Run, Hide - By Carol Ericson Page 0,61
didn’t they wait for us? We would’ve been walking right into a trap.”
Beth spread her hands. “I can’t tell you any of that. Maybe they wanted me alive to tell the story. Maybe they just took out Jeff because he had the gun. Maybe they just wanted to disrupt the relocation plan.”
“Zendaris wants more than that. He wants those plans back and he wants Gavin in order to force my hand. If his men had any idea I was going to be at that warehouse with Jenna and Gavin, they would’ve lain in wait for us.”
“Oh, no.” Beth’s eyes grew round, and she covered her mouth. “Don’t you see, Cade?”
Jenna’s pulse beat double time, and she ran her tongue around her mouth.
“That wasn’t a Zendaris ambush. It couldn’t be, for all those reasons you mentioned.”
Cade shurgged off the window and stalked to the table. “What do you mean?”
“Zendaris’s people had no way of knowing we were meeting you and Jenna at that warehouse, and you’re right, they would’ve never left without your son.”
“Spit it out, Beth.”
“That was an inside job, Cade. Someone at Prospero doesn’t want to see you resettled. Someone at Prospero doesn’t want to see you or your family safe.”
Chapter Fifteen
Hot rage thumped through Cade’s veins, and a red haze clouded his vision.
There it was in plain view for all to see. Prospero didn’t trust him. Jack Coburn didn’t trust him. Had J.D. been lying to him, too?
“Wait.” Jenna held up her hands. “That doesn’t make sense, either. If Prospero believes Cade still has those anti-drone plans, they would’ve stayed in that warehouse and captured him. Why kill Jeff at that point?”
How quickly she’d leaped to his defense. Her words dampened his anger, and he took a deep, shuddering breath.
Beth put a hand to her head. “Jeff and I weren’t in on any other plan except to deliver the IDs and your new location to you.”
“But if the powers that be at Prospero told you what they had planned for me, you still would’ve gone ahead with the meeting, right? It’s not for you to question authority, and they know that. They’d have no reason not to tell you.”
Cade crossed his arms and bunched his fists against his biceps to keep from hitting the wall.
“I don’t know, Cade. The powers that be, as you call them, have been acting strangely lately. They’re wondering, along with everyone else, why the people who stole the plans from you haven’t come forward yet to offer them on the world market.”
Jenna hopped up from the table and paced the room. “Maybe the people who stole the plans aren’t interested in selling them. Maybe they’re interested in developing the weapon. They could’ve been Zendaris’s customers, and instead of paying a fortune to an arms dealer, they decided to steal them.”
Cade tugged on his ear. “That makes sense. I just wish they’d step forward so Zendaris would get off your tail.”
Jenna stopped pacing and twisted her hands in front of her. “Why would they step forward? The heat’s off them. They’re free to develop the anti-drone in secret without interference.”
“That does make sense, Jenna.” Beth traced the rim of the bourbon bottle with her fingertip. “But what just happened in the warehouse?”
“I don’t know.” Cade raked a hand through his hair, feeling as if he’d taken a blow to the head himself. He didn’t know what to think and he couldn’t shake the feeling that he didn’t have all the facts from Prospero. A big piece of this whole puzzle was missing.
Beth finished off the booze and spun the empty bottle on the table. “Did you send a message to Prospero about what went down in the warehouse?”
“Yes.”
“Did you get confirmation?”
“Yes.”
“Nothing else? No new meeting scheduled?” Beth’s gaze never left the spinning bottle.
“No.”
She smacked her hand against the bottle to stop it. “That town in Oregon was my first choice, but it wasn’t the only choice.”
Cade took Jenna’s arm and pulled her toward the bed. Her fidgeting scattered his thoughts even more. “What are you proposing, Beth?”
“I’m proposing—” she hunched forward in her seat “—that we finish the job. That I get you and your family settled.”
“The IDs?”
She grinned and patted her bag, the one she’d been clutching on the floor of the warehouse office. “Jed Moran wasn’t the only ID I had picked out for you. I made a couple of extras with different names in case you had any objection to the one I picked for you.”
“Are you telling me you have