Fatal Thrill

by Misty Evans

  “Jaya…”

  Jon interceded. “I give you my word I won’t let Finn’s kidnappers get away with the cross, but we may need it if we’re going to draw them out. A team in the States is trying to track Finn’s exact whereabouts in Thief River, but we’re nearly out of time, and even ambushing the kidnappers without a solid plan in place could get Finn killed. I’ve worked quite a few kidnappings. If we can show them we have the cross and make a deal to exchange it for Finn, we can get the upper hand and make sure no one dies.”

  Percy argued for another minute or so, but Jon stayed adamant about the cross going with them to North Carolina. With the manpower standing around him and Jaya, Percy finally realized he was not walking out of the underground vault with the cross in his possession. The detective swore a blue streak but said, “If anyone ever asks, I never saw that damn thing.”

  “All right,” Colton said, breaking up the moment, “wrap that thing back up, Jaya, and let’s get going. Tick tock.”

  Jon led Jaya back through the tunnel, Charlotte following, and the others bringing up the rear with the hostages. Jon wanted to interrogate the men to find out who they worked for and if they were associated with Finn’s kidnapper, but he preferred to do it topside, and Colton was right—time was running out if they were going to rescue Finn. He would have to let Percy and the Garda do their job.

  But Percy decided to leverage his weight once they reached the O’Sullivan castle. “I’m goin’ with ye to America.”

  “What?” Colton, who was now three steps ahead of Jon, came to a stop and swung around. “The hell you are.”

  Kieran and Miles turned over their attackers to two of Percy’s men waiting for them in the courtyard. The men weren’t wearing Garda uniforms, but they were quick to slap on cuffs.

  “I’m sorry,” Percy said to Jaya, “but I can’t in good concience allow you to take that”—he pointed to the bag—“out of the country without me. Plus, I might be helpful in rescuing Finn. I don’t know much about North Carolina, but I do know a few things about these criminals. I’ve been tracking them for a while. If they’re who I think they are, they’ve been working for Fitzpatrick on several heists since 2013. Now that their boss is dead, I’m guessing they’re looking to take over the business. They may even be the ones who killed ’em.”

  “You don’t think they’re the mercenaries Dad told us about? The ones working for Moreau?”

  “Guess we’ll find out once we interrogate them.”

  The cold evening wind bit into Jon’s neck. He flipped up his collar and eyed Percy. “And our kidnappers? Could they be a rival of Fitzpatrick’s or in on the coup?”

  A dip of his chin. “That’s what I need to find out. I have resources that can help, but either way, your kidnappers are most likely wanted felons. Kieran can interrogate these men while we fly to America. That way, we won’t lose more time, and I can figure out who the kidnappers are in relation to Fitzpatrick and these two.”

  “Kieran?” Shelby asked, eyeing the old man with surprise. His counter-stare was confident but guarded. Her gaze flitted over the other two men, now wrestling their attackers toward a dark blue van with no markings on it. “I see. Well, I’d like to be in on that interrogation.”

  Kieran continued to give her a challenging look. “You familiar with interrogation, then?”

  “Of course. I’m an FBI agent.”

  Kieran snorted. “This ain’t the FBI, lass. What we do at my place doesn’t follow a bunch of pansy rules.”

  Colton chuckled and pointed at the old man. “There’s a reason I like you.”

  Shelby’s eyes went to Percy, back to Kieran. “Last I checked, you’re not on the Garda payroll, Kieran.”

  He and Percy exchanged a knowing look. Kieran nodded. “That be the point, Agent Claiborne.”

  “Oh.”

  “I don’t know,” Jon said. He wasn’t hip on having Percy tag along and Beatrice was sure to axe the idea. “I understand your position, Detective Maitland, but we don’t…”

  As Jon fought to find the right words, Percy offered them up. “Play well with others?”

  “Law enforcement in particular,” Colton added. “Especially Irish police officers.”

  “That’s not true.” Jon waved Bells off. “We work with law enforcement on a regular basis, but this situation may require us to, how should I say it? Step outside the lines of what you’re comfortable being witness to.”

  “What do you think we’re doing with those two?” Percy pointed toward the van. “Kieran gets a go at ’em first to see what they know before we turn them over to my Garda teammates where they will lawyer up. I’ll get my hands slapped if they complain, but it’ll be worth it if we get some leads.”

  Kieran spit on the ground. “They won’t complain after I explain things to ’em.”

  ‘Explaining things’ in Kieran’s terms probably had to do with encouraging the men to keep their mouths shut about his interrogation techniques or winding up at the bottom of a cliff.

  Jaya stepped forward. “Who’s going to watch over my dad if you go with us, Percy? Someone could still come after him.”

  Percy glanced at Miles and Charlotte. Miles held up both hands. “Don’t look at us. We’ve got a wedding to attend this weekend and I’m in charge of security, so I have to be back beforehand to take care of that.”

  Jon figured Jaya was more worried about Sean taking off, but anything that helped their cause to keep Percy from tagging along was good in his book.

  “Sean may not trust you because you’re police,” he said to Percy, “but you’re still family, and that carries weight with him. If we have the cross, he’ll be more cooperative. You can work on getting information out of him about his other possible criminal activity. Maybe reduce the charges against him if he cooperates.”

  Hands on hips, Percy gave each of them a serious glare. “Sean will have protection, and if he doesn’t run, I’ll work on reducing the charges against him, but I am going with you.”

  Damn. Outside of dumping him between the castle and airport, Jon saw no way to get rid of his new hitchhiker. Didn’t mean he couldn’t set ground rules. “The minute you step on the plane, you’re part of my team, which means you do what I say, when I say. No questions asked and no renegade shit that could endanger everyone, including you. The first time you don’t do what I tell you, you’re gone, understand?”

  Percy leaned over to Jaya and asked in a conspiratorial tone, “He’s kind of a hardass, isn’t he?”

  Jaya reached for Jon’s hand, a smile on her face. “I think badass is a better term.”

  Badass or not, Jon hoped Finn was still alive. He’d only failed once to rescue a missing person, and he prayed he never did again.

  16

  Leaving her father behind in Ireland was one of the hardest things Jaya had ever had to do.

  She didn’t expect it to be. She wanted it to be as easy as it always seemed for him to leave her and Finn behind when he went off on one of his treasure hunts.

  But it wasn’t. Even though Shelby had stayed, and the police were keeping tabs on Sean, it still worried her to leave him. She’d called his room and told him she had the package—Jon wouldn’t let her use the word cross just in case—and that she was headed back to America.

  I have the cross, she’d texted the kidnappers under Jon’s watchful eye. He’d told her exactly what to type. She’d attached a picture so they would know she was telling the truth. Where do I find you?

  Wolfe knows, came the reply a few seconds later. Have him bring me the cross—no one else or your brother dies.

  Me? Was there only one kidnapper?

  That fact and the directions had made Jon antsy—he was stewing over the connection of Thief River to what had happened in his past and this made him even more agitated. Beatrice had called and he’d gone to the back to speak privately to her, making Jaya wonder. Was this really about the O’Sullivan cross or something much, much bigger?

  But when
she asked Jon, he’d told her he wasn’t sure either, and that in the end, it didn’t matter. The goal of the mission was to save Finn, nothing else.

  As the plane taxied down the runway, Jon seemed relieved to be getting her out of Ireland, and she couldn’t say she blamed him, but a part of her longed to stay. Under better circumstances, she would have. She’d only scratched the surface of finding out about her family and learning more about the Gypsies. Once things settled down, she hoped to return and go about getting to know her family more thoroughly.

  Of course, there was her business to run, her mother to take care of, and Finn—what was she going to do with him? He needed direction with his life, and unfortunately, her attempts so far to steer him toward something productive had met with total failure.

  On top of all of that, she was going to have a baby around…she scrolled through the weeks on her phone’s calendar. If her calculations were correct, the baby was going to make an appearance the first week in August.

  The cabin was dark except for some running lights on the aisle and the overhead one above Jon. Colton was up front with the pilot, Moe. Charlotte and Miles sat in the back with Percy, talking and finishing up the meal they’d made from the plane’s pantry of luxury food items, Jaya had requested a cheeseburger. Jon had nearly danced a jig to see her eat and had made sure she had all the fixings to go with it.

  He was texting with his boss again, having not eaten anything himself. His brow knit with worry and his jaw was tight.

  “August,” Jaya said softly. “Early August.”

  His gaze came up and met hers. As understanding dawned, his brow softened. “I love late summer.”

  “Me too.”

  They shared a smile.

  “I’m so torn about all of this,” she admitted.

  His brows drew together again. “The baby, you mean?”

  “I’m happy about the baby, but I’m scared for Finn. Scared for my dad. I don’t know…what’s going to happen.”

  Her eyes teared and Jon put the phone away and swung over to sit next to her. “Finn’s going to be okay, but I doubt he’ll be interested in treasure hunting after this, so that’s a good thing. The rest, with your dad, we’ll figure out. He’s got some good people on his side—Percy, Shelby, Beatrice. They’ll do what they can for him.”

  She laid her head on his shoulder, watching his fingers intertwine with hers. “August. Seems like a long time away.”

  They sat like that for a while, the hum of the plane and her full stomach lulling Jaya to sleep.

  When she woke, it was to Jon buckling her in. “We’re here.”

  As the plane descended, Jaya saw it was still dark out. Mountains rose like black sentinels in the distance, miles and miles of tree silhouettes rolling down them, blurring into a single shadowy carpet.

  “We’re heading straight to Thief River. Beatrice has already secured a safe house there and that’s where you’ll hang out with Parker and Ruby while Colton, Miles, and I hook up with Trace and his team. They’ve scouted the area and have the site narrowed down to three cabins. I’ll figure out for sure which one Finn is in and then we’ll decide whether we flush the kidnapper, or kidnappers, out or we go in.”

  “Ruby? Who is she?”

  “Jaxon Sloane’s girlfriend. You haven’t met her or Jax yet, but you will. Ruby is CIA. She was in town for the wedding and Beatrice told her what was going down. She insisted on helping.”

  There it was again, that automatic friendship. A woman who’d never met her offering to help rescue Finn.

  Not because of Jaya.

  Because of Jon.

  “CIA, huh? You work with a good group of people. It’s almost like a family.”

  He nodded. “Beatrice preaches all the time that we are family. Most of us don’t have blood relatives we can count on, so we count on each other. A lot of SEALs naturally feel that way when they’re in the Teams. It’s truly a brotherhood, and that doesn’t end just because we’re not active duty anymore.”

  “You’re lucky.”

  He touched her face and planted a light kiss on her lips. “I am that.”

  Before he pulled away, she snuck her hand around the back of his neck and kept him there, returning the kiss and deepening it. He was quick to respond, parting her lips with his tongue, his hand going down to her waist and anchoring her.

  That was what he did—anchored her. With all the craziness swirling around them, he kept her from losing her shit.

  “Thank you,” she murmured against his lips. “For everything.”

  He grinned. “The first moment I saw you, I knew that was it for me. There would never be anyone else.”

  She pulled back slightly to look in his eyes. She had felt it too, that magnetic attraction. Her mother always said when it was instant it was your soul mate calling to you. “Really?”

  “That day in Good Hope, when I walked into that conference room at the hospital, full of people there for Shelby and her family? It was like you were the only person in the whole damn place. I had a bitch of a time concentrating on what Colton needed me to do.”

  Jaya’s heart melted. “I felt the same way. All I could focus on was you. I love you, Jon.”

  He pressed another kiss to her lips. “I love you too. I want you to stay safe, no matter what happens. My job is to get Finn back. Yours is to protect yourself and our baby, got it?”

  She and the baby had become a team for him. Just like his SFI co-workers and SEAL brothers. Even though he wasn’t in the middle of giving orders and planning the next move to rescue her brother at that moment, he was definitely in charge of the Wolfe-O’Sullivan team.

  She pinched his earlobe gently, just like her mother used to do to her. “Yes, sir. Roger that.”

  He chuckled and hugged her close. The next moment, they were touching down, the plane bouncing slightly as the wheels grabbed the runway.

  It was a long ride to the cabin and Jon had a lot on his plate, speaking with Trace and the men he’d brought, who were meeting them at the safe house in the hills of Thief River.

  Night slithered defiantly down the mountain as the sun rose, revealing a heavy covering of snow. They drove up, up, up, Jaya’s ears popping at the ascent. Colton was behind the wheel, Miles rode shotgun, and Jaya was squeezed in between Jon and Charlotte. Behind them, Moe rode in a second vehicle with Percy.

  The scenery reminded her of Ireland in some ways, the narrow road running along the edge of the mountain and the poor visibility, thanks to the snow, looking much like her Irish homeland.

  Jon had the coordinates, based on the surveillance Trace and his team had been doing up and down Thief River. Somewhere in this backwoods place her brother was being held captive. Jaya wasn’t sure what to think. Her nerves were raw with worry. What if they were wrong? What if Finn was already dead or wasn’t here? What if the cross on her lap, worth millions of dollars, wasn’t enough to save him?

  She knew the others didn’t believe the kidnapper was acting alone, and regardless of the warning the man had given her about ‘Jon only’ when it came to delivering the cross, they were already prepping for a full covert assault on the place.

  Since Jaya couldn’t be part of that, the best she could do was hope the O’Sullivan curse went with the cross and damned the man and his cohorts to hell.

  Colton took a sharp right and suddenly went off-road, the SUV’s headlights cutting a swathe between thick trees on each side of a dirt path. As they bumped along, Jaya’s stomach rebelled, flip-flopping like she had a fish down there desperate to get out.

  Not now, she warned the baby. You and I have to keep it together.

  The cabin was dark and looked completely abandoned. Vines grew up the wood planks, bushes and trees nearly obscuring the front. If the car’s headlights hadn’t reflected on the dirty windows, the house would have been lost in the canopy of the forest.

  Where were Trace and the others? Jaya’s stomach dropped. “Is this the right place?” she asked as Jon helpe
d her out of the vehicle. Miles and Colton were already waiting, guns in hand, eyes scanning the area as if they expected someone to jump out of the woods. She couldn’t see a discernible path to the front door because of all the overgrowth and snow lying heavy on top of it. “Doesn’t look like anyone is here.”

  “Oh, they’re here.” He smiled as if it were an inside joke.

  Maybe it was.

  Charlotte took the lead, Percy falling in single file, stomping through the snow. Jon guided Jaya as they stepped over tree roots and mashed down weeds and vines.

  “Watch your step,” Jon said to her, pointing at a brown plant. “That’s poison oak. It looks dead, but it’s only dormant. You can still get a rash from it.”

  “Lovely.” Not only did she have murderous kidnappers to worry about, the weeds were out to get her too. “Just don’t tell me there are snakes.”

  Colton snorted as she passed by him. “Of course there are. Copperheads, corn snakes, rattlesnakes…this place is full of ’em.”

  Jaya punched his arm. “Stop already. They’re hibernating or whatever, right?”

  Jon shook his head. “Rattlesnakes don’t hibernate, technically. It’s called brumation and if there’s a sunny day, they’ll come out of their nests, even in the middle of winter.”

  Great.

  As they neared the front door, songbirds overhead began a wake-up call to the forest, the lovely notes drifting through the thick branches of pine, oak, and poplar. She tried to focus on that rather than the poison plants and venomous snakes.

  At the door, Charlotte stopped and looked back at Jon. He nodded. “They know we’re here. Go ahead.”

  “Just didn’t want to end up cannon fodder,” she said with a grin before reaching for the doorknob.

  She’d barely grabbed it when the wooden door creaked open and a man filled the threshold. “Charlotte! What the hell happened to you?”

  Jaya barely recognized Trace, who was dressed in combat gear and had smeared paint on his face. He pulled Charlotte inside quickly, nodding at Percy, and waving Jaya to hurry up.