She wiggled her eyebrows at him. “I’m happy to make it for you here every morning.”
“And serve it in bed?”
Shane shoved away from the table. His chair legs screeched across the floor as he stood up. “I’m clearly the only sane one left.”
“Where?” she asked, clearly confused by Shane’s abrupt change in conversation.
“On the Corcoran Team.” Shane glared at Holt. “The rest of you lack self-control.”
She frowned at Shane. “What does that mean?”
No way was Holt letting Shane answer that one. “Never mind.”
* * *
SIMON GAVE THE approval for Deputy Carver to be brought to his office. He’d shown up at the gate, fighting angry and demanding access. Normally Simon would ignore the outburst and send Frank Jr. away as a lesson. Simon was tempted to do that, but he did need to talk with the younger man and the time may as well be now.
After the knock on the door and being welcomed in, Todd gestured for the deputy to step into the office. He did more than that. He walked right up to the other side of Simon’s desk and stood there. Hovering.
Frank Jr.’s face turned red and he started pointing. “You interfered with my investigation. First, you blocked access so I couldn’t ask about Grant. Now the story that raises suspicions about Lindsey. Why?”
The more frantic the deputy got, the more calm Simon became. This man he could handle, but he needed a lesson in discipline first. “As you can see, I’m working.”
The deputy put his hands on his hips. “I don’t think you understand how serious this is.”
That fast, Simon reached his limit of tolerance. He gestured for Todd to step forward. “No, Frank. You are the one who’s confused.”
Without saying a word, Todd put the deputy in a chokehold. The position allowed him to take the deputy’s gun and radio. He grabbed a few more things. Simon didn’t pay attention. He didn’t care. The point was to humiliate the man. Show him he was no longer in charge and never had been.
“How dare—” His words cut off when Todd aimed a gun at his head. “What are you doing?”
“Todd will hold your weapon and other items for you while we talk.”
The deputy tried to look around, but Todd’s gun was right there and his hulking figure loomed over the deputy’s much smaller one. He froze and his gaze shot to Simon. “What’s going on?”
“We’re clarifying the ground rules.” Simon closed the file in front of him and folded his hands on top of it. “They’ve actually been in place this entire time, but you’ve been running around as if you have a say in anything that goes on in Justice. For the record, you do not.”
Never did. Never would. Simon had seen to that with years of laying groundwork, of gathering the right evidence, of building contacts. He ran guns and weapons and whatever else militia groups needed. He supplied and planted the seeds to spread discontent. He caused the battles, then supplied the weapons to fight them.
It was quite a lucrative business, and a place like New Foundations, with the endless supply of bodies and shooters, had proven to be the perfect place to launch the operation. The freeloaders and communal types were long gone. He’d rushed the last ones out and taken care of the ones who refused to go. The leftovers were believers and he was their leader.
“You think you run the town?” The deputy spit out the words in what looked like a last bit of adrenaline-fueled strength. “Half the people don’t know who you are and the other half think you’re a cult leader.”
Now that he had his say, wrong as it was, Simon would have his. “I am the person who gets things done. To do that I make deals, like the one I’ve had with your father for years.”
“What are you talking about?”
Amazing what a well-placed bit of factual history could do to suck the life out of a man. Simon could actually see the deputy deflate as his shoulders fell. “Your father has been a very helpful silent partner in this venture. He understands that sometimes you need to look outside the law to get things done.”
“That’s not true.”
Simon had no trouble lying, but he wasn’t this time. The senior Frank Carver was very much involved with the New Foundations operation. The real business, not the retreat. He’d financially benefitted over the years. And a few times when he needed evidence planted or someone to go away, Frank handled that, as well.
It was a mutually advantageous arrangement, one that would have gone on had the sheriff not gotten sick. With a bit of a leadership vacuum, Simon stepped in on his own. But the Carver family’s responsibilities to the partnership had not ended. “With him sidelined, his partnership duties fall to you. I told him to tell you. Since it’s obvious he has not done so yet, I am.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
Of course he didn’t. One of the things that made Frank Sr. such a great partner was his ability to hold a secret. His life walking on the dark side appeared to be one of them. Until now.
But Simon had bigger concerns than an ill man working his way through rehab. “It’s time for Lindsey Pike to meet with me.”
The deputy’s eyes were wide and wild with confusion. “Then ask her.”
“She won’t come on her own. She needs an...incentive.” Killing Hank in front of her might do it, but Simon wanted to keep that man around for a while. Test him out. See if he was a better choice than Todd as an assistant.
The deputy moved and Todd grabbed his arm, holding him in place. Frank Jr. swallowed as he got the words out. “What do you plan to do to her?”
“Reason with her.” And by that Simon meant make her remember.
“About?” The confusion was obvious in the younger man’s voice.
“Not your concern.” This was between him and Lindsey. No one else. She had set the terms for the battle. She just didn’t know it yet.
The deputy’s eyes narrowed. “And if she won’t listen?”
Simon’s patience for the deputy and his questions expired.
“She’ll have something in common with poor Grant.” When Frank Jr. flinched and looked ready to bolt, Simon held up his hand. “Nuh-uh. Stay still.”
The deputy’s chest rose and fell on hard breaths. “Why would I help you?”
That was simple. Simon would not give him a choice. “Because your family is in this. I have taken special care to make sure all the paperwork about the weapons leads back to your father, and by connection, you.”
“Weapons.” The deputy repeated the word two more times.
Todd laughed. “You are behind, aren’t you?”
“You’re insane.” The deputy tried to look around, but Todd held him in place. “Both of you.”
“Determined.” Since he was done with this conversation and this man, Simon stood up. “Now you’ll go with Todd here and fetch Ms. Pike.”
“I won’t do it.”
And Simon would not play this game. “Then you will die where you stand. You have ten seconds to decide.”
Because he had new prey to play with, and one way or another she would be here soon.
Chapter Fourteen
Lindsey stepped out onto the porch a few hours later. She needed a rest from the questions and the tactics-and-strategy discussion between Shane and Holt. If she heard one more scenario where Simon tried to hold Holt and how he could break free, her head would explode.
She promised not to stray, which seemed ridiculous, as this was her house and her property. But she still couldn’t look in the direction of the lake thanks to Grant’s body being found there. It might take a lifetime for her to feel comfortable again, and she’d never felt fully at ease to begin with.
The right answer could be to sell and find another small town nearby. It made sense, but she couldn’t take on one more thing at the moment.
She walked down the back porch steps and toward the small garden. Some of her vegetables were ready to be picked, and shocks of color from the flowers she planted not too long ago
gave the backyard a homey glow. She bent down to touch a purple petal. One would never know so much death and danger lurked nearby.
As she thought it she heard footsteps off to her left, through the trees. She lifted her head, ready to tell Holt he could spare the lecture about how she needed to stay aware of her surroundings. Deputy Carver walked into view.
Instead of his usual cocky smile, hiding a heap of inexperience, he stared at her. His eyes were flat and his color seemed off. He almost looked a chalky gray. She thought about asking if he was okay, but she didn’t want to say anything that might make him feel welcome, since he was not.
“What are you doing here?” If he’d come to arrest her she just might pass out.
She’d been through so much lately and had handled it all. She was strong and smart by nature, but having Holt as backup increased her confidence. Together, they could beat whatever Simon Falls threw at them.
“I need to take you in for questioning.”
Fine, she’d grab Holt and Shane and drag them with her. Let the police or the sheriff or even the FBI deal with those two. But first she had a question of her own. “Are you the one who planted the false story in the news?”
“Lindsey, don’t make this difficult.”
He didn’t deny it. That meant he was in on it and no way was she going anywhere with him without backup. “I want Hank with me.”
She took a step toward the cottage and started to call out for help. A hand clamped over her mouth and a strong arm pulled her back until she slammed against a hard chest. A flash of a gun registered in her peripheral vision.
“Do not scream or you die right here.” The familiar voice, all threats and rasp and anger, whispered into her ear.
The deputy took a quick look in the direction of her house. “I have this handled.”
“One sound and her boyfriend will come running. You do not want to face him in a battle. Trust me.” Todd put his face close to hers. “Behave or I shoot the first man who walks out of that house, and I shoot to kill.”
She nodded and the tight grip pressing bruises into her cheeks eased. She didn’t expect much from Todd and men like Todd, but Frank Jr. should be different. “You’re working with him?”
Todd hadn’t bound her hands and she used them now. She put a hand on Todd’s restraining forearm. With the other, she slipped her phone out of her pocket. If there was a panic button of some type on there, she didn’t know about it. She counted on her other skills. She couldn’t see to call, but she knew where the text button was and typed all the time on that without looking. This message would be for Holt.
Todd answered her question. “Law enforcement in this county answers to us, and Mr. Falls would like to see you.”
The name sent an icy chill running through her. “Tell him to go to—”
The deputy held up both hands as he threw her a wild look. “Lindsey, stop.”
She could match his panic with some of her own. But she could also fight, so she hit the last button, hoping she came close to making sense. “He will kill me. You get that, right? You are setting me up to die.”
“I know.” Frank Jr. reached for his gun.
Todd proved faster. His grip eased as he leaned forward. A knife appeared out of nowhere and the blade stabbed into the deputy.
Lindsey was about to run, to scream, but the sight in front of her riveted her to the spot. Frank Jr. sank to his knees as his hands clutched his stomach. Blood seeped through his fingers. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out, which meant the screaming she heard was echoing inside her head.
Before her muscles unlocked, Todd was on her again. He had her in a strangle hold with the gun right there. “You are a hard woman to get alone.”
The menacing words sliced across her senses. She had to focus to stay coherent while terror ran rampant inside her.
“Holt...he will find you.” She stumbled over the pronoun and hoped she saved herself in time.
“Do you mean Hank?” Todd clutched his arm tighter across her neck. “I hope so, since I owe him some pain from those fighting moves in your house a few days ago.”
She grabbed for his arm as he choked off her breath. “You admit you broke in and attacked me?”
“Imagine what I plan to do to you next.”
Sick laughter filled her ear. Just before everything went dark, she hit Send and dropped the phone.
* * *
HOLT WALKED BACK into the family room from the bathroom to find Shane sprawled on the couch. Legs up on the cushions and a stack of papers in his hand. Now that they knew about Lindsey’s side business, she’d opened up her office, and with Joel’s computer help at increasing her security, they had an easier line to Connor and the office.
The information flowed back and forth, as did Connor’s warnings. He didn’t like what he was finding on Simon Falls, which was nothing. The photos that Cam took showed large stores of weapons.
Other people might miss the signs; Connor didn’t. He recognized boxes and specific weapon types. Grenade launchers and a surface-to-air missile. That was the truly scary one. All of that corroborated what Holt had seen up there.
This Simon Falls, whoever he was, had access to serious firepower. He could cause a lot of damage. If he was a true believer or someone bent on revenge, he likely would. Holt had to hope he was the militia no-government type, not looking for trouble, and not someone seriously delusional or looking to make a name for himself.
But then, Holt had never been the luckiest guy. He wondered if meeting Lindsey had changed all that. Danger and women did not mix. He’d seen his friends turned around and shoved deeper into risk over the decisions they’d made in the name of love.
After spending his entire life honing his skills, Holt couldn’t imagine abandoning them for anyone. Of course, Lindsey wasn’t just anyone. In a short period of time she’d turned into someone who mattered and he just didn’t know how to process that potential vulnerability.
He’d learned the hard way not to trust. A person Holt thought was his friend picked dealing drugs in Afghanistan over him. Shot and left him for dead. But Holt instinctively knew Lindsey would never make that deal. She’d stand up beside him.
It was the same certainty that helped him learn to trust the team, that kept him so close to Shane and Makena. Now he had to figure out if he had room in that circle for Lindsey...if she even wanted to be included.
Shane waved a piece of paper in the air. “We got the intel back on Lindsey and her past. There’s not much under that name, but Joel managed to pull a lot from the fingerprints I scanned and sent.”
“What?” Holt looked around for her. Glanced out the window and saw her headed for the flower bed. He’d give her five minutes before he went out there and dragged her back in. During that time he’d watch...once he figured out what Shane was saying.
Shane’s sneakers hit the floor as he sat up. “You ordered that we do a full background check on her to be safe.”
“I actually didn’t.” Holt specifically hadn’t wanted to go down that road.
“Right.” Shane shot him a side eye. “Maybe that was me trying to protect your butt.”
Holt remembered the discussion and meant to circle back and stop Joel’s digging. He’d even told Connor to put the brakes on. Looked as though the word never got back or Connor purposely ignored the request.
In their shoes Holt would have done the same thing—charged ahead. But that wasn’t really the point.
Shane continued to hold up one piece of paper. “Did you get the part where it says Lindsey Pike isn’t her real name?”
With one last look in Lindsey’s direction and a second of watching her pick flowers or whatever she was doing out there, Holt went to the couch. “I knew that.”
Shane’s arms fell against his thighs. “Were you planning on sharing?”
“She was raised at the camp, escaped and took on a new identity.” Holt glanced at the file and the photo in the abducted child report. A sunny girl with
a big smile and missing tooth stared back at him. He saw the intelligence in her eyes but did think the glasses were a nice touch. “And look, apparently.”
Shane cleared his throat. “You seem happy with the current version. Can’t blame you. The woman is fine, and I mean that in an entirely clinical don’t-punch-me kind of way.”
An understatement on the looks. The fresh-faced attractiveness appealed to him. So did the smokin’ body and smart mouth. If Holt was being truthful, everything worked for him except for maybe the stubbornness, and even that had its moments.
But there was more to it than that. He thought about her all the time, watched her when she was puttering around the house and even enjoyed her off-key humming. He’d never gotten this attached, this sucked in. Never dreamed he could feel secure and messed-up and vulnerable all at the same time over a woman.
So he went with the most natural response to his best friend’s prying. “Shut up.”
Holt didn’t have much else, because he didn’t seem capable of fighting this. Whenever he thought about finishing up the assignment and moving on, a tightness filled his chest. The idea of her dating someone else, sleeping with someone else, hit him like a sucker punch to the gut.
Forget the sensation of being dragged under. He was falling for this woman. At rapid speed and without a safety net. He thought back to how he made fun of Joel and Cam—all of them—and now he got it. This one woman walked into your world and everything else stopped. It was downright annoying.
Shane leaned back against the couch cushions. “You know that’s your go-to response when I give you grief about being with her, right?”
Knew and planned it that way. “Your point?”
“It’s lame.”
Holt really couldn’t argue with that, so he tried to turn the conversation. “So are your attempts to tick me off.”
“We’re taking bets, you know.” Shane leaned over the coffee table and shuffled through a pile of papers.
Holt was so busy watching the photos and lines of writing flip by that he almost missed the comment. “What?”
“About how long it will be before you’re on your knees, begging Lindsey to forgive you.” Shane smiled as he said it, clearly enjoying this moment too much.
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