Code Word

by Traci Hunter Abramson

  “What?” Carina managed to ask before tears sprang to her eyes.

  “I’m sorry, Carina.” Jay slipped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her to his side. “Seth just found him.”

  “Someone killed him,” she said with certainty, despite the tears spilling onto her cheeks.

  “Yes,” Jay nodded, leaning his cheek on top of her head, his fingers stroking her hair, “someone killed him.”

  They sat together in silence for several minutes. Then she shifted so she could look up at him. “Whoever did this is the same person who’s looking for me, isn’t it?”

  “Maybe.” Jay put his hand down on the sand behind her, turning so he was facing her. “But I’m not going to let anything happen to you. And my friends will keep Bianca safe.”

  “I want to believe that, but I have to wonder if Lou’s death is my fault.” Carina wiped the tears off her cheeks. Her jaw clenched, and she looked like she was trying to fight off another wave of tears. “If I had gone to Chicago with Nick, maybe the family would have left him alone.”

  “And maybe it isn’t the family who’s behind this.” Jay tried to sort out the facts. The last time he had spoken to Lou, he had seemed resolved that something might happen to him. “If Nick and his friends had wanted to kill Lou, they would have done it when they took a shot at me. He was right there, out in the open, but they never aimed in his direction.”

  “I don’t understand any of this.”

  “I know.” Jay reached out and pushed a strand of hair away from her face. “But we’ll figure it out together.”

  * * *

  “What do you mean she wasn’t there?” Alex demanded, fury vibrating through his voice. “Are you sure she didn’t slip past you?”

  “Positive. She wasn’t there,” Frank insisted. “I had someone at all of the airports that she was supposed to be flying out of. She wasn’t at any of them.”

  “What about her car? Where is it?”

  “I don’t know. We hacked into the GPS system to search for it, but we didn’t get anything. It’s almost like someone is playing with us.”

  “Someone is helping her.”

  “It’s got to be that guy who was at her apartment,” Frank said with frustration. “I’ve been checking out everyone she’s called on her cell phone in the past few days.”

  “You need to go back further than that.”

  “I can’t,” Frank told him. “Her phone was equipped with a scrambler. Probably Lou’s doing. Nick disabled it when he got ahold of her phone a few days ago, but everything before then is blocked.”

  “Has Nick had any luck finding Carina?”

  “No, but he thinks that you’re behind her disappearance. At this point, since he’s still loyal to Giovanni and Marciano, he’s not going to be much use to us.”

  “What do you have?”

  “So far, it doesn’t look like she has any connections to the people she works with outside of normal business hours. I’m working on the other names now.”

  “How many more do you have to go through?”

  “Only four. I should be able to work through them by tomorrow.”

  “I’m not waiting until tomorrow. Give me the names, and I’ll run traces on their cell phones so you can locate them. Hopefully one of them will lead you to Carina.”

  “Okay.” Frank shifted the handwritten list and rattled off the four names. “Shelby Peterson, Victoria Quinn, Jay Wellman, and Matt Whitmore.”

  “I’ll run these names and get back to you,” Alex told him. “I want eyes on every airport within a five-hour drive of Miami. We can’t take a chance of one of those girls stumbling onto my identity.”

  “Are you even sure they have access to the information?”

  “I’m sure.” His voice was even. “They may not know it yet, but I can’t afford to take the chance that they’ll put it all together.”

  “Okay. You’re the boss.”

  * * *

  Seth felt the impending danger looming, like an itch on his back that he couldn’t quite reach. He’d felt it before, usually moments before facing someone with a weapon aimed in his direction. Of course, he preferred that scenario over the prospect of telling Bianca that her friend had been murdered.

  The police had confirmed what he had already suspected. Professional hit, single bullet to the back of the head. There weren’t any unexpected fingerprints, nor was there any sign of a struggle. Either Lou never heard his killer sneak up behind him, or he knew the person who shot him.

  The state of Bianca’s apartment told him that whatever the intruder was looking for likely hadn’t been found. Every inch of the place had been rummaged through and appeared to have been methodically searched. Logically, some part of the apartment would have been untouched if the wanted item had been discovered.

  Always cautious, Seth drove in the opposite direction of the Whitmores’ and then pulled into the covered parking garage of a nearby hospital. He circled for a couple of minutes before leaving through a different exit. He then drove to a shopping area and parked to make sure he wasn’t being followed.

  He pulled out his phone and called the secure phone he had given Vanessa.

  Vanessa’s voice came on after the second ring. “Hey, is everything okay?”

  Seth could hear the underlying concern. “Not exactly.” He shifted in his seat and searched for any familiar cars before continuing. “Bianca’s friend Lou has been murdered, and her apartment was trashed when I got there.”

  “Oh no.” Vanessa’s voice was low and filled with concern.

  “I don’t know what Jay has gotten himself into, but I’m worried.”

  “Me too.” Seth heard Vanessa speak quietly to Bianca, and he suspected she was moving out of earshot. “Seth, I’ve been reading over Jay’s notes since you left, and one thing has me really worried.”

  “What’s that?”

  “According to what Lou Rizzoni told Jay, the person in charge of the Chicago mafia is actually someone in the FBI.”

  “Someone from the FBI came and visited me right after I started running names for Jay. He said his name was Curtis Graham.”

  “I wish I was in my office so I could run his background.”

  “Me too. This is getting pretty scary.”

  “Not as scary as Jay and Carina trying to get on a commercial airplane tomorrow,” Vanessa surmised.

  “You think this head guy flagged Carina?”

  “I would if I were him.”

  “Is there any way you could check?”

  “I can’t from here, especially after hours on a Friday evening. Do you have any contacts with the FBI or the airlines?”

  “I don’t, but maybe Amy can help us out,” Seth said, referring to the squad’s intelligence officer. “Her brother is FBI out in Phoenix. Maybe he could run Carina’s name and see if she’s flagged. I can also see if she can connect Curtis Graham with any of this.”

  “That’s a good idea. Do you want to call, or do you want me to?”

  “I will. I want to drive around a bit more before I come back. I don’t want to take the chance that I’m being followed.”

  “Okay. I’ll see you when you get back.”

  “And Vanessa?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Keep that sidearm Jay left you in reach.”

  “I will.”

  * * *

  Jay’s eyes narrowed when he looked at the unfamiliar phone number illuminating the screen. Carina, still nestled beside him, shifted and looked up with swollen eyes. “Who is it?”

  “I don’t know.” Jay hit the talk button and answered with a tentative, “Hello?”

  “Jay, it’s Amy.”

  “What’s up?”

  “You can’t go to the airport tomorrow.”

  His eyebrows drew together, and he braced himself against what was certainly not going to be welcome news. “Why not?”

  “After talking to Seth about what’s been going on, I called up my brother, Charlie. As a f
avor to me, he ran your friend’s name to see if she was flagged for air travel.”

  “Are you telling me she is?” Jay asked, his heartbeat quickening.

  “Yes.” Amy paused briefly. “And so are you.”

  “What?” Jay sat up straight, and he saw the concern on Carina’s face. He shifted away from her and stood up to pace in the cooling sand. “That means someone has connected us.”

  “Yeah,” Amy agreed, sympathy hanging in her voice. “Seth is heading over to your parents’ house right now. He wants them to stay somewhere else for a few days to make sure no one comes looking for you there.”

  Jay took a few steps before turning back to look at Carina’s frightened face. “I can’t believe this.”

  “I’m sorry, Jay,” Amy told him before rushing on. “Seth gave me the basics of what’s going on. I called up the prison to see if there was any way Carina could talk to her father on the phone, but he’s in the infirmary. They’re saying it was food poisoning, but the doctor I talked to couldn’t be sure if it was really something he ate or if someone slipped something to him. Apparently, he was the only person who got sick after dinner two nights ago.”

  “Is he going to be okay?”

  “It looks like it, but he’s still in pretty bad shape,” Amy told him. “Charlie is seeing if he can pull some strings to have him transferred quietly out of there. He thinks he can get him moved to another prison using an alias since there’s a chance it’s an FBI agent who’s targeting him.”

  “Do you really think he can do that?”

  “This is one time that it will probably be helpful to have a father who is a US senator.”

  “I appreciate all of your help, Amy.”

  “Anytime,” she told him. “Hold on a second. Brent wants to talk to you.”

  Jay heard Amy hand the phone off to her husband. Then Brent’s voice came over the line. “Hey, Jay. I just got off the phone with Kel.”

  “And?” Jay prompted, afraid to know what was going to come at him next.

  “He thinks it’s time for you and your friends to get out of Florida.”

  “Any suggestions? If my name has been flagged, my apartment isn’t going to be safe,” Jay said, his stomach churning as he felt his life spiraling out of control. “And Seth has already been visited by the FBI, so we have to assume he’s on someone’s radar.”

  “I agree, which is why Kel set you up with a place in the Outer Banks.”

  “What?”

  “A friend of his has a house there you can stay at. Seth is going to meet you there with your friend’s sister,” Brent told him. “It’s on one of the more secluded islands. In fact, you’ll have to take a ferry to get there. It’s definitely somewhere you can get off the radar while we try to figure out what’s going on.”

  “Brent, I don’t know if I want you to keep digging. I asked Seth to help out and succeeded in putting him right in the middle of all of this.”

  “We’re a team,” Brent reminded him. “Trust us. We have your back.”

  “Okay.” Jay sighed, too exhausted to argue. “Where am I going?”

  “I’m sending the directions in an encrypted e-mail to your phone,” Brent told him. “But first, you need to head over to the Naval Air Warfare Center. Turn in the car you’re driving. I have another vehicle reserved for you there. You’ll need four-wheel drive to get to where you’re going.”

  “When can I pick it up?”

  “It’ll be ready for you at oh five hundred.”

  “Okay. Thanks, Brent.”

  “Keep your head down.”

  “I will.”

  28

  “I can’t believe all of this is happening.” Carina stared blindly out at the waves and shook her head as she fought back another bout of tears. “Everyone who’s tried to help me is now in danger. I should have known better than to let anyone get too close to me.”

  “Hey, don’t do that.” Jay put a hand on her arm and stepped in front of her, where she couldn’t help but look at him. “Don’t take the blame for something you can’t control.”

  “Don’t you understand?” Carina’s voice rose with her emotions. “Your own family is in danger now because of me. Your friends too.” She shook her head in frustration. “I can’t believe you would let any of them keep trying to help.”

  “They’ll be careful, especially now that they know what we’re dealing with.” Jay reached for her and pulled her into his arms. Tentatively, she lifted her arms to encircle his waist.

  She wanted to trust him. She desperately wanted to believe that someday everything would be okay. But how could she believe that? Everyone she had ever depended on was gone. Her mother, Lou, even her father and grandfather.

  “If you were smart, you’d get in that car and drive as far away from me as possible.”

  He shifted back enough that he could see her face. “I am smart.” He gave her a little half smile when he added, “Smart enough to be standing here on a beach alone with you.” Then his eyes darkened and his hand trailed down to rest at the small of her back. “And smart enough to want to be with you after all of this is over.”

  He leaned down and kissed her cheek. Then his mouth found hers, and she was lost. She knew the waves were crashing behind her, but she couldn’t hear them over the buzzing in her head. His lips were soft, persuasive, and his kiss left her head swimming. Emotions rushed through her, the newness of not only feeling wanted but being understood. When he broke the kiss, he stared down at her, looking as dazed as she felt.

  She looked at him, unable to find any words. Then she instinctively pushed up on her toes so she could press her lips to his once more. It was the same dizzying, overwhelming sensation.

  A seagull let out a lonely cry in the distance, and the scent of the sea mixed with the lingering smell of the charcoal Jay had left cooling in the nearby grill. Her heartbeat raced as her fingers curled into the cotton of his shirt.

  When she dropped back down onto her heels, Jay’s expression warmed and softened. Then he smiled down at her as though he had learned a secret about her. When his arms tightened around her once more, Carina let herself enjoy the now familiar embrace and let herself revel in the sensation of feeling cherished.

  * * *

  Pete understood the danger, but he wasn’t about to be chased out of his own home. He had seen his wife off an hour earlier, sending her to spend a few days with her sister before she would head to California to visit their youngest son. She hadn’t objected to the idea of a couple of weeks enjoying the San Diego weather, even though he knew she would have preferred it if he had joined her.

  He hadn’t told her everything, just enough to convince her that it would be best if she finally visited the Tampa Bay side of the family for a while before she took advantage of some of their son’s frequent-flyer miles. She already worried about having two children in the military, and the last thing he needed was for her to know that their oldest son’s visit home may have very well put him in more danger than a tour in Afghanistan.

  The security in his home might be understated compared to the fortress the Whitmores had created out of their house, but he had installed enough of his toys over the years to be sure no one was going to show up unannounced. He heard a car engine and glanced out the window. He recognized the dark SUV as the same one he had seen drive by twice in the past half hour.

  A firm believer that the best defense was a good offense, Pete headed for the front door and walked out in the fading sunlight as the vehicle slowed near his house. He gave a friendly wave, even though he was braced to dive for the bushes if the need arose.

  The driver pulled to the curb and rolled down the window. Pete relaxed slightly when he saw that the twenty-something-year-old man was alone and both of his hands were visible as he shifted the car into park. “Hey, is this the Wellman residence?”

  “That’s right. Can I help you?”

  “I’m looking for Jay Wellman.”

  “That’s my son, but I’m
afraid he isn’t here,” Pete announced casually.

  “Any idea when he might be back?”

  Pete shook his head. “He’s active duty military. I’m afraid we only get to see him once or twice a year if we’re lucky. He had to head back to base this afternoon.”

  “I’m sorry I missed him.” The man reached out and put the car back in gear. “Thanks for your help.”

  “No problem,” Pete told him. He watched the SUV pull away and memorized the license plate before it was gone. Then he pulled open the mailbox as though checking for mail before casually walking back inside.

  With a last glance down the street, he closed the door and prepared to let his son’s friends decide how to use this latest tidbit of information.

  * * *

  “What do you mean, we’re leaving right now?” Bianca asked. Lou was dead, her world was spinning out of control, and now this Navy SEAL was insisting that she go with him to who knows where in the middle of the night.

  “I’m sorry, Bianca, but something doesn’t feel right,” Seth told her, his expression serious.

  “Nothing has felt right since Carina made me come over here,” Bianca countered.

  “Whether you like it or not, your sister is only doing what she thinks is best to protect you,” Vanessa interjected. “After what Seth found at your apartment, her instincts must have been right.”

  “I just want to have a normal life, where nobody I love gets killed.”

  “We know you do.” Vanessa’s tone softened. “And we understand how hard it is to walk away from everything familiar right now, but we can’t be sure that whoever killed Lou might not have figured out that you are friends with the Whitmores.”

  “How do I know that this is really what my sister would want?” Bianca asked now, fighting her fears and confusion. She believed Seth when he said something didn’t feel right, but that didn’t mean she had to fall in line with whatever he said. She barely knew this man or his wife.

  “Would you feel better if you could talk to her first?” Vanessa asked.

  Bianca thought a moment and then nodded. “Yeah, I would.”

  “Okay.” Vanessa dialed a number on her cell phone and then asked for Carina. She then handed the phone to Bianca.