by Robin Perini
She worked her way toward the area that still bled. The bullet had hit him near his shoulder blade, near where she’d seen his previous wound and stitches. He looked as if he’d scraped his back raw on the rocks, too.
“Just how many times have you been shot in the back?” she asked.
“Since I met you?” he asked. “Or altogether?”
“Wiseass.”
“Aunt Laurel, that’s a naughty word.” Molly gasped.
“Sorry, Molly.” She frowned at his back. “See what you made me do?”
He chuckled. “I’m going to miss you two.”
She ripped the clean half of the T-shirt for a second round and dabbed at the wound.
He could use stitches, and the raw skin had rocks and metal flakes embedded in it. She had to scrub a bit harder. He sucked in a breath.
“Too bad I still have some feeling left right there,” he said, his voice tight with pain.
“Almost done.”
As she cleaned the last bit, a familiar-looking object became visible. Small, metallic. A chip.
“Garrett? Were you ever fitted with a tracking device?”
“Hell, no. If the bad guys caught the frequency...” His head whipped around. “Is one back there?”
“Yes.”
“Get it out. Now.”
“It’s implanted in your back. You need a doctor to cut it out.”
“Hand me my backpack.”
She dug into her duffel. He tugged out the nylon pack and retrieved a small medical kit, complete with a small scalpel and forceps.
“Yank it out,” he said. “We don’t have any time to lose. They could be closing in now.”
Laurel blinked, staring at the tracking device. She could do this. Her hand shook, and she sucked in a deep breath.
“It’s easy. You said there was an incision? Just follow the scar and pull the thing out.
“I don’t suppose you have pain medicine in your bag of tricks?”
Molly stuck her head over the seat. She gasped. “Sheriff Garrett, you have lots of boo-boos. You can use all my princess Band-Aids if you need them.”
“Laurel, just do it.” Garrett smiled up at Molly. “Why don’t you find me those Band-Aids, sugar?”
Molly ducked behind the backseat.
“Now,” he said tightly.
“Brace yourself.”
He gripped the passenger seat. She leaned over him. Taking a deep breath, Laurel pushed the knife into his back and sliced the skin, revealing the entire chip. He didn’t say a word, but when she grabbed it with the medical tweezers, his back tightened. Blood flowed from the wound.
She dabbed at it. “Got it.”
“Oh, yuck. That’s a really bad boo-boo.”
“Not so bad, sugar. Maybe you’ll be a doctor when you grow up so you can fix people.”
Molly’s smile brightened. “I want to fix people.” She hugged her lion tight.
“Laurel, clean the wound with the Betadine. Put some antibiotic ointment on it and use the butterfly strips to close it,” he ordered.
Molly insisted on adding several of her own bandages. When they’d finished, Garrett turned to Laurel. His face had gone pale.
“There’s a clinic in Trouble,” she repeated.
“We can’t go back there. Where is the chip?”
She picked up the small device with the forceps. He took it from her and turned it over in his hand. His jawline throbbed. “Damn him.”
“Who?”
He lifted his gaze and met hers.
“Your father requested these chips. As far as I knew, they were never used, but he had one put into me. He would have been the only one to know the frequency.”
* * *
MIKE STRICKLAND GROANED and pressed his hand to his head. It came away bloody and sticky. He rolled over. His entire body hurt. He tested each limb. Nothing broken, though his head might explode at any moment. Slowly he sat up.
Krauss lay next to him, his neck obviously broken.
He’d been the weak link anyway. A lot like Derek Bradley. The guy was a fool. If it had been him, he’d have put a bullet in both men’s brains...just to be sure.
Strickland struggled to his feet and glared up the steep incline. “I gotta find that guy.”
He searched around. No tracking device. “Damn.” He hoped Bradley didn’t have it.
A phone sounded a few feet from Strickland. His head pounding as if he had an ice pick stabbed in his ear, he followed the sound and bent down, nearly crying out in pain.
The name on the screen caused his stomach to roil. He vomited all over the ground. He should ignore it.
The ringing stopped, then started again.
“Strickland.”
“Don’t ignore me again, Strickland.”
He wiped his mouth.
“Bradley was moving toward Trouble, Texas, and now his signal has vanished. You failed. Again.”
“We have a plan,” Strickland lied.
“Oh, really? Now that we can no longer track Derek Bradley, he’s an even greater threat. Neutralize him.”
“I understand.”
“Do you, Strickland? Do you really? Because this is your second mistake in as many days. That’s one more than anyone else under my command has made—and still lived.”
The phone call ended.
He needed a plan. First to get back to his SUV, and then to find Bradley.
Strickland sank to his knees and emptied the rest of the contents of his stomach next to Krauss’s body.
He’d never find Bradley this way.
If he couldn’t chase after Bradley, he’d just have to find bait that would attract him.
Trouble, Texas, was the way to do it.
Chapter Nine
Laurel wrenched open the door of the SUV. The destroyed chip lay on the ground, along with her shredded heart. “You’re wrong about my father,” she said, her face hot with anger. “He would never hurt you like that.”
“I know what I saw,” Garrett said. “First your sister’s evidence pointing to James, and now this.”
She scooted into the front seat and gripped the steering wheel. It couldn’t be. “He might not have been the perfect father or even around much, but he’s a patriot through and through. And he’s definitely no traitor.”
“Well, neither am I,” Garrett snapped. “Yet I’m being hunted. He told lies about me, acted like the heartbroken, betrayed mentor, supposedly to save my life. But now I have to wonder. What better way to hide your true leanings than to throw someone close to you to the wolves and mourn the treason?”
She didn’t want to admit the plan sounded good—just simple enough and brilliant enough to have her father’s name attached to it. But she wouldn’t—couldn’t—believe James McCallister would do that to Garrett.
“Why did he save your life, then?” Laurel shot back, desperate to convince him—and herself—that her father hadn’t betrayed both of them.
“I haven’t figured that out yet.”
“If my dad really were responsible for all of this, he wouldn’t have kept you alive. He wouldn’t have given you your new identity.” Laurel put her arm on the back of the seat and faced him. “And Dad sure wouldn’t have—” she glanced back at Molly “—caused the explosion in Virginia,” she said under her breath.
The little girl’s wide eyes went back and forth between them, her lip trembling.
“You’re making me cry. I don’t like fighting.”
Garrett’s eyes softened. “Sorry, sugar. Your aunt and I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Molly hunkered back in the seat, hugging Mr. Houdini close. “Mommy and Daddy fighted about her job all the time.”
Laurel twisted in the car. “I didn’t know that. What did they say?”
“Daddy wanted Mommy to stay at home with me. I wanted her to stay home, too. Now she’ll never stay with me.” Molly hugged the stuffed animal and picked at its neck. “She said she was doing something ’portant and couldn’t
stop them.”
“I’m sorry, Molly.” Laurel shot Garrett a glare. “We won’t fight anymore. Will we?”
He shook his head. “I’m not lying to Molly, because we’re going to disagree about this.” He gave Molly a small smile. “But, sugar, we’ll promise to discuss things more quietly next time. Okay?”
Laurel sighed and started the engine. “Fine. Then where do we go now? Because I need another look at those files.”
“To the next town,” Garrett said. “I’ll pick up a cell phone.”
Still disgruntled, she pressed the accelerator and the SUV took off on the lonely Texas highway. “I still can’t believe you, of all people, would assume my father is guilty. They made you out to be a traitor, too.”
Garrett didn’t say anything at first. “I don’t want to believe it. But those chips... James had them developed. He wanted to tag each operative. That way he’d know where they were.”
“Seems reasonable. If you were captured—”
“It was reasonable, except that we already knew there was a leak in the organization. So he ended the program. No one else had access to the technology, yet I was tagged after the explosion. Now someone is trying to kill us. What would you think?”
“What about the person who designed the chips?” Laurel challenged. “Or the organization that funded the program? My father is ops, not administration.”
Garrett stroked his chin, where his beard had grown in since they’d left town. It gave him that outlaw look that Laurel, as a CIA analyst on the run for her life, shouldn’t find sexy. But she did.
“Interesting,” he said. “I always thought of the killer as ops, but you’re right. There are too many layers. That requires redirecting funding and resources. Administrative skills and the ability to hide funding transfers.” He drummed his fingers on his knee. “But how do we follow that string to this whole conspiracy?”
“What about Fiona?” Laurel said. “She’s got to be going crazy with James missing, and she’d know who has that kind of power.”
“I didn’t want to involve her, but we’re out of options,” Garrett said. “It might be time to bring her in. We’re running out of leads. And time.”
“And we need someone on the inside, Garrett. You know that.” They’d eaten up miles of West Texas roads with not a pair of headlights to be seen. Laurel began to relax. Just a little. Still, they needed communication equipment.
“Let’s wait and see if the file has something more.” Garrett scanned the pitch-dark horizon. “If not, we’ll call her.”
“I need access to a computer to look at the file.”
“We’ve gone far enough. Find a place to pull over out of sight. With the chip gone, we should be safe. We’ll sleep until daybreak, then head for a public library. That’s our best shot of opening Ivy’s file.”
* * *
DARKNESS SURROUNDED THE SUV. A gust of wind shook the vehicle. Garrett shifted his shoulder, seeking relief from the pain. The wound hurt, but he’d had worse. Laurel had rounded the car, slipped into the backseat and cuddled Molly next to her.
She might never forgive him, but what was he supposed to think? Who else could possibly have planted a chip in him after the explosion but James?
Laurel and Molly huddled together, looking less than comfortable, but they couldn’t risk going to a motel or even going through stoplights in some of the larger towns. People didn’t realize how many cameras watched them. Big Brother really did have an eye on them all the time. Especially when whoever was after him had known his location until a few hours ago. The longer they could stay off the radar, the bigger the search pattern the enemies would require.
And the greater chance of a surprise...if Ivy had found something more than Garrett had discovered when he was doing his digging.
He inched open the door and eased out of the front seat. Laurel had been defiant in defending James. Garrett didn’t blame her.
If he hadn’t seen Ivy’s notes and the telltale design of that chip, he wouldn’t have suspected James either. But Laurel was smart and made good points.
Fiona had always had James’s back. She’d orchestrated difficult ops with knifelike precision, even those deemed impossible. She almost always found a way for the agents to succeed. She would know all the players. Maybe she was the person James had pulled in when he’d told Garrett he was getting close.
Laurel was right. They needed an insider. No matter the risk. He let his gaze rest on her, her eyes shadowed while she tried to sleep. Laurel McCallister was one fierce mama bear when riled. He found that quality strangely attractive. She would need it.
But before he called Fiona, he had to put his backup plan into action. Once he called her, his phone would be tracked.
He dialed a number.
“Adams.”
“Daniel. It’s Garrett. I definitely need your help.”
“Thank God you called. What the hell is going on in Trouble?” Daniel barked like a drill sergeant. “I received a call from your deputy a few minutes ago. I guess he kept my number from our last little adventure. Evidently he’s been taken hostage. Along with Hondo and his sister. The men who took them said he’d better find the sheriff. They left an ultimatum.”
“What kind?”
“Come to Trouble. Bring the woman and the girl, but no weapons.” Daniel paused. “You have an hour left, Garrett, or they start killing people.”
A loud curse exploded from Garrett. “It’ll take a majority of that time just to get there.”
“Then I’d start driving as soon as you can. I’ll meet you there.”
Garrett looked through the car’s window at Laurel and Molly. Innocent, caught up in a deadly game because of James. Now made worse because of Garrett. That scared the hell out of him. He looked at his watch. He needed a few minutes out of their earshot.
“Daniel, do your friends from CTC have contacts in the intelligence community?”
“Oh, yeah.”
Garrett cleared his throat. “I need help cleaning up a crime scene. There are two guys at the bottom of Guadalupe Gorge.”
“You’ve been busy.”
“There’s something else.” Garrett paused. “You need to know if you’re going to help me. My real name is Derek Bradley.”
Daniel didn’t say a word, but Garrett could tell from the silence Daniel had heard his name before. “I didn’t do what’s been said about me. I’m no traitor, but I understand if you decide to back out.”
“You don’t have to convince me. I’ve seen you in action. A traitor would have turned his back on me and my wife. A traitor would be living on his own island in the Caribbean, not marking time as a sheriff in a place barely passing for a populated town in West Texas.”
A baby’s cry sounded in the background. Garrett heard the soft voice of Adams’s wife, Raven, speaking to the twins, and then a door closed softly.
“Daniel, think long and hard about Raven and those kids before you commit.”
“I am. They’d be dead without you. Besides, I believe you. I’ve seen what men in power can do to protect themselves.” He paused. “I can help you, so shut up and tell me what I need to do.”
Garrett let out a long, slow breath and made sure Laurel and Molly were still asleep in the SUV. He walked a few more steps away. “First off, I need protection for two witnesses with a target on their backs. I won’t lie, Daniel. It’s dangerous.”
“Why aren’t you going back to your organization? There must be someone there you can trust. Someone whose loyalties you’re certain of.”
“Maybe one person, but the truth is, I can’t tell anymore. The man who saved my life could be keeping me alive as a decoy or a weapon.” Garrett hadn’t said anything to Laurel, but her father had been the best Garrett had ever seen at deception. A month ago, Garrett would have done anything for James. If his mentor had told him that he’d found evidence of who had killed Garrett’s family, he would have exacted justice. Swift and uncompromised justice.
“I don’t want anyone at the organization involved,” Garrett said, scuffing his boot on the dirt. “I need an independent group that has the contacts to keep Laurel and Molly safe if something happens to me.”
“You’ve got it,” Daniel said. “When and where do we meet?”
“No other questions?” Garrett asked.
“Like I said, you saved my life, not to mention my wife and daughters. No questions needed. I know what loyalty means, Garrett. You’ve earned mine. Now, time is passing quickly. What’s your plan?”
“I can’t leave my witnesses alone. One is a five-year-old girl. I can’t watch them all the time and do what needs to be done.”
“I understand,” Daniel said. “We’ll be there, but it’ll take more than the hour you have.”
“Then I’ll make do until then. I don’t know who else will be waiting for us, but meet me in Trouble as soon as you can. I can’t let anyone else die because of me.”
“Wheels up in ten. See you soon.”
* * *
THE SUV TURNED a corner, waking Laurel. She blinked her eyes against the hazy light of dawn. She glanced at the back of Garrett’s head from the backseat. “You shouldn’t be driving. You need rest. And a doctor.”
Garrett glanced around at her, then at his watch. “No choice. We’re going back to Trouble.”
He refocused on the road and pressed down the accelerator, lurching the SUV forward. At the urgency in his actions and his tone, Laurel straightened in her seat. She met his gaze in the rearview mirror. “What’s happened?”
“Someone tracking us has taken hostages.” Garrett’s jaw tightened. “My deputy, Lucy and Hondo. They gave us an hour and time is almost up. They’re going to kill the hostages one by one.”
“Oh, God.” Her hand covered her mouth and she kept her voice low. Molly didn’t need to hear this.
“I can’t let anything happen to them, Laurel. You understand that.”
She nodded, wanting to hold Molly even tighter. This couldn’t be happening.
Garrett glanced back at her and Molly. “The problem is, the caller who has the hostages wants all three of us.”
“Why? I don’t understand. What is it that we’ve done that’s so threatening? Especially Molly?”