Authors: Debra & Regan Webb & Black
Tags: #Harlequin Intrigue
Cam scrambled to his feet and put a heel in the middle of the guy's back before he could lift himself up. “You upset the lady.”
He spit into the grass by her shoe. “Like I care.”
Cam wrenched the guy's arms behind his back and held them with one of the last two zip ties he had in his pants pocket. Then he leaned down to make sure the guy could hear him. “You should, because now it's my turn to threaten you.”
Chapter Fifteen
Julia leaned against what was once a wall of some building and rubbed her neck. She couldn't get the sick feel of this guy's beefy hands out of her head. The smell of his sweat and the sense of fear that wound around him and her. It all rushed back on her until she had to look away.
Even though he sat in a chair with his arms tied behind his back and one leg fastened to the chair, she waited for him to jump up and grab her again. She knew it was crazy and that Cam would shoot the guy first, but still.
Cam.
She'd pushed and picked at him because he'd targeted the one piece of her childhood that had always felt safeâSandy. She believed in him and she believed in Cam and in one swift move Cam was trying to rob her of all of that.
“What's your name?” Cam stood in front of the attacker with both a gun and a knife in his hands.
The question had her attention zipping back to him. Despite the trickle of blood by his hairline, he looked totally in control.
He'd picked this building because it had walls and some protection, or so he'd said. It probably once consisted of workers' stations lining the long rectangular space. Now the plants had moved in. They grew up the walls and through the broken windowpanes. Grass sprinkled where the floor should be.
The entire place had a spooky, abandoned feel to it. This close to the water she could hear the waves splash. Every now and then a loud creak from the shift of some piece of metal out there in the ship graveyard would break the stillness.
She wanted to leave, but the attacker was not making that easy.
He shook his head and spit for what seemed like the fifth time. “I'm not saying anything.”
“This is an easy one.” Cam pocketed his gun but kept the knife out. “The questions will get harder.”
She pushed off from the wall and joined them. Cam had contacted his team and they were on the way. The attacker couldn't know that. The watch Cam wore looked like any other dive watch, but it kept a line of communication open with Holt and Shane that just might save them all.
She stared down at the man who had terrified her enough a few minutes ago to steal her ability to speak. “Tell him.”
“Shut up,” the guy shot back.
“Hey.” Cam smacked the guy in the side of the head. “You don't get to talk to her like that.”
The attacker's gaze switched from Cam to her. “So the fight was a fake. You were pretending to be ticked off.” He shook his head. “I should have known from the topic. A dumb thing to fight over.”
Well, that was embarrassing.
She cleared her throat to let Cam know she planned to chime in before he could. “Yeah.”
The attacker's gaze switched to Cam. “Who are you? I know your name, but what or who has you killing men across the island?”
“I'm someone you should listen to.” Cam managed to look and sound bored. “Your name. Now.”
“Ned.”
Julia wasn't sure what good knowing did. She actually didn't want him to have a name. That way she could think of him as a nameless attacker and not an actual person.
Cam played with his knife. Looked as though he wasn't even interested in anything Ned did or said. “Okay, Ned. Tell me about Ray Miner.”
Ned frowned. “How do youâ”
“You should assume I have access to information, weapons and resources.” Cam grabbed the only other intact chair and put it in front of Ned. “Ray Miner.”
“Second to the boss.”
A wave of excitement hit Julia. The guy kept coughing up information. The more they collected, the closer Cam would get to solving the case. And then he'd leave... That burst of excitement fizzled out as quickly as it came.
Cam put one foot on the seat of the chair. It wobbled but didn't disintegrate. “Who is the boss?”
“I don't know.”
Cam didn't even blink as he balanced his arm on his knee and leaned in closer to the guy. “Try again.”
“You can ask it a hundred times and the answer will be the same.” The blade flashed and a line with bubbles of blood showed up on Ned's cheek, causing him to duck his head and flinch. “Ouch.”
Cam let out a long sigh. “It only gets more painful from here.”
She hadn't seen this side of him since those first couple minutes after he stormed into her dad's house. Controlled with a deadly calm to his voice. He showed off his weapons, and everything about the way he held his body suggested he would use them.
Ned must have felt the power shift, too, because he started talking. “I dealt with Ray. He hired me.”
“Where is he now?” Cam asked.
“Here.” Ned looked around, moved his head from side to side.
Her heart slammed to a stop. “What?”
The question brought Ned's attention to her. He no longer looked angry. If anything he seemed pleased with himself. Certainly not scared. “He's on the grounds somewhere.”
Cam didn't let up. His intensity still held the room captive. “What's happening at the shipyard?”
Julia found herself leaning in. This was the question she wanted answered. After years of nothing happening here, of all the decay and loss, it sounded as if someone had stepped in and opened a business. Drugs instead of ships, a terrible exchange.
Ned broke eye contact to stare at the floor. “I'm done talking.”
She didn't know if it was guilt or his way of taking responsibility, but she wanted everything clear. If he wouldn't say the word, she would. “Drugs.”
Cam smiled as he shot her a quick glance. “He thinks we don't know.”
Ned's head shot up. “You're guessing.”
“Wrong.” Cam made a show of exhaling as he dropped his foot and moved the chair out of the zone between them. “You're supplying a new hybrid drug that has the nasty side effect of stopping some people's hearts.”
The information screeched through Julia's brain. She knew about the witness...poor Rudy. But Cam knew more details. He'd had a specific assignmentâcome to the island, talk to the police chief, then go fetch a witness, who happened to be Rudy. But now and then he'd let some other detail slip, which made her wonder what else he knew but wasn't saying.
As soon as the thought moved through her head, she saw Sandy's face. Now Cam had her doubting a man she always trusted.
“People shouldn't use drugs if they can't handle them.” Ned delivered that gem.
He wasn't wrong, but hearing life advice from him made Julia's back teeth slam together.
“You have law enforcement on edge from Canada down to Mexico,” Cam said.
Ned answered that with a feral smile. “Which should tell you about the power you're dealing with here.”
“Whatever.” Cam didn't look or sound impressed. “Where are the drugs?”
“Not talking.”
She grew weary of running into wall after wall. They'd make progress and then lose ground. All she wanted was a firm mattress and a few hours rolling around in the sheets with Cam. They could talk and argue and anything else he wanted so long as they broke free of the mess that had bogged them down for days.
And this guy was the perfect place to start. “Your boss is going to think you talked, so you may as well cough up something and make it easier on yourself.”
Cam shrugged. “She's right.”
“He won't believe you.” Ned said the right words, but his tone didn't match. Didn't sound sure.
“I am very persuasive.” Cam brought the blade in front of Ned's face. “You want me to show you?”
“You won'tâ”
“Watch me.” Cam held the knife right there. “See, you touched her and no one touches her without her permission.”
She smiled at that. To think she ever doubted him.
* * *
R
AY
LOWERED
THE
rifle and watched Ned's face. From his position a solid three hundred yards away, Ray could see his targets walking around and his man sitting. He guessed they were having a conversation and that it wasn't a willing one on Ned's part.
The guy deserved it. Ray had watched Cam grab the advantage. He'd gotten the drop on Ned with the woman's help. It was an embarrassment for someone paid as well as Ned was. So was the fact that they all now sat there, chatting like old friends.
The talking was the problem. Sharing information couldn't happen. Ned knew about pieces of the operation and how they had started loading up trucks yesterday thanks to the news of incoming law enforcement to investigate all the murders. He didn't make the product, but he understood what it was and how lucrative it had turned out to be.
Ray had known Cameron Roth was on his way to the island to talk with someone. Enter Rudy, a onetime decent employee turned scared. Ray got to Rudy just in time and got him to crack. Killing him after actually came as a relief.
That had left the task of erasing the concerns Rudy had raised. Ray had arranged to play the role of police chief and stall Cameron's meeting with Rudy since the guy was already dead anyway. Ray's men handled the fake witness handoff.
The original plan had been to step in and eliminate Cameron before he caused trouble. To limit the disruption in production while they set him up and cleared the slate. But Cameron must have sensed trouble. First came the gunfire, then Cameron took off. And that woman kept popping up. The combination had the plan quickly falling apart.
The explanations to the boss all fell to Ray. Bigger for him, Cameron and his crew had ruined Ray's plans to make a move on the business. But overtaking anyone now that the equipment and crew were spread out and set to start leaving the island in shifts would be impossible. Ray had to wait. Double back and let the business reset before he moved in.
But he could kill Cameron Roth now. Just for fun.
Ray lifted his rifle to do just that. Would have blown the guy away, but he had company. Two men walked up. Since Roth didn't panic and the woman's body language suggested she was pleased, Ray assumed this was the rest of the group. These were the men of the Corcoran Team, at least the ones in town. If Ray wanted to go after the others, he'd have to travel to do it.
Tempting.
Now they had a squad of people to ask questions of. People everywhere who could pull details out of Ned and then put them together in a coherent way. Ned might not have all the pieces, but this team had the ability to bridge some of the mental gaps.
That left one choice. Not the one he wanted to make, but the right one.
It wasn't that he cared all that much for Ned, because he didn't. The guy laughed at the wrong times and always seemed to be a step behind when talking tactics. But he could shoot and his size intimidated, so not having him on the payroll would be a loss.
Ray raised his rifle again. While it was tempting to unload and shoot them all, the problem of keeping the woman alive still lingered. The boss was already furious about having his trade interrupted. Having a stray bullet nick the one person he wanted alive in this thing would borrow trouble, and for now Ray was not the boss.
He looked again. Using the well of patience he kept for this sort of situation, he aimed. Lay there and watched. When the people cleared out of the way, he sighted on Ned's forehead...and fired.
Chapter Sixteen
Holt and Shane arrived before Cam could use the knife. Probably a good thing. Cam turned to welcome them to the strange party just as he heard the crack. The constant stream of noise around the shipyard as the place settled muffled the sound. The building creaked and groaned but somehow stayed up. But this was different. More focused and familiar.
He jumped in front of Julia. Thought about bringing her to the ground so he could cover her but stopped when she dived into his chest and cuddled there. Wrapping around her, he got her to the wall so her back would be protected by the wall while his body took care of the front.
Holt and Shane must have heard the sound, too, because they both turned and dropped. Holt headed for the wall directly across from Cam. The lack of furniture and firm structure made it hard to take cover. The few desks and random chairs bordered on sawdust thanks to the exposure to the elements and lack of use. Not exactly the best shields.
“That wasâ” Then Cam saw it. The noise had been a shot. No mistake about that now. And someone with some skill had fired it, because it'd connected to its target. “Damn.”
Julia lifted her head. “What?”
Holt was the one to swear this time. He let out a string, then dropped to his knees next to Ned's body. The man's head tipped forward and blood dripped from somewhere. When Holt moved it back, Ned's eyes were closed. The only true sign of trouble was the tiny hole marring his forehead.
Cam moved Julia then. He hustled her over next to an old heater. When he ducked he brought her with him. Tucked her in front of him, tight against the wall. She mumbled something, but he couldn't hear her as Shane and Holt scurried around for better cover.
It took another few seconds to realize that in the chaos only one shot had sounded. Yeah, there could be more. The shooter could be waiting and excited to take them out one by one.
The mumbling near the side of his head finally caught his attention. He leaned in until Julia's mouth tickled his ear.
“What did you say?” he asked her.
He expected her to scream or confirm her hatred for Calapan. Both seemed fair to him at the moment. Instead, she whispered one word against the tip of his ear. “Sorry.”
At first the sentiment didn't compute. She'd been both a good sport and a huge help just about from the first time they met. Her ability to stay calm in the face of terror amazed him. Which made her flat comment and dead eyes even more of a concern.
He lowered his head so only she could hear. “For what?”
“Doubting you.”
The Sandy thing.
Cam knew that would come up again. That they'd churn through that topic a few times before coming to any sort of agreement.
And, man, he wanted to kiss her. Right here in the middle of danger and in front of his team. That was what she did to him. Took all of his caution and blew it away. Replaced his common sense with a blinding need for her.
No question hearing her wonder earlier about his motivations had dug into him. He was equally sure that her moment of uncertainty made sense. Sandy had been in her life forever. Cam had been in it for about forty-eight hours. Even for people without trust issues, blind faith was a rough call.
Cam saw Holt stand up and Shane unfold his body from where he'd slipped in behind Ned's chair and waited. Cam watched each move, knowing there was so much more for them to get through this morning, including knocking out a random shooter.
But he needed her to know one thing first. “You were great.”
She glanced up then. “I was angry.”
“That looks hot on you.”
“Cam.” Holt's voice carried across the open space. “This guy is out of the picture. Nothing more we can get from him.”
Which was a shame. Cam truly believed Ned would have coughed up some more details. He wasn't the loyal type that rode his information to the grave. He would have been a good but reluctant source of intel.
That was probably an excuse for why he was no longer breathing. The guy couldn't be a threat if he didn't open his mouth. “Someone didn't want him to talk.”
Holt looked at Julia and she froze. “Should I know who?” she asked.
Shane didn't wait for an answer to that one. “Did he say anything valuable?”
“Confirmed the drug operation and Ray Miner's role but didn't know anyone above Ray, only that someone was.” That grated against Cam's nerves. The men were out here producing and transporting. On an island and away from everyone else. He didn't understand how the boss kept his identity a secret.
The success made Cam think Ned might have actually met the man in charge and didn't know it. If the guy who ran the operation was connected and well-known, which they all seemed to agree on, he'd have to be careful as he moved around.
Holt stood with the binoculars in his hands and looked into the open greenery, following what he thought was the trajectory of the shot. “I'm thinking whoever he is can shoot a gun with pretty good accuracy.”
“I doubt the boss does any of the dirty work,” Shane said.
“Then it should be easy to flush him out.” Cam agreed, but they felt so close to figuring out this conspiracy that he wanted it disbanded and the members spread in different jails. “Create a problem and have him come running.”
“A problem like how we keep killing his men?” Julia asked in an amused voice.
Cam settled on one pointâshe'd said
we
, and he believed she actually viewed the situation that way. She put her body in as a team member's.
He didn't hate that comparison.
“Why are you walking around?” Julia hadn't left her safe spot next to the wall. She stood there, anchored and not moving. “The shooter could still be up there.”
Shane shook his head. “He's long gone.”
“How do you know that?” She glanced up at the spot where Holt had just been looking. “He could be waiting, just like he's been doing all day.”
Cam knew the answer to that, but he wasn't sure telling her would ease her worry. He debated. Went back and forth and then spelled it out. “He wanted Ned here.”
“If he wanted the rest of us, we'd be dead.” Shane took a second to go over to her. He patted her shoulder, and from the way she flinched after each pat, Cam guessed Shane wasn't clear on how much force he used.
“Is that supposed to be comforting?” She rubbed the spot where he'd knocked against her with his palm.
Cam thought she was probably talking about the words and not the awkward bonding moment. “Poor Shane.”
“No kidding,” Holt whispered.
She left the sanctuary of the wall and joined them closer to the middle of the room, or warehouse floor or whatever it was. “It's scary to me that you're the best with people of the three of you.”
“We used to have a fourth team member. A woman.” Cam smiled when he thought about Erica. She'd been recently divorced and a sharpshooter. She could nail a target from distances that left others gawking. “She played the role of human-emotion interpreter.”
Julia tried to ask a question and stumbled. She got it out the second time. “What happened to her?”
The confusion made sense. A lot of times people didn't think about women being lethal. Erica was, even though she looked as if she made a fortune in tips tending bar. “Assignment with a bodyguard agency. She loves it, so I'm thinking we've lost her forever.”
“Then I'll take over the female role.” Julia pulled up straight and stared them all down. “For now.”
Holt glanced over at Shane. “She's bossy.”
Cam nodded. “I still like it.”
“I'm thinking the only person she cares about here is Cam,” Holt added.
“Enough.” Cam seriously considered banging their heads together. “She is in the room and capable of talking.”
Julia saved her smile for Holt and Shane. “You two are growing on me.”
* * *
R
AY
LOOKED
AT
the message on his phone. It wasn't like the boss to leave a trail of any sort. Not that any phone they used could trace back to the guy. He was careful and he knew how traces worked. No way would he let something as simple as a phone trip him up.
But the words crawled across the screen and Ray could not ignore them. He had to drive out past that falling-down farmhouse and all the outbuildings on the shipyard property. He'd cleared the men out in an attempt to restore the shipyard and not raise questions. Some of the men carried loads on trucks and had coordinates for safe houses.
Everything had been split up so no one would benefit by going rogue and trying to smuggle the contents out on their own. Not that they could or that the boss would tolerate the loss anyway. All anyone had to do was ask Rudy. The boss demanded loyalty and got it.
And what the boss wanted mattered...for now. Because according to his message, he'd be there in a few minutes and he had a plan.