Rescue Me (27 page)

Regardless, she needed to know the truth. The
death of that man wasn't her fault.

It was his.

Kat paced in front of the Com Van as she
waited for the TREX team to return. She had a few questions for
them. Not that they'd answer her, but she had to at least try.

She thought about trying the radio Spencer
gave her. The TREX team hadn't said a thing since they found the
subject. Maybe they didn't talk once they completed a find. More
than likely, they'd switched off their radios so she wouldn't be
able to hear them.

Kat took a breath to see if any TREX agent
had their radio on when another voice sounded over the line.

“Switch to the key of B.”

What did that even mean? She pulled the
receiver out of her ear and looked for any type of switch. Not
finding one, she let out a frustrated sigh and went to drop the
earpiece in her pocket when she felt it. A tiny little wheel on the
very back. She moved it a click, listened, then repeated until
voices sounded.

“The next time you decide on radio silence,
give me a heads up.” Weber. She recognized his growly tone.

“Sorry,
sir
.” That one was definitely
Gessler.

“What's the situation?”

Spencer's deep voice came across the line and
warmed Kat, despite the situation. “We have the subject in custody.
Gessler said there's a rig at base camp we'll use to transport him
to HQ.”

“Allen? What the hell are you doing?”

“Assisting Gessler.”

“Once you're at the rendezvous point, you
will turn in all audio. Is that clear?”

“Perfectly.”

“There's something else,” Gessler pointed
out.

“And that is?”

“This guy says he knows about TREX and
definitely knows Allen.”

“Of course he does,” Weber retorted sharply.
“He was in the wall tent with us during the find for Tommy
Miller.”

“Oh, no. This isn't Damon Salazar. It's—what
the fuck is your name?” A pause. “Sam Green.”

They were out looking for Damon Salazar? The
same man who'd called her and gave her all the information on the
formerly missing Sam Green? The same man who had asked her to keep
his contact with her a secret from TREX? Now she knew why. She
pulled out her phone and scrolled through the numbers, making sure
she still had his in her most recently received calls. There.
Making a mental note to tell Spencer about it later, she went back
to eavesdropping on their radio traffic.

Gessler continued. “And he knows something
about Emery Haynes. Wasn't that the name of the guy we found dead
up here last year?”

“Shut up,” Spencer barked.

“What was Allen's role on the Haynes search,
Weber?”

“That's none of your goddamn business,
Gessler.” Weber did not sound happy.

Kat listened, her heart in her throat.
Spencer had a role in that fateful search that almost ended her
career? She clenched her fists and dug her nails into her palms. As
much as she didn't want to continue listening, she had to know.

“This guy has diarrhea of the mouth,” Spencer
said. “He's just talking shit.”

“Whoa! Say what?” Gessler exclaimed. “Weber,
you've got to hear what this guy is saying. I'm switching over to
VOX. Okay, asshole, say that again, the part about Salazar.”

Another voice sounded. He sounded like the
same man screaming for the team to leave him alone, but now seemed
awfully calm for having been caught by them. “Damon Salazar is a
part of a group called
the Order
. It's a powerful group and
its power stretches across the globe.
The Order
is very
persuasive and if they want something done it gets done.
Period.”

“Is that how you know him?” Gessler asked.
“Are you a member of this cult?”

“It isn't a cult. Cults are harmless. Trust
me when I say that this group is not harmless.”

“Why the fuck should we care about some
cult—sorry,
group
—with delusional thoughts of grandeur?”
Spencer sounded annoyed and way too tense.

“Because
the Order
has a far reach.
TREX hunts down threats, right? I can list at least a dozen of them
you don't even know about, yet.”

“What were you hired for?”

“If I tell you, they'll know you know.”

“Your answers really suck ass,” Gessler
pointed out. “Talk or I'll make you talk.”

“I was sent to finish a job started one year
ago. There is a very powerful man trying to shift the balance
within
the Order.
He's been steadily gaining support from
men just like him. Collectively they have enough power to take over
and then the shit will really hit the proverbial fan. You think the
dozen threats you don't know about are bad enough? Try hundreds.
That's what these men want to do.”

Spencer ground out a sigh. “And what,
exactly, are these men wanting to do?”

“Start a war,” Sam Green stated
matter-of-factly. “When I heard what they had planned to set
everything in motion, I stepped in.”

The TREX agents appeared out of the woods and
stopped next to the giant SUV Dan Weber stood next to. Spencer
pushed a man she assumed to be Sam Green toward the vehicle. He
looked exactly as Damon Salazar described him. Dark hair, wearing
all black. The only difference between Sam Green and Damon Salazar
was a missing goatee on Mr. Green. That aside, they could have been
from the same gene pool.

“Explain how you stepped in.” Weber
prodded.

“I saved Tommy Miller's life.”

Kat gasped and covered her mouth, hoping they
didn't hear that. She quickly jumped into the Com Van to stay out
of sight of the TREX agents so she could spy on them through the
window.

“How so?” Weber asked.

“When Salazar confided in me that he planned
to have that little boy killed and his body dumped up here, I went
into action. I draw the line at hurting an innocent child.”

“You're all heart,” Gessler mused. “Why kill
the kid?”

Spencer made the connection with a quick nod.
“Because Martin Miller wouldn't go along with the plan. He's the
shift. Miller is part of
the Order
. That's why the ransom
demand was too damn low. Salazar isn't after the money. He wants
Miller to join his party and was using Tommy as leverage.”

“You were always so perceptive,” Green
said.

“Keep singing,” Spencer barked in retort.

“I convinced Salazar to put me on the team to
kidnap the boy. It was my job to kill Tommy. I made sure the other
mercs on the team knew the kid was mine. That was the only way I
could protect him. We were up at the cabin where I was supposed to
shoot him and leave his body for TREX to find. Instead, I turned my
gun on one of the mercs and shot him. The other two took off with
Tommy. I caught up to them, took them both out, and escaped with
the boy.”

“We found Tommy's blood at the scene,”
Gessler pointed out.

“On purpose. I had to have Salazar think he'd
been shot. I hid out with Tommy until I heard someone coming. Once
I confirmed it wasn't Salazar or any other member of
the
Order
, I hid and let them find the kid.”

Dear God.
Kat didn't know whether to
scream at the man or hug him. He'd saved Tommy Miller's life. How
could a bad guy be good at the same time?

“So then you helped Salazar escape,” Spencer
pointed out. “What happened?”

“He shot at me and I knew he figured out that
I double-crossed him. I risked my ass saving him and he repays me
by trying to kill me. So I took off.”

This sounded like a weird spy movie.
Kat stopped herself from rolling her eyes.

Spencer grabbed the man by the collar and
shoved him against the SUV. “Did you shoot at my men? Did you kill
Lyons? Answer me!”

“I have no idea what you're talking about! I
swear!”

Weber pushed Spencer off the subject and
opened the door to the SUV. “This interview is over.”

“Question,” Gessler spoke up and blocked the
way. “What does this have anything to do with the Haynes
search?”

“Fine,” Weber growled. “Just tell him, Allen.
Let's get it over with or Gessler will just keep annoying the shit
out of me until I snap and either tell him or kill him.”

“Talk,” Gessler ordered. Silence answered him
as Spencer crossed his arms in front of him. Gessler then turned to
Green. “Fine. You talk.”

Kat couldn't breathe. She'd waited for these
answers for a year. Now as they were about to be revealed, deep
down she knew she didn't want to know the truth behind that search.
Ignorance was bliss. As stupid as that sounded, she debated turning
off the receiver instead of learning what really happened at that
search.

Green turned his head and stared at the Com
Van. “I see K-SAR is here. Good. This involves her, too.”

“Her?” Spencer visibly tensed and even took a
step toward Green, but Gessler stopped him.

“Frankly,” Green went on. “I'm shocked she
agreed to run another search with you after what you did to
her.”

Blood retreated from all of Kat's limbs,
leaving them cold and icy. In turn it all rushed to her head,
causing it to pound relentlessly. In her flash of heated panic, she
nailed her attention on Spencer. What did he do that he didn't want
her to know?

“Emery Haynes.” Green said the one name that
connected the dots. Even though he'd said the name before, it
didn't click for her until now. “Do you know who he was?
What
he was?”

She fought to breathe as the epiphany washed
over her. Spencer acted very peculiar on that search. Irrational,
just like this one.

Green's voice brought her back from her
memory. “One year ago Emery Haynes was up here, supposedly lost.”
He turned to Spencer. “But he wasn't lost, was he? You knew exactly
where he was.”

“Shut up.” Spencer pushed him toward the
door. “Jesus God, man. Shut the fuck up.”

“You were too quick to respond that night,
too.
The Order
hired me to track Emery Haynes and bring him
back so they could persuade him to tell them who it was trying to
change the balance of power. But I wasn't the only one up here that
night, tracking Haynes.”

Dread slowed her blood as she helplessly
listened in.

“So who else was up here?” Gessler asked.

“I can't tell you.”

“After all that? Now you decide to shut your
fucking mouth? I don't think so.” Gessler pulled out his gun and
shoved it between Green's lips. “Talk or I remove your ability to
do so.”

Kat slapped her hand over her mouth to stop
from crying out.

Green raised his zip-tied hands. “Emery
Haynes was never meant to be found.”

Oh, Jesus God.
Spencer had said those
exact words.

“At least not until we insured he wouldn't be
able to talk. By the time I found him, he already had a bullet
between the eyes. It didn't matter that I didn't get the kill shot.
I delivered on the hit and got the payday.”

Gessler slowly lowered the gun and turned to
Spencer. “Wait a sec. That's your big secret? You terminated a
subject? Holy shit, Allen. Here I thought it was something
serious.” He even laughed, but then tossed a glance toward the Com
Van and fell silent for several seconds before speaking again. “Oh,
shit. You let her take the fall. You let her believe she found him
too late when you'd already found him. Wow. Good thing we switched
frequencies. If she heard any of this… Well, I wouldn't want to be
you, dude.”

Spencer glanced in the Com Van's direction.
She couldn't see him clearly due to the distance and the window
screen, but she knew those smoky eyes stormed as he looked right at
her. He knew she had to have heard it all. Every goddamn word.

Kat squeezed the hand covering her mouth into
a fist as, little by little, it all started to make sense. She
closed her eyes, the pain and confusion clouding her mind. Her eyes
stung with fresh tears, but she kept her composure somehow.
Realization burned into her brain. She'd been sent to find a man
already being hunted.

A man marked for death.

Damn, damn, and double damn. She'd sent her
units out there, putting them into danger. And she'd blamed herself
for that man's death. She'd fought the nightmares for a year.

“Jesus,” she whispered and trembled
uncontrollably. Her breath barely pushed in and out of her lungs.
She had no strength. “Oh, my God. I never knew. I thought he died
from exposure.”

“Who is that?” Weber's asked. He turned to
the Com Van and then jerked his attention to Spencer. “You gave her
a fucking radio? Have you completely lost your goddamn mind,
Allen?”

Kat couldn't breathe. Everything started to
spin. The walls closed in as the cruel reality crashed into
her.

Oh, shit. Shit!
He knew. Spencer knew
about everything and never told her. She thought—no, she
believed—that man's death was her fault. The guilt had nearly
destroyed her. For an entire year she'd carried it, had nightmare
after nightmare, and took the fall. For what?

So the man she thought she knew could walk
away with a clean conscience. Now she knew the truth. The brutal,
unrelenting truth. Spencer Allen killed a man and then let the
blame fall on her. That son of a bitch let her believe she'd failed
that search.

Swallowing over and over, fighting to take a
breath, she shook violently. Sweat beaded on her upper lip. Cold,
clammy sweat that increased her shivers. Kat's world crumbled
around her. Her bones went limp and refused to hold her upright.
She couldn't see through the little fuzzy dots clouding her vision.
The Com Van closed in on her. She had to get out, to find a way to
pull in a breath before she collapsed. The urge to throw up kicked
her saliva glands into overdrive. She stumbled to the door.

Kat scrambled outside to the back of the Com
Van and emptied what little she had in her stomach. She vaguely
heard Spencer call to her before the warmth of his hand rested on
her back.