Shadow of Suspicion

by Christy Barritt

  THIRTEEN

  Mark threw Laney on the ground before grabbing his gun. “Get behind the couch. Now!”

  Laney didn’t argue. She scrambled across the floor until the couch separated her from the string of gunfire that had erupted. His heart pounded into his ears as shots continued to ring out.

  Trent? Tessa? Were they okay?

  As if to answer his question, he heard Trent yell from the other room. He turned his head in time to see Trent pull out his gun and rush for cover near the window at the back of the house.

  Tessa hid beneath the table, her eyes wide with fear—but also with strength. She’d been on the run for her life before and knew how to handle herself.

  More gunfire sounded from outside.

  How many men were out there? Mark didn’t even have a good guess. Right now, he had to focus on keeping everyone alive.

  He darted to the couch, careful to keep Laney covered, he raised his gun and fired back.

  As he did, another bullet hit the glass picture above the table, shattering it into hundreds of pieces. Laney gasped beneath him as shards of crystal rained down.

  This was a full-on attack. Men had located them, surrounded the house, and they were determined to massacre everyone inside. Mark couldn’t let that happen.

  “Call for backup!” he shouted.

  Aiming carefully, Mark caught sight of a man outside one of the windows. He fired, and the man moaned before falling to the ground.

  One down. But how many more were outside the house?

  As another string of bullets littered the inside of the house, concern ricocheted through him.

  He didn’t want this to end badly. But they’d been ambushed. The men outside had trapped them in the house.

  “Do you have another gun?” Laney whispered. “Let me have it.”

  He wasn’t in a position to argue. He reached for his ankle holster and pulled out his backup weapon.

  “You know what you’re doing?” he whispered.

  “Kind of.”

  That wasn’t entirely comforting, but he didn’t have time to argue. He only knew if these men got ahold of Laney, it was more than her future at stake.

  A bullet skimmed dangerously close to his head.

  “Mark, watch out!” Trent yelled.

  He ducked to the ground just as another bullet headed his way. It crashed into the table leg behind him.

  Trent fired back, hitting another one of the men outside the house.

  Mark rolled onto his side and let out a line of gunfire.

  At the moment, sirens sounded outside Trent’s house. The noise must have spooked the remaining men because the gunfire went silent.

  They weren’t getting away that easily, though.

  Mark hopped up from the floor and took off after them. His legs burned as he rushed through the house. As soon as he stepped outside, he saw the men jump into a van before it squealed away.

  Again.

  The men had gotten away again.

  They were always one step ahead of them.

  As he stood there in the front yard, three police cars and an ambulance pulled up. Jim jumped out. “Everything okay?”

  He explained what had happened. Two police cars took off down the road, but knowing these guys, they were already long gone.

  Mark walked back inside and found the rest of the crew. Tears were running down Laney’s cheeks and Tessa was attempting to comfort her. The house looked like it was in a war zone, and Mark felt a pang of regret. He shouldn’t have come here. His two friends had just started their lives together, and now everything was destroyed.

  He saw Tessa scoot away as he approached Laney. He put a hand on her arm, surprised by the jolt of electricity he felt at their touch. There was definitely something there between them—something that had developed quickly. But this wasn’t the time or place to explore it.

  “This is all my fault,” she whispered.

  “No, it’s not.” Against his better judgment, he pulled her into a hug. It was against his professional standards, but the woman needed someone. He couldn’t just let her stand there looking alone and without a person in the world who cared.

  “I shouldn’t have come here. I almost got your friends killed.”

  “I was the one who brought you here, so blame me. Besides, Trent isn’t someone to be messed with. He can hold his own.”

  “How about the two guys who were shot?”

  “They got away. The van who’d taken the other guys probably picked them up. They left a trail of blood, but they were obviously still alive. Who knows for how long.”

  She shook her head and dabbed her eyes again. “Nicholas and his men must have been following me this whole time. That’s the only way to explain how they know where I’ve been. They knew I was in the hotel. They knew I was driving down the road when they T-boned me.”

  “Stop being so hard on yourself.” His voice was firm and unwavering as he nudged her, desperate to pull her from the dark pit of her self-reprimand.

  “How can I not be? This is a matter of national security, and I keep messing up. I’ve ruined so many people’s lives. And this isn’t even done yet.”

  He leaned down until her gaze connected with his. He had to get through to her using whatever means necessary. “There’s something I realized, Laney. Now that you’ve changed the firewall to this program, these men probably won’t try to kill you. They need you.”

  She pulled her head up. “So they’ll just try to abduct me?”

  “It’s a possibility. That whole attack back there—I think they wanted to bring you in alive. You’re no good to them dead.”

  A small gasp escaped and her voice sounded desperate. “But they were shooting at us. At me.”

  “They had good aim. They could have taken you down at the beginning if they wanted to. When I examined the direction where the bullets came from, I realized you were the only one out of the three of us that these guys had in clear line of site through the windows. But they kept you alive. It was the rest of us they wanted dead.”

  Her lips quivered. “What am I going to do?”

  “We’ll figure it out. Jim is looking into the driver’s licenses now.”

  Her wide eyes filled with gratitude first, then concern. “You said ‘we’? You should get away now while you can.”

  He straightened, remembering his role in all of this. His many conversations with his captain wafted through his thoughts. His captain expected him to find answers. He expected Laney to lead them to the truth.

  “I’m afraid I’m a part of this, whether I like it or not,” he finally said.

  Her eyes almost reminded him of a child’s as she stared up at him. “Because you tried to help me?”

  His jaw flexed, the reality of the situation settled in with a vengeance. “Because I’m doing my job.”

  She nodded and stepped back, as if his words were a reminder to her that there were boundaries in place. And there were—he’d be wise to remember that.

  He rolled his shoulders. “Listen, I need to call my captain. Then we need to get you out of here. Because if those guys manage to capture you, you’re right—the security of our country is on the line.”

  * * *

  Several hours later, Laney was back in Mark’s car. Both the FBI and Homeland Security had questioned her mercilessly. The agencies would be involved in this case from here on out and they’d made it clear just how dire this situation was. The FBI would be searching for Sarah, and Sol would be questioned again.

  Trent and Tessa had been temporarily rehoused until the threat passed. Laney had apologized to them profusely, and they’d been both kind and understanding.

  Laney had no idea where Mark was taking her, and she didn’t even bother to ask. Th
ough her medication had made her feel sluggish at first, the situation at the house had kick-started her adrenaline and now she felt wide-awake, which was too bad. Sleep seemed like an escape, something she wished was an option right now.

  It wasn’t.

  It had been one thing when she was in danger. But now she was starting to realize just how many other people were in jeopardy because of her. Because she’d been naive, now Mark was in peril. Trent and Tessa. Sarah.

  And most of all, her country was vulnerable for attack. Her ability to trust too easily, as well as her naivete, had placed national security at risk. What had she been thinking?

  “Hey,” Mark said softly.

  She glanced away from the window and toward him but said nothing. The darkness outside, in one way, was comforting. It masked things she couldn’t see. But, in another way, it reminded her of the uncertainties of the future.

  “What are you thinking about?” Mark said.

  She rubbed her lips together before answering more honestly than she’d expected. “The fact that I don’t know how to fix this.”

  He squeezed her arm. “We’ll find answers, Laney.”

  She shook her head, unable to play the role of the helpless victim anymore. She’d gotten herself into this mess, she had to get herself out of it. “You keep saying ‘we.’ But this is my problem, Mark.”

  “This is everyone’s problem, Laney. We have a whole team of men working on it. I know I said this earlier, but don’t be so hard on yourself. These men are clever. They knew exactly what they were doing, and they’ve been planning this for a long time. They were the ones who pulled you into this.”

  “I do need to be hard on myself. I should have been more careful. I should have asked for more confirmation when I was offered that job. But everything these guys sent me seemed so official. They even sounded official. And, because the CIA is covert and secretive, I didn’t think twice about how vague they were. I really thought they were the real thing.”

  “The best criminals are able to easily deceive people.”

  She shrugged. “I guess I also needed to feel like I was contributing to something again, that I needed some kind of connection to the world. To life, for that matter.” She sighed. “I feel like a fool.”

  “You weren’t.” He squeezed her arm again. “We’ll solve this. I promise you.”

  A grateful smile tried to curl her lips, but the action didn’t succeed. “Thank you.”

  Mark glanced in the rearview mirror.

  “Are we being followed?” Laney asked.

  “No, I don’t think so. I just want to be careful.”

  A few minutes later, Mark pulled to a stop in front of an old cabin about an hour outside of Richmond. The building looked warm and cozy as the light glowed in the windows of the two-story house. Miles and miles of woods appeared to surround it.

  “This is going to be your home for a while,” Mark said, as they sat in the gravel drive for a moment.

  “Where are we?”

  “A safe house. We’ll have two officers stationed here, as well. We can’t risk you being captured.”

  Laney nodded, wishing that so many things in her life weren’t out of her control. She had to do something to take the reins again. She glanced at Mark, silently pleading that he would understand. “Is there a computer here?”

  “Probably. Why?”

  “I need to do some research.”

  “We have people doing that for you.”

  She swung her head back and forth, leaving no room for doubt. “I can do it better.”

  A wrinkle formed between his eyes. “What do you mean?”

  She shrugged self-consciously, knowing she had to open up about the not-so-pleasant things she’d done. “There may have been a time in my life when I learned a bit about hacking.”

  “What?”

  She sighed, recalling a part of her past she wasn’t proud of. “It’s true. I told myself I needed to learn how to hack in order to be a better computer programmer. It was a short-lived hobby of mine. As soon as I met Nate, I realized I needed to stay far away from that kind of life.”

  A hint of amusement glinted in his eyes. “I can’t condone something like that, Laney.”

  “I didn’t ask you to. But I need answers. I don’t have time to waste.”

  “Anything you learn...we wouldn’t be able to use legally.”

  “I’m not concerned with the legal ramifications. I’m concerned with people’s lives.”

  Finally he nodded. “I’m not making any promises, but I’ll see what I can find.”

  A surge of excitement and fear shot through her. Maybe this was her chance to make things right. To really make things right.

  She hoped with every fiber of her being that that was the case.

  FOURTEEN

  Laney posed her fingers over the keyboard, ready to do what she did best. She never thought her skills would come in handy in this way. But now she was glad she knew what she did.

  She needed more information on Sol Novak. Somehow, he was a link here. She needed to find out why.

  Her temporary home had three bedrooms. The computer was located in the downstairs bedroom, at a corner desk. The whole place was dark with dim lights and dark wooden walls. It smelled like cedar and the warm fireplace made the place seem welcoming, despite the armed officers standing guard at the doors.

  She couldn’t wait to research Sol Novak herself. She needed more information. More than one person depended on her getting some answers, and she knew she had the capabilities to locate what was needed faster than law enforcement.

  “What website do you plan on hacking, exactly, to get this intel?” Mark asked, standing behind her.

  She was all too aware of his presence. How could she not be? It was strong, imposing. He was that kind of person. And she hated herself for thinking that. Guilt pounded at her. What about Nate? The fact that she was even attracted to Mark made her feel like she was betraying her husband.

  But Nate had been gone three years. She’d mourned his death. In some ways, she’d always mourn his death. He’d been her first love. She’d seen herself growing old with him. That wasn’t something that could easily be forgotten.

  She shoved those thoughts away as various screens blurred across the computer. She almost felt like she was on autopilot as she broke through firewall after firewall in order to find protected data.

  “I started with a simple internet search, and I’m going from there.” She typed in Sol’s name, and pages of search results popped up. Most of the facts there were what she already knew. He worked at an accounting firm. He was forty-seven. He’d won a golf tournament once.

  “Hmm.” She leaned back, her mind racing.

  “What?”

  She stared at the screen, trying to balance the facts with her assumptions. “I find it interesting that there’s no mention of Sol until twelve years ago.”

  Mark shrugged. “The internet wasn’t really popular until recent years, so maybe that’s not unusual.”

  “Maybe. That could be true. But usually there’s something. An article. A mention. A social media hit.” With that, she straightened, another notion hitting her like a lightning rod. “I have another idea.”

  “What’s that?”

  Her fingers flew across the keyboard, trying to keep up with her thoughts. “I want to find out about Sol’s wife.”

  “What does she have to do with any of this?”

  “Maybe nothing. Maybe something. It’s anyone’s guess at this point.”

  Mark leaned closer, still focused on the computer screen. “What happened to her?”

  “Sarah told me she died during childbirth. I’m going to search through marriage records and birth records to see what I can find out.” A few tap
s of her keys later and she frowned before letting out another grunt. “That’s interesting. I don’t see anything about Sol ever being married.”

  Mark shifted behind her. “I’m sure there are a lot of sources out there with that information. Maybe you just have to hit the right website or database.”

  She shook her head. “But it would be listed here. This database is comprehensive.”

  “Why’s that?”

  She cast an apologetic glance his way before answering. “It’s the social security administration. They have everyone’s stats.”

  “You hacked in to social security?” His voice rose in pitch.

  She twirled in the chair to better face him. “You didn’t hear that from me.”

  He turned and paced away. “I wish I hadn’t.”

  “Don’t you think that’s strange? There should be a record of their marriage. There should be something.”

  Mark continued pacing and shook his head as his eyes seemed to calculate their next move. “Look into Sarah’s history, then. Her mother’s name should be listed on the birth certificate. Maybe that will provide you with something, and give us more insight on Sol Novak.”

  “Great idea.” Her fingers began flying across the keyboard again. It was almost second nature to her to do this, and it ignited a buried passion in her. It made her feel like she was in college again, having contests with students to see who could hack the fastest. “Hmm. That’s weird.”

  “What now?”

  She hit a few more keys, trying to make sure she wasn’t missing anything. “I can’t find Sarah’s birth certificate.”

  Mark paused beside her, the tantalizing scent of something piney and woodsy drifting toward her. She had to stay focused here.

  “That’s impossible,” he said. “She obviously has a birth certificate. Maybe Sarah’s not her real name.”

  “No, her name is Sarah. I had to write some references once for her when she applied for a scholarship. It was her full name. I’m certain of it.”

  “She has to have some kind of record,” Mark continued. “Otherwise she couldn’t get into public school. She didn’t appear out of thin air.”