Authors: Kathleen Brooks
"If I know my mother, she'll be over soon with some food."
"That's the best thing to come out of this.
Shoot,
it mig
ht be worth it to burn the orchard
ourselves
to get some of her peach cobbler
,
" Mr. Likens joked as he and his son walked out the front door. "Now take care of you
and yours. If you need anything we're just a shout away."
"Thank you."
Miles shut the door and leaned against it. Could Morgan really have don
e this? She allegedly poisoned all the mums for homecoming junior year. Could that have escalated to arson?
The ringing of his p
hone stopped his contemplation.
"Hello, this is Miles."
"Miles, Jim Brannon down in Somerset."
"Good morning, Jim. What can I do for you?" Miles and Jim were cut from the same cloth. Jim had served in the Army during Vietnam and had the same
warped
sense of humor one could
only
have from seeing the things they had both seen during active duty.
They used that humor to deal with those
memories
.
There had been an instant camaraderie wh
en they met for the first time.
"I'm having some trouble out here on the farm I thought I should tell you about." Miles felt his stomach harden
—n
ot another fire. "
Around one o'clock this
morni
ng someone tried to kill my sheep
."
"What do you mean, tried?"
"Molly, m
y
b
order
c
ollie chased them off. B
ut no
t before they dropped something, a
container of ANTU. I haven't seen that stuff in years."
"
I know the stuff. A man up here in Keeneston had his pigs poisoned with it. Let me ask you a question. Did
you have any visitors recently
?"
"Yes," Jim said knowingly. "It's the reaso
n for the call. A lovely lady f
r
om
Top Producers came by
the other day
. She wasn't taking no for an answer
about
agreeing to the merger. I had to threaten her with a shotgun to get her off the property. I have her card here
—M
organ Hamilton."
"I'll take care of it, Jim. You have my word." Miles was already grabbing his keys. He would put a stop to this right now. Morgan was going t
o answer for what she had done.
"I knew you would. And don't worry about us. There's no way Brannon Farms will be agreeing to any merger
—r
egardless of their underhanded tactics."
"Thanks for the support Jim. I'll keep you updated." Miles disconne
cted and strode toward his car.
His anger rose with each step he took. Morgan had played him like a fool. She had distracted him with dates and niceties. She had drawn him
in,
just like she had that night she kissed him at the graduation party.
S
he'd done a hell of a job keeping his attention on her. He couldn't decide who he was
angrier
at
—h
er for these crimes or himself for developing feelings for her.
Miles
pressed on the g
as and spe
d toward Morgan's hotel. He
wouldn’t
allow her to distract him again. He wanted answers and he was going
to get
them. If there was one thing Miles really knew how to do it
was
interrogat
e
.
As the calmness t
hat accompanied his anger spread
over him, his mind took him
back to his last interrogation.
Afghanistan,
s
ix
y
ears ago…
The cave was dark. The only light
came
from a small bulb powered by a generator.
"We captured him crossing over from Pakistan. We know he's
part of the terror cell that has
mad
e numerous threats against the W
est, but he's not talking. We did
find a picture on him though," Lieutena
nt Pike informed him.
"Of who
?" Miles asked as he looked back into the cave at the man handcuffed to a chair in one of the military's secre
t safe houses along the border.
"Mariah Brown, the Secretar
y of State's daughter. She's near the
Afghanistan and Tajikistan
border
with her sch
ool
on
an archeological dig." Lieutenant Pike handed him a picture of a pretty blond
e
-haired
girl smiling into the camera.
"Okay. I'll see what I can do."
Miles tapped the photo against his camouflaged cargo pants and headed toward the man. Miles slowed his heart rate and breathi
ng. He banked any and all of the
emotions
he felt as he
approached the man
.
His deadened eyes reflected his dark thoughts
. He had found that if terrorists saw any emotion
they’d
try to play on it. However, if they thought you didn't care i
f you died along with them, they'd tell you anything you wanted to know.
"I want to know everything you know about t
his picture," Miles said calmly
as he turned the picture for the bearded man
to see.
"Why should I tell you
anything
?"
h
e ask
ed
in English
accompanied by a heavy accent
.
"Because, my government does not recognize that
I’m
here. I can do whatever I want to you and no one will ever know. Let me be clear on one thing. Look into my eyes as I tell you this." Miles paused and waited for the man to look him square
ly
in the eye
s. "I will kill you if you don’
t cooperate and it won't be quick. Do you believe me?" The man's eyes went wide and he slowly nodded. "Good. Now tell me everything you know about
this woman
."
Miles walked back out of th
e cave and handed the picture back to Lieutenant Pike. He took a deep breath and blinked to bring himself back from the dark place he went for the job.
"There's a caravan tomorrow. She'll be there.
Cade," Miles said loud enough for his brother to hear and to come over to join them. "Cade and I wil
l go secure her. You take him
to the base in Afghanistan. Just drop him off gift wrapped at the gate.
Our presence here is classified
, so I don't want you talking to anyone. Go dressed in local
attire. You know the routine.”
"Yes, Sir."
Lieutenant
Pike saluted before stepping into a side cavern to change clothes along with ano
ther member of the Delta Force.
"You scare the
hell
out of me when you do that
dead eye thing and you're my brother
,
" Cade tried to joke as they saddled up their horses. The area was so rocky that horses were the best means of tra
vel. They could also avoid check
points easier by cutting through the mountains
than taking the local roads.
"I sc
are
myself too,
"
Miles
whispered as he
slipped on
a
long white
Kameez
shirt over his uniform and wrapped the patterned scarf around his head. "Let's go rescue this girl."
*
*
*
Miles bounded up the stairs to Morgan's floor.
When he found her door he took a deep breath. He banked his emotions, hardened his eyes and swore to himself that he'd
make her pay for wh
at she had done to his friends.
He knocked calmly against the door and waited. Nothing. He knocked
again, this time a little harder
. Nothing. Miles pressed his ear to the door and heard a voice. She was definitely in there, but was ju
st refusing to answer the door.
Miles pulle
d out the small leather case from his inside coat pocket.
He was going old school to get this door open.
Pulling out his pick he inserted it into the manager’s override
lock
and
in short order heard the sound of the lock releasing. He put away the picks and
opened the door to Morgan's room.
The first thing he saw was the towel on the floor
. The second thing he saw was Morgan's back to him. Her black hair was wet and skimmed her naked shoulder blades as she
slid into a pair of dark purple lace panties that sat low on her hips.
A small black tattoo of a horse was low on her back and drew his eye instantly.
She wiggled
her
hips and
broke out in song
. It was then he saw the small white buds in her ears as she danced a
round.
Miles leaned against the door and crossed his arms over his chest to enjoy the show. Morgan put her arms up and shook he
r shoulders as she
sang and
danced
t
o the music
.
She was probably cleaning up from being chased across Jim's field by his dog. And here she was, singing and
dancing as if nothing happened.
Morgan turned
as she danced
and dropped her phone when she saw him. The white ear buds were yanked from her ears as she leapt away from him. "Miles?"
s
he asked fro
m across the room.
She sure did sound nervous. Good. She should be. He slowly unco
iled himself and stepped out from
the shadows. He ignore
d
the fact that she was
mostly naked, but was surprised when she didn't
bother to cover up her
gorgeous
breasts.
"Let me guess, you just
finished
was
hing
off
the evidence from your early morning trip to
Somerset
.
Did you stash your muddy boots with your smoke
-
ridden clothes from the fire you set yesterday morning?" Miles
took a menacing step toward her. He raised an eyebrow slightly when Morgan didn't back away. In fact, she crossed her arms, thrusting her bare breasts out, and stepped toward him
.
"I don't know what you're talking about, but you sure as hel
l shouldn't have broken
into my room. You
could’ve
called if you wanted to ask me something," Morgan said sternly.
"Sure! And the infamous Morgan Hamilton
would’ve
told the truth. Look at me, Morgan," he waited until she looked him in the eyes. "I will have the truth from you. Tell me everything about your sabotage of my members' farms." That should do it. Miles waited for her to crumble to the ground
spilling all her secrets
.
"
Infamous?
You little prick!
I’ve
never lied to you. I told you it was me that painted that tower. You
could’ve
shown everyone the note, but you chose not to!" She pointed her finger at him and took another step forward. Her violet eyes flared bright as her skin turned red with anger. Why wasn't she crying yet? "And really, sabotage? You think I would sabotage your farmers
?
T
o what end? How would that help me?"
"I
know you did it to
Ji
m Brannon, Garrard Likens
, and Mr. Tabernacle. Oh, you think you're so smart using an older poison like ANTU. Did you really thi
nk we wouldn't notice that Jim
’s sheep
and Tabby's pigs were killed with the same poison? Where is it?
Hand it over NOW.
"
"You think I poisoned
sheep and
pigs? Are you delusional? I don't even know what the hell ANTU is! You come in here and accuse me of this without even asking
—y
ou're a pig! And if I did have any of that ANTU stuff I'd poison you with it, not some helpless cute pig!"
s
he yelled at him while waving her arms about.