Jackson nodded and handed the girl over, telling her, “It's fine. Kelley likes her daughter to interact with as many people as she can.”
Jessi took the little girl into her arms, and when Ric saw her holding the baby close, he felt a sudden stab of longing low in his gut. It confused him because he'd never felt that way before, so he pushed the feeling aside and talked with everyone until they had to head inside to get the wedding underway.
By midday, Daniel and Kelley were married.
The reception was held in a garden at the side of the church, and as everyone gathered, waiting for the happy couple to join them, Ric made up his mind.
He would ask Jessi to be his girlfriend and see it she was eager to explore where this relationship might lead.
Outside the church, Kevin Nolan sat in his rented Audi, fuming.
He'd travelled nearly twenty hours to get to Cairns so he could find Jessica and try and win her back, only to find that he was too late.
The bitch was getting married.
Over my dead body, he thought. Reaching over, he opened the glove compartment and pulled out the Glock 9mm hidden inside.
He loved Jessica and if he couldn't have her, no one could.
Getting out of the car, Kevin tucked the gun into the back waistband of his jeans, put his jacket on to hide the bulge and headed in to the reception. Music and laughter drew him to the gardens, where a tent had been erected for the celebrations, and he immediately located Jessica, talking with some tall man in Navy attire.
In fact, he noticed that nearly everyone gathered was in the same clothing, but it mattered little to him.
He would end this day one of two ways; Jessica back as his wife, or dead.
Four
Jessi was talking with the new bride – Kelley Coleman – when she spotted him.
Kevin was making his way through the crowd, heading straight for her. She looked around for Ric or Kelley's husband, Daniel, but it was too late.
Kevin was right in front of her and he pulled a gun, making her automatically throw her hands up in self-defence.
Someone screamed and everyone save for Jessi and Kelley hit the floor, but Kevin didn't seem to notice. His focus was directly on her, his gun aimed at directly at her heart.
“Kevin...”
“Come with me, Jessica.” He growled. “Come with me, and no one here will need to get hurt.”
She didn't believe that for a second, but she wasn't about to provoke the situation by calling him a liar. She nodded, indicating her consent to leave with him.
“Good girl.” Kevin said.
He grabbed her hand and yanked her forward, pressing the gun to her side as he walked her away from the celebrations and out to the street, where he shoved her into a black Audi sedan. He rounded the hood and climbed in behind the wheel, gunning the engine and heading for the A1, a highway that could take him anywhere he wanted to go.
The gun was resting on his lap and Jessi knew he wouldn't hesitate to use it on her, or anyone that tried to save her.
She prayed that, when Ric found out about what had happened, he didn't try to be a hero. She wouldn't be able to live with herself if she got him killed.
Ric returned to the tent after a quick trip to the head and found the happy celebration he'd left had turned into a confusing jumble of shouts and cries. He located Jackson and the guys and asked, “What's happened?”
“Jessica was just taken at gunpoint by some man who showed up with a gun.”
“What?! Who?”
“She called him Kevin.” Steven said, covering the mouth piece of the phone he was on. “That's all we know so far, but I'm in contact with an AFP sketch artist who might be able to get an ID on him based on witness descriptions.” He removed his hand and told the person on the other end of the line, “No, I said brown hair and green eyes.”
Ric felt like he waiting forever to learn the identity of the man responsible for this, but when the ID came through, he was shocked.
“Kevin Nolan?” Jackson repeated. “As in the federal agent who was arrested and is awaiting trial for the abuse of his wife?”
“That's him, boss.” Steven said, putting his phone away.
“Hold up.” Ric said. “Who is this Nolan guy?”
“He's a former federal agent with the AFP who abused his wife a week after their third anniversary a few months ago.” Jackson told him.
Ric felt his stomach flip and asked, “What kind of abuse?”
“Physical and sexual.” Jackson said. “It's almost the same story that happened with Kelley and Ronald Coleman. He raped her, then put her in the hospital with several broken bones, mild internal bleeding and a concussion.”
“Son of a bitch.” Ric breathed, remembering what Jessi had said to him the night he'd saved her.
I've been in a similar situation before …
Ric swore and demanded, “Why isn't he in jail already?”
“The case isn't due for court until the beginning of next year.” Steven said, just as his phone rang.
Ric looked at his CO and asked, “Do we have any idea where this maniac has taken Jessi?”
“No, but we're still gathering Intel.”
He swore again and ran a hand through his hair. He hated waiting around; not being able to do anything to help made him crazy and he prayed that something came through for them to work with.
But even as he thought this, Steven hung up on the call he'd gotten and told them, “Agent Blake is five minutes out.”
“Blake? What's he still doing here?”
Steven shrugged and said, “I don't know, but he's offered his support in locating Jessica and Kevin.”
Agent Michael Blake was the agent-in-charge of the AFP's Witness Protection Program, and that made Ric ask, “Is Jessi in the WPP?”
“He didn't say she was, but there's a chance she is.” Steven said.
Ric didn't like not knowing much about Jessi, but he told himself that, once they found her and he had her back with him, he'd fix that by learning everything he could about her.
* * * *
It was common knowledge amongst the Royal Australian Navy that it's sister defence force – the Australian Army – needed help on a regular basis. It was one of those running jokes that everyone knew.
But to AFP Agent Michael Blake's way of thinking, it was the RAN that was doing a good job of needing the help.
First, he'd helped Lieutenant Commander Lawson McIntosh protect the lovely Clarissa McKenna when his ex-fiance had been determined to kill her.
Then, he'd been involved in helping Lieutenant Daniel Coleman keep Kelley Harmon safe when a former AFP agent had been determined to kill her.
Now he was being called on again to track down yet another AFP agent who had kidnapped his ex-wife from a wedding.
Michael didn't know why there were so many agents who were going rogue recently, but he also didn't know why the Navy had to get involved with every one that did.
I need a vacation after this is done, he thought as he and his unit arrived at the church.
When he learned the location of a cabin Kevin Nolan sometimes rented in the Barron Gorge National Park, there was nothing and no one that could have stopped Ric from heading there. He entered the park into the ute's GPS and headed off.
En route, he got a call from Michael.
“Where are you?”
Ric checked the GPS and replied, “About twenty minutes out.”
“What road are you on?”
“The Kennedy Highway.”
“Right. We're about thirty minutes behind you.” Michael told him. “Don't do anything stupid when you get there, Jordan.”
Ric wouldn't dream of it.
He may have only recently met Jessi and he knew almost nothing about her, but he wouldn't do anything that could cause her to get hurt. Or worse. He told Michael as much, saying, “I'll sit on the place until you arrive.”
“Copy that.” Michael said.
They hung
up and Ric continued along the almost-empty highway until he came to the parks entrance. From there, he drove the many trails until he spotted the back end of the black Audi that had been seen leaving the church. Parking his ute next to a tree, Ric got out and headed closer to the house on foot, using the surrounding shrubbery for cover as he scoped the place out.
There didn't appear to be any sign of life, and that was troublesome.
He hoped they managed to get Jessi out before that bastard of an ex-husband could harm her in any more ways.
Five
Jessi sat on the office chair in the living room of the cabin Kevin had brought her to, taking in her surroundings.
He hadn't tied her up and she put that down to he knew she couldn't escape because she had no clue as to where she was. She'd expected him to take her back to Brisbane, but he'd brought here, to a small cabin in the middle of nowhere.
She looked at the clock above the TV; one-o'clock. They'd been here for nearly an hour and away from the wedding for almost double that.
Surely Ric knew she was missing by now.
Would anyone try to do anything?
After all, everyone in attendance at the wedding had seen what had happened.
She didn't know if anyone would care enough to report what had happened and had to hope that someone did something.
And where was Kevin?
After ordering her to sit down, he'd disappeared out the back door and she hadn't seen him since. Not that she cared where he was. She just didn't want to be stuck out here if something happened to him.
Twisting from side to side in the chair, Jessi was contemplating her options in regards to an escape when she noticed something on the kitchen table a short distance from her. Getting to her feet, she crossed to the table and picked the item up, a smile stretching across her face when she realized what they were.
Car keys.
But not just any car keys. They were the car keys to the Audi parked out front.
Not wasting any time, Jessi raced out the front door and jumped into the car. She started the engine and was about to shift into reverse when she spotted Kevin heading back to the cabin at a leisurely pace, a shotgun resting against his shoulder. She shuddered when she saw that gun in his hand, and it shook her into action. Reversing out of the spot where the car was parked, Jessi turned the car around and threw it into drive just as Kevin came running around the front. The Audi was a manual, and she hadn't driven one of them in a few years, but that wasn't going to stop her. Pressing down hard on the accelerator, she gunned the engine and raced away from the cabin, heading back in the direction they'd come.
By the time she reached the turn that would take her back onto the highway and back to Cairns, she was doing well over a hundred. She didn't want to slow down, so she just prayed that no traffic was coming in either direction and gunned it harder, turning the wheel hard. The back end of the sleek European car went out, the tires squealing in protest.
Adrenaline was coursing through her veins and Jessi even grinned. She got the car back under control and gunned the engine again, heading back along the highway in the opposite direction they'd come in.
Her intention was to get back to Cairns and find Ric.
Then she'd call the AFP and inform them that one of their own was trying to kill her.
Kevin couldn't believe she'd gotten away.
He'd left her alone because he knew that Jessica couldn't possibly know where they were, even if the park was only under an hours drive from the heart of the Cairns CBD.
He'd counted on her fear of him to make her stay put, which is why he hadn't been too concerned when he'd realized he'd left his keys behind.
Obviously, he'd under-estimated her.
She'd taken the Audi rental, but luckily, he had an old '78 F150 out back.
As he chased after his wife, Kevin remembered the wedding he'd crashed. It hadn't been hers like he'd originally thought, but he remembered the sea of white.
Jessica had friends in the Navy, and that meant she was connected. If she got back to Cairns, that spelt big trouble for Kevin because a charge of abduction would be added to his jacket.
Kevin hit the wheel of the truck and pressed down harder on the accelerator.
He couldn't let Jessica make it back to Cairns, and if it meant the only way to stop her was to kill her, that was a sacrifice he was willing to make.
Ric had seen the whole thing go down and was now following the F150, just to make sure Kevin didn't get any ideas about running Jessi off the road when he caught up to her. He couldn't help but chuckle when he remembered the look of utter shock on Kevin's face when he'd spotted the Audi moving.
And Jessi's skills behind the wheel … Ric had to admit he was more then impressed.
His phone rang then and he put it on speaker. “Ric.”
“It's Blake. Where are you?”
“Following Kevin Nolan in an F150. Jessi managed to escape and took off in the Audi.”
“That explains it then. The Audi just passed us.” Michael told him. “Where are you and Nolan?”
“We've just left the park.”
“We're almost there. Stay on Nolan and we'll follow you when we get the chance.”
“Roger that.” Ric hung up and kept on Kevin, staying close enough so he wouldn't lose him, but hanging back so that the former cop didn't get wind that he was being tailed.
They drove for a few minutes when two black Toyota Klugers passed them. Ric knew it was Michael and his team, because they pulled a U-turn right in the middle of the highway. Tires squealed and smoked as the drivers sped up to catch them, and the first 4x4 turned on it lights, over-taking Ric and pulling in behind Kevin, pulling the rogue agent over as Ric and the second 4x4 raced past.
As they neared Cairns, Ric's phone rang again.
“Where are you?” Jackson asked.
“About ten minutes outside of Cairns.”
“Good. Jessica is here.”
“What? She's with you?”
“Yes, she just showed up at the church, driving the Audi that was used to take her.”
“Put her on.”
There was the slight muffle of voices as the phone changed hands, then Jessi's voice came over the line. “Ric?”
He felt his heart lurch in his chest at the sound of her voice saying his name and he had to take a deep breath to control his emotions before he could say, “It's me.”
“Oh, thank God.” She breathed. “We have to talk. Where are you?”
“I'm on my way back to the church, and I should be there in ten minutes.”
“Okay.”
“Stay with Jackson so I know you're okay.”
“Okay.”
Jessi was waiting for Ric outside the church with Jackson and Steven. Ric parked his ute behind a sedan and got out, ignoring everyone around them as he pulled Jessi into a tight hug, lifting her off the ground and holding her tightly against his body as her warm body and tight hold on him told him she was safe.
He would have liked to hold onto her forever, but Michael needed to talk with her and he needed to get her to home so she could change.
“I'll ask you a few questions, then you'll be free to go.” Michael told her.
Jessi nodded and stepped away to talk with him.
Ric blew out a breath and rubbed the bridge of his nose.
“How did you find her?” Jackson asked.
“Nolan had the Audi parked outside the cabin. I was about to go check the place out when Jessi took off in the car, leaving Nolan and me to follow.”
“It's a good thing she escaped him.” Steven said. “From what I've learned about his past, Kevin Nolan is a real, cold-hearted bastard.”
Ric glanced over at Jessi and knew his mate and colleague spoke the truth, even without looking at the information Steven had gathered. Anyone who could hurt a woman as sweet and innocent as Jessi wasn't anything less then a bastard.
Michael and Jessi rejoined them then, and Ric put his arm
around her waist, pulling her to his side and holding her there as the federal agent shook hands with everyone before leaving. Then he looked down at Jessi and his heart lurched again when he saw she was near tears. His voice was soft and filled with genuine concern as he said, “Come on. I'll take you home.”
A Hero In Uniform - The Complete Series Page 8