“Where are you taking me?” Clint asked as he stood.
“You’ll see.” He pointed to Ivan. “Tie him up. I don’t think handcuffs will go around his cast.”
“I have rope in the truck.” Ivan darted out of the house.
Colin tossed his car keys to Gregor. “After he gets the rope, you go, set things up.”
Gregor caught the keys, nodded, then headed out the door.
Hess moved slowly toward the counter. He picked up Clint’s gun from the counter where Marvin had set it. In one smooth move with no hesitation or wasted motion, he pointed it at Marvin and shot him in the head.
Clint flinched as blood sprayed all over him and Marvin’s body dropped to the floor.
“I hate loose ends,” Colin said, smiling. “Thank you for killing him for me.”
“Because you used my gun, that’s going to be your story? That will never fly.” Clint spoke confidently but inside he felt anything but confident. Marvin lived far enough away from his neighbors that it was doubtful anyone would have heard the shot. Hess was as cold a crook as he’d ever dealt with, and he was armed. Clint wasn’t.
“I think it will. After all you were quite upset when you found out he was your leak. It makes sense that you would kill him.”
Ivan came back inside with a length of rope and secured Clint’s hands behind his back.
Hess grabbed Marvin’s car keys. “This way,” he said. “You’re going to steal your friend’s car.”
Clint had no choice but to climb into the back of Marvin’s SUV. Ivan sat beside him and Hess got behind the wheel.
Clint felt helpless . . . but that didn’t stop him from praying. Foremost in his prayer was that Leah avoid whatever fate Hess had planned for them.
CHAPTER 57
Leah called 911 as Grady tried to comfort a bleeding Ivy.
“They want to destroy you,” Ivy whispered.
“Quiet, Ivy. Save your strength,” Grady said as he pressed the gauze pack Randy had given him to Ivy’s shoulder. Her wound was bleeding a lot.
Duke had breathed his last while Leah tried to stop his bleeding. She’d barely ended the call with 911 when another sheriff’s vehicle pulled up. It was Jack.
“Sorry it took me so long, Randy—” Jack’s eyes widened as he took in the scene before him. He rushed up to the porch. “What is going on, Leah?”
“It’s a long story. Grady will have to tell you; I have to find Clint.”
Jack tore his eyes away from Ivy and back to Leah. “Where is Clint? I’ve tried to call him and got nothing. That’s not like him.”
As quickly as she could, Leah told him what happened.
“Larkspur Farms?”
“Ivy says that’s where Grady was supposed to take us. My guess is that Clint is already there.”
“He is,” Grady said without taking his eyes off Ivy. “They want something you have. I was supposed to go along with you and Duke to the farm so they could talk to the both of you. They felt my presence would put you and Clint at ease.” He looked up, tears in his eyes. “That’s what they said, just talk.” He returned his attention to Ivy.
Jack took Leah’s arm. “You can’t go running off by yourself.”
“I won’t be. The FBI is looking for Clint as well. Now I can tell them where he is. I’m going to call as I go.”
“And I’ll be with her,” Randy said. He’d been helping with Ivy since Duke was beyond their help.
“No, Dad, you need to stay here and explain this mess. How Duke got shot.”
He started to argue but Grady interrupted.
“I’ll go with her, Randy. Please stay and look after Ivy.” He pointed to the pressure bandage on her shoulder.
Randy acquiesced and took Grady’s place.
Grady wiped blood from his hands.
“Grady, you—” Leah protested, not sure if she could trust him.
“I’m part of this. I never wanted to be, but I am. I can tell you and the FBI guys everything that was supposed to happen.”
Leah studied the man. He was shaken, that was for sure.
“If you’re lying, Grady . . . ,” Randy said.
Grady turned to him. “I promise to do what I’ve been sworn to do. I’m a parent too. I’ll protect Leah.”
That seemed to mollify Randy.
“All right, follow me. I’ll call Falcon and tell him that we are on the way.” Leaving Jack and her father to deal with Duke and Ivy, Leah climbed into her father’s truck, since her car was blocked in.
The ambulance arrived as she started the engine. Leah was confident everyone would be taken care off. She headed down the driveway, Grady behind her. She didn’t get a chance to call Falcon; he called her.
“We found Tanner’s truck.” Falcon’s words almost made Leah’s heart stop. It started again when he explained how they’d found a broken fence line, almost by accident. They followed the trail and came upon Clint’s truck stuck on a fence post.
“Somebody searched it,” Falcon said. “They ran a knife through the seats and tossed out everything in it. No sign of Tanner though.”
“I know where he is.” As quickly as she could, Leah told the man what had just transpired.
The line went quiet.
“You still there, Falcon?”
“I am. I’m just a little speechless.”
“Try this on for size: Ivy claims that someone named Colin is the heavy muscle behind everything.”
“You believe her?”
“I believe she’s in a position to know a lot.”
“She could be setting you up.”
“How? She just got shot for telling me what she knew.”
There was silence again as she made the turn for Sams Valley and Larkspur Farms. She’d be there in ten minutes.
Falcon came back on. “My partner and I were reviewing the list of addresses we have, of people we wanted to talk to or have already talked to. Marvin Sapp lives near here. Is it possible Tanner would go to his house?”
That gave Leah pause. Clint would go to Marvin’s if he got away from his pursuers. Relief was quickly replaced by fear. If he had gone to Marvin’s, why hadn’t he called?
“I’m staying the course for Larkspur Farms.”
“Radcliff, if he’s there with Colin Hess, you’re heading for trouble. Will you wait for us to get a handle on things?”
She didn’t answer him. All she knew was that she had to save Clint, no matter what.
Even in the dark it didn’t take Clint long to figure out where they were going. Larkspur Farms.
The place was still sealed with police tape when the SUV’s headlights flashed across the front door. There was another vehicle in the drive, off to the right. Hess got out, as did the driver of the other car. Clint squinted in the dark, but he couldn’t make out the face. Then he heard a raised voice.
“Why did you want me out here in the middle of nowhere? Can’t you handle this yourself?”
He frowned in the dark. That sounded an awful lot like Harden Draper.
Ivan opened the door and walked over to Clint’s side to pull him out. Clint stepped out and was face-to-face with Draper. And the man wasn’t alone—Becky Blanchard was with him.
“Where’s Grady?” Colin asked.
“He should be here, but he’s not answering my texts,” Becky said. She offered Clint a frosty glare. “There was a shooting at the Radcliff residence. I heard it on the scanner. A female required medical attention. Maybe he took care of her there.”
Clint stiffened and fought the urge to throttle Becky. If Leah was shot . . . No, he wouldn’t entertain the worst-case scenario.
“I don’t like maybes,” Colin growled. “If he killed her there, he’s ruined the plan. What about Duke?”
“He’s not answering either. But he can handle things. I’m not worried. We’ll figure something out. Get Tanner inside.”
“I still don’t know why I needed to be here for this,” Harden complained. “I paid you all well to
get the drive back. You could have brought it to me in the comfort of my own home.”
Ivan grabbed Clint’s arm to pull him into the house. At the same time, Colin swung a clenched fist and hit Harden with a sucker punch on the left side of his head. Harden went down like a sack of potatoes.
Clint stopped and stared in shock only to be jerked along by Ivan. He heard part of the ensuing argument as he was dragged into the house.
“Was that really necessary?” Becky asked.
“Yeah, for me it was. He was getting on my nerves. We’re tying up loose ends, aren’t we?”
“Now you have to carry him inside.”
Clint couldn’t hear the rest as he was taken to the back of the house, to the very room where he’d found the puppy. Ivan grabbed a chair and put it in the middle of the room. He jerked Clint toward it, and Clint realized he was going to be untied and then retied to the chair. But not with rope. Ivan now had a roll of duct tape.
This would be his only chance to break free, and he knew he couldn’t waste it. Ivan stepped behind him and began to undo the knots. Bracing himself for the pain, Clint prayed the Russian would undo his good arm first, and that was just what Ivan did. As quickly as his sore, battered body would allow, Clint twisted around, catching Ivan by surprise. He looped his good arm around the Russian’s neck even as the man tightened his grip on the rope around the cast.
Clint squeezed his bicep and forearm muscles over Ivan’s carotid arteries as the man struggled to gain leverage by pulling on the cast. The pain in his bad arm was intense, but Clint held on and squeezed. As Ivan lost the battle, his grip weakened. In minutes, the Russian went limp.
Clint let out the breath he was holding and slowly lowered the man to the floor. He took the rope around his cast off and secured Ivan with the duct tape as quickly as he could. Ivan had a gun in his belt, just a five-shot .38, but Clint was happy for the weapon. He had to get out of the house before Ivan sounded the alarm. He wouldn’t be unconscious long.
Opening a window, Clint paused when he heard raised voices.
CHAPTER 58
When they reached the driveway to the farm, Leah pulled over and waved Grady to a stop. She wanted to talk to him. They had to have a plan.
“He might even already be dead.” Grady’s voice was grim.
“What?”
“Clint. All you might find here is a body.”
Leah stared at Grady. All the life seemed to have gone out of his eyes. Blood spotted his uniform shirt, but his face was white as a sheet.
“Colin is ruthless. So is Becky, for that matter,” he said.
“When all this is over, you’ll have to tell me how you ended up with Becky when you obviously still care for Ivy.”
“Secrets, Leah. Secrets.” Profound sadness now colored his features. Leah was dying to know what he meant. But they had to get moving.
Grady stopped her once more. “If I don’t make it out of this, I want my parents to take my son.”
Leah nodded. “How do you want to do this?”
“Becky’s been texting me. I just answered her and told her I’m on the way. I expect everyone to be in the farmhouse, so I’ll do my job.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I’m going to arrest them.”
“On your own? That’s suicide.”
“What would you do? Rush in, guns blazing, to save Clint?” His empty eyes held hers and for a minute she had no answer.
“I know a back way in. I picked peaches here one summer. And I have the element of surprise,” she said.
“Well, you do what you have to do, and I’m going to do what I have to.” He turned to get back in his car.
Leah grabbed his arm. “Don’t you get Clint killed.”
He jerked his arm away and got back in his patrol car. With a growing sense of dread, Leah watched the car start up the drive.
When she climbed back in the truck, her phone rang. It was Falcon.
“Where are you?” he asked. When she told him, he said, “Don’t go anywhere. We just kicked the door in at Marvin Sapp’s house. He’s been murdered.”
“And Clint?”
“His wallet is here, no sign of him.”
Leah banged her head back against the headrest. “Then you can’t ask me to just wait until they shoot him. Grady already went up the drive. I couldn’t stop him.”
“At least wait until we get there.”
“I can’t, so you’d better hurry.”
Leah drove a little farther up the road. She found the back road to the orchard easily enough, but it was overgrown with a chain across it. She grabbed her father’s tire iron but soon realized she didn’t need to use it. The lock had been broken, then set back onto the chain to look closed.
Not having time to wonder about it, Leah got back in the truck and drove through. She traveled up the rough, overgrown road, apologizing in her mind to her dad for all the scratches. When she believed she was too close to the house for headlights, she turned them off.
Then she came to a spot where she could go no farther. There was a truck blocking her way. She put her vehicle in park and shut down the engine.
Her father had a couple of different flashlights in his work belt behind her seat. Leah grabbed a small one, gripped her gun, and got out. She walked around the parked vehicle and put her hand on the hood. It was warm; whoever had driven it here hadn’t been here long.
Leah didn’t recognize the truck but she wasn’t going to let that stop her. She started for the house. The trail was as overgrown as the road, and since all the pear trees were gone, there wasn’t a lot of cover for Leah. There were blackberry bushes scratching and scrabbling at her clothes.
As she approached the farmhouse, she could see lights on in two rooms. No one should be able to see her, though, unless they were looking. She was above the house now, and looking down, she counted two SUVs and one sheriff’s vehicle. Where was Clint? What was Grady doing?
Movement off to the right caught her eye. She brought her gun up. When she was sure she had her target, she flicked the flashlight on.
A large man squinted and turned toward her, gun in hand.
“Richard?” Leah said as she tried to process who was standing in front of her.
“Turn that light off,” he hissed between clenched teeth.
Leah did and lowered her gun as well. Richard did the same.
“What are you doing here?” Leah whispered.
“I could ask you the same thing, but there’s no time. I knew something would happen after Uncle Dave was caught. Their house of cards is imploding, and they will jump ship.” He started toward the house.
Leah stepped in front of him, making him stop. “Are you ready to tell me now just what is going on?”
“As much as I can, Leah, but we have to hurry. If Tanner isn’t dead already, he will be soon.”
Becky was yelling.
“You’re going to have to wait, do you understand? Grady is on his way. I’m sure Duke will follow.” The tone she took with Hess was like a mom scolding a toddler.
“I’m past trying to stage a scene to look one way or another. Things have gone sideways. It’s time to cut our losses.”
Hess’s voice was level and calm. Clint strained to hear him.
“We’re not leaving until Duke gets here, no matter what.” Becky sounded more on edge, less in control.
Footsteps pounded, moving away, Clint thought.
“Grady is here now.” Becky’s voice was farther away from the room Clint was in. “He’s probably got Radcliff.”
Clint tensed. Then Hess said, “He’s by himself.”
If Grady was here, whose side was he on? Clint wondered.
“What do you think you’re doing, Grady?” Becky said. “Where’s Radcliff? You couldn’t handle one simple task?”
“She doesn’t matter anymore. I’ve had enough. I’m placing you all under arrest. And once you’re booked, I’ll turn myself in.”
Derisive ma
le laughter. Clint looked back at Ivan, who was stirring but still not fully awake. In his head he counted the number of people on the other side of the door. He could help Grady if Grady was really trying to do the right thing. Becky and Hess—it would be two on two. But one thing bothered him. Where was Gregor?
“Blanchard, you coward. No way you’re taking me anywhere. Put the gun down and we’ll let you walk away.” Now Hess was angry.
Colin Hess would not go willingly; Clint knew that.
Ivan was beginning to move around now. Clint turned and saw the surprised anger in his eyes as the Russian came fully awake. He doubted they would hear him scraping around as they argued.
“Where’s Duke?” Becky asked.
“He’s already in custody.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean Radcliff took your big bad brother down.”
At the mention of her name, Clint’s heart rate spiked. Leah is alive.
“You’d better be lying.” Becky’s voice was cold and flat.
Clint tensed; something was going to happen.
“Ivan, get out here,” Hess yelled. Then the gunfire started.
“I saw them take Clint into the house.” Chambers turned toward Leah.
“How long have you been here?”
“I told you—since I heard about Dave Draper. I knew they’d come back here before they left.” His breath was visible in the frigid air. “They hid stuff in that barn that Tanner didn’t find when he did his raid. You want to know what was going on that night all those years ago? I’ll tell you.” His voice low, Leah had to stay close to hear him. “Brad did take a payoff, but it was Larry who talked him into it.”
They worked their way down toward the house.
“It was all about that trooper who got killed. That wasn’t supposed to happen.”
“You mean your smugglers weren’t playing nice?”
“You could say that. Brad was furious. He was ready to chuck the whole thing, kill Hess, or turn him in. Larry convinced him not to be rash.” Richard grunted in disgust. “I was hoping he wouldn’t listen to Larry, but he did.”
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