Chapter Sixteen
Unease stirred beneath Mac’s skin. On the surface, Jessop was a perfect host, but something about this guy was making his senses twitch. There was a disturbance in the Force.
Mac hadn’t planned this. Should be in DC running the task force. But this opportunity was too serendipitous to step away from, especially with the added bonus of having Tess by his side. As a Fed, he wouldn’t get in the door. But as Theresa Jane Hines’s fiancé he was almost part of the family.
There was nothing in the law to say an FBI agent couldn’t lie to obtain the information he needed for a case, but he knew the best lies were the ones that stuck closest to the truth. He’d be lying if he said he wasn’t enjoying himself.
He’d certainly never imagined he’d work undercover in any capacity in this part of the world again, yet here he was, here they were, working as allies.
He wanted to trust Tess.
He considered her as she sat with a fragrant bowl of beef stew in front of her. She hadn’t eaten much. Her scarf was coiled high over her tight-fitted, black shirt, presumably to hide the marks her own brother had put on her skin. Her dark, wavy hair was pulled back in a messy knot and though she was pale and didn’t wear a stitch of makeup she was ridiculously attractive.
Everything, from her quiet life as an accountant to the fact Eddie had tried to kill her, screamed her innocence. But she was smart. If she was involved, it was entirely possible they’d plan everything down to the last detail—including Eddie’s attack if she thought the Feds were onto them.
Even though he convinced they were on the same team she was definitely hiding something. He needed to know what that something was.
She felt his stare and sent him a curious smile.
He smiled back, but as much as he wanted to trust her he couldn’t stake his career on it.
Mac reached for another slice of freshly baked bread. “You cooked all this yourself?” Mac asked Jessop. He was impressed despite himself. He could cook, but he rarely had time, and there was no fun when he was the only one eating.
Jessop nodded and chewed his food before answering. “My wife died a couple years ago, God rest her soul.” He crossed himself. “Got a daughter, but she lives out east.”
Henry pointed to a photo on the refrigerator of a small boy holding the hand of an older woman who was presumably Jessop’s late wife. “When my Mary died it was learn to cook or starve.” He patted his round stomach. “Thankfully, cooking ain’t rocket science. Just takes a bit of patience, like everything else.” A smile lifted the wrinkles on his face, like a concertina.
“The food is delicious. We appreciate it,” Tess said warmly, though she hadn’t eaten much.
She sipped her red wine. Mac ignored the glass in front of him. He wanted a clear head to deal with anything that might present itself.
Jessop didn’t pepper them with questions. In Mac’s mind, the less people asked questions, the more they probably had to hide.
Mac cleaned his bowl and sat back, his stomach satisfied even as his mind hungered. Still he waited while Tess and Jessop exchanged a few more memories about her parents. Tess smiled but Mac could see the strain keeping any real happiness out of her eyes. She didn’t try and hide it from Jessop. Why would she? As far as Jessop was concerned the Hines family had been brutally slain by the cops—why wouldn’t that cause stress in their one remaining daughter?
“Your little brother—how old is he now?” asked Jessop.
“He’ll be twenty next month.” Tess smiled. “At six feet two, he’s not so little anymore.”
“Tall like his daddy.”
Tess smiled tightly. “My daddy always seemed like a giant to me. I guess they’re about the same height.”
“What’s he do?” Jessop wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Something in the action propelled Mac back to his own childhood, his own father, eating, drinking, lashing out.
His jaw clenched.
Tess dabbed her lips with the napkin and Mac noticed the old man watching her with a gleam in his eye. It was close enough to lust to make something possessive rear up inside Mac.
Great. He was jealous of a woman who was posing as his fake fiancée.
“We better hit the road.” Mac needed to get moving and he could tell Tess didn’t want to discuss her brother. “Would you mind if I used the restroom before we head off?”
“Not at all. Go on through to the living room while you wait, Theresa Jane. I’ll track down those things I mentioned earlier.”
“Would you like help clearing up?” she offered.
A knot formed in Mac’s throat. It reminded him of all the times Tess had been taken advantage of as a child. Not because she was weak—but because she was good.
Jessop shook his head decisively. “Guests don’t help clean up. My wife might be dead but she’d still throw a fit if she found out.”
Jessop led him to the downstairs washroom that also housed a small shower stall. The decor was folky Americana. Not a hooded robe in sight. Mac checked the medicine cabinet. There were razors and deodorant. No medication though.
Mac washed up and came out of the room as quietly as possible. Jessop was just coming out of a downstairs bedroom carrying a small cardboard box. Mac got a quick glance inside the room before the man shut the door firmly behind him. It looked like a teen’s room with posters on the wall and a computer desk set up against one wall. The computer screen was dark but there’d been a light under the table, suggesting it was plugged in.
He wanted to get his hands on that machine.
“Can I help?” He offered to carry the box.
“I got this. You go on ahead.” Jessop indicated with one hand.
Reluctantly Mac walked into the living room to see Tess standing in front of the fireplace holding her hands out for warmth.
There was an overstuffed floral couch and a couple of photographs in silver frames on a sideboard against the far wall. Hardly a den of iniquity, but Mac had learned a long time ago that the veneer of civility was sometimes just that.
Jessop placed the box on the coffee table and smiled at Tess, but she didn’t come any closer.
“Wouldn’t swap this part of the world for all the money in the world, but it doesn’t mean I wouldn’t change a few things if I could—like the weather,” Jessop said.
“World’s a long way from perfect,” Mac agreed. “Weather’s the least of our problems.”
Jessop chuckled, but didn’t take the bait.
She leaned against the wooden mantel and covered a yawn. “Sorry. I’m suddenly bone tired.”
Mac doubted she’d got any sleep last night either.
“What did you say you do?” Jessop asked Tess abruptly.
Mac froze. They hadn’t come up with an alternative career for her. She smiled sweetly. “I’m an egg farmer down in Mississippi. Free range. I run it with a friend of mine, although I might sell my share when Mac and I get married.” She batted her lashes at him.
Mac’s eyes widened. What the hell happened to keeping lies close to the truth?
Jessop’s brows rose. “Nothing wrong with farming.”
Did he suspect them? Or was Mac reading too much into the situation? Being undercover had always been lonely work, but having a partner to worry about was worse.
“What do you have in there?” Tess stared at the box like it might be full of spiders. She didn’t come any closer. He didn’t blame her.
“The cops took most things after they murdered your kin.”
Mac winced inwardly.
“But they didn’t take everything.”
Mac leaned over as the old man opened the box. What the hell had they missed?
Jessop pulled out a dog-eared copy of The Turner Diaries.
Mac wanted to roll his eyes.
Tess took a few steps forward to take the battered paperback. She pursed her lips as she flicked through the racist garbage. “I must have read this book a hundred times as a kid.” She flipped through the pages and one came loose and fluttered to the floor. She bent down to pick it up. “I drew pictures in this one.”
She turned to show him flowers in the margin, drawn in crude black biro. She sounded nostalgic but Mac heard the irony layered beneath. That piece of bullshit and the Holy Bible were the only two books allowed in Kodiak Compound, so of course she’d read it a hundred times.
Eddie and Walt had also kept a stash of Playboys under their mattress, and he doubted they were the only sinners in the compound. Disgust for the brothers and for himself fermented inside. He should have protected the girls better. But he still didn’t know how he could have done that and shut down the group. He’d been a rookie cop still finding his place in the world. Trying to prove he was worthy of the faith his bosses had placed in him. Looking back with twenty years’ law enforcement experience, none of the choices had been easy.
On cue, Jessop hauled out an old family Bible and handed it to Tess.
Her mouth opened slightly, as if she were pleasantly surprised, but Mac saw her eyes flinch.
“Momma’s Bible.” She smoothed her hand over the front. “God rest her soul.” Her eyebrows quirked at him cynically when Jessop turned away. Tess obviously shared his opinion that Francis’s soul had withered and died long before she had.
“Had your daddy’s Bible, too, but I’ve misplaced it.”
Mac frowned. How did you misplace something like that? Maybe the guy had sold it on Ebay, or was secretly saving it for Eddie’s release. Tess moved to the box and put the books down. She reached inside and pulled out a bookmark made of pressed daisies. “Ellie made this.”
Tess’s hands trembled. Mac realized it was the first tangible object she’d touched of her sister’s since she’d lost Ellie. He wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her to him as she fought tears.
“Murdering bastards,” Jessop muttered.
“Yes.” Tess blinked rapidly and raised her chin.
Mac ignored Jessop’s lies. He’d figured long ago that some people existed in their own reality, a reality that didn’t always make sense. No amount of arguing got them to change their minds. They were happy in their fantasy world and as long as they didn’t hurt others he left them there to live out their illusions in willful ignorance.
But if they crossed a line…
He drew Tess against him, and she laid her head on his chest and closed her eyes. His heart gave a little twist that she trusted him enough to let him comfort her even this much.
“I didn’t mean to upset you.” Jessop frowned at her. “Thought you might be interested in having something from your past.”
“I do. I am. Thank you.” Her hair stroked Mac’s jaw as she nodded. It was silky and smelled faintly of lavender. She pulled away, as if suddenly aware of how he held her—as if they really were in love.
“It’s so unexpected to find all these things after I thought they were lost forever.” She put the bookmark reverently inside the box next to the books. “Thank you. I am really very grateful.”
Jessop nodded and sent her a smile. “You going to see Eddie tomorrow?”
Tess drew her chin up and her eyes glittered. “Of course.”
“You two are welcome to stay the night… Save you driving further in the snow tonight if you’re not used to it.”
Mac had pretty much learned to drive in snow and ice, but he was tempted to stay anyway. It would give him the chance to do more snooping.
“Thank you, but no.” Tess put an end to that notion. “We need to hit the road. Don’t we, honey?”
He heard the steely command in her tone though she disguised it with sweetness. But the pleading in her eyes was the deciding factor, that and the fact he needed to get back to DC.
“We appreciate the offer, Mr. Jessop—”
A phone started ringing in the kitchen.
Jessop held up his hand. “Excuse me a moment. Let me make sure it isn’t an emergency with the stock. I’ll be right back.” He disappeared before either of them had the opportunity to say another word.
This was Mac’s one and only chance. “Stay here.”
He didn’t give Tess time to argue just strode swiftly to the bedroom where Jessop had stored the box. He walked inside and took a quick look around. A claw of repulsion raked him. Behind the door, the distinctive stars and bars was draped on the wall above the bed. A Bible that Mac recognized as David Hines’s own sat on the bedside table.
Why had Jessop lied about that?
Mac strode to the computer and moved the mouse, praying it was turned on.
The screen came alive to a chatroom on the Tor server with a green background. The site was called One-Drop-2-Many and Mac didn’t need a Ph.D. to figure out what that was in reference to. It was a white supremacist chatroom. Unfortunately, the chat had timed out and it needed a password to re-access the site.
A noise behind him had him straightening. Tess pushed the door open, white-faced and wild-eyed. He opened his mouth to tell her to go distract Jessop when he saw the old man behind her. Jessop pressed a revolver to her temple.
Shit. “What’s going on?” Mac demanded.
Jessop’s smile grew ugly and Mac knew his secret was out. Well. Fuck.
“I don’t take kindly to being lied to. Especially by people accepting my hospitality.”
Mac didn’t bother denying it. The million-dollar question was how’d he figure it out?
“I wasn’t sure I’d be welcome if you knew the truth.” What had the guy learned? “Sorry for the lack of transparency. We appreciate dinner, but we’ll be on our way now…”
Jessop spat on the floor. Tess pulled a disgusted face which made Mac smile even though his heart was pounding.
“You think this is funny?”
“No, sir. You holding a gun on an innocent, unarmed woman is anything but amusing.” He put his hands on his hips, making himself a bigger target but Jessop didn’t take the bait and didn’t move that firearm a millimeter away from Tess’s skull.
Shit.
Tess’s eyes were worried now. No way could she risk a move like the one she’d made at the prison with that barrel pointed at her head.
“We’ll leave and forget this ever happened—”
“I don’t think so.” The old man’s hand moved up into Tess’s hair, taking a firm grip and making her cry out in pain.
Rage surged through Mac. This was the second time today Tess had been manhandled.
Her chin angled back, no doubt trying to ease the pain of having her hair yanked out. “Mac thinks like we do,” she cried out. “I recruited him the way Daddy wanted us.”
“If you believe that then you’re a bigger fool than I thought.” Jessop sneered. “You,” he indicated to Mac. “Take out your weapon real slow and toss it on the bed.”
Mac slowly drew out his Glock. The weight felt beautifully familiar in his hand. He raised it and pointed it straight at Jessop. The man’s eyes widened and he shifted Tess in front of him—typical coward, hiding behind a woman.
Mac tilted his head to one side and lined up his shot. “One of the first things they teach us at the Academy is never surrender your weapon.”
“Then she’s dead,” Jessop declared boldly.
“You’ll be dead, too.” Mac’s smile was cold. If he threw down his weapon, he and Tess were both goners.
They were at a stalemate and the old man knew it. Mac moved toward the computer and clicked the mouse. “Who’ve you been talking to, Henry? You involved in these murders in DC? Talk to us and I can cut you a deal that may keep you out of federal prison for the rest of your life.” Mac pulled his phone from his pocket and started dialing even though he had no signal. Jessop didn’t know that for sure. These people believed the power of the federal government went way beyond what it actually did. “Can’t wait for the experts at the lab to start taking this computer apart, figure out who you’re working with.”
Jessop’s gun came up and swung toward Mac. Mac dodged right as Tess elbowed the man in the face. She twisted out of his grip. Mac tried to get a shot off, but Jessop was already gone. He reached down to haul Tess to her feet, pulling her behind him. “You okay?”
“Fine,” she replied. “Where’d he go?”
Mac frowned, listening hard. “Kitchen, I think.”
“Think he’ll make a run for it?” she asked. What sounded like the back door banged open and the two of them edged into the hallway and through the living room. Tess went to grab the box.
“Leave it.”
“I just want the bookmark.”
“No. This whole place is about to become a crime scene. Don’t touch anything.” He took her hand and tugged her into the kitchen, clearing the room before urging her to follow.
“You think Jessop is involved with this thing?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“He could simply be an old coot who hates Feds. You know how many of them there are around here and how crazy they all are?”
“You don’t know how much those words worry me.” He made her crouch behind the stove before picking up the landline. No dial tone. He followed the line. Jessop had ripped the wire out of the wall. “Dammit.”
He gave Tess a once-over. “Put your coat on in case we have to make a run for it across country.” He nodded toward the chair. She passed him his jacket and he pulled it on, too. “He could be waiting in ambush or he might have run to get reinforcements from the bunkhouse. I’ll go out first and head right.” He tossed her the keys to the Jeep. “I want you to head straight for the SUV, fast and low. Start the engine and keep it running. If bullets start to fly I want you out of here.”
“What about you?”
He shot her a look. “I’ll be fine.”
She rolled her eyes. “You have a backup weapon?”
He nodded.
“Give it to me.”
“I’m not giving you a gun.”
“You don’t trust me?” she sounded shocked.
“I don’t know yet.” Honesty went both ways.
She reared back like he’d struck her.
Dammit. “Look, fine, I trust you, but I don’t want you to become a target.”
“But being an unarmed pawn is okay?”
Shit.
He wasn’t foolish enough to fall for emotional bribery but hell if his gut didn’t scream at him that they were on the same side. He pulled the Glock-17 from his ankle holster. If he was wrong he was about to lose more than his career. Her eyes widened as he handed it over.
“Remember how to use it?”
She nodded. “I still go to the range regularly.”
“Good.” It was a risk but he didn’t want her to be defenseless if anything happened to him. “It’s for self-defense only. No getting involved in a shootout unless you have to. You don’t want to end up like Eddie.”
She swallowed loudly, eyes huge.
“I’ll go out first. You don’t wait more than half a second before you follow and run to the Jeep as fast as you can. Got it?”
“Got it.”
He touched her cheek. “It’s gonna be okay.”
A shot rang out and shattered the kitchen window. Tess ducked and shrieked as glass shards flew through the air. The memory of that long-ago raid on her childhood home flashed across her features as clearly as if she’d screamed the words.
Damn. Going out the front door was suicide and the idea of Tess getting shot did not sit well. He grabbed her hand and tugged. “Change of plan.”
* * *
Tess couldn’t believe that in the last twenty-four hours she’d gone from being a boring accountant in the ’burbs to ending up in the middle of another armed showdown in the wilds of southern Idaho.
“Come on.” Mac dragged her along.
She pointed the handgun he’d given her at the floor and crouched low as she followed him back into the living room. He turned off the lights as he went and the world became a mass of confusing shadows. The fire glowed in the stone hearth and she eyed the box of things Jessop had given her and swerved towards it as another shot rang out in the kitchen.
“What the hell are you doing?” Mac said, sliding to a stop.
It was too dark to see inside the box but her fingers searched and found that bookmark that Ellie had given her for her ninth birthday. Tess didn’t care if it was supposed to be “evidence.” It was her one and only physical link to her dead sister and no one was taking it away from her. She slipped it into her pocket.
“Come on,” Mac told her impatiently.
She sniffed something on the air.
Mac swore.
“What is that?” she asked.
“Gasoline.” His voice sounded funny. “Sonofabitch is gonna burn us out.”
She crouch-ran towards him. “That’s crazy. He’ll lose his whole house.”
“If we escape he’ll lose more than that. Assault and attempted murder of a civilian and a federal agent? A man his age. He’ll die in a prison cell.”
She followed on Mac’s heels, tempted to grab his shirt so he didn’t leave her behind.
“If he’s involved in the murders maybe the evidence is here and he’s trying to destroy it?” she suggested. “He doesn’t want the Feds combing the place and identifying his accomplices?”
Mac cursed again, then ran into the downstairs bedroom where he’d been snooping earlier.
“Jessop came back from his phone call with his revolver drawn,” she told him. “Someone must have told him that we weren’t mourning the loss of my family the way we should have been.”
Mac started ripping out the cords from the back of a PC tower. She went to the window. Thick snow lay beneath the eight foot drop to the ground. There were footprints at the base and the strong odor of noxious fumes. She opened the latch and forced the window up, getting blasted by a frigid wind and the pungent odor of gasoline.
If that vapor ignited they were all screwed and considering an open fire burned merrily in the other room it was only a matter of time before this place went up in flames. Her stomach turned over at the thought of burning alive.
“I’ll go first,” Mac told her. “You pass me the computer.”
“Hurry.”
Mac holstered his weapon and slid over the ledge and dropped to the ground. She wrestled the heavy metal box through the same gap and leaned down as far as she could so Mac could grab it.
A sound made her look over her shoulder a moment before something grabbed her leg.
She screamed and let go of the PC. Mac caught it. She dropped Mac’s pistol as she grabbed onto the sill. Jessop had her leg, but Mac reached up and caught her wrist. She felt like she was being torn in two, but with a fierce yank Mac pulled her through the window and she fell in a heap on top of him. He immediately rolled them over and over until they were out of sight.
A loud bang made her flinch and a patch of snow spurted upwards a few yards away from where they lay in the snow.
“You’ll torch the whole goddamned place, you maniac,” Mac shouted at Jessop. Then a whoosh of flame rushed over their bodies and ignited a weak trail through the snow.
Mac grabbed her by the hand and dragged her to her feet. A piercing scream came from inside and Tess stared in horror up at the open window. Why didn’t Jessop throw himself out the way they had? A second gunshot reverberated through the night and she gaped in horror, trying to figure out what just happened, but unable to make sense of it.
Flames swept hungrily over the dry timber and up the drapes, getting louder and fiercer as they consumed the old house.
Mac fought the heat to grab the computer. She spotted his Glock in the snow and scooped it up. He hooked a hand around her shoulders as they staggered away from the burning building. They reached the Jeep and he tossed the PC on the back seat. “Get in.”
“What about Jessop?”
“He’s dead.”
Tess stumbled in the snow. The stink of smoke and gasoline clung to her clothes. “How do you know?”
Lines cut down the sides of his mouth. “That’s what the second bullet was. Him taking the easy way out.”
She put her hand on her stomach to stem the queasiness. She crawled into the passenger seat and dragged on her seat belt. He got in and started the engine, shoving the transmission into drive. She handed him the weapon he’d lent her, glad she hadn’t had to use it.
Silently Mac placed the Glock back into his ankle holster.
Tess looked back at the flames which now engulfed the entire ground floor and were working their way up to the second floor. Henry Jessop had fed them dinner and tried to kill them within the space of an hour.
“Are you going to call nine-one-one?” she asked.
Mac shook his head. “The ranch hands will spot the flames any moment and use the well water to stop it spreading to any of the outbuildings. By the time the fire trucks arrive the house will be burnt to the ground. Until I know how Jessop found out I’m a Fed I’m not gonna trust any local cops.” He threw her a look. “I’m hoping that hard drive contains enough information to lead us straight to the killer in DC.”
She stared at the house in horror. “A man just died. You aren’t going to stop and report that?”
“I’ll file a report as soon as we get to Salt Lake City.” Mac lurched off the long driveway and onto the main road.
She glanced behind them again. Orange flames lit up the snow with a devil’s palette.
Horror swept over her as everything that had happened penetrated. “He was going to kill us.” She covered her mouth to hold back the sobs that wanted to escape.
“Yep. And bury us in the woods probably. No one would have ever known.” He glanced at her shocked expression and gave a full-body wince. “Sorry, Tess. It’s my fault you got hurt again. You didn’t want to go to Jessop’s. I should have respected your instincts.”
Reaction set in and her teeth chattered uncontrollably. If she’d died she’d never have had the chance to tell Cole the truth, the real truth, not the surreal fabricated versions constructed by the media. Her family’s past wasn’t pretty but her version was accurate and spoke of people, not monsters. She had to tell him everything. Before it was too late.
Strong warm fingers wrapped around her clenched hands and squeezed. “You all right?”
“No. It might be scenic, but Idaho doesn’t seem to agree with me.”
“We seem to have stepped on the hornets’ nest,” Mac agreed. “I think we pissed someone off—we need to figure out who that someone is.”
“These people have got to be stopped.” She could barely utter the words.
His fingers squeezed hers harder. “That’s why I go to work every day.”
Her hands turned and her fingers entwined with his. He was a brave man and she knew he took his job very seriously. Could she trust him to do the right thing by her brother? Or would he automatically assume the worst about Cole?
“My little brother’s name is Cole. Cole Fallon.” She closed her eyes, maybe trying to hide from her own betrayal. “He’s a student in DC.”
She could just see him between slitted lids.
Mac pressed his lips together. “I know. But thank you for telling me.”
Tess drew in a sharp breath at that. Were they investigating her brother because he’d done something specific, or was he also guilty by association?
Should she mention the file with the picture of the murdered judge inside? She was starting to think she’d imagined that thing. All she knew for sure was her brain was too exhausted to make an effective decision right now.
“He’s a nice kid. A good person,” she insisted.
“Then he shouldn’t have any problems, should he?” Mac said, carefully. Too carefully.
God.
He blasted the heat.
Her past was trying to engulf her present in its ugliness. No matter how fast she ran, she never seemed to quite escape its grasp. Maybe it was time to turn and make a stand.