Game of Fear (6 page)

“Apparently, getting molested by you.” The frigid wind whipped her hair across her face. She looked deathly pale, despite the fact her cheeks were red with cold.

“Hey, you’re the one lurking outside the bar.” He studied her face. “What’s wrong?”

“I
thought
I wanted to talk to you. Now I’m not so sure.”

“If you wanted to talk to me, why didn’t you just use the phone?”

She scowled, shifting against him. His body went taut, suddenly aware of the soft curves pressed against him and the strength lying underneath that softness. He cleared his throat and stepped back. Her pupils dilated and his heart skipped a beat. He wanted to peel off his gloves and touch her skin, feel her pulse to see if his reaction was one-sided, but then her face turned to stone.

“I was on my way to the sheriff’s office,” she said. “When you crossed the parking lot . . . well, after all of your brother’s newspaper articles about bad cops and deputies, I was worried about who to trust. I thought . . .” She rushed on, “Look, I know you’re not a cop anymore. At least, I thought you weren’t until that guy—”

Gabe cut her off. “ ‘Until that guy’ what?”

She hesitated, more wary now, but not backing down. “I didn’t mean to overhear anything, but then he mentioned an accident on the way to Taos, in conjunction with a mobster. It shocked me. That’s the rescue tonight that got me grounded. Do you think the church bus was sabotaged? And, why would a Russian care about any of this?”

Damn good questions. He had to back her off from this line of thinking. Fast.

“I don’t know, but I’ll make sure the police check into your suspicions.”
Yeah, she’d be sure to fall for that line
. “It may be a different accident.”

“Do I look like I just got off the bus from the country?”

Gabe swore again. “Okay, I said I’ll look into it. Now, why were you heading to the station at this hour?”

At his question, all her bravado vanished. He’d never seen quite that expression on her face. She looked up at him, worry crinkling the corners of her eyes.

“My sixteen-year-old sister is missing. Ashley left my house about ten, planning to beat curfew, but never made it back to the dorm. The student who lent her his vehicle called me, freaking out that she hadn’t brought the car back. We’ve both tried calling her, but there’s no answer. This isn’t like her. Something is terribly wrong.”

D
eb’s face felt half-frozen, but the rest of her body was warm from Gabe pressing against her. For some stupid reason, she felt comforted by the pressure, instead of trapped by someone who might or might not be a bad guy. Despite what she’d seen, her instincts said to trust him.

She would, but only because she’d watched him for a long time. Over a year, in fact.

It had started the night she’d delivered him to the hospital. She’d given him a twenty-five percent chance when they’d loaded the stretcher into the chopper. She’d recognized the gray on his face, had seen it too many times in combat. Then his brother Luke had boarded. The reporter had clung to his brother and willed him back from the brink.

His odds had gone up to forty-sixty in her eyes. She’d still thought he had a better chance of dying than living.

She hadn’t been able to keep things purely professional, though—or completely close off her heart. Those two Montgomery brothers had wriggled beneath her skin like a parasite. By the time she’d landed the chopper at the hospital, she hadn’t been able to ignore them.

They didn’t know, but she’d hung around, outside the waiting room. She’d seen Gabe’s mother arrive, his brothers, an imp of a little girl, and even a sea of SWAT.

The connections she’d witnessed in their family had made her ache. She missed Rick and Ben. Now more than ever. If her brothers had been stateside, she could have picked up the phone and dialed them. They’d have been on the first flight to help her, but they were incommunicado and she was on her own to find Ashley.

“Your sister is missing?” he repeated. “If she’s a student, couldn’t she just have become tired and gone to a classmate’s house and forgotten to call?”

Gabe still hadn’t moved away from Deb, and for the moment,
she didn’t care—even though someone this much in her space usually made her skin crawl. “She wouldn’t want the demerits. She’s at the Air Force Academy.”

He raised a brow. “Really? At sixteen? They don’t take people that young.”

“They made an exception for her. Lots of rules and red tape, but the bottom line is she’s wicked smart. Too smart for her own good sometimes. They made her an offer she couldn’t refuse. She and a friend hacked into the NSA for the hell of it. Guess it got the government’s attention. They want her to be some kind of secret-weapon code breaker, I think.” Deb bit her lip.

“Holy crap, she’s one of the kids who hacked the NSA? It was all over the news.”

Deb sighed. “Tell me about it. That’s one of the reasons I’m so worried.”

“So, you think someone found out where she is and something happened? It’s not likely.”

“Normally that’s true, but she came by this weekend, worried.” Deb filled Gabe in on her earlier conversation with Ashley. “I checked with the school. Neither she nor the car made it back. She never passed through the entrance gate or signed in on the dorm log-in sheet.”

“Does Ashley have a boyfriend?” Gabe asked, gently.

“Yes,” Deb admitted. “But I already tried calling Justin. I even woke up his parents. They’re almost as crazed as I am, because they think he’s missing, too. Justin sent his parents a text saying he’d decided to visit New Mexico Tech to see if he wanted to go there. He’s graduating from high school this year.”

Gabe relaxed a bit. “Then that’s probably where Ashley is. Maybe he asked her to go with him?”

Deb shook her head and her chest tightened. The more she spoke aloud, the more the worry snaked through her insides, twisting her muscles into tension-filled knots. “I don’t think so. According to Justin’s parents he’d turned down New Mexico Tech earlier this week. So why would he text his parents that he was going there? And if Ashley was going there with him, why didn’t she drop off the car she borrowed before she left?”

“You’ve got me.” Gabe frowned. “So Justin hasn’t been in touch with them since—”

“Saturday night. They’ve called him countless times since then. Last night, Ashley mentioned she’d been trying to reach him all day and was getting worried.”

Gabe scratched his head. “Look, Deb. They’re both kids—”

She shoved against his chest, pushing him away. “Montgomery, before you say one more word, let me tell you that I know my sister. She wouldn’t take off without telling me. I opted out of my military career when my father was deployed so she could attend the Academy. In Ashley’s mind, she owes me for that. Disappearing is the last thing she’d do to me.”

He nodded his head, but Deb could see he had doubts. Thankful for the space between them, she crossed her arms. This had been a bad idea. Reaching out to him had been an impulse. She should have known. Counting on anyone but herself was a mistake.

“Ashley has only been gone a few hours,” he said, his weight shifting from one leg to the other. “Without more concrete evidence, I’m not even sure you can file a missing person’s report yet.”

“I know,” she sighed. Gabe’s leg was obviously bothering him tonight, but she couldn’t let this go. “They’re going to say the same thing at the sheriff’s office. It’s the other reason I wanted to talk to you. I thought maybe you could influence them. Convince one of the guys you know really well to help. Maybe at least ask the other officers to look out for the car.”

Gabe tapped his chin. “If Neil Wexler is on, maybe I could talk him into a BOLO.”

A small spark of hope kindled inside of her. “A BOLO? Is that the be-on-the-lookout-for thing?”

“Yeah.”

“If you’d do that for me, Gabe, as soon as this is over, I promise I’ll find a way to say thank you.”

“Really?” He stepped forward and brushed the hair out of her eyes.

Her breath hitched. Now was not the time. Not with Ashley missing.

Gabe lingered for a moment, then dropped his hand. “Do you want to come inside the bar while I lock up? We may be at the station for a while.”

“No. I’ll wait here.” A minute later, Deb regretted that decision. She huddled deeper into her coat. Was Ashley outside in this frigid cold? God, she should have made her sister stay. Why hadn’t she gone with her gut?

Her instincts had kept her alive for her years in the Army. She knew better than to ignore them.

Seconds later, Gabe returned, his limp a bit more pronounced than it had been.

“You okay?” she asked.

His face tightened. “I’m fine. The cold weather makes me stiff.” He flushed. “Uh, makes my leg stiff.”

“Oh, really?” She couldn’t stop the arch of her brow. Surely that wasn’t a Freudian slip on his part? “We can drive to the station,” she offered, “if you’re in pain.”

He scowled. “It’s across the street.”

“It’s across four lanes of slippery, black-ice-covered street.”

“
I’m fine
,” he gritted out between clenched teeth.

“Does your jaw hurt when you get pissed like that?”

“Let’s go,” Gabe said.

“Lead on.”

They walked down the small incline toward the street and made it onto the shoveled sidewalk with only a few near mishaps. The wind had picked up, blowing some of the snow around. The flakes glistened under the glow of the streetlamps, and the black ice shone like glass.

Gabe slowed down and took her arm. “Guess the street sanders haven’t made it this far yet.”

“Yeah,” she agreed, “but it’s prettier before they come.” Her feet slipped and he caught her just before she hit the ground. She gripped his arm, the muscles hard beneath her hands.

“The snow may be prettier,” Gabe added, a chuckle in his voice, “but it’s tougher to walk on.” He hauled her back to her feet. “You okay?”

She nodded, heat flaring her cheeks. Great. First, they were reduced to talking about the weather, then she almost lands on her butt. Way to impress a guy.

Not that she wanted or needed to. She’d always been better at being the buddy. Professional necessity. The few times she’d tried otherwise . . . well, it hadn’t been pretty. Problem was, Gabe Montgomery could make any woman stupid. She shouldn’t want more than a friend. She didn’t.

Right, Deb. Talk about denial.

A few lights twinkled in the foothills of the mountains to the west and mounds of snow lined the walkways. Winter had come to the Rockies with a vengeance this year.

Oh, Ashley. Where are you?

When they reached the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office, Gabe held the door open for Deb. The renovated glass and metal building held every modern convenience, but it was still a cop shop at its heart.

Gabe waved to the desk jockey in the lobby, who glanced at the clock and raised his brow. “What happened that you’re here at nearly three in the morning? Trouble at the bar?”

“No, Charlie. Sammy’s is all closed up tight. My friend has a personal issue. Is Neil Wexler in tonight?”

Charlie smirked. “When isn’t Wexler here? I swear he sleeps at the station whenever his wife’s out of town.” He signaled the detective’s office. “So, what do you want him for?”

Gabe slid Deb a sidelong glance.

“My sister’s missing,” Deb said, her fear coming back full force.

Charlie’s gaze flashed to Gabe. “Wexler is Homicide.”

The word
homicide
crumbled something inside her. “Ashley’s missing, not dead.” Deb knew how the stories of missing girls ended. God, she prayed she was wrong. Maybe Ashley had had a brain meltdown and gone with Justin.

“Calm down,” Gabe insisted. “Wexler was my boss while I was in rehab and on desk duty, so he knows me. He might be willing to do what we want him to do.”

His gaze spoke volumes.
Don’t mention the BOLO in front of Charlie. Don’t rock the boat.

The phone line lit up, and Charlie answered. After a quick conversation he hung up the receiver and waved them through. “Go on back. Wexler is waiting.”

Deb sat in Wexler’s cramped office, pausing to hear his reaction to her story.