Armored Attraction

by Janie Crouch

  He could tell she was wiping tears from her eyes. Then she leaned her face into his hand, which had moved to cup her cheek.

  The heat was there between them. It always had been and probably always would be. But there was something more between them now.

  A warmth.

  “I’m sorry you were so hurt eight years ago,” she whispered.

  “You were twenty. I was twenty-two. God forbid we be judged for the rest of our lives solely by the decisions we made at that age.”

  She nodded and started to say something else but then their attention was caught when the back door of the station opened. It was Webb.

  “Showtime,” Liam murmured.

  The man didn’t seem suspicious, not looking around for anyone tailing him, but that didn’t necessarily mean anything. They followed him to a nearby diner, where he went inside and fortunately sat by a window booth. They could see that two other men joined him.

  Three men. Just as Karine had mentioned.

  What Liam wouldn’t give for audio surveillance on them right now.

  “Do you think that’s them?” Vanessa whispered.

  “I don’t know, but it sure seems possible.”

  They watched for verbal cues as the men talked, but without knowing the topic, understanding their expressions and gestures was impossible.

  Liam’s phone buzzed and he looked down at it. It was the report about Tommy Webb. He read through it.

  “What?” Vanessa asked when Liam grimaced.

  “It’s the background info Omega Sector sent me about Tommy Webb.”

  “Something bad?”

  Liam shook his head. “The opposite, actually. The guy was literally a Boy Scout. Grew up in Raleigh but vacationed here. After he went to college—with a 4.0 GPA, by the way—he moved to the Outer Banks. Was a deputy and then worked his way up to assistant sheriff. Pretty impressive for someone twenty-six years old. He’s driven.”

  “So he’s not our guy?”

  “Not necessarily. He could still be behind the trafficking ring. But if so, he’s very good at making himself look like what he’s not.”

  “Well, whoever made the video of ‘Karine’ hitting someone with a fire iron is also good at making stuff look like something it’s not,” Vanessa shot back, leaning forward to look closer at the men in the diner.

  She was right. It looked as though Webb was a perfectionist. That could translate very well to running a successful human-trafficking ring.

  Except for one small girl who’d bravely escaped. The cog in Webb’s wheel.

  They needed to know who those other guys were. Liam cursed again at their lack of surveillance equipment.

  “I’m going to go in and try to get pictures of the two other men with my phone,” he told Vanessa.

  “What if someone recognizes you?”

  “I’ll have to take the chance. We have to know who those guys are and get someone following them.” Liam was thankful Derek and Joe were on their way. They were needed.

  Stress was clear on Vanessa’s face. “Be careful.”

  He reached over and gave her a quick, forceful kiss.

  “Hey.” He winked at her. “It’s me.”

  She was still rolling her eyes when Liam grabbed a ball cap from the backseat and hopped out the door. He pulled the cap low over his head and prayed no one would recognize him as he went inside.

  He sat at the bar and immediately ordered coffee. The waitress smiled as she brought it, but Liam didn’t engage in any casual conversation with her. That might just call the men’s attention toward them.

  Liam tried to make it so his phone would take a picture of the men from the back lens. That way it would appear that Liam was looking at his screen—as almost everyone in the diner was—but, really, he could take a picture.

  He muttered a curse when he couldn’t get the right angle. He’d have to hold the phone up too high, which would bring attention to his actions.

  He’d have to walk by the men’s table and try to get the picture. It would be tricky, and if he didn’t get the photos on the first attempt, he wouldn’t be able to do it at all. Walking by their table more than once was another sure way to attract their attention.

  Liam asked the waitress where the bathroom was located and then made his move. As he passed by the table, he kept his phone on video-record mode. They would be able to pick up a still photo from the video. When he got to the bathroom he checked the footage. He’d gotten what he needed of one of the guys. As he walked back he’d get footage of the other one.

  He waited a few moments before going out, but when he opened the door he realized the men were getting up to leave. He’d missed his chance for the second guy, damn it.

  Keeping his head averted as they were paying, Liam threw a five-dollar bill down by his coffee cup and walked out the door. He needed to be back at his SUV before Webb left so they could continue to follow him.

  It was beginning to rain in the darkness, which gave Liam an excuse to jog toward his car. His heart skipped a beat when he opened the door and realized Vanessa was no longer in the vehicle.

  Adrenaline coursed through him. Where the hell had she gone? Had someone grabbed her? He was getting back out to look for her when the passenger door opened and she climbed in.

  “Where were you?” Liam demanded.

  “I could tell you only got pictures of one of the guys from the angle you were walking to the bathroom.”

  “So?” His heart was still beating a little too fast from thinking she had been taken.

  “So, when I saw they were getting up to leave, I snuck to the window and took a picture of the other guy myself.”

  She was grinning like an idiot. Liam couldn’t help smiling himself.

  “I hope they didn’t see you,” he said, shaking his head.

  “I don’t think so,” she said. “I kept to the shadows. If they did notice, they didn’t act any differently.”

  “Here comes Webb.” Liam started the SUV just as the assistant sheriff started his. “I think we should keep following him until we figure out who the other guys are.”

  He followed Webb at a safe distance. Enough people were leaving the diner that it wasn’t too obvious they were following, but surveillance with only one car, at night, in a small place like the Outer Banks, was difficult. It wouldn’t take long before Webb would become suspicious. Unless Webb was going out to the boat, following him wouldn’t give them any sort of tactical advantage. If he was just going to his house, it wasn’t worth the suspicions it would raise in Webb’s mind.

  Right now they were on the four-lane Highway 158. Everybody used that road, so it wouldn’t grab Webb’s attention.

  “Getting out to take pictures of those guys could’ve been dangerous, you know,” he said to Vanessa, who was straining to keep her eyes on Webb’s car. “There’s no doubt they’re willing to kill to cover their tracks.”

  She shrugged. “No more dangerous than you going in there.”

  Liam gave a short laugh. “I’m a trained agent, not to mention I have nearly a foot and probably close to a hundred pounds on you.”

  She shrugged again. “It was worth the risk.”

  Liam had emailed the photos of both men to Omega as they’d waited at a stop light before moving on to the highway. Hopefully they would have positive IDs by morning, though Liam knew they couldn’t be arrested or brought in for questioning. They would never give up the location of the girls; it would be too incriminating against them. The girls would die alone on that boat.

  Not an option.

  But they could at least follow the men and put full-time surveillance on them.

  Webb pulled off Highway 158 onto a smaller, darkened road. Things were about to get tricky.

  Liam tossed Vanessa his ph
one. “Check the file with his info. Is his house on this road? If so, we don’t want to follow. That will just make him suspicious.”

  She found the file quickly and her face jerked up to his. “No, his house is on the north side of the islands, near Kitty Hawk. Isn’t this the road that leads out to the bridge to Riker’s Island?”

  She was right. An old wooden bridge that led out to a small island in the Sound the locals had nicknamed Riker’s. The island was popular with young people during warm weather for lying out, sneaking a few illegal substances and just generally being young and stupid. Liam had spent time there himself as a teenager. A place to get away from endless tourists during the summer.

  Right now, during the off season, it would be the perfect place to keep a small motor boat to get out to the bigger one where they were keeping the girls.

  Liam switched off his headlights just before he turned onto the road leading out to the bridge. There was no way Webb wouldn’t notice them behind him.

  “If he gets in a boat, we don’t have one,” Vanessa reminded him.

  “I know. We’ll have to follow him as best we can with binoculars. It’s better than nothing. Maybe they aren’t far. Then we can come back out later tonight.”

  They kept a pretty good distance behind Webb. The island wasn’t the only place these back roads led to, but it was a good bet. When Webb began slowing down, Liam stopped and backed up around a curb.

  “I don’t know if he sees us or what, but we need to stay out of sight for a minute. The last thing we want to do is spook him.”

  Of course, they didn’t want to lose him, either. But if he was going to Riker’s Island, that was a dead end.

  Liam waited a full two minutes before easing the SUV around the bend again. He couldn’t see Webb’s taillights any longer.

  They drove at a steady pace toward the bridge, slowing as they were about to ease onto it. Seeing the road without headlights was difficult.

  “All right, let’s see if the bastard went—”

  He caught Vanessa’s terrified look past him out the window as she threw out her arm toward him. He felt the jarring impact of another, much larger vehicle slamming into theirs.

  Then everything went black.

  Chapter Twelve

  Why did she have her feet in cold water? Vanessa blinked, trying to wake all the way up.

  Were they on a boat? They were rocking as though they were out on a boat.

  She brought a hand to her head. Everything hurt. Was that blood on her hand? She couldn’t see. And she couldn’t really breathe because her seat belt was too tight.

  As she blinked again and wiped her hair out of her face, her eyes adjusted.

  Oh, God, she was in the car with Liam and they were in the water. The cold, salty water was already beginning to fill the vehicle. The windows were already below the water line.

  How deep was the water here? Vanessa didn’t know. But as the SUV continued to sink she realized it was deep enough to kill them.

  She couldn’t get a deep breath because so much of her weight was being forced against her seat belt from the angle the vehicle was sinking.

  And Liam was sitting there, still. Arms floating eerily from his angle in his seat.

  He was too still. And whatever vehicle had hit them had connected on his side.

  “Liam!” Vanessa yelled. She could now feel water inching up over her ankles.

  He didn’t move at all. She couldn’t see any blood on him, but it was dark.

  It was even darker in the water outside the windows.

  She tried to reach over to touch him, but couldn’t with the awkward angle her body was stuck in. She pushed at the release mechanism on her seat belt, panicking for just a second when it wouldn’t give. Then it did and she fell forward.

  The car shifted slightly with her movement. It was still filling with water.

  “Liam,” she yelled again, bracing herself against the dashboard so she could get closer to him. “Liam, wake up.”

  She shook his shoulder, then reached over and cupped both his cheeks with her hands.

  “Liam, baby, I need you to wake up.” She kissed him then patted his cheeks sharply.

  The water was rising in the car. They were running out of time.

  Liam moaned and she released a breath she hadn’t even realized she’d been holding.

  “That’s right, you big old hunk of handsome. Wake up.”

  He groaned. “I prefer hunk of burning love.”

  Vanessa snickered and kissed him on the forehead. “I’ll call you hunk of anything you want if we can get out of this vehicle alive.”

  It only took a moment for the cobwebs to clear in Liam’s mind.

  “We’re already submerged. The water is rising inside the car.” She could feel the cold creeping up toward her knees. The car was still sinking at an angle.

  Liam reached for the controller to ease the window down, but it wouldn’t work. “Electrical is already out.”

  Vanessa shrieked a little when the car hit the bottom and evened out. Her weight was thrown down into her seat.

  Water was entering the car much faster now, pouring in through the floorboards.

  “Okay, good, we’re at the bottom,” Liam said.

  “That’s good?”

  He unhooked himself from his seat belt then took his gun out of his holster.

  “Going to shoot some fish?” she asked. Maybe he could just shoot her. That would be a less painful way to go than drowning.

  “No, I’m going to shoot your window out. Once the water fills the vehicle, we’ll be able to swim out.”

  “Okay.” It was a good plan in theory. “I don’t know how far down we are. We were already sinking when I regained consciousness.”

  “Kick off your shoes,” he said. “We’re both good swimmers. We can make it.”

  She nodded but really wasn’t sure.

  “It might be disorienting when you first get through the window. You can’t tell which way the surface is in the dark.” He grabbed her hand. “If that happens, stop swimming and let yourself float for a second. You’ll automatically start rising toward the surface. Then swim that way.”

  “Have you done this before?”

  He reached over and kissed her. “Nah. But I was Houdini in another life.”

  She smiled. He’d always been able to make her smile, even in the craziest of circumstances or when she’d been so angry at him she was ready to hire a hit man.

  He cupped her cheek. “The water coming in will be the hardest part. Don’t panic, baby. We can’t do anything until the car is full of water. The pressure of it coming in through the window will be too strong to swim against.”

  His eyes were serious.

  Liam serious was frightening. She grasped his hand and squeezed.

  “Cover your ears,” he said as he pointed his gun at the window.

  She did so, turning to the side. The sound of the gun—shooting three times in rapid succession—was so loud. But just as frightening was the sound of the water now pouring in through the window. The force of it tore through the holes the bullets had made and ripped the window open like a gaping wound.

  Panic poured over Vanessa like the cold water. Her breathing became shallow and tears pooled in her eyes. Water was up to her waist in seconds.

  “Nessa, look at me.” He grabbed her hand in the water. “Concentrate on your breathing. You’re going to need a deep breath before we swim up.”

  He breathed right in front of her. She tried to follow his pattern, but the water was up to her shoulders now.

  “You can do this, baby. You’re the strongest person I know. The strongest person I’ve ever known.”

  Vanessa focused. He was right, she could do this. She had
to do this or she would die. The water now was just a few inches from the ceiling of the car.

  “One deep breath and then we swim, okay?”

  “Okay,” she said. They both had their heads tilted straight up so they could get the last bit of air. She heard him suck in a breath, then did the same, her hand clutching his.

  This was it.

  Swimming, knowing you couldn’t just pop up for air if you needed it, was much different than a regular swim. Vanessa had to force herself to remain calm. The pressing darkness all around her didn’t help.

  Liam swam through the window first. He had to let go of her to do so and she fought the panic once again. She couldn’t see him at all.

  Part of her shirt got caught on something as she took her turn through the window, so she just pulled on it with all her strength, causing it to rip. But at least it hurled her through the opening.

  Where was Liam? Had he already gone toward the surface?

  Which way was the surface?

  She was running out of air and she hadn’t even started swimming yet.

  She remembered what he’d said about disorientation in the dark water. She tried to stop moving but couldn’t tell which way her body was floating.

  Now Vanessa really began to panic. She was at the last of her air. The overwhelming urge to gulp was almost unbearable, but she knew all she would get was water. And then she would drown.

  She began to swim, because that was better than doing nothing, but she had no idea if she was heading toward the surface.

  She felt a yank on her hair. Liam.

  He kept a hand on her hair and reached out with the other one until he had hold of her hand. She was glad. She didn’t want him to let go of her even for a second in this darkness. Together they swam.

  Vanessa kept her breath as long as she could; the pressure became unbearable.

  She held on another couple of seconds—fighting—but then couldn’t any longer.

  She opened her mouth and inhaled.

  But instead of air, all she got was the painful sting of the brackish Sound water.