Guarding the Witness

by Margaret Daley

  He studied her body language as she said those words. “I think you believe what you said, but you also believe you can take care of yourself.”

  She smirked. “I’m gonna have to work on fooling you better.”

  “No one, not even myself, is invincible. We all need help from time to time.”

  “And who do you turn to?”

  “God and my partner on the job. In that order.”

  Her eyes widened for a second before she rotated toward the hallway and headed toward her bedroom.

  Brody watched her leave, flashes of his own experience questioning God’s intention going through his mind. He’d been the lead marshal on an assignment in Los Angeles. The witness he’d been guarding ended up being gunned down on the way to the courthouse because the cell phone in his pocket was used to track his movements.

  Brody shook the memory from his mind. That was the past. He couldn’t change it, but he could learn from it. Now Brody needed to be the sharpest marshal he could be. He wasn’t going to lose another witness on his team.

  When Mark relieved him later, Brody strode toward his bedroom. His glance strayed toward Arianna’s closed door. She was an interesting woman whose life would never be the same. How would he deal with giving up all he knew and starting over?

  * * *

  Her earlier adrenaline rush finally subsiding, Arianna removed her Glock from under the mattress and put it on the bedside table within easy reach. That was the only way she would be able to get any kind of sleep. When she lay down and closed her eyes, the image of Brody Callahan, laughing at some of the words she came up with, popped onto the screen of her mind. Though she’d won the Scrabble match, he hadn’t gone down without a fight, challenging a few of the words she’d used that he didn’t know. But mostly she remembered his good nature at losing to her.

  Sleep faded the picture of her and Brody facing each other over the Scrabble board and whisked her into a dream world that evolved into a nightmare she hadn’t had in a year—one where she was shoved into a prison cell. As she swept around to rush out, the bars slammed shut, the sound clanging through her mind.

  The noise jerked her awake. Her eyelids flew open. Silence greeted her and calmed her racing heart.

  Until she heard a muffled thud—as though a silencer had been fired.

  TWO

  The distinctive sound of a gun with a silencer discharging nearby yanked Brody from sleep. As he rolled out of bed, he grabbed his Glock from his bedside table. Kevin and Mark didn’t have silencers on their weapons, which meant someone had made it inside. Had there been more than one shot? Since he hadn’t heard his partners’ guns going off, he had to assume something happened to them. What had he slept through?

  Hurrying toward his door, he shoved deep down the thought of the worst occurring. He couldn’t afford to be sidetracked. He had to be as detached and professional as possible. There would be time later for emotion.

  He eased open the door a crack and listened. Silence ruled. For a second he wondered if he’d dreamed hearing the sound. Hoped he had. Then a whisper of a noise alerted him to Arianna easing her door open slightly. His gaze seized hers, and he knew she’d heard the same thing. It wasn’t a dream.

  The cabin had been compromised. Fortifying himself with a deep breath, he swung the door open wide and stepped out into the hallway with his Glock pointed toward the living room. To his side he noticed Arianna stepping into the corridor. He shook his head. She ignored him and continued out into the hall with a gun in her hand.

  He shouldn’t be surprised she’d brought her own gun to the cabin. He would have in her place. But still he frowned and tried to convey silently that she get back into her room.

  A low moan coming from the living room refocused his full attention on the threat in the cabin. Short of handcuffing her to her bed, she would be backing him up. Waving her behind him, he crept down the hallway. At least this way he could shield her.

  Toward the entrance into the living room, he slowed and flattened himself against the wall then inched forward. Much to his dismay Arianna copied him but on the other side of the corridor. She brought her Glock up, both hands clasping it. She ignored the displeasure he knew showed on his face, her gaze trained on the living area.

  At the moment, survival was the most important objective. He gave up trying to have Arianna hang back. He knew from all the reports she was very capable of handling herself so he indicated she cover the left side of the room while he took the right. They entered in unison.

  One large man was dragging Mark’s body out of sight while Brody glimpsed another intruder by the front door.

  “Drop your weapons,” Brody said, preparing for them not to obey.

  The guy moving Mark ducked down behind the kitchen counter while the one at the door raised his gun and fired. Arianna squeezed off a round at the shooter then stepped back behind the wall into the hallway for cover. While that intruder went down with a wound to the chest, Brody dived behind the couch and crawled forward to get a better angle on the attacker in the kitchen. He popped up at the same time Brody aimed his Glock and took the man out. The thud resounded through the cabin when he crashed to the floor.

  Brody rose, swinging around in a full circle to make sure there were no more assailants in the cabin. Arianna had disappeared down the hallway, and the sound he heard now of doors opening and closing as she checked each room raised his admiration for the lady’s skills.

  When Arianna came back, he said, “I’m checking outside. There may be more. I need to see where Kevin is. You’ll have to see if Mark is alive. From his injury, I don’t think he is.” But he prayed his partner was. And Kevin.

  “Be careful. Sending two men to kill four doesn’t make sense.”

  “I know. That’s what concerns me.” As he approached the intruder by the door, he leaned over and felt for a pulse. “This one is dead.”

  Arianna arrived in the kitchen. “So is this guy.”

  He opened the door. “What about Mark?”

  Ducking down behind the counter, Arianna answered in a heavy voice, “Dead.”

  That was what he’d thought. With a head wound Mark hadn’t had a chance to get a shot off. And to get into the cabin they had to go through Kevin. A young marshal with only a year’s experience. Again he reminded himself to tamp down his emotions. Later he could mourn the dead. His only goal was to protect Arianna.

  “Lock this after I leave.” Dread at what he would find blanketed him as he slipped through the front door out onto the porch. Already the night sky started growing light as sunrise neared at four-thirty.

  No one was on the porch. Alert, every muscle taut with tension, Brody descended the steps and slinked toward the left side of the cabin. When he rounded the corner, a man plowed into him, sending him flying back. Brody managed to keep a grip on his gun even while his arms flung out. The impact with the ground caused the air to swoosh from him. The bulky assailant crushed him into the dirt, sitting on him, knees pinning down his arms and fists pounding into Brody’s upper body and face. Stars swam before Brody’s eyes. From deep inside him he drew on his reserve, fueled by a spurt of adrenaline. He was the only thing standing between Arianna and death.

  Between punches Brody sucked in a shallow breath, laced with the scent of sweat, then poured what strength he had into freeing one of his pinned arms. When he did, Brody cuffed the brute on the side of the head with his Glock. The man’s drive slowed. Brody struck him again with the butt of the weapon.

  His assailant growled and swiveled his upper body, grasping the hand that held the weapon. His attacker wrestled Brody for the gun, trying to twist his arm—possibly to break it. The Glock hovered between them. Brody focused all his will on an effort to regain control of the weapon. His chest burned with the lack of oxygen. The gun wavered inches from Brody, the barrel slowly turni
ng toward him. A dark haze edged into his mind. Brody sent up a silent plea to God, and with a last burst of strength, he halted the Glock’s momentum, then he began turning the end toward his assailant’s torso.

  Brody pulled his finger around the trigger with the man’s hand still covering his. Brody stared into his attacker’s dark eyes as the bullet exploded from the weapon, striking his assailant’s chest. He jerked then slumped over, pinning Brody to the ground.

  His ears ringing, the scent of gunpowder filling his nostrils, he shoved the man off him and scrambled away, never taking his eyes off his attacker. In the dim light of predawn he felt for a pulse. Gone. He checked the man’s pockets for ID. There was none, but he found a switchblade with blood on it. Brody searched the area.

  What happened here? Where is Kevin?

  Tension stretched every nerve to beyond its limit. Rising, Brody kept scanning the terrain as he circled the cabin, using the shadows to cover his presence as much as possible. By the time he reached the porch again, he was even more confused by what had happened. Kevin was nowhere he could see, and he hadn’t encountered anyone or anything else suspicious.

  When he knocked on the door, he said, “It’s Brody.” He noticed the drapes over the window move, then a few seconds later the click on the lock sounded in the quiet. Too quiet. No birds tweeted. No howls of the wolves he’d heard earlier. The hairs on his nape stood up.

  How did the assailants arrive? Not by helicopter. He would have heard that. By four-wheel drive? By foot?

  The door swung open. Arianna took one look at him and dragged him inside. “I hope the other guy looks worse.”

  “He’s dead. I can’t find Kevin. At least he’s not near the cabin or in the open area.”

  “I almost came out when I heard the gunshot to check on you.”

  “What stopped you?”

  “Whether you believe it or not, I can follow orders. I figured if someone killed you, my best chance was in here, and if you got the jump on one of them, you’d be back. I was going to give you another five minutes before reassessing what I needed to do. In the meantime, I checked the pockets of these two. No identification on them. All they brought with them was their Wilson Combat revolvers and this.” She held her palm flat with a piece of paper on it. “A detailed map to this cabin.”

  “Great. They didn’t just stumble upon us.”

  “You thought they did?”

  “No, but I could dream they had and no one else knew about the cabin yet. At least until I could get you safely away from here.”

  Arianna’s mouth pinched into a frown as she stared at the nearest dead assailant. “As you know, we have to assume the worse. Did the guy outside have anything on him?”

  “He had a switchblade with blood on it and no ID.”

  Her gaze returned to his face. “No gun?”

  “In a holster at the small of his back under his jacket. Not the best place to draw quickly. I surprised him coming around the corner. We’re getting out of here.”

  “You’re not calling this in?”

  “No. Something isn’t right. How did these guys find us? Where’s Kevin?”

  “Do you think he’s dead, too, or that he let someone know I was here?”

  “Don’t know, and since I don’t, I can’t trust anyone until I know more. My job is to keep you alive to testify. I intend to do my job. Even more now. Rainwater has made this personal.” Brody strode into the kitchen and washed the blood off his hands and face. “Get one of the marshals’ duffel bags. Stuff what you think we can use in it. We don’t have transport out of here, so we’ll have to go on foot and find a place to camp. Bring food that is easy to carry. We won’t use a fire to cook.”

  “Yeah, too risky.”

  He gestured at his bloody clothes. “I’m changing and gathering what I can from the bedrooms. I imagine the ranger has a lot of what we may need for camping.”

  Arianna snapped her fingers. “Be right back.” She rushed down the hallway and returned a half minute later with her camera.

  “I don’t think this is a good time to take pictures of the wilderness.”

  She smiled. “Not the wilderness but these two animals. When we get back to Anchorage, I want to make sure we find out who they are and who they work for.”

  “That’s easy. Rainwater.”

  “But who they are might help us get Rainwater for a murder of a federal agent.”

  He covered the distance to the hall. “Are you sure you weren’t a cop before this?”

  “No, but when you protect others you learn things. Change and take care of those cuts or I will. There’s a first aid kit in the bathroom.”

  “Don’t have the time. I’ll do it later. I want to leave in ten minutes. We don’t know who else is out there and how long it will take them to realize these guys didn’t succeed. When they figure that out, they’ll come looking for us.”

  The thought there could be more than three sent to kill them spurred him to move as fast as his throbbing body allowed. Now that the adrenaline had faded, the pain came to the foreground. But he wouldn’t allow it to interfere with what had to be done.

  * * *

  After snapping pictures of both of the intruders, Arianna found a backpack in the storage closet off the kitchen and decided to use that instead of one of the marshals’ duffel bags. Easier to carry and since it was large it would hold about the same amount of items. As she stuffed what food she could into the bag, she glimpsed Mark on the floor nearby and steeled her resolve to bring to justice the person responsible for his death.

  As a soldier she’d seen death, sometimes on a large scale. As a bodyguard she hadn’t been exposed to it much in the past four years. She’d worked hard to keep it that way by protecting her clients the best she could. But now there were three dead bodies in the cabin and at least one outside, possibly Kevin’s, too. She’d wanted to help and protect people without the death. But it had found her that evening when she’d witnessed Thomas Perkins’s murder and wouldn’t let go.

  After scouring the kitchen and living room for anything they could use, she hurried to her bedroom and grabbed what she might need from her own possessions. The last things she put into her backpack were the camera and flashlight. Although the night was only about four hours long, they might need the light, especially if they had to find shelter in a cave.

  “Ready?” A rifle with a scope clutched in one hand and his duffel bag in the other, Brody stood in the entrance to her bedroom, dressed in clean jeans and T-shirt with hiking boots, a light parka and his Glock strapped in his holster at his waist. His face still looked as though the man had used him as a punching bag. When they were safely away from the cabin, she intended to treat those cuts.

  She slung the pack onto her back. “Yes. Do we have all the ammunition?”

  “Yes, what there is. I wish we had more rounds for the rifle, but for the handguns we should be fine. I found a map and a compass in the ranger’s bedroom closet.” He swung around and started for the front door.

  Arianna followed. “I hate leaving Mark like this.”

  Brody stepped out onto the porch. “I can’t call this in. I don’t want anyone to know the assassins didn’t succeed in killing us all. I don’t know how they found us. I can’t trust anyone.”

  “And we can’t even take the satellite phone with us,” she murmured, thinking about the GPS in cell phones. Great way to track someone.

  “Not if we don’t want more assassins finding us. We’re on our own and I don’t intend to make it easy for anyone to track us.” Brody used the pair of binoculars hanging around his neck to scan the terrain stretching out before them.

  “What happens when we reach Anchorage?”

  “I’m not sure. I’ll have to stash you someplace safe until you can testify because I intend to get you to that t
rial. Rainwater isn’t going to win this one. One of my men, possibly two, are dead because of that man.” He checked the compass then descended the steps. “Let’s go.”

  “If they come after us, they’ll know we’re heading for Anchorage. There aren’t too many ways in.”

  “I know. That’s why we aren’t going straight there. We’re heading east toward Fairbanks, not southwest. They’ll be watching all the direct routes to Anchorage.”

  “But we have to still get to Anchorage.”

  “Once I find some transportation, I’ll figure out a way. I can’t see us walking the whole way to Anchorage anyway. Time is against us. If they can’t kill us, they’ll still succeed in freeing Rainwater if you don’t show up to testify.”

  “That isn’t going to happen.” She’d already waited so long for the chance to testify, spending almost two months in Kentucky until the U.S. Marshals Service had moved her back to Alaska. Two months separated from her family and friends. Her employer at Guardians, Inc. only knew that she had gone into the Witness Protection Program, and after that, she had to cut all ties. “I didn’t go through the last two months for nothing.” She ground her teeth, wishing she could grind her fists into the face of the person responsible for giving the cabin’s location away.

  “Even if you didn’t get to testify, I doubt Rainwater would want you alive.”

  Arianna slanted a look at the harsh planes of Brody’s face. Determination molded his features and steeled the hard look in his brown eyes. “That’s my thinking, too. If I have to give up my life, I want it to be for something.”

  After Arianna took a picture of the third assailant, she and Brody headed toward the trees. The sun hung low on the horizon as it started its ascent. A dense stand of spruce, willow and birch up ahead offered them shelter from being in the open. Brody increased his pace the lighter the day became. When the thick wooded area swallowed them into a sea of green, he slowed his gait.