Bolton couldn’t imagine this man in a uniform, and he didn’t wear a star badge on his belt. He looked like a normal…biker, out for a walk in the jungle.
Made total sense.
Ben spoke first. “Bringing a warning. If he’s not here yet, Dante Alvarez is on his way.”
“And why is that my problem? I could shoot both of you, bury you in this dirt, and do the same with this Dante when he gets here. Problem solved.” He was so still he barely looked like he was even breathing. “Tell me why I need the two of you.”
“You shouldn’t underestimate him. He’s not just here to visit, he wants to kill Thea Farrera.”
“Should I know who that is?”
Bolton wasn’t interested in denials. “We know she lives here. She and I…” That was way complicated, this guy would probably shoot them before Bolton was done with the story. “Let’s just say she’s in danger because of me.”
“Then maybe I really should shoot you.” The corners of his mouth turned up.
Bolton shrugged. “Go ahead. So long as you warn Thea that Dante is coming, so she can prepare for whatever onslaught he’s going to bring.”
He thought he caught something on the edge of his vision, a whisper of movement. If he had to guess, Bolton would say there were at least three people hiding in the bushes watching them. This “Colt” wasn’t taking any chances. He had come out in force the same way the people of Sanctuary protected their own.
Bolton’s town was surrounded by a ring of mountains. These people had water and the rough terrain of this part of Kauai, but they likely got wanderers in their vicinity from time to time. Was this how they dealt with them?
Bolton said, “I understand you want to protect your people, but we have no intention of intruding. And we don’t want to know who lives here when it would put their lives in danger. We are bound by the same restrictions you are, though I can’t say I wasn’t surprised to hear there was another witness protection town. In my Sanctuary we don’t ask where a person has come from. We accept them for who they are, and we live and work together to make our lives the best they can be.”
Bolton realized that was exactly what Nadia had done with him. While he had kept himself locked safe behind a wall of secrets he didn’t want to divulge, she had simply accepted him for the person he had been in Sanctuary. Whether that was the real him or not, he wasn’t sure. But maybe he wanted to find out.
Maybe he wanted the chance to see if he could be a good man, one able to love a woman the way she needed to be loved. It was a heady thing. A tempting possibility it would be hard to walk away from. Nadia was a tempting possibility.
Colt nodded. “Pu'u honua is the same way.”
“She may not be happy to see me, but please tell Thea that I’m here.”
“First you tell me who she is to you.”
Bolton nodded much the same as Colt had done. “She was my wife.”
A man broke from the trees. On second glance Bolton saw it was a boy, a teen. The boy lifted a gun and fired. Ben’s weight slammed into Bolton, and they hit the ground as the gun went off.
**
Will brushed past her chair. He’d put on his jacket, and now he went to the door with his cell phone in his hand. “I’m going out for a cigarette.”
“Okay.” What else was she supposed to say? It wasn’t like he was confined to the plane the way she was.
He left the door open, and she heard his steps descend the metal stairs.
Nadia lifted up from her chair and peered over the back of the seat. The laptop faced her, screen on. Locked. She’d need his password to get on there. Or Remy to hack into it.
She wanted to ask Remy how her brother was doing. She wanted to call Bolton and make sure he was still okay.
Anything.
But she’d been benched, not that there was a whole lot she could do besides chase after them and try to catch up. If she had any idea where they’d gone.
Nadia got up and walked around just for the sake of stretching her legs. At least when this was over she’d be able to return to Sanctuary knowing it was done. She’d end up reading about it in some newspaper article weeks after the fact, instead of always wondering what had happened between Dante and Bolton.
Will stood at the bottom of the steps…but not smoking. He was on his phone, gesturing wildly. A hard look had settled on his face, so different from his usually unruffled demeanor. He paced two steps then back, and spoke into his phone. She couldn’t hear the words, but they were bit out between gritted teeth.
He waved his arm, and she saw it. The flash of metal. A gun, tucked in his waistband. If it was to protect her, he certainly wasn’t paying attention to her right now.
His face paled, and he lowered his phone to stare at the screen. A picture flashed there, and Will looked like he was going to be sick. He put the phone to his ear again and bit out more hard words she couldn’t read off his lips.
He hung up then. Nadia stepped back so he didn’t see her at the window. Why she felt the need to hide from him Nadia wasn’t sure, but everything in her screamed retreat. She rushed to her bag and pulled out Shadrach’s gun, the one he carried with him everywhere—except when he was injured in the hospital.
Nadia held it by her side, out of sight, while Will ascended the steps. His eyes were dark, and he looked on the verge of tears. “I’m really sorry about this Nadia.” He started to reach for where the gun was. “I—”
Nadia aimed at his forehead. Shadrach had told her it was way scarier than aiming at someone’s center mass. Let them think she had the skills to hit that spot between their eyes. He’d been smiling when he’d said it, but it was true. Shadrach was right. Maybe he’d always been right.
Will’s eyes widened.
“Pull your gun out. Slowly. Drop it on the floor.”
“Na—”
“I will kill you. Do not test me.” Shadrach had taught her the scary voice, too. Authority, strength, and a don’t-mess-with-me attitude. “Drop it, Will.”
He lowered in a crouch and set the gun on the carpet.
“Your phone now. Drop it on the floor.”
He tossed it on the floor even as fear flashed on his face. “Let me speak, please.” Desperation laced his voice.
She could refuse, clock him over the head. Take his phone as she ran out. Or she could hear him out. “You have thirty seconds.”
“You don’t understand.” He gasped.
Don’t-mess-with-me Nadia would shoot him if he cried, she didn’t do “emotions.” But hopefully it wouldn’t come to that. “Twenty seconds.”
“There are things you don’t know. Things going on that—”
The phone screen. The call he’d taken outside, and the way he’d looked. “Dante has something on you. Or someone.”
Will nodded, frantic.
He’d been working behind the scenes for Dante the entire time. She could hardly believe there was a traitor so close to them, and Ben didn’t even know. They’d never have left her here otherwise.
Puzzle pieces clicked in her head as she saw everything now in the light of this new information. “Are you the reason he knew exactly why I was in the bank before I’d even explained it all? You’ve been feeding him inside information this whole time. Admit it. It was how he got a man into the theater to shoot Shadrach, wasn’t it?”
It was all so clear now.
Will said, “Your brother was the only one with no knowledge of Bolton’s stash. Dante had to take out someone, and Shadrach was low on the totem pole. His plan is methodical to the point of exactitude. He intends to completely destroy everyone and everything in Bolton’s life, and then take everything that he has left. After that he’s going to kill him. You have no idea how ruthless this man is.”
Nadia laughed, a sound completely devoid of humor. “I’m pretty sure I have an idea how evil he is.”
“I’m sorry. I didn’t know he’d try to sell you.” Will said it like it was distasteful. At least he had some moral
s left.
Nadia didn’t let the gun waver even an inch. “What does he hold over your head?”
Will swallowed. “He has my wife and daughter.” When she said nothing, he motioned for his phone. “Can I show you?”
Nadia nodded. Would he do to them what he’d done to her? Will’s wife, and a child. She wanted to be sick.
Will unlocked the phone and turned it so she could see it. “He took them two weeks ago. I had to tell him something so he’d stop threatening them, so I gave him your identity. From the minute you met with Ben and Shadrach at that house, Dante has known exactly who you are.” Will pulled in a breath. “I’m the reason he went after your mother.”
At least that had turned out in their favor. Though the only reason—again—was Shadrach’s having taught both her, and apparently their mom, the skills they needed to save their lives.
“He said he was going to cut off my daughter’s hand.”
Nadia stared at the phone screen. The kid was cute, even scared like that. Probably around ten. She didn’t need this affecting her young life in the way it was going to. “And you didn’t tell Ben?”
“Dante was going to cut off. My. Daughter’s. Hand.”
“Call him.”
“What?”
Nadia said, “Call Dante.”
“What? Why? I’m only supposed to keep you here until” —he swallowed— “I’m supposed to make a video…of your death. So he can show it to Bolton when he finally gets the stash, and he’s brought Bolton down as low as he’s going to go.”
“What is it with you people and videos?” Nadia said it under her breath, but Will heard.
“I’m not one of them!”
“Call Dante,” she yelled back. “Tell him it’s done. Tell him I’m dead.”
Will shook his head. “What are you going to do?”
Nadia shoved past him and went to the door of the plane that he’d left open. “If I don’t tell you then he can’t torture it out of you, now, can he?”
Chapter 19
Gemma sat with her back to the wall, surrounded by a stack of papers. File after file had been locked away in a secret room in her father’s radio station. He’d…
She could barely process all the things he’d done.
They began even before Vietnam, after a three-year stint in prison. Back when actual paper records were kept. He’d been released from prison in time to be drafted, according to the paperwork she’d read through. And yet, there was something so…sterile about this official documentation. Almost like it was only a label that indicated what had happened in very general terms.
A door being shut vibrated through the thin walls. Gemma had closed the door behind her and shut out the radio room. Like she could contain this big of a secret. It was probably Andra coming in to turn on the radio. Or to look around and remember Hal. Gemma didn’t have any of those experiences.
She’d never been outside the mountains of Sanctuary, and her mom had told her that if she elected to leave—which meant she would never be able to return—she would be killed. So why go, even if she was curious enough to wonder about the outside world? The mystery of it all was what killed her. He’d lied to her for years, never once mentioning that they had any other connection than simply being residents of the same secret town. The why—that was what ate at her.
Hal Leonard had clearly done some…colorful things. Okay, so he’d killed people. In Vietnam some of his missions had involved delivering messages through enemy territory. She didn’t understand half the military jargon, but some of it seemed to indicate he’d bought and sold weapons. Or been involved in it, or maybe found out who was doing it. Maybe he’d been some kind of investigator. Gemma couldn’t make sense of the whole, only pieces.
Like who this missing person was they had so much paperwork on.
She blew out a breath and set the stack of papers on the floor by her hip. The mystery wouldn’t be solved sitting here reading papers more than forty years old. She should go by her mom’s house again, make her open the door this time.
Tap, tap. Pause. Tap, tap. Pause. Tap, tap.
The sound started in the corner to her right, moved all the way to her back, and then past her to the left corner. Someone was…
Looking for the room Gemma was in.
**
“You give me that gun now, son.” Colt’s voice didn’t give the kid any option but to let go of the gun he’d just fired at Bolton.
His back on the ground, Bolton stared up at the boy. He had Thea’s eyes. Bolton’s heart clenched even as his stomach turned over. This was his son, and he’d just taken a shot at Bolton because of it.
Ben held out his hand, so Bolton grabbed it. He wasn’t too proud to accept a hand to get up, but that didn’t mean he wanted anyone to know how much it hurt. He’d landed funny on the ground, and his back felt like he was a hair from collapsing altogether.
Bolton hissed out a breath from between his teeth. “Javier?”
“Figures you know who I am.” The kid spoke over Colt’s arm, stretched across the front of his body, restraining his shoulders. “Are you here to kill me, too?” He struggled against Colt’s arm. “Let me go, Colt. I have to warn her he’s here. He’s found us, and now he’s going to kill us.”
Colt started to argue, but the boy fought his way free and ran into the trees. He spun back, an accusatory stare in his eyes. “That true?”
“Would you believe me if I said no?” Bolton didn’t even know how to answer. The kid was convinced he was here to kill him? “What has Thea told him about me that he thinks his own father is here to kill him?” He glanced at Ben, but got no answer there.
Colt’s eyebrow rose—the one not pierced. “His father?”
Bolton sighed. “What now?”
“Neither of you step one foot into my town. Not when you’re going to upset them.”
“We have to make sure Dante doesn’t get in.”
Colt studied Bolton and Ben, as though he didn’t know who the threat was: them or the man they claimed was coming. “Give me your guns and I’ll take you there.”
Ben didn’t look impressed but handed over a Sig he’d had in a shoulder holster. Bolton gave Colt his gun, too. Colt checked each as it was handed to him and then stashed both in the back of his jeans.
“Let’s go.”
He waved them to go ahead of him, up a path through the trees. Colt’s radio crackled. “Got a situation.”
Bolton glanced back to see Colt lift his radio. “What is it?”
“Blood. A mile out, north-north-west on the Yancey fork.”
“Any sign of anyone?” Colt sounded cautious but not worried. He projected total calm. The way John Mason did when crazy was breaking loose in Sanctuary—as though he could maintain order simply by projecting an air of being in control.
“Not yet. But Phil is checking it out. He thinks its Grant Mason.”
“Shoulder height on a tree? Like he swiped his hand across it?”
“That’s right. How’d you know that, Colt?”
“He’s under duress. The swipe tells you which way he’s going.”
“But he’s moving in the wrong direction if he’s warning us that he’s headed to town. He’s going to pass right by us going that way.”
“He might be under duress, but Grant isn’t going to let them find us.” Colt’s eyes locked with Bolton’s. “Alert everyone, we’re under emergency protocols. I’ve got Ben Mason—correction, I had Ben Mason. He gave me the slip.”
Bolton swung around. Sure enough, Ben had disappeared. Probably took the opportunity to skip out and help his brother while Colt was distracted. Leaving Bolton to deal with his family dysfunction all by himself. Thanks a lot, brother. So much for backup. If his son was willing to take a shot at him, who knew what Thea would do when he showed up?
“Guess it’s just us.”
Bolton started up walking again, though his gait had a hitch to it. He couldn’t help it, there was no way to disguise the
fact each step burned like fire in his back. Maybe, for the rest of his life, what Dante had done to him would be there with every movement of his body. A cloud of vengeance that never lifted. A poison that had saturated every part of him.
Nadia had told him one night, in their tiny apartment, that God had swept through her life and put everything right. But He wasn’t going to fix Bolton’s back. It wasn’t like God would let him live pain free when it was Bolton’s doing that he was injured this way in the first place. He had to live with the choices he’d made. Nadia had found peace living in Sanctuary. That town was the consequence of everyone’s choice. She’d liked it, which meant Nadia deserved to live in a place where she was happy. But not Bolton.
Consequences were good or bad, depending on the person. And while clearly Nadia was a good person, the bad consequences she had suffered were because of her association with him. The quicker she got back to Sanctuary the better, as far as he was concerned. Then she’d be free of his influence. Because as much as Bolton might want to stay in her life, Nadia couldn’t afford to have him stain everything she knew and everyone she loved with his influence.
He’d caused her pain for weeks, and he’d watched her diminish before his eyes. He’d been instrumental in the fact Dante captured her, and she’d nearly been taken into a life he didn’t even want to think about.
Once this was done, they’d make sure she got back to Sanctuary where she was safe, where people loved her openly, where her life was happy. And Bolton would walk away.
He would cherish forever the memory of her smile, of her carefree nature that he’d experienced in Sanctuary. But he couldn’t share that life with her. Ever since the medical center in town had exploded, things had been different. Neither of them had been able to ignore what was building between them. But it could never be. Bolton had to break it off, now that he knew she was safe. He had to walk away.
Sanctuary Deceived WITSEC Town Series Book 4 Page 20
