Chapter 10
Chapter Ten
Tessa closed the hospital room door behind her, keeping the click as quiet she could. But her father was awake and looking better than he had the last time she saw him. “Hey.”
“Hey, baby girl.” He had a bandage over his left eye, and they had wrapped his wrist. Who knew what other bumps and bruises he had suffered at the hands of those men intent on killing him just for information.
Her thoughts drifted back again to that cabin as she crossed the room and pulled a chair up to the side of her father’s bed.
She hadn’t done much, but those few moments when her life had been a split second from ending were some of the most harrowing she’d ever experienced.
While she stood there, Caleb had snuck around in the bushes.
Each of the men holding her father had been gunned down with a single shot.
Only someone with serious skill and training could have possibly done that.
Caleb Rourke was a deadly man. But he didn’t scare her.
He had used those skills to protect her and save her father’s life, effectively resolving the problem.
At least for them. Given this was connected to his case, maybe there was more for him to do.
That might be why he hadn’t shown up in the hospital.
She had so many questions to ask her father, and Caleb should probably be here to hear all the information. But he still wasn’t. Hopefully he was okay.
“Everything all right?”
She shrugged and looked at her phone before tucking it under her leg on the seat. No new messages from Caleb. She said a quick prayer that he was okay, then said, “Not really. Since you were kidnapped and I discovered you’re keeping secrets from me.”
His eyes flared.
Okay, so maybe she shouldn’t have said it quite like that. “Sorry.”
“You thought I wasn’t keeping anything from you, ever?” His words were measured. The tone even.
She didn’t quite know what to make of it.
“I guess I’m na?ve, because it was quite a surprise that you had a secret safe behind the painting in your office.”
“I figured you would have found it when you were dusting sometime. But you never said anything to me.”
“So not saying anything was fine, because you figured I probably know about it?” Tessa blew out a breath. “I don’t want to argue about this. But your secrets got you kidnapped.”
If he had told her, that probably would’ve only put her in danger as well. But how could she think anything other than that his secrets nearly got him killed?
“I don’t want to argue about this either. My head is pounding.”
Her phone buzzed under her leg. “Maybe I should just leave you to it.”
She didn’t want to be all dramatic thinking that the trust they had between them for her whole life was gone now. She should just be glad he was alive, and they could rebuild their relationship.
Caleb’s text popped up on the screen.
I’m good. Hope your father is okay.
How was that helpful? She wanted to know where he was, but maybe he didn’t want to tell her over text. Tessa didn’t know how to do any of this clandestine line federal agent stuff.
She shifted to the edge of the seat just as there was a knock on the door.
“Get that, will you?”
She rolled her eyes and went to open the door. “Sheriff. And…”
Sheriff Cartwright motioned to the man beside him, dressed in a dull gray suit with bright white hair and a pale face. “This is FBI Special Agent Timothy Danvers. We’d like to talk to your father.”
The Special Agent had pink cheeks and inset eyes. But she really shouldn’t judge a guy by his looks, because maybe he was an excellent FBI agent.
“Dad?”
“They can come in.”
She held the door open, and the two men stood on one side of the bed. She closed the door and retook her seat. No way she was leaving now when they were going to ask her father questions, and Tessa wanted to be around to hear all the answers.
The sheriff looked at her father. “Preacher, are you feeling up for answering some questions?”
“Better to get it done, I figure.”
Her father could sound like a country boy whenever he wanted. And yet, he could also hold down the conversation in a fancy restaurant with a high-powered business leader or local government leader.
She admired his ability to be all things to all people. But right now it seemed like he was falling back on something as a facade. Drawing a line of distinction between him and these two law men. She couldn’t help wondering if it was so that he could protect the secrets he needed to keep.
“Great.” Sheriff Cartwright pulled out a notebook and pencil. “Special Agent Danvers has some things he’d like to ask you about the men who took you. But maybe you could start with what happened.”
Tessa pulled out her phone, trying to look disinterested. Why she got the idea, she wasn’t entirely sure. But she quickly navigated to the voice recorder app and started the recording so that she could capture everything they said.
Her father shifted on the bed. “I was driving home from town, taking the long way so that I could pray over some things and spend some time listening to worship music. I saw a couple of guys on ATVs on the side of the road. They waved me down and got me to pull over, so I figured they needed some help. But as soon as I stopped, they dragged me out of my car.”
Sheriff Cartwright said, “Any idea what they wanted?”
“Seemed like they wanted to kidnap me.” Her father’s voice had a tone to it, but she didn’t think anyone else would’ve noticed. Tessa only did because of how much time they’d spent together.
She would’ve said just days ago that she knew everything about her father. But right now it seemed more like the man in the hospital bed was a stranger.
“I fought back and managed to shove one of them into the other. So I ran into the woods as fast as I could.”
Special Agent Danvers said, “It was three against one. Care to tell me how you managed to fight them off?”
Her dad said, “Once a Marine, always a Marine. It’s been a long time, but some instincts are hard to forget.
” He cleared his throat. “Anyway, they caught up with me pretty quickly. They didn’t shoot me, so I knew they didn’t want me dead.
They were trying to capture me alive, so I made it as hard for them as possible and got a concussion for my trouble. ”
Tessa frowned. He was making it sound like something of this nature wasn’t completely foreign to him.
Her dad said, “They took me to this hunting cabin and I was able to…” He cleared his throat. “I used what I could and fought them again. I managed to call Tessa and she picked me up.”
Nothing about the envelope.
Nothing about Caleb.
Apparently her father had been briefed on what law enforcement was allowed to know about the situation and what he should keep to himself. Did he know who these people were, the ones that had taken him?
She was going to have to figure out how to school her features or they would get a huge clue that she couldn’t believe this wild story her father was telling.
Tessa started to nod, just in case they took that as her agreement of what he was saying. In her head she was marveling that yes this sounded completely crazy.
“I need the location of this cabin, preacher.” Sheriff Cartwright wrote down what her father told him, then said, “The old Morris peak place?”
Dad nodded. “That’s the one. They must have found out about it and figured no one would be using it this late in winter.”
“It’s been pretty mild so far.” Sheriff Cartwright said.
“Let’s get back on track, shall we,” Special Agent Danvers said. “Are you able to tell me anything about who the men were, or what they wanted?”
Tessa realized there was a flaw in the plan, because as soon as the sheriff went up to that cabin he was going to find two men with gunshots. Caleb had killed both of them before he helped her load her father into the car so she could get him to the hospital. Or had he stayed behind and cleaned up?
She didn’t like the idea of bad men getting away with crimes. Especially when those crimes involved her family.
Dad shook his head. “I’ve never seen them before. But I knew it wasn’t going to be good for me unless I figured a way out of there.”
The Special Agent shifted and pulled his phone out, showing her father the screen. “Have you seen this man before? Maybe he was one of the men who captured you.”
She couldn’t get a good look at the phone. Her father said, “Isn’t that one of Ian Rourke’s grandsons? They’re twins. Identical. Can’t really tell them apart.”
Tessa bit the inside of her lip. This guy was really here about Caleb?
Special Agent Danvers pulled the phone back.
“Caleb Rourke is a wanted fugitive. All we know is that he tried to fake his death six weeks ago. He’s been working for a dangerous criminal for years under the nose of the DEA and we need to find him so that we can finally bring down the man he works for. ”
Nathan Kessler.
Caleb had said there were dirty agents. They were the ones who had tried to kill him six weeks ago, severely injuring him.
After that, he’d come home to the only place where he could be safe.
Those definitely weren’t the actions of a man who was tied to a criminal.
It was what someone who wanted to regroup long enough to clear his name and put things right did.
Her dad said, “And you think Caleb had something to do with what happened to me? No one mentioned him when they were holding me captive.”
He didn’t say that he hadn’t seen Caleb. Hopefully they weren’t going to ask Tessa any questions, because she wasn’t sure she would be able to effectively lie. Did she even want to?
If it saved someone’s life to withhold the truth, or even tell a falsehood, did that still count as a sin?
The Special Agent shrugged. “We believe it could be connected to what happened to you. That the men who took you were working with him.”
“Like I said.” Her father lifted his chin. “They didn’t say anything about Ian’s grandson to me.”
The Special Agent said, “If you see Caleb Rourke, I need you to call me immediately. He’s a traitor and we need to bring him in before he hurts a lot of people.”