Bound by Danger (31 page)

“No airbags to protect the driver. His head impacted with the glass, shattering the window to smithereens.”

Deidre tried to speak but the words wouldn’t come. She cleared her throat. “Is he—”

Dave pulled the door open. “His lap belt wasn’t in use.” He reached into the car. “No pulse. He’s dead.”

He holstered his gun, then joined her, but as soon as he took her hand, she pulled it back from him. “Are you all right, Deidre?”

“Just a bit skinned up.”

“Take her home, Bill. And keep her there.”

She wrinkled her brow at him. She knew he was doing his job, and she was in uniform, but couldn’t he have given her a kiss? One little kiss?

He motioned to Bill with his head to remove her.

Deidre sighed deeply, intent on having the last word. He was mad at her. Too bad. If he’d stayed where he was, he could have gotten the bad guy all on his own. Yet she couldn’t quash the disappointment she felt in not getting his kiss and a reassuring hug from him, uniform and professional duty be damned. “All right, Dave. I’ve worn my skirt long enough today.”

He shook his head and the look of worry wrinkling his brow made her realize he’d lecture her later that night about her safety.

Bill took her arm and led her to the SUV. “Dave says you’re more trouble than any other case he’s ever worked.”

“He does, does he? So where’d you guys go anyway? Red walked into the entrance to the kitchen. I turned to motion to you, but none of you were in sight.”

“Red had a decoy pose some distance from the officers’ club. Led us on a wild-goose chase. As soon as we caught up with the man, we learned he was paid to play a prank.”

“Some prank.”

“Well, Dave says no more work for you.”

“That’s easy for him to say. He doesn’t write my evaluation report.”

“I’m sure if he did, you’d get all ‘A’ plusses.”

“You’re probably right. Too bad he isn’t my boss.”

“Well, he sort of is…at the moment.”

“Ha! Bossy is more like it.”

***

When Dave arrived at Deidre’s home later, he took a ragged breath. “My boss wants us to close up shop here. He feels we’ve done all we can on this case.”

Deidre nodded.

He rested his hands on her shoulders and rubbed the tension from them. “Even if the guys return to headquarters, I’m sticking around.”

“Really? Now that Red is dead, I think that’s the last trouble I’ll have with this case.” She sighed deeply. “Charlie called while you cleared up matters on post. He wants me to pack his things up and ship them to him.”

“Johnson and Bill are heading that way. They’ll drop his stuff off.”

She walked into the guest bedroom and Dave followed her.

“Did you need my help with anything, Deidre?”

“No, thanks. The guys were great and had already picked up some boxes for me. It’ll take me a little while. Maybe one of the guys can tape the boxes after I’ve finished packing them.”

“All right. Well, let us know. They’re getting kind of bored.”

“That’s probably a good thing after all we’ve been through the last few days.”

Deidre pulled the remaining shirts out of the closet and started to fold them. She turned to see Dave still watching her. He smiled and walked out of the room. He was leaving soon, she knew it. Her brother was gone. All the special moments they had shared while she was with them would be over. An overwhelming sadness returned.

Could Josh Henderson ever make her feel the way Dave’s touch did? She doubted it. But she hadn’t even given him a chance. Dave was leaving and that was that. She didn’t want to delve into it any deeper than that. She knew if she did, she’d dissolve in a waterfall of tears.

Instead, she concentrated on sorting through the rest of Charlie’s stuff and packed all of it into the boxes. Keeping busy was the only way she could keep her heart from breaking.

Later that afternoon, Johnson and Bill hauled the boxes for Charlie out to the car. Dave leaned against the doorframe. “The guys are leaving tomorrow. They’ll drop Charlie’s things off with him. If you find anything else before then, let them know. They’re running into town on a couple of errands. I’ve got to run out for a bit myself. Do you think you’ll be all right?”

“Certainly.”

Dave gave her a squeeze. “Okay, be back in a little bit. You’ve got my cell phone number if anything comes up.”

“Don’t worry. I’m going to change Charlie’s sheets and do a load of wash.”

Dave left the apartment while Deidre stripped the sheets from Charlie’s bed. Her toes poked under the frame, and she frowned as she bumped into a box. Peering under the bed, she found a box of Charlie’s shoes. “Shoot, Charlie.” Before she taped it shut, a thumb drive slipped partway out of one of the loafers making her gasp in surprise.

In a panic, she hurried to the window. Both SUVs had already left.

She grabbed drive and ran to her bedroom. Shoving the switch to her computer on, she tapped her nails on the edge of the desk. “Come on, come on.”

As soon as the computer monitor blinked on, she pushed the drive into the slot. Clicking on the saved file, her mouth dropped wide open and her heart nearly stopped. A shiver ran down her spine instantly as she realized how close to home the threat to her life really was. “My God.”

She saved the information on her hard drive, then made four more thumb drive copies. She meant to send it in an email, but as soon as she tried to open up Firefox, she got the message,
Can’t find the message
. Glancing down at her Internet symbol, a yellow triangle sat on the little monitor icon.
No Internet access
.

Crap
! Wind, rain, you name it, knocked her Internet out. What was wrong with it today?

If he killed her, she was going to ensure the story would get out…somehow. He wasn’t going to quit trying to have her killed. And now her protection was gone.

She called the sergeant who had teamed up with her on the training exercise. She knew she couldn’t call the military police. They’d never act quickly enough. Nobody would even believe her. “Listen, Sergeant Washington, can you get the other members of our team together? It wouldn’t have to be all of them, just enough to give us some muscle if we need. Meet me at my office in a half hour.”

“What’s this all about, Cpt. Roux?”

“The man behind the attempted killing at the training field…well, I have proof of his actions.”

“I’ll gather as many of the team as I can, but don’t you go confronting him, Ma’am, before we get there. Who is he, by the way?”

“My boss…the G-1.”

***

Deidre propped one of the flash drives on her kitchen table with a note. “This is it! Tried to get hold of you on your cell phone, but the line was busy. Meet you at my office, soonest.”

She slipped into the front seat of Charlie’s truck, and tugged at her Army green skirt. She was dying to see what her boss would say about her wearing the unauthorized Class B uniform to her office again.

She drove to the post office where she sent one of the drives to FBI headquarters, priority mail. One she sent to Charlie. The third she mailed to the Army’s Criminal Investigation Division. No matter what, her boss wouldn’t get away with what he’d done this time. She tried to call Dave again. Still, his line was busy.

It was time for the showdown, ready or not.

When she pulled into the parking area, her pulse quickened and her head throbbed. This was it. The final link in the up-until-now unsolved case.

The door creaked open announcing her arrival at the G-1 Headquarters. She hurried past her boss’s office and walked into her own. No one from her tactical personnel team had arrived yet.

She pulled out her cell phone and called Dave again. This time the phone was clear, but by the second ring, the colonel yelled from his office, “Cpt. Roux, report to my office at once!”

Undoubtedly, he’d seen her wearing her skirt. She grabbed up the disk and walked slowly to his office. Her two-inch pumps clicked on the floor with every step she took. Where was her team? They should have been here by now.

By the time she reached his doorway, there was still no one around. Then she heard Dave’s voice, “Hello, hello?”

“Lieutenant Colonel Ramstodt.” She spoke as loudly and clearly as she could so Dave could hear her words.

“Close the door.”

“Yes, sir.”

She didn’t like this part. Her team was to assemble in her office. They might think she hadn’t arrived yet, and they most likely wouldn’t barge into the G-1’s office without invitation. She closed the door with a click.

Her hands grew clammy and her blood chilled. Before her sat the man who’d tried to kill her and Charlie to cover up his past ill deeds. But there was something more than that. Was it that he hated her so much, he just wanted her dead, period? Even if she hadn’t known anything, had he hated having a woman work for him so much…

“Who the hell do you think you are waltzing in here like the belle of the prom in your Class B uniform? Just because the damn Feds have been keeping you out of work, doesn’t mean you can violate our uniform policy at Fort Hood. Only as an escort officer this morning were you allowed to—”

“Did you think you could get away with it, sir? How could you have a man killed just because he found out about your shenanigans selling weapons and other war materials to rebel forces?” She kept her voice elevated. Could Dave hear what a predicament she was in?

Her temple pounded. With one hand she clutched the disk, the other the phone. Neither would save her from the gun resting in her boss’s right hand drawer. In a vision, she could see him pulling it out with every intention of killing her. How was he going to explain that away?

Still, his hands rested in his lap. His steel blue eyes stared at her in disbelief. She smiled slightly. Not very much, just a hint. She had him by the balls, and he knew it. Yet she couldn’t help worry that he might get the upper hand. Her quickened breath couldn’t be stilled as her heart pumped hard.

“What I don’t understand is why you sold weapons to the enemy. I mean, a lieutenant colonel’s pay isn’t a bad income. Unless you have a spendthrift wife or something.” Her voice sounded even, unhurried and unconcerned, and yet she had a devil of a time projecting strength and power when she knew he had every intention of putting her six feet under.

He flinched slightly. She’d hit a nerve. He’d sold weapons that would kill their own men, for money. The notion sickened her all the way to the pit of her stomach. Good men, his men, died and what did the bastard feel? Anything? Not an ounce of remorse. She didn’t think she could hate him any more than she already did, but she could.

“The money couldn’t have been that good.” She tried to stall him, knowing it wouldn’t be long before he ended the game with her.

He reached for the drawer. He was going for the gun. Her stomach tightened as she gripped the phone tighter. Where were the troops? She lifted the phone to her mouth. “Go ahead and send the FBI in, Dave.”

She smiled broadly this time, though she worked out her next move in a hurry. The line to her phone had died. Dave hadn’t been listening to her conversation at all. With chills raking her body, she knew her boss was going to kill her.

***

Dave punched buttons on his cell phone. “Johnson, get Bill and head over to Deidre’s office pronto!”

“What in the world is she—”

“Her boss is the one behind all of this. She’s in his office now. I’m on my way there, but it’ll take me several minutes before I make it. Call CID, the MPs, the works. I’ll try calling the G-1 himself to distract him.” Dave mastered the fear attempting to strangle him. His instincts to handle an emergency took over. He knew now the only way he could save her, was to put his feelings on hold, as hard as it was.

“Right on it.”

Dave punched in the numbers for post information. “I need a direct line to the G-1.” He finally took a breath as the line stopped ringing.

“Private Johnson, G-1, how may I help you?”

“Put me through to the G-1. It’s an emergency.”

“He’s not taking any calls, sir. May I take a message?”

Alerting the enlisted staff could only push the lieutenant colonel into a corner. None of the office staff would be armed to protect Deidre. He couldn’t risk it. “Listen, private, this is a real emergency. I have to speak with the G-1, now!”

“Sorry, sir, when the G-1 says no calls, he means it.”

“Let me speak with your supervi—”

The phone line went dead.

Dave looked up to see the signal light had turned red, but too late. Sailing through the intersection, he could only hope none of those in the cross traffic would make a jackrabbit start. Clearing the intersection, he sighed deeply, then a siren and flashing lights satiated the air.

“Damn it!” He wasn’t stopping for anyone. He dialed new numbers.

“Miss Wimberly, Texas State Police.”

“This is Dave Caruthers with the FBI. I’m headed for the G-1’s office, 1st Cavalry Division, concerning a life-threatening federal matter. You have an officer pursuing me at the moment. Radio him and tell him to escort me, but I’m not stopping for him or a real tragedy will result at the G-1’s office. My Texas license plate number is RLO-231.”

Silence followed, then the woman said, “Officer White will escort you, sir. Another federal agent called in a few minutes ago and told us the situation.”

Dave wiped the perspiration dotting his brow. He couldn’t believe Deidre found the manuscript and would confront her boss on her own like this. What was she thinking? He guessed she was so angry her boss had tried to have her killed so many times she wanted to get him back in her own way.

Dave took a deep breath and stretched his shoulders, his temple wrinkled in anger. How could she have been so naïve? After all they’d been through, he couldn’t lose her now and yet, he couldn’t help but feel he was really close to doing just that. Being her knight in shining armor sure earned him his pay.

***

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” LTC Ramstodt said.

He was trying to distract Deidre. It wasn’t working. His fingers curled around the drawer handle.