wearing a DEA jacket, headed our way from behind a tree, and I set my gun down. My hand trembled so hard, I was afraid for a second that I’d accidentally squeeze the trigger. He led with his weapon, pointing it to each side as he scouted the area and kept advancing. The agent reached us, looking us over, face to face with Aiden at about the same tall height.
I tensed. “Don’t hurt him. He saved me.”
The DEA agent didn’t twitch. He glanced down at the unconscious Melvin on the ground and then focused back up at Aiden.
Aiden dropped his gun and lifted his hands.
Thank God. He was giving up peacefully. Just as my breath finally calmed, he pivoted and punched the DEA guy so hard it sounded like a boulder had been split in two.
“Aiden!” I cried out.
The agent went down, and Aiden leaped over him, running full bore for the trees. “No,” the agent grunted, rolling onto his stomach and firing toward the forest. His bullets pinged off trees and threw bark in the air. He kept shooting, but Aiden was long gone. I’d never seen anybody move as quickly as Aiden just had.
Had that just happened?
Chapter 40
I paced the conference room at the police station as Nick watched impassively. “I just don’t understand. Any of it.” After spending most of the day being questioned by every federal agency in the world, and then the state agencies, my head hurt, and my bruises pounded. “Aiden saved me. Then he hit that DEA agent.” I stopped moving. “Did you make the phone call?
Nick eyed the wall screen of areas that had experienced the power outage the other night. “Yep. Called my contacts at the DEA, and Aiden Devlin does not work for them in any capacity. He’s not an undercover agent, and he’s not an informant. Get that idea out of your head right now.”
He'd moved like he’d been trained, and he’d saved me. Aiden had also been careful not to really hurt any of the agents or any of the Lordes, for that matter. “That’s disappointing, but something still doesn’t feel right about this.” I scrubbed both hands down my battered face, which had to look just fantastic after the day in the rain and then questioning. Maybe I should find some lip-gloss or something. “I heard the agent has a broken jaw?”
“No. Just cracked.” Nick rolled his neck. “I checked on him when I called about Bud.”
Bud had been wearing a vest, and all three bullets had impacted it. He had two broken ribs, and the doctors said he’d be okay, thank goodness.
“The question is, where has Aiden gone now?” I murmured, staring at the board.
“No. The question is, where is the hidden lab and the first shipment of these drugs?” Nick shook his head. “Forget Devlin for now. We have bigger problems.”
Yeah, we surely did.
“Now run me through the entire day again,” he ordered.
I glanced at my phone. Pauley was safely at home up in Silverville, and the elderly ladies had taken off to spend time in Seattle with friends after being questioned by the cops. I liked that everyone was out of town for now.
Detective Pierce crossed into the room and typed rapidly on the laptop, changing the screen to show an area out by the Timber City Airport, which was a small community strip for local planes. “I went off what you said about electrical outages, and only a small part of the county had that problem on the day Melvin complained about. I think we’ve found the lab.” He pointed to a large metal building two blocks away from the airport that looked like a standard metal shop. “I’m running the electrical and gas usages now.”
I stood. “Let’s go check it out.”
He looked over his shoulder, his eyes greener than normal. “We need a warrant. And then, I’m executing the warrant. You can check the place out after it’s been cleared.”
Irritation tickled my throat, and I coughed. “We’re going.”
“No. No lawyers when we take the lab. These guys are creating drugs and are probably well guarded and armed.” He looked at Nick. “I’ll call you in when it’s cleared, and you can study the scene all you want.”
Nick stood. “Fair enough. I’ll get a warrant.”
I hustled after him. “I’m assisting on the warrant.” I brushed past cops in the hallway to the still raining dusk outside. Water splashed into my eyes and cooled my burning cheekbone. “Nick?”