Secret Keeper

by Paula Graves

  Evie stepped closer, flashing the light beam on one of the two men. “Is that—?”

  “Derek Fordham,” Wade said with a nod.

  “Was I wrong about him?” Evie asked, sounding horrified.

  “Maybe not,” Wade said. “Wouldn’t be the first time bad guys turned on one of their own. Maybe he was a liability and they considered him expendable.”

  Annie moved closer to Wade, missing the solid heat of his body beside hers. He stood and wrapped his arm around her waist, as if reading her need in her expression.

  She leaned against him, her heart pounding. “If this was the mole in the company,” she murmured, “and he’s now dead, it means we don’t even have a clue who we’re up against now.”

  Evie and Wade both looked at her, their expressions grim.

  She swallowed hard and asked the obvious question. “If there’s another mole besides Fordham, how do we know who we can trust?”

  Chapter Fifteen

  At least eight men created a perimeter outside the Cooper Security offices, by Jesse’s count. He’d done a slow, thorough reconnaissance of the ground floor, keeping out of sight and listening hard for any sound that someone had breached the perimeter.

  If anyone had, it could be no more than one person, maybe two. A larger force would have inevitably made more noise.

  The office building Jesse had helped design and build for the company wasn’t set up like a fortress, though there were multiple alarm systems that, in most cases, would have alerted him to problems before they started happening. But clearly, he’d somehow allowed a spy—possibly more than one—into the company, and there were consequences to his lack of judgment. When things were back under control, he’d take a long, hard look at their vetting process and other internal security procedures, but for now, self-recriminations were an unneeded distraction.

  He’d screwed up. The situation had turned into an unholy mess. And the only way to fix any of it before things deteriorated any further was to get out of here and go for help.

  There wasn’t some super-secret exit to the Cooper Security office building, but that didn’t mean there weren’t ways to get out without being seen. The underground parking deck, where they kept their fleet of specialty vehicles when they weren’t in use, had an unobtrusive ground level door that led directly into the woods behind the office. The exit wasn’t marked in any way that would have drawn the attention of the intruders, and only a small handful of Cooper Security agents knew anything about the door, which had been put there mostly to allow deep cover agents to move in and out of the building without being seen by others.

  There had been only a few such instances of that kind of undercover operation in the four years of Cooper Security’s existence. The company tended to specialize in more open security assignments, where a strong and visible presence served as a preventive measure against bad acts. So as far as Jesse knew, Derek Fordham would have had no reason to know anything about the side exit. Jesse just hoped he hadn’t learned about it from someone else.

  The door had an automatic lock, but Jesse had the keys to every lock in the place. He searched his bulky key ring until he found the small key that opened the side door. He pulled out his SIG Sauer P220 and checked the magazine, reassuring himself that he had all eight rounds—plus one in the chamber—at his disposal if he needed them.

  Deep breath. Focus.

  He unlocked the door and opened it slowly. Carefully.

  Outside, the woods were still, not even a light breeze stirring the leafy canopy overhead. The warm temperature of the afternoon had faded to a faint, autumnal coolness that heralded the coming winter. In a couple of months, the nights would be cold and often dank. There might even be the threat of an early snow.

  But not tonight.

  He slipped through the door and eased outside, keeping his eyes and ears open for any movement. The ground floor of the parking deck jutted out into the woods on this side, with no real clearing to separate it from the natural woodlands that surrounded it. So when Jesse let the door fall locked behind him, he was standing in the woods, surrounded by pines, hickories and oaks that created a tall shelter from the rest of the property.

  Would the S.S.U. have posted people in the woods around the building? If they were smart, they would, but he also knew that the S.S.U. had figured out long ago that there was almost no way to beat a Cooper in these woods. Jesse, his siblings and his cousins had all grown up here, schooled in woodland tracking by some of the best trackers the county had to offer—their own fathers.

  The S.S.U. had learned not to challenge the Coopers in the woods. So maybe he had a chance of getting out of here and finding backup before things went belly-up inside.

  He wished he could call Wade and find out what was going on. For all he knew, the S.S.U. agents flanking Cooper Security had already started their assault on the building. His brother, Annie and Evie could be under siege right this very moment.

  Can’t think about it. Got to get help.

  Jesse forced his thoughts away from the ones he’d left behind and concentrated on moving silently through the woods, heading inexorably east. He’d reach County Road 17 soon. A half mile down the road, there was a gas station with a pay phone out front.

  Furtive sounds of movement to his immediate west froze him in place. Jesse slowed his breathing, concentrating on getting his heart rate down. Sheltered under the low-hanging limbs of a magnolia tree, he’d be hard to spot as long as he stood still.

  A shadow glided through the woods, making only a little noise. But it was enough for Jesse to easily track the black-clad figure’s forward movement. He waited until the shadowy figure moved out of sight before he restarted his trek east toward the road.

  If this was the S.S.U.—and Jesse couldn’t imagine who else would have the audacity or skill to try to pull a siege on Cooper Security—they were taking a lot of chances trying to get their hands on Annie Harlowe.

  How much did the general’s daughter know about her father’s secrets?

  * * *

  “IT’S NOT OPENING.” Wade’s voice darkened with frustration. “The lock is electrical.”

  “And there’s usually backup power,” Evie murmured.

  Annie slumped back against the wall, her legs feeling suddenly weak and shaky. The darkness surrounding them seemed bigger than the faint beam of light shining from Wade’s flashlight. It devoured the light, filling the rest of the room with dancing shadows that swamped Annie with a stifling sense of déjà vu.

  Small room. No light, little sound except the ragged cadence of her own breathing and swishing thud of her pulse in her ears.

  Don’t panic. Don’t let them see your fear.

  She knew they were watching her. They were always watching, their malevolent regard tangible as a cold touch.

  They timed their interrogations so carefully, probing when she felt her weakest. And maybe if she’d been a different sort of person, their tactic might have worked on her. But she was her father’s daughter in one significant way: she’d inherited his massive stubborn streak. Having her mysterious captors try to play on her emotions, her weaknesses, merely served to stoke her anger to fiery heights.

  They’d gotten nowhere with her. Not a single one of her father’s secrets had slipped past her lips in the three weeks they’d held her captive.

  The cold, black room faded into the larger, airier room that housed the Cooper Security vault. Wade and Evie still huddled around the closed vault door, heads close as they discussed how to get inside.

  “If it’s electronic, I don’t know that there’s a nonelectronic way to access it,” Evie said flatly.

  “I can’t believe Jesse didn’t think of that before he left,” Wade growled.

  “I think he was mostly concentrating on how to get out of here safely,” Evie defended.

  “I hope he did,” Wade murmured. “He may be our only hope now.”

  “Is the vault the only safe place to hide?” Annie asked.
<
br />   Wade and Evie both turned to look at her. “It’s the safest,” Wade said flatly. “The vault lock is coded, and only a small handful of people know the code. All family.”

  All trusted, in other words, Annie thought. “But knowing the code is useless if you don’t have a way to use it.”

  Wade’s eyes narrowed suddenly. “Right.”

  Annie pushed herself away from the wall and approached him, reading the flash of comprehension evident in his dark eyes. “What are you thinking?”

  “Why do you suppose the guards were in here in the first place?” He waved his hand at the two dead guards.

  “I don’t know,” Annie answered, trying to follow the flow of his thoughts. “Maybe they were trying to find a way into the vault?”

  “Would either of them have the code?” Evie asked.

  “No.” Wade shook his head firmly. “Only family members have the code. But maybe Fordham didn’t know that.”

  “Maybe he thought Hotchkiss knew?” Evie asked.

  “Maybe. Or maybe he was planning to use Hotchkiss to lure one of the family up here.” Wade’s forehead creased. “Though I can’t explain how both of them ended up dead.”

  “What if they killed each other?” Evie suggested.

  Annie followed Wade’s gaze as it settled on the bodies. The dead men lay as they’d found them when they entered the room, close to each other but not touching. Slowly, Wade leaned over and moved his flashlight beam over the scene.

  “Both men’s guns were drawn,” he said aloud. He hunkered down by the closest of the two bodies. “Either of you have a pen on you?”

  Annie didn’t, but Evie pulled a pen out of the bag slung over her shoulder. Wade took it and carefully picked up the pistol lying on the floor by the closest body. He drew it close and gave a sniff. “Might have been discharged.” He pulled a dark blue handkerchief from his back pocket and held the gun with it while he checked the magazine. “Two rounds missing.”

  He checked the other body, the one Evie had called Fordham. The mole, or so they’d thought. “One round discharged. I guess they might have shot each other.”

  “So Hotchkiss was trying to keep Fordham out of the vault? Maybe he stumbled on Fordham trying to get inside?”

  “Maybe they’re not here because of me at all,” Annie said aloud.

  Wade looked at her. “We can’t assume anything.”

  “But they were trying to get into the vault. Maybe what they really want is inside there,” Evie suggested.

  Annie could tell by the look on Wade’s face that there was something inside the vault the S.S.U. would definitely want to get their hands on. She had a sinking feeling she knew what it was. “The journal is in there, isn’t it?”

  Wade’s eyes locked with Annie’s, and she saw the answer.

  “What journal?” Evie asked.

  Wade looked at her. “That’s a question for your father, I’m afraid. If you can ever get him to talk to you.”

  Evie’s lips pressed to a thin line. “He’s avoiding me these days. All he’s willing to talk about is Rita’s wedding. Anytime I bring up anything else, he closes off.”

  “He’s scared,” Annie said gently, feeling sorry for the younger woman. She couldn’t imagine how frustrated she’d feel if her father was so actively keeping dangerous secrets from her instead of sharing them, as her own father had done.

  Yes, she was in more danger than she might have been in had her father kept his secret to himself. But she was also empowered by the knowledge he’d shared with her. She could actively do something to thwart a group of very bad people planning very bad things.

  She hoped she’d get a chance to thank her father for his trust.

  “I don’t care how scared he is,” Evie growled. “Keeping secrets from us just makes us more vulnerable. He thinks he can protect us from everything, but how can he do that if we don’t have the necessary facts? We have to be able to act in our own defense as well.”

  “Tell her about the journal,” Annie told Wade.

  He gazed back at her, his eyes dark with hesitation. “I can’t.”

  “It’s her secret, too,” Annie said flatly, moving closer. “Evie’s part of this, whether she wants to be or not. The people after the journal have already proved they’re willing to use family members as leverage. Evie needs to know what kind of trouble may be out there for her.”

  “You’re scaring me,” Evie said in a hushed voice.

  “There’s a coded journal in the safe,” Wade said after a brief pause. “It belonged to an army general named Edward Ross.”

  “I knew General Ross,” Evie said. “At least, I knew of him. He and my dad were friends.”

  “My father was a friend of General Ross, too,” Annie said. “You know he died a few months ago.”

  Evie nodded. “We went to the funeral.”

  “We don’t think his car crash was an accident,” Wade said.

  Annie looked up with surprise. “You think he was killed?”

  “I think at first they thought eliminating the three generals would solve the problem.”

  “What’s the problem, exactly?” Evie asked.

  “The coded journal contains a narrative,” Wade said. “It outlines the suspicions of the three generals about a far-reaching conspiracy that goes pretty high in the government.”

  “What kind of conspiracy?” Evie asked.

  “We’re not sure,” Wade answered. “We think it probably has something to do with some of the things Barton Reid was doing over the past few years.”

  “It’s bigger than that,” Annie said, overcome by the sudden realization.

  Wade’s gaze snapped around to meet hers. “Do you know something?”

  She nodded, the memory flooding in to fill some of the empty spaces left in her mixed-up brain. “I can’t remember everything—I’m not sure my dad really told me everything—but I think it has something to do with an international consortium of think tanks, world leaders and global business leaders. Something to do with oil.”

  “A cartel like OPEC?”

  She shook her head. “No, not like that. More like—I don’t know how to describe it exactly.” Her head was beginning to ache with the strain of trying to remember. “I get the sense that they want to control petroleum production and treat oil as a global resource so that a small group of countries no longer controls the entire world’s energy reserves.”

  “Wealth redistribution?” Evie asked. “Not exactly a novel idea.”

  “It’s not just the wealth.” Annie shook her head. “Although I can’t pretend that’s not a big part of it. But it’s also about controlling the resources so that winners and losers aren’t left up to the market.”

  “I could see where a lot of countries—hell, a lot of people across the globe—might find such a thing tempting. No more having to deal with desert dictators in order to get your hands on enough energy to run your own country? It sounds good on paper,” Wade said. “But you’re just trading one dictator for another, really.”

  “Exactly. But if there are people in our government willing to put their power and resources behind the idea—”

  “And there would be,” Evie said bleakly. “There’s always someone in government looking for a way to gain more control over the rest of the world. That’s why they went into politics in the first place.”

  “Espera,” Annie said, the word popping into her head. “That’s what they call themselves. The Espera Group.”

  Wade shook his head. “Never heard of them.”

  “Me, either,” Evie admitted.

  “I hadn’t, either, but my dad told me that’s who they think is behind this push for regulation.”

  “What else did he tell you about the group?” Wade asked.

  Annie pressed her fingertips to her forehead. “I’m not sure. I’m only remembering things in bits and pieces.”

  Wade crossed to her side, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and pulling her closer. “Don’t pus
h yourself. What you’ve already remembered is so much more than we knew before.”

  “I wonder if Jesse’s ever heard about the Espera Group,” Evie murmured. “He’s usually so tuned in to what’s going on in the world.”

  “He may have heard of them,” Wade admitted, “but if he had any idea they might be connected to the coded journal, he never let on.”

  “Would he have?” Annie asked.

  “I think so.” Wade lifted his hand to cradle her cheek. “You look tired.”

  She felt tired. All the running around Cooper Security had taken a toll on her still-depleted energy. “I’m running on empty,” she admitted.

  “Maybe we should find somewhere to hunker down and hide until Jesse comes back with reinforcements,” Evie suggested. She sounded confident, Annie thought, as if she were utterly certain Jesse would come back with the cavalry to their rescue.

  Annie hoped Evie was right. She hoped Jesse could come through for them. But as long as she had Wade on her side, she thought, she liked her odds right where she was.

  “You need to rest a little longer?” Wade asked, his fingers lingering on her cheek.

  “No, let’s go.” She forced herself to step away from his touch, though she could think of nothing she wanted more than to stay right there, his body so close she could feel its heat and power, his fingers touching her, reminding her of both his gentleness and strength.

  She hadn’t needed another person in a long, long time. Her parents had taught her how to be independent and self-sufficient. Part of it had been a protective measure to help her deal with the constant moves and her father’s perpetual absences. Part of it had been an acknowledgment, she thought, of her own personality. She made a point of not needing other people because needing people was too limiting. It crowded her life, cramped her style, held her back from the things she wanted to accomplish.

  But, God help her, she was beginning to think she needed Wade Cooper. Even stepping away from him a couple of feet, letting cool air replace the heat that had flowed between them when he stood closer, made her ache as if she’d just torn a piece of herself away.