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“Can I have my laptop back?” Seeker asked, his eyes admiring April.
“No,” April replied succinctly, “but you can help. You’re pretty good.” Working on the laptop settled her nerves, she wasn’t about to give it up. With nothing to do she would go stark raving mad down the rabbit hole of terror.
Seeker yielded ownership of the laptop with his hands in the air. “I never mess with a woman on a mission,” he replied seriously.
“Tell me what you found out about Trask,” she ordered imperiously, not realizing how much she resembled Jason in that moment.
Nat couldn’t help grinning. She was definitely in her element. He hoped Jason didn’t try to recruit her, but he wouldn’t put it past him.
“Oh no, no, no, no,” April gasped, her fingers flying across all four screens. “I can’t find the truck, it hasn’t come up on the next web cams for it to run into.”
“Are there any other streets he could have turned on?” Seeker asked, pushing her fingers from one screen and zeroing in on the area last seen for a mapping program. “There,” he exclaimed, pointing to the screen. “He had to have turned there on that county road headed north. He’s avoiding the main highways.”
“I need road names,” Jason ordered. “Keep me updated.”
“Let me see where that road goes,” April muttered desperately. “It doesn’t go all the way through, it splits off into smaller backroads.”
“Look for signs of civilization groupings in the area he’s headed. He will have to have access to gas stations to keep going. If he had a full tank, he’s only good for about 6 hours in that truck,” Jason said tersely.
“Unless he’s carrying extra fuel,” Nat added. “What about property? Check for properties in his name. Maybe he’s planning on holing up while someone else takes his boat out.”
“Good call, Nat, because the Bella Lou set sail 30 minutes ago. If Miller hadn’t called you, we would still be after it.” Jason glanced back at them approvingly. “Good work, everyone.”
“No homes or properties in that area under Simon Trask,” Seeker chimed in.
“There is no way he would go that way if he didn’t have a plan,” April declared vehemently. “The man is a snake and has slithered his way through life for the last fifteen years without getting caught. I need an alias, give me aliases.”
“Try James Denton,” Nat suggested.
“No James Denton, no Denton’s at all, no Trask’s at all. What was the name of the woman in the cold case that had his DNA?”
“Boulder,” Seeker added, “Janet Boulder. Her husband’s name was Frank, but he died in a car accident.”
“That has to be it,” April squealed. “There’s a house on Spencer Lake in the name of Frank Boulder. He bought it two years before he died. Then his ex-wife died after she remarried. But the property has never been sold, and the taxes have been kept up in it. It’s a pretty remote location with no other homes on that side of the lake.”
“I thought Frank Boulder and his wife were from Florida,” Nat said with a frown.
“That’s where she moved with her new husband, the one who was James Denton in disguise,” Seeker explained. “And that’s where she drowned. But she is originally from Rhode Island and they probably bought that property for a summer home.”
“And then they ran into death on two legs,” April muttered with a scowl.
“The man is looney tunes,” Nat snarled.
“Some people can’t just stop once they get started,” Jason added. ‘It’s like a game they have to keep playing until someone catches them. Ultimately, they want to be stopped.”
“I’ll be happy to stop him,” April snapped, pulling her handgun out of her purse. “Just get me down from here.”
“Whoa there!” Seeker exclaimed holding his hands out in front of him. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“Dead serious.”
Seeker took the laptop and moved back to the front with Jason.
“Be careful with that,” Jason snapped, glancing back at her.
“I’m fully capable of handling a gun.”
Nat glared at her. “Yes, but have you actually shot anyone yet? It’s something that changes you forever. You never plan it, you just plan to defend yourself or others,” he scolded harshly.
At the moment, April fully believed she was capable of stopping Simon Trask without a single regret. Coldness had permeated her being, making her tremble, removing all the softer feelings. Trying to dial back her fear and rage was incredibly difficult.
Mutely she stared at Nat’s strong face, silently pleading for understanding. “I want to stop him—forever,” she whispered feverishly. “I don’t want him to be a threat to my family or anyone else ever again.”
Nat’s eyes softened. “We’ll stop him together, I promise.” He wrapped his large palm around her forearm and squeezed his reassurance.
April blinked back tears of frustration and looked out the window. She could see the snaking road below with the target vehicle rumbling along on it. How she wished she could snatch her mother up from it and bring her to the safety of the helicopter. Incredible helplessness rolled across her in waves, increasing her rage at the man responsible. She wondered if her mother was aware by now of what was happening? Was she afraid? Did she realize Simon had killed her husband? Her gut twisted at the thought of her gentle mother at the mercy of a cold-blooded killer.
She glanced back at Nat and saw understanding in his eyes. He was a man who had felt those raw emotions of hatred, rage, and fear. How they could change a person. Right now though, she didn’t care. All she wanted to do was make sure her mother survived this ambush Jason had planned.
The voices of Jason and Seeker were noise in her ears; noise that was there but not penetrating the numbness that held her in its grip.
“Where are we going?” she cried suddenly when the helicopter lurched to the right and moved quickly ahead.
“I’m going to find a place where we can land close to the property we believe he’s headed for,” Jason replied in her ear.
April relaxed. She knew he’d set up checkpoints the truck would have to come through if Simon got spooked and didn’t go to the house. As far as they knew, he shouldn’t have any idea they were onto him. If Miller hadn’t called Nat, they wouldn’t know.
Thirty minutes later Jason set the chopper down in a clearing about 15 minutes from the cabin. It would be another hour before the truck would arrive. They had time to prepare. It wasn’t 20 minutes before another chopper set down behind them, filled with well-armed FBI people with vests and helmets. Jason spent a few minutes with them and then they headed off at a lope towards the woods.
April started after them but Jason pulled her back. “Not yet. They go in first and scout the perimeter and set up.” His dark eyes were demanding, making her flush with annoyance.
She yanked her arm out of his grasp and stalked away to stand alone, staring after the men.
“I swear, if I ever get to be her stepfather, I’m going to blister that ass,” he muttered to himself.
Nat overheard Jason. “That’s my job, Falcon,” he replied with a deadly calm, stepping up beside his friend. “No one touches April but me.”
“You need to work harder then, she’s obviously not responding well to your efforts,” he snapped.
“I think she’s awesome just the way she is,” Seeker added. “You should hire her, she’s tough and smart.”
Jason shook his head in disgust. “Obviously you two have excellent hearing when it comes to hearing things you aren’t supposed to hear.”
Nat shot Seeker a warning glance. “She doesn’t need to work for the FBI.”
“Why not?” Seeker challenged Nat. “Her and I could do great things together in the information world.”
“It’s not the right life for her,” Nat snapped back.
“That would be her decision.”
“Lay off, Seeker!”
“If you two rejects from the love connection are done arguing, which one of you is going to catch her?” Jason pointed towards April who was sprinting after the squad of men. “I’m not chasing her.”
“Dammit,” Nat swore and took off after April.
Seeker grinned at Jason. “Are you going to hire her?”
Jason just grunted and started walking after them. Whether or not he hired April was his business. She was a loose cannon, a rogue player that never gave up, a mercurial, stubborn personality that wanted to do things her way and didn’t mind bending the rules when it suited.
She was perfect for the job.
But there was her mother to consider. As far as Nat was concerned, he could use a corncob for toilet paper because April had the skills to excel. Not that he didn’t care for him, he did. But people of April’s caliber were hard to find, and a woman was even more rare. He owed it to her to help her make the most of her career—if that was what she wanted.
And if she didn’t get herself killed first.
***
AS SOON AS SHE HIT the woods, April veered off to her left. It wasn’t her intention to follow the special agents, she went straight for the road leading to the house. She intended to take James Denton down once and for all. Risking her mother’s life with people trained to kill with one shot didn’t set well with her. The agents would do the work they were trained for no matter what Jason said. Rebecca would just be collateral damage for taking a killer off the market.
She could swear the man was a machine with no heart. He couldn’t have loved her mother the way he said he had or he wouldn’t use her for bait this way and expose her to danger.
Knowing Nat was probably just a few minutes behind her, she at least had the advantage of knowing where she wanted to go. Plus she had skills her dad had taught her in the forest from his Indian heritage. She wouldn’t be wandering in circles.
Nat was used to operating in the sleazy forest of the city, a completely different ball game. Here he’d have to track her, which would slow him down. With any luck, she could execute Denton before he arrived.
The road leading to the house was a gravel and dirt path, which was why Simon took the truck, she figured. It wound around about a half mile before it reached the house. There was a curve on that road and that’s where she wanted to set up. She glanced at her watch. Jason has said they were about an hour ahead of Simon. It had taken 20 minutes for his team to arrive and 10 minutes to brief them. She’d been in the woods now for twenty minutes and she could see the road just ahead of her through the trees. She had ten minutes, no less to get set up. Of course she might have to wait for a while, because timing was never perfect, but Jason’s cronies would be telling him the progress of the truck.
Breaking into the open side of the road, she paused for breath and listened. No sound of an engine and no sounds of Nat crashing through the woods either.
Perfect.
Looking around, she picked a narrow place in the dirt lane and dragged a downed tree limb across it at an angle. Enough to look natural, but not enough room to get around it, or appear too heavy for him to move. He’d have to get out of the truck and that’s what she was counting on.
On the other side of the road was a large oak tree. She sprinted across the road. After making sure the safety was off on her gun, she put it into the body holster beneath her shirt. Then she started climbing to the large, low limb covered in leaves where she could wait. If Nat did come by, he wouldn’t see her. It was a good thing she had on darker clothing today. Less chance of being spotted.
April sat on the limb with her feet stretched out in front of her and her back to the tree trunk. Still panting with all her exertions, she tried to steady her breathing and relax her muscles. Her gaze studying her surroundings, she watched for Nat to appear on the other side of the road and listened for the sound of an engine coming.
In Jason’s world, everything would run to schedule, and this was one time she hoped he was right. Sure enough, it was only about five minutes before she heard the hum of an engine coming up the lane. It sounded like he had the 4-wheel drive on, which would make sense. There may have been potholes on the road before he got here. If no one serviced this lane, then washouts and mudholes would make for rough terrain in places.
April’s heart was racing, her mouth dry when she finally saw the black pickup. As he got closer, she could see her mother was slumped over, her head leaning towards the window. Rage filled her body once again, stealing her breath. Had he killed her and come up here to bury her body?
“Focus, Aponi. Never let your opponent catch you off guard. Be silent. Be deadly. Think of nothing but the task at hand.” Her father’s words penetrated the fog of fear in her mind and helped her focus. Most likely he had her drugged so she wouldn’t realize what he was doing until it was too late. That was the only alternative she allowed herself to think of.
The truck was stopping and April stayed completely still. She could see him looking around suspiciously. Finally deciding the log was legitimate, he opened the door and got out of the truck, then came around to the front. As he hefted the big log up and started to pull it backwards towards her and off the road, she dropped to the ground and took out her gun as he whirled around.
“Go ahead, jump me,” she hissed through her teeth. “Just give me a really good reason.” She clicked the safety off.
Simon began to back away from her and she fired a shot at the ground beside him.
“Down on your knees, hands behind your head,” she ordered, slowly advancing on him and circling him so that she was between her mother in the truck, and him. No way did he get to run away from her.
“W-why are you doing this, April?” Simon stuttered fearfully, glancing back at her, his face white.
“I know who you are, James Denton. Did you drug my mother? Or have you killed her like you did those other women?”
“I don’t know who James Denton is, but I’m Simon Trask, and I love your mother,” he protested. “S-she’s just s-sleeping.”
“This doesn’t look like the way to Paris to me,” she taunted.
“We changed our minds at the last minute,” he protested. “She decided she didn’t want to do that after all, so we opted for a long weekend away for a few days.”
“Don’t lie to me,” April replied savagely, firing another shot beside him. “You lie to me one more time and the next shot goes in the back of your head. You don’t even deserve that much respect. If I had my way I’d drop you in a tank full of hungry sharks and watch them tear you to shreds and eat you while you’re still screaming.”
“A-April?” came the whimper from behind her. “W-what are you doing?”
Cursing, April glanced quickly behind her to see her mother approaching them. That was all it took for Simon to grab a handful of dirt and throw it in her eyes before body slamming her to the ground. Her gun went flying out of her hand and then he was on top of her, his hands around her throat. How had he moved so fast?
“You just couldn’t let it go, could you, bitch?” he bit out, the spittle running down his lip. “Your father’s death was declared an accident but you just couldn’t let it go. You had to keep sticking your nose in and ruin everything. Don’t you get it? Your father owes me!”
“My father doesn’t owe you anything, you’re a psycho,” April croaked pinching and twisting his male nipple through his thin summer polo. His screech of pain gave her great satisfaction.
“He stole my life, the wife I should have had, and a family I didn’t get to have with his lies,” he shouted back at her. “I did what I had to do to get my life back. He took what was mine, so I took his. His wife will now be my wife. All I had to do is get away from you, or get rid of you. For Rebecca’s sake, I chose to get away from you. But now you’ve ruined that you selfish bitch!”
He squeezed so hard April started to see darkness around the edges of her vision. She brought her knee leg up to swing across his neck in an attempt to flip him off when a tree branch swung across his face, knocking him backwards.
“Get off my daughter,” Rebecca yelled.
April turned over and heaved herself to her knees, sucking in great breaths of air to clear her vision. Suddenly her mother fell backwards over her body just as she spotted Simon leaping for her gun. She grabbed her mother and rolled with her under the front edge of the truck just as the gunshots rang in her ears. She watched as spurts of blood erupted from Simon’s chest. It seemed like a dozen of them as she dazedly watched him sink slowly the ground, the gun dropping from his lifeless fingers.
Nat was the first one to Simon’s body, kicking her gun away as he knelt to check him for life. Then Jason appeared, as well as the entire FBI squad, surrounding the man on the ground.
Jason reached down and pulled Rebecca from her arms and held the hysterical woman in his strong hold, murmuring soothing words in her ear.
Satisfied that Simon was dead, Nat turned and eyed her with a deadly look. Then he walked over and hauled her out from under the truck. “You are in so much trouble,” he whispered in her ear.
Mutely she just stared up at him, her mind refusing to register what was happening on any sane level. She felt like her entire body was turning into limp noodles and she started to fall as the darkness began to close in on her. She heard her mother screaming her name just before she passed out.
***
“WHAT THE HELL?” NAT swore as he picked April up in his arms. “Do you see blood anywhere?” he yelled at Jason, his eyes roaming up and down her still figure.
“She’s in shock,” Jason replied with a frown. “Get a medic over here,” he yelled at the group surrounding Simon’s body. One of the men detached himself from the group and came running over.
“Check her out,” Jason ordered, nodding towards April. He lifted Rebecca’s chin and pulled her gaze from April. She had a confused look in her eyes. “Are you all right?”
“H-he gave me something,” Rebecca replied slowly, her words slightly slurred. “I had to help April though, he was hurting her. Y-You know what I mean?” she asked, her brow creasing as she concentrated on what she was trying to say.
“Yes, I know what you mean, but I suspect you’re in shock as well. The medic will check you over too.”
“Okay,” she replied with a soft sigh. “You can hold me then, but don’t get used to it. I think I’m still mad at you, I just can’t remember why right now.”
“We’ll talk about it later.”
“With you, it’s always later,” she said sadly. “That I do remember, but then later never comes. Don’t you get tired of waiting for it?”
Jason searched her face and noted the dilated pupils in her eyes. “Yes, I do get tired of waiting for it, but I’m done with that. Later will be here this time, I promise,” he replied gruffly.
Nat held the thin blanket around April’s shoulders as her teeth chattered, warming her skin. The smelling salts had awakened her and color was returning to her face.
“What kind of an idiot faints at a time like this?” she groused irritably.
“One who has been through a traumatic experience,” he snapped. “He choked you almost into unconsciousness, and then he tried to kill you and your mother both before you even had time to recover. Your blood pressure dropped too low too fast.” He smoothed his fingers over the bruises on her neck. “You are going to be black and blue tomorrow. And not just your neck either. I’m sure you’re going to have bruises everywhere from being knocked down to the ground and rolling around with your mother.”
“So where were you while I was enjoying Club Metz,” she complained. “It sounds like you had a cinematic front row seat.”
“I was busy chasing a hardheaded, hot little mess around in the woods and finally found her getting her butt kicked by a killer,” he replied unsympathetically.
“I had him right where I wanted him,” she argued weakly.
“Until the unexpected happened—which is why you don’t go off alone and leave your partner behind. The unexpected can get you killed. You have no one to blame but yourself if both your ass and your ego is bruised right now,” he stated firmly. “Besides, your mother got in the way. I couldn’t risk a shot then, but you sure as hell took a year off my life.
“I’m sorry, Nat,” she replied, laying her head down on his chest.
“Not as sorry as you’re going to be later,” he promised, his eyes glittering. “This kind of rash and dangerous behavior stops now.”
“I knew you would be right behind me, it’s not like I was actually leaving you. My head aches.” She pressed the heel of her hand to her forehead.
“And why did you think I’d be right behind you?” he asked with barely concealed impatience. Red tones creeped into the skin of her face and he lifted her chin to see her eyes. She licked her lips in a wary gesture.
“Because I just knew you would,” she whispered. She put her hand on her throat and tenderly felt the bruises.
He nodded, the fierce look in his eyes promising retribution for her failures. “Exactly. It’s what partners do, rely on each other. But you never gave me a heads up as to your plans. What if I hadn’t found you in time?”
“Then he would still have a dozen holes in him?” she asked guardedly facetious.
Nat leaned his forehead into hers. “Only because the gunshot you fired first led us all to you. What if we had been out here alone? Just the two of us?” He could see she understood perfectly but she wasn’t repentant yet. She would be though by the time he was finished with her.
“I said I was sorry,” she replied defensively. “Its getting harder to talk.”
“You need an ice pack for that throat.”
After supplying April with a small ice pack from the medical supplies, they made their way back to the helicopter, leaving the team to work the truck and the house for forensic information.
They had covered Simon’s body with a mylar sheet. Nat knew Jason wanted to get Rebecca out of there as soon as possible, before whatever drug Simon had given her had worn off. That’s when she would really fall apart.