“Let me get this straight,” Colin started. “You want Dr. Connolly and me to go to Ben Parrish’s wife and ask her to give us something that was sent to her husband and is connected to a murdered FBI agent and crime boss?”
“That’s it. If Parrish got this thing, then it should be at the house. You badges are real good at finding things so look in all the places where someone would want to tuck a little something out of sight.”
Colin rolled his eyes and tried to work through all the possibilities. “Is this something a biological weapon that’s going to kill us all?”
Boyd laughed. “You got an imagination there, Colin. But my boss isn’t into terrorist stuff. He just wants his money, and this something is valuable.”
Well, if it was an item a Mob boss wanted, Colin didn’t like the idea of it being with Ben Parrish’s wife. After all, he’d heard the part about Boyd requesting that Nicky send someone down. Colin didn’t want a hired gun going after a missing agent’s wife.
“Do you actually know what this item is?” Colin questioned.
“I do. But I can’t tell you. I can’t risk leaks, and there are people who’d really want it if they knew about it. Just look for it, hard, and let me know if you find it. Leave now.”
“We don’t have a car,” Colin reminded him.
“Call one of your badges, one you trust, and have them come out and get you. No coming inside the gates. The doc and you will meet them at the start of the mountain road.”
That part might be reasonable, but another wasn’t. “Why does Dr. Connolly need to go with me?”
“I was doing you a favor, Colin. Come on. Do you really want her here at the estate alone?”
No. He didn’t even have to think about that. But he did give more thought to this latest chore.
“It’s seven o’clock,” Boyd reminded him. “One of your badges could be here in fifteen minutes. Find the package that’s been delivered and bring it here. And if you do that, Luke Vaughn goes home on time. Guaranteed. Should I wake the kid up and ask if he wants to go home today?”
“No,” Colin and Danielle said at once.
Boyd chuckled. “That’s what I thought you’d say.” He ended the call.
Colin hung up, still wondering what the heck he was going to do. He had to get to Ben’s house, of course, to save Luke three more hours with his kidnapper. But the question was, did he trust Danielle to stay put with Bobby?
No.
Even if Bobby wasn’t the mole, he was a lab rat, and he probably wouldn’t know how to defend Danielle if Boyd came in there with guns blazing.
“I’m going with you?” Danielle asked.
Colin nodded and hoped like the devil he didn’t regret this decision. He could be damned if he did or damned if he didn’t.
And worse.
He could be taking Danielle right into a death trap.
Chapter Eleven
Danielle tried to ease up on the tight grip she had on the car’s armrest. It wasn’t that Dylan was a bad driver. Nor was he speeding. But he was taking them down the mountain.
The same mountain where they’d nearly been killed.
She gave up her attempt to lighten her grip and just closed her eyes when Dylan drove past the section where the van had plunged over the side.
The sky was a dull gunmetal-gray, and the clouds were heavy. It would rain, that was for certain, but she hoped it held off until after Luke’s rescue. She didn’t want weather to play a part in this.
“Did anyone find shell casings out here?” Colin asked Dylan. Colin was sitting in the back, next to her, and he had his gun drawn and on his lap. He obviously wasn’t any more comfortable with this drive than she was.
“Not yet,” Dylan answered. “We’ll keep looking.”
Good. Because those shell casings could lead them to the gunman.
And the mole.
It was hard to know whom to trust with someone out there leaking information and trying to kill them. For her, that distrust extended to everyone except Colin and her old friend, Callie.
Colin didn’t have too many names on his people-to-trust list, either, because when he’d called Dylan to arrange for a car to take them to Ben Parrish’s house, he’d asked that this visit, search and any information about it be limited to only FBI agents.
No one from the lab.
That meant no Rusty Cepeda in on this search. Or Bobby. This would be restricted to Dylan, Tom, Colin and her. She was a little concerned, however, that Jerry could have overheard Colin’s call to Dylan. After all, Dylan and Jerry were in the same office.
But even with that precaution, Danielle knew this visit could turn dangerous. After all, the person who’d shot at them knew how to handle a rifle, and all agents knew how to do that. Probably plenty of the crime lab folks, too. Even though they’d tried to keep this trip hush-hush, Boyd could have informed the mole what was going on.
“Someone broke into my house last night,” Dylan volunteered. “It wasn’t ransacked, but I could tell someone had been there.”
“Was anything taken?” Colin asked.
“Not that I could tell, but it was too clean to be kids or an amateur burglar. Plus, everybody around here knows it’s my place, and it takes a lot of nerve to break into an agent’s house.”
“Yes,” Colin agreed. “You think it’s related to this search Boyd wants us to do at Ava’s?”
“Could be. Maybe Nicky Wayne, Boyd or someone else thinks I know something about the money. I don’t.” But then Dylan lifted his shoulder. “At least I don’t believe I do. Who knows what could be a link to that money. Investigation notes. Photos. You name it.”
“And maybe there isn’t a link at all,” Danielle offered. “Maybe this is just Boyd being desperate.”
Well, the man certainly was that.
Danielle forced herself to finish eating the peanut butter sandwich that she’d slapped together while waiting for Dylan to arrive. She wasn’t hungry. Not in the least. But she had to eat for the sake of her baby.
Dylan drove them through town and to the outskirts, right at the point where the land turned hilly. He stopped in front of a brown frame house that had massive glass windows across the entire front.
There was another vehicle already in the driveway, and Tom Ryan was waiting on the front lawn. In the doorway of the house stood an attractive auburn-haired woman with a large baby bulge. Ava Wright-Parrish, no doubt. Danielle figured the woman had to be in the last trimester of her pregnancy.
Danielle finished the last bite of her sandwich before Dylan, Colin and she got out and made their way to the others. Colin and Tom shook hands. A closer look at Ava’s face, and Danielle saw the concern and the fatigue—two things that Danielle was certain were on her own face. Tom’s, too. But then she’d heard him tell Colin on the phone that Callie and he had spent the night trying to find a way through those tunnels. Tom had come straight to Ava’s and his jeans and shirt were speckled with dirt and dust.
Ava offered a weak smile to Danielle during the introductions, and then stood to the side so they could all enter. The house was chilly, the cool air from the air conditioner spilling over them. Either Ava liked the coolness or her pregnancy had caused her to lower the temperature.
“I don’t suppose you could be more specific about what you’re looking for?” Ava asked.
Colin shook his head. “Boyd was intentionally vague. But he did indicate that whatever it is, it might be connected to Julie Grainger and Vincent Del Gardo.”
That caused Ava’s blue eyes to widen. With good reason. Julie Grainger had been murdered by the very man who was holding Luke hostage.
“Ava, this something could be Del Gardo’s missing fifty million dollars,” Danielle added.
“Fifty million?” she questioned. “I thought that was hidden at the Vaughn estate.”
“Maybe.” Colin answered so quickly that it meant he’d already considered it. “Or maybe Del Gardo just planted false clues to let people believe
that. And maybe Nicky Wayne learned the clues were false.”
“How?” Ava wanted to know.
Danielle wanted to know the same thing, and she only hoped that didn’t mean that Nicky had gotten the information from Ben. Maybe he’d tortured Ben into telling him.
“Why would Del Gardo have hidden the money here?” Ava continued.
Colin shrugged. “Who knows? Maybe he figured no one would look for the money at an agent’s house. Maybe he tricked Julie into hiding it for him. But that something might be here. Something big, or Boyd wouldn’t have sent us after it, and I’m thinking that fifty million qualifies as something big.”
“You’re right,” Tom agreed. He glanced around the room. “I’ll check the attic. Everybody needs to look for loose floorboards, too, because Del Gardo would have needed a lot of space to hide fifty million.”
They all started to fan out into various parts of the house. Tom went up the stairs to the attic. Ava went into the master bedroom. Dylan, into the living room.
Since the other agents were searching, Colin and Danielle went into the other room. A nursery, Danielle realized the moment she stepped inside.
Oh, mercy.
Talk about getting hit with a reminder that soon, very soon, she’d have to create a nursery for her own child. Nothing would make her happier, but it also meant first having to deal with Colin and his reaction to becoming a father.
That sleepy incident on the bed had reminded her of old times. It had also left her wanting more. Which she couldn’t have. Sex with Colin would no doubt be as great as it always had been, but it would complicate a situation already too complicated. No. It was best to keep sex out of the picture until they’d resolved everything about the baby. And that wasn’t going to happen until Luke was safely back with his family.
Even though she really didn’t expect to find anything in the nursery, she went to the closet and looked around. Normal stuff. Shopping bags with new baby items. A changing table ready to be assembled.
They looked through the room and tested every part of the floor for loose floorboards. Nothing. Colin started a wall search, and he knocked on each section of the room, listening for the sound to indicate there was a hollow space.
Still nothing.
Danielle and Colin went back into the living room to find Tom doing the same thing. The men lifted the sofa and chairs and looked underneath them. Definitely no money. And the fireplace was clean, as well.
“I might have found something,” she heard Dylan call out from the loft. “But it’s not money.”
That sent everyone hurrying in that direction, including Ava. When they got to the top of the stairs, Dylan was standing in the middle of the room holding an envelope and a single sheet of paper.
His weary eyes went straight to Ava. “I’m sorry,” Dylan said.
Ava shook her head and walked past them to get to Dylan. She reached for the envelope and the paper. Only then did Danielle see that it appeared to be a short handwritten letter.
“It’s from Julie Grainger,” Dylan explained. But that was all he said. He kept his attention fastened to Ava.
The woman’s lips moved as she read through the letter, and at the end of it, Ava shrugged. “What does it mean?”
“Look in the envelope,” Dylan instructed.
Ava did, but she opened it as if it were fragile and might break. She froze for several moments when she looked at the first picture, and then she frantically rifled through the others.
“Oh, God,” Ava said.
She staggered a bit, and Tom caught her. He caught the paper and envelope, as well. He read the message and looked at the same photos that had caused Ava’s reaction. His gaze flew to Dylan’s.
“What’s going on?” Tom demanded.
“I don’t know.” Dylan turned to Colin. “The message is from Julie to Ben, and it’s her handwriting. I recognize it. The message says, ‘I know who you really are.’”
Tom passed the pictures to Colin, and after one glance Danielle knew the reason for Ava’s reaction.
There were three pictures, all taken from long range as if the photographer were spying on the people being photographed. Ben Parrish was in all the pictures. Danielle recognized him from the photo she’d seen on Callie’s desk. But Ben wasn’t alone. He was with Boyd in two of the shots, and in the other one, he was with Nicky Wayne himself.
“It’s some kind of mix-up,” Tom concluded. He forced Ava to sit down.
She did sit, but she didn’t look as if she believed him about this being a mix-up. “Why would Ben be in those pictures?” She looked at Tom first. Then, Dylan.
None of the men apparently had an answer for her.
Tears sprang to her eyes. “Julie obviously thought Ben was a corrupt agent.”
Tom stooped down and met her eye to eye. “Julie could have been wrong. All we know at this point is that Ben is missing. That’s it. We don’t know why, and we certainly don’t know that he’s working for Nicky Wayne.”
Ava wiped away the tears, but Danielle figured more would follow. The woman stood, and she tried to look stronger than she probably felt. She lifted her head high and snagged Colin’s gaze. “Do you think this is what Boyd wanted?”
Colin shrugged. “Maybe.”
Those photos possibly incriminated Ben, but it also pointed the finger at Boyd, too. What kind of connection had he had with Ben? And maybe Boyd didn’t want his connection to the agent to become public knowledge.
“I’m betting Ben met with Boyd and Nicky so he could get answers about Julie’s murder,” Tom concluded. “And someone, maybe one of Nicky’s own men, took those photos to make Ben look like an agent on the take.”
Of course, what Tom didn’t add was that Ben might also be dead. Danielle hated to even think it, but here was Ava, pregnant and worried, and Ben was nowhere to be found. If he had dealings with the Wayne family, one of them might have murdered the agent.
Ava blinked back more tears and tipped her head to the copier in the loft office. “Why don’t you copy everything and take it to Boyd. Since he’s in the pictures, he obviously knows he met with Ben.”
With that, Dylan took the items to the copy machine in the home office and began to copy them. While he was doing that, Tom put his arm around Ava and led her back down the stairs. “I’ll call Callie,” Tom said. “She can come out and stay with you.”
Ava was already shaking her head before Tom had finished. “No. She’s too busy to babysit me. It’s more important for her to concentrate on rescuing Luke. Or finding Ben.”
Dylan finished the copies and put them into an envelope. He handed it to Colin. The men just stared at each other.
“Ben, Tom and I were all close,” Dylan explained. He cursed under his breath. “This’ll hit Ava hard.”
“You think it’s true?” Danielle asked. “Is Ben Parrish really a dirty agent?”
“I think the Wayne family framed him.” But Dylan didn’t sound totally convinced.
Neither was Danielle, and she had to consider this from a different angle. What if Ben was the mole? What if he still had access to communications equipment? He could possibly be feeding info to the Wayne family.
Colin tucked the envelope under his arm. “Let’s get this back to Boyd.”
“Of course.” Because the sooner they did that, the sooner Luke might get to go free.
Ava and Tom were in the living room when the rest of them made it back down the stairs. Tom was trying to comfort her, but Danielle figured that wasn’t possible.
“Come on,” Dylan said to her and Colin, “I’ll get you back up to the estate.”
“Go ahead,” Ava insisted when everyone looked at her. “I know you need to get back to work. I’ll be fine. I promise.” And to make sure she got her point across, Ava caught on to both Tom and Dylan’s arms and led them to the door.
Tom waited until Ava gave a firm nod before he started toward his car. And Colin, Dylan and Danielle went to the other vehicle. Danielle r
eached for the door handle.
And then stopped.
She glanced back at the thick trees behind Ava’s house, and she saw something.
Colin stopped, too, and looked at her. “What’s wrong?” he asked Danielle, and he followed her gaze.
She took a few steps closer and tried to pick through the branches and see what was there.
A car.
“You need to check on Ava,” she told Colin.
Dylan tossed the envelope with the pictures and letter onto the car seat and raced back toward the house. Danielle and Colin were right behind him.
“What’s going on?” Tom asked.
Danielle didn’t answer. She ran. Ahead of her, Colin threw open the front door, and he drew his gun. But Danielle was already on the steps before she saw what was going on.
Her heart went to her knees.
Because Jerry Ortiz drew his gun, too.
The man shoved Ava in front of him. Like a human shield. And Jerry put his gun to her head.
Chapter Twelve
A dozen questions went through Colin’s mind, and none of them were good.
An agent’s wife had been taken hostage by another agent, and Colin could only guess why. Was Jerry after the something that Boyd had sent them after?
And was Jerry the mole?
Colin tightened his grip on his gun and braced himself for whatever was about to happen. Because if Jerry was the mole, he was the man who’d tried to murder Danielle and him. And now, he had a pregnant Ava at gunpoint.
“Put down your gun,” Colin told Jerry.
Behind him, Colin heard Dylan and Tom draw their weapons, as well. Either the show of force would cause Jerry to surrender, or it would send him over the edge.
He looked out of the corner of his eye. Danielle was too close. Practically right in front of one of those massive windows. If Jerry started shooting, she could be hurt by a stray bullet.
“Back up, Danielle,” Colin mumbled to her. “Go to the car.”
Whether or not she would listen was anyone’s guess, and it surprised him when she did as he’d instructed. Tom moved, too, and Colin heard him making his way around the house. Hopefully, to the back. They needed to cut off any escape routes.
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