Sanctuary Deceived WITSEC Town Series Book 4

by Lisa Phillips

  “He was in on it.”

  Ben straightened. “Are you certain?”

  “He was there.” Bolton looked over at Ben. “Dante was the figurehead, but Sanders was the brains behind it. I actually heard Dante ask him if he agreed they should kill me.”

  Ben said, “He might be the why of how Dante escaped. Plus he’d be able to pull enough strings he could get the manhunt kept under the radar.” Ben blew out a breath. “Tristan Sanders could be the answer to this.”

  “I’ll find him.” Remy typed on her computer faster than Nadia had seen anyone do. Within minutes, she said, “Cell phone…puts him in Venice. On Bainbridge Island, just west of Seattle. Which no one here will think is a coincidence.”

  Shadrach sat on the edge of the table. “So is he there for some unrelated reason, is he doing something for Dante, or is he coordinating what’s happening from there? Is Dante coming to him?”

  “All good questions,” Ben said. “None of which we can answer without going back there and finding out for ourselves.”

  Nadia glanced around. They’d only just got here, and now they were going back to Seattle?

  Bolton nodded. Shadrach had his arms folded. Nadia just stood there. It felt like she’d been teleported into one of Shadrach’s military briefings, and she seriously did not belong here. The artist among the warriors. They were all ready to dig in and fight, and all she wanted to do was retreat to Sanctuary where she could pray for her mother.

  Here, there was nothing but white noise in her head. She needed Sanctuary’s peace. The mountains. Right now she couldn’t even concentrate on asking for her mom’s protection, let alone figure out what God was doing through this situation. She tried to breathe in peace. To ask for it without words, knowing God heard the cry of her heart. But Nadia couldn’t fight through the screaming fear that her mom was already dead.

  This was all a total waste of time.

  Nadia had killed her.

  “Nadia—” Shadrach’s voice barely cut through the rush in her ears.

  But in front of her was Bolton. He touched his cool palms to her warm cheeks and spoke words she couldn’t decipher. He mouthed, “Breathe.”

  “…panic attack.”

  Nadia couldn’t get air. Bolton’s gaze had hers locked on him, unable to see anything else. She tried to shut off the swirl of dark thoughts that had to be a fight for her peace of mind. Never in her life had she experienced fear this acute or an attack from her spiritual enemy this powerful. Nadia sucked in a breath and grabbed Bolton’s forearms.

  God, help me.

  Bolton wrapped his arms around her. The rushing in her ears dissipated, and she heard him mutter comforting words in her ear as he rubbed his hand up and down her back and held her.

  When she could catch her breath, she said, “I’m okay.” Thank you, Lord. Give me peace, even still. Be with my mom and help her. The lump lingered in her throat while she glanced at Shadrach and tried to reassure him with a smile. He didn’t look convinced.

  Ben came over. “Stay with Shadrach and Remy, okay?”

  Nadia nodded, though it hadn’t been a request. Ben asked, but he didn’t ask. He looked at Bolton then motioned to the door with his head. “Let’s go get Sanders.”

  Bolton squeezed her elbows. He followed Ben out the door without a word. Then Shadrach was in front of her. “You want to tell me what that was?”

  “I was freaking out.”

  “I know that. That’s not what I’m talking about. I’ve seen you have anxiety attacks before, but you don’t come out of them because some guy gives you a hug. It used to take hours and quiet space.”

  Behind him, Remy smiled. The small smile of someone who had discovered something.

  Nadia looked back at her brother. “Can we not talk about this?” She sighed. “Bolton and—it’s complicated. I don’t even know what to say about it.”

  “I’m sorry you got stuck with him, Nadia. But that is not the kind of man you want to fall for.” Shadrach didn’t look like he was going to back down any time soon. “You don’t even know the half of what he’s done or what he’s capable of. If you stay with him you will never, ever be safe.”

  “I’m in witness protection. Safe is pretty relative.”

  Shadrach didn’t smile. “You’ve been in Sanctuary for years. The real world might have changed, but people are still as selfish as ever.”

  She glanced at Remy. “Wow, optimistic isn’t he?”

  Shadrach groaned. “You need to take me seriously.”

  “Shadrach—”

  “Don’t kid yourself that Bolton is willing to do anything unselfish. The man is the epitome of the out-for-himself thug who’ll do whatever it takes to land on top.”

  “Bolton is a rancher.” That was how she’d known him, how she’d come to love him. Nadia knew the man inside, despite Bolton’s assertions that he wasn’t that man. No one could keep up a ruse for years. “He isn’t a thug, not anymore. And I know it kind of looks like he wants to be one again, but he doesn’t realize that revenge isn’t going to make him happy.”

  “It’ll make him feel better.”

  “That isn’t true either.”

  “And you know this?”

  Nadia stepped away. She didn’t want to talk about that, not right now at least. And definitely not with her brother. They’d been close at one time, but years of estrangement only broken by the occasional letter had put both space and time between them. Life had gone by. Shadrach didn’t know everything about her. Not the way that he might have years ago. He didn’t know what had come of Nadia’s friendship with Andra, or the way faith had molded her into the best version of herself.

  God had brought her out of the darkness, and set her in Sanctuary because He’d had a job for her there. Now that she was out in the world, Nadia didn’t know what her job was. Aside from helping Bolton. And she was still trying to figure that out.

  **

  Shadrach watched his sister slump into a chair and shut her eyes. The dissipating adrenaline would leave her exhausted, but there was nowhere here for her to sleep. Ben had only set up the office this morning. If it stayed in Denver more than a month, Ben would add a down-room where they could get some rest.

  “Is she okay?” Remy had gone through a serious trauma, and yet she managed to set aside her own recovery to care about Nadia.

  Shadrach touched her elbow for a second. When she didn’t flinch he stepped an inch closer and smiled. “She will be. She’s tough...and stubborn.”

  “Sounds like someone else I know.” Remy smiled. “I think they might even be related.”

  Shadrach’s chest shook, but he made no sound. It was the closest he came to laughter these days. He exhaled and the amusement dissipated the same way Nadia’s adrenaline had. “What are you doing here, Rem?”

  “Working for Ben.” She lifted her chin. “What does it look like?”

  The postage-stamp amount of information Shadrach had amassed about women told him to tread carefully. “You’re a scientist, and yet you’re here hacking for Ben?”

  “I’m making a difference. Dante is out there, and he’s a threat to both Sanctuary and your sister. Why shouldn’t I help if I can?”

  Shadrach blew out a breath. “Can’t you make a difference in the scientific field? In a lab.” Where it was safe, and he didn’t have to worry about her every second.

  She had to know he didn’t want her involved in this. He didn’t want her anywhere near Dante or anything that had to do with the man.

  This time it was Remy who touched his shoulder. “I need to do this.”

  Shadrach nodded. “I just want you to be happy.”

  “You have to let me be happy being who I’m going to be. Even if you think I’d be happier doing something else, it has to be my choice.”

  “And I have to be okay with it?”

  Remy leaned in slowly, tentative. She kissed him on the cheek.

  **

  Bolton stretched out of the car and nar
rowly missed getting beaned by the tree branch Ben had parked under. Ben got out the driver’s side, and they slammed both doors. “A three hour flight is way not long enough for the amount of sleep I need.”

  “Sucks for you then, since I doubt you’ll get much in the thirty-six hours before Dante’s deadline.”

  “You think I’m going to be anywhere near Portland City Hall when the time comes?”

  Ben said, “Guess we’d better find Shadrach and Nadia’s mom, then.”

  Bolton extricated himself from the brush Ben was using to disguise the car on the roadside, and adjusted his ball cap. Yes, if he was honest he’d have to say he did miss his cowboy hat. It had been necessary to lose any identifying marker. He’d worn it for years, though. But that wasn’t what was on his mind at the moment.

  “You really think Tristan Sanders is holding Nadia Marie and Shadrach’s mom here? It’s a long way to bring her from Kentucky. The timeline is tight if he kidnapped her and put her on a plane.”

  Ben shrugged one shoulder and kept walking. “Seattle isn’t that much farther west than Portland if you’re flying from Kentucky. And Dante needs a way to get around.” He pulled out his phone. “Maybe Remy can find out if any of his associates has access to a plane.” Ben lifted his wrist and squeezed both sides of his watch. “Check Dante’s known associates for an airplane he might be using.”

  Bolton had seen him use it before, but it always baffled him the leaps technology had made while he’d been ensconced in Sanctuary. “You know, I always thought you were CIA. But you totally have this ‘special forces, survivalist’ thing going on. I never could pin down what it was that you really did.”

  “Maybe it’s all of it, and none.”

  Bolton snorted. “Or maybe you just want to act all ‘international man of mystery’ so you don’t have to talk about yourself. Maybe you have trust issues.”

  “I’m not sure seeing a shrink would help at this point.” Ben glanced at the sky. “At least not without a lengthy nondisclosure agreement.”

  “They’re not supposed to break confidentiality. It’s a rule.”

  Ben glanced over his shoulder. “Don’t tell me you’ve been to a shrink.”

  “It’s a witness protection thing. They have to make sure you’re sane even though you’re doing a totally insane thing that no regular person would do.” Bolton caught the look on Ben’s face. “Don’t give me all that junk about doing the right thing. It’s a bunch of baloney. The only reason anyone ever does anything is for themselves.”

  “Just because you were only out for yourself doesn’t mean that’s the case for everyone,” Ben said. “What about Nadia Marie?”

  “What about her?”

  “How much do you know about why she was inducted into witness protection or the reason she had to come to Sanctuary? I doubt it was because she was a stylist, and they needed someone to cut hair.”

  Bolton didn’t know the whole story, but there was a reason. “She was an artist. But we don’t talk about that in Sanctuary. No one asks anyone else about their life before they got there.”

  He’d figured the person who targeted her had a wide enough reach that she had to disappear altogether, instead of being relocated to another city as most people were in witness protection. Much the same as himself and the threat Dante presented even from jail. But it could just as easily have been the fact she was well known enough that, even with a new name and a new life, she might still be recognized by someone who knew her in her old life.

  “I’m pretty sure my brother and his wife, who used to be an assassin, told each other that stuff.”

  Manuel died in prison.

  Bolton shook his head as he trudged behind Ben through the Venice neighborhood. Two thugs out for an evening stroll. “John and Andra are an anomaly. Her past was plastered all over the Meeting House. Everyone knows she used to be an assassin.”

  “And yet you refuse to tell anyone who you were.”

  “You think they want to know they were living with a criminal kingpin?”

  Ben glanced back, the corner of his lips curled up.

  “Sure, they’ll think it’s hilarious.”

  Ben stopped, his face plain enough Bolton thought he might have actually disappointed the man. Ben said, “No one ever put a gun to your head and told you to sell drugs.”

  Bolton shifted. “You think you know me or anything about my life. But you don’t.”

  “I know we could have been friends. I know I gave you what you needed to set up your life, and I know you walked off that path into dark places.”

  “I didn’t have a choice. It was business.” Bolton folded his arms. “That’s all.” Ben wasn’t some kind of divine being who directed other people’s lives. Bolton had made his own choices.

  “Dante doesn’t think its business. And I don’t think you do, either. Not really. The two of you are in this together, and it’s one hundred percent personal.”

  “Because he deserves to be put down. He got close enough Thea had no choice but to walk away.” Bolton took a breath. “Thea knew what I was; she knew what her father did. But she still betrayed the both of us, and her father sold me out. Dante got the dregs of what was left.”

  “And Javier?”

  “My son has nothing to do with this.”

  Ben stared at him long enough Bolton shrugged. “It’s been years. Why cry over what will never be?” He didn’t blame Thea for walking away when she was pregnant with his son. He hadn’t been able to protect her.

  “And yet you persist in going down this path instead of making something new of your life. That’s what Sanctuary was. A clean slate. But you’re so dead set on retribution you took the first opportunity to destroy everything you had there.”

  “My father always said, ‘why dream for something you’ll never have when life is in front of you for the taking.’”

  Ben lifted his chin. “My mother says, ‘You walk the path the Good Lord put in front of you.’”

  “How’s that working out?”

  Ben turned and started walking. Anyone else probably would have felt guilty, especially knowing the little he knew about Ben’s personal life—or lack thereof. But Bolton just followed him to the mansion at the end of the street. Tristan Sander’s house.

  Ben acted like Bolton wasn’t even there. The watch buzzed, and he read aloud the info from Remy. No cars in or out of Bainbridge in hours. No one on the ferry from Seattle—the way they’d gotten there—who matched the description of either Dante, any of his known associates, or Nadia’s mom. Ben didn’t even acknowledge his existence. Maybe the man did that with everyone he didn’t like, but if he did, then it begged the question of how he’d stayed alive this long.

  Ben hadn’t had his own private company back when they had first met. That had been all official channels and checking in with superiors. Not Bolton’s thing, despite the fact he’d done it with Thea’s father when they’d partnered up—though a lot more informally.

  Night was beginning to blanket the sky in low, black clouds that blocked the stars from view as they stopped and stared at the rear of the house. No fences in this neighborhood. The house was lit from inside, revealing armed guards who walked the grounds.

  Bolton studied the house, using the plan he’d made for his own residence in Miami as a basis. There would likely be cameras, more guards on the front side and other security measures. “So how do we get inside to see if they have Nadia’s mom?”

  “How does a DEA agent manage to have this much home security and no one has called him on it yet?” Ben’s teeth flashed in the dark. Apparently he was over his ignoring Bolton thing.

  “Good question.”

  Rustling of branches preceded a low, male voice. “Why don’t you ask him?”

  Ben shifted. Bolton spun around. Six men, automatic weapons.

  Tristan Sanders. “Bolton Farrera.”

  “Where is the woman Dante took from Kentucky?”

  The man shrugged like he had no idea
what Bolton was talking about. “Dead, probably. Or she wishes she was.” He chuckled. “Take them inside.”

  Bolton only got half a step before he was hit in the back of the shoulders, and he went down.

  Chapter 10

  “You should at least think about it.”

  Nadia stared at Remy. “I know you’re a genius and all, but I’m not going back to Sanctuary right now.”

  “Grant is looking for your mom, Bolton and Ben are taking care of Dante. You said yourself that you wanted to go back to Sanctuary. Why not now?”

  Shadrach stepped between them. “Rem—”

  “No.” Nadia put a hand up to stop Shadrach. “She has the right to say whatever she’s going to say. Remy doesn’t mean I’m useless, she’s just using logic. I’m not helpful here. You could possibly even argue I’m a hindrance. It’s just Remy-speak.”

  Remy glanced between them. “What did I say?”

  “Nothing.” Nadia sat back down. “It’s fine.”

  Shadrach shook his head. “That’s it? Maybe you should get a ride back home if that’s what you want.”

  “I want Mom to be found. Safe, and alive. That’s what I want.” Nadia shrugged. “If I had a helicopter, too, sure. Maybe I would go home.”

  Remy reached to the back of her neck and drew something forward. “Whatever you decide I want you to have this. Bolton gave it to me, and it kept me safe.”

  “Because it has GPS in it. It’s also how Dante knew to come after him.” He’d explained that to her. But what was the point in Nadia having it? Bolton hadn’t given it to her, not when Remy needed it more.

  “I know.” Remy nodded. “Ben showed me how to turn it off. It’s not transmitting until you click the button on the back and activate it.”

  “And I should take it? I’ll be in Sanctuary. Safe. No one needs to find me there. At least no one who doesn’t already know where I am.”

  “Still.” Remy set it on the table. “It was Bolton’s, and I think you should be the one to take care of it for him.”