Gavin awoke to the pain. His arms and shoulder joints ached from his wrists being cuffed behind his back. The inside of his head throbbed with each tortured breath. And Izzy licked his face.
DJ hovered over him. “You’re going to be okay.”
“Piper. Where’s Piper?”
“Gone.”
The anguish of losing her was worse than any physical wound he could have suffered. His eyelids shuttered and he wished for sleep, endless sleep. They’d been so close to making love. She’d shown him her bed. Her blue eyes had twinkled with the sexiest invite of all time.
“She’s the hostage,” DJ said. “Ivanov has her.”
Not dead. There was reason for hope. He forced himself to sit up. “I want these cuffs off. We’ve got to find her. Can’t let that bastard win.”
A young man wearing a black EMS jacket with reflective tape squatted beside Gavin and unlocked the handcuffs. With gloved fingers, he gently probed a wound above his eyebrow and asked the obvious question. “Does this hurt?”
“I’m fine.” He pushed the medic away. With a mighty effort, he got himself upright for about ten seconds before his knees buckled and he collapsed onto a rough bench beside an outdoor shed. Gavin touched the painful spot on his head. His fingers came away bloody. “What the hell happened?”
“You were attacked,” DJ said. “Before you went unconscious, you hit an emergency alert button on your SAT phone that gave us your location. When we tried calling you back, Ivanov answered. He said he was taking Piper to use for the hostage exchange. There’ll be three of them. Piper and two pilots who own the plane Ivanov stole.”
A beautiful blond woman wearing a standard FBI jacket and a stethoscope around her neck sat on the bench beside him. Gavin thought he recognized her. He squinted at her and then recalled. “Alexandra. The nurse, you’re Drako’s nurse at the Sheridan penitentiary.”
“Special Agent Lily Godwin,” she said as an introduction. “I didn’t think I was that memorable.”
Though she wore a shapeless T-shirt and khakis, the blonde wasn’t someone who could easily be forgotten. She listened to his chest through a stethoscope.
“You’re a double agent,” Gavin said. “Feeding info to Drako and gathering intel for us.”
“Stating the obvious, McQueen.” She lowered the stethoscope and leaned close to examine the wound on his forehead. “I’m a certified RN, and I advise you to get some stitches in that contusion unless you like facial scars.”
“Just slap a bandage on it so I won’t get an infection.”
“You’re the boss.” She dug into a medical bag, put on a pair of purple latex gloves and opened a sanitized wipe to clean his wound. “The Dracula marks from the two-prong stun gun will go away by themselves.”
“Do I have a concussion?”
“Most likely.”
“I wouldn’t mind taking a painkiller that didn’t make me woozy.”
“When something like that is invented, I’ll let you know. For now, you’ll have to settle for extra-strength ibuprofen.” She dabbed at his wound, and he winced. “I’d also advise you to go on bed rest under a doctor’s care for a few days. But I doubt you’ll back down from the chase.”
“He has Piper,” Gavin said. “I won’t abandon her.”
“Moof,” Izzy said.
DJ petted the dog between her floppy ears. “I was shocked that Izzy survived an encounter with a cold-blooded murderer like Ivanov. Apparently, the Russian has a soft spot in his heart for truffle hounds. He shut her in the shed while he dealt with Piper.”
Gavin knew Izzy—a trained attack dog—would switch to her Cujo identity if anyone tried to harm her owner. “The mutt didn’t try to protect me.”
“You’re still alive,” DJ pointed out. “Esposito wasn’t so lucky.”
He explained as much as he knew about the death of the marshal from Jersey. Using intel from his confidential informant, Esposito had arranged a meeting with Ivanov, hoping he could get the whole hostage exchange turned around. He’d had long discussions with the US Marshals Service legal advisers about what sort of deal he could offer the escaped convict.
“He should have talked to you,” Gavin said.
“Esposito was one of those guys who like to go it alone. No partners. No backup.”
And he’d paid the price. Ivanov had shot him in the forehead, execution-style.
Lily finished with the bandage and sat back to admire her handiwork. “A scar on the forehead might be kind of sexy.”
“I thought Esposito was the rat,” Gavin said, “but it was you.”
“Not a rat. I’m a well-trained undercover agent who also happens to be a medical professional.” She handed Gavin a container of painkillers and a bottle of water. “I have two more important details about the hostage exchange. Are you ready, guys?”
DJ switched his phone to Record and held it up for her to speak into. “Ready.”
“You’re cute,” she said.
“And very married,” he said.
Gavin exhaled a groan. “Can we move along?”
“Number one,” she said, “Ivanov will expect a code word to identify Yuri Drako. It’s ‘ura.’ A Russian battle cry.”
DJ tried the word a couple of times. “Easy enough. What else?”
“This is harder,” she said. “Ivanov wants to ask several questions about their shared history. Yuri needs to respond in Russian.”
“Why?”
“Ivanov knows Yuri is ill and looks different from the last time they were together. He doesn’t want you guys to sneak in a ringer.”
Gavin recognized the problem. Slowly, he forced himself to push off from the bench and stand. He stared straight ahead, waiting for the world to stop spinning. They’d figure out a way to rescue the hostages. There was no other choice. Until Piper was safe in his arms, he would not rest.
LAST NIGHT, Piper remembered, the sunset had been a brilliant crimson. Red sky at night meant she should have been basking in good luck, but that wasn’t the way things had turned out. How could everything have gone so wrong? Last night, she’d been minutes away from making love to Gavin and sealing the nascent attraction that had been building between them. And now? Now, she sat in a padded lounge chair in a small Beechcraft corporate jet. Silver duct tape bound her wrists and ankles, but she felt okay except for the two wounds from the stun gun and residual stiffness from the resulting seizure. Every muscle and nerve had tensed in a full-body charley horse.
Sitting across from her in two similar chairs were the owners of this Beechcraft—a couple of men in their early forties who dressed in the outdoorsy style of Abercrombie & Fitch. Both showed a decent level of fitness, and she hoped they’d figure out a way to overpower Ivanov and get them off this jet. In spite of the duct tape over their mouths, they needed to find a way to communicate and make an escape plan. She wasn’t ready to give up.
Peering through the porthole window, she tried to figure out what time it was. Would the exchange take place today or tomorrow? She preferred to get it over with. Twenty-four hours wouldn’t change her situation too much.
When Ivanov wandered back into the cabin, she raised her hands above her head and waved him over. He draped his long arm across the top edge of her chair and leaned down. “What’s the problem?”
She mimed pulling the tape off her mouth.
“You wish to speak?”
Ivanov reached down, grasped an edge of duct tape and ripped. She gasped in pain but also relief. Breathing the air felt delicious. “Thank you,” she said. “May I please have water?”
“Of course.” His boisterous voice echoed in the small cabin. “I want my sweet hostages to be comfy. Da?”
As soon as her two companions saw what she’d accomplished, they started making similar noises and demands. Ivanov swiveled his head and glared at them.
“I have an idea,” she said. “Why don’t you remove the tape from my wrists and ankles? Then I can serve you gentlemen. I believe I saw vodka in the cabinet beside the kitchenette.”
“Vodka?” Ivanov was interested. “You will be a waitress?”
“I would be honored.”
Piper had spent several years working with smug, insensitive, corporate males who looked upon every woman as a server. She could use that prejudice.
Ivanov was easily convinced. He cut her duct tape, pulled her to her feet and lowered himself into her comfortable lounge chair. “Bring me vodka with a twist, and something to eat.”
She did exactly as he asked. After another drink, he agreed that the other men should be freed from their bonds to join with him in drinking. There wasn’t much to eat. Mostly crackers and canned anchovies, tuna and caviar, which was fine for Ivanov.
She coddled him, cossetted him and complimented him on his clever plan to free Yuri Drako with a hostage exchange. With careful nudging, her comments led the Russian to admit that the exchange would take place today. In less than two hours.
THE TIME HAD been set. The airfield selected. And Gavin had figured out a dangerous scam to outwit Ivanov. Instead of bringing Yuri Drako from the prison in Sheridan for the exchange, Marco would pose as the old Dragon to answer Ivanov’s questions in native Russian. He would be pushed to the door of the jet in a wheelchair by none other than his regular nurse, Special Agent Lily Godwin, who would be armed.
The unexpected happy consequence of working with Marco was the return of Sofia who had been hiding in the hospital with Logan. They’d tried other places where she could disappear, but her concern for her papa led her back to Overton Hospital.
When the final preparations were in place, Sofia apologized to Gavin. She was frightened for her dad but proud of him at the same time. She crouched down beside his wheelchair. “Daddy, are you strong enough to pull this off?”
“I’ve always been capable of doing the right thing.” He squeezed her hand. “It’s our fault that Piper is in such extreme danger. We can’t turn our backs and walk away.”
“I know,” she said.
“If you learn nothing more from this experience, I want you to realize how important it is to think of other people and consider their opinions.”
Silently, she nodded. For once, Sofia listened.
AT THE APPOINTED hour of four o’clock, the Beechcraft swooped down onto the tarmac on the small airfield and taxied to a stop. All the runways had been cleared, and hangars were locked tightly. There was an array of law enforcement vehicles and ambulances.
As per Ivanov’s instructions, the five million had already been wired and received in the offshore account. Everyone had stayed in their vehicles, except Marco, in the wheelchair posing as Yuri Drako, his beautiful blond nurse and Marshal Gavin McQueen. His heart was in his throat. These moments would decide who lived and who died.
A staircase descended from the plane. Ivanov swaggered out and almost tripped as he descended. Waving both arms, he called out to the man in the wheelchair. “Give me the battle cry.”
“Ura,” Marco shouted. He coughed before repeating, “Ura, comrade.”
Ivanov started toward them. “You don’t look good, Drako.”
Marco swore at him in fluent Russian. “I’ve been ill.”
Gavin held up his hand. “You come no farther until I see the hostages.”
“Of course.”
Ivanov clapped his hands, and Gavin saw the most wonderful sight he’d ever experienced. Two men who looked like an advertisement for L.L. Bean emerged from the Beechcraft. Then Piper walked carefully down the staircase to the tarmac. Though he was too far away to see the blue of her eyes, he knew the cerulean color.
Ivanov asked his questions in Russian, and Marco easily responded in the native tongue he’d learned from his mother. Gradually, they moved closer and closer.
Playing her part as Alexandra the sexy nurse, Special Agent Lily Godwin flashed a bit of cleavage in a highly effective distraction.
When Ivanov was only ten yards away, Gavin revealed his gun. And so did Lily. Marco got out of the wheelchair and let loose with a stream of Russian curses.
Ivanov wouldn’t give up without a fight. He pulled out his Kalashnikov and turned to point the assault rifle at Piper. Gavin fired first. Without hesitation.
Before Ivanov hit the tarmac, Piper dashed past Marco and his double-agent nurse. She leaped into Gavin’s waiting arms.
“Never let me go,” she whispered.
“Not in a million years,” he said.
Izzy said, “Moof.”
A MONTH LATER, Piper woke on Thanksgiving morning with a heart full of love and gratitude. The threat from Yuri and the Dragons had been squashed, Taimar Drako was still in jail awaiting his trial for attempted murder, the Barbieri family—they decided to stick with that name—was no longer under threat and US Marshal Gavin McQueen had moved into her secluded cabin in the forest. She rolled over on the bed and gazed into his wide-open eyes.
“You’re awake,” she murmured.
“I always sleep with one eye open.” He caressed the line of her jaw and ran his thumb across her lower lip. “In law enforcement, it’s an occupational requirement to be forever alert.”
“You’re so noble,” she teased. “Will you maintain that level of high alert when you’ve left the US Marshals Service to be a trooper?”
“Absolutely.” His arms encircled her, and the warmth of his embrace surrounded her. “Keeping you safe is a full-time job.”
The decision to change jobs hadn’t been a difficult one. Gavin didn’t want his work to revolve around establishing false identities and keeping secrets. As a sergeant in the Oregon state police, he could be straight-forward, direct and totally honest.
Piper approved. She especially liked that he’d be working from Yamhill and the central headquarters were in Salem which wasn’t far away. Moving in with her had made perfect sense.
Apparently, Izzy agreed. With a cheerful bark, the dog bounded into the bedroom and circled the bed, wagging her tail and pushing one paw onto the comforter. She’d been well-trained to not jump on the bed.
She kissed Gavin on the forehead and climbed from the bed. “I need to finish cooking. I’d like to get to Marco’s house early to help with the turkey. We’re making roasted walnut and truffle dressing.”
“More truffles.”
“You like them. Don’t pretend you don’t.” She’d already made a truffle pudding, truffle salad and truffle tapenade with extra virgin olive oil.
“This is going to be a crowd.”
“DJ and his wife, Chelsey, Logan and his mom, chef Rosa, Sofia’s friends from school and Marco’s doctor.”
“Nobody refuses a feast at the home of a renowned chef.”
When Marco opted out of WITSEC, his life had expanded, and his talent was on full display. The same went for Sofia who had signed up with a talent agent in the hopes of launching a career.
The potential for danger had diminished when Yuri’s health took a turn for the worse and his son who lived in Devil’s Lake was totally occupied with clearing his reputation and providing his son with legal representation. Ivanov recovered from his wounds and was incarcerated in a Super Max facility.
Piper went to the window and opened the curtain. Outside, the sun shone brilliantly. A perfect Thanksgiving.
When Gavin came up behind her, she snuggled against his bare, muscular chest. Life didn’t get much better than this.
Keep reading for an excerpt from Maverick Detective Dad by Delores Fossen.