“Yes.”
“You failed me.” Words Simon knew would race Todd to the edge of reason.
The man craved acceptance more than most. He’d grown up alone and lost his only home when an injury sidelined him in the middle of his top-tier security career. Simon took him in and invested the time his company refused to give him.
Bottom line: Todd owed him and knew it.
Todd visibly swallowed. “Yes, sir.”
“You need to fix this.”
Todd nodded. “I can work on his training and impose some discipline on Grant.”
It was too late for that now. Simon had other plans. “Maybe there’s another way Grant can help us with Ms. Pike.”
Todd frowned. “Sir?”
The more Simon thought it through, the more he liked this alternative. There would be some loss and a need for retraining, but he’d get a lot more in return. “It’s time to send Lindsey Pike a message.”
Todd’s frown didn’t ease. “Okay.”
“We’ll use Grant to do it.” Then she would be right where Simon wanted her—trapped.
Chapter Six
Lindsey left home the next morning well before dawn. Holt had laid down all sorts of rules and regulations the night before. Talked about the places she could go and how she needed a bodyguard with her at all times. Generally bossed and pushed, even threatened to take her gun.
Not her favorite characteristics in a guy.
She’d nodded, gone to bed and beat him out of the house that morning. She knew he’d have to use the bathroom sometime. When he did, she took off on her hour-long drive into the mountains. She had a feeling the note of explanation she left would not make her return run any smoother.
She turned into the unpaved drive and went as far as she could in a car. The path led to a small cabin tucked into a round of towering trees. This place didn’t have an official address. She’d discovered the hard way on a previous visit that it didn’t have a working bathroom.
None of that mattered. She needed to see the man inside. Roger Wallace, nineteen in age but far younger than that in terms of social skills. He’d spent years at New Foundations. He’d moved in there with his uncle long after she got out. He was her first rescue. And he’d missed two check-ins.
She turned off the car and parked it by the gate. Once again she took out the burner phone and made the call. Left the emergency code...then waited. After a few minutes ticked by with no reply, she started walking. This was not the place one traveled without an invitation, but she knew the markers.
Before she rounded the first turn, she heard it. The rumble of an engine and the crunch of tires over gravel. Relief raced through her. Glancing back, she expected to see Roger’s beat-up truck. Instead of blue with a smashed-in front fender, she saw a familiar black. Clean and shiny with Holt taking up the front seat.
She winced. Actually winced. Then she saw the expression on his face and had to fight the temptation to step back.
He slammed the door and stalked up the path toward her. Stepped over the gate without breaking stride and headed right for her. She knew she needed to shout out a warning about booby traps, but she doubted he’d hear her over the anger whirling around him. He came at her in a straight line, his attention never wavering and his frown growing more severe with each step.
She jumped on the offensive. “How did you find me?”
“No, Lindsey.” He stopped right in front of her with his hands on his hips and the fury radiating off him. “We aren’t doing it this way.”
She could hear the tremble of anger in his voice. Not that the eyes flashing with fire didn’t give him away.
But something about him verbally throwing elbows and insisting on always getting his way put her on the edge. He used that tone, and her immediate reaction was to deny him whatever he demanded. Since that felt juvenile and they did wade deeper into danger with every step, she treaded carefully. Went with a stall. “I have no idea what you mean.”
“You were attacked.”
She hadn’t exactly forgotten. “I remember.”
“Do you?” His voice stayed deadly soft.
She inhaled, pushing out her natural impulse to fight back, and tried to regain her control. Roger could be in trouble, and having Holt there might not be a terrible thing, now that he was already standing right there. “I’ll explain if you calm down.”
“You will explain even if I start shouting.”
Holt wasn’t exactly making it easy to take the high road. She did it anyway. “Roger hasn’t checked in.”
Holt didn’t say anything for a second. Just stared at her while the deep frown lines on his face eased. Not much but a bit. “I need more details.”
She toyed with the idea of telling him only enough to clue him in but not enough to overshare about Roger. She abandoned the idea as soon as she thought it. This wasn’t the time. Knowing too much might endanger Roger’s cover, but Holt possessed a protection power she didn’t and she had to trust he would step up.
She stuck to the facts and recited them as if reading from a file. “Roger Wallace, a former resident at New Foundations. He lives out here. We have a check-in schedule and he missed it.”
“How many times?”
She didn’t pretend to misunderstand. Holt was collecting details and she appreciated the need. “Two.”
“Has it ever happened before?”
Roger worked with her. He provided the information she needed to help others. He had trouble adjusting, but he could walk former members through the necessary life skills and he had volunteered to do that.
That meant she stayed in constant contact with Roger. Three days without a word was two days too long. They had a mandatory check-in time every other day. He’d never missed one. “No.”
Holt’s arms finally dropped to his sides. “We’ll get back to the part about how you know him and who he is to you later.”
That was exactly what she didn’t want. “I don’t think—”
“But right now we’re going to check on him.” Holt walked past her.
She grabbed his arm and dragged him to a halt. “Stop.”
“Lindsey, do not test me. I am trying not to unleash on you for running out without telling me.” He didn’t pull out of her hold. His jaw had also unclenched.
She took that all as a good sign. “You would have insisted I not come here.”
“Right.” He jerked as if he wanted to take off again.
“Holt, stop.” The man’s stubborn nature made her head pound. “You are walking into danger.”
“You’re saying he’ll shoot if he sees me?” Holt didn’t seem all that concerned about the possibility.
From only a few days with him, she guessed he thought he could take on a bullet and win. Sometimes she wondered. The guy did possess this amazing sense of confidence. She watched him and felt safe and secure.
But there were explosives rigged and planted along the route to the house. She could look up and see it ahead, but getting there required twists and turns. Taking Roger out of the camp didn’t change his us-against-them mind-set. “If you even get that far. He’s got a system of traps out here.”
“Then we’re leaving.” The news didn’t faze him at all. He listened, nodded and reevaluated. “It’s that simple.”
She loved that about him. She threw roadblock after roadblock at him and he didn’t shake. She’d never known a man like him. Her father had been weak and easy to turn. He’d heard about New Foundations and viewed it as some Nirvana. A place they could go and be safe.
“I know where the explosives are.” She pointed to random spots on the ground. But they were only random if you didn’t know the pattern. She did.
“We still need to go.”
The words came out strong and sure, but a strange emotion moved over his face. She guessed the rescuer inside him battled with the guy who got the job done. She tried to make the fight a bit easier. “First, I’m attacked and now Roger missed a check-in.”<
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Holt studied her. “You think he’s in trouble.”
“I know he is.”
He nodded and stepped in closer. “Tell me about the booby traps.”
She turned over his hand and traced a pattern on his palm. “The explosives are buried in an ‘x’ with a set of devices in the middle of the drive in a line from that tree.” She pointed at a strange bush with red-brown leaves planted among the thick growth. A shock of color among all that green.
“Got it.”
She knew he would, so she told him all of it. “There are trip wires and I don’t know what else throughout the woods. If we stick to the path and use clues, mainly those posts, we’ll be fine.”
“You’ve done this before.”
That didn’t mean it didn’t scare her, because it did. “I visit Roger in person out here every few weeks.”
“Did you rescue him from the campground?” Holt’s eyes narrowed. “Is that the big secret? Is that why someone up there wants to grab you?”
The reminder sent a tremble spinning through her. “Is now the right time for that discussion?”
“Probably not but it’s happening later.” He exhaled. “I don’t like this.”
“Because you insist on leading and hate not to be in charge?” But she knew that meant he agreed to go forward. Holt wasn’t the type to run away from a potentially dangerous situation. Neither was she. Not anymore.
He glared at her. “Add that to the list of things we’re going to argue about later.”
She had a feeling he wouldn’t forget that awful future conversation he kept referencing...unfortunately. “For the record, I’m not really looking forward to this discussion.”
“You drew the battle line when you left that note.” He scoffed. “You actually thought telling me not to worry would work?”
She couldn’t really argue with any of his anger or her bad choices. She’d operated this morning as she always did, head down and moving forward. She acted alone because that was what she knew.
Getting used to having him around would take time. But the bigger concern was that she’d get accustomed to him being around just as he decided it was time to go.
No question she stood on the edge of heartache. She knew and saw the warning signs and didn’t know how to avoid the danger.
“See those?” She pointed to the faded ribbons tied high up in the tree, then followed the nearly invisible line of wire toward the ground.
“Traps.”
It had taken her forever to understand Roger’s system. She talked tough, but Roger came out and walked her into the cabin almost every time she visited. “You recognize the setup?”
“Of course.”
Of course. “Normal people aren’t familiar with explosive devices.”
The tightness around Holt’s mouth finally eased. “I don’t think we know the same people.”
She started walking. “I don’t—”
“No.” He grabbed her back. Wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her tight against his chest before she got more than a few feet away from him. “Do not put your foot down.”
She looked a few steps in front of her and saw the disturbance in the rocks and dirt. Squinting, she noticed the thin wire. Tiny, almost a line in the dirt, but she recognized it. Not in this fashion, maybe, but Roger had shown her examples. She’d almost shuffled her way over a trip wire.
Her heartbeat thundered in her ears as she kept her death grip on his arm. “That wasn’t supposed to be there.”
As if she weighed less than a pillow, Holt tightened his hold and lifted her. He stepped back, taking them both out of the immediate danger of the wire.
The second those muscled arms enfolded her, the fear subsided. Her breath hiccupped out of her and she grabbed on. When he lowered her feet to the ground again, her knees buckled. All the strength left her muscles, and a sudden dizziness hit her. The mix of fear and relief had her leaning into him.
He glanced down at her with eyes filled with concern. “You okay?”
“Not really.” Not when her bones had turned to jelly.
“Looks like your friend changed the pattern.”
But that was the point. That didn’t happen. Roger wouldn’t put her at risk. He also wouldn’t impose a communication blackout. The longer she stood there, the more worried she grew. “He wouldn’t.”
Holt didn’t let go of her. Strong hands held on to her forearms, keeping her balanced. “This isn’t like in the movies, Lindsey. You step on that and it explodes. There’s no click or chance to defuse it. It will go off.”
“I both hate and am grateful that you know that.” And he seemed to know everything. When it came to fighting and surviving, he was the man she wanted by her side.
“We’re changing this.”
But he needed to understand she had an obligation to Roger. One she took seriously. She thought of him as a friend, though she wasn’t sure if Roger knew how to have those. At the very least, he worked with her and she cared about him. She had to know he was safe. “We can’t go back.”
“Agreed. We need to see this through now.” He stepped around her until she faced his back. “Follow behind me. Hook your finger through my belt loop and match your steps to mine. I lift my foot and you put yours in the exact same place.”
This wasn’t fair. She should take the risk, not him. But the determination in his voice suggested she not even try to argue the point. “Fine.”
“We’ll go slow.”
And they did. It felt as if hours passed as they walked up the drive. More like lumbered. He measured every step and constantly scanned the area. Sometimes minutes ticked by between moves. Once or twice he shuffled his feet.
With every placement of his foot he made a mark. She guessed that was his form of leaving bread crumbs for them to find their way back again. Tedious or not, the process worked.
They got to the front of the cabin and she finally unclenched her fingers from his belt loops.
Instead of a feeling of relief and being ready to go, dread washed over her. The usual broken and cracked pots filled his porch, but there was no sign of Roger. His truck sat in its spot. She never quite understood how he got that thing in there, through the tangle of branches and over the explosives, but he did and refused to share the secret.
“This is bad.” She whispered the comment before she could think it through. Didn’t even know she was saying it until it spilled out. “The lack of gunfire.”
“The front door is open.”
She followed his gaze and stared at the green door. Didn’t see anything wrong with it. “You can tell?”
“It’s not lining up with the trim.” He pointed as he talked. “I also see a trip wire at the top of the stairs. Is that normally there?”
“No, but how in the world can you—”
“Perfect eyesight and expensive training.” Holt glanced around the wooded area one last time before turning to her. “Call for him.”
“Roger?” She shouted his name two more times. Birds fluttered in the trees at the sound of her voice, but nothing and no one else moved. He didn’t come out and threaten, which was what she expected him to do if he saw a stranger with her. He might even fire a warning shot first.
Holt swore and mumbled something about sleeping in. “Does this Roger have any friends he could be visiting?”
That was an easy one. “No.”
“Let’s go this way.” Instead of walking up the front steps as she expected, as any regular person would do, Holt took them around to the side of the porch. He crouched down and peered under the slats. Used a stick he found on the ground to tap different sections of the wood. Whatever he saw or heard must have satisfied him, because he held out a hand to boost her up onto the railing. “Here.”
Going first made her stomach tumble, and not in the good way. She feared setting her foot down the wrong way or putting too much weight on one board over another. So she sat there and waited for Holt to pop up over the side. He did
and kept going. Straddled the railing and headed for the door with careful steps.
Holt pivoted around pots filled with dirt and others set up in what looked like a haphazard grouping but really served as yet another warning system for Roger. “Do you see anything out of the ordinary for this guy?”
She knew the place looked as if it had been left in disarray, but this was how it always looked to her. The tickling sensation at the back of her neck proved to be the bigger issue. She didn’t ignore her body’s panic signals. Not anymore.
She guessed Holt operated on what he could see and understand, but she told him the truth anyway. “No, but it doesn’t feel right.”
“I think we should follow your gut on this one.” He delivered the surprise statement, then held out a hand to her. “Stay behind me and watch the path.”
The comment and the feel of his palm against hers had barely registered when he pushed the door open. He didn’t need to turn the knob. A gentle touch sent it swinging.
He took half a step and froze. “Damn.”
“What?” She peeked over his shoulder and immediately regretted it. Her gaze went to the blob on the floor. Dark and huge, the stain grew as she watched. Then the reality hit her as a buzzing started in her head. “Is that...”
She couldn’t say the word. Not when she was too busy trying not to heave.
“If I had to guess, I’d say blood.” Holt squeezed her hand, then let go. “And too much of it.”
She watched him reach for his phone. He pressed in a few numbers, then disconnected. Then he started taking photos.
Every choice struck her as sick and wrong. None of the callous indifference matched the man she’d seen in action over the past few days.
She grabbed his arm, thinking to spin him around. He didn’t move while he shifted in front of her. “What are you doing?”
“I called in Cam and now I’m preserving the scene until he gets here.”
None of the words made sense in her head. “What?”
“Cam is one of my men. You were supposed to meet him the other night but they—he and Shane—followed Grant back to the campground instead.”
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