Silent Pursuit (4 page)

After a mission several years ago, they'd all been out celebrating, and Mario had started responding to a woman's flirtatious advances. Ian walked up and asked him, “Is Gina so easy to forget?”

Mario took a swing, which Ian dodged, then hauled his friend out of the restaurant. Out on the sidewalk, Mario narrowed his eyes. “You're in love with her, aren't you?”

Stunned, Ian hadn't responded at first. Mario had taunted him. “I see the way you look at her. How your eyes follow her every move. Admit it.”

In silence and without responding, Ian had clenched his jaw and his fist—and walked away. For good. His transfer request went through without a problem, and within two weeks he was part of another unit.

Forcing his thoughts from the past, he dialed Jase's number once more. His buddy answered on the first ring. “Where are you?”

“About ten minutes out. What's it look like?” Ian kept his voice low, not wanting to disturb Gina.

“Clear for now. Because of Gina's worries, I came to check it out myself instead of finding someone from the unit. The house is a mess, though. They're looking for something.”

“Has anyone noticed and reported it to the police yet?”

“Not that I can tell. It's pretty isolated out here. Mario liked it that way.”

Ian hesitated. “Are you willing to keep helping me out a little more on this, Jase?”

Silence on the line.

“Jase?”

“Whatever it takes to keep Gina safe. She didn't deserve to lose Mario the way she did. She's still one of our own.” A pause, then, “So, yeah. I'll do whatever I can to help her.”

“What about me? Do you think I betrayed the unit by leaving?”

More silence. “You could have told us why you were leaving. Maybe we could have worked something out.”

“Mario knew.”

Jase grunted. “He didn't share.”

Ian didn't think he had. “Yeah.”

“Right. See you in a few.”

Ian put his own phone away, thinking. He trusted Jase, but it was quite possible Mario hadn't. Or was it that he hadn't trusted the unit as a whole? Or maybe he had suspicions about one particular person, but no proof, so he had to isolate himself from everyone until he figured it out?

That was probably it. He knew someone was bad but didn't know which someone. What information had he come across to make him suspicious of one of his team members? What had he seen or been told?

And now Mario was dead. Blown away on a routine training exercise. Not that accidents didn't happen on occasion, but…

Hands down, Ian was willing to bet Mario had trusted the wrong person. None of his paranoia about whom he could trust had paid off. He'd died anyway. Possibly killed by one of his own.

The question was—who?

The possibilities were endless.

And Jase had been a member of that unit.

Now Ian second-guessed himself. Had he made a mistake in trusting Jase? Surely not. The man had saved his life on more than one occasion. Had saved Mario's, too. Although he could be a prankster upon occasion, he was definitely a dedicated professional when the situation called for it.

And then there was no more time to dwell on it. The turnoff for the beach house came into view, and Ian swung onto the little side road.

The driveway needed repaving. Gina jerked awake just as Ian decided to cut a path around to the back of the house and park right at the back door. Jase had assured him the area was clear, but it never hurt to be prepared to leave fast.

“We're here.”

She blinked up at him, sleep fading and reality returning—along with remembered fear. His heart thudded as he resisted the urge to grab her up in his arms right that very minute and promise nothing would ever hurt her again.

Not a promise he could make. Waves crashing against the shore pounded his ears. That special Christmastime ocean smell filled his nose, and he breathed deeply while his eyes probed the dark shadows. Uneasiness trembled through him.

Too many places to hide.

Too many possible dangers could be lurking nearby.

Keeping an eye on the surrounding area, he walked around to the other side of the vehicle and opened Gina's door for her.

From the corner of his eye he registered movement at the left side of the house.

He shoved Gina back against the seat, ignoring her startled gasp of protest. He slammed the door and grabbed for his gun in one smooth movement.

H
eart pounding, Gina froze. What should she do? What had Ian seen? From her scrunched position, which had her halfway over in the driver's seat, she could see the top of Ian's head through the window. He'd pushed her back into the car and left himself open. Had her attackers returned to wait for her?

Scooting fully into the driver's seat, she cranked the car and hit the headlights, illuminating the area in front of her. If they had to leave fast, she wanted Ian to be able to jump into the car immediately. She could see a figure on the fringes of the light. He waved a hand and looked like he said something.

Ian holstered his gun as the man came toward him.

Now she recognized him.

Jase.

Relief sucked the breath from her. She pushed the door open, gave a shiver as cold wind buffeted the car and climbed out in time to hear Ian say, “Man, you should give a guy some warning before coming out of the shadows like that. I could've shot you.”

Jase barked a short laugh. “Not you.”

“I thought you were gone, and when I saw someone moving around out here…”

The man shrugged. “Thought I'd make sure there wasn't anything that was going to jump out and scare you when you got here.”

“Yeah, right.”

A ghost of a smile crossed Jase's face. “From what I can tell, it's clean. I went inside and looked around a bit, but didn't want to disturb too much in case you wanted a forensics team to come out here and see what they could find. The rest of the time I've been watching. There's been no movement, nothing. There's no one here.”

“Great. Thanks. What else?”

“I made some phone calls.”

“To whom?” Gina blurted as she rounded the car to stand near the two men.

Ian took her arm and said, “Let's get inside. I don't like you being out in the open like this.”

She knew Ian just meant to guide her inside; he had no idea that the warmth of his hand through her flimsy sweater sleeve burned like a branding iron. Fire zinged along her nerve endings, and the initial attraction she'd felt for him earlier returned full force.

Shivering at another gust of freezing wind, she pulled away and headed for the door of the house. “I don't have a key.” She'd left the ring on the end table along with her purse, having had no time to grab them before her flight from the house. Nor her coat. She reminded herself to get that before they left.

She reached for the knob just to see.

It twisted under her palm, and alarm zipped through her.

She stepped back—right into Ian's chest. His hands came up to rest on her goose-pimpled shoulders. “What's wrong?”

“It's unlocked.”

She looked at Jase, who nodded. “Just to be on the cautious side, I climbed in the window you left open when you ran. There really wasn't any need, though. The guys were gone and didn't bother to lock the door when they left.”

Gina wilted with relief as Ian grunted, “I'm surprised they closed it.”

They entered the small foyer and Jase shut the door behind them. Destruction greeted her weary eyes. From the left to the right, debris had been strewn. Her purse had been dumped, but nothing appeared to be missing.

She walked into the den and felt despair sweep through her. Sighing, she said, “I had the door locked last night.” She turned and looked at Ian. “I thought you would be here any minute but couldn't bring myself to leave it unlocked. Not after what happened the week before.” She shuddered at the remembered terror of walking into her house and being threatened. She nodded to the door they'd just entered. “I heard the door squeak and for a brief moment, I thought it was you, then remembered I'd locked it.” She gave a self-deprecating smile as she took in the chaos once more. “Guess a flimsy little lock like that wasn't going to keep them out, huh?” Her fingers worried the golden locket, still securely fastened around her neck.

Ian's hand came up and snagged hers, stilling the nervous habit. “Don't worry about it now. In the future we'll take more precautions.”

We. She liked the sound of that. Perhaps too much.

Gina pulled her hand from his and laced her fingers together in front of her. “All right.” She sighed. “I suppose the next step is to go through the house and figure out what they were looking for.”

Jase gave her a look. “What about the police?”

“No, thanks. There's nothing they can do. These guys go higher than the police. And Mario specifically said not to go to them.” She rubbed her weary eyes. “I just want to go through everything and see if anything looks—” she spread her hands, palms up, and shrugged “—whatever…suspicious? I don't know. I'm just praying I'll know it when I see it. I'm going to change into some warmer clothes, then get started.”

Jase and Ian exchanged a look, then split up to help search.

 

Two hours later Ian slid another book on the shelf as Jason entered the study. “I need to talk to you about something.”

Turning, fatigue gripping him, Ian dusted his hands against his jeans and looked at the man he'd once called friend. “What?”

Gina slipped into the room and sat behind the desk. Jase shot a pointed look in her direction and raised a brow at Ian. Ian looked at her and sighed. “You can talk in front of her. Whatever you know, she needs to know, too. These guys aren't playing around. Tell us what you found out.”

Gina's appreciative glance warmed him even as he worried about what Jase had to say and how it might affect her.

Jason hesitated, then said, “I talked to several guys in the unit. Everyone is still together except you, me, Mario, Bandit and Les.” Les Carson had been one of the team, a Ranger who'd taken a liking to Mario and had been one of Mario's best buds. As had Bandit McGuire.

“Where's Les?”

Jase rubbed his face and shut his eyes for a brief moment. “Dead. The official report says he was killed on a mission.”

“The unofficial report?”

“He was arrested for treason and managed to hang himself in his cell.”

Ian flinched. He hadn't heard this. How had he not known this? He looked back at Jase. Of course, the team would have covered for him to save his family from both the humiliation of having a traitor in the family and possible retaliation from those with a grudge against a man who would betray not just his country but also his team.

“What about Bandit?”

A shrug. “No one seems to know. He dropped off the edge of the earth about a year ago. If anyone knows where he is, no one's talking. Not even to me. He's either so deep undercover he'll never surface or he's dead and no one's talking about that either. I asked Mac about him and got shut up fast.”

“And is Robbie Stillman still with Mac?”

“Yes. He took your place.”

“That's what I heard.”

“He's all right, I guess. Not the friendliest guy around but does a good job. I'd trust him with my back. Seems like he's got a lot of personal problems, though.”

“Why are you helping us?” Ian stared hard at Jase, demanding a truthful answer, remembering his worry that he was trusting the wrong person.

Gina watched them from her seat behind the desk, quiet, almost invisible. Ian hadn't forgotten her presence, though.

Jason paced from one end of the den to the next. “When you called me, I wasn't sure if I should get involved.”

“Again—why?”

“Because you and Mario were close, like brothers. Then you disappeared. And then Mario's behavior right before he died…It was so off.”

“That's what you said. Can you think of anything more?”

“After one of our missions in South America, he seemed to withdraw from the rest of us. He would have surges of
anger and would disappear for long periods of time…and other stuff. He even requested a leave of absence from the unit, but no one seems to know why.”

“Was the leave granted?”

“No.”

Ian frowned. “Why not?”

Jase shrugged. “I have no idea—he never said—but it was right before he died.”

Gina intervened. “His grandmother died about a year ago. Maybe he was upset about that. He never really had time to process the loss. The day after her funeral he was deployed to a mission in Venezuela, I think.”

“Could be—” Jase paced over to the bookshelf “—but like I said, the guys aren't talking much. There's something else going on and they're covering for him.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean the fact they all basically clammed up when I started asking questions about him. Makes me think it was possible he was into something he shouldn't have been and no one wants to be the guy to say anything about it.”

The bad feeling in Ian's gut grew to mammoth proportions. “And you've no idea what it could have been?”

Jase hesitated once more, shot Gina another look then shook his head. “Not a clue.”

Narrowing his eyes, Ian studied the man. Was he hiding something or did he just not want to say something in front of Gina? He'd get Gina out of the room in a minute and find out, but for now he followed Jase's line of thought. “Or, they could honestly not know anything to tell, especially if Mario was keeping his mouth shut because he didn't know who to trust.”

“Yeah, that's possible, too.”

“Hey, look at this,” Gina exclaimed.

“What?” Ian strode to her side to look over shoulder. She had a Bible open on the desk. It was the piece of paper in her hand that had her attention.

“It's a letter from Mario.”

The words were barely out of his mouth when the window shattered, glass flying. Gina screamed as Ian tackled her to the floor.