Collateral Damage (17 page)

“He has some college pals he goes to Vegas with every year. His office secretary. His accountant. Then there’s his current flavor of the month, a Brazilian model.” All the events since the boys’ birthday party ran through her mind and she pressed her palms to her eyes, almost overwhelmed. “She might be a resource, but when Angie spoke to her the woman didn’t know where Bill was. She doesn’t know about his death. I’ve only told Angie. Nobody else. Right now I’m waiting for them to find Jack’s body, so I—”

“What? Explain.”

Lauren went through her conversations with the embassy in Sao Paulo, watching Jack’s expression become more and more taut with irritation and determination, maybe? She didn’t know. She had a hard time settling on what emotion fueled his grim look.

Driven to know more, Lauren set her hand over his fist. “Now, tell me what you know.”

He twisted his wrist and clasped her hand in his, but none of the heated warmth of his skin and the anchoring strength of his grip helped her absorb what he said next.

“Two weeks ago I saw Bill Collins in Lebanon actively participating in a terrorist act with a radical group. I believe they’re behind what is happening to you now.”

The blood rushed from Lauren’s head and dizziness had her reeling in her seat. An icy chill gripped her from head to toe. “I…oh…my…God. You’re saying…a terrorist? Like a 9/11 bomber? When you said radical group, I pictured green-loving environmentalists lying prostrate before bulldozers. But what you’re saying is that Bill was involved in…that he committed treason?”

“I’m sorry. Every man is innocent until proven guilty, but—”

“You saw what?” She pulled her hand from Jack’s and he let her go, looking as if what he had to say was as painful for him as it was for her. She pressed her fingers to her numb mouth, searching for the words she needed to speak. “What did he do?”

Jack exhaled harshly. “That I can’t tell you.”

She studied him a moment, once again taking in his capable bearing, his fresh scars and suddenly another piece of the puzzle behind why Jack had come to her fell into place. “He played a part in what happened to you, right? Whatever he was involved in was responsible for putting you in the hospital.”

“Indirectly, yes. But that’s not important. What I need to find out, what I need to know, is why he was there and who he was involved with. The fact that his body is missing is very significant.”

“Before you appeared at my door, I wondered if Bill had faked his death because he’d gotten himself into some serious trouble. It’s part of the reason I haven’t told anyone yet.”

“No.” Jack met her gaze head on and let her see just how deadly serious he was. “You don’t have to wonder. I saw Bill die.”

Lauren shook her head as she shifted back in her seat, putting more distance between her and Jack. Her mind was too punch-drunk to even calculate if it was possible time-wise. “You were in Sao Paulo last night?”

“No. I was in DC in Walter Reed Medical Center last night.”

“Then what are you saying?”

Jack started his sentence three times before he finally said it. “I saw him die two weeks ago in Lebanon, then his body disappeared.”

She gripped the table edge until her nails ached. “You’re serious.”

“Yes. Is there anything you can tell me that might explain why he was there?”

“No.” Lauren exhaled hard, a harsh, bitter sound escaped from her. “But he has a condo downtown. Had it before we married. I have a key.”

“We’ll go tonight, okay?”

She followed his glance toward the play area. Her sons were racing toward the table, happy and excited, without a clue to their father’s crimes. “Yes.”

“I win! I win!” Matt shouted as he zoomed his race car over the food littered table top.

Mitch came up behind him, trying to push his brother aside. “No fair! I called yellow flag! I tripped. You didn’t win!”

“Yes, I did! Yellow flags are for crashes. You didn’t crash!”

“Yes, I did too crash,” Mitch cried, tears springing into his eyes.

Before Lauren could get a word in, Matt pushed Mitch. The table rocked and all of the drinks tipped over, pouring Jack’s way. Lauren braced herself for Jack’s irritation, already hearing Bill grumble about how little control she had over the children. She jumped up, searching for napkins, but Jack was faster than lightning. Not only had he removed his lower half out of harm’s way, but he managed to stop the flood by tipping over the napkin dispenser and using it as a large sponge.

“Whoa!” Jack reached out and steadied the table as the boys kept scuffling. “The problem is neither of you can honestly race each other yet.” Jack caught their attention. Lauren had reached the end of her rope. She was amazed at Jack’s calm control and easy manner. He took the boys in stride and guided them in a positive direction, easing the tension and chaos rather than adding to it.

Matt and Mitch frowned, glanced suspiciously at each other and then looked outraged at Jack, clearly upset.

“Why not?” Mitch demanded.

“Why not,
sir
?” Lauren prompted.

“Sir,” the boys both said together.

Jack was undaunted. “First, you can’t have an official race unless you have a judge for it. Second of all, I bet you didn’t even set up a predetermined course.”

Mitch frowned so hard that Lauren’s brow ached. “What’s that?”

Angie arrived, carrying Mitch’s shoe. “You lost this when you crashed, kid.”

Her remark set off another argument between Matt and Mitch over the legitimacy of Matt’s win.

“Between the birthday yesterday and the excitement today, you two are over-tired and need to go to bed a little early tonight.”

“Mom!” they cried together.

“That chimp is behaving better than you boys at the moment.” Angie pointed to the big screen TV. Everyone looked toward the CNN broadcast.

Unable to quite hear what was being said, Lauren read the typed feed scrolling up the screen. “Due to the destruction of the world’s oil market, Andreas Miles, owner of GreenWorld Corporation, announces his company will go to the ends of the earth in order to put their revolutionary new biofuel, GXP, on the market sooner than planned.”

“He has the chimp dressed exactly the same way as he’s dressed,” Lauren said.

“I know, sort of weird isn’t it?” Angie said. “A friend of my mother’s, Candace Latimoor from the CNN show
Latimoor Live
, is doing a live tour of GreenWorld’s research and production facility in Peru later this week. She says he’s a real nutcase when it comes to the chimp. Treats him just like a son. Probably even better than.”

“GreenWorld?” Lauren frowned. “I’ve heard that name before.”

“Where?” Jack turned, studying her, his gaze sharp.

“I don’t know.” She rubbed her temple. Looking back up at the screen, the man and the chimp were gone, replaced by pictures of what people were now calling the Hell Zones, the burning out-of-control oil fields, reservoirs and refineries in the Middle East and the remnants from last week’s attacks in the US. “Everything is running together and I can’t think.”

“I know what you mean,” Jack said. “The past two weeks have been like that for me.”

Lauren nodded. Somehow as bad as things were, it would be worse were it not for Jack.

Two hours later, Angie babysat the boys at a hotel where Jack paid cash for adjoining rooms under a false name and Lauren led Jack into Bill’s upscale condo. Located in downtown Atlanta in a premium community of shops, restaurants and office buildings, the third floor rooms overlooked a park. With a housekeeper three-hundred-and-sixty-three days a year, Bill kept everything looking like a showcase.

Lauren couldn’t breathe, a combination of too many emotions bombarding her all at once, shock from the intruding violence, and Jack’s growing presence. The longer she was with him, the more aware of him she became.

But how could she not? He’d been a human shield for her and everything she held dear. She could also be over-reacting as well. She paused in her search through Bill’s mail the housekeeper collected each day. Her nerves were on super alert, amplifying everything. The muffled clank from the upstairs tenet had made her jump. Jack opening drawer after drawer had her on edge, worried over what other secrets Bill harbored. A siren speeding by on the street outside had made her heart race. They were all normal sounds, but her responses kept escalating, clawing at her spine, eating at her mind. At every turn she expected a bullet to be waiting for her.

Memories of when she first met Bill were strongest at the condo and they’d collided with the facts she’d learned today the moment she’d walked into the door, turning her life into a train wreck.

Who she thought her husband was had suddenly twisted into an unrecognizable mass of deceit. As if she had gone to bed with a dashing prince and woke up with something worse than a toad, she’d awoken to a horrible devil—a terrorist.

The implications and repercussions of it all were just now bubbling into her shocked brain and her stomach churned with questions. Would people think she was involved in Bill’s treason? Isn’t that what citizens who acted against the United States were charged with? Would her family be reviled? Would her children be outcasts? Were their lives destroyed?

It was more than she could absorb.

A terrorist.

She just couldn’t believe it. Still didn’t believe it.”

“Hey.” Jack touched her arm and made her shiver, making her even more aware. “Are you all right?”

“Yeah.” Her voice was thick with emotion.

He studied her a moment. “Bad memories?”

“And worried about what you said and just how devastating it will be to our lives.”

“No one stops to consider the collateral damage their actions can cause. I’m going to do everything in my power to keep you and the boys as insulated as I can from what Bill did.”

She studied Jack a moment and knew he meant what he said. That she could rely on his word more than any man she’d known other than her brother. There was a solid strength to him that went deeper than his physical presence. It was an essence of something different about him, something stable and good. Maybe it stemmed from the code that he’d committed to live his life by in serving his country. She tried again to draw a deep breath, but couldn’t. Not because of fear this time, and not because Jack’s reassuring words didn’t help, but because they did. They reached inside her and stirred emotions she didn’t want to feel. Surely, she’d lost her mind. She’d just met this guy and there was no way she could really
know
those things about him. Right?

“Listen to this,” Jack held up a wireless phone and pressed a button. Several recorded messages played. Two from friend’s asking Bill to call them. The last was from his Brazilian squeeze, it was a voice and accent Lauren would never forget. “Please, I know you say to only call here for emergency. But I so worry. I sent everything as you asked today. To friends. To family. Now please be okay. Call me.”

“Bill’s latest. She lives in Sao Paulo. Angie spoke to her yesterday. Bill’s a week late for their date.”

“She left the message five days ago. I also found this brochure in Bill’s office. It’s about a Brazilian wildlife preserve. It just seemed out of place with the high end golf resorts and spas and it could have some connection to BioLogics.”

“Good thinking.” She looked down at the mail in her hand. “Brazil…sent everything…Oh My God! Bill’s letter!” She dropped the mail and dug into her back pocket to pull out the letter. “It must have been delivered with the boys’ birthday presents yesterday. They came from Sao Paulo. In their excitement, the boys had likely knocked it into the bushes I found it in this afternoon.”

“And you haven’t opened it, yet?”

“It’s not like nothing else has been going on. And, to be honest I almost ripped it up and threw it away.” She held up the letter. “He wrote My Dear Lauren on the envelope. And I…” She paused. “Didn’t want to read it after that. After all of his indiscretions, after all of the pain he’s caused, after all of the disrespect, those words pissed me off so much that I didn’t want to hear anything he had to say. Even if—” her breath hitched, “—even if he was dead. I’m awful. That’s awful, but that’s just the way it is.”

“No,” he said without a trace of condemnation. He stepped closer to her, brushing his thumb along her jaw. Every inch of his rough-edged nearness grabbed her attention and made her want to be closer to him, despite the chaos inside her. He was a rock solid port in a storm, an attractive port that appealed to her on a base level, for sure. But there was more to it than animal attraction and her own starved state. She was drawn as much to that element of honor she sensed in him as she was to everything else. She breathed in his enticing scent and drank of the determined warmth of his appreciative gaze. With her world reeling, he was an anchor she couldn’t resist.

“Not awful,” he said. “While you were getting the boys ready for bed, I did some internet searching on BioLogics and Bill. The pictures of him with other women pissed me off.” His intense gaze darkened and his jaw set to a rock hard angle that she’d hate to meet in a dark alley. He moved his hand to cup her chin. “So, no. You’re not awful at all. But him doing that while married to you made him the biggest idiot in the world.”

His touch stirred her even more and his anger comforted. She nodded. It had been so long since she’d been touched or comforted that she wanted to lean into his hand to feel more of him, but stepped back instead and opened the letter.

My Dear Lauren,

Considering the way things are at the moment, I know this letter will come as a surprise. But I have to let you know that I still love and miss you very much. Our times together have meant everything to me and I’d love to give you all of the riches in the world. Your share is only the beginning. Just remember how happy we were in Paris, our visit to the Coliseum in Rome and the kiss we shared despite our “suspicious minds” this “July”. NBT if you can believe it. The trip was just like our love me tender honeymoon in “blue Hawaii”.

I know you are looking forward to our trip to Vegas with the gang. Everyone will have a piece of the action to win the “Grand Jackpot”. Yahoo! “Viva Las Vegas!”