Treacherous Intent

by Camy Tang

  “What did she say?” Liam’s eyes were still hollow and his face gaunt. She’d known he’d been fighting his anxiety and hallucinations as soon as she looked back and saw him stumble. All she’d been able to think of was to get him under cover and find some way to help him.

  “She left a phone number for me to call.”

  “Don’t use your phone. I have a burner.” Liam hesitated, as if gathering his thoughts. “It’s in my laptop case.” He twisted around to grab it from the backseat and handed it to her. He was recovering quickly, but he still looked haunted.

  She called the number Joslyn had given. It rang once, twice, three times. Then Joslyn’s timid voice. “Hello?”

  “Joslyn, it’s Elisabeth.”

  “Thank You, God.” Joslyn sobbed once, then Elisabeth heard her inhale. “I was praying you’d get my message quickly.”

  Elisabeth wasn’t sure what God had to do with it, but this wasn’t the time for that question. “Joslyn, I have to ask this. What was I wearing when we first met?”

  Her heartbeat sped up at the length of time Joslyn remained silent. Was this Joslyn or just another impostor who had somehow gotten Elisabeth’s answering service number?

  Finally Joslyn said, “That ‘Candy Crush’ T-shirt. I told you I was addicted to that game.”

  Elisabeth let out a breath. “I’m sorry, I had to be sure. Did you call the shelter yesterday and leave a message for me?”

  “No.” Joslyn’s voice was wary. “Someone called the shelter and said she was me?”

  “Whoever it was didn’t leave a phone number or say where she was, just asked me to come get her. That’s why I suspected it wasn’t you, because you never told me where you were going.”

  “Oh, Elisabeth.” Joslyn took a quick breath. “It must have been someone connected to Tomas.”

  “I know about the Bagsics, and the Tumibays. I spoke to Faye.”

  “Is she all right?”

  “She’s fine. I took her to Wings. The Tumibays don’t know where she is.”

  “We’re in so much danger.” Joslyn swallowed. “I was in Oregon, in a little town called Mattsonville. I found a job as an admin at a sheep-and-wool farm near the California border. Mattsonville is really small, so people noticed when Filipino men claiming to be my cousins came looking for me. Then I saw Tomas in town. I don’t know if he saw me, but I packed my things and ran. I caught a ride with a neighboring farmer who makes deliveries along the coast.”

  “I’ll come and get you. Where are you?”

  “Penny Bay. I’m calling from the pay phone near the grocery store.”

  “Get a burner cell phone,” Elisabeth said. “Phone my answering service and leave your number. Then find somewhere to hide. I’ll be there in a few hours.”

  “Please hurry,” she whispered, and hung up.

  “I don’t know how, but the Bagsics found Joslyn,” Elisabeth told Liam.

  Liam groaned. “They must have hired another skip tracer.”

  “There’s nothing we could have done about it. Right now we need to find a way to get to Joslyn without the Bagsics or the Tumibays following us.”

  Liam’s brow furrowed. “I might have an idea. Let me call Nathan.”

  Despite the late hour, Nathan answered Liam’s call. “He said to come over,” Liam said after he hung up.

  “Do you think the Tumibays might be watching Nathan’s home as they did with your family?” Elisabeth drove back onto the road and headed for the highway.

  Liam was silent. “I’m not sure. But just in case, let’s go the back way.”

  Once they were nearing Sonoma, Liam directed her to lonely country roads and winding lanes, and even across a couple fields. They parked in a cul-de-sac of a small housing community, and then walked through a playground and across the corner of a vineyard to emerge at the corner of Nathan’s backyard.

  Nathan met them at his back door. “Took you long enough to get here.”

  “If you’d taken any longer, I was going to eat your dinner.” Shaun O’Neill rose from Nathan’s kitchen table. Brady also got to his feet as Liam and Elisabeth entered the house.

  Liam looked less than pleased. “What are you doing here? It’s too dangerous—”

  “Oh, don’t be a mother hen.” Despite Liam’s stiff shoulders, Shaun wrapped his arms around his brother and gave a bone-creaking squeeze that had Liam grunting.

  Liam glared at him, but then Brady came up behind him with a hug almost as tight, hampered only by his injury. “You two are going to kill me,” Liam muttered.

  “No, we’re going to save your bacon by helping you, even when you’re too boneheaded to ask,” Shaun said.

  “What about Dad? Monica? Debra and Ryan—”

  “Detective Carter is at Dad’s house right now, enjoying Monica’s cooking.” Brady nodded to the kitchen table. “She sent food for you two, also. Nice to see you in one piece, Elisabeth.” Brady smiled, looking so much like Shaun, and then he folded her in an embrace.

  She jerked in surprise, but his hug was warm, encompassing. As if she was an adopted sister, to be treated like one of them.

  “My turn.” Shaun muscled his brother over and also gave her a hug. “We were praying for you guys,” he murmured in her ear, his voice low.

  A warmth pooled under her breastbone, making it hard for her to breathe. Liam’s family was affecting her in ways no one else ever had. They were restoring her belief in good people. They made her feel as if she belonged.

  “Let’s eat.” Nathan rubbed his hands together. “We’ve been waiting for you two to get here.”

  “Please tell me you two weren’t followed here,” Liam said.

  “Of course not,” Shaun said. “I was driving.”

  “My car,” Brady said, shooting Shaun a baleful look. “He almost got into three accidents and he warped my alignment.”

  Liam smiled, and some of the deadness, which had been there since the shoot-out at the pharmaceutical company, dissolved from his eyes. “That’s your fault. You’re the only one of us who lets Shaun drive your car.”

  “I wouldn’t want to drive your piece of junk,” Shaun said to Liam. “Your sorry excuse for a truck is more likely to blow up in my face.”

  Elisabeth sat at the table. “By all means, keep arguing. I’ll just finish the enchiladas by myself.”

  The men hopped into chairs with alacrity, and Elisabeth smiled at how much like little boys they could be. Nathan had already set out plates and utensils.

  Then Nathan said, “I’ll bless the food,” and bowed his head. The O’Neills followed suit.

  Elisabeth also bowed her head. She expected to feel awkward, as she usually did when Christians prayed before a meal, but somehow Nathan’s words were like a balm over her soul. How strange to be thanking God for a meal when a couple hours ago she’d been dodging bullets. And yet maybe, just maybe, none of those bullets had hit them because of some divine intervention?

  The O’Neills and their friend Nathan were some of the most genuine people she’d ever met. Was it their faith that made them that way?

  Her wandering thoughts were brought back to the food when Nathan said, “Amen.” Then she had to almost fight for her share as the boys tackled the baking dish of shredded chicken enchiladas.

  “So tell us what happened,” Shaun said.

  Elisabeth and Liam told them everything they knew about the Bagsics and Tumibays, and then about Joslyn’s call.

  “I have an idea,” Brady said. “You can borrow my friend’s car.”

  “Doesn’t he need it?” Liam asked.

  “He’s on vacation, and he won’t mind, I promise.” Brady fished out his key ring from his pocket. “He gave me the key in case I needed to use it. It’s parked in a parking garage just outside downtown Sonoma.”

  “That way, the Bagsics won’t recognize your car,” Shaun said. “As for disguises...”

  Liam shook his head. “They already know our faces. We’ll wear hats and hope for the best.�
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  “You’ve got to tell the FBI about the shipping container, even though the Tumibays have already moved it by now,” Shaun said. “Monica’s cousin was involved in something this past spring that let the FBI crack down on the Tumibays’ ephedrine supplier in the Philippines. They could do the same with the Bagsics’ supplier.”

  “I called them while we were driving back to Sonoma,” Elisabeth said. “They were hopeful and promised to look into it.”

  “There might be enough evidence to put Tomas away for good,” Nathan said. “And not just Tomas, but maybe even the entire Bagsic gang.”

  The talk eventually turned to their personal lives—how Patrick O’Neill was responding to chemotherapy for his leukemia, Shaun’s job as head of security for the Joy Luck Life Hotel and Spa and Nathan’s upcoming wedding. They joked about the loud Christmas parties they had now that Monica’s family and Nathan’s were included.

  Elisabeth had never been huge on Christmas parties. The ones at Wings were always a bit sad because the women were missing their families and recovering from the pain and betrayal they’d experienced. Before she’d become a private investigator, her friends had been a wild bunch, preferring parties involving lots of alcohol to Christmas dinners and friendly gatherings.

  She’d never particularly desired that picture-perfect Christmas before, but listening to the O’Neills and Nathan, she felt the loneliness like a cold, icy puddle in her heart. She didn’t have anyone to share the holiday with.

  Hadn’t she wanted it that way? When she let people in, they had hurt her.

  But somehow, she couldn’t convince herself that the O’Neills would hurt her.

  When Liam yawned, Nathan started clearing away the dishes. “You two are staying here tonight.”

  “No, Nathan—”

  “I’m perfectly capable of tying you to my guest bed, Liam.”

  “I’ll help.” Shaun gave a wicked grin.

  “But the gangs...” Elisabeth began.

  Nathan laid a gentle hand on her shoulder. “You two are exhausted. My home has extra bedrooms and a great alarm system. And it’s only for a few short hours. You can’t help Joslyn if you’re both burned to the socket.”

  Her eyes did feel gritty and tight. “Thanks,” she said awkwardly.

  “You are exactly like Liam,” Shaun said. “You both hate receiving help from people.”

  “Not true.” Liam paused as he gave a gigantic yawn. “I would have loved help cleaning my room when we were kids, but I got used to you guys abandoning me in my hour of need.”

  “You’re really going to blame it on that?” Brady rolled his eyes. “Liam, you had intelligent life growing out of the science experiment otherwise known as the underside of your bed.”

  “You always were squeamish.” Shaun nudged Brady with his foot.

  His brothers’ teasing had brought the light back into Liam’s blue eyes. And Elisabeth realized how relieved she was to see it there.

  Back at the pharmaceutical company, she’d been focused on keeping him alive and sane. And now she wanted to help him heal the rift in his mind.

  She had the same type of focus when she encountered a woman in need at the shelter. She put all her energies into fulfilling needs, whether they were emotional or practical. She was a shoulder to cry on, a sounding board, a voice of reason. She used her skills to train women and help them start new lives.

  She felt that same desire to help Liam. He’d come to mean a great deal to her. She respected him. He was different from other people in her life.

  And she realized, with both elation and dread, that she might be coming to trust him. She hadn’t trusted anyone in a long time, but there was something about Liam, his intelligence, his abilities and his family—and yes, even his quiet faith—that made her want to trust him.

  And that frightened her more than bullets, more than the two gangs after her.

  * * *

  “We’re being followed. Black SUV.”

  At Liam’s words, Elisabeth checked her rearview mirror. “How? Did they follow us from Nathan’s house?”

  “Maybe. All I know is that they’re not Bagsics,” Liam said. “It’s not a four-car team, and they’re not nearly as good.”

  They were on their way to pick up Brady’s friend’s car, the morning light barely turning the buildings of downtown Sonoma a pearly peach color. “We can’t go to the parking garage while they’re behind us.”

  “Oh, no.” Liam adjusted the passenger-side mirror. “I think there’s two cars.”

  “What’s the second car?”

  “Silver Camaro.”

  She looked back and saw it. “I’m going to try to lose them.”

  “No, wait. Head out of town. I have an idea.”

  Liam directed her to a residential area outside of town, just before the lots opened up to farms and vineyards. “Once you turn this corner, turn again right away and then stop and let me out.”

  “What?”

  “It’ll split up the tail. You lose one car, I’ll lose the other.”

  “On foot?” But Elisabeth turned as he had instructed.

  “I know Sonoma like the back of my hand. I can run through alleys and parking lots to lose him.” He unbuckled his seat belt.

  She turned again and came to a jerking halt, but Liam was out the door even before the car stopped. “I’ll meet you at the parking garage.” He was out of sight between two houses before she could blink.

  She darted forward and took the next left just as she saw a black SUV turn onto the street behind her.

  She took advantage of the twisted streets of the residential area to put some distance between herself and the SUV. They knew by now she was onto them, but that wasn’t important. They couldn’t do anything except try to keep her in sight.

  She turned onto a busy street, cutting rather close in front of another car and causing a snag in the intersection, as well as collecting a few horn honks. But she underestimated the SUV—it muscled its way into the flow of traffic and then made some dangerous maneuvers to keep up with her.

  She moved into the right-hand lane. When the SUV moved into the lane to her left, she slowed until it was directly alongside her. Two Tumibays—their wrist tattoos on full display—gave her feral grins.

  She sped up. The SUV kept pace with her.

  Perfect.

  Without warning, she abruptly turned right down a side street. The SUV couldn’t turn in time and continued going straight.

  She immediately made another right turn to head back the way she’d come—and had to brake hard.

  Two cars sat in the middle of the residential street, the two drivers talking to each other. They completely blocked the road. The drivers saw her and started to end their conversation, easing away from each other inch by inch. She resisted the urge to lay on her horn, and looked in her rearview mirror in time to see the SUV turn onto the street and bear down on her.

  Finally the drivers cleared away, and she swerved around the car in front of her to speed down the lane. She had to get distance between herself and the SUV.

  She turned down some more streets, but there were several cars and it was dangerous for her to be passing them on these residential streets. She needed to make her followers make a colossal mistake.

  She headed to the freeway entrance.

  The SUV had fallen a few cars behind, so she slowed down and maneuvered to allow it to get right on her tail. The closest freeway entrance would lead her back in the direction of the parking garage, not away from it, but if her plan worked, it wouldn’t matter. When she turned onto the on-ramp to the freeway, the SUV was barely a car length behind her.

  The on-ramp became an exit-only lane for the next freeway exit, so she moved to the left lane. The SUV followed, cutting off a Honda Civic.

  Then, just as the exit-only lane curved right and away from the freeway, she swerved right, cutting in front of a car in the lane, and exited the freeway.

  The SUV had been following too
close, and it was less maneuverable than her car. It had shot past the exit in the blink of an eye.

  She drove on, watching behind her in case there was another car tailing her. There was a line of cars waiting to get into the parking lot of a shopping center, which was stuffed to the gills with Christmas shoppers. She got in line and circled the parking lot, but no one seemed to be following her.

  Her cell phone rang, and so she stopped on the right side of the aisle, like a car waiting for someone to back out of a space. The cars behind her simply moved around her.

  It was Liam. “Are you all right?” she asked.

  “Yeah, I lost them. Where are you?” There was an echoing quality to his voice.

  “I’m not far away in a shopping center parking lot. I was making sure I didn’t have another car following me.”

  “I’m at the parking garage. I found the car.” That explained the echo.

  “I’ll be there in a few minutes,” she said.

  “Okay. Bye.”

  She was about to disconnect the call when she suddenly heard a commotion in the background of Liam’s phone, a scuffling, then a clattering, which she thought was the phone landing on the ground. The muffled sounds that might be punches. Then the sharp “Oof!” of Liam grunting.

  And then a lone footstep. A shoe with a heel that clicked when it struck the ground, not the sneakers Liam had been wearing.

  Elisabeth disconnected the call immediately, her heart slamming in her chest. If that had been Liam being knocked out by someone, she couldn’t have them knowing that she’d heard the fight.

  She couldn’t breathe, although she was gasping. Her chest hurt. The edges of her vision started to cloud in on her.

  Get hold of yourself! She gripped the steering wheel, forced her diaphragm out, then in. Air rushed into her lungs. The dizziness passed and her head cleared, bringing back her sense of resolve. She had to do something to help Liam.

  She put the car in gear and got out of the parking lot as fast as possible. She sped down the road, figuring out the fastest way to the parking garage. She couldn’t think about the SUV following her now. She had to get to Liam before anything worse happened to him. If whoever had fought with him took him away from the garage, she’d never find him.