Kiss the Enemy (Slye Temp) (25 page)

She told him about her infection. “The kidnappers wanted to know what I knew about the Banker and why I was trying to find him. Who I worked with, on and on. I didn’t give them squat.”

“How’d you get out?”

This was not going to help her case. “Dragan and I escaped together. I’ve got intel to share and need to get out of here.”

“Sabrina can’t send anyone for you. She’s trying to convince the Feds that you’re one of her snitches and that you’ve never been involved in a terrorist plot that she knows about. She sold them hard on the possibility that you were captured with Dragan while trying to get the meet point for the Banker.”

“That’s exactly what happened.”

“The Feds aren’t buying it. They’ve sent your fingerprints to INTERPOL.”

Shit. If INTERPOL had her prints from the room in Paris she was screwed. No one had a photo of her from back then. She hadn’t needed an ID at that time to work nights for tips and she’d avoided getting chummy ... until Logan, aka Dragan, aka Pierre.

The only reasons she thought they might have prints from when she was in Paris was if the French law enforcement had tracked Logan back to the apartment and dusted for prints.

But Logan acted as if he had been trying to help the Russian diplomat. If that was true, he’d been worried that someone other than law enforcement would have been coming after her. Like killers.

Criminals didn’t dust for fingerprints.

Maybe she’d worried all this time about INTERPOL for no reason, but Sabrina had kept Margaux on domestic missions only just in case.

Margaux thought out loud. “I may be okay, Nick. The FBI has prints but no positive ID of my face.”

“Wrong. ”

“What? Spit it out.”

“Someone delivered an anonymous envelope to the FBI with photos of you being made over by a woman called Andrea and she rolled first. She didn’t have your name, but she
did
identify a photo from that envelope as you being the woman she made over four hours before you entered the Trophy Room.”

Walls were closing in from every direction. This was way more screwed than even Margaux imagined. The only person who could have had photos of her was Snake Eyes.

He was a dead man.

Nick asked, “Why’d you take off from the apartment?”

She needed all of them to know she hadn’t snuck out over a selfish whim to avoid whatever Sabrina had planned to do with her. “I had to do this. I know no one will believe me, but I got word the Banker was hunting for the person who was trying to find him that night in Atlanta. And once he found out who it was, he’d kill that person first then come after everyone connected. The Banker had my contact set up with bad intel just to catch me, and my contact would squeal in a minute.”

“Where’s your snitch?”

“He’s probably having a dirt nap by now. I would never have walked out on Sabrina, but if I’d stayed you would have all ended up as targets.”  But the Banker would have known about her for the past week if Snake Eyes had squealed, so had anything happened? “Has anyone been attacked, Nick?”

“No. Maybe your snitch sold you out to someone else.”

“Like who?”  She had her share of enemies like anyone in this business, but who wanted her bad enough to frame her as a terrorist working for the Banker?

“The DEA agent with the cracked skull has those kind of contacts.”

She hadn’t really forgotten about the agent whose operation she’d blown, but he hadn’t been in the forefront of her concerns for the past week. “Maybe, but I’m telling you the truth about the Banker’s threat.”

“I believe you, Duke, but the FBI has marked you as working with Dragan, the Banker or both.” 

“No fucking way. I need to come see Sabrina.”

“Sabrina has Feds climbing all over her and the phone lines. Hang on a minute while I flag her.”  Nick covered his phone.

All Margaux heard for the next thirty seconds was muffled voices then Nick was back on the phone and it sounded like he was outside in the wind. “I’m leaving so there’s no chance of this being heard. She gave me a message for you.”

The lump in Margaux’s throat was the size of a golf ball. Was this when Sabrina cut all ties? “I’m listening.”

“Is Dragan a danger to you?”

Only to my sanity.
“No. He got me out of Colombia and kept an infection from killing me.”

“Good, because here’s what Sabrina wants you to do. Stay with Dragan for now and pull as much intel as you can on him and the Banker. She has one shot at keeping you out of prison and it depends on your value as a snitch right now.”

Margaux closed her eyes. That was not going to happen. “That’s not a good idea.”

“It’s the only idea. Sabrina is going to tell the FBI that she’s gotten word from you that you’re insinuated with Dragan Stoli and that you have a lead on the Banker. She wants them to put an order out not to kill you.”

“I don’t have shit on the Banker.”

“Then get some,” Nick barked right back at her. “You haven’t lost Dragan have you?”

That would be one way of looking at it, but no, she’d managed to lose
herself
by escaping. She must not have answered fast enough. Nick continued, “The only right answer to that is ‘no, Nick, of course I haven’t lost a lead on the man everyone is looking for right now who put my neck in a noose.’”

“I know where he is.” 
That doesn’t mean Logan is going to welcome me back with open arms.
Then there was Moose. Margaux rubbed her eyes until she saw stars.

“Then your job is to do whatever it takes to stay close to him and send intel any chance you can. If you can find out what the Banker is here for, Sabrina thinks she can parlay that into a deal.”

“Banker is definitely pulling together mercs for something and it only makes sense that the attack will be in this country.”

“We’ve got that figured. When will Dragan meet up with him?”

Logan had to locate the Banker first.

She’d have to get close to Logan again to find out if he could. But Sabrina was working for her and Margaux would not let her down. And this was her only hope to avoid getting brought in by the FBI to face charges of terrorism.

Nick told her, “Sabrina’s letting me run on my own. I’ll check my leads and see what I can come up with.”

Margaux smiled. This would be a perfect time for one of Nick’s crazy plans. She’d help him clean up any mess he made if he got her a break on
her
mess. He wanted to know when Dragan and the Banker would meet. She told him what she hoped would be true.

“Dragan and the Banker should have a meeting soon. I don’t know how I’ll get details to you on that, but I’ll find a way to contact you if I learn what the Banker is planning.”

“Not if, when.”  Then Nick gave her a new number to use the next time.

She hung up and realized her new problem was going to be hunting her way back to the camp.

If Logan hadn’t packed up and left by the time she returned.

She wasn’t going back into the woods until she had a meal and shower. She nuked a lasagna TV dinner while she showered and dried her hair. Looked like the home was owned by a couple in their forties. Attractive pair.

Digging around in the closets, she found a half-filled bag marked for donation. The woman was short and plump, but there were male clothes in the bag. A pair of jeans with a worn knee, a faded Broncos sweatshirt and wool socks with thin heels fit Margaux better than she’d expected. His hiking boots were a half size too big, perfect with the socks.

By the time she’d finished eating and cleaned up behind herself, including taping plastic over the window in the door and wiping everything down so she left no prints, she’d also written in a backhanded style that was not hers a thank you note for allowing a desperate person to borrow their shower and food. She added that although they probably wouldn’t believe her she intended to send them money to repair the window and to replace everything she took, including the donated clothes.

Shrugging back into the heavy outdoor gear, she fired up her ATV and started back toward Camp Penance.

She had until then to come up with a perfectly sound reason for tazing Moose, stealing an ATV, running away and coming back, plus a way to convince Logan he should keep her around.

She was so dead.

CHAPTER 31

Logan stepped inside Margaux’s shack and stopped short. “I’m going to kill her!”

Nitro stepped up beside him. “You may have to stand in line behind Moose.”

“Cut him free.”  Logan took in the bucket of water on the floor. A wet towel hung half off the crate and a shattered lantern spread glass across the floor. Moose’s hands and ankles were tied with a rope, then a section was used as a tether between them. Another piece of rope had been looped around his legs in a complicated figure eight crossover that prevented him from bending his knees to reach his feet and untie himself. Or to reach anything else.

She’d hobbled Moose and used a shirt to tie him to one of the metal legs on her bed.

Logan had ordered the bed bolted down while Margaux was unconscious so she wouldn’t dismantle the structure when she woke up and use a leg as a weapon.

While scouting the outer perimeter, Ty had picked up an alert from a trip wire—Margaux exiting the camp—and radioed Nitro that he couldn’t reach Moose. Nitro had told Ty to wait for backup in case the camp was compromised.

Sweat had poured down Logan’s back from worry that someone had killed Margaux and Moose.

Nitro cut the ropes on Moose then got busy cleaning up the mess. Offering the big guy a hand up wouldn’t be appreciated right now.

Moose picked up his Taser and Glock that had been left sitting next to him, then lumbered over to Logan. “There’s no excuse for this.”

Logan scrubbed a hand over his face. “What happened?”

“Remember you told me she was afraid of snakes?”

“You found one to put in here?”

“No.”  Moose couldn’t look any more humiliated. “She started yelling about a snake in the room. I opened the door with both my Glock and Taser in hand. She was jumping up and down on the crate by the bed and kept ordering me to shoot the fucking snake. She didn’t have a thing on and was holding a wet towel in front of her so I thought it was for real, because she was more worried about the snake than me seeing her naked.”

Margaux had played that perfectly.

If she’d pretended to be afraid instead of pissed off, Moose would never have bought it. She’d stripped down to look as vulnerable as possible to convince him she really was panicked, but instead of crying, she’d yelled and cursed.

“I’ll track her down,” Moose offered, enthusiasm gleaming in his eyes.

“No. She took an ATV so there’s no telling where she is.”  Logan called over to Nitro. “We need to pack up and move to our alternate location.”

“You want to roll tonight?”

“Yes.” Logan could take the sat call from the Banker anywhere. His gut was telling him she wanted out, not that she’d gone to bring someone back. But he’d err on the side of being overcautious this time. If he really thought she’d send someone in he’d have the men grab their go bags and head out now. Once Party Man and Angel finished checking out the satellite camp that provided another exit plan, Logan would know if anything important was missing or disturbed, like the sat phone.

Party Man came around the corner. “Got a problem, Cuz.”

Lack of sleep over two days turned Logan’s question into a snarl. “What?”

“The transport truck won’t start.”

That truck was hidden under camo tarps a half mile from the camp. “How could she have found it?”

“It looks like she went in a big loop when she left and got to the truck by accident. She probably would have taken it if we hadn’t left a tree blocking the path. I can fix it, but it’s going to take a while. Wires have been rerun all over the place and that’s just what I can tell at first glance.”

Margaux couldn’t just humiliate one of his men and steal an ATV. No, she had to fubar his best exit strategy. “How long?”

“I could get lucky and figure out where everything goes in an hour or it could take all night. Or I might get it fixed and find out we’re still missing a part.”

“What about the sat phone? Did she find either one?”

Party Man shook his head. “Nope. Doesn’t look like she tried to find the phones or take anything else. All the ammo and weapons are accounted for. Only thing I can tell is she took one of the heavy overalls.”

Logan shouldn’t be glad the little thief was going to be dressed warm for the weather, but he was.

She was right. He was an idiot.

Nitro had the bucket full of glass in one hand and the lantern base in his other. “Still want to pack up tonight, Cuz?”

“No.”  Logan gave the room another look and declared, “Besides, she isn’t sending anyone.”

Party Man, Moose and Nitro exchanged looks loaded with doubt.

Logan explained, “If she was going to send someone in, she wouldn’t have done anything but leave without touching any of the camp or she would have taken this place apart looking for the sat phone to make the call and bring someone in immediately. Dismantling the truck was to prevent us from using it to overtake her if Moose freed himself or we returned before she made it to the highway. If she wanted to give away our location, she would have taken the truck
and
a phone.”

Nitro brought up a problem. “She’s seen all of us.”

“I know.”  Logan had made the grave mistake of underestimating her. “Moose and I’ll take the first watch, me on the outer perimeter and Moose in the camp.”  He had to give his man the more significant of the two positions so he could earn his pride back.

Nitro shouldered past. “I’ll get dinner going, then Angel and I’ll take second watch.”

Party Man followed him, muttering, “I’m going to need Ty with me and a spotlight so I can see.”

By the time Logan walked the outer security zone for eight hours, he was feeling more like a seventy-four-year-old man instead of thirty-four. He was fatigued and his body was still aching from his fun little vacation in the jungle. He trudged back through the woods, ready to climb in his sleeping bag and crash hard for four hours. Give him that and he’d make another week on his feet.