Constant Risk

by Janie Crouch

  “Are you sure they’re not going to kill the victims outright and just make a run for it?”

  She let out a little sigh. “That’s my biggest concern. Right now, I’m in discussion with both of them on the pros and cons of keeping the women alive.”

  He whistled through his teeth. Not that he didn’t trust her, but that was a lot of pressure and if it went wrong, could mean a lot of guilt for Bree. He didn’t want that for her. “What can I do to help?”

  “I’m hoping the news report of Gresham’s arrest will spark some sort of panicked action. It’s the only play I have left. We’re down to the last forty-five minutes.”

  Damn it. That was so little time. “Freckles, listen.”

  She held up a hand. “No, don’t give me the consolation talk now. Not while we can still save them. I’m going to damn well try everything in my power to get them out.”

  She was right. He should not be treating this as if they’d already lost these women. “I’m sorry. It’s not that I don’t have faith in you...”

  “I get it, hot lips. You’re you and want to protect me. And I love you for it. But right now...” Her eyes grew big. “I’ll be damned.”

  “What?” She had diverted her attention from her main computer back over to the laptop.

  “It worked. One of them just panicked and made a pretty rookie mistake. I set up a side channel attack on the very slim chance that someone would panic and one of them did and just triggered it.”

  “English, freckles.”

  She typed for a few seconds. “I know where victim number three is.”

  Chapter Nineteen

  Everybody flew into action the moment Bree had an address. Whitaker immediately got Penelope from where she was still interrogating Rory Gresham.

  Nobody recognized the address because it was so far out of town. By the time Penelope came rushing into the room Leon had it pulled up on a map.

  “What do we got?” Penelope asked.

  “Looks like a damn farmhouse,” Leon answered. “Definitely not industrial like the warehouse or the empty hotel.”

  “Perp doesn’t need that big of a space,” Tanner said. “Just somewhere where he could get the vic in without people noticing. A barn would definitely work.”

  Whitaker looked over at Penelope. “It’s going to take every bit of thirty minutes just to get out there. And we’ve still got the fourth victim.”

  “I’ve got our fourth kidnapper talking to me,” Bree said. “He’s a little more guarded. Prickly. He didn’t like finding out who Rory Gresham was. I think the fourth guy feels like he’s been used for someone else’s agenda.”

  Whitaker rolled his eyes. “That’s what happens when you jump into bed with people you don’t even know. Might want to find out a little bit more about them before committing to their sick little experiments.”

  Tanner couldn’t help but agree.

  Bree shrugged. “I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not great at reading people, but it’s like this fourth kidnapper feels personally betrayed by Gresham. Scorned almost. Wait, I...” She faded off. “Let me try something.”

  Bree sat down and began typing on her laptop. Penelope looked over her head at him.

  “We’ve got to leave right now or we won’t make it to that farm in time to save the third victim. Whitaker and I will head to the farm, you and Leon keep working number four and move as soon as you’ve got actionable intel.”

  Tanner nodded. “I’m not leaving Bree alone.”

  Penelope let out a frustrated sigh. “Do you think she’s not safe here in the middle of the police department?”

  “Nothing against any sort of security here, but Bree stays with me.”

  He wasn’t still on full alert, but until he had a chance to check on Jeter himself and make sure the people guarding him knew what they were dealing with, Tanner wasn’t letting Bree out of his sight. Not that he didn’t trust Greg, but he’d seen Jeter’s Organization at work and he wasn’t willing to risk Bree’s life on anything, particularly at this.

  “Fine.” Penelope turned to Leon. “Make sure you bring extra backup then.”

  She and Whitaker were rushing out the door without another word.

  There were twenty-eight minutes left until the victims drowned.

  Bree was frantically pounding away at her keyboard.

  “There it is.” Bree pointed to a chat room window that popped up on her screen.

  “What is that?” Leon asked. “It looks like something from a dating site.”

  “That’s exactly what it is,” Bree responded. “And it predates their group getting together. And it’s with Rory Gresham and kidnapper four.”

  “I totally don’t understand what we’re talking about here,” Leon said, studying the screen. “Two of them were dating? So Gresham is gay?”

  Bree shook her head. “No. I think suspect number four is a woman. On the dating site, Gresham talked about wanting to prove himself. That once he pulls off this little operation, he would get taken seriously and would be able to move forward with the relationship. But now the fourth suspect realizes Gresham never really had any plan for them to be in a relationship. Rory was just using her—using all of the kidnappers—to get his revenge on the city of Dallas.”

  Both Tanner and Leon shook their head.

  “What I don’t know is how to use this information to get her to tell me where she is,” Bree continued.

  “Are you relatively sure she only knows Rory Gresham and not the other kidnappers?”

  Bree shrugged. “Honestly, she probably didn’t even know Rory. Just what he told her online. There’s no indication that she knows the other two outside of their main chat room. I’ve tried everything I can think of to get her to tell me where she is. Now that the information about Rory has come out, she has receded even further.”

  Bree rubbed a hand across her face. “I don’t think I’m going to be able to get to her, or the victim, in time. She doesn’t want to talk about anything to do with the plan or the box or anything.”

  “That’s because right now none of that stuff is what’s important to her,” Tanner said. “She’s got her mind on other things. Things of the heart.”

  Bree’s green eyes pinned him. “She does?”

  He pointed to the chat room box. “She’s thinking about the fact that the man she spent a lot of time talking to and investing in, lied to her. Try talking to her as a woman. Remember how you felt when you thought maybe Penelope was attracted to me?”

  He was right. Bree needed to talk to her woman to woman. Her hand began flying over the keyboard again. “If I pretend to be kidnapper three and tell her that Rory made those same promises to me? Maybe that will get her to drop her guard. I’m going to have to say it in the public room, but she’s the only one left checking that.”

  Bree’s hands flew across the keyboard. “For the record, if you have been promising yourself to both me and Penelope, I definitely would be willing to stop what I was doing and make sure you felt my wrath.”

  Tanner chuckled. “Let’s hope it’s true with this person too.”

  “I’m telling her that I can’t believe what I just heard about Rory. That he had made me feel special and that it was all a sham. That I had agreed to this plan for personal reasons with him, not for his agenda.”

  Tanner nodded. “Good. That’s good.”

  A few seconds later Bree smiled. “She’s on.”

  They all watched the screen as the suspect typed.

  I feel like Rory lied about everything.

  Bree was quick to respond.

  I thought he wanted to be in a relationship with me. I feel like he was just using me.

  You female irl?

  “She’s asking me if I’m female in real life,” Bree explained.

  “This is it. You need to get h
er to move into a communication with you that we can track,” Tanner said.

  Bree muttered a curse. “I need two minutes to write a shell program that will bounce off a private chat room and lead us to her. Talk to her while I write it.”

  Bree sprinted over to her desktop computer and Tanner sat down in her place, praying he wouldn’t say something to scare the suspect off.

  Yes. Female irl. Rory and I met on an online dating site. I thought he was into me.

  Same. Bastard has been using all of us.

  “Hurry, freckles,” Tanner muttered. “I’m running out of things to say to her.”

  “Forty-five seconds.”

  Tanner strained to find something to say.

  Did you meet Rory irl?

  It felt strange to use the initials, but it would be a dead giveaway if he wrote out the words.

  No. We agreed to meet after. U?

  Bree came sprinting back over. “I’ve got it. Let me talk to her.”

  Bree’s fingers flew over the keys.

  Mind if we switch over to pm? I don’t trust this chat anymore.

  Bree put the link out for the private chat.

  “Now we see if it works.” Tanner looked up at the clock. They had less than twenty minutes left. It was going to be close, and that was if the suspect was actually with the victim.

  Two minutes that seemed like an eternity ticked by.

  “I don’t think she’s falling for it. I made it look real but if she pokes at it too hard, she’s going to see what it really is.”

  Another minute went by. And Tanner began to worry Bree was right. She had the open chat room right in front of her. “All I need is for her to get on one time and we’ll have her.”

  Finally some words popped onto the screen.

  I’m here.

  Bree’s hand flew over the keys once again. And a dozen seconds later she had an address.

  “That’s fifteen minutes away,” Leon said.

  Once again they were dashing for the door.

  Leon drove, siren blazing, cutting off traffic everywhere he could in order to make up time.

  Both Tanner’s and Leon’s phones buzzed at the same time. Leon didn’t even gaze at his, eyes focused on the road.

  It was a message from Whitaker. Tanner couldn’t help but smile as he read it.

  “Whitaker and Penelope made it to the third victim in time. It was Christina. She’s safe.”

  Bree let out a little sigh of relief. “I know no one’s life is worth more than another, but I’m glad a baby girl is not going to grow up without her mother because of this.”

  Tanner squeezed her hand. “How about we spoil everything for Rory Gresham and rescue this last woman too?”

  “Has anything changed about the location?” Leon asked.

  Bree typed for just a couple of seconds then a frown marred her features.

  “What?” Tanner asked.

  “The channel is still open, but she’s not talking. She hasn’t said anything since letting me know she was there. It’s just odd that she would get in there and then not say anything else. Even when I asked her a question.”

  Tanner looked over at Leon. “This could be a trap.”

  He gave a brief nod without taking his eyes off the road. “It doesn’t matter. We are out of time for stealth.”

  In less than two minutes they were screeching to a halt in front of a small house. It backed up to the woods, which was probably what had allowed the kidnapper to get the victim inside without being seen. It wouldn’t have been easy, but not impossible.

  Bree was climbing out the door as soon as the car stopped.

  “Where are you going?” Tanner asked.

  She looked at him like he was crazy. “There’s no way you’re sending Leon in there by himself, especially after what you guys just said about this possibly being a trap. And I know you’re not letting me stay by myself in the car, so I’m coming with you.”

  Tanner bit off a curse. “Do you really think it’s safer for you inside there?”

  “I refuse to be a liability to you. I know you have an extra weapon. Let’s put all the lessons you’ve given me shooting out at the ranch to good use. I’ll either stay here and defend myself or be right behind you when you go inside the house.”

  Leon crossed to the trunk, opened it and tossed an extra Kevlar vest to Tanner. “We’ve got to move.”

  Tanner didn’t like it but he was completely out of time and options. He slipped the Kevlar vest over Bree’s head and strapped it tight, then reached for the weapon at his ankle and handed it to her. “Just like we practiced at home. And if anybody comes at you, you don’t hesitate to pull the trigger. In the meantime, you stay right on my ass.”

  She actually smiled. “Nowhere I’d rather be.”

  They jogged toward the house. “You guys head around back,” Leon told them. “Text me when you’re in place. I’m going to go in hard through the front door. This place isn’t very big, but maybe it has some sort of secret hidey-hole like Elliot’s.”

  An alarm went off on Leon’s watch. “That’s it. We’re at zero hour. She’ll be underwater any second now.”

  Tanner shook his head. “Then I say we breach the front door. Getting to the victim is more important than catching the perp if she decides to flee.”

  The two men nodded at each other and Tanner grabbed Bree’s hand, pulling her right behind him.

  “On your ass. I got it.”

  At the door, Leon turned to them. “Ready?”

  Tanner nodded. “Let’s do this.”

  Leon counted it down and kicked the door in. Bree kept one hand at his waist, under his vest so he’d know where she was. Both he and Leon kept their weapons raised, announcing their presence and moving quickly through the small house.

  It didn’t take long to realize there was no one here.

  “There has to be some sort of secret room like you said.” Leon was already looking around the closet, but nothing about it suggested that there was any sort of extra space.

  “Bree,” Tanner said. “Are you sure this is the place?”

  “I’m positive this is where she was when she got into the chat room I set up. But there’s no guarantee this is where the fourth victim is.”

  “You guys,” Leon called out. “There’s a shed out back. It’s small, but it could possibly be our spot.”

  They rushed out the back door to the shed. Tanner immediately pushed against the door but it only moved about a foot before getting stuck.

  They all three looked down and saw the blood leaking out from under the door.

  Tanner glanced at Leon and they both jammed their shoulders as hard as they could into the door. It finally moved enough for Tanner to slip inside.

  He immediately saw what was blocking their entrance.

  A woman’s body.

  Tanner pulled the body away from the door so Leon and Bree could enter behind him. A wall had been raised inside the shed, creating a narrow hallway. He felt the wrist of the woman on the ground.

  “No pulse.” As soon as he flipped her over, he saw why she didn’t have a pulse.

  She’d shot herself in the head. The gun was still in her hand.

  “We got a body. Looks like a suicide.”

  Leon nodded and moved farther inside the shed, weapon still raised.

  They all heard a strangled scream from behind the wall. Tanner dropped the dead woman’s wrist and both he and Leon sprinted toward the small door at the end of the hall, Bree right behind them.

  Once inside they all immediately recognized the scene from the footage. They’d found the fourth victim.

  And the woman was drowning.

  They all rushed over, Tanner scooping his hand under the woman’s head to help her sit up as far as possible, Bree and Leon usin
g their arms to splash out water as quickly as they could in huge strokes.

  When the woman finally coughed out the water she’d swallowed and was able to take a breath, they all relaxed a little bit, although Bree and Leon kept shoveling the water out. Tanner reached in his pocket and grabbed his phone, calling 9-1-1 to let them know they needed an ambulance at this address. Then he took over shoveling water so Leon could call Penelope and give an update.

  Bree was talking to the woman, wiping her hair back from her face, reassuring her it was going to be okay. It was Betty Neighbors, the woman from Waco.

  He met Bree’s eyes over Betty’s face. Bree had done it. She’d done the impossible: saved all four victims.

  Chapter Twenty

  As soon as the paramedics and uniformed officers showed up and took over to help Leon, Tanner got Bree out of there. They had done their part. Bree had very definitely done hers, even under the most trying of circumstances.

  Suspect four, Kelly Braun, had killed herself. Maybe she’d realized there was no way she wouldn’t be going to jail or was distraught to have been used by Rory Gresham. They were all just thankful she’d sent that one last message in the private chat room Bree could trace or they never would’ve found Betty Neighbors in time.

  The rest of the case would be handled by Penelope and Leon. Bree and Tanner might have to come back and testify for the trials, but the work was done for them.

  By the time the rest of the team arrived, Bree was swaying on her feet. Now that the action was over, her body was shutting down. Tanner let Leon know he was leaving and immediately took Bree back to the hotel.

  She was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow.

  Tanner got them booked on a flight home for much later that evening. He wanted to get her out of here, back to Risk Peak where she belonged—where they both belonged—but had something he needed to do first.

  Check on Michael Jeter himself. See for himself that it was, in fact, Jeter in that hospital. Make sure everyone surrounding him was truly aware of the danger he posed, not just to Bree but the world in general. Even injured, he was dangerous.