Bluegrass Undercover (28 page)

Shuffling sounds came from behind him and then the sound of a furnace kicking on. He knew he was sitting in a chair and hoped no one was in front of him. He cracked his eyes and peered out through his eyelashes, right into the face of a skeleton. He looked past the skeleton and saw shelving full of old beakers, test tubes, and Bunsen burners. He knew where he was. He was in the science storage room in the basement of the high school.

He tried to move his arms but found both wrists were duct taped to an old, wooden teacher’s chair. He knew the answer but tested his legs anyway. He wasn’t surprised to find them bound to the chair as well. From behind him, a cell phone rang and was quickly picked up.

“
Yes?” He knew that voice. If his mind would just focus he could place it. “No, Mr. Klaus, everything is fine. The shipment will be sent out on time. It’s just a simple matter of reorganization of management. You know how hard good help is to find.” The voice laughed, and it clicked in his head who it was. “I look forward to many years of partnership. Please tell the others the organization is strong and all contracts will be met on time with quality product. Yes. Thank you.”

The cell phone was clicked shut, and Cade gave up trying to pretend to be asleep. For years he had known that voice, for years they had been friends, and the whole time his friend was the boss of a major drug operation.

“
I see you are awake. Surprised it turned out to be me? I bet I never crossed your mind,” the Boss practically spat out at him.

“
Why?” Cade still couldn’t process the betrayal.

“
Money, of course.”

“
What about all those kids who were killed because of the bad product you made?”

“
That was merely a bonus. I can’t stand all those sniveling brats. They were the perfect lab rats.” The Boss stood directly in front of him now, and he could hardly believe it, but the evidence was right there before his eyes. Unable to stand the sight, he looked away. A small movement behind the Boss caught his eyes. The tip of a gun slid through the door. He was being rescued.

“
Why are you doing this to me? After all we’ve been through? I don’t understand.”

“
You wouldn’t. You were too focused on that slut. Do you know how many times I could have killed you? I could have killed you any time of any day, but because of our relationship, I gave you the courtesy of keeping you alive. I gave you the courtesy of only hurting you a little when you went against our partnership and turned Devon over to the police. I ordered that slut to be killed and for you to be spared. What is the thanks I get? My whole organization gone! And right when I have my biggest shipment ever to make.”

Cade saw Annie’s jean clad leg appear, along with the steady arm holding the gun. He just needed to keep talking to keep the attention away from the door. “Because your men were inept you’re going to kill me?”

“
I thought I would give you the respect you deserve and let you die while you were with those who cared for you. I know you military type. I’m going to give you the respect of knowing you are going to die and who is responsible for it. I wanted you to know it was me.” Cade’s eyes fell to a large needle in the Boss’s hand. He watched as the plunger was pressed slightly down, liquid spewing out the sharp tip of the needle.

The sound of the gun being cocked drew his attention back to the door.

“
It’s over, Stephanie, put the needle down.” Annie saw her back go rigid.

“
Annie?” Stephanie slowly turned around on the balls of her feet and stared icily at her. Annie saw the needle still in her hand. What worried her was that Stephanie’s hands weren’t shaking.

“
You can call me Agent Blake. I’m with the DEA. Put the needle down or I’ll shoot you.” Annie took a couple steps forward and leveled the gun at Stephanie’s cold heart hidden under her pale blue sweater set.

With no warning, Stephanie lunged forward. Annie shot off a round, but it went wide. Stephanie went after her gun. She felt the needle jab into her hand and she screamed. The gun dropped to the ground, and Stephanie went after it. Annie ripped the needle out and tackled Stephanie.

“
I won’t let you win this time. You may be smarter than those expendables I hired, but you’re not smarter than me.” Stephanie stretched for the gun, her fingers crawling along the floor to reach it.

“
It’s not about being smart. It’s about being strong.” Annie grabbed her own hand and used the force to slam her elbow into Stephanie’s back.

Stephanie reared up, screaming in pain and Annie grabbed the only thing she could get a hold of. She wrapped her hand around Stephanie’s perfect hair and pulled with all her strength. Baldy had taught her this move. Steph was stronger than she gave her credit for. The elbow she threw caught Annie right in the ribs and sent her falling back. Not letting go of Stephanie’s hair, Stephanie rolled with her as they both landed on their sides and scrambled up to their feet.

Annie grabbed more hair to pull Stephanie closer, and Stephanie kicked out at her. Pain shot up her lower leg where Steph’s heel caught her. Okay, enough playing around. Annie pulled harder on the clump of hair in her hand while sliding her other arm around Stephanie’s throat and squeezed. Stephanie dug her nails into Annie’s arm. She felt warm blood bubbling up from the claw marks and screamed, but didn’t let go. She squeezed tighter as Stephanie fought more frantically.

Annie released Steph’s hair and put her in a proper choke hold. Stephanie dug her nails in again and slammed her heel onto Annie’s foot. Annie saw spots in her vision but held on. Her foot was on fire, and she was sure it was broken. Through the pain, she realized that Stephanie’s struggles were weakening. If she could just hold on a little longer.

Annie shifted her weight to her good foot and applied more pressure. Stephanie clawed again, but it wasn’t as strong. She tried to reach behind her but never could reach Annie. Annie felt when Stephanie lost consciousness and let go. They both collapsed to the ground. Annie sucked in ragged breaths as she crawled toward Cade.

“
Here we are, back at the beginning,” she mumbled as she found an old scalpel to cut the tape tying Cade down.

“
How so?”

“
I’m saving you again.”

“
There’s no one else I’d rather be saved by.” Cade opened his freed arms, and she managed to climb into his lap before her foot gave out. Cade stroked her hair and held onto her for dear life.

“
Freeze!”

“
It’s okay, Noodle,” Cade called out as Annie raised her head from his chest to look at the room filling with the local sheriff’s department and Cole Parker. “It was Stephanie. Call an ambulance, Annie’s foot is probably broken, and she has some nasty cuts on her face and arms from Stephanie.” Cade held on tightly to her until the EMT’s arrived. If he had things his way, he’d never let her go again.

Annie hated what she was about to do, but she had no choice. She left the warmth and comfort of Cade’s arms and struggled to stand on one foot. She had a crime scene to control.

“
Cole, can you call Special Agent Romero at the DEA’s office and tell him to get down here with a prisoner transport?” She reached into the back of her jeans pocket for her badge, but Cole stopped her.

“
Already done, Agent Blake.”

“
You know who I am?”

Cole looked slightly embarrassed. “I figured you for a cop the second we met. I ran you through the system and figured it out. When you put in place enough cover identities as I have, you can spot one from a mile away. Would you care to have the honors?” Cole gestured to a now cuffed and waking up Stephanie being held by Noodle and Dinky.

“
Nothing would give me more pleasure. Stephanie Long, you have the right to remain silent.” Annie grinned down at the once spotless and perfectly perky Stephanie. “Agent Blake, we can now call you that, right?” Dinky looked to Noodle who shrugged.

“
Wait. What do you mean now? Did you both know who I was too?” Dinky looked nervous but kept his back straight and his eyes on hers.

“
Yes, ma’am. We knew who you were the night we arrested all those guys at your house. Between the two of us, we’ve dated or tried to date all the school teachers around here, and none of them could beat up three men. So, we looked into it, put two and two together and came up with fed. A little more digging and we came up with your name down in Miami.”

“
Why didn’t you say anything?” Unbelievable. She had a topnotch, undercover identity, and now here were all these people who had known who she was the whole time.

“
We may work in a small town, but we both graduated top of our class from Eastern Kentucky University. It has a great criminal justice program. We may seem laid back, but we keep our eyes and ears open.”

“
I’m really impressed. But, you don’t need to call me Agent Blake. Annie is fine. Thank you, all of you, for having my back. Is that how you got here so quickly?”

“
I saw you race out of the house while I was on patrol. Your gun was attached to your hip so I knew it wasn’t good. I called Noodle and Cole as I followed you. I lost you once inside the school though, or I would have been here sooner to help you.” Dinky shifted his weight slightly but stood firm.

“
That was a great job, Dinky.” Static sounded, and he excused himself to radio in. “DEA is here. I directed them down here. What do you need us to do?”

“
Crowd control?” She laughed. She stopped laughing though as everyone cringed. “What?”

“
I’ll rock, paper, scissors you for it,” Dinky told Noodle.

“
Crowd control? Seriously?”

“
You ever try to keep the Rose sisters or John Wolfe from a crime scene? And this is a BIG crime scene,” Dinky explained.

“
I better check the batteries on the taser,” Noodle drawled.

“
Oh, that’s horrible! Stop joking.

“
If she’s going to be hanging around, she’ll learn,” Dinky said to Noodle as they went out the door.

Was she going to be hanging around? She loved Keeneston. But, with her job at the DEA she didn’t have a real say in where she was going to live. She could be transferred at any time. Suddenly the prospect of moving again didn’t sound nearly as fun and exciting as it used to.

* * *

Annie and Cade took a seat at the Blossom Café later that night. Her foot was fractured and in a large air cast. She had wanted to go home, but Cade had sworn up and down that they wouldn’t be able to hide. If they didn’t tell the story, the town would hunt them down and they wouldn’t get any rest. Better to go to the hot spot and tell the story once.

“
Miss Blake, I’m so glad we can finally call you that. I was terrified I would slip up and call you the wrong name and get you shot,” Miss Daisy said as she whipped out her notepad to take their order.

Annie stared at her dumbfounded. “You knew too?”

“
Of course. See, Edith told my sister Lily that she had heard from her brother’s, wife’s, second cousin’s third son that you were DEA. She was real careful who she told though so we wouldn’t blow your cover.”

“
Well, thank you for keeping it quiet.” Annie suspected Stephanie was maybe the only person in town who didn’t know who she was.

“
Of course, what do you take us for, a bunch of old gossips? We protect our own.” Miss Daisy headed over to another table to fill them in. Annie looked over at Cade who just raised an eyebrow. This seemed all very normal to him. What scared her was the fact that she wasn’t upset about her blown cover. Instead, it felt good to have a whole town looking out for her while she did her job.

“Psst.” Annie looked past Cade’s shoulder to the plump face of Miss Violet sticking out from the kitchen. “January is still a great time to get married you know.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

Annie gasped and brought her hands to her mouth to cover her surprise. “I’m so sorry, Paige.”

“
It’s okay. After a season of sitting next to me you should know I don’t mind.” Paige shook out her arm and smiled.

“
Actually, it’s only fair someone hit her for once. You notice I’m only sitting down here with my daughter when you’re the one next to me.” Marcy handed her a cup of hot cocoa and took the seat to her left.

Commonwealth Stadium was packed for the high school state championship game. They were playing a great team from Danville, but Austin and Trey had found that magic groove again. Now in the fourth quarter, they were pulling away. Trey had just run in a thirty-eight yard touchdown.

Cade was pacing the sidelines, yelling out defensive plays, pulling players aside to pump them up and teach them what to do when on the field. Even though they had the lead, she could tell he was nervous. He had told her he had never expected to make it to the playoffs, let alone the championship game.