Mountain Heiress: Mountain Midwife (33 page)

“What’s the plan?” Rachel asked.

“I’m not sure yet.”

He’d rather not risk being seen, but there didn’t seem to be any approach other than parking in the driveway and marching up to the door. If she didn’t have an alarm system, he could pick the lock.

Circling the block, he checked his mirrors. Two blocks away, he saw a truck cross an intersection. Nothing else seemed to be moving in this quiet neighborhood. Still, he decided to retreat and consider their next move.

Several blocks away, he backed into a parking space in a lot outside a supermarket. The snow that had been cleared from the lot made an eight-foot-high pile at the far end. Damn this Colorado snow.

He passed his cell phone to Rachel. “Call Jenna and make sure she didn’t stay home from work.”

“You think we might be walking into a trap.”

“Something isn’t right.”

“I trust your instincts,” she said. “I still remember how you sensed the attack on the hideout before a single bullet had been fired.”

Before she could make the call, a red SUV pulled up in front of them, trapping them in the parking space.

The back door swung open, and Xavier stepped out. His heavy-duty parka was as red as his vehicle. Stealth had never been his strong point.

He opened the back door to their Jeep and climbed in.

“Hi, kids.” His gold tooth flashed when he smiled. “Did you miss me?”

Chapter Twenty-One

Wearing her hat with the earflaps, Rachel doubted she could pull off her supercool undercover identity as Special Agent Rocky Logan. She turned around in her seat and glared at Xavier. “How did you find us?”

“A good poker player never tells his secrets.”

Without turning around, Cole growled, “He must have planted a GPS tracker.”

“Where?” she demanded. “How?”

Xavier chuckled. “Under your collar, sweetheart.”

Leaning forward, he patted her shoulder, slid his hand up toward her neck and detached a tiny circular object from her parka. Like a magician, he held it up so she could see. “Ta da!”

Though she didn’t remember him touching her at the casino, the evidence was there. He had bugged her parka.

She drew the logical conclusion. “That’s why we didn’t see you tailing us. You knew where we were all the time.”

Xavier pocketed the device. “If I’d thought you two were going to stop for the night at a motel, I could have arranged for classier accommodations. But then, you might be seen and recognized. Other people wouldn’t be as understanding as I am about harboring a fugitive.”

“What do you want?” Cole muttered.

“To get my money back. The insurance company isn’t going to be understanding about my losses in the robbery, and I can’t afford to be out forty-two thousand bucks.”

“Is that right?” She heard the anger in Cole’s voice. “Why should I do you any favors?”

“For old times’ sake. We go back a long way, buddy boy. You know things about me that nobody else does. And vice versa.”

“You don’t know squat.”

“Come on, now. There’s no need to be hostile.”

Cole stared through the windshield at the red SUV, and she followed his gaze. The driver was visible through the front window, but she didn’t see anybody else. “How many men did you bring with you?”

“Only two. It was never my intention to overpower you. I’ve seen you in action, and I’m too old to recover from a busted kneecap.” Xavier turned to Rachel. “He can be a dangerous fellow. Are you aware of that?”

Since he wasn’t treating her like an FBI agent, there was no reason for her to try to outbluff this canny old man. “I know him well,” she said. “He’s only dangerous with people who need to be taken down.”

Behind his glasses, his beady little eyes narrowed. “Be careful about standing too close to the flame, my dear. You might get burned.”

Cole turned in his seat to face Xavier. “I don’t like the way you followed us. And I’m not making any promises about what happens to the money. But the truth is, I could use some backup.”

The old man massaged his chin while he considered. Then he said, “Fine. I scratch your back and you—”

“Here’s the deal,” Cole said. “Rachel and I are going to break into a house. You and your men wait outside. If we don’t come out in ten minutes, it means we need your help.”

“I’ll do it, and we’ll settle up afterward. Aren’t you lucky that I turned up when I did?” Xavier opened the car door. “You never appreciated all that I did for you back in the day. It takes guts to be a snitch.”

“Guts and greed,” Cole said. “Follow us and don’t be too obvious.”

“By the way.” A wide grin split the old man’s wrinkled face. His gold tooth gleamed. “How’s your wife?”

His wife?

The inside of her head exploded.

Cole was married?

She watched Xavier scamper to his red SUV like an evil leprechaun. She couldn’t trust a word he said. He wanted to get back at Cole, to cause him strife.

Desperately wanting to believe that Xavier had been lying, she turned her gaze on Cole. His cognac eyes held a seriousness that she had never seen before.

“Rachel,” he said, “I’ve never lied to you.”

That wasn’t an answer. She’d asked him dozens of questions about his prior girlfriends and relationships, but she had never actually asked if he had a wife. “Are you married?”

“I can explain.”

He hadn’t denied it, and she didn’t want to be sucked into whatever deceptive ruse he was playing. The man lied for a living. He changed identities every other day. “Yes or no?”

“It’s a technicality. No big deal.”

She repeated, “Yes or no?”

“Yes.”

Anger and hurt knotted in her gut. A flush of heat crawled up her throat and strangled her. Once again, she’d fallen for a bad boy—another man in the long line of dashing, sexy, handsome jerks who ultimately betrayed her. “Don’t say another word. I don’t want to hear your phony explanations. Let’s get this over with and say goodbye.”

“Is that what you want?”

“Damn right.”

She held up his cell phone and tried to remember how to contact Jenna Cambridge. Pearl had given them the phone number. Was it in the memory? She thrust the phone toward Cole. “Get Jenna on the line.”

“I should make this call,” he said.

“Because I’m not a natural born liar like you? Because you don’t think I can pull it off?”

He grasped her arm near the wrist and pulled her closer, forcing her to confront him. “Settle down, Rachel. If we’re going to get through this in one piece, you need to concentrate.”

“Don’t tell me what I need.”

She locked gazes with him. His eyes were intense, volatile. He was nearly as angry as she was, and that was just fine with her. She was done with him and his lies.

With a strength born of fury, she yanked her arm away from him. “Go ahead and call her. I don’t care.”

While he made the call, she stared through the windshield at Xavier’s red SUV. She could see the old man’s face in the window of the backseat. He was laughing and she knew the joke was on her.

* * *

C
OLE
DROVE
INTO
Jenna’s quiet, residential neighborhood where every sidewalk was shoveled. No one was outside. Nothing seemed to be moving. Beams of sunlight glistened and slowly melted the snow.

He hadn’t been able to reach Jenna on the phone, but he’d called the high school and been informed that she was teaching her senior economics seminar and couldn’t be disturbed. She wasn’t at home; that was all he had to know.

There were still obstacles to breaking into her house. She might have an alarm system or a guard dog or a lock he couldn’t pick.
Logistics.
He needed to concentrate on logistics. In normal circumstances, that wouldn’t have been a problem. He was good at honing in with sharp focus, doing what had to be done. But Rachel had distracted him.

He glanced over at her. In defiance, she’d torn the cap with earflaps off her head, and her short hair stood up in spikes. A feverish red flush colored her throat and cheeks. Anger sizzled around her like static electricity.

Later, he’d explain about his alleged wife. He should have said something before, but he wasn’t accustomed to baring his soul. Damn Xavier for bringing up his wife and making him out to be a liar. Or an unfaithful husband.

Why the hell had Rachel jumped to the worst possible conclusion? It was almost as though she’d been looking for a reason to cut him off at the knees and end this thing that was growing between them. They had a connection, a relationship.

Oh, hell. He might as well face it. He loved her. And she loved him back. But she was as scared of commitment as he was. Why couldn’t she understand? He wasn’t like all the other creeps she’d dated. He was one of the good guys, damn it.

He shook his head. For now, he had to maintain a single-minded objective.
Get into Jenna’s house and find the money.

In the rearview mirror, he saw the red SUV following them. Tersely, he said, “You should stay outside with Xavier. I’m not sure what I’ll find in the house.”

“I’m going with you.”

“It could be a trap.”

“Do you really think so?”

He considered. The evidence connecting Jenna to Baron was largely circumstantial. The only thing they knew for certain was that Penny had sent Jenna the bundles containing the haul from the casino robbery. “Even if she is Baron’s secretary, she has no reason to suspect that we’re coming after the money.”

“So we ought to be fine,” Rachel said. “And I’m coming with you to search. Two sets of eyes are better than one.”

He pulled into Jenna’s driveway and parked. “I go first. If I tell you to run, do it. No questions.”

“You’re the boss.”

“I’m not kidding around,” he said.

“You don’t need to remind me about the danger.” She kept her head averted as though she couldn’t stand the sight of him. “I’ve seen Baron’s men in action.”

They got out of the car and followed the shoveled path through the snow to the front porch. He saw no indication of an alarm system, but that didn’t mean much. Most of these systems were invisible. “We’ve got five minutes to get in and out. If she has a silent alarm that rings through to a security company, it’ll take that long for them to get here.”

He pressed the doorbell and listened for any sound coming from inside the house.

Rachel moved along the porch to the front window. “I can’t see inside. The drapes are closed.”

“Any of the windows open?”

She shook her head. “Triple pane casement windows. They’re sealed up tight.”

The lock on Jenna’s door was a piece of cake, but she also had a dead bolt, which could be a pain in the butt. He squatted so he was eye level with the door handle and went to work.

“Of course,” she said, “you carry a lock pick.”

“My version of a Swiss Army knife.”

He had the lower lock opened in a couple of minutes. When he pushed on the handle, the door swung open. Jenna hadn’t bothered with the dead bolt.

“Five minutes,” he reminded her as he took his gun from the holster and stepped inside. “You go left. I’ll go right.”

He was only halfway down the hallway to the bedrooms when he heard her call out. “Cole.”

Something had gone wrong. He whipped around, raising his gun to shoot. A man with a shaved head held Rachel by the throat. His gun pointed to her head.

Cole sensed someone behind his back. A deep voice with a Western twang said, “Drop your weapon or she dies.”

If he’d been alone, he might have taken his chances with these two. But he couldn’t risk Rachel’s life. He set his weapon on the floor and raised his hands. “We’re not going to cause trouble.”

“Too late,” the guy behind him said. “We’ve been chasing you two all over the damn mountains. We halfway froze to death.”

If these were the same guys who chased them onto Shadow Mountain Lake, they’d talked to Frank. What had he told them? Cole had to come up with a story that would convince these guys to let them go. Was it better to tell them he was a fed, and the full force of the law would be after them? Should he act like he was still a loyal member of the robbery crew? His mind raced.

He came up with...nothing. No bargaining chip. No leverage. No believable threat. Nothing. Nada. His entire focus was on Rachel. He had to get her out of here. Somehow, he had to save her.

The man behind him shoved him against the wall in the hallway, yanked his arms down and cuffed his hands behind his back. Then, he did a thorough pat down. When he was satisfied that Cole had been disarmed, he stepped back. “Turn around and walk into the bedroom. I’d advise you not to make any sudden moves.”

Cole rooted himself to the floor. No matter what happened to him, he wouldn’t leave Rachel alone with these two. “She comes with me.”

“Don’t you worry none. She’s going to be with you. Until death do you part.”

The man holding Rachel moved toward them. His arm at her throat was tight.

They went through Jenna’s bedroom into the master bathroom. As soon as they were inside, the door closed.

They weren’t alone.

Agent Prescott curled up on the floor beside the freestanding bathtub. When he heard them, he opened his eyes and struggled to sit up. Blood from a head wound caked in his hair.

He croaked out one word. “Sorry.”

Chapter Twenty-Two

Rachel’s nurturing instinct should have sent her running across the bathroom toward Prescott. The man was clearly in need of first aid.

But she wasn’t a paramedic anymore. She was the one in imminent danger. She turned toward Cole and placed the flat of her hand on his chest.
Until death did them part?
They weren’t going to get out of this alive. The guys who nabbed them were the same merciless bastards who mowed down the gang at the Shadow Mountain Lake house. “Why didn’t they kill us when we walked in the door?”

When he looked down at her, his gaze was so warm and full of caring that her heart ached. “Murder leaves a mess,” he said. “That’s why we’re in a bathroom. If they kill us here, they can swab down the tiles and get rid of the evidence.”

“That can’t be right.”

“Why not?”

How could she be discussing the circumstances of her own death? With ridiculous calm, she said, “There’d still be evidence. The CSI shows on TV always find traces.”

“I seriously doubt the Grand County Sheriff’s Department has a mass spectrometer or instant DNA analysis.”

“But you and Prescott are FBI. You guys have all the forensic goodies.”

He gave her a sad smile. Then he looked at Prescott. “You’re in the Denver office. Do you think they’re good enough to figure out who killed us?”

Using the edge of the tub, Agent Prescott forced himself to stand. His breathing was shallow. Even from a distance, she could tell that his pupils were dilated. “You’re in shock,” she said. “You’re probably concussed and should be in a hospital.”

He reached up and touched the wound on his head. His fingers came away bloody. “Tell me about Goldie. Is my baby girl safe?”

His baby?
“You’re Goldie’s father?”

“Son of a bitch,” Cole muttered. “I underestimated you, Prescott. I thought you were nothing more than a scumbag traitor, but I was wrong. You’re the big man himself. You’re Baron.”

Prescott wiped his bloody hand across his mouth, leaving a streak of crimson. “Not by choice.”

Cole looked down at her. “Get the lock picks from my jacket pocket and put them in my hands. I need to get out of these cuffs.”

Moments ago, she’d been complaining about the fact that he carried tools for a break-in. Now, she was glad. “Tell me how to do it. I can help.”

“It’s faster if I handle it myself. This isn’t the first time I’ve been in this position.”

When she reached inside his jacket, her physical connection with him was immediate and intimate. She couldn’t deny their chemistry. Not that it mattered. Even if she forgave his deception and admitted how much she cared about him, they were going to be dead. “What’s going to happen to us?”

Prescott answered, “They’ll load us in a car, drive to the mountains, kill us and bury our bodies. We won’t be found until the spring thaw. By then, Jenna will be long gone.”

She placed the picks in Cole’s hands and turned toward Prescott. He seemed to be regaining strength. From experience, she knew that head wounds were unpredictable. He might have a surge of coherence, might even appear to be making a recovery. Or he might collapse into a coma.

“You’re Baron,” she said. “Why can’t you stop them?”

“I don’t call the shots. Jenna is in charge. She’s always been the boss. Ever since I first met her.”

“Was that when you came to the high school in Granby to lecture about the FBI?”

“Before that.” He winced. “Jenna lived in Denver. We were engaged.”

That explained the ring she still wore. “After you broke up, she moved to the mountains.”

Rachel understood the need for a change of scenery. She’d done much the same thing when she joined Rocky Mountain Women’s Clinic as a midwife. Like Jenna, she’d been searching for a place to start over.

Prescott said, “She invited me to Granby to talk to her class. That’s when I met Penny. Poor, sweet Penny. I was attracted to her right away, but she was a high school kid. Too young. I wooed her. Gave her presents.”

“A diamond tennis bracelet,” Rachel said.

“I picked it up at a pawn shop, but she didn’t know that. She thought I was her true love, her soulmate. All that lovey-dovey crap. And here’s the funny part.” He inhaled and straightened his shoulders. “I felt the same damn way. I waited until she was ready. I swear to God, I didn’t make love to her until she was eighteen.”

“Real decent of you,” Cole muttered. “How did you get hooked up with Jenna again?”

“She pretended to be my friend. And Penny’s. But she was scheming. Spinning her web. Like a spider. A black widow spider. A poisonous creature who...”

His words faded, and she could see him slipping toward unconsciousness. If he passed out, there was a good chance he wouldn’t wake up. She went toward him, grabbed his arm and shook him. “Stay with me, Prescott. Tell me about Jenna.”

“She’s smart. Cunning. Has a master’s degree in economics. She put together the whole robbery and money-laundering scheme.”

“Interesting,” Cole said. “Her logistics were complicated but kind of genius. How did she pull it off?”

“Untraceable email. Throwaway phones. She pretended to be a secretary and invented a boss nobody saw. Baron.”

“How did you get involved?”

“She needed to hide behind a frontman. So she set me up with fake deposits to an account in my name. When we were engaged, she handled my bills, got my social security number, all my passwords. By the time she told me about it, there was enough evidence against me to destroy my career and my life.”

“You should have turned her in,” Cole said.

“I wanted to. But she had Penny on the hook. If I didn’t do what Jenna said, Penny would pay the price.”

The long confession seemed to invigorate him. Instead of growing weaker, his voice sounded determined. “When I found out that Penny was pregnant, I started making plans to run away with her. We could have had a decent life. Could have raised our baby. Could have—”

A burst of gunfire echoed from the other room.

Cole broke free. The cuffs dangled from his left wrist, but his hands were separated. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”

She didn’t see an escape. The only window in the bathroom was glass bricks—the kind you can’t break without a jackhammer.

“What’s happening?” Prescott demanded. “Who’s shooting?”

“We brought backup,” Cole said. “But I don’t trust them to be effective. We’ve got to get out of the bathroom. If those guys catch us in here, it’ll be like shooting fish in a barrel.”

He eased open the bathroom door. Over his shoulder, he whispered, “I don’t see a guard.”

If she’d had time to think, she would have been terrified, but everything was happening too fast. Cole grabbed her hand and pulled her behind him into Jenna’s bedroom.

She scanned the room, looking for a place to hide. Under the king-size four-poster bed? In the closet? There was a lot of large, heavy furniture in dark wood. Floor-to-ceiling curtains hung beside two windows. Both had decorative security bars on the outside.

Shouts and more gunfire echoed from the front of the house. Cole peeked into the hallway and came back to her. “If we go that way, they’ll see us.”

He pulled her into the walk-in closet and closed the door. The closet was as big as a bedroom. A scent of cedar and cinnamon hung in the air.

Cole turned on the overhead light. The closet system combined hanging racks, drawers and shelving. Against the back wall were shoes, hats and a shelf with three wigs—black, blond and auburn. Jenna’s disguises. Nothing was out of place. Everything was meticulously organized.

It seemed almost sacrilegious when Cole scooped the clothes off a low rack and took the pole where they had been hanging. He did the same with another pole and handed it to her.

“Weapons,” he said.

Wooden dowels wouldn’t be much use against bullets, but it was better than nothing. He pulled her to a position beside the door and whispered, “I need to explain about my wife.”

“Not now. It’s not important.”

“This might be the last thing I ever say to you, and I want you to know that I’m not a liar or a cheat. The marriage was years ago. I was investigating the illegal gambling scene in California, and I had a female partner. There were problems with our undercover identities. Somehow, we ended up going through a wedding ceremony and signing papers that I suppose are still legal. But there was never anything romantic between us.”

“Why should I believe you?”

“I never had to mention this phony marriage to you. But I’m trying to be honest. To tell you everything.”

“So, what happened with this partner of yours?”

“She transferred back east. Neither of us bothered with a divorce. I didn’t see a need. There wasn’t anyone else in my life. Not until now. Not until you.”

She heard more gunfire from the other room. There was no way out of this mess.

“That’s a mighty strange story,” she said.

“It’s the truth.”

A fake marriage to a partner? An unconsummated marriage? Not bothering with a divorce? If she hadn’t gone through the past days with Cole and seen how many twists and turns his life involved, she would have dismissed his story. But she knew his life was complicated. Crazy. Wild. “I believe you.”

“I love you, Rachel.”

Her arms closed around him. She wanted to be strong and brave, didn’t want to cry. But tears spilled down her cheeks. “I love you, too.”

This might be the last time they embraced. She’d found love only to lose it.

“When we get out of this,” he said, “I’ll get a divorce and marry you.”

“That’s a hell of a way to propose.” She scrubbed the moisture from her face. “What if I say no?”

“That’s not an option.”

The shooting stopped abruptly. She heard voices from the other room.

Cole turned off the overhead light in the closet and stepped in front of her. “Stay back,” he said. “No matter what happens, stay in here.”

The voices came closer. One was a woman. Jenna?

The closet door whipped open. Cole reacted. He swung hard with the dowel, striking the gun of the man who opened the door. He dropped his weapon. Cole dove, trying to reach the gun.

He was out of her line of sight. She heard shots being fired.

Then silence.

Panic roared through her. Without thinking, she charged through the open door with her dowel raised to strike.

The scene before her was a tableaux. Cole stood between Prescott and a mousy woman in a button-down shirt, striped vest and gray slacks. They both had their weapons aimed at him.

On the floor in front of Cole, another man lay bleeding.

“Drop your weapons,” Prescott ordered. “Both of you.”

Cole glanced at her and gave a nod as he dropped his dowel on the floor. “It’s okay, Rachel.”

“No.” She refused to give up. “It’s not okay.”

“We can negotiate,” Prescott said. “Nobody else has to die.”

Rachel pointed her dowel at the woman. “I want to hear from her. Jenna Cambridge.”

Jenna looked down her long nose. “Don’t be stupid. I might decide to let you go after you’ve served your purpose as a hostage. I don’t particularly want to kill you.”

“Not like Penny?”

Jenna’s dull brown eyes flicked nervously from left to right, but her gun hand remained steady. “That shouldn’t have happened.”

“Convenient for you that it did,” Rachel said. “With Penny out of the way, your former fiancé can come back to you.”

“I told you once not to be a fool,” Jenna said in a teacherlike voice. “I won’t tell you again.”

“You won’t get away with this.”

“I’m a good planner.” She glanced toward Prescott. “We’re going away together. We’ll have a new life with enough money that we won’t ever have to work again. I’ve worked hard and I deserve that much, don’t I, darling?”

Prescott crossed the room and stood before her. “You deserve something.”

“There’s only one thing I’ve ever wanted,” she said with a simpering grin. “Your love.”

“Sorry, Jenna. I already gave my heart.”

He shoved his gun against her rib cage and pulled the trigger. She gasped. And fell.

She was dead before she hit the floor.

He tried to turn the gun on himself, but Cole was too fast. He wrenched the weapon from Prescott’s hand. With surprising gentleness, he guided the wounded agent to the bed.

Prescott sat with his head drooped forward. “She would have killed you. Couldn’t let that happen.”

Cole patted his shoulder. “You came through when I needed you. I won’t forget that.”

“My life is over.”

“Not yet,” Cole said. “You have a baby.”

“Goldie.” He lifted his head. “Penny’s baby.”

“You need to see her and hold her. But first, you’ve got to get us out of this mess. The cops still think Rachel and I are fugitives.”

“I’ll take care of it.” Prescott rose. He wavered for a moment before he straightened and walked toward the front of the house. “The police should be here any minute. As soon as I got out of the bathroom, I put in a call.”

Eager to leave the carnage in the bedroom, Rachel followed him. She didn’t get far. In the hallway, Cole caught hold of her hand and spun her around to face him. His hands rested at her waist.

He smiled down at her. “When you came charging out of the closet, you scared me.”

“I think you have that backward. I was scared.” She remembered how he’d told her that eventually the trauma would fade. “I guess our road trip to California is off.”

“Hell, no. I’m not letting you out of my sight.” He dropped a kiss on her forehead. “The world is a dangerous place. I need to protect my bride-to-be.”

There were a million details to work out, but nothing seemed important. They were together. They were safe, and she wanted to keep it that way forever.