The Marshal's Witness (11 page)

Chapter Twelve

Black bears were supposed to be nonaggressive and shy around humans. Apparently, no one had explained that to the bear that charged out of the bushes. After Ryan boosted Jessica onto the branch, she fairly flew up the oak tree, rediscovering her childhood tree-climbing skills.

Unfortunately, her flight up the tree wasn’t necessary. Ryan easily scared the bear
away by yelling and waving his arms. As quickly as the bear had appeared, it was gone. Now Jessica was standing on a branch halfway up the tree with her arms wrapped around the trunk, trying to climb back down.

She suspected the task would be easier if she could gather the courage to actually move. A gust of wind shook the branch she was standing on and she squealed, tightening her hold.

“Do you need help?” Ryan called out from below.

“I’ll have you know I was a champion tree climber in my youth. I could out-climb all the other foster kids, even the boys. I can get down by myself.”

“If you say so.”

“Ryan, are you laughing at me?”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

She gritted her teeth and edged her foot to the next branch. “
Sugar.
I can’t believe I climbed so
high. What was I thinking?” she grumbled.

“Did you say something, Jessie?”

“No,” she lied.

“Okay.”

Even from high up in the tree she could hear the laughter in his voice. She gritted her teeth and tried to gather her courage to lower herself to the next branch.

In the end, Ryan had to come up and get her. He blanketed his body around her, giving her the feeling of security
she needed to lower one arm at a time, one foot at a time. Before long, she was sitting next to him on a tree stump, pretending her shivers were from the cold and not because she was still recovering from her scare. He handed her a bottle of water and took one for himself.

She warily eyed the bushes across from them. “Will the bear come back?”

“Probably. But not while we’re still here.
The only reason she ran at us was because we startled her and she felt cornered.”

“She?”

“I’m guessing, based on her size. The females are smaller than the males. You did a great job climbing that tree, by the way. Impressive.”

“Yeah, an impressive display of cowardice. I’m good at running away from danger.”

“You are not a coward.” Each word was pronounced slowly, forcefully,
as he stared into her eyes. “You testified against a powerful man, knowing the risks and the costs. Not many people would have done that. The only reason DeGaullo is still a free man is because those jurors didn’t have the courage you have.”

Jessica stared at him in shock. Those were words she’d never expected to hear from U.S. Marshal Ryan Jackson. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.” He
took a sip from his bottle of water. “There is one thing that puzzles me, though.”

“What’s that?”

“I don’t understand how you got mixed up with him in the first place. You’re a smart woman. What happened?”

She tightened the cap on her water bottle with short, jerky movements, unable to hide her irritation. She wasn’t sure who she was irritated with more, though—Ryan, for asking
the question, or herself for all the mistakes she’d made.

“I’m sure the Justice Department has a thick file on me. Didn’t they let you read it?”

“I read what I was given, which was mostly about DeGaullo and his guns for hire so that I’d recognize them if I ever saw them. Most of what I know, I read in the papers. I know you took a job for DeGaullo’s accounting firm fresh out of college,
and that you worked for him for five years.”

Some of Jessica’s anger faded. Anyone relying on the newspapers for their facts wouldn’t have known half the details. “I didn’t
know
DeGaullo owned the firm when I took that job.”

“When did you find out?” He sounded surprised.

“Three or four years later. DeGaullo has a lot of legitimate businesses, you know, buried under a web of corporations
that own other corporations. I worked on the accounts for several of those businesses, with no reason to suspect anything was wrong.”

“You can’t tell me you didn’t help DeGaullo launder money. That’s the basis of the case against him—your records and your testimony.”

“Really?” She raised a brow. “Are you sure about that?”

“Am I wrong?”

She frowned at him. “Yes and no. Once
I was entrenched in his legitimate businesses, I was gradually brought in to help on others. When I saw DeGaullo’s name on some of those accounts, I spoke to one of the other women about it.”

“Natalie, the woman who died?”

She clenched her fists in her lap. “Yes. She was my best friend, my only friend, really. When I started asking questions, she pulled me aside and told me what was
going on. She told me about other accountants who used to work there, people who had disappeared when they started asking questions. I was so scared that I called in sick two days in a row, trying to figure out what to do.”

“You went to the FBI.”

“No, not that time. If I had, I would be dead right now. Natalie told me all about it, that DeGaullo had us followed and he’d kill us if we
ever told anyone about his finances. I sat in the dark those two nights after calling in sick and watched the street outside my apartment. It didn’t take long to realize she was right. There was always someone there, watching. I’d never had a reason to suspect anything before, but when I saw someone outside, I knew she was right.”

“After that, you just went back to work for him, cooking the
books?”

She started to get up, but he grabbed her hand.

“I want to understand.”

Jessica frowned at him. “Yes, I cooked the books for another year after finding out who I was really working for. Are we done now?”

She tried to pull away from him, but again he wouldn’t let her go. Instead, he pulled her onto his lap and tightened his arms around her.

“We are far from done.
Tell me the rest.”

Jessica stiffened at the thread of steel underlying his voice. “Why?”

“Because I deserve to know the facts about the woman I jumped into a burning building to save.”

“That’s not fair.”

“Life’s not fair.”

She blew out a breath in frustration. “There isn’t much more to tell. Natalie dragged me back to work, insisting I wouldn’t be safe unless I got back
to my normal routine. She was right. DeGaullo’s men watched me much more closely after those sick days. It was a long time before they relaxed their guard. That’s when I finally contacted the FBI. They were excited to have someone on the inside. They had me gather evidence against him for months. The night Natalie died, the Feds had told me to get out. DeGaullo had discovered that someone on the
inside was leaking information. He knew it was one of his accountants, but he wasn’t sure who. I was grabbing the last of the evidence the Feds needed when I heard him outside the office.”

Ryan tightened his arms around her. “Go on.”

“I warned Natalie to hide, but I didn’t have time to explain. She thought I was silly to hide under my desk. I never told her I was working for the FBI,
so she didn’t realize why DeGaullo was there. We weren’t supposed to be there after hours. I think when he saw her he assumed she was the one who’d leaked the information. He didn’t even give her a chance to talk. He just...shot her.”

She shivered and Ryan drew her close, kissing the top of her head. “You were lucky he didn’t see you.”

“I really don’t want to talk about this anymore.”
She scrambled off his lap and took off jogging down the trail.

* * *

J
ESSICA
WAS
GRATEFUL
that Ryan didn’t try to press her any further, or ask her more questions. He silently jogged behind her, and gave her the time she needed to calm down.

When the trail ended at a rock wall, he took her hand and quietly led her back through the woods to where the trees were much thinner, creating
a wide expansive clearing with trees on one side and rocks on the other.

Jessica was so pleased to be out of the gloomy woods for a change, with the warm sun shining down on her face, that she didn’t even mind when Ryan started walking beside her. A few minutes later, he surprised her by putting his arm around her shoulders and hauling her roughly against him.

“Uh, Ryan, what are you
doing?”

He rubbed her back and leaned down next to her ear. “Smile, Jessie. Pretend you want me.”

Pretend?
Not necessary. As soon as he’d put his arm around her shoulders she couldn’t seem to draw in a normal breath.

Afraid he’d feel her heart thundering and know what he was doing to her, she tried to push his arm off her shoulder. “What are you doing? I don’t under—”

He stopped
and pulled her against him, capturing her lips with his in a searing kiss. She was so shocked, she was just starting to respond when he raised his head. Instead of pulling away from her, he trailed his hot mouth across her cheek next to her ear.

“Wrap your legs around me.”

A wave of desire slammed into Jessica at his intimate suggestion, making her hot all over. When Ryan lifted her,
pressing his hands beneath her bottom, she eagerly wrapped her legs around his waist. She moaned at the feel of his warm mouth against her neck.

“Ryan, what are you doing? This is crazy.”

He pressed another soft kiss on her neck. “There’s a man with a rifle trained on us fifty yards away.”

She jerked in his arms but he held her so tightly she couldn’t pull back.

“The only reason
he isn’t shooting is because we’re giving him a show. Let’s not disappoint him.”

He started walking with her wrapped in his arms. Jessica gasped when he sucked on her neck. The feel of him hardening against her had her pulse pounding in her ears. “Ryan, stop this.” She fought her instinctive need to rub her body against his. Someone was trying to kill them. Ryan needed to stop the madness
so they could run.

“We’re almost to the trees.” He undulated his hips and lightly bit her earlobe.

She didn’t have to fake the excitement that made her arch against him.

Ryan’s breath quickened. “Careful, Jessie. I might want to finish this later.”

His words had her arching against him again, so turned on that she almost didn’t care about the gunman. “Promises, promises.” She
nipped his earlobe in retaliation for the torture he was putting her through.

His knees buckled and he almost went down. He regained his footing, and his lips curved against her neck. “I’ll pay you back for that later. When we get to the trees, I’m going to give you my gun. Don’t run. Hunker down in one spot and be as quiet as you can, just like I taught you.”

He did that sinful movement
with his hips again. Jessica squeezed her legs around him.

He growled low in his throat. Then he was lunging into the trees with her wrapped tightly in his arms. A shot rang out and tree bark exploded next to them.

The gunman shouted behind them. Seconds later, shoes crunched on dry leaves and twigs as he ran after them.

Ryan shoved Jessica down behind a thick bush and thrust his
gun into her hand. He pitched the backpack on the ground next to her.

“Keep your gun,” Jessica whispered furiously.

Ryan ignored her and ran back to the path. He dove into the trees to avoid the next shot.

Jessica had to clamp her hand over her mouth to keep from shouting at him. Ryan was making himself a target to draw the gunman away from her.
Sugar!
If Ryan survived, she’d kill
him herself for taking these kinds of chances.

* * *

R
YAN
CRASHED
THROUGH
the underbrush, purposely making noise to draw the gunman away from Jessica. The gunman took the bait, running after him like a sprinter in a marathon, taking wild shots with his rifle that ricocheted off trees and didn’t come close to hitting their mark.

When they were both far enough away from Jessica to
ensure her safety, Ryan changed tactics.

He stopped running.

He melted into the trees to wait for his prey. Just before the gunman got close enough for Ryan to pounce, the gunman skidded to a stop and brought up his rifle. He looked around wildly as if he’d only just realized he couldn’t hear Ryan anymore.

A bird shrieked at the interruption in its routine. The gunman swung his
rifle toward the sound. Ryan dove for cover as a wild shot rang out and struck the ground just inches from where he’d been standing.

The gunman raised his rifle. But Ryan had already thrown his knife. The gunman let out a grunt of pain and grabbed the hilt of the knife buried in his shoulder. Ryan lunged at him, but the gunman dove out of the way. He grabbed for his rifle where it had fallen,
but Ryan reached the gun first.

The other man took off before Ryan could take a shot.

Ryan took off after him. When his quarry’s trail turned toward a sheer drop-off down the side of the mountain, Ryan took advantage of the man’s mistake and turned to cut him off where the trail would force him to turn back in Ryan’s direction.

A few minutes later, Ryan was rewarded by the sight
of the gunman, now carrying the knife that had been in his shoulder, jogging through the trees. Ryan timed the man’s footfalls. Then he dropped down out of a tree and tackled the man to the forest floor. The man fell hard, cracking his head against the rock-strewn ground.

Ryan cursed his luck. The gunman wasn’t going to get up again, ever. So much for getting any information out of him. Ryan
turned the man’s face toward him and took a long look. He wasn’t a marshal, at least not one Ryan had met, which was a relief. He hated to think one of the men he worked with every day had turned traitor.

Not that it would be the first time.

Ryan retrieved his knife and wiped it clean on the dead man’s shirt before shoving it into his belt. He checked the rifle. Empty. A thorough check
of the man’s pockets didn’t reveal any extra ammunition. The man must have assumed he wouldn’t need to reload and he’d left his extra ammo with his supplies. He certainly didn’t have any supplies on him, and he couldn’t survive up in these mountains for long without supplies.