Page 101 of Danger Close

“Nice jacket, baby.” Ray smirked at me through the rearview mirror. “I thought you hated motorcycles.”

I clenched my jaw. I didn’t know if he knew anything about Cobra. I’d be damned if I let him hurt Joe as well. I would figure out a way to free Trinity, even if I had to die in the process.

My life ended years ago. It had been a slow, painfully long death that broke me bit by bit until I stopped being human, and I was just a husk of a person.

Last night, I had a final moment of joy. A final moment in the arms of a man who loved me. I had a perfect night. For one precious instant, I was happy.

That was more than I deserved.

Chapter 45

God Bless Spies

Cobra

“What?” I pulled the phone to my ear as I drove the Audi down the road, following the little ping of the tracker that sat on my lap. The landscape was eerily familiar. I’d driven this road dozens of times before.

My phone rang on the car’s bluetooth. Savchenko. She was supposed to be at breakfast with Teri and Trinity. I pressed the button, and her voice came through the speakers.

She didn’t bother with a greeting. “Someone took them.”

“What the hell do you mean?” There was a rock in the pit of my stomach like indigestion.

“Caucasian, 5’11”, brown hair that was on the longer end, wavy. Light eyes, but I couldn’t tell the color. He had a hooked nose, driving a Ford, license plate…” She rattled off the numbers. “He put a gun to Trinity’s head. Trinity knew him, because she greeted and hugged him before he took them.”

Things were adding up. Occam’s fucking Razor.

Once is a mistake. Twice is coincidence. But three times is enemy action.

Three fucking ICE agents at Sonia Norkus’ feet. The attack. The pamphlet left on the windshield of the car.

Raymond Clark.

I slammed my fist into the steering wheel. “How long ago?”

“Five minutes. I was waiting in the diner and saw what happened from inside.”

“Where are you now?”

“Where do you think, Daddy?” she said, with an amused giggle. “I’m tailing them.”

“Are you armed?”

“Seriously? Do you even have to ask?” God bless spies. “I’ll ping Mack McClanahan to give them my location.”

“I’ll call Kai. We’ll get everyone kitted up, just in case.”

We were such a paranoid bunch, but at least they were always armed for the worst case scenario.

Chapter 46

The Blue Barn

Teri

It was cold. The fucking blue barn. The same one at the final crossroads to the McClanahan farm.

I’d never taken the time to look at the whole place, because the color was so bright and so unusual that my eyes never drifted to anything else. It never went to the little wooden dwelling attached to it. The abandoned shack that leaned to one side, its glass windows broken, the door hanging from the hinges. It was one of those houses that could never be sold, so it remained abandoned.