by Mandy Harbin
She was so lost in her musing that she hadn’t noticed the car barreling toward her as she came up to the intersection. Anna slammed on her brakes and turned the wheel, hoping for a lesser impact than one straight on. She screamed as they slammed into each other and skidded across the road, her car landing in the ditch.
There goes the deposit. As if I’m not in enough trouble.
She groaned as she pried the door open and got out. She walked toward the van, a late 70s model built like a tank sporting barely a scratch. She glanced back at the road, noticing there weren’t any stop signs. That was a dangerous thing, even out in the country where there wasn’t a lot of traffic.
“Hello?” she called out as she approached the van. She peeked into the window as she neared, but didn’t see anyone. Worried they might not have been wearing a seat belt and were hurt, she rushed to the door and yanked. It flew open and out of her hands. She gasped, but someone in the shadow covered her face with a blanket. Anna screamed and twisted, making noise as she quickly tried to extricate herself from the cloth.
From the assailant.
“Hurry,” someone said, telling her with just one word whoever this was wasn’t acting alone. Some kind of rope was wrapped around her, securing the blanket over her face, before she was thrown onto the floor of the van. Oh God, she was going to suffocate. Anna wiggled as best she could, trying to create space within the makeshift hood.
Ripping sounds made her freeze, and then there was a hole right were her mouth was.
“That’ll keep you alive for now,” the person said. It wasn’t a voice she recognized, but she was grateful whoever it was hadn’t planned on killing her right away. She hadn’t heard of kidnappings or human trafficking being a major problem in this area, but in her line of work, she knew it was possible anywhere.
It sounded as if the door opened again, and Anna lay very still to pick up any sounds she could. Anything she could figure out could be the key to saving her life. After several seconds, something landed right by her face and she gasped.
“Careful with her computer. I want to have one of my guys look at it.”
Crap, they took her things from the car. She shouldn’t be surprised by that. Criminals typically exploited all forms of illegal activity.
“Maybe there’s something on it that’ll tell us how much she knows.”
Oh no. No, no, no, no. This wasn’t some random kidnapping and robbery. He not only knew she had a computer, but he wanted to know what she actually had on it. This wasn’t a wrong-place-wrong-time type of thing.
She was targeted.
Out of all the cases she’d worked, she’d taken down a lot of people and had crossed even more.
The one that hurt the most was the one she’d tried to clear the air with today.
A deep sense of foreboding enveloped her. He’d told her to get out. Rick had said they’d wanted her gone.
“Well now, what’s this?” the only one talking said, but she had no idea what he was talking about, and he didn’t elaborate. After several seconds, he said, “Have the car towed to the shop.”
The shop? Could Blade be behind this? Would he kidnap her to secure his freedom? Those men were capable of a lot. She could only imagine what all they’d done that the government had given them a blank check to complete.
And that was without any threat to their operation. People did all kinds of stuff when their livelihood was threatened.
She didn’t want to believe that, but there was a part of her that refused to dismiss any theories at this point.
Even ones that would totally and completely destroy her.
Chapter Thirteen
“I’m sorry you had to cut your trip short,” Blade said as Brody walked into the shop the next morning. He was dead on his feet, not having slept at all. Anna had packed everything and left, not leaving a trace she’d ever been at his house. He knew he’d told her to get out, but there was a small part of him that hoped she’d been stubborn enough to stay and hash it out. Only because he wanted more answers.
That was the only reason he’d allow himself to accept.
“It wasn’t a trip. It was a honeymoon,” Brody clarified with a glare.
Blade winced.
Brody clapped him on the back. “Once we get this mess cleared up, and I know my family is safe, I’m going back and I’m not taking my phone, dude.”
If Blade felt like shit before bringing this mess down on everyone, risking their business and their lives, he felt like the scum of the earth now. “I won’t let anything happen to your family.”
Brody grabbed him by the shoulders, so he’d face him head on. “I was talking about you. You’re my family, too. I’m not letting you go to jail for what happened.”
Blade was speechless. Yeah, he still had some of his family left, and actually remembered his childhood, unlike Brody, but this man right here was the brother he never had.
“Thanks. I still owe you.”
“You’re goddamn right you do. On my fucking honeymoon,” Brody muttered as he walked toward the meeting room. “I take it y’all have swept for critters?”
“No bugs,” Bear said. “We checked everywhere. Just the same, we have a white noise machine running throughout the building.”
“You didn’t find any or you got rid of them?” Brody asked.
“There were none,” Gauge said.
“That doesn’t make any sense. Why scope out the shop, put an agent on location, and not record everything going on?”
“Yeah, we wondered the same thing,” Roc said. “The feds are smarter than that. No way would they miss an opportunity to get intel.”
“They’d have known our guards would be down. We wouldn’t have checked,” Hunter added.
“What does that mean?” Brody asked, crossing his arms.
“Not sure,” Bear said. “But I think it’s possible we’re not the main focus of their investigation. Rick said they are working with another agency. The asshole probably tried to milk the opportunity into something more. Hell, for all we know, whatever part we as a group were involved in was off the books.”
“Seems complicated,” Brody said. “So why even bother?”
“Because they were using me,” Blade said. He rubbed a hand over his face and relayed the story to Brody about his sister, Jeremiah, and even discussed his visit to Colton and how Anna asked him about Mr. Ward. He left nothing out, wanting Brody to know about everything he’d told the rest of the guys yesterday.
Brody watched silently, remaining quiet once Blade finished. When he opened his mouth, his words bit harder than what he assumed Brody had intended. “Tell me, are you so worked up because the feds might know something about a death resulting from self-defense that happened years ago, or because the woman you love might have betrayed you?”
Blade sucked in a breath.
“You love her?” Roc asked. “Fuck, don’t you know better than to think with your little head?”
Blade growled, but Brody grabbed his arm to keep him from advancing on the other man. “Fuck you,” Blade barked.
“I think that answers my question,” Brody said, shoving Blade so that he sat down on the table beside him. “You need to focus. Attacking our prick of teammate isn’t going to do a damn thing.”
“Except make me feeling better,” Blade seethed.
“Really? You think it’ll be that easy?”
And just like that, it was as if the wind had been knocked from his sails. “No. No, I don’t,” he said miserably.
“I know it’s going to be hard, but you have to remain objective. We need to look at every possible angle they can go with this information, and then we need to start calling in favors. I’ll be damned if I let them take you down for doing the government’s job. Hell, all you did back then was what we do now, except you didn’t get paid for it.”
Blade opened his mouth to speak, but Bear’s phone went off.
The guy checked it and cussed. “It’s Shelby.” He put it o
n speaker. “Guess you’re not coming this morning,” he said with an edge to his voice.
“Your wife’s not coming either,” she quipped.
Gauge snickered. Bear glared at him, and he raised his hand. “Sorry,” he murmured.
“You’re lucky I even answered the phone, but I’m curious as why you even have the balls to call after what went down.”
Shelby sighed. “Look, I didn’t want to do it. I even told Anna this was bullshit, but our hands were tied. Now, Rick is storming around here trying to get an arrest warrant issued.”
“Fuck,” Blade said. He’d need to scratch pavement and get the hell out of town.
“On what charges?” Bear asked.
“Obstruction of justice. She won’t answer her phone. Rick’s been trying to reach her all morning. I’ve tried calling her since last night, but she’s not even answering for me. I know y’all are hiding her, but you’re making things worse.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” Blade asked, the blood in his veins running cold.
“Don’t play dumb with me. She booked the plane tickets for both of us yesterday, messaged me with my confirmation, packed her stuff, and disappeared. Anna is on the lam.”
“What?” Blade roared.
“You heard me.”
“No, I didn’t because it sounded like you said you don’t know where the fuck she is!”
“Um…” Shelby hesitated. “You don’t know where Anna is?”
“No. I found out what was going on, confronted her, and told her to get out. After I told the guys, we called Rick and said y’all had to be gone within the hour. I figured she headed back to headquarters.”
“Oh shit, you really don’t know where she’s at?” she asked, but still didn’t sound completely convinced. “How do I know you’re not lying?”
“That’s your department,” Roc barked.
“Well if she’s not with you, and she’s not here with us, where did she go?”
Blade had no idea. One thing was for sure, though, he thought as he bolted up. “We have to find her.” Any number of things could have happened, and as the theories flooded through his mind, each one was worse than the previous one.
“I’ll check flight records. Maybe she took another plane,” Gauge said before jumping up and running to the shop’s computer in the main office.
“I’m going to let Rick know she’s missing. We’ll try to triangulate her cell phone.”
Shelby ended the call without warning, and Blade felt like a caged animal, pacing without any direction. She could be anywhere. Anywhere.
“I-I need to go to the house and search the woods.”
The door chimed, drawing their attention.
“I’ll go take care of it,” Hunter said. He rushed out of the room to tend to the customer, but he was only gone long enough for Blade to decide he wasn’t sitting around the shop until record searches came back.
“It was a car transporter,” Hunter said when he walked in. “It’s totaled.”
“We’ll take care of it later—”
“The paperwork says it’s a rental taken out in Anna Sue Fisher’s name.”
Blade’s head whipped around. He started to ask what it looked like, but his feet were already moving before his tongue caught up. He knew exactly what she’d been driving, not that he believed for one second that she took the car out in her own name. She’d have used an alias or put it under a fake company name. He rounded the corner, and came to a screeching halt.
“It’s her car.”
“How can you tell?” Bear asked, coming up behind him. Blade rushed over to it and looked inside.
“Fuck! There are rabbit feet. It’s hers.”
“Could be a coincidence,” Brody said.
Blade faced him. “She’s missing. A car matching the description of the one she was driving was wrecked. It was delivered to our shop. Did I mention she always puts rabbit feet in her vehicles? This isn’t a coincidence.”
Gauge came into the room. “She didn’t book any other flight. If she left town, she drove—what’s that?” he asked, pointing to the mangled car that Hunter was inspecting.
“Her car,” Blade said.
Gauge cussed and dug out his phone.
“What are you doing?” Brody asked him.
“Calling Rick. We have to treat this like she was taken.”
“Who would have done such a thing?” Bear asked. “She’s careful. Fuck, the suspects on her case are us, and we didn’t take her.”
“Do you know what this is?” Hunter asked, holding up something. “Found it in the trunk.”
“My knife,” Blade breathed. The one Jeremiah had used on his sister.
The one he’d left as a calling card to her murder.
Reality slammed into him like a fuck ton of bricks. Only one person had tried to destroy his life since that fateful night. One person who wanted him to suffer. One person who was secretly trying to buy his family land to ruin him in every way possible. One person who must have learned Blade was engaged. One person who didn’t want Blade to experience any happiness whatsoever.
One person who was going to suffer Blade’s wrath.
“I know who has her.”
Chapter Fourteen
Anna awoke with a searing ache pounding in her head. She vaguely remembered her kidnappers trying to shove something down her throat, and when she wouldn’t swallow it, they’d knocked her out by force rather than medication. She wasn’t a medical expert, but she was certain she was sporting a concussion.
Slowly peeking through one eye to keep from seeing double, she took in her surroundings. It was dark, and it reeked of death. She couldn’t make out much with her eyes, but her nose told a story far more frightening in the dark. Someone had died here. At the very least, a dead body had recently been there, whether or not the person had actually taken their last breath there. That did not bode well for her. At all.
As her eyes adjusted to the dim lights, she could make out a table and what looked like the source of the odor. She couldn’t be sure the motionless body was dead—for all she knew they’d been knocked out like she was—but she couldn’t very well call out to her. She guessed it was a woman with the long hair and skirt.
She very slowly shifted her hands and suppressed a groan of frustration. Unlike the woman across the room, she was tied down. That was a complication she didn’t need, not that she fully expected her abductors to toss her into a room without taking extra measures to ensure she couldn’t get away. Anna looked down to see how bad it was. She knew how to get out of some knots without any tools. When her gaze landed on something metal, she almost frowned, but stopped herself before she allowed any physical reaction. A metal chair with arms?
She had to look just off the side so her peripheral vision could focus on just what she was tied to. Yeah, it was a chair. She shifted ever so slightly and felt a gentle bounce.
A wheelchair.
Upon closer inspection, it looked as if there was tape on various places—wrapped around the handles under her arms, on the footrest—which didn’t make much sense, unless it was a rickety piece of equipment.
Then a flash came to her of her time in Louisiana. A memory…
“…Then he ran it in for a touchdown, yeah. Broken ankle and all.”
“It wasn’t broken, Lauren.”
“Oh please, Justin. Your foot was damn near dangling.”
“It was still a hell of a game.” Anna would recognize that voice anywhere.
“And a shitty few months after. I had to push you around in that damn wheelchair all over the place.”
“Language,” Blade’s mother said.
“Dude, I remember you taped racing stripes and stuck flags onto that thing.” Justin laughed.
“I forgot all about that. Y’all stayed here because your house wasn’t wheelchair accessible,” Blade said.
Anna’s head whipped around and, sure enough, there were old, dirty flags sticking up from the back.
“Justin,” she breathed.
“Close,” someone said. A voice she knew. “Wrong brother, cher.”
Anna swallowed and looked up quickly, right into Lauren’s face. Blade’s cousin. A man she’d eaten with and hung out with during her time at Bayou Beasts. “Why?”
“Such a loaded question, cher.”
“One he’s not going to answer,” someone else said, coming into view. This person she did not recognize, but the voice matched that of the one in the van when she’d been taken.
“Who are you?”
“Fletcher Ward.” Oh, she knew that name. Just never got a chance to put a face with it. Until now. “I only get my hands dirty for a special reason, and Blade is one of them.”
Anna schooled her expressions. She didn’t have to guess why Mr. Ward wanted to hurt Blade. She knew everything there was to know about that, but she seriously did not understand why Lauren was here or what he had to do with Mr. Ward. Whatever it was, it was bad. Really, really bad.
She glanced around the room again, this time not taking care in being discrete, but there were no clues as to where they’d taken her. She thought quickly, tried to gage the time they’d been in the car, but she had no idea how long she’d been knocked out. She only knew they’d been in the car for a while, but that didn’t tell her anything.
“I see your little head is practically spinning. How about a compromise, hmm? I’ll let you ask one question if you answer one for me.”
She didn’t really think she was in a position to deny this request, so she slowly nodded.
“Where’s your engagement ring?”
Well, that’s not a question she’d anticipated. She frowned, trying to figure out why he’d asked her that and not something to do with the case she’d been working on. The case that got his law practice on the FBI’s radar. Or even about Blade since this man knew he was the one to deal the death blow to his son.