Hunted, A Romantic Suspence Novel (16 page)

“I have to go into the department in the morning.”

“I’m not going with you.”

“I didn’t think you were. Besides he just wants me to explain about the ambush at my apartment. I’ll feed him the same line I did the police, that the Russian mafia I helped put away last year are behind it.”

She stilled her hands and stared at him. “I didn’t dream that?”

He tilted his head to study her. “You thought you dreamed what?”

“When the medics put me on the stretcher, I heard you tell the policeman something about the Russian mafia having set up the ambush.” Heat filled her cheeks. “I believed I had imagined you saying that. As much as you want to go by the book, I knew you couldn’t be lying to protect me. I blamed it on the concussion.”

“As far as I knew it was the truth, Katie. At the time I didn’t have any way of knowing Strict’s man knew you were with me. I assumed it had to be retaliation from last year’s case.”

Great. Now she’d made a complete fool of herself, again. She concentrated on scrubbing the grill pan. “So, you didn’t lie to protect me.”

“Technically, I did, twice.” He voice sounded from right behind her. Somehow he’d moved from the table without her hearing a sound.

“How?”

“You asked me to protect you, so I gave them a false name, sweetheart.”

“And the other time?” she asked, looking over her shoulder at him.

“When I told them you were my girlfriend.” He took her face in his warm hands and forced her to look at him. “I do believe in following the rules, Katie. If my boss doesn’t mention you or Strict, I’ll leave the subject closed.”

“And if he does?”

His lips pressed into a thin line, the muscle in his jaw jerking slightly. “Then I’ll be duty-bound to tell him the truth.”

“He’ll turn me over to the Marshals.” Why did he stubbornly stick to the rules?

“Katie, you have to trust me. I’ll do everything in my power to protect you from Strict’s man, but I won’t lie to my boss about the situation.”

She stepped away from him, wiping her hands on a towel. “And I keep telling you, the only way to survive is to stay hidden.”

“At some point, you have to quit hiding.”

They stood just an arm’s length apart. It might as well have been a mile. “I’ve been hiding too long to change now.”

“If you don’t come out of the dark soon and face your fears, you may never.”

Suddenly, she knew they were talking about more than just hiding from the hit man—and it scared the hell out of her.

* * * * *

Castello looked around the room at the few men and one woman who formed his task force on Pete’s murder. Dave Crestview served with Pete before they were partnered. Kevin, Al, and Greg all had equally long careers with the Marshals.

He’d chosen them because he knew each man’s work ethic and he couldn’t trust any of the younger agents. Someone in the department had leaked information to Strict. So anyone with less than ten years’ experience was questionable.

“As you all know, Pete Halloran was murdered. According to the Medical Examiner, he’d been dead about a week. The FBI is already on the case, but because Pete was one of ours, the Captain wants us doing our own investigation.”

Frank took his seat at the conference table then nodded to the man seated at his left. “Dave, tell us what you’ve gotten from the feds.”

Dave passed folders to the task force’s other members. “The ME gives the official cause of death as heart failure secondary to exsanguination—basically, Pete’s heart gave out from the massive amount of blood he lost during the torture.”

“What kind of weapon?” Al glanced up from his copy.

“The ME thinks it was either an Army field knife or large blade hunting knife.”

“See if you can get a better ID on the weapon, Al.” Frank nodded at the man at the table’s other end. “Then see if we can find out who might have purchased one lately. Check with local sporting-goods shops, and online sales, too.”

“Any prints?” Kevin was a details man. He’d be asking about fiber analysis next.

Castello listened while Dave gave a report on all the evidence, or lack thereof, disclosed by the FBI report. The somber mood of those gathered illustrated just how much his team wanted to find who butchered their old comrade.

Now, all he had to do was steer them in the Federal Building bombing and Strict’s direction. Then the hunt for who was stalking Sarah/Katie would begin.

He waited until their discussion ran its course, then he nodded to Leslie to pass around the copies of five files to each investigator.

“These are the major cases Pete and I worked the last few years before he retired. Study them and see what you can come up with in the way of leads connected to his death.”

The men opened their files, flipping through the witnesses’ names in the protection program. Suddenly Greg froze with a file half open in front of him.

“Frank, this might be important.”

Castello’s pulse kicked into high gear. “What’ve you got?”

“This Sarah Strict? Her name popped up on our warning service last night.”

“How?”

Everyone’s attention riveted on the task force’s oldest member.

“The social security number came in from a local hospital. Two team members went over this morning to interview her and get details as to her injury, but she’d skipped out without being discharged.”

“Did they find out anything about her injuries?” Frank prayed it wasn’t too serious.

Greg shook his head. “Not much other than it was some sort of shotgun blast.”

“That may be the connection we’re looking for.” Frank already knew it was. He focused his attention on each member of his task force. “I think we should concentrate on this witness’ case as our main probable link to Pete’s murder.”

So much for discretion. His chief witness was on the run and possibly injured. The stakes had just doubled. Katie’s life depended on how fast the task forced moved in finding Pete’s killer.

The black sedan drove through the parking lot outside the State Highway Patrol Headquarters on the near north side of town. The driver searched for a black Ford pick-up. Carefully the Angel studied each license plate, looking for the number Hagen provided. Too bad the young man had become another loose end he couldn’t afford to leave behind. Another time, he might have proved useful.

Focusing on finding the girl, the Angel continued his search for the vehicle he needed. The only connection he had to her was the highway patrolman she’d run to for help. To find her he’d have to track the patrolman back to their lair.

But he always enjoyed the hunt. Even against formidable prey such as the girl.

For a female, she’d always been amazingly resourceful. That trait drove the Prophet crazy. No matter the amount of torture he put her through she survived. Her stubborn streak had propelled her down the scaling wall’s side and more than one cliff during her training.

And her need to protect others added to the punishment her stepfather doled out. Once, a child failed to field strip a weapon properly. When he was sent to bed without food, Sarah had taken it upon herself to sneak the child some dinner. Strict had gone crazy. He’d forced the girl to stand in the freezing sleet, dressed only in her pajamas and recite the entire weapons manual the family used. Her ensuing pneumonia would have killed a weaker person.

Strict had never understood that about her. He’d always underestimated her abilities. Even now, when the Prophet ordered his plans carried out before midnight on the thirty-first, Strict expected the deed to take little effort.

He, on the other hand, knew she’d be a difficult kill.

Right now, his first priority was to find the patrolman’s truck then he’d find the girl.

Finally, he drove through the lot’s front lane. There was the truck, parked close to the door.

A slow smile split the Angel’s lips. The patrolman planned a hasty exit.

No matter. Now he had their scent.

* * * * *

Castello lifted the pile of e-mail and phone messages Leslie had laid on his desk after the task force meeting.

Two calls from his sisters in California, wishing him a Merry Christmas.

He shook his head. Every year they invited him out, and every year he chose to work. You’d think they’d get the message. He didn’t want happy family time. Never had.

When Katie was safe, he’d have to make time to call the girls and apologize, again.

An e-mail notification regarding Strict’s execution date and time. He set that to one side.

In all his years of protecting witnesses from scum like Strict, he’d never actually attended any of their executions. This time he might make an exception. He’d like nothing more than to watch the Prophet meet his maker.

As he read the next message, he sat straight in his chair. He reached for the file on his desk.

The guy’s name, he’d seen it before. He flipped through the file until he found it.

Matt Edgars.

He’d been the man listed on the hospital report as contact for Katie. The same man the nurses told the investigators had slept by her bed all that night. The same man they believe she left with.

He compared the date on the message to the one on the file. The message came in on Christmas Eve. The hospital admission was just before midnight on Christmas night.

Dammit.
What the hell had happened to Katie? And who was this—he glanced at the note again—highway patrolman to whom she’d gone for help? Had someone from his office given the patrolman’s name to Strict’s man?

He was tired of being ten steps behind his own witness.

It was time to find this Matt Edgars and hopefully, Katie. Castello slipped the note into his pocket.

Frustration pushed him out of his chair. He grabbed his coat and headed out of his office.

“Leslie, I’m on my cell if anything important comes up,” he called as he stalked out the door.

“Where are you going, sir?” She followed him from the office, catching him as he stopped at the elevator.

He waited for the door to open, then stepped inside and pushed the lobby button. “I’m going hunting.”

* * * * *

Matt forced himself to stroll out of the Highway Patrol’s general headquarters and quite possibly his career. He’d spent more than an hour enduring the third-degree grilling by his captain about the ambush at his apartment. Each time Brown asked him about a possible tie-in with a case, Matt had suggested it was due to his involvement with the Russian Mafia case he’d worked on with Jake the year before.

But Brown hadn’t gotten to the rank of Captain by being stupid. When Matt hedged on information regarding the woman with him, Brown had stopped his questioning and sat back in his chair to study him.

Matt met his intense gaze without flinching. He’d already decided his first duty as both a law officer and a friend was to protect Katie.

“You’re not telling me everything, Edgars.”

Matt started to give him a vague answer, but the captain held up one hand to stop him.

“Before you say anything, answer some questions. Is this incident in any way related to a case in our department?”

“No, sir.”

“I can’t believe I’m gonna ask you this, but are you mixed up in anything illegal?”

Matt blinked at that. “No, sir. You know me better than that.”

Brown lifted one eyebrow. “I also know you usually don’t hedge on telling me the details of a case.”

Matt’s gut clenched. Never in his career had anyone had a reason to doubt him. Withholding information from a superior officer went against every code of conduct he’d ever had, not to mention amounting to gross insubordination.

His career virtually circled the drain.

Brown looked through the papers on his desk. “This woman. Anyone I should be concerned about knowing?”

“Captain, she’s not in trouble with the law. But I promised to keep her identity quiet for the time being.”

His boss studied him for a moment. “Is she worth your career?”

Matt didn’t hesitate. “Yes, sir, I believe so.”

“Then take your vacation time now. You have one week to get this mess cleaned up, or I’ll have to ask for the details of the case. And Matt?”

“Yes sir?” The guillotine blade rose above his head.

“Because of your past record and excellent job performance, I’m cutting you some slack this time. But get this straight. If you refuse to give me answers next time you’re here, I’ll be forced to ask for your badge. Got it?”

Matt had nodded and exited the office before the captain could change his mind or grill him further.

Now he needed to get back to Katie. Their search for the assassin just received a time limit. If he had any luck at all, they’d be able to catch the killer before his career went down the toilet. More importantly, before the man found Katie.

He’d meant what he said to the captain. She was more important than his career.

Outside the building, he sprinted to his truck. The need to see Katie burned inside him. Turning the Ford onto Seventeenth Street, he drove past the Ohio State Fairgrounds to the interstate entrance.

The light caught him before he passed under the freeway. He sat there thinking about everything that had happened since he’d seen Katie’s tire shot out four days before.

Like a Midwestern tornado, she’d turned his well-ordered life upside down. He should’ve explained the whole affair to his boss and brought in more help. But when he tried to do what was expected of him as a law officer, they’d both ended up in more danger.

Since he’d met Katie, not only had his world changed, but so had he. He seemed to hover in a strange space between constant sexual arousal, tender desire to comfort her, and anger.

His anger focused first and foremost on anyone who’d ever hurt Katie. Underneath that solitary shell she presented to the world lay the young woman who wanted acceptance. He included the Marshals on that list. When he got his hands on the person that leaked her name, their life expectancy was nil.

Then there was Katie, herself. Her mistrust, no matter how well-founded, tied his hands.