by Lexi Blake
Hours later she still sat in the clinic’s small room and wondered where her husband was. Afternoon had turned to evening and she prayed the calls she’d made earlier would come to fruition.
“Hey, Nate’s on his way in.” Michael strode through the door. “He’s already been out to the cabin and ran it as a crime scene.”
The minute she’d told Holly there was a bounty on Henry, Holly had called Michael Novack. It had been less than half an hour later that her former bodyguard had put himself back on active duty. He’d spent hours standing outside her door vetting anyone who came into the clinic.
“I’m glad he’s working on it, but I already called someone.” She’d known exactly what Henry would want her to do. This was beyond what Nate had done in the past. She knew he would try his hardest, but she felt better with her choice.
“I’ll go grab our order from Stella’s.” Holly got up from her seat. Laura had been running around town trying to help out their overworked sheriff’s department, but Holly had stayed right by her side.
“I can’t…” She took Poppy into her arms. She had to eat. She fed their baby, and her fear couldn’t take priority. “Thank you.”
Holly nodded. “And I’m calling Stef. I think you should move in there for a while.”
She wanted to argue, but it made sense. Talbot Manor had good security, and she would have help. There was so much she still couldn’t do for herself.
“Tell him I’m going to need a room close to hers,” Michael said. “And I’m going to want to look at his security.”
“Wait, Jen and baby Logan are there.” She hadn’t thought about the fact that she could be putting the Talbots at risk.
Holly frowned her way. “Do not let Stef or Jen hear you say that. They won’t let you go anywhere else. I would take you to our place, but we don’t have the same security. What Stef does have is enough rooms for me to stay with you, too. Michael can protect your body and I’ll hold your hand.” Before Nell could protest, Holly was shaking her head. “Don’t argue with me. I’ll be back in a couple of minutes. This is going to be fine. If what Seth told you is true, they won’t have killed him.”
No. They were going to sell him to someone who would kill him.
How far away was he? Was he hurt? Was he praying she made the right moves to find him?
Holly pushed through the door, and it wasn’t more than a moment or two before Nate walked in. His uniform was wrinkled and there were spots of blood marring the khakis, but that was from the accident earlier in the day.
He pulled his hat off as he approached her. “Nell, I need you to understand that I’m on this. I’m not going to stop until I find Henry. I’m going to call in some law enforcement from around the area so Cam and I can work on this. He’s got contacts.”
She forced back a groan as she shifted. This would have been so much easier if she hadn’t been split down the middle and stapled back up. She patted Poppy’s back as she looked up at the sheriff. “I appreciate everything you’ve done, and normally I would put this all into your hands, but I don’t think you can solve this. If we don’t find Henry in twenty-four hours, we have to suspect that he’ll be taken out of the country. You can’t work there.”
“I’ll do whatever it takes,” Nate vowed.
She heard someone moving out in the hall and breathed a sigh of relief. He’d told her he would be here quickly, and it looked like he’d kept that promise. She was going to have to buy a whole lot of carbon footprint offsets, but for once she was grateful for private planes. “You won’t have to because I called in some favors.”
“I don’t think he’ll call it a favor,” Michael pointed out. “I think he’ll call it a family responsibility.”
There was a quick knock and then a big man with sandy blond hair was walking through accompanied by another man with golden-brown hair. Ian Taggart was dressed casually and had a duffel bag over his shoulder.
Tennessee Smith carried one as well. She’d never met the man, but Taggart had told her he was in Dallas and wouldn’t be left behind. Introductions were quickly made and Nate offered the former CIA agents use of the station house as a base of operations.
“Thank you, Sheriff Wright,” Ian replied. “We’ve already got a line on the group that has Henry. I’ve got a couple of hackers, one who has some ties to people on the Deep Web, and we’ve identified a group of mercenaries who do work for some shady people. They’re based in Colorado Springs, and we caught them on a few of the traffic cameras between here and there. We’re working on real estate in the area where they could keep him until they move him out.”
“It’s harder here than in a city,” Ten Smith explained. “But you need to understand that even if they move him, they won’t kill him. From what we’ve uncovered, a couple of lower-level members of the Jalisco cartel believe the rumors that Henry knows where a fortune in drugs and cash is stored.”
“He doesn’t.” Ian set his bag down. “From what I’ve managed to piece together, one of the partners used Henry’s faked death to steal a shit ton of money and blame it on him. Henry’s got no clue and that dude is now dead, so we’re working with people who have no idea what’s going on.”
None of this made her feel any better. She held on to her daughter. “If Henry doesn’t know anything, he doesn’t have anything to barter with.”
“Ah, but I actually consider it good news.” Tag moved in front of her. “Henry is going to figure out what’s going on. He knows how to play this game better than anyone.”
“He’s been here before,” Ten added. “He’s tough. He’ll play for time and we will find him, and then we’re getting rid of the problem for good.”
“By putting them all in jail?” Nell asked.
Ten’s face went still. “Uh…”
Ian nodded, an oddly angelic expression coming over his face. “Yep. Jail for all of them. We’ll make sure of it.”
Nell felt tears slip from her eyes. “I know you’re going to have to kill them. It makes me sad. The whole thing makes me sad and scared, and I hope they don’t have families that will miss them.”
Taggart sat on the end of the bed, his expression more serious than she’d seen before. “They won’t stop. I’m sorry. I wish I could make this world better. There is a time for you to work and a time to call me in. That’s what Henry understands. You think I live for this, and deep down maybe I do, but I admire what you do, too. You do the work to make the world a better place, to make sure my kids have clean water and a government that gives a shit about them. I do what I do to make it safer for you and that sweet girl you have there.”
He navigated the dark stuff so she could work in the light. It was what Henry had done for so very long. “Thank you, Ian. And you, too, Mr. Smith.”
“Kay is on her way,” Ten assured her. “She’s on a plane, and I’ll head back to Alamosa to pick her up. Mr. Novack, I’ve read your record. You’re solid. Do you need backup? We can have a couple of guards up here tomorrow morning.”
Michael shook his head. “No. I’m going to move her to the Talbot Manor this evening, and I want to keep a low profile. She’s high value now.”
Nell frowned. “I was high value before, too. I don’t like my value being predicated on my ability to force my husband to talk. That seems demeaning.”
Taggart snorted. “I can’t wait for you to meet Kay. She’s going to love you.” He sobered. “Nell, you have the hardest job of all.”
The room seemed to close in on her because she knew what he was going to say. “I have to wait. I have to be patient.”
Taggart nodded. “Yes. I’m sorry, but I need you to know that I will do everything in my power to bring your husband home to you. I’ve been assured the Agency won’t stop me from doing what I need to do, but they also won’t actively help me. As far as they’re concerned, John Bishop died and Henry Flanders is on his own.”
But he wasn’t. Henry had a family. John had a family.
And they would bring him h
ome.
It was late in the night when Michael drove her to the Talbot Manor. She sat in the back of his SUV, Poppy tucked safely in the car seat she and Henry had selected after weeks of research.
This wasn’t how it was supposed to go. They were supposed to go home as a family, and Henry had promised he had a surprise for her. They were supposed to spend their first night in their cabin together as a family.
“We’re back to the same protocols we had before.” Michael put the SUV in park. “You go nowhere without me. I mean it. You want to go for a walk around the grounds, I’m with you. This is more serious than it was before.”
“I won’t fight you. I can’t even run.” She’d never felt more vulnerable. She was recovering from a surgery and she had a baby to protect, and she didn’t have Henry by her side.
“You won’t have to. I promise I won’t let anyone close,” Michael vowed. He sat there for a few seconds as though trying to decide what to say. Or whether to say it. “Spending those weeks with you…they made me realize I have to move forward. I don’t know how it’s going to go, but I’m looking for a better place, and I’ve been told by my boss that I can work out here. I’m coming off my leave and starting my life again. I’m thinking of asking Lucy if she wants to go out with me.”
“That’s wonderful.”
“I’m telling you because you should know how much you affect people.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I’m afraid I annoy a lot of them.”
“Only the ones who don’t see why you do the things you do,” Michael explained. “Why you do all those kooky protests and all that letter writing. You care about things other people don’t. Or you care about them enough to do something. I just want you to know that I admire you. You let go of the hurt, and I want to do the same. I like Lucy.”
At least one good thing had come from all of this. “I’m glad to hear it.”
“And that damn Ty better understand that he doesn’t own her.” Michael opened the door and slid out. He opened hers, his face frowning in the moonlight. “I’ll put that kid in his place if I have to.”
“And if his place is on the other side of Lucy?” She felt compelled to make the argument. After all, it was Bliss.
Michael froze for a second. “Not happening. Not. Happening. Come on. Let’s get you inside. I’ll carry the baby. And take my hand. It’s still icy out here.”
“No need. I’ve got her.” Laura was outside the SUV, wrapped in a parka.
That was when Nell noticed there were a lot of cars in Stef’s big circular drive. “What’s going on? Am I disturbing a party?”
Laura reached a hand out. “No, silly. We’re here for you. You don’t need to be alone. It’s me and Holly on duty tonight. We’re going to stay in case you need anything. We’ll be here every night. The day shift is going to alternate between Rachel and Callie one day, and Hope and Beth other days. But Holly and I will be here every night until Henry’s home.”
She might feel vulnerable but she wasn’t alone.
She took Laura’s hand and eased out of the car, every movement painful but less than it had been the day before.
“But tonight pretty much everyone’s here,” Laura said. “We thought we would get you through the first night. We’re going to have a sharing circle and everything.”
Tears had started to fall again. “You hate that.”
“But you love it,” Laura replied. “Do you honestly believe that if we all send out our energy, that if we sit and think about him, he’ll feel it?”
Nell nodded, far too moved to speak.
“Then he will feel us tonight. He’ll feel our love and our hope and our strength. He’ll know we’re with him.” Laura had some tears of her own. “And Cam found something when he searched your cabin. It was out in the shop.”
Laura led her up the stairs while Michael carried the sleeping baby behind them.
“What was it?” Nell asked.
“I think Henry was planning on giving it to you today,” Laura explained. She opened the door and led her inside the warm house. To her left was the front parlor, and it was easy to see that most of Bliss was out here tonight. “I don’t think he would mind us bringing it to you. It was obvious he meant for Poppy to have it tonight.”
Nell stopped and stared at the beautiful cradle. This was what he’d spent hours in his shop working on. He’d been lovingly making a bed for their baby.
Poppy would sleep surrounded by her father’s love.
“I love it. Thank you for bringing it here,” she said.
And then she was surrounded by them. The town closed ranks around her and she wasn’t alone.
Chapter Twelve
“You want to tell us where you hid those drugs, brother?”
Henry’s head hurt, but then his fucking everything hurt. His mind was foggy. How many drugs had they pumped through his system? They hadn’t stopped with the tranquilizer dart.
“Don’t call me brother.” He managed to get the words out as he took stock of where he was. He wasn’t in the same place he’d been the two nights before when they’d loaded him on a plane. He thought it was the third day, but he couldn’t be completely sure.
His daughter would be six days old if he was right. He’d had two days with her.
Did Nell think he’d left? It wasn’t like he hadn’t done it before. She knew how well he could dump one life for another.
No. Seth would have talked to her. Seth would have told her what he’d found.
“Or did you sell the drugs?” There was the sound of pacing. “I suppose after all these years you would have sold them, but I bet you still have the money. If you don’t, then I’ll simply have to make an example of you. We can’t have employees thinking they can get away with stealing from the company.”
“I wasn’t a fucking employee.” He shouldn’t have to explain the finer points of being a CIA operative.
“That’s not what my former bosses believed, but I’ll give it to you. You’re a hard man to find, Bishop.” The man in front of him came into focus. He was roughly six foot, with lean corded muscle and some fairly impressive neck tats that told Henry he knew how to kill. He wore tactical pants and a black T-shirt. There was a big gun in his shoulder holster that Henry would love to get his hands on.
But Henry had no idea who this guy was. It had been years, and the man standing in front of him hadn’t been in the inner circle at the time. “You know my name. Good for you. It’s only polite to know the name of the man who’s going to kill you.”
“We’re not there yet,” the dark-haired man said with a chuckle. A deep scar ran across his face. “But I don’t think we need introductions. You’re not here to make friends, Mr. Bishop. I know you manipulated everyone before, but it won’t happen with me. All you need to know is that I’m now the head of this organization. Thanks for taking out everyone above me a few months ago. I thought I would have to do far more to get to where I am.”
The fog was starting to clear and he glanced around. He remembered the place. He was in Bolivia at a compound owned by one of the cartels he’d investigated. He’d gone undercover with them, and he’d witnessed some truly horrific crimes here.
Was this karma? Payment for his sins? He’d seen paradise, held hope in his hands, and now it would all be taken away from him.
Or it was one last fight. One more test to see if he deserved the life he wanted. He hadn’t really had to fight the first time, but this last year had been one long battle for his marriage and his place in the world he loved.
Maybe this was the finish line. If he managed to fight his way out of this place, he wouldn’t have to look over his shoulder for the rest of his life. If he took out these assholes, his family would be safe.
“You misunderstood me.” Henry forced himself to sit up straight, to test the restraints he was in. His hands were fastened to a wooden chair by zip ties and his feet were bound to the legs. But the chair wasn’t bolted to the floor, and that was a mistake. The
mercenaries had been smart enough to bind his hands behind his back with cuffs he couldn’t get out of. Hands in front was much easier to deal with. “I don’t care what your name is. I was saying it’s nice that you knew mine because I’m going to kill you.”
Nell would have to forgive him. Maybe there was a version of a carbon footprint offset for his soul. He would buy a couple of those.
Another low chuckle came from the man. “Sure, you are. You don’t even remember me. I guess you were too busy with the big guys to notice those of us who did the real work, but that’s okay.”
There was some talk around him. He used it to get some idea of what was behind him. Or rather who. At least two, both men. Another big guy stood behind the boss. They would all have guns. If his plan worked, Henry would have the broken chair, and it would take him a few seconds to get on his feet. He would have to time this carefully.
“Now, Bishop, let’s talk about what you took from this business when you decided to conveniently die on us.”
He’d taken absolutely nothing, but over the course of his stay with the mercenaries, he’d come to understand that money had gone missing. And a rather large amount of drugs that would have been sold for more money. With the cartel in chaos, money would be needed for this man to finalize his hold on the organization.
It wouldn’t hurt to be the man who killed John Bishop either. It would give him a bunch of cred, and the Agency wouldn’t even come after him. All in all, it was a good play.
Except he hadn’t been the one to take the money. Of course if they knew that, he would be dead.
“I might be convinced to tell you where I put it.” Lies were the only thing that might give him a chance.
A nasty smile crossed the man’s face. “Yes, I think I’ll find a way to convince you.”
This was where they brought the pain. He’d already had some of it, though he actually thought the drugs were worse. At least with the pain he knew what was happening to him. Every time he woke up from the drugged stupor he’d been in, he had to wonder what they’d done, had to take a personal inventory of all his limbs because the cartel could be brutal.