Читать книгу Silent Night Pursuit - Katy Lee - Страница 13

THREE

“Merry Christmas.” Wade pulled away from the drive-through doughnut shop, passing over a steaming paper cup to Lacey. Her long dark lashes blinked over her sleep-fogged eyes as she roused from her slumber with a wide yawn. She looked at the cup in his hand quizzically. “Coffee,” he said. “Black. I figured that’s the way you liked it.”

She arched a dark eyebrow at his presumption of her drink tastes, but quickly unhooked her arm from his uncle’s makeshift sling so she could grab the warm cup in both hands. She averted her gaze to the passenger window while she sipped. Her deep sigh proved he’d been dead on about the not-so-dainty Lacey’s coffee tastes.

“Thank you,” she mumbled after another sip, her deep Southern voice resonating through the cabin. Such a strong voice for a small woman, he thought. But it was good that she was small. As it was, her legs were plastered to the door because Promise and her seventy-pound frame took up most of the confined space. Wade was glad to see Lacey give the dog room, even if that meant an uncomfortable ride for herself. “And I guess I should say Merry Christmas to you, too. I suppose this is not how you planned on spending the holiday, or your military leave, for that matter. Not that I care.” She turned his way, her chin lifted. “Because I don’t.”

With his view to the road, he hoped she couldn’t see him suppress a smile. “Of course not. Why would you? But let me set the record straight, just so you don’t lose any more sleep over my missed holiday, while you’re not caring, of course. They’re not my plans. They’re my sister’s. I’d just as soon have stayed on base. So my plans didn’t work out anyway this year.”

“I always say making plans is useless,” she said, taking another sip. “Just go unless God tells you no. That’s my motto.”

Wade huffed at her silly remark. “No offense, Lacey, but I don’t think your motto’s working for you.”

“Offense taken. You don’t know anything about me.” She took off the handkerchief and tossed it at him. He picked it up off his lap and stuffed it into his combat jacket’s bottom-right pocket. Apparently, he’d touched on some nerve, but why stop there?

“I know all I need to know about you. You came north on Christmas Eve with nothing but a key and not a thought to what you might be venturing into. You were nearly killed because of your ‘just go’ motto, and yet, you put yourself right back into the line of fire for a glimpse at some shiny cars. In the army, we have a term for people like you. Liability.”

“Now, see, I like to think of it more as quick-witted. After all, you’re here right where I wanted you. When I showed up on your doorstep, you weren’t going to give me the time of day. Just admit it. ‘Go home,’ you said. Now you’re stuck in a car with me while I interrogate you to my heart’s content. I’d say my motto is working out just fine.” She blew at the steaming cup and turned to her window, mumbling, “Just don’t tell my mother.”

Wade eyed the back of her silky hair. It was knotted a bit from sleeping on it all night. He wished he had a comb for her. A cough escaped his throat at his outlandish thought. Promise lifted her head to assess his well-being. To assure her he was fine, Wade jumped back into the conversation. “Your mom doesn’t see things your way, I take it. I think I like her.”

“You would.” Lacey swung to face him again. Her hair fell in a huge chocolaty curl over her shoulder.

Again with the hair, he thought. He was so used to grooming Promise on a daily basis, he must be going soft.

Lacey put out her free hand. “Speaking of which, may I use your phone? My parents are going to be expecting me for Christmas dinner tonight, and I don’t see that happening now.”

Wade’s attention drifted from her outstretched hand to her expectant face as her words registered. When they did, he barked out a laugh. “See what I mean? Your motto’s not working for you. You thought you’d be home for Christmas dinner after driving up the East Coast one day and back down the next? That made sense to you?”

She pursed her lips in irritation. “Just give me the phone.”

“Can’t. Chucked it.”

Her hand dropped. “What do you mean you chucked it?”

“It’s called Planning Ahead 101. Let me enlighten you. These aren’t your street gangs doing drive-bys. For us to move forward safely, we must think strategically not only with our strategies, but theirs. That means lose anything they can even remotely trace us with. So sayonara, phone.”

Lacey put her coffee in the cup holder and sagged against the hand-stitched leather seat with a sound of defeat. Promise, sensing turmoil around her, immediately stirred and pushed to a sitting position. Wade reached out to touch her so she would feel that he was fine, but before he did, Promise brought her paws to Lacey’s lap and rested there with imploring eyes.

Wade felt his mouth drop. Promise had never tried to comfort anyone besides him. Wade wasn’t jealous; he was just surprised. He watched to see if it would work, and sure enough, a few absent strokes from Lacey and Promise had succeeded with her mission—to calm her down.

And Lacey didn’t even realize it.

That part Wade was jealous of. He wished Promise always succeeded with him like that, but there were times...

“Fine.” Lacey broke into Wade’s dispiriting thoughts. “I get it. Phone’s gone. It’s for our own protection. I’ll find a pay phone or something.”

“Your parents’ phone most likely has a trace. You can’t call anyone.”

Lacey’s face crumpled in an instant. “You’re serious. This is bad.”

“Your brother is dead. You tell me.”

Lacey glanced out the window to the late-morning sun rising up from Virginia’s eastern seaboard. “I can’t tell you anything because you won’t tell me anything. How can I plan ahead when all I have is a key?”

“All right, Questions. What do you want to know?”

“First, I want to know who these people chasing me are.”

“I don’t have that answer because I, myself, don’t know.”

“Then, how do you know they can track us?”

“Because they found your brother when it was his business not to be found. Your brother was a research analyst in the United States Army’s counterintelligence department. Do you know what that entails? Let me enlighten you. Gathering intelligence under the radar.”

“So you think he died because of something he knew.”

“I know he died because of something he knew.”

“Did it have something to do with the army?”

“No. It had something to do with me. I meant it when I said I killed him. I may not have caused the explosion, but I set the fuse when I asked him for help.” Wade gripped the steering wheel and took the next turn for a parking area. He shut the car down and kept his eyes in the rearview mirror. After thirty seconds, a black Lincoln slowly drove by. He kept the info to himself. No need to cause Lacey to make more panicked decisions. She may think she made her choices calm and collected, or quick-witted, as she touted, but her past choices weren’t life-and-death as they were now.

“Where are we?” she asked.

“Train station. There’s a locker inside that the key belongs to. Jeff and I used it as a dead drop.”

“What’s that?”

“When two people want to pass information to one another without being seen together, they can establish a place to leave the intel.”

“Intel? Why does this all sound like some sort of spy mission? Wait. Was Jeff a spy?” The idea looked as if it was about to make her head implode. Wade knew the feeling.

“Not Jeff. He was just helping me get information on the side.” Wade swallowed hard. Once he told Lacey all he knew, she would be in so much danger. But as of last night, she was a target anyway. Whether she knew it or not, she was a dead woman by just being near him. “Your brother wasn’t the spy, Lacey. The spy was my mother. And apparently, she’s still killing people from her grave. I’m sorry to tell you this, but you’re most likely next.”

* * *

Wade’s mother was a spy? For whom? Lacey puzzled over this while they hustled toward the train station. She had never known anyone who was a spy, or even knew someone who knew someone. She supposed they were out there, but that world was so far out of her reality, it seemed as if it belonged to Hollywood. Except the bullets that came her way last night weren’t blanks, and for someone to use real bullets on her, they obviously didn’t want some secret to get out. She wished she could tell them she didn’t know anything, their secrets were safe. But she supposed now she did know something and that made her a liability to someone.

Liability. Just as Wade had referred to her. She didn’t want to let on, but his term for her hit hard. How many times had she heard her mother say Lacey would be the death of her?

Lacey swallowed hard and put it out of her mind for Wade’s ogre of a mother instead. “So all this cloak-and-dagger stuff has to do with your mom?”

“Not here,” Wade said with his hand at her lower back, pushing her toward the entrance. “We’ll talk later.”

Concern saturated his voice. She glanced back to see him searching the road to his left. “Are the shooters here? Did they find us? It was probably your driving. You should let me drive next time.”

“There won’t be a next time if we don’t keep moving.”

Lacey ducked deeper behind the collar of Clay’s suit coat as she picked up her step.

Promise barreled along with her, matching her stride, protecting her like a guard. Wade hadn’t even had to tell her to do so, the dog was so smart.

They reached the entrance door, but at someone’s yell to “Stop right there!” they halted in their tracks.

Lacey shot a look to her left, expecting to see one of the musclemen, but instead, she made contact with Wade’s muscled back in her face. He completely stepped in front of her, pushing her behind his wide frame as if she needed his protection. She may be small, but she could hold her own.

Lacey shifted to Wade’s right to see who shouted at them to stop. One look, and she saw a security guard headed their way. But one glance from Wade, and she knew he was about to blow his top.

“Get back behind me until I know it’s safe,” he said through clenched teeth.

“Just because I’m Jeff’s little sister, you don’t have to protect me. I’m tough, and he taught me everything I need to know to ward off danger.”

“This isn’t your little racetrack. The moment you left home to come see me, you put yourself on a much more dangerous course. One that puts me in a position to protect you. Now get behind me.” His blues blazed like ice.

Lacey slunk back behind him as the guard stepped up. “That dog can’t be in here.”

“She’s a service animal,” Wade replied, his voice monotone. “Where I go, she goes.”

“You don’t look disabled to me,” the guard said, and Lacey dropped her mouth in astonishment at the guy’s callous remark.

With every second of being kept hidden, Lacey felt her blood boil. A look to her feet and she could see the toe of her boot tapping. The next second, Promise nudged her clenched fist and grabbed her attention. Slowly, Lacey released her fingers to dig them into the dog’s soft golden-red fur. She watched her fuzzy eyebrows bounce, first one then the other. It reminded Lacey of a dancing caterpillar, and made her giggle. So quick, her anger simmered to a slow boil, then to nothing. There was just no getting angry around this animal. Promise offered so much love and made a person redirect their negativity into a positive response to return her love back to her.

“No, I don’t suppose I do,” Wade replied to the guard. He reached into his back blue-jeans pocket under his army coat and removed his wallet. Lacey could hear him flap out a folded piece of paper she could only assume he handed over to the guard to read.

Lacey thought he would say more about his PTSD injury, but he didn’t.

“We’re very strict about animals on the trains. Service animals only,” the guard said.

“As you can see by the document, she’s certified.”

That was all Wade planned to say? Lacey risked a glance from behind the patch on his upper right arm. The guard pored over the paper, obviously hoping for some falsification. She couldn’t stand here and allow this unfairness to go on. She had to speak her mind.

“This man is a captain in the US Army. He fought for you to keep your freedom. He has a right to have this dog to help him now.”

“Lacey,” Wade warned. “Not every battle is worth the fight.”

“Promise is worth it. And so are—” She stopped abruptly. The false words of affirmation stuck on her tongue. However indirectly, this man was responsible for her brother’s death.

“Not to worry. I know I’m not worth it.”

The guard handed the paper back. “Where’s the dog’s vest and leash?”

Wade reached into one of the many pockets of his coat and traded the paper for something red. “I have the vest here, but we had to leave in a hurry and the leash was forgotten.”

An excruciating amount of discretion time punctuated the conversation. Finally the guard said, “The dog should be on a leash...but since it’s Christmas, I’ll let it go. Just put the vest on her.”

Wade snapped the red service cape to Promise’s collar, then grabbed Lacey’s arm to move her forward, but the guard halted them again with “Hey, buddy.”

Wade turned back. “Yes?”

“Just so you know, I am thankful for your service.” The guard nodded and went back to his post.

Wade didn’t wait for any more interruptions. “We’ve got to move,” he said, hustling her forward.

He led the way down some stairs to a row of lockers against a wall. After a quick look around the near-empty station, he put out his hand for the key.

Lacey lifted it over her head and gave it to him. Locker number 726 accepted the key, and a quick turn later, the metal door swung wide with a creak and clatter.

“Any particular reason why you chose 726?” Lacey asked as Wade reached in for the sole contents.

Another envelope.

“It’s the month and date of the accident.”

“Your accident? The one that left you an orphan and your sister burned and your baby brother dead?”

His mouth dropped at all the information she already knew. “July 26. At 4:20 p.m., if you want all the details, Questions.”

“So you were investigating your accident and asked Jeff to help. Is he the one who told you your mother was a spy?”

“Shh.” He scanned around them and whispered, “No. I figured that out when I was eighteen. I found some information that told me my mom was not the person I thought she was. I found a collection of her aliases in one of her secret rooms. It was her Russian identities that had me leaving for the army the next day, needing to get away. But then one day I had this need to know what happened, who she really was. I thought if I did some investigating, it might make the images go away.”

“What kind of images?”

“Images you won’t understand, and shouldn’t. Anyway, that’s how I met your brother. He caught me snooping. When I told him why, he said he might be able to help. We set this locker up as a place to pass information without anyone knowing. Or thought we had anyway.”

Wade read the name written on the envelope. He lifted his head and showed it to her. “Except this is to you. Not me.”

“Me? But how would I know to come here for it? He left me the key and a piece of paper with your name on it. But there were no directions for the locker. If I hadn’t gone to find you, I wouldn’t have ever known it was here.”

“Acting first must be a pattern of yours he knows well.”

Lacey snatched the envelope. “So what? I’m driven. Some would say that’s a good quality to have.”

“If you have a death wish, sure.”

Lacey barely heard his remark because seeing her name scrawled on the front of the envelope written in Jeff’s handwriting nearly undid her. Tears sprang to her eyes as she realized this was the last letter Jeff wrote to her and would ever write again.

“Would you mind if I read this in private?” She looked at Wade over the paper, the feeling of moisture in her eyes.

Wade gave a quick nod. “I’ll be over by the stairs. Don’t take too long.” Promise followed her soldier, and as soon as Lacey heard the tap of his boots and the click of Promise’s claws fade away, she ripped open the envelope and withdrew the single-page letter.

The first words brought more tears to her eyes and clouded her vision so much she could barely read on. Her hands shook as Jeff stated that if she was reading this then he was dead. But nothing could stop her from reading on, not her tears and not the goons out there hunting her.

His words lectured her on getting along with Mama, but also told her to stay strong, and to remember everything he taught her. She wasn’t one of those dainty pieces of lace, he reminded her for the millionth time in her life. Lacey smiled at the words of her champion. What would she do without him cheering her on?

She exhaled and glanced at Wade, who was getting antsy by the stairs. Promise pushed against his thigh.

Lacey went back to the letter and read a part meant for him. Jeff wanted Wade to know he didn’t regret a thing. She read on, then dropped the letter to her side when the words ended too soon. Her brother signed off with a message for Wade to go home and to always remember words were powerful. Whatever that meant. Maybe something to do with his healing, Lacey thought. It would make sense that Jeffrey would encourage Wade to talk about his pain. The man seemed to keep everything in, especially whatever those images were that he’d mentioned.

Lacey gazed down at the bottom of the letter. A long line of numbers was scrawled there, but she had no idea what they meant, either.

“What does it say?” Wade caught her unaware. She hadn’t even heard his footsteps return.

Lacey held out the letter and held her breath as he read. He wasn’t going to like what Jeff had to say to him. After a minute of his own perusal, he looked back at her, befuddled.

“He wants me to go home and give up? I don’t believe it. We were getting so close.”

“And he got too close. Jeff obviously doesn’t want the same thing to happen to you.” She pointed to the letter. “What are those numbers at the bottom of the page? I don’t understand them.”

“They’re coordinates.” Wade handed the letter to her while he pushed some buttons on his watch. “Huh.”

“What? What did you do to your watch?” She stuffed the letter into Clay’s interior suit-coat pocket.

“I input the numbers to get the location.” He turned his wrist to show her the address that came up. “It’s my family’s racetrack.”

“Maybe it was Jeff’s way of telling you this was your home.”

Wade shook his head. “It’s best if I stay away from there.”

“Why?”

“You won’t get it.”

“Try me.”

Wade sighed and looked ready to bolt. This question affected him. Just when she thought he would take off, he surprised her and said, “I’m not whole, and that’s all I’m going to say. Now let’s get out of here.”

“Back to New Hampshire?”

“Back to square one.”

They retraced their steps in silence and exited the station with caution.

“It’s too quiet,” Wade whispered more to himself. “We should have heard or seen someone by now.”

“You sound disappointed.”

“I like being in control of the situation.”

They reached the halfway point to the car when Wade put an arm out to halt her and Promise. “The tires are flat. It’s a setup. Get back in the station now.”

Lacey and Promise turned tail on a dime and followed his orders. Wade went right up to the teller. He bought two tickets for the next train leaving the station in two minutes—going south.

“You better hurry or you won’t make it to the platform in time,” the teller said as he passed the tickets through the glass opening.

Wade didn’t wait for his change or to reply, but rushed them all through the station and out to the correct track.

The train waited on the empty platform; its doors would close on them any second. Lacey’s breath panted loudly in her ears. All their steps hit the walk like a stampede, but it was Wade who rushed ahead and made it to the door. He stopped it from closing with his hand. With all his might, he pushed it wide with one hand while he reached for Lacey with his other.

“Hurry!” he shouted. Quickly, his gaze went past her shoulder, his eyes narrowed and darkened. “Lacey! Run!”

Just then, Lacey felt a strong, beefy hand cover her mouth and yank her back into a hard chest, her feet dangling above the concrete. With her eyes on Wade, she never saw him coming. She’d been completely blindsided.

Lacey couldn’t see the man, but she could see Wade—and the look of conflict that washed over his face. He had two choices. Let go of the door, or let go of her.

She would tell him to hang on to the door if she could. She figured she would get out of the hold in just a second. A race-car driver had to be in top body shape to handle the strength of the cars and crashes. In the past, she’d climbed out of wrecked vehicles that were more constricted than this guy’s arms. But struggling in his grasp now did nothing to loosen his hold or stop him from dragging her back into his hiding spot, out from everyone’s view. She screeched from behind his sweaty hand, ignoring the awful salty taste and searching for a glimpse of Wade. She could no longer see him on the other side of a support beam. Her screeching was cut off when the guy moved his arm down to a choke hold. With his forearm at her throat, the only sounds she heard were the gurgles of the last of her air.

She thought of Promise. Did the dog know how to attack? Lacey had only seen the service animal offer tender care. Perhaps if it was Wade who needed the assistance, Promise would bare her teeth, but Lacey wasn’t her handler. And since the dog was trained not to leave her handler’s side, Lacey couldn’t depend on the dog to help her.

“Give me what was in the box, and I’ll make this quick and painless,” the gruff voice spoke in her ear.

Lacey forced her mind to think clearly. Panicking now would only get her killed. How many times had Jeff told her that? She pulled from Jeff’s training to help her out of this situation. Her army brother had instructed her not only on the track, but also in the gym. Getting out of a choke hold had been covered on the first day. Jeff had spent hours grabbing her from behind, calling her names like Frills and Ruffles. He’d really known how to make her head steam.

Lacey pictured her taunting brother and used her anger to push the beefy arm up and out. The break of the hold allowed her to turn toward the man and take his arm with her. She twisted it behind him and kicked the back of his leg just as the train’s whistle blew. He let out a scream of pain as she brought him to his knees and elbowed his nose straight back into his head. Not a person heard him over the train, but she heard her brother’s praises as though he called to her from the side of the mat. She would have loved to reminisce longer over the memories, but the train was leaving.

The green flag in Lacey’s mind’s eye waved. This was no time for a pit stop. She had to scram or be left behind. She hated being left behind.

She stepped around the brick wall and found the train car door closed and Wade and Promise gone.

It appeared Wade had made his decision.

He’d decided to let her go.