Текст книги "Uncovered by Truth"
Автор книги: Rachael Duncan
сообщить о нарушении
Текущая страница: 8 (всего у книги 14 страниц)
THE NEXT MORNING I step outside to make a call to Turner on the phone he gave me.
“Turner,” he answers on the second ring.
“It’s Matthews. We made it in last night.”
“Good.”
“Any new updates?” You would think a bunch of amateurs are working at the bureau with as long as this is taking. I mean shit, how many dots could there possibly be to connect all of this?
“We’re getting close. Now it’s just a matter of dotting I’s and crossing T’s.”
“What’s the connection? How does Cal tie in to the cartel?”
“We’re still searching for the motive, but we’re pretty sure the head of it is Henry Williams.”
“Yeah, I remember you telling me that name before. How do you know he’s the leader?”
“All the money got traced back to him. It was laundered pretty damn good, but we finally pinpointed it to his company. We found out the plane you flew on is owned by him as well. He owns a large shipping company. One of the largest in the world actually. We’re just trying to figure out how each party benefits from the other to see if we can bring the whole organization down. The DEA is involved in this now too, so that slows progress slightly. But hang in there, it should be over really soon.”
Shipping company? God, I know that name sounds familiar. How do I know it? I rack my brain in an attempt to trigger any kind of memory. Then it hits me.
Catherine Williams.
Elizabeth’s friend. That’s her husband.
Fuck.
Could this implicate Elizabeth in all of this? She saw Catherine regularly. I internally debate whether I should ask Turner if she’s involved or not. If he doesn’t have anything on her, I don’t want to make him suspicious and start looking either. I decide I’d rather know up front than be surprised when shit hits the fan.
“You know Elizabeth was friends with Henry Williams’ wife, right?” I hold my breath, hoping he’s not about to drop a bomb on me.
“Yeah, we know, but I don’t think you need to worry about her. From what we can tell, Catherine was kept in the dark about everything.”
I breathe out a sigh of relief. “So what’s next? What do you need me to do?”
“Just hang tight. There’s enough food in the pantry to last you a couple weeks. Of course, I hadn’t planned on you bringing someone with you, so it might not last as long. Try to stay there and keep a low profile. Hopefully everything will be over by then.”
“Got it, sir.” After I hang up, I turn to go back in the cabin and see Elizabeth standing in the window watching me. Shit, I hope she didn’t hear my conversation.
“Hey, sweetheart. I didn’t know you were up already,” I say once I walk in and close the door behind me. Striding over to her, I give her a kiss. She smiles warmly up at me when I pull away.
“Who were you talking to?” she asks. She doesn’t sound accusatory, just curious. I don’t want to lie to her, so I decide to try to avoid it all together.
“Nobody important.” I shrug hoping to convey the nonchalance that I don’t feel. She arches an eyebrow at me, but not in that sexy way she does when she’s being feisty. No, she’s pissed and I have a feeling she’s about to unleash on me.
“Cal did this shit to me all the time and I’m not going to take it from you too.” Her hands go to her hips and I know this is about to get bad real quick.
“It’s really not a big deal. It wasn’t anyone important,” I say calmly. I need her to relax. The last thing I want to do is upset her.
“What? Because I’m a woman I don’t need to be involved in a man’s business? I want to know, dammit!” Her hands are balled into tight fists and the vein in her neck bulges out as she yells at me.
“You think that’s why I’m not telling you?” I shout back. “Let’s get one thing straight. We are not equals. You and I,” I gesture between us, “aren’t even close to being on the same level.” Her mouth drops opens and she looks affronted. I lower my voice and continue. “You are so much better than me. You’re so far out of my league, and not just physically, but intellectually. This has to do with your safety, not some preconceived notion that I think you’re below me. As soon as it’s safe, I’ll tell you everything. I promise.”
She looks down and shakes her head while her eyes are closed. “I’m sorry. I know you’re nothing like Cal, I just—”
“Hey,” I say gently as I lift her chin up with my finger. “It’s fine, but I don’t want you to ever feel like you’re not good enough. I want to share everything with you. My heart, my soul, my life, all of it.” My name. “But if it’s going to put you in danger, I just won’t do it. Okay?” The back of my hand runs down her cheek as I stare into her eyes. I need her to believe and trust me.
She bites her lip and nods, tears filling her eyes but not spilling over. My mouth crashes into hers, wanting my actions to back up my words. The sweet taste of her lips mixes with the salty taste of her tears as they run down her face.
“I can’t tell you who he is, but he owns this cabin. I just wanted to thank him and let him know we made it last night.” It’s not much information, and it’s only partially true, but I wanted to give her something.
“God, I’m so sorry for—” I cut her off by sealing my lips over hers again.
“You have every right to want answers. Don’t ever apologize for that,” I say between kisses. I know she has terrible self-worth and has a lot of doubts about herself. That’s to be expected when you never show your true colors to anyone and become whatever it is that the man you’re with wants you to be. She lost herself being married to Cal, but I saw the real her, and it’s my job to help her see it too. I’ll spend every day reassuring and proving my love for her.
I pick her up and her legs automatically wrap around my waist so I can carry her effortlessly. When we reach the bedroom, I toss her on the bed, which makes her giggle. Her laughter dies when my eyes move up every inch of her body, burning the image into my brain.
“My God, you’re perfect.” I brace myself on top of her and kiss her.
She kisses me with everything she has, only stopping to say, “I thought you were dead.” The raw emotion in her voice is hard to miss. I loop my arm around her back and hold her tighter. “I didn’t think I’d ever feel this way again.”
“I know, sweetheart, but I’m here. I’m right here.”
Our kissing starts off as a slow burn, but quickly ignites and soon we’re frantic to feel each other’s skin. Removing her clothes quickly, I make sure not to miss a single inch of skin with my lips. She’s so responsive to my touch; arching her back when my tongue swipes across her clit, sighing when my mouth latches onto her nipple, pulling my hair when I get close to where she wants me most, and screaming when I can’t hold out anymore and give in to her. Watching her build up to her climax ever so slowly and then come spiraling down in a state of ecstasy is the best fucking sight I’ll ever see. I’ll never grow tired of watching her like this.
Later that night when neither of us can move another muscle, I’m almost asleep with my arm wrapped around Elizabeth. In the silence, I hear her soft voice. “I’m scared.” This small confession breaks my heart especially since there’s nothing I can do to take that feeling away.
“It’s all going to work out,” I try to reassure her.
“You don’t know Cal. You don’t know the things he’s capable of.” Her whole body stiffens with her last statement. My hand runs up and down her arm in an attempt to soothe her worries. “He’s not going to just let me go.”
Rolling over onto my side and moving her off of my chest, I look at her. I hold her cheek with my hand and stare into her eyes. “He can’t hurt you anymore, okay? You’ve got me now and I won’t let him come near you.”
“I’m trying really hard to trust you—and I do—but I have no clue what’s going on or what you have planned and that bothers me. I’ve spent most of my adult life in the dark, and I don’t want to do it anymore. So as much as I’m trying to roll with the punches and accept your reasoning for being so secretive, it doesn’t exactly set my mind at ease.”
I let out a slow sigh. “I understand. I really do. I don’t blame you for feeling this way. Do you think I like keeping things from you?” She doesn’t answer, she just stares at me. “It eats at me daily. I hate it.” I really don’t know what else to say to her that I haven’t already. I don’t like keeping her in the dark, but at this point she’s just going to have to have some faith that this will all work out. And I hope that when she finds out who I really am she doesn’t take off running.
Neither of us says anything else. I roll back over on my back and hold my arm out for her in invitation, nervous that she’ll reject my affection. She hesitates, but eventually snuggles up to my side, but the small pause doesn’t go unnoticed and worries me. I hope Cal goes down soon because I don’t know how much longer I can stomach feeding her bullshit.
AT FIRST, IT was nice to be tucked away in the woods in total seclusion. While I don’t mind being locked in a house with nothing to do but taste that sweet body of Elizabeth’s, I can tell we’re both starting to get cabin fever—no pun intended—even though it’s only been two days.
I’m in the shower when I hear the door open. “Wanna join me?” The thought of her wet, soaped up body pressed against mine has my dick stirring to life.
“Someone’s here,” she whispers.
I shut off the water quickly and pull back the curtain. “What do you mean someone’s here? Did they knock on the door or something?”
The fear in her eyes tells me this is way more serious than a random person coming to the door. She shakes her head. “No, I saw them through the window. They’re circling the house. I don’t know what they want.”
“They? How many did you see?” Grabbing a towel, I dry off quickly and put on my jeans.
“Two.”
After I pull my shirt over my head, I say, “Stay here.” I kiss her as I walk by, trying not to alarm her. I don’t know who the fuck is out there and that’s a cause for concern. No one other than my boss should know where I am or the location of this place. If he was stopping by, I’m sure he would’ve called me.
Careful not to be seen, I keep my back against the wall next to a window and slowly peak around. At first, I don’t see anything, but as I’m about to move, something catches my eye. Angling my head more, I see a guy leaning up against a tree looking around. In his hand is a pistol. I’ve got to find the second guy and hope that they don’t have eyes on all possible exits. I crouch down and go to the other side of the house. The second guy is making his way toward the front porch with a gun drawn.
Fuck.
We’ve gotta get out of here.
Fast.
On the way back to the bathroom, I stop and grab the money, keys, phone, and gun from the kitchen counter. I find Elizabeth sitting on the toilet biting her nails. “Let’s go,” I whisper as I grab her hand and help her stand up. Keeping her close behind me, I look out the back window. Right as I’m about to open it, the first guy walks around the corner of the house. “Get down.” I pull on Elizabeth’s arm as we both go to the floor.
“Shit, we’re not going to make it to the car. They’ll shoot us before I even get the thing started.”
“What are we going to do?” she asks with a shaky voice. I shake my head not sure how I’m going to get us out of here safely.
I pull out my phone and send Turner a text.
SOS
My phone vibrates in my hand immediately.
Sending back up now.
“Oh my God, Alex. They’re going to kill us, aren’t they?” Her lip quivers as she grabs onto my arm.
I grab both of her shoulders and stare into her eyes. “No, they’re not. We’re going to stay right here and we’ll be fine, okay?”
“But they’re going to come in after us. We need to leave.” Her voice rises with urgency and I know I need to calm her down before she does something stupid out of fear.
“Good. Let them come in after us. We know they’re out there. They’re not expecting us to be ready for them. We know the layout of this cabin. They don’t. We’re going to position ourselves in a way that makes it impossible for them to surprise us. In here, we have the advantage.”
From this back room, I have a clear view all the way to the front of the house. Once anyone comes through the front door, they’ll only have to take a couple steps for them to be in my line of sight. And when they are, it’s not going to be pretty.
“Let’s move this couch and get behind it.” We get up and push the couch off of the side wall so that it’s facing the door and we can get behind it for cover. It dawns on me that we’re setting up the same way as when that asshole shot me. I pause for a moment as the memory of the flash from the barrel crosses my mind. I quickly shake it off and concentrate on the situation at hand. “You sit right there and don’t get up unless I say it’s okay, understand?” She hugs her knees to her chest and nods.
It feels like I’m sitting here forever waiting. The moment brings me back to my time in the service when we’d have to wait out the enemy. My ears strain to hear any type of sound, but it’s quiet, almost too quiet. Right after that thought crosses my mind, I hear a crash coming from the front letting me know the door has been busted down. Elizabeth whimpers beside me and I feel her trembling against the side of my body.
The first guy strides into the open and right as he turns toward me, I squeeze off two rounds. Both hit him in the chest and he crumbles to the floor. I keep my gun drawn, waiting for the second guy to enter. Suddenly, bullets come ricocheting off of everything in the room. Elizabeth screams and I throw my body on top of hers to shield her. Debris flies up in the air and it feels like the assault is never going to end. Then it goes quiet again, the only sound is our labored breathing. I place my hand gently over her mouth and whisper, “Shhh,” into her ear.
After a few moments, footsteps crunch over the mangled pieces lying on the floor. Once he stops, I take a deep breath in and let it out slowly. I pop up from behind the couch and squeeze the trigger on my gun once I have it raised, hitting him in the shoulder. He stumbles back a few steps and tries to bring up his weapon, but I beat him to it and put another three rounds into his chest. He drops to the floor with a loud thump. I get up with my gun still out and kick their weapons away before I check their vitals to confirm they’re both dead.
Rushing back over to Elizabeth, I squat down in front of her where she’s still curled up with her eyes squeezed shut. “Elizabeth, you’re okay.” When she doesn’t respond or open her eyes, I cup her face in my hands and say, “Look at me, sweetheart.” Her eyes finally look up at me and all I see is this sweet innocent girl who is scared out of her mind. “Those guys aren’t going to hurt you, okay?”
“Are th-they d-dead?” I almost don’t hear what she asks her voice is so low.
I nod in response, not knowing really what else to say. Yes, you just watched me kill two men, but I’d do it again in a heartbeat. It was either them or us, and I’ll choose them every damn time. I just hope she sees it that way.
Before I can say anything else, I hear cars pulling up, their tires kicking up the dirt driveway. Her eyes widen as soon as she hears it. “Oh, God, they sent more.”
I get to my knees and look out the window to see Turner and one other guy. “No, it’s the cops.”
“The cops? How did the cops get here? Are they going to take you to jail?”
I hold my hands out in front of me to stop her questions. “Relax. I text messaged a friend saying that I needed help. He must’ve called the cops. It was self-defense, so I’m not going to go to jail. Just do whatever the officers ask you to do, okay?” She nods her understanding.
“Police! Put your hands up where I can see them!” Turner shouts. Even though he knows it’s me, he still has to follow procedure to keep my cover.
“Stand up slowly with your hands up,” I instruct Elizabeth. We both rise to our feet, hands in the air. She gasps loudly and starts to cry as soon as she sees the second dude bleeding out all over the carpet. I wish I could shield her from that image and take this memory away.
After we’re brought outside in handcuffs and patted down, they uncuff us to get our stories. “I need you to step over here and tell me what happened,” Turner says to me. He leads me away from Elizabeth so she can’t hear us.
“How the fuck did they find us?” I ask, seething with anger. Then it hits me.
Her backpack.
I never searched it to see what she packed.
“Her bag. She must have a phone or something in there,” I say.
“You didn’t look through it?” he asks in disbelief.
“Everything happened so fast I never thought about it.” Hell, we almost got caught leaving.
“Where’s her bag?”
“Inside the house.” My hand runs down my face roughly.
“I’ll go get it so you can look through it.” He runs back in and I walk over to Elizabeth.
“What did you pack in your bag before we left?” I ask her.
“Just a few clothes, some toiletries, and my cell phone. Why?”
I look down at the ground and shake my head. I’m disappointed in myself for failing to do something that should be routine. “That’s how they found us.”
“But it’s not on.” Her eyebrows dip down in confusion.
“It doesn’t have to be. We need to ditch it before we go.” She nods in agreement, but the blank stare on her face tells me she’s still in shock. Glancing over my shoulder, I see Turner come back out of the house with Elizabeth’s bag in hand. “He has a few more questions for me, but he wanted to get your bag out of the house for you first. I’ll go through it and toss the phone.” I kiss her on the cheek and walk back over to my boss. “This is going to shit quickly, sir. What are we going to do now? We can’t exactly stay here.” My hand rakes through my hair and tugs on the ends in frustration.
“You’ve got some cash, you might have to get a hotel for a night or two while I figure out a place to put you.” I’m about to say something when he nods his head at the person behind me. His partner stands next to us. “What’d you find?”
“These are cartel guys.”
Shit. “How do you know?” If the cartel is after our asses, then we’re in deeper than I originally thought.
“They have ‘Mal’ tattooed on their necks. It’s their signature mark for all members of the Los Malvados gang.”
“Son of a bitch,” we say at the same time.
“I’ll get this cleaned up. You two get the hell out of here.” I don’t waste any time. I wave over Elizabeth, they give her some bullshit excuse about not needing her statement right now since they have mine, and we get on the road.
We’ve been driving for about an hour and she hasn’t muttered two words to me. I’ve left her alone knowing today was probably a lot to take in. “How are you doing over there?”
She turns toward me. “I’m okay, I guess.”
“I know that shit is hard to see, but you have to know that I did what was best for us. I had no ch—”
“Alex, I know. I’m thankful you stopped them. Lord knows I wouldn’t have been able to defend myself. Do you know who they were?” Even a few hours later, the fear in her voice is clear as day.
Keeping my eyes on the road, I shake my head. All she really knows about this whole fucked up situation is that Cal wants me to murder Hutchison. She has no clue about all the other shit, and I plan to keep it that way until all of this is over with.
I drive us another two hours in the opposite direction before my eyelids feel like they’re made of lead and I can’t hold them open anymore. Stopping at the first place I see, I lay down on this lumpy, dusty mattress with Elizabeth in my arms, and the day’s events come crashing down on me. Whenever bad things went down while I was deployed, this would always happen. My brain has too much time to think and process things right before I go to sleep. Maybe that’s why I get nightmares sometimes. I’m replaying everything in my mind and trying to see if it was at all avoidable. I should’ve been on my fucking game and thought to check her bag. Just like before, she clouds my mind and my only thought at the time was getting her the hell out of there. I was sloppy and can’t afford to make mistakes like that again. It almost cost us everything.
