Vote Then Read: Volume II

by Lauren Blakely

  She studied the ground, searching for the item that had caught the light. There weren’t any ATV tracks, but she didn’t expect to find tracks again after Friday’s rain.

  The light flashed again. There.

  She dropped down and reached for the object.

  “What have you got there?” Alec asked.

  She frowned, staring at the chipped piece of plastic. “I think it’s a broken headlight. Could be from an ATV.” She explained about the tracks she’d seen on Thursday. “We’re close, Alec.”

  He picked up her backpack and helped her slip it on. Once it was settled on her shoulders, he buckled the belt at her hips, then he kissed her. “Let’s go find Vin’s petroglyph.”

  27

  Alec followed Isabel, who retraced the ATV tracks from memory. Several times they had to double back and start over from the last recognizable point, because she lacked both her notes and photos from Thursday.

  Alec was now certain whoever had taken her computer, notebook, and cell phone had been out to cripple her search. He was impressed as hell that she was able to retrace her steps, given how much time she spent in the woods. The terrain had to blur together in her mind. But one thing he’d known about her from the beginning, she was smart as hell and determined. He had a feeling she was a lot like her big brother, who, in a better world, Alec could have imagined becoming a friend.

  Vin would probably have fit right in at the private dojo in DC. A small gym in the heart of the city owned by JT Talon, it was where Lee, Curt, JT, and Alec worked out and sparred several times a week. They’d recently added Keith and Sean to the mix, and for Alec the dojo was the one place where he could be himself. Not a candidate. Not a boss—even though Keith and Sean were there. In the dojo, everyone was equal, with the possible exception of belt ranks. The three men who’d studied martial arts the longest and had the highest belts—Curt, Lee, and JT—were also the three who’d never served in the military, which made for an interesting mix.

  In a different, better universe, Vin would have lived and been transferred to the Virginia compound on rotation, and odds were he’d have hit it off with Alec, Keith, or Sean and been invited for a round of sparring with the inner circle.

  In that universe, Alec would have met Isabel under entirely different circumstances, and he had no doubt that he’d have been ass over teakettle just the same.

  Some things were meant to be.

  He was meant to get on that bus when he was twenty-one. He was meant to be a Ranger. He was meant to buy Raptor. And Isabel Dawson was meant to come into his life with the destructive power of a tsunami.

  Because even if he’d met her in a better world, he had no doubt meeting her would wreak havoc with his organized life.

  “You can’t remember the questions they asked,” Isabel said as she pushed a branch out of the way. “But do you have a guess as to who it was? Height and build?”

  Her question pulled him back to their conversation. He’d told her he was certain he’d been interrogated in the cave. “No. I think they dilated my eyes and stood behind spotlights. It was so bright, even though it was a cave. The only thing I could see was above—the petroglyph on the ceiling. A lynx with a smile like the Cheshire Cat.”

  “But who do you suspect?”

  He ducked under another low branch. “I’ve avoided naming names with you, because I didn’t want either of us to develop a favorite suspect, blinding us to other possibilities. I believe in suspecting everyone equally.” He paused, then added, “But at this point, I think it’s fair to say I believe whoever abducted me is on Falcon.”

  She nodded. “Yeah. Falcon has all my top suspects too. There are some I would rather it be over others. I’d ruled out Chase from the start, because of the timing.”

  He’d finally had a chance to tell her Chase was her stalker, but neither of them could begin to guess what it had to do with the rest, given that Chase had only been with the company for a few months. Keith felt the young man was underqualified for Falcon, but Nicole had a point about being short of options.

  That both Chase and Isabel had been hit with infrasound inside the most secure building only confirmed the belief that someone within the company was behind everything.

  “You think someone picked up where they left off with infrasound development when Robert Beck was arrested?” Isabel asked.

  He’d thought long and hard on that point. “Yes. I had all employees vetted—weeding out those who were loyal to Beck—but obviously, a few were missed.”

  “Why didn’t you change the name of the company, like Blackwater did, when you bought it?” she asked as she climbed up on a rock. She shaded her eyes and scanned the woods from her slightly higher elevation.

  “Raptor wasn’t in the same sort of trouble as Blackwater”—he allowed sarcasm to enter his voice—“or whatever the hell they’re called now—was in the first time they changed the name. I felt it was important to show the company was under new ownership, but not hide from the fact that it was the same company. Raptor had good training and good rules of engagement, but was led by a corrupt man with a handful of loyal followers. With Beck and his supporters gone, there was no reason to hide. And frankly, I bought the name recognition as much as the company.”

  “No such thing as bad publicity?”

  “Pretty much. Can you name another private security company, besides Raptor and Blackwater?”

  “Apex,” she said distractedly as her gaze skimmed the forest from her perch on the rock.

  He laughed. He should have seen that coming. “Could you name Apex before Friday night?”

  “No. I’d never heard of them.” She jumped off the rock and lifted a branch that covered the path ahead. She examined the end. “It’s been cut. Recently.”

  He studied the raw end and saw she was correct. He helped her move the long bough, and the reason for the cut branch became clear. The ATV had slipped and torn the moss ground cover. There was no way to repair the gouge without making it more obvious. Whoever had created the rut had covered it with the branch.

  She pulled out her quad map and marked the location, then traced the route they’d taken with her finger. “The ATV went along this swale. The fact that there are no other permanent ruts means they don’t use the same route often. So there have to be several ways to get to the cave, or they rarely come here.

  She sat on the rock, her focus on the map. Alec dropped down beside her. She pointed to a dotted blue line on the map—a seasonal stream—and said, “I think this is the stream where I lost the tracks. We should find it just below that line of trees.”

  “If you lost the tracks in the water, they probably drove down the riverbed.”

  She nodded. “I think the water is low enough. So the question is, upstream or down?”

  Alec studied the map. “Up. The sharp elevation drop downstream could be a waterfall.”

  She nodded and stood. “We’ll head upstream, then.”

  He caught her arm when she would have started toward the stream. “We’re getting close. I go first from here on out.”

  She looked like she wanted to argue.

  He pressed a finger to her lips. “You’re a helluva hiker. And given the fact that you managed to find a piece of headlight and covered tracks in thick forest, my guess is you’re a hell of an archaeologist too. But I’m the soldier here, and we’re likely dealing with people who are armed and dangerous. If I didn’t know you’d zap me with bear spray for suggesting it, I’d send you to the car right now.”

  She pursed her lips and said nothing.

  “Here’s the deal, Iz. You got us this far. I’m impressed you’ve found the proverbial needle in the haystack, but from this point forward, I’m in command. You will follow my orders, or I’ll handcuff you to a tree and leave you while I search for the cave. It’s that simple.”

  “You’re bluffing. You don’t have handcuffs.”

  “Wrong. I have two pairs in my pack. I grabbed them before I left the compound
, because if there’s anyone in the cave, I intend to take them alive.”

  She made a grumbling sound and said under her breath, “I should have known that if you remembered condoms, you’d remember handcuffs.”

  He laughed. “I didn’t remember condoms. Those were already in my pocket. Lucky break. Now. Are you taking the deal, or do I need the cuffs?”

  She met his gaze unflinchingly, then finally said, “Fine. But for the record, this is the only time you’re permitted to order me around like one of your employees.”

  He grinned. “Honey, when we get back to my suite, you can order me around all you want. I’ll even give you control of the handcuffs.”

  She paused. “What if in that situation, I want to be handcuffed?”

  The thought of Isabel strapped to his headboard gave him an instant hard-on. “That can be arranged.” The words came out huskier than he intended.

  She gripped the straps of his backpack and slipped her tongue into his mouth for a fast kiss, then said, “Sounds fun. My safeword will be…tiger.”

  He had no clue what word he expected her to choose; all he knew was it wasn’t that. “Tiger? You called me that before. Why?”

  “Because you’re the tiger king.”

  “Tiger king? But tigers are solitary. No pride. No kings.”

  “Tigers are sexier than lions, ergo, you’re a tiger.”

  He laughed at that leap of logic and couldn’t wait to get back to his suite to discuss the issue in detail. “Fine. Your safeword is tiger, but when I have you handcuffed to my bed, you won’t want to use it.”

  “I’m counting on that.”

  He kissed her one more time, then took the lead in the trek toward the stream.

  She was a dangerous distraction, but he’d never be this close to getting answers without her help, so he’d have to find a way to bury his libido as long as they were in this section of woods. It wasn’t safe.

  They found the tributary and headed upstream as planned. Following his orders, Isabel trailed right behind him. They reached a flat basalt face that had been scoured by a glacier thousands of years ago. “Alec, that’s a petroglyph on the rock face.”

  He studied the etched lines. “Not a lynx.”

  “No. A hawk. I think. Ironic that it’s a raptor.” She paused. “It could be a prehistoric marker. A helpful note that a rock-shelter, cave, or storage pit is nearby.”

  “Like a road sign?”

  “Sure you can call it that. Exit twenty-two, prehistorically speaking.”

  He smiled. They could use a sign right now.

  He paced the edge of the face. Flat. Cold. No breaks, nothing to indicate a cave was nearby. He reached the edge of the sheer face, where it jutted out from a rock-sprinkled slope and rounded the bend. The face didn’t project from the slope in a solid, attached wall of rock; it was a massive boulder that had been pushed from the top of the foothill by a glacier thousands of years ago. What appeared to be a face was really a flat, hundred-foot-wide boulder that rested against a rocky hillside. A deep crevasse separated boulder from hill.

  Isabel gasped. “The boulder is a capstone.” Astonishment filled her voice. “No wonder I missed it before. This was probably a simple rock-shelter—just a deep overhang—until the boulder landed in front of it.”

  She turned and gazed downslope. “We came a different route up the stream today, but on Thursday, I’m pretty sure I walked through that stand of trees.” She pointed to the stand. “And I went up that ridge. Then I looked at my watch and realized I needed to get back to my survey area.”

  “That’s when I heard you and came out of the trance.”

  She took a step toward the opening.

  He caught her arm to stop her. “I enter first. I’ll call out if it’s safe for you.” He could see she wanted to argue, to insist on blindly entering—as she’d have done if he hadn’t been with her. “We don’t know what’s in there. Do the smart thing, Iz. We’ve come this far.”

  She frowned but nodded.

  He took her face between his hands and kissed her. He released her and pulled his gun. Isabel pressed a canister of bear spray into his other hand. He nodded in thanks and stepped into the crevasse between boulder and hillside.

  The opening was low and narrow, a tight squeeze for Alec’s shoulders. An adult bear would have difficulty squeezing through, giving him hope none would have taken up residence inside. He shuffled forward in a slow, careful gait, aware that if there was a human predator inside the cave, they could zap him with a torrent of infrasound while the slim crevasse constricted him.

  Finally, he made it through, facing no infrasound attack. The space to his right widened while to his left was the flat, glacially carved boulder. The cave was the shape of an open pita pocket—no walls, just floor and ceiling coming together in a sideways vee.

  He ran his flashlight beam over the jagged ceiling and floor. The space was empty except for a few sleeping bats hanging from the ceiling. It smelled awful, bat guano and something else—likely the remains of a carnivore’s dinner—but it looked like no human had ever been here.

  “Alec?” Isabel’s shout was muffled by the thick rock wall.

  He tucked away his gun as disappointment filtered through him. He’d felt certain this was the place, yet it didn’t look familiar. But then, there had been lights. The dream had been like an overexposed photograph, which was why he suspected his eyes had been dilated. “Come in, Iz.”

  A moment later, she was by his side. She explored the ceiling and floor with her own light, then stepped deeper into the cave, ducking to avoid low rock protrusions. Finally she stopped and let out a relieved sigh. “There.”

  Alec moved to her side, so he could see where her flashlight beam had landed. She’d found a smooth stretch of rock on the ceiling etched with a grinning catlike face.

  Isabel felt a strange jubilation. Strange, because this room had been a torture chamber. Jubilation, because she’d found it at last.

  The lynx petroglyph proved Vin’s dream was real. He’d been out hiking—probably not far from here—and he’d been shot with infrasound and dragged to this cave, and they’d tested their weapons on him.

  She’d excavated in a rock-shelter like this in Eastern Washington about five years ago. It had been used for storage pits thousands of years before, and there’d been very little dirt. Excavation was mostly removing cobbles from the unit one at a time. Every time she removed a rock, she’d watch the dirt slip between the cobbles below, sinking ever farther down. Taking soil samples had been nearly impossible.

  If a forensic team came out to look for evidence that Vin and Alec were tortured here, they’d have a hell of a time trying to collect it.

  She ran her flashlight over the ceiling, pausing on the bats, then shifted the beam to the floor, seeking some hint as to who had hurt her brother and her…she didn’t really know what to call Alec.

  Had Godfrey been here? He may have lied about where he’d found Vin. He’d resigned from Raptor on Thursday, leaving him unaccounted for when someone shot her cabin with infrasound and Airwave on Friday.

  She took a step toward the back to see beyond the two-foot-high boulders that littered the floor. The strong stench of rotting meat intensified. She gagged and peered over a boulder to see what critter had played a fatal role in the food chain, and stumbled backward in shock.

  Something—wolf, lynx, coyote?—had feasted here. Actually, probably several somethings, given that there was very little left. The shocking part was the prey wore clothing.

  And not just any clothing. Raptor forest camouflage.

  “Alec!” His name was all she could choke out. She covered her nose and mouth, desperately trying not to heave.

  He stepped beside her and froze.

  She managed to get her stomach under control and breathed through her mouth to avoid the smell. “Do you think it was an employee they were testing infrasound on?” The thought made her belly roll again. Another victim, like Vin. Like Alec.<
br />
  Alec said nothing. He could have been made of marble as he stood staring at the mutilated remains.

  “Alec?”

  He met her gaze, but his eyes were blank. “No. Not a victim.”

  “How can you be sure?”

  “It was me.”

  “What do you mean?” Fear spiked. He wasn’t making sense.

  “I mean I did it. I remember it all now. Right before I was hit in the head and knocked unconscious, I snapped this guy’s neck. I killed him.”

  28

  Alec stared at the body. Adrenaline flooded his system. He’d killed this man. The memory punched him in the gut with enough force to make him wonder if he’d cough up blood.

  He’d killed a man during the lost hours, and the memory had been suppressed, not by his own brain, but by the bastards who’d taken him. The hole in his memory was a violation. He felt no remorse over the killing. No, his outrage was over the memory gap, that something so important could be altered in his mind.

  This kill had been self-defense. As a soldier, he’d killed. He didn’t regret those deaths. All Tangos had been valid targets. Threats to be neutralized.

  He’d compartmentalized and moved on. But this… this was an entirely different kind of compartmentalization. His memory of this had been buried. Someone had seriously fucked with his mind.

  I didn’t remember killing a human being.

  His brain was his greatest asset. He might not be as smart as genius Curt, and he didn’t doubt Lee had a few IQ points on him, but he was no dummy and had a degree from Harvard to prove it. The idea that someone had screwed around in his brain enraged him.

  Fight or flight surged through him—except flight had been trained out of him, so he was all fight with no one to rip apart.

  He sucked in a deep breath. Flexed his fingers. Punching the rock ceiling wouldn’t do anything but break his hand and scare the shit out of Isabel.