“They’re in town at the Armond apartment. We’ve got guards watching them day and night.”
“Have they seen Armond?”
“Briefly. Look, I’ve got to go, but you go in and get your work caught up. Let me handle Armond.”
Josie wasn’t going away that easily. “If you just give me five minutes with him, I might be able—”
“No, Gilbert. And that’s an order.”
The call ended before she could respond. She didn’t even get to tell him about Connor’s suspicions regarding the other son.
“What is going on?” she mumbled, her mind whirling with unanswered questions. She’d take care of her files, pull up more background information and ask around.
But one question stood out in her mind. Why was Sherwood keeping her away from Armond?
*
Connor waited for Josie to leave. He pretended to be busy, so he scrolled through his file of secret pictures. No one knew he had these, not even the FBI. But then, there’d been nothing of interest in this file, and no one other than the FBI knew he lived in this dilapidated old warehouse. He’d only kept the pictures as insurance in case he ever needed to get reacquainted with all things Armond. He’d kept the laptop hidden in a small space behind a mock cabinet. Not even the cleaning lady knew the files were here.
Josie emerged, fresh-faced and buttoned up. “I called another agent. He’ll park down the street two blocks so he won’t bring attention to your apartment.”
Connor nodded. “Thanks. This place is pretty hidden and I’d like to keep it that way.”
She nodded. “I’m going. I’ll call in after I get there.”
“Good idea.” He got up and followed her to the elevator door. “Be careful, Gilbert. Call me with a fail-safe if you need me.”
“Easter Bunny?” Her smile was full of sarcasm.
“How about Cupid?” His thoughts were full of hope. “And only you and I will know it means Help.”
“Cupid it is.”
He put her on the elevator, then checked all the building monitors to make sure no one was lurking about. But he couldn’t stop there, so he went down the elevator and tailed her on foot for two blocks. When he saw the official black SUV, he breathed a sigh of relief and watched her get into the back of the vehicle. Then he went back to his work to finish up so he could follow her and make it to the FBI building just behind her.
Checking his watch, he hurried through the picture files. Nothing. Just Armond conducting business—in a legitimate way most days. Then Armond in a rare moment with his son at a Christmas gathering.
Connor studied one picture. Armond was laughing with Vanessa as they watched their son opening presents on Christmas Eve. That had been over two years ago. Lou rarely came home, but they’d all been in good moods that year. Connor had been invited to share dinner with them but he’d stayed out of the way while they opened presents.
He did remember the hostile glances Lou had given him that night. But other people had been at that dinner, too.
It struck Connor as odd that criminals could even have such loving, common moments while all the time they were destroying lives and bullying people into doing their bidding.
He was about to move on to the next shot when he noticed something else in the family picture.
Armond was wearing an open shirt that showed a gold coin dangling from an intricate necklace.
Connor lifted his hand to the chain he was still wearing. A chain that looked almost exactly like the one in the picture. Taking the necklace off, he stared down at it.
“Is this what you wanted me to find?” he said out loud. All things considered, this coin necklace had seemed insignificant. But then, everything became important when something became hidden.
Armond had told Beaux to look in the garage. Connor and Josie had found the old garage with the Camaro in it. And Connor had found this coin dangling there. Coincidence? Or had Armond left this for Connor to find?
He studied the engraved coin, flipping it over and over in his fingers. A figure of a woman was etched in the gold. What did this mean? The chain was held to the coin with what looked like a tiny nail drilled into the actual gold. Drilled into the thickness of the coin, not into the top of the coin.
Connor got a jewelry loupe and studied the coin up close. Very old and foreign, or at least it looked like an Italian or Spanish coin. Maybe from some sort of Spanish galleon?
He kept flipping it back and forth, forgetting the time for a few more minutes. When he looked at the clock, he realized more than fifteen minutes had passed since Josie had left.
Had he given her enough time? He didn’t want either Josie or Sherwood to know he was tailing her, so he put the coin back around his neck, anxious to tell Josie he thought he’d found what everyone might be looking for.
If this coin was authentic and if there were more where this one had come from, the Armond family could add even more millions to its coffers.
But was this one coin worth killing for?
SEVENTEEN
Josie lifted one booted foot up and into the SUV, then slid inside. Only to find her superior waiting for her.
“Hello, Agent Gilbert.”
“Sir?”
Sherwood sat across from her in the dark-windowed vehicle.
Surprised to see him, she glanced around. Other than the driver, they were alone. “Is something up?” she asked, her stomach tightening.
“You wanted to visit with Louis Armond,” Sherwood replied, “so I thought I’d take you to him.”
“Really?” Glad for this change of plans, Josie had to wonder what had made her superior change his mind. “Is he awake now?”
“He’s awake. But sedated.”
Josie took in that bit of information, her eyes on the road. “Which hospital?”
Sherwood shifted on the seat. “He’s not in a hospital. Too risky. We have him in a secure location.”
Shocked, Josie sat up in the seat. When she’d called the service for a driver, she’d instructed him to park down the street from Connor’s building and she’d walked to meet him. She didn’t want anyone getting too close. Now she had a feeling her SAC had purposely allowed Connor to bring her here.
What else had Sherwood kept from her?
She decided she’d had enough of people holding back on her. “Why haven’t you kept me informed on any of this, sir?”
Sherwood gave her a patronizing stare. “I told you I was trying to protect you and your CI.”
“Connor seems capable of taking care of himself,” she responded, that sick feeling still roiling through her stomach. “And I’m doing okay.”
“You two together—now, that’s an interesting piece of work.”
She watched the roads. She’d been in New Orleans long enough to know they were headed east on I-10. Where had Sherwood hidden Louis Armond?
“Where is Armond?” she asked again.
“You’ll know when we get there.”
What kind of answer was that? So Sherwood had reconsidered after all, but he still wouldn’t disclose the location.
This man whom she’d trusted as her superior had been holding out on her just like Connor. Did they both think she was such a ninny that she couldn’t handle the truth that was staring her in the eyes?
“You don’t trust me, do you?”
Sherwood shrugged. “You’re new and…damaged, Gilbert. This is a big case. I’ve been trying to pin down Louis Armond for most of my career. I’m not about to let a rookie or a known criminal take credit for what I’ve been trying to do for years.”
Josie refused to show any fear or dread. And she couldn’t let him see her suspicions, either. “That’s your call, sir.”
“Yes, it is. Good of you to remember that.”
This man wasn’t going to tell her anything, so she started memorizing the road signs. They were headed east toward the Lake Pontchartrain Bridge. But they didn’t take the bridge exit.
Josie’s stomach roi
led again. Sherwood didn’t say anything more. The silence allowed her to make a mental chart of the man she’d so blindly followed. The man who was nothing short of a control freak. Was Sherwood bitter because Louis Armond had bonded with Connor and then turned to her for help? Because she and Connor had grown close? Did he think she’d purposely tried to take over this case?
Did she dare call Connor?
No. If she got him involved, Sherwood might not let her see Armond. Pushing away her concerns, she tried to engage Sherwood once again. “Remind me of how long you’ve been after Armond?”
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
Josie’s gut burned with the certain knowledge that Armond might not be waiting for her at the end of this trip. But who would be there? Lou? The alleged other son? Or maybe the silent partner they were all trying to find? Or was Sherwood taking her someplace where she’d never be found? She prepared herself for a long ride. And she prepared herself for a good fight.
*
Connor took the trolley as far as he could go, then grabbed a cab to the FBI building. After he’d asked the driver to stop a block away, he’d walked by the building twice. Finally, he backtracked down the street and did a zigzag walk back to the building, making sure no one had followed him. He went to the back entrance. When his key card didn’t work, he stood there staring up at the door.
No way he could break in.
So he tried calling Josie. When she didn’t answer, Connor got concerned. He remembered she was supposed to text him that she’d made it here okay.
He tried texting her. But after a couple of minutes had passed and she hadn’t answered, he turned to leave. Then he tried calling Sherwood.
“I’ve been waiting for you,” Sherwood said after the first ring. “Or should I say we’ve been waiting for you?”
“Waiting? For what?” Connor didn’t like the man’s cool, smug tone.
“Actually, I’ve been waiting for this day for years now,” Sherwood replied. “I need you to do me a favor, Randall.”
Sure now that Sherwood had Josie, Connor went into his own survival mode. He remembered Josie telling him to think like a criminal. He’d start with a little negotiating. “What do you want, Sherwood?”
Sherwood’s laughter sounded with an eerie echo in his ear. “I want you to turn yourself in to the FBI, of course. I want you to confess you’ve been working with Armond for close to two years now.”
“You know I have.”
“I know you’ve pretended to be gathering evidence, and you did manage to give us a nibble here and there, but I want you to confess that you set up that bomb and you planted that evidence in Louis Armond’s safe.”
Connor closed his eyes, his heart beat pumping a warning throughout his system. “I didn’t do that, and I’m pretty sure you know who did.”
“But you’ll confess that you did.”
“Or?”
“Or I might have to put a bullet through Special Agent Josie Gilbert’s pretty head.”
*
Josie sat in a dark room, the only sound the drumming of her pulse in her ears. They’d put a blindfold over her eyes so she couldn’t see where they were going, but she’s sniffed the odors of decay and dampness when they’d hauled her out of the SUV. She thought she’d heard the rocking of a boat hitting a dock, but once they were inside the building, everything went silent. Were they somewhere in the swamp?
The door opened with a creak and a groan. Industrial, maybe? An old warehouse or maybe even a barge on the water.
Sherwood lifted the blindfold away. “How you doing, kid?”
Josie lifted her head in stubborn defiance. She wouldn’t go down easy. “I’m fine, sir. Why all the intrigue?”
His chair scraped across concrete. Then he let out a long sigh. “I think you know the answer to that.”
“Not really. What I know is that I was trying to do my job and I followed orders to bring in Louis Armond.”
“Yep, you did do that. But then something went wrong and you had to go all rogue on me with the dashing Connor Randall.”
“Rogue?” Josie wanted to scream. “We did not go rogue. We went on the run because someone was also after us and you told us to stay hidden. Whoever shot Lewanna also wants Armond and the two of us dead.”
She didn’t add that she’d pretty much figured out who that someone was. But she had to ask. “Did you instruct me to stay hidden so you could get to Armond?”
“You’re a smart woman. What do you think?”
Josie didn’t know what to think at this point. “None of this makes any sense to me, sir. I trusted you and I trusted Connor. That’s part of my job—to put my trust in my superiors and to put my trust in my informants. I tried to do that. What did I miss?”
“What did you miss?” Sherwood’s voice grew louder with each word. “You missed an opportunity to take down Louis Armond. You had him, Gilbert. Had him right there, ready to turn. But you blew it by helping Connor to hide the old man.”
“We did everything to save him so he could talk to us,” she countered. “We brought him to you—”
Josie stopped, sucked in a breath. “We brought him right to you.”
“Now you’re beginning to see things in a whole new light. You did do the right thing, Gilbert. But I can’t get past some of the things you and Randall didn’t do.”
Josie wanted to play dumb, but her fate was sealed. No one would ever find her. She knew it and she accepted it but she wouldn’t give in to it. “Did you set up the explosion and that bogus evidence in Armond’s bedroom and the shoot-out at the hotel?”
“Maybe.”
She could see his smug smile. Knowing he’d betrayed her and the organization they’d both pledged to serve, Josie felt sick to her stomach. “Was it that important that you bring down Armond? Sir, we had him. You said it yourself. You could have taken him in and locked him up.”
Tapping his fingers on the table, Sherwood moved closer. “And for how long? Until he lawyers up and gets away with murder again?”
“Murder?” Josie’s heart pumped so fast, she thought she’d pass out. “What do you mean, murder?”
The room went deadly still. Then Sherwood hissed another breath. “You don’t need to worry about that, Gilbert.”
“Then why am I here?”
“You’re here because you got too close.”
“To Connor, to Armond, or to the truth?”
“The truth has always been right there,” Sherwood replied. “It took me a long time to piece it all together, but I had it all figured out. Then two things happened. Instead of killing him, Armond developed a fondness for Connor Randall and…then you showed up.”
“So Connor and I have to pay for that?”
“Not pay so much as suffer. You both got in the way of something I need. But I’ve found a way to get rid of Randall—finally.”
Josie couldn’t imagine what that might be unless he planned to kill Connor. But then her head started spinning with what she knew about this case.
“Everyone seems to want something that they can’t find,” she said. “What have you done with Lou Junior and Vanessa?”
He stared down his nose at her. “They are safe. They both have alibis for the night of the bomb explosion, so I can’t pin much on them.”
She didn’t believe that. “Did you start the fire, too?”
“I’m the one doing the interrogating here, Gilbert.”
She’d take that as affirmative. He must have been the shadow she’d seen on the stairs. “I wonder what all the fuss is about. What was in that garage?”
“You need to stop working and relax,” Sherwood said.
“What are you planning to do with me?” Josie retorted, her nerves twitching. She breathed in and out and told herself to stay calm. She might still be a rookie in this man’s eyes, but she wouldn’t sit here all meek and mild and let him intimidate her. He’d lost that right when he’d kidnapped her. Or maybe way before then, if she’d onl
y seen the truth.
Connor tried to warn you.
Connor.
“What have you done with Connor, sir?”
Sherwood’s chuckle hit the still, hot air. “Oh, him? Well, I hate to tell you this, Gilbert. But your man Randall is probably on his way here right now.”
“What do you mean?”
“He confessed to being in cahoots with Louis Armond.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“I don’t care what you believe. He confessed to me over the phone earlier. I think he’s the one who planted that bomb and that phony evidence we found.”
“Then why bring him here? Shouldn’t you turn him in to someone at headquarters?”
“I won’t be turning him in just yet. Maybe never. First he has to confess to what he’s known all along.”
Josie’s heart lurched to a stop. She’d trust Connor any day over this madman. But now it was too late for that. She might not ever be able to see Connor again. She’d be dead soon and Connor would be framed for crimes he didn’t commit.
But if she kept Sherwood talking, maybe she’d finally find out the truth. “And what’s that?”
“He knew what was in that garage. He also knew what was in that rickety old barn where the hidden car was located. In fact, I’m pretty sure he’s been in cahoots with Louis Armond for years now. I knew I couldn’t trust him, and now I can prove it. He did what a criminal always does, Gilbert. He played all of us.”
“You need to explain,” she replied, holding out hope while she prayed that Connor was still alive.
“No need for me to explain.”
The chair scraped across the floor again.
“He should be arriving here any minute. And when he gets here, you can be a witness to his confession. Not that it will matter much after today.” Sherwood leaned so close she could smell the stale coffee on his breath.
“After he confesses and I get what I need, you will both be useless to me.”
Josie knew what that meant. He would never let either of them see the light of day again.
EIGHTEEN
Sherwood left the room.
Josie gave up on staying quiet and safe. He’d tied her hands behind her with a loose rope, but she’d already been working on that before he’d come into the room. With a little more twisting, she had the rope loosened enough to maneuver her right hand free. While she worked the ropes so she could make them look as if they were still tied, she studied her surroundings. The room was industrial, stark and empty, cold and damp, with only one door out. She got up and ran to the door, only to find it locked. No windows, no two-way mirrors. She glanced up at the ceiling. No cameras?
Love Inspired Suspense June 2014 Bundle 2 of 2: Forced AllianceOut for JusticeNo Place to Run Page 16