Page 48 of Dark ’N’ Deadly

The thought had her face heating more.

“Did you tell him about the change of plan?” Eric asked.

“Yeah, and I don’t like it.” Jesse’s lips twisted in disapproval.

“I don’t blame you,” Eric said. “I don’t like it, either, but it’s the best shot we have of getting you out of this mess and obtaining the information we need.”

A phone rang, and Eric reached into his thigh pocket.

Jesse’s phone.

He’d taken custody of it last night at the hospital. “It’s them.” He looked at Dayne, who quickly closed the hospital room door. “Hold this.” He handed her brother the phone. “Don’t answer it yet.” He yanked another phone from the clip on his belt.

From her position, Tess saw that Eric had set his phone to record mode.

The phone kept ringing.

“Act like everything’s fine.” Eric spoke quickly. “As soon as you answer, put the call on speaker. Tell them the pickup is fixed and you’ll meet them at the truck stop at one o’clock. Don’t say anything about being in the hospital.”

“Okay.” Jesse gave a tense nod then answered the call, immediately putting it on speaker. “Hello?”

Tess gripped the armrests. Maybe they were only checking up on the condition of Jesse’s pickup. Or maybe something was wrong. Either way, this couldn’t be over too soon.

“Where are you?” a male voice asked, one that sounded identical to the man who’d answered the phone on Friday at the Marshal’s office.

She loosened her grip on the armrests. She’d half expected the voice to be that of Mark Pritchard—the man she thought she’d seen in the parking lot the other day.

“Hunterdon County.” Jesse watched Eric for cues. “I’ll be at the truck stop at one o’clock.”

“We’re moving up the timetable,” the voice continued. “Meet me at ten o’clock. Sawmill Road in Lebanon, mile marker seven. There’s an old red barn on the right side of the road. Park in front of the barn doors and wait there.”

Eric nodded, but his face was tight, his brows bunched.

“Okay.” No sooner than her brother said the word, the call ended.

Eric turned off the recorder on the phone. “Damn, that’s less than an hour from now.”

“Do you know where that barn is?” Dayne asked.

He nodded. “I think so. There are a lot of old abandoned barns on that road. Once we know exactly which property we’re dealing with, we can run it for ownership. The problem is that’s a rural, two-lane road. No shoulders and no good place for surveillance teams to stage nearby during the meet. Anyone pulling over would stand out like a sore thumb. The nearest place to park is an elementary school lot about three-quarters of a mile to the south.”

“Which means,” Dayne added, “we won’t be close enough to pick up audio or visual transmissions in real time. The best we can get are the recordings we pull off the truck after the meet.” He unclipped his phone from his belt. “I’ll tell the teams to haul ass to the new staging location.”

“I’ll call in for air support.” Eric stood and punched in a number on his cell phone. “With direct line of sight, a repeater in the chopper should be strong enough to bounce the transmissions to our location in the parking lot.”

“Good idea.” Dayne opened the door, turning at the last second. “Meet you both outside.”

Tess couldn’t calm the gnawing fear in her belly. She didn’t know what a repeater was, but she understood that the change of meet location was throwing a major chink in Eric’s plan, one that would give her considerably less protection. “How far is the drive from here?”

“About thirty minutes,” he answered. “But we need to go the lab first and get the pickup. We have barely enough time to make it there and get to the meet.”

“Eric.” Jesse managed to push himself up on one elbow. “Will she really be safe?”

“I swear I won’t let anything happen to her.” Blue eyes lasered into hers. “I’ll protect her with my life.”

…

The door of the pickup squeaked as Eric opened it. He hadn’t meant to say something right out of a bad Hollywood movie, but the words had flown from his mouth, and he’d meant every one of them.