Body of Evidence (Evidence Series) (36 page)

She crossed the card room floor. Next she’d swing by the pool and arcade, then the spa. Anything to kill time and give Jeannie a chance to show up, without leaving Mara a sitting duck in the back of the casino. The damn building didn’t have enough exits for her liking.

Her cell phone rang, and she startled.

Curt. It had to be Curt. She plucked the phone from her pocket and answered.

“Do you see the man in the Aloha shirt?” Curt asked.

Adrenaline shot through her system. She spun and saw a tall—very tall—man, young, boyish looking, leaning on a slot machine, and staring directly at her. The man waved, beckoning her toward him. In her ear, Curt said, “That’s Lee. He’s safe. Follow him.”

“I can’t. I’m—”

“I know exactly what you’re doing, Mara, and if you think I’m going to let you risk your life for that rotten, betraying bitch, think again.
Follow Lee!
” The last words were a roar.

In spite of Lee’s imposing height, he looked safe, nonthreatening, probably due to the familiar, colorful shirt. Her feet obediently followed Curt’s shouted instructions.

Within striking distance, Lee’s arm snaked out and gripped her shoulder. He was fast. Shockingly so. And with a reach that shouldn’t have surprised her given his height. Jesus. He was probably a foot and a half taller than her.

“Nice to meet you, Mara,” he said and dragged her toward the front door.

He stopped and swore, and Mara saw what halted him in the same moment. Jeannie Fuller. Entering the casino.

Mara lurched forward, toward her friend, but the grip on her arm stopped her. Lee yanked the phone from her grasp and said, “Trouble, Curt. Meet us at the back entrance.” With Mara in tow, he spun and bolted for the rear of the casino floor.

“Wait! I want to talk to her.”

“Not a chance in hell,” Lee said, dragging her along.

Mara dug in her heels and struggled against him. She twisted her arm, and amazingly, broke free. She shot forward, then skidded to a stop. Two men had entered the casino behind Jeannie. Both had the bearing of Raptor operatives.

Jeannie had betrayed her again.

C
HAPTER
T
HIRTY-SEVEN

C
URT SAW
J
EANNIE
and the two goons enter the casino right before Lee shouted into the phone. He’d pulled onto the wide, twisty road that circled the casino before Lee even started speaking. They had planned for this. Lee would get her to the rear exit.

Raptor couldn’t afford to open fire in a crowded casino. Mara had done that much right in choosing the meeting place. Now Lee and Curt had to do their part to save her.

Later he’d ask her the important questions, like why she hadn’t confided in him. But right now, all that mattered was getting her out of there. Thank God, Mara was a runner. If anything, she’d be faster than Lee sprinting across the casino floor.

Curt reached the back entrance—a full mile and a half around the building from the front—at the same time the door burst open, and Mara shot through with Lee at her heels. Lee pointed to his gray sedan, and Mara veered in his direction. She yanked open the rear door and tumbled in, Lee right behind her. Curt hit the gas, and they were peeling away from the curb as Lee caught the door and pulled it shut.

He didn’t look back to see if they were followed. It didn’t matter. They had to assume Raptor would hack the hotel security camera to get the license plate. Within the hour, they’d know Lee was helping them.

But at least for now, Mara was safe.

“
I
THINK,”
L
EE
said, climbing between the seats to the front of the vehicle, “I can hack the camera and erase the footage before Raptor sees it.”

Mara sat bolt upright, still catching her breath, still trying to figure out what had just happened. “You can do that?”

“I don’t want to hear about it,” Curt said from the driver’s seat.

Mara focused on Lee, because if she looked at Curt, met his angry gaze in the rearview mirror, she just might fall apart. “How?”

Lee plucked a laptop from the floor, flipped it open, and answered in a stage whisper, as if Curt couldn’t hear him, “He doesn’t know it, but on the drive down I hacked the security cameras of all the major resort casinos. I didn’t know which one we’d find you in.”

“That can’t be easy,” Mara whispered back, impressed.

“It’s not.” He grinned and winked at her.

Curt kept his gaze on the road. Mara had to admit this was a terrible position for him to be in, knowing his friend was breaking the law to protect her. She touched Curt’s shoulder. He stiffened.

She dropped her hand and slumped back against the rear seat, feeling rejected, hurt. “I’m sorry, Curt. I—”

“Don’t,” Curt said, his voice clipped, full of righteous anger. “Don’t even try to justify it to me.”

She didn’t know at this point if she could justify her decisions to herself. Jeannie had sold her out to Raptor. Again.

What would make her bring members of the same organization that had killed her brother to a rendezvous with Mara?

The thought of what it would take to bring Jeannie so low twisted her gut. She had probably been through a hell Mara didn’t want to imagine. “We need to go back. Jeannie needs help.”

“There’s been an APB out on Jeannie for two weeks now,” Curt said. “I called the local FBI office on the drive up and told them to have a team ready. As soon as we knew which casino, I updated them. If Jeannie is smart, she’ll make a scene and won’t leave the casino with the Raptor operatives, giving the FBI the opportunity to take her into protective custody.”

Relief filtered through the heartache. They hadn’t abandoned Jeannie to monsters. She pulled her knees up and hugged them to her chest. “Where are we going?” she asked.

“I’ve arranged for a safe house in DC,” Curt answered, his words even colder than before.

This was hardly the reunion she’d imagined with the man who’d been so hot and enticing on the phone. “I thought the FBI wasn’t going to protect me.”

“I just needed time to make it happen.”

“How safe can it be? Isn’t the FBI caving to pressure to blame everything on Evan?”

“There are a handful of agents I’ve known for years and trust.”

“And I’ve known Jeannie for years—”

“I said don’t, Mara. You may have known her for years, but nothing she’s done lately has proven her trustworthy. You’re as blind about her as you are about your uncle, but this time, you almost got yourself killed.” His voice rose. “What if I hadn’t asked Lee to find you? What if we hadn’t gotten there in time?”

“Why did you?” she asked, lashing out like the cornered, wounded animal she was. “Why the hell did you find me? It was
my
business I was in Atlantic City. Not yours.”

“Curt,” Lee said, “pull over. Let me drive.”

“No. Driving the car is the only thing that’s keeping me sane right now.”

“I beg to differ,” Lee said. “There is nothing sane about the way you’re driving.”

Mara looked at the speedometer and blanched. They were going ninety. Curt hadn’t driven that fast in trafficless, middle-of-the-night Oklahoma. He eased off the gas, and the car slowed.

“Pull over,” Mara said. “I’ll jump out at the next rest stop. I’m not your problem anymore, Dominick.”

“The hell you will. You’re going to DC and the safe house. Period.”

“Get this straight, US Attorney Dominick, I am
not
your prisoner.” He was as bad as the Korean People’s Army, and she was sick of it.

Curt’s knuckles whitened on the steering wheel. “Ms. Garrett, I kindly ask that you take the protection I have gone to great lengths to acquire for you.” The words were spoken through gritted teeth. “I would be ever so grateful, seeing as how I’m doing my best to
save your goddammed foolish ass!
”

So much for courtship and telephone dates. They had come full circle and were right back where they started. “Fine,” she said through stiff lips. She’d go to the safe house. It would buy her time to think.

She swiped at the stupid, foolish tear that trailed down her cheek before Curt or Lee could see it. What happened to the man who’d wined and dined her with imaginary dates? Where was the man who thought he was falling in love with her?

“
M
R.
S
HERROD, IS
your next witness ready?” Judge Hawthorne asked.

“Yes, Your Honor. At this time, the defendant, Vice President Andrew Stevens would like to testify.”

Noise in the gallery peaked. Judge Hawthorne gave her trademark look over her glasses to the spectators but didn’t resort to the gavel. Even so, the noise stopped. The crowd had been trained.

“We are nearing the lunch recess and as Mr. Stevens’s testimony should take significant time, we will break. Court will resume at one thirty. The jury is excused.”

Aurora whispered to Curt, “Nice. The reporters will have just enough time to file a noon report.”

Curt wondered if Mara was watching the news. In a matter of minutes, Stevens’s intention to testify would hit the airwaves. What would she think of that?

Anger had crackled between them yesterday when he left her at the safe house. In the end, Lee had stepped outside, leaving Curt alone with her.

She’d been tense, hurt, and defensive. And he had to admit he was behaving like a complete ass. The sight of Mara fleeing that casino, knowing Raptor operatives were in pursuit, had rattled him much more than he’d anticipated.

He’d crossed the living room of the safe house and took her small, stiff body into his arms.
“I’m upset because I was terrified. I care about you, Mara. You’re worth a thousand Jeannies.”

“I was trying to find her for you.”

“For me?”

“I was going to convince her to come to DC and tell the FBI or Homeland or the State Department about Raptor. If she told the truth, you’d get your search warrants in a heartbeat.”

“Jeannie’s word isn’t worth spit. She took a payoff from Raptor. She has no credibility. Your word is the only one that will convince a judge to issue a warrant.”

She’d crumpled then, pressed against him, and he’d held her while she quietly sobbed, as he should have done right after they’d escaped North Korea.

Now, a day later, his only hope to salvage a relationship with her when this was over was pinned on shattering her allegiance to her uncle. She was going to hate him when she realized he’d asked Lee to find her so he could drag her here to testify. But maybe, if she knew the atrocity her uncle had committed in selling arms to a war criminal, she’d understand.

Mara had seen the devastation of war crimes firsthand. She’d excavated mass graves in Bosnia. Her uncle had used her work with JPAC as a cover for illicit meetings with the worst sort of war criminal, and he’d followed that by using JPAC for recovery and theft of biological weapons. By all rights, Mara should despise her uncle, but Curt knew his own actions would cut just as deep.

C
HAPTER
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HIRTY-EIGHT