Fox Afield (Madison Wolves) (24 page)

A few people offered to help catch them.

"They'll let me catch them once they've had their fun," I said. "But they are definitely getting baths when I get them home." I raised my voice. "Especially you, Lizzy!" she huffed at me, grinning.

We stayed out until well after dark. We didn't catch the slightest hint of Virginia.

Finally Lara made a point of letting me catch her, then the others did as well, and we returned to the motel.

"It was a long shot," I admitted. "But worth a try."

* * * *

It was hard to believe we'd only been there one day. I was ready to collapse. I hadn't slept much on the flight here. No one had, and we were all tired. Lara and I shared
a room with Elisabeth and Karen, and I was asleep three minutes after she pulled me into her arms.

I slept poorly, my dreams a mismatch of everything that was bothering me. I finally gave up about 4:30. Lara woke when I slipped from her arms. I promised I wouldn't go anywhere without guards. But she got up with me. We pulled some clothes on and went for a brief morning walk, not talking, just holding hands.

"I do love you, you know," I said. "I hope you know that."

"I have no doubts," she said. "I've put yo
u through quite the wringer this past year."

"Nothing compared to my life before I arrived in Wisconsin," I said. "I've grown comfortable here.
I guess I had you to thank for that, but I didn't know it at the time."

We walked quietly, but when she pulled me into her arms, I went willingly. When she lifted my face for a kiss, I gave with everything I had. She led us back to the motel, and when she suggested we sleep for a while longer, I allowed her to pull me to the bed.

* * * *

They let us sleep. I suspect Lara woke periodically, but she knew I would sleep better with her. Eventually Elisabeth stood over the bed and call
ed us awake.

We showered, had some breakfast, and
all assembled together.

"Michaela," Greg said. "Will you recognize the SUV if you see it again?"

"Amongst a sea of SUVs, no. But if the same driver is driving it, and I'm looking for it, then yes."

"The light will be different. It may look to be a different color than it did yesterday afternoon. And the driver may be in different clothing."

"I understand," I said.

"We want to plant a tracker on the truck," Greg said. "We need to identify the truck, wait until my person is in place, then distract the driver."

"If Scarlett were here," Angel said. "She and I could do it."

I laughed. "I bet.
I can do it. Unless he's gay, he won't take his eyes off me. I just need to rig a clothing failure."

"You'll get arrested," Lara said.

"No," I said. "But I need you on two feet for this one." I told her what I wanted, and then the comments began.

"I'll take Lara's role if she doesn't want it," Elisabeth said.

"I'm coming!" said Eric.

"I'm bringing video," said Angel.

"Greg?" I asked.

He was smiling. "That should work. What if it doesn't?"

"Then I tap on his window and ask if he saw that and start flirting with him."

* * * *

We were in place ninety minutes early. Lara, Angel and I were on two feet. Karen, Serena and Elisabeth went in fur. The waitress from yesterday was there again, and of course she remembered me. She brought water for the dogs and bent down to pet them before taking our orders.

In case we were wrong, we still took turns checking on all the patrons. We also looked for people nearby on a computer who weren't in the coffee shop. Greg had a few people doing the same, and one of his computer experts was ready to actively attempt to hack the guy's laptop if we had the chance. So far, he hadn't stayed long enough to get in, Greg had said.

A little girl stopped by and begged her mother, "Mommy! Can I pet the doggies?"

Her mom, criminally stupid, said "yes" without asking permission, and the little girl practically threw herself onto Serena. Luckily she picked the one with experience dealing with little children, and Serena was sweet to her. I'm not sure
Karen and Elisabeth would have tolerated it quite so complacently.

"You know," I said. "These dogs are very gentle, but there are a lot of dogs that don't deal as well with surprises."

"Then they shouldn't be in public," the mother said.

"Perhaps not, but is that going to make you feel good while you're riding in the ambulance to the hospital, wondering if your daughter is going to survive the dog attack?"

She blanched.

"My dogs are amazing," I said. "They would never in their lives hurt a little girl, especially See-Saw there. She's safer with them than you can possibly imagine. But these are deeply exceptional animals. You may want to think about that."

"You're right," she said. "I'm sorry. It won't happen again."

"It's okay. What's your daughter's name?"

"Candy," she said.

"Candy," I said more loudly. "Would you like to give the dogs a treat?"

She squealed loudly, and I felt badly for Serena's hearing, but she simply gave the girl a wet, slobbery kiss.

I didn't have dog treats; I didn't want to even think what my life expectancy would have been if I'd offered one of the wolves a dog treat. Instead, I broke apart on
e of the muffins on the table and handed a piece to the girl. She offered it to Serena, who took it gently. The next piece went to Elisabeth, the last one to Karen.

"All right," said the girl's mother. "Give the dogs a hug and we need to get going."

The girl started to fuss, but Elisabeth leaned over and cleaned her face, causing her to giggle and push Elisabeth away. The girl squeezed Serena around the neck, practically choking her, then allowed her mother to pull her away.

Lara was practically beside herself, but Angel maintained a straight face. I realized she was using her phone to video the entire encounter. I didn't say a thing, and the furry wolves didn't seem to notice. I leaned over to her and said, "You understand what is going to happen to you if the head enforcer finds out about that, don't you?"

Angel nodded.

"I wonder how quickly I'll tell her if any video of me surfaces that I don't care for."

"That's blackmail," Angel said quietly in response.

I leaned away. "Why yes," I said. "Yes, it is."

"Yes it's what?" Lara asked.

"Oh, I was just offering a little teacher to student wisdom."

I heard huffs from under the table.

"Hush, down there," I said. "I just arranged for you guys to get some affection and a bite of our muffin."

Lara grinned at me. I leaned into her and asked, "Do you find it to be more fun from this side of the table?"

She nodded.

We continued to kill time but got increasingly worked up and nervous as the scheduled time approached. No one had figured out why the kidnapper was on a schedule, but so far he had operated like clockwork.

At ten minutes to ten AM, he drove up. There was an open space just two places down, and he took it, nearly directly in front of us. I glanced over. "Same SUV," I said. "I'm sure of it."

"Don't look at it again," Lara said. She called Greg. "We have identification," she said. "To Michaela's left, he just arrived."

"We've got him," Greg said. "Do your thing whenever you want. We've got clear eyes."

"You know," I said. "I can't believe you're still taking calls from her!" I said to Lara.

"Honey, it's not like that," she responded immediately.

"Like hell it's not. We're married, Lara! And you're still talking to your ex-, even after the crap she pulled with me."

"She is hurting right now, Michaela," Lara said. "Just because we broke up doesn't mean I stopped caring about her."

"Is that what you called it at the wedding?" I asked. "She was practically draped over you."

"She was passed out!"

"She aimed for your lap when she did it. I don't think she was that passed out." I stood up, glaring at Lara.

"Do not walk away from me!" she said.

"Watch me," I replied. I turned around, then turned back and grabbed my big bottle of water. "I am going for a walk to cool off."

"Oh no you're not!" Lara said, chasing after me, bringing her own bottle with her.

I turned around suddenly, directly in front of Lara, and told her, "Stop following me." Then I cut out into the street directly in front of our target SUV. At just the right moment, Lara grabbed me and spun me around, and I used my bottle to squirt water in her face. "Give me some space! You are so overbearing!"

Lara hadn't released my arm. She glared at me, and then quite deliberately, she
drenched the front of my blouse with the entire contents of her sports bottle. I started gasping, and she grabbed my bottle and emptied it over me as well.

"What the hell?" I yelled. I began fanning the blouse, trying to dry off. Every pair of eyes within a half block radius was glued to me. Angel was laughing and, I'm sure, filming, and I heard the wolves chuffing. I continued to fan the blouse, making sure it pressed tightly against my breasts repeatedly. My nipples showed through the material, and it was clear I was wearing piercings. Lara stared at my chest and was clearly enjoying the show far too much.

"Why the hell did you do that?" I asked her angrily.

"You said you needed to cool off," she replied. "Do you know how beautiful you are when you're angry?"

Then she pulled me into her arms, with me twisted slightly to my right, and placed her left hand firmly on my right breast, fondling my nipple through the wet material. I was pretty sure the only people who could see were me, Lara, and the guy in the car, and I was positive his eyes were riveted exactly where they were supposed to be.

Lara pulled my unwilling body into a kiss, her hand continuing to tease my sensitive nipple, and slowly I relaxed my struggles until I was clutching at her. That part wasn't at all an act.

That woman could kiss!

Finally she lifted her face from mine. "I won't take any more calls from her, Michaela. You're right. She's gone too far, and she's been using my kindness as a lever between us."

"Thank you, Lara," I said. "I love you."

"I love you, too."

She pulled me back to the coffee shop, her hand on my ass, plunked a couple of twenties on the table, and grabbed the leashes. Twenty seconds later we were around the corner and out of sight. Lara's phone rang, and when she answered it, Greg was laughing.

"That was the funniest thing I've ever seen on an operation," he said. "Exceedingly obvious, but we have pictures of the driver with his tongue hanging out of his mouth. We got the tracer planted and were well clear with no one the wiser."

"Excellent," Lara said. "Are you sure you don't need us to help follow him?"

"No," he said. "We've got this. Let's see where he goes and we'll figure it out from there."

"All right," Lara said. "We'll meet you at the motel."

"Tell the fox we have some great video."

For some reason, everyone found that amusing.

* * * *

At the motel, I got a lot of good-natured teasing. Serena handed me a bra and a dry blouse, and I turned my back on everyone to pull them on.

"It's not like we didn't all get a good look," Eric said.

Lara growled at him, and he shut up. I bumped her in thanks, but then she said throatily, "You're not the only one who got all wet."

Greg came in with Wendy and Charlie, a human computer expert. "Timothy Anderson," he said. "Twenty-seven. We tracked his car to his place of employment. Our suspect works as a clerk at Target."

"He was kind enough to leave his laptop in his car. We upgraded it for him," Charlie said.

"Upgraded it?" Elisabeth said.

"Yes," Greg said. "We installed some extra software for him."

Over the next hour, we got a complete run down of Timothy. High school grades, medical history, one police report for disorderly conduct, let off with a verbal warning from the judge.

"The reason for the schedule is clear. He works ten until six every day. He collects the email in the morning and sends replies every evening."

The picture that emerged was clear.

"Timothy is involved," Greg said. "But he did not plan this."

"He couldn't plan his way
to cross the street safely," Eric said.

"Exactly," said Greg. "But that doesn't mean he isn't holding Virginia. He lives alone in a little house in town; it used to belong to his grandmother. Now his mother owns it, and his parents pay his bills."

"If I can get inside the house, even the front door, unless the house is soundproofed, I can tell how many people are in it," I said.

"If Virginia is there, I could tell you from inside," Lara said. "But I would rather we didn't show our hand too early."