“We have a lot of problems,” Mint said. “You’re gonna have to be specific.”
Perkins shot him a look. In the back seat, Emma watched the interplay between the two colleagues. Perkins had ditched the FBI jacket and badge. Emma was pretty sure it was actually a crime to impersonate a federal agent. And she was still mad about the fact they’d lied to her. She’d thought they were taking her to turn herself in, in order to save Kerri, when they’d had a totally different plan.
She’d trusted them. In turn, they’d provided her with plenty of ammunition should she choose to go the route that would cause them a great deal of trouble with the authorities. Were they trusting her to not be that vindictive, or that she wouldn’t lash back out of anger, or had they simply covered their proverbial butts in case of such an outcome? Emma didn’t know which it was. She felt like she was floundering—in every aspect of this situation—and so far out of her depth right now she wanted to laugh. But the fact she could barely breathe with all the stuff swirling around her meant there was no way she would.
She shifted in the seat, huddling closer to the door. Her arm hurt, despite the medication Perkins had given her. Antibiotics took time, but the pain meds should be kicking in right about now. Was Kerri okay? Emma couldn’t relax until she knew the other woman was all right. Or, at least, that she was being taken care of.
It was like being torn in a dozen different directions.
“Emma’s face just hit national news,” Perkins said, glancing back at her. “And the FBI has given up calling the senator’s death a suicide. It’s murder now.”
Emma saw the glance out the corner of her eye, but didn’t turn away from the window. She wanted to watch the world go by outside.
“The FBI are stepping up their search for her.”
“As a murder suspect?” Mint asked. Maybe not because he wanted to know. Maybe he just wanted ammo to try and reassure her.
“Well, no.” Perkins answered.
“That’s grea—”
“But they’re calling her a person of interest.” Perkins’s voice had a tone to it. “Everyone knows what that means.”
Mint started to argue.
“They think I killed him,” Emma said to the window.
Perkins said, “What did you do with the clothes you were wearing that night?”
“Tossed them in the trash at a rest stop in Nebraska.”
“Good.”
“It’s not good.” She turned to the other woman then. “I was there. My blood will be at the scene.”
“Fleeing, because you were hurt, too.”
She didn’t want to absorb even the promise of hope in the other woman’s eyes. “And when they find the gun with my prints on it?”
Perkins’s eyes widened a fraction before she could squash the reaction.
“Now you get it,” Emma said. “You get why the FBI wants to talk to me, whether they found the gun or not. I was there. Aaron was there. Shots were fired, and the Senator died.” She choked on those last couple of words. Though, not for the reasons they would think. It was more than the fact he’d been her boss, and she’d been a party to his death.
More than Kerri.
More than Aaron Jones.
More than the truth that Senator Francis Sadler hadn’t even been a good man.
She said, “So what does it matter that the FBI think I’m involved? I was. And I’d rather take my chances with them than with Aaron Jones when I have to explain everything. Even if they’ll probably arrest me for murder, or being complicit in a murder, or something.”
Mint sighed. Why he was so bothered by the idea of her going to jail, she didn’t know. Except that it would put her out of reach to provide the information they wanted about the blackmailer... Something she didn’t even want to think about right now.
“It will stop Aaron from hurting people.”
“No,” Mint said. “It won’t.” He didn’t turn back, as he was still driving. “This guy has one play. To force you to confess by hurting someone you care about. Best friends or not, Aaron knows you don’t want anything to happen to Kerri, so he’s banking on you doing this.”
“Well it’s all messed up now. I didn’t do it, and he knows.”
Perkins said, “He had to have been following us. And somehow he knew I wasn’t an FBI agent.”
Mint shot her a look.
“Or not enough of one that he could tell.”
Emma wasn’t even sure she wanted them to explain that to her right now. She had enough swirling in her head already, she wasn’t sure she could handle confusing, even if it was the truth.
“Why did he try and kill Mint?” She wasn’t sure who she was asking, but needed to know. The last thing she wanted right now was another person hurt because of her. Mint had been injured, but it could easily have been so much worse.
Perkins said, “Because he wants you alone and vulnerable.”
“The first answer is that he’s a hothead and he’s reacting. Going on instinct. Perkins’s answer is the second,” Mint clarified. “Aaron is flying by the seat of his pants. He still needs you to confess to that murder he committed, and if he can get that result, then he’s willing to do almost anything. Other than that, who knows? He’s tortured people before.”
Emma turned back to the window. She tried to pray for Kerri, but the words wouldn’t come. All she had was the silent cry of her heart, and she thanked the God she wanted to believe in so badly that it was enough. “He’s going to kill her, isn’t he?”
And he wouldn’t do anything to minimize the pain.
For a couple of minutes neither of them spoke. Mint had to realize the subterfuge he’d undertaken to try and get her to talk with Perkins instead of a real FBI agent was what had caused this. If Kerri died by Aaron Jones’s hand, responsibility could be placed on his shoulders. How had he justified that kind of gamble? He had to have known he was putting Kerri’s life at risk. And still he’d done it.
A sour feeling rolled through her stomach.
Perkins said, “Two men we work with are looking for her.”
That was something. But was it enough? She stared at the back of Mint’s neck between the seat and the headrest. “Do you even care that she could die?”
Her voice had been quiet, but she was sure he heard her.
“You want me to grieve for a woman I don’t know? People die every day. People die every minute. Should I shed a tear for each of them?”
She wanted to kick the back of the seat.
“I have my mission. It’s you.”
“Don’t give me that. You were sending me with Perkins so she could get me to talk, right?”
“And then I was going to find Kerri.”
She didn’t let that penetrate. “Because finding her would lead you to Aaron.”
“Do I want every part of this wrapped up? Yes,” he said. “I’m not going to apologize for doing my job. And you don’t get to judge that. Not when you don’t know the first thing about me.”
“Right back atcha.” He wanted to judge her willingness to turn herself in to the FBI, but he didn’t want her to give him back the same courtesy? He wanted the results he wanted, but he also didn’t want this to get personal.
Fine.
It wouldn’t get personal.
“Pull over. I’m getting out.”
Mint kept driving.
“I want to get out.”
He ignored her and stuck to his route on the highway. There was no way, after they’d all gotten shot at by Aaron, that he was going to let Emma go off on her own. Regardless of how she felt about him and his methods.
“Perkins call in,” he said without taking his eyes off the road. “I want an update.”
“On it.” She didn’t argue. She also knew he meant an update on the search for Kerri as well as Aaron.
Emma yelled, “Let me out of this car!”
Mint ignored her.
“Davis whatever your real name is, you pull this car over right now!”
His lips twitched. If he’d had a mom, she’d probably have spoken to him exactly like that. Too bad for Emma he hadn’t. Which meant he’d never learned to respond to demands like that. His arms didn’t even twitch on a reflex. Nothing but a flash of amusement that she thought might work—or was at least worth a try.
She didn’t think too much of him. That was clear.
“Malone.”
“What?”
“My real name,” he said. “It’s Davis Malone.”
She’d pushed, and he was pushing back. She might have the strength in her to have faced all this so far, but that didn’t mean she was going to push him over. He wasn’t about to let her tread on him. Not when he was the one who had the skills to actually take care of her. That was a better solution by far than allowing her to put herself in even more danger.
It occurred to him that doing that in a controlled way—surveillance—while she did something benign like head to the diner for a shift, could draw out Aaron. She would jump on that opportunity in a heartbeat. Which was probably why Mint dismissed it. That was a last-resort option, and in the meantime, they had other ways to work on clearing this up.
Emma’s face had hit national news. Another snag to be dealt with. He didn’t need the local sheriff getting in their business, regardless of whether the man thought he was “helping.”
Whatever they were going to do, Mint figured it had to be clean, fast and effective.
Emma kicked the back of his seat and let out a frustrated sound. Letting him know that she was still there, and she was still mad.
Mint kept driving. Ten minutes later he pulled into the park where the company RV was hooked up to electricity. They didn’t need the free Wi-Fi. They made their own hotspot that connected them to the main office in Virginia—and whatever else they needed access to.
He parked the car and got out, opening the back door for Emma. She had her arms folded across her chest. He reached over her and unbuckled her belt. The cuts on his back smarted, but he ignored them. It wasn’t the first time he’d pushed pain to the back of his mind and determined to get on with what was in front of him. Probably wouldn’t be the last time either.
“Let’s go.”
She stared at the RV, not a small amount of curiosity on her face. Eventually it won out, and she moved from the car into the vehicle. Inside was a bank of monitors and computers they’d replaced the queen beds with. The bunks were still used, when they needed sleep. The kitchen was still intact and fully functional.
He got to work cooking bacon in the oven, mostly so he could work while it browned and not have to worry about keeping an eye on it so much as if he had to flip it in a pan. “Perkins, get the camera set up.”
The slender woman set her hand on her hip and shot Mint a pointed look.
He said, “Please.”
Perkins narrowed her eyes on him for a second, then moved through the RV, doing as he’d asked. Emma stood by the door. She stared at the inside like it was an alien planet. Finally, she looked at him. “You guys are criminals, aren’t you? You think you’re above the law, pretending to be federal agents.” She included Perkins in her accusation.
Perkins straightened, the camera in her hand. “What arrangement I have with the Federal Bureau of Investigation is none of your business.” She pulled the badge from her jacket pocket and set it on the table. “But, for the record, that badge is real.” She turned away from Emma, giving the other woman her back, as she readied the camera on a tripod.
Something that might have been regret moved over Emma’s face, but she shook it off and said, “What is the camera for?”
Mint slid the bacon in the oven. “We’re going to record your statement for the FBI, and then we’re going to forward it to our contact there.” He waited for her judgement on that, but she apparently had none. “That way the FBI has all the information we can get them, and we can keep you safe here. Where you aren’t exposed.”
A frown crinkled her brow. “You think the FBI wouldn’t protect me?”
“I think you’re going to be protected here, where Aaron Jones has to go through me and Perkins. And where the blackmailer doesn’t have the resources he would need to get to you and hurt you or kidnap you.”
“Assuming it’s a he.”
Perkins straightened, turning slowly toward Emma so as not to spook her.
Mint didn’t react. “What makes you say that?”
Emma pressed her lips together.
“Tell me.” He kept his voice soft. Neither he, nor Perkins, moved toward her. Letting her have her space but maintaining their positions between her and the door. She definitely looked like she was about to bolt at any second.
Tears filled her eyes, and she shook her head. “I don’t know,” she said, completely blowing him off. “I’m just saying.”
Mint studied her. After a minute of letting her get increasingly more agitated, he said, “Ready to give your statement?”
She nodded. He knew she was worried about Kerri. She’d also faced down Aaron Jones and was feeling all the guilt of her finger on the trigger of the gun that’d killed the senator. And even though he wasn’t sure he still had the full story on that, it was for the FBI to figure out.
Mint wasn’t going to placate her. He needed her strength, which meant she needed to hang on a little longer. After that, she could fall apart all she wanted.
It occurred to him that it was possible he was only reacting like this because she’d obviously seen the scars on his back. Getting defensive to keep his emotions from being involved. And if that was what he needed in order to stay sane and not allow the specters of the past to swallow him up, then it was what he would do.
Mint’s phone rang. He swiped to answer the call and said, “Malone.”
Out the corner of his eye he saw Emma turn to him, but all his attention was taken up by what his teammate on the other end of the call said.
“I’ll be right there.” He hung up and said to Perkins, “Get the statement done. I’m going out.”
She nodded. Didn’t ask what he was going to do. “Sure thing, boss.”
He wasn’t her boss, but Mint didn’t have time to quibble about that.
His teammates had found Kerri.