Nautier and Wilder (22 page)

“Come on.”

She gave him a wary look.

“Elena, I promise you’re going to be safe. Trust me.”

Ha. Famous last words. Then again, if they’d wanted her dead, wouldn’t he have just
let the guy with the gun take care of it? Why the elaborate ruse?

Dammit. None of this made sense.

She got out of the car when Jed opened the door.

It was so dark she couldn’t see anything.

“Give me your hand. Stay close to me.”

She slipped her hand in his and he led her up the hill.

When they reached the top, she saw the helicopter. Jed started toward it, but Elena
stopped. He turned to her as the blades began to rotate and the helicopter fired its
engines.

“No.” She tugged on his hold, not sure what she was going to do, but if she got in
that helicopter, he could take her anywhere.

“Elena, come on. You have to go with me.”

The chopper’s blades began to stir up a heavy breeze, blowing her hair into her face.
She grabbed onto her hair with one hand while trying to pull her other hand free from
Jed’s grasp. “No. I’m not going with you.”

He wouldn’t let her go. “What are you going to do? Go back to your house?”

“Yes. And I’m going to call the police. Why didn’t you call the police, Jed? What
are you hiding?”

He looked exasperated with her. She didn’t care. She wanted the truth.

“I’m not hiding anything from you. I’m trying to keep you safe.”

“Calling the cops would have been a good start, instead of leaving that dead guy at
my house.”

“I promise you’ll have the truth, as soon as we get you out of here.”

She shook her head. “No. I’m not getting in that thing. And who’s “we”?

The next thing she knew she was thrust over Jed’s shoulder and he was running for
the helicopter. She struggled, but she was dumped in the seat and held there while
the chopper lifted off.

Jed finally let go of her. She looked outside the window and all she could see below
was ocean. There was nowhere for her to go. A leap out of the helicopter would kill
her.

The pilot of the helicopter hadn’t even looked at them. Maybe he was used to men throwing
women in his helicopter against their will. She doubted he’d help her.

The fight drained out of her and she sank against the seat.

Jed tapped her leg. She turned to look at him. He motioned to his seat belt and she
put hers on. He also wanted her to put on earphones with a mic so he could talk to
her, but she shook her head.

She didn’t want to talk. She wanted to go home, climb in bed and go to sleep, wake
up tomorrow and realize this had all been a bad dream. Then she could go downstairs,
open her shop, and it would be like any other normal day.

Normal. Her life hadn’t been normal since she’d met Jed.

She shot him a glare. He was watching her. He looked tense, as if at any moment he
expected her to either leap on him or fling the door open and throw herself into the
ocean.

She wasn’t that stupid. She was no match for his strength and she wasn’t about to
kill herself. She was all about survival, and she’d figure out how to survive this.

Even if she had been stupid enough to get herself into this nightmare.

The drop in the pit of her stomach signaled their descent. She looked out the window
to see the first gray fingers of dawn peeking over the horizon, giving her a glimpse
of a tiny strip of an island below. And then the copter started to dive. She held
on, watching as the island grew larger, and they landed on a clearing just off the
beach.

An older guy stood there in camouflage pants, boots and a brown T-shirt. Jed unbuckled
and got out first, then helped Elena.

Her ears stopped ringing as the helicopter’s rotors and engines were cut.

“Gen—uh, this is Grange,” Jed said. “Grange, this is Elena Madison.”

The older guy nodded at Jed, then turned his attention on her.

He looked fierce. And mean. Very military, with his precision haircut, rigid stance
and his hands clasped behind his back. She felt like she was being inspected and she
should stand at attention.

He nodded to her. “Miss Madison.”

“Elena,” she corrected.

“I’m sure you’re tired. Let’s go to the compound.”

Compound? Where were they, Guantanamo?

Grange pivoted and led the way through the canopy of trees onto a well-worn path.
Now that it was lighter out, at least she didn’t feel like she was stumbling around
in the dark. But she still didn’t like that she had no idea where she was, or where
they were going.

Or why she was even here or had been flown here by helicopter.

She shifted her gaze to Jed, who was fixated on Grange’s back. She tried to get his
attention but he wouldn’t look at her.

Fine. She stepped up her pace and moved alongside Grange.

“What’s going on? Why was I brought here?”

She didn’t think the man had any ability of movement in his mouth other than grim
straight line.

“I’ll explain everything to you after we have you secured.”

“Secured. What the hell does that even mean? I own a jewelry store. I’m not military
and no threat to national security. Have I been set up somehow?”

She threw Jed a glare over her shoulder and tried to keep up with Grange, but his
long strides ate up the path and she gave up.

Jed stayed with her, though, not once leaving her side. But he didn’t say anything,
either, which only made her dig her tennis shoes harder into the soft, sandy surface
of the ground.

She wanted to stop, turn around and head back to the beach. But since she didn’t know
how to fly a helicopter and she hadn’t seen a pay phone around anywhere, that would
be kind of foolish. Maybe there’d be a phone inside the “compound,” and she could
call the police.

She’d never felt more idiotic in her life.

She never trusted strangers, wasn’t easy around people she didn’t know. She wasn’t
her mother, didn’t give blind faith to everyone like her mom did. But she’d sure as
hell acted like her by giving her body and her trust over to Jed.

And look where it had gotten her.

They finally broke through the jungle. A thick stone wall surrounded them.

The compound. She swallowed, some part of her knowing once she walked through those
gates, she wouldn’t be able to get out.

Grange pulled a remote out of his pocket, pressed the button, and oversized double
gates slowly opened. She walked through, then stopped to stare at the sheer size of
the building they were heading toward. “Compound” seemed appropriate, though for some
reason she had expected to see an austere, prison-like building, when instead it was
a mansion.

They must have landed on the back side of the island, because she hadn’t seen this
when they arrived.

Lush greenery, beautiful walkways, an amazing pool that wound its way through the
property and a waterfall at the edge of the pool. The house—if one could call it a
house—was magnificent. Tall white archways, marble entrances and flooring, winding
staircases, it was like a castle, with a mix of modern. She walked through with awe
at the classic cherry wood dining table, then was struck dumb at the ultraexpensive
marble layered throughout the expansive kitchen.

“I’m sure you’re thirsty,” Grange said as he leaned against the kitchen counter. “Coffee,
something cool to drink?”

“Coffee, please.”

She waited for a bevy of servants to come running, but Grange made the coffee himself.

“Is this your place?” she asked.

“No. It belongs to a friend. He’s on a conference call right now. He’ll be joining
us shortly.”

“So he lives here. By himself?”

Grange handed her the coffee. “Cream? Sugar?”

“Just cream.”

He opened the refrigerator, grabbed a carton of cream, and handed it to her. Very
understated for a place so elegant. She poured some and put it back in the refrigerator.

“Take a seat. We’ll wait for Pete.”

She sipped the coffee and nearly died. Whatever kind it was, it was heavenly to her
sleep-starved and stressed-out body, so she focused on it instead of Grange and Jed,
who huddled together just out of earshot for a few minutes before coming back in to
sit across from her, staring at her as if she were some lab animal they intended to
dissect after breakfast.

“Hungry?” Grange asked.

She shook her head.

“Sorry I’m late. Overseas call and I have to be on their time zone.”

She looked up as a man entered the room. Dressed in khaki shorts and a flowered, button-down
shirt, he was tanned, with a shock of white hair. Mid-fifties would be her guess.

“Elena Madison, this is Pete Northram, a friend of mine.”

Elena nodded. Pete came over to shake her hand. “Miss Madison. So happy to have you
as my guest.”

So this was his place. “Guest, or prisoner?”

Pete frowned and looked at Grange. “She doesn’t know why she’s here.”

He turned his attention back to her. “I assure you, Miss Madison. You are not a prisoner
here. You’re welcome to roam the house and the grounds. Make yourself at home.”

She leaned back in the chair and wrapped her hands around the mug of coffee. “I kind
of liked my house.”

“You weren’t safe there,” Jed interjected. “Or maybe you forgot about the guy who
broke in last night. The one with the gun.”

She shot him a glare. “I appreciate you being there to take care of him. But we could
have called the police.”

“We don’t want the police involved,” Grange said.

This was getting ridiculous. “First, who is ‘we,’ and why not? And what’s going to
happen to the dead guy in my apartment? We’re supposed to just leave him there?”

“He’s been taken care of.”

“What the hell does that mean?” she asked Grange. “Who
are
you people?”

For the first time in the short period of time since she’d met him, Grange let down
the façade of military bearing. He seemed to slump in the chair and ran his fingers
through his hair.

“I know you want to protect her, Grange, but she has to know the truth,” Pete said.
“Then maybe she can help.”

He shook his head. “Not supposed to work that way. I promised. That’s why I sent Jed.”

“What? Why you sent Jed to do what?” She stood, tired of being the last person to
know anything, and having a very bad feeling she’d been used. She cast her gaze to
Jed, who was looking at her with a solemn expression that screamed guilt.

She palmed her stomach, suddenly feeling sick. The oversized kitchen seemed to close
in on her and she had to get out of there. She pushed away from the table and walked
out of the room, eyeing the double doors leading to the backyard, the early morning
sunshine and the pool area.

No one stopped her. She didn’t see guards, so she headed toward the edge of the pool,
kicked off her shoes and sat down, dipping her feet in the heated water.

Thankfully, no one had followed her because her head spun and she needed to process
what Grange had said.

Not supposed to work that way
. What wasn’t supposed to work what way?

I promised
. Promised who?

That’s why I sent Jed
. This was the worst. Jed had been some kind of plant, sent to her to do what? Their
meeting hadn’t been coincidental; it had been orchestrated to end up this way, to
bring her here. Everything that had happened between them had been a lie.

Everything she had been feeling for him had been real. Her stomach twisted and tears
pricked her eyes. This was not the time to be a girl wracked with emotions. Not when
she was in the middle of something she didn’t understand, kidnapped and tossed on
an island with three strangers. Her life was in danger and she needed to keep a clear
head.

Jed could just go fuck himself.

“Elena.”

So much for time alone to think. At least it wasn’t Jed. Right now she’d deliver a
punch to his midsection that, twelve-pack abs or not, would rock his world.

Grange came and pulled up a chair next to her.

“We need to talk.”

She peered up to him. “It’s about time somebody said something to me. I’ve been kidnapped
and lied to.”

“You weren’t kidnapped. You’re being protected.”

“From whom, exactly?”

“Someone who has a vendetta against me.”

She pulled her feet out of the water and turned to face him. “What? What does that
have to do with me?”

“It’s kind of a long story, and you aren’t going to like a lot of it, but bear with
me while I explain it to you.”

She nodded. “Go ahead.”

“Your mother is missing.”

Her heart skipped a beat. “Missing?”

“You already know that, don’t you?”

She shrugged, refusing to give him any more information than necessary. “I haven’t
been able to get hold of her, but that’s not unusual for my mother. She’s often out
of touch.”

“I know. But this time is different. You can call her phone and leave a message and
she’ll always get around to calling you back. She hasn’t, has she?”

Elena didn’t answer.

“And as flaky as she is, if you need her, she’ll be there for you. Isn’t that right?”

She narrowed her gaze. “You know my mother?”

“Yes.”

“Do you know where she is?”

“No. But I’ve been trying to find her for the past month. She’s never out of touch
this long.”

“What is your relationship with my mother, Grange?”

He looked at her for the longest time.

“She’s my sister.”

TEN

E
lena didn’t believe it. Not for one second.

“My mother is an only child.”

“No, she’s not. I’m her brother.”

“Bullshit.” She pushed off and stood, then started toward the house. Grange stopped
her by stepping in front of her.

“Elena, your mother is my sister. She was born Carla Suzanne Lee on January twenty-fifth,
1957.”

“Easy enough information to obtain.”

“Ask me anything about your mother.”

“Who was her best friend in high school?”

“Trick question. It was Bobby Ross. She befriended him in study hall freshman year.
They never dated, became best friends and were inseparable throughout high school.
Bobby was a war-protesting, antiestablishment, pot-smoking hippie, just like your
mother right up until he got accepted to Harvard. Then he had a complete turnaround
and decided he wanted to be a lawyer. And not a people’s lawyer, either, but a corporate
one. Your mother was devastated because she lost her best friend.”

Elena eyed him suspiciously, still not convinced.

“Keep talking.”

“Despite her big talk about communing with nature, she loves meat, especially hamburgers.
Her favorite is smothered in steak sauce with cheddar cheese on top. She hates tomatoes
and is allergic to peanuts. She has a purple birthmark on the back of her neck and
a scar on her scalp where her hairline meets her forehead, on the left side. It happened
when we were kids. She was eight, I was twelve. We were playing on some equipment
at the gym and your mom was a tomboy when she was a kid, so she always played with
the boys. I pushed her, she fell and hit her head on the edge of the cement. She got
sixteen stitches and a concussion, and I got grounded for two weeks.”

“She told me about the scar. Said one of the boys in the neighborhood pushed her.
And she never told me she had a brother.”

“Because it wasn’t safe for her.”

Elena frowned. “Who the hell
are
you?”

“I’m a retired U.S. Marine general. I work for the government running an undercover
operation. Jed works for me.”

Of course he did. And she’d been just a job.

Ignoring the hurt of that revelation, she asked, “What kind of undercover work?”

“I run a crew of Harley-riding operatives. They do some down-and-dirty special ops
work as bikers, usually infiltrating biker gangs involved in smuggling, gun running
or drug operations.”

“Sounds fun.”

He laughed. “It can be an adventure, but also dangerous. And in my line of work and
the things I’ve done both in the military and in my special ops work over the years,
I’ve made a lot of enemies. It caused me to cut ties with my family—with your mother—because
I didn’t want anyone using her—or you—to get to me.”

She stared at him, at this man who looked so hard. Could he have that much of a soft
side? “You cut yourself off from us to keep us safe?”

“I tried to. I stayed in touch with Carla to the best of my ability so I could make
sure you both were taken care of. Our parents died. She had no one to take care of
her and didn’t exactly do the best job taking care of herself. And then you came along,
so I had to make plans for your well-being, but I couldn’t play an active role in
your life. I’m sorry for that, but it was necessary.”

“The money for the shop. That was you?”

He didn’t say anything.

All this time she thought the only family she had was her flighty, undependable mother.

She had an uncle. And as she looked at his face, she could see the resemblance between
him and her mother. The eyes were the same color, the chin the same. They could even
have the same smile, except that Grange had yet to offer one up.

“So what does all this mean? Do you think someone connected my mother to you and kidnapped
her? Is that why you sent Jed out to watch over me?”

“Yes. And yes.”

At least he wasn’t bullshitting her, pretending to be someone he wasn’t.

“Why didn’t Jed just tell me right off who he was?”

“Because that wasn’t his assignment. We didn’t know for sure if someone would come
after you, and I didn’t want to scare you. My intent was for you to never know about
me unless absolutely necessary. Until the attacks started up, until someone broke
into your apartment with the intent to kidnap you or possibly hurt you, Jed’s assignment
was to watch over you. If we could have found your mother and no one came after you,
you would have never known about me.”

And Jed would have disappeared in a puff of smoke after that.

Way to go, Elena
. She’d guarded her heart so carefully all these years, never letting anyone get close.
Then the one guy . . .

She could sure pick them, couldn’t she?

“You ready to go inside? We can talk more with the team about strategy.”

She wasn’t ready to face Jed, but she needed to find her mother. “Sure.”

Grange held out his hand. She took it.

“I have an uncle.”

For the first time, he cracked a smile. And there it was. Her mom had that exact same
lopsided half smile. Her heart tugged.

“You do. I’ve always been here for you, Elena. I always will be.”

She missed her mother, and for the first time realized how serious this all was. She
nodded and they went back inside. The smell of bacon made her stomach rumble. She
followed the scent and saw Jed in the kitchen fixing breakfast. Pete had disappeared
again.

“Smells good,” Grange said. “I’m going to go check in at headquarters, see what’s
going on with the current missions. Don’t eat it all before I get back.”

“No guarantees, General.” Jed was working busily in the kitchen and didn’t bother
looking up. He had a pan of bacon going, one with eggs, and another with pancakes.
The toaster flipped out four slices. He grabbed them, slathered them with butter and
threw them on a stack, flipped the pancakes, turned the bacon and stirred the eggs.

“I thought you said you couldn’t cook.”

He didn’t meet her gaze as she stepped fully into the kitchen. “I might have exaggerated
that part.”

“You lied.” She took over the bacon and eggs while he concentrated on the pancakes.

Now he did turn to face her. “Yes. I lied. Part of the job sometimes.”

She grabbed the bacon with the tongs and put it on the plate, then added more into
the pan, stepping back when it sizzled and popped. “You’re really good at it.”

“Cooking?”

“Lying.”

He stacked the pancakes on a platter, then leaned his hip against the counter. “Look,
Elena. I’m sorry about not telling you who I really was.”

She couldn’t look at him, not when her emotions were so raw. “You could have kept
your distance from me.”

“I could have.” His voice lowered. He moved in and put his arms around her. “I tried
to, but it didn’t work. And what happened between us wasn’t part of the job.”

She ached, partly because she was hurt, but also because she needed to feel his arms
around her again, to know that what had happened between them had been real.

He tipped her chin up with his fingers, forcing her to meet his gaze. He looked as
wounded as she felt inside.

“How am I supposed to believe anything you say now?”

“I don’t know. I’m still Jed. I just have a different background and a different job.”

“So everything you told me was bullshit.”

“Yes.”

She sucked in a breath and pulled out of his embrace, grabbed the tongs and turned
the bacon. “All lies. Everything.”

“No. Not everything.”

“That smells great, and I’m starving,” Pete said.

She blinked back tears as Grange and Pete entered the room. She and Jed finished cooking.
Everyone piled up their plates and took a seat at the kitchen table.

Pushing thoughts of Jed aside, she turned her focus on Pete. “You live here alone?”

He nodded as he munched on a piece of bacon. “I won it from a sheik in a high-stakes
poker game.”

She laughed. “You did not.”

“Actually, he did,” Grange said.

Her eyes widened. “Seriously? The sheik bet his house? This house?”

“This house was nothing to him. To people like us, it would be like betting pocket
change. Losing it made him laugh.”

“As I recall,” Grange said, “he wasn’t happy when he lost that hand. Or the house.”

“That’s because he thought he had me beat.”

“What did you have to wager?” Elena asked Pete.

“Not a house, that’s for sure. I think it was my diving watch. The sheik liked all
the bells and whistles on it.”

“He put this house up against a watch?”

“It was a nice watch,” Grange said.

She shook her head. “So you live out here in this—palace—all by yourself?”

Pete got up and took his plate into the kitchen, started running water. “No. I travel
quite a bit for my job. But I come here when I want some privacy.”

She leaned back in the chair. “Yeah, I imagine you get plenty of that here.”

Grange picked up her plate. She stood. “I can do that.”

“You and Jed cooked. Pete and I will clean up.”

She turned her attention on Jed. He shrugged. “It’s the rule. Whoever cooks, the other
cleans up.”

She liked that rule, just didn’t expect them to follow it. Seeing two men in their
fifties doing the dishes kind of surprised her.

She stood and leaned over the counter, watching them. “Your wives must appreciate
all this domesticity.”

“Don’t have one,” Grange said.

Pete didn’t say anything, and since he didn’t offer information, she didn’t want to
pry. Maybe he had an ugly divorce in his past and was still sensitive about it.

“So how do you two know each other?” she asked Grange.

“We did military time together. Met each other in boot camp, have been friends ever
since,” Grange said.

“We had the fortune—or maybe misfortune,” Pete said with a laugh, “to be stationed
at the same places time and time again. We kept running into each other, so we became
friends. I never would have made it through some of the tough times in my life without
Grange.”

Grange squeezed Pete’s shoulder. Pete nodded and they went back to cleaning the kitchen,
laughing and cracking jokes as if that whole sentimental moment hadn’t just happened.

Elena wondered what that exchange was about.

When they finished the dishes, they led her down the hall and into Pete’s office.
He had a giant screen and multiple computers going. It looked more like a war room.
They sat at a large table in the center of all the whirring gadgets and multiple screens.

“Okay, let’s see what we can do to find your mother,” Pete said, grabbing a keyboard.

“We followed her cell movements, but as far as we’ve been able to track, her phone
was last used at the pier at Daytona Beach over three weeks ago. No activity since,
so the cell might have been tossed.”

Elena shook her head. “She’d never toss her cell phone. She’s always on the move and
it’s our only way to stay in touch with each other. She might shun other modern conventions—like
a regular job, computers, a permanent address and the like—but she does try to stay
in touch with me via her cell because she knows I go crazy and worry about her if
she doesn’t.”

“Ditto,” Grange said. “We have regular weekly check-ins and she doesn’t fail at those,
which is why I was concerned when we had no contact. When I found the cell hadn’t
moved from the pier, I knew she was in trouble.”

“You track her via GPS,” Elena said.

Grange nodded. “I had to for her own safety. Otherwise, I tried not to interfere in
her life, or yours. Once I determined she was off the grid, I sent Jed in to cover
you and I came in to try and locate her.”

“So you follow me via my phone, too?”

“Yes.”

At least he was honest. She wasn’t sure she liked that.

“No one follows you around, Elena. You just go about the business of your life. Your
patterns are tracked, and as long as you don’t deviate from them, then I know you’re
safe. But if someone took you, I had to know about it.”

There were all kinds of things wrong with violating her privacy, but she wasn’t going
to get into it with him now. Her primary concern was finding her mother. “Your GPS
tracking didn’t help keep my mother safe, did it?”

He didn’t flinch or look away. “No, it didn’t. But I’m going to find her.”

“How? She has one credit card she rarely uses. She likes to live by the cash rule.”

Grange grimaced. “I know. Not that it would matter. I don’t think she voluntarily
tossed her phone in the trash and is out somewhere partying and shopping. I think
someone took her.”

“So how do we find her?”

“We retrace her steps, figure out where she was, who were the last people to see her
when she disappeared. If we can get a lead, we can maybe find out who took her. I
can’t move on anyone until I know that.”

“Okay. How can I help?”

“You know her movements better than anyone. Where she goes, who she hangs out with,
where she stays.”

“She has some friends who might be able to help.”

“I’ll need names and addresses,” Grange said.

“You’re going to go talk to them?”

“Yes.”

She laughed. “They won’t give you any information on my mom. They’ll talk to me, though.”

He shook his head. “You’re not leaving the island. It’s not safe for you.”

She shrugged. “Go ahead and try, but I’m telling you it’s a waste of your time.”

She wrote down the names and addresses of her mother’s friends, then handed them to
Grange. “Why didn’t you just come to me right away? We could have done this a week
ago.”

“It was important for me to keep my distance from you. At the time, I was chasing
other leads on your mother, anyway. And we didn’t want to involve people she knew.
The less people involved the better. Now that someone has targeted you, too, everything
has changed, including how we approach looking for her.”

She nodded, knowing nothing about how one searched for someone who was missing. Or
taken.