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Zeke
Once in the woods, Zeke let his training take over. He moved swiftly and quietly, managing to cover a lot of ground in a short amount of time. The falling rain was an advantage; he didn’t have to worry as much about being seen or heard.
He welcomed the focus and the calming effect it had on him.
Have an objective. Achieve it. Move on.
That worked for him. That was how he lived his life. Clean. Simple.
The last few months had been anything but clean or simple. He no longer had a clear objective. He didn’t know what, if any, part he played, going forward.
And it was all because of her.
Being around Aggie had muddied the waters significantly. His feelings for her were complicated enough, but thinking about the last forty-eight hours made his head spin. He’d thought he had a grasp on things, but it’d turned out, he didn’t have a fucking clue.
As he neared the target site, he was pleased with what he discovered. A sequence of freshly dug holes, probably for waste. A decided lack of kindling on the ground around the area. And the faint but unmistakable aromas of wood smoke and roasted rabbit.
This, he could do. This was second nature.
He approached the overhang carefully and without sound and found exactly what he’d come for.
“Sam Higgins.”
The man tending the fire looked up, his eyes wild. He was thinner than the images Zeke had seen, and he was sporting a full beard, but it was the same guy.
Higgins reached for his rifle.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” Zeke warned.
Higgins looked at the Sig in Zeke’s hand and stilled.
“Who are you? What do you want?”
“I’m a friend of Aggie’s. What I want is information.”
Higgins narrowed his eyes. “What kind of information?”
Zeke stepped farther in and picked up the rifle, placing it out of Higgins’s reach, then tucked his gun into the back of his pants. Higgins was no threat. The guy looked like a good stiff breeze would knock him over.
“Let’s start with whatever sent a bunch of thugs to grab Aggie out of her bed and beat the shit out of her.”
Higgins dropped his gaze. “Is she okay?”
Regret tinged Higgins’s voice, but what Zeke didn’t hear was surprise or outrage. He closed the distance between them and punched Higgins right in the mouth. Higgins stumbled back, hit the wall of rock, and went down on his ass.
“You knew they would go after her, didn’t you, you fucking weasel?”
“No! I mean ... yeah, I thought they might toss her apartment or something, but I didn’t think they’d hurt her. She wasn’t part of it.”
Zeke reached down, hauled him up by his filthy shirt, and hit him again, sending him back to the ground. “But they didn’t know that, did they? What are they looking for?”
Higgins leaned to the side and spit out a mouthful of blood. “They’ll kill me if I tell you.”
“I’ll kill you if you don’t.”
“It’s complicated!” Higgins whined.
“Then, let me simplify things. I know you and your guys were running shipments of toxic waste to illegal dump sites run by the mob. I know the FBI approached you about being an informant. What I don’t know is why you ghosted and left Aggie in their crosshairs.”
Higgins’s eyes widened. “Who are you?”
“Your worst fucking nightmare if you don’t convince me that you’re worth more alive than you are dead. Start. Talking.”
Zeke took another step forward, and Higgins put up both hands.
“All right, all right! You’re right, okay? About everything. I was making runs. They didn’t really give me much of a choice. It was do what they said and get cash in my pocket or lose my job—or worse. I didn’t feel right about it, but what was I supposed to do? If I didn’t, they’d just find someone else.”
“Tell me about the FBI.”
Higgins shrugged. “A guy just showed up at my door one day. Said he was a fed, investigating the plant, and that if I helped them, they’d help me. I figured it was a way out.”
“But it wasn’t.”
Higgins shook his head. “It was at first. The agent assigned to my case—Paul Hanlon—seemed like a stand-up guy. I was supposed to keep track of everything, and I did. Notes, names, pictures, all of it, on this flash drive they gave me. I was going to hand it over, but Hanlon didn’t show. Another agent did. He asked me for the drive, but something felt off, you know? So, I told him I wasn’t stupid enough to keep it with me, that I had it hidden and couldn’t get it until later. They must have seen me with Aggie and figured I’d given the drive to her for safe keeping. Anyway, he said he needed to show me something. Turned out, what he wanted to show me was a picture of the first guy’s body being fished out of the river.”
“So, you ran.”
“Fuck yes, I ran! Wouldn’t you?”
“Where’s the information now? Do you still have it?”
“No.” He spit again.
“You’re lying.”
Higgins rallied and looked up at Zeke with defiance. “What if I am? Are you going to shoot me?”
“Tempting, but no. Aggie wants me to bring you back alive.”
“Aggie? Why?”
“Because for some unknown reason, she wants to help you.”
“I told you, no one can help me. My only chance is to disappear.”
“I found you. Eventually, they will too. Are you going to live like a hermit for the rest of your life, always looking over your shoulder, waking up every morning and wondering if it’s going to be the day they find you?”
“It’s not so bad,” Higgins said, though his voice lacked conviction. “I’ve got plenty of food and water. I don’t have to deal with anyone’s shit or follow anyone else’s rules. I’ll keep moving. The Appalachians run a long way.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not asking. Get up. You’re coming with me.”
“I don’t think so.”
Zeke sighed. If the guy insisted on doing things the hard way, he’d oblige.
Zeke was just about to haul him to his feet when the leather wrist cuff Aggie had given him began to vibrate. She had insisted he wear it, so she could keep track of his progress and warn him of impending danger.
He had resisted at first. If things did go south, he didn’t want Aggie venturing into the woods, looking for him. But then she’d looked at him with those pretty hazel eyes while sinking down onto his shaft, and he hadn’t been able to say no. Hell, he would have agreed to practically anything at that point.
He held up his hand, warning Higgins to be quiet, and listened, but it was impossible to hear anything over the rain.
He signaled to Higgins to stay put, then moved toward the opening. Keeping his body in shadow, he pulled a scope out and scanned the area. The rain had intensified, coming down in big, fat drops.
Zeke spotted movement about a hundred yards beyond—two dark smudges against the green and the gray. He sensed Higgins creeping up behind him and glanced back in warning.
Higgins held up both hands to show they were empty and whispered, “What’s happening?”
“We’ve got company,” he answered equally quietly and handed Higgins the scope. “Friends of yours?”
“That’s the agent who wasted Hanlon and threatened to do the same to me. His name’s Manelli. I don’t know the other guy.”
“Hey, over there!” the unknown guy said, his voice muffled by the rain.
“Check it out,” Manelli said.
The unknown guy moved closer. “Looks like a cave or something.”
“Fuck. What do we do?” Higgins asked.
Zeke considered their options and realized they didn’t have many. “Stay here,” he commanded, pulling the camo hood up over his head.
“Are you nuts? Where are you going? They’ll kill me!”
“No, they won’t.”
Zeke slipped out from the overhang and stayed close to the rocks. He crouched behind the scrub that flanked the opening. The two men approached, Manelli bringing up the rear.
“Samuel Higgins. This is Agent William Banks of the FBI. Come out slowly, hands where I can see them.”
Zeke had no idea if Banks was dirty, but he knew Manelli was, which meant if Higgins surrendered, he was as good as dead. He wasn’t about to let that happen.
Apparently Higgins had the same thought.
“Why?” Higgins shouted from within. “So you can waste me like you did Hanlon? I don’t think so.”
“Nice try, Higgins. We know you pulled the trigger. The guy had a wife and kids, did you know that?”
A shot rang out, and Banks dropped like a stone. Manelli stepped closer, pointed his gun at Banks’s prone form, and fired again.
“Enough of that.” Manelli approached the opening. “Hello, Sam. You know why I’m here. Give me the drive.”
“And what, you’ll just let me walk away?”
A dark laugh. “I think we both know that’s not going to happen. You killed two federal agents, and in the course of evading capture, you were mortally wounded. The only question is, whether or not your death was the result of an instant kill shot to the head or a shot to the stomach, causing you to bleed out slowly and painfully over the course of the next several hours.”
“How about C, none of the above?” Zeke offered.
Before Manelli could turn around, Zeke disabled him with a swift and brutal strike to the head. He kicked Manelli’s gun to the side, and then he pulled zip ties from one of his deep pockets and tossed a few to Higgins.
“Get his feet, then help me drag him farther into the cave.”
Higgins’s hands were shaking, and he looked like he was going to be sick, but he did what Zeke told him to do.
Zeke studied Manelli’s face, remembering Aggie’s description of the man who’d hit her. Pale, pockmarked skin, check. Dark, close-cropped hair and darker eyes, check. A wide nose that looked as if it had been broken a few times, check. A faint, thin scar that ran from his left ear to his jaw. Check and check.
Cold fury welled inside him. He broke Manelli’s nose, dislocated his ankles, broke the fingers of his dominant hand, and, remembering Aggie’s bruises, turned him on his side and delivered several swift kicks to the guy’s kidneys. Sam stared at him with wide, scared eyes.
“This is the guy who hurt Aggie,” Zeke explained.
“Oh,” Sam said, his expression turning angry. “In that case...” Sam pulled his leg back and delivered a few kicks of his own. “What about the other guy?”
Zeke shook his head. “We can’t help him, and we’re better off not disturbing the crime scene. Ballistics will show it was Manelli’s gun that killed him. Grab your stuff.”
“We’re just going to leave them here?”
“They didn’t come alone, and backup won’t be far behind. We don’t want to be here when they show up.”
This time, Higgins didn’t argue.