by Tee O'Fallon
A muscle in Eric’s cheek ticked.
“That was the last time he let me leave the property. I never graduated from high school. I had to get a GED online.”
“Couldn’t you have found a way to sneak off and go to the sheriff’s office for help, or at least tell one of your friends’ parents what was going on?”
She smacked her hand on the armrest. “I did go to the sheriff’s office. You know what they did to help? They called Harley and told him I was there. The deputy was in Harley’s pocket, so forgive me if I didn’t implicitly trust you. As for going to my friends’ parents for help, Harley said if I ever tried to leave the property again, he’d hunt down every one of my friends and kill them. I was only a kid. I believed him.” Knowing Harley, he might have meant it.
“Sonofabitch.” Eric pressed a hand to his forehead. “What drove you to leave?”
Before continuing, she could already taste the bile in her throat. She didn’t want to relive it, but maybe it was time. Like so many other things I’ve put off.
“When I turned sixteen, one of my stepfather’s friends—Pritchard—began hanging around our house. A lot. Then, he started touching me. At first, it was only on my arm and my shoulder. I tried avoiding him, but that only made him more determined. He started groping me. My breasts, then my ass, and when he tried to kiss me, I screamed. Harley came running and started yelling at Pritchard, threatening him. I thought that meant I would be safe.”
She’d been wrong.
Unable to bear Eric’s intense scrutiny, she squeezed her eyes shut, but that only brought the horrible memories to life, making her shudder with revulsion. When she opened them, she stared at the clock on the far wall. It was the only way she could keep going.
“Harley told Pritchard he understood the lure and attraction, but that he wouldn’t let him touch me until I turned eighteen. Then, he could have me.”
Eric’s expression hadn’t changed, but he’d uncrossed his arms and was now gripping the armrests of the chair so tightly the muscles in his forearms and biceps flexed.
A loud crack shattered the silence, and she flinched.
One of the armrests Eric had been gripping split in two, the pieces falling to the carpet. So much rage burned in his eyes, he looked as if he wanted to kill someone. “So you left home before your eighteenth birthday,” he said in a choked voice.
She nodded, remembering that moment as clearly as if it had happened only yesterday. “Jesse was only eight at the time, but even at that age he understood what Pritchard was, and what he would do to me if I stayed. I wanted to take Jesse with me, but I had nothing. No money, no place to go. I didn’t know how I could support myself, let alone a little boy.”
Fresh, hot tears trickled down her cheeks. Her voice trembled, but she couldn’t stop. Venting her story for the first time was oddly cathartic. “Jesse told me I should go. It was his courage and sacrifice that gave me the strength to leave, and I swore that as soon as I got set up somewhere, I’d find a way to get him back. With a friend’s help, I managed to get a message to him, and we started communicating through email that he could access at school or the library. A couple of years later, when I could afford a cell phone, I sent him my number, but he never used it. After that, I sent him money, begging him to let me help him leave Harley.”
Eric’s tone softened. “Why didn’t he?”
“Over time, the tone of his emails changed, and I could read between the lines. He’d essentially been brainwashed.” She stared at her hands in her lap, feeling cowardly and kicking herself for not dragging Jesse with her the night she’d left. “You said it. Living with Harley was like being in a cult, and no self-respecting cult lets anyone leave without a fight. Until he called me last week, I hadn’t spoken to Jesse in ten years. We were talking on the phone for the first time that day when you”—she lifted her gaze to find his countenance was still as hard as stone, but his eyes held a new emotion, one she couldn’t identify—“pulled him over and arrested him. He said he wanted out, that he wanted to come live with me.”
“What changed that he wanted out all of a sudden?”
“A dog.” Tess uttered a laugh. “Jesse found a stray dog in the woods behind the house. He started feeding it and even built a small shelter for it. Harley hated dogs, so he couldn’t bring it home. One day, when he went to feed the dog, it was gone. My brother thinks Harley killed the animal because Jesse loved it. That was his wakeup call. Harley would kill anything or anyone that my brother loved. That dog had no way of knowing it, but its sacrifice saved Jesse’s life.”
In a way that I never did.
The room was so silent she could hear the ticking of the clock on the wall. A reminder that time was running out.
“Don’t you see?” Fresh tears streamed down her face. He reached for the box of tissues on the table that she hadn’t even realized was there. When he held it in front of her, she grabbed one and wiped her face, but it couldn’t wipe away the pain in her heart. “I ran away and left my little brother behind. Do you have any idea of the guilt I’ve been living with? I owe him so much, and I’d do anything to protect him. Including lying for him. I’m sorry I lied, but I’d do it again if I thought it would help my brother.”
Eric took a deep breath, stretching the black polo shirt across his broad chest and calling attention to the large embroidered gold badge. It was over between them, but he was a federal officer, therefore he had to help her.
“I’m sorry.” She crumpled the tissue in her hand. “I never wanted to deceive you. Please, believe that. I’ll do anything you ask of me to help you get to Gant. But I need your help, too.”
“My help?” He uttered a sarcastic laugh. “With what?”
Sniffing back the tears, she called on every ounce of emotional fortitude she could harness. I won’t take no for an answer. “He’s taken Jesse. Harley showed up at the hospital and forced my brother to leave with him.”
Eric’s eyes narrowed to glittery blue slits. “Jesse is over eighteen. How do you know he didn’t go with Gant willingly?”
“Because I know.” She clenched her hands in her lap. “He never would have told me he wanted out if he planned on going back to Alabama. As soon as we finished helping you, we were going to start a new life somewhere.”
Eric’s lips compressed, and she reached out to grab his forearm. “Please,” she cried. The steely muscles beneath her hand tightened, but he didn’t pull away. “Help me get him back. I don’t know what Harley will do to him now that he knows he was cooperating with you. That we both were. You know he didn’t go willingly. You know that.”
When he spoke, Eric’s voice was no longer cold. It was…dead. “I don’t know anything anymore. How can I?”
“Because I—” Love you. Those were the words she wanted to say, but they would only push him further away. “Because I was going to stay,” she whispered instead. “In Flemington. With you.”
His brow furrowed, and for a brief moment, his eyes seemed to soften. When he rested his hand on hers where she still gripped his forearm, she thought she’d gotten through to him. Then, he curled his fingers beneath hers and very deliberately detached her hand from his arm. “I just need…space. Nailing Gant is my priority right now. It has to be. Lives depend on it.”
The immense weight of everything happening around her was too much to bear. It’s over. It’s really over. Eric sat no more than two feet away, but she’d never felt more alone in her entire life. Including the night she’d fled Alabama by herself, with no one there to hold her hand or whisper reassurances that everything would be okay.
My heart is breaking, and he feels nothing for me.
“Who really ordered Jesse to drive those drums to New Jersey?” His voice was low, completely devoid of emotion. “Was it Gant? I need to know if you were both lying to me about that, too.”
“No, I swear it,” she cried. “Jesse didn’t know the man. He only wanted the money, and he was going to use it to get away from Harley.
What does it even matter at this point?”
“What does it matter?” His face twisted with disbelief. “The ATF has resources. I have resources. If we’d known earlier that Gant and Pritchard were behind this, we could have been tracking them. We could have gotten in front of this thing, and now we’re fighting to catch up. We might even have known by now where they’re making the bomb and what the target is.”
Oh, no. What have I done?
As she clamped a hand over her mouth, the awful truth hit her. She hadn’t realized that by withholding her and Jesse’s familial affiliation, she’d hindered Eric’s investigation. The only reason she’d done it was to protect Jesse. Stupid, stupid, stupid. Now, people could die from her mistake.
I have to do something. I have to fix this. But how?
The door whipped open. Dayne stood on the threshold. Like Eric, the man didn’t exhibit much emotion, maybe less so, but the glint in his eyes didn’t hide the fact that something was wrong. “We lost Pritchard and the other men. Surveillance teams saw all three get into Pritchard’s SUV then followed them from the hotel. The teams stopped at a railroad crossing and got stuck behind a truck while Pritchard made it across the tracks. A hundred-car freight train rolled through, and when the safety barriers went up, the SUV was long gone.”
Eric shot to his feet, shoving a hand through his hair. “Were the teams made?”
“Doesn’t sound like it. They’ll keep searching.”
Eric’s chest expanded with a deep breath. “We could put a chopper up, but all SUVs look pretty much the same from the air. Until we can reacquire it on the ground, the chopper won’t be much help. Let’s get one on standby anyway.”
“Already done,” Dayne said.
“Did the teams get those trackers on the vehicles yet?”
“Negative.” Dayne shook his head. “We just received the signed warrant. Trackers were en route when this went down.”
“Great.” Eric’s lips compressed into a tight line. “We’re up a creek without any leads. We’re totally fucked. That seems to be a theme, lately.”
“What do you mean? We still have eyes on the drums. Sooner or later, someone will go back to the barn.” Dayne paused to scowl at Tess. “Or not, I’m guessing.”
“Not,” Eric gritted out. “Not only is Harley Gant Tess and Jesse’s stepfather, but he now knows they’re working with us. Those drums are as good as abandoned.”
“You’re right.” Dayne dragged a hand down his face. “We’re fucked.”
“Maybe not.” Tess looked from Dayne to Eric. “There’s something else I haven’t told you.”
Eric let out an exasperated breath. “Let’s hear it.”
“Harley called me.” She braced for the expected look of renewed fury on Eric’s face, and he didn’t disappoint. “He wants a deal.”
“Not gonna happen.” He shook his head. “The federal government doesn’t negotiate with terrorists, and that’s exactly what Gant is.”
“Not a deal with you. A deal with me,” she threw back. “You wanted a way in to Gant, you got it. In exchange for letting Jesse go, I’m turning myself over to him, and I’m going alone.”
Chapter Twenty-Five
Eric grit his teeth harder. “No. Hell, no.” He was a millisecond away from punching his fist through the wall.
There might be a mountain of insurmountable shit piled between him and Tess, but there was no way he’d let her turn herself over to Gant, especially now that he knew the extent of the horrors she’d endured as a child, and what she’d be facing if Gant took her back to Alabama.
Confused didn’t begin to describe what he was thinking and feeling where Tess was concerned, but it had been all he could do to sit there, listening passively as she told him that her own stepfather would have turned her over to a rapist. Jesus H. Christ. Jesse had already told him some of the story, but he couldn’t believe that kind of backwoods mentality still existed in this country. Despite Tess’s deception, he believed that part of her story. No one could make that up. But it couldn’t stop the painful beating of his naive, foolish heart.
“It’s our only option, and I already agreed.” She looked at him from red-rimmed eyes, and all he could stupidly think was how beautiful and selflessly courageous she was. “I’m meeting him tomorrow at nine a.m. He insisted that I come alone.”
“No! We’ll find another way.” What way, exactly, he didn’t know, but his mind was already working on another option.
“There is no other way,” she insisted with a shake of her head. “You said so yourself, you lost Pritchard and the others, and that ammonium nitrate is just useless fertilizer now. Without me, you’ve got nothing. I’m your only connection to Gant, and I’ve got a lot to make up for. I lied to you about not knowing him. I was going to tell you before you found out, I swear it. Maybe if I’d told you sooner, somehow you could have figured out where they were making the bomb. I can’t sit by and do nothing. You have to let me do this.”
Fear—for her—clawed at his gut so much he could feel it ripping his insides apart. He couldn’t believe this was happening. The entire operation had gone from one over which he’d had total control to one that was spinning completely out of control faster than a tornado.
“Eric?” Dayne took a step into the room. “She’s right. We’ve got nothing without her.”
“Dammit, Dayne! Don’t you think I know that?” This time, he couldn’t stop himself. The lid that had barely been keeping his emotions in check exploded like the top of a volcano, and he slammed his fist against the wall, leaving behind a one-inch dent in the sheetrock. Pain shot from his knuckles up his arm, but he barely felt it.
He hated her idea. Hated it because it would put her life in incredible danger, and it had to be a trap. She might have ripped out his heart and stomped on it, but he didn’t want to see her get hurt. Despite what he’d told her, he couldn’t automatically flip a switch and completely shut off his feelings.
Eric stared into Tess’s vivid green eyes. “You can’t believe for one second that he’d actually let you go.”
“No. I don’t,” she agreed solemnly. “He’ll either take us both back to Alabama, or—”
“Kill you,” he interrupted, finishing her sentence. A new rush of heated emotion welled inside him. There was so much to say, but he couldn’t bring himself to voice a damn thing. He just needed more time to process the revelations that were tearing him apart.
“That’s where you come in,” Tess said. “I have to get my brother away from Gant. You need me. I need you.”
Christ, he did need her. In so many ways he was only now truly coming to understand. That was, until she’d yanked the rug out from beneath his feet.
“There’s something I don’t understand,” Dayne said. “Gant knows you and Jesse are working with us, so why would he risk meeting with you at all? He has to know we’d monitor your every move.”
“Harley’s never forgiven me for running away. No one gets away from him, but I did. I didn’t know what he was—a sovereign citizen cult leader—until years after I left Alabama.” She turned to Eric. “My leaving made him look bad in front of his followers. I’m an embarrassment that has to be rectified. Or erased.”
Unable to stand still a moment longer, he clasped his hands behind his head and began pacing around the room in tight circles. “This is an insane idea.”
“Agreed,” Tess said. “Do you have a better one?”
No. He didn’t. He unclasped his hands and stopped pacing. There had to be another way.
Dayne gave a subtle shake of his head. “She knows what’s inside Gant’s head better than anyone.”
“Here’s where I’m meeting him.” She pulled a slip of paper from her skirt pocket and handed it to him.
He stared at the address. It was vaguely familiar, but he couldn’t pinpoint why, and he couldn’t fathom Gant’s rationale by giving her the location so far in advance of the meet. “Then he already knows we’re coming. We’re being manipula
ted like puppets.” He handed the paper to Dayne. “This has to be a trap.”
“Eric,” Tess pleaded as she stood, “he has my brother. I don’t have a choice. I have to go.”
Judging by the determined look in her eyes, she would go with him or without him. More gut-deep emotions hammered his skull so loudly he had to shut his eyes to process other viable options, but he was still coming up empty. The only way to Gant was by putting Tess in so much danger he didn’t know how he could possibly handle it.
“Okay.” He snapped open his eyes and glanced at his watch. “We need a plan, one with leverage to counter whatever Gant is orchestrating. We’ve got seventeen hours to figure something out.”
“We’ll need to run this up the chain.” Dayne canted his head in the direction of the other conference room.
Tess clasped his forearm, staring up at him. “I’m sorry. You’ll never know how much.”
Their gazes met and held. After all her lies, how could he still want her with every breath he took?
Unable to answer his own question, he refocused on the here and now. Stowing every goddamn feeling inside him was the only way he could move forward.
This was as fucked up a situation as he’d ever encountered, so he had to think outside the box. Way outside the box, because if Gant or Pritchard got their hands on her again… The thought was so horrific he wanted to vomit.
He honestly didn’t know if he could ever forgive her for keeping a secret so colossal from him, but he’d never allow them to get their hands on her. He’d die first.
Before the end of the night, he had calls to make, one in particular to counter every federal agent’s nightmare. The worst-case scenario. Which this pretty much was already, but he wasn’t about to give up.