Divine Intervention (29 page)

Following the noise of snapping twigs, she prowled forward stealthily, guessing that they were near the road…near the vehicles. Cameron would have her choice of Baker's Zen or Gibney's BMW…if she had their keys. And if she took the Zen, Jasi would never catch her.

Yellow fabric…

Something teased her memory.

She plucked an earpiece from the bottom of the data-com and plugged it in one ear.

"Data-com on!" she ordered softly. "Natassia."

When she heard Natassia's voice, she whispered, "Contact Ops. Find out about that fabric and get back to me."

"Are you still following her, Jasi?"

"Yeah, she's almost to the road―by the vehicles. I'll get her."

"Okay, but be careful. Baker is conscious, by the way. Some minor injuries and smoke inhalation. Ben called Ops for an airlift and Brandon's on his way to you."

"What about Gibney?" Jasi asked.

There was a pause at the other end, then Natassia said, "Not good, Jasi."

Jasi broke communication, leaving the earpiece in place, and eased her way toward the road. With the Beretta clasped to her chest, she leaned against a tall pine and marked it with a swipe of the neon chalk. If she were lucky, Brandon would find it and determine her direction.

Tucking her flashlight in her pocket, she poked her head from behind the tree.

One, two, three!

Cameron was nowhere in sight.

The sweat trickled down her back, partly from her jaunt into the burning shed and partly from stalking Cameron through the forest. She suspected that the woman carried a gun. That would explain how she had been able to get Baker and Gibney into the shed.

Please don't make me shoot you, Cameron.

Sidestepping behind a bush, Jasi held her breath…waiting. Her eyes flicked back and forth, cautiously searching the bushes, but the only thing that stirred was the pile of leaves at her feet.

I can sense you, she thought. You're watching me.

I'm coming for you, Cameron.

Her heart pumped rapidly and she blinked to clear her vision. Sucking in a puff of air, she crept forward and darted between bushes and deadwood.

Whirrr…

Jasi jumped nervously as her data-com vibrated.

"Shit!"
she swore softly, ordering it on.

"Jasi?"
Natassia hissed. "I have the report in front of me now."

"Go ahead, but be quiet. I'm right on her heels."

Something crackled to Jasi's right. She ducked between some bushes, crouched low to the musty ground.

"The material is multi-layered," Natassia whispered. "It has, uh, a moisture barrier, thermal barrier and it's flame resistant."

Jasi flicked a watchful glance toward the road, barely listening to Natassia's report. Lowering her voice to a bare whisper she said,
"Anything else?"

"Hold on. I'm still reading the report myself."

Jasi straightened and edged closer to the road. She was three feet away when she sensed someone close by. Ignoring Natassia's mutterings, she gripped the Beretta firmly in both hands and swept it slowly in front of her from left to right.

Cameron was close.

"Crap!" she heard Natassia exclaim. "Jasi, you're not going to believe this. That material you found? It's from a fire jack―"

Whack!

A solid mass ambushed her and connected with the back of Jasi's shoulder, forcing her to her knees. It happened so fast that she barely had time to register the importance of Natassia's words.

Her backpack went flying. The data-com that was clipped to her jacket was ripped away and thrown on the ground, while a strong arm clenched her tightly around the neck and a gloved hand effortlessly plucked the Beretta from her grip.

"Don't move!"

She felt the muzzle of a gun shoved into her back.

Shit! How could I have been so careless?

Jasi was dragged backward. Her muscles burned in retaliation. Stay calm, she reminded herself. Brandon was somewhere behind her.

As they reached the road, her captor chucked the Beretta into the grass. She was on her own―no weapon.

Things weren't looking good.

"You won't get away," she panted.

"I really didn't want to hurt you, Agent McLellan," a raspy voice cut her off. "You're as useless as tits on a bull."

Tits on a bull?

"Cameron, plea―"

Jasi was forcefully shoved to the ground.

She raised her hands defensively in front of her face and waited for the bullet.

Nothing happened.

"Did you call me
Cameron
?" a familiar voice asked shakily.

Slowly lifting her head, she recognized the face of her captor.

He wore a yellow firefighter's jacket with a shoulder patch that flapped loosely in the wind.

24

"R. J. Scott?" Jasi uttered in disbelief.

She stared in shock at the severely scarred face of the firefighter she had met the first time she had gone to Loon Lake.
Steroid-man
, she recalled. She remembered that he was a rookie, recently transferred in from Vancouver.

If he
was
an actual firefighter.

Scott stood over her, a brutal expression on his face. He held a gun aimed directly at her head.

"Scott ain't my real name," he muttered.

Jasi eyed the gun uneasily as the man crouched close.

"Why'd you call me Cameron?"

"I thought you were someone else," she murmured, scanning the bushes for signs of Brandon's presence.

Jasi was perplexed. Nothing made sense! Why the hell had this man gone after Baker and Gibney? Why had R. J. Scott killed Washburn and Charlotte Foreman?

Brandon, where are you?

She shifted forward slightly, inching her hands behind her back. She needed a weapon. If she only had her Beretta.

Lost in thoughts of escape she almost missed what the man said next.

"Had a sister named Cameron once. We were twins. She's dead though."

Scott's arm twitched and the gun swayed slightly.

Jasi was stunned. "You're
Ronnie
―Ronald
Jones
Scott?"

"Was," he admitted, eyeing her nervously. "A long time ago. Changed my name when I lived on the streets. Wanted my own identity, I guess. Too many bad memories growing up as Ronnie Jones."

Scott's voice was hoarse and raspy. Like his sister's.

Jasi recalled what Cameron had told her about her injured vocal chords. It only made sense that Cameron's brother would have suffered similar damage.

"Why did you say your sister is dead?" Jasi asked softly.

The man lowered the gun a couple of inches. "Cameron died in a car crash when she was eleven. After she was adopted."

Jasi gasped. "Who told you that―Charlotte Foreman?"

The murderous look in Scott's eyes paralyzed her, and her brain shifted into overdrive.

Each sibling had believed the other was dead.

Before she could correct him, Scott mumbled, "Alan Baker was my foster brother. Now it turns out he's my half-brother too. How's that for irony?" Sneering cynically, he gestured with the gun. "Get up!"

"Cameron is alive!" Jasi blurted, rising unsteadily to her feet. "I've seen the scars on her arm…the cigarette burns."

"Liar!" Scott screamed.

Whack!

Sharp, penetrating pain coursed through her as the butt of the gun smashed down across her face. Faltering, she raised a trembling hand to her mouth. Blood trickled from a gash on her lower lip.

Peering into Scott's eyes, she recognized remorse, doubt…and certain death. She had to think fast. Cameron's brother was a time bomb ticking down, ready to explode.

"Your sister is Cameron
Prescott
," Jasi insisted, fighting back her fear. "The news reporter for
CTBC News
. You must have seen her on TV, Ronald. They told her
you
had drowned."

Scott's eyes flared angrily. "I faked my death. Allan and I went swimming and when he looked away, I took off down shore. Chucked one of my shoes by the water and threw in an old shirt. It had blood on it from that morning―when she burned me."

He paused, a faraway look in his eyes. "I just kept walking. I knew that was the only way to get away from
her
."

"Ronald, did Charlotte Foreman do
that
to your face?" Jasi asked hesitantly.

Scott glared at her, his mouth sputtering angry words that were barely discernable.

Then he raised the gun, waving it in the air.

"That bitch! She pushed my face into the fireplace, held me down."

Oh my God!

"And when I passed out from the pain, do you think she'd take me to the doctor?" he demanded furiously, his voice rising. "Oh, no! Not Nana!"

Jasi knew that she had to get the gun away from him.

"Ronald! If you end this now―"

Her eyes caught something moving in the shadows of the bushes.
Brandon?
She licked her lips, desperately wondering what to say next.

"We know what Charlotte Foreman did to you, Ronald. To you and your sister. We know about Washburn, Gibney and your birth mother." She kept her voice steady and calm. "Cameron will know everything too―eventually."

Scott gulped in a breath then hesitantly lowered the gun to his hip. "Nana told me Cameron was dead."

His eyes searched hers. "Is she really alive?"

Jasi was about to answer his question when a black mass leapt from the shadows. Brandon launched his body into the air, screaming at her to move.

Everything grew hazy, and Jasi sensed the sluggish passing of time―like a movie on slow motion. She heard a deafening blast and felt a streak of heat singe past her. Shaking off a piercing pain in her arm, she watched as Brandon's knee connected with Scott's ribcage. Legs flew in all directions while fists smacked into clothing and skin.

And grunts echoed in the dusky woods.

Scott's beefy fist made contact with the corner of Brandon's eye and Jasi watched in horror as he crashed to the ground, doubled over with pain.

"Brandon!" she shouted, running to his side. "Are you okay?"

"I think so," he answered, clenching his head.

Then, from the corner of her eye, she saw Scott dart down the road.
Toward the vehicles.

"Stay here!" she told Brandon, reaching for the Beretta lying in the grass.

Hot on Scott's heels, Jasi heard an engine roar to life, and she scanned the shadows for a ride of her own. To her left was Natassia and Ben's rental. The Zen was too far down the road. She grabbed the keys from her pocket, then jumped into Ben's car and jammed the key in the ignition. Pressing hard on the gas she gunned the engine and released the brake.

Following the streak of dust that trailed behind Martin Gibney's BMW, Jasi caught up to Scott and leaned on the horn. She rolled down her window and steered to the right of the sedan, forcing Scott to move over to the side of the gravel road. Then she eased forward until they were neck in neck.

Scott turned his head. His eyes were cool, determined.

"Pull over!" she yelled.

She held the Beretta in her right hand, crossing it in front of her while she gripped the steering wheel with her other hand.

"Pull the goddamn car over
now
!"

Ronald jerked the wheel and smashed into the side of the rental, and a high-pitched grating sound cut through the air. A second hit sent Jasi's vehicle flying forward.

Hovering her foot over the brake, she hesitated for a second. Then she slammed her foot down. Scott drove the BMW directly into the backend of her car, and the impact snapped the seatbelt against her, fracturing one of her ribs and knocking the air from her lungs.

From the corner of her eye, she caught a flash of metal behind her. With Scott trapped inside, Gibney's sedan flipped and sailed into the trees. Then it crashed to the ground with a horrendous thud and a screeching of metal.

Finally, there was blessed silence.

Jasi faded in and out of consciousness―until she smelled gasoline.

"Move it, Jasmine!" she groaned, dazed and lightheaded.

Wrestling with the seatbelt, she managed to crawl from the vehicle. When she staggered to her feet, she winced in agony. Her ankle ached with every step, her ribs were on fire and her arm throbbed mercilessly.