“Sir, he refuses to give us the...uh...item. He insists on coming out there to meet you.”
Connor sat in the backseat of the blacked-out SUV, praying Sherwood wouldn’t have him executed on the spot. His real backpack had everything he might need to save Josie but he’d left it with Mama Joe’s backup men. The only thing he had on him now was the tiny SIM card that would hopefully clear his name and tell the world the truth about who had been helping Sherwood for years now. He had the real card stashed in a safe place on his person and he’d put the fake one in the coin around his neck to use as a decoy. The empty backpack would also serve as a decoy.
“I can kill him,” the big man offered on an enthusiast note.
Connor waited two heartbeats, then blurted, “I have what he wants, but I want to give it to him in person. And only after I see that Josie is alive and unharmed.”
The man repeated his statement into the phone. “Fine. We’re on our way.” He put the phone down and turned to Connor. “Good news, sunshine. You get to live for a little while longer.”
“Nice,” Connor retorted, sarcasm hiding the urgency of the situation. He only wanted to live long enough to get Josie out of there. But if things worked out the way he hoped, they’d walk out together.
Sherwood would kill all of them. Of that he had no doubt. He’d kill them and make it look as if Connor had been the silent partner who’d mowed them all down then got himself shot in the cross fire.
What would his sister, Deidre, think about that?
He couldn’t let them do this to Deidre. Or Josie. Josie didn’t deserve this, and she sure didn’t deserve to die just because he’d made one too many mistakes.
But he promised himself and God that getting involved with Armond would be his last mistake.
* * *
Josie sat by Armond’s dingy bed, wondering what Sherwood planned to do with them. He’d left her here with Armond, but he’d warned her that he had cameras on them. Armond was asleep and cuffed to the bed, so she didn’t see how Sherwood expected her to try anything. If she’d heard right, Connor was on his way here. But why? Why hadn’t he gone to the FBI and reported Sherwood?
When she thought about that scenario, though, she could understand why Connor hadn’t sought help from the authorities. A high-up, well-respected FBI agent versus a confidential informant who had a shady past. Which one would she believe if she didn’t know the truth?
She closed her eyes and asked God to forgive her for not seeing the truth that had been right in front of her. But how could any of them have known this? Still wanting to put it all together, she tried to picture Sherwood and Armond working together. It didn’t add up, but then she’d had a hard time believing her own father had turned out to be a criminal, too.
Armond moaned and opened his eyes. He glanced over at Josie, surprise making him grunt. “What are you doing here?”
Josie couldn’t be sure how coherent he was, so she decided to stick to generalities. “Sherwood brought me here to see you. Is there anything you want to tell me, anything you remember?”
Armond coughed and gave her one of his penetrating stares. “Too many memories. Too much to explain. Where is my son?”
Josie’s hands were tied behind her back again, so she couldn’t get any closer. “Lou? He and Vanessa are safe.” She hoped and prayed. “I think Sherwood has them somewhere in the building.” She leaned up in her chair.
Armond became agitated. “Did you find—”
The door opened and Sherwood waltzed in. “Enough chitchat. We’re expecting company.”
Josie’s heart bumped painfully inside her body. “Connor?”
“Miss him, Gilbert?”
“Just concerned,” she replied, her tone cool in spite of her quickening pulse. “Do you think you’ll actually get away with this?”
“I don’t see any problem in getting away with this.”
She wanted to shout there were two very strong problems—her and Connor. But her helpless situation tore at her. She could easily escape if she set her mind to it, but she wouldn’t leave Armond or Connor. She’d wait until Connor showed up and then maybe together they could figure something out.
* * *
When the SUV pulled up to the rusted-out industrial building, Connor tried to see through the blacked-out windows to gauge the building’s shape. Long and narrow, two-storied, with very few windows and doors. A maze out in the middle of the swamp. The building was only yards from the lake and tucked back along a narrow dirt road. Probably something to do with shipping, but Connor wondered what kind of shipping.
Not that it mattered right now. Still studying his surroundings, he got out of the truck and breathed in the smells of stale oil and decaying loam. Somewhere off in the dense, mossy woods, an animal hurried through the underbrush. The whole place was enveloped in a mantle of desolation and loneliness.
This was the kind of place where people came to die.
But he didn’t plan on dying here. And he sure didn’t plan on anybody he loved dying here. “Let’s get this over with,” he told his guards.
They took him by his elbows and guided him into the main doors. Once the squeaking doors closed behind him, Connor started making plans. His keepers had frisked him, but he’d expected that, so he’d kept his cool and let them have at it. He expected Sherwood to immediately force them to do a more thorough search.
Which was why he’d also asked Mama Joe’s boys to bring their own weapons and the one he’d tucked into the backpack. The only thing he had on him now that mattered was the real SIM card. And he’d stashed it in a place the guards wouldn’t think to check—inside his bootheel. He could go old-school himself when needed.
The goons pushed him down a long, dark hallway toward another double steel door. This place was about as isolated as you could get, but Connor had brought his own brand of backup for that very reason. Mama Joe’s boys could find their way through a maze of live alligators.
When the two men pushed him through the doors, he braced himself for anything and held his breath.
“Welcome.” Special Agent Sherwood smiled and motioned Connor inside the long, dark room.
Heat and humidity hung in the stale air like wet curtains. It clogged Connor’s throat and dripped down his hair and neck.
He took in the scene, his gaze hitting on Josie first. She was tied to a chair, her hands and feet twisted together with rope.
She gave him an imploring return stare, but what he saw in her eyes gave him the boost he needed to get this over with.
She looked at him in a way that showed she believed in him.
Connor returned that gaze, then moved on. Shocked to see Louis Armond lying unkempt in a dirty hospital bed, he stared at the old man and wondered how he’d survived this long. Then he did a quick appraisal of the rest of the room. Lou Junior and Vanessa sat in a corner, their mouths taped over, their hands and feet tied. They both looked fatigued and terrified.
“Looks like I’m a little late to the party,” Connor finally said. He took another quick glance around the room, then rested his gaze on Josie.
When Armond heard his voice, he lifted his head. “Connor, no. Connor, leave.”
Sherwood’s chuckle cut through the tension hanging over the big room. “No, no. You’re right on time, Randall. Or maybe about thirty years too late, depending on who’s doing the talking.”
Armond grunted again. Sherwood stalked to his bed. “Shut up, old man. I told you you’d regret stepping over that line, but you wouldn’t listen to me, would you? You went and got involved with Randall here again, asking him for help. Did you think you’d really get away with that?”
Armond glared up at Sherwood, but he ran out of steam and slumped back against his pillow.
“He looks bad,” Connor said in a nonchalant tone. “What’d you do to him, Sherwood?”
Joseph Sherwood turned then, all kidding aside. “You know what I did to the old man, Randall. He tried to double-cross me, so I decided it was time to haul him in, dead or alive.”
Vanessa moaned through her taped mouth, her dark eyes flashing fire at Sherwood. He walked over and leaned down in front of her. “I tried to warn you, too, darling. Told you two to stay away, but you were so afraid that everyone would find out the truth, you nearly ruined all of our plans.”
Armond’s wife gazed up at Joseph Sherwood with a dark plea in her eyes. Then she glared at the man in the bed.
The whole scene was like something out of an opera, Connor decided. All they needed was an orchestra and a soprano.
Connor pushed the issue, his mind whirling with ways to play all the main characters against each other. “So you two were in this together? Is that why you gathered all of us here?”
Sherwood turned around and stalked back to Connor. “You have no idea, none at all, what a hornets’ nest you stirred up by agreeing to help this pathetic old man.”
Connor cut his gaze to Sherwood. “Why don’t you tell me, then?”
“Give me the goods,” Sherwood said, grabbing the necklace Connor wore. “Since you’re so attached to this, I guess you’ve got what I need hidden in here somewhere.”
Connor halfheartedly pretended to hold on to the gold coin. “No, I told your goons I wouldn’t let go of this until I knew Josie was safe.”
“And doesn’t she look just fine? Comfortable and with a front-row seat to all the action.”
“I thought I knew you,” Connor retorted. “We all thought we knew you.” He glanced back at Josie. The disappointment on her face broke his heart. “You used Agent Gilbert and me, sending us here and there, while you transported Armond and his family out here. Why? For your own kind of justice?”
Sherwood grabbed the necklace again and, with a grunt and a yank, broke it away from Connor’s neck.
Connor gritted his teeth against the ripping pain, his raw skin burning with perspiration. But he refused to give Sherwood any satisfaction. “I didn’t know you liked gold so much, Sherwood.”
Sherwood turned the coin over several times. “What is this? Some kind of a joke? Where is it, Randall?”
“Where’s what?” Connor lifted his eyes to meet Josie’s, hoping he could convey everything he wanted to say to her.
“You know what,” Sherwood shouted, his voice scaring Vanessa Armond into a fit of tears. “She knows what I’m talking about and she’s scared, so scared that you’ve figured things out.”
“What’s to figure out?” Connor asked, holding his hands up, then dropping them back down. “You tell me what you think I have, Sherwood, and then I’ll tell you if I have it.”
“Oh, I get it,” Sherwood said. He stalked back to Connor and glared at him. “You don’t really know what I’m looking for. Are you bluffing me, Randall?”
“No bluff here,” Connor said, his nose inches from Sherwood’s. “I have something, but I want to hear you ask for it. It must be really valuable to you.”
Sherwood spun around and went for Josie. He grabbed her up out of the chair and held her by the arm, one hand out to stop Connor from coming for him. “Don’t even think about it!” he shouted. “I’m done with your games, Randall. Is this information more valuable than this woman?”
“No,” Connor replied, his eyes on Josie. He gave her a quick wink and then nodded toward the necklace. “It’s inside the coin. There’s a small hollow space inside.”
Josie let out a gasp of breath. “Did you know that all along?”
“No,” Connor replied, his heart pumping a message to her. “I only discovered it a little while ago.”
She nodded, her gaze moving from the coin in Sherwood’s hand and then back to Connor. He tried to convey the truth to her and then he looked down at his boot, hoping she’d realize he wasn’t going to double-cross her.
While Sherwood tried to open the coin, Connor sent a warning glance to Josie. She was back in the chair and settled, but he could tell instead of fearing for her life she was busy calculating how she was going to get them all out of here. Sherwood knew she wouldn’t leave without everyone he’d been holding, so he obviously wasn’t too concerned about her trying anything. That and the two men with the big guns at the door, of course.
But Connor knew she wouldn’t give up. She was that kind of agent. She’d save these people, even though they’d all kill her in a New York minute if the cards were turned.
Staring past the two guards, Connor gave her an imploring glance. He couldn’t let her attempt to help him. They’d shoot her just to spite him if he moved.
Sherwood finally motioned to Connor. “Show me how to get into this thing. Now!”
Connor did as he asked, praying Sherwood wouldn’t download the whole thing right away. Just a few more minutes...
When Connor sprang open the coin and showed Sherwood the tiny square black card, the other man stared at it as if it were a piece of gold, then he turned it around and around in his hand. Finally, he turned back to Armond. “I have it now. I have the whole operation right here. And there is nothing any of you can do about it.”
Armond lifted up and snarled. In the corner, Vanessa and Lou both tried to talk through their taped mouths. Connor looked from Sherwood to Armond, then to Josie. He sent her a slight shrug, then looked down at his boots again. Would she understand what he was telling her?
Josie leaned close to Armond. “What is it? What are you trying to say?”
Sherwood heard her and rushed to the bed, pushing her back in her chair before he knocked Armond back down. “You’re not going to blow this for me now, are you, old friend?”
Armond gained strength, anger coloring his wrinkled, shrunken face. Then he lifted up and stared straight at Connor.
“My son,” he said, hatred in his eyes as he cut them back to Sherwood. “That’s the real prize that you can’t take away. Connor, you are my son.”