Exposed (39 page)

He crept through the bushes, wishing for some woodland cammies. An M-4 would be nice, too, but he only had his Glock.

Three men. One he recognized as Anatoli, smoking and leaning against the back of a large pickup. Another sat on a rusted-out oil drum that someone had turned on its side. Brian did a double-take. Vlad?

He’d been so sure it was Volansky’s charred remains spread out on that table at the Delphi Center. What was it Sam had said?
Looks like he got himself fired
.

But there was Vlad, in the flesh, swigging beer and yapping away on his cell phone. So who was the corpse? Another one of Mladovic’s disposable goons?

A squeak of metal pulled Brian’s attention to the far side of the barn, where someone was climbing out of an old green pickup. He stepped out of the shadows . . .

Bracewell.

Brian’s chest burned, and his fingers tightened around his pistol grip. Bracewell was on his cell phone,
and he finished up the call and tossed the phone through the open window of the larger truck. Brian figured the truck was his, because he couldn’t see the good sheriff riding around the county in the piece-of-shit clunker he’d just climbed out of. Brian looked more closely and noticed the old green truck was up on jacks, and the two front tires were missing.

Bracewell barked some orders, but the men didn’t move.

Brian scanned the barn, looking for any sign of Maddie or Hicks. Nothing.

The low growl of an engine reached him. Brian stepped behind a tree and watched as a dust-coated white SUV roared up the road and came to a halt in the doorway of the barn. All the men snapped to attention as Mladovic climbed out.

Brian watched in shock. Either the takedown had gone to shit, or he’d slipped through his surveillance. The Doctor barked some orders in Serbian, and Vlad and the others sprang into action, opening the SUV’s cargo doors and dragging out a pair of tires. They rolled them toward the jacked-up truck.

Bracewell turned and spat tobacco juice on the ground. “I’m gonna want a piece of that.”

Mladovic’s face was obscured now, but Brian could see from the sheriff’s reaction that he hadn’t gotten the answer he wanted.

“Yeah, but
this
isn’t what we agreed on.” Bracewell got up in the Doctor’s grille. “You said two bodies. Not three. I got a family here. I can’t just hop down to Mexico and leave my shit behind for everyone else to clean up. Fifty K, or you can forget it.”

More words were exchanged, and Brian’s gaze veered to the truck, where Vlad was putting on a tire that was probably loaded with cash and headed for the border. Mladovic was smuggling money down, which meant he was leaving.

Suddenly, the argument ceased. Even from a distance, Brian recognized all the signs of a fight brewing. Mladovic stepped closer and said something softly. Bracewell jerked out his pistol and fired off a shot. Anatoli dropped like a bag of bricks.

“That’s four bodies.” He aimed the gun at Mladovic’s chest. “We going for five?”

Maddie ducked behind a tree and crouched low. She clutched her gun in her hand and gasped for breath. She was nearly hyperventilating.

That had definitely been a gunshot.

She had to get out of here. She had to get
Jolene
out of here. But where was Hicks? She pulled her phone out to text him and stared down at the screen.

Three urgent messages, all from Brian.

And a fourth message from Hicks, but it was blank.

Her stomach plummeted.

God, what did that mean? She glanced around desperately, looking for Hicks, looking for landmarks. She spotted a clump of oak trees beside a large white boulder. Not exactly a landmark but close enough. She sent Brian a message, then moved deeper into the brush to wait.

She was shaking, head to toe. Her T-shirt was soaked
through with sweat, and it trickled down her spine. She felt as though a giant fist was squeezing the air from her lungs as she pictured Jolene, motionless on that brown cot.

Please, please, please
.

Something grabbed her arm. Maddie gasped and whirled around as Brian’s hand clamped around her pistol.

“Careful with that.”

“Oh, my God.” She slumped against him. But her relief lasted about a nanosecond, because he was towing her deeper into the woods, where he pulled her into a crouch.

“Where’s Hicks?” His voice was low, and his face looked intense.

“I don’t know. He went to look around. I left the car. Then I saw the camper. Jolene—” The words tumbled out of her in a rush. “Then I heard gunshots.”

He gripped her arm. “When? When did you hear gunshots?”

“I—” She thought back. “It was only one, I think. I heard it a minute ago. After you texted me.”

He started to stand up, but she pulled him back down. “Brian, she’s
here
! In the camper! I saw her—”

“Jolene’s here?”

“Yes!”

“And she’s alive?”

“Yes.” Maddie’s throat tightened. “But she looks so weak. Or maybe she’s drugged or something. But we have to get her. Bracewell’s here now, and you said they’re going to kill her. We have to get her out of there.”

He pulled her to her feet. “Show me.”

“The guard’s gone!” Maddie hissed, pulling him through the woods. “Earlier, there was a man stationed there.”

They neared the edge of the trees, and Brian jerked her back and pushed her behind him. He eyed the camper.

“She’s on a cot against the far wall.” Maddie looked up at him with a plea in her eyes. “I saw her through the window. I think they cuffed her to the bed or something.”

“I’ll handle it. You get back to the car.”

She gazed up at him but didn’t move.

“Maddie—”

“Don’t be stupid. At least let me stand watch while you go in there.”

“What are you going to do if someone approaches?”

“I don’t know. Shoot him?”

Brian gritted his teeth. He hated that she was here. And he hated that she was going to cover his ass while he attempted this rescue mission. But a man had just been murdered in cold blood. Everything was coming to a head, and his backup was nowhere.

Brian pulled her into a clump of sagebrush and positioned her out of sight of the other buildings.

“Don’t move,” he ordered.

He decided on the stealth approach and slipped around the back of the camper, where there was a small window. Too small for a man his size, or even Hicks’s. He crept around the side. He noticed the gap between the flimsy door and the curved shell of the camper. Gun
raised, he flattened himself against the side and eased open the door. He peered inside.

The camper was empty.

Pop!

Brian dropped to his knees.

Pop! Pop!

He lunged for the bushes. Maddie was racing toward him, full speed, eyes blazing with fear.

“Go!”
he yelled, grabbing her hand and pulling her out in front of him so he could shield her with his body. They shoved their way through branches, and Brian pushed her ahead, not daring even to attempt a shot until she was out of bullet range.

“Go!” he yelled, then darted a glance behind him.

A bullet buzzed by his ear, and Brian felt a surge of anger. He lifted his gun and fired it at the blur of movement ducking behind a tree.

Hit!
A howl came up from the ground.

An engine roared to life. Mladovic’s SUV shot back from the barn, then raced forward, a streak of white between tree trunks.

Was Jolene in that vehicle? Was Hicks?

He turned to look for Maddie, and she was crouched behind a giant oak tree.

“Stay here!”

He doubled back to the site of the downed gunman. He spotted Bracewell on the ground, clutching his knee and writhing in pain. Blood seeped through his fingers, and he was making keening noises.

Brian spotted the gun nearby and kicked it away. He pointed his Glock at Bracewell’s chest.

“Where’s Jolene Murphy?”

The sheriff’s eyes flew open. He stared at Brian with pure hatred.

“Where’s our agent?”

“Fuck . . . you,” he gasped.

Brian yanked the man’s bloody hands behind him and slapped on a pair of handcuffs. He caught movement in his peripheral vision as Maddie walked up and stopped beside the sheriff.

She hauled back and kicked him in the knee. Bracewell howled like a stuck pig.

“Where is she?” She aimed her pistol between his legs. “I’ll shoot that thing right off.”

“Vlad has her,” he choked out.

Maddie looked at Brian as a grumble went up near the barn. The old green pickup shot out from the doors and disappeared down the road in a cloud of dust and exhaust.

“Shit.”

Maddie dropped to her knees beside the sheriff and dug a set of keys from his pocket. “His truck.” She looked at Brian. “Let’s go!”

They left him cursing in the dirt and raced for the barn. Bracewell’s oversize black pickup was exactly where Brian had last seen it. The other trucks—and the money-stuffed tires—were long gone. A shotgun lay abandoned on the ground, and Brian grabbed it.

“You drive,” he ordered, but Maddie was already jumping behind the wheel. Brian hopped in on the passenger side and didn’t even have time to pull the door shut as Maddie barreled full-speed through the side of
the barn. Splinters and dust flew everywhere, and it was sheer luck they didn’t plow straight into a tree.

Brian looked at her. “This thing has a reverse.”

“Where’d they go?”

“East.”

She glared at him.

“Take a right.”

Maddie swerved right and picked up the road as Brian jabbed the window button and rested the barrel of the gun on the door. If they could get close enough, he might be able to take out the driver.

Where the hell was his team? And where was Hicks? Brian’s phone vibrated in his pocket.

“Someone’s calling me.”

Maddie reached over and dug the phone out of his pants as she sped down the dusty road. She tossed the phone into his lap, and Brian tried to keep the shotgun steady as he pressed talk.

“Where the hell are you?” Sam’s voice sounded tinny on the other end of the call. “The Doctor slipped his surveillance. He—”

“I’m at Bracewell’s. Mladovic is here! Where the fuck’s our backup?”

“What?”

“We need
backup
! Where’s the team?”

Maddie hit a bump, and the phone flew to the floor. Brian cursed.

“Get closer,” he ordered as the white SUV came into view.

Maddie floored it. The closer they got, the harder it was to see through the cloud of dust. As soon as they hit the highway, though, he might have a better shot.

She hit another rut. “Sorry!”

“Get low!”

The SUV veered off the road and skidded to a stop. The door popped open, and Vlad lunged out.

“Stop! He’s running!”

Maddie halted, and Brian grabbed his Glock and jumped out. He sprinted after the man. He heard the engine straining and knew Maddie was right behind him, trying to run the man down, or at least scare him into surrendering.

Vlad turned and fired, a wild-ass shot that didn’t even come close. Pure outrage gave Brian the burst he needed to tackle him to the ground. He flipped him onto his stomach.
No cuffs
. He dug his knee into the guy’s back and smashed his pistol against the side of his head with a satisfying
thunk
.

A flash of green in his peripheral vision. Brian glanced up and saw Mladovic leaning out the window of the old pickup.

Then everything slowed down.

Mladovic swung his arm around. Brian followed it with his gaze and reacted. But even as he lifted his Glock and squeezed the trigger, he knew he was a split second too late.

Maddie!

Her windshield exploded. The truck jerked left.

Blood bloomed red on Mladovic’s chest.

Kill shot
. Brian knew it instantly.

And then his gaze jerked back to Maddie as the pickup smashed into a tree.