Hunted (FBI Heat Book 1) (19 page)

Spellbound, Amber watched Jeremy bounce on one leg. Up, down, up, down, the movement playing in slow motion. Blood covered his raised leg from shin to shoe. His arms slashed the air in circles as he struggled to maintain his balance. His mouth wide open, he seemed to be screaming, but her ears rang so badly from his gunshot, she couldn’t hear him.

Suddenly, in the midst of all the moving body parts, his gaze and gun zeroed in on her. His face contorted with hate. His mouth twisted in an ugly sneer.

Jeremy was going to kill her. Right here on this beautiful bridge, high up in the air. On a brilliant day under an endless azure sky and fluffy white clouds. With the ocean breeze whipping her hair around her face. With the salt air tickling her nose. In front of carloads of strangers. In front of Ben.

Christ, she was so tired of running, of hiding, of being invisible, of living in fear. So sick of Jeremy.

Their eyes connected. Hers filled with loathing.

“Fuck you, Jeremy Nelson! Go to hell,” she screamed and braced herself for the bullet that would end her misery.

The blast of another gunshot registered in her ringing ears. But she didn’t feel any pain. No jolt. No burn. No agony. Her heart still pounded. The wind brushed her face. She smelled the sea.
I’m alive. I’m alive!

A few feet in front of her, Jeremy’s body jerked hard. The impact of the bullet propelled him backward. Wobbling on one foot, he flung his arms over his head. His uninjured leg hit the concrete railing and buckled. He lost his balance and catapulted over the side.

A second later, he was… gone.

Time stopped. She didn’t move. She didn’t breathe.

She stared at the empty spot until Ben dropped to his knees in front of her.

“Are you hit? Are you hit?” His gaze swept over her, taking in every inch, every bruise, every cut.

Her brain refused to function. She blinked at him. “H-huh?”

Instead of answering, he ran his hands up and down her arms, around her torso, over her legs, and then leaned around to inspect her back. “Thank God. I was afraid he shot you.”

“H-He… fell.”

“I know, babe.”

“H-He’s dead?”

Ben nodded. “People don’t survive a fall from the third-deadliest suicide bridge in the country.”

She started to tremble. From her teeth to her toes, her whole body shook convulsively. Her teeth chattered so hard she thought they might crack.

He pulled a pocketknife from his pants and cut the tape binding her hands. After a circulation-restoring massage, he sat down, pulled her onto his lap, and banded his arms around her. “It’s okay, babe. It’s over. You’ll be fine.”

Reality remained hard to comprehend and accept. Hadn’t she just been seconds away from dying? “I-I’m alive.”

He smiled. “Damn straight.”

A police car screeched to a stop a few yards away. Guns drawn, two cops jumped out and advanced on them.

“The cavalry’s arrived,” he muttered. “A little late.”

“Police! Hands up,” one shouted.

Ben helped her raise her arms and then complied himself with an exasperated sigh. The scene played in her mind like a TV crime show.

“I’m FBI Special Agent Ben Alfren. My service weapon is in my back waistband.”

“Lay it on the ground and scoot it over here. Slowly!”

Again, he complied.

The second cop grabbed it. “Dispatch said there were two men. Where’s the other guy?”

“In the water.”

“Shit.”

“Definitely. Do you want my creds?” Ben asked.

“Yeah. Slowly. And keep your hands where I can see them.”

She shifted her body so he could pull his badge and ID from his pocket. Carefully, he held them out to Cop Two.

“Who are you?” Cop One directed the question to Amber.

“A-Amber Jollett.”

“She’s a kidnap victim. She needs an ambulance,” Ben added.

“Lisa n-needs one too. In m-my apartment.”

Another squad car pulled up, and two more cops emerged. Police radios barked orders.

Horns honked. A crowd formed beyond the vehicles. People shouted questions.

Amber closed her eyes and snuggled against Ben’s chest.

He came for me.

She trusted him to handle anything and everything. She couldn’t care less about all the activity swirling around her.

She was alive.

Ben was holding her.

Nothing else mattered.

* * *

Ben slouched in the uncomfortable plastic chair in the emergency room waiting area. The doctors and nurses had already examined Amber, tested her, and patched her up. Luckily, her cuts had required only Steri-Strips, not stitches. When she hadn’t been interested in talking, he’d tried to get her to take a nap. Had she cooperated? Not a chance. She seemed content to just lie there, staring at the ceiling. Now they’d taken Amber to have her neck x-rayed, and the events of the day began to sink in for the first time.

The adrenaline crash dragged him down, and fatigue wormed its way into his muscles and bones. His brain kept trying to compartmentalize fatally shooting two people, but his heart kept pulling the acts back front and center. Knowing he’d killed to save two innocent women helped. And there was no argument that Raul Garcia and Jeremy Nelson were bad guys. Very bad.

This man felt bad. Very bad.

He straightened in the chair. Marissa’s words crept out of the shadows of his mind.
I saw a man and a woman.
The scene with Maria and Raul hadn’t fit, but what about Amber and Jeremy?
In the sky. In the air.
The Coronado Bridge was over two hundred feet high, offering a breathtaking, panoramic, bird’s-eye view of the surrounding landscape. Like being “in the air.”

Holy shit.

His cell sounded a familiar ringtone.
No way.

“Benja, are you okay?” Marissa asked immediately.

“Hello to you too, Gypsy. I’m fine. I didn’t know news traveled coast to coast so fast. How did you hear?”

“News? Hear? I didn’t hear any news. I have
felt
you in danger for hours, but I was in the middle of an op, and I couldn’t call. You are truly all right, yes?”

“Yeah. Hardly a scratch.” He hesitated. “Remember your premonition about the man and woman in the air?”

“Of course. You have figured it out?”

“Most of it. All except the part about the woman being familiar to you. There’s no way you’ve met the woman in this incident.”

A long silence followed.

“Marissa?”

“I’m here.” She cleared her throat. “I’m not sure if I should tell you this.”

He frowned. “Tell me what?”

Another pause.

“Hey, talk to me, Gypsy.”

“Okay. Are you in love with the woman in the ‘incident’?”

He blinked. Not what he expected. “Well, uh…”

“Do not worry about my feelings. Do you love her?”

He drew a deep breath. Did he love Amber? “Hell, I’m a guy. I don’t know.”

“Benja,” she said in a threatening tone.

“Okay, okay. I might be falling… you know. But what in the world does that have to do with her seeming familiar to you?”

“I told you it was as if I’d seen, but not seen, her. Perhaps she’d been in a previous premonition.”

He held his breath. Unbelievable as it was, he knew what Marissa was going to say.

“I remembered this woman… in the air… with the very bad man…” She cleared her throat again. “Because she is the same woman in the premonition that warned me I would lose you to someone else if you moved to San Diego.”

Ben gulped. “That was more than two years ago. Are you sure?”

“Yes. I must go, Benja.” She hesitated. “I am so happy for you. Embrace your new love.”

He sat in stunned silence for several minutes after she disconnected.

“Mr. Alfren, you can come back in now,” a nurse called.

Stiffly, he stood up and followed the woman back to Amber’s cubicle. He pushed the curtain aside and sat down in the only chair. Amber’s eyes were closed; her expression strained. She looked so battered, so fragile, but he knew she had courage of steel. That didn’t keep him from wanting to protect her.

He found it hard to take his eyes off her—even for a moment. Damn, he’d come so close to losing her. Leaving her alone at his apartment had been a critical mistake. But…

He shook his head.
But
didn’t matter. However Jeremy got his hands on her didn’t matter. Bottom line: If she’d been at the FBI office, none of this would’ve happened.

“I know what you’re thinking,” she whispered, her eyes still shut. “But it’s not your fault.”

“It damn well is. I should’ve—”

“No, I should’ve listened to you. As you said, I’m too stubborn for my own good. Please don’t blame yourself.”

He clenched his jaw and tamped down his anger, which was more unreasonable than the blame. “I’ll agree if you’ll stop lying there blaming yourself.”

She opened her eyes and turned her face toward him. “Is that what you think I’m doing?”

“What am I supposed to think? You won’t talk to me.”

She inhaled deeply and let it out slowly. “I know how Jeremy found me.”

“How?”

“My boss, Laura Eldridge, told him where I lived.”

His anger took aim at a new target. “Didn’t she know—?”

“Oh yeah, she knew. Laura’s the person I told when they hired me, and she put it in my personnel file that no information was to be given out about me to
anyone
. Ever.”

“Why would she—?”

“Because she’s in love with Dr. Garcia.”

He blinked in disbelief. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because I didn’t figure it out until today. After Jeremy told me how she’d helped him find me, something clicked. Yesterday, when we interviewed the surrogates, I saw Garcia hugging a woman in the hallway. She was facing the other direction, so I couldn’t see her face. But something seemed—”

“Familiar,” he finished for her.

“Yeah.”

“There’s a lot of that going around.”

“Huh?”

“Never mind.” Rubbing the back of his neck, he tried to gauge her emotions. Disappointed. Betrayed. But also pissed. Good, because then she wouldn’t be pissed at him for bringing her boss down.

“What Laura did was wrong. But do you think she broke the law?” Amber asked.

“Maybe several, depending on how much she knew about Garcia’s clinic. She might be considered an accomplice to both Raul and Jeremy. But we need evidence.”

“And I know just how to get it.”

After Ben finished taping the listening device on Amber’s chest in the FBI office, they left for SDSA. She felt numb, detached. Was this what having an out-of-body experience felt like?

How could Laura have done this to her? Convinced that Laura had been the woman she’d glimpsed in the hallway with Dr. Garcia, Amber still couldn’t fathom her actions. Her boss didn’t know anything about the raids. She’d only known Amber was investigating the competitor responsible for so many SDSA cancellations.

But if Laura was romantically involved with Raul, she would’ve understood the situation already. Did she know her boyfriend was using slaves for his surrogates? How could she condone such behavior? Why would she want anything to do with a man who could treat people that way?

When Ben reached across the car and touched her arm, she jumped.

“Hey, you okay? You sure you’re up for this? It’s been a helluva day already, and this isn’t going to be easy.”

“How else would you catch her if she doesn’t confess? All you have are my statements that Jeremy implicated her and I saw Garcia hugging her.”

“We’d get her and Jeremy’s phone records. And the copy of the SDSA phone call slip from when Jeremy left a message.”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t tell you what they discussed. And it wouldn’t give you any connection to Dream Makers.”

He shoved his hand through his hair. “She’d probably crack under interrogation once she knows her boyfriend’s dead.”

“Probably?”

“Look, I’m trying to protect you. After what… almost… happened to you, why do you want to see her again?”

She stared out the side window, not really seeing the passing scenery. “I don’t. But it’d be worse if Laura isn’t punished.” She sighed. “Please don’t be mad. I couldn’t take it right now.”

“I’m not mad. I’m… worried.”

“I’m sure you have every angle covered.”

“Yeah. Just remember you’re there to talk, not get physical. You’re hurting already.”

She turned to glare at him. “Does that mean I can’t beat her to a pulp?”

“Definitely.”

“Laura may try to run.”

“If she does, I’ll be in the elevator lobby. Plus, I have people stationed at all the building exits and in the garage. She won’t get away.”

They sat in stony silence for a minute.

“You’re sure you’ve never seen any weapons in the office?” Ben asked.

She rolled her eyes. “No. We don’t have much use for them.”

“Scalpels?”

“Well, yes. But they’re not even used regularly.” Her eyes widened. “Oh God.”

“Now you get it. Probably as effective as box cutters on 9/11.”

Bile rose in her throat. “The scalpels are kept in the procedure rooms, not the offices.”

“Just be careful.”

Neither spoke again until they stood in the small lobby on SDSA’s floor.

“You can still change your mind,” Ben said in a pleading tone.

“I’ll be fine.”

He pulled her into his arms for a deep, passionate kiss before she broke free and marched to the staff entrance. Would this be the last time she ever entered the clinic? Sadness engulfed her, but she kept walking.

Once inside, she headed straight for Laura’s office. She didn’t bother knocking.

“Hello, Laura.”

The woman’s head snapped up. Her mouth gaped for a moment, but then she recovered. “What happened to you?”

The question caught Amber by surprise. “Huh?”

“Your face. My God, what happened?”

Odd how she’d been so focused on making sure Laura was held accountable that she’d forgotten about the damage Jeremy had done. “I ran into… someone. Specifically, his fist.”

Laura’s eyes widened.

Amber sauntered to a chair and sat down. Her boss’s gaze followed every movement.

“You happen to know him. Jeremy Nelson,” she continued.

“Oh yes, the ex-boyfriend you told us about when we hired you.”

“Right. My stalker. The man who beat me up multiple times.”

Laura shook her head. “I can’t imagine why a man would do such an awful thing.”

“And I can’t imagine why you’d tell Jeremy where I live.”

The woman gulped. Twice. “What in the world are you talking about?”

“Jeremy called here yesterday, pretending to ask for employment verification. The receptionist left the message for you.”

“I don’t remember seeing it.”

“But you did, because Jeremy told me that you called him back this morning and told him where he could find me.”

She raised her chin. “You’re wrong. If… if this Jeremy character got the information from someone at SDSA, it… it wasn’t me.”

“Oh, but it was. And I know why you betrayed me.”

Laura’s eyes narrowed. “You should leave.”

“No. I’m just getting to the best part.” Her eyes stung. Looking at this woman who’d been her friend was killing her. “You’ve been Raul Garcia’s lover since the Houston conference a year ago. You’ve known all along it was his Dream Makers clinic that was stealing our business. And you didn’t want me to discover who it was, because I know about his arrest and medical license revocation.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Oh, c’mon, Laura. You know I’m right. But do you know how Raul manages to charge such low fees?”

Laura pressed her lips together and glared with icy eyes.

“He uses slave labor.”

“You’re lying.”

“Nope. He kidnaps—actually, he has a vicious coyote do it for him—women who have crossed the border illegally and forces them to be surrogate mothers for his clinic. He keeps them imprisoned in a dormitory in Imperial Beach.”

“That’s a lie. Raul rescues those girls from being prostitutes. He provides them with a clean place to live and food on the table.”

“These women weren’t prostitutes. Five of them came across the border two weeks ago with husbands and boyfriends. They had paid to be taken to Los Angeles. But the coyote kidnapped them for Garcia, who keeps them locked in their rooms, day and night. They’re prisoners, slaves.”

“Raul wouldn’t know how to use a coyote.”

“But his cousin, a drug cartel kingpin, does. In exchange for providing Raul with slaves, the cousin gets illegal prescriptions for OxyContin, which he then sells on the street.”

Laura stood up and braced her hands on the desk. She leaned forward, her face contorted with anger. “Why couldn’t you just stay out of it? When you showed me the Dream Makers flyer, I never thought you’d go this far. But seeing you in that stupid disguise at Raul’s clinic yesterday, I knew I had to do something. I don’t know why Jeremy hasn’t taken you to Mexico yet like he promised he would, but I don’t think he’s going to give up. He sounded like a very determined young man. As for the surrogates, they shouldn’t mind losing a little freedom for a better quality of life. I helped Raul design the dormitory so everything they need is right there. Even though he doesn’t pay them, they should be thankful he treats them so well.” She slammed her fist on the desk.

“Is raping the surrogates treating them well?”

“You are such a liar. Raul would never do such a thing!”

“No? Actually, he tried to rape one named Maria this morning, but he was interrupted before he could. Several of the surrogates say he makes such visits almost daily.”

All color drained from Laura’s face, and she dropped into her chair. “You’re wrong. He’s like a father to those girls.”

“No, Laura. He’s a monster. And you’re his accomplice.” She rolled her eyes. “Oh damn, I should’ve been using past tense.”

Laura stiffened. “What do you mean?”

“The FBI raided the dormitory this morning, and Raul was killed.” She filled her voice with loathing. “And you… are going to jail.”