Nina sat down in a small conference room, her laptop on the table. She’d grabbed a quick shower in the locker room and put Sam in the capable hands of one of the trainers for some tender loving care. Now she was ready to get down to business. Thomas handed her a fresh cup of coffee and pulled out an electronic tablet.
“So you go first,” she said, still wondering how he’d appeared out of thin air. But when she’d called Max West and given him the lowdown, the SAC had reassured her.
“Thomas Grant is a good man and one of the best in the business. He’s been with the US Marshal Office for at least five years, so he’s high ranking. You can take his word to the bank and, of course, he has jurisdiction in all fifty states and any US territories. Cooperate with him, but stay focused on your case. He knows to stand back and not overstep. But he is authorized to help out if he needs to. Send me the particulars, too. I can go over the reports at least. And if you need me...”
“Yes, sir. You enjoy your time with Katerina and her dad. I’ll keep you posted.”
Not that she minded so much that she had a US Marshal to deal with. The man was gorgeous in a way that reminded her of the movie character Thor that she and her friends drooled over. Getting her mind back to business, she let out a sigh and then stifled a yawn. “Sorry, long day. Go ahead.”
Thomas opened his tablet. “Is this the man you saw tonight?”
Nina took a good look at the picture and nodded, her heart pumping as she had a flashback. “It sure looks like him. It was dark but the moon was full. He was taller than average. I remember the salt-and-pepper longish hair and the craggy skin.” Then she wrapped her arms across her chest and said, “I thought you were going first.”
Thomas gave her that wry smile again. “This is me going first. I wanted you to identify him. This is Bernard Russo. He’s the man I’m looking for. We have reason to believe he’s killed several people across the country from Florida to Montana, and who knows where else. He’s a hired contractor. An assassin.”
“And you’re here to find him?”
“Yes. I got a tip that he’d possibly been sighted in Montana. Several assets reported seeing him around the state. He came here either to hide out or to take a job. He killed an informant we’d hidden to testify against a major drug ring in Texas.”
“Killed, as in before you could move the informant into the witness protection program?”
“Yes, and we’re not proud of it. We were moving him to a new location when someone shot out one of the tires on our transport vehicle and snatched the witness, after shooting two of our officers. They both survived, but didn’t see the shooter.”
“I took a different jogging path and came up on them tonight,” Nina said, a delayed reaction coursing through her body. She set her coffee on the table and held her hands in her lap so he wouldn’t see how they were beginning to shake. “I didn’t have my weapon. Not even a Taser. I should have at least had that, or pepper spray. I didn’t identify myself as FBI, but I did my best to stop him from killing her.”
“You had Sam,” he replied, his astute eyes watching her.
“Yes, my strongest weapon. That and lots of prayers.” Sam was resting in his kennel in the training area while they talked. “I planned to order him to attack, but the man turned and shot at me and then turned the gun on the girl. Then I needed Sam to protect us while I tried to...save her.”
She’d taken her shower while Thomas talked to some of the other agents, but she could still see the blood on her clothes and hands, could remember the girl’s cold, pale body. A shiver moved down Nina’s spine, reminding her how close that poor young woman had come to being murdered.
Help her, Lord. Help this poor girl so we can find out what’s going on.
“And you did save her,” Thomas said, as if he knew exactly what she was thinking. “She’s alive because you came along at the right time.”
“She’s in surgery, so let’s hope everything will be okay. He planned to kill her and dump her just like the others.”
“So you think the other two females were killed by this same man?”
“I don’t know. I’m speculating. But it makes sense because he purposely brought her to that spot, from what we can tell. I’m waiting to hear from the medical examiner regarding their cause of death and their IDs. We’ll have to notify their next of kin, too.”
“A grisly undertaking,” Thomas replied. “My gut tells me Russo is your man for all three crimes.”
“I’ll have to wait to concur with you on that, but yes, it’s looking like a possibility.”
He nodded. “Understood.”
She leaned forward. “Sam must have picked up a strong scent, because after the shooter shot the girl and ran away, Sam immediately alerted on the two other graves. Shallow graves, a little over a foot and a half deep. The gunman knew that would keep anyone from detecting the scent of decaying bodies. Until Sam got a whiff anyway. I can’t say how long they’ve been there, but the ME said maybe months.”
Putting her head in her hands and raking her wet hair back, she said, “Sam and I have jogged by those woods for months now and...those girls were out there. All alone. Now, I’m questioning if Sam tried to alert me before and I maybe thought he’d seen a squirrel or some other animal. I should have caught this sooner.” Lifting her head, she added, “The killer must be using that site as his burial ground since, according to the ME, one body has been there longer than the other one.”
“Sam knows his business. He wasn’t working when you jogged by before and he could have false alerted, since he was on downtime. But tonight, like you said, he picked up on the dangerous situation. The shooter’s scent—maybe a cologne or aftershave, or maybe even from the coat he was wearing—caused Sam to search the area, and then he alerted on the bodies. Which makes it highly likely the same man killed those two.”
“Not good news for any family, especially this time of year.”
“No,” the marshal said, his expression grim. “But it sounds as if you have a strong faith to carry you through. That’s a plus.”
“I couldn’t do this without it,” she admitted.
“I hear that,” he said, that long Texas drawl moving like gentle fingers across her heart.
Nina didn’t talk about her faith much but it was there, instilled in her by a strong, loving family. She was glad to hear Thomas apparently had the same shield.
They continued to talk about the details until she’d given him as much information as she could and he’d done the same for her.
“I think I’m going home,” she said, standing to stretch. “I’ll pick back up on the details there, since I probably won’t get any sleep.”
“I’ve got a room at the Wild Iris Inn,” he said. “Sounded like a nice out-of-the-way spot. I didn’t want to stay in Billings.”
“The inn is the only place available near Iris Rock, and not far from my house,” she said with a grin. “But you’re in good hands. Miss Claire still works there part-time, but she’s turned over management to Penny Potter, soon to be Penny Morrow. Penny plans to marry one of our agents—Zeke Morrow—on Valentine’s Day next year.”
She went on to tell him how Jake Morrow had been a double agent and how his half brother, Zeke, had come to help track him and had been in on his capture and death. But in spite of the horrible tragedy, several of the team members had somehow found true love. Why Nina had decided to share the joy with the marshal, she didn’t know. Except that she wanted to believe in hope and love, even if she didn’t have a significant other in her life right now.
And she didn’t need anyone. She had enough trouble trying to prove herself as an agent.
“This year was rough for all of you,” Thomas said, bringing her back to reality. “I’m glad everyone is safe and sound.” They’d reached the doors to the parking garage. “Speaking of that, I’m walking you to your vehicle.”
Nina blinked and stared up at him. “I’m parked near you, anyway, and I have Sam.”
Thomas shook his head. “Look, let’s get this part over with. I know you’re strong and capable and tough or you wouldn’t be here, but...a killer saw you tonight. You’re a witness to an attempted murder by a very dangerous man. You’re gonna need someone to watch your back.”
She turned when they were almost to her vehicle. “Have you appointed yourself for that job?”
Before he could respond, a shot rang out and the windshield of the car next to them shattered. Thomas threw his body over Nina and pushed her to the ground. Another shot rang out, blasting a nearby wall.
Nina’s heart pressed beats against her lungs. She couldn’t breathe. And she couldn’t get past the sure knowledge that Thomas had probably just saved her life.
An hour later, Nina and Thomas were back inside headquarters filing yet another report, and Thomas was now a partner in this investigation. He didn’t mind that, since he needed to be a part of it if Russo was involved.
But that hadn’t been established. This pattern didn’t match Russo’s way of taking care of business.
The shooter was nowhere to be found, and surveillance cameras didn’t show anyone sneaking into the garage. So the shooter must have had a good view of where they were parked from an off-site spot. They’d canvassed the whole place and the surrounding buildings, and they’d put out more alerts on Russo. The techs were still trying to establish where he’d been hidden. But the destruction from the shots indicated a shotgun. Which meant he’d been close. Too close.
“He’s after you,” Thomas said to Nina, when they were alone. “You can’t go back to your place tonight.”
“I’ll bunk here,” Nina retorted, obviously not in the mood to be told what to do. “I’ve done it before. And I intend to keep digging. Dylan O’Leary is our best tech and he’ll be back on this tomorrow. He’ll do research based on what you’ve told us. Thanks for your help.”
Thomas put his hands on his hips. “Are you dismissing me, Agent Atkins?”
She gave him a tired glare. “It’s almost two in the morning. Don’t you ever sleep?”
“Do you?”
She stood and paced, her green sweater long and droopy, her jeans old and worn. Locker clothes. But she looked cute in them. “Have you considered that he might have been aiming at you, Thomas?”
He rubbed his jaw. “Always a possibility, and yes, he could have taken both of us out and called it a day. But he missed, which is kind of surprising.”
“Do you think he blinked, got the shakes?”
Thomas figured this man knew how to use any kind of weapon. “He could have been interrupted or startled, but why a shotgun? Maybe the darkness and seeing both of us together shook him. He sure wasn’t expecting to see me here.”
“Now he knows you’re in town,” she said, her fingers twisting in the cuffs of her sweater. “You might need to bunk here tonight, too.”
Thomas hadn’t planned on that. “I could hang around.”
“That’s not what I said.”
“And I’m saying I can hang around.” Seeing the objection on her heart-shaped face, he held up his hands in defense. “Hey, neither of us is gonna get much sleep. We can get a head start on the facts and get our ducks in a row.”
She stared at him, her eyes changing so swiftly he felt as if he was chasing glints of pure copper. “Are you hungry?” she finally asked.
Did this mean she would listen to reason and let him do his job?
“Starving. That snack cake I found in the machine went stale in my stomach a couple hours ago.”
“I think we have leftover hamburgers in the fridge. Somebody brought in a whole dozen or so from our favorite downtown eatery.”
“Sounds good. Lead me to the kitchen.”
Nina shot him another mixed-message glance. “We’re in this together now, Deputy Marshal. And I have orders from my SAC to cooperate with you whether I like it or not.”
“Won’t be the first time a woman has tried to resist my charms,” he quipped, hoping to lighten the mood.
“I’m an agent first,” she retorted. “And a woman second.”
Okey-dokey. “Whatever you say, ma’am.”
Thomas followed her through the maze of offices and cubicles, thinking at least he had someone interesting to work with. This one would try her best to keep him on his toes.
And he’d try his best to keep her alive.