Love Inspired Suspense December 2015, Box Set 2 of 2

by Margaret Daley

  Wade turned to see Michael reading a handheld device. Was the man sending a text?

  “What are you doing? We have to find her!” Wade rushed the table.

  “That’s what I’m doing, son.”

  “You can track her?”

  “No.” Michael turned the device. A blinking red dot moved along a map. It sure looked like a tracker to Wade. “But I can track Promise’s collar. I put that collar on Promise before she was given to you. It’s how I’ve been keeping up with you right along. Apparently, we’ve had a traitor in our midst who gave out this piece of intelligence for someone else to make use of.”

  “So that’s how they’ve been showing up wherever we went. My dog was giving me away?”

  “And now the collar’s telling me the dog’s moving along the perimeter of the base. Move out!”

  The force moved into their positions like clockwork. They filed into the trucks and went in their own strategized directions. Wade sat in the same rear seat of the SUV he came in on, now working with the men he knew were cut from the same cloth as him.

  Everyone but that traitor who had held him up…and seemed to enjoy it just a little too much. Wade had known that guy was sick. And now he had Lacey.

  The trucks sped along the base roads, then over snow, until Michael yelled, “There she is!”

  Wade crouched by the door to see Lacey. He scanned the area, but the only one in sight was Promise running at full tilt, alone. Wade banged his fist on the window.

  Lacey was gone.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  Promise whined beside Wade from the backseat of the SUV. Michael Ackerman and his operatives were inside the hangar discussing their next move while they waited for the film to be developed.

  Wade anxiously fiddled with Clay’s red handkerchief while thoughts of Lacey made him want to run with no destination in mind.

  Promise nosed his hand to get his attention, causing Wade to drop the cloth to the floor. His fists clenched to keep from touching her. Wade couldn’t give her a second of his focus. He was wound so tight he thought he might shatter into a million pieces.

  This wasn’t the first time he’d felt like this. The first time had been when he was eight years old and he was told his parents and baby brother, Luke, were gone forever. Numerous other times during his life he’d fought against this same feeling, always believing if he refocused on the plan, he could overcome it.

  But what was it that he needed to overcome?

  Promise licked his hand, growing more frantic. She barked up at him with one loud “Woof!” and pawed his arm.

  Wade looked down to see his hands and arms shaking. No amount of refocusing would stop them. He knew it as surely as the morning sun could be seen rising over the mountains. How many times had he tried to stop the reaction? How many times had he lost?

  Promise head butted him.

  “Stop it!” Wade yelled in her face. “Can’t you see I’m trying to focus? Can’t you see I’m in more pain than I’ve ever been? I can’t lose her, Promise. I just can’t. I can’t lose another person I love.”

  Promise pushed her head up, nose in the air, unfazed by his outburst. But her eyes drooped with glistening understanding and sensitivity…and love.

  Wade reached for her and grabbed the sides of her furry head. He latched on and let her love bring him back down from his fear.

  Fear. That was the it he’d tried so hard to overcome. It had surrounded his life for so long he barely remembered a time it didn’t consume him. It left him with a wound that would never heal. Sure, he could refocus on the plan to bring some control back over his life. He could convince himself that he was winning and even healed, but the healing was superficial and equivalent to a scab covering everything up. A scab waiting to be torn off to start the whole process over again.

  And over again.

  And over again.

  And over again… Unless he opened his mouth and faced it.

  Words were powerful, as Jeff had said. But could Wade actually talk? What if admitting to his fear had the power to break him even more?

  “But what if it doesn’t?” Wade spoke into the empty car.

  No. Not empty. His battle buddy was here with him, and she was ready to wage war against his fear. He could see it in her brown, liquid eyes. She was waiting for him to tell her all his darkest secrets. It was what she’d been trained for. Nothing he said to her would hurt her. She was taught to take it all and hold no judgments in return. And whatever he said, she would take it to her grave.

  She’d promised.

  Wade let out a sigh and as he refilled his lungs, he blurted the words, “I am so scared. I am so scared.” The words just kept coming, tumbling over each other until tears blurred his vision and Promise licked them from his face. Wade burrowed his face into the fur of her neck and cried for all the years he wouldn’t let himself. Not when he was eight. Not when he was eighteen. Not when he’d lost his first comrade in battle. Not when he’d lost his twenty-first.

  The tears quieted down, but his breath still came in short sporadic inhales. Wade knew what he had to do before he could take one step more.

  “I’m ready for You, Jesus. I’m done charting my own course to an unknown destination. All I ever do is go in circles, reliving the horrors over and over again. From now on, I will follow the plan You have for my life. I surrender it all to You. Lacey—” Wade’s voice cracked at her name on his lips. “Lacey thinks You will lead me. That I’m worth something to You. I want to believe this. I want to belong to You. And I want to believe You will lead me to her before it’s too late. Please, Lord, lead me.”

  Promise whined in his ear and shuffled her body backward. She let out a “Woof!” and wagged her tail from her spot.

  Just then a tap came on the window. It was the suit who was supposedly his grandfather. “We’ve got a face and a name, and we’re tracing his car. But you’re not going to like it. It might be best if you stay here.”

  Wade lowered the window. “Who is it?”

  Michael hesitated, but turned his handheld device around to show a picture of a younger version of Clay.

  “You think my uncle took her? That doesn’t make any sense. He would never do anything like that.”

  As he denied the accusation, he looked down at the red cloth spilling over his boot like blood. Had this been a message from Lacey? Had she dropped it so he would know his uncle was behind it all? The real traitor in all of this?

  The biggest sucker punch ever nearly bowled Wade over. He snatched up the cloth and papers she’d left behind and stuffed them in his pocket.

  “I’m going with you,” Wade announced.

  “You’re too close to this. It might be best—”

  “I’m tired of doing what’s best. Get in.”

  Michael opened the door. “We’re not taking the cars. It’ll be faster to chopper out.”

  “Perfect. Now you’re speaking my language.” Wade jumped from the SUV.

  So this was what it was like to follow God’s plan. Wade’s feet had never felt so sure.

  *

  Intense cold jolted Lacey from her sleep. She flashed her eyes wide, inhaling deep and choked. Water. She was lying in frigid water in the backseat of a car. She tried to push up, but her arms refused to budge from their place behind her. Her hands were bound. Pulling harder only made her roll her body off the seat. She yelped when she hit the floor and sank deep into icy liquid. The shock at the temperature had her body writhing in panic and sputtering.

  She pushed back and got her first view of the side window covered in murky water.

  She was in a car sinking to the bottom of a lake!

  “Help!” she screamed. “Help me!”

  Adrenaline came through her confusion. Her bound hands against the floor and her stomach muscles joined in to push her body up to a sitting position. Over the top of the seat, she could see someone sat at the wheel.

  A man. He was slumped over, unconscious.

  Lacey
shivered in the water filling the car. How long before it reached the ceiling?

  She used her palms again to lift her body up out of the water and to her back on the seat. The sunroof above showed light shining through.

  She wasn’t fully submerged…yet.

  The sunroof was her ticket out of here, though. But how with her hands tied?

  “Hey!” she yelled to the guy. She pushed harder. Grinding her teeth, she used her feet to sit up on the seat—and get her first glimpse of the driver.

  Clay.

  The scene at the base flooded back. Teigen had said he’d planned that Clay take the fall for this. Teigen must have knocked Clay out and put him behind the wheel before pushing the car in…a murder/suicide, just as he’d said.

  But she wasn’t dead yet!

  Lacey frantically looked to see if Clay was.

  His hands weren’t bound like hers. Could he be revived?

  With Clay awake, he might be able to get them both out of here. Or at least he could save himself. Wade needed him.

  Without this man in his life, Wade would very likely close up forever. Lacey had to do everything in her power to make sure that didn’t happen.

  She pushed herself to kneel and lean forward over the front seat on her stomach. Immediately, the car jerked and more water gushed in. Lacey picked up her speed, jabbing her shoulder into Clay’s slumped back. “Clay! Wake up! You’ve got to get out of here. We’re going to drown. Clay!”

  His head moved to the other side, but he gave no sign of hearing.

  “Clay! You’ve got to help Wade! Can you hear me? Wade needs you!”

  “Wade?” Clay shot up straight, but quickly let out a loud groan. He reached for his head where blood dripped. Water sloshed around his waist, jolting him. “Huh? Wh—” He looked around. “What’s going on?”

  Panic set in as the man fumbled with the understanding of his surroundings.

  “Clay, listen to me.” Lacey tried to bring his focus to her. Uncertainty crossed his face. He couldn’t place her in his confused state.

  “It’s me, Lacey, Wade’s friend. You need to get out of this car. It’s sinking to the bottom of a lake. You’ve got to break the window above and swim out as fast as you can. Get help. I can’t do anything with my hands tied.”

  The blank look on his face remained. Had he heard anything she said? “I did this. I helped Chuck.”

  “You helped him put the car in the lake?”

  “It was all a lie. He used me.” Clay’s vacant look snapped away. “He made me think I was serving my country by spying on Meredith for him. He learned who Meredith’s father was and said the government was looking for a link to him. I wasn’t joking when I said Gary Shelton was mafia. Chuck told me he was Russian mafia. We used the track to get and pass information to each other, but Chuck was also using it to pass information to someone else. It was why he pushed for the track’s opening at the state level. It had nothing to do with jobs. He wanted to take down Meredith and Gary. I believed him when he said they worked for the Russians. Times were heated then. I couldn’t let her hurt our country and my family. But it was all a lie. Chuck was the one making the deals with the Russians.”

  Lacey felt her mouth drop. “Are you saying you knew the Spencers would be pushed over the ledge?”

  “No! I didn’t! That was an accident. The police said so.”

  “No, Clay, it was murder.”

  “No. No.” He shook his head, but soon crumpled, unable to deny it any longer.

  “And we’re about to be murdered, too, by the same killer. Please get out of here. Get through the window before we sink. Wade needs you.”

  “He needs you. You love him. I know you do. I didn’t believe you for a second when you said you didn’t.”

  “Yes, I do. I do love him, but you’re his family. He can’t lose you. He’s lost too many already. Please, just do as I ask.”

  “Here, let me untie you.” Clay knelt to reach her. The car tilted back and more water gushed in. The current pushed Lacey back at full force, straight to the back of the hatchback.

  “No time! Go!” She tried to speak through the water hitting her face and holding her down.

  “I can’t leave you!”

  “Go!”

  The command pushed Clay into motion. He flipped to his back and lifted his leg to kick up and out the sunroof. But nothing happened.

  He kicked again and again. The car creaked and groaned and slipped deeper down. A current poured in; Clay finally pushed through the glass.

  Relief for Wade rushed in, even as gushing water pushed Lacey down, keeping her there. There was no three-push warning this time. This was it, and in this final moment it wasn’t about pushing back or going where God led. It was about trusting Him and letting go.

  CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

  “The ice on the pond isn’t solid enough to land on!” The pilot’s voice came through the headsets of the three passengers on board the helicopter. Clay’s car had been traced to this mountain location where he used to live in the old caretaker’s cabin. They’d passed over the pond and were circling back around to look for an open space in the thick growth of trees. No open, flat land could be seen to bring the helicopter down on.

  “How about the road?” Wade suggested as he scanned the area below. He saw an open space on the road, but it was a distance away. It would require a half-mile run, time they didn’t have.

  Michael swung around from his passenger seat. “How do you feel about rappelling down?”

  “Could be dangerous on my own without a rappel guide.”

  “Is that a yes?”

  Wade thought of Lacey, but not just the danger she was in. He thought of her motto in life. Go unless God told her no. “Affirmative.”

  “We’ll get the chopper down below seventy-five feet. Gear up. Agent Samson, help Wade as best you can. And, Wade, go slow.”

  With the help of the agent, Wade prepped a deployment bag that would be tossed out before he began the descent. He removed his headset to fit the helmet to his head. All audio communication would now cease with the men in the chopper. A pair of all-leather gloves came next. The double-leather palms and fingers would provide protection from the intense heat created by his hands on the slide down the rope. He grabbed the safety belt with a harness and tether. In a moment the nylon rope would be his only lifeline. Before fitting them on, he emptied his pockets for a snug fit. The red cloth and papers fell to his seat.

  Again the cloth turned his stomach.

  He would be rappelling down to save Lacey from his uncle, the one person Wade thought would never hurt him. Lacey was right. It was the people closest to us who could hurt us the most. But Wade would make sure Clay paid for all his crimes and for taking away the people Wade loved most…including Clay. The pain ripped him apart, but he gritted his teeth and prepared for his jump.

  Geared up, Wade gave a thumbs-up to the pilot. He was ready.

  The pilot swooped the helicopter back out over the pond. Wade leaned in to the turn and looked down at the cloth and papers again. The business card with Senator Charles Teigen’s name printed across the middle faced up. Wade read the line below his name and froze.

  A slogan for the senator’s latest campaign screamed at Wade from the card.

  “Words are Powerful: Vote for Literacy.”

  Those powerful words blared louder in Wade’s head than the rotating blades of the helicopter.

  Teigen was the direction Jeff was sending him. Teigen was why Jeff had been killed.

  Jeff had gone after a dirty senator, the man responsible for killing Wade’s family. The true spy and traitor.

  Wade called to his grandfather, holding the card up, but no one could hear him. Wade leaned in and shoved the card in Michael’s face. His grandfather caught on quick and did a search for Teigen on his phone. Photographs came up, new ones then old. Michael showed an image that popped up.

  An old campaign photo of a familiar-looking man from Wade’s nightmares lit
the screen. The man from the grandstand, and a much younger Senator Teigen.

  There was no doubting it now.

  All these years it had been him under the grandstand, a friend of Clay’s. And now he had Lacey at the cabin.

  Suddenly, Agent Samson hit Wade’s back. He pointed out the opened door for Wade to look. Wade saw nothing but an expanse of the partially frozen pond.

  The helicopter raced west, over freezing water. It shied north and approached the cabin.

  That was when Wade saw the front end of a black car protruding out of the pond, contrasted against the silvery ice.

  Wade shouted at the top of his lungs, “Go!” He knew no one heard anything above the noise of the whomping blades, but Lacey was in that car. He just knew it.

  Wade grabbed the rope and nearly jumped out without going through the protocol of safety. The agent warned him by mouthing, “Slow down!”

  But Lacey was going under!

  Wade gave a stiff nod and performed the final check of the hookup, rappel seat, rappel ring. He pulled on the rope to double-check the anchor-point connection. A few hundred feet took them closer to the sinking car. Wade’s heart plummeted right along with it as he went through the steps that slowed him down.

  Wade threw out the rope, but still there were more steps. Wade never wanted to rush through them more than in this moment. Always he’d been a stickler to the rules of safety. Slow and steady wins the race. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.

  Lacey’s motto never looked so good.

  He sent the deployment bag out and away from the helicopter. He made sure the rope didn’t fall between the side of the chopper and the skid legs used for when the chopper lands. Wade looked down to prove the rope was indeed touching a frozen piece of ice near the car and also free of tangles and knots. He then took his place in the door.

  Ordinarily this was where things got intense, but the real intensity was knowing Lacey was in that car sinking into freezing water below, and he might never see her alive again.

  Wade braced himself for the jump. On a one-hundred-eighty-degree pivot, he stood out on the skid, facing the inside of the helicopter. His feet were shoulder-width apart, his knees locked, the balls of his feet on the skid and his body bent at the waist toward the helicopter. He placed his brake hand on the small of his back and told Promise to stay. The dog looked as if she was smiling.