Out of Character (29 page)

“Does Ryan?” Jillian puffed out as they speed-walked uphill through thick vegetation.

“Yeah, but I only showed him once, so I’m hoping he’s forgotten how to get in. Even if he hasn’t, by the time he arrives we’ll be—”

A deafening blast obscured Paul’s words. The ground rumbled, and Jillian tripped mid-stride. She plunged forward and rammed her shoulder and cheek against the trunk of a palm tree. Paul grabbed her and held her upright.

“Are you all right?” he asked when the roar had subsided.

Jillian’s shoulder throbbed and her cheek stung, but she wasn’t about to admit it. “Fine.”

“That guy’s either good or lucky. He barely missed the compound.”

“How do you know that?”

“From the sound and smell. It didn’t hit any buildings, just trees.”

She couldn’t smell anything. All of Paul’s senses must be exceptionally well developed.

“Got him.” Paul was looking skyward. “Harry hasn’t lost his touch.”

A ball of fire plummeted toward the open ocean.

“Let’s go.” Paul resumed walking.

Jillian trailed behind him. “Shouldn’t we go back to the house to help them?”

“Since their job is protecting us, we’ll help most by keeping ourselves safe.”

“Won’t they worry when we don’t go back to the house?” She was babbling, but she couldn’t help it. She had a feeling that was the only thing keeping her from falling apart. Despite Paul’s apparent confidence, she was terrified.

“Harry knows damn well I’d never have said I was heading there if I actually planned on it. Not with someone close enough to intercept our call. Hold this.” Paul handed her his gun then stepped up to a collection of luxuriant ferns. He separated them to reveal a boulder that he shoved a couple feet to the left, exposing an opening barely large enough for a person. “You’ll have to slide through on your stomach. Once you get inside, you’ll have enough room to crawl.”

Jillian returned Paul’s gun, got down on her stomach, and slithered through the opening. The rocks scraped her aching shoulder. A few feet inside she rose onto her hands and knees, but had to duck her head to keep the ceiling from brushing her hair.

“It gets bigger soon,” Paul said from behind her.

Everything went dark.

Jillian froze, paralyzed by panic and claustrophobia. “Paul?”

“Right here.” He touched her leg. “I put the rock back. Keep moving.”

The tunnel seemed even smaller and creepier in the complete darkness. Jillian forced herself to keep crawling, to ignore the gravel prickling her knees, the dust and dampness choking her breath, the pain in her shoulder.

Finally, she made out the sides of the tunnel. “It’s lighter.”

“You’re almost to the cave.”

Paul’s words motivated her to move faster. Several more crawls and she was in a cave at least twenty feet in diameter and ten feet high, lit by several slivers of sunlight shining through cracks overhead. She scrambled to her feet and brushed gravel from her knees and palms, breathing in the much fresher air.

“Sit down.” Paul pointed at several flat-topped rocks piled along one wall. “Those are supposed to be chairs. I set them up when I was a kid.”

Jillian chose a rock. “What do we do now?”

“We’ll wait here until someone calls to let us know it’s safe to come out.” Paul sat on the rock to her right and draped his arm around her shoulders. He held his gun in his other hand. “How’s your shoulder? It wasn’t your wounded one, was it?”

So he had noticed she’d bashed it. “The other one, and it barely aches.” The pain had faded, and Jillian was actually relaxed. Nothing seemed real, as if she were a spectator watching this scene, not an active participant. She leaned her head against the solid wall of the cave and closed her eyes. She should force her brain and body back into full alert, but she couldn’t quite yet. For the moment, she wanted to drift and enjoy feeling safe.

“Fancy running into you two here.” Ryan.stepped into the cave, his gun aimed at Paul.

“What a surprise.” Paul jumped to his feet and pulled Jillian up with him. His gun was aimed at Ryan.

Ryan shrugged. “That’s me. Full of surprises.”

“Jillian, get your gun.”

“She doesn’t need a gun,” Ryan said.

“Get it, Jillian.”

Jillian knelt beside the bag and opened it with shaking fingers, the rasp of the zipper in the ominous silence raising goose bumps. She pulled her revolver out of the inside pocket then returned to Paul’s side.

“Now aim it at him.” Paul’s arm circled her shoulders, warming her chilled body.

Jillian followed Paul’s instructions. She was pointing at a paper target, not a person she’d considered a friend. She had to keep telling herself that.

“What the hell’s going on? I thought you were kidding like I was.” Ryan raised his empty hand.

“Stop moving!”

Ryan’s hand froze in mid-air. He glanced at Jillian. “Has he been acting strange all day?”

Jillian snuggled closer to Paul.

“Drop your gun.” Paul flicked his own for emphasis.

“And let you shoot me? I swear I’m trying to help you.”

“Why did you lie?” Paul asked.

“About what?”

“What didn’t you lie about? For starters, the bureau didn’t send you on a new assignment. Jack assumed you were still here.”

Ryan leaned against the cave wall and gestured absently with his revolver. “Martin didn’t want to tell anyone who didn’t absolutely need to know. Which limited it to Martin and me.”

“Martin would never be involved with slime like you.”

“If you’d let me explain—”

“No. Drop the gun.”

Ryan shifted his attention to Jillian. “Can you please convince Paul to let me explain? When he learns the truth, he’ll feel like shit if he’s already killed me.”

Ryan might be on their side. Or maybe that was wishful thinking. Clutching her gun so tightly she half-expected the handle to crush like an empty soda can, Jillian looked from Ryan to Paul then back at Ryan. She felt as if she were watching one of those spy movies where people stand pointing guns and firing lies at each other, stalling until reinforcements, or at least an exploding pen, can rescue the hero. Unfortunately, reinforcements wouldn’t have a clue how to get into this cave, and James Bond probably had a monopoly on exploding pens.

She had to risk it. “Please let him talk.”

“Why?” Paul’s attention was on Ryan.

“Because I’m afraid otherwise you’ll shoot each other, and I’ll be stuck dealing with whoever’s in the boat. If Ryan really is a good guy, I’d like to avoid that.”

“He may be delaying to give his friends time to show up,” Paul said. “Did you tell them about this cave?”

“I assume you’re talking about Taurino and company, and I didn’t tell them a damn thing,” Ryan said. “We have at least fifteen minutes before they land. I focused on them once I knew you’d spotted the boat, and I could stop covering you.” He narrowed his eyes. “What the hell were you doing swimming? It was damn risky.”

“Why didn’t you shoot me then?” Paul asked. “Because Taurino would have been pissed to miss the kill?”

“Because I’m on your side,” Ryan said. “For God’s sake, will you let me explain?”

Jillian squeezed the hand Paul had resting on her shoulder. “It’s two against one. It won’t hurt to listen.” Her gun felt heavy. She moved her left arm underneath her shooting arm for support.

Paul studied Ryan for a moment then flicked his gun. “Talk.”

“When you were shot at on the ski slopes, Martin got worried. So he called the one person he knew he could trust implicitly. Me.” Ryan glanced at Jillian. “Unlike some people, Martin knows I’d never betray Paul.”

“Keep talking.”

Ryan snorted. “You sound like an extra in a low-budget movie.” A stream of sunlight illuminated him like an actor in the spotlight. “Martin asked me to go to Colorado. He told me to convince Jack to request me for your case, pretending it was my idea. But Jack was such an ass I had to go to Martin.”

“What were you supposed to do in Colorado that my guards couldn’t do?” Paul asked.

“Make sure you weren’t trusting anyone you shouldn’t.”

“Jack vouched for Sam and Mac.”

“Doesn’t mean they weren’t bought without his knowledge.”

Paul’s hand tightened on Jillian’s shoulder, and he gave Ryan a condescending look. “Which is why you didn’t even start for the Rockies until I’d been alone with them for several days.”

“Okay, so it wasn’t Sam or Mac that Martin was worried about.” Ryan studied his running shoes. “It was Jillian.”

Jillian’s stomach fisted. It wasn’t just Jack. Ryan and Martin also believed she was trying to hurt Paul.

“Jillian?” Paul’s voice echoed through the cave. “What the hell—”

He still had his arm around her shoulders and was glaring at Ryan. She hoped to God that meant
he
didn’t believe it.

“See why Martin didn’t want you to know?” Ryan met Paul’s glare head-on. “Martin called me when you demanded she be brought to the safe house. He was concerned she might be a plant or at least messing with your judgment. They’d learned early on that you’d lied about the extent of your involvement with her, and you were obsessed with her safety. Martin figured I’d be able to tell if she was getting to you. Then the safe house blew up—”

“Why did you miss that?” Paul asked. “And don’t pretend you took your first nap since you got out of diapers.”

“Except I did, damn it.” Ryan’s gun swayed. “I was on a stake-out in Texas when Martin first called, and it took time to get things set so I could leave. By then, I hadn’t slept in nearly forty-eight hours. Even coffee and uppers didn’t keep me from inching over the center line. I napped for three hours, which was long enough to miss you in Colorado. Martin assumed Jillian had actually made the call to the district attorney’s office, possibly to disclose your location to whoever blew up the place.”

“That isn’t why.” Jillian couldn’t keep listening to suspicions without defending herself.

“Martin was even more worried when you took the blame, Paul,” Ryan said. “He told me to get to the island ASAP.”

“Martin thought I might be letting my hormones interfere with my common sense?” Paul asked in an offended tone.

“So did I, once I met Jillian. That’s a compliment, by the way.” Ryan gave Jillian a quick smile. “I soon concluded she was what she claimed to be and told Martin not to worry.”

Jillian’s stomach relaxed. Although maybe the reason Ryan was sure she was innocent was because he was guilty. Her stomach clenched again.

“I’d officially been on vacation since I left Texas and decided to stick around,” Ryan said. “My plans changed a couple nights ago.”

“What happened then?” Paul sounded bored, but his muscles were as tensed as ever.

“I’d brought some fancy monitoring equipment along. Lucky I did, because someone made a call out that wasn’t recorded by your system. I didn’t get the conversation or even the recipient, although I did figure out how to record future calls.”

“Which worried you so much that you left.”

“I pretended to. Martin and I thought that would make it easier for me to monitor things, including Sam and Mac since one of them must have made that call. I hid the boat and have been living in here ever since. In the other cave.” Ryan pointed. “A tunnel back there connects them, Jillian.”

“How did you avoid the surveillance cameras?” Paul asked.

“I reprogrammed them to free up certain routes at different times. I also programmed your equipment so it wouldn’t pick up my calls to Martin.”

“And you programmed the system to shut off for an hour every morning.”

Ryan shook his head vehemently. “That wasn’t me.”

“Who else could have done it?”

“Either Mac or Sam is better with computers than he’s let on,” Ryan said. “I picked up another message two nights ago, one that gave the island’s coordinates. I still couldn’t identify the recipient or sender.”

“Of course, I can’t check any of this.”

“You could call Martin, although that might reveal our position to whoever’s in the boat.” Ryan glanced at Jillian. “Can you have Jillian lower her gun? I know you can hold yours for hours, but she’s looking a little tired. I wouldn’t want it to go off accidentally while she’s aiming at me.”

Paul finally looked at her. “Are your arms sore?”

“I’m fine,” Jillian said, even though both her arms ached.

Paul’s lips twitched. “You’re such a lousy liar. Sit down. Put your gun where you can reach it.”

Jillian sat on the rock behind her and lowered her arms with relief. She set her gun on the rock beside her and slumped against the cave wall, keeping her attention on Paul and Ryan.

“Why would I betray you?” Ryan asked.

Paul’s lip curled. “For the money, of course. I know how important money is to you.”

“That’s true.” Ryan looked at Jillian again. “I don’t know if Paul finally told you, but he’s filthy rich. Most of the time he ignores his money. It’s disgusting. I’m the one who should have been born rich. I’d be much better at it.” He turned back to Paul. “Which is why I’m leaving the bureau for a job with Maxwell Corporation. Computer security, at four times what I’m earning now. A job I got thanks to Martin, since Jim Maxwell’s his brother-in-law.”

“A bigger salary won’t help if you need a major influx of cash right now.”

“Maxwell’s paying me a signing bonus and buying my townhouse at a huge profit to convince me to move to California,” Ryan said. “That might be pocket change to you, but to me it’s a major influx of cash, enough that I’m planning a several-week vacation after I’m done here. Hell, if I needed more money, I’d come to you, like I’ve done before. I know you’d give it to me, no questions asked.”

Ryan sounded convincing to her, but Paul’s expression was inscrutable. Jillian had no clue whether he believed a word Ryan had said.

“You know why I agreed to do this, to use vacation time to put myself in danger and even move into this stinking cave?” Ryan raised his hand. “Solely to protect your undeserving ass.”

“Put your hand down,” Paul said.

Ryan lowered it. “Don’t you want to know who the leak is?”