Part 16 (1/2)
”No way. I'm not leaving him.”
”There's nothing you can do,” Maverick said sternly. ”You can't risk opening the door with the sun so bright right now. Rothman said that the darkness was his only hope of surviving. You need some downtime, Blue, or you'll be no good to him when night comes. Rothman said that you can't risk bringing him out in the daylight. There's nothing more to be done right now. He's on his way here.”
”I can't leave...I...” He was right. She was exhausted. If she didn't get some sleep she'd be no good to anybody in a few more hours.
”Just for a couple hours, Blue. I'll give you a wakeup call before dusk. You'll be there to open the doors the moment darkness falls. Besides, you'll need to show Rothman the way to the chapel.”
She exhaled a weary breath. It was the right thing to do, she knew. She pressed her ear to the wall and listened intently. Nothing. Noah would need her when night came. Preparation was half the game. She d.a.m.n sure didn't want to fail him by being unprepared.
”All right. But just for a couple of hours.”
”I'm on my way.”
”Maverick,” she said, a part of her still reluctant to leave Noah, ”if anything-”
”n.o.body's getting past me, girl,” he interrupted, his tone a warning rather than a rea.s.surance. ”I started doing this when you were barely out of diapers. No one gets over on the Maverick.”
Blue had to laugh. With the tension so high, if she hadn't laughed she would surely have cried. ”You're right. What was I thinking?”
”Not with your head, that's for sure.”
She accepted the dressing down without offense, she'd asked for that one. Rafe ”Maverick” Scott had learned the personal protection and spy trade from the master-Lucas Camp.
BLUE AWOKE with a start. Her breath caught sharply as she sat straight up in bed. She blinked, startled all over again at the brightness of the room. The shutters and drapes were open. Fading sunlight spilled across the wine-colored carpeting. A moment pa.s.sed before she gained her bearings.
Noah's room. Maverick had insisted that she stay in this room since it was the most secure.
Noah's bed.
Her heart hurtling into Fast Forward, she checked the clock on the bedside table. Still a good hour before sundown. The breath that had stalled in her lungs seeped past her lips. Thank G.o.d. For a second there she'd thought Maverick had let her oversleep.
Noah...her chest constricted as awareness flooded her, reminding her that he was hurt...maybe worse. And Lucas was still missing, his situation the same.
She picked up Noah's pillow and inhaled deeply of his scent. Though a hint of smoke still hung in the air as well as in the linens, she could smell his essence and she longed to touch him. To be with him again. The idea that Leberman had planted those smoke bombs to mimic a fire and drive Noah from the house enraged her all over again.
Climbing from the bed, she made a mental note of all she had to do before dusk. Quick shower, close and lock all the windows and doors, then get back to the old chapel.
She had to move fast.
The shower took five minutes, dressing a few more. She decided after a thorough toweling that her hair could air dry. Starting in Noah's room, she checked to ensure that all was as it should be and she methodically closed and locked all the windows Maverick had opened to let out the smoke, careful to shut the shutters and drapes as well.
With twenty minutes to spare, she scanned the front yard through the viewfinder and emerged from the house. Rothman had called and said that his flight had been delayed but that he would be here as soon as possible. Blue didn't like it, but there was nothing she could do about it. After locking the door she was halfway down the steps when Chester's truck arrived.
Simon Ruhl jumped from the bed of the truck. He opened the pa.s.senger-side door and Victoria Colby emerged from the cab of the old, dilapidated vehicle.
A new kind of anxiety seared through Blue. She wasn't supposed to be here. Had something else happened?
Oh, G.o.d. They'd found Lucas.
The deep circles under the older woman's eyes and her grave expression sent Blue's pulse surging toward panic.
”Have they found Lucas?” she demanded as she strode toward the truck. Why hadn't someone notified her?
Simon did not look happy. Another bad sign.
”I tried to talk her out of this, Miss Callahan,” he said. ”But she's too stubborn. Maybe you can reason with her.” His exasperation evidenced itself in his posture. Blue knew exactly what he was feeling. He didn't like Victoria being on this island. He knew it wasn't safe, and, yet, she was the boss. What choice did he have but to obey her directions?
”What's going on?” This question Blue directed at Victoria Colby.
”Leberman called me,” she said, her voice surprisingly strong considering what her state of mind must surely be. ”I'm to go alone to meet him. I don't have time to argue.”
”I don't understand.” Blue shook her head. ”You're supposed to meet him here?”
”There's a place, walking distance from here.” She gestured back to the road. ”I'm to walk out to the main road, go left and keep walking until I reach the next lane to the right. At the end of it there will be an old fis.h.i.+ng shack. He'll meet me there.”
”If you go at all, you can't go alone,” Blue protested, conscious of the time. Dusk was almost upon them, she had to get back to the old chapel...to Noah.
Victoria's gaze pinned her with finality. ”I don't have a choice. I have to go alone.”
”That's insane.” Blue waved her hands as if erasing the notion. ”We call the team in and we do a wide perimeter surveillance. He'll never know we're there.”
Victoria moved her head from side to side, her expression implacable. ”If I don't go alone, he'll kill Lucas.”
Chapter Thirteen.
”You have to trust me on this one, Victoria,” Blue said, her tone brooking no argument. ”You can't do this alone. He'll kill Lucas anyway.”
Victoria shook her head, tears trickling past her lashes. ”I lost my husband to that animal, I can't-”
”You're not going to lose Lucas,” Blue said, suddenly as sure of it as she'd ever been of anything in her entire life. ”Now let's stop wasting time and do this.”
For one long, heart-stopping moment, Blue was sure the strong-willed lady wasn't going to give in, but with an a.s.senting nod, she caved.
”We'll do it your way.” Her gaze leveled on Blue's. ”But, if you're wrong...”
”I'm not wrong.” Blue said the words with the same certainty she felt in her gut. Leberman was going to kill Lucas anyway if they didn't get to him first; he only waited to lure Victoria in, otherwise Lucas would be dead already. Blue would not let that happen. Unless it was too late and no one knew it yet.
”Simon,” she said to the Colby agent who was clearly impressed with her powers of persuasion, ”call in the search team. Tell them to come in one at a time and to wait until they have the darkness for cover. If Leberman's watching, I don't want him to know we're up to anything.”
”Doing that as we speak.” Simon flipped open what was obviously a secure cell phone. Mission Recovery had similar ones. It was unusual to find private-sector security and investigations personnel so well equipped. The Colby Agency was obviously highly sophisticated.
It was too risky to leave Victoria and Simon at the house; Leberman had access and wasn't afraid to make a move there. There hadn't been time to call a locksmith to the house. Chester stayed behind and the rest of the group headed through the woods to the old chapel.
Blue pressed her hand to her chest, suddenly remembering that she didn't have her light stick. The darkness was descending rapidly, but it didn't scare her quite the way it used to. Or maybe she was simply so focused on finding Noah and Lucas safe that nothing else mattered at the moment.
Whatever the case, the dark was the least of her problems at the moment.