Shadow Fall (Tracers Series Book 9) (2 page)

“Where’s Burleson?”

Lopez nodded down the street, where two of Liam’s men were milling on a corner. They were supposed to stay with the Humvees. As team leader, Liam had taken Burleson off point. He was probably still sulking.

Liam got him on the radio. “Get ready to move,” he told him, then called up Bravo. “You guys coming?”

“Negative. Another photo op.”

Liam scanned the street again. He scanned the courtyard. The policeman at the east gate shifted his weight. Eye contact.

And Liam knew.

In that fraction of a second, he read the deadly intent, and then everything happened at once.

The congressman stepped into the sunlight, surrounded by photographers.

“Gun!” Liam shouted, lifting his weapon, but there were kids and bystanders in the line of fire.

Liam launched himself across the courtyard. Gunfire erupted. Marines sprang into action. The congressman hit the ground—taken down by a bullet or a Marine, Liam didn’t know.

Liam barreled into the shooter as bullets spewed from his Kalashnikov. They slammed into the dirt. White-hot fire tore through Liam’s arm as he wrestled with the weapon.

A sharp
crack
.

Liam’s vision blurred. The air around him was a mist of red.

EAST TEXAS PINEY WOODS

THREE YEARS LATER

E
venings were the hardest, the time when everything unraveled. Catie’s mind overflowed, her chest felt empty, and the craving dug into her with razor-sharp claws.

Her shoulders tensed as she pulled into the park. All her life, she’d been addicted to work and approval and success. Now she was simply an addict.

Her high-performance tires glided over the ruts, absorbing the bumps as she eased along the drive. She turned into the gravel parking lot and swung into a space.
Forty-six days.

Resting her head on the wheel, she squeezed her eyes shut. Her throat tightened, and she fought the burn of tears.

“One day at a time,” she whispered.

She sat up and gazed through the windshield. She’d never thought she’d be one of those people who gave themselves pep talks. She’d never thought she’d be a lot of things. Yet here she was.

Catie shoved open the door and popped the trunk. She tossed her purse inside, then rummaged through her gym bag, looking for her iPod. On second thought, no music. She slammed the trunk closed, locked the car, and tucked the key fob into the zipper pocket of her tracksuit. She leaned against a trail marker and stretched her quads. A few deep lunges and she was ready to go.

She set off at a brisk pace, quickly passing the dog walkers and bird enthusiasts who frequented the trail. Her muscles warmed. Her breathing steadied. She passed the first quarter-mile marker and felt the tension start to loosen.

The routine had become her lifeline. She registered the familiar scent of loblolly pines, the spongy carpet of pine needles under her feet. She put her body through the paces, then her mind.

It was Wednesday. She was halfway through the week, another daunting chain of days that started with paralyzing mornings in which she had to drag herself out of bed and force herself to shower, dress, and stand in front of the mirror to conceal the evidence of a fitful night. Then she faced the endless cycle of conference calls and meetings and inane conversations as the secret yearning built and built, culminating in the dreaded hour when it was time to go. Time to pack it in and head home to her perfectly located, gorgeously decorated, soul-crushingly empty house.

But first, a run. Or a spin class. Or both. Anything to postpone the sight of that vacant driveway.

Almost anything.

Catie focused her attention on the narrow trail. Thirst stung her throat, but she tried to clear her mind. Rounding a bend, she noted the half-mile marker. She was making good time. Another curve in the path, and she came upon a couple jogging in easy lockstep. Twenty-somethings. At the end of the trail, and still they had a bounce in their stride. The woman smiled as they passed, and Catie felt a sharp pang of jealousy that drew her up short.

She caught herself against a tree and bent over, gasping. Shame and regret formed a lump in her throat. She dug her nails into the bark and closed her eyes against the clammy onset of panic.

Don’t think, Catie
, Liam’s voice echoed in her head.
Be in the moment.

God, she missed him. Liam was way too smart and way too intense, and he didn’t know how to turn it off. And she liked that about him. So different from David.

Liam never belittled her.

He knew evil lurked in the world, and he faced it head-on, refusing to look away, even relishing the fight.

Snick.

Catie’s head jerked up. She swung her gaze toward the darkening woods as awareness prickled to life inside her.

The forest had gone quiet.

No people, no dogs. Even the bird chatter had ceased. She glanced behind her, and a chill swept over her skin.

Look, Catie. Feel what’s around you.

She did feel it. Cold and predatory and watching her.

David would tell her she was paranoid. Delusional, even. But her senses were screaming.

She glanced around, trying to orient herself on the trail. She wasn’t that far in yet. She could still go back. She turned around and walked briskly, keeping her chin high and her gaze alert. Strong. Confident. She tried to look powerful and think powerful thoughts, but fear squished around inside her stomach, and she could feel it—something sinister moving with her through the forest, watching her from deep within the woods. She’d felt it before, and now it was back again, making her pulse quicken along with her strides.

I am not crazy. I am not crazy. I am not crazy.

But . . . what if David was right? And if he was right about this, could he be right about everything else, too?

A sound, directly left. Catie halted. Her heart hammered. She peered into the gloom and sensed more than saw the shifting shadow.

Recognition flickered as the shape materialized. With a rush of relief, she stepped forward. “Hey, you—”

She noticed his hand.

Her stomach plummeted. All her self-doubt vanished, replaced by a single electrifying impulse.

Catie ran.

SPECIAL AGENT TARA
Rushing drove with the windows down, hoping the cold night air would snap her out of her funk. She felt wrung out. Like a dishrag that had been used to sop up filth, then squeezed and tossed aside.

Usually, she loved the adrenaline rush. Kicking in a door, storming a room, taking down a bad guy—anyone who’d done it for real knew nothing compared. The high could last for hours, even through the paperwork, which was inevitably a lot.

Typically, after a successful raid everyone was wired. The single agents would head out for a beer or three, sometimes going home together to burn off the energy. But tonight wasn’t typical.

After so many weeks of work and planning, she’d expected to feel euphoric. Or at the very least satisfied. Instead she felt . . . nothing, really. Her dominant thought as she sped toward home was that she needed a shower. Not just hot—volcanic. She’d stand under the spray and scrub her skin raw and maybe get rid of some of the sickness clinging to her.

Tara slowed her Explorer as the redbrick apartment building came into view. Her second-floor unit looked dark and lonely beside her neighbor’s, where a TV glowed in the window and swags of Christmas lights still decorated the balcony.

She rolled to a stop at the entrance and tapped in the access code. As the gate slid open, her phone vibrated in the cup holder. Tara eyed the screen:
US GOV
. She’d forgotten to fill out some paperwork or turn in a piece of gear, or maybe they needed her to view another video.

She felt the urge to throw her phone out the window. Instead she answered it.

“Rushing.”

If she put enough hostility into her voice, maybe they wouldn’t have the balls to call her back in.

“It’s Dean Jacobs.”

She didn’t respond. Because of shock and because she couldn’t think of a single intelligent thing to say.

“You make it home yet?” he asked.

“Almost. Sir.”

Jacobs was her SAC. She’d had maybe four conversations with him in the three years since she’d joined the Houston field office.

“They were just filling me in on the raid,” he said. “Good work tonight.”

“Thank you, sir.”

The gate slid shut again as she stared through the windshield.

“I understand you live north,” he said.

“That’s right.”

“There’s a matter I could use your help on.”

Something stirred inside her. Curiosity. Or maybe ambition. Whatever it was, she’d take it. Anything was better than feeling numb.

“I need you to drive up to Cypress County. They’ve got a ten-fifty off of Fifty-nine.”

His words surprised her even more than the midnight phone call. Tara knew all the 10-codes from her cop days, but dispatch had switched to plain language, and nobody used them anymore. A 10-50 was a deceased person.

She cleared her throat. “Okay. Any particular reason—”

“Take Martinez with you. She’s got the location and she’s on her way to your house, ETA ten minutes.”

Tara checked her sports watch.

“Stay off your phone,” he added. “You understand? I need complete discretion on this.”

“Yes, sir.”

“And one more thing, Rushing.”

She waited.

“Don’t let the yokels jerk you around.”

TARA DROVE NORTH
on the highway hemmed in by towering trees. Barely an hour out of the city, she could already feel the change as they passed through the Pine Curtain. The night seemed thicker here, darker. She leaned forward, peering through the windshield at the moonless sky.

“Next exit,” M.J. said, consulting the map on her phone. “We’re looking for Dunn’s Road.”

Tara glanced at the agent beside her. M. J. Martinez was a rookie, not even a year on the job.

“You know, it’s after one,” M.J. said, looking at Tara. “I can’t believe I’m even awake right now. I’ve had about three hours’ sleep in the past three days.”

Tara took the exit ramp. “At least you got a shower. I smell like gym socks.”

M.J. didn’t deny it. She’d been involved in the raid, too, but from a planning perspective. In her former life, Martinez had been a tax attorney. She was smart and organized but green when it came to fieldwork. Tara had her HPD experience plus SWAT training under her belt, so she tended to be more hands-on.

“This is it,” M.J. said. “Dunn’s Road. Hang a right.”

Tara slowed, squinting at a sign marking a narrow road. Her headlights swept across tree trunks. The thicket gave way to jagged stumps, and Tara switched to brights. She thought the stumps looked ominous until the houses came into view, ramshackle wooden structures with sagging porches. Rusted septic tanks and dismantled cars littered the yards. Some of the homes were strangled by kudzu and had plywood covering the windows. None had seen a coat of paint in decades, unless you counted graffiti.

They passed the charred carcass of a house, and M.J. looked at her. “Meth lab?”

“Good bet.”

The houses petered out, and so did the pavement. M.J. consulted her phone again because Tara’s ancient Ford didn’t have a GPS. The Blue Beast barely had a working heater. But the tires were new, and the four-wheel drive could handle anything. Tara changed the oil religiously so it wouldn’t crap out on her.

“Looks like we’re getting close,” M.J. said, studying her screen. Instead of an address, Jacobs had provided her with GPS coordinates, along with the interesting factoid that FBI participation in this matter—whatever it was—had come at the request of the Honorable Wyatt H. Mooring, a federal judge.

“Veer left,” M.J. instructed.

Tara buzzed down the windows, filling the SUV with cold, damp air that smelled faintly of rotten eggs. It was cloudy out but no rain in the forecast, although that was yet another aspect of tonight that might not turn out as planned.

“We should be veering left again,” M.J. said, “after what looks like maybe a creek?”

They dipped down over a low-water bridge and heard the rush of water.

“Logging route,” Tara said, noting the clear-cuts on either side. They pitched and bumped over the rutted road, passing a rickety cistern and another rusted septic tank. They rattled over a cattle guard and passed through a gap in a barbed-wire fence. Tara glanced around but didn’t see any livestock, or any other creature for that matter. Clear-cuts gave way to trees again, and a sense of foreboding settled in her stomach as they moved deeper into the woods. The road narrowed until the tree trunks felt like they were closing in.

She looked at M.J., wide-eyed and tense in the seat beside her.

“What the hell are we doing here?” M.J. asked, voicing the question in Tara’s mind.