He ignored her question. No need to discuss it prematurely. “Don’t do that,” Raines said. “They might ask us to stop.”
“They’re more likely to ask us to stop if we act suspicious,” she countered.
He let out a breath. “Yeah. I guess you’re right.”
“You’re very jumpy,” she noted.
“It’s Vega,” he muttered. “Velasquez’s rival cartel. They say he might try to hijack us. Not that he can, once we get to the outpost. It’s between points that I worry about.” He was setting the stage so that she wouldn’t be taken unawares and cause trouble. She wouldn’t know until the last minute that he was in cahoots with Vega, and with any luck, she’d die in the shootoutso that she couldn’t spill the beans to anyone who might alert Velasquez.
“Our boss is smarter. Isn’t he?” she fished.
He seemed to relax a little. “Much smarter,” he agreed. “And our men are better trained.”
“So no worries, right?” she persisted.
He shrugged. “Yeah. Right.”
Something was wrong. She wasn’t sure what. It was one of those feelings she got, the ones that curled up cold and tight in the pit of her stomach. Part of it was this proximity to the end of the assignment. If anybody was going to die, this was the perfect time—when victory was in sight. That was surely part of her unease. But there was something else, something not connected to her job. Something related to someone she knew. So many things could go wrong. What if it was John?
Her heart jumped. No. He wasn’t in danger. How could he be? It must be something related to the danger she was in. Yes. That had to be it. She only hoped that she could get a message off to the right people in time to stop this delivery. Lives hung in the balance. It would take cool nerve to pull it off. You could plan for months only to have one tiny detail derail months of work. It had happened to her; her partner had died because one tiny detail went awry in a raid. She drew in a slow breath. She had to stop anticipating trouble. It would be all right. And her premonition might be nothing more than a sleepless night. It probably was.
“It’s the middle of nowhere,” she remarked as the car sent up small clouds of dust in its wake.
“Isn’t it, though,” he laughed. “And there are no regular patrols where we’re going. Don’t worry. This is going to be a picnic of a job.”
She glanced at him. He sounded laid-back! But he was sweating and not because of any heat this late in the year. There wassomething he wasn’t telling her. She had to hope there were no major surprises in store.
Meanwhile, the Big Spur was chaotic. Odalie had been kidnapped by Tanner’s nemesis, Phillip James, and it wasn’t for ransom. The whole family was anguished. It was worse because Stasia’s boss, Tony Garza, had told the family to ignore any phone calls until he got to the ranch. He was coming from New York. But he had a private jet, which would make the trip faster.
Tony knew, as none of the others except Tanner did, that James wanted nothing but revenge. No ransom. He was going to kill Odalie and make Tanner suffer for blowing his cover in a massacre overseas. Heather was in tears. Cole held her hand while JJ sat close and assured her that everything would be all right.
John was worried sick, like the others. He was concerned about Josie as well, but she was hardly likely to be in any danger from closing a real estate deal. Odalie was in terrible danger. He loved his sister. Waiting for Tony to arrive was pure torture. He wondered why Odalie had gone to the Bahamas.
John and the family had just been in New York to watch Odalie sing at the Met. Tony had been shot, luckily only grazed, but when Stasia told Odalie, she’d left the special Christmas performance in a heartbeat with Stasia and rushed to the nearby ER, because they hadn’t known if Tony was dead or alive. Which told the family what her true priority was—Tony. But afterward the family had gone home and apparently Odalie and Tony had argued. Now she was a captive who faced almost certain death. But Tony seemed to know exactly what to do. He was a former—some said present as well—mob boss and he had contacts everywhere. John knew if anybody on earth could save Odalie, it was Tony.
Sure enough, Tony arrived with everything well in hand. And when Phillip James called the ranch, it was Tony he spoke to.
What followed was a master class in how to handle a kidnapping. Tony had neatly turned the tables on Phillip James and recovered a shaken, but undamaged, Odalie. Surprises galore had heralded the rescue, resulting in an unexpected liaison and even a wedding!
So John had been too caught up in his own terror over Odalie to give much thought to Josie.
But after the excitement at home was over, he got Tanner to one side. His brother had evaded Heather’s phone call many days ago, when she tried to pin him down about Josie’s situation.
Now John had his brother at bay, and he wasn’t taking “no” for an answer.
“You know something,” John said firmly. “I don’t think Josie is down here on any real estate deal. I want to know what’s going on.”
“How would I know?” Tanner asked with innocence written all over him.
“You two were very cozy at Thanksgiving,” John replied. His pale eyes narrowed. “What were you talking about so intently?”
“Just the little statuettes that Maddie Brannt makes,” Tanner said. “No big deal. No hidden messages.” He smiled. “You’re watching too many spy thrillers,” he added with a warm smile.
John frowned. “I just have this feeling, like Mom does, that something’s not right with Josie.”
Tanner knew about those feelings. He took a long breath. “Josie’s just doing a land deal, that’s all,” he assured John without giving anything away. “Listen, if I knew something, wouldn’t I tell you?”
John gave him a wry look. “I’d never play poker with you,” he said instead of what he was thinking. He was being stonewalled. He knew it. But his brother had played in the big leaguesof intelligence gathering. John didn’t have a chance. He knew that, too.
