by Terri Reed
Spying a spray jug, he grew angry. Every instinct told him it would contain the chemical JWH-018. “Tessa.” He held the jug up for her to see.
She took the jug and smelled the contents. She drew back, her nose wrinkling. “Phew. That’s it.”
Sherman wheeled forward. “What is this?”
Jeff didn’t trust the puzzlement on Sherman’s face. “Your man Aaron is making synthetic marijuana passed off as an inhalable incense, otherwise known as Spice, K2, Mr. Nice Guy and a variety of other names.” Jeff set the spray jug down. “This stuff has caused numerous deaths and a whole host of serious side effects ranging from full psychosis to heart attacks to breathing problems as we saw in the lake swimmers.”
“I didn’t authorize this,” Sherman said.
Jeff turned his gaze on the tall man. “Where do you do the drying and packaging of this stuff?”
The guy clamped his lips together and remained mute.
“Sean, tell Agent Steele what he wants to know!” Sherman barked. “Don’t concern yourself with Aaron. He’ll answer to me.”
The guy hesitated as if trying to decide who he was more afraid of: Sherman or Aaron. Finally, he said, “We process it in the cabin marked Spetsii.”
Sherman’s lip curled. “Which is ironic, since spetsii is Russian for spice.”
The front door of the greenhouse banged open. Aaron stomped in. The thundercloud rolling across his face sent unease sliding down Jeff’s spine. Though Sherman was a crook for growing illegal marijuana on government land, he didn’t strike Jeff as a cold-blooded killer. Aaron, on the other hand...
“I told you this was off-limits,” Aaron said as he stormed in along with a blast of cooler air. He’d replaced the rifle with a handgun that now was aimed in their direction. He pulled up short when he saw Sherman.
“Aaron.” Sherman spun the chair. “Do you have any idea what you’ve done? Because of you, our operation has become vulnerable to discovery.”
A mulish expression settled on Aaron’s broad face as he lowered the weapon. “You said I could grow what I wanted in here.”
“I meant any species of cannabis, not make a designer drug that kills. Nothing grabs the law’s attention quicker than people dying,” Sherman shouted. “Emil, relieve Aaron of his weapon and have two guards escort him to his cabin and keep him there.”
“Come on, you can’t do this,” Aaron sputtered.
Emil nodded, took the weapon from Aaron and stepped outside.
Aaron sent Jeff and Tessa a furious glare. “I should have killed you when I had the chance.”
“Enough,” Sherman said, his voice low.
Two guards entered. Each took a side and walked Aaron out the door.
Sherman shook his head, remorse filling his eyes. “That boy will be the death of me yet. If his mother were alive she’d have boxed his ears for pulling a stunt like this.”
“He’s your son?” Tessa asked quietly.
With a sigh, Sherman rolled the chair to where he could face them. “Yes. He’s my son. He royally messed up. But we’ll make this right. I can’t undo the damage done to the lake, but I can guarantee there won’t be any more harmful chemicals flowing down the mountain.” He wiped a hand over his jaw. “I want to help people. People like me who are in constant pain.”
“Then why didn’t you move your operation and become a legal grower when the law changed?” Tessa asked.
“I have too much invested here. There are over ten thousand plants spread through the forest. Besides, I already told you, my family was on this land before the government came in and took it away.”
“What about us?” Jeff asked. Now that they were no longer needed to find the source of the toxin, their chances of getting out of the forest alive were plummeting fast.
With a regretful twist of his lips, Sherman said, “I’m sorry to say that I can’t let you leave. You’re a liability.”
Jeff’s mind scrambled for a way to get Tessa out of this situation. He said the only thing that came to mind that he thought Sherman would be interested in. “What if you had a Border Patrol agent in your back pocket?”
Beside him, Tessa gasped.
He couldn’t afford to glance her way to reassure her that he wouldn’t betray his oath to his country. Border agents were guardians of the United States of America’s borders. Jeff took that very seriously.
He was a part of the frontline of this nation’s defense, protecting the public from terrorists and instruments of terror, both foreign and domestic.
And though what Sherman was doing may not seem like an act of terror, he was hurting the people Jeff swore to protect with vigilance, integrity and professionalism. He would do whatever it took to fulfill his vows.
But there was no way for Tessa to know that he was bluffing. She didn’t know him or trust him enough. Regardless, he had to sell this story to Sherman if he was going to make sure she left this place alive and in one piece.
* * *
Tessa stared at Jeff with a mix of horror and confusion. He couldn’t be serious. Jeff wouldn’t throw out his principles to work for Sherman’s illegal organization. This had to be some sort of ploy.
Yes, she decided. Jeff was trying to gain Sherman’s trust so they could use that to escape. Her mind refused to accept that he’d betray her or his country. But she couldn’t say that about the man she’d seen earlier coming out of the greenhouse.
Ranger Randy. The young park ranger who’d picked her up from the airport had been among the men leaving the greenhouse. Now she knew why the voice of the man who’d called Sherman his uncle had sounded familiar. Randy was Sherman’s nephew.
She’d met Randy’s gaze, and he’d furtively touched a finger to his lips. Evidently, he wanted her to keep from acknowledging him. Why?
She needed to locate him, talk to him and discover if he was friend or foe.
Sherman stroked his chin. “Hmm, now, that’s an intriguing idea.”
“Isn’t it, though?” Jeff said, his voice taking on a coaxing tone. “Think about it. You’ve gone undetected for a long time, but now you’ll be on the radar thanks to Aaron’s carelessness. This whole area will be under suspicion. I can make that suspicion go away.”
“And just how do you propose to do that?” Sherman asked.
Tessa wanted to know that, as well.
Jeff’s smile was sly and so unlike the man she’d come to know over the past few days that she took a step back.
“I’ll spin a story. Give me a backpack full of spice and a jug of the synthetic THC and I’ll say we found them abandoned on the shore. The chemicals leaked into the lake.”
“You think you could pull that off?” Sherman said, doubt filtering through his tone.
“Yes,” Jeff said, appearing full of confidence. “For a price.”
Barking out a laugh, Sherman pointed a finger at him. “Ah, here it is. What price?”
“Ten percent of the profits, and we keep our mouths shut and the authorities away.”
Sherman turned his sharp-eyed gaze on her. “From the look on the doctor’s face, I don’t think she’s on board with this idea, Agent Steele.”
“Then she can stay here,” Jeff said, his voice hard. “Her choice.”
Tessa swallowed back the bile clogging her throat as both men stared at her. She met Jeff’s gaze. His flinty blue eyes regarded her steadily. There was no give in his gaze or his expression. Confusion swirled within her. She prayed this was an act. A very convincing one.
Sherman’s chuckle broke the tension crackling in the air.
“I’ll take your proposition under advisement, Agent Steele.” Sherman shifted in his chair and grimaced. Lines of pain gathered around the edges of his eyes and pinched the corners of his mouth. “Time to return to the house.”
; Empathy stirred beneath her breastbone. It was obvious Sherman’s condition caused him great agony, but that didn’t excuse what he was doing.
As they walked across the compound, once again heading toward the house that acted as their prison, Tessa sought Jeff’s attention. She wanted to tell him about Ranger Randy.
Jeff, however, wasn’t cooperating. He kept his gaze ahead and refused to respond to her tugging prompts to gain his notice. When they entered the house, he walked straight to his room and shut the door. Emil cast her a speculative glance as he locked Jeff inside.
Curling her fingers into fists, Tessa moved into the room she’d been given and waited as Emil locked the door from the outside.
Had she been wrong about Jeff?
Had he seen an opportunity for personal gain, and was he ready to exploit it?
She hated to believe that.
She clung to the thought that he was working some angle. But a lingering doubt filled her mind. What if she were wrong about him?
The desire to punch something or someone rose on a tide of anger. She wasn’t one usually prone to violence. She clenched her fists until they ached. Desperate to escape this prison, she’d already searched every inch of the room. The windows were nailed shut, and she didn’t know how to pick a lock.
Frustrated with the helpless, useless despair overwhelming her, she sank onto the bed. Taking deep breaths, she fought for control of the panic welling up from deep within her.
A tear slid down her cheek. Who was she kidding? She had no control over this situation. She had no control, period. Never had. Not over whether her parents loved her enough to stay together. Not over whether Michael loved her enough to accept her as she was. Not over Jeff’s actions.
She had to trust Jeff was the man she hoped he was. But more than that she had to trust God. Because ultimately, He was the only one in control. She sank to her knees. “Oh, God, please, help us.”
* * *
A tapping sound pulled Tessa from her fervent prayers. The room was shrouded in darkness. Beyond the window, day had slipped to night. She’d been praying so intently for a long time and hadn’t noticed the encroaching night. A chill skated down her spine. The temperature in the room had dipped, as well. She reached for the bed covering.
Tap, tap, tap.
She froze and stared at the window. A face appeared. Her heart slammed against her ribs. She clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle the scream clawing up her throat.
Ranger Randy.
She scrambled off the floor and hurried to the window. She mimed that the window had been nailed shut. He nodded. Waved her back, then quickly and efficiently—like he’d done this before—covered the whole window with duct tape, leaving a small hole in the center.
Randy tapped the center point with a small metal tool. A spiderweb of cracks soundlessly spread across the glass but didn’t fall. Randy removed the entire window in seconds. She was impressed. And stoked to have a way out of the bedroom.
“Grab a blanket and throw it over the sill,” Randy instructed in a whispered tone.
Tessa yanked the bed cover off the bed and tossed it over the exposed edges of broken glass in the windowsill.
“Come on,” he whispered. “We don’t have much time.”
With Randy’s help, she climbed out. When her feet hit the ground, her right boot heel hit the edge of a stone and she wobbled. She’d have to be more careful. She couldn’t injure herself now when they were so close to escaping.
Randy gripped her elbow and tugged her away from the house.
“I can’t leave Jeff,” she said, forcing him to stop. “We have to break him out, too.”
Randy frantically searched the darkness. “No time.”
“Either we break him out, or I’m not going.”
“He’s not worth it,” Randy said. “I heard he wants to work for Sherman.”
“Don’t you work for him?” she shot back in a whispered rush.
“He’s my uncle. I don’t have a choice,” he whispered back. “In my family, blood is thicker than anything else.”
“Even polluted water and sick people?”
“Yes.”
“Then why are you helping me?”
Scrubbing a hand over his jaw, he whispered, “I don’t know. They went too far by kidnapping you two.”
“All the more reason we have to break Jeff out,” she pressed.
Randy sighed. “Fine, but we gotta hurry.” They rushed to the brightly lit window of Jeff’s room.
Crouched down in the shadows beneath the window, Randy said, “We’re too exposed. He’s got to turn off his light.”
Taking the risk of being seen by anyone watching the back of the house, she stretched to her full height and peeked into the room. Jeff paced in front of the door. She rapped her knuckles on the glass. His head turned in her direction. His eyes widened with surprise, then narrowed to disbelief. He rushed to the window. She pointed to the overhead light. He nodded and quickly crossed the room to flip the switch, throwing the room into darkness.
Randy jumped up and did the duct-tape trick to the window until all the pieces of glass broke out. Within minutes, Jeff climbed out the empty windowpane.
“Hurry,” Randy whispered urgently and ran toward the woods.
Tessa raced after him, aware of Jeff right on her heels. Once they were a good distance from the compound, Jeff grabbed her by the arm and spun her around.
“What do you think you’re doing?” Though his voice was hushed, there was no mistaking the anger in his tone.
“Rescuing you,” she shot back, irritated by his lack of gratitude.
With a growl, he pulled her tight against his chest and lowered his head to capture her lips with his.
Shock stole her breath. Her mind exploded with multicolored stars. Her hands gripped his shoulders, her fingers flexing, digging into his biceps as she returned the kiss with all she was worth.
“Excuse me,” Randy interrupted. “There’s no time for this!”
Jeff broke the kiss. Tessa blinked up at him. Though she could barely see his face in the shadows, she was sure he was grinning, and then they were running back into the dark, dense forest.
She only hoped no one followed.
SEVEN
Running through the forest at night without any guiding light wasn’t one of Jeff’s favorite activities. He tightened his hold on Tessa, one arm wrapped around her waist, steadying her as she stumbled over an exposed root. The last thing they needed was a sprain or worse. But he’d carry her in a heartbeat if that was what it took to get her to safety.
“Why did you do that?” she asked in a hushed whisper.
“Do what?” he whispered back, though he had a pretty good idea she wasn’t talking about him helping her navigate the dark forest. He removed his arm from around her waist but cupped her elbow in his palm.
“Kiss me.”
That was what he thought. “We’re running for our lives. You really want to have that discussion now?”
She let out an exasperated noise but ceased asking. Though the light from the moon barely penetrated the thick canopy of towering trees and did little to dispel the gloom of the forest floor, he could see her frustration and her fear. He touched his hand to the small of her back, urging her on.
All around them, the sounds of the night seemed amplified. Birds chirped as they settled for the evening, and an owl hooted high in the trees. Nocturnal crickets created a soothing rhythm broken occasionally by the rustling of some nighttime creature scurrying about, scavenging for food. The thick undergrowth plucked at them like greedy fingers wanting to slow them down. Up ahead, the man leading them deeper into the woods was barely a shadow, tall and lanky, slipping in and out of view. Who was he? Why was the man helping them? Where were they headed?
Why had Jeff given in to the impulse to kiss Tessa?
The questions bombarded him, but he held them at bay, especially that last one. He couldn’t let himself dwell on how right and natural it had felt to pull her into his arms, to hold her close, to feel the sweet surrender of her kiss as she clung to him. Or how grateful he’d been to see her face in the window, to know she’d had a chance to escape and leave him behind but hadn’t.
She’d risked discovery to free him. His heart expanded in his chest until he thought his rib cage wouldn’t be able to contain the emotions flooding through him. All things he could never admit to her.
Taking deep breaths of the pine-scented, earthy forest, he forced himself to stay focused on the here and now. There would be time enough for a Q and A session when they were safe. Just when that would be, Jeff didn’t know. First they had to make it out of the forest to someplace where Tessa would be protected.
Then Jeff would do all he could to take Sherman and his illegal drug operation down.
Up ahead, high in a towering tree, a light blinked, catching Jeff’s attention. Excitement revved in his blood. “Hey,” Jeff called out in a hushed tone.
The man they followed drew up short and spun around. “What?” he asked impatiently.
“The blinking light in that tree,” Jeff said, pointing, though he doubted the man could see the gesture. “It’s a border camera. I’ll climb up and signal for help.”
“Nah. Sherman’s rigged all the cameras in the forest so they’re set on a continuous loop.”
Which was why Homeland Security had no idea that Sherman had built a compound in the middle of the North Cascades woods.
“I can disable it,” Jeff insisted in a hushed tone. “That would warrant NSA to send agents to check it out.”
“It would also send a message to Sherman and let him know which direction we’ve taken.”
“Where are we going?” Jeff debated the wisdom of trusting him. “We should head back to the lake.” They would undoubtedly come across the search party that Jeff was positive was out looking for them right now.