Stolen Vengeance: Slye Temp book 6 (29 page)

If not for what she’d just gone through to get this scroll, she’d be less certain. Raul, as Geoffrey called the guy, had reacted to her dig about being a priest and acted as if he ran with the most important item in his world.

Thankfully, the tube was lightweight aluminum, airtight and waterproof.

Charlie hadn’t called back after she’d texted him. Dingo had said not to call anyone, but she needed to find Smith fast, unless Smith really could find her first.

Then she’d have to sneak away from Dingo, which meant her being the one to leave him this time without a word of goodbye and no way to tell him. Once she was out of his hands he’d have to use his amazing skills and vanish for real.

Chapter 35

Dingo couldn’t drive around Los Angeles until dark while he thought, but neither did he want to go all the way back to the safe house he’d taken Valene to earlier. Sabrina might have sent someone there to watch for him by now.

He’d motor around until he found a store big enough that he wouldn’t stand out when he entered. He’d put a knit skullcap over his hair until he got a chance to cut it, and shoved on a pair of aviator sunglasses. Valene had looked into his bag, asking if he had any rabbits in there.

He spared her a quick look, but she was too focused on talking quietly into his cell phone to notice which way they were going.

She’d gotten a call from the facility where she’d put her dad, and he’d given her his phone to make the call back.

He had a plan and hoped he ran into no roadblocks.

With Navarro’s group on the prowl, no idea what that incident in the mall had shaken loose, law enforcement after him–that was going to piss off Sabrina to no end–and no timeline or target for the other assassinations, Dingo had to get answers now.

Valene had said Navarro found her name in Aram’s phone.

Navarro had killed Aram, but not because of the scroll. Navarro hadn’t known about it until Aram told him. Why had Aram been killed?

The tattoos on the shooter at the charity event said Orion Hunters were committing the assassinations. If he took the evidence at face value, that at least was clear.

Satan’s Garden Club and the Orion Hunters were connected, which might mean Navarro was also involved with the hits.

If that was the case, then Navarro might be contracting hits for Rikker, but that made no sense if Rikker was killing the Orion Hunter assassins.

Nick said the Orion Hunters were after an artifact. The scroll Valene had? Is that what Rikker was paying her to find?

Based on that, Navarro, the Orion Hunters and Rikker were all after the scroll that Valene had in her possession.

Not that she’d admitted as much.

She’d had a bulge under the hoodie when he picked her up outside the mall exit and hadn’t fooled him one bit when she asked for a pit stop on the way to Henri’s.

She’d returned to the car with the hoodie off and wadded up, but the wad had been in a distinctive shape. She had the cylinder and the way she was hiding it meant the cylinder held something of value.

She was key to figuring out this mess.

Valene wouldn’t be happy when he pinned her down, but if she had the scroll, she’d disappear the first chance she got to find her client, aka Rikker, because Dingo hadn’t told her she was working for an international felon.

He couldn’t tell Valene without betraying Sabrina and the team’s trust.

Valene was speaking softly. “You’re sure that’s the only change in his condition and he doesn’t need to go to the hospital?” she asked someone on the other end of her call. She nodded to no one in particular and said, “Please tell him I called and I’ll be by soon. And call me at this number if anything changes.” She paused. “I know you will, but please make sure everyone knows. Thanks.”

She dropped his phone into the cup holder in the console and rubbed her eyes, then looked around. “Where are we going?”

“The only place no one knows to look for either of us. We’ve got maybe an hour and a half until sunset.”

It took her a minute then she said, “Our cove.”

Those two words held sweet memories for him. He hated to go to their spot on El Matador Beach, but he was on short time and might have to disappear altogether now.

He needed a place he felt relatively sure no one would be waiting to ambush or arrest them.

She rallied a smile, but it took effort. Henri had hurt her. Her fingers twisted in the folds of the hoodie she clutched in her lap. “What are we going to do about the police looking for you?”

“I’ll figure out something by daylight,” he said, rather than give her an inkling of what he might have to do. He put on his blinker and pulled off Highway 101. “We need to get a few things from Wal-Mart. Blanket, electric light, food, scissors ... ”

She’d grabbed a piece of paper and jotted notes as he finished the list. “I’ll go in. No one is looking for me.”

He hesitated to agree.

“No one knows us out here,” she argued against his silence.

“Okay, but you’re in and out in twenty minutes or I’m coming in.”

“That’s not enough time.”

He pulled alongside the front entrance and fished out enough cash for anything she’d buy. “Twenty minutes starting now.”

Snatching up the money, she opened the door with the hoodie in hand.

“Leave it, Valene. You’ll be faster.”

She stalled, thinking, and he saved her the effort of wondering. “I know you have the scroll. I’m not going to take it from you. I swear on what honor I possess that I’ll be here when you come out. I wouldn’t leave you alone out here.”

Totally flummoxed, she dropped the hoodie bunch on the floorboard, grabbed her purse and rushed into the store, but managed a last quick look over her shoulder.

While she was inside the store, Dingo used his cell phone, since it couldn’t be traced, to contact Nick who answered, “What?”

“It’s me,” Dingo said just in case anyone was close enough to hear the conversation.

Nick said, “Hold on.”  Then the sound of a door closed. Nick asked, “Looking for a way out of town?”

Dingo’s kind of team member. One who got right to the point. He said, “No. Well, not yet. I’m working on an angle that might mean a connection between the killings.”

“Have you told Sabrina that?”

“She doesn’t listen so good when Gage is the room.”

“He’s not here.”

Hmm. Dingo wasn’t sure what to make of that. “Why?”

“Have no idea other than a lot of loud cursing went on right after you left. I passed Gage leaving as I walked into the conference room. Sabrina didn’t say a word about you, but she did say she’d shoot anyone who got in our way, including CIA agents.”

Dingo wasn’t in any position to revel over Gage leaving with his own nuts in a vice. “You mentioned at the end of the meeting that the hunters were looking for a specific artifact. What is it?”

“A scroll.”

Some days it sucked to be right. “Do you know anything about Rikker being in California?”

“Nothing’s been mentioned.”

That screwed Dingo telling Nick about Rikker. That damn Gage was interfering with this operation.

Sabrina might want to shoot Gage, but she clearly wasn’t sharing anything until she decided she had no other choice. Dingo might give Sabrina reason to make that choice if he convinced Valene to give up what she knew.

Not if, but when.

Dingo asked, “Where are we with the initials? Anything firm on a new location and target?”

“Not yet. We’ve got three major events going on in LA over the next two days. Nothing that pings with any of the three sets of initials, but we’re spreading out resources to cover all three events.”

“What’s your gut telling you?”

“My gut tells me a lot of things, but I’m waiting on intel from a friend.”

“The same one who told you about the scroll?”

“Yes.”

Dingo thought back a month ago when Nick was laid up in the hospital after taking rounds in his chest. He’d come up with crucial intel then. “Would this be the same informant who fed you information on the North Korean physicists and the Orion Hunter attack on the aquifer?”

“Yes.”

Dingo didn’t wait for more. Nick’s mind ran nonstop, but he only said what he felt someone needed to know at the moment. “Did Sabrina mention anything about Valene Eklund?”

“Yes.”

See? Getting information out of Nick was possible. You just had to ask the right questions. “Such as?”

“She’s the woman you contacted the last time we were in LA. Eklund is being watched by the FBI and may be connected to Satan’s Garden Club and the Orion Hunters.”

“She’s not, but I don’t expect you to choose a side.”

Nick said, “I make up my mind as the plan unfolds and it so happens my informant believes Eklund could be a pawn in all this. My informant thinks Eklund might have been pulled in because of getting on someone’s radar after finding the Orion Hunter doctor in Chinatown for us.”

Dingo cursed hard. He’d had a bad feeling about that. Just another confirmation that he was bad news for Valene. “Have you told Sabrina what your informant says about Valene?”

“Not yet. Sabrina’s not particularly receptive on that topic right now and it’s only speculation on my informant’s part at this point.”

“Got it.”  Dingo considered what he knew and what he could share. Much of what he had was speculation, too, and Sabrina wouldn’t listen to a word he said about Valene. “Look into a guy named Aram Pavlovsky.”

“Who the hell is he?”

“I’m not sure yet. I’m working off my phone right now and can only research so far. Pull everything on Pavlovsky you can get and see if he had a recent deposit from an offshore account. Satan’s Garden Club killed him and by the way, Maxx Navarro is Garcia’s son and is now running the SGC. I’m still working on all this, but don’t tell Sabrina I called yet. Tell her you got the intel from your mysterious snitch.”

“Works for me. Keep your head down.”

“Will do. Keep this line open.”

“Done.”

Dingo ended the call just as Valene stepped out of Wal-Mart with huge bags hanging from her hands and the straps of a backpack hooked over her shoulders. He pulled up just past the entrance, got out and loaded everything in the trunk while keeping an eye out.

She was right. No one should know they were in that spot at that moment, but shit just happened sometimes. Thankfully, they made it out and were back on the road in minutes.

He told her, “Go ahead and get comfortable. I’m taking the shortest path, but it’ll be crooked and winding through the mountains.”

She groaned. “I hate being carsick.”

“Then go to sleep before I get there.”

She laid her head back and started to drift off then sat up. “The scroll.”

“It’s in the back seat. Were you going to tell me you had it?”

“No.”

“At least you’re truthful.”

“You can’t take that scroll from me, Dingo.”

“I don’t intend to.”

She let out a tired sigh. “Good. Wake me when we get out of the mountains.”

He wished he could tell her what he had in mind was good, but he wasn’t going to lie to her either.

Chapter 36

Valene woke to the sound of Dingo outside moving around and unpacking the back of the car. She had to blink again to clear the groggy feeling away after that deep sleep.

He’d left his door open, but no interior light was on and twilight was setting in.

Salty air stirred through the interior and the easy churn of waves rolling along the shore reached her.

He stuck his head inside and she noticed the dark sweatshirt he’d put on. His eyebrows jumped in question. “You up?”

“Mm hmm.”

“But are you awake enough to navigate to the beach and down to the cove?”

In answer, she opened her door and stepped out, stretching.

He said, “I’ll take that as a yes. Get your sweet buns back here and load up.” 

She hadn’t had a reason to smile, really smile for a long time but hearing Dingo say the same words he used to tell her on beach trips lifted her spirits. “Okay, grumpy one, who has had no sleep.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.” 

She took two plastic bags he’d repacked, because they had been heavier when she’d carried them out. By the time he hoisted the backpack on his shoulders and slammed the trunk shut, the sun had disappeared below the horizon.

Dingo flipped on a flashlight and handed it to her. “Shine this ahead of me and stay close.”

They were almost to the steps that would descend thirty feet to the beach when she slammed to a halt. “Wait.”

“It’s in the backpack,” he told her, answering her panic about the scroll. “So is the hoodie if you’re cold.”

“No, I love the ocean air. It’s soothing.”  Her moment of comfort dissolved at remembering the scroll, which reminded her of the mall and Dingo being a hunted man. “Maybe we should be making a run for it.”

He’d gone down two steps, but turned around, coming back up one to be eye level with her. “You are not going on the run, no matter what. We’re fine for now. Okay?”

“I’m going to say okay, but I don’t feel it.”

He caught her face and pulled her lips to his.

The kiss took her back to when life seemed too good to believe. She’d found out how true that could be.

When he finished, her arms and the bags she held were wrapped around his neck and back. She whispered, “I want to stay in this minute. Right here. Forever.”

“You’d get tired after a few weeks.” He touched her nose. “Get moving.”

She managed to keep the light ahead of them as they made it down to the beach, then walked along the shore caught between the ocean and rocky bluffs.

Their cove was a sixteen-minute hike.

She knew it by heart.

The water never reached where they stayed inside the cove even at high tide, but at low tide, which it was right now, they had to wade barefoot through six inches of water to find their spot, then climb up the sandy incline that leveled out at the top, insuring they’d stay dry.

Dingo had the blanket spread out and the electric lantern on by the time she’d unloaded cubes of cheese, sliced smoked sausage and fruit along with a bottle of wine.

He tossed her the hoodie, and she was ready for it with the temperature cooling off.

With so much hanging over her head and Dingo’s, this impromptu picnic felt like a last meal for the condemned.

At least it came with wine.

Her phone buzzed her pocket. She pulled it out to an unknown number.

Dingo paused. “Remember, if you don’t know who it is, don’t answer it.”

This could be Smith.

She let it go to voice mail then listened to the message.
“I will assume that you were the woman fighting at the mall today and the man you were seen wrangling a cylinder from is our thief. I have a small window of time to meet you. Don’t be late.”
Smith gave her the address of a coffee shop to be at by no later than eleven in the morning.

Then Smith said, “
If you fail to deliver the scroll, I’ll find you and take back my deposit in one form or another.”

One form or another did not sound like payments on time.

Could Dingo be right about Smith being connected to Navarro? How? Why? She had to get him to talk to her so they could put their heads together and figure out all of this.

She put her phone away. Fourteen hours until she had to meet Smith. If she got her hands on transportation, it would take her an hour to get there. She wouldn’t leave Dingo stranded, but neither did she want to risk him being in the city with his face plastered on the news. She didn’t want to meet Smith alone, not if he was connected to Navarro, but that was also why avoiding Smith scared her.

What would he do if she didn’t show?

Dingo sat next to her, leaning back, looking relaxed to anyone who didn’t know him, which was why his words surprised her. “It’s time to put all the cards face up, Valene.”

She angled herself back, resting on her elbows, mimicking him. He wanted the cards face up? Then he had to show his first. She shrugged. “We’ve been around this tree more times than I want to count. You don’t trust me enough to tell me the truth. I’m not giving up my client or the scroll. You’re going to have to tell your people you didn’t find it.”

“Is that what you think I’m after? The scroll?”

“I have no idea what you’re after but that at least makes sense. I’m guessing your people were tasked with returning it, but the man I’m working with is going to pay me to return it. And he’s getting a hell of a deal. The scroll is priceless. Let me make the meeting, hand over the scroll and get paid. I need the money and I owe Henri his part. If you want, I’ll tell whomever that you helped me return it.” 

Dingo sat up and put his head in his hands.

It wasn’t that bad of an offer.

She sat up and put her hand on his shoulder. “I’ll lose two hundred and fifty thousand dollars that I need to get my dad into a treatment program and to get back into business, plus pay Henri. What will it cost your people to show up empty-handed?”

He lifted his head. “I’m not after the bloody scroll. I’m trying to stop assassinations and your
client
is connected to all of this.”

She’d caught the way he’d said client as if she’d made a deal with a terrorist. “How is that possible? He works for the Vatican.”

“No, he doesn’t.”

What he was not saying hit her between the eyes. “You know who my client is. You’ve been spying on me this whole time and now you want me to believe you aren’t interested in the scroll?”

“I’m not. I couldn’t share his true identity with you because there’s more at play right now than a missing scroll and the man you think is with the Vatican is an international criminal.”

Her body shook from blood coursing fast and hard through her veins. “None of this makes sense. He told me the scroll had been stolen and negotiated a contract for me to return it.”

Dingo rubbed his forehead. “I have to make a choice and I’m going with my gut.”

“A choice about what?”

He turned to her and light from their lantern reflected in his hazel gaze. “The reason I haven’t told you anything about what I did in the past or what I’m doing in LA now is because it’s my job to manage intel and not let it leak out. It’s my duty to find people who threaten national security and to protect lives any way I can. It’s also my duty to keep you safe and those duties are in conflict.”

She waited, because Dingo had never opened up to her and she didn’t want to stop him now that he was talking.

He said, “I can’t tell you the real name of the man you’re dealing with, but there are people very high in law enforcement such as the FBI, for one, who have a video of you meeting with him in a restaurant two days ago. I shouldn’t be telling you even that much. I haven’t been investigating you, but others have and I’ve been doing my best to do damage control and keep you out of all this.”

She put her hand down to stabilize her body when she felt light-headed. Why would the FBI be watching her? “I didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I know that, but right now I’m the only person who believes you’re innocent in this.”

She recalled him saying he might be able to find Geoffrey because he was at odds with his people at the moment.

Wait a minute. She’d asked Dingo,
You work with some agency that can track GPS and crap like that, right?

And he’d said,
I did
.

She’d been so upset over Geoffrey missing, the scroll at risk, people chasing them, and Dingo being evasive that she’d missed the point of his comment the first time.

Valene touched his hair, drawing his attention. “What happened with you and your people? Why are you not with them now?”

“Because someone had to come prove your innocence.”

She mentally ran back over the events of the last thirtyish hours. “What did you do? Just walk out?”

“Yes.”

“Was that before you found me with Navarro?”

He nodded. “I was coming for you regardless of what happened, but I had a difference of opinion with my people on your involvement and ...” He just let his words trail off.

She’d accused him of not trusting her, but he’d put faith in her she hadn’t been giving him back. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m not.”  He leaned over and kissed her tenderly then pulled back. “You keep telling me I don’t trust you. This is me trusting you. I’m going to tell you as much as I can, but I need you to give me information, too.”

If what he was saying about Smith was true, she’d walked into a trap and he was trying to free her. “Fair enough.”

“What name is your client going by?”

“Smith.”

“Figures.”

She snorted. “I know it’s an alias. What’s his real name?”

“Don’t get angry, but I really can’t tell you that.”

“I’m not angry. This is me trusting you.” She smiled, but didn’t feel it in her heart where all this was crashing in on her. She heaved a deep sigh. “Charlie set up the meeting and Smith convinced me he was with the Vatican security. He made it very clear that it was imperative to keep this confidential.”

“Why?”

“Because the pope is under attack by some people who don’t like how he’s aggressively pursuing fiscal responsibility. Smith said that these same people would use the missing artifact as a way to divert attention from what he’s after and focus on his not being responsible with Vatican treasures.”  She ran her fingers through her hair and stared out at the dark ocean constantly in motion. “He said he believed the thief would be caught in the pope’s dragnet, which would expose the thief and anyone he was connected to, so this guy Raul stole something worth enough that he could unload it and disappear. Sounded logical.”

“Yes, it does,” Dingo agreed. “This man–Smith–is a master at what he does. He was in the CIA at one time and went rogue.”

On a scale of one to ten, this level of disaster ranked in triple digits. What had she gotten herself into? “And the FBI thinks I’m working
with
Smith? Why? Didn’t anyone investigate my background? Doesn’t it count that I helped your people in Chinatown and Nebraska?”

“Those were my arguments. The FBI had no information on the Vatican theft or what this man–we’ll just keep calling him Smith–is up to,” Dingo explained. “Another agency is tracking Smith and they don’t want to alert the Vatican to the theft yet in case they tip off Smith and risk losing him after he’s been linked to at least three terrorist attacks in the last year.”

She thunked her head down on her knees where they were drawn up to her chest. Could this get any worse? “I was sitting in that meeting with Smith, and every instinct I had was throwing up red flags, telling me something was wrong.”  She curled her hands into fists and shoved them against her forehead. “But I needed to help my dad.”

“I know, babe.”  Dingo took one of her fists in both of his hands and uncurled her fingers, one at a time, stroking his thumb across the back of her hand, soothing her. “There’s not a person alive who doesn’t have an Achilles heel. A soft spot about something–or someone–that keeps them from being objective.”  She wrapped her fingers around his and he continued. “Smith is involved in one assassination that just happened in LA.”

She lifted her head. “Fontana?”

“Right. That’s why I was at the event that night, but we were protecting a different primary. We have information that indicates three assassinations, including initials. But none of the initials we have correspond with Fontana’s.”

Valene’s curiosity kicked into high gear. “What are the initials?”  When Dingo hesitated, she said, “In case you forgot, flushing out information is my business.”   

“I haven’t forgotten. You’re one of the best researchers I’ve ever known. That’s why I had to leave.” He snapped his jaws shut.

“Whoa. You are not going to say that and shut down on me. What do you mean by ‘that’s why I had to leave’?” 

He rubbed his head again and she felt bad about adding to his misery, but he’d been holding back forever on her.

She prodded, “If you tell me, I’ll stop hounding you about it.”