“It’s not me who can’t be trusted.” Devin lifted the weapon to take aim. He didn’t know if he could shoot another human being, but before he could decide, Fai kicked out again, this time managing to connect with Devin’s forearm.
The gun fell to the ground as Devin groaned in pain. His arms came up to block the next two blows, a strike from Fai’s right hand followed by a left jab. Devin sensed the man’s accomplice moving forward as well, undoubtedly intent on regaining his pistol.
Devin tried to lean down to recover it, but the movement left him vulnerable, and Fai kicked once more, this time connecting solidly with Devin’s midsection. Another groan escaped him, and he dropped to the ground.
He reached out, his hands grasping for the pistol. His fingers brushed against the rubber grip, a brief moment of hope sparking, but Fai kicked the gun out of reach, and his accomplice rushed forward. Before Devin could fight back, he felt both men grab him. Devin bucked against their grips, but that didn’t stop the prick of a needle in his arm.
A gunshot sounded, but Devin couldn’t process where the noise had originated from. He tried to focus, but the sights and sounds and even the awful smell of the alley dwindled, and the fading evening light darkened in an instant.
* * *
Grace fought against her exhaustion and struggled to stand when the knock sounded on the door. She had barely moved from the couch since arriving home from the airport three hours earlier.
Her grandfather had taken her suitcase upstairs to her room, but she hadn’t been able to find the energy to walk that far. Instead, she had tried to nap downstairs while fighting against the many what-ifs of the morning.
She had spent the past week trying to ignore the truth that she was married to a man who had practically dropped off the face of the earth, a man who had no idea that in a matter of months he would become a father—not once but twice. Now she forced herself to face reality. Sean’s father had given her the opportunity to start her new career, but only Devin could give her what mattered most—a future with her husband and children.
Grace went to the door and found Jun standing on the front porch, a suitcase in hand. “You made it.” Grace stepped aside and motioned her in.
“Yes.” Jun entered and narrowed her eyes. “You look tired.”
“A little.” Grace motioned to the stairs. “Your room is upstairs. Let me show you.”
“I’ll find it.” Jun pointed to the living room. “You stay and rest.”
Before Grace could protest, she heard footsteps behind her.
“You must be Jun,” her grandfather said as he entered the room.
Jun bowed her head.
“Jun, this is my grandfather, Quentin Harrington.”
“It is good to meet you,” Jun said. “I am happy to come to work for you.”
“We’re happy to have you.” Quentin moved forward and picked up her suitcase. “I’ll show you your room, and we’ll get your car unloaded.”
Jun must have known that refusing Quentin’s help wouldn’t have worked because she obediently followed him up the stairs.
Grace moved back to the couch and lowered herself onto the center cushion.
She looked over at the mantel and the photo that rested there of her with her parents taken the year before they died. When, she wondered, would she have what her parents had? Would she ever have a normal marriage? And would she ever learn why Devin had disappeared from her life?
She heard her grandfather and Jun coming toward her. They were her family now. She prayed that someday Devin would be part of her family again too.
Chapter 33
Devin’s head pounded. Confusion came first, followed by memories of the alley brawl. He had been drugged. That was the last thing he could remember. His heartbeat quickened, aggravating his headache as he considered the possibilities. Was he still in Hong Kong? Or had Fai managed to transport him to mainland China?
Though he was afraid of what he would find, he forced himself to open his eyes. Immediately he squinted against the overhead light. Relief flooded through him when he saw Ghost sitting across the room. Devin closed his eyes again, willing his heartbeat to return to normal. He was safe. How he had gotten here, he wasn’t sure, but he was alive, and he was still free.
Devin forced himself to wake fully and moaned as he pushed himself up onto his elbow. When Ghost turned to look in his direction, Devin mumbled, “We’ve got to stop meeting like this.”
“I agree.” Ghost picked up a glass of water and offered it to him, along with two pills. “Here, take these. It will help with the headache.”
Devin popped the two Tylenol into his mouth and washed them down with a swallow of water. He looked around the room, recognizing that he was in the same safe house he’d used with Ghost before. “What happened? How did I get here?”
“I got to the alley right after they drugged you.”
“I thought I heard a gunshot . . .” Devin’s voice trailed off. “Did you . . . ? Are they . . . ?”
“They’re alive. At least they were when I left them,” Ghost said dryly. “What in the world were you thinking? You know better than to go to a meeting without backup. Chee didn’t even know where you were.”
“Someone left a message in my office. They had a photo of Grace and a copy of a flight plan from Sedona, Arizona, to Vail, Colorado.”
“You said before that you think she’s living in Colorado.”
Devin nodded. A jolt of pain accompanied the movement. He pressed his fingers against his temples, the gravity of the situation falling heavily over him once more. “They know where she is, and I have no way of warning her.”
“How did she look in the photo? Could you tell where she was? Or if it was even a current photo?”
“She was in a plane at the airport in Sedona. The flight plan listed Sean Tanner as the pilot. He’s a guy I know from college.”
“Any idea what she was doing with him?”
“My guess is that she went to Sedona looking for me, or at least trying to find out if anyone had heard from me.”
“The truth is they may be using Grace as bait to lure you out again.”
“And if they’re not?”
“Then you’re too late.”
Ghost’s bluntness stunned Devin and sent a stabbing pain into his gut. “You don’t think they would . . . ?”
“It’s best not to focus on what you can’t control. We’ll start a search for her again. Assuming she’s still okay, our best play is to find the leak. Once we do that, you can safely reunite with your wife.”
“What happens now?” Devin asked, a sense of helplessness overwhelming him. “Obviously I can’t go back to work now. Fai suspected I double-crossed him even before you shot at him.”
“What did they say?”
Devin replayed the conversation and Fai’s insistence that Devin go with him to Shanghai. “My guess is the powers that be made so many changes to avoid intelligence leaks that the copy of my father’s laptop appeared to have been altered.”
“I was worried something like that might happen.”
“And you let me go to work every day anyway?” Devin asked.
“Chee was convinced we could use your cover to find the leak. He thought giving you a guardian would be enough to protect you.”
“Guardian?”
“Guardian, ghost. It’s the same thing.”
“Do you work for the CIA?”
“Not exactly.”
“Who do you work for, then?” Devin asked.
“All of the guardians at one time or another had some ties with intelligence,” Ghost said. “And all of us had someone who wanted us dead.”
“Why?”
“Different reasons. Usually we knew too much.” Ghost’s expression intensified. “I would offer to have you join our ranks, but our way of ensuring no one is following you is to fake your death.”
Devin immediately shook his head. “I can’t do that. I can’t lose Grace.”
“I suspected as much,” Ghost said. “If you want your life back, we need to find the leak.”
“How is it that I was sent over here to uncover leaks for US intelligence, and now I’m a direct victim of what I was trying to prevent? What are the chances?”
“Often these types of situations are related,” Ghost said. “Someone set you up here. We need to know who, and we need to know why.”
“Where do we start?”
“We start by smuggling you out of the country.” Ghost gave him an apologetic look. “I’m afraid your return voyage isn’t going to be as comfortable as your trip over here.”
“Voyage? As in sea voyage?”
“Exactly. I hope you don’t get seasick.”
“Sounds like I’m about to find out.”
* * *
Devin had never been so glad in his life to see land. His stomach pitched with the movement of the waves as a tugboat pulled the freighter into the busy port. The three-day voyage from Hong Kong to Tokyo had taken him through stormy seas, and while the rest of the crew seemed perfectly fine, Devin had spent most of his time on board avoiding food and hoping his stomach would settle.
The clouds overhead blocked out the midmorning sun, but at least the rain had stopped sometime during the night. The twenty-man crew buzzed around the deck behind him, preparing to off-load cargo and bring more on board.
“Happy to see land again?” one of the crewmen asked Devin in Mandarin.
“Very happy to see land again,” Devin confirmed.
“A few more days and you’ll get used to it.”
“Maybe,” Devin said noncommittally. Ghost had given him simple instructions when he’d dropped him off at the docks several days after rescuing him from the alleyway. Stay out of trouble on the freighter and go to the meeting place in Tokyo as soon as he put into port.
The meeting place was simply an address Devin had memorized. He doubted it would be anything like the hotel and restaurants he had frequented a few weeks before.
Devin shifted his backpack on his shoulder, not sure what to think about the fact that his belongings could all fit in one bag. As soon as the gangplank was in place, he made his way forward. After a brief conversation with the captain to thank him for his passage, Devin disembarked, stumbling when his feet met solid ground.
He heard the chuckles from the crew. Good-naturedly, he lifted a hand and waved before heading around the huge crane on the dock. Nearly an hour later, he reached the meeting spot, the fish market. He looked around, hoping his stomach wouldn’t protest the overwhelming smell.
Huge white signs hung over various booths, black ink creating Japanese characters. Boxes and hand carts impeded the walkways, people bustling all around him. Devin walked the length of the main section and was preparing to turn around when someone jostled him from behind.
“Keep walking.”
He recognized Ghost’s voice and did as he was instructed.
“Take a left here.”
Again Devin complied. He turned a corner and found himself along the back wall of the market. “Please tell me you have a plane ticket for me.”
“I’m afraid not.” Ghost shifted a duffel bag off his shoulder and held the strap out to Devin. “In here you’ll find the essentials, along with a laptop that has everything we know so far on who has had access to your file from the intelligence community.”
“Have you found Grace yet?”
“We know she’s living near Vail, Colorado. We haven’t located her residence yet, but we found a hit on her at a local doctor’s office two days ago.”
“A doctor’s office?”
“That’s all I know. The point is she appears to be fine. If Jun or anyone else who is involved wanted to hurt her, they wouldn’t have waited five days to do it.”
Devin prayed Ghost’s assumptions were correct. “What am I supposed to do now?”
“I have you booked as a passenger from here to Singapore on a cruise ship that leaves tonight.”
“I can handle a cruise.”
“It’ll give you some time to research before the next leg of your voyage.”
“And what will that entail?”
“You’ll spend three weeks in a safe house in Singapore, and then you’ll report to your new job working on a freighter.”
“Am I ever going to get back to the States?” Devin asked. “It’s already been a week.”
“It’s going to be a lot more weeks,” Ghost told him. “The freighter will go from Singapore to Vancouver and finally to Oakland, California. When you reach Oakland, you’ll find a car in a hotel parking lot near the docks. The details on the vehicle and its location are in the envelope with the key.”
Devin held up the duffel. “In here?”
“That’s right,” Ghost said. “You’ll arrive in Oakland on November 30. Once you get there, you’ll find instructions on how to proceed taped under the passenger seat, along with a new cell phone.”
Devin’s thoughts focused on the date Ghost gave him. “You just said I won’t be stateside until November?”
“We need to keep you off the radar while we try to identify who is behind your attempted abduction and hopefully plug the leak that put you in danger in the first place. Like I mentioned before, it’s possible it’s connected to the one you came here looking for.”
“And if you can’t plug the leak?”
“We’ll get to the bottom of this.” Ghost handed him an envelope. “The details for your cruise are in there, and I’ve left some currency for everywhere you’ll be stopping. I suggest you get something to eat while you have the chance.”
“Will I see you again?”
“Not if you’re lucky.” Ghost pointed to the bag. “You have a satellite phone in there. My number is programmed in, and so is Chee’s. Call me if you run into any problems or if you make any progress on your research.”
Devin extended his hand. “Thanks for all your help.”
“Just doing my job.” Ghost shook his hand and stepped back. “Stay out of trouble.”
“I’ll do my best.”
Chapter 34
Grace watched out the window every day, the leaves turning russet and gold, the pine trees ensuring green remained a permanent part of the landscape. The calendar on her wall marked off the days until Devin would return from Hong Kong. She didn’t know the exact date, of course. That would have required some kind of communication between them, and so far he had not made any attempt to contact her beyond the single cryptic e-mail. Based on her estimation, he should finish his job within the next two weeks.
Every day she yearned to call his office again in hopes of talking to him, but the fear that the men in New York wanted to use her to get to him held her back. Why else would they have been at her apartment besides to look for Devin? He had said he was going to be out of town for a few days the last time they’d spoken. Had he planned to surprise her in New York? Or had he truly been trying to break things off with her?
The lives within her were becoming all too real. Dr. Gilmore assured her everything was developing well, and her latest ultrasound confirmed the same thing the last one had: her babies were expected by Christmas.
Though the doctor had offered again to tell her the sex of the babies, Grace had opted to wait. She didn’t want to find out without Devin by her side. The fact that they had never truly discussed her pregnancy left her with nearly as many doubts as reasons for why he had stopped communicating with her.
More days ticked by, and the day Devin should have come home passed without any news; her questions and fears intensified. Leaves dropped from the trees as fall gave way to early winter. With the first snowfall, business boomed. Opening day at the local ski resort had brought a constant stream of guests, and the ranch’s bookings were already well above what her grandfather and his investors had hoped for during their first season.
Her own business ventures had been limited to managing the investments for Sean’s dad thus far, partially because
of the demands of the ranch and partially because her nesting instincts had kicked in. The bedroom next to hers now held two cribs; the tall dresser between them was filled with baby blankets and infant-sized clothing. A baby name book rested beside her bed, pages dog-eared with possibilities. Though she had narrowed her list somewhat, the idea of naming her children without Devin’s input felt wrong, not to mention she didn’t even know if she was having girls, boys, or one of each.
Putting a hand beneath her stomach to support its growing weight, she crossed to the bedroom window and placed her hand against the cold glass. She didn’t know what her future held, but no matter what, she was determined to make a home for her and her children.
* * *
“He can’t have simply disappeared into thin air.” Qing was furious. “You’ve had five weeks, and still nothing?”
“We traced him as far as Singapore, but he disappeared from there.”
“Someone is helping him.”
“Our contact in the CIA insists it’s not them,” Fai said quickly.
“If not the CIA, then who?”
“I don’t know.”
“Find out.”
“We’re trying, sir.”
Qing paced across the room and looked out the window. “No leads off the girl yet?”
“No, sir. We have her under surveillance, but we haven’t seen any sign of Shanahan.”
Qing turned to face Fai. “Do whatever it takes to get him to cooperate, or make sure he won’t be able to work with anyone ever again.”
“Our agent watching the wife said she’s pregnant. It appears we will have a new bargaining chip.”
“I don’t want there to be any doubt as to where his allegiances lie.”
“Yes, sir.”
* * *
The pain started from somewhere deep inside her, the intensity spreading through her back and abdomen for several seconds before finally subsiding. Grace shifted the pillow beneath her in an effort to get more comfortable. She didn’t know what time it was, but she was certain it wasn’t time to get up and start the day.
Her body relaxed, and she fell back to sleep. The next pain came on more forcefully, and she struggled to comprehend the cause. Her stomach hardened, and understanding dawned. Labor. Her babies were coming.
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