Chapter 17

CHAPTERSEVENTEEN

“Okay, I’ll be here waiting for you guys,” Stone said solemnly. “If anything looks hinky, I’ll text, and I expect you to do the same. Watch your six,” he warned.

Pipe and Owl nodded.

“Six?” Cora whispered to Pipe as they headed for the driveway and the gate they’d used to enter the grounds the previous afternoon.

“Back,” Owl answered before Pipe could.

“Oh, right.”

She was nervous and on edge. She stayed close to Pipe as they neared the gate. This time, as she suspected, it was locked, and the gate across the driveway was also closed.

“As if that’ll keep us out,” Owl grumbled as he headed for the brick wall that surrounded the property. He jumped over it as if it was only a foot high, rather than the four feet that it actually was.

Pipe also cleared it without any issue, then he turned around and held out his hand. “You got this,” he encouraged.

It wasn’t as if Cora couldn’t get over the wall, she just wasn’t as graceful as the two guys were while doing so. She hopped up and got her belly on the wall, then one leg up and over the edge. Pipe took it from there, lifting her without making it seem like it was a big deal, putting her on her feet on the grass on the other side.

“You good?” he asked.

Cora nodded. She wasn’t sure she was, but she’d insisted on being here, so she wasn’t going to back down now. Everything about today felt more ominous than the day before. The area was quiet, the air still, as if the very environment was anticipating…something. Which made no sense, but that was how it felt.

They didn’t see anyone on their walk toward the front door, and before she knew it, Pipe was reaching for the knocker. Like yesterday, he slammed it down on the metal plate.

Cora was standing a little behind Pipe and Owl, which, to be honest, she was all right with. It wasn’t as if she expected Creepy Guy or Ridge to open the door and start shooting, but knowing both Pipe and Owl were armed and more than ready and willing to use their weapons to protect themselves and her, if necessary, had ratcheted up the danger she felt.

It took several minutes, and several more knocks, before they heard the locks clicking on the door. Cora held her breath as it slowly opened.

Creepy Guy stood there staring at them. She supposed she should start calling him by his name, but now that she’d been calling him Creepy Guy in her head, it was hard to stop.

“What do you want?” CG growled.

“To see Lara,” Pipe told him in an equally menacing voice.

“I told you yesterday, she’s sick.”

“Don’t care. We’re seeing her today whether you like it or not,” he countered.

CG laughed. And not in a humorous way. “Yeah?” he asked.

“Yeah,” Pipe confirmed. “We’ve done a little inquiring about Mr. Michaels and his staff.” He emphasized that last word, making sure CG was aware that the inquiries included him. “And we were surprised not to see him at the Blue Moon last night. The girls were also disappointed…you know, considering how much he’s spoiled them in the last month.”

Cora held her breath as she waited to see what CG would say to that. He looked just as intimidating as he had yesterday. Had on a pair of black cargo pants, a short-sleeve gray polo shirt that showed off his bulging biceps, and black boots. He towered over her. His blond hair was cut short, in a military buzz, and his hazel eyes were cold as he looked down at them. The muscle in his square jaw ticked as he stood there with his arms crossed over his chest.

She felt the urge to apologize for interrupting him and flee, but Cora locked her knees. She wasn’t the kind of woman who was easily intimidated, but this guy? Yeah, he scared the crap out of her for some reason.

“And it’s fine if you don’t want to let us in,” Owl added. “We’ll just call up our contact in the Phoenix Police Department and have him come out with a dozen of his brethren to do a welfare check on Ms. Osler. There’s no telling what else they might find in the house…is there?”

At that, Cora was certain she saw alarm flare briefly in CG’s eyes, and her heart rate sped up. This was going to work. They were going to get in.

“There’s no need to get the cops involved. Nothing untoward is happening here. I’m sure Lara will be glad to see her friends.” With that, CG stepped away from the door, inviting them in.

As happy as Cora was that they were finally going to see Lara, something about stepping across the threshold made her hesitate. An old poem by Mary Howitt that she’d read in high school suddenly flashed into her mind. About the spider inviting the fly into his parlor. And everyone knew what happened to the poor fly. Right about then, she felt as if she was the fly and CG was the big bad spider.

She desperately wanted to grab hold of Pipe, but he’d warned her that he needed his hands free at all times…just in case. Cora didn’t want to think about what “just in case” entailed, but she could guess.

So she stayed glued to Pipe’s back as he stepped over the threshold behind CG. Owl was at her back, and she shivered as the door shut behind them with a loud clang. CG took the time to relock it, which was another thing that didn’t give Cora the warm fuzzies, before gesturing for them to follow him.

Looking around as they walked, Cora noted that the estate was pristine. There were no dust bunnies on the floor or in the air, there weren’t any knickknacks out of place. She was constantly putting crap on her counter, dropping bags on the floor when she got home, and she didn’t want to think about how many pairs of shoes were lying around her place. Her apartment was lived in. Well, before she’d sold everything.

This place was…hollow.

The thought of Lara being here made Cora want to weep. Her friend was full of sunshine. Despite being shy, she was a happy person, always thinking the best of people. Her apartment was even more chaotic than Cora’s, but it was full of love, and she’d always felt right at home there.

Their steps echoed on the tile floor as CG led them down a long hall. Cora noticed that Pipe’s head was on a swivel, just as it was anytime they were in any kind of situation he wasn’t familiar with. He was obviously taking note of their surroundings and the route they were taking.

Just when Cora thought CG was leading them to some back entrance and was going to shove them all out, he stopped. He opened a door and swung it open.

“If you wouldn’t mind waiting in here, I’ll go get Ms. Osler. It might take a few moments because she’ll need to change out of her sleeping clothes. There’s a small wet bar on the side of the room and the seats are comfortable. It’s the most restful room in the house. Figured you’d want privacy to speak to your friend.”

Pipe hesitated before he stepped into the room, and that small pause spoke volumes to Cora. But she followed close behind him, not wanting to be more than a few steps away, just in case. If shit did hit the fan, she wanted to be where Pipe was.

The space they entered was some sort of media room. There were three rows of large leather recliners on gradually elevating platforms, like at a movie theater. The seats were facing a big screen, and there was a projector on the back wall. As CG said, there was a wet bar to the right of the door with well-stocked shelves of what looked like an impressive array of liquor.

“Ten minutes,” Owl told CG as he turned to face him.

“Pardon?” CG asked. He might be a bodyguard, but he had the mannerisms and tone of a privileged and snotty staff member down pat.

“You’ve got ten minutes to bring Lara here, before we call the cops.”

An angry look flashed across CG’s face, but he simply nodded. “Ten minutes,” he agreed, then began to shut the door behind him as he left.

It went against everything inside Cora to let the asshole shut that door, but she didn’t want to do anything to jeopardize their chance of getting to see Lara. Apparently, Pipe was on the same page.

“I don’t like this,” he said the second they were alone.

“Me either,” Owl agreed.

“Me three,” Cora joked uneasily.

“That seemed too easy,” Owl said. “Although he definitely didn’t want us to call the cops. Did you see his face when I mentioned having the police doing a welfare check on Lara?”

“Oh, yeah, there are some secrets in this house for sure,” Pipe agreed. “I’m beginning to wonder if Michaels is all right. I mean, we haven’t seen him yet.”

“No, but the women at the Blue Moon said he was there the night before last,” Owl argued.

“That was before we showed up,” Pipe said with a shrug.

“You think maybe Michaels isn’t the bad guy here?” Owl asked.

Cora’s head swung from one man to the other, like she was watching a tennis match.

“No. He’s in this up to his eyeballs. He’s not innocent in the least, but I do think it’s odd that we haven’t seen hide nor hair of him yet.”

“So what do we do now?” Cora ventured to ask when no one had spoken for several seconds.

“We wait,” Pipe said firmly. “And no, we aren’t drinking any bloody thing from that wet bar. We have no idea if they’ve drugged the alcohol. Or the ice.”

“Wait—you can drug ice?” Cora asked.

“Absolutely,” Owl said with a nod. “I know of a case where terrorists were able to take over a plane by drugging all the passengers through the ice in their drinks. Thankfully, there was an astute chemist onboard who realized what was happening, and she informed the Navy SEAL sitting next to her.”

“Holy crap! Were they okay?”

“Yup. The SEAL didn’t drink anything, and he and his two buddies—who were also on the plane—overtook the hijackers.”

“Wow, I had no idea ice could be drugged,” Cora said with a shake of her head.

“It’s why I’ll never ask for ice on a plane,” Owl told her with a small smile.

Pipe remained quiet, and when Cora looked up at him, she saw he was checking out the room, his gaze running over everything. The chairs, the projector, the signed movie posters on the walls.

“What are you looking for?” she whispered.

“I don’t know. I’m just looking,” he replied.

Cora nodded. She felt out of her league. All she’d wanted was to make sure her friend was all right, and instead, she’d found herself in a situation where she had no idea what to do. She was very thankful that both Owl and Pipe were with her. She was safe with them, she had no doubt about that.

She tried to think positively. Soon, she’d get to talk to Lara, and hopefully leave with her. At this point, she didn’t care what Lara said. If she told her that she was fine and wanted to stay. After everything the guys had said, and after what Tex had found out about her so-called boyfriend, there was no way she was leaving her friend here. Even if Lara got mad at her and ended their friendship, it would be worth it to know she was safe.

Cora frowned at the thought of not having Lara in her life, but she’d rather have her best friend alive and hating her, than stuck in a bad situation.

“I hate waiting,” she admitted softly.

“You and me both, sister,” Owl said with a nod.

Pipe crossed the room and pulled her into his side. Cora gladly leaned against him, doing what she could to soak up his confidence and warmth. She couldn’t shake the feeling that something was very wrong, but she had no idea why or what to do about it. All she could do was wait for Creepy Guy, or maybe even Ridge, to come back with Lara in tow. Once she saw her friend, they’d figure out what to do next.

* * *

Stone sat impatiently in the car. The others hadn’t been gone all that long, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that they’d walked into a shit show. He’d sometimes gotten these feelings when he was on a mission, and when he did, every single time, the shit had hit the fan.

He stared at the brick wall about thirty feet from where he was parked. The Jeep was at the corner of the estate’s property line. Out of sight of the front door, but close enough that if needed, he could get to his friends to evacuate them.

Looking down at his watch, Stone swore as he realized only two minutes had passed since he’d last checked the time. He hated not knowing what was happening. But the fact that the three hadn’t immediately returned had to mean they’d had some success. Hopefully they were inside, meeting with Lara and finding out what the hell was going on.

The sudden vibration of his phone in his hand startled Stone so badly, he jerked. Laughing at himself, and shaking his head, he looked down at the screen.

A text had arrived—and Stone frowned as he read the preview.

Unknown: You need to back off.

He quickly unlocked the phone and clicked on the text to read the entire thing.

Unknown: You need to back off. Michaels is not the threat. It’s Carter Grant. The bodyguard. That’s not his real name. He’s got several aliases, Alex Hansen, Daniel West, Connor Smith, among others. He’s wanted by the FBI for over a hundred counts of sexual assault, rape, and murder. He gets off on drugging women and holding them hostage while he does unspeakable things. To date he’s been connected to thirty-five deaths. He’s a serial killer, and if Lara Osler was in that house, it’s likely she’s no longer alive. If Cora goes in there, I have no doubt she’ll be his next victim. I’ve called the police and the FBI but there’s an active shooter situation at a school on the other side of town. Literally everyone is tied up with that. They’ve called in agents from the Sedona office to check out the situation. But you need to back off. Abort!

Stone’s heart rate shot up to levels he hadn’t experienced since he’d gone down in the chopper on his last mission. His fingers raced over the screen as he texted the person back.

Stone: Who are you? How do you know this? We got intel from Tex and he’s the best of the best. He didn’t tell us any of this.

Three dots immediately blinked on the screen, letting Stone know whoever had sent the text was typing a reply. He didn’t have to wait long for it to come through.

Unknown: Who I am doesn’t matter. And how did I know where Jasna was? How did I know to track Reese’s tile? I hacked into Tex’s computer and dug deeper than he ever could on the names of Ridge’s employees. Get the hell out of there!

Holy shit. The mysterious person who’d already helped them—twice—was back. And if their intel was right, his friends were in extreme danger.

Stone believed the unknown person. Tex hadn’t been able to track who he was, and he was a computer genius. But now…

It seemed obvious to Stone that it had to be someone connected to The Refuge.

There were a lot of people who’d known about Jasna’s disappearance—but that wasn’t the case with Reese. There were supposedly no witnesses when she was taken from that parking lot in Los Alamos. And the fact that this person now knew where Cora was—and what they were doing—pointed at someone who had to know they were headed to Arizona in the first place. And very few people had that information.

But at this point, with this new intel? It didn’t matter who the unknown person was. All that mattered was getting his friends out of that house in one piece.

He immediately clicked on Pipe’s name and sent him a text.

Stone: Get out. Now.

He sent the same message to Owl, just to be on the safe side.

To his horror, he didn’t get the little check mark next to the messages saying they were delivered. He immediately clicked on Pipe’s name again, but this time to call him.

It went straight to voicemail.

Stone swore viciously and clicked on Owl’s name…with the same result. Out of desperation, he tried Cora. Again, no luck.

The situation felt worse and worse with each minute that passed. He desperately wished that the other guys were there. Brick, Tonka, Spike, and Tiny were better at this kind of thing. He was a helicopter pilot. Yeah, a hell of a good one, but he didn’t have the time in the field that his friends had. He’d been sufficiently trained in every type of combat situation, but the vast majority of his time had been spent in the air, not with boots on the ground. He had no doubt his friends would have probably formed three different plans by now and be halfway to executing them.

He frantically tried to think about what he should do next. Call the cops? Go up to the door and get his friends? Sneak up to the house and look through windows to see what intel he could gather?

All he knew was that if he didn’t do something, he might never see Pipe and Owl again. Both of them—as well as Cora and Lara—could end up dead.

He hadn’t lived through a helicopter crash and two weeks of torture to lose Owl now. They’d vowed to stay together through thick and thin, and no way was he gonna sit back and let anything happen to his best friend…or anyone else.

He had to come up with a plan. Pronto.