Agent Undercover

by Lynette Eason

  Paige didn’t get it. Why would Will leave the safety of the house? What was he thinking? As they approached the charred remains of Sandra’s house, the full moon helped light the way. Paige’s eyes scanned the area. “Will? Honey, are you here? Where are you?”

  Cal’s car pulled up beside them. He rolled down the window and said, “I haven’t seen any sign of him. But there’s tornadic activity headed this way. I think an active tornado might touch down for real this time.”

  Dylan’s face fell at the first part of Cal’s news, hope sliding off to crash and burn. At the second part, worry reappeared.

  Paige nodded her thanks, and Cal said, “I’ll drive on past aways. Maybe once he got here and realized no one was here, he kept going.”

  Dylan pulled in a deep breath. “Thanks, Cal.”

  Cal drove off and the world fell silent, broken only by the sound of the pouring rain.

  Paige shifted, the hair lifting on the back of her neck. Had they been followed? Squinting through the water, she caught movement to her right. “Look,” she said.

  Dylan looked. “What?”

  “I saw something over there.” Not taking any chances, she freed her weapon from the shoulder holster and motioned for Dylan to slip behind the nearest tree. He frowned, took her by the upper arm and pulled her with him. She went, eyes still on the area where she thought she’d seen something, but the rain made it hard to make anything out. “Will? Your Uncle Dylan is here. Why’d you leave the house? We’re very worried about you.” To Dylan, she said, “Keep talking to him.”

  “What if it’s not him?”

  “Then whoever’s in those bushes will think we think it is Will, and I’ll be able to surprise him.”

  Without giving him a chance to protest, she kept to the cover of the trees and started making her way around to the other side of the property.

  More movement about a foot away from where she’d seen the first sign they weren’t alone.

  She heard Dylan calling reassurances to Will.

  Paige crept closer.

  And closer.

  Then paused to listen. Dylan’s voice echoed.

  Sniffling? Or the rain?

  Just a few more steps brought her close enough to see a small form huddled against a tree, face buried in his knees.

  Paige closed the distance on silent feet and dropped to her knees beside the boy. “Will,” she whispered.

  His head snapped up and anger flashed across his face. “No! You’re not supposed to find me!” Will hopped to his feet and started to race off.

  Paige shot out an arm and caught him around the waist. In much the same way that she’d done the day she’d swept him from the path of the car. “Hold on, little guy. I thought we were friends. I thought you trusted me.” She said the words loud, hoping Dylan would hear her and realize she’d found Will.

  “I do trust you! But the bad man won’t leave us alone.”

  Confused, she simply stared at Will for a minute, trying to wrap her mind around his six-year-old logic. “I know the bad man seems to be winning, but I think we’re going to catch him tomorrow.”

  “Uh-uh. You’re not. And he’s going to kill Uncle Dylan.” His little face crumpled and sobs ripped from him to stab her in the heart more effectively than if he’d used a knife.

  “Will, Will, what are you saying?”

  “He is, he is,” he hiccupped through his sobs. “But if he has me, he’ll leave Uncle Dylan alone.”

  And she understood.

  She looked up in time to see horror cross Dylan’s face. Rain sluiced down his face as Dylan dropped to the ground in front of his nephew and wrapped his arms around the child’s quivering frame. Paige shivered, just now realizing she was chilled. The temperatures hovered in the mid-seventies, but with wet clothes and hair, she was cold.

  “Will, what are you saying?”

  Will lifted tearful, blue eyes and met his uncle’s gaze. “He told me if I said anything about that night, he’d kill you. He said it. And I believe him now. He blew up the house to the sky and—”

  Dylan gave a choked cry and pulled Will into his arms. “He’s not going to get me. Or you. We’re going away. Far, far away from the bad man, okay? First thing in the morning.”

  Will stilled, sniffled. “Where are we going?”

  “Someplace safe. Someplace where you can be a kid and be happy again, all right?”

  The child seemed to think about that. His gaze flicked back and forth between Paige and Dylan. “But what about Paige?” he asked, his voice low.

  Dylan’s eyes met hers, his filled with an emotion she was almost afraid to try and identify. “When Paige catches the bad man, she’ll let me know, and we’ll come home, okay?”

  “And see Paige again?”

  “You’ll see me again, Will. I promise.” Paige leaned in to hug him and plant a kiss on his cheek. “One way or another, you’ll see me again.”

  “And Uncle Dylan will be safe?” He drew in a shuddering hiccup.

  She nodded, the tears clogging her throat, making her swallow twice before she could speak. “Totally safe. And you, too. No more worries, no more scary dreams, no more being afraid.”

  Will slipped out of his uncle’s embrace, and Paige felt him slide his little arms around her neck. She squeezed him tight, smelling his sweaty, little-boy smell—and relishing it. Cherishing it. Holding tight to it.

  Please, Lord, help me keep my promise.

  Then he was back in Dylan’s arms. She pulled out her cell phone, swiping off the tears and the rainwater with the back of her hand. Once she could see well enough, she dialed Eli’s number. Fortunately, she had a pretty good signal even as high as they were on the mountain.

  “Hello?”

  “We found him.”

  “Then get somewhere safe! There’s a tornado in the area!”

  SEVENTEEN

  “Dylan! We need a place to take cover. A tornado may be touching down nearby!”

  Dylan held up a hand and closed his eyes. “Hear that?”

  “Sounds like a train.” She knew what that meant. Growing up, Mama Ida warned her if there was ever a tornado predicted, and she heard something that sounded like a train, to find a safe place.

  Like a basement.

  Only they didn’t have a basement.

  “We need to get out of here!” Another kind of fear took over as she realized that the bad guys might win after all. Thanks to an act of nature.

  “Follow me!” Dylan hollered as he grabbed the flashlight and pointed it in a direction only he seemed to know that would lead them somewhere.

  Without question, she grabbed the wrist that held the flashlight and ducked her head against the deluge. Will grabbed Dylan’s neck in a choke hold and held on while his uncle raced toward a place Paige couldn’t see.

  But he’d grown up here. He knew this mountain. And she trusted him.

  With her life.

  Pounding past the burned shell of his sister’s house, he ran toward the trees.

  The train came closer.

  Wind whipped her hair into her eyes and across her cheeks, stinging her skin.

  And still they ran.

  She heard Will crying, Dylan’s reassuring yell that it was going to be okay.

  Her breath whooshed out as she hit a particularly rough group of branches. She yelled a warning. Dylan would knock himself unconscious before he’d let go of that little boy.

  “There!”

  She saw where he was headed.

  A bridge.

  The noise grew louder. Closer.

  Together they fought the increased winds, pushing, straining to reach their goal even as the wind fought back, struggling to keep her from safety.

  “Please God,” she whispered in a pant. “You’ve brought us this far. Don’t let go of us now.”

  Branches whipped around her. One slapped her across the back, and she gasped at the pain spiraling up her.

  Another caught Dylan in the side of the head,
and he reeled, blood dripping from the gash.

  “Are you okay?” she yelled at him.

  “Fine! Go! Go!” He stayed hunched over the child in his arms, protecting him for the flying debris, even as his other hand pulled on hers.

  She ran.

  “Get under the bridge!”

  She dove under, hit the ground—and the ankle deep water in the creek the bridge covered. “Oomph.”

  She felt Dylan fall beside her. His breaths came in pants. “Climb up underneath as far as you can.”

  Scrambling, grasping at whatever she could get her hands on, she pulled her way up. Wood finally surrounded her as she sat huddled, shivering.

  Dylan stumbled up next to her, holding tight to Will. With the flashlight still working, she could see the little boy tremble, the tears on his cheeks. Dear Lord, hasn’t he been through enough? Please get us out of this alive.

  Reaching out, she grasped his hand. “It’s going to be fine, little guy, okay?”

  He nodded and gave her a tremulous smile.

  She prayed like she’d never prayed before and thought she could see Dylan’s lips moving. The flashlight bobbed in his hand.

  And then all was still.

  The sudden silence seemed loud, making her ears ring.

  Dylan’s raspy breaths filled her ears.

  And then, once again, she felt his lips on hers.

  She kissed him with all the relief she felt at being alive. With all the love she had pent up begging for release. Whether she would admit it or not.

  And then his arms closed around her, bringing her as close as possible with Will still squished between them. Will’s sudden giggle was the best thing she’d heard in her life.

  The resilience of children.

  “Is it over?”

  She squeezed him again. “Sounds like it.”

  Dylan’s breath puffed over her left ear. “Let’s go home.”

  Together, they crawled out from under the bridge and surveyed the mess left by the storm.

  Fallen trees and scattered debris lay before them, highlighted by the weak light of the flashlight.

  “Wow,” Paige breathed.

  “And that was a small tornado,” Dylan agreed.

  “It’s going to take some work climbing over all this stuff.”

  “I wonder how the town fared,” he murmured.

  “Maybe it just hit the mountain.”

  “Let’s go find out.”

  Paige rose early and dressed without thinking about it. They’d discovered that the town had fared remarkably well. In fact, the tornado had only hit the little mountain with minimal damage and no casualties.

  As a result, life went on.

  And so did their plans for the day.

  Her mind went to Will’s actions from the night before. The little boy had been willing to place himself in the hands of the bad man in order to save the uncle he loved.

  She marveled at the fact that a six-year-old would understand the concept of sacrifice like that. Shaking her head, she clipped on her badge in a place that would keep it hidden until she needed to pull it out and shove it in the face of the one wreaking havoc in the lives of those she loved.

  She froze.

  Loved?

  A tremor shook her. Okay, she had to admit it. She loved them. The little family had wormed its way into her heart and taken up permanent residence. And the tornado had made her finally face it. She’d almost lost it all last night.

  Not just her life, but Dylan and Will. The thought made her nauseous.

  So what did that mean for the future? For her and them?

  She wasn’t sure. “Just focus on catching the killer first. Then you can worry about your future.”

  Saying the words aloud spurred her on to the school where Eli would meet her. They planned to sit down with the principal and fill him in on everything. From all of her observations, Tom Bridges was innocent of any wrongdoing going on in his school. His background check had come back clean even before she started this assignment.

  She wished she had a specific suspect that she could zero in on, but she didn’t. Checking the IDs was her only hope right now.

  Once in the principal’s office, she asked, “How many staff do you have out today?”

  The shock of who Paige really was had yet to wear off, but thankfully, Tom Bridges managed to gather himself together and be a help and not a hindrance. He whirled his chair to the computer screen and tapped a few keys. Then he said, “We have four teachers absent.”

  Eli said, “Write down their addresses, if you don’t mind. I’ll have my deputies go out to their homes and request permission to check their IDs.”

  Principal Bridges did as requested and handed the short list to Eli. The sheriff excused himself and stepped from the office to call it in to the deputies.

  Paige said, “We don’t want anyone to know what we’re doing. I’m going to go room to room and ask for the badges to ‘reprogram.’ That way the students remain calm and none of the teachers suspect anything. We do have extra security and police surrounding the area and in the building undercover posing as parents and volunteers. They’ve already gotten their badges and are in position.”

  Principal Bridges nodded. “All right. What else do you need me to do?”

  “If we find what we suspect we’ll find—a tampered ID badge—then whoever it belongs to may not surrender quietly. We’ll need to make sure the classrooms can be locked down immediately if necessary.”

  “They can be. We have lockdown drills.”

  “Good. But that’s a last resort. We’re going to try and do this peacefully, with no one the wiser.”

  Pulling in a deep breath, the man nodded and stood. “All right. Anything else?”

  Paige stood beside him. “No sir, I think that’ll do it.” She gazed at him. “I’m sorry for the deception. We just felt like we didn’t have a choice in this matter.”

  “I understand. I don’t like it, but I do understand.”

  Paige smiled her relief. “Thanks.”

  She stepped out of his office, adjusted the gun under her arm and went to work.

  Dylan settled Will into his car seat under the watchful eye of Deputy Callum McIvers. Eli had asked him to make sure they got safely out of town. Only then would Cal report to the school to be ready in case he was needed.

  Dylan climbed into the vehicle, looked back at Will, who gave him the first real smile in a long time. “We’re out of here, dude. Okay?”

  Will gave him a thumbs-up. Dylan took that as a good sign.

  Then a frown crossed the little boy’s lips. “Wait. I gotta go to school.”

  “What? Why?” A glance in the rearview mirror showed Cal following at a distance.

  “’Cuz I forgot to tell Paige something.”

  “But Paige is busy catching the bad man, remember?”

  The jaw so much like his own jutted at him. “I gotta tell her.”

  “Tell her what?”

  “Is she gonna get hurt?”

  “I … no … she’s not.”

  Tears welled up in Will’s eyes. “I gotta tell her! You have to let me! Please, take me to school. Nothing bad ever happens there.”

  Exasperated, Dylan couldn’t decide what to do but this was obviously very important to Will. “Can I just call her and let you talk to her on the phone?”

  “No! I gotta see her!”

  The sheer desperation on Will’s face made Dylan pause. This wasn’t a normal, run-of-the-mill demand. This was something Will felt very strongly about.

  What did he do?

  “If I take you, I’m getting your books and all your work. We’ll pop in the office, then right back to the car, okay?”

  Will palmed the tears away and calmed down. “Okay.”

  Dylan shook his head. He couldn’t fathom what was going through the child’s mind and was really too tired to try and figure it out at the moment.

  Finally at the bottom of the mountain, he turned right and
headed toward the elementary school.

  At the stoplight, he pulled his cell from the cup holder and dialed Cal’s number.

  The cop answered on the second ring. “What you need, Dyl?”

  “I need to stop at the school.”

  “That’s probably not a good idea.”

  Dylan launched into the explanation of why. Grudgingly, Cal acquiesced and followed them into the parking lot of the school.

  By this time, Dylan had dialed Paige’s number twice with no answer. Slipping his phone into his pocket, he climbed out and got Will from the car.

  Looking around the school, everything appeared normal. A parent exited and nodded to him. Dylan forced a return smile and held Will’s hand as they walked through the door.

  At the front desk, he greeted the secretary. “Good morning. Could you let Paige know we’re here in the office? Will would like to say something to her before we take off for a few days.”

  “She’s been awfully busy coming back and forth, reprogramming the IDs. Why don’t you have a seat and wait on her?”

  Dylan didn’t want to wait. Everything in him was ready to get on the road and get out of this town that had almost destroyed his entire family. He looked down and froze.

  Will was gone again.

  This time exasperation hit him. He could see he was going to have to have a little talk and reinforce that Will needed to stay with him and not just walk away any time he felt like it.

  Worry niggled inside him, but not the raging fear he’d felt when Will had disappeared last night. This was Will’s school. He was comfortable here.

  Dylan just had to look in a logical place, find the child, then get out of town.

  Simple enough. Dylan walked out of the office and went to locate his wayward nephew.

  However, no matter how much he tried to reassure himself that Will was fine, he couldn’t help the niggling sense of foreboding that he was walking right into trouble.

  Paige handed the badge back to Jessica, hiding her frustration. She’d been in and out of every classroom, “reprogramming” badges. Each one had been tamper-free.

  Jessica thanked her. “I haven’t seen Will today. Is he all right?”

  “He’s fine,” Paige assured her. “He and Dylan are just taking a little trip this week.”

  “He’s missing school?”