Deadly Cargo

by Jodie Bailey

  Will drummed his fingers on the table. The team had to prevent more deaths. They had to bring Wells and Dennis to justice and to save Violet James. “I wish we could find a way to reach her, to let her know we can protect her. Given that she was not only a suspect but a target of the killers, she may never show her face again.”

  “Sean.” The colonel focused on the camera. “Can you reach out to Ivy again? See if she’s been able to find anything?”

  Beside Will, Sean tensed. There was a very uneasy truce between Sean and his ex-wife, who ran a Christian mission that offered aid and supplies to survivalists near Nome. They suspected Violet was hiding with someone in the wilderness, but survivalists were notoriously closemouthed. Gathering information was tough. “Ivy came up empty last time, but I can try.”

  There was something behind Sean’s words and posture that said reaching out to his ex hurt more than he wanted to admit. He’d been struggling since their last contact.

  Will would have to ask him about it later.

  “We’ll touch base again when DNA evidence comes back.” The colonel was closing the VTC. “Until then, keep your eyes open. And be safe.” She shut down the call, and the screen went dark.

  Will sat back in his chair. “So we have proof that Lance Wells and Jared Dennis are in Anchorage and are capable of murder.”

  “I know those names.” From behind them, Jasmine’s voice floated over the room.

  Will jumped to his feet to find Jasmine standing in the doorway, her shirt wrinkled and her face bearing the imprint of the pillow on her cheek. She wasn’t supposed to be in on a secure meeting.

  What else had she heard?

  * * *

  “Was that about Violet James?” Jasmine stepped farther into the room as Sean and Will cast sideways glances at one another.

  Oh, no. She probably wasn’t supposed to hear what was said in their video conference call. But some tortured wailing noise had pulled her out of sleep, and she’d heard voices, so she’d stepped in to investigate. Being alone, even with Sean and Will in the next room, wasn’t something she was fond of at the moment, not when it felt as though someone was watching her every move.

  She was also hungry. The kind of hunger that came from crashing adrenaline and too much stress. Other people couldn’t eat when they were worried. She plowed through chips and salsa like the salty crunch was key to survival.

  Sean closed the laptop and pushed it toward the wall. “She’s going to see it on the news anyway. Once this hits, it’s going to be big.”

  So it was about the murder investigation that the news had dubbed the “Missing Bride” case. The media had a field day with the oil heiress who was initially a murder suspect before being rebranded as the victim of a killer con artist. Jasmine hadn’t followed the story initially, but when it appeared Violet James was being hunted by a killer, her heart had gone out to the woman. Many nights, she’d awakened from a deep sleep, praying for the safety of a person she’d never met. Violet’s situation was too close to Jasmine’s.

  She sat on the edge of the bed closest to the door. From the looks of the wrinkles in the bedspread, someone had been sleeping there. The wailing must have awakened them, too. “What was that awful noise earlier?”

  Will snorted and seemed to choke on air.

  Sean shot him a glare, then looked up at Jasmine. “I’m learning the harmonica. Grace likes to sing along.”

  For the first time in a long time, a real smile welled from her heart. Grace was a beautiful dog and, like Scout and Will, there was a genuine love between the Akita and her owner. No, not her owner. She’d heard Will say differently. Grace and Scout were partners. “I’d like to see that duet.”

  This time, Will laughed openly. He stood and stretched his arms overhead. “Trust me, you wouldn’t.”

  Looking away from Will’s shirt stretching over his broad chest, Jasmine studied the place where he’d been sitting. There was a wrapper from Friar Tuck’s balled up on the table. Her stomach let everyone in the room know she’d seen it.

  Will dropped his arms to his sides. “Hungry?”

  “Yes. Stress Eating is my middle name. I gained over ten pounds while I was waiting—” She stared at her fingers and picked a cuticle. Sean still didn’t know her story. “If there’s food, I’m in.”

  Sean stood and grabbed a sub from the refrigerator. He handed it to her as he passed. “I hope you like ham and turkey.” He looked at Will with a wry grin. “And mayo.”

  “You did that on purpose?” Will threw the wrapper at his colleague.

  Sean ducked sideways then picked up two leashes from the dresser beneath the mirror. “I’m taking Grace outside for a walk. Want me to take Scout along?”

  At the word walk, both dogs were on their feet.

  “Well, you initiated the launch sequence, so now you have to.” Will scratched the collie’s ears, then patted him firmly on the side and sent him to Sean, who leashed both dogs and slipped out the door.

  As soon as the door was shut, Will sat in the chair the other man had vacated and pointed at the table. “You want to eat over here?” He leaned over and pulled a bottle of water from the small refrigerator, setting it on the table in front of the other chair.

  Jasmine unwrapped the sub, blessed it, then pulled the tomatoes off and set them aside. Tomatoes were fine cooked, but raw? Ugh.

  She ate three bites while Will stared at the laptop that rested near her food. Her grateful stomach felt better as soon as she swallowed the fresh bread and salty cheese and meat combination. She chased the bites with water and forced herself to slow down. “You talk to your team on the computer?”

  “When we’re not together.” Will shoved the laptop farther to the side, giving Jasmine more space. “To answer your earlier question, yes. That meeting was about Violet James. And it will be on the news as soon as the next of kin are notified, so it won’t hurt to tell you.” He succinctly laid out the facts of a horrifying home invasion and murder.

  Laying the sub on the table, Jasmine slowly wiped her mouth with a napkin. “I know exactly how that poor woman is feeling. She’s alone and scared with no one to help her. She has a killer on her heels.” Once again, the familiarity of the situation sank into her bones. Jasmine shuddered.

  “You were never alone.” He straightened and leaned forward, resting his hand over hers on the table. “And you’re not alone now.”

  The warmth of his fingers, and his words, ran straight into her heart. No, she wasn’t.

  Jasmine let her gaze slide from Will’s hand, up his arm and finally to his eyes, which washed over her intently with a look she’d seen more than once over the past day or so.

  A lump rose to her throat. If she read too deeply into what he wasn’t saying, she’d fall. Hard. “You’re right.” Jasmine pulled her hand from his. “I had the marshals with me before. I have you and Sean now. I’m in a much better position than Violet James is.”

  Will sat back and crossed his arms over his chest. His face was unreadable. For a long moment, he studied the tabletop as if contemplating what to do next. Finally, he grabbed one of the discarded tomato slices from her sub wrapper. He chewed and swallowed. “Do you think about it a lot? The murder you witnessed?”

  Jasmine picked at the edge of the sub, pulling crumbs from the side. “I try not to.” She shuddered and glanced at Will. “I don’t know if you’ve ever seen anyone shot in the head.”

  His face revealed nothing.

  She closed her eyes briefly, but it made the mental image only stronger, so she opened them and stared at the heavy curtains behind Will. “During the day, I can usually block it. But I still have nightmares about it.” She chuckled, but it wasn’t with amusement. More like irony and pain. “I can’t even watch crime dramas on TV anymore, and I used to love them. They hit too close to home. It’s bothered me more since I heard about Violet James, pr
obably because I understand. I wonder what she saw, what she’s dealing with, how she’s coping. I had counselors to talk to. She has no one. At least, no one we know of.”

  “That’s one of the reasons we want to find her. That and to protect her from the men pursuing her. It’s likely she saw something. Though at this point, with so much evidence stacked against Wells and Dennis, and this double homicide that’s also linked to them, what Violet James saw in Chugach is irrelevant to whether or not they spend the rest of their lives in jail.”

  “Whereas I was the only one who could put Anton Rogers away. And he’s still angry about it.” Angry enough to kill her if he ever discovered that Jasmine Jefferson and Yasmine Carlisle were one and the same.

  Will plucked another tomato from her discard pile. “I want to ask you for a favor.”

  Her stomach picked that moment to remind her she was still hungry. “What’s that?” If it would help bring the smugglers down, she’d already committed to do whatever it took. She took another huge bite of the sub. The more she ate, the hungrier she was. Stress was going to be the end of her, no doubt.

  “I’d like to take a look at your phone and see if Eli, our tech guy, can tell if you’ve been hacked.”

  “I carry a dumb phone. I never wanted to risk being traced. I can’t even check email on it. Just text and call.” The thought of a GPS device in her pocket gave her the heebie-jeebies.

  “Computer?”

  “I had a work laptop, but we’re in the process of an upgrade, so Darrin asked for it back about a week ago so he could get my new one set up. My personal one is on me at all times. It’s in my backpack in my room.” She hated to leave it out of her sight, terrified a faceless monster might somehow figure out who she was, even though she’d been extremely careful. “I have nothing to hide from you. You can let Eli search it if you think it will help.”

  “One more thing.” He leaned closer and clasped his hands on the table, holding her gaze, his dark eyes serious. “I’d like permission to see your WITSEC file. And, if you’re okay with it, to read Sean in on your situation.”

  The sub stuck in her mouth. She couldn’t stop chewing. If Will was asking her that, then he didn’t believe Deputy Marshal Maldonado when he said her identity was safe. She stared at Will, mouth full, eyes wide, suspended in time.

  He opened her water bottle and handed it to her. “Drink. I’m not fond of doing CPR.”

  It took several tries, but she finally managed to swallow and find her voice. “Why?” The word was thin, betraying the rising fear that made her wish she hadn’t succumbed to hunger. That sub had been a huge mistake.

  “I don’t want you to worry or to panic. I just want to be sure we’re coming at this from all angles. I can get a little bit laser sighted sometimes, only looking at one thing. A teammate reminded me of that earlier today.” He scrubbed a hand down his face. “I just want to be a hundred percent certain that the shootings and the sabotage are about the drug smugglers and not about your past. My ultimate goal is to keep you safe, even if that means I don’t fly with you.”

  “If you don’t fly with me then you’ll find another pilot, and I’ll be—” Alone. She couldn’t say the word. The truth was, she’d be alone eventually, whether he flew with her or not. He couldn’t stay by her side forever, couldn’t leave his job to play personal bodyguard to a woman who was constantly afraid. “I want you to fly with me.” This wasn’t about her. She’d made a verbal promise to him and one in her heart to those who were vulnerable on the frontier. She wouldn’t back out. She’d prayed too much and heard God’s voice too clearly to disobey His call.

  “And I want to be sure you’re safe. It’s no secret I don’t trust Darrin or Keith. They’re the ones who’ve likely done the most digging into your background, before they hired you. I want to know for certain that they didn’t figure out who you used to be.”

  “There’s no evidence that they have.” She refused to believe it. Neither Darrin nor Keith was a killer.

  “Covering all the bases. That’s all. I promise.” His expression was sincere.

  But it did nothing to cool the fear that burned in her veins. Long ago, she’d surrendered her life to whatever God wanted of her, but some days, it felt like He wanted too much. “I think—”

  The door burst open. Sean entered with both dogs, his face strained. He flicked a glance at Jasmine, then focused on Will. “We have a problem. A big one.”

  FOURTEEN

  Will was on his feet before the words were fully out of Sean’s mouth. One hand reached for his pistol while the other motioned for Jasmine to stay seated. Until he knew the full story, he needed her to stay in place. “We’ve been found?”

  With a quick nod, Sean dropped the dogs’ leashes and reached for his backpack by the door. “I had the K-9s at the side of the building, around the corner from the back parking lot and figured we’d check on the vehicles while we were out there. When we rounded the building, there was a dark blue coupe circling the lot. It stopped near your vehicle. The driver started to get out, but then he spotted me and took off.”

  “License plate?” Will pulled his hand away from his sidearm, but he didn’t let his guard down. While the danger wasn’t imminent, it could flare at any moment.

  “Negative. He was headed in the wrong direction. The person’s tall and built, but glare and angle kept me from getting much detail on them.”

  “Male or female?” Sean’s hesitation to name a gender redirected Will’s suspicions. They’d thought of the shooter as a male all along, but that was a dangerous game to play. He’d heard of very few female killers for hire, but they were out there.

  “I’m not sure. Like I said, there was a lot working against me, but there’s enough doubt for me to think we could possibly be dealing with a woman.”

  Jasmine cleared her throat. “Or someone who was just looking for a place to stay.” Her voice was shallow, as though even she didn’t believe that was the case.

  It was a valiant effort at keeping her sanity in place, and Will didn’t argue with her.

  But he didn’t believe in coincidence. Cold hard facts were what helped him and his team solve cases. It’s what kept them alive. The similarity to the shooter’s vehicle, the interest in their patrol SUVs and the flight at Sean’s appearance all said their secret location was no longer a secret.

  As the lead guy on the investigation, what happened next was his call. Sean stood by the door waiting for an order, his backpack gripped tightly in his left hand.

  Like it or not, they had to move. And it was risky, but he knew the exact place they needed to go. He spoke to Jasmine first. “Pack your things. Be ready to go in five minutes.”

  She opened her mouth as if she was either going to argue or refuse, but then she got up and left the room, her shoulders a hard line. Rather than speak of determination or defiance, that posture spoke of false bravado, of trying to hold it together until she could safely fall apart.

  Will had never wanted anything more than to follow her and to pull her into his arms. To reassure her that he wasn’t going to let anything happen to her.

  But he couldn’t. There were no promises to make. And Sean would surely question his motives if he did.

  Without having to be asked, the other man started emptying the dogs’ water bowls. “I radioed it in. Fairbanks PD is going to patrol nearby, keeping an eye out for the vehicle. I don’t know how far we’re going to get with the description ‘dark blue coupe,’ but at least it’s something.”

  “Yeah, and even if they pull the driver over, there’s little cause to hold them unless they have the weapon they fired at us still in the vehicle.” Will kept his voice low, hoping his words didn’t reach Jasmine in the next room. He took Scout’s bowl from Sean and shoved it into his backpack, along with the remains of a small bag of dog food. “The best we can do if we spot them is put a tail on them and see
if they try to pull anything. Worst case scenario, they do nothing to incriminate themselves. However, if they think we’re onto them, they may lie low for a bit and take some of the heat off Jasmine.”

  Sean tossed his backpack on the bed and grabbed his duffel, shoving his shaving kit into it. “Or this is a ploy. A distraction. An attempt to flush us out.”

  That was the thing nagging at the back of Will’s mind. There could be more than one person on the hunt for Jasmine and for the troopers leading the charge on the smuggling investigation. Or there could be a lone wolf who was operating for Anton Rogers and looking for a quick payday.

  There was no consistency to the would-be killer’s tactics. They were savvy enough to rig a plane’s engine on the fly, but foolish and reckless enough to take potshots in broad daylight from the same position twice. They were either overly confident and brazen, or they were a careless newbie out to make a buck and to buy themselves some street cred.

  Will wasn’t sure which one was more dangerous. “Whoever this is was able to sabotage Jasmine’s plane, either at the airfield or while she was unloading at one of her stops. We have to assume we’re dealing with a professional.”

  “Which means they could have rigged one of our vehicles while we were inside.” Sean was already headed for the door. “Maya’s six hours away, so we can’t get her here with Sarge in time to sniff for explosives. A tracking device might be hard to spot. I’ll see if I can spot anything out of the ordinary. We’ll have to pray for the best beyond that.” He reached down, grabbed Grace’s leash and was gone before Will could stop him.