Fatal Thrill

by Misty Evans

  Percy arrived just in time to hear that last bit. “Crime scene techs are on the way.” Behind them, the Gypsy family was packing up. “Does this Thief River have any significance to you, Jaya?”

  She shook her head. “Never heard of it, but it seems like a fitting name for something involving my father, doesn’t it?”

  Shelby gave her a consoling smile. Jon seemed oblivious to the irony. “It’s a heavily wooded area,” he said. “Very remote.”

  Factual, no emotion.

  Jaya felt like the ground under her feet was shifting like sand. She’d never seen Jon so…detached. Machine-like. “You know the place, don’t you?”

  “My father owns a cabin in the woods there.”

  Again, not a drop of emotion. Probably because it had to do with his father. Whenever he talked about his parents, especially his dad, he shut down. “That’s good, though, isn’t it? You know the area. Your dad can help us find Finn.”

  “No, he can’t.”

  “Um, okay.”

  He must have seen the question in her eyes. “He doesn’t live there anymore. It’s a big area and the locals aren’t friendly.”

  “Why not?” Percy asked.

  “It’s a large survivalist compound. The original owner of the land accrued nearly 400 acres up and down the river back in the 1980s. He bequeathed it to his son who, in turn, parceled it out for big dollars to his fellow survivalist friends. They’re anti-government, anti-taxes, anti-everything.”

  “Sounds like you better take Colton with you,” Shelby said.

  Jon gave a nod. “Plan to.”

  “So you want us to stay here?” Shelby motioned at Miles and Charlotte. “While you guys go back to the States?”

  “Do you think your boss will let you keep on the case?” Jon asked. “I’d like you to work with Percy to find Sean. This won’t be resolved until he and the cross are in custody.”

  Jaya flinched. She knew her dad needed to answer for the crimes he’d committed, but a part of her still hated hearing Jon ask her best friend to bring her father to justice.

  Shelby slanted a glance her way and squeezed Jaya’s arm. “I’ll do what I can, both to find Sean and see about cutting a deal with the FBI.”

  Percy put a hand on Jaya’s shoulder. “Ditto from me. We don’t know the whole story yet, so don’t be fretting, cousin. We’ll find your father, make sure he’s safe, then handle the charges against him with as much mercy as we can.”

  “Mercy, ay?” A dark figured stood in the archway leading to the side entrance. There was a hood over his head and water pooled at his feet. “Save your breath, son. There’s no mercy for the O’Sullivans. Never was, never will be.”

  Jaya knew that voice. She took a hesitant step forward. “Dad?”

  Sean O’Sullivan shoved the hood off his head and gave his daughter a big smile. “Hear you’re looking for me, J.”

  That the man called her by the same nickname he did, made Jon’s guts crawl.

  But of course, why wouldn’t he? The shortened version of her name was the easiest, and he was her father.

  “Where the hell have you been?” Jon demanded.

  Sean didn’t even glance his way, his eyes soaking up Jaya.

  “Dad? Are you okay?” She hesitantly moved toward him and it was then that Jon noticed the man was holding his side.

  Dark, rusty stains bloomed from where his hand clutched at his coat. Blood.

  “Not exactly,” he said, and before Jaya or Jon could reach him, he pitched forward and landed on his face.

  “Oh my god,” Jaya said, rushing forward.

  Jon tapped his comm. “Bells, get down here. We have a situation.”

  Miles and Percy stepped closer as Jon helped Jaya turn Sean over. Jon checked for the pulse at the man’s throat.

  Light and slightly irregular.

  Pulling back Sean’s barn coat, he saw what he was afraid of. “He’s gut shot.”

  “Damn it,” Miles said.

  “Daddy!” Jaya tapped Sean’s cheek. “Daddy, wake up. We’ll get you some help. Come on, dad.”

  In the distance, the sound of sirens cut through the storm. Claude and Neenan hustled over to see, but Kelli was hurriedly pulling on her coat. “Jaya, I’m sorry, but we have to leave.” She shoved a ragged piece of paper into Jaya’s hand. “This is a number where you can leave a message for us and pick up ours. We’ll be in touch.”

  Jaya nodded numbly and went back to her father. Colton rushed in. His gaze bounced between the man on the floor and the bailing Gypsies. “What’d I miss?”

  Jon and Miles examined the wound. “My bag is in the trunk of the car,” Jon told Miles. “Go grab it. There’s QuickClot in there.”

  Miles took off for the front doors of the castle, nearly running over Neenan and his siblings. Percy, hot on his heels, yelled, “I’ll bring my car up to the door. We’ll get him to the hospital.”

  Colton squinted as he came closer. “Is that Sean?”

  “Don’t you die on me, daddy,” Jaya said, voice quivering.

  “He’s not going to die.” At least if Jon had any say in it. “I won’t let him.”

  “Shit,” Colton swore. Shelby sidled up next to him and he pulled her close. “Do we know what happened?”

  Shelby shook her head. “Just that he’s been shot in the abdomen.”

  Damn SOB owed them an explanation for all of this and Jon wasn’t about to let the man die right in front of his daughter.

  Shrugging off his coat, he let it drop, then peeled off his shirt. Wadding up the cotton, he held it firmly on the wound. Colton took up residence next to Sean’s head, checking his pulse again. “A bit thready.”

  Jaya wound her fingers in Sean’s, whispering prayers and pleas. Jon wasn’t religious, but he did believe in the afterlife. He offered up a silent prayer as well to all the gods and creators, asking them to spare this one man.

  Miles rushed back in, soaking wet once more. Charlotte moved out of the way, letting him through with the bag. He dumped out the contents and Jon found what he was looking for.

  The QuickClot was a hemostatic with an added ingredient that helped the body’s clotting abilities. It would slow the bleeding until they could get Sean to the hospital for surgery. Jon hoped against hope there was no internal damage, but the location of the wound suggested organs might be involved.

  Miles ripped open the aseptic foil of a trauma pad and Jon placed it over the clotting agent. They worked together to wrap gauze around Sean’s abdomen.

  Colton grabbed the stethoscope and checked Sean’s heart. “Heart rate’s dropping. Blood pressure must be too.”

  Percy ran in with several folded blankets in his arms. The sirens outside had died and two officers came in behind him. “Car’s ready,” he said, unfolding a blanket. “It’ll be faster to drive him to the hospital than to wait on ambulance services.”

  Shelby helped Percy stack the blankets, folded lengthwise, to form a stretcher. Jon kept pressure on Sean’s wound as Miles, Colton, and Percy shifted the man to them and lifted him from the ground.

  As they headed slowly for the door, Percy fired off instructions to the crime scene techs and another detective who’d arrived to exhume the body buried in the graveyard. Now they had the dead body, a possible murder scene, and the assault on Sean. “Get Landon and McCoy here,” Percy said. “I’ll take O’Sullivan’s statement as soon as he comes to.”

  Jaya didn’t let go of her dad’s hand until they had to maneuver him through the castle’s front doors. With four big guys surrounding him and Jon trying not to let up on the pressure, Jaya had to relinquish her spot for a moment. As soon as they made it out, she was back, grabbing his hand again.

  The tears on her cheeks made Jon’s skin itch. How many times had he carried a body on a stretcher with his team over rocky terrain and up hills for miles during SEAL training? Too many to count. In the field, he’d had to carry injured soldiers and more than one civilian this way as well. Before today, he�
�d always been able to stay detached, to focus and compartmentalize what had to be done.

  Right now, that focus was in short supply. The man on the stretcher evoked emotions of anger as well as relief. It was as if he were carrying his own father to the back of Percy’s SUV, rather than Jaya’s.

  Percy had laid the rear seats down and Jaya hopped inside, guiding her father’s body in as Percy and Miles shifted him slightly sideways to get him to fit kitty-corner.

  “We’ll follow you in the car,” Charlotte called as she and Shelby headed to the rental.

  “Go with them,” Jon told Colton. “Miles, you stay with us.”

  Percy hopped in to drive. Miles and Jon stabilized Sean’s body as best as they could.

  Which wasn’t easy as they bumped over rocky terrain to get to the main road once more, siren loud and lights flashing. Even on the road, potholes filled with rain water, the evening gloom, and a random sheep or two made the trip challenging. At one point, Percy had to swerve quickly to avoid a downed tree limb he didn’t see due to a sharp bend along the cliffs. Jaya gasped and lost her balance, slamming into the vehicle’s side and bumping her head.

  Jon reached for her. “Hang on.”

  The SUV skidded for half a second, the inertia taking Jon forward over Sean’s body. His one hand already on Jaya, she ended up with some of his weight. Her hand gripped his bicep and for a moment Jon wasn’t sure who was holding up who.

  The vehicle straightened, Percy swearing and Miles grabbing the seatbelt to lock it in.

  “Everyone okay back there?” Percy called.

  Jon didn’t loosen his hold on Jaya and her hand squeezed his bicep. “We’re good,” she said.

  He stared into her troubled eyes for a moment, seeing how scared she was but also the determination in them not to give into it.

  So proud.

  Damn he loved that about her.

  He returned her squeeze before resuming pressure on Sean’s wound. The disturbance shook the man from his unconscious stupor. “Ja…ya”

  “I’m right here, Dad.” Leaning over him once more, she took his hand. Her voice rose above the siren. “We’re on the way to the hospital.”

  “Tre…lawney.” The word was barely more than a mutter.

  “What?” Jaya leaned in closer. “What did you say?”

  Sean closed his eyes.

  “Cut the siren,” Jon yelled at Percy.

  The detective obliged, frowning in his rearview.

  “Sean?” Jon tapped the guy’s arm. “Repeat what you said. Who’s Trelawney?”

  Sean’s lips barely moved. “cross…Finn.”

  Jaya grasped her father’s hand again. “What about Finn, Dad? Do you know where he is? Who took him?”

  A flutter of lashes. The man’s skin had paled considerably since he’d sauntered into the castle and his deep green eyes looked nearly black in the fading light. “Finn…”

  “He’s been kidnapped,” Jaya told her father. “Do you know who would take him? We think he’s in North Carolina, a place called Thief River.”

  Sean’s brow creased. “Kid…napped?”

  “Whoever has him wants the O’Sullivan cross,” Jon supplied. “Does this Trelawney have something to do with it?”

  “Crypt.” He seemed to fight to keep his eyes cracked open. His breathing was erratic, chest jerking with effort. “In…tunnel.”

  “Finn’s in the tunnel?” Jaya’s gaze came up to Jon’s.

  Jon shook his head. “The cross is.” He leaned forward to catch Sean’s eye. “Right, Sean? You left the cross in the tunnel?”

  “Crypt.” The man’s eyelids fluttered closed again. His breath came in gasps. “Trelaw…find…Finn.”

  That little bit of information had cost Sean O’Sullivan his last bit of energy. By the time they arrived at the hospital twenty minutes later, his breathing had become more ragged, his pulse skipping around like a jackrabbit, and his skin had a cool tinge to it.

  Percy had radioed ahead and a team of nurses and a surgeon waited for them at the emergency entrance. As Jon rattled off what they knew about Sean’s condition—which wasn’t much—the team took him off their hands. He and Jaya ran behind the stretcher, and just as they crossed into the bright lights of the ER, Sean’s body jerked, the monitor on him flatlined, and the doctor started yelling.

  Sean was in full cardiac arrest.

  14

  “He’s crashing!” the surgeon yelled, starting chest compressions as the others ran alongside Sean’s gurney.

  “No!” Jaya’s heart seemed to stop the moment her father’s did. “Dad!”

  She started after the gurney but Jon caught her up in his arms and swung her around. “You can’t help him now. Let the medics do their job.”

  The operating room doors banged closed behind the team, leaving Jaya fighting against Jon’s hold. “Let go! I need to be with him.”

  Colton appeared next to her. “There’s nothing you can do and they won’t let you in there anyway.”

  Shelby was by his side, Miles and Charlotte behind them. Percy came through the emergency room entrance, flashing his badge at the receptionist and filling her in on the details.

  Stunned, Jaya simply stood there, still wrapped in Jon’s arms. In the span of thirty minutes, she’d found her dad and lost him again. How was that possible?

  “If he dies, I’m going to kill him,” she whispered into Jon’s shoulder.

  He stroked her hair and kissed her temple. “You and me both.”

  The double doors swung open and a nurse stuck her head out. “We’ve stabilized him, but he needs emergency surgery. It’s going to be a few hours. You might want to find a seat.”

  Relief burned in Jaya’s breastbone, pushing hot tears up her throat. “Thank you,” was all she could say, glad Jon was holding her.

  As the group walked back toward the desk at the entrance, Percy met them. “You’ll need to fill out some paperwork,” he said, handing Jaya a clipboard and pen. “Since it’s going to be a while before Sean can answer my questions, I’m heading back to the castle. I want to look for that crypt he mentioned. Trelawney, right?”

  Jaya shot Jon a look, not at all sure she wanted Percy finding the cross if it was there. Suddenly, she wanted to be the one to discover it and see what all the fuss was about. She couldn’t leave the hospital though. What if her dad died on the operating table? Even though she couldn’t help him, she sure as hell wasn’t going to be forty miles away. “Trelawney’s just a code word,” she lied. “It doesn’t mean anything about the cross.”

  Percy canted his head. “Code word?”

  “Growing up—when Dad was around—he walked me to school everyday and he’d always hug me and tell me he loved me.” That at least was the truth. It maybe only happened a handful of times, but he’d told wild stories about his missing treasures on those walks and she’d never forgotten them. “Around the age of nine, I was embarrassed to be seen with my father, and I sure as heck didn’t want to exchange ‘I love yous’ with him in front of the kids at school, so he made up a code word. Trelawney. It was our secret way of saying I love you.”

  She was going to give Shelby a run for her money in the bad liar department.

  “Trelawney is an old Cornish surname,” Charlotte said cheerfully. “Like Sybil Trelawney in Harry Potter.”

  Percy gave her a look and then came back to Jaya. “Right, well, I still think I’ll take a scope of the crypt and see what I can find.”

  “What I need you to do,” Jon said, his fingers brushing softly over Jaya’s hand, “is find out who shot Sean. The cross is secondary.”

  Percy’s eyes narrowed, causing tiny creases at the corners. “If I didn’t know better, I’d bet my last wages the two of you are tryin’ to distract me.”

  “You’ve got a body in that grave,” Miles said, “and Sean was shot somewhere on the castle grounds, so there might be evidence of the shooter if your CSIs haven’t already ruined it. Like Jon said, the cross is not a
priority at the moment.”

  Percy’s eyes went hard. He was a good-looking guy, very affable, until right now, Jaya decided. That look could melt men—and women—in their tracks. “You wouldn’t be telling me how to do my job, now would you, boys?”

  “Of course not.” Colton did his good ol’ boy routine, laughing under his breath and looking entirely innocent. “How ’bout I accompany you back to the tunnel and offer my services? I can hunt for anything that might look like a good hiding place for this cross.”

  “Me too,” Shelby added, smiling with fake cheer. “I’m wasting my time here. Might as well help with your investigation.”

  They were all trying to help her and her dad. Jaya slipped her hand into Jon’s. “I think that’s a great idea. I’ll keep you updated on Dad’s condition. I know you want to talk to him, Detective Maitland, so, as soon as he’s awake from his surgery, I’ll give you a heads up.”

  “We’re family, Jaya.” Her cousin looked rueful. “It’s Percy. And you better call me the minute he opens his eyes, ye hear? I’ll have an officer here to stand guard within the hour.”

  Her natural urge to protect those she loved surfaced. “You can’t give him time to recover before you arrest him? What are you going to do, take him to the station on a gurney with an IV still in his arm?”

  “The guard is for his protection,” Percy said, “not to arrest him.”

  “Oh.” Chagrinned, she nodded. “Sorry. It’s just…well, he’s my dad.”

  “I get it, and I’d be sending protection for you as well if you didn’t have an entire team of friends watching out for you. Although, looks like most of them are going with me.”

  “I’ll be fine.” Jaya wrapped an arm through Jon’s. “This is all the protection I need.”

  He winked and turned on his heel. “Come on, Mr. Bells and Agent Claiborne. We’ve got work to do.”

  They left and Jaya and Jon found a quiet place in a waiting room, Miles and Charlotte following. Jaya went to work filling out the admission form, but found there were more blanks than she cared for.

  Jon huddled with Miles in the corner, cooking up some kind of plan. Jaya wasn’t sure she was going to care for that either.