Chapter Eight
His micro nap had helped revive him—or maybe it was the soul-rousing kiss with Mia, or the sudden shock of cold water pouring over his head. Regardless, his natural energy was back as they slithered and slid downhill through the muddy forest.
He held the front of the travois and Mia and Neville shared the wider back end. They’d strapped both packs on top of the cargo netting and were able to twist and turn the load as they manoeuvred through the trees. Neville trotted happily along, his equilibrium restored after the trauma of the storm. Mia was more subdued. She had to be exhausted, but she never flagged, just kept pressing onward in the direction her GPS dictated.
“Mia.”
She was leaning against a tree, staring into the distance as they took a breather, and started slightly when he spoke her name. She held out the water bottle, and he took it and sipped carefully. They were down to their last litre. They hadn’t felt the lack of moisture at any point during their crazy journey, with water sloshing into their boots and coming at them from all angles, but in the last hour the sun had started to bake the mountain dry. They’d been sheltered in the old growth forest, but the heat and humidity was building even here, where the spaces between trees was widening, and he felt a need to conserve what they had left until he knew they were home free.
He handed the bottle back. “It’s going to be fine, Mia.”
She nodded vaguely and held the water bottle over Neville’s bowl. The dog, who’d been slurping from puddles on the forest floor, declined to investigate the offering, and she capped the bottle instead and stowed it in the side pocket of her pack.
Hudson walked over to her and put his hands on her shoulders. “I mean it, Mia. We’ve got most of the load here. I’ve got the information I need to pass on to wrap up the case. And then we’ll go hunt this Abe guy down.” He ran his hands down her arms and tangled his fingers with hers, tugging her closer. “And then—”
The sound of gunshots echoed up the mountain and instinct took over. Hudson tucked Mia under him and pressed her to the ground. Neville leapt over them and planted himself between his people and the noise. The fur along his back rose in a crest and a slow, steady growl seemed to vibrate through Hudson’s bones. There was a pause and another burst of shots, and Neville lunged forward, barking loudly.
Mia shoved back against Hudson and turned her head, “Neville, hush.”
The dog sat and whined softly, fur still prickled and ears straining forward. Hudson lifted himself cautiously and pulled Mia to her feet. Mia pulled out the GPS and compared it to the direction of Neville’s attention.
“Looks like we’re out of time.” She pointed. “The road is straight down that way.” She took a deep breath. “They’re here.”
Hudson moved to the front of their load and picked up the straps. “Okay, let’s go.” He was eager to get this wrapped up and took a second to school his features and sink back into Remy Beauchamp. The possibility of a new life with Mia after he finished this sting was lighting a fire in him, and for the first time he was tempted to take any shortcuts he could to speed up the resolution to the case.
Mia hadn’t moved. “There’s something I need to tell you.”
Hudson frowned at her. He couldn’t afford to let thoughts of spending time with Mia distract him from finishing this job properly. “Not now. There’ll be plenty of time after. Let’s get this done first.” He’d dropped back into his French accent, and he could see something shutter in Mia’s face just before she turned and walked to the back of the travois. She unclipped her pack from the cargo netting and slipped it over her shoulders before stepping between the handles. She bent and lifted.
“Hook Neville up. We have time for that.”
She shook her head, but didn’t meet his eyes. “No need.” She took a step forward, and the gathered ends of the structure swung toward him like a clumsy lance. “Let’s go.”
He narrowed his eyes at her, but turned and pulled the straps tighter over his shoulders. “Okay, voyons.”
Another brief round of shots shattered the silence a few minutes into their last leg, sending Neville pacing around them with a low growl that lifted the hair on Hudson’s neck. Between Mia’s abrupt change in behaviour and Neville’s obvious concern, Hudson’s eagerness to find the road was waning. But when he turned his head to ask Mia what she’d wanted to tell him, she shook him off and kept pressing forward, forcing him to stumble ahead or topple over.
By the time they took the final, trudging steps through the thinning tree line and he saw Gio and Raj leaning against a mud-splattered SUV, he was on high alert.
The thugs hadn’t seen them yet and he stopped moving and lowered the travois to the ground. Mia followed suit and nodded when he turned and placed a finger over his lips. He motioned her back, and she and Neville drifted toward the trees. When they’d reached what he thought was a safe distance, he strode forward with his arms outstretched. “Salut, cochons.”
The goons whipped around and stared at him suspiciously over the food they were shoving into their faces. Hudson forced his expression to stay open and friendly, as though he hadn’t just called the two of them pigs. Neither made a move for a gun and Hudson’s breath came a little easier. If they weren’t going to kill him outright, he could make this work.
He walked up to the SUV and the bag of fast food he saw sitting inside the cargo area. He pulled out the first thing he touched and had it unwrapped and into his mouth before he turned around. Gio gave him a sour look and reached for the bag, but Hudson tweaked it out of his grasp and started walking back toward the woods. “Is for me, I t’ink, non?”
A smirk appeared on Raj’s face as Hudson moved past him, and he knew Gio was trying to kill him with his eyes. But he didn’t care. He was so sick of these idiots. If Cain had decided his time was up, he would have sent men up who could move in the wilderness and they would have waited for Mia and Hudson to move the drugs into easy retrieval distance, then taken them out, scooped up the load and booked it off the mountain.
He finished the sandwich in his hand and shoved the wrapper in his pocket before tossing the bag to Mia. He hoped he’d left her something decent, but anything would taste pretty good after the calories they’d burned over the last few days.
He reached the pile of drugs and waved the other two men forward. “Viens! Your turn for the heavy lifting.”
Gio pulled out his gun and lifted it sideways, like he’d no doubt seen in an idiot gangster movie. “You bring it here, dumbass. I ain’t no donkey.”
Raj slapped Gio in the back of the head. “Get your ass over there, man. Stop being such a bitch.”
Gio rubbed the back of his head and glared alternately at Raj and Hudson as he made his way into the long grass.
Raj looked down at the pile under the cargo net and whistled softly. “You get it all?”
Hudson shrugged and let the corners of his mouth drop a little. “Most. The ’elicopter made a hard landing. Some…” He drew his hands away from each other sharply, miming an explosion. “But most are okay.”
Raj turned and looked at Mia. He smiled. “I see the mutt found you. We figured he would when we let him go.” Mia made a strangled noise in the back of her throat, and Raj nodded at her. “This was good, finding this for us. Cain will be pleased.”
“I’m pleased he’ll be pleased.”
Raj’s smile faded and Hudson stared blandly at Mia, willing her to lose the sarcasm.
Raj turned back to the drugs and jerked his head at Gio. “Grab an end. Let’s get this loaded up and back to the warehouse.”
“What about her?” Gio pointed at Mia and she glared at him in return.
Raj grunted softly as he hefted one end of the travois. “What about her? We had a deal. She kept her part, so we keep ours. We’ll be dropping her off at her vehicle. Roadside assistance is already en route, courtesy of Cain, of course. Cost him a bomb to get them to come up the mountain, but he insisted.” He nodded at her again and inclined his head toward the SUV. “Please, join us at the truck.”
Mia didn’t move. Her hand cupped the curve of Neville’s head and Hudson could read her desire to flee in her body language, and the realization hit him like a sledgehammer.
He’d been such a fool. She’d been planning to run. She’d taken the engine kill switch—which no doubt had a restarter—back from him when she split their supplies into two. She’d undone her pack from the cargo netting and had taken the load herself rather than chance Neville being trapped, and she’d been more than happy to retreat toward the woods at his signal. She’d been planning to bolt and she’d tried to tell him. And now Gio’s gun was resting on top of the load of drugs, pointing straight at her, and Hudson would have to convince her to play along or watch her get shot in front of him.
#
Hudson shifted. His “Remy slouch”, as she’d started to think of it, fell away and there was a sudden stiff aggression to his posture. His gaze was fixed on something resting on top of the cargo netting. The sun flashed on it as Raj lifted the back of the stretcher, and an icy wave sluiced down Mia’s back. A gun. Sidekick had a gun trained on her and her opportunity for escape had just disappeared.
Hudson turned a blank face toward her and inclined his head toward the SUV. She started across the field. Neville kept pace beside her. His tail wagged briefly as they came abreast of Hudson, but his gait shortened and his centre of gravity dropped as he took in the scents of Dipshit and Sidekick.
Gio minced away from the dog, causing the load to wobble and tilt. “You keep that thing away from me, or I’ll take its head off.”
“You leave him alone, he’ll leave you alone.”
“M…” Hudson glanced at her, and then away. His jaw clenched. Mia’s breath stuck in her throat. He’d almost used her real name.
Things were starting to unravel. As Mia moved across the field, she focused on trying to build a new plan to get herself and Neville as far away from Hudson and his pet project as possible. She’d done what he asked;found him the drugs so he could wrap up his case. But she’d also inadvertently advertised her presence to the one person she’d most been trying to avoid in the world, and now she’d missed her chance to get away because she’d been concerned they were going to shoot Hudson on sight.
Her hand shook when she opened the back door and collapsed onto the seat. Dammit. She knew better than to let her feelings dictate her actions. She should have run for it as soon as he turned his back. It wasn’t like this could go anywhere. He was a cop. She had one foot in a prison cell. He was a consummate actor, disappearing into his personae so deeply he didn’t even seem to know who he really was anymore, and she despised liars, herself most of all.
The SUV bounced as the men heaved in the bundle of drugs. The door on her far side opened, and Mia forced herself not to react when Gio leered at her and grabbed the handle above the door to pull himself in. Neville started to growl, and then Gio was suddenly sliding backward across the seat and into a heap in the mud outside. Hudson casually tucked in the edge of the bandage around his hand and dropped into the seat beside her. Nev clambered over her and stretched himself across the two of them, perfectly at home.
Raj lifted an eyebrow in the rear view mirror as he pulled the driver’s side door shut. “You sure you don’t want to ride shotgun, Frenchy?”
The vehicle rocked again as Gio tossed himself into the front and slammed the door.
“Non, merci.” Hudson didn’t bother looking at the other man, just gazed out the window as though he was enjoying the scenery.
“Fair enough.” Raj looked over at his partner, fuming in the passenger seat. “Chill out, Gio. Put it away. We have our instructions.”
Gio slapped the dashboard and shoved the gun he’d had pointed at Hudson into the glove compartment. “I don’t remember no orders to let the frog run the show.”
Raj’s eyes flicked into the back and then to his partner again. “Think it through, man, Frenchy…Remy, just brought back nearly a million in product. More than likely, Cain’s going to give him a big promo—have you working for him before the day’s out.”
“Screw that! I ain’t working for him. Dude can’t even speak English proper. ’Sides, wasn’t him found the chopper, it was the bitch. Cain gonna give her a promo, too?”
A frisson of fear zipped through Mia’s nerves. The last thing she wanted was any kind of recognition from “Cain” at all. If she had her way, she’d be to hell and gone before the drugs even made it back to the warehouse.
Nev sighed and Hudson smoothed his hand over the dog’s shoulder. He continued the stroke up to where her hand lay on Neville’s flank and tapped the heel of her palm twice as he detoured his hand around hers. She didn’t look at him, couldn’t trust her face not to give her away under the constant glances Gio was directing their way. Much as she was loath to admit it, she was currently at the mercy of Hudson’s—Remy’s—protection. She just wished she’d had time to tell him about the connection between the drug trafficker he knew as Cain, and the murderer she knew as Abe.
Abe. Abel. Cain and Abel. She got it now, and the lingering fear at the back of her throat thickened and threatened to choke her. From her very limited experience of Bible stories, Cain had killed his brother out of jealousy. Mia sincerely doubted Abe had a strong foundation in any religious practice, so for him, taking the name of history’s first murderer in place of the name of the world’s first victim probably had more to do with a feeling of superiority than any recognition of guilt. The narcissism of the act made Mia’s stomach churn. She’d known since that night Abe was capable of murder, but did his pathology go deeper than that?
Her dark thoughts transmitted themselves to Neville and he curved his head around to look into her face. She smiled at him, but he kept his gaze on her and started to lick her hand where it was wrapped around the end of her braid until her smile turned genuine and some of the weight left her heart. If nothing else, she had Nev. He would lay down his life for hers, she had no doubt about that, and she’d do her absolute best to make sure he was never in that position.
Satisfied his attention had fixed his human’s problems, Neville yawned and put his head back into Hudson’s lap, tilting it slightly so the cop could scratch just the right spot behind his ear. Hudson moved his fingers into the thick fur around the dog’s neck and down over the bony protrusions of his sternum. Neville’s hind leg started to quiver and then dance in the air before settling into a rhythmic thumping against the back of Gio’s seat as Hudson found his jimmy spot.
The wannabe gangster twisted in his seat and glared at Hudson, who returned the animosity with a bland look and a shrug. “Dog must be chasing rabbit in ‘is sleep.”
Mia bit down on the inside of her lip, wanting to laugh but knowing Hudson baiting the thugs was out of character and dangerous, no matter how entertaining it was for her. Her presence was threatening his focus, and seeing as he was the only thing protecting her from their baser intentions, it was further proof that the faster she got away from him, the better.
Her mind was running through the possible scenarios, and each one was coming up worse than the one before, so she was taken aback when they rounded a sharp turn and she saw her SUV with the hood up and a decaled pickup truck nosed up to it. She hadn’t really believed Raj when he said Cain had provided a mechanic to get her vehicle back on the road. Her muscles relaxed in relief and she realized she’d been sitting painfully rigid since she got in the vehicle.
The SUV slowed and, under cover of flailing limbs as Neville twisted himself upright, Hudson found her hand and squeezed it, hard. She leaned into him as she pulled the straps of her pack up over her shoulders and he whispered into her ear, “Careful.”
She nearly tripped on the running board as she pulled herself out of the SUV. The kill switch was burning a hole in her pocket and the posture of the mechanic as he leaned under the hood told her he hadn’t figured out yet what the problem was. She suspected it was vital for her health that he didn’t, so she strode forward, ignoring the crawling feeling at the base of her spine that was telling her this was all too good to be true. She kept her steps smooth and even, and ignored the urge to run the hundred feet to her vehicle. The SUV was parked awkwardly at the edge of the road and she could only see the bottom half of the mechanic where he leaned over her engine. He lifted a hand to her without straightening up as she let Neville into the backseat.
She said, “I’ll be right with you”, then popped the hatch to the cargo compartment and slung her bag inside.
“I’d like the rest of my things, please,” she called out.
Hudson/Remy grunted at her, but opened the back door of the other SUV and pulled her original pack over the seat.
“Nu uh, no way. Hand ’em over right now.” Gio was back in action, waving his gun around like he was directing a jet onto a carrier deck. Raj elbowed him in the ribs and jerked his chin at the mechanic.
Gio changed his approach, angling himself so he couldn’t be seen past Mia’s raised hood, and lowered his voice but persisted. “Seriously, man, what if they think they gonna take somma Cain’s…” He shot a look over to the front of the truck where the mechanic’s banging and cursing had dropped off. “…supply and sell it they own selves? We gotta check them bags, man.”
Raj tipped his head first to one side, then the other. “Fair enough.”
The flow of her own blood pounded in Mia’s ears. Hudson had taken a sample of the drugs. He had the pilot’s identification and notes on the helicopter registration. She assumed he’d stashed it all in one of their packs, which meant things were about to go very pear-shaped.
Gio lunged past her and yanked her bag out of the SUV. The gun was hovering at his waist and she could easily reach over and grab it. The sound of a throat clearing pulled her attention to Hudson/Remy where he stood, looking bored, with the second bag dangling from a steady hand. The intensity in his eyes under the flattened brows should have been chilling, but she found she could look right past the glare and see the Hudson she knew beneath. She took a step away from her vehicle and he blinked slowly, then shook the bag at Gio.
“Go a’ead. I don’t let her take not’ing. You think I’m an idiot?”
The clanging under the hood took up again, and she winced. The mechanic sure as hell wasn’t going to fix the problem, because there wasn’t one, but he definitely could break something while he tried.
“Hey.” She went to walk to the front of her SUV and found Gio’s gun pointed into her face. Blood flavoured her mouth as she bit her tongue, but she managed to give the goon a disdainful look and swallow back the bile that threatened. “Fine.” She slapped her hand a few times on the door panel. “Hey!” The noise stopped and she could see an eye peering at her from the edge of the hood.
“Hold up a minute, eh? It’s gone out before and I know how to fix it. Save you some time, right?” The eye bobbed as the mechanic nodded, and he moved to the other side of the engine, out of sight.
She turned back, and there was Gio with his hand now wrapped around both his gun and the top edge of the pack Hudson had been carrying. She rolled her eyes. She could have the weapon away from him and shoved up his nose in about five seconds flat. Cain might be manifestly evil, but his help was more kindergarten cartoon than helpful.
“Well, what we got here?” He pulled out the link of condoms Hudson had found in the hut. He tossed the bag into her SUV and stepped toward her, swinging the packages and licking his lips. “I’d hate to disappoint a lady when she’s come prepared and all.”
And then Hudson was there, plucking the prophylactics from Gio’s fingers and shoving him roughly toward Raj.
“Mine,” was all he said, leaving the identity of exactly what he was claiming unstated.
Gio’s face glowed red like he’d been lit like a jack-o-lantern. He lifted the gun, still sideways, but with a focused menace that hadn’t been there before. “No, man. This time the bitch be mine.” He gestured at Mia with the gun. “Get over here.”
Despite knowing the man was a complete moron, his words sent a chill over Mia’s skin and she took a step back, directly behind Hudson. He didn’t acknowledge her, just shrugged and made a show of pulling one of the condoms off the strip and tossed it to Gio before pocketing the rest.
“You want…” Hudson shrugged again. “We have expression, don’t know it in English, but means you like leftovers, go a’ead.”
The flame lighting Gio’s face flared and Raj snorted as he pulled the man back. Revulsion balled in Mia’s gut, and she shoved Hudson toward the others and made her way to the front of her truck, eyes already on the engine. “Can I have some room, please?”
She studied the engine until the mechanic shifted out of range of her peripheral vision, and then reached in and pretended to adjust some spark plugs. She wiped her hands on her pants and surreptitiously pressed the reset button on the remote in her pocket as she let herself into the driver’s seat. The engine coughed and spluttered as electricity reconnected to the spark plugs, then caught and revved to life. She left it running, got out, and moved to the rear, rearranging the bags so they wouldn’t slide around during the drive, then closed the hatch.
Hudson stood with his arms crossed in front of him, watching her work. He moved sideways to keep her in sight and raked his eyes over her from top to bottom. His comment flashed back into her mind, and she shuddered and looked away. The men laughed, Remy’s baritone mixing right in, and she actually had to fight not to retch.
She acted on impulse, reaching out for the door handle to the backseat. “Pit stop, Nev.”
The dog bounded out and headed into the bushes to take care of business. The laughter died away and all three of the men moved backward to the other vehicle while they tracked the dog with their eyes. Figures. They may have all been thinking with their dicks a second ago but they didn’t seem so eager to be baring their man bits with a dog around who might be inclined to consider them chew toys.
The mechanic was leaning under the hood again, hands spread wide on the front edge. “Never would have thought of resetting the plugs.” His voice dropped to barely more than a whisper. “’Course, I never would have thought I’d see you again, Raina.”
Mia lifted her eyes and her heart nearly stuttered to a stop when her gaze met Abe’s under a grease-stained ball cap.