Guardian Ranger

by Cynthia Eden

  Cale’s eyelids flickered.

  “I—I was worried that something had happened.” Her voice wasn’t flat now. Emotion trembled beneath her words.

  Cale gave her a smile, one that looked forced. “You know I’m hard to kill.”

  Yes, he was.

  Her lips trembled.

  Cale’s face appeared to grow even harder. “Don’t listen to anything that they tell you, Ronnie. I haven’t killed any agents. You know me better than that.”

  She nodded.

  “I didn’t do it,” Cale told her, eyes bright. “Tell me you believe me.”

  “I do.” So soft. So true.

  Her trust in her brother made Jasper furious and envious. So much unquestioning trust. She’d trusted him like that, too. For too short of a time. “She hasn’t seen all the evidence that we have on you,” Jasper said as he leaned back in his chair. Cale’s body was tight and tense, so Jasper tried to appear just the opposite. Relaxed and unconcerned.

  Relaxed was the last thing he felt.

  “The evidence was planted.” Cale’s instant response. “You know I didn’t—”

  “Do you have any alibis that you’d like to give us? I mean, I know Logan was in here earlier and he told you the dates of all the murders. If you’ve got witnesses who can cover for you...”

  Cale’s gaze cut to his. “I don’t have any alibis.”

  “Not the social sort, huh? Too bad. Some witnesses sure would have come in handy.”

  Veronica flinched beside him.

  “But we actually already knew that you didn’t have any alibis.” Jasper shrugged. “Though we were waiting to hear some creative story.”

  Cale’s stare returned to Veronica. “When I first left, I thought I was going out on a rescue mission.”

  Jasper didn’t tense. This was what the team had hoped would happen. Cale didn’t want Veronica to lose faith in him. So he’d tell her anything. Everything?

  “I flew down to the Caribbean under the radar. I was supposed to be pulling out some businessman who was being held for a ransom that his family couldn’t pay.” His shoulders rolled as if he were pushing his way through the memory. “But when I got there, there was no businessman. No trail to indicate he’d ever been taken or that the guy even existed. It was a B.S. mission. One designed to get me out of the country.” His head tilted toward Veronica. “And one to make sure I had no alibi. Because I was sent out just two days before the first murder.”

  “Nice story,” Jasper murmured. He noticed that no change of expression crossed Gunner’s face. He wasn’t buying the tale, either.

  Of course, Veronica was buying every single word.

  “Who sent you on the mission?” Veronica asked.

  Cale hesitated.

  Right. Because Jasper knew this part. “Let me guess, a dead man?”

  Cale kept his gaze on Veronica. “Am I supposed to act surprised to hear that Reed Montgomery is dead?”

  “Well, no,” Jasper murmured. “Especially since you killed him and left his body for your sister to find, I don’t see why you’d be—”

  “I’m sorry, Ronnie.” Cale’s low voice, cutting right through Jasper’s words. “You shouldn’t have found him.”

  “Is that a confession?” Gunner asked at once, locking his stare on their suspect. “You killed him, but you didn’t intend for Veronica to find the body?”

  “No confession,” Cale snapped. “I’m just sorry she was the one to see him like that.” He shook his head and never took his eyes off Veronica. “I always tried to keep that part of my life away from you. I never wanted you to be hurt by it.”

  “I know,” Veronica said. “You always protected me.” A pause. “This time, I’ll protect you.” Her head turned and her gaze found Jasper’s. “Why doesn’t my brother have a lawyer? None of this is legal. You can’t—”

  Cale laughed. “This isn’t on the books. This case will never be. They’ll just toss me in a cage somewhere and let the world forget all about me.”

  Her face paled. “The hell they will. You aren’t doing this to him. Cale is innocent!” She stood abruptly, sending her chair crashing to the floor. “I’m going to prove it.”

  Not what Jasper had hoped to hear. In fact, those words could put Veronica right in the middle of a very deadly mission.

  * * *

  CALE LANE HAD to die. There was no option. But then, Cale had been marked for death from the beginning. He just hadn’t realized it.

  He was in there with the EOD agents—cuffed, locked up, trapped.

  Maybe he should just go in right now and kill him. He could say that Cale broke free...that the man came at him... The agents would probably buy his story.

  But would Veronica? She was the problem.

  Killing her hadn’t been part of his plan. He’d wanted to keep her out of the game, but she was too protective of Cale. Too determined to find the “real” killer.

  She didn’t realize just how close the killer was to her. Maybe it’s time for me to get closer.

  He’d seen the way the agent, Jasper, looked at Veronica. The guy wanted her. Maybe Veronica could be used against him. She could sure be used against Cale; he already knew that.

  The question was...just how did he want this game to end?

  With Veronica alive or dead?

  Chapter Ten

  Veronica frowned down at the computer screen, even as her heart beat in excitement. She’d pulled out the flash drive she’d taken from Reed Montgomery’s place. Searched through all the files, and she’d found proof that her brother had been telling the truth about his mission to the Caribbean.

  At least, she thought she might have proof. She’d found a notation for “Striker” heading to Jamaica the week her brother had vanished. The same week that Marcus Holloway had been killed. Jasper had told her that Holloway had been in Jamestown, Tennessee, when he was murdered, and, sure enough, she’d found a notation in the “Chances” file for a job in Tennessee that same week. Only instead of “Striker” being listed on that mission, Reed had typed in “Striker Two” as the code name. “Striker Two” was also the code name used for the mission to West Virginia and the mission to Phoenix.

  Veronica thought that Reed had been differentiating between two separate mercenaries. Striker, her brother, and whoever Striker Two was. Because the Striker Two notations hadn’t started to appear until the last six months. Someone else had been using that name, she was sure of it.

  Someone who was trying to frame my brother? And had Reed been in on that framing? It looked as though he had.

  She grabbed the phone. Started to call Jasper, then realized she didn’t have the number for the EOD headquarters in town. So she called Wyatt instead. The sheriff would be with the agents. He could help her.

  Wyatt’s phone was answered on the second ring, only it wasn’t Wyatt doing the answering. “Sheriff Halliday,” a rough voice said, breaking up a bit.

  She frowned. “Jimmy? Jimmy, is that you? This is Veronica Lane.”

  “It’s me,” he said at once, voice clearer, more alert. “Something wrong, Ms. Veronica?”

  Yes. Everything. “I need to talk to the sheriff.”

  “He’s back there with them agents talking to...” Jimmy cleared his throat. “He’s talking to your brother. I think they’re interrogating him.” Dropping his voice, he said, “I heard ’em talking. They’re gonna charge Cale with all them murders.”

  “Tell them to stop!” The words burst from her. “I’ve got proof—” Maybe, please, let it be some proof. “I’ve got proof to back up Cale’s story about being in the Caribbean! Files I took off Reed Montgomery’s computer. I just... I need to talk to Wyatt or Jasper. Someone there. I can prove Cale’s innocence.”

  “You got real proof?” Jimmy’s voice cracked with excitement.

  “Yes.” She wouldn’t tell him that it wasn’t one hundred percent. That it was just a few notations in a file, but...it was something. Bread crumbs that could lead them in the ri
ght direction. To the real killer. “I think Reed Montgomery was murdered because he could back up Cale’s story about being out of the country. I think he knew the real killer’s identity.”

  Lightning flashed, illuminating her living room. The storms weren’t over. Another day, that was what the weather forecaster had promised. Another day.

  “Is Jasper there?” Veronica asked. She could talk to him and—

  “I don’t know where he is, but, Ms. Veronica, I’ll go get the sheriff. I’ll tell him what you found. We’ll clear Cale.”

  Jimmy had always seemed to look up to her brother. When he’d been younger, Jimmy had often come to the ranch, dogging Cale’s footsteps, asking to hear stories about Cale’s time in the army. Jimmy was a good guy, and he knew Cale for the real person that he was.

  Yes, yes, they’d clear Cale. The nightmare would be over.

  She hung up the phone and headed back for her desk. She pulled the flash drive away from the computer and tucked it in her pocket. She could stay at her house and wait for Jasper or the sheriff, or she could go to them. Force them to see the proof that she had.

  The lightning flashed again, and every light in her house went dark.

  I’m coming, Cale. Fumbling, she found a pair of car keys. The keys were for the old sports car Cale kept covered in the garage. The car hadn’t been used in over a year, but it was her only option at the moment. Cale and his cars...her brother had always been obsessed with them, and he’d made sure to share his expertise with her, too.

  Then she rushed out of the house. The rain hadn’t started, but the wind was already strong. She wouldn’t think about the rough roads or the wind that could push the car too hard.

  She’d just think of Cale. This time, she’d protect her brother.

  * * *

  CALE WAS GIVING them nothing. Figured. A ranger like him, Jasper knew exactly what sort of training the guy had been through over the years.

  A few tough questions weren’t going to rattle him. Not after he’d survived torture.

  Yeah, Cale, I still remember Syria. Some things could never be forgotten.

  Back then, Cale had been one of the good guys. What the hell had happened to him?

  Jasper glanced back down the hallway toward Cale’s holding room. Once, he never would have said that Cale would snap and start killing innocents.

  “The story checked out,” Sydney said as she walked out of the surveillance room. She had a fistful of papers. “Just got the fax on Dr. Paul Lyland. The guy did lose his license about eleven months ago.”

  Jasper ran a hand through his hair. “So the shrink’s profile was bull?”

  “No, I’d say Cale Lane has some definite aggressive tendencies.” Her stare was knowing. “Just like you.”

  His back teeth clenched. “Dr. Lyland wasn’t the only shrink who came up with this profile.”

  “No, but he was the most vocal, and if Cale had already been burned by one shrink, his hostile behavior to the others is more understandable.”

  Maybe.

  “If he’s telling the truth about this, then do you think he could be telling the truth about the case in the Caribbean?” Sydney asked him.

  Jasper hesitated. The thing was...he wanted Cale to be telling the truth. He wanted Cale to be innocent. Because then Veronica wouldn’t look so broken, and he wouldn’t have been so dead wrong about a friend. “I’m going back in,” he said. And because this needed to be off the record, he added, “Cut the surveillance, Sydney.”

  Her eyes widened. “Are you sure about that?”

  He nodded. “This is personal.”

  “Hasn’t it always been?” she murmured as he walked away.

  * * *

  VERONICA’S HANDS GRIPPED the steering wheel for dear life. The rain had started to fall again. Heavy, fat drops that hit her windshield faster than the wipers could clear the glass. The flash drive was in her pocket, and her body was strung so tightly that she felt she was about to jump out of her skin.

  Only about ten more miles to go. Ten more, and then the main strip of the town would come into view.

  She heard brakes squealing, an engine growling; then bright lights appeared on the dark road before her. Those lights looked as though they were coming right at Veronica. Panicking, she jerked the wheel to the right. The sports car bounced, slid off the shoulder of the road and the tires rolled in the thick mud.

  The other driver—the car with the bright lights flashing—drove right past her. He didn’t even slow to see if she was all right.

  Her breath panted out. She’d braked. When had she braked? She took her foot off the pedal and cautiously touched the accelerator. The tires spun in the mud. She could hear the grinding sound, only...

  She wasn’t moving.

  Veronica pushed down harder on the accelerator. More spinning, but the vehicle wasn’t moving forward.

  Her head rapped into the steering wheel. Just her luck. She’d gone out in the car, headed off the side of the road—

  And I didn’t think about my parents.

  The breath stilled in her lungs. There’d been no flashback this time. She hadn’t panicked. She’d gotten off the road, avoided the wreck.

  A smile curved her lips even as a tear leaked past her eye. Maybe she was getting stronger. Finally.

  Or maybe after the crash with Jasper, she just realized that the past wasn’t what could hurt her. She had too much in the present to fear.

  Exhaling heavily, she turned off the car, climbed outside. Ignoring the pounding from the rain, Veronica hurried around to the car’s passenger side. One look, and she knew her car wouldn’t be going any place soon.

  The storms had washed away too much of the dry grass. Only mud remained, and her tires could spin for hours, but the car wasn’t getting out of that mess without one very strong tow.

  Ten miles to go.

  So she’d better get to walking.

  * * *

  JASPER SLOWLY CLOSED the door behind him. He’d left his weapon outside and told Gunner to take a hike.

  He wanted to be alone for this little chat.

  Cale looked up at him and sighed. “Back to this, are we?” He rolled his shoulders. The handcuffs had been removed a few hours ago. A show of trust that Logan had hoped would get him talking. Cale had even been given two meals. Plenty to eat and drink.

  The show of trust wasn’t working. They were now down to less than ten hours before his transfer to D.C.

  Jasper didn’t bother sitting this time. He just stared at Cale. “I can still remember the scent of the jungle. The mix of rotting vegetation and blood.”

  Cale didn’t speak.

  “You were screaming at me, telling me that a bullet to the chest shouldn’t slow down a real ranger, and you had a grip of steel on my arm.”

  Cale’s expression had frozen.

  “You could have left me to die there.” Jasper shook his head. “All I did was slow you down, but you...you didn’t give up on me.”

  “We were both too young and stupid to realize we should only be looking out for ourselves.” Cale’s voice was clipped.

  “I don’t think so.” Jasper took a step toward him. “Veronica told me that you saved lives. That you went out, rescuing hostages.” Work not too different from the EOD’s. Only the EOD agents had the backup of the federal government. While Cale had been on his own.

  Easy pickings.

  “Is this where you do your good-agent routine?” Cale asked with a touch of curiosity. “Where you remind me that we were friends once so I should trust you?”

  “We were friends.”

  Cale inclined his head. Jasper figured he’d take that as agreement. “Your story about the shrink checked out.”

  “You seem surprised,” Cale murmured.

  “Because you look good for these kills.” He hesitated, then admitted, “Too good.”

  Cale’s expression never altered.

  “I’ve seen you on missions,” Jasper said. “I know how you opera
te. You can walk for twenty miles, and never leave so much as a trace of your presence.” And that had been nagging at him all along. But he’d stuck to the mission, followed orders.

  Perhaps it was time he forgot the orders and focused on getting to the truth.

  “You could do that so easily in the jungle, in the desert, in every damn place we went, but yet you left all this evidence behind at the murder scenes.”

  “Not me,” Cale snapped. “The person who is setting me up. That’s the guy who left all this so-called ‘evidence’ crap behind. Because he wanted to frame me.”

  “I want to believe you.”

  “Why?” Cale tossed back at him, eyes hard and challenging. “So my sister might forgive you? Because you think you might have a chance with her if you can exonerate me now...after you’re the one who had me tossed in here?”

  “You’re staying in custody,” Jasper said, just so they were clear. “And I’m staying on this case. Either I’ll find enough evidence to guarantee your guilt, beyond any doubt—” any doubts that Jasper might have himself “—or I’ll find the one who’s framing you.” He flattened his palms on the table. “But I’m going to need some help. You got enemies? Someone who could pull this off? Give me names.”

  Cale shook his head. “Veronica is too good for you.”

  He knew that.

  “You’ll break her heart. Head out on another mission and never look back.”

  He wanted to punch the wood, shatter the table. “This isn’t about Veronica.” A lie. If it weren’t for her, would he even be having this conversation? “You say you’re innocent, then help me. Give me a witness, give me something.”

  “Reed Montgomery was my witness. He’s the one who sent me to the Caribbean. He’s the one who knows I wasn’t in the country when the first agent was killed.”

  “Then why did his log have you in West Virginia when Julian Forrest was killed? In Phoenix at the time of the hit on Ben King?” Because when he’d been back at Reed Montgomery’s apartment, Jasper had looked over Veronica’s shoulder and seen those clear notations. Striker Two...West Virginia. Striker Two...Phoenix. When Sydney got to digging into the machine, Jasper figured she’d find even more evidence.