Chapter 11 #3
Speaking of…Aubrey stood at the door, Emma Kennedy behind her. Had she overheard him talking to Liam? That was not how he wanted to declare his feelings.
A red tint crept up Aubrey’s neck. “Good morning, Ethan.”
“Morning.” His greeting was gruff. Great.
An awkward silence settled between them. A smile spread across Emma’s face as her gaze bounced between him and Aubrey. “See,” Emma said. “Everyone’s fine.”
He cleared his throat. “Did you two have any problems last night?”
Emma stifled a yawn. “Apart from a lack of sleep? Nope. I’m going to fill out a report and then head home and grab some shut-eye myself.” She saluted with her cup of coffee as she headed into her office.
Ethan glanced down at Aubrey’s foot. “I thought Dr. Yassan told you to take it easy.”
“Pffft.” She waved him away, but he saw fear in her gaze.
“You were there when she said desk work is fine. I feel pretty good today. A little sore, but other than that?” She shrugged and placed her bag in her desk drawer and locked it.
“Better to be here than twiddling my thumbs on a couch and stopping a deputy marshal from working an important manhunt.”
She did look good today. The green of her shirt emphasized the green of her eyes, but her black skirt looked a little out of place with the bandaged ankle.
“What? What’s wrong?” She glanced down at her outfit and contorted her torso trying to see behind her. “Do I have dirt or something on my skirt?” Her low whisper held a tinge of panic.
“No.” Ethan shook his head and laughed. “You’re fine. You look, um, great.” Ouch. For pity’s sake, Butler. You messed up that compliment.
“You sure?”
He held up his hands in surrender. “Yep.” He turned toward the coffee bar and opened a pastry box, the savory aroma of cinnamon rolls hitting him in the face. And was that cream cheese icing?
“Oh man…” He was just gonna have to make an exception today. He was running on caffeine and carbs. What was one cinnamon roll? He’d get back in the gym soon enough. He groaned as he bit into the buttery, melt-in-your-mouth pastry.
“Good?” She watched him chew.
“Better than good.” He stopped mid-chew and swallowed. “Do you really feel okay?”
She stood over her desk, rearranging some files, never looking at him. “After the pain meds wore off early this morning, I was wide awake. Don’t blame Emma. I called Howard, and he told me it might be best if I show up.”
“At least you’re safe at the office.”
She looked over. “Oh, for crying out loud…” She trudged over and slapped a napkin against his chest. “You have cream cheese icing on your nose.”
Heat flooded his face, and he caught the napkin as she released it. No woman had made him blush since his neighbor Laura in the sixth grade. He’d tried to kiss her on the playground. For his romantic gesture, she’d gifted him with a bloody nose. “Uh, thanks.”
Aubrey studied him for a moment, head tilted to the side, a small smile forming.
She shook her head, and he watched as she clomped back to her desk, her uneven gait a reminder that her little adventure yesterday could’ve ended much differently.
He grabbed his coffee and the pastry and headed back to his desk.
In his office, he crumpled the napkin and tossed it into the trash. How had she gotten under his skin in such a short period of time?
Glancing out the window, he studied the mountain in the distance, covered by a thin layer of clouds. The plane wreck, the dead body at the judge’s house, the judge’s body, and Aubrey’s ransacked house—they had to be connected. But how?
He sent an IM to his friend in the Denver Marshals office, Sebastian Carlsson.
Ethan
You available to talk?
Sebastian
Yes.
Ethan’s phone rang immediately.
“What’s up? I sent the information about the prisoner transfers to your admin. You typically don’t call me unless there’s a problem.”
“Yeah, I’ve got a problem all right.” Ethan raked his fingers through his hair.
“Tell me.”
“You know that some local kids found the wreckage of a plane on Renegade Mountain.”
Sebastian chuckled. “We were apprised of the discovery.” He must’ve put his hand over the speaker, because Ethan heard muted voices in the background. “Sorry about that. I had to answer a question.”
“No worries.”
“About this plane wreckage…” Sebastian left the thought hanging, but that one sentence felt like a two-ton anvil hanging over Ethan’s head, with the rope about to snap.
Ethan said, “It’s odd.”
“How so?”
“Well.” Ethan pulled the file closer. “The plane appears to be an older-model plane used by the Marshals’ transportation services. The emblem on the tail is outdated, and we found a bogus flight manifest.”
Ethan heard the squeak of Sebastian’s chair and then a sigh. “Tell me more.”
“There’s not really much more to tell. The call letters are missing, like someone scraped them off the tail.
Where the wreckage is, there’s only one way in, and I’ve got a team out there now collecting evidence.
Some kids found the plane while hiking and recorded their discovery live.
I’m sending you the link now. This plane was stolen, and we think it was used in an escape to break Finn Donovan out of jail. ”
Ethan sent the link and watched the beginning of the recorded feed.
After a minute, Sebastian responded. “Okay, but why go through all this trouble for one guy?”
Ethan pinched the bridge of his nose, nerves stretched thin from the night before. “Sebastian, I’m pulling pieces together, and I need a federal angle.”
“I’m listening.”
“Aubrey saw Roger Rousseau yesterday,” Ethan said, the words weighted now. “Not in court, not in a file, on the mountain. He was with Donovan. Talking to him. Casual. Like old friends. And Draven Frost.”
“The guy Rousseau met with in Denver?”
“Now he’s here. And they’re working together. Which makes me wonder if they’re both syndicate.”
The line crackled. “That’s big. You sure?”
“She wouldn’t make that up,” Ethan said quietly.
“She testified against Donovan twenty years ago for her sister’s murder.
Summer case. Jury conviction. And now he’s back in her orbit.
But she identified the other two. I think they brought Donovan here to kill the judge, and in return, he gets to have his revenge on Aubrey. ”
Sebastian whistled. “Okay. That’s motive, proximity, and witness confirmation. But a warrant still needs federal sign-off.”
“That’s why I’m calling,” Ethan said. “Stanton pulled intel on Donovan’s prison transport history. If you can get a judge in Denver to accept Aubrey’s sighting, then we can tie Roger and Frost to an active fugitive. That’s enough to request a warrant.”
Ethan heard the rapid-fire clack of Sebastian’s fingers on the keyboard. “It’s a long shot, but not impossible. I can reach out to chambers and ask off record if a Denver judge sees warrant weight in it just with Aubrey’s testimony. I’ll push for an ETA too.”
“I know it’s a reach without the pilot’s body,” Ethan said. “But if there’s even a chance to shield her from what’s circling back…I have to take it.”
Sebastian paused, then: “I’ll try. Give me a day. If it fails, I’ll shoot you a text—‘no dice.’”
“Thanks,” Ethan said quietly. “And Sebastian? Don’t sugarcoat it if it’s no dice. I’d rather know fast.”
“Copy. And Ethan? Get some sleep before you start chasing ghosts yourself.”
A tired laugh escaped him. “I’ll try.”
Ethan disconnected the call and leaned back, hope flickering, fragile and imperfect but finally pointed in the right direction.
His gaze drifted out the window. Clear blue skies, but underneath the peace, something darker was hiding.
No matter what, Ethan was going to keep Aubrey safe.