Deadly Ties (26 page)

“Just a second. My stomach is upset. I don’t want to get sick in the truck.” Her plan solidified.
Prepare the foundation
. “Give me the ointment,” Lisa whispered and held out her hand.

She squirted a bit on her fingertip and wrote a message on the mirror to call Mark.
Please, let someone see it who will call him. Please
.

Gwen stuffed the tube down her shirt. “Let’s go.”

They walked out and Juan dropped his gaze, refusing to look her in the eye. “Are you well,
señorita
?”

Lisa rubbed her abdomen. “My stomach is upset.”

“Move it.” Frank swept the air with a hand.

They went back to the truck. No one around. No one to signal.
Could we please catch a break? Just one?

She put her foot on the bumper to hike herself inside.

“Wait.” Juan rushed up and handed her a can of 7UP. “For your
estómago.
” He patted his stomach.

“Thank you.” She took the can and then got in.

Frank grabbed her arm, exposing the spiderweb tattoo on his hand. “Don’t expect special treatment, Harper. You’re a shrub now, and don’t forget it.”

Shrub …
“Time for you to become a shrub.”

“Mom, what does that mean?”

Arrows of icy fear streaked through Lisa. Adrenaline gushed through her veins. Shock stole her breath. It took all she had to hide her reaction.
Shrub
.

The man who murdered her father, who kidnapped her from the motel room—he had called her a shrub.

It was definitely all real.

Oh … Lord
.

And there was more. Much more.

She was in over her head—way too far over to ever get herself, Gwen, Selene, and Amanda out.

I need help, God. I need Mark
.

“How’s she doing?” Mark stepped to Annie’s bedside and spared Sam a glance.

“No change.”

Still comatose. Still small and frail and unmoving. But the steady beep of the heart monitor, the consistent peaks on the screen reassured him. “She’s hanging tough.”

“You bet she is, bud.” Sam stepped back. “I’ll be back in five.”

Mark nodded. When Sam departed, Mark hooked his little finger with Annie’s. He hoped for the tap of her finger against his, but it didn’t come, and only the monitors and the steady rise and fall of her chest assured him she was still alive.

“Annie, you have to wake up and help me. I need to know. Is what I’ve learned what you don’t want Lisa to remember?” He plucked a loose piece of lint from her hair. “If it is, Lisa is in trouble. Human trafficking and NINA are involved, not just Dutch. I can’t connect all the dots yet, but my gut’s telling me I don’t have much time. Is Dutch connected to NINA, or did he somehow find them and hire them to do this? There’s a connection, and I need you to wake up and help me find it.”

No movement, only silence. While he willed her to wake, she stayed asleep. “Don’t give up, Annie. We can never give up.”

He glanced heavenward and then down at Lisa’s mother. “Since Jane, I’ve never asked anyone for anything for myself. I have no right. You know I accept full responsibility for that. But now I’m begging you for help. Lisa needs me. I have to be there for her. I can’t lose her too, Annie. I can’t fail again, and I don’t know where to look or what to do, because nothing makes sense. NINA and Dutch? What would NINA want with him?”

“Sorry to interrupt, my boy.”

Surprised he hadn’t noted an approach, he spun around. Nora stood out of striking distance, her eyes clouded, her face lined with worry. “Nora.”

She gave his upper arm a gentle squeeze. “Annie would help you if she could, but she can’t. Right now, the dearie’s got all she can handle to just hang on.”

Mark blinked. Where was Nora going with this?

“I want you to stop fretting. There’s a time for that”—she twisted her mouth, scrunching her face—“and this ain’t it.”

“Nora, you don’t understand.” How could he explain?

“I’m thinking I do. You’re scared to death of failing two of the four most important women in your life. You’re scared Lisa won’t fight like they want her to and she’ll be choosing to die herself over hurting somebody else. You’ve got this weird notion you have to earn her love, when love can’t be earned. She’s got to give it, my boy, just like Christ Himself’s given you redemption by taking on the Cross.”

She gave him a healthy nod, then stared at him over the top of her thick glasses. “I understand plenty. It’s you who don’t understand.”

Christ had redeemed him. Logically, Mark knew it. But knowing it and feeling redeemed in your heart were two different things. And try as he might, Mark hadn’t figured out the key to the second one. “What don’t I understand?”

“Grace, I’m thinking, but that ain’t my point.”

“What is your point?”

“God understands it all, and He didn’t put Lisa through all the hell she’s been through for nothing. There’s been a purpose to every bit of it. You figure out what that is, and you’ll figure out what you need to know to find her.”

Mark stilled. Her words resonated, rich in wisdom and full of truth. Lisa standing on her own, enduring trial upon trial, learning to fight, to defend herself, learning to heal wounds—preparing for a purpose.
A purpose
.

Lisa and you
.

Yes … Lisa and me
.

“Figure it out as you go.” Nora stepped closer and edged between Annie and him. “Just follow the signs.”

“Signs. What signs?”

“There are always signs, my boy.” She put her purse down on the floor. “Now, I’ll be staying with Annie for a time—until Sam gets back. You need to go to the consult room. Joe and the rest of the boys are there. He’s traced Dutch’s last call to a cell tower in Alabama. And Nick and Beth Dawson have found something on some security tape they want you to see.”

Mark released Annie’s fingertip. “You stay strong.” No way was he leaving with just Nora and Jessie in the unit. Sam would be back in a minute.

“She’s strong as an ox. Gotta be.” Nora assured him with a firm nod. “She promised Lisa lunch and shopping and that they’d get their nails done together.”

“Those don’t sound like life-fighting promises, Nora.”

“Maybe not to you, but to a mother who missed those things with her daughter, they’re plenty. Annie Harper keeps her word, by gum.”

“Yes, she does.”

Nora sniffed. “Now go on and see your team—and tell Sam if I see him eating one more bite of junk food before he eats a proper meal, I’m going to blister his ears.”

“Yes ma’am.”

“The boy should know better.”

“I do, Miss Nora.” Sam breezed past Mark, tugging on his cap, grinning. “Look, no junk.” He held up his empty hands.

She harrumphed. “That’s because your gut’s already sloshing with the stuff.”

“Probably so.” He flashed Mark a wink.

Mark walked out of the ICU feeling less helpless and more hopeful. His trials had prepared him for a purpose.
“By grace, not works, we are forgiven.”

He’d heard that just a few weeks ago in the pastor’s sermon. Why hadn’t it knocked him between the eyes then? Why did he feel poleaxed by it now?

You have ears, but you did not hear
.

Redemption is a gift. It couldn’t be earned, but it did have to be accepted.

Exactly
.

Mark hadn’t accepted the gift. How could he?
I want it, God, but I don’t deserve it
.

He answered his vibrating phone. “Taylor.”

“Hey, bro. What’s keeping you?”

Joe
. Mark rounded the outside desk near the waiting room and headed toward the consult room’s door. “On my way.” He was. He had hope, and he had clues.

Signs and purpose
.

19

T
he Opp Public Library was a dark brick, one-story building with a flat white roof located on North Main Street. Glass cases held exhibits of everything from camera collections to porcelain paints and sketches by a local artist. The man was talented. Karl had an eye for art.

He spotted Dutch Hauk at a table in the center of the room, doubled over a book as if he were reading. Sober, it seemed, and he’d changed out of his rumpled clothes into a pair of brown slacks and a crisp cream-colored shirt that hung loose on his shoulders.

When Dutch looked over, Karl frowned. “The boss is not happy with you.” That was an understatement. Raven had been livid.

Hauk checked for bystanders and then asked, “Why? I transferred the money. My part’s done.” He shrugged. “It’s a typical removal.”

Karl glared at him. “Typical?”

“Yeah.” Hauk shifted on his seat. “I disclosed everything right up front.”

“Not exactly everything.” Karl leaned over the table and folded his hands, lacing his blunt fingers. “You didn’t tell us an army was in the village for a reunion with Annie and Lisa’s self-appointed guardian.”

“Taylor’s friends are there. So what?” Hauk let his gaze rove the shelves of books. “They’re nothing. You got the job done, didn’t you?”

“Taylor and his friends are Shadow Watchers, Dutch.”

A blank look settled on his face. “What’s a Shadow Watcher?”

Karl dropped his voice even lower. “Think highly trained, skilled, covert operatives. Think Special Operations. Think master-level spies who spy on spies. Just think, moron.”

The color leaked from Hauk’s face. “Taylor is a spy? His friends too?”

“Not anymore, but they were.” Karl frowned.

“Taylor? Naw, he can’t be. He’s worked for Benjamin Brandt a couple of years. Why would a guy with those credentials take a dead-end job for Brandt?”

“He and his friends were a team.”

“Okay, so they used to have connections. Is that why the boss is upset? Or does she just want more money for his contract?”

“It’s not more money.” A first for Raven. “It’s them.”

“How was I supposed to know they were spies?”

“That we know you didn’t is the only reason you’re still breathing.” Karl waited for a woman clasping a little girl’s hand to walk out of earshot. “Look, let me be clear. This is our largest shipment ever—thirty units. If we don’t get the cargo out of the country without incident, it’ll be because of Taylor and his friends. That happens and, well, don’t plan on any more birthdays.”

“Wait just a minute.” Hauk shut the book, shoved it aside. “Why? Once cargo passes through my stores, I’m out of it. The rest has nothing to do with me.”

“Doesn’t matter. You brought specific cargo into this shipment knowing that where it goes Taylor follows. And where Taylor follows, his friends will follow. See the point?”

“I see it, but I don’t know what you want me to do about it. Wouldn’t know ’em if I saw ’em. I can’t do anything about—”

“Don’t say that,” Karl cut Hauk off.

“Why not?”

“Because if you do, I’ll have to kill you.”

His jaw fell open.

Karl let that sink in, then added, “You made them our problem. The boss refuses to accept it. Her message to you is they’re your problem, you fix it.” Karl stood. “Don’t dawdle. They’ve been busy since the cargo was removed. The boss is concerned they’ll create major challenges for the organization. That makes handling them your number-one priority.”

“I can’t believe this. My problem? Mine?” He jerked back in his seat. “What am I supposed to do about them?”

“Handle them, Hauk. Otherwise, I have my orders.”

“A whole team of master-level spies, and you expect me, a store owner, to handle them?”

“No, I don’t.” Karl leaned over the table. “Raven does.”

“But I’m a client.”

He had a point and Karl was at a loss. He sighed.

Hauk licked his lips. “I’ll give you a million—five million—to handle it. Between you and me.”

Cut NINA out? Was he crazy? They’d both be dead before midnight. But it showed the man’s desperation. “Look, just stay away from the hospital. Find a hole somewhere isolated, and crawl into it until this is over. You’re the connection. If they can’t get a bead on you, they can’t take their investigation any further. Just disappear until the cargo is delivered.”

“I can’t just disappear.” Hauk lifted his arms. “I have a business to run.”

“You can’t run anything if you’re dead.”

Hauk absorbed that with a long, hard blink. “Okay. Okay. I’ll disappear.”

“Stay in touch with me.”

Hauk swabbed at his face with a white handkerchief. His hand shook. “Even now that girl causes me grief.”

“Maybe you should have just left her alone.”

Fury flashed in Hauk’s eyes. “She defied me.”

“Yeah, well.” Karl hitched his pants up on his hips. “I hope penalizing her for it is worth it.”

His eyes glittered. “It will be.”

When the videos of Lisa fighting started coming in, and Hauk saw her routinely beaten to a bloody pulp, then he’d be satisfied.
Feeding on her misery. Parasite
. “You know, Dutch, I do terrible things, but they’re not personal.” Karl saw his own shortcomings clearly, but for all of them, Hauk was worse. If hell had levels, he would be low man on the lowest level.

Hauk met Karl’s eyes. “You can say what you want, but in the end, you’re no better or smarter or stronger than me, Karl. You might think you are, but when push comes to shove, you’re no different. It’s always personal.”

Wrong. Definitely wrong
. “Whatever.” Karl pushed his chair back under the table and turned to go.

“Wait.”

Karl looked back.

“I still want Chessman’s house.”

“It’s sold.”

“I know.” Hauk stood. “I want to buy it from Darla Green.”

“Are you making a formal offer?”

“Yeah. Tell her I’ll give her whatever she paid plus fifteen percent.”

“Okay.” Karl paused, curious. “You realize if Annie lives, she’ll never move out of the house she shared with Charles.”

“I didn’t plan on asking her.” Hauk opened the book he had as a prop and pulled it to him. It scraped on the table. “She’s my wife. She’ll do what she’s told.”

“At one time, maybe. But after all this? She recognized me, Dutch. She’ll know you’re behind what happened.”

“Doesn’t matter. She’ll still do what I tell her.”

“Why should she?”

“Because she knows if she doesn’t, I’ll make Lisa pay for it.”

“But Lisa’s gone.”

“Yes, she is.” He hiked up his eyebrows. “And she’ll stay gone for as long as I choose.”

“That’s why you want the videotapes. Not for yourself. To control Annie.” He’d dangle them before her like carrots, knowing they would torment her. He’d keep her in a nightmare the rest of her life. Karl really wished he’d put a bullet through her head and ended her misery.

“They’ll keep her in line,” Hauk said. “There’s nothing she wouldn’t do for her brat. And who knows, maybe after a year or two, I’ll buy Lisa back.”

“That’s not possible and you know it.”

He laughed. “Yeah, I know it and you know it, but Annie doesn’t.”

Bile rose in Karl’s throat. “You’re sorry, Dutch. No way around it.”

“Yeah, I guess I am.”

“My old man was sorry too.” He had done his best to make Karl’s life as miserable as Dutch had made Lisa’s. Karl had gotten out young, drafted by a Spider. He’d worked his way up through the ranks on the criminal side of the organization, took on jobs no one else wanted for the political side. He made Raven believe he had ideological preferences, but the truth was, he couldn’t care less. Whichever side made him the most money, that’s the side he was on.

“Is that why you stay on Lisa? To keep Annie in line?”

“Actually, no. Lisa never did what she was told.”

“So you had her abducted for it?”

“She was going to take Annie.”

“No, Dutch. I meant the first time you had her abducted.”

He lowered his lids, and silence charged the air between them. Finally Hauk said, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

He knew exactly what Karl was talking about, and he was as guilty as sin. “My mistake.” Karl gave him the lie and walked out of the library.

Hauk had blown it—huge. Then and now a cleaner wasn’t supposed to know the client’s identity, yet indirectly he had revealed his connection to Lisa’s first abduction.

Everything that had happened then, Hauk had bought and paid for.

His nerves zinging, Karl hustled toward his car, putting everything in its place. Charles and Lisa had stood between Hauk and Annie, and doing what he does best, Hauk hired out his dirty work.

Dutch had set Annie up.

Charles and Lisa too.

Karl dwelled on the matter. Annie was nobody’s fool. Maybe, just maybe, she knew it. Maybe Hauk wasn’t keeping the reins tight on her to control his wife but to keep his wife from blowing the whistle on him.

Now that put a different spin on the whole situation.

Hauk knew that the minute Annie and Lisa connected, Annie would tell Lisa the truth—or maybe Lisa knew the truth and would tell it to Annie, which meant he had to keep them apart.

Dutch wasn’t afraid of losing Annie. He’d never really had her, and he knew it. He was afraid of losing
everything
.

Either Annie or Lisa had the power to take everything.

Question was, which one would do it?

Lisa glanced at Gwen’s watch. Ten minutes and it’d be noon. The truck would be stopping again.

Amanda, the witness they’d picked up in Jackson, Mississippi, had shared her story—and her regret that she had agreed to testify. Two men assigned to protect her lay dead in a safe house, and she had been delivered to Frank and tossed in the truck. She, too, was pretty, like Gwen and Selene, maybe Mel’s age, early twenties, and scared to death.

They all were. Which is why Lisa wasn’t telling them her plan. What they knew, they could be coerced into revealing. It was safer for them all not to know a thing.

In the first abduction, she’d trusted a boy. He turned her in to the Spider, who had nearly beaten her to death. She remembered the lesson if not the specifics, and it was one she wouldn’t repeat.

“Your parents don’t want you anymore. I’m your family now, and if you tell anyone I’m not your father, I’ll kill you. Do you hear me, my little shrub?”

Mr. Phen. She could almost see his face through the veil of shuttered memories, but it slipped away. Yet she distinctly recalled his voice.