Kill Shot

by Sheri Landry

  I exchange a pensive nod with Jessa, and she answers for the both of us.

  “We understand.”

  “Logan has been looking for Philomena Sparr—for a very long time,” Jack says. He and Michael exchange another solemn look with each other, and I catch a hint of haunting familiarity in their expressions.

  Michael had that same look on his face when he told me about his father’s death.

  “What did she do?” Both of their faces fall further after I ask, and I instantly know I’m right.

  “Logan holds Philomena Sparr and her family responsible for the death of his younger sister.”

  Silence.

  A million questions fight to be the first out of my mouth, yet I say nothing. The opinion I had of Logan is slowly being broken down and rewritten with this new information.

  Knowing this, his actions and reactions today are more defensible.

  I never saw Logan as a brother, or as anyone who had a priority other than his mission. But his anger looks different in this new light. Now I know it was panic in his eyes when he realized Mena wasn’t going to be held accountable for killing someone he loved. Jessa and I are responsible for not giving him that peace.

  “When was this?” Jessa whispers her question.

  “It was a few years before—” Jack leans his head to the side. “Before I came to town. You know, undercover.”

  “You mean when Maxwell’s sister left.” Jessa fills in the timeline, and I dig back into my past, trying to place Logan around town.

  “Yeah. She was sent to live with family abroad the next day. She just vanished. To Logan, she became untouchable, and he was left alone to pick up the pieces without the possibility for justice.” Jack keeps telling the story as Michael and I listen from the sidelines. I’m sure neither of us remembers anything from that time.

  “I didn’t hear anything about a murder.” Jessa’s eyes are saucers. “I know I would have remembered talk about a murder in our town.”

  “No one did. It was covered up rather quickly. His sister went to a different school, and the investigation into her death went nowhere.”

  “Why didn’t Logan’s family stay on law enforcement to keep looking into it?” I ask, and Michael is the first to meet my eyes. His pinched brows tell me I’m already going to hate the answer.

  “I’m not going to answer that.” I tense, but Michael raises his hand, asking for more time to continue speaking. “Not because we want to keep this from you, but because this is Logan we are talking about. Logan has agreed you should know this much, but he isn’t ready to share the worst moment of his life or discuss his past.”

  I nod furiously. I do understand completely. Logan is a driven person. Until now, I thought it was an overaggressive ego pushing his actions. I never considered that he may have his own ghosts.

  “Jack, you need to know: I didn’t know she was Maxwell’s sister when I—when I hired her. I don’t even remember what she looked like before she went away. We were in different schools.” Jessa is referring to the gossip around town about Maxwell’s sister. I remember Jessa mentioning it when I started at her school.

  Logan and Jessa have more in common than I first thought, and a glance at her tells me she feels his pain. They’ve both lost a sibling to the Sparr family.

  “How did you know to hire her?” Jack’s story about Logan takes a back seat.

  “I had alerts set up for different phrases while I was looking for Dana.” She squeezes my hand again. “The hit popped up on my radar. I knew where you were going before you left,” Jessa confesses, and Michael smirks at Jack from the front seat. They should know by now: Jessa will always know more than they will. “I have some connections, and I’ve worked with Mena and her team in the past, but I didn’t know her by name. I sent an encrypted message out through our channels, notifying them of the Sparr hit on Dana and presenting a counteroffer.” She suddenly stops her explanation.

  “Your counteroffer was a hit on Maxwell.” Michael searches for confirmation, and Jessa nods.

  “Yes. I reached out to their group because I know from our past—uh, dealings, they’ve participated in dismantling different areas of the Sparr organization, so I was pretty sure they would accept my offer.”

  The turnoff to my little cabin is coming up, so I know we aren’t far from town.

  “Where did you get the money to fund them?” As Jack asks the question, Jessa shoots him a look and he backs off. When we were on our own for those ten years, finding money was never difficult for Jessa. She could hack in and funnel money from any number of criminal organizations, and it was particularly easy to do when money was being laundered. As long as we stayed under a certain amount, most people thought it was lost in fees or interest.

  “There’s something else.” Jessa looks guiltily at each of us, including me. “I think it was their group who sent the anonymous tip about Dana and I being at the farmhouse last year.”

  “Why do you think that?” Jack asks from the other side of Jessa.

  “I went back through Link’s old call logs. They were heavily encrypted, but I was able to hack my way back down the path it came from. It closely matched the same channels I went through to connect to Mena’s team.”

  “But why would they give you up?” Michael’s tone sounds suspicious.

  “That’s a question for them. I don’t know. I’ve been thinking about it a lot over the last few days, and the best I can come up with is they were either looking out for Dana and me, or they felt we could help them in some way by working together—with you.”

  My head is swimming with all of this new information, and I failed to notice we’ve already driven through town. We are pulling into Dale’s parking lot as I look between Michael and Grey and out the front window.

  Jack and Michael are the first to get out when the car stops, and Jessa exchanges a heavy glance with me before we join them. We watch as the other car stops behind us. Jack immediately turns to join Charlie behind the second vehicle, and I watch Logan get out of the passenger seat. He looks like a completely different person. Meeting my stare, his fists clench at his side. Then he quickly turns his attention to his team and away from Jessa and me.

  “Can I speak with you for a minute?” Michael’s voice is low, and before I respond Jessa has already moved away to stand near Grey on the driver’s side.

  “Sure.”

  Michael takes a step away from everyone, and I follow him. “I never thanked you.”

  “What are you thanking me for? I almost got you killed—a few times.” Michael looks confused as I mentally add up the many times he has been shot, drugged, and knocked out over the last twenty-four hours because of me.

  “Dana, you single-handedly took down a trained hitman in hand-to-hand combat.”

  “I kind of had no choice.”

  “Well, you had a choice after he was dead, and you chose to stick around. And not only that: I was there in the mill when you begged for all of us to be let go.”

  “I was scared.”

  “I know you were. I was scared too. But you didn’t think about yourself. You thought about all of us, and we noticed—and appreciated it. You’re one of us. I want you to know that. It’s me who has failed you here.” Michael’s confession catches me by surprise.

  I place my hand on his arm. “Michael, if it wasn’t for you, I would have walked out of my coffee shop yesterday and been shot in the head. You took a bullet for me, and you fought a killer to buy me time to get away.”

  “You’re making it sound a little more intense than it was. It was a flesh wound.”

  “Well, when I tell the story from now on, I’m going to say it was a center chest hit. The bullet just missed your heart. You’re lucky to be alive. Don’t worry; the ladies will eat it up.” I try to joke, and he smiles before giving me an awkward look I can’t quite place.

  Jack joins us. “You ready?” Everyone is behind him, waiting for me to lead the way into Dale’s, as mine is the only fa
miliar face in town.

  I turn, cross the dirt lot, and pull open the door. Dale is sitting on a stool behind the bar, and all eyes look up as I walk in. I don’t waste any time making my way over.

  “You okay?” I ask.

  “Yeah. Still a little off, but I’ll be fine. I’m happy to see you’re still here. We were gathering supplies to come up looking for you when we heard you pull up outside. What happened?” Dale sets a fistful of glasses on the bar and pours something into all of them, nodding his head toward the guys behind me.

  I look over my shoulder, and everyone relaxes and steps in behind me.

  “It’s a long story. But first I wanted to check on Kaley. Is she in the back?” I ask, passing a drink to the guys behind me.

  Dale’s face pales. “Why would Kaley be here?”

  27

  Michael

  “Why would Kaley be here?”

  I freeze at Dale’s words, the drink I was about to knock back fixed between the bar and my lips. The amber liquid spills over the rim at my sudden stop.

  Kaley isn’t here.

  Philomena and her team never brought her here like they said they would. It’s written all over Dale’s confused face, and Logan clenches his hand into a fist on the bar beside me.

  “I—I—Kaley was with us at the mine.” Dana drops her voice eerily low as she answers Dale before looking my way.

  “What was she doing at the mine?” Dale lowers his voice to match hers and leans in, dropping his warm smile.

  “Jack and I were ambushed earlier. She showed up while it was happening.” My answer attracts Dale’s restrained fury.

  “And why didn’t she come back with you?” Dale asks through clenched teeth.

  The question is completely valid now. In hindsight, the decision to allow her to leave was entirely reckless, but I understand how it made sense at the time.

  “That’s on me.” Dana steps into my space, pulling Dale’s focus back on her. He softens only a little.

  “You and I are going to have a talk. Go sit down.” He looks over our shoulders, indicating a table in the corner of the room. It isn’t a request, and Dana nods before pushing off the bar to leave our group.

  I turn in place to follow her, but she stops me mid-step. She places a hand on my forearm and drags my gaze to her small fingers gripped around my jacket. I follow her arm up to meet her eyes, and she shakes her head.

  “This is on me. I’ve got this.” Dana looks at me but speaks loud enough for our entire team to hear. She’s making it clear: we are all to stay put. I stare at her for an awkward moment before nodding once and stepping back.

  “I’m right here.”

  She attempts a smile, but I’ve known her long enough to tell when she’s putting up a brave front.

  Turning back to the bar, I see Dale top off his glass and reach under the bar—no doubt for the bat he showed us the last time we were in here. I do a double take before I realize he’s grabbed a Mossberg 590 shotgun instead. I meet his gaze to try to read him for signs of threat. He’s doing the same to me.

  Without stopping, he makes his way to Dana. The guys in the back of the bar take notice of Dale and his gun and shift in their seats. All eyes are on our group. He sits down with Dana, who has her back toward us, and slides the drink across the table. She takes a gulp before coughing and sliding it back, and they start a conversation none of us can hear.

  This can all go south fast. Dale and the rest of the people in this town are on edge. I’m sure everyone has heard about the hits. Stan is dead, Dale was drugged, and Kaley is missing. To top it off, the entire town seems to be running drugs.

  This whole thing is a ticking time bomb.

  “Boss, should I contact Link from the car? Maybe he has some more information,” Grey offers from behind Jack.

  “No, we all stay put until they are done. I don’t want any sudden movements.” Jack glances over at the table of guys in the back before addressing Charlie. “Were you able to get in touch with him?”

  “Yes. We checked in when we hit town. Gave him everything we could. He’s putting together a backup team. They’re on standby.”

  “We’re wasting time,” Logan warns.

  Even though it was ultimately Jessa and Dana who allowed Kaley to leave with Philomena, Logan still carries the weight of the decision as though it were his own. Every time Maxwell or someone else in the Sparr organization gets away with something, he takes it to heart. It cuts into him. He loses his sister all over again. Now that I think about it, Kaley is right around the same age as his sister was when she died.

  “Let her speak. Our backup will never get here on time. I think we’re going to need their help if we have any chance of finding Kaley.” Jack tilts his head toward the group of eight men observing us from the back of the room.

  I take my eyes off Dana for the first time since she sat down. While the group continues to stare us down, none of them seem particularly threatened by us. I get the sense at least a few of the men have some form of military background—or criminal. It could go either way at this point.

  “What did Link say?” Jack keeps his eyes forward but speaks over his shoulder to Logan.

  “He’s monitoring Maxwell’s known connections for chatter now that word is trickling out he might be dead. He’s trying to pick up a lead on Philomena Sparr or her team as well. He wishes he had Jessa back there to help him.”

  “I’ll start looking as soon as I get to a computer,” Jessa offers quietly, meeting Logan’s eyes. He takes a minute to process her olive branch, then nods with a resigned smile. Jessa reaches into her pocket and pulls out the drive holding Zane’s base program before handing it over to Logan.

  While we all knew Jessa wouldn’t be keeping the files, her handing them over voluntarily sends a strong message to Logan that she is on our side, and I know he appreciates it as he secures it.

  “I wonder if she knew what was on it?” Logan seems to be thinking out loud.

  “She knew,” Jessa answers confidently.

  “That doesn’t make sense. People would kill for this, and she just gave it back to you?” Logan whispers to our group.

  “We need to sit down and compare notes. All of us.” I speak to everyone within earshot, and the team nods.

  Logan doesn’t know yet that it was most likely Philomena who turned Jessa and Dana over to us a year ago, and everyone needs to be on the same page before we run off on incomplete information.

  Movement draws my attention as Dale reaches over his gun and across the table to take hold of Dana’s hand as she continues to tell her story.

  The front door opens, but it doesn’t fully register that someone else has joined us until Jack shifts his body in front of Jessa. Charlie steps out from our group and draws his gun, pointing it past me and toward the entrance before everyone startles.

  “She was one of the people who took me from the cabin,” Logan speaks from behind me.

  On instinct, I draw my own weapon to back up my team, zeroing in on the woman, who has her body halfway into the room.

  The sound of chairs scraping against the old barn floorboards comes from behind me as the men at the table in back stand and we’re surrounded.

  The woman raises her empty hands as she silently scans every one of us. Wisps of long dark hair partially covers her face. A knit bag is slung over her shoulder and hangs at her hip. Making a circular motion with her right hand high in the air, she steps into the room and pauses by the door.

  “We’re here to talk.” She isn’t speaking to any of us directly, and I get the impression she doesn’t know which one of us she should consider the leader.

  “Who is we?” Dale asks, drawing her attention to him. He’s stepped in front of Dana, shielding her.

  The woman gives another hand gesture, this time balling her hand into a fist as she slowly steps into the room.

  “We were at the mine. My people are outside. I want to talk about a mutual interest of ours.” She waits for
Dale to respond, and he looks over his shoulder at the men and drops his head.

  One by one, they each sit back down, but every one of them looks ready to jump into action if needed. Then Dale looks at me.

  He must think this is my team. Pinching my lips together, I look to Logan as he watches the woman at the door intently. I’m sure he’s hoping Philomena will join us. Logan secures his safety and places his gun behind him on the bar, and the rest of our team follows suit.

  A tinge of relief hits me: she may be about to bring Kaley in. Something on their end could have delayed them, and I look at Dana, who is peeking out from behind Dale’s body with hopeful eyes.

  Dale picks up his shotgun, points it toward the wall, and unloads the shells until it is empty. He puts the ammo in his pocket before wrapping his fingers around Dana’s arm and walking her back to the bar to join us.

  Circling around to the back, he takes us in, his eyes shifting measuredly between us before lifting a bottle and pouring another round.

  “You.” He points to the woman by the door and curls his fingers, calling her over to our group before addressing my team. “Thin out.” He lifts his chin to the table he just left, telling everyone who isn’t needed to give us space.

  “You want to talk? Talk. You have someone I know.” Dale slides a glass to the woman as she joins us, but she waves it off. Grey and Charlie leave us for the table, opening up a space for her to stand closer.

  It isn’t lost on me that Jessa and Dana are staying close and quiet. I know we’ve kept things from them in the past, but I’m not about to cut them out now.

  Logan steps away, putting some distance between them, but he stays close to our group.

  “We did,” she confirms.

  Dale huffs at her response. Placing both hands on the bar, he leans toward her with a raised eyebrow, waiting for her to explain herself.

  “We lost contact with our team in the air about forty-five minutes ago. They were on their way here with the girl. We have a search team making their way out to their last known location, but it’s on the far side of the mountain. There are no roads through that pass, not to mention it’s nighttime, and visibility is shit.”