Secret Identity (27 page)

A man’s voice answered. A familiar voice. “Pizza City. Takeout or delivery?”

Gripping the phone more tightly, Rick swallowed a profanity.

It was Alexander Quinn.

Chapter Sixteen

“Where’s Amanda, Quinn?” Rick growled into the phone.

Quinn’s calm voice answered, “Don’t interfere, Cooper.”

Anger rose in Rick’s chest. “Is she in danger?”

“Of course. But she’s trained to handle danger.”

“She’s with Damon North?”

Quinn didn’t answer.

“I know she is. What is he planning to do?”

“He’s not really using her as bait. He just needs her with him as backup in case things go wrong.”

Rick couldn’t tell if Quinn was telling the truth or not. A liar that accomplished was hard enough to read face-to-face. Over the phone, Rick didn’t have a chance in hell of seeing through the subterfuge.

“If something happens to her, Quinn, I will hunt you down and kill you myself.”

“Or die trying.”

“If that’s what it takes.”

The line went dead on Quinn’s end of the call. Rick slapped his phone shut, uttering a low profanity.

“Who was on the phone?” Jesse’s voice behind him made him jerk with surprise. He turned and found his brother in the open doorway, his arms folded and his eyes watchful.

“Alexander Quinn. His phone number was in the bottom of her bag. I think she’s been in contact with him.”

“Did he tell you anything?”

“Only that Damon North doesn’t actually intend to use her as bait.”

“What does that mean?”

“I don’t know.” Rick raked his hands through his hair, feeling stymied. “If he’s not using her for bait, what’s he using her for? Quinn says it’s for backup, but I don’t see how that makes any sense at all.”

Megan stuck her head through the door, pushing Jesse aside. “I just called Aaron—reported an abduction so the sheriff’s department can set up roadblocks. It may not keep them from getting out of the county, but it’ll make it harder. Meanwhile, we can cover the areas where there aren’t any roadblocks.”

Rick grabbed his sister’s arms and gave her a swift kiss on the forehead. Their cousin Aaron, a deputy sheriff, would understand the urgency, given his family’s experiences with the SSU. “You’re a genius, Meggie. Thanks.”

“Y’all? I think I may have found something.” Isabel’s voice floated in from the living room.

Rick, Jesse and Megan returned to the other room and joined their siblings around Isabel’s computer. “What?” Rick asked.

“This is the back view of the Subaru—from the parking lot camera. What do you see in the back there?” Isabel pointed to a zoomed-in view of the Subaru’s back hatch.

“That’s a tent,” Wade said.

“So he’s planning on doing some camping?” Shannon asked.

“Gossamer Mountain,” Jesse said. “Best camping spot around here, and Damon spent a little time there year before last when he was on the MacLear SSU team sent after Abby and Luke.”

Rick pulled out his phone again and dialed his cousin’s cell phone. Luke answered on the third ring. “What’s up, Rick?”

Rick caught him up on the recent events. “We think Damon’s taken her up Gossamer Mountain. You were with him when everything went down before—any idea where he’d go?”

“There’s a cabin up there—up near the big bluff overlooking the lake—that’s where Abby and I stayed while we were hiding from the SSU.”

“I know the bluff—there’s a cabin there now?”

“Yeah. Jake and Gabe helped Dad build a bunch of cabins on our property in the mountains. You should take the two of them with you. They’re the best trackers in the family. Want me to call them?”

Having his cousins along as guides might be a big help, Rick realized. “Have them meet me at the marina.” Rick said goodbye and turned to the others. “Jake and Gabe are coming with me.”

“We’ll come, too,” Wade said.

“No.” Jesse shook his head. “Too many of us, we might spook the people looking for Amanda. We don’t want to stumble into people who have no problem shooting first and asking questions later.”

Jesse was right. They needed to keep a low profile until they knew more about what was going on. “I may need y’all to back me up if all hell breaks loose,” Rick said.

“You’ve got us,” Jesse said firmly.

Rick looked at his brothers and sisters, an unexpected lump forming in his throat. He hadn’t realized just how much he’d missed them while he was roaming the world.

Or how damned much he needed them now.

“I’VE TOLD THEM YOU’RE staying in the cabin at the top of this bluff.” Damon kept his voice low, although so far, they’d seen no sign of any other people in the woods that blanketed Gossamer Mountain.

Amanda peered up the steep slope of the bluff, wondering how on earth she was supposed to get up there in time to help Damon if he needed her. He’d provided her with a small handheld two-way radio—one burst of static would be their signal if he needed her to move in; two bursts meant his plan had worked and she should make herself scarce.

And three bursts would mean get the hell out of Dodge and call the cops.

“You’re not going up that slope,” she stated flatly. “You’ll be a sitting duck.”

“No, I’ll circle around. I’m going to meet them there and tell them that I’ve just learned the Coopers moved you only hours ago.”

“You really think that’s going to convince them you’re a valuable man to have on their side?” she muttered. “To me, it sounds more like you’re a big screwup.”

He shot her a look of annoyance. “I suppose you have a better idea, spygirl?”

She returned the annoyed look. “Yeah. Putting me in the cabin before they arrived and sending in a CIA paramilitary team to take them out when they came after me.”

“You know why we can’t involve the CIA in this.”

She sighed. “You don’t even have a guess who’s pulling the strings at the CIA? It would have to be someone fairly high up.”

“Yeah, that’s what Quinn thinks. But we don’t have enough evidence to justify siccing a congressional panel on their backsides, so we’re just going to have to do it Quinn’s way. Do you think you can climb the bluff if necessary?”

She gazed up and assessed her chances. Even with the injury to her arm, she should be able to do it. “Yeah.”

Damon started walking away, heading to the east, where the land rose at a less steep angle.

Amanda peered up the slope. Damon was wrong—no way would she be able to reach him in time to be any sort of help to him if she had to start out at the bottom of the slope. She glanced in the direction Damon had gone and saw he’d disappeared from sight, swallowed by the forest’s thick spring growth. She looked back up at the top of the bluff at least twenty feet over her head.

Muttering a low profanity, she started climbing the steep face of the rocky bluff, finding handholds in embedded boulders and exposed tree roots. She tried to move as quietly as possible, knowing that if the former SSU agents were already above, near the cabin, a wrong move on her part could bring all kinds of hell raining down on her.

Near the top of the bluff was a shallow ledge that allowed her to stand and take a quick peek over the edge. Easing herself up until her eyes were level with the top of the bluff, she took a quick look around.

The cabin was larger than she expected, two stories high plus a gabled roof that appeared to house a small attic at the top. She could see only the back of the structure, but by craning her head to her left, she could also see along the side of the house to catch a glimpse of a porch railing at the front of the cabin. It looked like a lovely place for a vacation.

She hadn’t been on a decent vacation in about a decade.

“WE APPROACH THE CABIN on three sides,” Rick told his cousins as they gathered at the base of Gossamer Mountain about a mile south of the cabin where Luke and Abby Cooper, with the help of Damon North, had made a stand against a two-pronged attack from both a brutal drug lord and the SSU agents sent to retrieve evidence Abby’s late husband had gathered against them. “Keep a lookout for the SSU agents—there may be more of them than last time, if our experience in Tennessee is anything to go by.”

“Aaron’s ready to send a dozen deputies for backup,” Jake said.

“Kristen, too,” Gabe added. His sister-in-law Kristen was a Gossamer Ridge police officer. “She’s on our speed dial.”

“Right now, I’m most interested in getting to Amanda and getting her out of the line of fire,” Rick said. “Dealing with the SSU is secondary.”

“Jake and I discussed the best approaches,” Gabe said. “I’m going to go up the back way, climbing the bluff.”

“He’s the better climber,” Jake agreed. “I’ll come up from the east, and you come from the west. The north approach is too open—the woods there are thinner, since it was cleared out for the access road.”

“Okay.”

“You remember how to get there?” Gabe asked with a wry grin. “You’ve been out of Chickasaw County a long time.”

“I used to out-track both of your sorry butts when we were kids,” Rick shot back with a grin. “You should worry about me showing the two of you up with my hiking skills.”

“Okay, phones on low vibrate. Put ’em somewhere you can feel the buzz.” Jake waggled his phone and shoved it inside the breast pocket of his camouflage T-shirt. “You got us on speed dial, right?”

“Yep.” Rick shoved the phone in his own T-shirt pocket. “I owe you guys.”

“Don’t talk about debts until we get your girl out of this mess alive,” Gabe said seriously. “I know you’re worried, but from what Luke tells us about Damon, he’s not going to betray her. If he can keep her safe, he will.”

Rick wanted to believe Gabe was right. But he wasn’t sure it mattered—even if Damon wanted to keep Amanda safe, there was no way to guarantee he could.

He parted company with his cousins, heading around to approach the cabin from the west. The climb was a gentle slope made a little more difficult by the tangled underbrush that lay like an impenetrable obstacle course across the forest floor. He’d been hiking for what felt like an hour—but turned out to be only ten minutes—when his phone vibrated against his chest.

Hunkering down, he checked the text message from Jake. 3 men in camo. Big guns. Heading W toward target. Lying low. Chk email.

Rick checked his email and found that Jake had emailed a picture taken by the cell phone. His breath caught as he saw how close his cousin must have been to one of the men.

Then his breath hitched again when he recognized the man in the photo as Salvatore Beckett.

He looked around slowly, suddenly feeling like a sitting duck. He saw no movement, but that didn’t mean there weren’t SSU agents all around him.

He edged closer to the nearest tree and rose, scanning the woods again. No sign of movement. No sounds. Nothing.

He began creeping forward again, one hand settling on the butt of his Walther. The top of the cabin was just visible through the trees about a hundred yards ahead.