by Mandy Harbin
“You have a point, boss, but what about Xan? And Scott? They’re not safe. Someone got close enough to her to leave that photo.”
Colonel pulled out his cell phone and dialed a number. “Hunter had night watch,” he said to Brody and then into the phone “Where are you?” He pulled his cell phone away and fumbled with it to put it on speaker so everyone could hear.
“Lost him and just got back. Xan Bradley was MIA when I returned.”
“Repeat that, Hunter.”
“Followed suspicious vehicle leaving the Bradley house shortly after oh four hundred. Lost him and just got back. Xan isn’t here.”
“Description?” Brody barked.
“Black SUV. Called Bear with tags, and he ran them. Vehicle was stolen.”
Shit, this wasn’t good.
“Stay at her house.” Then to Brody, “Do you know where she could be?”
“She was upset when she left my house this morning. Hunter had reported that Scott was staying over at a friend’s house, so she could be anywhere.”
“I’ll call Roc to scope out the town to find her,” Colonel said into the phone.
Brody growled. He still was pissed at Roc for his behavior, and he didn’t care if Colonel knew it. His boss’s gaze cut to him and he shook his head in warning. Fuck that. Roc had been an even bigger asshole lately. It seemed like the more time Brody had spent with Xan, Roc got more irritated. Brody hadn’t lashed out since he’d only been around him at the shop, but what Brody wouldn’t give to find that punk in a dark alley. “You tell him not to engage if he finds her,” he spat.
Colonel sighed, but nodded. “Report back, Hunter, if you see anything out of the ordinary or if Xan returns.”
“Got it.”
Colonel killed the call and looked at the men in his living room. “I’ll contact the feds and see what they know, but I have to be careful because I have a bad feeling about this. We were pulled on the case as soon as her ass showed up in town, then Adams pops up here, now this. Collins is good, but this is fast work even for him. I think he still has a man on the inside.”
“You don’t think it’s a former agent?” Gage asked, scooting to the edge of his seat.
“Hell, with deep pockets it could be a combination of past agents, current feds, and even plants in this town. He could’ve orchestrated her every move and identity change for all we know. Bottom line, she’s in danger.”
But Brody would kill anybody, fed or not, who so much as touched her.
* * * * *
Xan drove around town aimlessly, trying to get a handle on her emotions. She’d cried until she couldn’t cry anymore and then she’d called Jack. Of course he’d freaked about her leaving and lectured her about not staying put like he’d ordered, and when she told him where she’d been and that she’d left the damning photo at Brody’s house, he’d really lost it. She knew it was dangerous confronting Brody, but she was shocked and pissed and upset and had gone through those emotions over and over in the last hour, in no certain order. Jack wasn’t a woman scorned, so he didn’t understand her logic but said he’d take care of it, whatever that meant.
When she finally pulled into her driveway, she couldn’t go in. She knew if she did, she’d be cooking up a storm. She didn’t want to be alone with her thoughts anymore, so she killed the engine, stowed the gun in the glove box, and walked over to Roxie’s house, hoping she’d be up and have coffee made. Xan knocked on the door and her neighbor opened it a few minutes later with a concerned look on her face.
“Hey, girl. Everything all right?” She tugged her robe closer to her body and smoothed her bed-rumpled hair.
“Sorry I woke you—”
“No, no. I was awake. Just bein’ lazy, you know. Readin’ in bed with some yummy coffee. Wanna cup?” she asked as she stepped aside and let Xan in.
“Sure. I take it the boys are still asleep.”
“Um, Chad is, but—hey, have you been cryin’?”
“Long story,” Xan sighed, knowing she’d have to tell Roxie everything, but actually feeling a little lighter knowing she’d get to vent her feelings, rather than leaving them all bottled up to fester. At this rate, they’d eat her insides. “What about Scott? Surely he’s not up?” She almost chuckled at that ridiculous thought.
Roxie furrowed her brow. “I don’t know. He’s not here, hon.”
Xan froze. “What do you mean, ‘he’s not here’?”
“I went to bed early last night while the boys were playin’ video games. When I got up around two this morning to make sure they’d turned off the TV, Chad was in bed and Scott wasn’t here. I figured he went home last night when they got through.”
Oh God! Xan took off in a sprint. She bolted out the door, across Roxie’s yard and into hers. She never thought their houses were so far apart until this very moment.
Xan would’ve heard Scott come home. She knew she would have. Being a light sleeper on the run from a killer tended to make that a necessity.
When she finally busted through her door, she yelled for Scott, screaming his name repeatedly as she ran to his room. When she opened his door, her heart sank. “Oh God, oh God, oh God.”
He wasn’t here.
Chapter Twenty
Xan screamed Scott’s name again as she ran through the house, out the back door, and around her yard. He wasn’t here. Her baby wasn’t here. Roxie came running up to her. She’d put on some jeans and a t-shirt. “What’s goin’ on? Is he not home?”
Xan couldn’t answer. She kept scanning her yard, turning in circles. Then out of the corner of her eye, she saw a man dressed in all black running up to her. She gasped and prepared to run but then recognized him.
“Hunter? What are you doin’ here?”
“My turn to watch you. What’s wrong?” He was pulling out his cell phone when he asked and put it up to his ear. “I’ve got her,” he said to the person he’d just called.
What the hell? I’ve got her? Had Hunter taken Scott and was now here to take her? She blanched and started to turn around to make a run for it, but he grabbed her arm as he spoke into the phone.
“She’s freaked out about something, running around screaming, so I had no choice,” he barked into the phone. Then he looked at her. “What’s wrong?” he asked gently.
“S-Scott’s missing,” she croaked. It didn’t matter that she’d already been crying this morning and would probably cry at baby kittens because this was her son she was talking about. Her son.
“Shit. Okay. Um, she said Scott’s missing. I’ll look around.” He hesitated and nodded, glancing at her. “Got it.” Then he hung up the phone.
“Who was that? Who were you talking to, and why are you here?”
He rubbed her arm where he’d been holding it. “That was the boss. The guys will be here any minute. And I can’t tell you why I’m here, but I think you know.”
She yanked her arm out of his grasp and started for her porch. Roxie followed quickly behind her, but she was going to lose. After all these years, Marco had finally caught up with her…and he’d only been out for a couple of months. Oh, she didn’t have proof this was his doing, but she didn’t need it.
“We have to call the police,” she said frantically. “W-we have to call them right now.”
“Wait until everyone gets here, okay?” he said calmly. Oh, he was out of his damn mind if he thought she was waiting around.
“What in hades is going on here?” Roxie asked, pulling Xan around to face her once they were inside and distracting her from her impending meltdown. When Xan turned, she noticed Hunter had followed her too.
She took a deep breath and quickly relayed everything to Roxie who’d already known some of this, but now she knew everything. Hunter stood to the side, arms crossed, watching her like a hawk.
Roxie started to respond when Xan finally paused, but the roar of an engine and squealing tires outside caught Xan’s attention and she turned toward the door.
Where Brody came barreling th
rough like a charging bull. She hadn’t expected to see him again so soon and looking at him broke the final thread of her control. She covered her face and sobbed, and Brody rushed over to her and took her in his arms.
“I’ll find him, baby,” he murmured. She knew she should push him away and get to that killing thing she’d threatened him with just a little while ago. Hell, she should’ve just killed him and been done with it when she had her chance. This was just one more reason why she should continue to avoid men. They made her crazy. But even as she considered what she should be doing, she couldn’t seem to muster the energy to let go of him. So she held him and tried to rein in the waterworks. Crying wouldn’t bring Scott back.
She nodded into Brody’s chest as she eased away from him. She wiped her eyes and faced the other guys in the room. There were more of them now. “What’s the plan? I mean, I know this just happened, but we have to do something. Hunter wouldn’t let me call the police until you got here.”
“Roc was already out looking for you, so I called him, told him to look for Scott,” Colonel said. “Gage is making some calls. I told him to contact your agent, and he’ll notify the proper authorities. When was the last time you saw Scott?”
Roxie stepped forward. “He was at my house last night. I thought he went home, but I’m not sure.”
“Where’s Chad?” Bear asked suddenly, and Xan didn’t miss the way Roxie’s eyes lit up at Bear’s attention.
“He was sleepin’ when I left.”
“Go get him,” Colonel ordered.
Xan saw Roxie turn to leave as Bear watched her closely.
“Tell me how you found that photo.”
Xan looked at Colonel with narrowed eyes. What did that picture have to do with Scott being gone? She didn’t want to think about that photo, but she understood why he wanted to know. It couldn’t be a coincidence, so she tamped down her irritation and relayed the story—without looking at Brody. Bringing that damn picture back up ignited her anger toward him.
Colonel looked away from her when she’d finished and to the other guys. “We’ve got to find Dale Adams, Dave Simmons and Jeff Coleman.”
Xan grabbed Colonel’s arm and turned him to face her. “Who the hell is Dale Adams and why are you looking for Dave Simmons and Jeff Coleman? They’re former agents, right?”
“Dale Adams is—”
“Brutus,” Colonel cut him off. “I don’t think it’s smart to go in to this.”
Brody squared his shoulders and started toward Colonel, but Xan was just as pissed at the blatant dismiss. “I don’t give a damn what you think, Colonel. We’re talking about my life here. My son. So back off or start talking.”
Brody looked at her. “Dale Adams showed up in town shortly after you did. We think he’s connected to Collins somehow, but we haven’t been able to find him.”
“Well, except that one time he and some dude beat the shit out of us…” Blade said but trailed off at Brody’s warning look. “Never mind,” he mumbled.
Brody turned back to Xan. “Dave Simmons and Jeff Coleman worked on your case. We’ve been looking at everyone who could possibly have motive, opportunity, balls to sell you out. Those two haven’t been cleared as possible suspects yet.”
“That’s ridiculous. I haven’t seen or heard from Cole since the night Marco attacked me. And Dave’s retired.”
“Cole? Is that what Jeff Coleman went by?” Blade asked.
“Yeah.” She shrugged. “He was my primary contact once I was assigned some agents, but I never met him in person. I didn’t start meeting my contacts in person until after the trial.”
“So you’ve seen Dave Simmons, then?” Brody asked.
She turned to him and suppressed the urge to fall into his arms again. She was hurt. But she was scared and looking at him gave her a little bit of security. She hated that. She did not want to feel safe in the arms of the man who’d killed her daughter. He might not be that same man anymore, but he couldn’t erase his past—even with amnesia. “Yes,” she said a little too tersely. “He retired after his wife settled some medical dispute from some botched surgery. The bills were paid, and she was given a lump sum for pain and suffering. He was close to retirement anyway, so left to be home with her.”
“I’ll check that out,” Blade said. “If Simmons’ wife settled out of court, the doctor could’ve had those records sealed as part of the deal, which could be why we hadn’t made that connection.”
“And then we’d only have one suspect,” Brody mumbled.
Blade nodded and turned to leave as Roxie came running through the door, clutching her cell phone. “C-Chad won’t wake up. I’ve called an ambulance.”
Xan gasped and started for Roxie as she turned to leave and head back home. Why was Chad not waking up? What had happened to him? Xan was a nurse, so she needed to check on him and do what she could until help arrived. But Bear damn near knocked her over as he shoved away from the group of people circled around each other and bolted through the front door, heading to Roxie’s house.
Everyone followed suit.
As soon as Xan saw Chad, she went into clinical mode, checking his vital signs. He was breathing but his heart rate was slow. She asked Roxie if Chad was allergic to anything as she continued her examination. From all accounts, he was a healthy boy. Nothing like this had ever happened.
Then she shifted his body and noticed a little dried blood on his shoulder. There was only a tiny bit, which looked suspiciously like…like a needle prick. “Oh shit,” she gasped. “I think he was drugged.”
Roxie staggered and Bear caught her, stroking her arm and murmuring something into her ear that made her breath catch.
“Whoever took Scott must’ve done this,” Colonel said as the ambulance sirens got louder as it neared the house. No one commented because there wasn’t a need. It was obvious to Xan that what he’d said was true, so she knew the others felt the same way.
Bear left Roxie to escort the paramedics in, and everyone stood back and watched as they loaded Chad on the stretcher. Xan relayed what she’d discovered while they started an IV. When they carried Chad out to the ambulance, Roxie started for her car. Then cursed. “My tire’s flat.”
“Again?” Bear asked as he walked over to her.
“What do you mean ‘again’?” Roxie asked, her voice heavy with suspicion.
Hmm, that was right. Bear hadn’t been at the shop that day Roxie took her car in. Xan had ridden with her, so she knew this for a fact. Great. Now she was getting paranoid. Surely one of the other guys had told him about her car.
“I do get a log of everything done in the shop, Roxie,” Bear said, clearly reading Roxie’s and Xan’s thoughts since they seemed to have been on the same page here.
“I’ll take you,” Xan said, walking up to her and rubbing her arm. Jesus, she was shaking like a leaf. But Xan was probably shaking just as badly.
“No,” Bear said, slicing his hand through the air with an aura of finality. “I’ll take her. You have to stay here in case Scott comes home.”
Xan glared at him, but he was right. She wanted to be with her friend because that was the nice thing to do and because she felt as if she were to blame, but inside she was screaming her own agony. Her son was missing and she needed to comb the streets to find him.
Brody stepped over and rubbed his hand along Xan’s shoulder and she stiffened. Moving away from him, she walked up to Roxie and hugged her. “Call me when he wakes up, okay?”
She nodded, pulled away and followed Bear across the street to his truck. Xan followed because everyone had parked at her house.
After Bear and Roxie had left and Brody, Blade, Hunter and Colonel had followed her inside, Colonel pulled out his phone again.
“I’m going to call in some help to sweep these two houses for any clues.”
When Colonel walked back out to make the call, Xan walked into the kitchen for a glass of water…and to get away from Brody’s probing eyes. He was watching her as if he exp
ected her to keel over, or run, or shoot him. Yeah, she was ready to do any of those things, but she couldn’t take being gawked at. She was under enough pressure as it was.
After getting her water reprieve, she numbly walked into the living room. Brody and Blade had been whispering, but promptly stopped as soon as she entered. “Don’t mind me,” she said sarcastically.
“Baby,” Brody breathed.
“Don’t!” Her hands flew up as she cut him off. “Don’t call me that.”
Brody sighed but nodded.
She squared her shoulders. His pitiful look was not going to affect her. It. Was. Not. Instead, she looked around the room and noticed a minor change. “It seems you’re missing a crony.” Hunter was no longer here.
“Yeah, Hunter left to research Jeff Coleman. We still don’t know anything about him, so anything he finds will be an improvement.”
The front door swung open and Colonel stalked in. Brody and Blade jumped to their feet. “Roc called. He found the boy. He was sleeping in a parked car outside Walmart in Conway.”
“Is he okay?” Xan asked timidly. Oh God, please let him be okay.
“Roc got him to come to. He said Scott’s still a little groggy, but he’s talking.”
She walked to the table and grabbed her purse on impulse. “Is he taking him to the hospital?” She’d just meet them there.
“Yes, but you’re not going.” Colonel stepped up to her and blocked her exit.
“Bullshit.” She might have reservations about killing Brody right now because her love for him was still too strong, but she didn’t mind one bit killing this prick if he kept her from going to her boy. Her mother-bear instincts were roaring.
“I’ll go with her,” Brody said. “Keep her safe.”
Colonel turned to him. “You can go. Someone needs to protect him, and I’d rather you do that and let Roc contain the scene until I can get more people out there since he was the one who found him.” He turned to Blade. “And I need you to hunt down that Dale Adams asshole. If Dave Simmons’ story checks out, that’s one less person we have to worry about. We don’t know where the fuck that Coleman guy is, but we know Adams is here. Find the punk.” He turned to Xan and took a deep breath. “Help is on the way. Once the feds get here, they’ll want to question you. Once they’re through with you, you can go see your son. I’ll stay with you until your agent gets here to make sure you’re protected.”