by Cindy Dees
“What’re you two talking about?” Joe blurted.
“We think a few individuals in the CIA and the FBI work for AbaCo.”
“Come again?” the older man demanded.
Reluctantly, Laura set Adam down. “Do you think you could go get your leaf album for us? Mommy and Daddy need to talk to Joe for a minute. And maybe the two of you should pack your things.”
Lisbet nodded in silent understanding of the unspoken request to keep Adam out of earshot and took him by the hand.
Laura followed the men over to the rough wood table in the corner and sat down in the chair Nick held for her.
“What’s up?” Joe asked shortly.
She leaned forward and asked gently, “Are we correct in guessing that you don’t like AbaCo any more than we do?”
“Those bastards are killing folks. Locking ’em in boxes till they die and then tossing them overboard like trash. I don’t care how bad a thing a man done, nobody deserves that.”
They’d been spot-on in their assessment of Adam’s kidnapper. She made eye contact with Nick and he nodded back.
She leaned forward. “As you anticipated, your kidnapping Adam spurred the two of us to turn over a few rocks with AbaCo’s name on them. It turns out the person or persons running AbaCo are a front for a Russian operation. We don’t know if they’re Russian intelligence or Russian mob, but either way, AbaCo’s doing their dirty work.”
Nick picked up the thread. “It turns out they’ve got agents inside our government. When Laura and I poked in the wrong places, they tried to kill us.”
She added, “And they’ve pulled strings to get the AbaCo trial called off. That will be announced at a press conference in the morning.”
Predictably, Joe surged up out of his seat, swearing furiously, and paced the small room in agitation.
“But all is not lost,” Nick explained quickly. “In fact, this may work to our advantage. We can take our accusations to the media now, without the trial restricting what we can say. And Laura and I have collected a ton of damning data on AbaCo.” She watched as Nick’s gaze went black and genuinely furious. “We can bury those sorry bastards so deep they’ll never come up for air. I swear to you, I will take them down.”
Joe shook his head. “You don’t understand. You have no idea how powerful these people are. How ruthless. They’ll kill us all. You were supposed to bring an army with you to get the boy. Enough force to get us out of here alive and into protective custody while the Feds catch AbaCo’s thugs who were sent here to silence us and prove they’re up to no good.”
Laura jolted. “Is that what this is about? You need protection from AbaCo? All you had to do was ask us. We’d have given it to you.”
“You ain’t big enough to take these guys. Hell, they messed up the U.S. government.”
She frowned. “Not the entire government. I still know plenty of people whom I trust completely. People who can make you disappear. Give you a new identity. You’ll be completely safe.”
Joe snorted. “Like the U.S. Marshals are gonna be immune to these guys if they can get inside the CIA and the FBI? Besides, I’m a felon, now. The Feds would never help me.”
The man had a point. Several, in fact.
Nick studied the older man intently. She tried to guess where Nick’s thoughts were heading.
“So, here’s the deal,” Nick finally announced bluntly. “We owe you one for pulling Adam out of the middle of this mess and keeping him safe while we investigated AbaCo. And there’s no law saying we have to press charges against you for kidnapping. What do you want from us?”
Joe looked startled. “You ain’t mad at me?”
Nick shrugged. “You scared the hell out of us and nearly killed Laura when she found out Adam was missing. But you did protect him whether you meant to or not.”
Laura gave Nick an approving look. He was making allies with Joe. Putting the three of them squarely on the same side of the fight.
Joe sat back down at the table. “The way I figure it, AbaCo’s thugs are on their way here now if they’re not already outside.”
“How’s that?” Laura asked sharply.
“Of course they followed you. They know how good you are at finding lost stuff. Any idiot knows you’d go after your own kid like a madwoman. Of course, you’re gonna find him. All they gotta do is bug your house, track your cars and wait for you to lead them to me.”
“Why are you so important to them, Joe? What do you know?”
“It ain’t what I know. It’s what I got.”
“And what’s that?”
“Video. And not just any video. I was a security technician on a couple of AbaCo’s big container ships based out of the Paris office. What with pirates and all, you’d be surprised how high-tech security is on those ships. Almost as good as your house, ma’am. Took me a few weeks to figure that system out.”
Nick leaned forward eagerly. “What have you got?”
Joe grinned broadly. “I got your ever-lovin’ wife on tape bringing you down to the container ship, Veronique, and telling the boys to lock you up an’ never let you out. She’s some piece of work, that woman.”
Nick lurched in his seat. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope. She was with a bunch of Russkies. Talkin’ Russian. But see, my first job was on a Russian oil tanker and I govoreet me a little po russkie.”
Satisfaction surged through Laura. If Joe was telling the truth, that footage would be enough to break not only AbaCo, but Nick’s wife. Startled, Laura realized that was actually jealousy roiling around in her gut, purring in satisfaction that Meredith Black was about to go down in flames. “How does AbaCo know you’ve got the tape?” Laura asked.
“They inventory the hard copies every few days. They’re read-only—takes special equipment to burn copies—so I had to take the original with me when I left. They’ve been trying to find me ever since.”
“Have you got copies of these videos now?” Laura asked the older man.
He nodded. “Had ’em made before I snatched your boy. But who’s gonna listen to a guy like me? I’m a nobody. An’ I figure AbaCo’d take me out long before I convinced anyone to take me serious. But you two. You’re all rich and educated and got fancy connections. Folks’ll listen to you straight away. I had to make sure you testified against them bastards.”
Sadly, he was probably right.
“If you’ll hand over a copy of that tape to me,” Laura said earnestly, “I swear to you we’ll make sure the right people see it.”
Joe started to speak, but raised his hand abruptly, signaling them to be silent. Laura went on full alert. What had he heard? She’d been so focused on the implications of Joe’s evidence she hadn’t been listening carefully.
The older man got up and moved toward the front window. For a husky man, he moved quietly. Joe reached for the curtain to peek out and murmured over his shoulder, “Turn off the lights in here, and turn on the bedroom light so whoever’s out there will think we’re moving within the house and not suspicious of noise outside.”
Nick did as the man ordered. Laura moved to the left-hand window, and Joe took the right one while Nick went to the back door to peer out.
“Report,” Laura called out quietly.
“I think I see a couple of guys off to the southwest a bit,” Joe muttered.
“I’ve got at least one on my left,” Laura said.
“Either they’re better than I am or no one’s back here,” Nick replied quietly.
“I told you they’d track your car. Looks like I was right. We gotta go,” Joe grunted. “Get Lisbet and the boy.”
Laura lurched. “We don’t know who’s out there. How many people are there? Are they armed? Here to help us?”
Joe scowled. “Don’t be stupid. Them’s AbaCo’s men out there. His wife’s flunkies.” Joe jerked a thumb in Nick’s direction.
“I’m fairly certain I married her in order to trap her into revealing her schemes,” Nick replied a sh
ade defensively. “I have no recollection of her, and believe me, I’m divorcing her as fast as humanly possible when we get home.”
Laura thought fast. Worst-case scenario, Joe was exactly right. And given how the last few days had been going, she was inclined to expect the worst case. They needed an escape plan. Clearly, charging out the front door with her son and putting him in the middle of a firefight was out of the question. They had to go out the back and pray it wasn’t a trap.
“Our car’s out the back and through the trees maybe a quarter-mile away. It’s parked on a dirt road that runs north-south. Do you know it, Joe?”
“Yup. Long ways to go with shooters chasing a person.”
“We could use a diversion,” Nick commented.
“We don’t have the resources to mount one,” she replied grimly.
Joe piped up. “We got this cabin. What say we make a fireball of it?”
It could work. Particularly if they took out a couple of the people currently lurking outside, too.
Laura stepped away from the window and poked her head into the bedroom. “Lisbet. Adam. Put on the darkest clothing you have with you. Quickly. Leave everything else behind.”
Nick was already yanking open kitchen cabinets looking for supplies.
“Don’t bother,” Joe bit out. “I got nothing like you need. I knew a little kid would be here. I took out the dangerous cleaning supplies and the like.”
While the mommy part of her was grateful for his consideration for Adam’s safety, the spy within her lamented the lack of good household chemicals for improvising a bomb. Hmm. A bomb…
She had an idea. “Joe, have you got an electric fan, by any chance?”
“Yeah, actually. This place ain’t got air-conditioning, and it can get a mite stuffy in the afternoon.”
“I need it. Quickly.”
The older man nodded and disappeared into the bedroom.
She raced to the front door and rummaged in the diaper bag. “Any movement out back?” she asked Nick tersely.
“Nope.”
“They’re probably doing the same thing we are. Trying to figure out how to get inside and take us all down.”
Nick retorted bitterly, “Yeah, but they’ll bring in commandos wielding automatic weapons and it’ll be lights-out for us.”
He was right. If they didn’t get moving soon, this confrontation was going to be over before it began. They needed to even the odds. Fast. She fumbled in her pocket, pulled out her cell phone and dialed rapidly.
“What’re you doing?” Nick blurted.
“Calling in the cavalry.”
“But—”
“Not the CIA or the FBI. The local sheriff.”
A female voice spoke in her ear.
“9-1-1. What’s your emergency?”
“There are a bunch of men outside my place.” She gave the woman the address quickly. “They’ve got guns and a rope tied into a noose. I think it’s the Ku Klux Klan. They’re coming to lynch me. Hurry!”
Laura stuffed the phone in her pocket.
“The KKK?” Nick asked doubtfully.
“It was the most inflammatory thing I could think of. No lawman wants somebody lynched on his watch. The sheriff will call in every deputy he’s got and probably every one in the next county over while he’s at it. There’ll be a half dozen men here in minutes and fifty guys with shotguns here in a half hour. And they’ll know these woods.”
Nick grinned as Joe stepped into the living room carrying an old-style floor fan, the round kind that oscillated from side to side. Perfect.
Laura nodded. “I need string or twine if you have it, and a manilla envelope.”
“String I got. But I don’t mail nothing from here.”
She eyed a high shelf beside the front door. “That’s okay. I can improvise.” Heck, her whole crazy idea was a massive improvisation.
Lisbet and Adam stepped into the room.
Laura pulled a small jar of petroleum jelly and a plastic bag of cotton balls out of the diaper bag. “I need the two of you to mix these together as thoroughly as you can.”
They set to work and she turned to Nick. “I need you to rig a string to the front door. When AbaCo’s people open it, we’ll need to knock over this can of baby formula.” Thank God she’d never gotten around to pulling the sample can from the hospital out of the bag and had been in too big of a hurry earlier today to take it out.
Nick frowned, and she explained. “Non-dairy creamer is extremely flammable when it’s dispersed in air as a cloud of powder. Ellie’s baby formula is largely made of the same stuff.”
Joe started to chuckle. “I worked at a grain elevator when I was a kid. We lived in fear of the dust from wheat or corn catching on fire. Would’ve blown the elevator sky high.”
Laura nodded. “Same principle. We’ll set up this electric fan under that shelf. When AbaCo’s guys open the front door, Nick’s string will dump the can of baby formula down on the fan, which should disperse the formula in a cloud throughout this room.”
Nick added, “And then we use the cotton balls and petroleum jelly to provide a fire to light the stuff, and kaboom—”
Laura grinned as his eyes lit up.
“—Super Mommy saves the day,” Nick finished.
“That’s the idea,” she muttered as she positioned the electric fan. “How’s that cotton coming?”
“Done, ma’am,” Lisbet answered.
Laura pulled out one of Ellie’s bottles and quickly stuffed the petroleum jelly soaked cotton balls inside. She bit the end off a nipple and pulled some of the cotton out the tip. “Voila. One non-dousable candle to light off our explosion.”
Nick frowned. “Will it be hot enough to ignite the powder?”
Joe answered for her. “Hell, yeah. The slightest open flame around flour dust will set the stuff off.”
Nick and Laura finished setting up their trap, and in a few minutes, it was ready to go. She would have loved to test the string on the door, but they didn’t dare. They’d get one shot at this thing.
Joe checked out the back door one last time and gave Laura a thumbs-up just as Lisbet announced from one of the front windows, “I think I see someone moving out there. It looks like he’s coming this way.”
“Time to go,” Nick announced grimly. “I’ll carry Adam. How do you feel about piggybacking with me, son? Can you hang on if I run really fast?”
Adam nodded, his eyes big and dark with fear. The child was far too perceptive for his own good sometimes. He knew they were in trouble.
While Joe, Lisbet, Nick and Adam headed for the back door, Laura took one last peek out the front window. A shadow slid from one tree to another right at the edge of the small clearing, no more than fifty feet from the house. Yup, whoever was out there was on the move.
She carefully lit the baby-bottle candle with a match. It gave off a bright, steady flame. The thing should stay lit for at least an hour. Although she doubted it would have to burn for more than a few minutes, given how close those people outside were. She raced for the back of the tiny cabin.
“Okay,” Nick murmured. “From here on out, we move slow and silent.”
There were nods all around as he eased open the door. Crouching low, he moved out into the dark. Joe and Lisbet followed and Laura brought up the rear, closing and locking the door quietly behind her.
Laura picked up a twig off the porch and jammed it into the key hole, breaking it off inside the lock. There. Now no one could pick this lock and gain entrance from this direction, limiting them to the front door and their trap. Super Mommy had done all she could to buy them an escape.
Chapter 14
Nick forced himself to breathe slowly, inhaling and exhaling on a steady three count. But it was damned hard to stay calm out here in the dark, all exposed like this. The fifty feet or so to the nearest trees seemed like a thousand miles as he eased one foot after another forward slowly, doing his best not to shuffle any leaves.
Each little
noise from someone in the group made him wince, but there was nothing they could do for it. It wasn’t like anyone besides Laura was a trained operative. The pistol clutched in his right hand felt heavy and foreign all of a sudden. He’d shot on target ranges before, and was even a half-decent skeet shooter. But the idea of gunning down another human being rattled him.
He clenched his jaw grimly. He’d do whatever it took to keep his son and his woman safe. Even if that meant killing someone.
Laura moved off to the left a bit, and Joe slid off to the right a little ways. Nick squinted into the darkness, trying to remember which trees he and Laura had come from between before. They couldn’t afford to miss the car by much.
Lisbet stumbled slightly in front of him and crunched loudly in a pile of dead leaves. Laura gestured sharply with her hand. Even not knowing any fancy hand signals, it was clear she wanted them to stop and get down. Nick dropped onto his haunches. Adam’s feet must’ve touched the ground, because the child’s weight around his neck suddenly eased. Nick reached back to pat his son reassuringly on the shoulder.
Laura was crawling now, and Lisbet imitated her employer. Nick duckwalked awkwardly, unwilling to commit to being on his hands-and-knees and unable to protect Adam quickly if need be.
Joe moved farther off to the right and was first to reach a stand of brush. His bulky silhouette disappeared from sight. Then Lisbet slipped behind a tree trunk. And finally, tree branches closed in around him and Adam. They were far from safe, but he felt better with someplace to hide. Ka-boom! Boom!
Bright white lit the forest around them like day as a wave of heat slammed into his back. The propane tank beside the cabin must’ve blown, too. Adam cried out in terror and buried his face against the back of Nick’s neck.
“Run!” Laura screamed.
Nick spared one glance over his shoulder and saw a half-dozen weapon-toting men streaming around the flaming remains of the cabin. He turned and ran for his and Adam’s life. He’d hate to see how many men would’ve come after them were it not for the explosion. Flaming bits of debris began to rain down around him, sizzling as they hit damp leaves. Hot embers on his face felt like needles stabbing him, but he ignored them and just kept running.