Chapter 3
Nash watched the dog-sitter maneuver the soft sand while holding squirmy Nutmeg in her arms until they made it to the pathway leading back to the house.
His interest was piqued. Her arrival wasn't surprising today, but the woman who jumped into action fighting the fire on the pier, and who showed genuine compassion for young Kai, wasn't what he expected when Delphine told him Victoria Van Horn had hired a dog-sitter.
Miss Van Horn had hired someone from the States to fly out to the Caribbean just to watch her dog while she was in Europe for two weeks.
Of course she did. Nutmeg was a cute dog, and he loved dogs, but why Delphine couldn't feed Nutmeg and take him for a walk every now and then was beyond him.
Apparently, Nutmeg required his own staff assigned to him for the two weeks his adoring Victoria would be away.
Lena perplexed him. She exhibited so much warmth and kindness—and fear.
It could have been the fire. It could have been the danger Kai was in. But he had a strong feeling something else was going on. Her interest in Emil Van Horn was concerning. He needed to look into Lena. Hopefully, she was innocent of any crimes Emil may be involved in. He'd keep his eye on her.
He returned his attention to what was left of the burned shed. He wanted to make sure the fire was one hundred percent out and that nothing was still smoldering. He was also very curious about how that fire got started.
It didn't take two minutes of poking around the charred wood to find what he was looking for.
The remnants of a lighter sat in the middle of the debris.
Odd. He was no arson investigator, but he had plenty of cameras set up in the vicinity for his own purposes.
Fortunately, two cameras focused on the beach around that pier.
He'd be able to figure out if the kids were playing with the lighter or if something more nefarious was going on.
Nash returned to his living quarters over the garage, turned on his laptop, and sent a message to his friend—and for this mission, his team leader—Jason Bridger.
While he waited for a reply, he accessed the camera feed for both of the cameras near the pier. He ran them back about thirty minutes and watched the feed while he made himself a turkey sandwich with an optimal mayonnaise-to-mustard ratio.
He was about to enjoy the first bite of his sandwich when he saw a man approach the pier on the camera feed.
The timestamp showed him walking up to the pier about two minutes before Nash noticed the flames.
The man stood on the pier under the awning for a few moments, then left.
Almost immediately after he was out of sight, the kids came into view, running on the beach from the opposite direction.
Then Kai walked onto the pier. He walked casually for a minute before flames started shooting up from the awning attached to the end of the pier.
Even in the camera footage, Nash could see the terror in Kai's eyes.
The footage left no doubt that the man started the fire, and the kids were just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
His phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen and answered the call. "Hey, Jason."
"Hey. Got your message. Wanted to run something by you."
"Okay, what's up? Do we know who this Lena Erickson is?"
"That's what I wanted to talk to you about. We can dig deeper, but we can't find anyone named Lena Erickson anywhere. At all. However, there is a Lena Ashworth tied to this situation. I'm sending you her picture."
Nash glanced at his screen.
"Yeah, that's her. Why is she going by a different last name?"
Jason sighed before he answered. "Lena is Cassidy's cousin. My guess is she's here on her own, looking for Cassidy."
Nash rubbed a hand down his face. "Very dangerous move, but honestly, I admire her initiative. We know no one else is concerned about Cassidy."
"Yeah, I know." Worried tension nipped at his tone. "But she doesn't know what she's stepping into. Emil's dangerous. Of course, she probably suspected that, or she wouldn't be here searching for her cousin and using a false name."
"True."
"Get her out of there. I'll get her a ticket on the first flight out tomorrow. Tell her we'll do what we can to locate her cousin, but make sure she leaves the island tomorrow. We don't want a civilian getting caught in the crossfire if this thing turns south."
"Will do. And one more thing."
He told Jason about the fire. And the man on the camera feed.
"I'm glad those kids are okay." Jason groaned. "I had a feeling this wouldn't go smoothly."
"I'm thinking it was a planned distraction, but for what, I don't know. I'll check the other cameras I have set up and see if they caught anything suspicious during the fire."
"Okay. Keep me posted. And hey, good job rescuing the boy.
He's lucky you were there today. Let me know if you want some in-person backup.
Knox and I are in Houston, but we can be there in a few hours if you need us.
Our client has offered the use of his private jet if we need to get there quickly. "
A second voice called out on Jason's end. "Find a reason to need us. I want to ride on the jet."
"That was Knox," Jason said.
Nash chuckled. "Yeah, I heard him. Tell him I'll try my best. But for now, I just need tech support. Can you figure out who our arsonist is?"
"We'll work on it. Send me the file."
"Already done. Oh, and hey, congratulations. When I checked in with Knox yesterday, he told me you and Tayla got engaged. That's great, man."
"Thanks." The smile in Jason's voice was clear. "The wedding is going to be at a friend's beach house in Galveston in a few months. We're still trying to figure out a date, but you better be there."
"Wouldn't miss it for the world."
"Good." He cleared his throat. "Back to our plan, make sure you get Lena off the island tomorrow. I'll send you her ticket information in a few minutes. After that, are you still planning to get aboard Emil's yacht? Got an idea for that yet?"
"Working on it. I'll be in touch."
Jason laughed. "Not trying to micromanage you. Just keep me posted."
"Will do."
Nash disconnected the call and took a bite of his sandwich. It needed pickles. And tomato. The small grocery store he'd found near the ferry didn't carry much, but he'd made do with much less on previous assignments.
He surveyed his apartment, reminding himself to be grateful for such luxurious accommodations on this mission.
The garage apartment was part of his compensation package when he was hired as Emil Van Horn's personal driver.
Pretty swanky digs for a chauffeur's apartment.
It boasted an espresso machine, a treadmill, and a pool table.
On his last mission, he slept in the cab of a truck for a week. And survived mostly on beef jerky.
Yeah, he could tolerate a turkey sandwich without pickles.
The setting sun splashed streaks of orange and pink through the living area via the oversized, west-facing windows.
Gorgeous sight. The view was his favorite perk of his temporary home.
Initially, he'd hoped this assignment wouldn't last too long.
But he could easily get accustomed to the nightly spectacle of the sun dipping into the palm trees.
He carried the pickle-lacking sandwich and his laptop to the large desk at the edge of the living area.
He'd planned to spend his evening studying the drone footage of Emil's yacht that Jason had sent over that morning.
Emil's preference for his yacht—and the fact that he brought security guards with him every time he stayed overnight on his yacht—convinced Nash he needed a look inside.
He just needed to figure out how. Without garnering suspicion from Emil.
The visiting arsonist redirected his evening plans, though.
Now, he needed to comb through the footage from the hidden cameras he'd placed around the property the day before.
Hopefully, he'd see something that would help explain why the stranger wanted to set fire to an obscure fishing pier on the Van Horn property.
His task was important, of course, but scanning hours of footage in fast-forward hardly held his rapt attention. Especially since Lena Ashworth's face kept flitting through his mind.
She'd helped him fight the small blaze with determined fierceness. And he was thankful. If the sea breeze had carried any sparks to the lush area beyond the sand, their day would've ended very differently. Could that have been the arsonist's intention? To burn the whole property to the ground?
Lena's face drifted into his thoughts again. She'd seemed genuinely concerned about Kai, and even about Victoria's dog. But she'd lied to him. Though, probably for good reason.
The fear in her eyes had been real—painfully real—as was the tug on his conscience.
He wanted to help her. But first, he needed to hear her side of the story.
Flashes of light in his peripheral vision yanked his attention to the windows facing the pool area on the far side of the main house. Strange.
The sun had completely set, and what looked like a flashlight beam, no, two flashlight beams were dancing around near the pool.
He clicked away from the afternoon's video recording to access a live video feed from his camera closest to the pool.
Both security guards, Frank and Manny, walked toward the pool house, directing their beams at Lena.
Oh no.
Nash darted out of his apartment and across the lawn, hoping to intercept the two guards before things got too complicated.
As he approached, the guards' agitation was clear. Jabbering over each other, both men pelted her with accusations.
Because the men were incapable of talking without their hands, the erratic motions of their flashlights made it look like they were in a lightsaber duel rather than questioning a suspect. Lena looked like a deer caught in the headlights—if the headlights were flailing flashlights.