Or was he screwed whichever way the pendulum swung? And she would be left to deal with the repercussions.
* * *
THEMAN SIZED UPthe pontoon and couldn’t help but think that it was a boat he wouldn’t mind owning himself under other circumstances. But there were no other circumstances. Only here and now. And he had a job to do that left no room for fantasizing. Or second-guessing.
He had trailed the target in a brown Toyota Tundra pickup, trying hard to keep him off guard as Eddie Jernigan drove his Audi erratically, as if he knew that he was being tailed.
And that his number was nearly up.
He walked inconspicuously down the dock, giving a friendly nod to an attractive elderly couple passing by, reminding him of his own grandparents. Though they would undoubtedly disapprove of his chosen lifestyle, what they didn’t know wouldn’t hurt them. Or him—if he played his cards right.
As if on a leisurely stroll, he deliberately moved past the Crest Savannah 250 SLSC, never even bothering to look at it. This would likely give Jernigan, whom he’d already spotted aboard the boat, a false sense of security. Which was the plan.
It would prove to be the snitch’s undoing when the moment of impact came.
Chapter One
“Hey, sis, I’m at the boat. Hate to have to burden you with this, but, uh…I’m in trouble.” There was a pause. “I’ve done some things and tried to rectify them. Not sure if I can get through this in one piece. Talk to Landon.” A deep sigh. “If it doesn’t work out, just know that I’m sorry. Love you, sis.”
The phone went dead.
Raquelle Jernigan’s heart skipped a beat. She listened to the cryptic voicemail message from her brother, Eddie, again as she hurriedly walked across the parking lot of Braedon College in Joyllis Hills, South Carolina, where she was an associate theater professor with the fall semester underway.
What have you done, Eddie?Raquelle asked herself worriedly while trying to call him back, only to have it go straight to his voicemail. She knew that he hadn’t always walked the straight and narrow in his life’s choices. Usually, though, it was fixable and otherwise had solutions that kept him out of jail.
But this time it sounded serious.
Almost a life-and-death issue.
And what did Landon have to do with it?
Raquelle frowned at the thought that her ex-husband,Landon Briscoe, who was a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and her brother were involved in some way. Behind her back apparently.
Now Eddie was frightened enough to leave her a message that almost sounded like a goodbye. The notion unnerved Raquelle, given that he was her only sibling and their parents had passed away.
She reached her blue Infiniti Q50 sedan and got inside, taking the moment she needed to collect her thoughts. She ran thin fingers through thick black hair that fell below her shoulders and was parted in the middle. The color and richness had been inherited from both parents, who, like her and Eddie, were members of the Catawba Nation, a federally recognized Indian tribe in the state of South Carolina. They had also passed on to their children their tall, lean frames and strong jawlines. Not to mention a streak of stubbornness and reluctance toward giving up their independence.
Raquelle started the car and drove off. She trained her brown eyes on the road as she headed to Knotter Marina, on nearby Lake Owenne in Falona County, where Eddie kept his boat.
Her thoughts turned to Landon. They had met at the University of South Carolina in Columbia when she was working on her doctor of musical arts, after getting bachelor’s and master’s degrees of fine arts in theater from the Department of Theatre and Dance. At the time, he had been pursuing his own graduate degree. They hit it off right away, and things seemed to move full steam ahead from that point.
Upon graduating, they tied the knot, believing that love would resolve any differences they had, no matterhow subtle or large. But the hurdles—namely, their differing career objectives and decision to hold off having children—proved to be too much to overcome. After nearly seven years of marriage, they decided to go their separate ways.
Raquelle drew a deep sigh. The divorce was finalized four years ago but almost seemed like yesterday, with the pain from a failed marriage still resonating, even against her best wishes. She had legally ditched his Briscoe and reclaimed her maiden name, Jernigan, in trying to move on as best as possible.
Since then, she and Landon had barely spoken, in spite of ending things on a relatively congenial note. It was as though neither of them wanted to bridge the gap for fear of reopening the old wounds that lingered.
She sometimes wondered if they had made a mistake in ending the marriage instead of going to counseling. Or otherwise putting forth a greater effort to overcome their differences.
No sense in second-guessing now, Raquelle told herself in practical terms. Things were what they were. That included being single at the age of thirty-four. Though she had dated every now and then, no one seemed to interest her the way Landon had once upon a time. How sad was that?
Especially since she had heard through the grapevine that he appeared to have no problem putting himself back out there again. No doubt that women would find him just as irresistible as she once had.
But none of that told her what business he had with her brother. And if that had in any way led to Eddie’s present quandary. She tried to get him on the phone again, but hewouldn’t—or couldn’t—pick up. She thought about taking her brother’s advice and calling Landon for an explanation, but she stubbornly clung to preferring to speak to Eddie face-to-face for the scoop.
Pushing back her sense of dread, Raquelle pressed down on the accelerator, while staying within the speed limit as the marina came into view. She turned onto Knotter Marina Drive and pulled into the marina lot, where she found a spot to park.
As she walked across the dock, wearing a new pair of gray wide-leg pants to go with a multicolored split-neck top and flats, Raquelle gazed out at the lake dotted with boats, making for a pretty picture. She barely noticed the tall male who was moving briskly past the marina general store near the end of the dock—other than that he was wearing dark jeans and a blue hooded sweatshirt with the hood over his head and sneakers.
