Secrets and Lies

by Maggie Shayne

  “It’s just as well,” Thomas said from behind. “Because I have no intention of remaining in this contraption only to crash. I didn’t survive this ordeal only to die in an ill-conceived escape attempt.”

  Alex turned again, this time to see Thomas strapping on his own ’chute. “You son of a—”

  “I’m sorry, Alex. You must understand, I am needed. It is vital to the security of the entire world that both Katerina and I survive this. Good luck—to both of you.”

  Alex lifted his gun, but Mel put her hand over it, held it down. “Don’t. Just let them go, Alex.”

  Before she finished the sentence, Thomas had wrapped his arms around his wife and pushed them both out the side. Katerina’s shriek of terror was quickly drowned out by the buzzing alarm and the sound of the coughing motor.

  As the couple plummeted, Alex and Mel watched. He muttered to himself, “Not yet, not yet, not yet,” as they fell. Thomas must have had some experience skydiving, because they waited long enough. Katerina’s ’chute blossomed first, like a fat yellow flower. Thomas continued to plummet, but veering away from her; then his opened, as well. They floated slowly, safely, to the ground, hitting hard, Alex bet, maybe even breaking a limb or two if they weren’t lucky. But they landed, and they were alive.

  “They made it,” Mel said.

  Alex pushed the chopper to higher speeds, angling away from the pair on the ground, while Mel reached to the spot where Thomas and Katerina had been crouching behind them. “At least he left us the gun,” she said, facing front again, the weapon in her hand. Then she sighed. “That arrogant bastard used up all the ammo. No wonder he left it. Not that it would have done him much good, anyway, with an aim like that. Trophies for marksmanship my ass.”

  “You should have let me point mine at his freaking face and force him to let you have the other parachute.”

  Mel shook her head slowly. “I wouldn’t have gone either way. Come on, Alex, face it. You need me.”

  “You think so?” He stole a glance at her from the corner of his eye, while struggling to keep them aloft.

  “I’m ten times more helpful than Thomas Barde would ever be in a fight,” she told him.

  “That’s the understatement of the century.” He swallowed hard. “I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather have beside me when the chips are down, Mel,” he said, his tone more serious. “I mean that.”

  She smiled a little. “Not even the princess?”

  “You mean the simpering, spoiled, airhead?”

  That made her smile even more, and the fact that she was bantering with him instead of leaning out the side retching while the chopper swung and bounded through the air made him admire her even more than he already had, if that were possible. He hadn’t thought it was.

  He took the chopper as far as he dared, until the choking and gasping of the engine made it clear he was risking a deadly crash. “Hold on, Mel. I’m gonna try to set us down. It’s gonna be rough.”

  She did hold on—to him.

  They hit hard, bounced up and hit again. The chopper tipped over onto one side, hurling Alex to the ground. Mel landed on top of him, and he braced, knowing damn well that if the chopper continued to roll, they could easily be crushed within the next couple of seconds.

  But they weren’t. The blades ground to a halt in the earth, holding the helicopter poised above them like a lean-to. Dust rose, thick and choking. He couldn’t see. He felt Mel with his hands—her shoulders, arms, her face and neck. “Are you all right?”

  She nodded, her chin moving on his chest. “I think so.”

  “Can you get up?”

  “Maybe, if I knew which way up was.”

  She rose to her knees, and he managed to get to his beside her. The open side of the chopper was right above them.

  Mel started to crawl out from under the beast, toward the front, but Alex gripped her hand. “No, not that way. The only thing holding it up is that blade. If it gives, it’ll crush you.”

  “Well, we wouldn’t want that.”

  “No,” he said. “No, we sure as hell wouldn’t.” He released her hand and climbed into the upturned machine. He gripped the seats, climbed them like a ladder, toward the opening at the passenger side, which was facing almost straight up. Then he got himself anchored and reached back down to pull Mel up after him. When she joined him on the outside, perched atop the thing, he picked what he thought was the safest direction, squinting through the dust to look for debris and hazards. Seeing none, he nodded. They jumped to the ground, hand in hand, both stumbling when they landed. Alex helped Mel to her feet.

  She sighed her relief, brushed some of the dirt off herself. “We made it.”

  “So far so good,” he said. He took her hand again, and they walked slowly away from the wrecked helicopter.

  She said, “You know, if I had to be kidnapped by international terrorists, there’s no one else I’d rather have by my side, either.”

  “Yeah? Not even one of your cowboy cousins?”

  “Not even,” she told him. “As a matter of fact, you’re starting to grow on me.” Her hand squeezed his. “You’re pretty amazing, Alex. For a city boy, I mean.”

  “Well, you’re pretty amazing yourself. For an obnoxious little redneck.”

  “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.”

  The dust thinned. They walked farther, blinking, wiping their eyes as the sunlight grew brighter, slanting right in at them. Gradually the dust dissipated enough so they could see their surroundings.

  Six men became visible, forming a half circle around them, pointing weapons at them. The leader clapped his hands in slow applause. “Well done, my friends! Very well done. I think it’s clear now who the real Bardes are. You two started all of this. You have the pride of kings, and you fight like warriors. You shouldn’t have thought we could be fooled by those plain clothes you donned while your imposters dressed in finery.” He looked around. “Where are they?”

  “We dropped them over the nearest town. They’re safely away from you.”

  The man shrugged. “No matter. We have no use for them now. You, on the other hand, are too much trouble to keep around any longer.”

  “You can’t ransom us if we’re dead,” Mel told him. “My father’s not a fool. He’ll require proof that I’m still alive before he gives in to anything you might demand.”

  “Don’t be silly. Of course he’s a fool. Otherwise he wouldn’t let his daughter traipse about the world putting herself at risk, while he remains safe in his presidential palace.”

  He came closer to them. “Do you know who I am, Katerina Barde?”

  She shook her head slowly.

  “No, of course you don’t. Your father doesn’t trust you with anything more important than looking beautiful and behaving like royalty. My name is Curnyn. I’m the leader of the Tantillan Revolutionary Army.”

  “It’s not an army. It’s barely a terrorist organization. In fact, pressed to define you, I’d go with the term ‘band of thugs.’”

  He smiled at her. Smiled. “You have been a worthy opponent, Katerina Barde. It’s been a privilege playing this game against you.” He glanced at Alex. “Both of you. There’s no honor in defeating a weakling. But you two—you’ve given me a grand chase, a delightful challenge.”

  “You haven’t defeated us yet, Curnyn.”

  He drew a breath, pursed his lips, lowered his head. “Sadly, I have, princess. The game is at an end. I have plenty of videotape. More than enough to convince your father that you are alive and extract all I want from him. So, I win. And you…you will be killed by firing squad at dawn.”

  He nodded to his men, who rushed forward.

  Alex fought, and he saw with pride that Mel got in a few good blows, too, but they were outnumbered and soon subdued by force, their arms pulled behind their backs and handcuffed.

  Wes sat on the parched ground, with his back straight and his legs crossed. He was silent, his eyes slightly closed, his every
sense open and waiting for some hint of his missing cousin. He put her face in his mind’s eye. Focused on her laugh, the sound of her voice, the light in her eyes, the touch of her hand. The more thoroughly he could paint her image in his mind, in all his senses, the more likely he would be able to connect to her essence and get some clue of where she was right now.

  Behind him, groups of men talked, planned and organized. Teams were forming around huge maps that wrestled with the wind. They’d intercepted a radio message a short while ago, believed to be from Alex. He had given a few landmarks before they had lost contact with him. The experts agreed he had been calling from a helicopter. It wasn’t a trick or a lie to throw them off. The sounds in the background had been authentic. Coming from a real chopper. One they had been unable to raise since, much less locate by radar, which did not bode well.

  Wes had asked Selene to keep everyone off his back for a few minutes. To give him some quiet time. She understood, the way very few other people would have, and she was doing a terrific job of it, too, right up until the rumble of more vehicles broke into his mind, and his senses told him the other troops had arrived.

  He opened his eyes. Garrett was just getting out of a pickup truck that had to be a rental, his wife Chelsea beside him. Cousin Luke and pretty Jasmine got out the other side. Beautiful Taylor climbed out of the back, her long raven hair catching a breeze, dancing in it. Her eyes found Wes’s without much of a hunt, and he stopped naming the other Brands who were debarking from a half dozen other vehicles. He knew they had all come. Of course they had. That was what Brands did.

  Wes got to his feet, met Taylor halfway and folded her into his arms. God, it felt good to hold her again this way. It was beyond him how a man could love a woman so much that it physically hurt to be away from her, but that was exactly how he felt about his wife. “Where’s Wolf?” he asked her.

  “Michael is at the Texas Brand,” she told him, faking a stern tone of voice that was blown by the smile in her eyes. “Sarah and Jake came in from New Orleans late last night. They let us talk them into staying at the house to do child-care duty. Marcus and Casey are joining them there, too.”

  He lifted a brow. “Any particular reason you all chose Marcus and Sarah as the Brands to stay behind?”

  She slanted a glance up at him. “These Oklahoma girls are Marcus and Sarah’s half sisters. I’m not even sure all of them realize it yet.” She shook her head. “Chelsea thought we should get the high drama out of the way before we reunited them. And I agree with that.”

  “So do I,” Wes said. “So do you think the four of them can handle the baby Brands?”

  “Vidalia stayed behind, as well. I tend to think she could handle all eight of them by herself, if necessary.”

  “Eight?” He counted mentally. There was little Bubba, and Maria-Michelle, Ben’s boy, Zachary, Luke’s son, Baxter, and Elliot’s baby girl, Montoya, who was exactly the same age as his own precious Michael “Wolf” Brand. But that was only six.

  “Mel’s sister has twins, don’t forget. Little Dahlia and C.C. can’t be left out.”

  “Right. Eight. Land sakes, we’re creating a dynasty here.”

  They shared a smile, one that quickly turned serious. “Everyone else is here, hon. We want to help. What can we do?”

  Wes looked around and saw that, indeed, his four brothers, Garrett, Ben, Adam and Elliot, and each of their wives were crowding around him. His baby sister Jessi and her husband Lash, his cousin Luke and his wife, Jasmine, were all there. So were Selene’s three sisters and her two brothers-in-law. All told, they had eighteen more searchers than they’d had before. More important than that, though, was that they had family. There wasn’t much you couldn’t get done when family banded together.

  “We can’t have all these people milling around out here,” Mick Flyte called. “Have them go into the nearest town and wait for word, Wes. We’ll call them as soon as—”

  “Sorry, Flyte. I don’t work for you. And neither does my family.” Wes spoke slowly, turning, keeping one arm around his wife’s waist.

  Flyte lifted his brows, looking around at all the people. “This is all…family?”

  “Yep, aside from the few we left home watching the young’uns.”

  Garrett spoke next. “I realize it’s unusual, Mr. Flyte, but in this family, when one of us gets into trouble, the rest come together to get them out of it. It’s worked pretty well for us, and besides, once we make up our minds, we’re not easily swayed.” Then he turned to Wes. “What’s the latest?”

  “I have a feeling they’re west of here,” Wes said.

  Selene spoke then, her voice soft, her eyes betraying the shock and surprise of seeing them all here. It moved her nearly to tears, Wes saw that clearly. “There was a radio call just a little while ago. While you were…busy, Wes. It was Alex, we think, calling from a helicopter. He could only give a couple of landmarks before…well, before he lost contact. He said there was a red butte, and a dry riverbed.”

  Jessi Brand shouldered her way between two Federal Agents who were studying a topographical map of the area and she bent over it. Then she looked at the sky, then at the map again. Finally she straightened. “The closest thing to what he describes is that way. About…” She glanced at the men on either side of her.

  One of them quickly looked at where her finger was on the map. “About a hundred miles.”

  “A hundred miles,” Jessi repeated. “Due west.”

  “Let’s go.”

  And without waiting for permission from anyone, they all started piling back into the vehicles that had brought them. They had four SUVs and an oversize pickup with four ATVs in the extra-long bed. Gun racks in each vehicle were full up, even to the small ones on the rear of each of the four-wheelers.

  “How the hell did you get those weapons onboard a commercial airliner?” Mick Flyte asked.

  “Didn’t,” Garrett said. “Fortunately, I’m friends with a lot of Texas Rangers. And most of the Texas Rangers I know have plenty of guns. You know, of their own. Generous fellows, those Rangers. Always willing to share.” He touched the brim of his hat, opened the tailgate of the pickup, pulled out two ramps and positioned them. Then he climbed into the pickup bed and got on the first of the four-wheelers, started it up and carefully backed it down out of the truck. Wes did the same with the second one. Luke took the third, and Ben the fourth.

  Adam got behind the wheel of one of the SUVs with Kirsten, Penny and Kara piling in with him. Jessi and Lash jumped into the front seat of another, with Maya, Caleb and Jasmine taking the rear. The third SUV took off with Elliot at the wheel, Esmeralda, Edie and Wade riding shotgun. Chelsea jumped into the driver’s seat of the pickup, and Taylor got in beside her, with Selene close behind.

  They all took off into the desert, four all-terrain vehicles, three SUVs and a pickup truck bounding away like the cavalry.

  Mick Flyte was left behind with his troops and his maps, shaking his head. He pounded a fist on the closest Jeep and said, “Well, what the hell are you waiting for? Let’s get out there!”

  Twenty-five miles out, Wes ground the four-wheeler he was riding to a stop as he saw two forms staggering toward him across the desert. His heart leaping in his chest as he exchanged a glance with his brothers on either side of him, he gunned the thing into motion again, shooting forward.

  “Mel!” The pickup stopped, its door slammed, and Selene went running, shouting her sister’s name. “Mel, honey, are you all right?”

  She stopped, though, before she got to her sister.

  The other vehicles stopped, one by one, engines idling or shutting down. Wes stopped his beside his cousin Selene, who was just standing still, staring at the couple moving ever closer. “What is it, Selene?”

  She didn’t take her eyes off the bedraggled pair. “It’s not her. It’s not Mel. And that’s not Alex, either.”

  Frowning hard, Wes looked again, squinting this time. “Oh, hell, it must be those other two.” He battled
the burning disappointment, told himself that if the two foreign dignitaries could survive, Alex and Mel surely could, as well.

  “Everyone,” he called, “these are the people Mel and Alex were impersonating. Katerina and Thomas Barde.”

  By now the two had made their way to them. The woman sank to the ground, her legs folding beneath her, while the man remained standing, weakly. His face was bruised, and he was obviously dehydrated. “Please, can you help us?” he asked.

  Military vehicles came rolling over the ground behind the line of Brands. “Of course we can,” Wes said. “But I imagine the men behind us are going to insist that’s their department. They’ve spent a lot of effort searching for you. What can you tell me about the others?”

  “Others?”

  “The two who look like you. Alex Stone and Melusine Brand?”

  Thomas Barde lowered his head, shook it slowly. “They insisted we take the parachutes,” he said slowly. “They knew the chopper was going down, but they insisted….”

  “No,” Selene whispered. By then her sisters, Kara, Maya and Edie, were all around her.

  “I’m sorry,” the man said. “They were true heroes, both of them.”

  Kara began to cry softly, turning into Edie’s arms, while Maya only stared unblinkingly. “Mamma won’t survive this,” she muttered.

  Selene shook her head. “Stop it. They’re not dead. They’re not. This man doesn’t know anything for sure.” She speared the man with her eyes. “Do you?”

  “Well, I—”

  “Did you see the chopper go down?”

  “No. Alex intended to take it as far from where we jumped as possible, to lead our pursuers the wrong way.”

  “Which way?”

  Frowning, the man pointed. By then the military vehicles were stopping. Mick Flyte was running forward, eager to take custody of the missing VIPs. Selene looked at her sisters. “Get back in the vehicles. We’re going to find them.”