Sure, that made total sense when he’d jumped—okay, not literally—at the first opportunity to leave her with someone else and go after one of Dante’s friends. Nadia sighed but took the necklace. When he got back, she’d give it to him, but for now she slipped it into her pocket. Wearing it would be weird, especially when Remy had only just taken it off.
Shadrach’s cell phone rang. He moved his thinking-gaze—whatever that was about—from her, swiped the phone up off the table, and looked at the screen. “It’s Grant. I’ll put it on speaker.”
He laid it back on the table. “Yes, Grant. This is Shadrach. I’ve got Remy and Nadia here, and Will is listening.”
The IT guy was still at the other end of the table, working on…whatever he was working on.
“Nadia.” Grant’s voice crackled, and he sounded out of breath. “How are you doing?”
“Better.” She smiled even though he couldn’t see her. She’d always liked the director, even though he didn’t work for the marshals anymore. Apparently now he worked for Ben.
“What’s up?” Shadrach sounded all business.
“Have you heard from Ben?”
“Not since they got to the house,” Remy answered.
“Nothing since then?”
Shadrach shook his head. “No.”
Grant said, “I’ll try again. Maybe you should call Daire.”
“He’s on personal leave.”
“Okay, don’t call Daire.”
Shadrach scrubbed his fingers across his hair, a move Nadia had seen most when he’d been studying for big tests at school. Having a twin had meant a built-in study partner, and they’d helped each other survive those cut-throat days of school when they’d been gangly zit-faced teens. Now her brother was handsome, still had his military bearing, and didn’t know what to say around the girl he liked.
Shadrach caught her gaze and shot her a question with a flick of his head. He always knew what was on her mind, but she wasn’t going to explain thinking he was cute around Remy.
Nadia waved off his concern and said to the phone, “What’s the latest with finding my mom? Do you think she’s in Seattle?”
“Right now I have no idea,” Grant said.
“Me, either.” Remy huffed. “Getting information on your mom is like trying to find an invisible needle in a stack of needles. Are you sure she doesn’t have a cell phone?”
Nadia nodded. “I’m sure.”
“Email? Internet access?”
“I only had the landline number, which she must have brought to the compound with her. Maybe in case I used it one day.”
Nadia and her mom hadn’t been super close, but it was possible her mom still wanted to talk to her again. “What about the van you were talking about? The one from the witness statement in the police report?”
Remy said, “The compound has no surveillance for me to hack into. I checked any traffic camera in the area, but no van of that description came into town after whatever went down. They must have hit the highway instead, at which point they could’ve gone anywhere.”
“What about an airport?”
Grant answered next. “No private planes have taken off since before the hit on the compound took place. I flew in commercial with the team and caught up, but the police don’t want to know who we are or why we’re asking questions about a ‘bunch of dead hippies.’ His words, not mine. They’re thinking cult murder-suicide. The investigating detective basically admitted he’s not even looking for a van. He doesn’t know your mother and refuses to believe anyone’s missing. Apparently the sheriff told him that aside from four dead people there’s no problem.”
That made no sense. Nadia leaned forward. “How can they dismiss it all like that?”
“The compound kept no record of its residents. There’s no list of who lived in which room, and right now they have more people accounted for than rooms. The police have no reason to believe anyone is missing, despite what we told them.”
“What about…the bodies?” Shadrach set both palms on the table. “Did you check if any of them are mom?”
Nadia knew that catch in his voice. He wanted to be on the ground helping find their mom, but instead, he was babysitting her. Shadrach was her twin, and if anything happened to him it would be something she’d struggle to get past every day for the rest of her life. She needed him to be safe—but Shadrach was the kind of person who put himself in harm’s way to help others because it was the right thing to do. He’d always been the translator when Nadia and her mom miscommunicated. He was their middle ground. Shadrach had to be feeling every inch of the possibility of Mom getting hurt and his not being able to do anything about it.
Grant said, “That’s my next stop.”
“Can I talk to you in private?” Neither her brother nor Remy objected, so Nadia grabbed the phone and took it off speaker as she went out into the sea of unoccupied cubicles. “Grant?”
“I’m here. What did you need, Nadia? If you’re worried about your mom there’s not much I can say that’s going to help. But I am giving everything to finding her, and I know Ben is doing the same.”
“I appreciate that.” Nadia took a breath. Maybe Remy was right. “What’s the procedure for getting me back to Sanctuary?” She’d need to know eventually, at least.
“You want to leave?”
“Shadrach is babysitting me instead of out looking for mom.”
“So you want back into town?”
“I know that’s against the rules.” She sighed. “I left, so I shouldn’t be able to get back into town, but it’s been my whole life for years. It’s my home.”
“Nadia,” Grant said. “Who told you that you couldn’t go back?”
She opened her mouth to answer, but faltered. “Bolton…we left.”
“That’s on Tommy. Not you, but the crazy SEAL who blew up half the town. No one faults you for leaving in the helicopter, Nadia. You should have been under the military’s protection, not left alone and loose in the world to fend for yourselves.” He sounded guilty, which made Nadia feel worse for bringing it up.
But a spark of hope lit inside her. “I can go back?”
“Sanctuary doesn’t have the same rules anymore. It’s no longer a federally operated town. It’s owned by a group of private investors who keep it running. WITSEC still sends me people who need the kind of protection Sanctuary provides, but the new director of the Marshals has no idea where the witness protection town is. Only I and a handful of others do.”
“I had no idea.”
“A lot has changed in the past few weeks. After Tommy found and breached the town, new security measures were enacted. In fact, Ben and I were a hairbreadth from moving everyone to a new, secure location.”
“Wow.” Nadia sat on the edge of the closest desk.
“We’ll have to get a plane that can transport you back to Sanctuary, and Ben took his. Can you sit tight until he gets back?”
“I can do that.” Nadia tried to think of another way she could help. “I wish there was something I could do to help with everything. I feel so powerless.”
“This isn’t like Manuel, even though that was crazy. Dante’s reach is far more dangerous. Its best you stay with Shadrach until we can make you safe otherwise.”
“Understood.”
Grant chuckled. “You’ve been hanging out with Shadrach, you’re learning how to take orders.”
She found herself smiling. “Don’t count on it.”
“I know what it’s like to feel powerless when you want to do something to fix the situation. You can take care of yourself, but this isn’t your fight. We’ll find your mom, and then I’ll get you home.”
“Okay. Thank you, Grant.”
He ended the call. Nadia laid down the phone. Shadrach had seen his twin living a life that could get her in trouble and taken it upon himself to teach her everything he knew about escape and evasion, weapons, combat…and self-defense. That was what they’d called it when Nadia had come up ag
ainst Manuel’s men. Only it hadn’t helped—it had made Manuel twice as determined to kill her.
He’d hired a team of ex-military assassins to get rid of her, making nowhere in the world safe to hide. Except Sanctuary.
Grant was right, she could take care of herself. She’d only forgotten because Bolton had needed so badly for her to help him. Her feelings for him had made it so that Nadia could barely think past the need to make sure he wasn’t helpless and alone while being hunted by Dante. Now Bolton had had his surgery. He was off doing what he wanted to do.
Shadrach and Grant were going to find her mom.
And Nadia was free to take care of herself. This was her fight. Because she wasn’t going to let Dante hurt people she cared about.
**
“It belongs to Tristan and Dante.” The man pulled his balled fist back and struck Bolton again in the face. “Where is it?”
Bolton turned his head to the side and spat. Of course they wanted what he’d hidden in the stash. Everyone wanted it, apparently.
Blood ran into one eye and left his vision in a haze. His jaw might be broken. He definitely had a couple of loose teeth. “Are you guys DEA, too? Or like that guy I killed in the doctor’s house. One of y’all’s confidential informants.”
His fist slammed into Bolton’s chest, forcing the air out. His mouth tasted like copper.
Bolton sucked in a painful breath. “A lapdog, maybe. Dumb muscle paid to hit who they tell you to hit.”
The fist hesitated. Not like the guy had a brain, at least not one he was using. The man straightened and turned to his buddy. “This guy is crazy.”
Bolton smiled, his mouth laced with blood as they shared a look.
The second man in the pool house with him pulled a gun. Unfortunately for Bolton, he was the only one tied to a chair at present. “How about I put one in each knee? Then he won’t be smiling.”
Because Bolton didn’t have enough problems walking already. He needed to be knee-capped as well.
The muzzle of the gun touched his leg. “Where’s the stash?”
“So your bosses can steal it from me?”
“It’s theirs. You’re the one who stole it.”
“Of course that’s what they told you,” Bolton said. “Doesn’t make it true.” Bolton had compiled that stash as his out, a rainy day B-plan if anything ever happened to jeopardize his business. And Dante and Tristan thought it was theirs? No way. He needed that to start his new life.
“WHERE IS IT?”
Bolton grimaced as spit flew at his face. “Anchorage, Alaska.”
“Think you’re a comedian, do you—”
The door swung open and Tristan walked in. “I take it you haven’t gotten the information yet. Unfortunately we don’t have time to wait for you to get it out of him.”
Tristan lifted his gun and shot both men.
Where was Ben? They’d been brought to the house together and then separated. Had they killed him? That would be a serious shame. A lot of evil in the world had been held at bay over the years because of what Ben Mason did. Bolton didn’t exactly know what capacity he worked in or precisely how he did it, but he did know Ben had done a lot of good in his life—and he could still do a lot more.
Bolton also knew a ten year old boy whose world would be crushed if anything happened to his uncle.
Tristan looked down at him. “Dante has his ways, and I have mine.”
Bolton didn’t want to know what either of their plans were. Though if he had to guess, it would be that Dante was the one chasing after Bolton and kidnapping people. “Tell him to let the mom go.”
Tristan sneered. “Imaginative, I’ll give him that. Counting on your girlfriend to break. And she did.”
“She’s not my girlfriend.” What did he mean, she’d broken? What had happened to Nadia?
“Turned you down, I’m guessing.” Tristan chuckled. He looked Bolton up and down with a sneer on his face. “I can see why.”
“Did you know her twin was a Force Recon sniper? Not a man whose mom you want to mess with.” Bolton shrugged without letting Tristan know how much it hurt. “You should probably send Dante a text. Let him know the brother will be on the rampage.”
Shadrach wasn’t a messy person, but he would take care of business the minute he was freed up to do so. Bolton knew that much about him.
“It’s nice to know you care so much about Dante.” Tristan grinned. “There something going on I don’t know about? You come out of hiding, and all of a sudden Dante is off on one of his grand adventures, shooting up compounds and taking hostages. Determined the girl will trade you for her mom with enough persuasion. Did you know she shot two men?”
Nadia?
“Dante told everyone he could the moment he found out. Headshots, both of them. The cops thought it was a professional hit, but the girl swore up and down it was self-defense. That her brother taught her to shoot. Dante’s gonna offer her a job when this is over.” Tristan leaned closer. “When he’s found our stash and put a bullet in your head.”
“Because that’s not your style?” Bolton tipped his head to the side. “Everyone else gets their hands dirty, and you collect the paycheck?”
There was no way he’d let Dante get Nadia. No. Way.
“They answer to me. Even Dante.”
Dante was a loose cannon Tristan could barely control. He’d had that inkling Tristan was the boss, but Dante left chaos in his wake. He always had. Bolton figured that was why Tristan had allowed him to take the fall for the whole operation and go to prison.
“So did you break him out, or did he really escape all by himself?”
The muscle beside Tristan’s eye twitched. “Once in a while it’s necessary to let the dog out of its cage to run loose.”
“Except that you have to clean up the mess afterwards. Again.”
“Worth it, given the things he can dig up.” Tristan leaned closer. “All kinds of buried things.”
They were trying to find Thea and Javier. They were going to use Bolton’s family to get him to tell them where the stash was. Thea would probably help them just to spite him, but there was no way Javier needed to be involved in this.
Dante likely knew Bolton wouldn’t feel too much guilt over letting them shoot Thea, with no intention of telling them where it was. And she would deserve it for everything she’d done to him. But the kid didn’t need to lose both parents.
“So what happens now?” He wanted to ask where Ben was, but if they thought he cared at all about the man they would use that to their advantage.
“Now we wait for Dante’s next move.”
“The meet in Portland?”
Tristan barked a laugh. “Were you planning on being there?”
“Of course not.” And neither was Dante by the sound of it. But why the ruse?
“You think he’s going to waste time when he can go get the girl himself?”
Bolton strained against the plastic ties that held him to the chair. “Don’t you touch her!”
Tristan smiled. “As I thought.”
Bolton roared. Now they knew he cared about Nadia. They knew she could be used against him. But they’d better not hurt her, or he was going to kill every single one of them. Bolton had only actually killed three people—men who’d double-crossed and tried to kill him. Such had been the life. But this was a lot more. He was willing to make the exception in this instance. Nadia didn’t deserve this, she didn’t deserve him and what he’d brought into her life.
That panic attack of hers was still too close to his mind. He’d done that, but he was going to make it right. Bolton would fix this for her.
Tristan strode to the door. At the last second he looked back, “Don’t go anywhere.”
Then he was gone.
A rustle behind him brought Bolton’s head around. Ben stepped in from a back room. “We know what Dante’s plan is, then. He’s going after Nadia.”
“But we’re here, and she’s in Denver.”
&nb
sp; Ben crouched and cut the plastic ties. “Shadrach has her. He won’t let anything happen. Worry about how we’re going to get out of here without being seen first.”
“We couldn’t even get in without them discovering us. And how did you get free?”
Ben grabbed Bolton’s arm and hauled him up. He stuttered, “I-I don’t even know that guy. I was out looking for my cat. He got out.” Ben smiled. “They didn’t even tie me up. We needed to know Tristan’s part in this and what Dante’s plan is. Now we do.”
Bolton stared at him. Of course, why hadn’t Bolton thought that getting captured by Tristan was a good plan? “Sure you are.”
“Let’s go before the guys who were holding me wake up.” Ben pulled a phone from the pocket of one of the dead men. “Here we go.”
As they ran, Bolton gritted his teeth. Ben dialed and put the phone to his ear. “Yeah, Shadrach. We’re good. Where’s Nadia? We got word that Dante is coming for her.”
Ben barked the word, “What?”
He hit a button on screen and held up the phone as they crossed the grass and raced for some trees. Thankfully it was dark enough, and no one had sounded the alarm yet. Shadrach’s voice came over the phone at a low volume. “She said she was going to use the bathroom. But Remy checked. She isn’t in there. She’s gone.”
Bolton’s steps faltered. He hit the ground on one knee with his hand in the grass and hissed against the pain.
Someone yelled, “There they are!”
Ben hauled him to his feet, and they ran.
A crowd of men poured from every direction. “Freeze!”
Chapter 11
Sanctuary
The mayor climbed out of the golf cart the driver had parked in front of the library. It galled him to play the part of a much more frail man, but those with strength often overlooked the weak. Even when it was the last thing they should do.
Morning had dawned crisp and fresh, but he wasn’t out to admire the scenery. Surprise, surprise, the mountains that surrounded Sanctuary, like castle walls keeping villagers in, looked exactly the same as they had every day since he arrived nearly eight years ago now.
Sanctuary Deceived WITSEC Town Series Book 4 Page 11
