Stuart stood in the corner of Kaylee’s room, surrounded by the warmth of her comfortable living space. But he couldn’t let himself be distracted by her things.
Voices in the hall drifted to him, and a shadow moved under the door frame. Maggie, the owner and operator of Hope Mansion, said, “…spray down the showers. I’ll tackle the toilets. Is that okay with you, hon?”
Another woman replied. “Sure thing, Mags. We just really appreciate everything you’ve done for us.”
The voices drifted away.
Stuart needed to leave. Kaylee’s things had already told him everything he needed to know. This wasn’t about invading her privacy, just getting a feel for the kind of person she was. People thought their material belongings didn’t say all that much. That too many people had the same things. But he’d found the opposite to be true. Plenty could be learned in how someone used what they accumulated.
He avoided the cameras he’d found and made his way to the window. Outside, two young boys ran across the yard.
Stuart ducked back behind the curtain and watched them play. Not brothers, just friends, the two boys wrestled and laughed. He stared for longer than necessary, just watching them, enjoying the sight of their carefree playtime. Not many residents of this house could claim a carefree life.
Stuart knew how that felt. He’d lived close to the wire his entire life and didn’t think there had ever been a time when he had laughed like that. As though nothing else mattered except the fun. Instead, he’d only known the dark side of life. Pain. Destruction. Those things had been honed in him, creating the man he had been before he and Brad were captured.
Set-up.
Destroyed.
Stuart didn’t know what he was now. Except for a man who needed to get out of this room.
But someone was watching Kaylee. The person Stuart wanted to be was the kind of man who would step up and protect her if she was in danger.
Without considering it too much, he moved to a camera. Was there audio? He didn’t know. It was possible they could see, but not hear, her. Unless she got on her phone—which he assumed had been cloned by the same people who set up cameras in her room.
There was no way it was Maggie watching her residents. That meant this was external.
Stuart turned the camera so it pointed at his face. “This woman is under my protection.” He spoke slowly, in case they would have to read his lips. After they captured his picture and ran it.
The boys were gone now. Stuart replaced the camera and climbed back out the window.
He jogged across the lawn to the cover of trees. Stupid move. He’d exposed himself to whoever was on the other end of the feed. But if his gut was correct, and Kaylee was guilty, then it made no sense that someone had their eyes on her whole life.
She would need protection when they decided it was time to make their move.
They were obviously still waiting, otherwise, they’d have extracted her for interrogation already. Or he’d be dealing with the fallout—the result of some other conclusion to this situation. But they hadn’t. So, what were they waiting for?
Him?
His suspicion that she was involved was correct. Not just because Brad had mentioned her name, though he had considered that meant she was dirty. Part of the problem. Could she be the solution? He wanted to talk more with her. Because she drew him to her in a way no one had. He thought about her way too much, but that didn’t mean he was going to do anything about it. After all, he was no better than the people watching her. He’d intended to clone her phone just like they had.
An itch on the back of his neck interrupted his thoughts. A latent instinct that had saved his life many times before.
All his training and experience, the many missions he’d been on. The ugly things he’d seen—and done. It fired like synapses in his brain, heightening his senses so that he could tell someone was holed up twenty feet to his left. Hiding.
One of the boys, or a bigger threat?
Kaylee had someone on her, and not just eyes on her life. There was a man watching. Waiting. For what?
Stuart wasn’t going to hang around until something went wrong just to find out. He knew he could protect her. Certainly he had the skills to do it, and if she was absolved of being a party to the betrayal that led to Brad and Stuart being captured, then he needed to keep her safe until he got to the bottom of this.
Instinct flashed across his vision like a flash of lightning. Stuart ducked against a tree. A chunk of wood splintered a hair’s length above his head, and in the second later, he heard the rapport of the gunshot.
Sniper.
Stuart ran. He circled wide, ducking through trees. Changing direction every couple of steps to make himself a moving target. One harder to hit than someone going in a straight line, in a single direction.
Another shot rang out.
Someone screamed. Stuart’s insides flipped over and bile rose in his throat, but there was no time to be sick. He had to get that shooter.
He pulled his gun and continued his wide circle around to the spot where he’d have hidden if this was his assignment.
The shots stopped. The screaming did not. Stuart saw a blur up ahead and knew the guy was on the move.
He spotted him again a quarter mile into the trees and sped up his sprint until he was moving as fast as he possibly could. In a running tackle, he took the guy down. They rolled.
An elbow missed his nose but glanced off his cheekbone. Stuart caught the guy around the neck with one arm.
With his gun hand, he shot the guy point blank range in the foot. But when he shifted at the last second, the shot missed him.
The sniper elbowed him in the stomach. Stuart coughed and sucked in a breath, but didn’t let go of his grip on the man’s neck. His other hand wasn’t the same. The gun tumbled from his fingers to the ground. A knife glinted, and he realized the man had pulled it out.
Darn. Stuart shoved him away and rolled as the knife swiped toward him.
He hit a tree and got up, grasping a rock as he lifted to his feet. He flung the rock toward the man and caught him in the head.
They faced off with each other, Stuart’s gun on the ground between them. If he dove for it, the other guy would do the same, and he’d end up sliced. Stuart did not like knives. Unless he was the one using it and the only thing in danger were the vegetables.
It was his least favorite weapon in a fight. Always had been, even before the men who’d held him and Brad captive sliced up his back just for the fun of it.
“Who sent you?” Stuart studied the man as they circled each other, pushing thoughts of holding a knife from his mind with as much force as he could muster. He didn’t want to think about Brad. About what had happened after their captors have given up torturing them and forced them to turn on each other.
Then, the moment Brad had cried out.
“I said, Who sent you?!” The scream from his lips echoed through the trees.
A voice from behind him said, “Leland, stand down.”
He spun to see Basuto approach, followed by his partner. When Stuart turned back, the sniper had put away his knife. “That’s his gun.” Stuart pointed out the sniper rifle on the grass, then at his weapon. “This one is mine.”
Basuto’s partner, Donaldson, swiped up both.
The sniper shifted. “It okay if I reach for my ID?”
Sergeant Basuto said, “Slowly.”
Stuart was waiting for Donaldson to hand his gun back to him, but the younger officer did not. He held onto both. Stuart said, “He shot at me. And he was watching Kaylee’s room.”
He didn’t mention the surveillance equipment, as it would be difficult to explain how he knew about it without having been in her room.
“Actually,” the sniper pulled out a leather wallet. “It’s his rifle.” He pointed to Stuart, and then let his wallet flip open. “Adam Eckles, Homeland Security. Please cuff this man.”
“Stuart?”
He turned to Basuto. “What is going on?”
“I’d like to know the same thing.” The sergeant glanced between Stuart and the Homeland agent.
Stuart said, “Why does Homeland Security have Kaylee under observation?”
Eckles shook his head. “We don’t. I think the pertinent question is why did you have a sniper scope trained on that house over there? Don’t you think you’ve hurt enough people in your life already, without targeting a home of innocents just trying to escape trauma? All you’ll do is further terrify them. Like those two boys. And the woman who got hurt because of the shot you fired.”
“A woman is hurt?” Stuart set off toward the house.
Basuto slammed a hand against his chest.
Every instinct in Stuart wanted to shove the sergeant away from him. His whole body jerked as he fought the urge to attack a man who didn’t deserve to be hurt just because Stuart had been taught that touch meant he’d need to defend himself.
“This man is dangerous and unstable,” Eckles said. “I was sent here to bring him in. There’s an outstanding warrant with his name on it. I can show you.”
Stuart looked at Basuto. “If there was, you’d know about it.”
Basuto nodded, almost imperceptibly.
“I have questions to ask him,” Eckles said. “The first of which is why he had a sniper rifle trained on that house.”
Stuart was never going to get information out of this man now. Not unless he got the guy alone in a spot where he could ask a few poignant questions. Which meant they needed to be away from the two cops.
The sergeant pulled cuffs from the back of his belt. “Leland?”
A wealth of questions were contained in that one word. Would he submit? Was he going to do so quietly? Stuart held Basuto’s gaze. The Homeland agent—if that was even true—wanted to take him. The sergeant didn’t like that at all.
It wasn’t unusual for Stuart to see so much in a person’s gaze. He’d been trained to read people, and Basuto wasn’t used to having to shield his thoughts in order to save his life.
He moved quickly, probably wanting to do it fast, walking behind Stuart.
Stuart’s instincts fired, and he spun around. He shoved Basuto back so that the sergeant fell to the grass. Donaldson dropped both weapons and pulled his stun gun. “Stand down, Leland.”
“You know I can’t do that.”
After all, the “agent” didn’t need to know that Stuart’s plan was to go with him. That if he was going to be cuffed and stuffed in this man’s car, it would be because he wanted to be. So he could interrogate Adam Eckles.
Stuart launched himself at Donaldson. As though he didn’t care what might happen, because there was no way he thought Eckles would capture him. He saw Donaldson’s eyes flare a half second before he squeezed the trigger on the stun gun.
The barbs hit Stuart in the chest.
He could have fought it, but what was the point? That just prolonged the situation. He clenched his teeth and let his body fall, submitting to the twitching voltage that coursed through every muscle in his body.
The second the voltage quit, a knee planted itself in his back. Given precisely where Eckles placed that knee, it was impossible to not suspect Eckles knew something about his captivity and the injuries he’d suffered.
The Homeland agent pulled Stuart’s hands behind his back and secured his wrists. “I’ll take him from here.”