Defenseless, p.14
Defenseless, page 14
“And the second time?” he asked.
She couldn’t help it, she snorted. “Sorry, it’s just that the second time around wasn’t so easy. I’m sure you’ll be shocked to hear that some locations, like Bryce or Devon, also make good names. However, most do not. It took me several days to find a name I wanted.”
“I’m sorry you had to change your name at all, but Sabina suits you,” he said. “I haven’t known you as anything else, but still, it suits. It’s a strong name but also unique and pretty.” He paused then added, “No, it’s more than pretty, it’s elegant.”
Sabina wasn’t sure she was those things. She’d been told before that she was attractive, and she had a mirror to see for herself. But no one had ever put those characteristics together to describe her. That it was Chad who’d done so caused a hint of heat to creep up her neck. She didn’t think he could see her reaction, but she turned and looked out the window just in case.
Groves of tall pines bumped up against the asphalt, lining their way even as they cast the road into shadow. With every passing mile, she was acutely aware of every way she’d failed Chad. Failed them. Only a few hours earlier, she’d nearly destroyed the man she loved with her careless words in the diner. And that was just the beginning of a long list of her transgressions.
And yet he’d allowed her into his home and listened to her story. He’d spoken to her about his family, shared the secret of the tunnel, and asked more questions about her. His character and strength humbled her. She wanted to believe his openness meant she hadn’t irreparably harmed their friendship. Even if she didn’t deserve it.
“You’re awfully quiet over there,” Chad said.
Not wanting to share her train of thought—not yet, anyway—she asked, “What’s next? Once we get to HICC?”
It turned out there was not a lot that was “next” when they arrived at HICC. Ava had left a bag of clothes for her in the upstairs apartment at the cabin. She’d also left a note telling Sabina that she was sleeping in the guest room in Colton’s downstairs apartment and that they had a lot to cover in the morning.
Ethan had also texted Chad to let him know they’d be tied up long into the night. One of the men who’d come onto the property had escaped. One had been shot in the leg and taken to the hospital. The third was dead. Sabina had no idea who the men were, but since they were likely there on Kevin Jacobs’s orders, she didn’t feel bad about the two who hadn’t walked away.
Settling into one of the guest rooms—alone—Sabina wasn’t sure sleep would come easily. But human bodies were funny that way. Much to her surprise, when she woke, the October sun was streaming into the room and she remembered nothing after crawling into bed.
But it wasn’t her bed or her room. A moment’s disorientation, like a touch of vertigo, swirled in her head as she remained burrowed under the covers. After several moments, she forced her eyelids open and looked around. When her gaze landed on the curtainless window, with its views of the tall pines, everything came flooding back. Throwing off the blankets, she quickly changed into a pair of jeans and a lightweight sweater. As soon as she opened the door of her room, she smelled coffee and heard the low, comforting rumble of Chad’s voice. She hadn’t thought he’d leave her—at least not without saying goodbye or leaving a note—but her shoulders slumped with relief that he was still nearby.
He looked up when she entered the kitchen and smiled. He was leaning against the old slab wood counter, coffee in hand and phone to his ear. He jerked his head in the direction of the coffeepot. She flashed him a grateful smile before grabbing a mug and pouring herself a cup.
“Nothing yet, though?” Chad asked whoever he was talking to. “No, I get it. Just anxious. I know we all are.” He paused to listen then spoke again. “Sabina is up now. We’ll head over to the office in a few minutes. We can continue this then.” He murmured something else then ended the call.
“Everything okay?” she asked, mirroring his position but on the other side of the kitchen.
“Ethan and Teague were cleared to leave the scene late last night. Officially, the shooting was ruled self-defense.”
Sabina raised her brows. “Officially?”
Chad inclined his head. “It was self-defense. We have the cameras to show that the three men fired first. They might have been a little provoked, but they definitely shot first.”
Sabina had an image of Ethan in the forest, taunting the intruders like the French knights from Monty Python and the Holy Grail. She smiled. She doubted it had gone down quite like that, but she liked the idea of it so didn’t ask any further questions.
“Glad to hear that. What about the one who got away?”
Chad shrugged. “Intentional. We wanted to let one go to make sure the message got back to Jacobs.”
She frowned as she raised her cup for another sip of coffee. “What message?”
“That you aren’t alone anymore,” he answered. “That you have powerful people protecting you.”
His eyes had met and held hers as he’d spoken the words. As if it was as important to him that she believed them as it was for Jacobs to. Slowly, she nodded.
“You forgot one thing,” she said.
“Yeah? What’s that?”
“I’m one of those powerful people.” A pleased smile broke across his features at her statement. She set her empty mug in the sink then turned to him. “I’m going to grab some food to go and then we can head to the office. We have a few things to sort out today.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Chad reached for a file on the conference room table as Ava wrapped Sabina in a hug. The younger woman towered over her boss, but neither seemed to find the height difference uncomfortable.
“You get any sleep last night?” Ethan asked, taking a seat to Chad’s right.
“Enough. You?”
Ethan lifted a shoulder. “Enough,” he echoed.
Teague, Tucker, and Colton made their way to seats, then the rest of Sabina’s team filed in. Leo and Collin were the only ones in the room unaware of the prior evening’s events. Both looked more curious than concerned about the early-morning company meeting, though.
When everyone was finally seated, Colton turned to Sabina. “Why don’t you give Leo and Collin the quick rundown. Then we can jump to why we’re all here now and what our plan is going to be.”
Sabina’s body drew back. Chad suspected that her hesitation, and the flash of fear in her eyes, stemmed from habit. Having someone so bluntly tell her to reveal secrets she’d kept for years had caught her off guard.
As if sensing her need to gather herself together, the room stayed quiet. Her attention swept over everyone before finally landing on him. Sitting across from her, he held her gaze and hoped she saw the support that he offered. Support that was hers to take or not.
After a beat, she nodded then turned to speak to her two colleagues. In less than eight minutes, she gave them the facts of her past and her assumptions about the present. When she finished, she turned to Ethan and asked him to step in. “I know what we think about the ambush and intruders, but you three might have some actual facts.”
“We have the shell casings from the ambush, and Mystery Lake PD is running a comparison,” Ethan said. “We think they’ll be a match for a sniper rifle we lifted off one of the intruders last night. It was the right kind of ammo for that weapon, but we’ll let the tests confirm.”
Sabina nodded and he continued.
“We have prints from two of the intruders that the police lab is running through IAFIS. I forwarded them to Ava, too, and she’ll start looking in our systems. There’s overlap, of course, between HICC and Mystery Lake PD, but HICC has more resources. We may have better—or if not better, faster—luck.”
Chad cast a glance at Ava. “I put them into the computer just before this meeting,” she answered his unasked question. “We may have something by the time we’re done here.”
“Good,” Colton said, stepping into the fray. “Hopefully we get a hit or two, but in the meantime, we need the three of you to start picking apart Kevin Jacobs’s life.” He pointed to Sabina’s team as he spoke. “I want to know everything from his travel schedule to his credit card expenses to where he likes to eat for breakfast. You name it, we want it.”
“Four of us,” Sabina interjected. When everyone looked at her, she clarified. “You said ‘the three of you.’ There are four of us on the cyber intelligence team.”
Colton paused then nodded. “There are, of course. But there’s something else we thought you might want to do.”
Sabina’s gaze skittered to Chad before returning to Colton. “What’s that?”
“You said you thought your uncle might have found something just before he was killed,” Colton said.
“I did say that, and I do think that,” Sabina replied.
“Gina O’Rourke had everything in his house boxed and put into storage within hours of his death,” Colton said. “She pulled some spook-strings and claimed it was best for national security. Locked them up tight enough that Jacobs couldn’t get to them.”
Sabina blinked. “You talked to Gina? When did you do that? I don’t recall her ever telling me that. Why wouldn’t she tell me that?”
Colton shrugged. “She says she did. Maybe you were still in shock from his death. Or from the subsequent attempt on your life and murder of your boyfriend. But she said she did tell you. And yes, we called her last night after you left here. Had a nice long chat. She’s retired now and was even talking about coming out to visit.”
Sabina frowned in thought. “We should keep her out of this. Especially if she’s retired,” she said. “I do vaguely remember her telling me about a storage unit. I guess I blocked it out, or maybe it just didn’t fully register at the time.”
“Shock can do that,” Chad said, drawing her attention to him. He wanted to reach out and take her hand but stopped himself. Not only was she sitting across a four-foot table, but the two of them still had a few things to work out between them.
“What’s the plan with the storage unit, then?” she asked, swinging her gaze back to Colton.
“I want you and Chad to go pick up the contents,” he answered. “It’s in a place a few miles outside Memphis. You can take Bertha. She’s small, but also the fastest plane we have. Based on what Gina told us last night, everything you’d want to bring back should fit.”
Again, her gaze slid to his, as if checking to see if he was okay with the decision. He gave her a tiny nod, and she turned back to Colton. “Fine. When do we leave?”
“We’ve got the pilot getting the plane ready. Before you go, though, I want to follow up with you on something you told us last night.”
To her credit, she didn’t hesitate. “Anything.”
A hint of a smile flashed across Ethan’s lips, and he turned toward Chad and discreetly wiggled an eyebrow. Chad wasn’t the only one who noticed Sabina’s about-face. Now that she was committed to this new path, it didn’t surprise him that she was fully committed.
“You said that Jacobs was muttering something about if your mother had only given him what he’d asked for. And then, when you walked into the room, he was going through her desk. Do you have any idea what he wanted from her or what he thought he might be able to find?” Colton asked.
Sabina stilled and held Colton’s gaze. When she spoke, though, it wasn’t to answer. “I know the solution to that puzzle is somewhere in the past. And I promise you, I will give it thought. But before I get to that, I want to talk about two recent events. I wasn’t intending to hide them last night. With everything else going on, they honestly slipped my mind.” She paused and waited for Colton to gesture for her to continue. “There was a reason for my sudden change of plans to move here. On that topic, Chad was right.” She reached into her canvas bag, the same one he’d rescued from her Jeep last night, and pulled out a ziplock bag. She glanced at it then slid it over to Chad.
He picked up what looked like one of those free postcards that shops give away. This one was from a distillery in Kentucky, and it listed the name, website, and phone number. Turning it over, his body jolted.
Found you
That’s all it said.
Chad looked to Sabina as he handed the bag to Colton. “When did that arrive? And how?”
“The day before we left for Mystery Lake. Someone slid it under the door of my apartment while I was out on my morning run,” she answered. “I’ve been carrying it around ever since.”
His nerves prickled and crawled. No wonder she’d changed her plans and hightailed it off the East Coast. “Any idea how he found you?” he asked. There was no question the card was from Kevin Jacobs. The front image, with its ties to Kentucky, ensured Sabina would have no doubt.
She inclined her head. “You remember that fundraiser a couple of months ago? The one when HICC provided extra security for Stella, Hunter, Beni, Cal, and all the kids?”
Chad nodded. Stella’s brother, Calvin, and his wife, Benita Ricci, had twins who were a few months younger than Mateo. Beni had been an FBI agent prior to marrying the vice president and was the reason HICC had recruited him.
“What fundraiser?” Teague asked. Chad glanced at the man, somewhat surprised. Not at the question per se, but that he’d asked anything. He and his brother, Tucker, tended to be on the quiet side. Then again, when you were built like Teague and Tucker, Chad imagined their mere presence said quite enough.
“It was the opening of a new children’s garden and play park,” Sabina answered. “The couples wanted to bring the kids. It was a good day, but the event was out in the open, and Cal wanted more security.” She glanced at Chad, no doubt remembering the kidnapping attempts on him and his cousin. “He hired us to supplement his team.”
“But you’re not a field operative. If the senator was there, how would he have even seen you?” Chad asked. He hadn’t been there that day, as he’d been on a job down in Savannah.
“I was in the van, but after everyone left, I got out to gather my equipment,” Sabina answered. “It’s the only thing I can think of.” The surveillance van was her portable command center back in DC. She hadn’t taken it out often, but when she had, the things she could see and hear were astonishing.
“Providing additional visuals?” Ethan asked.
Sabina nodded. “We had some extra cameras and things like that in place. A few silent drones as well. Once everyone was gone, I left the van to collect it all. I also chatted with a couple of the operatives. If Jacobs was there, and I assume he was since it was such a big political event, he could have seen me then. It’s probably also how he connected me to HICC and found me here,” she added.
Chad agreed. In fact, he was kind of amazed she hadn’t run into Jacobs before that event. Sabina had lived in DC for over a decade, and Jacobs was a second-term senator. She might not be in the field often, but over the six years she’d been at HICC, he had to believe it was more than once or twice.
“We need an evidence person,” Chad said to Colton.
Colton studied the postcard that had made its way to him. “I agree. In the meantime, I can send this to the DC office. We can have the pilot drop you off in Memphis, hop up to DC, then come back and get you.”
It would be a lot of flying, but doable. And the DC office had a full lab staffed by four scientists. “Sounds good, thanks,” Chad said. “Now what was the second thing?” he asked Sabina.
“This,” she said, handing him a piece of folded-up paper.
He took it, unfolded it, and scanned the grainy image of a brown-haired man. Raising his gaze, he looked to Sabina in question.
“I went to see my sister yesterday. It was the first time I’ve seen her in three years, but she wanted to meet because of that man,” she said.
Chad looked at the picture again. The pixelation on the enlarged photo made it hard to see anything but the vaguest of features.
“Who is he?” he asked.
“I don’t know,” Sabina answered. “But he was at a conference with Kara and was asking around about her. The company who hosted the meeting uploaded several images to their website and she found him in the background of one.”
“I can take that,” Ava said, leaning across the table to take the picture. Chad handed it over. There was no point in showing it to Colton, Ethan, or the others since it wouldn’t tell them anything.
“The name of the conference is on the back,” Sabina said to her team. “Kara thought I might be able to get a better picture. And an ID.”
“We can,” Leo and Collin said at the same time. Ava had handed them the paper, and they were both looking at it.
“We can also look through the hotel CCTV,” Collin said. Or at least that’s what Chad thought he said. He was sitting across the table and down a few people, so it was a stretch to hear him.
Ava nodded. “Leave this and the fingerprints with us, we’ll take care of it. We’ll also start taking apart Jacobs’s life. And of course, let us know if there’s more that we can do.”
Colton’s phone dinged and he hit the Answer button. “Yeah…great, send them in,” he said, then hung up.
“Who else is coming?” Sabina asked, glancing around the table. There were six operatives in total, but only three of them were in the room. Chad didn’t think the other three were the subject of the call, though. If it had been them at the gate, the guard wouldn’t have needed to check with Colton.
“Give me a few minutes and you’ll see. Gina O’Rourke sent all the files she collected over the years. We’ll go over those,” Colton said, gesturing to himself, Ethan, Tucker, and Teague. “Ava, Leo, and Collin will work the cyber angle while you and Chad head to Memphis. Between those leads, and anything Ryan and his team get from the guy in the hospital, we have enough to keep us busy for today.”
“And tomorrow? What about tomorrow?” Sabina asked.
“Tomorrow we start to bring Jacobs down,” Chad answered.
Sabina looked at him, her expression inscrutable, and yet he recognized the look. She wanted what he said to be true. She hoped it would be. But it would be devastating if they failed. He didn’t know what failure would look like, but he knew she was worried about it. “How about we get back to Colton’s original question,” he said. Having her mind spiral down the path it looked to be going wouldn’t be helpful to anyone, let alone Sabina. “Do you have any idea what your mom had that Jacobs wanted?”
