Smoky Mountain Setup (18 page)

Chapter Eighteen

“Get down, get down!” Landry jerked the Tahoe in Reverse and swung into a sharp J-turn even as rifle fire split the night air. He heard more than saw Olivia hit the floorboard, putting three rows of seats between her and the shooters. She started speaking and he realized she’d called 911.

“We’re taking rifle fire and we’re hemmed in. I’m not sure there’s any way to evade them.” Olivia’s voice was breathless and pitched a little higher than usual, but there was no sign of rising panic, no hint of fear taking over.

He wished he could say the same for himself. The mere thought of bringing in the authorities had his heart pounding and his mind reeling. He’d been stuck in fight or flight so long, the idea of turning over his fate to the authorities was almost more than he could fathom.

But they were out of options. Even as he swung the truck across the uneven yard behind the music hall, twisting the steering wheel back and forth to avoid the obstacle course between him and the other end of the music hall, he knew there was little chance of mistake. In the cracked glass of the rear window, he saw that only two of the trucks had taken up the pursuit, which meant the third vehicle was probably circling around to cut them off.

There was a small gap between the two trucks behind him, but if he timed it right—

He jammed on the brakes and the Tahoe’s wheels slid on the lingering patches of melting snow as he jerked the wheel around to reverse course again and aimed for the narrowing gap between the two pickup trucks now barreling across the slippery ground straight at him in a terrifying game of chicken. Finally, as the grille of the Tahoe came a few short feet from the front of the trucks, the drivers swerved out to avoid a head-on collision.

The men in the truck beds were too busy clinging to the truck to get off any shots, and with a scrape of metal on metal as the SUV slid against the side of one of the trucks, the Tahoe shot the gap and raced up the driveway toward the road.

The trucks behind him had to avoid each other, slowing down their attempts to reverse course, and the third truck that had gone around the music hall to cut them off had no idea what had happened.

His heart pounding, Landry gunned the Tahoe down the driveway, increasing his lead as he swung onto the road in front of the music hall and tore away from the pursuit.

Olivia had pulled herself up into the seat and was giving the 911 operator a play-by-play of what had just happened, peering through the gloom ahead to make out the sign on the next crossroad they passed. “We’re still heading north on Valley Road, just past Soldier Junction.” She listened a moment, turning around to look out the back. “They’re still behind us but falling back. No, we didn’t get any license numbers.”

Suddenly, headlights came on, bright and blinding, from two vehicles parked on either side of the highway. Landry’s heart jumped into his throat. “Son of a—”

Olivia’s hand closed over his arm, and he darted a quick look at her.

“The Gates,” she said, and he realized what she was telling him.

He drove past the two trucks parked on the shoulder and kept going. With a glance in his rearview mirror, he saw that the parked vehicles had pulled out behind him, blocking both lanes of Valley Road.

“They’ll have vehicles trailing the trucks,” Olivia said softly, the phone pressed against her chest. “They’re going to hem them in.”

“There’ll be a firefight.”

“Maybe. But those vehicles have bullet-resistant windows and armor. Just like this one.”

Landry looked at the bullet holes in the rear window and realized they hadn’t penetrated the glass. He released a harsh breath. “You could have told me.”

“When?” She put the phone to her ear and told the 911 operator they’d evaded their pursuers and arranged for a meeting point with the sheriff’s-department deputies responding to the call.

Landry eased the Tahoe to the shoulder where she indicated they should stop and put it in Park, though instinct told him not to cut the engine. Those jerks in the trucks weren’t the only dangerous people in these hills.

“Are you okay?” He turned to look at Olivia, taking in her disheveled appearance and searching for any signs of injury. He saw a dark rivulet of blood running down the right side of her face. “You’re bleeding!”

She reached up and touched her cheek, looking at the blood that came away on her fingers. “I got nicked by flying glass from the side mirror. Barely even stings. I’m fine. How about you?”

If he’d been injured, he couldn’t feel it. He reached for her, tangling his fingers in the hair at the back of her neck, and pulled her across the gear console and into his embrace. Electricity seemed to flow through his veins like blood, sparking everywhere it traveled, until his whole body felt like a live wire, utterly on edge.

But slowly, as she lifted her hands to draw soothing circles across his back, the frantic energy ebbed, until he finally felt his pulse return to some semblance of normal.

Even the wail of sirens in the distance, moving inexorably closer, wasn’t enough to jar his nervous system into another flight of panic. One way or another, his ordeal was over. The authorities would believe him or they wouldn’t. But there would be no more running.

He might well be doomed to spend the next few years of his life behind bars, but he thought he could handle it now.

Now that Olivia was on his side.

* * *

“H
OW
MUCH
LONGER
are they going to interrogate him?” Olivia couldn’t stop her restless pacing beside Alexander Quinn. He sat with annoying calm in one of the two chairs that faced the empty desk of Ridge County Sheriff Max Clanton, who had insisted on observing the interview.

“You know the FBI. They like to swagger around and play the big dogs.” The look Quinn shot her way was full of amusement, making her want to kick him in the shin with her hiking boots.

Instead, she stopped pacing, slumping in the chair next to him and stretching out her long legs, which had begun to ache. Dropping her chin to her chest, she glared at the empty desk chair and tried not to think about what Landry was going through in the interview room down the hall.

The Bryson City Police had picked up the men who’d been chasing Olivia and Landry, but so far, they hadn’t been able to get much out of them. Quinn had told her it was possible they wouldn’t be able to connect them to the Blue Ridge Infantry at all.

At least the Hunters had been safely rescued from their booby-trapped house. The bombs had been small pipe bombs, two hidden in the decorative urns on either side of the porch set to blow if anyone had opened a door or a window on the first floor. Fortunately, one of the officers on the Bryson City force had been an explosive-ordnance expert in the Marine Corps and had managed to disarm the simple explosives without incident.

But they still hadn’t figured out how the men who’d accosted them had known to look for them in Bryson City at the Hunters’ place.

“I get the feeling something’s up with this interrogation,” Quinn said a few minutes later, breaking the tense silence and drawing her thoughts back to the present.

“Good or bad?” She wasn’t sure she wanted to hear the answer, but she couldn’t go through life avoiding things that frightened her.

“I don’t know. I just can’t shake the sense something’s changed.”

She looked at him, trying to read his expression. A fool’s game—Quinn never gave anything away he didn’t want to. And sometimes when he wanted to, what he gave away was a lie he wanted you to believe.

Before she could ask another pointless question, the door to the office opened and Max Clanton entered, his sandy eyebrows lifting in surprise as he spotted them waiting in front of his desk. “Y’all know it’s nearly five a.m., right? Figured you’d have moseyed on home for the night.”

Olivia rose to face him. Max Clanton was a tall man, fit and trim, looking young for a man in his midforties, and from the handful of things she’d heard about his time on the Knoxville Police Force before he ran for Ridge County Sheriff, he was tough as a bull. But he must have seen something fierce in her expression when she turned to look at him, because his forward progress faltered and his expression shifted from affability to wariness.

“Where is Cade Landry?”

“I’m not sure.” Avoiding her gaze, Clanton continued to his desk and sat in his chair, making a show of straightening the files on the corner of his desk.

“You’re not sure?” she pressed, starting to grow alarmed. “An hour ago he was in your interview room down the hall, talking to the FBI. I thought that’s where you were, too.”

“I was called away on a different case,” Clanton said apologetically. “When I checked in again, the interview room was empty.”

“Empty?” Olivia took a step toward the sheriff’s desk.

Quinn rose and put his hand on her elbow, holding her in place. “Thank you for allowing us to wait in your office. If you have any further questions for Ms. Sharp or any of my employees, we’ll be happy to oblige.” He guided Olivia out the door and into the narrow corridor outside, shutting the door behind them.

“Where the hell is Landry?” she asked, keeping her voice down.

“My guess is, he’s been taken into custody by the FBI, at least temporarily.”

“And the Ridge County Sheriff’s Department just let them take him?”

“Technically, he’s committed no crimes in Ridge County that would give the sheriff primary jurisdiction.” Quinn nudged her down the hall and out into the main foyer. “I’ll make some calls, see if I can track down where he’s been taken.”

“That won’t be necessary.” A tall, dark-haired man with clear blue eyes and a Southern drawl stepped in front of them as they started toward the door. He handed Olivia a card.

It read “Will Cooper. Federal Bureau of Investigation.” She looked up at him, her eyes narrowing.

“Where’s Landry?”

“My guess is, he’s currently on the way to The Gates. The FBI has released him under his own recognizance while the details of his situation continue to be sorted out.” Cooper nodded at Quinn. “Nice to finally meet you, Mr. Quinn. I’ve heard a lot about you. I’m Will Cooper.”

“One of the Alabama Coopers, I assume?”

Will smiled. “My brother Caleb gave me a call because I’m on a multistate task force investigating and interdicting domestic terror incidents. I’ve just been assigned temporary duty in the Knoxville field office to review some recent undercover operations run out of that office as well as the Johnson City resident agency.”

“You got Landry released.”

“He’s got some details to work out, but unless different evidence arises, there aren’t likely to be any charges pending against him.” Will nodded toward the door. “I’d like to talk to you, Mr. Quinn, about your investigation into the Blue Ridge Infantry, if you’d be willing to discuss it with me.”

Quinn looked at Olivia. She nodded. “Go ahead. I’ll meet you there.” She peeled off toward her car in the visitor’s parking lot and pulled out her phone as she settled behind the steering wheel.

It was a long shot to think Landry would still have possession of the burner phone Quinn had given him. The cops had probably confiscated it as evidence. She’d just have to hope he was waiting for her.

When she arrived at The Gates, the agents’ bull pen was buzzing with activity, agents making up for lost time after the snow days. Olivia caught Ava Solano’s arm as the other woman edged past her in the doorway. Ava had worked with Landry briefly when they’d both been in the FBI’s Johnson City RA. “Ava, have you seen Cade Landry?”

Ava’s dark eyebrows lifted. “I thought he was at the sheriff’s office, being questioned still. Did they let him go?”

“Seems to be the case, at least for now. Have you been here for the past hour or so?”

Ava nodded. “I have tons of paperwork I’m catching up on. If I see him, I’ll tell him you’re looking for him.”

Olivia made herself slow down as she left the bull pen and headed for Quinn’s office to see if he and Will Cooper had arrived. Maybe Cooper had misunderstood and the FBI agents who’d come from Knoxville to interrogate Landry had simply taken him to Knoxville for more questioning.

As disheartening an idea as it was to think he was still in deep trouble with the Bureau, it was a better option than the panicky fear starting to take up room in the back of her mind.

Face it, Olivia. There’s always the chance he’s run again.

But how would he run? He no longer had the Tahoe to drive. When he’d shown up in her front yard a few days ago, his only means of transportation was a thrift-store bicycle.

Which brought up another question. If he’d left the sheriff’s department the way Will Cooper said, how had he managed it? On foot? Called a cab? Hopped on a bus?

She settled down in the chair in front of Quinn’s desk and tried to think. Could he have caught a ride with another agent from The Gates? As far as she knew, she and Quinn had been the only ones there at the sheriff’s office this afternoon, but Dennison’s wife worked there as a deputy. She supposed Landry could have run into Dennison at the station and asked for a lift.

As she was dialing Dennison’s number, Quinn and Will Cooper entered the office, their pace faltering a little when she stood and took a step toward them.

“Cooper, you said Landry had left and you thought he was headed here, but he’s not here. Can you tell me how he left the sheriff’s department?”

Cooper looked momentarily nonplussed by the question, then apparently caught on to what she was asking. “One of the deputies going off duty offered him a ride.”

“Male? Female?”

“Female. Dark hair, dark eyes, midthirties—”

That could fit Sara Dennison. “Thanks.” She headed past them into the corridor and pulled out her phone. Sara’s number was saved somewhere in her call list, wasn’t it?

She found it as she was heading down the winding staircase to the first floor and made the call.

Sara answered on the second ring. “Dennison.”

“Sara, it’s Olivia. Did you give Cade Landry a ride this afternoon?”

“I did—he said he needed a lift to your place because he’d left a lot of his stuff there when y’all had to bug out. Frankly, he could do with a shower after sweating out an FBI interrogation, so I dropped him off at your cabin. I hope that was okay. I talked to Cain and he said you and Landry were friends.”