by Barbara Gee
“Okay. I’m pulling into the parking lot and it’s really crowded here, so keeping myself surrounded with people won’t be a problem.”
“I really don’t think he’ll get out of his car, but just be on guard. If he stays put, take your time and act naturally, don’t let him know you’ve figured him out. When you’re done, call us back, but don’t let the guy see you’re on the phone. Tuck and I will get a plan worked out while you’re shopping, and fill you in when you call. Okay?”
“Yeah. I’ll do whatever you want me to do.”
“You’ve done great, sis,” Tuck told her. “Way to pick up on that guy. This could be a big break for us.”
“I hope so. I’ll call you in about thirty minutes.”
***
Libby’s heart rate had returned to normal as she talked to Ryan and Tuck. She could do this—she could make sure they got their chance to talk to the man in the Honda. She wanted nothing more than to help Ryan put this period of worry and uncertainty behind him.
Armed with Kay’s list, she walked toward the busy stands of the market. She kept the Honda in her line of sight until she was sure the man was not going to get out, and then she ignored it, wandering from one stand to the next, buying everything on Kay’s list and then some. After she had browsed as long as she thought she could without her follower getting suspicious or impatient, she went back to her car and called Tuck’s phone again. It was impossible for the man to see into her car from his vantage point, so she wasn’t worried about him knowing she was on the phone.
“Hey, Lib. You doing okay?” Tuck asked.
“I’m fine. What’s the plan?”
We want you to head toward us,” Ryan said. “We’ll meet up on Highway 200. If you’re ready to leave now, I’m guessing we’ll intersect close to a little town called Bernina. We’ll need to keep in touch so we know for sure when we’re getting close. It’s an isolated area, and we expect very little traffic. When we’re ready to meet, I want you to try to make it look like you had a blowout. Slam on the brakes and start swerving. He’ll probably be back a ways trying not to draw your attention, so he won’t be close enough to see if a tire really blew. After you swerve, pull off the side of the road and get out and act like you’re looking at the flat. We’ll try to time things so we go by right about then. The guy following you will stop a good distance back of you, or if he doesn’t react quickly enough, he’ll pass you and find a place up ahead to wait for you to get going again. Either way, we’ll be on him so fast he won’t know what hit him.”
“We won’t be able to determine the next step until we know what we’ve got on our hands,” Tuck added. “He could be a major player, or he could just be a hired lackey who doesn’t know anything about the bigger picture.”
“How long until I get to Bernina?”
“Our ETA is forty-five minutes,” Ryan said. “Yours should be almost exactly the same.”
“Okay, I’m leaving now. I’ll check in with you guys in twenty minutes or so. Unless he doesn’t follow me out of here after all. In which case I’ll feel pretty silly.”
“Being cautious is never silly,” Ryan said. “Talk to you soon.”
***
Libby put her sunglasses on, to make it easier to check her rear view mirror without her tail getting suspicious. She found Bernina on her GPS map, then pulled out of the market parking lot and followed the directions out of town. Sure enough, the green Honda followed from a safe distance. Once she hit Highway 200 she set her cruise control and settled in for the drive. At twenty minutes, she called to make sure they were still on schedule.
Tuck picked up after one ring. “Is he still on you?”
“Yes, he’s a good distance back, but always within view.”
“Okay, good. Which mile marker are you at?” Libby told him. “Okay, it looks like we’re going to meet about five miles this side of Bernina, so as soon as you pass the exit for the town, call again so we can communicate the rest of the way until you stop.”
As the miles ticked by, Libby prayed that the men would be able to subdue the guy following her without anyone getting hurt. She knew Tuck and Ryan would be armed—she could only hope the other guy wasn’t. If that were the case, things should go pretty smoothly.
She zipped by the sign for Bernina and immediately called Tuck.
“We’re four miles apart,” he informed her. “Any traffic where you are?”
“Not a car in sight, except for the one behind me.”
“Okay, sis, do your thing. Slow way down right before you swerve though. Be real careful you don’t lose control. We can stay on the phone with you if you want.”
Libby felt surprisingly calm. “No, I need to concentrate. See you guys in a bit.” She hung up, took one deep breath, then lifted her foot off the accelerator. A moment later, with the Honda closing the distance between them due to her unexpected deceleration, she hit the brakes, swerving sharply to the left, then back to the right. When she’d slowed enough, she pulled onto the shoulder, kicking up dust from the gravel there before finally rolling to a stop. Feeling satisfied with her performance so far, she got out and walked around the hood to stare at the right front tire. She could see the Honda from the corner of her eye. He had pulled off the road, too, probably closer than he would have liked. Her ‘blown tire’ had indeed caught him by surprise.
She put her hands on her hips and glanced down the road. A vehicle was coming up fast and she knew it had to be Tuck and Ryan. She quickly retraced her steps and got back into her car, then watched as Tuck’s big black SUV roared past. Seconds later his brake lights went on and as soon as he passed the Honda he squealed around in a perfect one-eighty turn, then drove right up to the Honda’s bumper. Libby turned and watched as Ryan leapt from the passenger side, closely followed by Tuck from the other side. Both had their guns drawn and trained on the driver as they approached cautiously. She heard them yelling something, and then she breathed a sigh of relief when the man’s door opened and he got out, hands raised. Seconds later he was in handcuffs and Tuck was putting him in the back seat of the SUV.
Ryan jogged up to Libby’s car and she opened her door and got out. Now that the adrenaline was gone she felt a little shaky again but tried not to show it.
“You all right?” Ryan asked.
“I’m fine.” She gestured toward Tuck’s vehicle. “That was quick, and a little anti-climactic, to be honest.”
He smiled, her humor reassuring him that she was indeed okay, as she’d intended. “I’m going to go have a talk with him. Just wanted to check on you first. You okay hanging out here for a little longer?”
“Sure. You two do your thing.” She gestured to the bags in the back of her car and smiled. “I have plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables to munch on if it takes a while.”
He chuckled. “You did good,” he said, his dark eyes locked on hers. “Real good.” With that he returned to the SUV, climbing into the back seat with the man they had apprehended.
Libby couldn’t help but shudder. She wouldn’t much like to be the one on the receiving end of the combined wrath of Tucker and Ryan. Picking up her phone, she passed the time by texting Maddy and filling her in on what had happened. When she heard car doors slam ten minutes later she looked back, frowning when she saw the man who had followed her standing between Tuck and Ryan, handcuffs removed, nodding vigorously. Her heart sank. It appeared the man wasn’t one of the bad guys after all, at least not one who knew anything.
A few minutes later the men shook hands, and her tail returned to the old Honda, made a U-turn and headed back in the direction they’d come from. Tuck and Ryan stood there and talked a few minutes longer, then Ryan once again approached Libby’s car. He opened her door and held his hand out to her.
“Switch seats, Libby. Let me drive you home.”
“I can drive,” she insisted, but she took his hand and got out of the car anyway.
“It’s the least I can do,” he said, “and I’ll fill you in on
the way.”
She decided it would actually be quite nice to have him drive, so she walked around the car to the passenger seat, waving at Tuck as he drove by. Ryan waited for her to fasten her seatbelt, then pulled smoothly onto the road.
“So I take it that guy wasn’t too helpful?”
Ryan grunted. “Would you believe our new buddy Scott actually thought he was working for the FBI? He answered an ad on Craigslist that was looking for people who wanted ‘government surveillance’ work. After he responded, he got a phone call asking for his personal information, social security number, birthday, and so on. He was told it was so they could conduct a background check. The next day they called back and said he’d passed, and they wanted to hire him for a top secret FBI contract job. He jumped at that, naturally, and they gave him his ‘mission,’ which was watching for me or anyone else who came in to get the mail at the store. They’re the ones who sent him that key and told him what to do to find out the box number.”
“And he just took their word for it? As if the FBI is in the habit of hiring random people sight unseen to conduct surveillance?”
“He’s maybe not the brightest guy,” Ryan said regretfully. “He almost peed his pants when Tuck flashed his badge and broke the news that his cool new job wasn’t affiliated with the FBI after all.”
“Oh man,” Libby said, “now I feel kinda sorry for him.”
“He tried his best to help us once he realized he’d been had, but there wasn’t much he could tell us. We got the phone number he was supposed to call if I showed up, but I’m sure it’s a burner phone, so that won’t lead anywhere. We told him to lay low and not report anything, and we gave him Tuck’s phone number. He promised to call us if he hears anything from the people who hired him.”
“What will he do if they call and ask for a progress report?”
“He said he’ll tell them no one has shown up.”
“But you don’t know for sure that’s what he’ll do. And now he knows Tuck’s name, and if he gives them that, all they’ll need to do is track him to the ranch, and then they’ll find you.”
“Tuck may or may not have given him a fake name, and he didn’t have his badge out long enough for Scott to notice.”
“What about Tuck’s license plate number? What if he got that?”
“I like the way you think,” Ryan said, smiling over at her. “You’d make a good cop. But don’t worry about the license plate. This is Special Agent Tucker Simon we’re talking about. That plate will lead them on a wild goose chase.”
“Oh.” Libby had never really thought about how Tuck’s professional life branched into his personal life.
“And you don’t need to worry about him getting your plate number, either. I asked him if he’d written it down, and his face just fell. It had never occurred to him to get it, and I think that’s when he realized his secret agent career was over.”
“So I assume Tuck’s phone number won’t lead them anywhere either?”
“Nope, his phone is a ‘secret agent man’ model. There’s nothing that Scott can tell his employers that will lead them to us, but I actually think ole Scott is going to do as he says. He really did think he was working for the good guys, and he wants to redeem himself. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see. Even if he does disappoint us, like I said, he really doesn’t know anything that can hurt us.”
Libby let her head fall back against the seat and sighed. “I sure was hoping he’d be able to lead you to whoever is after you.”
“Me too, but don’t discount what you did, Libby. We might not know much more than we did before, but if you hadn’t picked up on Scott watching you, you’d be pulling into the ranch right about now, and he’d be on his phone reporting my location.”
“Thank God he was driving a car like the one I had in high school. That’s what caught my eye in the first place, and then once I realized there was someone sitting in the car I looked closer, and I could tell he was watching me.”
“How did you get the store attendant to tell you a guy had been in impersonating me?”
Libby explained her story about the ex-girlfriend. Ryan gave her a crooked smile that made Libby feel way too warm and way too aware of him.
“You’re pretty amazing,” he said. “I’ve worked with seasoned cops who couldn’t have processed all that on the fly as well as you did.”
His praise made her beam. She tried for a nonchalant smile, but it definitely came out as a beam. “Make sure Tuck knows how amazing I am, okay? Even though I’m twenty-seven, he still mostly sees me as a pesky little sister.”
Ryan chuckled. “Not true. He sings your praises on a regular basis.”
“He does?” Libby turned to look out the window in an effort to hide beam number two.
“Yeah, but I understand how you might be surprised to hear that. I was six years younger than my brother, and no one can make you feel as unworthy of existing as an older brother. That tends to stick with a person, even after we’ve become adults and earned their respect.”
“Tuck has been always a great brother, but there’s a certain look he gives me that makes me feel like I’m ten again, every single time,” Libby said, turning to look at Ryan. “I know he doesn’t even know he’s doing it, and it doesn’t happen often, but every once in a while I get hit with the look. Usually when I’m disagreeing with him about something and he can’t believe I’m being so stubborn.”
“My brother’s look of disdain made me want to disappear,” Ryan said with a laugh, “but naturally I couldn’t let him know it bothered me, so I doubled down on whatever I was doing that had provoked him. It earned me a lot of beatings. My poor mother hardly knew what to do with us.”
“Thank goodness Tuck was taught it wasn’t acceptable to hit girls.”
“It made me tough,” Ryan declared. “And Tom and I get along great now, so it’s all good.”
“I wouldn’t trade Tuck for the world. Do you have any other siblings?”
“No, just Tom. He lives in Florida now. He’s married and has a six year old boy, and a three year old girl. They’re great kids but I don’t see them often.”
“I can’t wait until Tuck and Maddy have kids. Pretty sure I’ll be banned from seeing them due to over spoiling.”
Ryan’s phone rang and his smile faded. “Hey, Olivia,” he said when he answered. “Did you get it?”
Libby sat quiet and still during the short conversation.
He hung up, and she noticed how tightly he was gripping the steering wheel. “She got held up at work. It’ll be a few more hours before she can get to Clara’s,” he said.
“I know the waiting is awful,” Libby said softly. “You’ve done a good job of hiding the stress you’re under, but I know it’s there and I hate it. I’ve been praying for you. I don’t know if that makes you feel any better, but it helps me, so I’m going to keep on.”
He reached over unexpectedly and took her hand, sliding his fingers between hers. “I don’t pray anymore myself, but I don’t mind if you do.”
Holding his hand was nice, but Libby tried not to think about it because she wanted to explore what he had said.
“So you did pray at one time?”
He shrugged. “I grew up going to church and Sunday School every week. And I’ve done my share of praying at times, but to be honest it really didn’t seem to make a difference.”
“Are you sure?”
His hand tightened on hers. “I’m pretty sure,” he said quietly.
Libby swallowed hard, hoping to say the right things. “Obviously I don’t know the situations you prayed about, but I’ve come to believe that it’s more about me spending time in prayer than about whether things turn out the way I want them to. Prayer changes me, for the better I believe, regardless of whether I get what I think I want.”
“Mine wasn’t quality prayer time, more like a desperation thing, where you make a lot of promises about what you’ll do if only God will spare your life, and the lives of
your buddies and your troops.
“Oh, I see. You prayed when you were in the Army.” She squeezed his hand. “You made it back, so at least that prayer was answered the way you wanted.”
His jaw clenched. “Some good men didn’t.”
Libby shifted her body toward him and put her other hand over his, so she was holding his big hand in both of hers.
“I’m sorry, Ryan. Were they friends?”
He pulled away, placing his hand back on the wheel. “I don’t talk about it, Libby. I can’t.”
She nodded. “I understand.” And I’ll pray about that, too, she added silently, because it hurt to see him hurting.
“Hey,” she said suddenly, pushing the button to recline her seat so she could reach the bags she’d loaded into the back. “How about a little smooth, creamy goodness to take your mind off things for a bit? There just happened to be an incredible fudge booth at the farmers’ market. I bought four flavors.”
Ryan raised his brows when he saw the size of the bag. “What did you do? Get a pound of each?”
“You betcha,” she said happily. “I got enough to share. Tuck and Maddy love fudge.”
They tried all the flavors, then got so thirsty they had to stop at a gas station to get some water. When they made it back to the ranch, they carried the bags inside to the kitchen, where Kay had just put a casserole in the oven. She was thrilled with Libby’s purchases and immediately started putting things away. Ryan left to go back to his cabin, and Libby folded her arms and leaned back against the countertop.
“What can I help with, Kay? I want to talk to you, so I might as well make myself useful.”
“I was just ready to go out back and work in the flowerbeds. Feel like doing a little weeding?”
“Sounds great,” Libby said readily.
“So what’s on your mind?” Kay prompted a few minutes later, as they pulled on their garden gloves.
“I’m sure you can guess,” Libby said on a sigh.
Kay chuckled. “Our very handsome and charming guest?”