Standoff at Midnight Mountain

by Mary Alford

  Rachel cast a suspicious look Alex’s way. “Did you tell anyone you were coming here?”

  His response came quick, his tone reflecting his hurt. “Of course not. Rach, you asked me not to tell anyone, so I didn’t. But the woods were crawling with people back there. I’m surprised they didn’t spot me before I was able to reach you. Or hear my car, for that matter.” He shook his head. “You said on the phone you hadn’t spoken to Liam in more than a week. You believe he’s gone missing?” She nodded. She hadn’t said as much when she’d called, but Alex had guessed. “Why do you think that? How does this ambush fit into Liam’s disappearance?”

  She’d been brief on the phone. Afraid to tell him her worst fears. “I don’t know how this fits into it, but I know Liam, and I haven’t heard from him in over a week.” She realized how foolish she sounded right now, but she knew if her brother were able to, he would have been in touch by now.

  Rachel kept a nervous eye on the vehicles behind them. So far, Alex had been able to keep them at a distance, but they had to find a way to lose them soon if they were going to help Liam.

  “We need to get off this road, Alex. It’ll drop us into the town of Midnight Mountain, and who knows how many more men they have waiting for us there.” She pointed up ahead. “There’s a side road coming up on the right, just after we make this next curve around the mountain. Take it.”

  Alex nodded and turned his full attention on his driving. When the road in question came into sight, he slowed the car’s speed slightly.

  “Hang on,” he warned. Alex was an excellent driver and yet it took all his skills to make the curve at the high rate of speed. Once they’d safely exited, he killed the lights to give them a fighting chance.

  With adrenaline pumping through her body like crazy, Rachel spotted the vehicles swerving onto the same road. “They’re still coming.” She racked her brain to recall the layout of this less-traveled road. It had just recently opened after being closed for the winter. Even though it was late March and springtime in other parts of the country, here in the mountains snow still hung around, especially in the high places.

  “Hold on. There’s another less-traveled side road just past this next bend. It’s pretty obscured from view. Unless you know it’s there you probably won’t see it. If we can make that, with the lights out, I think we have a chance of getting away undetected.”

  Alex slowed just enough to make the turn, then gassed on the accelerator once more. So far, none of the cars appeared to be following.

  He glanced in the rearview mirror and then at her. She could tell he believed she knew more than what she’d told him so far and he was waiting for her to talk. Did she dare voice her concerns aloud?

  With everything that happened, especially after what Liam had told her, she didn’t know who to trust. But this was Alex. He’d dropped everything to come to her aid simply because she’d asked for help.

  “Rachel, please tell me what’s going on,” he asked quietly.

  If what she suspected were true, had she put Alex’s career, if not his life, in danger by asking for his help? In spite of everything they’d been through in the past, she still cared for him. They’d grown up here in these mountains, the three of them. She still considered Alex a friend.

  “Look, these guys have proven they aren’t about to give up until they get what they’re after. You called me in because you needed my help. You can trust me, Rachel. Let me help you.”

  As she looked into his eyes, she knew, no matter what, Alex would never betray her or Liam. She could trust him.

  She blew out a breath and shook her head. If it were anyone else, Alex might have thought she was overreacting. But she was former CIA herself. He knew she wasn’t imagining things. That was why he’d come so quickly.

  “Liam told me he was scheduled to meet with his asset after he left my place, but I could see he was anxious about something. I’d never seen him look so worried before. He kept checking out the window as if he were expecting someone to show up.” She stopped for a breath, then told Alex what Liam had said about the newest terror threat he’d been chasing. Liam didn’t say how, but he believed the person he was after might be closer than Liam had originally believed. At the time, Rachel hadn’t been sure what to make of Liam’s comments.

  She couldn’t read Alex’s opinion of this. “Yesterday, I was putting away some clothes and I found Liam’s phone along with a map that he’d left in my bedroom dresser drawer. The phone was turned off. He’d wanted me to find them after he left. There was a location pinpointed on the map along with an initial and a phone number on the back...” She stopped and realized how little it was to go on. Liam had been trying to tell her something. His warning had been chilling. If only she knew what he was trying to say!

  “Did you call the number?” Alex asked, and she nodded.

  “Although it took me several hours to work up the nerve.” He smiled at this and clasped her hand for a second.

  “I didn’t recognize the voice on the other end. A few hours later, those people showed up at my door. It’s no coincidence.” She shuddered at the thought.

  Rachel didn’t understand what was going on, but the couple that came to her house knew about her brother. They’d known Liam had been up on the mountain along with someone else, presumably his asset. They believed he was injured and possibly still there. Would she and Alex be too late? Would they find her brother dead? She couldn’t bear the thought.

  Lack of sleep made it hard to keep her thoughts focused, but she had to try. Liam needed her.

  “Did Liam ever mention knowing someone whose name starts with the initial D? A friend maybe?”

  She watched as Alex tried to recollect any such name. He shook his head. “No, never. But one thing’s clear. Liam would never have left those things behind if he wasn’t worried about something. He wanted you to have them in case...”

  He left the rest unsaid but she knew what he meant. In case Liam didn’t make it down from the mountain.

  “Did you check Liam’s phone for calls? Maybe someone he called can help us figure out where he’s at?”

  She had checked, and the results were disappointing. “I did. It was as if he’d deliberately cleared out all the numbers.”

  Rachel could tell this didn’t sit well with Alex, yet he tried to reassure her. “Maybe he was afraid the phone might fall into the wrong hands. He could have been expecting those people to show up at your place.”

  None of these options helped ease her fears any, and he must have seen it.

  “First things first. We need to get out of sight as quickly as possible. Once we have a chance to breathe, we can come up with a plan to locate Liam.” Alex smiled and then turned his attention to the road ahead while uneasy thoughts churned through Rachel’s mind.

  Who was this new player Liam had uncovered and how were they connected to her brother’s vanishing? There had to be more to the story than what Rachel knew, because right now, all she had to go on were bits and pieces of a puzzle that might well lead them to a deadly conclusion. And every minute they didn’t know the answer, Liam’s life was in danger.

  * * *

  Alex was still shell-shocked by the things that had happened since he’d returned to his hometown of Midnight Mountain; his head burst with unanswered questions. His fear for Liam’s safety wasn’t eased one little bit by what Rachel had told him.

  While they might have lost the men chasing them for now, they weren’t out of the woods yet. Without knowing why those men were coming after Rachel and Liam so mercilessly, he had no idea what they were up against. There could be more armed men saturating the surrounding countryside and staked out in town waiting to ambush them.

  Alex made several more evasive turns as a precaution before they shot out onto the outskirts of town in the opposite direction from the house where Rachel was living.

  A q
uick glance in the rearview mirror assured him they weren’t being followed—yet.

  He slowed the car’s speed and glanced over at Rachel. “They’ll be looking for this car. It’s not safe to be out in the open like this for long.”

  Alex tried to recall some of the back roads they’d once used as shortcuts when they were younger, but he’d been gone from the area since his parents passed away in a car wreck his senior year. He’d graduated high school and went away to college. After that, he’d joined the CIA and his work had taken him around the world. He hadn’t been home since.

  Rachel pointed up ahead. “There’s a county road a little ways from here. And I know where we can hide out for a while. Maybe they’ll think we’ve left the area and they’ll move on if they can’t find us right away.”

  Alex turned onto a less-maintained road filled with potholes. As much as he wanted to believe it, these men had proven themselves ruthless.

  “At least we’ve lost them for now.” He sounded much calmer than he felt inside. In the space of a less than eight hours, his life had been turned upside down. His friend was missing, and he and Rachel were working together again to try to figure out what had happened.

  There was little doubt in his mind that Rachel’s worry for Liam’s safety was valid. She wasn’t the type to jump at shadows.

  “Those people were there because of Liam. They thought he’d be at my house.” She turned in her seat so that she could look Alex in the eye. “He’s in serious trouble. He’s up there on Midnight Mountain somewhere...and I’m not sure if he’s still alive.”

  What she said struck like a blow to the gut. “You think Liam may already be dead?” Alex couldn’t allow himself to even contemplate the possibility. He and Liam were closer than friends. They’d grown up together. They were like brothers.

  “I don’t know.” She shook her head, her tone conveying her fear for her brother.

  In spite of what had happened today, one thing bothered Alex a lot. Why was Rachel so convinced that Liam was in trouble with very little to back up the conviction? Was he missing something, or was there more to the story than what she’d told him so far?

  “How do you know for certain that Liam’s not still on a mission? You must have something more to go on than the fact that you haven’t spoken to him in a while and he left his phone and a map at your place. I know the two of you are close, but you realize it’s not uncommon for an agent to go dark for a long time when he or she is working a lead.”

  He barely got the words out before she rejected his theory. “It’s more than that, Alex, and I know it.” Her words wiped away what little bit of hope he still held on to. His heart wouldn’t let him go there. He couldn’t imagine losing Liam.

  “Have you spoken to his handler?” He sure hoped she’d overlooked something. While Alex knew the information the CIA would give out to a civilian was limited, she was different. She’d once been one of them.

  “I’ve tried. Seth isn’t answering. And when I called his boss, he gave me the company line. He said he couldn’t discuss any details concerning Liam’s mission. When I told him I was worried Liam might be in trouble, he pretty much dismissed me. He told me that I, of all people, should know that when an agent is on a mission, they go radio silent.”

  Alex felt his hands were tied as to what to do next. “I need to reach out to Liam’s boss right away. Perhaps he’ll talk to me.”

  He barely finished the sentence. “No, you can’t.”

  Alex stared at her, his eyes wide with surprise. “Why not?”

  Rachel turned away in a defensive manner. There was something she didn’t want him to know. “You just can’t, okay.”

  She didn’t fully trust him yet and that hurt like crazy. Was it because of what happened between them, or who he worked for?

  He blew out a frustrated sigh and agreed to go along with what she wanted for the time being. “All right, I won’t make that call just yet.”

  It would be up to him and Rachel to put the pieces together and bring Liam home alive.

  Alex glanced in the back seat where the dog had finally settled down, although she still kept a close eye on Alex. It was clear the dog was protective of Rachel.

  “Who’s your friend?” He nodded behind them when she looked at him in confusion.

  “Oh. Her name is Callie, and she’s been my good friend for a very long time now.” Something bordering sadness shadowed her eyes. He wondered about her husband. Where was he when all this was happening to Rachel? Why was she alone at her house?

  Alex would give just about anything to ask that and the question foremost in his mind: Did she still hate him for the way he’d ended things between them? He glanced her way. Saw the closed-off expression in her eyes. They weren’t there yet. Emotionally, she was on the other side of the earth from him. She’d put up a wall between them that didn’t encourage him trying to scale it.

  What she didn’t realize was that he had been a different man back then. He hadn’t believed in anything beyond the job. If he were being honest, he’d known she had wanted out of the Agency for a long time. When their relationship had turned serious, her desire for a normal life seemed to have doubled. Five years ago, Alex couldn’t imagine life without the adrenaline rush of the CIA...and so he’d lost her.

  “There’s a driveway coming up on your right. Turn in there.” Rachel’s voice interrupted his chaotic thoughts. She didn’t look at him, and he wondered if she’d read his thoughts.

  He spotted the driveway in question and exited onto a dirt road as dust boiled up in the headlights.

  In front of them, an old farmhouse appeared at the end of the drive some distance from the county road.

  “Whose place is this?” Alex asked as he stopped the car.

  She didn’t answer right away and he turned to her, curious.

  “This was my husband’s family home. He grew up here and I promised him I’d hold on to it after he passed away.”

  Shocked, Alex couldn’t even begin to hide his surprise from her. Nothing prepared him for hearing that Rachel was now a widow. He glanced down at her left ring finger. She still wore her wedding ring. How long had her husband been gone?

  Alex looked from her to the simple white house with its pale gray shutters barely distinguishable in the car’s headlights. Something akin to jealousy seared his heart. He hated thinking of her loving another man.

  Liam had told him she’d gotten married a few years after she’d moved back to Midnight Mountain some five years earlier. After that, well, Alex had just stopped checking in with his friend for a while because it was too painful.

  Which was why the envelope he’d received from Liam days before Rachel’s call had been so concerning. He had no idea what Liam was trying to convey. It contained ramblings about things they’d done in their childhood and some of the places they’d explored growing up. He assumed Liam had written the letter at a low point. There was no sense in telling Rachel about it and alarming her further.

  Alex realized Rachel was staring at him as if she expected him to say something. He pulled himself together and cleared his throat. “I’m sorry. I had no idea your husband had passed away.” She continued to stare at him with those telling blue eyes. The look in them now reminded him of when he’d told her he wasn’t leaving the CIA with her.

  Was she expecting him to be jealous that she’d gotten married? If so, then she should be happy. She had no idea how hard he’d taken the news of her wedding.

  “Thank you,” she murmured, and looked away. While a thousand questions flew through his head, he could tell she wasn’t ready to discuss any of them with him. “We should probably put the car away and get inside. It’s possible that whoever attacked us will connect this place with me.” She stopped for a breath. “There’s an old garage behind the house. We can hide the car in there.”

  Once they’d stowed the
rental car in the rickety old garage that was a little ways from the house, Alex grabbed his gear and followed her while the dog sniffed around the yard for a bit then went after them, keeping close to Rachel.

  Rachel flipped on the lights, illuminating the drop cloths that covered most of the furniture inside the home.

  “Sorry for the mess,” she told him. “It’s just easier to keep clean this way. The place has sat empty for several years now. Brian’s family raised workhorses up here for many years. I still keep a few pastured out back because he loved working with them so much. There’s a neighbor who stops by each day to care for them.”

  He managed an awkward nod and dropped his backpack by the door. “I’ll take a quick look around just to be safe.” He could see she hadn’t considered the possibility that the place might not be secure. She’d been away from the spy game too long.

  She shook her head and smiled at him for the first time since their reunion. It stopped him dead in his tracks. “I never even considered someone might have already been here.”

  He loved her smile. He’d almost forgotten just how beautiful she was, especially when she smiled. She wore her golden brown hair longer now. She’d braided it and it hung halfway down her back, the overhead light catching the gold highlights. Dressed in a plaid shirt, jeans and cowboy boots, she reminded him of the young girl he’d fallen for all those years ago. Only her midnight blue eyes held a hint of the things she’d endured. There was a sadness in them that appeared embedded there.

  Alex collected his straying thoughts. “Not looking over your shoulder all the time sounds like a good thing. I’ll be right back.” He excused himself and went upstairs, grateful for the chance to get control of his emotions. He thought he’d left Midnight Mountain behind for good when he went away to college, yet so many of his childhood memories were tied to this place. And to this woman...

  After he finished checking the upstairs rooms, he was more ready to join her again. At the foot of the stairs, he noticed that the dog had settled down close to Rachel’s feet.