The Marked Star

by Vicki Hinze

  “Lizzie,” Elle said, pressing her hand to her stomach. “They’ll try to kill her?”

  “They didn’t,” Sam said.

  “No, they didn’t,” Nick says. “Which means they’re behaving in a way that’s contrary to their normal operating procedures.”

  Elle’s eyes stretched wide. “Which means we have no idea what they’ve done, are doing, or will do.”

  “I’m afraid that’s true,” Nick admitted. “At least, not yet.”

  “Elle,” Sam said. “You told us your dad gave you the ring.”

  She nodded. “To celebrate the European tour.”

  “Is there anything odd about it?”

  Lifting her hand, she studied it. “Not that I know of. He didn’t say anything or even hint that it was anything more.”

  “We need to look at it,” Nick told her. “If you don’t mind.”

  “Not at all.” She slid the ring off her finger and dropped it into Nick’s palm.

  He closed his fingers around it. The metal was still warm from her skin. “Sam and I will be in the lab. There’s a reason this was returned to you. We need to find out what it is.”

  “What should I do?”

  Nick saw her worry. He hated it. “Rest. Write a song. Do something relaxing.”

  “Okay if I bake?” Elle stood up. “I’m in the mood for oatmeal raisin cookies.”

  The woman was scared.

  Sam grinned. “Great. I love oatmeal raisin.”

  Elle smiled back. “Guess we’ll need a double batch then.”

  Heading upstairs, Nick heard Sam on the stairs right behind him. “Buddy, I’m giving you fair warning. You don’t go after that woman and I’m going to.”

  Nick stopped on the steps, glared back at Sam. “Touch her and die.”

  Sam laughed. “I thought that was the way of it.”

  “What?”

  “You’re as crazy about her as she is about you.”

  “Don’t be stupid, Sam.”

  “Stupid? It’s as clear as the nose on your face, bud.”

  Was it? It couldn’t be. That’d be impossible. He’d never let anyone get that close. After Jacinda? No, no way. “You’re wrong.”

  “I ain’t wrong, but whatever.” Sam tugged at his cap’s brim. “I’m just saying. If you don’t want her, move over.”

  “No.” Nick snarled, unsettled and freaking out inside. He wouldn’t move over, but want her? He’d have to be crazy. Sam opened his mouth, and Nick lifted a staying hand. “Shut up, Sam. I’m asking you to just shut up—please.”

  “Please?” That wiped the smile right off Sam’s face. Compassion flooded his eyes. “Okay, buddy. I got it now. Not a problem.”

  Nick feared Sam did have it. He probably understood the conflict and turmoil in Nick about Elle a lot better than Nick understood it, and that griped Nick to no end. He passed Sam the ring. “You get started. I’m going to call Omega One.”

  “Put the pressure on him. Is Liv being Liv or NINA? We need to know. Do we bug out or stay put?”

  “Joe’s probably dropped the hammer on him already, but, yeah, I will.” Nick grimaced. Why Omega One had them flying blind didn’t make any more sense than most of what was going on here. Actually, Nick stiffened, this whole case had the hallmark signs of a classic setup.

  Only years of experience with Omega One convinced Nick that it wasn’t. Anyone else, and maybe. But Omega One would take a bullet for any of the Shadow Watchers. They had taken bullets for him. He would die before crossing them, just as they would for him. One was steadfast and loyal to Jane and so was Mark. The team was loyal to Mark. No way would One cross the team. Nick paused at the foot of the stairs. Though to keep secrets, One had to be under enormous pressure. Powerful pressure. But from who and for what?

  Those were the questions. But Nick had no answers. He walked out onto the porch to make the call. The more he thought about everything, the more certain he became that One was counting on Nick to figure that out.

  He wasn’t telling them more because he couldn’t.

  But he was making Nick aware that the team needed to know more. For Elle? Lizzie? Her mother? For the team? For Omega One and his team?

  Maybe for all of them. Nick pulled out his phone. Or maybe for even more.

  Chapter Nine

  Sunday, June 7th, 3:00 p.m.

  The Lodge

  Nick dialed the secure number, checked the connection to assure himself the scrambler was properly activated, and then waited for Omega One to respond. He stepped down from the porch and walked an erratic path out on the grounds. If NINA had made it to the downstairs door, they might have bugged the porch. Joe had swept the area and declared it clean. Nick would sweep it again but, until then, he’d keep his distance.

  Omega One answered. “Hello.”

  “Get somewhere you can talk and call me back. I’ll be waiting.”

  “What’s wrong?”

  Neither Joe nor Sam had reached him yet, which meant he’d been out of reach on something and, whatever it had been, Nick had interrupted. “We’ve had an incident.”

  “Three minutes.”

  The line went dead.

  Elle stuck her head out the door. “Want a cookie?”

  “In a minute. I have an urgent call.” He hiked the phone.

  She smiled. Pretty woman, in jeans and a t-shirt. In a tablecloth. It wasn’t the clothes, it was the woman. He held off a sigh by the skin of his teeth, wishing he could get her out of his head and . . . everywhere.

  Setting the cookie on a napkin on the porch railing, she pointed to it, then went back inside.

  Okay, so she got to him. She was smart, pretty, kind. And being around her made people feel good. It was as if she had this magnetism that was unseen but felt, and it drew people to her. Not just people. Him.

  He snagged the cookie and bit down on a bite, wishing he were immune. He’d thought he was, in part, other than to her laughter. He couldn’t even lie to himself that he was immune to it. Oddly enough, it didn’t grate at him anymore. Maybe it never had. Maybe he wanted it to grate at him because she was so upbeat all the time, so flexible and able to morph to fit her circumstances like shifting was no big deal. But Sam being interested in her had envy and worse beating on Nick like a battering ram. No way could he stomach that.

  Irritation wouldn’t spark that kind of reaction. If Nick had been asked, he would have insisted nothing could get that kind of rise out of him.

  He would have been wrong. His gut reaction to Sam saying he was going after her proved it.

  So what was this with her? Even Nick couldn’t tag exactly what she did to him much less how it made him feel. Or could he? He opened his senses and what he felt stunned him. “Oh, no.” He muttered, stilled. “Impossible.”

  He cleared his emotions. Shut down and rebooted, then reassessed. That same flood washed through him.

  The impossible was possible.

  Forcing himself, he faced it head on. These feelings... The truth slammed through him.

  Not just possible. Fact.

  He liked the way she made him feel. And he no longer hated liking it.

  Dangerous. Foolish. Crazy.

  “Worse.” He dragged a hand through his hair. She’d get through this and go home. Back to her friends and her world, back to her life as a star.

  And if he dared to not hate, to let himself care, he’d be left behind with a broken heart.

  That was not going to happen.

  The phone rang.

  Grateful for the interruption, he answered, still chewing the cookie. “Yeah.”

  “What incident?”

  He ran a quick security check. Omega One. Nick relayed what had happened with Olivia and Johnson showing up at the Lodge and returning Elle’s ring through Lizzie, then asked, “What’s this about?”

  “I don’t know. I wish I did, but I don’t. We had the ring,” he said. “They got it off her in the van. But the chain of custody is murky and the ring was never log
ged in. The guys agree they had it, but no one knows who had it or what happened to it.”

  “That’s insane.”

  “There’s an investigation going on to determine what happened.”

  “NINA never touched her, One.”

  “So I’m told. Look, I’m not saying saying this is logical. I’m saying it’s what’s happening.”

  “Who’s investigating?”

  “Hip Pocket’s hamster.”

  Great. Hamster was a worthless yes man who answered to Hip Pocket, One’s counterpart and a gutless wonder. “Why would they put him on this?”

  “Good question,” One said. “Unfortunately, I can’t answer it. But we both know what it means.”

  They did. Hamster would pencil whip the paperwork Hip Pocket told him to pencil whip, and it’d all turn yellow with age before a word came out about it. All the leaks could prompt all the Freedom of Information Act requests in the world, and they wouldn’t change a thing. This whole incident was, for all intent and purposes, buried—and the honchos intended for it to stay buried or they’d never have assigned it to Hip Pocket. “Well, it stands to reason then that someone there gave the ring to NINA.”

  “I hear you. But I don’t know it, and I can’t prove anything.”

  And that admission told Nick plenty. Omega One’s reluctance to reveal mission-essential details in this case had nothing to do with security clearances. They had the clearances required all the way to the administration. Yet One wasn’t withholding. He didn’t know anything, and what little he did know, he’d been ordered not to relay. They’d muzzled him. Squelched and gagged him. “Specific Confidentiality Agreement?”

  “Signed, sealed and delivered to all interested parties.”

  And One was as ticked off about it as Nick would be. His stomach curled. “If someone there got the ring to NINA, Olivia intercepted it and returned it.”

  Silence.

  On track. One didn’t cough. If Nick had been one-eighty out on what One knew had happened or believed had happened, he would have coughed. “So she’s either signaling that the ring is insignificant or that they weren’t after it. They were after Elle.”

  Again, One remained silent.

  “Do you have anything you can tell me that might help?”

  “The case has been pulled. I’m out of the need-to-know loop. They’re handling it upstairs.”

  The fine hairs on Nick’s neck stood on end. “Why?” They’d never before pulled a case from One. What was going on here?

  “I don’t know.”

  They’d pulled the case and not even told him why? Worry crept through Nick. In all the years they’d worked together, he’d never heard of anything like this happening. “What about Elle’s dad?”

  “No info on him. None.”

  They’d taken that upstairs, too. “Is Lizzie’s mom in trouble?”

  “My guess is, yes.”

  “Where is she?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “They take that case, too?”

  “It’s all one case.”

  “All of it?” Elle, her dad, Lizzie’s mom, Lizzie—all one case?

  “All of it.” One sighed, his frustration palpable. “Think broader. That’s all I can tell you.”

  Verification enough for Nick. “Do I still report to you?” Nick stared out beyond the stream, to the leaves blowing in the tops of the trees. The Shadow Watchers had always reported only to Omega One.

  “Hip Pocket wants you to brief him. I reminded him that our contract prohibits you from engaging with anyone except me. So report to me and I’ll relay.”

  In other words, One didn’t trust Hip Pocket. One wanted Nick to keep him out of the loop so he couldn’t relay anything significant. Now Nick understood. Omega One wanted insulation for Elle and Lizzie. Insulation and protection, and he didn’t trust Hip Pocket or Hamster to provide it. He trusted Nick and the team. “Got it.”

  “Watch your back.”

  One definitely didn’t trust what they were doing, but he was powerless to stop them. “Always.” The warning was as extraordinary as the entire handling of this mission. From One’s tone and what he didn’t say, he was worried. Not concerned or uneasy. Worried. And that worried Nick. Considering the missions they’d been on during their careers, this should be a calk-walk. Instead it seemed to be a death-trap.

  He disconnected the call and shoved his phone into its holder at his waist.

  Joe walked out, off the porch, and down to Nick. “I take it that didn’t go well.”

  “We’re on our own,” Nick told Joe. “Hip Pocket yanked the case from Omega One and ordered him to execute a Specific Confidentiality Agreement. There’s a break in the chain of custody on the ring. And everything we report to One he has to relay to Hip Pocket.”

  “Which means One doesn’t want to know a thing.” The look in Joe’s eyes went deadpan flat. “We being set up to take a fall?”

  “Not yet.” Nick stilled, not at all surprised the question had crossed Joe’s mind. “But it’s all one case, Joe. Elle, her dad, Lizzie and her mom—and her mom is in trouble. One doesn’t know why or where she is, though.”

  “Tim’s trying to track her down now. I spoke to him a few minutes ago.”

  “He’s been working on her whereabouts since Lizzie talked to us.”

  “She was his other case?” Joe asked.

  “I didn’t want Lizzie to worry.” Nick nodded. “One said something else. I asked him if NINA had been after the ring or Elle and Lizzie.”

  “What did he say?” Curiosity burned in Joe’s eyes.

  “Think broader.”

  Joe sighed. “So it’s not one or the other. It’s not only all connected, NINA’s after all of them. Why?”

  “I don’t know.” Nick let his worry show in his expression and darken his tone. “But I fear it’s after all of them and about even more.”

  “Don’t go back out to the Lodge.” Olivia issued Johnson the warning then slid out of the car in the motel parking lot. “They’ll be expecting you next time. You won’t get a friendly reception.”

  Paul Johnson nodded. He didn’t like Phoenix. He did respect her enough to never let her know he didn’t like her. She was a powerful woman in the organization and he’d worked too hard for too long to get where he was to cross her. She didn’t give second chances and she never permitted any obstacle in her path to stay in her path. She’d either get rid of him or send him to some obscure assignment on the other side of the planet. Neither option suited him. Working for Jackal did.

  When Jackal had bought Paul’s way out of prison, Paul had thought Jackal worked for Phoenix. He’d also thought Phoenix was a man: a deception she deliberately perpetuated to protect herself and to diminish anyone prone to challenging her authority.

  That fear of challenges had to be a carryover from early on in her managerial career, though. Only a fool dared to challenge her now. About her, Paul had been wrong on both counts.

  Fortunately, he hadn’t revealed his thoughts to anyone. They, and his erroneous assumptions, remained hidden. Even more fortunately, Jackal, who worked directly under Phoenix, remained extremely ambitious.

  After being released from prison, Jackal remained Paul’s handler, yet they both remained acutely aware that NINA owned Paul. He had no choice but to do as he was told, when he was told, the way he was told.

  So long as he followed orders issued by Phoenix, her boss Hawk, and his boss, Sage, and Paul covered Jackal’s back by briefing him on all his orders, Jackal would bring Paul up the ranks with him and provide him cover along the way. For a man in Paul’s position, having an extremely ambitious handler was his best possible outcome.

  “Are you listening to me, Johnson?” Phoenix asked, looking in through the open car door.

  “Yes, ma’am.”

  “Pick me up in three hours at the pier. Better make it four. Traffic is wicked between here and Panama City Beach during tourist season.”

  Panama City Beach was
a solid hour and a half drive east of Seagrove Village during tourist season. What was Phoenix up to there? He didn’t dare to ask, just checked his watch. “Yes, ma’am.”

  “See if we’ve had any luck tracking down Jaycee Cole. I want to question her as soon as possible.”

  Jaycee Cole. Sue Ellen Montgomery. Lizzie’s mother. “Yes, ma’am.”

  Phoenix frowned, shut the door, and then stepped over to her sleek silver Jaguar.

  Paul waited until she pulled onto the street and, at the corner red light, turned right. Then he pulled into the parking slot she’d vacated and retrieved his phone.

  He left the engine running, cranked up the air-conditioner, and hit number one on speed dial. A cup of coffee from Ruby’s Diner would be fantastic, but he’d be recognized and that would spell catastrophe. The kid might have identified him to the Shadow Watchers already. Going out to their Lodge had been a mistake. He’d tried to tell Phoenix that, but she wouldn’t listen. She never listened.

  “Yeah.”

  Jackal. “Phoenix delivered the ring to the girl.” That innocent bump to dislodge his glasses had been anything but innocent. He’d seen her pass the ring to the kid. “You might want to take extra precautions to protect yourself, sir.”

  “You’re sure.”

  “Positive.” A maid pushing a cart down an upstairs walkway paused outside a second-floor room, gathered supplies, and then knocked on the door. “I’d be remiss if I didn’t recommend Hawk replace her on this mission.” Paul had already pushed as far as he dared to push, warning Jackal that his not objecting to NINA honchos activating Phoenix on this mission was a mistake. Her daughter was one step from center with the Shadow Watcher team involved.

  “I understand your concern, Paul, and I appreciate it. So do the powers that be. But they’ve determined that if we want the parent, the most direct route is through the child.”

  So Hawk or Sage planned things to unfold this way? For Phoenix to return the ring? But NINA had wanted it. Now it didn’t? Strange. No, it wanted that ring. But it wanted more. Did NINA want it and Elle Bostwick? Or the woman now going by Sue Ellen Montgomery?