More low-lying clotheslines hung in his path, and he didn’t know whether to bless or curse their presence.
When they were suddenly behind him and he found himself in an open space, he decided he preferred the obstacles to being out in the open.
He saw the cross street two buildings in front of him and increased his speed. The building he was supposed to meet in was right before him if he could only make it.
Had it been fifteen minutes yet since he had talked to Ghost? It felt like an eternity and only an instant at the same time.
He glanced back to see the man behind him fighting his way free of a dangling pair of slacks.
Devin rushed to the back door of the market and barged through it into a storage room. With little time to spare, he continued through the storage area, a meat locker on his right and tanks of live fish on his left.
He noticed a small hallway just beyond the tanks and hoped it would provide him an alternate exit or at least some kind of cover. He was nearly around the corner before he looked up and saw Chee standing in front of him, a pistol in hand.
Devin skidded to a stop, stunned to see his old handler in front of him.
Chee reached out with his free hand and grabbed him by the arm, yanking him into the hallway beside him. “Are you okay?” he asked in Mandarin, his voice low.
“One of them is right behind me,” Devin managed to say. “What are you doing here?”
“Ghost sent me to provide support.” Chee waved for him to take position behind him. “Stay back.”
Devin did as he was told, pressing himself behind Chee just as they heard the back door open again. Chee shifted silently to the edge of the hallway.
Each second seemed an eternity, soft footsteps steadily moving forward, the man clearly searching the locker and tank area before continuing toward their hiding place.
The moment the man came into view, Chee took aim. “Freeze!”
The man didn’t freeze. His gun hand lifted, but Chee didn’t let him aim. He squeezed the trigger and fired once, which was all it took to drop the man where he stood.
Whatever remorse Chee felt over killing the other man was pushed aside as he immediately turned to Devin. “How many more are there?”
“The only other person I saw was Jalen,” Devin responded. “Last time I saw him, he was driving a gold BMW with the front fender smashed in.”
“Stay here. I’m going to coordinate with the authorities to make sure we have him in custody before we take you back outside.”
Devin nodded his agreement. “Be careful.”
“It’s not me he’s looking for,” Chee reminded him. “Don’t worry. I’ll find him.”
Chapter 38
“Good morning, Miss Grace.”
Grace looked up to see Jun standing in the doorway. “Jun, come in.”
“How are you feeling today?”
“Fat.” She put her hand over her stomach. “I think I’m about ready to meet these little ones.”
“Did the doctor say how much longer?”
“He thinks sometime this week.” Suddenly wistful, she added, “I wish Devin was here.”
“I’m sure he’ll be here soon.”
Though she rarely voiced her fears out loud, she let herself trust the woman who held such a large piece of her husband’s heart. “What if he hasn’t called me because he can’t? For all I know, he could be hurt or even worse.”
“Don’t think like that. Your husband will do everything he can to make sure you both stay safe.”
“In my mind, I want to believe that, but after all these months of not hearing from him, I’m starting to wonder.”
“Devin has a good heart. He’ll find you. And we’ll both be waiting for him when he does.”
* * *
Devin watched Chee go, a vulnerable feeling swamping over him the moment his companion left through the front entrance. Unarmed, Devin headed back toward the meat locker to search for anything that would give him a sense of security.
He opened the locker, his only viable option being two huge metal hooks on a shelf near the door. He picked one up, testing its weight. It was heavy and felt unbalanced in his hand.
Deciding it was better than nothing, he exited the freezer and closed the door firmly behind him. When he looked across the wide hallway, he discovered a better weapon. On a worktable near the fish tanks lay a butcher’s knife.
He started toward it, but when the rear entrance opened, he lifted the hook and wielded it over his shoulder.
The young woman who entered screamed and scurried back the way she had come.
“Sorry!” Devin called after her, first in English and then in Mandarin. He suspected by the time he’d offered his second apology, she was well out of earshot.
Though he felt guilty for scaring her, he pushed the incident from his mind and crossed the room to retrieve his new weapon.
He turned when he heard the door opening again, expecting that the girl might be returning with the police. Instead he found a nightmare staring back at him.
“You’re not an easy man to find,” Jalen muttered as he lifted his gun hand. The brief hesitation in his eyes indicated he wasn’t the type who was used to doing his own dirty work.
Devin wasn’t going to wait to see if the man was capable of pulling the trigger. He lifted his hand and released the knife.
Jalen reacted to Devin’s movement and jumped to his right, but he wasn’t quick enough to avoid the knife completely.
He cried out in pain when the blade dug into his shoulder, his weapon dropping to the floor. He pulled the knife out of his flesh with another cry of pain and scanned the floor in search of his weapon. Before he managed to locate it, Devin rushed forward and tackled him around the waist, both of them crashing to the ground. Jalen tried to twist away as he continued searching for his gun.
Devin caught a glimpse of it and kicked it hard, sending it skidding across the hall until it thudded against one of the fish tanks.
Once the weapon was out of play, Jalen took a new tactic, his fist shooting out to connect with Devin’s jaw.
Devin landed a punch of his own, the two men scuffling on the floor and finally managing to stand. Devin had barely regained his balance when Jalen struck out again and sent Devin back another step. He retreated into the fish room, careful to keep his body between Jalen and where the gun had landed.
“Why me?” Devin asked.
Jalen pressed his hand against his wounded shoulder and glared. “Does it matter?”
“Of course it matters. I don’t understand how you could betray our country or why you would want me to do the same.”
“You had everything we needed to be the perfect spy. You spoke the language and knew the culture. You had access to your father, something we have lost.” He took a step toward the door.
Devin countered his move. “Just because I spoke the language didn’t mean I would betray my country.”
“You were looking for a sense of family. My employers thought they could give you that.”
Devin had been searching for something, but he’d found it long before he’d made it to Hong Kong—he’d found it with Grace. “And now you want to kill me because I wasn’t interested?”
“It’s a matter of pride with the Chinese. You should know that.” Whatever hesitation Jalen had experienced when he’d first arrived was gone. Now all Devin could see was his determination. He changed positions again, and again Devin mirrored his movement. “Besides, it was you or me.”
“It’s not going to be me,” Devin stated firmly.
Jalen leaned over, but before Devin recognized his intention, Jalen reached down and retrieved a second gun holstered at his ankle.
Devin stumbled back and dove into the tank room. A bullet whizzed inches from his head, followed by the crack of glass and a flood of water and fish.
Jalen continued into the room, the loss of blood causing his movements to grow sluggish. Devin took another step back, and his foot connected with somet
hing solid. He realized what it was and dropped to the ground just as a second shot sounded. Another tank bit the dust, and more fish flooded onto the floor.
Devin reached out and gripped the solid metal hook from the meat locker.
This time when Jalen took aim, Devin swung the hook with all his might. The edge caught Jalen across both arms and sent him stumbling forward. He was still off balance when Devin lifted the hook over his head and brought it down on top of Jalen’s back. Though he hit him with the curved back of the hook, the force was enough to send Jalen sprawling.
Devin kicked the second gun away as the back door opened.
Chee walked inside to find Devin breathing heavily, Jalen now lying on the floor.
Not daring to make the same mistake twice, Devin collected the two guns and looked up at Chee. “I found him.”
* * *
Devin and Chee stood on the street in Chinatown and watched the police take Jalen away. The officers had taken more than an hour to ask questions and process the scene before finally telling them they were free to go. Devin glanced down at his watch.
“I think I missed my flight.”
“I’ll get you on the next one,” Chee told him. “We need you to see if you can locate Jun.”
Devin looked over at him. His hands were still shaking from the adrenaline rush that hadn’t yet subsided. He’d nearly been shot a number of times, and now Chee expected him to go right back to work. “You have to be kidding me.”
“She’s the last link, Devin. We find her and you get your life back.”
“I need to find my wife. That’s what I need to get my life back.”
“We’ve narrowed the search down to Vail, and we even have her address.”
“Then you found her.”
“No. We have her post office box.”
“Has anyone tried searching for her that way?”
“We tried a couple times, but the FBI’s staffing wasn’t sufficient to go for more than a couple days at a time. It’s possible she only picks up her mail once a week or she has someone else doing it for her.”
“What makes you think I’ll have any more luck?”
“Vail has less than twenty thousand residents. You’ll find her because you won’t stop until you do. Besides, when you’re in Sedona, you might find someone who knows where she is.”
“One of my friends flew her to Vail. He has to know where she lives.”
“Then find him,” Chee said. “But first, find Jun.”
Chapter 39
The last place Devin thought his intelligence career would take him was back to Sedona, and he certainly hadn’t expected to come back with a pistol strapped to his ankle and a second holstered in his waistband. Chee had arranged for him to pick up the weapons upon his arrival in Phoenix. A precaution, he had called it. After what happened in San Francisco, he wasn’t sure what the agency expected him to find in his hometown.
When Fai had first approached him last July, he had been certain there had been some sort of mistaken identity. How else could Fai think his father could be of use to him? Now he knew better.
Devin followed the familiar route to his childhood home and pulled into the drive beside his father’s secretary’s car. He drew a deep breath before climbing out and heading for the front door. He rapped a knuckle on the door but didn’t wait for an answer before pushing it open.
Instead of finding his parents or Liwei approaching the door, Maureen rounded the corner from her office just beside his father’s.
“Devin. I didn’t know you were back in the country,” she said.
“I just got back yesterday. Is my dad around?”
“No. I’m afraid he is in Zurich this week.”
“What about my mom?”
She shook her head. “She and Liwei are in town meeting with a caterer about the New Year’s party she’s planning. They should be back in a couple hours.”
“I don’t suppose you know where Jun is these days, do you?” Devin asked, taking advantage of the only source he had available at the moment. “I stopped by her place, but the manager said she moved out a couple months ago.”
“She got a job as a nanny out of state. Sorry, but I don’t know exactly where.”
“That’s okay.” He took a step toward the door.
“Your mom might have her contact information. Do you want me to have her call you?”
“Yeah. That would be great.” Devin started to leave before he remembered he had changed phone numbers three times since he'd spoken to his mother last. “I have a new number. You’ll probably want to write it down.”
Maureen pulled her own phone out of her jacket pocket and unlocked the screen. “Go ahead.”
Devin gave her his number and opened the door. “Tell my mom I’ll try to swing back by later.”
“I will.”
With nothing else he could do at the moment to search for Jun, he headed for Caleb’s parents’ house. With the loss of his cell phone in Hong Kong, he didn’t have any of his contact numbers. Hopefully, he could get Caleb’s number from his parents and ultimately track down Sean.
If Devin had to stake out the post office in Vail, he would, but that photo of Grace in Sean’s plane made him hopeful that his friend would be able to lead him to her.
* * *
“Caleb!” Devin stood on the doorstep, stunned to see his friend answer the door rather than one of his parents. “I didn’t expect you to be here.”
“Then why are you knocking on my door?” Caleb asked with a grin.
“Trying to track you down.”
“I’m easy to find. You, on the other hand, dropped off the face of the earth.” Caleb waved him inside. “Where have you been? I haven’t talked to you in months.”
“I’ve been doing a lot of traveling.”
“And that means you can’t pick up the phone?”
“Actually, I lost my phone and all my contacts with it.”
“We might forgive you, then.” He headed for the kitchen. “Come say hi to Molly.”
Molly’s face lit up when they entered the open space, the wide window in the kitchenette displaying the backyard and the Sedona red rocks. “Hello, stranger.” She circled the counter so she could give him a hug. “I haven’t seen you since our wedding.”
“I know. It’s been almost a year,” Devin said, all too aware that their anniversary was approaching. After all, he and Grace had gotten married the same day. “Any chance either of you have Sean’s phone number? I need to ask him something kind of important.”
“Actually, he’s in the other room talking to my dad,” Caleb said. “He’s flying us up to Colorado today to go skiing.”
“Sean’s here?”
“Yeah.”
Before Devin could press for more information, Molly said, “Caleb, I’m still not sure about going up with Sean. Flying in a little plane might not be the best idea for me right now.”
“Is something wrong?” Devin asked, noting for the first time that she did look a bit pale.
“She’s been having a lot of morning sickness the past few weeks,” Caleb answered for her.
“Morning sickness? That must be going around. Grace said she had that the last time I talked to her.”
Molly grabbed his arm. “Grace is pregnant? No way!”
“Pregnant?” Devin repeated, confused. If Grace was pregnant, she would have told him.
“Yeah.” Molly rolled her eyes. “That’s why women get morning sickness.”
Sean walked into the room while Devin tried to replay his last conversation with Grace in his mind. She had seemed a little put off at his reaction, but he had been so distracted that he thought it had been because he’d said they wouldn’t be able to talk for a few days.
“Are you guys talking about Molly or Grace?” Sean asked.
Molly turned to face him, her expression a study in frustration. “You knew Grace was pregnant and didn’t tell us?”
“I figured you all knew.” Sean l
ooked at Devin, confused. “Wait. How didn’t you know? I thought you two were married.”
“What?” Molly’s voice rose to an uncomfortably high octave.
“Back up.” Caleb held up a hand. “You and Grace got married? When?”
“The same day you did,” Devin said. He turned back to Sean. “You saw her a couple months ago, right?”
“Yeah. I ran into her at her grandfather’s in Vail.” Sean’s eyebrows drew together. “You look like you got hit by a truck. Maybe you should sit down.”
“No, I need to see Grace.” Devin kept his focus on Sean. “Caleb said you were flying everyone up to Colorado. Were you going to Vail?”
“Yeah. We were going to stay at the resort where Grace lives.”
“Can you take me there?”
“No problem,” Sean said. “But we need to go within the next couple hours. I don’t like to fly into Colorado after dark. Too much chance of ice.”
“I’m ready now,” Devin said.
Sean turned to Caleb. “How about you guys?”
“Yeah, we’re ready,” Caleb said.
“Then let’s go.”
Chapter 40
Devin’s thoughts were filled with Grace on the flight to Colorado. How far along was she? Was she feeling okay? When would the baby come? How would he adjust to fatherhood? The questions felt endless, and he couldn’t wait to find the answers.
He was beyond grateful that Sean already had a rental car waiting for them when they arrived in Vail. His friends had made a few attempts to clarify why Devin hadn’t seen Grace in so long, but other than saying he had been out of the country, he didn’t elaborate, and they stopped asking.
The ranch was only twenty minutes from the airport, and Devin was surprised at the size of the house. After seeing the modest-sized ranch house Quentin had lived in last Christmas, Devin had expected this house to be comparable. Instead he found an elegant home probably twice the square footage of Quentin’s previous residence.
“Does Grace live in the main house?” Devin asked.
“Yeah.” Sean motioned to a nearby bungalow. “That’s where we need to check in.”
“I think I’ll go up to the house with Devin to see Grace,” Molly said.
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