by Vicki Hinze
In a similar spot now, Charles wondered what Johnson thought. Had his brother or he gotten the best deal? Death? Or a life with NINA calling every shot?
A sinking feeling overwhelmed Charles, and a fear that ran so deep it made his life with the dragon lady and their two ungrateful offspring seem tame and uneventful. Almost pleasant.
He needed time to think. Time to figure out if Liv was dead or alive. If she’d been a party to setting him up . . . Of course, she had. NINA couldn’t fake her death without her knowing it. But, in that case, she wouldn’t have been given a choice about it. NINA issued orders, not suggestions or recommendations. If it said die, you die or it kills you.
That possibility, that Liv had been an unwilling participant, raised a whole different set of questions. If NINA hadn’t killed Liv, why hadn’t it? Who was she that it would keep her alive?
She might have loved Charles once. Maybe even for a long time. But he had shot her, and a woman wasn’t likely to willingly overlook that.
So he had to return home, and his situation was not better but worse. Not only did he have the dragon lady and her fire-breathing offspring to contend with, he had NINA watching his every move and calling his every move, and, if Liv was alive, she would be gunning for him, too.
A cold certainty seeped down into the marrow of his bones. His future would be even more bleak than his past.
Death looked better all the time.
Tim hung up a secure line and crossed the makeshift ops center set up in Mark’s media room. “Where’s Mandy?” he asked, standing between Nick and Sam, who were both seated at their computers.
“Wedding stuff with Nora and Annie.” Joe passed through, carrying a mason jar of iced-tea. The cubes clinked against its sides.
Mark rushed in. “Tim, I need that authorization now.”
“She’s not here. I’ve got to locate her.”
“Call her and get the okay. Omega One is on site, waiting to execute.”
“What’s going on, buddy?” Sam asked Tim.
“The thirty million got Omega One’s attention. They’ve been tracking the money. A transaction took place on the account twenty-four hours after Olivia’s murder. The film of it came in an hour ago.”
Sam sobered. “Olivia made the transaction.”
Tim nodded. “It looked like her, anyway. Omega One wants to confirm the corpse’s DNA and compare it to some they picked up at the bank.”
Nick frowned. “Better call her now. Mandy’s the only one who can give the okay outside of a judge.”
“We can exhume without it, but she’d never forgive me.” Tim dialed her secure phone. It rang twice, then a third time. Finally, she answered.
“Hi, there.”
She sounded happy. He stifled a groan, hating to ruin that for her. “Mandy, I’m in a hurry. Sorry, in advance, but I have to be brief.”
“What is it?”
“Someone made a withdrawal on your mother’s account after she died. We need to exhume the body to get a DNA sample.”
“Can’t you use mine?”
“We could, but we need hers to rule out any doubt.”
“About what?”
“Anything.” He hedged, and then called the question. “You okay with that?”
“If you need it, you need it. Do what you need to do.”
“Thanks.” He hung up, told Mark. “Go.”
Mark rushed out of the room and back into the white-noise protected secure area they called the vault to pass on the authorization to Omega One.
Nick stared at Tim. “She didn’t ask any more questions.”
“No.” Tim both loved and hated that.
“She trusts him.” Sam lifted a hand. “Don’t be shocked by that Nick, but some people actually do trust other people.”
Nick frowned. “She’s got her head in wedding stuff. When she thinks about it a minute, she’ll ask.”
Tim agreed with Nick, though her questions wouldn’t be rooted in a lack of trust. She was naturally curious. “I just hope she waits until after tomorrow. She sounded . . . ”
“What?” Sam asked.
“Happy.” Rarely had Mandy sounded the way she had on the phone. “Carefree and really happy.”
“Wasn’t she really happy before your breakup?” Nick asked.
Tim paused. “Yeah, but not like this. It’s different.”
“How?” Nick asked.
“I don’t know,” Tim said. “Just different.”
“That’s good, bud,” Sam said. “Sorry to have to say it, but she ain’t had a whole lot of chances to practice being either.”
Sam was right. Resolve swept through Tim. “I’m going to change that.”
“I hope you do.” Sam looked at Nick, half-expecting an acidic comeback.
“Counting on it,” Nick said, surprising them and, from his expression, also himself.
Mark came back into the media room. “Omega One says, if Homeland Security doesn’t sideline us, he’ll have what he needs by tomorrow morning.”
“Why so long?” Tim asked.
“Night cover going in—in case NINA has the cemetery under observation.”
“I can’t see where it matters,” Tim told Mark. “If Olivia’s with NINA, they already know she’s still alive. If she’s not, they have no reason to watch her gravesite.”
Mark snagged a handful of pretzels from Sam’s bowl. “Safer for our guys, and not our call.”
“I’m betting she’s NINA.” Nick looked from the computer screen to the guys. “That’s the only way her having $30 million makes sense.”
Hard point to knock down. Tim wished he could knock it down, but logic wouldn’t let him. “What’s going on with DHS? Why are they sidelining Omega One.”
“He has no idea, but the orders came down from up the chain.”
“Interesting.” Tim didn’t like the sounds of this.
“Ain’t it though?” Mark bit down on a crunchy pretzel. “What about Travest?”
“He has to be NINA,” Sam said. “I’ve been waiting for you to wrap up in the vault to tell you.”
“Tell us what?” Mark asked.
“After Travest talked to Mandy, he left his office. He drove home, had dinner with his family—and a whale of an argument. We had visual but no audio, so I can’t tell you the nature of the dispute, only that there was one, and it was three to one against him.”
“What else?” Mark asked, withholding comment.
“He left right after dinner,” Sam said. “Bugged out, I mean. Gone for good.”
“Where’d he go?”
“He bought gas and food in Pineville, Alabama.” Sam hooked a thumb north. “I’ve got a call into the waitress who was on duty last night. Her name is Sherry Harness. She’s due back in to work in a couple hours. No phone, and we don’t have anyone close enough to drop in sooner unless you want to bring in local law enforcement.”
“No, don’t do that.”
“Didn’t think so.” Sam sniffed.
“Where is Travest now?”
“We don’t know. No assets picked him up in real time.” Sam’s computer pinged. He checked the screen. “Whoa. Nix that. He’s surfaced.”
“Where?” Tim bent low and checked Sam’s screen.
“Here.” Sam met Tim’s gaze. “He just checked into the Five Palms Resort.”
Their wedding reception was going to be held at Five Palms Resort. Tim grimaced.
“Guess he’s going to make the wedding.” Nick grumbled.
Tim didn’t know whether to be happy or upset. Worse, he didn’t know how Mandy would feel about her father showing up.
“I’d better let Omega One know,” Mark said, but he didn’t move. Instead, he watched Tim, waiting for a cue on how he was taking the news.
Tim ended the wait. “Travest wrecks this wedding for Mandy and all bets are off.”
“Think steel,” Mark said, then headed toward the vault.
“Yeah.” Tim grimaced. Thinking steel had gotten
everyone on the team through tough, impossible times. And if marrying a woman who had NINA operatives for both mother and father didn’t qualify as tough, nothing did.
Nick took off his glasses. “I hate to say it, Tim, but a peaceful wedding or marriage doesn’t appear to be in your future.”
With these people for in-laws? It didn’t seem probable or even possible. “Or in Mandy’s.”
“Yeah, and you get to tell her. Lucky you.”
Tim frowned at Sam. “Suggestions on how I should go about doing that?”
“Straight out.” Nick motioned with his hand.
“You’ve got a mean streak a mile wide, Nick.” Sam pushed back his cap. “At least, soften it up for her as much as you can. Having one parent as a crook is bad, but both? It’ll knock her to her knees, bud.”
Joe shook his head, grunted at Tim. “I know you’re not seeking advice about a woman from these two dead stumps.”
Tim shrugged. “Course I am. I’ll take it from wherever I can get it.”
“Please.” Joe crossed his chest with the palm of his hand.
“In my situation, you would, too. No groom is eager to devastate his bride on the night before their wedding, Joe.”
He lifted a finger. “On her wedding day, bro.”
“Oh, no. I’m not waiting to tell her this on our wedding day.”
“Unfortunately, you have no choice. She’s otherwise occupied, and you’re not messing that up with this kind of news.”
“She’s going over last minute details with Nora and Annie,” Tim countered. “I can talk to her and not mess up anything.”
“No, you can’t. I just got off the phone with Beth. They wrapped that all up and left for a shower Roxy and Kelly put together.”
A bridal shower. No, Tim couldn’t mess that up. Or maybe he should. Mandy would want to know.
“I know that look. Don’t do it, Tim. Don’t even think it.” Nick parked his glasses back on the tip of his nose. “If Travest shows up tomorrow, and he could since he’s at the resort, anything could happen. We’ve got planning to do to be ready for him. Let Mandy at least have her bridal shower. She needs it, and you guys have plenty trauma and drama to overcome.”
“Yeah, Nick’s right, bud. Women need some good memories for when we drive them nuts.” Sam offered his two-cents, rocking back in his seat. “We shed blood at her wedding and you’re gonna need all the good will you can get just to stay in the dog house.”
“We do what we have to do. That’s the point of this, right? No choice on the matter.”
“We’ll carve that into your headstone.” Nick groused. “Wait, we’ll be dead with you.”
Tim hiked a questioning shoulder.
Nick frowned. “If Mandy doesn’t take us out, Nora will.”
She would. Tim again thought of calling her, but Sam’s warning replayed in his mind. Good will. The redneck had a point. So did Nick about Nora. She’d take serious exception, not that it mattered when push came to shove. They’d do what they had to do, and that was the bottom line.
“Hanging with you guys, I probably will need a mountain of help to stay in her good graces.” Tim would wait to call. “I guess there’s no harm in getting the DNA results or a positive ID on the woman who made the bank transaction before talking with Mandy.”
“No harm at all.” Nick folded his arms. “A little delay’s definitely in order.”
Tim looked to Joe. He was the best authority on women.
“For once, the dead stumps are right. “No man ever deliberately messes up a good mood on anything where there’s no re-do option and prospers.”
Three to one settled it. Tim stuck with the decision to wait, hoping he wouldn't live to regret it.
Chapter 10
Monday, October 27th
The unflappable Nora stood just beyond the church’s front door and gave Tim the news. “Wendy Colter—the organist—just cancelled. She has the flu.”
“Oh, no.” Tim groaned, looked to Mark. “What now?”
“Sorry. I don’t do musical instruments. Nick can do something technical . . .”
“The music isn’t a problem.” Nora frowned, clearly miffed that they thought it would be. “She’s sending a substitute named Viviana Hayes. I figure, you boys might want to check her out so we don’t have no surprises here today. I ain’t having no wedding for one of my boys waylaid by unexpected shenanigans.”
“Thanks, Nora.” Relieved, Tim turned to Nick.
“Already on it,” he said, punching her name into the system on a secure phone.
Sam dropped his voice, spoke into a tactical throat mic. “Groom Walker One, report.” A long ten seconds later, Sam relayed to Tim. “Jeff ‘s team hasn’t spotted Travest here yet. He left the resort about ten minutes ago and headed this way, so he won’t be long.”
Tim’s throat went dust-dry. “I need to talk to Mandy. She should know before the wedding what’s going on.”
“You can’t do that to her.” Nick propped a hand in his slacks’ pocket.
“No way.” Sam fidgeted with his tie. “Man, I hate these things. I’ve had less aggravating torture.”
Nora wagged a finger at him. “Mess up this day for Mandy, and I’ll strangle you with that tie, boy.”
She made the empty threat and sounded as if she meant it, which warned Tim she’d taken Mandy under her wing. Grateful for that, he winked at her. Thank you, Nora.”
“For what?”
“Everything. You and Annie, pulling all this together for us. It’s wonderful. Mandy will love it.” The church looked pretty with big bunches of flowers at the ends of the pews bound with purple ribbons, and a long stretch of purple carpet up the aisle to the altar.
Nora beamed but grunted and used her gruffest tone. “Our biggest accomplishment was getting Sam into a tux.”
Tim laughed but he didn’t dispute her. Left to his own devices, Sam would have worn jeans and a sawed-off sleeved shirt. “I’m amazed by that.”
“Threats were involved,” she confessed.
“Groom Walker, you copy?”
Tim heard the transmission and excused himself, then tapped his throat mic. “Go ahead One.”
“Package has arrived.”
Travest. “We’ll intercept.” Tim nodded to Sam. “Got it?”
Sam nodded, then relayed to the others.
The outer door cracked open and a tiny, frail-looking woman walked in and said to no one in particular, “Hello. I’m Viviana Hay—“
Nora stepped forward. “Wendy’s organist. Wonderful. Come with me, dearie.”
“Just a second, Nora.” Tim approached Viviana with his iPhone. “You have to be scanned. Security purposes.”
“No problem.” She shoved her purse at Nora. “Go ahead and check it, too. Can’t be too careful these days.”
Nora opened the purse, and Tim activated the scanning app. Clean. She wasn’t armed. “Nora?”
“It’s fine.” She passed the purse back to Viviana Hayes.
The organist smiled, then she and Nora walked into the Sanctuary.
Before that door fully closed behind them, the outer front door swung wide and Charles Travest walked in wearing a dark blue suit and a pale gray tie. Tim studied him. A large man, probably a ballplayer. Raw-boned, ruddy complexion, an imposing air, and clearly uncomfortable about being here. He and Mandy didn’t favor at all. Tim stepped forward to greet him. “You must be Mandy’s father.” Tim extended his hand. “I’m her fiancé, Tim Branson.”
That reception clearly hadn’t been expected and it ratcheted down the tension in Travest. He clasped Tim’s hand, firmly shook it. “Have our special circumstances been explained to you?”
Worried about himself, before even a hello? “Yes, they have.” Tim swallowed his distaste. Nora assured him, as did Lisa, that Mandy would be thrilled if her father walked her down the aisle. “I guess you want to see your daughter before the ceremony.” Maybe the man would explain skipping her mother’s funeral. Mandy nee
ded to hear that. Tim wouldn’t mind hearing a decent explanation himself.
“Um, yeah. Yeah, I suppose I should have a word with her.” He pointed left and then right. “Which way?”
“I’ll take you.” Lisa stepped in, her purple gown swishing with her steps. “I’m Lisa, Mandy’s friend. She’ll be happy to see you, I think.”
And Tim was happy to see Lisa. If Travest pulled anything, dressed to the nines or not, she’d use her black-belt skills to clean his clock, providing Mandy didn’t beat her to it. Twenty-eight years of resentment against a black belt, he’d put his money on resentment any time.
Tim watched them go.
“Don’t worry,” Mark said softly. “Lisa’s wired. Nick’s watching the whole thing.”
That relieved some pressure but, honestly, Tim wouldn’t stop worrying until this was over.
“Groom Walker?”
Tim tapped his mic. “Go ahead.” It was Nick.
“Viviana Hayes checks out. Nothing on her. Not even a traffic ticket.”
“Thanks.” Tim stiffened his shoulders. A couple more hours. The security checks had all been done. The perimeter stood secured, and everyone inside it was known or cleared. Well, except for Charles Travest.
If anyone had told Tim a week ago he’d be marrying Mandy today, he’d have considered them loony. Yet here he was, about to marry the woman of his dreams.
He just hoped that her parents’ NINA connections wouldn't turn those dreams into nightmares.
A tap sounded at the door. Mandy turned toward it. “Come in.”
Lisa entered, closed the door behind her, and smiled. “You look stunning, Mandy.”
“Thanks.” She laughed. “I look in the mirror and I still can’t believe it’s me.” The dress was her fantasy dress, delicate, flowing and frothy. “Nora and Annie actually found my dress.”
“You gave them good hints at what you wanted. What those two can do when they put their heads together makes the rest of us feel like slugs.” Lisa laughed, then stilled. “I have something to tell you.”
Mandy frowned. “Is it bad news? I—I really don’t want bad news today.”
“I wish I knew. I’m going to have to leave it to you to decide, but either way, you need to know this.”