Love or Justice (16 page)

Dante continued out to his truck. His stride was resolute.

John and Jason were standing by the truck with another man.

Dante guided Laurie around the group to the passenger side door. The detective pounced on them.

“Mr. Stark, I can’t clear you to leave the scene.” The detective put his hand on the hood of the truck.

“I don’t care. I’m getting my witness out of here. Now.” Dante spared him a glance.

He opened Laurie’s door and handed her into the vehicle. Then he slammed it shut, making the mirror and windows rattle.

“Mr. Stark—” the detective said.

“It’s Marshal Stark, and I’m leaving with my witness.” Dante turned on the man. Dante felt a pre-emptive strike was necessary. He had to get Laurie out of here.

“My men have my statement and my firearm. My witness’ bloody clothes are in the bathroom where I had to remove them from her because she’s so scared she can hardly move. This is the third attack on her life. The second while she’s been in a safe house under protection. So either you shoot me, or I leave with my witness.”

Dante stared the detective down.

The detective took a step back, his eyes shifted to Laurie who sat in the truck, pale and staring off into the distance. Then the detective nodded and took another step back.

Dante walked past him, around to the other side of the truck.

“One of you call Rick and tell him what’s happened.” He threw the comment over his shoulder at his men.

He started the truck’s engine. Without a pause, he put the truck in reverse and peeled out of the driveway, just missing a parked police cruiser. Then he put the truck in drive, and sped off down the street.

Dante started thinking of everything he had to do. He had made up his mind as soon as he realized how Kaimi must have gotten the safe house location.

He drove straight into town, stopping at a small strip-mall. He had Laurie get out with him. They went into a cell phone store. Glass cases ran most of its length in a U-shape. Cell phones were jammed into the case, alongside perfumes, jewelry, athletic clothes, and watches. Two beefy islanders sat on stools at the back. Dante bought a pay-per-minute phone from them, paying for it in cash.

Laurie said nothing, but when they got back into the truck, Laurie turned to him.

“What’s the phone for?”

“I have to get rid of mine.” He drove up toward Highway 19.

“Why?”

“Laurie, how do you think they knew where you were?”

Laurie’s forehead creased into lines of confusion. She looked at Dante like he’d lost his mind. She sighed.

“I don’t know.”

“How do you think they knew where the safe room was? How to open the door?”

“I have no idea.”

“The Marshals Service has a mole.”

Her head tilted back as though an invisible hand struck her. She looked out the windshield toward the stretch of highway before them. Her hands clenched together in her lap.

“No, you couldn’t.”

“Every attack on you could have been carried out with information from the service. The first one in your hotel room I credited to Kaimi’s informants. He saw you at the hotel, he knew your name. A little sniffing around would have led them straight to your window. The second one had to come from someone who knew where the safe house was. I thought they followed Evan James. That was logical. However, no one could have carried out this attack today unless they got information from inside the agency. Another Marshal, an analyst. Someone who had information on what house you would be in, where the safe room was, and how to open it. The Marshals Service has a mole.”

As he spoke it aloud, his conclusion sank in. It hurt, he realized. He’d been betrayed. His men had all been betrayed. It steeled his resolve. He didn’t want to do what he had planned, but there was no other choice.

“What are we going to do?”

“Get you somewhere safe.”

Her brow furrowed, but Laurie didn’t question him further.

Dante drove up toward the Kona airport. He pulled onto a road leading toward the ocean. He pulled up to a small beach he had come to sometimes to sit, think, and watch the planes take off and land. The noise of their engines soothed him somehow. Dante parked the truck as close to the beach as he could get. He pulled out a random piece of paper from his console. He hastily scribbled a note on it:

I
’ll bring her back when the mole is in custody and it’s safe—Dante

Then Dante took out another piece of paper and wrote down several numbers he would need from his cell phone. He got out of his truck. He pulled off the GPS tag. He wrapped his work phone and the GPS tag in the note. Then he dropped it by the garbage can, where no one else would pick it up. They would find it.

He got back into his truck. He drove for half an hour, toward Hilo, using backroads. He stopped at a gas station when he was halfway there. He sat for a minute, working up some courage. He tapped his fingers on the steering wheel. He knew he didn’t have much time to work with, so he broke open the burner phone. He turned it on and took out the piece of paper with numbers from his cell phone. He dialed one number he hadn’t touched in years. It rang several times, then went to a machine, just as Dante knew it would.

“Dad.” His voice faltered.

“Dad, I need your help. There’s a mole in the Marshals Service and I have to get a witness off the island. I hate to ask this of you, but I need to come stay with you and Mom for a little while. Call me back at…” Dante looked at the phone’s instructions, reading off the phone number. “It’s a burner, paid for in cash. Hurry.”

He hung up the phone.

“We’re going to stay with your parents?”

Dante shrugged.

Laurie looked at him like he’d gone mental.

Perhaps he was. Dante pulled over to a gas pump to fill up the tank.

Laurie sat in the truck, watching him.

When Dante got back in and began to pull away from the gas station, his new phone rang. His heart stopped. He almost dropped the phone as he fumbled to pick it up. He opened it slowly.

“Dad?”

“What airport will you be near?” asked the gruff voice on the other end.

Dante breathed a sigh of relief.

“I’m headed toward Hilo on the big island. I’m near Kona now.”

“Neither. Go to Bradshaw. Is your witness male or female?”

“Female. Laurie Shelton.”

“Give me until tomorrow morning. Can you find some place safe for tonight?”

“Yeah. I was en-route to a little campground I know of, but I’ve never been there. They won’t know me.”

“Good. I’ll have you out of there by tomorrow morning.”

“Thank you, Dad.”

His father hung up without a word. Dante expected as much.

“What did he say?” Laurie asked when he closed the phone. He looked over at her.

“We’re going to a campground for tonight. In the morning, we’ll fly out of Bradshaw Army Airfield.” He pulled out of the gas station.

“To where? Dante, will you please tell me what’s going on? You’re not answering my questions. I can’t take much more of this.”

“Laurie, my father knows a lot of very powerful people. He has many friends. He also has a lot of enemies. He is the only person who can get us off the island without being detected by anyone in the police department or the Marshals Service.”

“Where do your parents live? Where are we going?”

Dante glanced at her, then looked away. His face tightened. A tense muscle in his jaw twitched.

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know where your parents live?” He heard the incredulity in her voice.

“My father has a lot of enemies. Very dangerous enemies. Far more dangerous than Kaimi. When my father retired from his job he assumed a new identity. He and my mother decided to live off the grid. I don’t know where they live now.”

Laurie studied him for a moment.

Dante glanced over to her, and her eyes narrowed.

She stared at him intently, seemingly searching for any weakness, any hint of guilt over telling a lie. He had none. He went back to staring at the road ahead.

“Off the grid?”

“Untraceable. No paperwork. No loans. No credit cards. He pays for everything in cash. He has no contact with known associates or family members. He lives off the grid. He and my mother just vanished.”

“How long has it been since you talked to them?”

“I talk to my mother sporadically. I doubt my father knows about it though. I’ll get a phone call from her. Pay per minute phones, like this one. A new one each time. My father. God. I don’t know.” He ran his hand through his hair. “I haven’t talked to him in years.”

“That’s terrible.”

Dante smiled. It worked out well for him.

“My father and I have never gotten along, Laurie. It’s not so bad. In fact, it’s for the best.”

Laurie stared at him.

“What did your father do to collect so many enemies?”

Dante sighed. He might as well tell her everything.

“He was in the CIA. He was a very, very high ranking agent.”

He glanced over at her.

Realization bloomed over her lips and her eyes. She turned toward him in her seat.

“Thank you for telling me. I’m sure that’s not something you can tell very many people.”

“No one. I’ve never told anyone else. I’m not even supposed to know.”

Dante watched the miles disappear beneath the SUV as he traveled east.

“I’m sorry. I’m sorry you had to carry the weight of that burden alone.”

His face broke apart, the veneer shattered. He looked over at her, eyes misted over. No one ever understood the weight of that secret, but Laurie got it immediately. As his gaze traveled back to the road ahead, Dante reached over with his right hand to grasp her hand. She covered it with hers. They drove the rest of the way to the campground in silence.

CHAPTER TWELVE

The Air Force Base was a bleak strip of land in the shadow of
Mauna Kea
. The lone white watchtower looked grey in the dim morning light. Dante flashed his Marshals ID. The sleepy guard at the parking lot entrance yawned and waved him through. Dante had seen him before on the rare instances when he had to take Federal planes for assignments.

He parked at the far end of the lot. He told Laurie to wait in the truck for him, and he got out. He took off the license plate and flung it out into the field. He hoped it would at least slow them down from tracking his movements.

When Dante flung open Laurie’s door, she was pale. She ran her hands up and down her forearms, shivering in the heat of the afternoon. He didn’t have to ask. He understood. He could see it in the way she stared at the planes, her eyes as big as blue balloons. He held out his hand to her.

Laurie unbuckled her seat belt, taking the hand he offered her. He helped her out of the truck, straight into his embrace. They stood in the open car door, holding one another. Neither wanted to let the other one go.

Dante heard a jet engine above him. He turned to see an unmarked, grey plane landing. It was nothing like the military planes that lined the runway. It was nondescript, neither old nor new. It was forgettable, and exactly the type of plane his dad would send for him.

It was time. He grabbed their bags and took Laurie’s hand. They walked toward the small, square building to meet their pilot.

The inside of the building was just as bleak as the outside. The concrete walls were exposed, unpainted, and bare of all decoration. A few plastic chairs were scattered in the largest room, which led out onto the field. There was no security, no stores or restaurants, just a couple of vending machines on the right wall. No one was there. Dante could see why his father chose it. They walked out toward the landing strip to meet the pilot that sauntered up toward the building.

Dante kept one arm around Laurie and one as close to his gun as he could without looking like a threat. As the pilot came into clear view Dante laughed, his face relaxing into a wide grin. He eased his grip on Laurie’s shoulder, taking a deep breath for the first time all morning.

“Your father told me you needed a lift,” his uncle called in greeting.

“Uncle Bob! I wasn’t expecting to see you.” Dante gave him a hug.

“Well, who else would your father trust to bring you home? Especially with such precious cargo.” Bob turned his eyes on Laurie, with a wink and a smile.

Bob had soft brown eyes like Dante’s, like all Stark men. Bob’s grey hair was wispy and thinning, his face was plump. He was broad shouldered, but he had gained a few extra pounds around his waist since Dante had last seen him. His dust colored jumpsuit was tight, covering every inch of his distended belly.

“I thought you were still on duty?” Dante wished he’d called his uncle instead of his father.

“No, no, no. I’m retired now. They sent me packing about a year ago.” Bob gave a smile that was neither happy nor sad. A typical smile for a dedicated public servant who ages out of service.

“Seems retirement is suiting you.” Dante slid his eyes down to Bob’s stomach, then back up to meet his uncle’s gaze with a mischievous grin.

“Just wait to you get over forty, just you wait.” Bob gestured to Laurie. “Now don’t be so rude, son, introduce me to the girl.”

Dante rolled his eyes and turned to Laurie.

“Uncle Bob, this is Laurie. Laurie, my Uncle Bob.” Dante felt the stiff muscles in his neck relax just a hair.

“It’s nice to meet you.” Laurie shook his hand. “Thank you so much for helping us.”

“Of course. Public service is practically the family business.” Uncle Bob held onto her hand. “Dante, you never told me you got to meet such pretty women at your job. No wonder you love it so much.”

“Uncle Bob, Laurie’s a witness.” Dante flushed, stuck between embarrassment and offending Laurie. “She’s one of the few women I’ve had under protective custody. Can we please get on the plane?”

“All right, son, all right.” Uncle Bob winked at Laurie.

Dante groaned inwardly.

“But if you’re smart, you’ll keep her.”

“The plane, Uncle Bob! Let’s go!” Dante said, throwing his hands in the air. His uncle hadn’t changed at all.

Uncle Bob chuckled as he linked arms with Laurie to lead them toward the plane.

“Now tell me about yourself, young lady. What do you do?”

Laurie smiled, wrapping her hand around his arm as she walked with him.

“Well, I used to work at a resort on the west side of the island. But I’m working my way through law school.”

“Law school? A lawyer, Dante. Did you hear the girl wants to be a lawyer?” Uncle Bob tossed him a look over his shoulder.

“I’m well aware.” Dante picked up their bags and hurried after them.

“You know, Dante’s never brought a girl home with him before. You must be very special.” Uncle Bob raised his voice so Dante could hear him.

“She’s a witness! I had to—” Dante exclaimed.

“Calm down, son. There’s no need to yell. I’m just getting to know the girl.” Uncle Bob led them to their seats in the cramped cabin.

“Please, Uncle Bob.” Dante gave him a pointed expression.

“All right. Now buckle up. Since your father is completely paranoid, we’ll be making a few stops before our final destination. I think two interim stops will make him happy.”

Bob went toward the cockpit and closed the door.

Dante buckled his seat belt, sinking back into the seat. He and Laurie were going to get off the island safely. That thought released all of the pent up adrenaline in his body, which pooled in the back of his chair.

Laurie on the other hand sat up stick straight, her eyes darting around the plane.

Laurie turned her head toward the window as they began to charge down the runway. When the plane began to lift off the ground with a roar, Laurie’s eyes went wide. She clutched at his hand with one hand, and his thigh with the other.

“Haven’t flown in a while?” He dropped his arm over her.

“Never. I’ve never been on a plane. Never been off the island.” She was breathless, as the engines hurtled them toward the sky.

“Ahhhh,” Dante said. Since Bob was gone, he kissed her left temple. “Relax. Just take a deep breath.”

Laurie nodded. As the plane leveled out, she sank back into Dante’s arm. She looked out the window to find herself among the clouds. She leaned forward, almost pressing her face against the glass. Laurie watched out the window as the wind built and shaped the puffs of white into swirls.

“Wow.”

Behind her, Dante grinned. He enjoyed her wide-eyed fascination. The scene captivated Laurie for several minutes, until they hit some mild bumps and she jerked back.

“What was that?”

“Just some turbulence.” He ran his hand down her back.

Laurie must have decided that pressing back into her seat was a safer location, so she relaxed against Dante again.

“I like your uncle.” She smiled up at him.

“He hasn’t changed at all. He got older, but that’s it.”

“Is he like your dad?”

Dante laughed so hard he sputtered and started to cough.

“No. He’s not at all like my dad.”

Laurie’s brow furrowed.

“Is your uncle from the CIA too?”

“No, he’s been in the Air Force his whole life. Both had incredible careers.”

“Like you?”

“Yeah, until I met you.”

“It is not my fault.” Her eyes turned to daggers.

“Uh huh.” He touched his forehead to hers. He kissed her, running his hand through her hair. Then he rested his chin on the top of her head. “I’m so relieved to get you off the island. I had no idea what I was going to do if my father didn’t call me back.”

“You would have found a way.”

“Yeah, well, I’m glad I didn’t have to.” He squeezed her tighter. “I hope you brought some more books though. I don’t know where we’re going, but we’re at least five hours from the rest of the U.S. We’re gonna have a long flight.”

They did. At first, Laurie watched outside the window, but half-an-hour of cloud gazing is plenty for anyone. She had Dante pull out one of her books on criminal justice. She read for a few hours before falling asleep on his shoulder.

Dante had a much more tedious flight. He fidgeted in his seat, then got up and wandered around the cabin for a little while. Then he spotted a few magazines someone had left. He flipped through them listlessly. The hours dragged by. When Laurie fell asleep beside him, it forced him to sit and think of the last time he saw his parents.

It was his graduation from Marshals training, and his parents had come to Georgia to see it. His father had arranged for them to fly in only the night before the ceremony. It had irritated Dante and his mother made her disapproval quite clear. He had been away for more than four months of training. His father had refused to visit him at all, saying it “would be too obvious a target.”

Dante had to report to his assignment in Hawaii right after graduation, and both his parents damn well knew it too. Yet his dad insisted they needed to leave minutes after the graduation ceremony. He and Dante got into a fight and Dante told his father he didn’t even want him to come to the ceremony anymore. In the end, Dante’s mother came to the ceremony, but his father was nowhere in sight. After that, Dante spoke to his mother occasionally, but he never went to visit. They didn’t visit him. He hadn’t spoken to his father again until yesterday.

There was chirp over the loud speaker in the plane, rousing Dante from his troubled memories.

“Attention please, this is your uncle speaking.” Bob’s voice relayed over the crackling speaker. “Please prepare yourself for our first landing. Since we’ll just be gassing up, I ask you to remain seated until we can take off again.”

Dante buckled his seatbelt, then double-checked Laurie’s, which hadn’t been touched since they got on the plane. He eased her still dozing form back into her chair, but placed his hand over hers for landing.

Bob brought the plane down, the wheels barely bumping against the pavement before they rolled. After taxiing, Dante glanced out the window to see familiar buildings and low hills climbing from the landing strip. He knew where he was. Bob emerged from the cockpit.

“I see the flight was a good one.” He eyed Laurie’s sleeping form and Dante’s hand still covering hers.

Dante’s eyes dropped to his hand. He pulled it back like his hand had been caught in the cookie jar.

“She’s never been on a plane before. She was pretty anxious for a while,” Dante tried to explain.

“Sure she was kid, sure she was.” Bob winked at him. He strode to the cabin door, and lowered it to the ground.

“How did you get permission to land at Miramar?” Dante shifted in his seat, running his hand through his hair. “A Marine training base doesn’t just usually allow uninvited guests.”

Bob chuckled, turning to Dante.

“I told them I had a decorated Marine on board, bringing him back to his parents. They seemed to think that was worthy of a quick gas and go.”

Bob left the plane to talk to the ground crew who were waiting for him. Dante covered Laurie’s hand again, resting his other hand on his gun. He peered out the window at his old training base. He had come here several times for tactical and skills training. It changed little in the years since he left. He noticed a couple of buildings were new, but everything else remained the same.

Laurie stretched, rolling in her chair to look up at him.

“Hi,” she said sleepily. “Are we there?”

“Not yet.” He brushed a lock of hair away from her cheek. “Uncle Bob’s just filling up the gas tank and we’ll be on our way again.”

Laurie nodded, nuzzling his shoulder.

He stretched his arm around her shoulders to hold her for a few minutes.

Laurie started kissing his neck.

He leaned down to kiss her forehead.

She tilted her head up to him and drew him down to meet her.

He cupped her face, stroking her cheek while they brushed each other’s lips. Until they heard a cough.

They pulled away from each other with a startled gasp. They turned their heads to the cabin door to see Bob leaning against the doorframe.

“I hate to interrupt, but we’re ready to be on our way.” He wore a broad grin, his eyes gleaming with laughter.

Dante looked down at the floor, his cheeks heating. He hadn’t felt so embarrassed about kissing a woman since high school.

Laurie flushed, smiling at Bob. Then she laughed nervously.

Bob said nothing more; he closed the plane door and walked to the cockpit chuckling all the way.

Dante looked at Laurie. He sighed and reached for her hand as the plane began to taxi down the runway. So much for trying to hide it.