Sanctuary Deceived WITSEC Town Series Book 4

by Lisa Phillips

  “Is he dead?”

  Dante snorted at Tristan’s question. “He better not be. We need the location of the stash.”

  Bolton opened his eyes. He didn’t feel different. Was he supposed to? He looked up at the two men who stood over him. “Are we just going to fly around the US in big circles until we run out of fuel?”

  Dante lifted a gun and pointed it at Bolton’s face. “Tell me where you hid it.”

  Bolton sighed. “I’m not sure I can remember. Maybe you should threaten to kill me some more. Or maybe there’s a spot where I don’t already have a bruise, and you can give me a fresh one.”

  Tristan snorted. “He ain’t gonna tell you.”

  “That’s why we’re headed to Miami.”

  Bolton reacted. He had to. He had no reserves to cover any kind of response, and there was so much in him that was tied to that city he couldn’t help it.

  “Bingo.”

  Of course, Dante would think that.

  Miami was…well, it had been home, and Bolton had loved it there. Made his home in Sanctuary look like a shanty town in comparison, given how much he’d poured into that property trying to satisfy Thea’s wants. The rooms he’d decorated for himself, the ones she’d rarely ventured into—the media room and the garage—were the only places on earth he’d ever felt even a modicum of peace.

  Tristan strode away. “I’ll inform the pilot.”

  Dante’s mouth curled up. “You’re a dead man.”

  “Ditto,” Bolton said. “You drugged Nadia and then gave her to that guy. You think I’m gonna let that slide?”

  “What are you going to do? Bleed to death all over me?” Dante shrugged. “I got life in a federal prison because of you, and everything I had earned and spent decades building up was destroyed. Now, not even Tristan trusts me. I have to look over my shoulder every single day to see which of my men is going to stab me in the back next.”

  “We make our own beds.”

  “So you’re just going to play the noble card, is that it? You’ll die on that little hill of your own truth and goodness.” Dante crouched, bringing the gun within Bolton’s reach. If he was fast enough. Then maybe—

  Dante said, “You were nothing when those feebs found you, got you to spy on me so they could double cross me.”

  “That was your dangerous game. I only got caught in the middle. And for what? So you could sleep with my wife?”

  “Please.” Dante snorted. “That was all Thea’s doing. Guess you weren’t all that, since she jumped at the chance to get in bed with me.” He paused. “Though, if I recall, there wasn’t a bed involved. It was more…spur of the moment than that.”

  Bolton tried to be surprised, but what was the point in lying to himself. “What about Javier? Did you ever stop to think about him?”

  “Like that scrawny little thing belongs to me? You saw him run away.”

  Right before Dante put a bullet in Thea. Bolton was glad Javier had run instead of being forced to watch his mother be killed. Bolton’s mom hadn’t been a part of his life for years, and when she had, it had been clear she was under his father’s thumb. Yet another reason a relationship with Nadia would be impossible. He didn’t even know what a healthy, loving, respectful relationship looked like.

  The possibility that Thea had been lying, and that Javier might really be his child, hadn’t left Bolton. But he would never know. Dante would kill him before he got the chance to find out.

  “I won’t ever tell you where the stash is.”

  He knew it was a death sentence, but neither Dante nor Tristan could ever get their hands on what he’d hidden with the money and supplies. If Dante killed Bolton, the location of the stash would be sent to Ben. Only Ben. He was the one person Bolton trusted to do the right thing—destroy it.

  “Three hours,” Tristan announced as he strode back over. “Good. You didn’t kill him yet.” He motioned for Dante to move the aim of his gun away. “You realize it’s a three acre estate with a five thousand square foot house, right? I’m not searching that whole place—it’ll take forever. And if you kill him, that’s exactly what we’ll have to do.”

  Dante turned to his partner. “Do you have any idea how sick I am of you ordering me around?”

  “Probably about as sick as I am of having to try and control you,” Tristan fired back. “How many times was our entire operation almost exposed because of you? I was constantly trying to reign you in because you are so crazy you had no fear. Dealing with the FBI, pulling in gangsters. Making deals with the cartels. You didn’t exclude anyone. You let the whole world know you were dirty, and you had your finger in all their operations because it was never enough. If I had to control you, it’s because you weren’t satisfied, and you weren’t going to be until you got us all caught or killed.”

  “So you let Bolton survive long enough I was convicted, and you walked away with control of the operation.” Dante’s voice was deadly serious.

  “I scaled it back. We make a mint—”

  “Which I can’t spend in prison.”

  “Who told you Bolton was out?”

  Dante’s gun hand clenched on the grip. “If you hadn’t, it would’ve looked mighty suspicious. That’s you. Still playing everyone.” He studied Tristan, then said, “So what’s your play here? Think you can use me to find the stash then turn around and bring me in? The loyal DEA agent, just doing his job.”

  “D. That’s not what this—”

  Bolton saw Dante’s intention a split second before he moved. Tristan didn’t have time to react. Dante slammed the butt of his gun into Tristan’s forehead. He dropped to the floor of the plane, so Bolton could only see his legs. Prone. Dante pointed his gun and fired one shot into Tristan.

  Dante leaned down. When he straightened, he slipped Tristan’s badge onto his belt and then turned to Bolton. “Guess it’s just you and me. For now.”

  **

  It felt like hours before they made it to the plane. Days since they’d arrived with Will on the island of Kauai.

  Nadia turned in a circle as they walked to the plane, which had the stairs down and the door open. The mountain peaks loomed like lush, green monuments. A breeze coming from the sea, while palm trees stood like sentries over the land.

  Night was ready to fall.

  “Will we ever come back here?”

  They turned at the same time. Ben, Nadia, and Colt stood around Javier. Colt set his hand on the boy’s shoulder. “Whatever happens I’ll make sure we end up in the same place. Deal?”

  Did he have the power to make that statement? Nadia had no idea who Colt was. He was no marshal even if the town’s security and safety had apparently been under his purview. He’d been kicked out, but Javier simply had no reason to stay.

  Nadia stepped closer to him. “Do you want to stay, Javier?”

  He shook his head. “I can’t be here. Not anymore.” His eyes filled with tears. “What happened to that man, the one Dante took?”

  “The one you tried to shoot?” Ben’s voice was clipped, and he showed no concern for Javier’s reaction. “First time I saw you, you heard his name and you pointed your shotgun at him. If Colt hadn’t stopped you, you’d have shot him.”

  “Bolton Farrera destroyed my family. He ruined our lives.”

  “How?” Ben folded his arms.

  The boy opened his mouth. Hesitated.

  “Your mom tell about him?”

  Nadia stepped between them. “Leave him alone, Ben. He’s just a kid.” One who’d just lost his mom. “He doesn’t need the third degree.”

  Ben turned to her. “You want me to place him in Sanctuary, where he can decide he doesn’t like someone else, and then shoot him? How about Pat? Or Andra?”

  Nadia’s best friend. And she’d seen how he was with his nephew. Of course, they were his priorities. “Isn’t that a risk with anyone? Do you really ever know who you’re letting in?” She folded her arms. “Why is it your decision anyway?”

  “There’s
no way this kid is going anywhere near my family without me at least asking a few questions.”

  “Are you the vetting process? Is that how the system works now that it’s privately run?”

  Ben shot her a look, like maybe. Nadia rolled her eyes and faced Javier. “Don’t worry about him.” She jabbed her thumb in the air, in Ben’s direction. “He gets paid to be like that. All you need to worry about is being a kid. We’re going to make sure you stay safe, and I just want you to let us take care of the details of where you’ll end up. Can you do that?”

  Colt shook Javier’s shoulder a fraction in a move of solidarity. “My man here and I will work on that. But we need details.” He flicked his gaze to the side to include Ben. “Trust goes both ways.”

  “Agreed.”

  Ben’s expression didn’t change. They probably paid him for that, too. “Let’s board the plane.” He pulled a gun.

  “What’s that for?” Nadia trailed after him with the other two behind her.

  “We don’t know if Will is still here or not.”

  “You know Dante kidnapped his family.”

  “So he says.” Ben glanced back over his shoulder for a second. “I didn’t even know he had a family.”

  Nadia blinked. She followed him upstairs. Will hadn’t told Ben about his family? She knew he hadn’t shared about the kidnapping, but— “I saw it. The photo Dante sent. I saw them on his phone.”

  Will appeared in the doorway. “I can show you.” He looked terrible—hair disheveled. He might even have been crying.

  “We should get in the air,” Nadia suggested. “Head back to the mainland. Will, you could ride in the cockpit with Ben.”

  Ben whirled around to face her. “You want a man coerced into betraying my organization to ride up front by the instruments? He could sabotage the plane and kill us all. How do you know he isn’t still under orders from Dante?”

  Nadia couldn’t look at Will. She didn’t want to know how Ben’s words sliced through him, not more than what she saw out the corner of her eye. “Talk to him, Ben. I’ll call Remy to see if she can find out where Dante and Tristan took Bolton.”

  Ben opened his mouth, but it was Tristan who spoke. “They have him?” Will’s eyes widened.

  Nadia glanced at him then. “Any chance you can call him and find out where they’re going?”

  He shook his head, a man with no hope and nothing left to lose. “They don’t trust me, and I have no leverage. My family is probably dead already.”

  She touched his arm. “We don’t know that.”

  Ben said, “We’ll find out.”

  Nadia nodded. “Do you have people who can get on that while we search for Bolton?”

  “Hmm. Let me see.” Ben’s tone was the epitome of sarcasm. “I’m here, Grant is headed for the hospital, Shadrach is already in the hospital, and Daire is on vacation.”

  “So call Daire off his vacation.”

  “I already called a third party.”

  “Remind me to say no if you ever offer me a job.” Nadia jerked her head side-to-side. “We have to find Bolton, and whoever you called has to save Will’s family. But first, we have to get back to the mainland.”

  Ben snapped into a salute. “Yes, Captain.” But he didn’t move.

  “Why are you not so fired up to go find Bolton? Don’t you care at all? I thought he was your friend. You’re just going to let him…” It dawned on her. “No. You wouldn’t do that. Not even you.”

  “The most heartless person you know?”

  She wouldn’t have said it like that. “But you don’t care if he dies.” Nadia’s brain spun as she processed it. “Is Bolton worth more to you dead? Or the same. There has to be a reason you’re not jumping at this, rushing off to save him. I’m trying to get to him and you don’t even care.”

  “I know you want to save him, Nadia. But life is more complicated than just one person’s emotions.” He said it without inflection or expression. She’d seen him with his family. He cared. It just didn’t look like any expression of care that she’d ever seen before. “This whole situation is more complicated than you know.”

  “And you’re just going to wait it out? See how the chips fall?” She took a step back, unable to decide whether she wanted to hear the answer or run so far she couldn’t hear it.

  “Bolton can take care of himself.”

  “Because you’ve decided that? He’s injured, and they’ll kill him.”

  “They need him alive to tell them where the stash is.”

  “And then you swoop in, is that it? Apparently not, because you’re here.” She shook her head. This was unbelievable. “You get what you want, no matter what happens to anyone else?”

  “Nadia—”

  “Don’t bother.” She stepped back. “I think I understand you perfectly.” She turned to Will. “Do you have a clean phone I can use?”

  Will nodded.

  When she had the phone, and the plane engines had been turned on, Nadia dialed Remy’s number. Colt and Javier were talking. Will was up front with Ben, who had better get them there in one piece.

  Nadia swiped at the wetness on her face. Why had Grant told her to stay with Ben? He had to have known this would happen. He’d have been able to get her to Bolton faster, surely. She wouldn’t have had anyone to help her, but she didn’t care at this point. No help would have been better than Ben’s lackadaisical attitude.

  “This better be important.”

  “Remy?” Her voice cracked.

  “Nadia. What is it?”

  “Is everything okay? Shadrach isn’t…”

  “He’s okay,” Remy said. “Well, as okay as he can be. They’re doing some tests now to make sure everything’s healing properly.”

  Nadia blew out a choppy breath. She explained to Remy everything that had happened since their last call.

  “I wasn’t sure about Paul, but I had a hunch. I’m glad you’re okay.” Nadia heard the click of keys. “I’m running a search right now. There’s only one airport on Kauai, so it shouldn’t be hard to check their cameras to find Dante and Tristan loading Bolton onto a…” Her voice trailed off. “How can that—it’s an off-books federal plane. In fact, it’s one Grant has used before, and it only ever files a dummy flight plan. Why tell the FAA where you aren’t going, why not just tell them to butt out of your business because it’s private.”

  “Rem.”

  “That’s what they’re taking, and not to the west coast. They’d have landed already. Looks like they’re headed southeast. Following that course, if they’re not headed to Atlanta, I’m going to guess Miami.”

  “Bolton used to live there.”

  “Would he have hidden something important in his hometown?”

  “Maybe. He’d know the area really well.”

  “I’ll keep on top of it, let you know when they land and where exactly they’re headed.”

  “Thanks Remy.” She made her way to the cockpit. Will and Ben quit their conversation, a tense one by the look of it. She told them the direction, and Ben just nodded.

  Nadia trailed back to her seat. They knew where to go now, but why did that leave her with the taste of dissatisfaction in her mouth? God, I don’t want to lose him. When she helped him get out of this alive, Nadia was going to have to tell him why she cared so much. If he even got out of this alive.

  Ben’s help or not, Nadia faced again a man who’d already brought her low. He intended to kill Bolton and steal from him. She didn’t know what Ben wanted, but Nadia cared more about Bolton’s safety than anything he had hidden.

  Was that why God had placed her here?

  Chapter 24

  “DEA! Open up!” Dante fired one shot into the key hole. He dragged Bolton by the arm, toward the door, and slammed his boot beside the handle. Bolton took the moment to drop Tristan’s badge on the ground outside the door. Dante was distracted enough he didn’t notice, just as he hadn’t seen Bolton take it from the dead DEA agent on the plane.

 
; The door swung open and a woman inside screamed. She huddled with a man, both dressed like they’d spent a day at the country club. The man cowered, like he was trying to hide behind the woman instead of protecting her. “What are you—”

  Dante shot both of them.

  “Your stay here is over.” He pulled Bolton past the current owners of Bolton’s house, stepping over the prone bodies. “Now tell me where you hid the stash.”

  Bolton glanced over his shoulder and saw the man’s eyes were still open. Blood was smeared low across his chest. He wasn’t dead, but a gut wound was never a good thing. He let the man see all the terror that had settled in his gut. Dying by Dante’s hand wasn’t supposed to be part of the plan. Not for Bolton, and not for these people, either.

  The man started to reach for a cell phone that had fallen on the tile as his gaze darted around, still feeling the surprise of having been shot. Bolton sent up a prayer that the phone wasn’t broken. That the man wasn’t hurt too badly, that he could call and get help in there.

  Cops.

  Bolton had never wanted to see a police officer so badly in his life. He could have cried aloud for it. The pain in his body eclipsed almost everything else, and every step was agony.

  Dante twisted around and fired one shot. The home owner’s hand slumped and the phone clattered on the tile again. The screen was illuminated, but before he could read it, Dante shook him, his face right in Bolton’s. “Where?”

  Bolton blinked. “Give me a second.” He was ready to throw up. His back and leg hurt so badly. Had the owner’s call connected? Were the police on the open line—were they coming?

  Dante let go, and Bolton hung his head. “There’s a basement. Off the hall between the garage and the laundry room.” Not that it was where he hid the stash, but it gave him the chance to stall until the owner’s call got the cops there. If it connected. Please, God.