by Mary Alford
A lengthy hesitation was followed by, “Liar.” The leader was growing more suspicious. “Call the rest of the team. Have them bring her here. He’s useless. He knows nothing. Take him into the woods and kill him.”
If they made that call, they’d know something was wrong. With Aaron’s life in grave danger, it was now or never.
“He can’t stall them any longer,” she whispered. “We have to move now”. Liz edged toward the entrance of the hangar with Rick close behind.
“On my count,” she whispered and then counted off three. When the final number was out, she and Rick charged the hangar taking everyone by surprise.
Aaron immediately realized what was happening and leaped into action. He shoved an elbow into the leader’s gut while he was still distracted. The man doubled over in pain and Aaron whipped around to disarm him, but the man fought back.
Liz rushed to aid Aaron, but another man stepped between and lunged for her. There was no time to get a shot off before he was right on top of her. Bracing the assault rifle in front of her she began using it as a hand-to-hand combat weapon, slamming it hard into the man’s side. He doubled over in pain, spouting angry words her way.
Before she had time to regroup, a second man lunged forward with his weapon aimed at her head. She squeezed her eyes shut. A shot echoed through the enclosed building doubling the noise, yet nothing happened. Her eyes flew open. The man’s look of shock would be forever branded in her head. He dropped to his knees in front of her. Blood oozed through his shirt, quickly staining it as he slumped to the floor.
She was alive. It took a second for her brain to assimilate that truth. Relief threatened to buckle her knees.
Aaron rushed to her, his hands framing her face. “Are you okay?” he asked frantically, misconstruing her reaction for injury. She could feel the color drain from her face. She’d almost died.
She slowly nodded. “I’m okay. Thank you, Aaron. You saved my life.”
He brought her close and hugged her tight. “It wasn’t me,” he whispered against her hair then let her go and looked over at Rick.
Shocked, Liz faced the man who had come to her aid. Rick looked just as surprised as she by what had happened.
Aaron went over and took the weapon from his unresisting hands. “Thank you for saving Liz, but that still doesn’t let you off the hook for what you’ve done.”
He bowed his head. “Yes, what I did was wrong, but they have Melinda and my daughters. They said they’d kill them if I didn’t do exactly what they said.”
The revelation was clearly surprising to Aaron. “Is this the guy who took your family?” He indicated the leader he’d disarmed.
Rick stared at the man, still clearly afraid of him. Rick swallowed nervously and Aaron motioned him a little away from the men and out of earshot.
“You’d better tell us everything,” Aaron said.
Rick blew out a breath and nodded. “When he and his men first arrived, he was ranting crazily. He roughed me up and forced me back to the cabin. There he told me that someone from the CIA’s Scorpion team had stolen weapons intended for a different use, and that he wanted them back. I had no idea what he was talking about, only that I remembered Michael had mentioned working for the CIA. I assumed it was somehow connected to him.”
Aaron’s gaze slipped to Liz. “Did he mention Michael by name?”
Rick shook his head. “No, never. Just that someone had betrayed him.”
Aaron told Liz about overhearing the name Safar.
She shook her head. “You think it’s the real person in charge?”
“Probably,” Aaron said with a nod. “We need to find out who is behind this thing and we need to do it now. We’re running out of time.”
Liz handed Aaron his Glock and he went over to the man who was the leader and squatted next to him. “If you want a chance to live out your life, you’d better tell us who you’re working for.”
The man stared at Aaron with venom. “I’m not telling you anything and you’re a dead man...and so is your family,” he shouted to Rick who turned pale as a sheet and flinched.
“Keep your mouth shut,” Aaron ordered the man and then got to his feet and went back to Rick.
“What else is there, Rick?” Aaron said. “Right now you’re in serious trouble and facing federal charges. So if there’s more, being honest is the only thing that will save your family and keep you out of prison.”
* * *
Aaron owed her his life. If Liz hadn’t managed to escape when she had, he’d be dead, no doubt about it. She never ceased to amaze him. She had that rare combination of bravery and compassion that helped her excel at her job and in life. As he looked at her now, he realized how important she’d become to him. He wasn’t sure when it had happened, or maybe he just hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it, but Liz meant more to him than just a friend and he wasn’t about to let anything happen to her on his watch. To clear her name, they needed answers more than anything else. He was certain Rick could help them fill in some of the pieces.
Aaron stared at Rick’s devastated expression and was eye witness to the turmoil he’d gone through knowing that to save his family he’d have to betray his friend.
Aaron glanced up at the sky. The snow had eased somewhat. The weather was letting up. They’d need to be on their way soon if they stood a chance at reaching Black Bear by nightfall.
“Let’s talk at the cabin. We need to get these guys back and restrained as soon as possible. The weather seems to be lifting. We need to be airborne,” he told Liz.
“I’ll take one of the prisoners with me. Rick, if you can drive the other snowmobile we can get them both out of sight in case someone else shows up here.”
Aaron turned to Liz. As a pilot, he knew she could handle the Sno-Cat under normal circumstances, but she was still recovering from her injuries. “Think you can get this thing back to the cabin with the rest of the prisoners?”
She didn’t hesitate. “I’m certain of it. Let’s make sure they’re secured so that they can’t try anything.”
Once the two men were restrained and loaded into the Cat with Liz, Aaron bound his prisoner’s hands behind his back and got him on the machine. With Rick ahead of him, they followed behind Liz in case she ran into a problem. As they eased along, Aaron tried to make sense of everything that happened. His head throbbed from the blow.
The leader had said that the weapons weren’t in Black Bear, which seemed to indicate that had been the delivery location. Something had gone wrong, though. With Michael’s connection to the Alaskan village undeniable, there was little doubt that he was involved in Sam’s deception somehow.
Aaron struggled with the best way to help Rick’s family. He’d need Jase’s help to rescue them safely, but if he contacted his friend, he’d be giving away their location. He’d already disobeyed a direct order. In his mind, there was only one option.
Once they reached the cabin, Liz and Aaron took all the men to the bedroom and tied them together. They needed to know exactly what had happened before the kidnapping took place, if they stood a chance at bringing Rick’s family back safely.
“Let’s talk outside and out of their hearing,” Liz told him as if reading his thoughts. He nodded and all three of them went out into cold morning. Once they were out of earshot, Aaron stopped.
“We don’t have much time, Rick. The men holding your family will start to get antsy if they don’t hear from these guys soon. We need to know everything about your relationship with Michael and what he told you about the missing weapons.”
Aaron glanced over at Liz. He could tell she still didn’t trust Rick any more than he did.
Rick slowly nodded, all but confirming he at least knew something about Michael’s crimes.
He gathered his breath. “I was telling you the truth about how I
met Michael. He found my ad in a fishing magazine and called me up. He was nice. I liked him a lot and we hit it off right away. As I said, that was a few years back and we’ve become good friends since.”
“How often did he hire you to take him to Black Bear?” Aaron asked because he wanted to know if Rick was being honest about everything. He’d heard Michael talk about fishing there enough to know how often he went.
“Usually a couple of times a year,” Rick told him and Aaron’s gaze slid to Liz. She briefly nodded. That number matched what she knew to be true as well.
“Tell us about the last call you had with Michael. The one that brought you here,” Liz asked without mentioning Michael’s fate.
Rick hesitated and all of Aaron’s suspicions doubled. “What is it?” he prompted.
He shook his head. “I’m not sure. There was just something odd in his voice when he called. Michael was always so upbeat in the past, but this time, well, it was as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders and he whispered a lot, as if he were trying to keep someone from hearing him.”
Liz sucked in a breath. “When was this exactly?” she asked and Aaron wondered why.
“A little over two weeks ago. I hadn’t heard from him in a few months so I was happy that he called, but when he started to speak, I knew something was wrong right away.”
Aaron noticed the alarm on Liz’s face and asked, “What is it?”
“That’s around the same time Michael and I were taken,” she told him and he could see there was something else that troubled her.
Rick immediately picked up on what she’d said. “Wait, is Michael okay?”
Aaron ignored the man’s question for the moment. He still didn’t trust Rick fully and because of it, he wasn’t ready to divulge the truth about Michael’s death. “Did something unusual happen during that time?” he asked Liz.
She slowly nodded. “It did. At the time I didn’t think much about it because everything that happened was so terrifying and I was sure Sam would kill us both.”
Aaron watched as she recalled the disturbing memory. “Once we arrived in the US, we were held at the abandoned lumber mill in Pennsylvania. Most of the time we were blindfolded, but shortly after we arrived, Michael was taken away for almost the entire day. When he came back, I could tell something significant had occurred. When I asked him about it, he told me they’d tried to get information about Scorpion headquarters out of him. He said the interrogation had been brutal and yet later on, I didn’t see any fresh wounds on his person.”
“You think it was a lie,” Aaron concluded. “Michael must have arranged to have the weapons flown out of the area at that time, but something obviously went wrong because they didn’t end up in Black Bear.”
Did Michael have a change of heart and move the weapons somewhere out of the buyer’s reach?
Why hadn’t Liz mentioned this detail before now? Had it truly slipped her mind or was she covering for someone?
With difficulty, he shoved aside his misgivings. He knew Liz. She wasn’t involved in Sam’s or Michael’s crimes.
He turned to Rick. “What else did Michael tell you?” So far, all they had was a bunch of speculation.
“He said he needed me to come here. He called and told me that there were going to be several planes flying into the airstrip and that I was to store their cargo in my hangars until he got in touch with me again. That’s why I’m here now. I’m waiting for him. Only nothing happened. Michael never showed.” Rick lifted his shoulders.
“It has to be the missing weapons,” Liz said. “But they never reached Black Bear. At least not at the location they were expecting them to be. So what happened to them?”
Aaron had a theory. “I’m thinking something scared Michael into switching his plans. Most likely he was worried what would happen once they reached the hands of the intended buyer.”
Still, something about Rick’s story didn’t add up in Aaron’s mind. “You said you’ve been here for over two weeks?” The man nodded. “Then when did these men take your family hostage?”
There was no way they’d been held all that time. It would have caused too many red flags if the family’s daily life was disrupted for such a long period of time. The daughters would be missed at school and if the wife worked there would be people looking for her by now.
“A few days ago. I stayed here because there was work to do on the cabin and, well, I was worried about Michael. I’d tried to reach him numerous times but he didn’t answer. I wanted to be here in case he showed.”
Aaron eyed him suspiciously. “I checked his phone. There’ve been no calls from you, Rick. Either you called a different number or you’re lying.”
Rick was clearly confused. “I have his number right here. It’s the same number I’ve used to reach him for a while now. When these guys showed, I thought they were the ones Michael talked about, until they drew down on me and forced me back to the cabin. Then they told me what they’d done to my family.” Rick stopped, drawing in a much-needed breath.
“Needless to say, I was terrified for my family. I told them I wasn’t doing anything until they let me speak to my wife. They called her phone. Only it wasn’t her that answered. It was some guy with an accent. He said I’d better do what they asked or my family would die. I was terrified. I thought...well, I thought they might have killed them already so I asked to speak with Melinda again.” He paused for a moment. Aaron could see the conversation had been a difficult one.
“They finally put her on the phone and she told me that they were okay, but that the men had barged into our house, taken their phones and tied them up. The man took the phone from Melinda. He stated that they would tell me what to do when the time came.”
He looked up at Aaron. “It was almost as if they were expecting you to come here because as soon as you texted, these guys gave me the drugs that knocked you unconscious. They took off on the snowmobiles so you wouldn’t suspect anything. After they left, I tried to reach Michael. I wanted to see if he could help me, but...” He lifted his shoulders and then handed Aaron his phone. “Here’s the number I used to contact Michael.”
Aaron didn’t recognize it.
He showed it to Liz. “It’s his burner,” she confirmed.
“Wait, you knew about this number?” Aaron asked uneasily and wasn’t able to hide it.
“Aaron, we were partners,” she said, obviously hurt by his doubt. “He knew mine as well. After the kidnapping and crash, we wanted to have another means of getting in touch with each other.”
It made sense, so why didn’t it sit well with him? “What happened next?” he asked Rick without answering Liz.
The man shook his head. “They just got here before the storm blew in. As I said, I saw the plane coming in and thought it must be the people Michael talked about, so I came out to help. Then you called and said you were coming. When I told them, they seemed pleased.” Rick blew out a sigh. “I guess they were expecting the drug to act faster because when they showed up at the cabin, they were surprised that you were still conscious.”
“They must have known about your connection to Michael somehow. It’s the only explanation,” Liz said.
“I guess so, but how? Where is Michael anyway? Is he in some kind of trouble?” Rick’s gaze skidded between them. He must have sensed something was wrong. “What is it? Is he okay?”
Aaron blew out a breath. “He’s dead. Michael was murdered, Rick. Probably by someone connected to these guys. I’m guessing the man with the accent.”
Rick’s mouth fell open. He stared wide-eyed at Aaron as if not fully understanding. “Murdered. You’re kidding... I can’t believe it.” He shook his head. “He was my friend. I would have done anything for him. I can’t believe it.”
The man’s grief wasn’t faked. Rick was a good man who’d been forced into
an impossible situation by a bunch of thugs. Unfortunately, they were still no closer to knowing who was behind Michael’s and Sam’s murders or where the missing weapons were and time was running out on Rick’s family.
“I can’t explain how they knew about the cabin or my friendship with Michael for that matter. But please, you’ve got to help me. If they killed him, they won’t hesitate to do the same to my wife and kids. They can’t afford to leave any witnesses behind,” Rick choked out.
Aaron’s heart went out to the man. He couldn’t imagine having to make such a difficult decision. “We will help you,” he assured Rick and then turned to Liz. “We have to loop Jase in on what’s happened here.” He took her arm and they stepped a little away from Rick.
“Liz, we don’t have a choice anymore,” he said quietly. “His family is in danger. They’ll die if we don’t help them. If these guys know about Rick’s connection to Michael, then they probably know about the cabin and Jessie Chena could be in danger as well.” He stopped for a second. “We have to prepare ourselves. They may have the evidence already.”
The desperation etched on every square inch of her pretty face shredded his heart. “No, I can’t even think about that happening,” she somehow got the words out. He knew what was coming next. “I’m sorry, Aaron, but I won’t go back to Painted Rock without first trying everything in my power to find out who’s behind Michael’s murder. I’m sure not trusting my freedom or my life to anyone else but you.”
She squared her shoulders and looked him in the eye. “If you can’t help me, I understand. I’ll find another way there. I don’t have a choice.”
Her passion didn’t surprise him. It was one of things that he’d always admired about her. Her overwhelming dedication to a cause. To her deceased husband Eric.
He smiled. “You know I’ll help you. I’ll do whatever it takes to clear your name.”
The gratitude in her eyes tightened his chest. She was so beautiful. He’d always known this, yet with the two of them facing unknown dangers, running for their lives, well, it was as if his eyes had been opened. He was seeing her as more than just a subordinate and it scared him. He couldn’t go there again, surely. Beth’s betrayal still cut deep.
