Cooper Security 06 - Secret Intentions (18 page)

He made himself move away from her, crossing to the window table to unplug his laptop. “We think we’ve found General Ross’s part of the code.” He turned to look at her, hoping she saw the regret and lingering desire in his eyes. “We have to go home tonight.”

Chapter Fourteen

The four-hour drive to Chickasaw County turned into almost five hours, as the threatened autumn thunderstorms unleashed their fury on them all the way into Alabama. Evie had been happy to let Jesse drive in the rain, but she hadn’t reckoned on Jesse’s lingering silence. Visibility was wretched, giving him a very good reason to concentrate on the road ahead without speaking, but no radio and no conversation made for an interminable ride and gave Evie plenty of time to worry about the consequences of letting Jesse Cooper seduce her.

Was he regretting it now? She found his still, focused expression impossible to read. He gave every appearance of concentrating on nothing but the road ahead, but she knew from experience that he had one hell of a poker face. His mysterious eyes and the tempting allure of secret intentions lurking beneath his expressionless face had always been one of the most attractive things about him.

She could try to engage him, but dread kept her silent. Jesse had told her already how impossible it would be for the two of them to have any kind of romantic relationship.

You’re Rita’s sister.

The inevitable roadblock, she thought with a hint of bitterness, not at her sister or even at Jesse but at her own dogged determination to ignore all the warning signs that should have sent her running away from Jesse Cooper years ago.

Jesse was the one who finally broke the silence as they crossed the Chickasaw County line. “Home, sweet home.”

“Where do we go next?” she asked quietly.

He looked at her for the first time in hours. “Shannon said she and Gideon would meet us at Cooper Security so we could take a crack at the locket right away.”

She looked at her watch. It was nearing midnight, but she was too wound up to sleep anyway. “What about security at the office?”

She’d been working late at Cooper Security just last month when a group of SSU commandos had stormed the place, looking for both the coded journal and Annie Harlowe. Annie had escaped their captivity a few days earlier and was helping Cooper Security try to find her missing parents.

Evie, Annie and Jesse’s brother Wade had barely escaped the building through the roof exit before the gun-wielding intruders had burst onto the roof behind him. Fortunately for the three of them, Jesse had already gone for help, bringing his cousin J.D., a former Navy chopper pilot, and Cooper Security’s shiny Bell 407 helicopter to the rescue.

“I’ve called in extra security,” he told her. “I also asked Rick to ask your father to come. I’d like him to be there tonight if we find the other part of the code.”

She frowned. “I’m not sure he’ll come.”

“Maybe if he realizes we already have the other two codes, he’ll see it’s safer to share what he knows than to stay silent.”

“What if the code isn’t in the locket?”

“It’s got to be.”

“But what if it’s not?” He’d explained to her what Shannon had told him about Lydia Ross’s locket. “How did the SSU even know to look for the locket? Even Lydia Ross had no idea the code might be in the locket.”

“I don’t know,” Jesse admitted. “Maybe they’ve been doing the same thing we’ve been doing, trying to figure out who he’d have trusted with the code. I’ve always wondered why General Ross didn’t tell Gideon about the code, because he trusted him enough to share his suspicions about what happened to Ford.”

Just over two years ago, the Rosses’ son, Ford, had died in a grenade attack in Kaziristan, where he and Gideon Stone had been part of a Marine Corps unit supporting NATO peacekeepers. But this was the first Evie had heard of the general’s suspicions. “What kind of suspicions?” she asked.

“Oh, I forgot you wouldn’t know.” He shot her a look of apology. “General Ross believed the SSU, rather than al Adar rebels, launched the grenade that killed Ford.”

“My God.” She lifted her hand to her suddenly aching throat. “Why would they do that?”

“I think they already knew the generals were looking into what they were up to in Kaziristan. They’d already broken a hell of a lot of laws, international and otherwise, to put the Espera Group’s preferred leaders into power. The general thought they killed Ford as a warning to him.”

“To keep him from looking any further into their activities?”

“Exactly.”

“I wonder if they threatened Lydia’s life, too. Might explain why the general never entrusted her with the code. He’d have wanted to protect her.”

“I’m sure he kept her out of the loop precisely to protect her,” Jesse said firmly. “He loved her. He wouldn’t have wanted to put her neck on the line. Not even to stop the Espera Group conspiracy.”

They turned down the long, wooded road to the Cooper Security office complex, a sprawling four-story building nestled in the middle of dense woodlands on the edge of Maybridge, the Chickasaw County seat. Evie’s apartment was only a mile away in the small town’s center, but most of the Coopers still lived in and around Gossamer Ridge, the lakeside town where they’d grown up.

When Cooper Security came into view, the whole complex was lit up like a Christmas tree, dozens of vehicles lining the parking lot. “You’re going to have a lot of overtime to pay this month,” Evie murmured.

“Most of these folks are salaried,” he replied with a slight smile. He headed for his reserved parking spot near the side entrance. Before he’d even cut the engine, four suit-clad Cooper Security guards flanked the car, their watchful eyes scanning the parking lot and the woods beyond for trouble.

The show of force should have made Evie feel more secure, but it only served to raise her anxiety level. If Jesse had ordered this kind of security, they must be in grave danger indeed.

Jesse’s sister Shannon and Gideon Stone met them at the door. Shannon threw her arms around her brother, her brown eyes shining with relief. “Rick told us about what happened yesterday in D.C. It must have been a nightmare.”

Gideon shook Jesse’s hand. “Glad to have you back, boss.”

Shannon turned to Evie. “We thought you might want to shower and change after the long drive. We’ve put some things for the two of you in a couple of the dorm rooms. On the second floor,” she added to her brother, handing him a couple of keys. “Rooms 218 and 220. Rick’s waiting for you in 218 for a debriefing.”

“Any luck getting my father here?” Evie asked, not expecting an affirmative answer.

“Actually, he’s already here. So’s your mom. They’re with their security detail up in the conference room,” Shannon answered.

“Come on, let’s get cleaned up and changed.” Jesse guided her toward the glassed-in bridge connecting the main office building with the dormitory, a four-story block of sleeping rooms designed to offer Cooper Security personnel and their families shelter in case of a natural disaster or terrorist attack. Agents also used the rooms when they were working long shifts, saving time and fuel by bunking down on the Cooper Security grounds.

Jesse unlocked the door to Evie’s assigned room and took a quick look around inside before he turned back to Evie. “I’ll be right next door.”

She almost caught his hand and asked him not to go, resisting only by clenching her fists so hard that her fingernails dented the flesh of her palms. “Don’t head back over there without me.”

His smile faded, and the look he gave her was intense and deadly serious. “I won’t.” He caught one of her hands, gently opened her clenched fist and put her room key on her palm.

Then he was gone, the door closing with a soft click behind him.

Evie took a quick shower and dressed in the fresh jeans and clean gray blouse Shannon had laid out for her on the dormitory bed. Leaving her thrift-store weekender bag and its stash of secondhand clothes on the bed, she ventured into the hallway to see if Jesse was done with his own cleanup.

She found him in the corridor outside her room, his head bent in quiet conversation with his brother Rick. At the sound of her door opening, he turned to look at her, his expression troubled.

“What’s going on?” she asked, her stomach knotting.

“We haven’t heard from the agents we sent to Spain to keep an eye on your sister and her new husband since yesterday morning, so we’ve sent out an alert to some of our contacts in Europe. We’re waiting for word.”

“What about Rita and Andrew?”

“We can’t confirm their whereabouts either.”

Evie covered her mouth. “Oh, God.”

“Your parents just tried calling the number she gave them when they arrived in Barcelona. It’s seven-thirty in the morning in Spain, but they’re not answering.” Jesse looked grim.

She tried to look for a more positive spin. “They’re newlyweds. Maybe they’re otherwise occupied.”

“Maybe,” Jesse agreed, his gaze smoldering as he lifted his eyes to lock with hers. An answering heat licked at her belly, notching her heart rate higher as the image of his strong, talented hands moving over her flesh drove out, momentarily, even her growing alarm about her sister’s safety.

Rick interrupted her thoughts with a much-needed reality check. “We need to get to the war room and see what we can sort out.”

He led the way, Jesse sticking close to Evie. Her skin prickled as they hurried down the long connecting corridor between the dorms and the offices. She knew the glass itself was bullet resistant, and that Jesse and his family had tightened perimeter security after the SSU invasion last month, but she couldn’t help walking more quickly than normal, feeling exposed. It was a relief to reach the safety of the other side, where interior walls provided extra protection from sniper fire.

In the conference room, several people had already gathered, including Evie’s parents. Her father spotted her first, his eyes widening with delight. He hurried over to her, wrapping her in a tight hug.

“Evie Marsh, I ought to strangle you for scaring your mother and me like this!” He caught her cheeks between his big hands and kissed her forehead. “Are you all right?”

“I’m fine,” she assured him.

He tugged her short red hair. “What the hell did you do to your hair?”

“Your fault for practically putting my face on a milk carton.”

Her father’s gaze slanted toward Jesse, and the relief that had lightened his blue eyes faded into anger. “Cooper, what the hell were you thinking, taking her with you?”

“I made him take me,” Evie said quickly. She could see the news about Rita had put Jesse in no mood to argue with her father. “And it’s a good thing, too. I happen to think I was a big help.”

“She was,” Jesse agreed.

“I thought it was clear I didn’t want you to take her off with you. That’s why I did the whole song and dance about her being kidnapped. You should have stopped her from going with you.”

Jesse exchanged a glance with Evie. “I’ve learned that your daughter prefers to make her own decisions for herself.”

“Hogwash.” Her father shook his head. “First you break Rita’s heart, now you put Evie in danger—”

“Bax, stop.” Evie’s mother, Donna, put her hand on her husband’s arm. “Let’s concentrate on finding Rita and worry about everything else later.” She pulled Evie into a tight embrace. “I think your hair looks adorable. But don’t you ever scare us this way again!”

“Anything new?” Rick Cooper asked his sister Isabel, who had been waiting with the Marshes in the conference room.

Her husband, Ben Scanlon, stood near one of the windows, gazing out on the rainy night. He turned at Rick’s question and answered for Isabel. “We haven’t heard anything from Rita and Andrew. And Delilah and Terry still haven’t checked in.”

“What does that mean?” Evie’s father asked.

“It doesn’t have to be bad news,” Evie answered before any of the others could. “It’s protocol if there’s a suspected threat for our operatives to get the clients to a place of safety. This may include going incommunicado if they believe communications could compromise their safety.”

“That could very well be what’s happened,” Jesse agreed, quirking his eyebrows at Evie.

What,
she thought,
you thought I didn’t listen during the training courses?

“Why don’t we get caught up to date on what Shannon and Gideon have found?” Jesse watched his youngest sister walk through the door carrying a small box. “Is that the locket?”

Shannon opened the box and set it on the conference room table. “We think there’s a secret compartment behind the photo, but it seems to have been soldered shut. Gideon says he can open it, but we wanted you to take a look first.”

Evie darted a quick look at Jesse, her lips curving. His brothers and sisters treated him more like a father than a brother sometimes. Evie supposed that was due to his having to take up so much of the slack in the family after his mother left. His father’s deputy-sheriff position at the time had kept him constantly busy, leaving Jesse to play both mother and father to his younger siblings.

Jesse lifted the locket from the box and examined it closely. Evie edged closer to get a better look. The chain was nothing out of the ordinary, a series of simple gold links, but the locket itself was large, over two inches long by an inch and a half wide. The front of the locket was inlaid with painted enamel in the form of a peacock in full display.

“Beautiful,” Evie murmured.

“Lydia loves it, so I’d rather we not destroy it trying to get to whatever’s hidden inside,” Shannon said.

“Reminds me of that locket Trey Prichard gave me,” Jesse’s sister Isabel said. “He was my best friend’s brother,” she explained to the Marshes. “After she died, he gave me the locket. Told me she’d wanted me to have it. It took years to figure out that the locket was a clue to who’d killed her.”

“He’d put a key inside the locket,” Isabel’s husband, Ben, added. “It led to a storage locker where he’d stashed evidence that helped bring down a big meth and pot distribution racket.”

“When was that?” Gideon asked curiously.