Deadly Escape_A Shelby Nichols Adventure

by Colleen Helme

  I pulled my mind from them and listened to the driver. He found it amusing that Sloan had given in to Ramos, and wondered how they knew each other. The two guys in the back were mostly happy it wasn’t them who had to explain this turn of events to Wells. They also thought she’d given in too easily. They could have taken me in no matter how much Ramos had objected. They didn’t carry Tasers for nothing.

  “Where are we going?” I asked. I didn’t expect anyone to answer, but that didn’t matter, since I picked up that they were taking us to a private airstrip. My eyes widened to hear that we were taking a small jet to Washington DC. Holy cow! This was serious.

  “Uh…does Blake Beauchaine know about this?”

  Sloan glanced at me, but said nothing. I picked up that Blake knew, but it wasn’t his idea. The order came from their boss, Wells, and I felt a little better knowing that.

  “How long is this going to take?” I asked. “I’ve got a husband and kids. They need to know I’m okay, or they’ll call the police. Last I heard, kidnapping was a federal offense.”

  The driver glanced at me from the rear-view mirror, and his lips tilted in a smile. He had no idea why I was so important to the CIA. It didn’t make sense to send a team to retrieve me for the security of our country. In fact, it kind of boggled his mind.

  “I’m sure you’ll be allowed to call your husband later,” Sloan said, practically purring with happiness. I picked up that she didn’t know I was married with kids, and the growing jealousy in her heart ebbed. She didn’t like how much Ramos cared about me, but if I was married…it wasn’t a problem. Ramos would never give his heart to anyone, but especially not a married woman.

  I glanced at Ramos, hoping to pick up if he was having second thoughts. If he was, I could probably convince him to stay here once we got to the airport. I listened closely, but his thoughts were blocked. Dang. I hated when he did that.

  I leaned over and whispered in his ear. “They’re taking me to DC, but they don’t know why. Are you sure you still want to come?”

  He let out a breath and caught my gaze thinking that, for now, he was sticking with me, and I shouldn’t worry so much about him. Sloan owed him a huge favor. He’d be fine.

  I nodded to let him know I’d heard that, and caught Sloan glancing at us. She didn’t like the way that we whispered to each other, or the way that Ramos looked at me. It was bad enough that he’d insisted on coming, but we seemed close.

  She turned away with a jolt of anger. She didn’t like me…at all. Even though I had to be off-limits to Ramos, it looked like we were best friends. She wanted to be the one who was close to him. Still, she couldn’t exactly tell us to quit whispering to each other.

  I lowered my gaze, and my lips tilted in a small smile at her jealousy. Ramos glanced at me with a raised brow wondering what was so amusing. I glanced at the back of Sloan’s head and wiggled my eyebrows. He choked back a chuckle and schooled his features, thinking that I didn’t want to get on her bad side.

  Huffing out a breath, I shook my head. That was totally wrong. She should be worried about getting on my bad side. From what little I’d picked up, I knew she’d hurt Ramos. I didn’t know how or why, but it bothered me. Now, I wanted to find out all her secrets, just because I could. I zeroed in on her, but a pang of guilt stopped me in my tracks. Was this the kind of person I wanted to be?

  Well, dang! Right now, it was. And since she couldn’t stop me from whispering to Ramos, I did just that. “What about Gerard? I’m supposed to be at the precinct right now.”

  He was thinking, sucks to be him, and I snickered. “That’s not helping.”

  “Call your detective friend. You can probably tell him what you found out, and he can relay it to Gerard.”

  “Okay.” I pulled my phone from my purse to make the call, but the guy sitting behind me made a grab for it. “Hey!” I jerked my phone from his reach and held it tight.

  “Give me the phone,” he said.

  “No way.”

  I glanced at Sloan for some back-up, but she shook her head. “I’m sorry Shelby, but no calls. Not until we’re in a secure location.”

  “I’m not going to tell them that you’ve abducted me, but I’m involved in a manhunt with the police and a U.S. Marshall. I have some important information that they need to catch an escaped convict. I’ll be in a lot of trouble if I don’t call this in.”

  Sloan could hardly believe I was telling the truth. How could I be working with a U.S. Marshall? Of course, if Wells needed to talk to me, there might be something to it, but still…what was it about me?

  I turned to Ramos. “She doesn’t believe me.”

  He caught Sloan’s gaze. “It’s true. She needs to make the call.”

  Sloan groaned in her mind. Why was I such a problem? Usually people didn’t talk back to a government agent when they were being secretly transported to a secure facility. They knew better, or didn’t dare.

  She sighed. “Fine. Make the call. But don’t say anything about where you are.”

  I pursed my lips in annoyance and put the call through to Dimples, hoping that he answered right away. He picked right up, and I let out a relieved breath.

  “Shelby?”

  “Hey, how’s it going?”

  “Where are you? Why didn’t you ask me to go with you to the lawyer’s office?” Before I could answer, he continued. “Gerard is giving me fits. You were supposed to be here.”

  “I know, but something came up. Believe me, I’d be there if I could. Can I just tell you what I found out?”

  He groaned. “It had better be good.”

  “It is, I promise. I’m pretty sure the key to finding Leo is through his daughter Erika Reva. Apparently, he’s leaving her his entire estate of fifteen million dollars. His lawyer told her all about it, and he thinks she must have helped Leo escape in order to get the money.”

  “How sure about that are you?”

  I gasped. Had he just insulted me? I understood that he was angry, but it wasn’t my fault I wasn’t there. Of course, he didn’t know any of that, but still, it hurt my feelings.

  After an awkward pause, he continued, “Never mind. Thanks, Shelby. I’ll tell Gerard.”

  “Okay.”

  “Just…next time you follow up on something, please take me with you. It sounded like Ramos was there. You need to be careful with that guy; he’s dangerous.”

  “Uh…right. I know that. I didn’t mean to get you in trouble.”

  “I’ll be fine. It’s not me I’m worried about, it’s you. Look, I’d better go. Talk to you later.” He disconnected, and I slipped the phone back into my purse. I noticed that everyone had been listening to my end of the conversation and wondered about me. It had to be true that I was working with the police, and that surprised them, although they thought I might be hiding something. What was my end-game?

  I did a mental head-slap. What was it with these spy-types and their suspicious nature?

  Ramos twisted his lips in a wry smile, thinking that my conversation with the police hadn’t gone over so well. Still, it had to be better than being there in person.

  “That’s true,” I said. Ramos’s eyes widened. I’d answered him out loud. Oops.

  “What was that?” Sloan asked. She turned back to glance at me, so I shrugged.

  “Nothing.”

  Just then, the driver pulled the SUV into a private airstrip, taking Sloan’s attention from me. We rolled to a stop, and everyone opened their doors. I got out, and Sloan ushered us straight to the stairs leading into the small jet.

  I glanced at Ramos one more time, lifting my brows. “You sure you still want to come?”

  “Yes.”

  I knew it wouldn’t do any good to argue with him. He’d made up his mind, and he was going to see it through. It worried me that he might be in danger because of me, but then he was thinking that if I was going to be in danger, he didn’t want to miss out on all the fun.

  I sent him an appreciative grin, and
he grinned back.

  Following behind us, Sloan caught the whole thing, and her hackles rose. If she were a cat, she’d be hissing and spitting right now. It probably wasn’t a good sign, but I enjoyed it. I knew something huge had happened between the two of them, but I had no idea what it was. Ramos had hidden it from me, even in his thoughts.

  I focused on Sloan, but, besides her dislike of me, all I got from her was regret. She’d wanted more from Ramos, but she’d messed up. I couldn’t pick up what had happened, but I knew that, whatever it was, she blamed herself. Hmm…that gave me something, and I was bound and determined to make sure she never hurt Ramos again.

  Ramos and I took two seats next to each other. As we buckled our seatbelts, Sloan spoke to the pilots, telling them we were all there and accounted for. One of them pulled the door closed and secured it, while she took the seat across the aisle from Ramos and buckled up. The co-pilot reminded us to turn our cell phones to airplane mode before heading to the cockpit.

  The plane started moving, and it all became real. This was no joke. I was headed to DC to meet the mysterious Wells, who was probably the head of the CIA. They’d gone to all this trouble for me, and my stomach clenched with dread. Why did they need me? What had happened? They didn’t know I could read minds, so what did they think I could do?

  I swallowed and caught Ramos’s gaze. His lips thinned, and he was thinking that this was a lot more serious than either of us thought. He wondered if it was all tied to what had happened in Paris.

  I shrugged, but a chill rushed down my spine. We’d both been involved with the Paris counter-terrorism force in bringing down a known terrorist. He’d planted a bomb, and we’d both nearly been killed, along with all the leaders of the free world.

  The terrorist, Cypher, was an American military officer who’d gone rogue. I still had the occasional nightmares about him. But Gabriel Dumont, from the Paris counter-terrorism force, had been instrumental in capturing him, and he would never let him out.

  Because Cypher’s group of terrorists spoke mostly French, I’d had to tell Gabriel my secret, so he could help me by translating their French thoughts, and we could capture Cypher.

  Then later, after Cypher’s capture, I’d had to sit in on his interrogation, where I’d heard all of his secret plots from his mind. Sure, it was rewarding to stop his attacks, but it wasn’t something I ever wanted to do again.

  I couldn’t help wondering if Wells knew how much I’d helped Gabriel and, because of that, he wanted me in on an interrogation with some other terrorist. Just thinking about it sent my stomach into a queasy knot.

  Since there was nothing I could do about it now, I pushed that worry away, and hoped I was wrong.

  The jet left the ground, and I settled back in my seat. Once we had leveled off, and the sign to unbuckle our seatbelts came on, I leaned forward to glance at Sloan. “How long before we get to DC?”

  Her eyes widened. How did I know that? Had she told me? No. She wouldn’t do that. If I hadn’t sounded so certain, she’d think I was bluffing. “A few hours. We should be there by three. Wait…how did you know?”

  I shrugged. “Where else would you be taking me? I need to use the restroom.”

  “Sure, it’s in the back. Go ahead.”

  Ramos slipped into the aisle to let me pass. After using the facilities, I came back to find Sloan talking to Ramos in hushed tones. Were they arguing? They quickly pulled apart, but I picked up the gist of it.

  Sloan had tried to mend things between them, but Ramos wasn’t having any of it. She didn’t want him anywhere near Wells and couldn’t understand why he was willing to risk getting involved in the first place. She could hardly believe that I meant that much to him, especially after what they’d meant to each other. If I was married, he couldn’t care that much about me. I wasn’t his type, and it made no sense.

  His thoughts were much simpler. He was thinking about the favor she owed him and that she’d better come through, or he’d tell Wells what had really happened in Cuba.

  What? He’d been in Cuba with Sloan?

  After I sat down, Ramos did his best to shutter his mind, but he was a little upset, so it didn’t work as well as he wanted. I glanced at him and whispered. “Is now one of those times you want me to put up my shields?”

  That brought a smile to his lips, and he let out a breath. “That might be a good idea. Too bad there’s not a movie or something we could watch.”

  “No kidding. I’m going crazy here, wondering what the heck is going on.”

  “Yeah. I know what you mean. What exactly did Blake tell his boss about you? Do you know?”

  I thought back to his phone call. “Um…I think he might have mentioned that I had premonitions. But you wouldn’t think that would be enough to fly me to DC, right?”

  “No. There’s something else at play here.” He was thinking that since Sloan had said it was a matter of national security, it meant there was something bad going down, and involving me was part of their plan to solve it. That meant I was heading into danger. Good thing he was there to look out for me, because he couldn’t trust the feds to do it. He’d learned the hard way that they only cared about the mission, and not about who lived or died.

  I glanced at him with widened eyes and tried not to freak out. “I hope it’s not that bad.”

  His face turned hard as granite, and his eyes held that icy, hit-man stare. “Well, I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

  “Yeah. Uh…thanks for coming. I’m glad you’re here to watch out for me, but sometime you’ll have to tell me what happened in Cuba.”

  He huffed out a breath. “I guess I will, but for now, try not to worry too much.” He was thinking that he wouldn’t let them railroad me into something that could get me killed. Unlike what had happened to him. “I’m here to watch your back.”

  “Thanks Ramos.” It comforted me more than I could say. But who would watch his back? Sloan? Blake? Hopefully, it wouldn’t come to that, and my super skills would be all I needed to save the day. Between the two of us, we could handle anything, right? On that hopeful thought, I settled back in my seat and tried to relax.

  Of course that didn’t happen, and I immediately thought about Chris and my kids. Depending on how long I was gone, I wouldn’t miss anything too important, so that was good. Still, I didn’t like being away from my family. How long did I have to wait before I could call Chris and tell him where I was? He wouldn’t be happy, but at least he couldn’t be mad at me.

  I sighed, hating that I had no idea what was going on, or even how long I’d be gone. This sucked. I’d just have to tell Wells that this was never going to happen again. He couldn’t just grab me like a common criminal. If he needed my help in the future, he would just have to ask for it, like everyone else, and accept my answer, even if it was a big, fat no.

  An hour later, the plane landed at Langley Air Force Base. Sloan ushered us to a waiting car and whisked us off to CIA headquarters. Once there, we had to pass through several checkpoints before finally driving into the underground parking lot.

  Following Sloan into the building, I had to show my driver’s license and sign my life away for a visitor pass. They checked my purse and found my stun-flashlight, but the attendant didn’t take it. Instead, she snickered under her breath and let me keep it.

  Ramos’s turn came, and I worried that they wouldn’t let him in. I could imagine all kinds of things happening, including that they’d arrest him and take him someplace where I’d never see him again.

  My fears mounted since he wasn’t anywhere on the list. Sloan had to vouch for him, even though she was thinking it could ruin her career. After several tense minutes, and a phone call to Wells, they finally allowed him to enter, and I sagged with relief.

  Sloan led us deeper into the building and ushered us into a small conference room. “Wait here,” she said. “I’ll be back.”

  After she left, I blew out a breath. “That was intense. I wasn’t sure they were goin
g to let you in.

  He smiled. “Yeah, I know. But after coming this far, I wasn’t too worried.” He was thinking they owed him, so it was time they paid up. “But I am hungry. How long do you think we’ll be waiting?”

  “She went to tell them we’re here, so it shouldn’t be too long.” Ramos nodded and settled in to wait. He was much better at it than me. I hated waiting, but this was worse because I didn’t know what I was waiting for.

  A few minutes later, the door opened, and Sloan glanced inside. “Come with me.”

  Now that the moment was here, my heart picked up speed. I took a calming breath, then let it out and straightened my shoulders. Whatever they wanted, I wasn’t going to let them bulldoze me into it, especially if it wasn’t something I wanted to do.

  Ramos sent me a comforting nod, thinking that he’d be right behind me and back me up however I needed. That helped settle my nerves. With him on my side, what did I have to worry about? I smiled my thanks before following behind Sloan. She led us down a hall to another door and pushed it open. After entering, she held it open for us.

  The large office held a dark, wooden desk with an older man seated behind it. His dark hair held streaks of silver, and his strong, angular jar jutted out just a bit, reminding me of a hawk.

  Just in front of his desk, Blake stood and smiled at me, but it was the other man next to him that surprised me. “Gabriel!” He hadn’t changed a bit, with his handsome face and dark curling hair.

  “Bonjour ma cher! It is so good to see you.” He came to my side, took my hands in his, and kissed both my cheeks. Then he turned to Ramos. “Ramos! I should have known you would come. It is good to see you as well.”

  As they shook hands, I caught a burst of surprise from Sloan that they knew each other. Then Gabriel stepped aside, and the man behind the desk approached us. He held out his hand to me and smiled. “I’m Director Wells. It’s nice to finally meet you, Shelby.”