, Noelle.” He turned his head to kiss the inside of her palm.

  The phone vibrated, and she swept it from the table.

  J.D.’s muscles coiled. “Is it them?”

  “No. Just Tara checking up on me.”

  She pocketed the phone. Leaning forward, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders. “Tell me this is going to be okay.”

  “We’ve got this, Noelle.” He pressed his face between her breasts and inhaled her sweet scent.

  She hooked her arms around his neck and drew him even closer.

  He raised his head and kissed the base of her throat, where her pulse thudded. He didn’t want to rush into anything this time. Fear had driven her into his arms again, and, while he wanted to be here for her, he’d try to contain his desire this time.

  Resting her chin on the top of his head, she sighed. “I just want you to hold me. This could be our last night...”

  He drew back from her and pinched her chin, pressing his thumb against her bottom lip. “Once we put an end to this threat against you and turn the tables on Zendaris, you and I will have a lot of nights together.”

  Her eyes widened, and he felt as if he could drown in their depths. He couldn’t wait to make love with her with all the barriers between them cleared away—but that moment would come later.

  “You want to continue this—” one hand fluttered in the air “—what we have between us?”

  “Am I out of line?” If she started lining up forks or whatever, he’d spoken too soon.

  “N-no. I want a chance to get to know you without the constant drama.”

  “Exactly. We’re going to rescue Ted and keep you out of Zendaris’s clutches. I’m even confident we can get that laptop back in our hands.”

  “Must be nice to have so much confidence.” She cradled his face in her hands. “It even rubs off on me.”

  “Good.” He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Do you want me to get a fire going? We can discuss our plan for tomorrow, and maybe that plan will start with stalling Zendaris’s men.”

  “And women?” She picked up the two wineglasses that had fallen onto the table and set them on their bases. “Did you catch that? The woman who drugged Ted could’ve been the one at the lodge that night.”

  “It wasn’t or she would’ve known Ted instead of Bruce was your brother, so stop thinking you should’ve known the redhead was evil.” He pushed to his feet and checked the wood in the basket by the fireplace.

  “You get the fire started, and I’m going to refill our wineglasses. I’m feeling relatively calm, given the circumstances, and I want to remain that way before I start organizing books again.”

  “You’re doing great, Noelle, and you do have a measure of control over this situation. You’re going to help me figure out how to stall these guys until the Prospero cavalry arrives.”

  He stacked the wood on the grate while she clinked glasses in the kitchen and cleared off the table.

  By the time she returned with two full glasses of wine, he’d swung the love seat in front of the fire again and plumped a pillow against the back cushion. He patted the pillow. “Have a seat. I need som
e of that wine or I’ll never be able to sleep tonight—too much excitement.”

  “I could tell the prospect of meeting up with these people face-to-face gave you a buzz.” She placed the wineglasses on the table and sank onto the love seat.

  “That obvious, huh? I hope you don’t think I’m happy about it. It’s the nature of the job. These are the moments we train for.”

  “I understand.” She handed him a glass and crossed her legs beneath her. “I just want to get Ted back safely. It seems that he’s always suffered because of me.”

  “Noelle.” God, he hated it when she started blaming herself for every bad thing that happened to someone close to her.

  “Don’t worry. I’m not going down that road.” She swirled the dark red liquid in her glass. “I’m not saying I’m the cause of Ted’s suffering, but my existence as the favored child, the legal child in the family, wasn’t easy for him.”

  J.D. took a swig of his wine.

  She dipped her head to his shoulder, and he smoothed the hair back from her face. He didn’t believe for one minute this would be their last night together, but if she thought that and it drove her back into his arms, he’d take it. Slowly.

  “Do you want some more wine?”

  “I’m okay.”

  “I need another, and I hate drinking alone. One more.” She placed a hand flat on his belly. “You still seem all keyed up to me.”

  Did she think he was a jerk for getting pumped up about this confrontation? It wasn’t as if Ted’s kidnapping made him happy. But now that it had happened, he couldn’t wait to get his hands on a couple of Zendaris’s people.

  He had to show her he could relax, too. He downed the last sip of cabernet and held out his glass. “Sure. One more.”

  She grabbed her own glass from the floor and headed back to the kitchen. “So what’s the plan for tomorrow?”

  “The first thing we do is stall, so we can get some backup.”

  “Do you think they’ll hurt Ted?”

  “No. They need you. If they don’t have Ted or they injure him, you’re not going to cooperate. They have you right where they want you, but they didn’t count on the full force of Prospero dropping on them like a hammer.”

  She returned, carrying two full glasses of wine. She handed one to him and cradled her own with two hands.

  “So I’m going to stall them when they call back with instructions.”

  He sipped the wine. Its warmth seemed to bring him down a few notches. Noelle was right. He needed to unwind. He took another sip.

  “Yeah, stall. Tell them you can’t get away from me, that if you go out to meet them I’ll follow you.”

  “They’ll believe that.” She put the wine to her lips and her eyes glowed over the rim of the glass. “They’ll think getting to Zendaris is more important to you than saving my brother.”

  “Exactly.” His head dropped back against the love-seat cushion, and then lolled to the side. It was almost too much effort to lift it. The heat from the fire and the warmth from the wine had woven a sleepy spell around him.

  It’s a good thing he didn’t have any plans for Noelle tonight since he doubted he could make it to the bedroom at this point.

  “You tired?” His lids felt heavy as he looked at her, and he blinked his dry eyes.

  “It’s been a long day.” She took the glass from his limp fingers before he could drop it. “We should go to sleep.”

  “Sleep?” He tried to turn his wrist to look at his watch, but the motor skills required to do that wouldn’t obey his brain. “It’s surly.”

  Surly? His tongue felt thick. He felt...drugged.

  * * *

  NOELLE TUCKED A pillow behind J.D.’s head. If he had to sleep sitting upright, she wanted to make sure he didn’t wake up with a stiff neck—especially if he planned to come to her rescue.

  Reaching down, she picked up her full wineglass and hurried to the kitchen, carrying J.D.’s half-empty glass as well. She peered into the swirling red liquid—no hint of the small white pills she’d crushed and dissolved in the wine.

  She dumped the contents down the drain and ran the water. Even though he hadn’t finished the entire glass of wine, he just needed to be under long enough for her to escape the house and be on her way to the meeting with Ted’s kidnappers.

  She couldn’t wait. She couldn’t do this on J.D.’s terms. He didn’t understand. She couldn’t be responsible for another death.

  But he’d still get a shot at Zendaris’s flunkies.

  She ripped a sheet of paper from the notepad by the phone and scribbled on it. She secured the note on the coffee table with J.D.’s empty wineglass. He should have no problem seeing that when he came to. She just hoped she hadn’t drugged him too heavily.

  She dried her hands on a paper towel and tiptoed to the front door, where she lifted her jacket from a hook. She’d give them their stupid password and then grab Ted and get out of there. Maybe by that time, J.D. would be on his way.

  Why wouldn’t they let her go? What was she going to do, report them to the small-town sheriff? They’d figure they would be long gone before she returned to the ranch or town to tell anyone.

  Prospero could regroup and take the plans back, or that scientist who developed the anti-drone could develop an anti-anti-drone. This sort of thing must go on all the time.

  She squeezed her eyes shut to burn those justifications into her brain. She didn’t want to make it any easier for arms dealers and terrorists to ply their deadly trade, but she had to save Ted. And she just might end up saving J.D., too.

  Clutching her jacket to her chest, she crept back to the love seat. His face, which had been tight with nervous energy, had relaxed and the lines had melted away. Leaning forward, she kissed his brow, then his mouth.

  She whispered, “I hope we have a chance to figure out all this between us—unless you can’t forgive me for messing up your plans. But for once, I needed to take control and make my own plans.”

  She backed away from him and spun toward the front door, tears blurring her vision. She snapped the door behind her and climbed into her truck.

  The text she’d received earlier, and had hidden from J.D., had instructed her to drive north on the highway until she got to the fifteen-mile marker. Then she was supposed to park and wait.

  She pulled away from the ranch and the half-finished porch. Would J.D. stay to complete it? Would she live to see it completed?

  The fifteen-mile marker came too soon, and she pulled into the turnout just as a light snow began to drift from the sky. She cut the engine and the lights and placed both hands on the steering wheel, waiting.

  The car slipped up behind her, emerging seamlessly from the snow. She had her instructions.

  Grabbing her purse from the seat beside her, she shouldered open the door of the truck and planted one booted foot on the icy gravel.

  The car flashed its lights once, and she headed for the twin beams skewering the night. She trudged up to the left-rear door of the Jeep and tugged on the handle.

  When the door swung open, warmth and the scent of that now-familiar men’s cologne wafted from the interior.

  “Get in.”

  She recognized the voice from the phone. She dropped to the leather seat, her upper arm bumping the gun trained on her.

  She gasped and jerked away.

  The driver adjusted the rearview mirror, and she met his gaze, peering at her from a slit in a black ski mask—just like the ones Alex’s killers had worn. “Don’t worry, Noelle. We’re not going to hurt you...unless someone followed you.”

  “Nobody followed me.”

  The low rumble of the engine roared to life and the car crawled past her truck. The front passenger window whisked down and the driver leaned across the seat and pointed at a dark object out the window.

  The truck seemed to implode and disintegrate, and Noelle didn’t hear a thing. The only sign that a two-ton vehicle had been parked there was a smoldering heap of scrap metal a
nd a gust of black smoke fighting to rise through the snow.

  Zendaris obviously made good use of the high-tech weapons he bought and sold in hotel rooms, caves and presidential palaces.

  The driver chuckled. “I can tell by your reaction there was no one in the truck. We’re off to a great start.”

  “Have you hurt my brother?”

  “Your brother may have been a little hurt to discover the woman with whom he’d been sharing his nights wanted something more than his body, but other than that—” his shoulders rose and fell “—he’s fine.”

  “I’m just warning you now. I don’t remember any verbal password. I do remember a series of words, names and phrases Abby had me speak into the computer mic, but that was almost six months ago.”

  “We have ways of...helping you remember.”

  “I don’t think you’re going to torture it out of me.” She shoved her hands in her pockets so the gun-wielding passenger beside her couldn’t see them tremble.

  “Torture?” He clicked his tongue. “You’ve been listening to your cowboy bodyguard too much. Who is he?”

  She may have just drugged J.D. and ruined his chances of getting closer to Zendaris, but she had no intention of outing him.

  “He’s an old friend of the family, a former marine who’s been drifting the past few years. He just came along at the right time.”

  “Or the wrong time. If he tries to follow you, we’ll kill him.”

  “He’s not going to follow me. He doesn’t know where I am. He doesn’t know about this meeting. I didn’t want to put anyone else in jeopardy.”

  “Good.” He cranked the wheel to the right, and the truck bounced over the rough terrain. The four-wheel drive kicked in and the wheels dug in and churned over the snow-dappled access road.

  Noelle spied a light in the distance. As they drew closer, a small cabin emerged along the tree line.

  The truck pulled behind the cabin next to a small helicopter. Noelle’s stomach dropped. If they took her away in a helicopter it wouldn’t matter that J.D. had a GPS tracking device on her phone. He’d never get to her in time to capture Zendaris’s men.

  The driver got out first. He opened her door with one hand while training a small gun at her chest—at least it looked small after that weapon he’d poked out the window to disintegrate her truck.