Chapter Fourteen
When Wendy didn’t answer his call, Garrett wanted to brush it off. After all, Sam wasn’t his responsibility anymore. His job had only been to deliver her to safety, which he’d done.
The boss had given him a few days off before handing him his next assignment. Only, Garrett’s gut wasn’t letting him off the last job just yet.
Something didn’t feel right.
Even though Wendy and Tom were fellow deputy marshals, they weren’t from his team. Garrett had checked them out thoroughly. He’d searched for evidence of them living over their means, any large deposits into their bank accounts, new luxury items, the usual stuff. He’d found nothing.
But that didn’t mean one or both of them weren’t dirty. The best people at hiding corruption from the system were the people in the system.
After a few more minutes of inner debate, he gave in to his instincts and pulled out his phone to call SD Thorne.
“Yes?” his boss answered, emotionless as always.
“Has Wendy or Tom checked in with you today?”
There was a brief pause. “No. Why?”
“I called them and got no answer.”
“That doesn’t necessarily mean anything.”
“I know, but…”
“What?”
“Something’s not right.” The words sounded just as stupid as the last time he’d said them. He didn’t have a single reason to doubt the other marshal’s abilities or integrity. Still…
“I’ll send you the safe house address,” Thorne said. “Check it out and get back to me immediately. That witness is very important.”
Garrett knew exactly how important she was. “Thanks, boss.”
He ended the call and grabbed his jacket and keys. A few seconds later his phone chimed with an encrypted text giving him the address to Sam’s safe house.
He checked his weapons, holstered them, and headed into the unknown.
As he drove, it wasn’t the possibility of danger that distracted him. No, it was that stupid kiss in the hall…and the way she’d felt when he’d pulled her against him in that alley.
The way her height made their bodies align in the most amazing way.
“Get it together, dumbass,” he said, shaking off the thoughts so he could focus on the task ahead. If she ended up dead, it wouldn’t matter how much he wanted her body.
When he arrived at the house an hour later, everything was in upheaval.
“Where’s Sam?” he asked Wendy.
“How the hell did you know where we were?” she asked instead of answering, which pissed him off.
He just glared at the woman, fighting the urge to shake her. “Where. Is. The. Girl?” he repeated, enunciating each word.
Wendy ground her teeth. “I don’t know. She took my phone and ran off.”
Garrett narrowed his eyes. “Why would she do that?” He didn’t believe Sam would run off without a good reason. He turned to Tom. “Well?”
“I have no idea, man. You know how some of them get when reality sets in.”
Garrett did know, but he also knew Sam had a steady head on her shoulders, despite her initial issues under pressure. It hadn’t taken her long to put the pieces together regarding her future in witness protection. She’d seemed resigned to her fate, albeit a little sad. She was intelligent enough to know the program was her best chance at surviving her situation.
“How did she get away?” he asked.
“We don’t know. We’re pretty sure she’s on foot. We’re canvasing the neighborhood,” Wendy offered like a puppy with its tail wagging.
“No vehicles were reported stolen?” he asked.
He detected a hesitation before Tom shook his head. “I haven’t heard anything.”
Local law enforcement was on the scene by then, but Garrett cleared the room where Sam had been staying so he could look for clues.
Obviously, she’d crawled out the window.
He did the same thing, stepping into her shoes so he could understand what had happened. He panned his flashlight across the small fenced-in yard. It would have been pitch-dark out here when she escaped, but she could have easily climbed over the fence.
He checked the perimeter of the yard to see which direction she had gone. Light footprints pointed toward the neighbor’s yard. As he followed them, he noticed movement at the window. It wasn’t unusual for neighbors to be curious. Most of them came out to investigate openly.
Garrett pulled out his phone and called Thorne. “She’s missing.”
“Son of a bitch. Find her, McKendrick.”
“I’m going to need Angel to get me intel on the guy next door.”
“Angel isn’t available. I’ll call in your clearance to Daphne. She’ll give you anything you need.”
“Thanks. Patch me through.”
A second later, Daphne answered. “How Can I help?”
“You know my location?”
“Yes.”
“The house on the east side of the property. Who lives there? What do they drive?”
He glanced around while she pulled up the information. There was no vehicle in the driveway, but it looked like gravel had been sprayed onto the grass in a rooster tail.
“Edward Maples. He owns a white, heavy-duty pickup truck. District of Columbia plates, number Charlie, Tango, Echo, one, seven, nine.”
“Put out an inter-agency alert on the vehicle.”
“Doing that now.”
“Tell me about Mr. Maples.”
“Self-employed contractor. Two charges of failure to report all income on his taxes. One charge of attempting to commit fraud on an insurance claim.”
“Thanks. Call me when you find that truck.”
“Will do.”
Garrett pulled his gun and knocked on the neighbor’s door. No answer.
“Mr. Maples, please open the door so I don’t have to bust it down,” he yelled. He was not in the mood for the whole S.W.A.T. act tonight.
The door opened and a short man with a large stomach peeked out. “Are you part of the thing with the other two?” the man asked.
Sometimes people made it too easy.
“Yep,” Garrett assured him. “They asked me to check in to make sure it was going as planned. Everything okay?”
“Hell yeah. Twenty grand for that piece-of-shit truck goes a long way to making everything okay.”
“You haven’t reported it stolen, have you?” Garrett raised his brows.
“No way. Your friend told me to wait a few months before I report it, and that’s what I’m gonna do.”
“Excellent.” Garrett patted Mr. Maples on the shoulder and walked off the dingy porch. His phone was at his ear a second later. “The safe house was compromised. I have confirmation that Wendy and Tom are dirty.”
“Damn it. They passed their last security check with flying colors,” Thorne muttered.
“And I just did a recheck a few days ago.” In WITSEC, every precaution was taken. People’s lives depended on the integrity of every single deputy marshal. “Nothing popped.”
“God, I hate that. A fox in the henhouse is the worst possible scenario. Now I’m going to have to follow up with an investigation.”
“Sorry for the inconvenience.” Garrett made sure to keep the sarcasm out of his voice.
“Can you track her down?”
“I think so.”
“Let me know when you have her back in custody. Take her someplace safe and wait for my orders. Absolute discretion goes without saying.”
“Got it.” He understood following orders—he had survived some hairy situations by following orders. But sometimes you just had to take charge of a mission yourself. He had a feeling some rough seas could be ahead for him.
Totally worth it. He would face whatever came next.
But first, he had to find Sam.