Thread of Revenge

by Elizabeth Goddard

  “What? No.”

  “The truth is you can’t prove a thing, Sessions.” Thompkins held his hands perfectly still, but ready to pull his weapon in defense. “Or you would have had me arrested already instead of bringing me here tonight. Tipping me off to see if I would move evidence.”

  “Well? Did you move it?”

  Everything pointed to Thompkins. But Gage trusted his gut, if only one more time. Thompkins wasn’t his guy. He’d never wanted it to be his counterpart.

  “Of course not!” A sadness filled his gaze. “I’m not the person behind this, Gage. But I have my suspicions. I’m thinking it’s—”

  Gunfire erupted. Thompkins collapsed.

  Gage whirled around aiming his weapon and nearly fired.

  “Not so fast, Sessions.” Crowley held Sadie at gunpoint. “Now, toss your weapon over or your girlfriend dies.”

  “Gage?” The sound of Sadie’s voice was a dagger to his heart.

  NINETEEN

  This can’t be happening!

  Sadie struggled against Deputy Crowley’s iron grip. “Let me go! What did you do with my sister?”

  When the hospital had determined Sadie was going to be okay, they’d released her to go home. Home—where was that? Where could she go to be safe? Jonna had escorted her out of the hospital, intending to take her back to her lodge on the coast and watch over her there. But at her vehicle, someone had hit them both with a Taser gun.

  Crowley ignored her question and forced her and Gage into a walk-in freezer, then he hit Gage over the head with his gun, knocking him unconscious. Gage slumped to the floor. Sadie dropped next to him, hating the tears that came. Furious, she shoved to her feet and rushed him. Crowley knocked her down.

  “Why? Why are you doing this? How could you?”

  She didn’t want to die in here. Not this way. But she remembered now. Crowley had knocked her down that day in Karon’s house. Though fuzzy, it came back to her in pieces. Crowley had been the other man with Hank at Karon’s house that day. If only she could have remembered that sooner. This time she wished he had actually drugged her. She couldn’t go through this anymore.

  Crowley dragged Gage’s unconscious form deeper inside the freezer. He hit Gage with the Taser for good measure.

  “Stop it. Just stop it. It’s not like he can hurt you!” She hated watching the brutality, seeing Gage unable to defend himself.

  There was nothing she could do now. Obviously Crowley had issues with shooting people outright, preferring to have their deaths look like an accident. But he’d shot Thompkins.

  Wake up, Gage! Wake up!

  “Your boyfriend just couldn’t leave it alone. You either. In fact, Hank shouldn’t have messed around with Karon and got her suspicious. Everything would be running along smoothly if he hadn’t made that one mistake. So she and Sean both had to die because they found out too much, only in a way that it looked like their deaths were unrelated. Karon drowned, and the drug runners killed Sean. I planted the drugs on him so that should have been the end of it. A drug deal gone bad. But no, you just had to show up and start digging too. You should have left her death well enough alone. Because then you and Gage had to die, and you should have gone down with that boat today.”

  “You! You knew we’d gone out to dive. How? Who told you?”

  “I had to keep a close watch on you.” He gave her a pitying look. “I knew I was in trouble as soon as you started to remember. You weren’t supposed to remember. The Changs were supposed to drown you, to be sure you were dead and leave you on that boat. Hank didn’t know what he was talking about on those drugs. They’re too risky. Too unpredictable.”

  “You can’t guarantee how anyone will react to them, don’t you get it? And that’s what makes them all the more dangerous. What’s your plan now, Crowley? How do you think you’re going to get away with it?”

  Crowley rocked his head back then pinned her with his gaze. “Just like Gage suspected, it was Thompkins all along. He had the means and the motive. Anyone has the motive when we’re talking this kind of money. I came in to find Thompkins had already dumped you two in the freezer. He tried to shoot me so I shot back. End of story.”

  Tears slid down her cheeks. She wanted to bring up Jonna. Ask about her sister, but that might endanger her further. Maybe she could escape before Crowley remembered her, if he hadn’t already killed her.

  “Sleep tight. It won’t take long for you to freeze to death. I turned the temperature down. Now... Just go to sleep.”

  Suddenly Gage scrambled to his feet and rammed into Crowley, knocking him out of the freezer. The door swung open. Sadie stood to her feet and ran out. Gage grabbed Crowley’s gun and pressed it against his head.

  “Just give me an excuse. You know I’ll do it.”

  Sheriff’s deputies and other law enforcement officers suddenly flooded the premises. Sheriff Garrison pulled Gage off Deputy Crowley and started putting handcuffs on Gage.

  “Wait, what are you doing?” Sadie asked.

  “Sessions attacked me,” Crowley said. “He shot Thompkins. I was trying to save the girl.”

  “Unbelievable,” Gage said. “Sheriff, this just isn’t true.”

  Sheriff Garrison grimaced. “We’ll sort this out at the station.”

  “But Gage shouldn’t be in cuffs,” Sadie pleaded. “Ask Thompkins.”

  “Unfortunately, he’s unconscious.”

  Sadie feared he’d die in the hospital at the hands of Crowley.

  “Why aren’t you listening to me?” she asked.

  Another man appeared. “She’s right, Sheriff. I’m Gerald Haines, the plant supervisor. Your deputy here shot Thompkins and tried to kill these two to cover his involvement in a smuggling ring. It happened right here under my nose and for that I’m ashamed. I had been suspicious for a while and that’s when I had called Deputy Crowley in. But I see now he was in on it the whole time.”

  When the sheriff removed Gage’s cuffs and put them on his own deputy, Sadie ran to Gage. She gently touched his bruised and swollen face. “You’re still good-looking, even with the bruises.”

  He laughed then winced. But the way he looked at her, she thought he might kiss her.

  “Excuse me. I hate to interrupt you, Sessions.” A tall man appeared.

  “Agent Finley. It’s about time.” Gage released Sadie but kept her near as he spoke with the DEA agent.

  Jonna jogged up to her. “Sadie!”

  “You’re okay!” Sadie hugged her sister, letting the tears flow freely. “I was so worried about you.”

  “He locked me in the trunk of a car. I worked my way out and called the sheriff. But apparently someone had already called them about a disturbance here. They thought you might be involved.”

  The DEA agent and Gage remained in a long, detailed conversation about the smuggling ring, and Sheriff Garrison joined them.

  Another deputy approached Sadie. “I’m Deputy Bree Carrington,” she said. “The sheriff wanted me to take your statement about what happened. Are you up for that now?”

  Sadie nodded. “Sure, I can do that.”

  Deputy Carrington had lovely red hair that hung to her shoulders. A soft smile broke through her serious demeanor. “I know your brother.”

  “Quinn? You know Quinn?”

  “I haven’t seen him in a while. How is he?”

  Sadie slumped. “I can’t tell you. We haven’t heard from him either. Sometimes I wonder if something happened to him. But I guess he works undercover with the DEA now, and that makes it hard for him to stay in touch.”

  Deputy Carrington lowered her gaze and nodded as if she understood, but said nothing more. Sadie told the deputy her side of the story while Jonna shared the events of what happened at the hospital. While they held on to each other, supporting each other, it seemed to Sadie that her time with Ga
ge was over. Her reason for being with him had ended.

  And once again...the events of life would separate them, and she wasn’t sure if she would see Gage after this, which was probably for the best. Because...

  Hadn’t she sworn off Coasties?

  * * *

  Days later, she walked on the beach, mentally preparing herself to go back to her research. After all, what was left for her here? Her family, sure, but she could come back to see them between projects and on holidays. Aunt Debby had encouraged her to go back and finish her research so she could get her grant. Sadie couldn’t change who she was.

  Besides, she and Gage had solved Karon’s murder and brought down a smuggling ring, which included designer drugs, of all things. Like Hank said, he’d diversified in case something went wrong with one end of his operation, and he had multiple avenues pushing different kinds of drugs. He hadn’t counted on things going wrong with both drug venues at the same time. He hadn’t counted on Sadie and Gage working together to find the truth. Donna had finally woken up from the drug-induced coma and told them about the email Karon had sent. In the email she’d written, “Henry Snell III.” The email was set to send on a certain date—maybe a way that Karon could communicate should something bad happen to her.

  Considering something had happened to her daughter, Donna had contacted Crowley about the email after contacting Sadie, and that’s why men had descended on her home, drugged her with intent to kill her and took her computer. Karon hadn’t known Crowley was involved so hadn’t included his name in the email, but it wouldn’t take long to link the two if an investigation had been started.

  And as for Gage, she hadn’t seen him since that night in the fishing plant over a week ago. She wouldn’t have thought her heart would ache so much. Karon’s murder had brought them together. And there had always been something to keep them apart. This time, she wasn’t exactly sure what would keep them apart other than...well...their careers—and that was enough. She had repeatedly told herself she couldn’t fall for Gage.

  She dropped to her knees and played in the sand.

  But I love him...

  Why did she always fall for the wrong guy?

  Someone plopped down with her in the sand. “Care for some company?”

  “Gage? What are you doing here?”

  The waves lapped close to them.

  “Seeing you? What else should I be doing?”

  She grabbed a handful of sand and let it fall through her fingers. “I don’t know. Investigating somewhere. Going home to Port Angeles. A million different things you could be doing right now.”

  “There’s only one thing I want to do.”

  The way he said it made her heart beat erratically. “And what’s that?”

  She could think of something she wanted to do, as well. But then her heart would be shattered even more.

  “A few years ago it ended our friendship. I want to know this time, if it’s okay with you if I—”

  Sadie didn’t wait for him to finish but eased closer and pressed her lips against his. “I hope that’s what you were talking about.”

  He pulled her to him, his hands at her back, and kissed her thoroughly, leaving her breathless, then said, “Yes. I’ve wanted to kiss you like that for the longest time. Only...I wanted you to want my kiss. Want...my love.”

  “Love?” The word came out husky, and made her heart beat wildly.

  “Yes. I love you, Sadie. I think I always have. But you were always into someone else. I tried not to love you, I did, but life is too short. I figure life keeps bringing us together and each time, I fall in love with you all over again. I’d rather not have such big gaps between each time I see you...or each time I fall in love with you...if we’re destined to run into each other again anyway. I’m just glad I came to my senses before you got away from me again. I’m glad I found you before you left.”

  He kissed her again and again. Sadie needed to catch her breath. “All right, Special Agent Sessions, what exactly are you trying to say?”

  “Marry me?”

  She pressed her forehead against his, breathing in his essence. How had she missed loving this man before? They had a lot of lost time to make up for. “Yes, Gage Sessions. Yes. I love you more than life itself. Please, please marry me.”

  His enticing grin drew her in. “And in the meantime, I can kiss you senseless.”

  * * * * *

  Keep reading for an excerpt from BABY ON THE RUN by Hope White.

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  Dear Reader,

  I’m so glad you took the time to read Thread of Revenge, and I hope you enjoyed the story. As always, I had a lot of fun writing the novel and living my life vicariously through my characters as they tried to survive and solve the puzzle of who was trying to kill them. In my research, this story took me into the dark world of drug smuggling, and into the new and terrifying world of designer drugs, online ordering of those drugs, along with postal service delivery. Writing stories like this can often leave me concerned about the world we live in, and for my children’s future, but I have to remind myself that God is with me. He will never leave nor forsake me. And I know that to be true.

  I pray for His wisdom and guidance in your life, and that you’ll know without a doubt that He’s with you, even when you’re struggling through the darkest of times. I pray His many blessings on you, my friend.

  If you’d like to know more about me or my books, please connect with me at my website: ElizabethGoddard.com. You can find my Facebook and Twitter pages there too. I hope to hear from you soon!

  Blessings!

  Elizabeth Goddard

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  Baby on the Run

  by Hope White

  ONE

  “You need to protect little Eli.”

  Jenna North studied her friend. “What’s this about, Chloe?”

  Chloe gazed at her eighteen-month-old son as he clutched a small white polar bear in one hand and ran a wooden train across a coffee table with the other.

  Paperwork had kept Jenna late at the Broadlake Foundation, where she worked as development manager, when she received Chloe’s frantic call. Jenna offered to stop by Chloe’s house on the way home, but Chloe rejected the idea. Instead, she came straight over to the school-turned-community-center where the foundation leased space. Jenna hadn’t expected Chloe to bring Eli with her, not at this hour.

  “I’ve made some bad choices,” Chloe suddenly confessed.

  Haven’t we all? Jenna thought. “God forgives, remember?” The words tasted bitter roll
ing off her tongue. “Chloe, what’s going on?”

  The young mother shook her head.

  “Come on. I can’t help unless—”

  “I’m scared!”

  Eli looked up at his mom with rounded eyes. She pulled him into her arms and rocked slightly. “I’m sorry, sweetie. I’m sorry.” She eyed Jenna. “Promise me you’ll protect him.”

  A chill ran down Jenna’s spine. Could she truly make that promise considering she’d been unable to protect her own son?

  And even herself?

  “Please,” Chloe begged.

  Jenna nodded. “I promise.”

  Chloe sat back down, clinging to her son. Eli had other ideas. He squirmed against her, so Chloe put him down and he squatted to dig for another toy in his diaper bag. He pulled out a second train and waddled back to the coffee table. Tears formed in Chloe’s eyes as she watched him.

  Frustrated, Jenna wondered whom to call for help. Perhaps Chloe’s counselor? Chloe had admitted to struggling with depression in the past.

  “Have you called Rosalie?” Jenna asked.

  “Why, you think I’m crazy?” Chloe snapped.

  “No, I’m just not sure how to help you.”

  “You already have.”

  “Are you sure there isn’t someone else?”

  “Yes.”

  A few moments of silence passed between them.

  “As long as he has Bubba, his bear, he’ll be fine.” Chloe handed Jenna a piece of paper. “If anything happens to me, keep Eli safe and find this man.”

  Jenna glanced at the note and slipped it into her pocket. “Who is it?”

  “My cousin Marcus Garcia. He lives north of Missoula, in the mountains. Don’t trust anyone else with Eli, okay?”

  Jenna nodded. That wouldn’t be a problem since trusting people was a skill she’d lost years ago.