Chapter Eleven
Cole lay in bed, JL nestled against him, both of them basking in the warm afterglow of some extremely erotic and outstanding sex. After their interlude at the B&B, she had thrown herself back into her work, determined to block out everything to do with people after her formula and speed up the results. When Cole wasn’t with her, one of the men living in Clayton stuck to her like glue, but Cole always took her home.
The past two nights it had been to his house, a habit she was finding it hard to break. Tonight, he’d brought sandwiches to the lab when she wouldn’t leave to eat. Then he’d coaxed her out of there, at last insisting she take a break, and once again had taken her mind off the situation in the way he did best.
The ringing of the phone created an unwelcome intrusion, startling them out of the period just before sleep.
“I may have to kill whoever this is,” Cole grumbled.
“I might be right there with you,” she sighed.
He groaned as he eased his arm out from beneath JL and reached for the cell phone on his nightstand.
“This better be good, Blake,” he told the person on the other end. As he listened to one of the two agents they had staying in Clayton, every muscle in his body tightened, and anger raced through him. “Okay, don’t let anyone into the parking lot. I’m on my way.”
He pressed Off and turned back to JL. “Bad news, darlin’. I have to go into town.”
“One of your guys in Clayton, right?” She turned to watch him as he pushed himself to a sitting position.
“Yeah. A bit of unpleasantness at the lab.”
“Unpleasantness? What kind? Don’t try to hide it from me, Cole.”
He sighed. “Someone tried to break in, but—”
“Break in? Did they get anything?” She sat up, throwing back the covers. “I’m coming with.”
“JL . . .” he began.
“It’s my lab. I’m not staying out of this.”
“Okay, okay. Let’s hustle.”
During the tense ride into town, neither of them said a word. Cole did his best to tamp down his rage that someone had been close to attacking the lab. JL sat rigidly beside him, hands clasped tightly in her lap. He knew her fear was for her formula, not for herself. As important as it was, formula be damned—his first priority her safety.
It was easy to spot the lab as they raced down Main Street, the whole area lit up like Times Square at midnight. JL leaped out of the vehicle almost before he could bring it to a stop.
“Did they get anything?” she demanded of Noel Harris, who stood in front of the entrance to the lab.
He had his cell phone to his ear, but he disconnected to answer JL.
“No, Dr. Mitchell. Those special sensors the security company installed in the ground set off the alarms like they were supposed to.” He looked at Cole. “Kevin’s inside with the guard, checking video footage. It seems our intruders knew how to spot the cameras and did their best to avoid them. But—”
“They didn’t know about the ones we set up at night that no one can see,” Cole finished for him.
Noel nodded. “You got it. That’s some slick system. Oh, and that was Mr. Romeo on the phone. He’ll be here shortly. Ed’s flying him.”
JL turned to Cole. “Dan’s coming here? How did he even know?”
Cole gave her a tiny grin. “We’re hooked into the Dragon, remember? Andy got the signal at the same time. His orders were to contact Dan if anything happened, since he’s the one working with the security company.”
“Speaking of which,” Noel said, “are they sending someone, too?”
Cole shook his head. “They’ll only show up if we ping them. Our arrangement is we test their equipment but use our own manpower. Okay, let’s go inside and see what’s what. Then I want to do a walkthrough out here. Noel, don’t leave this parking area.”
The other man nodded.
Cole reached for JL’s hand and tugged her along with him, her hand trembling in his.
“We’ve got it taken care of,” he assured her. “Everything worked. Your stuff is safe. And if we have to make additional adjustments, we will.”
“At least no one got hurt.” She blew out a breath. “I’m grateful for that.”
Cole keyed in the code for the door, pulled it open, and he and JL hurried inside. Craig Levinson, the guard on duty tonight, sat at his desk in what they laughingly called the reception area, his eyes glued to his monitor. Van was behind him, leaning over him, one hand pressed to the desk. Both men looked up when the door opened.
“Hey, boss.” Van straightened. “You’d better come see this.”
Cole and JL both crowded in behind the guard’s desk. Craig punched some keys on his keyboard. Whatever they’d been watching rewound and began to replay. At first, Cole could see only blackness, the building barely distinguishable from its surroundings. Then, as his eyes adjusted, he saw the definition of the building, the parking area, and the small copse of trees behind it all.
“Is that a man I see?” JL asked, pointing to an image moving on the screen.
“Sure is,” Van told her. “Now, watch what happens.”
Suddenly, the spotlights came on, flooding the area with their white light, and a terrible screeching noise blared from the speakers. Trapped in the vortex of it were two men, both dressed in black, greasepaint on their faces. For a moment they both froze and stared at each other, shock evident in the lines of their bodies.
“You can see them haul ass,” Craig noted.
“Yeah.” Van gave a humorless laugh. “They ran like their dicks were on fire. Uh, begging your pardon, Dr. Mitchell.”
“It’s okay.” She managed a tiny smile for him. “I know what dicks are.”
“What’s that?” Cole pointed to the screen where they could barely see the edge of the alley that ran behind the stores.
“That,” Van answered, “is something else that makes me want to kiss this whole system. The cameras are so sharp, so precise. They caught movement over there. That, folks, is contestant number three.”
They all leaned forward and peered.
“Can you enlarge the frame?” Cole asked. “Make it sharper?” This whole situation rubbed his nerves raw. And JL was squarely in the middle of the target.
Craig nodded. “With this system, I can do damn near anything.” His fingers danced over the keys, the narrow portion of the video enlarged, and the figure became clearer.
“Another man all right,” Van agreed. “Doing his best to blend into that alley. Okay, there he goes, heading for the side street over there.”
“Do you recognize any of them?” JL asked Cole.
He shook his head. “No, but I can’t be sure. I’d need clearer pictures.”
“I think that’s the best I can get from this machine,” Craig told him.
“No problem. We’ll just—“
At that moment they heard the familiar whop! whop! of the chopper, and the radio on Van’s belt crackled to life. Blake’s distorted voice came over the air.
“Will you tell Mr. Martin that Dan and Ed Romeo are here?”
Cole unhooked the radio, pressed Talk, and said, “Got it. Send them on in.”
Before he could do more than hand the radio back to the agent, the interior door opened, and two men strode through it. Cole had seldom been happier to see two people in his life. Dan Romeo had a grim expression on his face, and Ed Romeo, Dan’s brother, who had flown him down here, had an equally severe one.
“Fucking assholes,” Dan said in a hard voice. “They don’t know who they’re messing with.” He frowned at Cole. “What’s the sitrep?”
Cole filled him in on the details, with Kevin adding where necessary and Craig filling in from his angle. Dan nudged Craig out of his seat, and his fingers danced over the keyboard as he replayed the video yet another time, enlarging the one area and studying it as the others had done.
“I’m going to send this to Andy,” he told the others. “He can isolate the three men, even the one in the shadows, and give us back clearer pictures.” He took out his cell phone and hit a speed dial.
“Does that poor man ever get to sleep?” JL asked.
Ed laughed. “I think he sleeps with his eyes open and his brain in full throttle. Anyway, he was so excited this system worked and he might have something to play with he told Dan he’d be waiting to hear what we needed him to do.”
“All I can say,” Cole put in, “is the agency is damn lucky to have him.”
His radio squawked again. “Deputies are here,” Van told him. “They want in.”
Cole and Dan exchanged looks. It didn’t pay to piss off local law. You never knew when you might need them.
“We’ll be out to talk to him in a second,” Dan told him.
“He wants to check out the lab.”
Dan snorted. “I’ll bet.”
“And he wants to talk to JL.”
Dan looked at Cole. “He won’t leave until he talks to her,” he pointed out. We might as well get it over with.”
“Okay. Tell him we’ll send her out for a few minutes. In fact, we’ll all come out, and maybe that will satisfy them.”
They left Van inside just in case. The three of them managed to get the deputies settled down and promised someone would meet with Sheriff Davis the next day. No one wanted strange operatives or agents coming into their territory and taking charge of a hot crime scene. Cole’s promise to meet with Davis the next day was the only thing that sent them on their way.
“We need to have a powwow here,” Dan told them when they were all back inside. “Kevin, you’re out in the parking lot with Noel. I want you guys to comb every square inch of the area plus the alley running into it. You never know if someone dropped something or left something behind.”
“We’ll go over it with a fine tooth comb,” Van promised.
“How about some coffee?” JL asked.
“I think we can definitely use some,” Cole agreed.
When everyone had filled a Styrofoam cup from the single-serving coffeemaker, Dan leaned against one of the tables and eyed each person. “Okay. Let’s analyze this.”
“I don’t like what’s happening here.” Cole did his best to control his anger. “Not one damn bit. I’m afraid for JL’s safety and for her work. But her safety first, definitely.” He shifted his gaze to her. “I’m not sure it’s safe for you here anymore.”
JL had anxiety written all over her face. “I can’t stop my work, Cole. I’m really getting close.”
“Then how about if we move the lab. I mean the whole damn thing. Maybe over to my place, in the parcel where we set up Lone Star Phoenix.”
Her jaw dropped. “You mean yank everything out of here and set it all up again? Do you have any idea what that would entail? Not to mention the possibility some of the experiments in process could be damaged in the move.” She shook her head vehemently. “No. Absolutely not.”
He set down his coffee and reached for her hands, taking both of them in his. “Darlin’, no formula is worth putting your life at risk for. No matter what.”
“I can’t stop,” she insisted. “And I can’t move.” She turned to Dan. “This is your business, right? Security and protection? Can’t you beef things up, or whatever you call it, so I’m more secure?”
Dan nodded. “I think we can make some adjustments. Let’s discuss how that can happen. Cole, you need to talk to the town about putting in those outside lights we asked about before. You told them we’d carry all the expense, right?”
“I did, but I’ll hit them again. I’ll call first thing in the morning. They gave me a song and dance about ‘a negative impact on the ambience of the town’ when I asked about it before.”
Dan made a rude noise. “There’ll be a far more negative impact if someone gets killed in their quaint little town. No offense, Cole.”
“None taken.” He rubbed his jaw. “I might also mention the ‘negative impact’ a major crime in this little town would have on businesses and tourists. Plus I want more guards here. Two inside and one outside.”
“Surely you don’t think they’d be stupid enough to try something again in broad daylight,” JL wanted to know.
“I didn’t think they’d be stupid enough to try what they did tonight.”
“I’m putting a man on each of the principals, too,” Dan added. “More, if need be.”
“That’s getting very expensive,” JL protested. “I’d have to talk to Grant about it. I know our budget is really tight.”
Dan gave her a warm smile. “JL. You’re part of the family now. We take care of our own. This is all on Phoenix.”
“But—”
“But nothing.” Ignoring the others in the room, Cole pulled her into his arms. “How much good do you think I’d be to anyone if something happened to you? Dan’s right. This is part of our commitment, so don’t argue with me.”
“I don’t know . . .”
He could see a million questions in her eyes and was sure she was about to make another protest. “But I do.” He touched the tip of one finger to her lips. “If you want to continue your work, then this is how it will be. Now. Let’s get on to what else we have to do.”
By the time they’d finished laying out their new agenda, Andy was already enhancing the video on his incredible machine. Then he’d run it through facial-recognition software. The number of guards would be increased, and Cole would hit up the sheriff and the county early in the morning about the lights. Dan would get the order for them called in first thing so they could move as soon as they had the permits in hand. Even with all the secure measures in place, the code for the door would be changed every twenty-four hours. And at no time would JL be alone—Cole insisted on that. If, for whatever reason, he couldn’t be with her, a Phoenix security guard would be glued to her side.
And Dan and Troy would handle selecting the agents to observe their three main suspects and anyone interacting with them who might be a problem.
Cole sent JL back to his ranch in the helo with Ed, keeping her out of reach of any interested parties. He drove back, bringing Dan with him so they could work out any more details. By the time everyone settled in for the night, it was more like three in the morning. Cole stripped off his own clothes, then JL’s, and tugged her into bed with him.
“Sleep, darlin’,” he coaxed. “We’re going to need it.”
“You’re lucky you didn’t get your ass in a sling,” Damon Horner snapped. He glowered at Leo Guerra sitting across from him. “You told me all those fancy gizmos would pinpoint the danger spots around the building.”
“I’m telling you, boss.” He rubbed his jaw. “I’ve never even seen or heard of the sophisticated stuff in there. You can’t prepare for what you don’t know.”
“You should be fucking glad they didn’t catch you on their cameras.” He glared across the desk. “They didn’t, right?”
“No. I checked out all the locations again and made sure to stay out of their view.”
“So which asshole set off the alarm?”
Guerra shrugged. “Sorry. I didn’t stay around long enough to find out. I barely slithered down that alley before two Phoenix agents roared into the parking area.”
Horner wanted to bite nails. “If I could find a way to do it quietly, I’d eliminate Cass Grigsby and those brothers from Argentina in a heartbeat.”
“Boss, I don’t think you ought to go around killing people.”
Horner’s mouth curved in an evil smile. “I don’t have to kill them to get rid of them. I can cripple them economically. Then they won’t have the resources to fight me on this.”
“You’re getting a little thin on those resources yourself,” Guerra pointed out.
“There’s still plenty to dip from the barrel, but I need to figure out how to use it.”
“So what now? I can’t try another break-in.”
“That’s right.” He picked up one of his cigars and rolled it between his large fingers. He knew the habit drove people crazy but it always helped him think. “I have some other ideas.” He closed his eyes for a moment for a moment. “You still in touch with your friend Ed?” he asked, when he opened them again.
Guerra’s eyes widened. “Damon, I don’t think—”
“Yeah. Don’t think.”
Guerra nodded.
“Good. Call him. Bring him to my house tonight. I don’t want anyone seeing him around the office. Eight o’clock. Don’t be late.”
As soon as Guerra left the office, Horner took out his cell, scrolled through his contacts, and found the number he wanted. This would take some planning, but desperate times called for desperate measures. Just this morning, he’d received a couple of phone calls with disastrous news. If this didn’t work, he wouldn’t be able to find a hole big enough to hide in.
“Please tell me you didn’t do this yourself.” Cass Grigsby stared across her desk at Gene Dempsey.
The man shifted uncomfortably in his chair. “We agreed it wouldn’t be smart to show my face there again, even at night. And certainly not for something like this. Besides, I needed someone who knew what he was doing.”
“Which clearly this asshole did not.” She drummed her highly polished nails on the surface of her desk.
“You knew who I tapped, and you had no objections.”
“I thought he was a lot smarter than it turns out he is. Dumbass. This is a disaster of incredible proportions.” She shook her head. “Tell me he didn’t get caught by the cameras.”
“He’s confident he detected their locations and avoided them.”
“Good. All we need is for these people to have his face and somehow trace him back to us.”
“No one knows of this connection,” Dempsey protested. “Anyway, I gave him money and told him to disappear for a while.”
“What kind of fucking sensors surround that place that the usual equipment can’t pick up?”
Dempsey shrugged. “They’re not like any I’ve ever heard of. But from what I’ve learned about the Phoenix Agency, they have stuff no one else in the world uses.”
Cass made a rude sound. “I doubt that. Someone else has them, you can be sure. No matter. These people are turning out to be a royal pain in the ass.” She rested her elbows on her desk and leaned forward. “I need that formula, do you hear me? Without it, this company is on shaky ground.”
“You’ve had hard times before,” Gene reminded her. “We’ve always weathered it and come out stronger.”
“This is different,” she insisted. “If Damon Horner or those idiots from South America get that formula, they can run us out of business.”
Gene frowned. “Don’t you think you’re being a little dramatic here?”
“I don’t think I’m being dramatic enough. I have to think.” She tapped her fingernails again.
Gene sat quietly, waiting for her to speak again.
“Well?” he said at last. “What do you want me to do?”
“Nothing for the moment. We have to wait to see if anything can be traced back to us. Then I have some things to put in place.”
“What kind of things? What are you planning, Cass?”
The smile she gave him had little humor in it. “Perhaps it’s better if you don’t know. Go home, Gene. Take tomorrow off. And be sure your little friend stays well out of sight.”
“Tell me you didn’t do something so stupid,” Thiago raged at his brother. “Tell me you didn’t hire someone to break into that lab.”
“Shut up, idiot.” Thiago could hear the fury in Tomas’s voice. “If you had done your job properly, none of this would have been necessary. Let me think.”
“So you did send someone. And now we are in a fucking mess.”
“Do not take that tone of voice with me,” Tomas warned. “I should have taken the time to go up there myself. I would have gotten her to agree to our terms, and none of this would have happened.”
“Exactly how would you have done that?” Thiago demanded. “She is very firm on keeping this out of commercial hands.”
“I know how to coax people to my terms. Mierda.” He was silent for a long moment.
Thiago swallowed hard. “What—what are you planning to do, Tomas?”
“Nothing you need to concern yourself with. What you do need to do is check out of your hotel and get the fuck out of there. Go someplace else. Disappear before one of these Phoenix people comes knocking at your door.”
“Mine? Why would they do that?”
“Because, idiota, you were one of the three people the perra had lunch with and turned down. Don’t you think you’ll be high on the list of suspects?”
“But—”
“But nothing. Come home. Now.”
In seconds, he’d disconnected. Cursing under his breath, Thiago tapped the icon on his phone and began looking for area hotels. He had a sick feeling something bad was about to happen.
Cole leaned back in his desk chair and rested one booted foot on the handle of a desk drawer. He was in the middle of a Skype meeting with his partners, discussing the aftermath of the attempted break-in at the lab. They’d made slow progress during the past five days.
“What have we got?” he asked. “I know Andy was able to enhance that video and run the images through facial-recognition software. And pinpoint them. So, any more luck in tracking them yet?”
“You know we identified Leo Guerra right away,” Dan reminded him. “We’ve had a man on him ever since then. He can’t take a leak without us finding out about it.”
“What about Horner?”
“On him, too. If he sneezes, we can hand him a handkerchief. But he’s been very circumspect. Almost too much.”
“Have we got a tap on his phones? His computer?”
Dan’s laugh held only a touch of humor. “You know the old saying. If I told you, I’d have to kill you.”
“Good enough. And the others?”
“The same. But these people are smart, Cole. They know we’ll be all over them like green on grass.”
“Andy’s pulling as much as he can electronically,” Rick broke in. “I’ve been camped out with him at the office. Shit, that place is so dark you need a flashlight to find things in there.”
“And?” Cole prompted.
“If any of these people are making arrangements to try anything else, they’re either using burner phones or smoke signals.”
“Shit. Goddamn it to hell.”
“But they can’t move physically without our eyes on them,” Dan reminded him. “And I don’t plan to change things any time soon.”
“We’re still trying to get a handle on one of the men at the attempted break-in,” Mark told him, “but we did identify a second one: Rod Vetter, the asshole who showed up in Clayton for no good reason a little bit ago.
“Andy’s running deep searches for any link between him and either Cassandra Grigsby or the Cervantes brothers,” Troy added. “It has to be one of them, since Horner sent his right-hand man to do the deed.”
“You can be damn sure they won’t try to hit the lab again,” Mark said.
“Maybe, maybe not.” Cole shifted in his chair. “They may think we’ll let our guard down.”
“Not them,” Dan argued. “If they come at us again, it will be from an entirely different angle. All right, everyone. Let’s be sharp on this. Cole, do you need more manpower?”
“I think we’re good for the moment. I don’t plan to let JL out of my sight.”
“Okay. We’re still all over this. We’ll feed you info as we get it, and keep up with daily reports on the three amigos.”
“I’m not sure I know how to thank you,” Cole began.
In the screen, he saw Dan hold up his hand. “Got everything covered. This is family. Go take care of your lady.”
When everyone had signed off, Cole sat there a little longer in silence. How lucky he’d been the day he met Dan Romeo. When people said everything happens for a reason, they sure knew what they were talking about.
He shut down Skype and turned out the light in the den. JL waited for him upstairs, and he couldn’t wait to get to her.
“It’s been a week, Cole.” JL pushed a stray hair behind her ear and blew out a breath of exasperation. “Don’t you think if anything was going to happen, it would have already?”
He hitched a hip onto a corner of her desk and pushed his Stetson back on his head. “We still haven’t been able to connect Rod Vetter to whoever employed him, and that makes me very nervous. It means he’s able to bury things almost deeper than we can dig. It also means whoever hired him is bound to be cooking up more trouble. Bigger trouble.”
“You could say the same for all of them,” she pointed out. “Maybe knowing Phoenix is on the job has scared them all away.”
“Not likely,” Cole growled. “Not these devils.”
JL was right in the middle of a procedure she told him would take at least a couple more hours. He was considering getting some takeout for them when his cell phone rang. He frowned at the unfamiliar number on the readout.
“Cole Martin,” he said.
“Cole, it’s Tom Schrader. Got a minute?”
Cole and Tom had grown up together, played football together in high school, and marginally kept in touch since Cole returned from the marines.
“Sure. What can I do for you?”
“I hate to impose on a friendship, but I’ve got a little problem here. I understand you’re with some new, hotshot super agency now, and the cops don’t seem to be able to help me.”
Cole frowned. What could Tom possibly need that Phoenix could help him with?
“Tell me what the problem is, and I’ll see if it’s something we can tackle.”
He could hear Tom’s sigh across the connection. “Rustlers. And not the old-fashioned kind, either.”
“Listen,” Cole began, “I’m not sure—”
“I’m talking about more than cutting fences and herding the cattle into trucks,” Tom interrupted. “I’ve got a prize bull worth a fortune they’ve tried for twice and some other shit happening. These people can bypass security, electronics—whatever I set up. If you could just take a look and maybe give me some advice . . .”
“This really isn’t a good time,” he said, trying to figure out whether he could ask someone else to go in his place.
“I’m sorry, and I wouldn’t ask if this wasn’t about to be a crisis. I know we don’t see each other that much anymore, but I hear really good things about your new gig. I called your ranch, and your foreman gave me your cell number.”
He really wanted to help Tom, but leaving JL wasn’t a viable option as far as he was concerned.
As if she read his thoughts, she glanced up from the lab table where she was working and smiled. “Whatever it is, go.” She made a shooing movement with her hand. “I’m safer than the president the way you’ve got things set up.”
“But—”
She stepped up to him and touched a finger to his lips. “I’m telling you, go.”
Cole rubbed his forehead. “Tom? You at the ranch?”
“I am.”
“Okay. I’ll get there as soon as I can. I’m in Clayton right now.”
“Thanks, Cole.” He could hear the relief in the man’s voice. “I really appreciate this. I know you guys probably charge a fortune, but if you can help me, it’s worth every penny.”
“Let’s not talk money until I evaluate the problem. See you in a bit.” He disconnected the call and turned to JL.
“Whoever called you must be important. Otherwise, you would have put them off.”
He nodded. “Not a close friend but a good one. An old one.”
“Then you have to go.”
“He’s less than an hour away.” He took her hands and tugged her toward him, ignoring Miles who, for his part, was doing his best to ignore them. “I don’t feel good about leaving you.”
“Nothing will happen,” she assured him. “I’ll shut down for the night when the guard for the next shift arrives, and Van, my daytime babysitter, can drive me to my dad’s. That way, I won’t be alone. You can pick me up there when you’re finished.”
“Let me get you some food before I leave. The Feed Me is still open. At least I’ll know you’ve eaten.”
“Whatever.” She grinned. “Half the time I forget about meals anyway.”
“Don’t I know it. Okay. Before you leave, give Kevin a call. I want him and Noel to tail you to Jed’s.”
“Really, Cole?” she threw up her hands. “We’ll be fine.”
“Humor me, okay?” He lowered his head and pressed a hard kiss to her mouth. “You are the most precious thing in my life. Nothing is more important to me. Got it?”
She smiled. “Got it.”
“I’d feel a lot better if we had those SUVs back from Texas Armoring. Those things are better than a tank with all the protection they build in.”
“We’ll be fine,” she repeated. “Now, go and take care of your friend. And don’t worry about the food. I’ll send Miles for some sandwiches. Go on. The sooner you leave, the sooner you can get back.”
The minute he climbed into his truck, he called Dan to let him know the situation in town. . As he drove down Main Street, heading for the highway, the annoying itch at the back of his neck made his nerves jump and sizzle. He had a bad feeling about this. Real bad.
“I’m all set,” JL told Van, locking down her computer. Knowing Cole would be unhappy if she worked late tonight, she’d sent Miles home a half hour ago and begun closing down her own work for the day.
“I’ll notify Blake,” the security agent told her. “I’ll have him call me from the parking lot when they get here so we can move right out into our own vehicle.”
“We’ll be fine,” she assured him.
But underneath her forced cheer, she wasn’t so sure. She’d had a bad feeling ever since the lunches and then the attempted break-in. Every time she closed her eyes, she could picture each of the three principals surrounded by a black field of electric energy. She was so close to perfecting her formula, to generating enough seeds to plant a small test crop. If she could get that done and Grant could kickstart the production program, they’d be past all this. The formula would be beyond anyone’s reach.
Taking her cell from her pocket, she texted her father they’d be leaving in a few minutes and she expected to be there in about half an hour. Grabbing her purse from the desk drawer where she kept it during the day, she dropped in the cell and the micro external hard drive she used to back everything up each night. Just in case. She had barely finished checking the lab one last time when the guard stuck his head in from the little front room.
“The guys are here,” he told her.
“I’m all set.”
Blake waved to her from one SUV as she climbed into the other one with Van. He checked the rearview mirror, waved to the men in back of them, and the two-car procession moved out of the parking area.
The late evening sun painted the sky with brilliant colors, creating a pastoral landscape as they drove through town and turned onto the two-lane highway leading to her father’s ranch. JL leaned back in the seat and closed her eyes, willing herself to relax. She had actually almost dozed off when she heard Van swear. She barely had her eyes open in time to see the huge garbage truck appear from a hidden driveway and slam into their SUV. The screech of metal filled the air as the front of the vehicle crumpled. Then they were flung backward as the truck pushed them into the tail car.
“Get down on the floor,” Van ordered, pulling his gun.
But in the next moment, she heard the shattering sound of breaking glass, and shards of it fell on her hunched body.
“What the fuck?” Van yelled.
She risked a look, and her heart nearly stopped at the sight of a man in a ski mask reaching through Van’s window. Before she could react, a hand reached through hers and something sharp pierced her neck. Everything faded to black.
Chuck Froehlich, the night guard at the lab, leaned back in his chair with his feet up on his desk, one eye on his monitors, the other on a magazine he flipped through. He didn’t necessarily like the late shift, but the money was too good to pass up. And on his off days, he was working with Troy Arsenault, training to learn the skills a high-level Phoenix security specialist needed to know. He liked Phoenix and admired who and what they were. When he’d interviewed for the job, Dan Romeo himself had told him there could be great things in his future with them.
The hardest thing on this shift was keeping his mind occupied while not allowing himself to be distracted from the monitors. He broke up the boredom once an hour with exercises followed by a tour of the lab itself. He didn’t expect anything to be out of sync, not with the way they’d beefed up the already tight electronic security after the break-in attempt. But it kept him alert.
He had pushed out of his chair to begin his routine when everything in the building went dark.
“What the fuck?”
How the hell was this even possible? Phoenix had prepared for the eventuality of an electrical outage by installing a small but very powerful generator that was supposed to kick in immediately. He fished a flashlight from his desk drawer and had his thumb on the button when the door flew open and three men wearing ski masks and carrying rifles burst inside. Chuck had his hand on his gun, but before he could use it, one of the men hit him hard on the side of his head, and he crumpled to the floor.
Cole let his mind wander on the drive from Tom’s ranch. He really did have a problem with protecting his prize bull worth two fortunes in stud fees. He’d had several attempts at thefts and the security wasn’t as good as it could be, so Cole promised to have someone from Phoenix come out the next day to evaluate the situation and put together a proposal. He knew Tom was in a financial pinch and he’d known the man since they were in high school.
In the meantime, he rang Jace Whitney and asked him to get himself and one of the other guys they’d been working with over to the Schrader Ranch to keep an eye on things. He could do that much for Tom until he got this sorted out.
The meeting had taken longer than he expected. He was more than halfway back to the Mitchell ranch and he was about to get hold of JL when his phone rang.
“Hello?” He listened to Jed Mitchell’s words, his blood freezing and every muscle in his body clenching. “I’m on my way.”
He called Dan to alert him that something was up. Then he broke every speed record getting to the spot Jed had told him about, alternately praying and cursing. Even at that it took him fifteen long minutes to get there. Cole easily spotted where the abduction had taken place. Sheriff’s patrol cars blocked the road, lights flashing, keeping drivers away from the mangled mess of the two SUVs. A deputy was directing whatever traffic came along onto the shoulder and hustling them on their way. As Cole pulled onto the shoulder behind the tangled mess of vehicles, his cell rang again.
He disconnected and pressed speed dial for Dan Romeo’s cell phone. E had to draw a deep breath to calm himself enough to talk.
“Got a big problem here. I’ll need help to handle it.”
The man was instantly alert. “Okay, give me the essentials.”
Cole knew Dan would be punching everything into his iPad while he listened, getting ready to send it to Andy.
“All the agency resources are at your disposal,” Dan assured him. “Where are you now?”
“At the spot on the highway where the patrol found her car.”
“Call you back in a few.”
Barely five minutes had passed when his phone rang again.
“You won’t like this.” Dan’s voice was crisp and hard. “The lab’s been breached. I just got the call.”
“What?” Cole almost shouted the word. “When? How? Fuck. I knew we should have moved her someplace else. Fucking son of a bitch. How the hell did that happen?”
When Dan gave him the details, ice gripped his spine.
“You won’t like this. All signs point to someone having had a small machine that can emit an electromagnetic pulse. They knocked out all the electronics and all the power. Not even the generator could kick in.”
“Shit.” There was a lot of money at work here, and a lot of greed. Whoever was behind this had manpower, financial resources, and the willingness to go to any lengths. He could only pray that the agency, his own skills, and the special abilities of the wives could find JL before it was too late. As soon as he had her back where she belonged, he’d find out who and fucking destroy them. “How’s Chuck?”
“Got a knot on the side of his head as big as my fist and a headache that won’t quit, but he’s alive. And pissed off.”
“I’ll bet.”
“I told him to call the sheriff and get some law out there right away.”
“So what did they get?” Then it struck him, and a sick feeling rolled through Cole. “JL’s stand-alone computer.”
“Got it in one. Troy and Mike were both here in San Antonio with me. We’re heading out as soon as we get to the helicopter. I waited to hear from them before I contacted you.”
Cole pounded his fist on the hood of his truck. “Fucking shit. Damn, damn, damn. This whole thing was very carefully planned.”
“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Dan agreed. “I have to ask you something. This friend who called you. Do you think he could be part of this? That he deliberately got you away from JL so they’d have better access? You know you’re ten times better than any of the guards.”
Cole bit down on his fury. “I damn sure hope not. I’d hate to think he was part of something like this. Still—”
“I’ve got Andy looking into everything, including what he eats for breakfast. Just in case. It seems too damn coincidental for my taste.”
“If he suckered me into coming out to see him—”
“Let’s wait and see what we find out.” Dan’s voice was calm and level. “We’ve got enough trouble without borrowing any. All right. Ed’s getting ready to fly me out to you in the smaller chopper. Give me the coordinates. Once I get there, we’ll put a plan together. Meantime, get every damn piece of information you can from the security agents. We’ll feed it all to Andy and see if the Dragonslayer comes up with something.”
“You can bet on it.”
“Okay.” Dan’s voice was sharp in his ear. “I’m on my way.”
Five minutes later, the phone rang again.
“One last thing,” Dan said. “Mia’s getting the Psi Department together. She’s already working her clever brain, and Mike roused Kat. She’s on her way over to Mia’s. She told us what kind of pictures and info she needs for a remote viewing session, and we’ve got Andy working on it. The women will be on standby. This is going to take more than the usual methods. But we’ll get her back, Cole. Count on it.”
“I hope like hell whoever has JL didn’t take her out of the state. That means a more complex search.” Cole swallowed back his fear. “But Kat can do it, no matter where, right?”
“Yes. Wherever they’ve taken her. I think either Horner or Grigsby would want her close to them. If it’s Cervantes, she could be on her way to Argentina.”
Cole didn’t even want to think of that possibility. Not yet.
“Once Kat gives us a hint of the area,” Dan went on, “Andy will put the Dragon to work, getting more specific information. But when we get it pinned down, you’ll need help getting her back.”
“Get me the information,” Cole snapped. “The guys we hired for Lone Star Phoenix? I’ll give them a heads-up. They’ll get a good baptism by fire with this.”
“And Rick has some folks he can reach out to, also. Men we wanted to put you in contact with to sign on as agents if it turns out you need them.”
When Cole hung up, he had to take a minute to collect himself. Dan had always had his back in the marines, but this kind of friendship was new to him. He would never be able to tell them all how grateful he was that they all mobilized in an instant to help him.
But an hour later, he was ready to bite nails. Four armed guards, rousted from their beds, were stationed at the lab, although no one seriously thought the place was in danger any longer. A case of locking the barn door too late, Dan kept saying.
“I only wish we had some clue as to who’s behind this.” Any and all of the three groups of people overly aggressive in their attempts to recruit JL away from her current situation had the resources to pull off whatever this was. “I could kick myself for not being prepared for this,” he told the others sitting around Jed Mitchell’s dining room table.
“We thought our equipment was good enough to insulate us from the effects of an EMP,” Mike D’Antoni pointed out.
Cole had to agree. Phoenix prided itself on its state of the art equipment.
“Someone’s always building a better mousetrap, thought,” he growled. “That ought to at least give us a clue as to who engineered this.” He bit the words off, each one edged with a combination of impatience and fear. “Is Andy on it?”
“He’s all over it,” Mike assured him.
“But that still doesn’t tell us where she is,” Cole pointed out, doing his best to tamp down his fear.
“Kat’s working on that,” Mike reminded him. “Faith went over to our place to keep them supplied in herbal tea. Kelly’s pissed off she’s stuck in Virginia with a dog about to give birth.”
Dan’s phone rang. He answered even before the ring had completed.
“What have you got?” he barked. “Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Okay. Good. Call me back.” He studied the others before his gaze settled on Cole. “That was Kat. She’s done three sessions already and narrowed where she thinks JL’s been taken to a hundred-mile radius. The bad news is, we still have to pinpoint it further. But the good news is the location is right here in Texas. Not out of the country. Not even in another state.”
Cole shoved his chair back, rose, and began to pace. “Okay, a hundred-mile radius. Did she say where the hundred miles is? Texas is a damn big state.”
“I’m well aware of that.” His voice was so calm Cole had an insane desire to punch him. But that wouldn’t do any good, and someone had to be cool and composed here. “They’re working on it. So is Andy.”
The tension in the air was cut by the familiar whapping sound of chopper blades. Cole strode to the back door and opened it in time to see the big Phoenix Blackhawk setting down in Jed Mitchell’s field closest to the house. The cabin door slid open, and Troy Arsenault jumped to the ground, running toward the house even as Mike D’Antoni finished shutting down the big bird.
“Summer’s on standby,” he told Cole when he reached the house. “We all hope JL isn’t hurt in any way. But just in case, we can get her here to take care of it.”
The two men shook hands.
“You have no idea what this all means to me.” Cole’s throat was so tight he could barely get the words out.
Troy clapped him on the shoulder. “We always take care of our own.”
Mike jogged up to where they were. “Lab’s secure.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “Damn, Cole, I am so sorry. We thought we were prepared for this.”
“This tells us for sure whoever is behind this has a big treasury to dip into.”
“That makes me think it’s Damon Horner.” Cole spit the name out as if the words had a bad taste. “I don’t think the others have pockets that deep.”
“Andy’s all over it,” Mike told him again.
“No one in the world has secrets from Andy,” Troy assured him. “If there’s no program to find something, he’ll write one. Before breakfast at that.”
“I damn sure hope so.” Cole was have trouble pulling in his frayed edges.
They were barely inside before Dan’s phone rang again. Everyone went completely still, waiting to see if this was bad news or good.
“Uh-huh.” Dan nodded. “Good work. Tell everyone. And have Andy send me that stuff ASAP.”
“Do we know something?” Cole was almost afraid to ask the question, let alone hear the answer.
“We do. Kat’s remote viewing worked, and along with Mia’s visions we’ve pinpointed the location.” He gave Cole a small grin. “Mia’s visions can be pretty unpredictable sometimes, although she’s been working with Vivi to harness that. But remember the shawl JL borrowed when you guys had dinner at our place?”
Cole nodded. “What about it?”
“It’s been sitting there since then. Which means it still has JL’s essence on it. Which also means Mia used her enhanced abilities to get a reading from it. The images she got combined with what Kat was able to ‘see’ gave them a location. Andy did the rest.”
“So where is it?” If they didn’t tell him soon he’d lose his cool.
Dan flipped his iPad so everyone could see it. Six images appeared.
“Is that a cabin?” Jed asked, peering at the screen.
“It is,” Dan told him. “Deep in the woods, about a hundred miles from here. Kat’s helped us pinpoint it.”
“Who the fuck has a cabin hidden away like that?” Mike asked. “And why?”
“Questions still to be answered,” Dan told them. “But here’s the map to get to it.” He tapped the screen, and a topographical image came into view, plus another section of a road map.
“We can’t take vehicles in there,” Cole pointed out. “That road is almost invisible, plus they’d hear us coming.”
Troy looked at him. “What do you suggest?”
“Horses. We can trailer them in to here.” He pointed to a spot on the image. “We’ll be far enough away they won’t see or hear us. Then we can go on horseback through the trees.”
“Which means we need people who can ride,” Dan commented.
“No problem.” Cole pulled out his cell, excitement coursing through him at the thought that they knew where JL was, and that in minutes he’d be on his way to rescue her. “Let me call Jace Whitney and a couple of other guys, and we’ll get on our way.”
“Take one of my horses,” Jed offered. “No need to go all the way back to your place. Got a trailer, too.”
“We’ve got radios and other equipment in the helo I came in,” Mike told him. “Everything you’ll need when you get there. We’ll get to work on identifying who did this.”
Dan gripped his arm. “You’ll find her, and she’ll be safe. Now, get going and bring her home.”