by Rachel Grant
Several minutes later, he returned, clean-shaven and once again the high-profile prosecutor in a tailored suit. He was handsome and sexy either way, but she missed the rugged, casual Curt. “Aren’t you a little overdressed for flying?”
“The clothes are my armor.” He straightened his tie. “We need to talk.”
His tone said it all. The Shark was back. She flopped on the sofa in disappointment. “I know.”
“You’ve been holding out on me, Mara.”
The metallic taste of fear invaded her mouth. How did he know? What did he know? All she wanted was to talk to Jeannie. After that, she’d know what to do. “What do you mean?”
“It’s probable that Evan Beck shot Roddy, ran us off the road, and shot at us as we tried to board the jet at Hickam.”
She nodded. Her throat was too dry to talk.
“He had access to the bases and a high-powered sniper rifle, he knows your car on sight, and he knew Roddy well enough to catch him by surprise, even as they met at your house in the middle of the night to do God knows what.”
She glanced down at her hands, unable to meet his gaze as he listed the reasons he believed her ex-lover had tried to kill her—and him.
“What I want to know is, why haven’t you told me everything?”
Nausea threatened. She regretted every bite of food she’d had at the café. “Everything?”
“About your engagement. And why you broke it off. I think, after all that’s happened, I deserve to know.”
MARA LOOKED SHOCKED. And more than a little green. Good. She’d been too out of it yesterday to confront with the question, then last night he’d seen her exhaustion had reached debilitating levels, so he’d put off the conversation until morning. But alone with her on the boat—that had been far too dangerous to his ambitions, and the café had been far too public.
“How did you know?” she asked.
“I know everything about you.”
She shuddered. “Does everyone know? I mean, was it on the news?”
“No.” At her relieved expression he asked, “Why does it matter? You dumped him.”
She wrapped her arms around her middle. He ruthlessly shoved aside the part of him that had begun to care about her. She was a witness and a victim, not a friend.
“How did you know we were engaged?” she asked again.
“Your JPAC commander sent a dossier, which I read on the flight to North Korea.”
“How the hell did he know? Evan and I were engaged for all of three days. We hadn’t even announced it to family before I dumped him. Hell, the only person I’d told was Jeannie.”
“You get uptight every time your relationship with Evan comes up. What gives?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Maybe the fact that he might be trying to kill us?”
“You were uncomfortable before that. Tell me.”
She huffed out a sigh and looked down. “Evan is a mercenary in every sense of the word. He was paid. To seduce me. Date me. Even marry me.”
Her face slowly reddened, as did his own. Hers, he was certain, in embarrassment, his in anger. He’d known Evan Beck and his father were both pricks from the moment he started investigating them, but to humiliate Mara in this way stirred violent impulses he’d been repressing for over twenty years.
“Who paid him?”
“His dad.”
“How do you know?”
She bit her bottom lip. “There were a gazillion clues, I just missed most of them at the time. Overheard conversations. Evan’s erratic treatment of me. He could be really charming, then, blammo—total ass. I’d walk, then he’d crawl back, turning up the charm. You see, if I dumped him, the gravy train would dry up.”
She studied her hand, spreading her ringless fingers. “Raptor—the company, not Evan’s dad—bought the god-awful ugly engagement ring.”
“How do you know that?”
“The insurance company needed the receipt. When I saw the paperwork with Raptor’s name on it, I knew. I’d wondered, because after we started dating, he bought a new car, an overpriced watch, and other items he shouldn’t have been able to afford.”
“His father is a very wealthy man.”
“But according to Evan, his dad wasn’t sharing. If Evan wanted a piece of the family business, he had to earn it. I was a shortcut into his dad’s good graces. Hell, my uncle was already working for the guy. I think having me as a daughter-in-law would somehow make Robert Beck feel like he owned Uncle Andrew.”
Given what he knew of the CEO, Curt had to agree. The man would buy a former president if he could, but they were out of his price range.
“Did you find proof Evan was paid?”
“Nothing that will help you, Mr. US Attorney, but enough to convince me Evan was making a tidy sum by screwing me.”
Curt flinched but continued. This was his job. “What did your uncle say?”
“He said he didn’t know anything about it, but Robert Beck had the right to give his son money if he wanted to.”
“But Raptor money isn’t just Beck’s money—not anymore. Your uncle owns twenty percent of Raptor.”
She glanced at him, surprise showing on her delicate features. “He’s got a lot of stock, but twenty percent? He can’t own that much.”
Curt cocked his head to the side. “Mara, don’t you know why I began investigating your uncle?”
“Of course. Uncle Andrew said it’s because he received stock options when he took the job at Raptor, and you thought the options were bribes—but it was a legitimate business arrangement.”
“They weren’t options, and they weren’t part of any standard employee package. Your uncle was vested with twenty percent of the company. Raptor is privately held. Can you tell me one good reason for Robert Beck to just give away one-fifth of his company? He bought Andrew Stevens’s political power and influence, just as he used his son to buy you.”
Anger flared in her deep blue eyes. “Evan didn’t buy me. I wasn’t interested in his father’s money. When I found out what was going on, I dumped Evan’s ass, took the gaudy pink diamond to a pawnshop, and donated the money to a Cambodian orphanage.”
He kept his face blank even as his foolish infatuation deepened. They had to stay on topic. “It must have been fun being deployed with him after that.”
“I switched teams. Jeannie and I weren’t supposed to go to North Korea, but the forensic archaeologists who were slated to go both got really sick just before the deployment.”
That got his attention back to the subject at hand. “You weren’t supposed to be there?”
“JPAC was mindful of my family tree. They didn’t want to send me on the North Korea deployment. But when the time came, no one else was available. It was hell getting clearance to enter DPRK. We didn’t want to risk delaying. So I went.”
“What happened to the other archaeologists, the ones who got sick?”
“They were hospitalized but recovering when I left. The doctors said they’d contracted something on their previous mission in Indonesia.”
He’d be a fool if he didn’t suspect Raptor had engineered Mara’s and Jeannie’s inclusions in the North Korean deployment. “What did your uncle say when you told him you were going to North Korea?”
“I didn’t. He had too much on his mind with the trial. I didn’t want to worry him.”
Curt mulled this over. Mara’s earlier pronouncement came back to him. “Egypt was lonely, and Evan was hot.” He’d known already, but Mara’s words confirmed her relationship with Evan had begun in Egypt.
Egypt. The JPAC deployment Andrew Stevens had visited for a photo op, and while there, Curt was certain, met with and sold arms to a Janjaweed militia leader wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes committed in the Darfur region of Sudan.
The former vice president had used his visit to the JPAC deployment to discreetly meet with the Janjaweed killer, but Curt couldn’t prove the arms deal. Stevens had destroyed the evidence, forcing Curt to s
ettle for the lesser charges of obstruction of justice and influence peddling.
The timing of Mara’s involvement with Evan was…interesting. Especially since Robert Beck had also been in Egypt, traveling with the former vice president, ostensibly to visit his son. But of course, Robert Beck had been the one to supply the arms. Stevens was merely the broker.
Curt had suspected Evan killed Roddy because Mara’s return to the United States would reveal Roddy had led her off-site and could implicate Raptor in dirty dealings in North Korea. But this could be about Egypt and the arms deal. “How did Evan take the breakup?” he asked.
“He made a show of being alternately outraged at my accusations and devastated I’d dumped him.”
“And you believe he could have killed Roddy and shot at you?”
“The idea makes my skin crawl, but right now, I’ll believe anything.”
Except that her uncle was behind the attempts on her life.
“Could Evan have rigged the jet to blow on Oahu?”
“Easily. He’s an ordnance expert.” She rubbed her arms as if she were cold. “He has a military ID, which gives him access to the base. Through Raptor, he has flight line access. The hardest part would be getting close to the jet.”
“Not so hard, because no one was guarding it. There are conflicting accounts. It appears the jet was refueled, and then a second fuel truck may have driven up after the first one left. Raptor is one of several contractors who provide base services including refueling. A small explosive device on a timer next to a wing tank is all it would take. If that’s how it happened, then the fuel truck would have provided cover while he set the device.”
She shivered at his cursory description of how her ex-fiancé might have rigged a bomb to kill her. He itched to pull her into his arms and hold her, give her comfort and a shoulder to lean on, but feared where that would lead them. Instead, he focused on her words and remembered another detail he’d wanted to follow up on. “Speaking of Evan’s role as ordnance disposal technician, I want to know more about the bomb you found the last morning in North Korea.”
“What about it?”
“There’s no record of it. There’s no mention of a bomb or Evan clearing the site in the official JPAC story. In the official version, you had a lover’s quarrel with your ex-fiancé—Jeannie said he wanted the ring back—and you were so angry, you stormed off. Alone.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
IT TOOK A moment for Curt’s words to sink in. Mara had expected him to talk about the bomb. She’d expected ambiguity, certainly. But this…this was utter betrayal.
She bolted to her feet. “No fucking way.” She crossed to the bar and pressed her fists against the counter, taking one deep breath after another in an attempt to stop herself from doing something foolish. Like punching something. Or crying.
She fought to keep her voice measured. “We didn’t have a lover’s quarrel. I’d gotten rid of the ring nine months before, for Chrissake. We fought because I didn’t like how he planned to dispose of the bomb.”
“Why?”
Careful, Mara. “Clearing the site wasn’t standard op.” That was true.
“According to JPAC, he didn’t clear the site. But, according to JPAC, there was no bomb.”
Mara closed her eyes and remembered: Evan’s decision, their argument, his asserting his power and ordering her to leave. Jeannie, standing behind Evan with wide eyes—like a kid watching parents fight for the first time. Mara had stormed off with Roddy on her heels.
They’d gotten into the Nissan Patrol, just the two of them. The others were supposed to follow. Had they? Had the four members of the team who’d been working on the other side of the ridge even known about the bomb and the orders to leave, or had Evan only issued the directive to Roddy, Jeannie, and Mara?
JPAC and the State Department had been led to believe she’d stormed off in North Korea after a fight with her ex-fiancé about an engagement ring. No wonder Curt had thought she was a twit when he first questioned her. “Why didn’t you tell me about this when I first mentioned the bomb…good Lord, was that only yesterday?”
Curt’s smile was as weary as she felt. “Yesterday for us. Two days ago in North Korea. Or something like that. I’m losing track. I intended to talk to Roddy before telling you. But then Roddy ended up dead.” He ran his fingers through his hair. “Who saw the bomb besides you and Evan?”
Answer casually. Don’t reveal you’ve thought about this for hours on end. “No one.” She looked up at the ceiling to slow her response. “Roddy and Jeannie witnessed the argument, so they knew about the bomb.” She really needed to find Jeannie—which reminded her once again she wanted to know why Agent Palea had identified Jeannie as a suspect.
“Where was the rest of the team? Weren’t there eight of you in North Korea?”
“Eight in the field, plus a liaison in P’yŏngyang. A Nissan mechanic and a medic were stationed at the base camp. Of the field team, the last morning the other four were on the opposite side of the ridge. They didn’t witness my argument with Evan or, to the best of my knowledge, see the bomb.”
“So Jeannie Fuller was the only JPAC employee who witnessed the argument?”
“Yes.” Jeannie, her friend and protégé, had lied and let their supervisors believe Mara had behaved negligently. As if she’d storm off alone in North Korea. That was insane.
As insane as what had really happened.
Curt stood and crossed the space in three quick steps, sympathy evident in his turbulent eyes and downturned mouth, but he stopped short of reaching out to actually comfort her. “Mara, during my flight to North Korea, JPAC e-mailed me PDFs of your field journal. The last page included an account of you storming off, the crew’s search for you, and their eventual expulsion from the country. According to the log, they were kicked out because of you—because you’d been arrested. The entry was signed by Jeannie Fuller.”
His words crested her breaking point. Unstoppable tears rolled down, one after another as the full meaning took hold and ripped open her heart.
Jeannie really had betrayed her. Her damning statement would have ensured the entire fiasco was blamed on Mara. A simple sentence reporting Evan’s command to clear the site was the difference between following orders and appalling negligence.
“Why would Jeannie do that?”
“Jeannie Fuller has a brother with a gambling problem.”
Shock temporarily halted the flood of messy emotion. “Eric?”
“You know him?”
She nodded and sniffed. Curt grabbed tissues from the counter and pressed a stack into her hand. She mopped her cheeks and took a settling breath. “Eric visited Jeannie on Oahu nearly a year ago. I didn’t know he had a gambling problem.”
“He owed bad people big money, meaning Jeannie could be bought.”
“You think Raptor paid her to lie.”
“Yes.”
“We need to find her.”
“The FBI is working on it.”
She touched Curt’s arm as an idea took hold. “She probably went to Eric. She doesn’t have any other family.” She squeezed his bicep. “He’s stationed at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, in Arizona. We could refuel there.”
He stiffened. “Another military base is dangerous. I’ll call Palea, see what he knows, before we decide to do anything that drastic.”
It took over two hours for Palea to talk to the FBI agent who’d interviewed Eric Fuller and get back to Curt. Seated in a plush recliner, Curt leaned back with an exhausted sigh. “Airman Fuller says he doesn’t know where his sister is, but the agent who spoke to him believes he lied.”
The forced air made her throat dry. Or maybe it was the awareness she could do something. She could stop running and hiding and take action. “Curt, he’ll tell me.”
He narrowed his eyes and fixed her with a penetrating stare. “What makes you think that?”
She shifted uncomfortably, remembering the last time she saw Eric Fuller.
He shook his head. “Don’t tell me you were engaged to Fuller too?”
“Of course not! He’s Jeannie’s little brother and too young.” She frowned. She hated this story, but it had to be told. “When he was visiting—it wasn’t long after I dumped Evan—we went out for drinks one night. Evan showed up at the bar and tried to pick a fight with Eric.” She allowed a grim smile. “It was appalling, juvenile, and ridiculous. Eric ignored him.” Here she paused and caught her breath. “So Evan turned on me.”
She heard Curt shift in his seat but didn’t see his reaction because she dropped her gaze to her fingers, intertwined in a tight, painful tangle, remembering the pain that had exploded across her scalp when Evan yanked her off the barstool by her hair. She cleared her dry throat. “Evan is a highly trained operative, but Eric is ten years younger, in better shape, and doesn’t have a bum knee. He kicked Evan’s ass.”
Curt dropped to a knee before her, forcing her to look at him. “I’m starting to like the guy.”
She nodded. “After going through that…I think he’ll talk to me. And I’m Jeannie’s friend. He’ll know I’m trying to find her to protect her.”
“Are you? She lied, you know. About you.” The cold pronouncement hurt. “And, Mara, you should know, Palea said preliminary examination of her home computer turned up transactions she made with foreign banks. She was well paid.”
How much was selling out a friend worth? But then, how much was a brother’s life worth?
The idea hurt too much to accept as fact. “There’s money in my bank account too. But I didn’t take a bribe.”
Curt said nothing, and she wondered if he wasn’t convinced of her innocence, and that idea hurt almost as much as Jeannie’s betrayal. “Look, with you by my side, we can convince Eric you’re willing to cut a deal with her on the bribery charge.”
“I’m not in a position to make deals—”
“He won’t know that. He’ll tell us where she is. C’mon, Curt. We have to refuel anyway.”
Footsteps sounded, and she looked up to see Curt open the cockpit door and step inside. She waited, tension coiling through her, wondering what arrangements he was making. Minutes later, he returned and dropped back into the plush recliner.