33. Whisper
CHAPTER 33
Whisper
I stood rooted to my spot as the taillights of the police car faded into the pre-dawn light, taking Cody away from me.
Oh God! This is my fault .
Cody was innocent. I knew it in my bones. I clenched my fists, digging my nails into my palms. Lacey moved next to me with concern drilled into her eyes.
“Cody’s innocent! He wouldn’t do this. He’s a good man,” I gushed.
But my words were useless against the mounting evidence twenty feet away.
“Listen, Jewel, I want to believe you—I really do—but . . .” Hesitating, she exchanged a look with Tory. “This corn plantation . . . the property is registered in Cody’s name.”
“What? No.” Something dark and cold slithered through my sanity. “That has to be a mistake. Cody wouldn’t do this. He wouldn’t!”
Even as I spoke, doubt crept into my mind like poison, and tears swam over my eyes again.
“The deed was transferred to his name six years ago.” Lacey’s voice was gentle, and her expression filled with torment.
“I’m telling you. He’s innocent. He knew nothing about the drugs, or Grant Hughes, or . . . this.” I swept my hands to another load of drugs being carried from Bruce’s house by the hazmat team
“Jewel.” Lacey’s eyes held a mixture of pity and doubt that made me want to scream. “If Cody is innocent, he’s going to have one hell of a fight ahead of him.”
“He is innocent.” The words came out sharp as bullets. “I know it. I know him.”
The Alsatian’s bark exploded from inside the shed, echoing off metal walls until it sounded like a pack of wild dogs had been unleashed. Each resonating bark was like a countdown to disaster, and my gut twisted with dread. That wasn’t just any K9—it was a narcotics dog, and its frenzied barking could only mean one thing, more evidence had been found.
Tory reached for my arm. “Whisper, you’ve only known Cody for less than a week.”
I stepped back, refusing her comfort. I didn’t need to be soothed, I needed answers. “Bruce and John tried to kill us both. Cody could have left me to die. Instead, he risked everything to save me. Multiple times. Why would he do that?”
“That could have been instinct,” Lacey said softly.
“No! Even after I told him I was Border Force, even after he sacrificed his work and home, he still protected me. He brought me back here because he truly believed this farm was clean.” My voice cracked. “A guilty man doesn’t do that. A guilty man runs.”
Aria, Tyler, and Ryder joined us, easing in beside Tory and Lacey.
“Jewel, after everything you’ve been through . . .” Aria said, looking at me with sympathy.
“I’m still going through it.” I met their eyes, one by one. “Cody is too.”
Tory shook her head. “Unless we find someone who knows what the hell is going on here, then?—”
“Dane! My brother.” I bolted upright, flicking away tears. “He was here. He’ll know what’s going on. He has to. We need to find him.”
I gripped Lacey’s wrist and shared my gaze between her and Tyler. “Do you have any information on him or that truck?”
Their grim expressions made my stomach shrink.
“No. Nothing,” Lacey said.
“How does a massive semi just vanish?” I threw my hands out in frustration.
“Walk us through what you saw last time you were here,” Aria said. “Maybe there’s a detail you missed.”
Blade and Viper joined our circle and they both looked ready to strangle someone with their bare hands. Levi and Maya were squatting next to a row of evidence bags, their grim expressions mirroring my own feelings.
Clenching and unclenching my fists, I recounted how Bruce had attacked Dane and blackmailed him to drive the semi, or I would be killed. “It was a white double trailer, but it had no markings. Nothing distinctive at all.”
“Still . . . it’s hard to believe a truck that big can go missing.” Tory frowned.
“Oh my god!” I whirled to Aria. “The DIMS device from Chui’s yacht. Tell me you still have it.”
She narrowed her gaze at me. “Of course.”
“If the truck my brother drove was hauling illicit drugs tied to Scorpion Industries, they would be tracking it on their Drug Inventory Management System.” My voice was steady, but my thoughts spun like a fucking tornado. “We can track it with the DIMS. Right?”
“Great idea.” Aria pulled her phone from her pocket. “I’ll call Cobra.” She stepped away to use her phone.
“I don’t know about you lot,” Viper said, his voice booming like thunder, “but I need to get my hands on that fucker, Grant Hughes.”
His biceps bulged as he clenched his fists.
“Me too. That snake’s slipped through our fingers too many times.” Ryder’s tone was pure fury.
Aria strode back to us. “You’re right. The truck is about two hours south, in a remote area near the coast.”
“Oh, thank God.” Relief flooded through me. “We need to go there and find Dane! We need?—”
Aria raised her hand, cutting me off.
“We’ll split up.” She pointed at Levi. “You take Viper, Ryder, Maya, and me in the chopper, and we’ll find that bastard Hughes.”
“About fucking time.” Viper clenched his jaw, and his eyes gleamed.
“Roger that.” Levi sneered and cracked his knuckles.
Viper snapped a gun from his holster and checked the clip. “Let’s go.”
He was moving before he re-holstered his weapon. Ryder and Maya flanked him as they charged toward the chopper.
“Tory.” Aria leveled her gaze at our only other pilot. “You can fly Jewel, Tyler, Lacey, and Blade to the truck’s location.”
Her gaze locked on Blade. “This team is yours and the priority is getting Dane alive.”
“Oh, yes,” I blurted. “Dane isn’t the enemy. He’s a victim, too. When we find him, I can get through to him.”
Blade’s face was etched in stone. “We’ll bring him in. Let’s roll.”
He spun on his heel and sprinted down the driveway toward Tory’s plane.
Tyler took the passenger seat next to Tory, while Blade, Lacey, and I shared the back. The takeoff rattled my bones, and my knuckles hurt as I gripped the edge of the seat and squeezed my eyes shut.
“You okay there?” Lacey nudged her shoulder to mine.
“Ask me when we’re back on solid ground.”
“Our Whisper here isn’t a fan of flying,” Tory called back to us as she banked the plane hard enough to make my stomach lurch, forcing me to snap my eyes open.
Below us, the ocean stretched like black oil to the horizon where the morning sun twinkled across its surface like scattered diamonds. The beauty seemed cruel against the dread coiling in my chest.
Blade moved through his weapon check with lethal precision: hip holster, ankle piece, flick knife attached to his belt. I’d seen him and the rest of the Alpha Tactical ops team in action before. They were the best at what they did, and I was so damn grateful to have them here.
Lacey also checked her weapon.
“I feel naked without my gun,” I said. After what I’d been through, being unarmed made my skin crawl.
Blade unclipped the gun from his ankle.
“Here.” He handed me the compact Glock. “Take it.”
“Thanks.” I double-checked the magazine and then slotted the gun into the back of my denim shorts.
“Tell us what you know about Dane’s involvement with the truck.” Lacey’s voice was carefully neutral, and I couldn’t tell if she was trying to distract me from my grief or building a case against my brother. Knowing Lacey, probably both.
With Blade and Lacey studying me and Tyler shooting glances at me over his shoulder, I relayed Dane’s frantic calls that triggered me attempting to rescue him and how I’d been caught by Bruce instead.
“Christ.” Tory’s sharp voice cut through my story. “Whisper, isn’t that the boat from your human trafficking bust the other day?”
My stomach lurched as I forced myself to look out the window. The keel of that decrepit vessel was unmistakable. “Shit. It is. Do you think they were taking those poor victims to the same place where that truck is?”
“The location is too much of a coincidence to ignore.” Lacey’s eyes fumed with anger.
“Fuck.” Blade’s voice rolled like thunder. “I have a feeling we’re heading into something real ugly, guys. We need to look lively and watch our six.”
Oh Jesus, Dane. What the hell have you got yourself into?
He admitted he’d done something wrong. But this! The brother I thought I knew would never touch anything criminal. Now I wasn’t sure I knew him at all.
“Taking Ladybeetle down,” Tory called from the cockpit. “Brace yourself, Whisper.”
The world tilted and my stomach tried to escape through my throat.
“Oh God.” I clutched the edge of the seat, willing myself not to paint the cabin with yesterday’s breakfast.
The plane sliced through the waves and skipped like a stone across the surface toward a wall of mangroves. The moment we stopped, we splashed into knee-deep water, then we barged through the tangled maze of mangroves with twisted roots sticking out of the mud to secure heavy ropes from the plane’s floats to the nearest tree so the plane couldn’t drift away.
Beyond the mangroves, the coastal scrub formed a battlefield of stunted trees and thorny bushes that would constantly battle against the merciless ocean winds. Each step was a war against nature and gritting my teeth, I pressed on, driven by twin desperation to save both Dane and Cody.
We tore through virgin bush as thick as steel wool, with Blade in the lead and Lacey in the rear. When the vegetation thinned into patches, it gave us precious chances to run, and adrenaline blazed through my blood like lightning.
The semi emerged from the scrub like a beached whale, its white side a stark contrast against the weathered coastal vegetation. The truck was sheltered beneath army webbing that was stretched between twisted trees above it, creating a shadowy canopy.
No wonder our aerial search didn’t find it.
Blade’s fist shot up. We dropped to the ground and as he peered at the truck through his scope, his breathing was so steady it was like he was merely bird-watching.
The truck’s cabin doors were closed, but one of the trailer’s rear doors hung ajar, creaking as it swayed in the coastal wind. I squinted at the cabin windows, desperate for a glimpse of Dane, but my angle was all wrong.
Beyond the truck was a small, weather-ravaged shack with salt-bleached boards and broken windows. It was just like the shack we’d found amongst the mud in the middle of the Everglades. Everything about it screamed of human suffering. Tattered curtains danced behind the rust-barred broken windows. A water tank was tilted at a precarious angle on rotting supports. A shiny padlock sealed the front door shut.
Following Blade’s hand signals, Tyler slinked behind a massive pandanus palm that had seen better days.
Lacey shifted position behind a gnarly shrub to our right and aimed at the shack with her police-issue revolver gripped in both hands.
At Blade’s signal, Tory and I melted into the scrub. I pulled the gun from the back of my shorts and pressed my body against the warm sand. As I inhaled scents of sea salt and dead fish, I aimed the Glock at the decrepit shack.
Blade belly-crawled to higher ground and was quickly lost among the hardy grasses.
The silence screamed in my ears.
There was no movement, no signs that Dane was alive in there.
No sign of anyone.
“We have you surrounded!” Blade’s voice cracked the air like thunder.
I flinched, and my heart leaped to my throat.
“Come out with your hands up,” Blade commanded.
Please, Dane. Do as he says. Just be my brother again.
I searched the broken windows for movement. Terror scurried up my spine like scorpions. Tyler settled on his stomach with his handgun gripped in both hands, aiming at the front of the shack.
The silence stretched wire thin.
“You have five seconds before?—”
A gunshot cracked through the air. A branch two feet away disintegrated.
“Get down!” Blade shouted.
Bullets shredded the air around us.