The Reunion Mission: The Reunion MissionTall Dark Defender

by Beth Cornelison

  Nicole paused in folding a nightshirt and shook her head. “No, that’s Oreo. He’s a more recent addition to the family. Boudreaux is around here somewhere. Boo is an old man now.” She cast a glance to Pilar and Oreo, remembering the events of that afternoon. “You know, Oreo and Boudreaux may have saved us today. They ran when the trouble started, but managed to trip up one of the gunmen, buying me a few seconds to grab Pilar and get to the safe room.” She grinned at Daniel. “They’re heroes.”

  He tugged a corner of his mouth up and scratched Oreo behind the ear. “Sure, they get all the credit.”

  Nicole placed her hand on his arm and held his gaze. “Not all. I’m fully aware that you risked everything to help me. Again.” She bit her bottom lip. “I’m not sure I can ever repay you for—”

  He gave a disgusted grunt. “I don’t want repayment.”

  “I only mean—”

  “Is this everything you need?” He made an impatient gesture toward the suitcase. “We have to get moving.”

  Fine. So he didn’t want her gratitude. Nicole raked her fingers through her hair and turned on her toes to check her room for anything else she wanted to pack. Boudreaux sat in the door to the hall blinking at her sleepily. Shooting a glance back to Pilar, Nicole said, “We’re taking the cats.”

  Daniel jerked his chin up. “What?”

  “Look at her with Oreo.” Nicole waved a hand toward the little girl, who stroked the black-and-white cat and snuggled close to Oreo’s furry warmth. “The cats calm her. Comfort her. And...I’ve missed them. Why can’t they go?”

  Daniel rolled his eyes in resignation. “Whatever. But they stay inside. There are alligators where we’re going.”

  “Alligators?” Nicole whipped a look of concern toward Daniel.

  He raised a hand, forestalling her arguments. “It’s perfectly safe.”

  “Why won’t you tell me where this safe house is?”

  “Because if you don’t know, you can’t tell your father.” When she scowled, he added, “Or anyone else.”

  Nicole let her shoulders droop in surrender as she moved to the back of her walk-in closet to retrieve the cats’ travel cages. Boudreaux saw the carrier and headed under the bed.

  Nicole pointed to the absconding feline. “Grab him.”

  Leaning from the bed, Daniel scooped the old orange tomcat up and eyed him. “So we meet again.”

  “It’s okay, Boo. We’re not going to the vet this time.” Nicole held out the cage, and Daniel guided the wiggling cat inside. Pilar gave them a curious look when they caged Oreo, as well, and zipped up Nicole’s large suitcase.

  “We’re taking the kitties with us, okay?” she told Pilar, and fumbled for a few words of Spanish. “Llevémonos los gatos con nosotros.”

  Pilar gave her a weak smile and nodded as she scooted close to Nicole’s side again.

  “I’ll get your bag.” Daniel pushed off the bed and positioned his crutches under his arms. “You and Pilar go on down to the truck. Jake can get the cats.”

  Nicole hoisted her suitcase from the bed and extended the handle for rolling. “Don’t be silly. You’re on crutches.”

  He tried to nudge her aside. “I responded to your 911 on crutches, didn’t I?”

  She nudged back with her hip, noticing how hard and lean his body felt as she brushed against him. “True. And I’m sure you could wrangle my suitcase down the stairs and out to the truck, if you had the chance, but...” She started toward the door, wheeling the luggage with one hand and holding Pilar’s hand with her other. “So can I.”

  Nicole bumped her suitcase down the steps from the second floor, feeling the weight of Daniel’s disgruntled scowl following her.

  At the bottom of the stairs, she met her father’s frown and sighed. Somehow her father’s disapproval bothered her less than Daniel’s, a switch from years past that didn’t escape her notice.

  “I still think this is a mistake.” The senator stormed toward her, blocking her path. “Let me hire protection for you. Your safety is my concern, not these guys’.”

  “I trust Daniel and Jake, Daddy. They’re who I want.”

  “At least take my Kevlar vest with you, in case there’s more shooting,” her father pleaded.

  “I’ll be fine, Dad. Really.” When Jake took the suitcase from her, she motioned toward the second floor. “The cats are upstairs in travel cages if you’d get them, too, please.”

  Jake arched an eyebrow and glanced to Daniel. “We’re taking pets?”

  Daniel swung to the door on his crutches, then paused and rubbed his temple. “Apparently.”

  Jake lifted a hand in concession, then tugged on the brim of his cowboy hat. “This is your gig.”

  Daniel faced her father and narrowed a steely stare on him. “If you want your daughter to be safe, don’t breathe a word of any of this to anyone. The fewer people outside this room who know, the better.”

  Her father puffed out his chest and squared off with Daniel. Quickly, Nicole wedged herself between the men and patted her father on the shoulder. Pilar scuttled with her, holding tightly to the hem of her sweater. “I’ll call when I can, Daddy.”

  “No, you won’t,” Daniel grated.

  Senator White aimed a finger at Daniel. “Listen here, pal. Don’t you try to—”

  “Dad, stop!” Nicole knocked his hand down and divided a frown between the men. “We’re all on the same side here. Can’t you two stop warring with each other for even a little while?” She smacked a kiss on her father’s cheek and flashed him a taut grin. “Love you. Try not to worry. And you be careful, too.”

  Jake finished loading the truck, squeezing the cats’ cages on the backseat next to Nicole and Pilar, and they got on the road just as the night blanketed the city. Pilar curled against her and fell asleep not long after they reached the dark highway bridge that crossed the marshes surrounding the city. After the first few miles, Oreo and Boudreaux ceased their plaintive mewls, and the truck grew quiet.

  In the tight space of the backseat, surrounded by darkness, Pilar huddled against her, Nicole experienced a déjà vu that sent a shudder to her bones. Gritting her teeth, she battled down the panic that tried to climb her throat. You’re not in that cage anymore. You’re safe. Keep it together.

  Sucking in a deep breath, she sought out Daniel’s profile, reassuring herself with his presence. The lights from the dashboard cast harsh shadows over the rugged lines of his face, and she couldn’t help but flash back to the night her hands had traced his chiseled cheeks and square jaw while her body had been tangled with his. That night he’d been smiling, his dark eyes alight with warmth and humor. Her heart pattered with longing. She missed his smile. She had yet to see it since he’d swooped in to save her from her Colombian prison.

  “Now that we’re on the road, can you tell me where you’re taking me?” she called over the road noise. Roused by her voice, Oreo meowed, as if to say, “Yeah, where are you taking us?”

  Daniel turned in the front seat and met her gaze. “My turf.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “With my bum knee, I need every advantage I can get against these cretins. We’re going someplace I know inside out.” He cast a narrowed gaze out the side window and muttered something to Jake she couldn’t hear.

  A tickle of suspicion crawled up her back. “Meaning?”

  “We’re going to the bayou.”

  * * *

  Daniel peered through the darkness to the weathered house on the bank of a southern Louisiana bayou. He’d spent many nights in the old wooden home. Set on a pier foundation with a wide front porch and a tin roof, his grandmère’s one-hundred-year-old house looked exactly as it had the day he’d come to live there as a newly orphaned boy.

  From the bayou waters, the eyes of creatures large and small reflected the headlights with a preternatural glow. Daniel had learned to respect the wildlife as he grew up, but Nicole and Pilar would have to be taught basic precautions. As beautiful as the moss-draped
bayou was, the murky swampland teemed with hidden dangers.

  “The circuit box is just inside the back door,” he told Jake as he handed him a key. “Turn the power on while we unload, will ya?”

  Jake nodded, jammed his cowboy hat on his head and climbed out of his truck, leaving his headlights burning, the only illumination on the house, other than the gibbous moon.

  Daniel slid out of the truck and pulled his crutches from the backseat, along with one of the cat carriers. Nicole whispered to Pilar, who sat up, rubbing her eyes and glancing around warily.

  “Whose house is this?” Nicole asked, rolling the kinks from her shoulders and craning her neck to gaze through the windshield.

  “Mine now.” Daniel massaged his sore knee, stiff after sitting so long. “It was my grandmother’s and her parents’ before that. Mémère left it to me when she died three years ago.”

  Behind him the security light blinked on with a hum that said the power had been restored. One by one lights came on in the windows, indicating Jake was making his way through the rooms, checking things out.

  Nicole popped open the truck door and climbed out, then helped Pilar jump to the ground. After circling the front bumper, she took a cat carrier in each hand and looked up at him. “Lead the way.”

  Slinging his duffel over one shoulder, Daniel planted his crutches on the soft earth and headed inside. The warped front steps creaked as he climbed them, and he batted a large cobweb out of his way as he hobbled to the front door. He gave the grimy window a quick knock, and Jake opened the door and stood back.

  The musty smell of mildew and age assailed him, and as he limped into the familiar living room, he imagined he could still smell Mémère’s crawfish gumbo and spicy boudin cooking on the gas stove. When his grandmother didn’t round the corner from the kitchen and spread her arms for a hug, a pang settled over him. The house seemed lonely, lifeless without Mémère.

  “I’ll grab the suitcases,” Jake said, moving to the door. “Which room do you want them in?”

  Roused from his memories, Daniel waved a hand toward the back of the house. “Put Nicole in the master bedroom and the girl next door. I’ll sleep on the couch.”

  Nicole stiffened. “No. Pilar stays with me.” She stroked the child’s head and shrugged. “I doubt she’d stay in a room by herself, anyway. You can have the master bedroom.”

  Daniel lifted a shoulder and pulled a dusty, protective cover from a stuffed chair. “Whatever.”

  In their travel carriers, the cats meowed and pawed at the cages’ doors. Nicole squatted to peer in one carrier, cooing to the feline inside. “Can I let them out?”

  “Go ahead.” Daniel moved to the next piece of furniture and yanked on the sheet cover. A plume of dust rose in the air, and Pilar sneezed.

  Yeah, with the accumulated dust and mildew, the house would be full of allergens, but it was secluded, safe. He’d take a stuffy nose over Colombian mercs any day.

  Nicole opened the first cage, and the old orange cat crept out, giving the air a cautious sniff. “What do you think, Boudreaux?”

  When Nicole pointed to the other cage and nodded to Pilar, the little girl crouched to open the second carrier. The black-and-white cat trotted out and gave an unhappy meow before taking off to explore his new digs.

  “How long has this place been shut up?” Nicole asked, joining him in uncovering the furniture and using a corner of one of the sheets to wipe dust from a lamp table.

  Daniel wadded up the dirty sheet in his hands and tossed it in a corner on the floor. “Last time I was here was two, two and a half years ago, I think, right before I left for Colombia on an undercover mission with Alec.”

  “Is there any food here or other supplies?”

  Daniel dragged a hand over his mouth and grunted. “May be a thing or two. I’ll ask Jake to bring in some supplies for us first thing in the morning.”

  “What did I do?” Jake asked with a grin as he backed through the front door hauling in Nicole’s rolling suitcase and his duffel bag.

  “He’s volunteered you to go shopping—” A loud crash and the predatory howl of a cat cut Nicole off. More rustling and thumping drew everyone’s attention to the back of the house.

  Jake and Daniel exchanged a telling look, and both drew weapons from under their shirts. Adrenaline kicking and his muscles taut, Daniel moved down the hall on his crutches as silently as he could while keeping a grip on his handgun. Pressing his back to the wall, he slid a hand into the first bedroom and turned on the light.

  Empty.

  Drawing a deep, quiet breath, Daniel sidled farther down the hall and repeated the process at the next door. When the lights flashed on, he swept his gaze over the twin beds, scarred dresser and rag-rug-covered floor.

  In the center of the room where he’d slept as a teenager, Nicole’s black-and-white cat stood with an arched back and ears plastered to his head, hissing at a fat, disoriented-looking raccoon. While his chest loosened a degree with relief not to find anything more threatening skulking in the shadows, he kept a wary eye on the raccoon. A frightened animal of any size could prove dangerous, and raccoons could carry rabies.

  “Casse-toi!” he shouted, waving a hand at the critter. As if animals at his grandmére’s spoke Cajun French by default. “Scat!” he added, in case this raccoon preferred Southernisms.

  Jake eyed him and chuckled. “Scat?”

  He shrugged. “Always worked for my grandmother.”

  The raccoon turned and waddled to a bookshelf, where he climbed up until he reached a hole in the drywall and scampered through.

  “Looks like someone’s been living here, after all.” Jake shoved his gun back in the waistband of his jeans.

  Daniel groaned. “And chewed a hole from the attic.” He stashed his own gun away and looked around the room for some way to block the varmint’s hole for the night. “I’ll have to evict the rascal tomorrow and make some repairs.”

  “Sounds like fun,” Jake said, his tone dripping sarcasm. He knocked his cowboy hat back enough to scratch his forehead. “I can stay a day or two and help out if you want.”

  Daniel shook his head. “Naw. I have another assignment for you, if you’re willing.”

  “I’ve got some personal time coming. I’m game.”

  Daniel nodded his appreciation, then frowned as a thought occurred to him. He pulled out his cell phone and checked his reception. “Hmm. Signal’s weak, but it might do in a pinch. You have a satellite phone in the truck by chance?”

  “No, but I can get you one.”

  Daniel nodded. “Thanks, cowboy.” The satellite phone might be overkill, but with Nicole’s life at stake, he’d rather not risk being incommunicado should trouble arise.

  And lately, trouble seemed to be following Nicole.

  * * *

  The next morning, Nicole dug her phone from her purse and walked over to a window, searching for the best possible reception, which proved to be rather dismal. When her call was answered, she smiled at the voice at the other end of the line. Stiffly formal, yet familiar and oddly comforting. Some things never changed. “Hi, Daddy. It’s me.”

  “Nicole!” Instantly, warmth tinged with worry suffused the businesslike tone. “Where...you? Where...take you? Are you...right?”

  She leaned her head against the window and closed her eyes. “I’m safe, and... Daniel’s asked me not to tell you where we are.”

  “Damn it, Nic—! I’m...father. I...right to know. Does LeCroix really think...going to let anyone or an...hurt you? That’s ludicrous.”

  “Not you, necessarily, but...it’s just a precaution.”

  Through the crackle of static, she heard her father sigh. “If he thinks...shut me out of this situation, I—”

  “No one is shutting you out. I promise I’ll check in with you from time to time so you know I’m safe. Okay?” Static answered her. “Daddy?”

  “You had a call...from Ramon Diaz at the...embassy.”

  Nicole perked up
and crossed the room to a different window, still searching for a clearer connection. “What did he say?”

  “The judge has disappeared. Mario...heard about the attempted kidnapping...went into hiding.”

  “Wait, are you saying Pilar’s father is missing now?”

  “In hiding. He doesn’t trust...because of the attack here involving you and Pilar. Diaz isn’t happy about you disappearing...Pilar, either. She’s a Colombian citizen and you’re—”

  A loud burst of static cut him off.

  “Dad?” Nicole checked her phone. Her screen read, dropped call. She tried to call her father back, but couldn’t get a strong enough signal now to place the call. “Fudge.”

  So...Pilar’s father was in hiding, as well? Great. How was she supposed to reunite him with Pilar now? Stewing over this turn of events, she carried her phone into the kitchen with her, in case her father called back.

  Pilar was sitting at the kitchen table with Jake and Daniel, watching with wide, wary eyes as the men conferred.

  “Good morning.” She sent Pilar a smile, and the men acknowledged her with mumbled greetings. Her stomach rumbled, and she turned to the cabinets to search for food.

  “We’re making a list of supplies Jake will get when he goes out in a few minutes. If you have any preferences, speak now.”

  “Coffee,” she said emphatically, then checked the counter for a coffeepot. She sighed her relief when she spotted one. “Fresh fruit and vegetables. Milk. All the stuff a little girl needs for a healthy diet. Cat food and litter for Oreo and Boudreaux.” She chose to ignore Jake’s eyeroll as he scribbled these items on the list.

  Nicole fixed the only breakfast she could find in the empty cupboards. Instant oatmeal that Daniel warned her was likely several years old. When the kettle water boiled, she stirred up two bowls of instant oatmeal and grimaced. “Add eggs and whole grain bread to the list for breakfasts.”

  Jake winked at her and scribbled on his list.

  She put the two bowls on the table and watched as Pilar bowed her head over her breakfast, then crossed herself before eating. Though not Catholic herself, Nicole had attended a Catholic high school and had numerous Catholic friends growing up, and it touched her to see the young girl practicing her faith even after all she’d been through.