“You okay?” Seth slapped the manila folder into Cody’s stomach. “You’re sweating.”
“I’ve been hot for a while,” Cody muttered.
Seth regarded him for a long moment, looked into the bedroom, then started laughing.
Irritated at his brother, at his own transparency, at the world in general, Cody growled, “Shut up. J.J. is sleeping.”
“Do I want to know what you were doing?” Seth joked. “And aren’t you a little old to be doing it?”
“I would like to hurt you,” Cody shot back, smacking Seth’s Stetson off with the envelope. “Have a minute to sit down? I need someone to talk to.”
Seth’s brows arched and he donned a completely annoying smirk. “Tell me everything,” he insisted, turning a chair around before taking a seat, arms folded, chin resting on his hands. “As your older brother, it’s my job and my personal honor to be available to you in what is so obviously your hour of need. Hour may be a stretch. Five, ten minutes top. But go ahead, tell me everything. Well…not everything. Only the parts that include blond, leggy, naked FBI agents of the female persuasion.”
“I only pretended to like you when we were growing up,” Cody shared, taking a seat. “I don’t think I will talk to you, after all.”
Seth’s demeanor changed to something a little more appropriate. “What’s up?”
“I blew it, bro. I said something in the heat of the moment and now I can’t take it back.”
Seth let out a low whistle. “Not good. A woman’s mind is like wet cement. Whatever you say gets imprinted on it and it’s there forever. Never, I mean never say anything to a woman you don’t want repeated back to you—verbatim—ten years down the road.”
Cody felt himself scowl. “That’s the problem. I do want it repeated back to me.”
Seth’s eyes opened wider and a slow, aggravating grin curled his lips. “You’re in love with her.” Then his expression quickly changed to concern. “Or, you said you were in love with her and you aren’t?”
“I am,” Cody insisted. “Which is loony in and of itself because we haven’t even had a damned date, let alone sle—just let it alone.”
He watched as Seth relaxed back into tempered amusement. “So, your job was to try and get the girl killed, but instead, you fall in love with her. Do I have the gist of it?”
Cody cringed. That sounded really pathetic. “I have an idea. Why don’t you raise your hand when you have something constructive to offer?”
Seth leaned over and patted his shoulder. “Cody, just accept that you screwed up and fix it.”
“How?”
He shrugged and got to his feet. “Apologies usually go a long way. Start there.”
“She won’t even discuss it with me,” Cody admitted.
“Maybe because she’s got a few other things on her plate?” Seth suggested. “Let this whole Russian mob thing play out, then go from there. Speaking of going—” Seth pulled keys from his pocket “—I’ve got your tux in my jeep. Chandler packed you a bag—he must have been a girl in a past life.”
“We’re the same size,” Cody reminded his brother, though he did chuckle at the thought. “Thank him for me.”
“Thank him yourself. He and Molly should be at the Inn later. Doing something important, no doubt. Like running lint brushes over all six hundred napkins.”
“That was harsh.” Cody tried to take the high road and keep from grinning, but it wasn’t possible. He knew full well Seth’s assessment probably wasn’t far off the mark.
“THIS WAS A WASTE of time,” J.J. complained in a garbled version of English to Chance, whom she now thought of as Brother B, since he was the second Landry she’d met.
“Better to be safe than sorry,” he insisted. “And no talking with the thermometer in your mouth.”
J.J. was in bed, disheveled and a little groggy since she hadn’t expected a house call from the doctor. Apparently it was her punishment for not making a follow-up appointment as directed. Cody had just shaken her awake and announced that Brother B was here.
“Your pulse is good and you have no temperature. I’d say you’re good to go.”
“I could have told you that,” J.J. replied. “Not that I have anyplace to go.”
“The wedding,” Chance announced, as if it was a foregone conclusion.
She looked him directly in the eye. “I don’t think that’s smart or safe.”
Chance gave a dismissive wave with one hand. “We’ve got you covered, J.J. We hired security—we’ve used them before—so no one will be able to get within a mile of the wedding or the reception.”
She shook her head. “I’m not going to risk it.”
“Cody!”
The bedroom door opened and Cody rushed in, his face tight with concern. “Is everything okay?”
“Healthwise, yes. But I’m pretty sure you wasted your money on that dress. Says she isn’t going.”
Cody had bought that dress? That incredible, sinfully expensive, beautiful dress?
“Thanks for dropping by,” Cody told his brother. Then he pretty much shoved him to the front door. “See you tonight at dinner!” And with that, Chance was history.
J.J. used the time to put on her sweater and comb her fingers through her hair. She was one step out of the bedroom when she nearly collided with Cody. He looked determined. He looked resolute.
He looked hot.
Oh great! How was she ever going to carry on what promised to be a spirited debate when every one of her hormones was tingling with delight. He’d changed into a pair of navy slacks and a gunmetal gray shirt. Only the top two buttons were undone, giving her just a peek at the mat of dark hair she already knew covered the broad expanse of his muscular chest. How was she supposed to stay focused when he looked so…perfect?
“Let’s discuss this rationally,” he began, taking her hand and urging her to the small sofa. “I can’t be in two places at once.”
His cologne was wonderful…kind of woodsy.
“We’ve hired a private security firm.”
His leg was warm where it brushed hers.
“Believe me, J.J., I wouldn’t put anyone in dang—”
“I really want you.”
He jerked slightly, which was pretty much the only reason she realized she had spoken aloud. Her admission hung in the space between them.
Her heart squeezed when she finally put enough brain cells together to realize that for whatever reason, he had not taken her confession as a compliment. In fact, judging by the set of his jaw and the clench of his teeth, he wasn’t too pleased with her accidental honesty. “I don’t know why you look so…so affronted. I’d think you’d like to know that I feel a certain physical attraction to you.”
“Then you would be wrong,” he said, his tone as distant as she’d ever heard it. “Martin’s on his way back from Helena and I left a message for Lara to show up before dinner, so, I’d like to finish this conversation while we’re still alone.”
“Which conversation?” she retorted. “My unwanted physical attraction to you or the idiotic notion that I’m going to the wedding with you?”
His eyes narrowed. “The adult one. The one regarding the wedding.”
She held out her hands and ticked things off on her fingers as she spoke. “Very public location. Two locations actually, church and reception. Throngs of people—including children. No time to do background checks on staff and servers. No time to do background checks on friends and guests. And—” she faltered slightly “—I can’t wear that dress.”
He blew a breath toward the ceiling. “The security company is at the church as we speak. Complete with bomb-sniffing dogs. Once they’ve done a sweep, they’ll post someone until after the ceremony. They’re bringing the dogs here to the Inn when they finish at the church.
“Any guest currently registered here who isn’t an invitee to the wedding is being relocated by private charter to Estes Park in Colorado. They’re all thrilled, by the way. Molly and Chandler provided the guests’ names and the hotel turned over the employee names to the Marshal Service and the security company, so background checks will be completed by midnight tonight.”
“How did you do all this?”
He shrugged. “What fun is having money if you don’t spend some every now and again.”
“Not out of your own pocket!” she cried. “We’re federal employees, Cody. We have rules and—”
“I’m not missing this wedding, J.J.,” he practically yelled at her. “I failed my family by not being able to find my parents in time to get them here. I failed in my assignment because I lost a deputy. And I pretty much screwed up where you’re concerned. So, stop arguing with me. You will put on that damned dress and go to the wedding. Got it?”
“Uh…sure.” She wanted to make a smart remark, but thought better of it. He was pretty mad and she figured it was probably best to leave it alone. For now.
Sighing, Cody pressed his fingers to his temples. “Would you please call Stephenson and ask him where Lara is?”
“No problem.” J.J. went into the bedroom, retrieved her cell and placed the call. Stephenson answered on the second ring. “It’s me,” she said into the mouthpiece. “Where are you?”
“Sitting in a surveillance van, freezing my butt off in the parking lot of a convenience store north of you.”
“Because?”
“Our girl has been on a pay phone for the better part of two hours.”
“Did you get a trace?”
“About ten minutes ago. It’s the same number she called like twenty-five times from her hospital room…3-0-5 area code.”
“Miami.” J.J. hunted around for a pen and paper, found them and said, “Give it to me.” He called out the numbers. J.J. repeated them back as she wrote them down. “Reverse directory?”
“Having it faxed to you at the Mountainview Inn.”
“That’s convenient,” she groaned.
“There aren’t that many of us in the Helena office,” he whined. “I’m a field agent, Barnes, not your personal assistant. What’d you expect me to do? I’m stuck out here until she decides to get off the frigging phone. Or, I can go to the office, pick up the reverse directory and bring it to your nice, warm location.”
“Stay on Lara. I’ll get the fax.” She glanced over at Cody, lowered her voice and asked, “What about the other things? The number?”
“There is no listing in any state for the number you gave. But I’m working on it.”
“Good.” She hung up without thanking the guy. Jeez! You’d think he was the only agent ever stuck in a surveillance van. She’d done it more times than she could count. It came with the job.
She rejoined Cody in the living room and shared the gist of her conversation. Well, most of it anyway.
Grabbing the phone off the end table, he rang the front desk and asked if Chandler and Molly had arrived. After a pause, he directed any incoming fax for J.J. be given to his brother, Chandler.
“I can get my own mail,” J.J. protested. She had to be careful. If she protested too strenuously, he’d know she was up to something.
“Barring something along the lines of a nuclear explosion, you’re not leaving this bungalow until the wedding.”
Okay. Problem, but not insurmountable. She’d have to text message Stephenson as soon as possible and make sure he understood the minor change in plans.
“Seth dropped these off,” he told her, dropping the folder in her lap. “I’ll save you some mind-numbing reading. Denise and her husband were cheating on their taxes.”
“A lot?” she murmured as she scanned the memo.
“Al Capone style cheating. Sam ran the numbers and estimated they’d do at least ten years, if not more. No wonder she’d been so distracted. He also checked with an IRS contact of his. Four months ago, Denise and her husband were notified that they’d be audited.”
She glanced up in response to the haunted quality of his voice. “You couldn’t have guessed that, Cody.”
“I might have been able to help if she’d only have asked.”
“Hey, Super Deputy,” she teased, tugging on the sleeve of his crisp shirt, “people who cheat the government eventually get caught. Denise knew that when she made the decision to help her husband hide income offshore.”
“Money makes people do strange things,” he offered, pacing nervously.
“Lack of money.”
“Excuse me?”
J.J. shrugged. “It’s the lack of money, Cody. An awful lot of criminals are motivated by greed for money. Denise and her husband are no different. They gave into temptation. It happens.”
“Maybe the Visnopovs found out about their tax fraud,” he suggested, stroking the faint stubble on his chin. “I hate to have Greg arrested on the same day he’s notified of Denise’s death, but it might be unavoidable.”
“If she was in their pocket, they wouldn’t have killed her, Cody. At least not until after they knew I was dead.”
“Unless they were sending a warning to her husband,” he suggested. “Maybe killing Denise was a—”
“Doesn’t play,” she cut in. “If Denise was the leak, they needed her alive to help them. Now, if they had killed her husband, I’d be the first one to say it was a message sent to keep her in line.”
“You’re right.”
He rolled his head around on his shoulders. She could see the tension etched around his eyes and mouth and felt incredible empathy for him. Okay, empathy wasn’t all she felt. But it was all she was willing to acknowledge. For now.
“So, we’re left with Lara and the mysterious phone calls,” she said. “Is your brother going to bring the fax over anytime soon?”
Cody flipped open his cell. “I’ll see what’s holding him up.”
She heard one half of a very brief conversation, then Cody put the phone back in his pocket. “He’ll take a break and run it down.”
“Good. You know, we’ve kind of dismissed—”
Martin burst in the door then, his arms laden with a thick brown accordion file, his cheeks red.
“Didn’t hear you drive up,” Cody said.
“Parked up the hill. I couldn’t get past the van blocking the access road. I hope we can order food before we have to start reading forensics,” Martin began. “The sight of that caterer’s truck made my mouth water. I haven’t eaten since the hospital. And you know what they say about hospital food, so…”
J.J.’s mind went into overdrive as Martin’s words turned into an undecipherable monotone of, “Blah, blah, blah.”
“Is there an event tonight?” she demanded, grabbing Cody by the arm.
“No.”
Without thinking, she dashed from the room with Cody fast on her heels. “J.J., wait! What are you doing?”
She raced toward the white truck parked at the top of the hill, glancing back to see Cody gaining on her and Martin farther back.
Pulling her gun from the waistband of her jeans, J.J. approached the panel truck slowly, eyes darting around, alert for any potential danger.
“FBI! Step out of the truck!” she called.
Nothing.
Cody was now beside her, weapon drawn. She tilted her head, indicating he should approach the van from the opposite side. J.J. focused on the driver’s door.
Nothing.
Her shoulder brushed the van, catching the corner of the magnetic sign in the weave of her sweater. Fancy Foods Catering peeled away to reveal Hank’s Truck Rental painted in bright orange lettering.
“Truck’s bogus!” she warned.
“Truck’s clear,” Cody called back.
“Truck’s empty,” Martin announced at the same time.
“Truck’s rented!” called a rather frightened-looking man J.J. put someplace in his early twenties. “Who are you guys?” he asked from the safety of his hiding place in the bushes.
“Agent Barnes. FBI. Step out where we can see you, sir.”
The man’s blue eyes turned into wide saucers as he sidestepped his way out from behind the hedges, spindly arms raised. “I didn’t do anything wrong, Miss Officer, ma’am.”
“Where’s your license, son?” Cody asked, stuffing his gun into his waistband as he walked over to the scared guy.
“Back right pocket.”
J.J. lowered her weapon but not her guard until she saw Cody pull a tattered nylon wallet out and verify the driver’s license photo before showing it to her.
“So, tell me, William—or do you prefer Bill?”
“W-Willy,” the young man replied, gulping.
“Okay, Willy, what’s with the van?”
“I got hired to drive it out here is all.”
“By whom?” J.J. asked.
Willy’s teeth began to chatter. “A-a lady c-came in and r-rented it. S-she had the signs r-ready to p-put on and e-everything thing.”
Cody gripped the guy’s bony arm and was going to lead him down to the bungalow when he heard Chandler call his name.
“Go,” Martin said, his eyes on the kid.
“I’m not leaving J.J.”
“I can take care of it. Go talk to your brother.”
“You watch him,” he said to Martin, handing the kid off. “Get her back inside now. I’ll be right down.”
Cody jogged over to Chandler. “How’s the groom?”
“Better than you, apparently,” Chandler replied, thrusting several rolled sheets of paper toward him. “What’s with the guns, and where are they taking J.J.?”
Cody’s heart stopped as he turned in time to see the taillights of the van blink red before peeling out toward the highway.