Hide and Seek - Lara Adrian Page 0,23
and his comrades? If that was true, it was going to devastate Lisa. And if it was true, then Duarte would have to take the double-crossing son of a bitch out personally. “You sure about all this?”
Alec nodded. “Wish I wasn’t, man, but I know what I saw. He’s working with Phoenix’s enemies. I would bet my life on it. I just don’t know where the son of a bitch is, or who’s calling the shots above him.”
“We need those answers,” Duarte murmured.
“Right. And now that Lisa’s heard from him, there’s a chance she can help us find them—”
“No fucking way.” A spear of possessiveness—of white-hot protectiveness—surged through him at the thought of using Lisa to prove, or disprove, her brother’s guilt. And Duarte wasn’t about to put her anywhere near the fallout, if Alec’s vision turned out to be true. “She stays out of this, you got that?”
Alec eyed him soberly and gave a mild shake of his head. “Like it or not, Ranger, she’s already in. You and I both know that. And sooner or later, before this is all done, she’s gonna have a SIG nine cocked and loaded up against her pretty head.”
The reminder chilled Duarte to the bone. It also solidified his resolve. “I’ll die before I let that happen.”
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come down to that, my friend.”
“I need to take her someplace safe,” Duarte said. “I want to keep her close by while you and I figure out what’s going on with her brother. And then decide what we need to do about it.”
“Right,” Alec agreed. “As for where to go, I have some connections that may be able to help with a temporary safe house.”
“What kind of connections?”
“Trustworthy ones,” he said. “Let’s just say I have a business colleague who owes me a favor or two and won’t balk at being asked for payback. There won’t be any questions, and the place is guaranteed secure.”
“You talking military security?”
Alec smirked. “More or less.”
“Why do I get the feeling it’s much less?”
“Guess you’re just gonna have to trust me, Ranger.” The Marine comrade who’d had Duarte’s back since boot camp held his gaze now from under the fall of a shaggy mane of surfer dude waves. Crystal blue eyes held Duarte’s stare, measuring him, too. “Guess we’re both going to have to trust each other now.”
Duarte nodded, and suddenly it felt a bit like old times. Like being back in the platoon in the sandbox, preparing to head out on a combat mission.
Except this time, if Alec was right, the enemy on the other side of the wire could be one of their own. Duarte didn’t want to consider that possibility, but he was too jaded by war and betrayal to believe it could never happen.
And his years in the Phoenix program had taught him another thing, too. The visions never lie.
“Come on,” Duarte said. He took the GPS tracker out of his pocket and pitched it into the woods. Anyone else monitoring the signal would have to search a thousand acres of wilderness before they realized Lisa’s car was no longer attached to the beacon. “Let’s start the barbeque and get the fuck out of here.”
Leaning into Lisa’s open car, he put the transmission in neutral. Then he closed the door and together he and Alec went around behind the Camry and pushed it off the narrow dirt road and over the steep ledge.
9
They cleared out of the cabin and hit the road as soon as the guys returned. Leaving her car smoldering at the bottom of the cliff along with the gunman who’d come to find her, John explained that the diversion would likely only buy a day or two lead time before someone else came looking for her.
They needed to put miles between themselves and the cabin, and they needed to do it fast. John had packed a duffel with a change of clothes and some additional firearms. Lisa had the few things she brought with her from Cincinnati in her backpack.
With it likely that whoever was tracking Lisa now also had John on their radar, his old pickup would have been as useless to them as her car. Alec’s Jeep, parked down at the base of the mountain since he’d arrived last night, made for a cramped road trip option but they had few choices.
Lisa didn’t know precisely where she and her pair of grim companions were headed now. Before they left North Carolina, Alec had made a call to