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Chapter Three

Two men in dark suits flanked the door to Annie Harlowe’s room. Annie had said they’d told her they were going to coordinate the release papers with the hospital, but Wade had a feeling they already had plans for how to remove her from the hospital without going through any channels. If she was right—if these men were imposters—the last thing they’d want to do was deal with hospital red tape.

What he needed was a distraction.

He slipped back inside the waiting room. “Two men guarding her door. Possibly armed—can’t tell from a look.”

Aaron and Melissa had joined the three of them, arriving just as Annie was calling Wade. He felt a hint of relief at having his younger cousin around for whatever came next. His position as a deputy, not to mention the Smith & Wesson M&P 40 he wore in a belt holster beneath his green Chickasaw County Sheriff’s Department jackets, added a heartening amount of heft to their makeshift rescue operation.

“We need a distraction,” Megan said.

Jesse had been across the room on the phone. He returned, his expression grim. “They’re not A.F.O.S.I. Mason Hunter just checked with a friend of his who’s been working this case for the Air Force.” Hunter was a fellow Cooper Security operative who had once been an Air Force major. “Nobody there has heard anything about finding Annie Harlowe.”

Wade grimaced. “Until now.”

Jesse shook his head. “Mason was discreet. Treated it like a routine touching-base thing.”

“So like I said,” Megan said, “we need a distraction.”

“I can get security to take them off for questioning,” Aaron suggested.

“They’ll flash badges and tell security to stand down,” Jesse disagreed.

“Or say to hell with the charade and start shooting,” Wade countered.

“If they’re not A.F.O.S.I., who are they?” Megan asked.

“Do you really have to ask?” Aaron growled.

“S.S.U.” Wade grimaced.

“We have to assume it’s them,” Jesse agreed.

Wade wished he could believe otherwise, but bitter experience told him there were few other possibilities. The collapse of MacLear Security, once one of the top private security contractors in the world, should have been the end of the company’s Special Services Unit—the S.S.U. It had been the illegal actions of that secret army of ruthless, corrupt mercenaries that had brought down the once well-respected, legitimate security company.

But some of the S.S.U. had avoided indictments and joined forces as a band of guns for hire. Cooper Security had come across the S.S.U. several times in recent months, each encounter more alarming than the last. Left to their own devices, without the need to maintain an air of legitimacy, the S.S.U. agents had become bolder and more ruthless than ever.

“We’re certain the S.S.U. was involved in the abduction of the Harlowes, aren’t we?” Megan asked.

“As sure as we can be without hard evidence,” Jesse agreed.

“They were trained by former feds at MacLear,” Megan said, “so they certainly would know how to pass themselves off as federal agents.”

Meanwhile, Wade thought, the clock was ticking. He had to get Annie Harlowe out of that hospital room without those two men in suits catching him. But what would coax them away from the door?

He pulled out his cell phone and dialed the last number, Annie’s hospital room. She answered on the second ring, her voice cautious.

“Braddock and Hartman are standing right outside your room,” Wade told her. “We need them to go somewhere else for a while. Here’s what I want you to do.” He outlined a plan he hoped would work.

She was silent a moment, then said, “Okay. Let’s do it.”

Wade hung up the phone and turned to his sister, who gazed up at him with a grin. “I’ll go find some scrubs,” she said.

* * *

T HE MINUTE SHE ’ D HUNG UP the phone with Wade Cooper, Annie began to second-guess herself. What made her think the stranger who’d found her in the woods was any less dangerous than the two men who’d just left her hospital room? He had secretive eyes, and unlike the man who’d just flashed his badge at her, Wade hadn’t shown her anything but a slightly rumpled business card. Anyone could print up business cards.

She looked down at the card: Cooper Security. The name sounded familiar. Something to do with a recently indicted former State Department official named Barton Reid. Someone at Cooper Security had been involved with gathering evidence against him, right?

She pressed her fingertips against her forehead, wishing her head would stop hurting. Her pulse pounded like a jackhammer in her ears. She couldn’t imagine all this stress could be good for her concussed condition.

One thing at a time, Annie. First order of business—get dressed. Over the phone Wade had told her he’d brought her a change of clothes, borrowed from his sister, for when she was released. She needed to put them on now so they could leave the hospital without anyone asking questions.

She had to remove the IV in the back of her hand in order to move at all. With a wince at the biting pain, she removed the cannula and pressed her fingertip against the open vein to stanch the bleeding. Though a little dizzy, she managed to keep her balance long enough to reach the small in-room closet and pull out the bag Wade had told her would be at the bottom.

Inside the bag, she found a pair of sweat pants and a long-sleeved thermal T-shirt. The loose-fitting clothes nearly swallowed her whole, though they were actually a size smaller than she normally wore. She must have lost weight sometime over the last three weeks.

Had her captors starved her? Was that the least of the things they’d done to her?

Don’t think about it. Just get dressed and get ready.

She’d just pushed her feet into the slip-on sneakers she’d found at the bottom of the bag when she heard voices outside her room. She scurried back to her bed, nearly stumbling on the way, and pulled the covers over her to hide her clothing.

A red-haired nurse in blue scrubs entered her room, carrying a bottle of juice. She gave Annie a quick smile and handed over the juice. “I’ll take your friends down to the clerk’s office so they can get our doctor to sign off on the transfer,” she said brightly. She had a broad rural drawl, intelligent gray eyes and a quirky smile. “I’m Megan Pike,” she told Annie in a lower voice. “Wade’s sister.”

Wade had told Annie that he was sending his sister in, but Annie couldn’t see much resemblance between this fair-skinned, freckled woman and her dark-haired brother with his olive skin and mysterious midnight eyes.

“What happens next?”

“My cousin Aaron is down the hall within sight. If the men don’t come with me willingly, he’ll confront them and, if necessary, take them into custody.” Megan smiled briefly. “He’s a deputy. And big as the side of a barn.”

“I’m not sure those men aren’t armed,” Annie warned.

“Neither are we, but Aaron and my brothers are all armed. I don’t think anyone wants a shootout in a hospital, including those guys outside.” Megan tried to sound confident, but she couldn’t quite sell it.

“Do you know who they are?”

“We think we do,” Megan admitted. “Wade will explain everything as soon as we get you to a safe place.”

“Which is where?”

“Wade’s place, for now.” Megan glanced over her shoulder. “I’ve got to get this show on the road. Just wait right here. If you hear trouble starting, get behind your bed and take cover.”

Annie’s chest tightened with alarm. “You think that could happen, don’t you?”

“I don’t know,” Megan admitted. She went outside. Annie heard more voices. One of the men raised his voice enough for her to hear him say, “Is that really necessary?”

“It is,” Megan said firmly. “It will only take a couple of minutes.”

Finally, footsteps moved away from her door. Annie eased herself into an upright position on the bed, her gaze glued to the door.

A minute later, the door swung open. Annie held her breath.

Wade Cooper’s cowboy silhouette filled the doorway. He was holding the handles of a wheelchair. “Time to hit the road,” he said softly, rolling the chair over to the bed.

“Maybe I’m overreacting. Maybe those people are who they say they are and I’m just looking for dragons to fight—”

“They’re not.” He motioned for her to get into the chair.

“I don’t think I need a wheelchair.”

“It will look more natural, at least until we reach the tunnel.”

“The tunnel?”

“There’s a tunnel from the basement floor that leads out to the parking deck.” He held out his hand to help her into the chair.

She took his hand, somehow calmed by the heat of his strong, firm touch. When she settled into the chair, he let go, leaving her fingers tingling and cold. “Then what?”

“We’ll wheel you down the tunnel, and then leave the chair there. Jesse’s gone to drive the car around to the exit. We’ll whisk you out of here and I’ll take you to my place until we can figure out what to do next.”

She wished he sounded more confident, but she could hear the thread of uncertainty running through his deep, calm voice. She had a lot of questions for him, since she was certain Wade Cooper knew more about her parents’ abduction than she did at this point.

But the first order of business was to get safely out of the hospital.

There were two other passengers on the fourth floor elevator when the doors opened. Annie smiled at them briefly, making a quick assessment. One was clearly a phlebotomist, carrying a rectangular plastic basket full of vials, bandages, rubber tourniquets and other blood-taking paraphernalia. The other was a haggard-looking man in his fifties in rumpled clothes who didn’t seem to have the energy to return the smile.

The phlebotomist got off on the fourth floor. The haggard-looking man stayed with them.

The elevator stopped at each floor, taking on new passengers. A woman with red-rimmed eyes. A man with a clerical collar who smiled back gently at Annie when he entered. A man holding a sleeping child tucked against his shoulder. Annie tried not to look at them all as potential dangers, but she couldn’t seem to stop herself.

She’d seen too much of life as a reporter to believe that all people were good. They weren’t. Many of them were, maybe even most of them, but there were enough bad actors to make the world a perilous place.

The elevator emptied at the lobby floor. Wade wheeled her out as well, taking a quick circuit around the lobby with her until their fellow passengers had all left through the front door.

Wade circled her back to the elevators and pushed her chair to a different elevator. He pushed the down button and the doors swished open. This elevator was narrower, not set up to accommodate the big, wide gurneys that the other cars were built to handle.

Wade wheeled her inside and hit the button for the basement on the panel.

“You engage in this kind of subterfuge often?” she asked with a wry half smile. Her voice seemed loud in the empty car.

“Not too often,” he answered. For a brief second, his big, warm hand settled on her shoulder. The touch had an electric effect on her nervous system, shooting sparks that lingered even after he removed his hand.

“Do you live far away?”

“About ten minutes from here. We’ll be there before you know it.”

“What if it’s not safe for me to leave the hospital?” she asked. “Medically, I mean.” After all, concussions weren’t anything to mess around with. The doctor had said he’d want to keep her another day, maybe two, just to be sure the brain injury wasn’t any more serious.

“We’ve already called the Cooper Security doctor on staff. If he thinks you need round-the-clock care, he’ll arrange it.”

“Just not in a public hospital?” she guessed.

“Right.”

“Cooper Security,” she repeated, the name once again niggling at the back of her scrambled brains. “You had something to do with Barton Reid’s most recent indictment, right?”

“Tangentially,” Wade agreed. The elevator hit the basement floor and dinged, the doors swishing open. He wheeled her out into a well-lit but featureless corridor.

The dingy white walls of the long tunnel were unadorned, save for security cameras spaced every twenty yards or so. “They’ll be able to see how I left,” she murmured.

“Won’t matter,” he said.

“Why not?”

“Because you’re not doing anything illegal, and my cousin is currently informing the hospital security staff that you’re being removed from the hospital under authority of the Chickasaw County Sheriff’s Department.”

“He can do that?”

“The sheriff can, and Aaron’s arranged it with him.”

“Won’t the sheriff want to know where I am?”

“Sheriff Canaday has an understanding with Cooper Security. We deal with a lot of high-risk security cases.”

“The real A.F.O.S.I. is going to want to talk to me,” she warned.

“I imagine the FBI will, too,” Wade affirmed as they passed the final security camera in the tunnel. “I have a cousin in the Huntsville Resident Agency—we’ll call him in a few days and see how they want to proceed.”

Annie’s head was starting to swim. “I feel as if I’ve awakened in the middle of a spy movie.”

Wade laughed softly, the warm, rich sound catching her by surprise. “Believe it or not, I know what you mean.”

The wheels of the wheelchair rattling on the dull tile flooring made a loud clatter that echoed off the walls of the tunnel, drowning out almost everything else. But not even the squeaky wheels could mask the loud ding of the elevator at the other end of the hall.

“Is that—?”

Wade paused a second, then suddenly started running. She felt his breath hot in her ear as they picked up speed and heard, when his steps quickened, that his limp nearly disappeared when he ran. Behind them, the pounding of footsteps on the linoleum echoed down the tunnel.

“Wade—”

“Almost there,” he breathed, his shoes squeaking on the floor. He sounded almost as scared as she felt.

The chair made it impossible for her to turn around and look to see who was coming behind them. But who else could it be? The men who’d come to her room to take her away had apparently figured out where she’d gone.

They reached the end of the long tunnel, where a heavy-looking steel door stood between them and whatever came next. Through the large square window set into the door, Annie glimpsed a concrete parking deck before Wade hurried around the chair and held out his hands. “We have to run,” he urged, his dark eyes meeting hers.

She let him pull her to her feet, daring a quick look behind them as they ran for the door. The two fake A.F.O.S.I. agents were gaining on them, only fifty yards back down the tunnel.

Wade pushed open the door and pulled her outside with him, emerging into a dimly lit parking garage at a sprint.

But there was no getaway vehicle waiting for them.