Silent Shadows

by Natalie Walters

  “Let’s hope you get your chance.”

  In front of them, several dilapidated metal warehouses appeared. The Charger bumped and jostled down a narrow dirt road with deep ruts carved out by the rain. The rusted chain-link fence surrounding the area leaned at a precarious angle, waiting for the next storm to put it out of its misery. They passed a burned-out shell of a car, and fear wrapped itself around his gut and squeezed.

  “Take a breath,” Claudia whispered. “The damage on that car is too old. It’s not theirs.”

  From the look on her face, she was answering his fear as much as her own. Claudia, driving slowly, continued toward the neglected buildings. Colton scanned the area, instinct kicking in as he watched for any indication of trouble.

  Colton ran his palms down his pants. David was Juan Pablo. His stomach turned. They all missed it, but how? And what had made David react now? “The game has shifted.” He turned to Claudia.

  “David—or Juan Pablo—had plenty of opportunity to get to Pecca. Why now? What’s changed?”

  “Has Charlie texted you yet?”

  Colton slid his phone from his pocket and checked. “He’s headed to the address on file for David. That was three minutes ago.”

  “I’m going to take a wild guess that when he gets there, he’s going to find the rifle used to kill Manuel Lopez.”

  Colton frowned. “You think David was the shooter? Why would he kill the guy trying to attack Pecca if the plan was to get to her all along?”

  Claudia pulled in behind a long dumpster overflowing with scrap metal, cardboard, and pipes. She turned to him. “That’s how I know something’s changed. Juan Pablo has been here for months, setting up whatever plan he had, which says he’s methodical. But last night someone interfered, and I’m guessing he wasn’t expecting that.” She turned the key, shutting off the engine, and grabbed her phone. “Manuel’s arrival in Walton to do what I assume was Juan Pablo’s job means his time ran out.”

  Claudia got out of the car and shut the door silently behind her. Colton did the same and met her at the back of the vehicle. She had opened the trunk and was unzipping a long nylon case.

  “That makes him desperate, then.” Colton kept his voice low. “Juan Pablo.”

  She removed a Colt M4 carbine out of the case, opened the chamber to check for a round, and then grabbed the magazine. “Which is why I’m not waiting.”

  There was a glint of fear in Claudia’s eyes that unnerved him. Her demeanor read cold and determined, mission focused, but the emotion in her glazed expression told him how personal this was to her.

  Colton’s thoughts went back to Charlie. He’d asked them not to engage, but if David, or whoever he was, was desperate, could they afford to wait? “We need to call this in.”

  Claudia put her hand on his. “We can’t take that chance. If Pecca’s alive inside there”—her eyes moved to the large warehouse looming in front of them—“and he hears sirens or gets any indication we’re here . . . he’ll react.”

  “If Pecca’s alive.” Bile climbed up his throat. Colton didn’t want to consider the possibility that she wasn’t, but the only thing they were going on right now was that her watch led them there. That didn’t mean she was alive.

  “How—” He swallowed. “How do we know she’s—”

  “Heat signatures.” Claudia pulled out her phone and checked a message. “Thermal imaging captured the heat signatures of two people. That means she’s still alive. For now.”

  Colton assumed she had that information courtesy of her friends at the agency, and he was grateful. He watched Claudia lift a Sig Sauer from the case, check that it was loaded, and slip it into the back of her waistband. What else did she have in there? He peeked into the trunk and spotted a football. “Think you’ll need that too?”

  “That’s for Maceo.”

  Colton’s arm twitched. It was clear by the way Claudia handled her weapons that she wasn’t an amateur, but they were walking in blind. What if David had set up traps? His eyes searched the ground. “You can’t go in without backup.”

  “Are you going to stop me?”

  They were the same words he had spoken to Charlie. The tilt of Claudia’s lips and the flash of defiance in her eyes was uncanny. This was Pecca’s sister in the flesh.

  “No, but”—he reached around her with his left hand and lifted the weapon from her waistband—“you’re not going in alone.”

  “Didn’t think I was,” she said with a smirk before turning on her heel. “You’ve got my six.”

  Colton, his nerves itching, fell in step behind her. Claudia’s choice to pull out an assault-style weapon told him who they were up against, but it didn’t ease the trepidation that this could turn bad really quick.

  THIRTY-TWO

  “WHY DO YOU WANT MY SISTER?” Pecca trembled. Her lip had swollen, the skin around it tight with the dried blood. “She has nothing to do with the SSB—”

  “It’s not the SSB!” David raised the cell phone in the air. The vein in his forehead looked ready to burst. “You’re always talking about how close you are to your sister, yet you pretend that you don’t know what I’m talking about. Do you take me for a fool? The SSB had nothing to do with any of this. It was all me.”

  “I don’t understand, David.”

  “My name is not David, it is Juan Pablo, and the reason I’m here is the very same reason you are here—because of your sister. I did not come to hurt you, but if I have to in order to get her attention, then I will do what I must.”

  Pecca could barely hold her head up over the nausea roiling in her stomach. She was going to be sick. Fear and confusion warred within her mind, making her dizzy. David dialed Claudia’s number and held up the phone, and Pecca prayed her sister would answer for once. When it rolled to voicemail, a small breath of relief filled her. She didn’t know what David was talking about, but the last thing she wanted to do was get Claudia involved.

  “Please, David,” Pecca cried, still wiggling her wrists. They felt wet, which she assumed, by the pain, was her blood, but the ropes were loosening with her efforts. “You don’t have to do this. We can get you help—”

  “If you want to help, then stop lying for your sister.” Darkness hooded David’s eyes and a shudder curled down Pecca’s spine. “Maybe I should have gone after Maceo.” He released a sigh, his forehead creasing in a determined expression. “If I lose my son, you should lose yours. That would be an even trade, yes?”

  “No!” Pecca screamed, her voice hoarse. “Leave him alone. I’ll do whatever you want. Try her number again. Call her job. She may be there.” She stumbled over the words, willing to say anything to take David’s mind off of Maceo. “She works at Loews, Ridley, and Scott. In Boston.”

  David breathed through his nose, his face growing red. He stalked over to Pecca and yanked her head back. She yelped, feeling him shove the gun beneath her chin. “Tu hermana es una mentirosa. A liar.”

  “Wh—” Her scalp burning, Pecca blinked back tears. “What do you mean?”

  “Your sister works for the C-I-A.” Hot breath hit her cheek as he emphasized each letter. “She killed Hector Perez, and now she must pay.”

  Pecca flinched. Claudia . . . CIA . . . Who was Hector Perez and why would David think her sister killed him? She squeezed her eyes shut to keep the room from spinning. The sound of a phone chiming jerked her eyes open. Claudia?

  David’s hands fumbled over the phone, but it wasn’t Pecca’s. It was his. “Hola, Alicia?”

  She watched his face morph from hopeful expectation into fury. His eyes flashed to Pecca, and she jerked backward as though he had slapped her. An alarm bellowed inside her head—she needed to get out. Now.

  At the other end of the warehouse were two sliding doors. She looked over her shoulder and saw another door, but an old desk was in front of it. Heaviness settled over her. Even if she could get out of these ropes, she’d have to get past the psychotic man she once knew as David. It was impossible.


  “. . . donde esta mi familia . . . hablar con Señor . . . la tengo a ella . . .”

  David spoke Spanish so rapidly, she had no doubts it was his native tongue. Someone named Señor had his family—and David had her. Pecca’s skin crawled. She had to assume he was talking about her, but was it true what he said about Claudia?

  A jolt to her chair shook her attention back to David, who was standing in front of her, a mixture of pain and rage etched into his features. Thrusting Pecca’s cell phone in her face, he spoke through his clenched jaw.

  “If you want to keep Maceo safe—if you want him to live—you have no other choice. They will not stop. He will not stop until she’s dead—until her head is presented to him on a platter.”

  Tears streaked from the corners of her eyes. “Th-there has to be another way.”

  “There’s not!” A string of expletives in Spanish trailed from David’s mouth, and Pecca squirmed against her restraints. “Señor will not be stopped. He’ll use whatever it takes to avenge his family’s honor. It’s your son or your sister.”

  Colton’s gaze shot to Claudia. The woman was seething—body tense, finger trembling next to the trigger, looking like she was ready to explode. Colton understood why after she whispered a quick translation of David’s phone conversation. Salvador Señor Perez had David’s family and was threatening to kill them if Claudia didn’t show up.

  “I’m going to kill him.” Her whisper was rough. “Slowly and painfully.”

  From the crazy look in her eye, Colton believed Claudia could make that happen. And, apparently, she had killed some guy named Hector—the catalyst to this nightmare. They had found a decent-sized hole in the corrugated metal siding near the rear of the building that gave them a good view of both David and Pecca, but it wasn’t big enough to breach the building without drawing attention.

  “We need to come up with a plan,” Colton said. He tucked the Sig Sauer into his waistband and wiped the sweat from his hand. His right arm was still twitching, but not as bad as he expected. That was a good thing since he couldn’t afford another episode. “We need to contact Charlie. Get him out here.”

  “We don’t have time.” Claudia set her jaw. “There’s two of us—one of him.”

  Colton ran a hand over his hair, which was damp with sweat despite the chilly November wind swaying the weeds around them. How did he get here? He left the battlefield overseas to find himself battling a diagnosis he once believed stole everything from him, and now the battle in front of him felt like the most important one of his life.

  He wanted to be ready.

  And he wanted it to be over.

  If what Claudia translated was true, they were already on borrowed time. Colton let the fact roll through his brain. Somehow Claudia’s involvement with Hector Perez ended up with him dying, either at her hands or someone else’s. Not important. What was important was that it led to Hector’s brother, Señor, taking the reins and coming after Claudia in revenge. How he found her was a whole other matter, but for now it was safe to assume that whatever his methods, they had brought him into Pecca’s and Maceo’s lives through David.

  “What are we waiting for?” Claudia hissed. “Let’s go in and take him out.”

  “Do you know where Señor is?”

  “What?”

  “Salvador Perez. The guy who wants your head on a platter. Do you know where he is? Right now?”

  Claudia studied him for a second before shaking her head. He was afraid of that. It meant David was probably right—there was only one way to end this, and Colton had an idea about how to do it. But first he’d need to convince a CIA officer to agree to his plan.

  “You still have eyes in the sky?”

  She narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean?”

  “Your buddy with the thermal imaging. Had to happen by drone, right?”

  Her jaw flinched and she nodded.

  “Contact them and find out if they can trace a call remotely and how long it’ll take.”

  “Why?”

  “You just admitted you don’t know where Señor is, which means if you take out David, it’ll be only a matter of time before Señor sends someone else to get you—only he won’t go for you first. He’ll go for Pecca and Maceo. Your parents. Siblings. He already knows who they are and where they are. There’s only one way to end this—and it’s through Salvador.”

  Claudia hesitated for a second before grabbing her phone and typing the message. Colton pulled out his own phone. He had silenced it, which was good since Charlie had lit it up with calls and messages.

  “Five to seven minutes to get a location once the call comes through.”

  With Claudia’s reckless driving, it had taken them less than seven minutes to get there. With sirens, Charlie could maybe do it in less.

  “What about David’s family?”

  “They’re not my problem.”

  “They are your problem.” Colton challenged her. “His wife and son are in this mess not by their choice. They’re innocents.” He eyed her and could see the resolve in her eyes soften. “And you’re not heartless. No matter what David’s done or does, his family shouldn’t have to suffer because of it.”

  “You know, it’s his wife’s family that’s behind all of this. Señor is her uncle. You really think he’s going to hurt his niece and her child?”

  “I don’t know, but do you want to live with that on your conscience?”

  Colton could see the battle warring in Claudia’s mind. He understood her dilemma. She must choose between exacting justice or mercy. It was the same decision his commander had faced in Zabul. And all Colton could do right now was trust.

  “Fine,” she said, letting out a frustrated breath. “Give me a minute.”

  Claudia yanked out her phone again and typed a message. She snorted and muttered something under her breath, which Colton assumed meant someone else probably agreed with her initial response.

  “It’s done. A team is going to do their best to track down David’s family.”

  “Good. Now we need to come up with a distraction.”

  “Me.” Claudia began pulling the rifle sling over her head. “He’s waiting for me anyway.”

  That was not what Colton was thinking, but it was a good idea—albeit one with great risks. It put two lives on the line. “What if David shoots you on the spot?”

  “He won’t,” Claudia whispered, setting down her rifle. “He’ll need to make sure his family is safe. Assurance. Which will buy my team the time they need to locate his family and Charlie enough time to get here.” Her brown eyes shifted to the phone in Colton’s hand. “Once the call comes in, you’ll have five minutes.”

  “You said it’s going to take five to seven minutes for your guys to get a location.”

  Claudia shrugged. “Señor isn’t going to allow himself to be tracked and will be watching the clock. My guy is good and knows what’s at stake.” She licked her lips. “Five minutes and then you guys move in.”

  Colton quickly typed out a message to Charlie and sent it. A second later his phone vibrated with a response. They were on their way. He gave a tight nod to Claudia.

  There was another vibration, this time from Claudia’s phone. She looked down at it and smiled. “It’s from Pecca’s phone. Looks like it’s time I make my appearance.” She leveled her brown eyes on him. “My sister doesn’t make mistakes, Colton.”

  Colton swallowed, the meaning clear.

  “You want the rifle?”

  “This’ll do.” He slipped the gun from his waistband. It still didn’t feel right in his left hand, but hopefully he wouldn’t have to use it. Hopefully, Charlie and the others would get there in time.

  “If things don’t go as planned, you take the shot no matter what. Pecca’s life depends on it.”

  Suddenly, Colton wasn’t so sure of his plan, but before he could change his mind Claudia was already making her way toward the front of the warehouse. She paused, closed her eyes, and did the sign of the c
ross over her chest. A burning reminder that Chaplain Kelly was right—there was only One who could turn what was going to happen next into something good.

  THIRTY-THREE

  PECCA JERKED AT THE SCREECHING METAL, the sound causing her pulse to soar. She spun her attention to the large warehouse door sliding open. Sunlight shone against the figure, shadowing their face as they approached, but it didn’t take long for Pecca to recognize the familiar gait. It sent a parade of chills marching over her skin.

  No!

  Pecca blinked, unsure if her brain was playing tricks on her, but then Claudia smiled and she knew it was real. Claudia was there. David aimed his gun at her and she raised her hands, unfazed.

  “Hola, Pequeña.” Claudia winked. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m—” Speechless. Pecca couldn’t believe her eyes. Her sister was right in front of her. “I don’t understand.”

  “Maybe we can talk about it over one of those famous cinnamon rolls you’re always raving about.”

  “Shut up.” David pressed the gun to Claudia’s temple. “You armed?”

  “No.” She rotated in a slow circle, her eyes landing on Pecca. “Todo irá bien.”

  It was going to be okay? Pecca couldn’t believe what she was seeing. Her sister was getting an intimate pat-down, and judging by the tick in her jaw, she wasn’t pleased with David’s thorough search. But he wouldn’t be searching unless . . .

  Was it true? Pecca looked at her sister. Dressed in a T-shirt, jeans, and hideous-looking motorcycle boots, nothing about her screamed secret agent.