Vote Then Read: Volume II

by Lauren Blakely

  She nodded. “I cleaned your cut while figuring out how to get you out of the forest.” She stroked the thick gray fur, and he found himself stupidly jealous of the cat.

  “Doc Larson says you did a good job.” He touched the fresh bandages on his temple. “How long did it take you to build the travois?”

  She bit her bottom lip as she considered his question. Finally she said, “Thirty, maybe forty-five minutes? It felt like forever—I was scared whoever had hurt you would return.”

  He frowned, knowing she’d risked a lot in helping him, and he’d assaulted her and had her arrested. He had a hell of a lot to make up for.

  “It took about two hours to drag you to the cabin,” she continued. “You are ridiculously heavy.” She scanned him from head to toe, and he very much enjoyed the appreciation she didn’t bother to hide.

  “The cabin… How did you know it was there? I didn’t even know it was there, and it’s my land.” It might be marked on the title maps stored in his office at the compound, but it wasn’t something he’d have noticed when he purchased the company and all its assets after it had been seized from Robert Beck.

  “I copied the locations of all known historic and prehistoric sites on my USGS quad maps. I received the data from the state historic preservation office in Juneau. The settler’s cabin was recorded decades ago.”

  “I understand why you’d mark sites on state forest land, but why note historic properties on my land?”

  She hesitated. “It’s always good to know where shelter is in the woods. Last night proved it.”

  “I can’t argue with that but…” His blood pressure rose as understanding hit him. “Shit, Iz, you’ve been looking for the cave, haven’t you? That’s why you interrupted the live-fire training. You were searching for a cave with a lynx petroglyph.”

  Her gaze flicked to her computer. Was that why she’d been nervous earlier? Was there evidence on the hard disk of her illegal forays onto his land?

  Jesus. Searching for the cave was spectacularly foolish for the careful, prepared hiker that she was. In the case of the live-fire training, it might have gotten her killed. She’d wandered onto the range and could easily have been shot before the instructors saw her. All because she was determined to find a cave that might not even exist.

  She frowned and stopped petting Gandalf. “No. That would be impossible. Thirty-thousand acres is too large an area for one person.”

  “Don’t lie to me, Iz.”

  The cat opened its eyes and glared at Alec, likely recognizing the source of her irritation. “Listen, I’ve had a crappy twenty-four hours and don’t enjoy your company.” She lifted Gandalf from her lap and stood. “It’s time for you to leave.” She crossed the room and opened the front door.

  Alec let out a sharp laugh, making no move for the exit. “Two truths and a lie.”

  Her mouth flattened. “Three truths.”

  He stepped up to her and took her hips between his hands. Again her breath hitched. “No. You only wish it were three.” He released her and turned toward the open door. “Tomorrow we’re going back to where you found me in the woods.”

  “Tomorrow I need to get my truck back from impound and drive to Fairbanks to buy a new phone. I don’t have time for a trip down memory lane with you.”

  “You won’t get your truck back until Monday at the earliest, but I’ll lend you a Raptor vehicle. And I’ll give you a phone, so there’s no need for a trip to Fairbanks. I’ll pick you up at eight. Be ready to hike.” With that, he stepped outside and pulled the door closed.

  9

  Something nagged at the back of Alec’s mind as he drove to the compound. It had to do with Vin’s emails, but he couldn’t quite place it. When he arrived inside the compound, he made arrangements for a car and cell phone to be delivered to Isabel and confirmed with Nicole’s assistant that she and Falcon team were meeting in the northwest conference room in thirty minutes, then he went to his suite.

  He yanked off his tie—which he’d worn in case he had a run-in with the press in Tamarack—and unbuttoned the top buttons of his shirt before settling in front of his laptop to email Isabel. He grimaced at the huge volume of emails that had arrived during his involuntary Internet hiatus. Apparently, disappearing for sixteen hours could make an in-box explode.

  He dropped about twenty emails into his personal directory, then moved the rest into his DC office administrator’s folder. His assistant could read them and let Alec know which ones were worth responding to. Chore complete, he emailed Isabel, asking her to forward several of Vin’s emails, specifically requesting the one that described his illness when he’d been hiking alone, and the one in which he described his night-terror-like experience.

  She responded almost immediately, and he couldn’t help but smile, imagining her sitting in front of her computer, her wild curls now dry, and he itched to run his fingers through them.

  Shit, he had it bad.

  He emailed her again: What are you wearing?

  Her reply: Pervert.

  He grinned and typed another message: FaceTime with me?

  She responded: Hell, no.

  He knew in his gut she was grinning as she typed each reply. His next message: Fine. I was going to tell you I’m sending two of my men to your place to drop off a car and a cell phone. I don’t like you being stranded without either. Please don’t run them off with a shotgun. It’s bad PR.

  A minute later, he received her reply: Spoilsport. Can I at least tase them?

  He laughed. No. Bad Isabel. He hesitated, then typed his phone number and added: That’s my private cell. If you need anything, call.

  She sent him one last message: I’m fine. See you tomorrow. Wear boots or I will mock you mercilessly.

  Alec smiled as he switched from her reply to the first email she’d forwarded from Vin. He reread Vin’s description of the sudden, incapacitating headache he’d experienced while hiking alone, and Alec felt a flash of sympathetic pain.

  And then he knew the feeling wasn’t sympathetic. He’d experienced the exact same thing yesterday. That was what had been nagging at him earlier.

  A moose appeared out of nowhere, and I swerved and slammed on the brakes. The moose passed within inches of the front of the car as it darted across the road. I pulled off to the side to ride out the adrenaline.

  Again, something flashed in my eyes. Deliberate. A signal mirror? Some asshole playing tricks?

  The windshield shattered, and then my head felt as if it could explode. Nausea. Pain that started around my ears but settled in the gut. Agony ratcheted until I was certain I would die. Then nothing. Blessed oblivion.

  Alec’s heart raced. He was panting just at the faint memory.

  He’d read reports on various nonlethal experimental weapons and knew of one that could cause that sort of pain. It was theorized that it could be directional and wouldn’t penetrate glass. But it had never been effectively weaponized. The theories had never panned out.

  Until now?

  One way or another, he was certain he’d been incapacitated by infrasound.

  Alec dropped into the visitor’s chair in front of Nicole’s desk. “For the record, I like Isabel too. I’m not pro-declawing.”

  Nicole leaned back and smiled. “You made peace?”

  “More or less.” Probably less, but hoping for more.

  “Did you talk to her about Vincent Dawson?”

  “I did.”

  “Are you thinking her theory of what happened to Dawson has merit?” she asked.

  He wondered what Nicole expected him to say almost more than he wondered what she wanted him to say. “I have to consider it, given what happened to me.”

  Nicole cocked her head. “You think you were dragged off into a cave and tortured?” There was a hint of alarm in her gaze, but she hid it well. He had no doubt if he said an emphatic yes, she’d say she believed him, even as she mentally composed her report to the company shrink.

  “No. But somethin
g happened to me, and I ended up deep in the woods with a blow to the head, and I can’t remember it.” He wouldn’t mention the potential for infrasound now. He wanted to talk to Keith and maybe even Curt first.

  “I bet Barstow or that weasel Stimson is behind it.”

  “Norm Stimson is a shit and a dirty politician, but I don’t think he’s that dirty. Simon Barstow on the other hand… I think he’d kill me in a heartbeat if he thought he could get away with it.”

  “Shit, Rav. Do you really think it was attempted murder?”

  “Unless they knew Isabel would find me and had the skills to stop the bleeding and get me out of the cold, yes. I probably would have died if not for her.”

  “You seem so fine now. It’s hard to imagine it was that bad. What if you’d come to on your own? You could have stopped the bleeding and hiked out to the road.”

  “I had no clue where I was. I could just have easily hiked for days in the wrong direction. I had no supplies. I’d have been screwed without her.”

  “Can you get your buddy Dominick to investigate Barstow?”

  “Curt is aware of my suspicions of Simon Barstow, but he can’t simply sic the FBI on the bastard because I’m mad his company is swiping my best operatives. Nothing Apex has done is illegal.” That we know of.

  Nicole opened her mouth to speak, but at the same time, her assistant knocked on her open office door. “Falcon team has gathered in the northwest conference room.”

  He thanked Hans and headed to the meeting with Nicole. When he reached the open double doors to the conference room, he frowned. Only seven operatives sat around the table. He glanced sideways at his director. “Three down? I thought it was only two.”

  “Ted Godfrey tendered his resignation yesterday afternoon. I was just about to tell you. Barstow again.”

  “Apex made him an offer he couldn’t refuse?”

  She nodded.

  Alec cursed. The rival company had been cherry-picking his best operatives for eighteen months. He didn’t know what the hell Simon Barstow could be offering, because Alec paid top dollar, and in exit interviews, his former employees never uttered a complaint about Raptor, work at the Alaska compound, Nicole as director, or anything that explained why they’d chosen to leave the company. But he suspected Barstow made his employees sign a confidentiality agreement that was even stricter than Raptor’s.

  He entered the conference room and paused by his seat at the head of the table, nodding to the men already seated, among them Brad Fraser and the others who’d invaded the remote cabin just twelve hours ago. Three of them had been with Brad at the Roadhouse earlier. Nicole took her customary seat at the opposite end of the table.

  “Because this has been a long day for most of us, I’m going to keep this short and sweet.” He’d intended to tell Nicole before announcing to Falcon, but he’d spent precious minutes looking up infrasound, and by the time he made it to her office, there hadn’t been time. It was entirely possible he’d made a subconscious choice, knowing this would upset her, but she’d keep her cool in front of Falcon. “Tomorrow, Keith Hatcher, a former Navy SEAL I worked with on several ops when I was a Ranger, will arrive at the compound. Keith is coming here to tour the facility, meet my top operatives, and observe the training, because when I return to Maryland, I will officially step down as CEO of Raptor and Keith will take over.”

  A few operatives allowed surprise to show on their faces, but only one, a young man Alec couldn’t name, made a low whistling sound as his gaze darted from Alec to Nicole in shock.

  For her part, Nicole sat in stone-faced silence.

  “I wanted Falcon to know before anyone else, and I ask that you all refrain from sharing this information until the official announcement.”

  “Is this because of the campaign?” Nate Sifuentes, an operative who’d been on Falcon team since before Alec bought the company, asked.

  “Yes. If I win, all my financial assets will be folded into a blind trust. Physical assets, like Raptor, remain my property, but because of Raptor’s government contracts, I’ll be forbidden from being involved in any management decisions. I’ve decided to step down early so I can focus on the campaign during the final days.”

  “And if you lose?” Dev Kalla asked. Kalla was from India and a relatively new hire. He was the first Raptor operative to come from a foreign army.

  “Then Hatcher’s tenure as CEO will be short,” Alec said.

  “So, wait…” the operative who’d whistled asked. “Then who’s running the training this week? You? This Hatcher guy, or Markwell?”

  Nicole stiffened and cast a glare at the young operative.

  “I’m afraid I don’t know your name?” Alec said to the man.

  “Johnston, sir. Chase Johnston.”

  Alec remembered him now. One of the few hires who didn’t have a military background. He’d gone through police academy training and was waitlisted for a job in Anchorage when he’d applied to Raptor. That someone without combat experience sat on Falcon was telling. Simon Barstow had swiped too many experienced operatives. “Director Markwell will remain in charge of the compound. There are no changes planned for the structure and running of this facility,” Alec said.

  Nicole stood again. “Is that all, Mr. Ravissant?” Nicole hadn’t mistered him in a long time. She was well and truly pissed.

  “Yes.”

  “Great. We’ll gather again as soon as Mr. Hatcher arrives. Dismissed.” She stood and headed for the door.

  “Nic. Wait. I need to speak with you.”

  She stopped dead in her tracks and spoke with her back to him. “Yes, of course, Mr. Ravissant.”

  The members of Falcon team couldn’t escape the room fast enough. In a flash, only Nicole and Alec remained in the conference room.

  “Sit down, Nic.”

  Even though she was no longer in the Army, Nicole knew when to comply with a direct order. She sat.

  “You’re angry,” Alec said.

  “Damn right I am. You know I wanted that promotion. Dammit, Rav. You led me to believe—”

  “No. I didn’t. I told you I was looking outside the organization, because I need you to continue as compound director. I said that if I couldn’t find a replacement from outside, you topped my list of internal promotions.”

  “I could sue. Sex discrimination—”

  “Don’t threaten me, Nicole. You know it’s not true. The simple fact is, there’s a lot of upheaval going on in the organization. We’ve lost too many key operatives to Apex; if things don’t turn around in Texas, that compound will be closed. And, I’m leaving. I want you to continue as Alaska compound director to ease the transition. I’ve already completed the paperwork with human resources to raise your salary. You’re being given the title Vice President of Operations in addition to compound director.”

  “But my duties won’t change.”

  “Not really. Not for the first six months anyway. We’ll see what happens with the election. If I win, Keith will be calling the shots, and I’ve made sure he knows how valuable you are to the company.”

  She pursed her lips then asked, “How big is my raise?”

  Alec smiled. Retaining her would cost him, but he was ready to pay. “Two grand a month.”

  The rigidness of her posture slipped a fraction. “I suppose that eases the sting a bit.” She glanced around the conference room. “Although I have no idea what I’m going to do with extra money when I live in a windowless monstrosity in the middle of a frigid wasteland.”

  “Vacation in Hawaii?”

  She leaned back in her seat and looked at him speculatively. “You have a house there, right? I’m not talking about at the compound on Oahu, but on Kauai. The beach house. The one that was in Architectural Digest.”

  Alec smiled, knowing where this was going. “Yes.”

  “I want the house for a two-week vacation. In February—when this place is so damn cold I feel like I’m going to lose my fucking mind.”

  “
No problem. I’ll have HR add the stipulation to your contract.”

  “Not just this year. Every year.”

  He laughed. “Deal.” He rarely visited the Kauai house anyway, and if offering it as an employment perk helped retain a valuable employee, so be it. He’d do anything to keep Apex from stealing Nicole too.

  “Fine. When, exactly, do I get to meet my new boss?”

  “Tomorrow afternoon.”

  She drummed her fingers on the tabletop. “Maybe he’ll agree to change the format of the hostage scenario…”

  Alec smiled. “A week from Monday, you can collude with Keith to change my scenarios all you want, but until then, we do the trainings my way.”

  10

  Isabel jolted awake, unsure what had pulled her from sleep. Then she heard it again. Someone was shooting bear bangers outside her cabin. Her first reaction was irritation that the Raptor boys were messing with her again. They’d shot off bear bangers a few times in the past. The first time happened right after a congressional committee investigating safety measures at the compound voted to close the facility for two months so they could evaluate the training safety procedures.

  She’d reported the harassment, and Officer Westover had conducted a halfhearted investigation. Alec had made a statement through his attorney that there was no evidence his men had trespassed on her property or, for that matter, that anyone had shot bear bangers outside her windows at all. And that was it.

  Now they were at it again. The dregs of sleep left her as they fired a third shot. A loud report, like an M-80 firework, it was designed to startle bears—but it worked equally well on humans, and Isabel couldn’t help but feel more than a little freaked out.

  Why would Raptor operatives do this to her now? She had a truce with Alec, and the compound was set to reopen in a few days.

  For the first time, she considered that it might not be Raptor who’d been harassing her, and the idea that some unknown person or group wanted to scare her sent an extra chill down her spine.

  She grabbed her shotgun from the closet and went to the living room to grab the cell phone that had been delivered several hours ago. Her cabin was dark inside, but outside, the gray light of the late summer night made it all too easy to see across the meadow to where a man stood. He reloaded his bear banger pistol, and pointed it directly at her.