Carter: The Sinner Saints #1 (17 page)

A second later, he leaned back far enough to look her in the eye. “Are you hurt?” he asked.

“Not physically, but I’m pretty sure my therapist is going to get an earful the next time I see her.” Her voice was shaking so hard, she was amazed she was able to form words. “How about you?”

“I’m fine,” he said, but Ally could tell he was lying. He was standing with his arm tight against his right side, the one that had taken punch after brutal punch. He had to be bruised to hell. Or worse. There was a real chance that he’d cracked a rib.

She reached out to soothe him, but before she could, he took her arm and started for the door. “We need to get you out of here.”

Ally dug in her heels. “We need to find the Garcias’. They can’t come back here. What if more men come?”

The tick in Carter’s jaw worked for a second, but he nodded in agreement. “Do you know where they went?”

“I think so.” Ally nodded. “The grocery store is just down the road a few miles, on the edge of town.”

He pulled the phone out of his pocket as they went down the steps and tossed it over his shoulder back inside the barn.

There went their last connection to the outside world.

Ally tried pulling toward the SUV they’d driven there, but Carter kept her pressed tight against him, walking the other way.

“But the car—”

“Is a liability. Every cop in a hundred miles will be looking for it. We need to acquire another one.”

Ally looked up at his face. For the first time, she thought that she spied the signs of fatigue around his eyes. And why the hell not?

They were out in the middle of nowhere. He’d just taken a hell of a beating. They had no phone. No car. No place to go.

If Ally thought they’d been in trouble before, that was nothing in comparison to where they found themselves now.

“You say that like it’s not a big deal,” she said.

“It never has been before,” he said, glancing down at her as they walked to the front of the Garcia’s house. He lifted his head toward a big black truck that was sitting in the driveway. It must have been the car that the assassins had driven out here.

Of course.

Ally tried the passenger door and found it open. She pulled herself up the step to the seat as Carter got into the driver’s side.

He bent over, fiddled with some wires under the dash and the engine roared to life.

Ally laughed out loud, though she could have just as easily wept. She leaned over and grasped Carter’s cheeks and kissed him flush on the lips.

They had a car. One problem down. Only a hundred more to go.

***

Carter pulled the truck into the parking lot of the grocery store just as the Garcias’ were walking out the door with their cart. If he’d arrived two minutes later, they would have missed them.

He pulled the truck up behind their car, not bothering to find a spot. Ally jumped out of the truck the second he hit the brakes. She ran over to Sofia and Ramon, meeting them halfway across the lot. Carter was close behind.

Sofia’s eyes went wide the moment she spotted Ally.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“They found us,” Ally answered.

“Are you all right?” Ramon asked.

Carter nodded. “We’re fine. But I’m afraid you shouldn’t go back to your house.”

“What?” Sofia asked. “What happened?”

“A couple of men broke into your barn,” Carter said. “But I took care of them.”

“I probably don’t want to know what that means, do I?” Sofia asked.

Ally shook her head, and Ramon pulled his wife close.

“This will all be over soon,” Carter promised, looking the frightened couple in the eye. “And I swear that when it is I will be the one who deals with the authorities. I’ll take full responsibility. You and your family won’t have to worry about anything.”

Ally turned her head to look at him. Worry lines furrowed deep into her brow.

“How long until we can go home?” Ramon asked.

“Just a couple of days,” Carter said. There was no way he could allow this to drag on any longer. It had to end now. “Is there somewhere you can go?”

Sofia and Ramon looked at each other for a long moment, before nodding.

“The boys are already over at Ramon’s mother’s house in Fairfield. We can join them there for a few days,” Sofia said.

Ally reached out and took Sofia’s hand. “I can’t tell you how sorry I am. If I had known—”

“It’s okay,” Sofia said, and Ramon nodded. “We knew the risks when we agreed.”

“Just take care of yourself,” Ramon said.

“Ally,” Carter said, putting his hands on her shoulders. He gently pulled her back. Sofia’s hand slipped from hers. “We need to go.”

“I’m sorry,” Ally repeated as he led her back to the truck, her voice shaky.

And she wasn’t the only one. Sofia Garcia’s voice trembled too as she called out, “Be careful.”

Carter shut the door on Ally and ran around the front of the truck. The quicker they got out of town, the safer everyone would be.

He pulled out of the parking lot. He headed toward the freeway, glancing at the few stores that they passed on the country road.

He needed to get his hands on a phone. He didn’t need it for long, just about thirty seconds, since the second he turned the thing on it would become a liability. He didn’t dare use a landline, fearing that Fuller’s men would trace it back to the physical address and harass whoever they found there. But by the looks of it, he wouldn’t be able to pick up a burner until they were closer to the metro area.

There had to be a better solution.

Carter spotted a gas station and turned toward it. Two kids, just barely into their twenties were leaning against the side of a worn out pickup. He pulled up alongside them and rolled down the window.

“Hey, one of you guys want to sell me your phone?” he asked.

The two guys perked up immediately. They laughed a little until they noticed Carter wasn’t joining in. Their chuckles faded.

One tugged on the brim of his cap before kicking off the door of his ride. “You sure you don’t just want to borrow it?”

“Nope.” Carter shook his head. “When I’m done I’m going to have to destroy it.”

The kid’s eyes widened. “Why?”

“I have my reasons.”

“Holy shit, man. Are you for real?”

“Do you want to sell your phone or not?”

The blonde looked behind him at his friend. The other guy shrugged as if to say
what the hell
? Carter had the feeling that this was more excitement than either one of them had planned on.

“How much?” the kid asked.

Carter pulled out his wallet and looked inside. “Five hundred.”

“
Five hundred dollars
?” The kid’s eyes went huge. “Shit, for that you can do whatever the hell you want with it.”

Carter handed over the bills and the blonde handed over his phone. Now he knew why the kids were so excited. His cell wasn’t exactly ancient but neither was it cutting edge.

Still, it would work.

Carter punched in the numbers and waited. Three seconds later, Rhys picked up.

“Yeah?” he said, sounding defensive, on edge. Carter realized it was probably because he didn’t recognize the incoming number on the private line.

“It’s Carter,” he said. “Fall back.”

There was a brief pause on the other end of the line. Then, “Affirmative.”

That was all that Carter needed to hear. Rhys would make sure that the rest of the men got the message.

He ended the call and gave the boys a nod of thanks. They were so wrapped up with their newfound gain that they hardly noticed as he pulled out of the lot.

He was about a mile down the road before he looked over at Ally. Her head was tilted against the window and her shoulders sagged. He could just barely make out the glisten of tears in her eyes, but she wasn’t sobbing. They just fell down her cheeks silently.

And he couldn’t blame her.

She’d been through a lot. More than anyone should ever have to. And all because she was trying to do the right thing.

Carter gripped the steering wheel as the vise around his heart wrenched tighter. God, he hated seeing her this way, wracked with pain and fear and guilt. There was no magic he could pull to make it all go away, no matter how badly he wanted to.

He wouldn’t lie to her. Wouldn’t tell her everything was going to be fine. That in a few short days her life would go back to how it was, because he knew better than anyone that wasn’t always how it worked.

The things she’d seen, the feelings that were coursing through her now, they’d leave a mark on her so deep that it would become the dividing line for the rest of her life. There would be the life she had before she’d gone after Fuller and the life that came after.

But Carter could make it so she didn’t have to go through the difficult time alone. That he could promise. Both to her and himself.

Carter placed his hand, palm up, on her knee. Ally looked down at it and smiled before sliding her hand inside. He curled his fingers around hers and held tight.

He didn’t let go as he drove onto the on-ramp to the freeway. He didn’t let go as he steered into the fast lane, got the truck up to speed, and rolled down the window and tossed the phone out onto the hard pavement. He didn’t let go the whole ride back to Sacramento.

The truth was, he wasn’t sure he was ever going to let go again.

Chapter Fourteen

The sun was just dipping down below the horizon by the time Carter pulled the truck to a stop in what looked like a working-class neighborhood on the outskirts of Sacramento. Long shadows stretched across the street up to the house that they’d parked in front of.

Ally’s gaze darted up and down the street. She knew Carter would never bring her anywhere that he thought was dangerous, but she still couldn’t shake the feeling that one of Fuller’s men was out there waiting for her. She saw menace in every rustling bush and passing car.

She’d never been so on edge. There was no way that she could live the rest of her life this way, jumping at shadows. This had to end. It just had to. She wasn’t an overly fearful person, and she didn’t relish the idea of becoming one.

“Are you sure it’s safe here?” Ally asked as Carter reached for the handle of his door.

“It’s the safest place I know.” He gave her a long look. “Only my core team knows the location of this safe house. Not even Charlie knows. There’s no paper trail linking the house to Macmillan Security, no way for Fuller or Addams to track us here.”

Ally’s brows pulled together. “So, why didn’t we come here earlier?”

“Because it’s reserved for only the most dire of emergencies.”

“And what we’ve been dealing with hasn’t been an emergency?” she asked.

“Not until there’s at least a couple of bodies left behind.”

“Makes sense,” Ally said, nodding slowly. At least he wasn’t sugar coating the situation.

She drew in a deep breath. It was now or never.

Before she could chicken out, she jumped out of the truck and hustled up the path. Ally could hear Carter following a step behind. She didn’t see a doorbell when she made it up to the front of the house, so she gave a small knock against the wooden door.

A few seconds later, the door swung open. Ally started at the sudden move. Her nerves weren’t calmed any to find Rhys’ cold face staring back at her. He stared at her for a long moment before he looked at Carter.

“Uh…hi,” Ally tried.

Rhys didn’t say a word, just held the door and took a step to the side, allowing them to enter.

Suddenly, Ally wasn’t sure if she was safer inside or out.

Carter must have sensed her hesitation, because he gave her a little nudge from behind, making up her mind for her.

“Is everyone here?” he asked as he followed her.

Rhys nodded and shut the door. After he threw the lock, he led them into the main room, just past the main hallway and started walking into another room.

The rest of Carter’s team was seated in what Ally figured would have been the living room in any other home. Here, it was just a couch and a single chair. There was a table pushed in the corner with two wooden chairs tucked neatly underneath. And judging by the cleanliness of the bricks in the fireplace, it didn’t receive a lot of visitors.

So this was a safe house. It was certainly spare, but serviceable. There wasn’t much furniture, hardly anything on the walls, but there weren’t cobwebs in the corners and it wasn’t covered in dust. It was obviously taken care of, but only filled with the barest of necessities.

Rhys went and sat on the couch next to Jake, who she’d first seen at Fuller’s party. Bowie stood by the fireplace. He crossed his massive arms over his chest as she stepped into the room.

Mason was sitting in the lone chair. He gave her a half-hearted smile as their eyes met. It was as close to a welcome from this crowd as she was going to get. Every eye was on her, but no one said a word.

For once, she couldn’t blame them. She had pulled them into this mess. Because of her they were in danger of losing their jobs, their livelihoods, and possibly even their lives.

If she was in their shoes, Ally doubted she’d say hi to herself either.

That was fine. She didn’t need a warm reception. She took a single step into the room and then leaned her back up against the wall next to the archway. She might understand where their coldness was coming from, but that didn’t mean that she was going to throw herself into the middle of it.

Carter, of course, didn’t have any such hesitations. He walked right up to the other side of the mantle and propped his shoulder against it.

“We don’t have much time so we’ll get started,” he said, immediately taking charge of the room. “Where are we?”

“Nowhere,” Jake answered from the couch. “The cops shut down the office today. They have the whole place roped off as a crime scene. They said since you took
her
there it was a material part of the investigation.”

Carter nodded. “Fuller wanted to scatter the team.”

“To see where we all went,” Rhys said, stiffening. He didn’t have to say the rest. If that was the case, then they had all just played into Fuller’s plan. And it would have made perfect sense if Carter was his main target.

But he wasn’t.

She was.

These guys were a distraction to him, a minor inconvenience, a part of the plan that refused to play nice. Fuller would deal with them, sure, but he wouldn’t put the full force of his efforts into bringing them down.

“No,” Ally said.

Every head swiveled her way and she pulled together every ounce of remaining resolve left inside her. She’d floated some unpopular ideas in tough rooms before. She’d gone toe to toe with cutthroat peers and editors plenty of times, but never to a group that could
actually
cut her throat.

“No?” Rhys said, his eyes narrowed and his gaze sharpened…if such a thing were possible.

Ally straightened her back. “That isn’t what Fuller wants. He doesn’t care about any of you. Sure, you’re a bother, but you’re not a threat.”

Bowie puffed up at the side of the fireplace, as if she’d injured his pride by insinuating that he wasn’t a mortal threat.

Ally was about to say that she’d trade places with him in a heartbeat, but that wasn’t exactly true. There might be no love lost between any of them, but she didn’t wish harm on any of these guys. She didn’t wish it on anyone. The truth was, she’d be wracked with guilt if any one of them got hurt while helping her.

“Ally’s right,” Mason said. “She’s the one that Fuller’s afraid of. She’s the one with the power to expose him. And that’s the only thing he’s afraid of, political ruin, not physical harm.”

Carter’s mouth became a flat line as he nodded in agreement. “So the only people he would target would be the ones that he could use as leverage against you.”

“And let’s be honest,” Ally said, her gaze sweeping across the room. “Other than Carter, you guys don’t really fit that description. I mean, Ol’ Blue Eyes, here, has been borderline friendly to me on a couple of occasions, but the rest of you don’t exactly act like I’ve made your Christmas card list.”

Rhys’ brows pulled together, but there was no hint of a smile on his face. “Is
Ol’ Blue Eyes
Mason?”

Ally cocked her head to the side. “Yeah. Mason. You’re
Iceman
.”

“But we both have blue eyes,” he said, his voice deadpan.

“Yeah, but when I need a sweater when I look into yours…so you’re
Iceman.
”

Jake clapped a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “Don’t worry about it. I heard she calls me
Bruiser.
”

“She doesn’t have any problem calling me
Wall of Meat
to my face,” Bowie grumbled.

“That was said in anger, and I’m sorry…but you have to admit it’s a very apt description,” Ally said.

“What about the
Captain
?” Jake asked with more than just idle curiosity showing in his eyes. “What do you call him?”

“She calls me Carter, and that’s the end of it,” he said, breaking into the conversation. He shot her a look that wasn’t hard to read.
Get on with it
.

She put her hands up in mock surrender. He was right. This wasn’t the time.

“But there’s my point,” she said, steering the conversation back to her original thought. “He’s not going after you. He’s going after me. So, if he shut down your offices, it had to be for another reason.”

Carter crossed his arms. He had that faraway look he got when he was lost in thought. “There must be something there he wants.”

“It could have something to do with
the plan
,” Mason said.

Ally’s eyes snapped over to Mason. “What plan?”

“Oh, sorry,” he said, leaning forward in the chair. “We got so wrapped up with name calling that I almost forgot. There wasn’t much to do after we were kicked out of the office, so I figured someone should probably listen to those bugs we planted in Lucas Addams’ office. Most of it was useless, but then right before four o’clock, things got interesting.”

Mason leaned forward and pulled up a file on the laptop in front of him. A second later, he pressed play.

Two voices rang clear as day. One Ally recognized immediately as Lucas Addams’, but the other she couldn’t place. It was familiar, but she struggled to figure out from where.

“We’re getting awfully close to the critical timeframe for the plan, and the loose ends still haven’t been taken care of. Fuller is starting to get nervous. I don’t need to tell you that’s bad news for all of us,”
Lucas said.

“It shouldn’t be long now. We have access to their offices, and we’ve got a hit on their location,”
the second man said.

“Good. The time for subtlety is over. Make sure the problem is taken care of once and for all. There can’t be any more delays. The plan is going forward regardless. So, either our problem is taken care of or you will be, understood?”

“Understood, sir. I’ll see to it personally.”

Ally glanced over at Carter. Their eyes met. The phone call. That was when Lucas Addams had sent the men out to the Garcias’ house.

Suddenly, she recognized the voice. It was the man that Carter had killed in the barn. No wonder he had fought so hard. Ally knew Lucas Addams well enough to know that he would make good on his threat. If their attacker had walked back into that office without her head, there would have been a bullet waiting for him.

“There’s also the issue of the compromised information. You’ve had the Macmillan offices in lockdown all day. Have you found anything?”
Lucas asked.

“Not yet, sir. We’ve swept all the computers but found nothing.”

“Then has it occurred to you that perhaps we’re looking for something other than a computer file? I know Harvey had access to everything to do with the plan. But that Weaver bitch hasn’t printed a damn word yet, so she must be missing something. I don’t need to tell you that we need to find it before she does.”

Mason stopped the recording.

“That slipped your mind?” Carter asked him, one brow raised.

“What can I say, this crew of yours can be very entertaining.”

“Yeah, it was fucking hilarious when the cops tossed me out of my office today,” Jake said, giving Mason a look that would wither anyone in their right mind. Mason must not have fit that description, because he didn’t even flinch.

Ally ignored the hyper-masculinized version of office politics going on around her. The wheels spun in her mind.
Critical timeframe. The plan. The missing piece.

Lucas Addams was right. She was missing something. She’d only been able to reconstruct about half of Fuller’s plan from the puzzle pieces Harvey Price had left behind. She knew there was money coming in from shadowy places, and more was expected.

But how and what did it have to do with all those Department of Defense files? Or the Army Intelligence information? The troop movements? The classified missions? They all swirled together in her mind.

Carter’s crew bickered around her. Their voices blended together, filling the room with a familiar hum. Her mind buzzed in the chaos. This was the sound that she’d missed. It was like white noise, and her brain came to life.

She went through the puzzle pieces in her mind, reviewing them one by one.

She was close. So damned close.

“I don’t know where you get the guts to laugh,” Rhys barked at Mason. “Seeing how it was your call that gave up Carter’s location and brought Fuller’s men down on them.”

Ally’s eyes went wide. Her mouth fell open.

Oh God.

Of course. Everything fell into place.

“That’s it,” she shouted, throwing her hands up in the air.

The room went silent. Every head turned her way.

She hurried over to Rhys’ side and stared down at him.

“Say that again,” she said.

“What?” he asked, looking up at her with confusion in his eyes. “That Mason’s call was the one that gave your location away?”

Ally clapped her hands. Before she could think better of it, she threw her arms around Rhys and squeezed him hard. She felt the poor man stiffen in her embrace. She didn’t care.