Rising Hope by Edie James

26

Sarah watchedPanetta from the side view mirror of the van until they rounded the first curve. Enzo kept his eyes on the road. His knuckles had turned white around the steering wheel, and his face was pale.

“Are you okay?” she asked. Given his head injury, she probably should have been driving, but he knew the area far better. She’d just have to watch him carefully.

“Yeah,” he insisted, but his voice sounded strained.

“Head still pounding?”

He nodded. “But I’m okay.”

“Think Panetta will remember he’s got keys to the cuffs?” she asked. Leaving the killer with a way to escape made her antsy, but the temperatures in the mountains would drop quickly now. The man might be a murderer, but she wasn’t.

Enzo’s face was rigid, whether from pain or fury or nerves, she couldn’t tell. Probably all three. “Eventually,” he muttered, but then he grinned. It was like the sun coming out. “Wait until he realizes he’s got no cell signal.”

The reminder eased her nerves. She peered out the window at the passing landscape, scanning for landmarks. Panetta hadn’t driven far. A couple miles, maybe. But she hadn’t paid attention to their direction.

“Where are we?” she asked.

Enzo glanced at her and then back to the highway ahead of them. He turned on the headlights. “About twenty minutes from The Cove.”

Her heart leapt into her throat. “We can’t go there.”

“Are you serious? It’s the only place to go. We need my family’s help.”

She tugged at a hank of hair. “Panetta just murdered a fellow agent. You really want to involve your family in this?”

“Absolutely. My oldest bro might be chief of police now, but he was a Delta Force operative. The guy spent twenty years running clandestine ops. And Noah’s a former LAPD undercover cop. Nobody better to help.” He looked at her as if she was a moron. “Panetta’s obviously on the take somehow. He gunned down his partner. All we have to do is report this and—”

“Not necessarily.” She clenched her fingers in her hair and tugged, trying to stop the whirl of thoughts. “It’s possible Panetta was working alone. Or he could have decided he didn’t want to share with Munson. But why not kill us too, and run with the drugs?”

“Because he planned to frame us for stealing the merch and killing Munson. Not a bad way to ensure he’s off the suspect list.”

“Fair point.”

Enzo’s theory was certainly plausible. Panetta could have planned to dump them in some remote area and disappear with the drugs once the case cooled.

But it was dangerous to settle on a theory too quickly. Especially when the stakes for being wrong could get them killed.

“What if the cartel’s involved?” she wondered out loud. “Or what if this goes higher up the food chain at the Bureau? Panetta’s not exactly a brainiac.” She wound a hank of hair around her finger. “What if there’s something we’re not seeing?”

“We’ll figure it out.”

“What if it’s not that easy?” Really, the guy was way too optimistic for his own good.

“I didn’t say it would be easy,” he shot back, temper sharpening his voice.

The crack in his armor encouraged her. At least she wasn’t the only one terrified by this.

“And I’m just saying we need to be smart.”

He rolled his eyes. “Do you think?”

She made a frustrated gesture. Of all the times to be partnered with a boy scout. He had no idea the depths people like Panetta would sink to. “I’m not saying I don’t trust your people, and I’m not saying they couldn’t help. I’m saying involving anyone you care about creates an unacceptable risk. Whether we’re dealing with the Russians, somehow, or government agents way higher up than Panetta, we can’t endanger them.”

He accelerated into yet another curve. “Come up with a better plan and I’m all over it.”

That was the problem. She didn’t know who, if anyone, was pulling the strings.

Apparently, Enzo took her silence for acquiescence. “I trust my family,” he insisted. “We’re going to The Cove.”

“We can’t.” Enzo didn’t know. She’d forgotten he was unconscious when Panetta killed Munson.

She waited until he glanced her way again, wanting to make sure he processed what she was about to tell him. “Panetta killed Munson with my gun.”

His mouth dropped open. Then he winced hard. “Great.”

The van hit a pothole. The frame shuddered, making the loose tools in back clank.

The seatbelt bit into her shoulder. She pulled it away. “As soon as Panetta gets picked up, I’ll be dodging an arrest warrant.”

Enzo glared out the windshield. The glow from the dashboard made his eyes glitter. “But there’s trace evidence, right? And we have the weapon. If Panetta’s hand gets swabbed soon…”

Her stomach clenched. “He fired his own gun, too.” She stared down at her hands. She hadn’t discharged a weapon. There’d be no residue on her fingers or her clothes, but the people setting her up would argue that she was a professional. She’d know how to wash off the evidence.

Despair sank into her very bones, making her feel hollow. Helpless. “I can’t get arrested. Neither can you.” Either they’d be railroaded straight to prison, or they’d end up dead long before their trials.

“My family will—”

“What are you not getting?” She raised her voice. “These people will make us disappear. They’ll disappear your family, too, if they have to.” She gestured at the back of the van. “Plus, there’s another little issue. You are aware we’re driving off with ten million dollars’ worth of B3yond right?”

He turned to her, eyes wide with shock. “We can take it to Halliburton. Call him. I’ll drive straight to the station.”

Besides working with Enzo’s CO, and commandeering Wenmark, and then Enzo, as pilots Halliburton managed to claim a prime set of offices at the Coast Guard station for the operation.

She sagged back against the seat, struggling with her emotions. Fear. Anger. Shock. And the growing realization that she’d walked into a trap… and brought Enzo in with her. “We can’t do that,” she said as calmly as she could. “I have no idea who’s in on this.”

“You think Halliburton’s involved?”

“Not likely.” She disliked the arrogant jerk, but she’d never heard a whisper of any improprieties. “But not impossible,” she acknowledged. She groaned in frustration. “There are too many players from too many agencies. Halliburton’s the only one I know.” And what she knew, she’d never liked.

“What about the video evidence,” Noah pointed out. “My brain’s still fuzzy. Did Panetta retrieve it from the helo?”

“He stowed it with the drugs.” Not that it would do them any good. This wasn’t about catching Yeltzen and his higher ups anymore. “We’ve got everything we need to clear our names. Once we figure out who to trust.”

“We can trust my family,” Enzo argued. “Rollo will know who to get the evidence to. At the very least, we can take the Tambov Roka out of the equation.”

“Maybe.”

“It’s worth a try.”

“Maybe.” Possibly. Only if Panetta was working with the cartel.

Enzo shot her an exasperated look. “It can’t hurt.”

The more he disagreed, the firmer she became. Until they knew for a fact Panetta had been working alone, which she highly doubted, she’d assume he’d been taking orders from someone far more well connected, and far more dangerous.

So she’d do what she had to do. Alone, if need be.

She folded her arms across her chest and played her last card. “I won’t be responsible for anyone else getting hurt. I’m going to disappear until I have this figured out. Until it’s safe for you and your family. I suggest you join me.”

His jaw tightened. Body rigid, he eyed the empty road ahead. He sniffed, releasing a long breath while nodding in agreement. “We’ll do it your way. For now.”

“Great.”

He held up his hand. “I have two conditions.”

“Oh-ka-ay.” She drew the word out, hoping this wasn’t the start of a new argument.

He raised his index finger. “One, I need to contact my family and let them know I’m okay, and two, I need tacos.”

The protest died on her lips. Tacos sounded heavenly. Him contacting his family, not so much. But she could hardly protest. One quick call from one of her unused burner phones couldn’t hurt anything. Plus, she couldn’t stand the thought of his father and siblings worried about his disappearance.

“That works. We can call in Panetta’s location when we stop. I’ll call 9-1-1 and report it anonymously.”

She reached out her hand. “Deal.”

He stretched across the aisle and took her hand, his fingers strong and warm around hers. “Deal.”

For a second, she allowed herself to relax, to luxuriate in the knowledge that they’d be partners, at least for a while.

Enzo braked, swerving around another rough spot in the road. “We need to dump this van.”

“And our phones. Pull over,” she ordered.

“There’s no cell service here. Nothing to track.”

“We’re almost out of the mountains. There will be soon. I have a couple extra burner phones,” she admitted. “We can use each one a few times before we have to dump them. Enough to contact help.” Whatever that meant in this crazy situation.

Enzo sighed and pulled off at the next wide spot in the road and handed over his phone without another word. She pulled the SIM cards out of their phones, broke the devices in half and chucked them as far into the brush as she could. Then she buried the SIMs at the base of a manzanita bush before hopping back into the vehicle.

Enzo put the van in gear and took off toward the coast. The valley began to widen in front of them, the black of the mountains giving way to a moonlit sky. They were almost at the intersection north of The Cove.

The one place they couldn’t go.

If they turned right instead of left, they’d pass through Cabrillo, the next town up the coast from The Cove. From there, they could head east. They’d hit I-5, the main north south artery through California.

“Get me to a parking lot,” she said.

Enzo turned to stare into her eyes. “You’re kidding me. You know how to steal cars?”

She shrugged modestly. “You learn a lot of things in my line of work.” Fresh wheels would buy them a few hours, at most.

Better than nothing, but not nearly as much as they needed.

Once the search began, there would be nowhere to hide. A BOLO would be issued instantly. Every law enforcement officer in the area would search. And then the full weight of the FBI, NSA and DEA would rain down.

She studied Enzo’s profile. The Coast Guard, too, for what that was worth.

Land. Sea and air. They’d be hunted.