Secrets She Kept

by Debra Webb

  A sharp laugh burst out of her. “Don’t even try playing that game with me.” She held his gaze, silently demanding an answer. She saw the answer without him having to say a word. The determination as well as the resignation. Her heart stumbled. “You’re going to kill Prentiss, aren’t you? That’s the signal Aikman will be waiting for.”

  He snapped his gaze away from hers and started to walk once more, but not before she saw the defeat in his eyes.

  Prentiss’s bodyguards would kill Flynn.

  There was no way he would survive.

  She had to figure out a way to turn this around.

  Chapter 13

  Smith started walking. He could not allow her to sway his decision. She didn’t understand. Aikman would have killed her after doing other unspeakable things if Smith hadn’t agreed to his terms.

  There was no other choice. No way out.

  It was true that at this moment there was some measure of leeway. Quite possibly they could take off and maybe get down this damned mountain before they were caught. But that would be like putting a gun to Levi Winters’s head and pulling the trigger. If that wasn’t bad enough, Prentiss would no doubt disappear.

  This—right now—was the one chance Smith had of stopping him.

  “You’re a fool.”

  He ignored her, which wasn’t easy to do. She had surprised him when she kissed him. He’d felt the mutual attraction almost from the beginning, couldn’t have missed it if he’d tried. The intensity of it was his own fault. It had been way too long since he’d allowed himself basic human pleasures. She made him want to indulge those ignored needs. It was difficult for a starving man to ignore a buffet right in front of him.

  “This goes against your training. We both understand what needs to happen. This is a textbook example of a no-win situation. We need backup.”

  “You feel strongly about following the rules, is that it, Buchanan?” She was as bad as him. She’d walked into a deadly situation without so much as a blink and damned sure without any backup. She had no right to judge his actions.

  “It’s not the same,” she argued.

  “It’s exactly the same.”

  She stopped and turned to him. He bumped into her shoulder.

  “I didn’t walk into that compound prepared to kill a man.”

  Anger clenched his jaw. He struggled to utter an answer. She couldn’t possibly understand. “He deserves to die.”

  She nodded. “Maybe so but not because you want to put a bullet in his brain. What you’re talking about is premeditated murder. Are you a murderer, Flynn?”

  He bit his lips together to prevent denying the charge. Maybe he was a murderer. He had never wanted to kill another man the way he wanted to kill Prentiss.

  “If you are, what makes you any better than him?”

  A part of him wanted to refute her words. To explain his reasoning. But did any of it really matter? He wanted to watch Rayford Prentiss die. He couldn’t wait to see him take his last breath. Equally important, he wanted the bastard to know that he—Smith Flynn, the son of Avery Flynn—had been the one to bring his ruthless reign and his life to an end.

  “Nothing,” he admitted.

  He walked on. They were close to the compound. The watchers would spot them and send out a team to bring them in. It wouldn’t be long now.

  The answer he’d given to her last question kept her quiet for a few minutes. She was searching for some other rationalization for why he couldn’t do what Aikman had ordered him to do. He could practically hear the wheels in her head turning. She wanted to help him.

  But she couldn’t.

  No one could. Not at this point. It was too late.

  As much as he regretted what he had become and all the things he’d had to do, if necessary he would do it all again to stop Prentiss.

  “Once we’re inside, give me some time,” she suddenly said, her voice low as if she feared the trees had ears. Most likely they did.

  “Time for what?” He asked this without looking at her. He didn’t want to look at her. Not simply because she was attractive and alluring and made him want things he shouldn’t. But because she reminded him of all that was good—of the reason he became an agent in the first place. She made him want the career he’d had before this journey started. She made him wish things had been different.

  Could he be that man again? Did the good part of him even still exist? He had worked for two long years to erase that guy. To make him immune to the emotions that would only get in his way.

  Buchanan had made a valid point. He was a murderer. He’d killed the man he used to be. What he was now was no better than Prentiss.

  He doubted there was any going back.

  She stopped again, moved in close to him, making his body yearn to pull her close. “Once we’re inside, give me time to create a distraction. We can turn this around, Flynn, make it work for us.”

  The hope in her eyes made him want to believe her. Made him want to grab on to the life raft she offered and hang on for the ride.

  But what if she was wrong?

  “He won’t be fooled so easily this time. He knows he can’t trust either of us. How do you expect to manipulate him in any way to buy time or anything else?”

  She was an optimist. A woman who wanted to stand by the goodness and justice she believed in. She needed him to believe, too, but he’d lost the ability to blindly believe in anything.

  “Trust me, Flynn. You would be surprised at the tricks I have up my sleeve.”

  He shouldn’t agree to the idea. He should do what he had to do and be grateful for the opportunity.

  But she made him want to do the right thing.

  “I’ll give you as much time as I can.”

  She grinned. “That’s all I can ask for, partner.”

  Despite the worry and uncertainty nagging at him, he smiled back at her. Maybe they could turn this around.

  He just hoped she lived through it. He had never expected to survive this assignment, but he didn’t want to be the reason she lost her life.

  As they ascended the next ridge, troops came out of the trees. Seven, no eight. The group swarmed out and surrounded their position, weapons leveled on his and Buchanan’s heads.

  Smith held perfectly still. “I need to see Prentiss.”

  “He doesn’t want to see you.”

  Smith knew this soldier. He was an ambitious man. He would want to prove he was somehow responsible for Smith’s capture.

  “Take me to him,” he said to the younger man, daring him to argue. Smith was now listed as an enemy but there would be those who had their doubts. Those who feared turning their backs on him since it was not out of the question that he could be restored to his former position. After all, he was Avery Flynn’s only son.

  The soldier gave a nod to one of his minions. “Search them both.”

  When he and Buchanan had been patted down to the man’s satisfaction, he ordered his team to move out. The soldiers stayed in a tight ring around Smith and Buchanan as they continued on to the compound.

  The compound was only a mile or so away at this point. He glanced at Buchanan. Somehow he had to find a way to keep her from ending up dead no matter that she refused to cooperate.

  She’d asked for time, which likely meant she had a plan. Maybe he should listen to her reasoning. She wasn’t emotionally tangled up with this situation and he was. Her reasoning might be clearer than his own. He’d been guilty of a lot of mistakes over the years but he didn’t have to make one today.

  * * *

  Prentiss waited alone in the meeting room.

  Of course he wouldn’t want any of the other members of the Council present when he said what he had to say. The secrets and lies he had kept over all these years were not the sort he wanted anyone to know, particularly those who looked to him to lea
d them. There was not a bigger con artist alive. The man was capable of anything if it gained him what he wanted. But the other members of the Council, the followers, none of them would ever believe he was anything other than a selfless leader who protected their way of life.

  Smith had barely resisted the urge to take a swing at one of the guards when he prepared to separate Buchanan from him. As two guards dragged her away she had shouted for him to remember what she said.

  He did remember.

  For what it was worth, he would try his best to give her some time.

  Smith was shackled and escorted to a chair, where he was forced to sit before the shackles around his ankles were anchored to the floor. Prentiss didn’t speak until the guards had left the room. Only the two of them would ever know the whole story if Prentiss had his way.

  “Is it true?” the old man asked as if he could hardly believe the reality of what had occurred.

  “What would you know about the truth?” Looking at him sickened Smith. How had he managed these past two years?

  “I know enough,” Prentiss warned. “I know a mole when I see one. A traitor. A man whose entire existence is a betrayal to his own people.”

  “Doesn’t matter now,” Smith mused, deciding on a delay tactic that might just work. “You’re finished.”

  The old man’s gaze narrowed. “I don’t believe you. If the feds had anything on me, they would be here now arresting me and pinning medals on you.” He glanced around the room. “I don’t see or hear anyone coming to your rescue. Perhaps you should pray about this dilemma in which you find yourself.”

  Smith chuckled. “I don’t need to pray, old man. I’ve spent two years feeding information to those feds. They have what they need, they’re only waiting for the perfect moment. Believe me when I say that moment is close at hand.”

  “If that’s true, then why were you and your friend still wandering about on this mountain? Why haven’t your comrades rescued you? Or have they forsaken you as you have forsaken me?”

  “I refused a rescue. I want to watch from right here.” He smiled. “I want to witness them dragging you away in shackles.” He shook his head. “Too bad the other members of the Council are going down with you. They are only guilty of following your orders. How fast do you think one or more of them will roll over and start spilling his guts about the executions and the shipments?”

  Prentiss stood and moved toward him. He looked even older and more than a little frail in those overalls and worn boots. But there was nothing frail about this bastard. He was dangerous. Ruthless. Cunning as hell.

  “I will know what you’ve told them,” he warned as he braced his hands on the arms of the chair and leaned in close to Smith. “I will know every secret and every name you’ve shared. And then you will die a slow, agonizing death.”

  Smith allowed a wide smile to slide across his lips once more. “I shared them all. Every single name, every single secret. They know about your partners in South America. They know your next incoming shipment and the distribution channels you intend to use. They know everything.”

  “I want names,” Prentiss demanded. “Who are your contacts?”

  “You can’t stop this, old man. They’re coming and you and all this will fall.”

  Prentiss drew back sharply as if he feared catching some contagious disease. “Your father would be sickened by your actions. He would kill you himself.”

  Smith leaned forward as far as his shackles would allow. “My father was not like you. He would be grateful to me for stopping you.”

  Prentiss held his ground. “Maybe you’re right. Avery had grown weak in his old age. He failed to see what was best for the security of our people. Progress is necessary. As is extending our reach. He was blind to those needs.”

  “But they followed him. Looked up to him. Not you,” Smith reminded him. “You were always in his shadow.”

  Prentiss was the one smiling then. “And yet I’m still here and he is gone.”

  “How much longer do you think you can hang on when your people learn you failed to see the traitor in their midst? Or maybe they’ll see you as the traitor.”

  “They already know what you are. You’re just like your father. Weak. Shortsighted. A stumbling block to survival.”

  Anger ignited deep inside Smith. “My father was not weak. His vision was far greater than yours. You will never be half the leader he was.”

  “Before I order your public execution perhaps it’s time you were told what really happened.”

  Smith stilled. His father suffered a heart attack. “I’m well aware of how he died.”

  On some level he would always believe that his decision to leave had been part of the burden that weighed upon his father, making him a prime candidate for a sudden heart attack. He couldn’t help wondering if he’d secretly discovered what Smith had become, a traitor to all his father believed.

  “His heart stopped true enough.” Prentiss reared back, his thumbs hooked into the side splits of his overalls. “It was the only way to protect what we had achieved. He would have ruined everything.”

  Something cold and dark swelled inside Smith. “What does that mean?”

  “It means,” the bastard said, obviously enjoying the moment, “that he wanted to pull back. When he found out about my deal with the cartel, he demanded I leave. He intended to put me out after I had dedicated my life to the cause.” Prentiss shrugged. “It was him or me. He was too sick to understand what he was saying and doing. So, as you can see, it wasn’t me.”

  Shock radiated through Smith. “You killed him?”

  “I did,” Prentiss confessed. “Just like I’m going to kill you.”

  * * *

  Sadie didn’t bother struggling. Prentiss had ordered her to the tunnels. Her friend Levi, Prentiss had warned, was already there, unless he’d ended up as dinner earlier than expected.

  No wonder Flynn wanted to kill the man. He was a ruthless degenerate. Every minute he drew breath, someone else suffered.

  The dome was pulled back by one of her guards, revealing the ladder that led deep under the ground. Sadie went along, feigning uncertainty. She had a plan and having it start in the tunnels would work to her advantage.

  When she reached the bottom of the ladder, George was waiting. He still wore those flimsy flip-flops he’d bartered out of her.

  “Wasn’t expecting you back,” he said. “I heard you ran off.”

  “I missed you and decided to drop by for a visit.”

  He stared at her a long moment, her light sarcasm seemingly lost on him. Finally, he nodded. “Anyway, your friend is down here, too. He ain’t faring so well.”

  “What’s wrong with him?”

  “I guess he don’t like the idea that if an emergency happens and we run out of food, he’ll be the backup.”

  Levi was supplies. Prentiss had enjoyed telling her that, as well. Before George could turn and start walking away, she said, “We should probably talk before joining the others.”

  He frowned. “You know the drill down here. What do we have to talk about?”

  Sadie looked around as if to make sure no one else was nearby. “They’re coming today. If all of you are still here, you’ll end up in jail, too.”

  Confusion flashed in his eyes. “Who’s coming?”

  “The feds, local law enforcement. They’re coming to take Prentiss and the Council to jail. They know everything about this place.”

  He shrugged. “They’ve boasted about taking Prentiss down before and it never happens. He’s way too careful.”

  “Trust me, George. I’m with the FBI. They know everything. You were nice to me so I’d like to help you and the others down here. But there isn’t a lot of time. We should get out of here while we still can.”

  “What?” He drew back as if her words had attacked him.

&nbs
p; “You know how to get out. You’ve dug egress routes. You know where they are and how to use them. Don’t pretend you don’t, George.”

  “I think we should get to work.” He started walking deeper into the tunnel.

  Sadie didn’t move. She stayed next to the ladder. She wasn’t going anywhere until she got George thinking about how easy it would be to escape this tunnel and flee to someplace well beyond the reach of the Resurrection. Not that the group would have any power left when this was done. She decided on a new tactic.

  “Prentiss and the rest of the Council are leaving. You think they’re going to let you guys out of here before they evacuate?” She shook her head. “They’ll leave you to die. The authorities can’t question the dead.”

  He stalled, shook his head at her. “You’re lying.”

  “I’m not lying, George. I have no reason to lie. I just don’t want to die and that’s what will happen if we don’t get out of here.”

  He started walking again. She followed.

  “The feds are coming to take Prentiss and his Council down. They’ll be here before nightfall. We don’t have time to waste. Prentiss and his cronies are going to get away clean and all of us down here won’t.”

  He stopped and glanced back at her again. “If what you’re saying is true, what do you expect us to do?”

  “You told me about the egresses you’ve prepared. Let’s go to the closest one and get out of here before it’s too late. Before Prentiss orders any and all loose ends cleaned up.”

  “There will be guards waiting at the egresses,” he argued. “They’ll shoot us.”

  She shook her head. “They’ll be gone. They’re afraid. They’re not going to hang around once word about what’s coming gets around.”

  George kept moving until he reached the work area. Sadie trudged along behind him. Levi was there and he looked in reasonably good condition. No visible injuries. Relief rushed through her. Maybe this would be a second chance to get him safely out of here. This time she wasn’t allowing him out of her sight. She fully intended to deliver him to his sister.