In Her Sights (26 page)

“Son of a bitch,” Luke muttered. “He knows we’re headed to the cabin. He knows everything we’re doing. You got a location?”

“No clue,” Seth said.

Static cut through as the call dropped.

Luke banged his fist against the steering wheel. “I hate the mountains sometimes.” He turned toward Jazz. “I grew up with Steve. I can’t believe he’d do this. He knows Joy’s at that cabin.”

“He wouldn’t hurt her,” Jazz said. “She’ll be okay.”

He tossed Jasmine the phone. “Call Nick and warn him and my mother.”

A chime from Luke’s cell signaled a text message. “Maybe Seth has more information.”

Jasmine hit a few buttons. “It’s a text message from Nick.”

She went silent.

His stomach lurched.

She shifted the phone so he could see the screen. One word,
HURRY
, screamed at him from the tiny window.

“Damn it.” Luke thrust the car into gear. Too much time later, he whipped the SUV around the curves leading to the cabin. Tall ponderosa pines served as the only rail, and more than a few times he nearly overshot the turn.

“Come on, baby, come on.” Jazz hunched over the cell phone. “We have a signal back!”

“Get Nick. He’s speed dial four.”

She pushed the button, then send, and swore. “It’s ringing, but he’s not picking up.”

“Call him again! No, call the police.”

“The signal’s gone again.” Panic tinged her voice.

“Damn!”

Hurry. Hurry. Hurry. The word pounded through Luke’s head, even as terror raked his soul. Joy. His baby.

The car skidded, tires shrieking as the vehicle slid sideways. At the last second, the wheels caught, and the SUV catapulted forward again. Luke took the turnoff to the cabin on two wheels then yanked hard to the right to pull into the drive. Gravel flew from beneath the tires like shrapnel, and he jammed on the brakes when he reached the cabin. No one exited the door to greet them, and his throat turned dry.

Jasmine flicked the safety off the gun Seth had given her as they left the hospital.

Luke opened his door and crouched behind it, his HK in his hand. “We don’t know what we’re facing yet. If there are no shots fired, we’ll move in. Paretti’s a professional. He knows what he’s doing.”

She nodded then mimicked his actions.

“Let’s go,” Luke hissed.

They belly-crawled toward the cabin. Moments later, Jazz made her way to the window and peered in.

“Steve!” Her anguished cry echoed through the clearing.

Luke took off at a run and slammed through the front door, then skidded to a halt as he saw the pool of blood. His lifelong friend lay on the floor in front of him, still as death.

“Oh, Steve,” Jazz said. “If you’d only trusted us. We could’ve helped.”

“Joy!” Luke tore into the living room, his heart pounding out of his chest.

“No!”

Anna and Nick Montgomery lay sprawled on the floor beside the sofa, their arms and feet bound with duct tape. His mother’s skin was ghastly pale. Luke fell to his knees in front of them. “Please, no,” he whispered. Trembling, he touched fingertips against his mother’s carotid artery to check for a pulse. “She’s alive,” he called to Jasmine.

He quickly tore at his mother’s bindings and freed her. He patted her face. “Mom, where’s Joy?”

His mother’s eyes didn’t flutter.

Luke knelt beside Nick and unraveled the duct tape. “He’s out too. His eyes are dilated. They’ve been drugged.”

“What about Joy?” Jasmine asked.

A fear greater than any he’d ever known swept through him. He ran for the bedrooms, slamming doors open and tossing furniture out of his way. A tiny voice inside said he was destroying a crime scene, but he didn’t care. “Joy? Joy!”

The bedrooms were empty. The bathroom. He tore closet doors open, praying she’d been hidden away from the terror of what had happened. Nothing.

“She’s not here.” Everything inside him shook. “Sweet Jesus, where is she?”

“Luke! Steve’s alive.”

He raced back to the kitchen. Jasmine knelt beside Steve. “Can you hear me?”

A weak moan escaped from Steve’s mouth. He opened his eyes. “Sorry,” he said. “Plan didn’t work.”

Luke crouched down and gripped Steve’s shoulders while Jasmine dialed 911. “Where’s Joy?”

Steve sucked in a pained breath. “Crazy bitch took her.”

“Tell me where Joy is,” Luke said. “She’s only a baby.”

Steve grabbed for Luke’s shirt, but his hand slid away. “Crazy woman…wanted me to kill…family. Fooled her. Changed dose. Tried to keep this from happening. She screwed up everything. Gotta believe me. Missed shot on purpose. Tried to protect you, Jazz. Keep you alive.”

“You’re the plant? You’re working for your family? Why take Joy?”

“Woman’s not part of plan. Jazz’s past.” Steve sagged with a weak, sputtering cough. “Need help, Luke. Saved your family. Save Grace. Always loved…”

He passed out, and Luke grabbed his wrist. Still alive, but faint. “Damn it. Where’s Joy?”

“Luke!” Jasmine pointed at the kitchen table.

Four pictures were propped up on the table, as if playing pieces for the board game underneath. He moved closer, afraid to see who was in the photos. His throat closed off.

Gabe in ICU, Anna unconscious, Nick sprawled beside her, and Joy, curled up on the couch. The now empty couch.

Under each picture had been scrawled a word.

Eenie
.
Meenie
.
Miney
.
Moe!

Moe!
slashed across Joy’s picture.

Luke’s head snapped up. “What’s she trying to say?”

“It’s a message. To me.” Jasmine’s voice shook. “The game is called Truth or Consequences. It was popular when I was a child. Everyone in town had one.”

Jasmine couldn’t take her eyes off the game. “They were so proud of the connection to that old TV show since the town changed its name from Hot Springs in about 1950.”

She lifted her gaze to Luke. “My mother died there. Gary Matthews died there. I stopped being Jane Sanford there. It all fits. I have to go home. Joy is in Truth or Consequences, New Mexico.”

“What’s this?” He picked up the note printed on one of the cards lying in the center of the board.

I’m waiting, Jane. No cops or she dies.

Jazz’s body thrummed with frustrated energy as she and Luke watched from the cover of trees. She hated lurking from afar. She’d done enough of that to last her a lifetime. But she had no choice.

Jazz pushed aside a pine branch. Two sheriff’s cars screeched to a halt in front of the cabin. Help had finally arrived for Nick and Anna. The controlled rage humming through Luke should have terrified her, except she could just as easily murder the woman who had taken Joy. She’d never been more terrified in her life—not for herself, but for that little girl. She might not be mother material, but she knew she’d sacrifice her life for Luke’s child. She might have to.

“Do you think Steve will make it?” she asked.

“He didn’t look good,” Luke said. “He’s lost a lot of blood.”

“I can’t believe he betrayed us both. How could we not have seen it?”

“I knew his family ties, and he still fooled me.” Luke shoved his HK into its holster. “Grace didn’t know. She would’ve told me.”

“Do you think he and Tower were working together?”

“We may never know. If Paretti dies, the investigation dies. Hopefully I can convince Grace to go into witness protection. But for now, the trail to Joy leads south. That’s the mission.” His face had turned to stone, his eyes focused, readying himself for battle.

“To the redheaded woman in Truth or Consequences. To my past. She has a lot to answer for.”

“Seth’s on the Matthews search. Hopefully he’ll find something so we can gain an advantage.” Luke watched as an ambulance pulled up. “I don’t want to leave Mom and Nick, but Caleb will be here soon, and Joy needs me more. We don’t have time to answer questions, and we can’t afford for you to be arrested. We’ve got to get to T or C.” Luke took one last glance back, and the pine tree branch snapped into place. “I should have sent them farther away.”

“It’s not your fault. I’m the one to blame. Me and my past. I just refused to recognize it.” This was the true reason they could never be together. She hurt everyone she cared about.

But that didn’t matter now. Nothing mattered except getting Joy back safely to her father.

They trekked through the brush to their car, and Luke pounded his fist against the side of the SUV. “Steve was the man following you in the Pinto, not Tower. I should have clued in that day outside the sheriff’s office when he pocketed the cigarette butt. I knew he had a closet smoking habit. I let my own expectations rule me. I was looking for the facts, not the truth.”

Luke wrenched open the door of his SUV. “Come on, we’ve got to find a way to get to T or C fast, and driving is not the answer.”

Jazz hopped in the vehicle and buckled up. “What are you thinking?”

“Regular airline won’t get us to T or C, but we can still fly. There’s a small airstrip not too far where Zach parks his plane when he visits here. Dad used to hang out and shoot the breeze with some of his retired army buddies. One of the pilots must have a plane we can charter.”

Luke’s SUV raced down the road through Kremmling toward McElroy Airfield. His hands gripped the steering wheel, and he held onto his control by a thread. Jazz checked Seth’s weapon and pocketed the Beretta. They would be ready when they landed.

Minutes later, the SUV skidded to a halt in the dirt parking lot. They jumped out of the car and hurried toward the entrance to the small airport.

Luke yanked open the squeaky door. The counter in front of them stood deserted, but to the left four grizzled figures sat drinking coffee and studying a chessboard on the table between the sofas.

A man with a face that looked like it’d been carved by a bottle of Jim Beam limped toward them. “Can I help you folks?”

“My name is Luke Montgomery.” He nodded toward Jazz and raised his voice so everyone in the place could hear it. “We need to get to Truth or Consequences, New Mexico, and we need to get there fast. It’s an emergency. My three-year-old daughter has been kidnapped.”

The men gasped, and one pointed toward his chess challenger. “Ace here has a Piper Lance.”

A man in his late fifties with a Special Forces tattoo on one arm quickly rose. “It’s the fastest bird here.”

Not even looking at the board, Ace took a knight with his bishop. “Checkmate.” He turned to Luke. “You say your girl’s in trouble?”

“Yes.”

Ace strode to the chart on the wall showing U.S. air space. He whipped a string weighted with a fishing line from the side of the board and pinned it at a large dot on Kremmling, Colorado, to south-central New Mexico. “About four hundred nautical miles.” He turned to Luke. “Three hours give or take.”

“Will you fly us? Now?”

The man nodded. “Give me a second to check the weather, and we’ll go. Anything for Patrick Montgomery’s son. He saved my life more than once when we were in the First Recon Marine Battalion.”

Luke stared at the man. “Dad wasn’t in the marines.”

Ace ignored Luke, pointedly going about his business. Jazz’s cop instincts kicked in. There was a story there.

After a few hurried clicks of the keyboard and mouse, the pilot raised his head. “Weather’s ‘severe clear’ so we’re in good shape. Flight time will be three hours, nine minutes. Let’s go, Montgomery. You and your lady will be my first passengers in a while.”

A few minutes later the plane roared to a start and sped down the runway.

“Kremmling Traffic. Lance 810 Hotel Lima. Taking the active runway 27 departing to the south.”

The plane rose into the air, climbing straight up and over the mountains. They were off.

“Hang on, Joy,” Jazz whispered into the clouds. “Your daddy’s coming.”

The past and the present were about to collide.

Three hours had never taken so long. By the time they reached the Truth or Consequences Municipal Airport, Luke was in full battle mode and ready to climb through the windshield of the plane. He pushed aside his worry and focused on his only task. To protect his daughter.

Ace had arranged for them to borrow the airport’s loaner car so they hadn’t wasted any time finding transportation. The Caravan’s shocks were shot, but it drove, and Luke didn’t give a damn about comfort at the moment.