Sudden Recall (15 page)

Parker hesitated a moment and then climbed out of the car. He locked it, presumably so no one bothered her, and then jogged across the parking lot. The man never did anything slowly. She felt her lips curl up into a smile. Then she remembered Nina was being hurt and felt hot tears slide down her face.

Her eyelids drifted shut.

The ground was hard dirt and crunchy foliage. Dry ground, parched from the hot summer. Sienna ran, sweat dampening her shirt so that it stuck to her.

Finally she reached the pipe, a white plastic sphere maybe six inches in diameter sticking out of the ground a foot and a half.

Sienna fell to the ground and uncovered it. An old well her uncle had used years ago before he dug a new one closer to the house.

She pulled the flash drive from her pocket, snug in a bundle of paper towels in a sandwich bag that she'd zippered closed.
Lord, keep it safe.

She dropped the bag down the well.

The car door opened and Parker got into the driver's seat.

Sienna grabbed his arm. “I know where the other flash drive is.”

FIFTEEN

P
arker passed Hailey. “You'll take care of her?”

His teammate tapped the side of his arm as she went by him. “I'll sort your girl out, don't worry.”

Parker ignored the smirk on her face and walked to Ames. The helicopter had been powered down, but they would need to get going soon.

Ames's eyes were trained over Parker's shoulder. He turned and saw Sienna and Hailey walk into the gas station so Hailey could help her switch out the hospital gown for a regular shirt without hurting her shoulder.

“Interesting woman.”

Parker shot his partner a look.

“What?” Ames lifted both hands, palms out. “Both of them, her and that Nina.”

“You looked into her like I asked?”

Ames nodded. “I called your friend. Nina checks out. Moneyed parents who were too busy vacationing in the Med to worry about their child. Nannies, private school. College pretty much paid in full on registration day. Got recruited together with Sienna before they'd even graduated. Internships while they were finishing up. Language training. Stuff like that. After that, it gets a little gray. Career CIA agents, or so everyone thought. Tight, into everything the other one was. Looks like there wasn't much separation in their careers—to the point a couple of times they interchanged identities when one was busy.”

“Anything about Nina specifically, like recent stuff?”

Ames said, “The Company hasn't been all that happy with her of late. Seems like she lost her drive for spy work after Sienna was hurt. Suddenly she's flying solo, taking risks. Blowing off missions she's supposed to be finishing. Cutting out early.”

“Because of Sienna.”

“That would be my guess,” Ames said. “That guy at Langley you had me call—interesting character, by the way—he told me ‘off the record' that the higher-ups are about ready to burn her. Nina's priorities are skewed, and they don't like it.”

“Because she's protecting her friend.” Parker ran his hand down his face. “Nina isn't going to let it slide when Sienna needs her help. Now Amand has Nina and he's doing who knows what while she and Sienna both break. They'll take each other's backs if it kills them. And that's exactly what I'm worried is going to happen.”

Ames's face darkened. “There's more.”

Parker didn't know if Sienna could take any more. She had been through so much in just a few days. Yes, she had started to regain parts of her memory, but the stress—and now having been shot—was taking its toll.

“Tell me.”

The faster Parker could get Nina back and Sienna out of harm's way, the better.

“We got Loughton booked in. Made some calls, got the go-ahead to start talking to him while we were waiting on the paperwork to come through. The attorney's office sent over their guy, and we got to work. Three hours later ,we get this call to cease all negotiations.”

“What?” The deal was moot, since Sienna had given them Amand Timenez's name, but they hadn't known that.

“Two guys in suits with a court order no one could break waltzed in and removed Loughton from our custody. Loughton is throwing a serious tantrum because he thinks they're taking him somewhere quiet to put a bullet in his head. The assistant US attorney is yelling into his phone and then shuts up like he's getting chewed out, and the two suits go all smug. They walked him out of the building without wasting a second.”

Parker laced his fingers behind his head. “The CIA?”

“That would be my guess. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the guys you saw in the hospital with Karen. Though if they'd sent her to get Loughton from the office, then we'd have known she was behind it.”

Ames sighed. “When we finally got to the bottom of the court order and found the person who signed it, they said they'd had a break-in during the early hours of this morning and a bunch of paperwork was stolen. We think they forged the court order.”

Parker gritted his teeth. “If the CIA, or Karen if she's not working for them right now, has Thomas Loughton, maybe we should be glad. It's one more thing off our plates, one less person to worry about. Karen needs Sienna to find the flash drives, but she also needs to contain this situation. We'll have to be watching our backs.”

Amand Timenez was enough. If they didn't have to worry about Loughton, as well, then they could focus their attention. Amand had hired the mercenaries who'd tried to kidnap Sienna from the highway two nights before and the ones who had come to the ranch and tried to take her then. Now he had Nina, and he'd focused his attention on getting Sienna to bring him the flash drives.

The question that Parker needed answering was what Amand would do with Sienna when she brought him what he wanted. He would have no need of her or Nina at that point. He'd shown before that he was capable of extreme violence, which didn't bode well.

Parker would have to make sure both her and Nina stayed alive. And when they were safe, he would stick around long enough to see Sienna's reaction to remembering what went down between them. He wanted to know if she regretted standing him up. He wanted to know if he'd been wrong about her feelings for him, if his radar was actually that far off.

Sienna exited the gas station store with Hailey guarding her. His heart swelled as he watched her walk toward him.

“Man, you've got it bad for her.” Ames's voice was full of humor.

Parker didn't reprimand him as he could have. He couldn't take his gaze from Sienna. He loved her; he always had. But he needed to know if she'd ever felt the same way.

Or if she ever could.

* * *

Sienna pursed her lips and blew out a slow breath as the helicopter lifted off. Hailey nudged her good arm to get her attention and then said into her headphone mic, “Parker isn't actually that good of a pilot. He just likes to think he can fly the best. You should probably hold on tight to something.”

Parker's laughter echoed through her headset, but his attention was on the windshield. They were headed to the ranch. “I didn't have to teach you guys to fly this thing, but I did. Probably because I'm the best team leader ever.”

Ames turned from the front seat and grinned at Sienna. “He just likes to say that because no one else is going to.”

Sienna smiled. That was the most she could do. It wouldn't be much longer before she would be unable to block out the pain in her shoulder. Once she used up all her strength and resolve, fatigue would set in. Overwhelmed with agony, her body would shut down.

God, don't let that happen before I get Nina back.

She knew the team's banter was simply to distract her from her thoughts, and she was grateful. The dark storm of worry was about to drown her in its torrent, and there wasn't much they, or she, could do about it.

Before long, Sienna directed Parker to land in a clearing at the far end of the ranch. Thirty minutes' walk to the house, this was close to the site of the original home her ancestors had built on this land to hide from the sheriff between trips to rob stagecoaches and banks.

Parker helped her down, and she tried to ignore the yearning in his eyes. She knew he thought she didn't remember their relationship, and she had to keep it that way. There was nothing she could do to right what had gone wrong between them, and Parker needed to face that fact.

An engine revved. Parker set her behind him and the three marshals drew their weapons. Sienna had no gun—again. Not that she could do much damage. She couldn't exactly see straight with the pain, and her off-hand shot wasn't actually that good.

The sheriff's off-road vehicle crested a hill and roared toward them. When he climbed out, he strode toward them with his hand on his gun. “You guys want to tell me what you're really here for this time?”

“Sheriff...”

He cut Parker off. “I don't want any thinly veiled truths that tell me nothing, neither. Got me? I want to know what's going on this time, especially considering I did cleanup for you the last.”

Sienna peered around Parker's bicep. “No, you don't.”

“Not looking so good there, are you, missy?”

Sienna wasn't going to deny it. “We just don't want you to get caught in the crossfire. This was my uncle's land, and I'm just looking for something.”

“This ‘something' belong to you, or someone else?”

Parker shifted. “Who it belongs to has yet to be determined. We only want to get it out of the wrong hands, and then we can determine if it's too sensitive and must be destroyed or who should safeguard it.”

The sheriff nodded. “Those guys you had me pick up that were here earlier, most of them scattered before we could get a lock on them. Pros, if I had to guess.”

“That they were.”

“Took a shot at my deputy. Winged him like your girl over there.”

Not exactly, given Sienna had been shot through and through by a sniper. She was going to have surgery to fix the damage to her shoulder before she would be able to do much more with her arm than twitch her fingers. But what was the point in mobility if Nina was dead?

“I'd like some payback if I can.” The sheriff's words were measured. He knew what he was asking.

Parker studied him, which had Sienna studying Parker. What was he thinking? Was he really going to bring the sheriff in on what was happening? More people would just muddy the waters and provide additional targets who could potentially get hurt.

Finally, Parker nodded. “If we can use another pair of hands, we'll let you know.”

The sheriff nodded. “Fair enough.” He pulled a cell phone from the clip on his belt. “I should be headed...” He tapped the side with the flat of his hand hard enough Sienna winced. “Dumb thing never works. Now I've got no signal.” He tapped it again. “That's not right.”

Parker shifted and pulled out his phone. Ames and Hailey did the same. “I've got nothing.”

“Nope.”

“Me, either.”

Sienna reached back with her good hand and pulled out her phone. “Mine is fine.”

Parker swung around. “Let me see that.”

He pressed a bunch of buttons, and then his phone began to ring. He put her cell to his ear. Three seconds later, he hung up on himself. “Your phone has been cloned.”

Sienna stepped back. Her reflex to retreat got her caught every single time, and she hated it. It was something she'd never been able to break away from.

“I'll bet it was Karen.” Ames seemed sure.

Sienna shook her head. “My aunt?” No, not her aunt. Her head was so muddled. Why would Karen—her handler—clone her cell phone? “She must be keeping tabs on me.” She looked at Parker. “On us.”

“She probably knows exactly where we are, why we're here and the timeline on the deadline to get Nina back.”

Sienna took up where he left off. “She knows I'll do everything to get Nina back. If she wants the flash drives, she'll wait until we have both and then swoop in and take them back before we can trade them for Nina's life.”

Parker nodded. “That would be my guess.”

Sienna brushed past him and started hiking. It was worth a prayer to thank God for Hailey bringing her socks and sneakers. She felt halfway normal at least, and she was grateful for that. “Let's find it, then.”

* * *

Parker didn't like the look in her eyes. She wasn't in any condition to go into battle, though that was clearly what she intended. He followed her to the well she'd described to him and set down the backpack.

He'd had to side trip to a hardware store to get what they needed to bring the flash drive back up to the surface. It was a pretty good hiding spot, and he was proud of Sienna for staying the course of her mission to the end, especially considering what it had cost her.

When it was done, he was going to convince her to quit. If her shoulder didn't count her out of working for the CIA anymore, they had certainly proven they didn't care one iota about either Sienna or Nina. The CIA—or maybe it was just Karen—seemed to only be concerned about the breach of security.

Ames helped him, and they got the scope down the well. The display flickered to life, and Sienna studied the device Hailey held. When they hit bottom, she said, “That's it. It's still there.”

Parker assembled the tool to grasp the bag onto the bottom of the winch and tested the mechanism. The claw opened and shut. “Here goes nothing.”

He lowered the claw on the winch and used it to grab the bag. When he pulled it out, he saw the change in Sienna as she visibly relaxed.

“Storage drive?” The sheriff was almost on his tiptoes as he peered over Parker's shoulder to see what all this was about.

“One of two.”

“Big deal for a tiny thing.”

“Sure is.” Parker couldn't explain they held the key to breaching the NSA's security and getting into their computer system. “And we should be going.”

He was eager to get out of there before Karen, Amand or anyone either of them might send showed up.

He stood. “Back to the chopper.”

They all hustled. Before he climbed in, Parker shook the sheriff's hand. “I've got your number.”

“Sure thing.”

Ames started up the aircraft. Parker ducked his head and climbed in to sit beside Sienna. Careful of her other shoulder, he slipped one arm around her waist and drew her gently to his side as they began ascending.

“We found them both.” The noise from the chopper meant he had to get real close and speak right in her ear.

When she turned to him, he couldn't help but smile. She looked so tentative. “We did.”

Parker leaned in and captured her lips with his. “It's going to work out.” When she nodded, he went back for seconds. His heart swelled once again at the feel of her in his arms. So right. Like she belonged with him always.

Why couldn't she see what was so plain in front of him? It made Parker want to cry out in frustration. She was fighting what he knew already to be true.