by Rebecca Deel
She glanced at the guys congregated at the table. Nate wasn’t there. Durango always had someone watching the area. Looked like the chef had drawn guard duty this time. She filled and covered another plate, made a return trip to the refrigerator before returning to the counter.
Josh refreshed his mug with freshly brewed coffee. He leaned over, kissed her. “Thanks for cooking for this rowdy bunch, sweetheart.”
“When will you tell me the plan?”
He grinned. “Patience, love. Eat first.” Josh snatched a plate from the dwindling stack, placed it in her hand. “The cook needs to eat as well. I’ll tell you what I can while we clean up.”
“Will you go on patrol?”
“Not until later this evening. We’re on four hour shifts. Keeps us fresh. One slip could be our last.”
Not something she wanted to hear from his lips. Her appetite vanished. Del swallowed hard, tried to return the plate to the stack.
Josh gave her a pointed look. “You have to eat. Your body needs fuel. I need you in top form.”
“Why?” Her gaze dropped to her feet. “You and your team are doing all the work. Ivy and I are window dressing.”
“Hey.” He tilted her head up so he could see her face. “What’s this?” he whispered, concern growing in his eyes.
“I feel useless. You’re doing everything; I’m doing nothing to help.”
“You’re doing exactly what I need you to do. You’re keeping Ivy’s spirits up, helping her maintain equilibrium in a bad situation for her.”
She shook her head. “Alex’s work.”
“Don’t fool yourself, babe. He helped Ivy in the cave, but she wouldn’t have made it to shelter if you hadn’t used your sharp mind. Now, come sit with me, save me from my team’s clutches. I’m still bruised from the abuse I took last night at dinner.”
Though skeptical, she complied. The men turned on him as soon as he sat and tucked into his meal. The quips came at Josh, hot and fast, keeping Ivy laughing. Del did her best to deflect their attention to other topics. She started conversations about fishing, baseball, and the upcoming football season, none of which she knew anything about. Her brothers loved to discuss those topics, sometimes almost coming to blows. She figured Durango could be diverted by them as well.
Josh winked at her when the men chased the topics she introduced like a pack of dogs chasing a rabbit. Within minutes, every bite of food was gone. One by one, they rose from the table and left to carry out the tasks Josh assigned. Only Deke and Alex remained.
“What do you want me to do?” Deke asked Josh. “I don’t have the expertise to set traps.”
“Your partner’s asleep. Watch over Del and Ivy. One of us will always be close if you and Stella need backup.”
“You think Granger might show?”
“I don’t put anything past Curt. However, I think it’s a little soon.” He shrugged. “I won’t chance Del and Ivy’s safety if I guessed wrong.”
Deke narrowed his eyes. “I thought you wouldn’t let me watch them without one of your team present.”
“You were cleared last night. And, no, I’m not apologizing for digging into your background. Did the same with Stella.”
A faint smile curved his lips. “Can’t say I blame you. I wouldn’t trust anyone I hadn’t personally checked out to protect the woman I love, either.”
Del blinked, expecting Josh to deny the statement. He didn’t. Her heart thudded against her chest wall. Maybe he felt something more than friendship for her. She drew in a deep breath. She hoped so because she definitely felt something a good deal more than friendship for the Otter Creek police officer.
“If the intel was wrong about you and Stella, and you’re in cahoots with Granger or his employer, Del and Ivy are smart. They outwitted Granger; you and Stella don’t stand a chance.” His eyes twinkled.
“Nice to know you think so highly of my intelligence.”
“Not a matter of intelligence. It’s a matter of motivation. They have it in spades.”
“Fair enough.” He rose. “I’ll get familiar with the layout and the views from different windows. Any place off limits?”
“Don’t mess with our equipment. Other than that, the place is open.”
A nod and Deke left.
“What now?” Ivy asked.
“We clean and talk.” Del waved at the table and the spread of dishes across the surface. She laughed at Alex’s wince. “Don’t like kitchen duty, Alex?”
“Not if I can avoid it.”
“Well, you’re helping today. I’m not the maid.” She stacked plates and utensils and began loading the dishwasher. Footsteps sounded behind Del. She pivoted to see Alex set Ivy onto a barstool so she could participate in the discussion. With a scowl he trudged into the dining room and aided Josh in clearing the table. A sigh of relief from Alex as he loaded the last of the dishes in the dishwasher.
Del dropped onto a stool beside Ivy. “Enough stalling. Talk.”
Josh and Alex sat across from Del and Ivy. Josh folded his arms on the counter and leaned toward Del. “We’re setting multiple traps for Curt. First line of defense is motion sensors and cameras, some Granger will see, some he won’t.”
“How?” Ivy asked. “If he’s as sharp as you say, won’t he see them all?”
“Some perfect hides, a few not,” Alex said. “Granger’s too well trained for us to make everything obvious. Trick is to make him think he’s clever enough to find them all.”
“Smart.” Del said. “What else?”
“Flashbangs. Hides for my team. Holes for him to step in. Clear out some brush.”
“What’s a flashbang?”
“Stun grenade. Brilliant flash of light and a loud noise. Disorients the enemy for a short period of time.”
“Why not clear all the brush?”
“We don’t want to make it impossible for Granger to approach.” Josh grinned. “We’re leaving the brush with long thorns. If he wants cover, and he does, Granger has to crawl through.”
Ivy clamped a hand over her mouth, but not before he caught a glimpse of the grin curving her mouth.
“Why won’t he go around?” Del asked.
“He’ll be too exposed,” Alex said. “If he gets tired of thorns and takes a chance, any decent shooter will pick him off. Granger will research before he attempts to grab you and Ivy. Won’t take him long to realize Durango’s here, including the team’s spotter and sniper.”
Ivy’s eyes widened. “Who’s the sniper?”
He hesitated a moment, glanced at Josh. Dread glittered in the depths of his partner’s eyes. Josh sighed. What would Ivy think of the man who toted her around the forest, the hospital and the cabin when she discovered he’d been trained to kill people? He was a world-class sniper, a fact Josh and his team would always be grateful for. Without his skills, most of them wouldn’t have made it home in one piece. His friend had been rejected by his own family and survived. As tough as Alex seemed, however, Ivy’s rejection was sure to hurt worse than that of his family. Still early days, but Ivy’s opinion mattered to his friend.
“I am.” Alex said, his voice soft.
Josh waited for Ivy’s reaction. He glanced at Del. Her gaze rested on her cousin.
“And the spotter?” Ivy asked.
“Quinn.” The sniper leaned forward, gaze intent. “You’re okay?”
She blinked. “Why wouldn’t I be?”
Alex appeared stunned. “It doesn’t bother you I’m a trained killer, Ivy?”
Del’s cousin frowned. “You take out the world’s garbage and keep the rest of us safe. Why should it bother me?”
The sniper burst into laughter. “Why, indeed. You, Ivy Monroe, are an angel with a spine of steel.”
She beamed. “I like that description. Thank you.”
“It’s well deserved,” Josh said. “We have many surprises for Granger. Hopefully, he won’t evade them all. The point is to capture him.”
“And get answers from him?�
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He glanced at Del, caught the uneasiness growing in her eyes. “We’ll try. Chances are almost nil we’ll be successful. Our plan is to bag Curt and put him on ice.”
Her brow furrowed. “What good will that do?”
“Jon has connections in the intelligence community. He’ll leak Curt’s untimely demise and spread the name of another assassin, one who is more skilled.”
Alex snorted. Yeah, Josh thought it was funny, too. The former SEAL insisted the description was necessary.
“Who?” Del asked.
“Me.”
Color drained from Del’s face. “It’s too dangerous. Granger’s employer will kill you if he realizes you’re undercover.”
“This shadow employer will send more people until one captures you.”
“Capture?” Ivy sat up straighter. “Not kill?”
“Granger had multiple chances to shoot you,” Alex said. “He didn’t take any of them.”
“Tell my arm that,” Del said, a scowl on her face.
“Your back’s a bigger target. The arm injury was probably from a ricochet off the rocks. I found a gouge in the rock near the place where your blood dripped on the ground while I was outside with Ivy. Granger’s a good shot, Del. He hits what he aims for. Trust me, he wasn’t trying to shoot you.”
“But what does his employer want?” Del asked. “The only crime we’ve been around is Reece’s murder and the break-in.”
“A good question,” Josh said. “Did you take anything from the Reece place besides your laptop?”
“We were packing books, many I would have sold in the store because Mae left me her paperbacks in her will. My job was to catalog and box the hardbacks for Judge Reece to ship to his home in Washington, D.C.”
“Did you take books from the library to your home?” he pressed. Granger had to be after something in that room.
“Nothing.”
“What about earlier? Had you been in the house before the day the judge was killed?”
“Several times. Mae invited me over to help her reorganize the bookshelves. She didn’t want to climb the ladder to move the hardbacks to the top shelves.” A shadow crossed her face. “She worried about falling.”
Suspicion surfaced. Mae Reece had fallen to her death. Made him wonder if Mae’s death was an accident. “Did Mae give you anything to take home or to the store?”
“Every time I visited. Mae loved yard sales and picked up books by the bags or boxes, many times without checking the contents. Mae said she found bargains and the best surprises using that technique. She loved estate sales. She found rare first editions in one sale not long ago and added those to her library. In that same sale, she bought three boxes of paperbacks she already owned. Those she gave to me.”
“When did she give you the books?”
“A few days before she died. Why?”
“Where are they?” Was it possible Granger was after those books? But why? The paperbacks weren’t valuable. Something in the books maybe? A piece of paper someone might kill to retrieve? If the books had been transported to the store and sold, he might never find what Granger’s boss wanted. Del’s employees and his sister, Madison, were also at risk.
“At my house. Josh, you can’t seriously think someone would kidnap me and Ivy over a bunch of paperbacks. They aren’t worth the risk.”
“Might not be the books, baby. It might be what’s in the books. Have you been through any of them, noticed a piece of paper sticking out, or something odd?”
“No paper.” She stopped, a thoughtful look settling on her face. “I don’t know who packed our backpacks, but whoever did slipped some of Mae’s estate sale books in my bag. I noticed strange underlining in the book I read last night before I fell asleep. It didn’t make any sense.”
“Strange?” Alex frowned. “Explain.”
“People underline sentences, even whole paragraphs in their books. I do it, too. The previous owner of this book underlined specific letters.”
“Did it spell names or words?” Ivy asked, her eyes sparkling.
“Not that I could tell. I planned to show it to you today.” She turned to Josh. “If anybody can figure out a puzzle, it’s Ivy.”
“My art history degree’s got to be good for something,” her cousin said, a wry smile on her lips.
“You said passages. You saw the underlining in more than one place?” Josh asked. Was it possible Del had the key to Granger’s pursuit? A stroke of luck if that were true. The odds of her having the one book with those markings in her possession were astronomical.
“Two that I found so far.”
“The pattern was the same?” Alex asked.
Del shrugged.
“Get the book,” Ivy urged.
Maybe they would catch a break. As far as he was concerned, they were due one. He needed to nab Granger and his employer soon. Del couldn’t be away from the store indefinitely and the longer this cat-and-mouse game dragged on, the greater the risk to his family and Del’s.
She hurried out of the kitchen and upstairs.
“What are you thinking, Major?” Alex asked.
“Might be a fluke or some kid underlining for kicks.”
“But?”
Josh’s gaze locked on his friend. “This might be the key to taking down Granger and his boss.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
Del opened the bedroom door, scanned the room for the book she’d read the night before. It wasn’t on the nightstand or the floor. Where, then? The last time she had the book in her hands was in Josh’s room. Maybe it fell off her stomach when she fell asleep.
She replayed the short conversation with Josh, the blistering kiss. The book had been in her hand.
On a hunch, Del turned back to the bed and knelt. Quilt flipped up, she peered underneath. Aha! She reached under the bed and snatched the Nora Roberts book. She carried it to the kitchen and dropped the paperback on the counter in front of Ivy. “Chapter 8 and Chapter 10.”
“You remember the chapter numbers?” Josh asked, eyes filled with mirth.
“You know guns. I know books.”
“I need paper and a pen.” Ivy’s gaze was glued to the page where the strange markings occurred.
“I’ll get it.” Alex left the room. Less than a minute later, he returned with the requested items in hand.
Her cousin copied the underlined letters on the paper, spun it around so Josh and Alex could see what she’d written. From their puzzled expressions, they didn’t know what to make of the markings.
“The pattern’s the same in both chapters?” Alex asked.
Ivy nodded. “I’ll check the rest of the book, see if the pattern shows up elsewhere and if it’s different.” She paused. “This might turn out to be nothing.”
“Maybe,” Josh said. “It’s the best lead we have, thin as it is.”
“What do you want me to do?” Del asked.
“Check the rest of the books in your pack. See if more have those markings.”
“You can brainstorm with me,” Ivy said. “Between the two of us, we should figure out if the underlining means anything.”
“Good plan.” Josh stood. “We’ll return later. Our cell phones are on if you need us. Find Stella or Deke if anything makes you uneasy. Don’t second guess yourself, sweetheart. Trust your gut.” He rounded the counter, dropped a quick kiss on Del’s mouth.
The sniper trailed after Josh, paused behind Ivy’s stool. “You should keep your foot elevated. Want a lift to the living room?”
Ivy blinked, looked up from her work, pen motionless in her hand. “What?”
He chuckled. “Never mind, angel. Del, make her behave.”
The men grabbed their duffel bags and left.
“What did Alex say?” Ivy demanded.
“Keep your foot elevated. Where are your crutches?”
“Dining room.”
Del retrieved the crutches and handed them to her cousin. “Might as well be comfortable. Let’s go to t
he living room couch. I’ll bring the book, your notes and some ice.”
Ivy sighed. “My ankle is hurting.”
“Want pain meds?”
“Only the over-the-counter kind. The prescription stuff will have me taking a nap within fifteen minutes.”
“I’ll see what I can find. Take your time. The last thing you need is to lose your balance and break a bone.”
“Yes, Mother.”
She smiled at her cousin’s grumpiness. Guess the coffee wasn’t enough to sweeten her disposition. Wonder if there was any chocolate in this place? If Meg had been here after she and Rod married, there was a stash of Snickers bars somewhere.
She searched through the kitchen cabinets, drawers, and the pantry, where she struck chocolate. Oh, yeah. Meg had been here. Del picked up a bar, packed ice into a storage bag, grabbed a kitchen towel to wrap it in, and scooped the book, pen and paper off the counter on the way to the other room.
Ivy was sitting with her leg stretched across the length of the couch, ankle propped on a pillow. She glanced up as Del cleared the archway. Her gaze dropped to the stash in her hands. “Chocolate!”
She handed her cousin the candy bar. “Thought you might like a chocolate chaser to round out breakfast.”
“Perfect.” Ivy unwrapped the treat and handed half to Del. “You need this as much as I do, maybe more for putting up with me.”
“You’re not that bad. We’re due for a small bout of self-pity. After all, how many family members discovered a dead body, survived a break-in, were placed in protective custody, chased from that protection to find themselves hours from home, waiting for a killer to track them down for another shot at them?”
A quick smile from her cousin. “You’re right. We deserve a treat.”
“Exactly. So, eat the candy bar and let’s get to work.” She handed over the book, paper, and pen, then positioned the ice pack on her cousin’s ankle.
When Ivy was once more at work on the strange markings, Del retraced her steps to the kitchen, put chicken breasts in the crock pot with chicken broth to use for dinner later. She climbed the stairs again, grabbed the other five books stashed in her backpack. She was almost positive two of the books were hers. The other three might be from the estate sale.