chapter Eight
Jenna couldn’t breathe. J.D.’s words had left them hanging. The line had gone completely dead.
“What did he mean? What was he trying to say? Zendaris is not the only one after the plans or not the only one after you?”
“You heard as much as I did.” Cade wiped his brow and turned down the heater in the car.
“Does he believe other arms dealers might be after you?”
Cade gulped some water from the bottle in the cup holder. “It’s like your fortune-teller, Jenna. J.D. didn’t tell us anything we didn’t already know. People are after me. People are after you and Gavin. We need to watch our backs. That’s why we’re going to settle you in a safe location.”
“Maybe Gage Booker will get lucky with this informant.”
“Gage was born lucky. If anyone can get a line on Zendaris, it’s Gage.” He touched her smooth cheek. “Then this relocation can come to an end, and we can start our life together.”
She pursed her lips and turned up the radio. They’d have to discuss that further—and riding in a car on the way to some Prospero stronghold was not the time or the place.
The dry landscape unfolded before them as they rolled down the highway. They’d stopped for a lunch of fast food, which Gavin had devoured as if he hadn’t eaten in days.
When Cade turned off the highway, Jenna sat up and peered into the darkness that had fallen over the desert like a curtain at the end of a play. “Are we here?”
“Almost.”
“Then what?”
“We can get some rest, and then Prospero will start working on new identities for you and Gavin. They may have already started. Beth Warren is one of the best researchers in this area. She’ll find a place where you two can blend in and stay safe.”
“That’s if I agree to go.” She clenched her teeth and hardened her jaw. “I’m not under arrest or anything. I can do what I want.”
He drummed his thumbs against the steering wheel. “Of course you can, but you’ll do what’s best for Gavin.”
“And that is?”
“Taking him to a secure location.”
“Where would that be?” She glanced over her shoulder at her sleeping son. “I’ve been looking for that place for three years.”
“That’s what we’re going to figure out. Let’s leave it to the professionals.”
Cade drove in silence for several more minutes and made another turn. The headlights of the car picked out a squat building that could blend in with the golds and russets of the landscape during the daytime. The building seemed to rise from the sand. Low lights illuminated the narrow windows, which glinted in the oncoming lights.
Jenna tapped the window. “That’s the outpost?”
“It is. You’d be amazed at what goes on in there.”
“They still can’t locate Zendaris.”
“We can leave that to Gage.” Cade aimed the car down a long dirt drive toward the building, and the tires crunched and crackled. “They have a different mission here. They’re not after Zendaris. He’s out of their scope.”
“Apparently he’s out of everyone’s scope.”
“Not for long. We’ll get him. He wants those plans back in the worst way, and he’s going to make a mistake trying to get them. When he makes that mistake, Prospero will be there, and if Gage gets an informant, we’ll be there even sooner.”
He pulled around the back of the building where a few other cars were parked and stopped next to a Jeep.
“Are you sure they know we’re coming?” Jenna studied the back of the building, unlit and unwelcoming.
“I got the confirmation that they received my message.”
As Cade got out of the car, Jenna turned in her seat and grabbed the toe of Gavin’s boot. She jiggled his foot up and down. “Hey, sleepyhead. We’re here. Wake up.”
Gavin mumbled and rubbed his eyes. “Are we eating?”
“Again? You’re an eating machine.”
Cade swung open the back door. “Are you ready to come out of there?”
Gavin nodded and Cade released the buckle, peeling the straps from Gavin’s shoulders. Cade scooped him out of the car seat.
And hitched him up on one hip...like a natural.
Jenna ground her teeth together. She had to stop thinking like that. Tomorrow morning, he’d be sending her and Gavin packing. For their own good, of course.
Cade stepped away from the door and tilted his head back, waving at the eaves. He winked at Jenna. “Camera.”
The heavy door clicked and a piece of the door slid up, revealing a compartment. Cade rubbed the palm of his right hand against his jeans and placed it inside the cavity. A row of lights blinked red and then turned green.
The door clicked again, and Cade produced a card from his pocket and slid it into a slot next to the compartment. One more click and Cade pushed open the door.
“High tech.” Jenna raised her brows as she brushed past him into the building.
The heavy door slammed behind them, leaving them in a short, dark hallway lined with closed doors.
Cade drew his brows over his nose. “Where is everyone?”
Jenna shuffled closer to Cade and curled her hand around Gavin’s leg dangling against Cade’s thigh. “Is there usually a welcoming committee?”
“I’ve been here only once before, but typically the agents working at these outposts pop their heads out because they don’t get many visitors.”
As if on cue, one of the doors swung open and a young man wearing wire-rimmed glasses peered around its edge. “Agent Stark?”
Cade crossed his arms. “Is that protocol around here? Shouldn’t you make me identify myself?”
The man’s face reddened and he blinked. “Yeah, sorry. We don’t get a lot of agents out this way. I’ve seen your picture before, and I did notice your palm print verified.”
“Were you watching me on camera to make sure it wasn’t someone else placing my dead hand on the reader?”
Jenna sucked in a breath. She hadn’t thought of that, but apparently the bespectacled man had.
“Yes, I was watching you on camera from the minute the car pulled into the back lot.” He stuck out his hand. “Horace Jimerson. Everyone calls me Jim.”
“Cade Stark, and this is my wife, Jenna, and my son, Gavin.”
The men shook hands, and then Jim offered his hand to Jenna. He squeezed her fingers in a bony grip and she hoped he didn’t plan to apply the same pressure to Gavin’s little hand.
But he patted Gavin on top of the head instead. “If you’re hungry, we have a communal kitchen in the back.”
“Is Greg Miyata still stationed here?”
“Miyata? Yeah, he’s still here.”
“Good. I was hoping he could help with the resettlement of my wife and son until this thing gets sorted out. Is Beth Warren on the job yet?”
Jim slipped off his glasses and wiped the lenses on his wrinkled shirt. “I’m afraid I don’t know much about the specific plans. Zendaris, right?”
“Uh-huh.”
“That means I really don’t have any of the details, Agent Stark. You field ops are hush-hush about that guy.”
“Call me Cade.” He took a turn around the hallway, his gaze skimming past all the closed doors. “So where’s Miyata and the other techs?”
“Miyata’s out right now—overnight assignment at the border, and Sonia Pacheco, the only other tech here, is sleeping. She had the early morning shift.” Jim glanced over his shoulder into the room behind him. “I need to get back to something. The kitchen’s at the end of the hall. Help yourself. You and your family can have the sleeping quarters in the last room on the right. Miyata will have more information when he returns.”
Cade hoisted a groggy Gavin in his arms. “Get back to work. We’ll figure it out. Will Miyata be back tomorrow?”
“Should be. I’ll join you in about an hour.” Jim almost jumped at a beep from one of the computers behind him.
Cade trudged down the sterile hallway with Jenna close on his heels.
“This is a strange place.” She sidled closer to him, which he didn’t mind in the least. “Do the techs live here?”
“Yeah, they live here, but they’re not chained to their desks. They’re close enough to the border that they probably make runs there for assignments.” He pulled open the door at the end of the hallway and a strong smell of antiseptic cleaner made his eyes water.
Jenna wrinkled her nose. “At least they keep it clean.”
Cade settled Gavin in a chair at a small table in the middle of the white-on-white room, and he immediately sank his head into his folded arms.
Jenna crouched beside him, running her hand over his close-cropped hair. “Do you want a snack before bedtime?”
Gavin answered by burrowing his head farther into the crook of his arm.
Pausing with his hand on the refrigerator, Cade said, “Should we try to entice him with some food or put him to bed right now?”
“I think he’s okay where he is.” She joined him at the open fridge. “I can use one of those diet sodas.”
“I can use one of those beers.” He wrapped his hand around a frosty bottle and twisted off the lid.
“It’s kind of creepy here, isn’t it?” Jenna snapped the tab of the can and slurped at the foam that bubbled to the rim.
Cade dragged his gaze away from her puckered lips. “It’s isolated, but we passed a town on the way in and Phoenix isn’t far.”
“Maybe Gavin and I should hide in plain sight.”
“What does that mean?”
She pulled out a chair next to Gavin and dropped into it. “I always stuck to smaller towns, but maybe blending into a big city would work better.”
“I don’t know.” He leaned a shoulder against the fridge. “I think your instincts were right. Strangers stand out more in small towns. In a big city, anyone could move in and out of the neighborhood and you wouldn’t be able to keep track. Beth will have it figured out.”
Scooting her chair back, she rested her head against Gavin’s, light against dark. “I’m tired of thinking about stuff like that.”
He shrugged off the refrigerator and squatted between his wife and son, wrapping an arm around each of them. “I know. This is going to end soon. I can feel it. And then...”
She turned and pinned him with her blue gaze. “And then what?”
He fell forward on his knees and cupped her face in his hands. “And then we’ll be together, like we were always meant to be.”
He kissed her mouth harder than he’d intended, but she didn’t back away. When had Jenna ever backed away from anything?
She returned his kiss with a fire that he’d felt only in his dreams. Sliding from her chair, she perched half on its edge, half on his knee. Her unexpected weight toppled him backward and he sprawled on the linoleum floor with his wife on top of him.
They both laughed, and Jenna’s smile brightened his whole world. Right in that instant, he knew he’d move mountains to be with her again—move mountains and relentlessly pursue an arms dealer to the ends of the earth.
The door to the kitchen swung open and Jim cleared his throat. “Sorry.”
Jenna rolled from Cade’s body, leaving a burning ache in his belly. “Don’t mind us. We’re just testing out the cleanliness of the place.”
Jim narrowed his eyes behind his glasses. The guy had a buttoned-down personality that suited his environment. No wonder Prospero had placed him out here.
Cade hopped to his feet. “She’s just kidding.”
“Yeah, yeah. We have to live here, so we try to keep it clean. Did you find anything to eat?”
“We ate on the road.” Cade chugged down some more beer. “But this sure hits the spot.”
“That’s Miyata’s. I don’t drink here on the job.”
Cade shrugged. “Like you said, you have to live here.”
“Are you sure you’re not hungry?” Jim tugged open the refrigerator and pulled out a bowl of what looked like pasta. “We have some leftovers. Sonia’s a pretty good cook.”
“Sure, you let the little lady do the cooking.” Jenna winked at Cade.
This joke went straight over Jim’s head, too. “Sonia likes to cook, but Miyata and I have our specialties, too. Sonia is our language specialist. She’s fluent in Spanish, but she knows Arabic, French and Italian, too. She does more than cooking.”
“That was a joke, Jim.”
“Can’t be too careful with all the sexual harassment and discrimination lawsuits flying around.”
“I’m sure you’re a model of decorum out here.” Jenna had a smirk in her voice that she kept off her face, but Cade could recognize because she’d aimed it at him enough times.
Jim popped the lid on the plastic bowl of leftover pasta. “It’ll take two minutes in the microwave.”
Cade held up his hands. Jimbo was relentless. “That’s okay. We’re good.”
“Your son? He probably won’t like the pasta, but we have a couple of frozen pizzas.”
Jenna balanced her chin on Gavin’s shoulder and kissed his cheek. “He’s sleeping.”
“Sleeping quarters outside to the left, Jim?” Cade leaned forward and scooped Gavin from the chair. Gavin nestled his head in the hollow between Cade’s neck and shoulder, and Cade felt as if he could hold his son like this all night.
Zendaris had a lot to answer for.
“To the left.” Jim scurried forward and pushed open the kitchen door.
Jenna followed Cade out of the kitchen and opened the door Jim indicated.
Two made-up beds were positioned on either side of the room. Unless Jenna insisted on sleeping in Gavin’s bed, it looked as if Cade was going to spend the night in the same bed with his wife for the first time in three years. The floor of the cabin didn’t count.
Cade tucked Gavin into the bed away from the door and placed his little boots on the floor at the foot of the bed. “Probably should’ve brushed his teeth first.”
Jenna tugged the covers more securely around Gavin’s shoulders. “It happens sometimes. I think our circumstances warrant a disruption in his schedule.”
Cade dimmed the lights, propped open the door and then kicked down the stopper on the kitchen door. He and Jenna joined Jim, sitting at the table, the uneaten bowl of pasta in front of him.
Guess Sonia wasn’t such a great cook, after all.
Cade sat in the chair across from Jim and stretched his legs in front of him. “Do you have any news?”
“Not about Zendaris.” Jim pinched the bridge of his nose. “We do have a pile of Korans picked up along the border, but ICE hasn’t brought anyone in who can claim ownership.”
“You said Miyata’s at the border? Is that what he’s looking at?”
“Yes. He’s inspecting some items the Border Patrol agents confiscated. He does that a lot.”
“We need a place to stay for the night, anyway.” Cade folded his hands behind his head. “Maybe Sonia can help us, too. She’s an analyst like Miyata, right? I’m figuring you for the computer geek.”
Jim straightened his glasses. “I am the computer tech. I think you should wait for Miyata’s return, though. You know him from before and he can work with Beth Warren.”
“Can you call him on your secure cell?”
“We don’t get any reception out here. It’s not only the location but the thick walls of the compound.”
“So Miyata doesn’t know we’re here?”
“No. Sonia and I were the only ones here when we got the message of your arrival. I didn’t even attempt to contact Miyata. Despite what you experienced when you walked into the hallway, we try to follow protocol out here. We have to. The other side is always watching, always ready.”
Cade scraped the label from his beer bottle. “Have you heard anything about the missing plans? Any chatter?”
“We figured you still had them.” Jim’s eyes, magnified by his thick lenses, blinked.
Jenna gasped, echoing Cade’s own sentiments precisely.
“Really?” Cade had to catch the bottle before it toppled to the table. “Who’s we? Who believes that?”
Jim’s gaze darted back and forth between him and Jenna, a dangerous glitter in her eyes. Good to know she still believed in him.
Jim licked his lips before he spoke. “A lot of people. Some are saying you still have the plans and are trying to throw Zendaris off.”
“If I had the plans—” Cade planted his clammy palms on the table in front of him “—I would’ve turned them over to the government by now. Why would I hold on to them?”
“Why does Zendaris think you’re holding on to them? Let’s face it, once the U.S. government has those plans, Zendaris’s cause is lost. He’s not going to get them back from the government. So he must believe you have them and intend to keep or sell them.”
Cade’s hands curled into fists. “It’s one thing for Zendaris to think I have other intentions for those plans, but why would anyone in Prospero think I do?”
“I’m just the messenger.” Jim held up his soft, uncalloused hands.
Cade growled his response. “The next time you hear that garbage, set ’em straight.”
“How did you lose those plans?”
Jenna slapped the table. “He didn’t lose them. Someone stole them.”
Jenna’s defense of him acted like a cool salve to his thumping, hot anger. His wife really did have his back.
“How did it happen?” Jim shrugged apologetically as Cade shifted forward in his seat. “We don’t hear much out in the boonies.”
“I lifted the plans, which were on a flash drive, from Zendaris’s courier in an alley in Zurich. I brought the drive back to my hotel, plugged it into my laptop—my secure government laptop—and two hours later, they had disappeared from that same laptop.”
Jenna’s jaw dropped, and Jim’s eyes got even bigger behind his glasses.
Jenna recovered first. “I didn’t realize you’d had them for only two hours.”
“It was probably less than two hours if you want to know the truth.”
“Who knew you were going to lift those plans?” Jim hunched forward as if conducting his own interrogation.
“When I intercepted the courier, I think he recognized me. Maybe Zendaris had alerted him to all of us—those of us on Prospero Team Three. Anyway, I left him in the alley.”
“Dead?”
“No. I had what I wanted.”
Jim snapped his fingers. “If you didn’t kill the courier, maybe he’s the one who hacked into your laptop.”
“Two hours later? I don’t think so. I said I didn’t leave him for dead.” Cade raised one brow. “That doesn’t mean all his parts and faculties were in working order.”
Jenna crossed her arms and hunched her shoulders, digging her fingertips into her upper arms.
Cade bit the inside of his cheek. He didn’t like exposing Jenna to the seamier side of his job, but then she’d lived that seamier side every day since she’d been on the run.
“Then who knew you had the plans? You can understand why people might not believe you—not that I don’t.” Jim shoved back from the table and stretched. “You two can bunk in the room with your son. I’m going to get back to work.”
He left the door ajar and his sneakers squished down the hallway.
Cade blew out a breath. “Wow, I didn’t realize I was under suspicion.”
“That’s Jim’s take on it.” Jenna waved her hands in an airy gesture. “Do you really think Prospero would be allowing you to roam around the country a free agent if they really suspected you of having that flash drive?”
“Some people within Prospero must have their suspicions.”
Jenna prowled around behind his chair and dug her fingers into his shoulders. “Not the important people. If Jack Coburn suspected you, he’d be interrogating you right now.”
Closing his eyes, Cade rolled back his head, giving in to the pressure of Jenna’s fingers now squeezing the tension from the back of his neck. “Jack even knows about my father, and he still trusts me with intelligence.”
Jenna’s thumbs stalled at the base of his skull before she burrowed beneath his hair. “Your father has nothing to do with drugs or weapons.”
“But he’s a crook.”
“And you’re not.”
“Do you think that’s what the rest are saying about me? Like father, like son? Gage’s father was practically military royalty. J.D.’s dad a salt-of-the-earth rancher and Deb’s dad, well, she didn’t know her father. They all probably think Jack was a fool to overlook my past.”
The slap on the side of his head brought tears to his eyes, and he ducked out of Jenna’s reach. “Hey!”
She leaned to the side, meeting his eyes. “There’s more where that came from if you don’t stop talking nonsense.”
“You spoiled the massage.” He rubbed his knuckles across his scalp.
“We can continue later.” She swept the bowl of pasta from the counter and stuck it in the sink. “What time do you think Miyata will be back tomorrow?”
“I have no idea. We might have to work with Sonia. I’m sure she can help us out.”
Jenna plucked the lid from the bowl and turned on the faucet. “You’re sure you don’t want some of this food?”
“No, thanks. I have a suspicion it’s bad since Jim was trying so hard to pawn it off on us.”
She aimed the faucet into the bowl. “I’ll get rid of it because it’s been sitting out for a while.”
Cade pushed out of the chair and stretched. Then he tossed his empty beer bottle into the recycling bin. “Gee, do you think a recycling truck comes all the way out here?”
“Can’t Prospero command anything?” She brushed past him and pushed open the door.
Cade flicked off the kitchen lights and followed her back to the room where Gavin was sleeping. One room, two beds. Would Jenna crowd into Gavin’s bed? Or would she take a chance with him?
She stood in the center of the small space, knotting her hands in front of her.
Cade pointed to a door off the room. “That’s a bathroom. No shower, but we can at least brush our teeth and wash some travel grit from our bodies. You first.”
“Thanks. I guess we have to take what we can get. Can’t expect a Prospero outpost in the middle of nowhere to have the same standards as a luxury hotel. Not that I wouldn’t take a luxury hotel right now—manicure, facial, Jacuzzi.”
Jenna’s nervous babble meant her thoughts were running along the same lines as his—sleeping arrangements. He’d just have to settle it when he finished washing up.
He shoved open the bathroom door and gestured inside. “Luxury awaits you—Prospero style.”
Jenna hunched over the sink, staring at her reflection. She could share a bed with Cade. They’d been married almost four years. Perfectly natural.
She snorted. There was nothing natural about their marriage. But the sex? As natural as breathing.
Or it used to be.
What did she know now? Had he been as celibate as she during their three-year hiatus? Had he stayed true to their marriage vows across the distance of space and time?
Leaning over the sink, she splashed water on her face. She wanted him again, but this sterile building in the middle of the desert in the middle of the night in the middle of a grand escape was not the time or place.
If not now, when? When would they be together again?
She grabbed the white towel from the ring and buried her face in its freshly laundered scent. Then she balanced her wet toothbrush on the edge of the sink.
She squared her shoulders and swept back into the bedroom. She gulped when she saw Cade already stretched out on the other bed, his boots kicked off, his hands behind his head.
He opened one eye. “I’m tempted to fall asleep right here without brushing my teeth. Would I go down in your estimation if I did? I mean, any further?”
“I wouldn’t blame you. We’ve been on a nonstop roller coaster.”
He yawned and shook his head. “Now I’m awake and there’s no way I can go to sleep without brushing my teeth.”
He rolled from the bed and padded to the bathroom on bare feet. “Be right back.”
Jenna eyed the large indentation in the mattress. He hadn’t suggested she crawl in with Gavin.
She perched on the edge of the bed and bounced a few times. She swung her legs on top and punched a pillow against the headboard. Sitting up against it, she clasped her hands between her knees—and waited.
Cade crept from the bathroom so silently she didn’t notice him until he was crouched beside Gavin’s bed. “Does he always sleep this soundly?”
“He’s probably exhausted. He usually wakes up a few times during the night.”
“We’ll have to be quiet, then.” Cade shrugged out of his flannel shirt and peeled the T-shirt from his body.
Jenna’s heart skipped a couple of beats. Did he have to do that? She drew her knees up to her chest, wrapping her arms around her legs.
Cade hung his clothes over the back of the only chair in the room, and Jenna licked her dry lips. Make up your mind, already.
He strolled to the bed and tested the mattress with his hand. “Okay if I join you? We are still married.”
Jenna released a measured breath through her nose. “Sure. Of course.”
Flicking back the covers, Cade slid into the bed next to her. The heat from his skin warmed her body, even though he hadn’t made a move to touch her.
She stretched out her legs and rolled to her side—facing away from him. Two seconds later, his hand curled around her waist. He nuzzled the back of her neck and breathed into her ear. “God, I missed you.”
She stilled, her breath shallow, tears stinging her eyes. “I missed you, too, Cade, but...”
“Shh.” He flattened his hand against her belly. “I don’t expect everything to be the way it was.”
He tugged her back against his chest, careful not to line up the rest of their bodies. Then he kissed the edge of her ear. “Go to sleep.”
Jenna believed that to be an impossible task, but she must’ve drifted off because she woke with a start, her heart pounding. She shifted onto her back, feeling Cade’s solid form next to her.
“Mommy!”
Gavin’s whisper brushed across her face and she reached out, her hands groping for his little body in the dark. “What’s wrong?”
His lips touched her ear. “There’s a lady sleeping. She looks funny.”
Her eyes adjusted to the gloom and zeroed in on Gavin leaning over the side of the bed, his face a white circle in the darkness. “Where’s the lady?”
His arm shot out behind him. “Out there.”
Jenna glanced over her shoulder at Cade, his chest rising and falling with each slow, measured breath. “Why are you wandering around?”
“I was looking for you.” He covered his mouth over a giggle bubbling to his lips. “Didn’t see you.”
“Did you wake up the lady?” Great, she had her son in a top secret facility and he was creeping around startling analysts.
He hunched his shoulders. “She looked funny.”
Jenna patted the bed, and Gavin hopped up next to her. “A lot of people look funny when they’re sleeping. Why were you bothering her?”
“Looking for you.”
“Well, you found me.” She wrapped her arms around him. “I was right here all along. You didn’t wake her, did you?”
“No. She was bleeding.”
Jenna caught her breath. “Bleeding?”
Gavin tapped his mouth. “Right here.”
Was Gavin making this up? She slid a glance at Cade and then sat up, scooting toward the edge of the bed. “Can you show me?”
Gavin grabbed her hand and tugged her toward the door. On silent, bare feet, they tiptoed into the hallway. One door on the corridor stood ajar. Gavin must’ve left it open.
Jenna crept toward the open door as goose bumps raced across her flesh. She poked her head into the room, laid out exactly like the one she’d just left. One bed stood empty. The other held a sleeping form.
“It’s someone sleeping, Gavin.”
“Uh-huh. With blood.”
In the darkness, Jenna’s gaze picked out the shape of the person in the bed. One arm dangled to the floor. Could she really be injured?
With Gavin clinging to her side, Jenna shuffled toward the bed. She crouched to peer into the woman’s face.
Nausea clawed through Jenna’s gut and beads of sweat broke out on her forehead.
The woman’s mouth hung open in a silent scream, blood and foam speckling the sheets.
Jenna’s mouth yawned open to deliver her own scream, but she never got the chance. A large hand shoved the scream back down her throat.