Jack shared a look with Nathan.
“What happened next?” Nathan asked.
“He lifted his hands as if he meant no harm. Didn’t say nothing, but he marched out the front door. I ran to the door and bolted it. I guess I hadn’t locked it earlier, so I only have myself to blame for him coming inside. I tell you, my heart was pounding so hard. The sirens came then. The police. So I knew I was safe.”
“Ruby,” Jack said. “Why didn’t you tell the other officers this story?” Jack tried to keep his incredulity concealed.
Ruby hung her head again, then just as quickly lifted it. “I’m ashamed, son. I truly am. But it was always my Will’s mantra that we mind our own business. We don’t borrow trouble. We stay out of it. I thought I was doing what Will would want. After all, what does it matter that the guy came in the house and left of his own accord? He’s dead, I hear.”
“Yes, and he was found inside your silo.”
“I didn’t kill him.” Determination carved deeper into the lines on her face.
Jack could almost smile at that. She was a feisty woman, ready to defend her home and herself. He couldn’t blame her for that. “We know you didn’t, Ruby.”
He couldn’t see her climbing up the silo ladders or steps, much less carting Leif’s body up and dumping it, though he wasn’t clear on the events of the murder. Then again, Leif could have made his last stand up on the catwalk at the top of the silo, battling it out before being shot and killed. Even then, Ruby wasn’t a suspect. He glanced at Nathan. “Just how did we learn Leif was in the silo?”
Nathan cleared his throat. “Tracks through the cornfield. More bullet holes in the tower.” He looked at Ruby. “Sorry, ma’am.”
“I already know this. No need to be sorry. Anything else I can answer for you?”
“Did you get a good look at the man in the house?” Jack asked.
“It was dark, but I got some of him. He was like a ghost.”
On his cell, Jack showed her an image of Leif. “Was this the man in your home?”
Ruby shook her head. “No, that’s not him. Who is he?”
Her reply surprised him. Then again, he knew there was another shooter out there—Leif’s killer. Jack sent Nathan a warning look. He didn’t want to scare Ruby by sharing that the man who had entered her home was not the man who had died in her silo.
“I appreciate your help, Ruby,” Jack said. “Here’s my card. Please call me if you think of anything else.”
Nathan thanked her too, and they headed for the door. As Ruby opened the door for Nathan, Jack lingered at the mantel and looked at the family photographs again. Ruby came rushing over and was only too happy to tell him the names of her children. Three sons and a daughter. Twelve grandchildren. Quite a few pictures of the kids and their activities. Soccer. Football. Twirling. Running around in the backyard with dogs. The usual.
A photograph of a soldier standing next to a helicopter drew his attention, and Ruby was quick to notice.
“Oh, that’s my son. He died years ago when his helicopter crashed overseas.”
“I’m sorry to hear that.” He waited a few moments in case she would share more, but she seemed lost in thought.
“Well, thanks again, Ruby.” Jack joined Nathan, who’d been waiting on the porch.
Following Nathan down the steps, Jack stumbled on the last one but caught himself. Pain ignited in his arm.
“You okay?” Nathan asked.
“No.” Jack continued toward the vehicle and climbed into the passenger side.
Nathan hopped in the driver’s seat and started the vehicle. “You want to tell me what’s wrong?”
“I recognized her son who supposedly died.”
“What? No way.”
“Yes way. He looks much different now than he did years ago when that picture was taken, but there’s some resemblance. Ruby believes her son is dead, so she would never think that the man she saw standing in her house was him. Instead, she said he was like a ghost.”
“Well, come on, man, who is he?”
“Robert Vandine’s campaign manager. Marcus Briggs.”
SIXTY-ONE
The darkness slowly edged away.
Terra’s head pounded. She couldn’t remember a thing beyond . . .
Oh no.
A familiar laugh sent dread through her. Nausea roiled in her stomach. Terra opened her eyes. Gramps sat across from her on the other side of his desk. His desk. In his office.
She’d been transported from her apartment to the ranch.
Gramps tried to appear calm, collected, and in control. He was failing miserably.
“She’s awake now. I didn’t need her awake for this, but the more the merrier.” His back against the wall, Marcus Briggs held a gun and pointed it at her grandfather.
“What’s . . . what’s going on?” Terra asked.
“Bringing her here, using her against me like this doesn’t change anything,” Gramps said. “I don’t know where it is.”
“Where what is?” Her words, the rising emotions, were too much, too loud against the constant throbbing in her head. Even as she asked the question, she suspected she knew exactly what Marcus wanted.
“The artifact. I have a buyer, and he’s growing impatient.”
“Why does he think you know where it is?” Terra stared at her grandfather through blurred vision.
The fear in Gramps’s eyes rocked through her.
“He’s a desperate man.” Gramps ground out the words. “I don’t have anything to do with this business.”
If this man was behind the murders, then he would have no problem killing her and her grandfather. But where was Owen? Her heart pounded as fear for her brother, for Gramps, mounted.
Terra found the strength to push from the chair and stand, only to realize her wrists were bound. “You killed Jim and Neva? Or did you make Leif do it? He must have worked for you.”
Marcus pointed his gun at her. “Sit if you want to live. Morrisey didn’t work for me.”
“I don’t understand.” Terra needed to buy time. Get him talking so she could figure a way out of this.
“He was trying to find me so he could kill me, but I found him first.” Marcus aimed the gun at her head. He still stood too far for her to take the gun from him, if she even could with bound wrists. “Now, I need my property.”
“The Janus has many connections, political and social, and probably travels a lot.” Jeremy’s words came back to her.
“You’re . . . you’re the . . . the Janus.”
He laughed. “If that’s what you want to call me. I’ve developed the connections and the reputation. And that reputation is going to receive a big blow if you don’t tell me what you did with it. This is the deal of my life. I’ve waited a long time to get my hands on it.”
“Gramps, please, if you have it, just give it to him.”
“But I don’t have it,” Gramps said. “That’s what was stolen from my safe.”
She gasped. What?
Frown lines grew deeper in his forehead. “Jim came to me. He brought me the package. He was to get the package at the airstrip, but the plane crashed. He retrieved it when he saved the pilot but realized he couldn’t store it at his cabin. He needed to put it somewhere for safekeeping until his meeting to hand it off. But he was scared after he realized what the object was. He’d gotten in too deep and wanted out. He needed time to think about what to do with it.”
“Why did you agree to keep it? You were going to be running for office. Something like this could ruin it all.” And would destroy his chances of election.
“I wanted to give him a chance to do the right thing. I owed him for getting me out of a financially sticky situation. Besides, I could claim that I didn’t realize the item’s provenance. And honestly, I still don’t.”
“I agree. I’d like to know what all the fuss is about.” Keep this guy talking. Find a way out.
She wished that Jack would come looking for her, except w
hy would he? She’d walked out on him, and then put him off again. Jack could very well be giving her the space that she’d asked for.
“There’s something you don’t know,” Gramps said.
Terra was getting the picture that there was a lot she didn’t know.
“We don’t have time for the family reunion.” Marcus kept his distance from Terra as he held the weapon aimed at her head. “Jim brought it to you, Robert. You must still have it. If it was stolen, then that’s all part of your plan and you know where it’s going.”
Terra thought through possible ways to remove the gun from him.
“Step away from her.” A man spoke from behind, his voice menacing.
Marcus’s entire demeanor shifted. Fear crawled over his face as he stared at the new arrival behind Terra. “You can’t shoot me before I kill her.”
“I don’t want to shoot you,” the man said. “I want to negotiate.”
“You’re in no position—”
Terra turned to see who the newcomer was.
The man from the bar? The pilot? She’d never gotten a good look at him. Chance Carter held up a box in one hand—an offering—and pointed a gun at Marcus with the other.
“My deal was to deliver this package—my last delivery. Then my plane went down, and all bets were off when I woke up in the hospital and the package was gone. I knew I had to find it and find you and deliver it to you in person so I could make sure I would never be blackmailed again. Only I didn’t know who was behind the blackmail. But I figured it out.”
Chance lowered the box to the floor while continuing to aim the weapon. Then he held the gun with both hands. “My first clue was when I saw what was inside the box.” His face twisted. “I had to ask myself, what is that golden jeweled crown, a Nimrud artifact looted from the Iraq Museum, doing in Montana? What was I doing delivering the item I had walked away from years ago?”
“Your actions cost me everything,” Marcus said.
“Imagine my surprise when I discovered that this whole time, it was you blackmailing me, Tony. I thought you died in that helicopter crash in Iraq. Instead, you took on a new identity and obviously kept building your trafficking business. You forced me to leave my family to keep them safe. But now I have it in my hands, and I found you. I’m done for good. I just have one question—why me? Why did you send me to deliver this?”
“The artifact that cost me everything? I lost my family because of you,” Marcus said. “Even if I hadn’t survived the crash and disappeared, I would have been court-martialed and lost them anyway. You deserved to pay. I thought the crown was apropos for your last delivery, since that was the very item that was lost to me when you wanted out. I was able to get my hands on it again, diverting it from being returned back to Iraq.” Marcus shrugged. “So you would deliver it for me, completing what you wouldn’t complete years ago, and I would finally get my millions.”
“It doesn’t belong to you. It didn’t then. It doesn’t now.”
Marcus sighed. “We’re all a little older and a little wiser. We all made mistakes. Give me the box, and I’ll let them go. With the money, I can reinvent myself all over again.”
The pilot looked intently at Terra. Emotion welled in his eyes. A pang shot through Terra’s heart. She hadn’t seen beyond the pilot. Behind his scruffy beard, older broken features. Behind the baseball cap and a thicker body . . . she hadn’t seen who he really was.
Her vision blurred. She wasn’t thinking clearly. No . . . “Who are you? You’re not . . . you can’t be—” But she knew in her heart that he was. Recognition slammed into her, knocking the breath from her. She gasped for oxygen, and then words. “Dad?”
“Yes, baby. It’s me.”
“What? Why? I . . . I don’t understand. What are you doing here now? Why did you leave in the first place?” The questions overwhelmed her, and the precarious situation shook her to her core.
“As for what I’m doing here now, as soon as I realized who was behind everything, I knew I had to warn Robert. I knew Robert, you, and Owen were in danger, but I got here too late.” He growled those last words out, glaring at Marcus. “But it’s okay because I have the leverage needed. As for the past”—his tone softened as he turned his gaze back to her—“I had no choice. Because of my mistake in Iraq, staying here would have put you in danger. Even though leaving hurt us both, it was better for you. Safer. After your mom died, I couldn’t lose you too. Briggs forced me to leave my family, to leave you to keep you safe. But I see now that my efforts made no difference. You’re here now because of my mistakes.”
Tears erupted. “You did lose me, Dad. You lost me and Owen. You left us. How could you think that leaving would ever be better?”
“Terra, I—”
“Don’t beat yourself up, honey.” Marcus/Tony, whoever he was, interrupted her father so he could be kind now? “I required that of him. I didn’t need anyone catching up to Chris Connors to ask more questions about the looting. I could have nothing lead back to me. I had to create a new identity, and Chris had to as well. He had to lose his family, like I lost mine. I helped him create his new identity—Chance Carter, courier for an airfreight company in which I’m the majority shareholder.”
“And Leif Morrisey?” she asked. “He wanted revenge for his sister’s death. He was looking for you. What did you do to his sister?”
“She was fencing for me in Morocco and got into a bad situation. That’s on her, not me. I had to focus on collectors in the United States for the last couple of years.”
Terra was done with the man pointing a gun at her. Except her hands were in plastic ties, and he held the gun. There were no defensive moves she could use that wouldn’t risk either her grandfather or now . . . her father.
“You.” Marcus directed his words to her father. “You put your gun down and back away from the package. Come over behind the desk and join Robert.”
“I’m not losing my gun. I don’t trust you.”
“You won’t get a shot off before I kill her. Do you want to risk it?”
“Don’t do it, Dad,” she said. “He’s bluffing.”
But she saw in her father’s eyes how precious she was to him, and he would do anything to save her. He’d given her up in order to save her. He hesitated before finally acquiescing to Marcus’s request, putting the gun down and stepping away from the package. Terra hoped that wasn’t a mistake.
Once Dad stood next to Gramps, he said, “Okay. Take the package and get out of here.”
“I’m taking the package, but she’s coming with me,” Marcus said. “Terra, pick up the package and let’s go.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you. Why would you want to take me?”
“I’ll let you go when I’m safely away.”
“Are you crazy?” Gramps asked. “You’ll never escape your crimes!”
Marcus exploded with anger. “You’re wrong, Robert. I’ve escaped my crimes for nearly two decades. Now, pick up the package!”
The sound of too many bullets flying, pinging Jack’s car, accosted her. Marcus was about to lose it. Like Leif? She couldn’t let him kill her family.
“My wrists are bound. How can I pick it up?”
“Reach down and grab the corner with your hands.”
Suit yourself. She stood from the chair and then bent over for the package, using the opportunity to kick out her leg and clip his gun. But he maneuvered quickly like a trained soldier. Terra tried again.
Marcus fired the gun toward the desk.
“No!” she shouted. She scrambled toward the desk, but Marcus snatched her back.
Gramps pressed his hands over Dad’s midsection as blood seeped through his fingers.
“Come with me now or I’ll shoot your grandfather too.”
She’d just got her father back. She couldn’t lose him again. She tried to be so strong through it all, but the strength drained out of her. “No . . .”
“Pick up the package, and let’s go.”
; Terra picked it up, her hands straining against the plastic ties. It seemed too light to be of any value.
“Leave her!” her father shouted.
He sounded strong, but for how much longer? She’d watched Jack nearly bleed out.
“We had a deal! I brought you the package, now let her go. Leave us alone.”
Marcus dragged her along with him through the house.
“What are you doing?” She had to convince him to leave her. “You can’t get away with this.”
“I have a plane waiting at the airport. I’ll be gone, out of this country, before the police even arrive at the ranch. I’ll just have to find a different way to deliver the artifact now that Neva is gone. I had been planning to move my operations back to Morocco anyway.”
Uh-oh. Marcus telling her his plans didn’t leave any doubt as to his intentions. He would kill her when he was done using her.
He dragged her toward the meadow between the ranch house and the base of Stone Wolf Mountain, where a running helicopter waited.
Marcus pointed the gun at her. “Get in.”
“What? You can get away now. You don’t need me anymore. Let me make sure my father’s okay since you already stole him from me for half my life!”
“If you prefer, I can shoot you in the leg and you can suffer in agony, but you’ll still be with me. I’ll keep you alive until I no longer need you.”
Grimacing, she climbed into the helicopter, which was no easy task with bound wrists.
Marcus piloted the helicopter, which lifted straight up, then started west toward Stone Wolf Mountain’s silhouette, dark against a moonlit sky. Terra could only bide her time. When he landed at the airport, she would refuse to get on that plane. Others would be nearby. Even if he shot her for resisting, she could get help there. But her father was far from emergency services.
But please, God, oh, God, save my dad.
Present Danger Page 28
