by Barbara Gee
Ryan chuckled. “I guess you’ve never had the pleasure of having Tuck mimic you. He’s real good with voices. I imagine he’s chatted with Jake a time or two and knows well enough what he sounds like.”
“I hate to think of Charlie in the trunk all this time,” Andi said nervously.
“Only a few more minutes now,” Ryan said. “He’ll be fine. I’m sure he’s been through worse.”
They parked in front of the clinic and the other two helped Jolene inside. Dr. Tusing was waiting as promised, and he had them take Jolene directly to an exam room, where he had her carefully lie back on a table. Ryan and Andi went to sit in the front waiting room, and the doctor pulled up a stool beside the bed.
“I don’t have an x-ray machine here, so I won’t know for certain if the ribs are fractured, but I’ll be able to get a good idea whether there’s anything that needs to be set just from my exam. If everything is still in place, we’ll wrap you up, and then it’s just a matter of taking it easy until they’re healed.”
Jolene nodded, gritting her teeth when he began pressing on her tender side. A few painful minutes later he told her he didn’t feel any misaligned bones. It was likely that some ribs were cracked, and there was definitely a lot of bruising, but he was hopeful that her pain would begin subsiding in a few days.
Then he moved on to examine her head. He gave her a wet cloth to clean up the blood that had dribbled down her neck from the cut on the inside of her cheek, and he shone his penlight in her eyes repeatedly.
“With your dizziness and nausea, I’d say you probably have a mild concussion. I can tell your jaw sustained a hard blow.” He asked her to open and close her mouth a few times, then nodded. “Nothing broken. You just need to take it easy for a while. Should be good as new before too long.” He looked at her, his graying eyebrows pulled together. “I don’t suppose you want to tell me how or why you got beat up? Ryan assured me on the phone that I don’t have to worry about covering up something that should be reported to the authorities, but if there’s someone out there beating up women, it gives me some concern.”
“Ryan’s right. He and Tuck are the authorities at the moment, and they’ll make sure everything happens the way it should. There’s a real sensitive operation going on right now, and I got in the middle of it. There wasn’t time to call in any of the local deputies.”
Dr. Tusing nodded. “I know those two are good men, so I’m choosing to trust them on this. I’m going to give you some pain killers. I have sample packs, so you don’t have to worry about filling a prescription.”
“I appreciate everything you’ve done, Doctor. More than you know.”
He took a stack of ace bandages from a cabinet and helped her to sit up on the edge of the bed. He expertly wrapped her chest and torso, which would limit movement and lessen the pain.
When she rejoined Ryan and Andi, they hopped up, anxious to get back to the ranch so they’d be there when Tuck and Charlie returned. They hadn’t heard from them again, and that made them nervous. After the doctor assured them that Jolene would be fine, they quickly filed out of the clinic and got back into Ryan’s car.
“We’ll go get Jake out of the supply room and see if he’s in a talkative mood,” Ryan said. “If he can give us good info on who he was working for, it could be the break we need. And if Tuck can capture the guy on his end, we’re golden.”
Jolene sat quietly as they drove, her heart full of both trepidation and hope. If they could get the blackmailer safely locked away, Boone would be out of danger, and the case could move into the courts. Of course he still had some tough weeks ahead as he dealt with the fallout, but at least he was no longer carrying the burden alone, and no longer agonizing over what to do with his knowledge. That bridge had been crossed.
Right now, however, the fate of the man waiting to take possession of her from Jake was still in doubt, and Jolene was worried about Tuck and Charlie. Maybe there had been more than one person waiting, which would drastically change the odds. Maybe Tuck hadn’t had a chance to spring Charlie from the trunk, and the man was trapped helplessly inside while Tuck took on the other man, or men, singlehandedly.
As increasingly worse scenarios ran though her head, Ryan parked beside her car in the gym lot. His phone rang and all three of them jumped.
“Hey, Tuck. What’s the word?” he asked tersely.
Jolene quickly turned toward him and Andi leaned ahead from the back seat, both of them silent and expectant. Ryan listened for a while, not speaking, then he gave the girls a thumbs up. They looked at each other and exchanged relieved smiles, and Ryan soon hung up.
“They’ll be here in about twenty minutes. There were two guys. One was hiding back behind the fairgrounds entrance gate, waiting to see whether Jake was screwing them over. The guy waiting at the car had evidently planned to take Jake out right off the bat. He had a gun pulled as soon as Tuck exited the car. Thankfully Charlie and Tuck had pulled over a few miles back to discuss some different scenarios that occurred to Tuck as they drove there, and Tuck had left the trunk unlatched after that. Charlie was just holding it closed with a piece of wire, and had it cracked open so he could see out. When Tuck saw the gun, he dove around back of the car. Charlie waited till the other guy came after Tuck, then reared up out of the trunk with a handy tire iron.”
Ryan looked over his shoulder at Andi and smiled. “Caught him nicely across the throat and followed him down. He was able to get the guy’s gun, and by time the second guy jumped into the fray, Tuck was ready. Shot the guy in the hand and then subdued him easily. They’re bringing them back here. We’ll have to notify the Sheriff and have him come out, and they’ll need some medical attention. The FBI will retain custody of the men, and of Jake, until we get the answers we need. Tuck has a helicopter coming in from Fargo, and we’ll take them back there after we get as much out of them as we can here.”
Jolene couldn’t help but shudder. If Charlie and Andi hadn’t come to her aid, right now Jake would be dead and she’d be in the hands of two thugs.
“Why did they want me, Ryan? To try to get to Boone?”
“My guess is they were either going to try to lure Boone to them by using you, or else just hold you to guarantee his silence until the guy who hired them could flee the country. They must have seen the photos of you and Boone this morning, found out who took them, and then they got to Jake. When he told them Boone was already gone, they probably decided you were the key.” He shook his head in disgust. “We had things well covered as far as keeping people out. But we failed to account for people like Jake, who were already on the premises. Finding the photographer was a smart move on the blackmailer’s part, much as I hate to admit it.”
“Thanks to Charlie and Andi, it turned out okay,” Jolene said.
“I’m so proud of Charlie,” Andi said softly. “Thank goodness we decided to take a walk this evening.” She looked at Jolene and smiled. “We’ve actually been talking almost non-stop since the hockey tournament. He’s finally been opening up to me. Anyway, we’d been walking for a while but weren’t quite ready to go back to our room. We stopped and sat on a bench by the dining hall, and then we heard Jolene cry out. After that Charlie just went into protector mode. I’ve told him so many times, hundreds of times, that he doesn’t need his old legs to be the man he was before the IED hit him, but I couldn’t get through. Maybe now he’ll listen.”
“He’s as good on his prosthetics as anyone I’ve had come through here,” Jolene said. “He’s obviously worked hard to get where he is. That tells me that somewhere in the back of his mind he has goals, he just can’t get past the fear that he’ll never reach them.”
“He worked really hard at first, but when he wasn’t able to find a job and keep busy, he stopped trying. I’m glad he still had what it took to help tonight.”
“So am I,” Ryan said. “Let’s go see how our buddy Jake is doing.”
Jolene went to the cooler in the PT room and got a bottle of water so she could
take a couple of the pain pills the doctor had given her. Then she went to the restroom and washed her face, arms, and hands, wishing she could take a long, hot shower. That would have to wait, though. She wanted to be there when Tuck brought the suspects back, maybe sit in on the questioning before they were taken to Fargo. Hopefully the two men would prove to be their best lead yet.
Pain aside, if tonight’s incident helped capture the person or persons who were a threat to Boone, it would have all been worth it as far as she was concerned. She knew it would be immensely upsetting to Boone, though, when he found out about it.
Maybe that could be delayed for a while.
***
It was a long, painful night, but also productive. When Jolene finally crawled into bed, after the hot shower she’d been craving, it was four o’clock and she was exhausted. She was also encouraged, however, because they now knew that the men who had been waiting for Jake at the fairgrounds had been hired directly by the cop in Texas, the one who had called in sick and been under surveillance. As they’d suspected, he had tracked down Jake after seeing the photos of Boone and Jolene, then he’d called the retreat center claiming to be Jake’s cousin. The trusting volunteer who had taken the call had given him Jake’s cell phone number, and all it had taken after that was one more phone call and the promise of a lot of money.
With that information, Tuck had been able to authorize the agents in Texas to arrest the cop. Their hope was, of course, that he would give up the person who had hired him, and that would most likely be the one who was blackmailing Boone’s father.
Jolene had to get some sleep, but Tuck didn’t want her to leave the protection of the center. The logical choice was Boone’s now empty cabin, so she went there once the initial interviews of the two men they’d captured were over. She hoped that by the time she woke up, the blackmailer would be in custody.
She had managed to convince Tuck and Ryan to wait until morning to contact Boone. He might be a little perturbed by that, but if he had any hope of performing at the highest level in his quest to get back on the ice, getting enough rest was imperative. There was nothing he could do from St. Paul anyway, except worry, so he might as well have the chance to get a solid night of sleep.
Luckily, he’d been tied up in team meetings that evening and hadn’t tried to call her. He’d sent a good number of texts instead, which were easy to reply to without revealing what had happened. If he’d actually called, Jolene knew she wouldn’t have been able to hide it from him, so texts were good.
She sank into the bed, which had regrettably been laundered and no longer smelled of Boone. Her eyelids felt weighted, and she didn’t fight her exhaustion. She also didn’t set an alarm, because she couldn’t go into work anyway. Not with the way her ribs and head felt. Lowell had agreed to run the show tomorrow, after she’d called him at midnight and explained that she’d sustained a few minor injuries, and would fill him in on the details later.
She fell asleep as she prayed yet again for the blackmailer’s quick arrest.
CHAPTER 30
It was almost ten o’clock when Jolene roused the next morning. She rolled over in bed, gasping as her ribs protested the sudden move. Opening her eyes, she realized she was in the cabin, and then she remembered everything that had happened the night before. Grabbing her phone, she checked for messages from Tuck or Ryan, hoping for news that an arrest had been made.
The only message she had was a text from Boone.
Talked to Tuck. Please call me when you wake up.
He’d left the message only an hour ago, which meant he had talked to Tuck very recently. It also meant he now knew more about how the case was progressing than she did.
She quickly started a pot of coffee, then took one of her pain pills, hoping it would kick in soon. Settling gingerly onto a chair at the table, she dialed Boone. There was a good chance he was at the rink and wouldn’t be able to pick up, so she prepared to leave him a message. Instead, he answered on the third ring.
“Hey, Jolene. Hang on a sec, let me go out to the hall.”
She heard a murmur of voices and hoped she wasn’t interrupting anything important. In a few seconds she heard the sound of a door closing, and then it was just his voice.
“Tuck told me what happened last night. How are you feeling? Did you get any sleep?”
“I slept like a rock once I got to bed,” she told him. “And I’m fine, really. I don’t want you to worry about me.”
He was silent for a moment, then she heard him release a harsh breath. “That’s kind of impossible, especially since I’m the one that put you in danger.”
“What? Why would you say that?”
“Because I should have never gone to the ranch. I should have reported my dad as soon as he confessed, and then let the experts run the investigation. Instead, I put Doug in danger, and now you.”
“Hindsight, Boone. You know better.”
“Do I? What I know is that some thug was beating up my girl while I was fast asleep a couple hundred miles away. Protected by FBI agents, no less. That’s not right. Nothing about that is right.”
“It’s not your fault, though. No one predicted someone from inside the retreat center getting involved. Not even Ryan and Tuck.”
“Regardless, you should have called me last night,” he said wearily.
“But there wasn’t anything you could’ve done,” she protested. “I thought it was more important that you get your rest. I know how much pressure you’re under right now, and if you’re going to be cleared to play, you need to be at your very best.”
“No, Jo, I’m gonna have to disagree with you on that,” he said grimly. “It’s way more important for me to know what’s happening with you. You should’ve called.”
She opened her mouth to again plead her case, but all of a sudden she saw it so clearly from his point of view. It was true he couldn’t have done anything to help from St. Paul, but keeping him out of the loop made him feel excluded and even more distant. As he saw it, the events of last night were a direct result of him deciding to pursue the person who was blackmailing his father, and he obviously felt responsible. In his place, Jolene would feel the same, justified or not.
She closed her eyes, regretting that she’d made him feel even worse. “You’re right, I should have called. I thought I was doing what was best for you, but I didn’t consider how it would make you feel.” She clutched the phone harder, wishing they could talk face to face. “I’m so sorry, Boone.”
“I have to know what’s going on, Jo. If I think you guys are keeping things from me, no matter how noble your reasons, it’s going to drive me crazy. I’ll lose any sense of focus I have on what I’m trying to do here, and in that case I might as well throw in the towel.” His voice wasn’t angry, just intense. “I need to know you’re levelling with me. At all times, no matter what.”
“I understand. I promise I won’t delay telling you anything else. Even if it means calling you at two in the morning.”
“Thanks for that.” He groaned softly and she could picture him shoving a hand through his hair. “It’s killing me to be away from you right now. I hate that you got hurt.”
“I know, Boone, I know you hate it. If I put myself in your shoes, I can see how upsetting it is. But you need to put yourself in my shoes, too. You know how much I care about you, and the others do, too. If what happened last night helps get to the bottom of the blackmailing case, then we don’t regret it. It was worth it.”
“But what if—”
She quickly interrupted him. “There’s no need to dwell on the ‘what ifs’ either, because it turned out okay.”
“All I can think about right now are those ‘what ifs,’” Boone said, his voice rough. “I told Tuck under no circumstances are you all to put yourselves at risk again. If they don’t catch who’s responsible for this by the end of the day, I want you to leave the ranch, Jo. Go somewhere hidden and safe. Being my girlfriend can’t put you in danger. I won’t let it
.”
“I’ll see how the day goes. Did Tuck have any news? I haven’t talked to him yet this morning, because when I saw your text I wanted to call you first.”
“Yeah, he had some good news for a change. The dirty cop from Ashland was arrested a few hours ago, and he gave up the name of the guy he’s been working for. We might have finally gotten all the way up the chain to the blackmailer. The FBI is running the name through their system, gathering as much info as possible while they try to find out his current location. Could be he’s gone to ground.”
“So it’s not Dr. Tamkin?”
“Nope. Evidently it’s the son of the doctor my dad paid to switch me. Name’s Ethan Golding. His dear old dad must have spilled the beans at some point, and Junior saw his chance to make bank on the sins of his father.”
“That’s disgusting. But now that the FBI knows about him, even if he’s in hiding, they’ll find him.”
“I hope so, but like I said, if he’s not in custody by this evening, you’re out of there.”
“But the word is out about you being in St. Paul now. Tuck and Ryan said they’re pretty sure he was only after me as a way to draw you in because he didn’t know where you were.”
“Yeah, well when I talked to Tuck this morning, he said another scenario is that Golding wants to have you as a hostage so I’ll agree to call off the dogs, or at least send them on a wild goose chase until he’s safely out of the country. I’m not going to risk him getting to you again, Jolene. Don’t ask me to do that.”
Once again, Jolene forced herself to see things from his point of view. She didn’t want to leave the ranch, and she didn’t feel she was in danger there now that Jake had been taken away and security ramped up to yet another level, this time to include monitoring the staff. At the same time, she could understand why he wanted her to leave. He was the kind of man who took charge, not one who merely sat back and watched things play out.
She knew Boone wouldn’t back down, but where would she go if she left? Her parents would be glad to see her for a few days, or—Jolene smiled as she thought of another possibility.