Chapter 17
As soon as Mia was airborne and away from the base, Cullen walked to the Jeep and drove to the main gate. Instead of letting him through, the sergeant stopped him.
He was prepared to ram his way through until he saw the two MPs from earlier. Nothing was going to keep him at the base, but he was curious to see what the two men might want.
Red reached him first. “You’re not remaining for the investigation, Captain?”
He looked between Wallace and Red. “I’m following a lead regarding my father. Did you find anything else out about Mendoza?”
“Other than the absence of a suicide letter?” Wallace asked.
Cullen decided not to tell them what Davis had shared with Mia. “You checked everywhere?”
“Even his emails,” Red confirmed. “We found bruising on the knuckles of Mendoza’s right hand.”
Wallace gave a nod of confirmation. “There was a struggle. Mendoza didn’t kill himself. A formal investigation has been opened.”
“I’m curious about the findings. I’ll catch up with you two when I get back.”
“Be careful, sir,” Wallace said.
Cullen looked at him a long time, wondering if the lieutenant knew more than he let on. With a nod to the MPs, he turned toward the sergeant, who opened the gate for him to pass.
With the base fading in his rearview mirror, he knew he hadn’t left it behind for good. That would be too easy. How long he had before someone came looking for him was anyone’s guess. But he was going to make the most of his time.
He tried to call Owen, but the phone wouldn’t connect. Cullen then tried Wyatt. The phone rang once, and then disconnected. As convenient as technology was, it was also frustrating at times.
A thought popped into his mind that the Saints might be preventing him from making calls. But how could they? They didn’t know where he was.
Dropping the cell in the cup holder, he concentrated on the road. There was a minimum of a five-hour drive ahead of him. He wasn’t sure what he would find, but by the location, it was deep in the mountains. That would be a good place for them to hide the plane and give them a day to make a plan.
And start the hunt for the Saints. Davis had urged Mia to follow the trail. No doubt the Saints had left a lot for them to find. Most likely, it would lead back to Dover.
After two hours on the road, Cullen pulled over at a convenience store for gas, food, and an energy drink. While the gas pumped, he examined the Jeep for a tracking device. He was happy to find nothing.
Just to be sure, he checked his phone. As a precaution, any time he had his cell phone with him, he turned off the GPS locator.
To his shock, it was on. He quickly switched it off. His mind raced with possibilities of how it could’ve gotten turned on. It hadn’t been out of his hands since before he returned to Texas.
And he’d checked while at the ranch. The GPS had been off.
His gaze lowered to the phone. Yet it had been on. Someone must’ve hacked his phone and made sure the GPS was activated. That wouldn’t have been Callie. She knew better.
The Saints.
At that moment, his phone rang, Owen’s name appearing on the screen. Cullen wanted to answer it, but he couldn’t take the chance. He declined the call and made his way into the store.
A beat-up pickup truck revved to life. A moment later, the driver put it in reverse to back out. Cullen walked close to the truck and tossed his phone into the back.
He paused before entering the store to see the truck heading back the direction Cullen had come. He was still smiling when he returned to the Jeep with an armload of food and drinks—as well as a map—a few minutes later.
He wouldn’t be able to contact anyone, but neither could he be tracked. It was his only option at this point. Even if General Davis had had a mental break and everything he’d told Mia was false, there was still the Saints coming after her.
What Cullen wished he could tell his brothers was that this mess with Ragnarok extended past the Russians. It even stretched farther than whoever had betrayed Orrin.
The threat was much closer to home than any of them realized.
Cullen opened the energy drink and gulped it down. Tossing the empty can in the trash, he climbed into the Jeep and spread out the map.
He studied and memorized the different back roads to Backbone Mountain from various directions. Folding the map, he looked around as he started the vehicle.
Cullen drove away, watching to see if any cars followed. When he saw nothing, he breathed a sigh of relief. His next stop was going to be finding a burner phone so he could contact his brothers and Mia.
All of them needed to be prepared for what was coming.
It was an hour later when he spotted an electronics store. He hastily pulled in and bought two phones. As soon as he’d paid, he opened one of them and sent Mia a text–
It’s Cullen. Tracking being used. Get rid of your phone.
Soon, he was on the road again. Hopefully, Mia would lose her cell phone quickly. It wouldn’t do them any good to hide the plane if they were being tracked.
His drive time greatly decreased once he exited the main highway and began zigzagging through the back roads. But it made it easier to see if he was being followed. So far, so good.
As he drove, he thought of his brothers. He grinned because he knew Owen wasn’t going to allow his second chance with Natalie to go by without a fight. Those two belonged together. It was time they were finally together.
Cullen chuckled when his thoughts turned to Wyatt and Callie. He well imagined that Callie was giving Wyatt hell at every turn—and he hoped she was. No one deserved to be knocked on their ass more than his eldest brother.
The odds of all of them coming out of this alive were diminishing with every day. That thought caused his smile to disappear. Without contact with his brothers, Cullen couldn’t exchange information with them.
As his thoughts swung to the daredevil pilot, he wasn’t sure what to make of her. Her beauty and courage were undeniable. She valued honor and friendship. Yet, whatever she was hiding caused him to hesitate in giving her all of his trust.
There was no doubt she’d been involved in some shady dealings, but he didn’t think that was what she kept hidden. Nor did it have anything to do with her family.
He recalled seeing her with the Russian at Dover. No matter how he tried to pin Orrin’s disappearance and the team’s execution on her, he couldn’t seem to do it.
There was genuine distress about what she’d found after the murders, too much for her to be faking. Nor did he believe that she’d made up the engine problem so she wouldn’t be in the hangar.
How that connected back to the Russian and her secret, Cullen had yet to work out. All he needed was time and information to put it all together.
His travel slowed on the winding paths of the Allegheny Mountains. It had been several years since he’d been to this part of the Appalachian Mountain Range.
The Alleghenies encompassed the western-central part of the Appalachians. The dense forests were perfect hiding places—as he’d learned in specialized training.
By the time he pulled over for gas and more food, night was fast approaching. He used the time out of the vehicle to stretch his back, neck, and legs. Then he cleaned out the Jeep, getting rid of the wrappers and empty cans.
He restocked his stash of food and drinks, taking another look at the map before setting off again. If his timing were right, he should arrive at Mia’s in a couple of hours.
Just as he was about to start the Jeep, something in his side mirror caught his attention. He spotted a black Suburban parked to the side, and even though the light was fading and the windows were tinted, he still managed to see someone staring at him while talking on a phone.
He wasn’t going to take the chance of someone following him. He got out of the vehicle and returned to the store.
The owner, an elderly woman with steely, watchful eyes, looked up. “Forget something, son?” she asked with a grin.
“Can you point me to the back exit?”
She slid off her stool and came to stand at the counter. Then she looked at the set of four small monitors to where the SUV was parked. Her gaze swung back to him.
Cullen laid his hands on the counter. “Ma’am, I’m a captain in the US Marine Corps, Force Recon. I’m on my way to help a friend, and I’ve got some . . . unfriendlies who would like to stop me.”
“You have an honest look about you,” she stated. “And I always did have a soft spot for a Texas drawl.”
He shot her a grin. “As soon as I take care of this little problem, I’ll be out of your hair.”
“Well, I didn’t say you had to leave,” she teased, winking. Then she lifted a wrinkled hand and pointed to the back left. “It’s right there.”
“Thank you, ma’am.”
“You be careful!”
He winked at her over his shoulder and walked to the door she’d pointed to. Cullen made his way quietly out of the store.
With his back pressed against the building, he peered around the corner to see the driver open the door and step out of the SUV.
The light inside the vehicle came on to show that there was no one else within. He watched the man adjust the jacket to his black suit, cussing beneath his breath. Not once did the man take his eyes off the Jeep.
Cullen soundlessly came up behind the man. “Looking for me?”
The man whirled around, reaching for his gun. Cullen caught the man’s wrist with his left hand and punched him in the kidney with his right.
There was a loud grunt from the man. Cullen knocked the gun out of his hand and slammed him back against the SUV. He then sent two more jabs into that same kidney.
“I take that to mean you are looking for me,” Cullen said.
The man bent over, gasping for breath, his face turning purple as he glanced up. Cullen slammed his elbow down on the back of the man’s neck, knocking him out cold.
Cullen stepped over him and looked inside the vehicle for the cell phone to check for last calls in and out. After committing them to memory, he dropped the phone on the ground and stomped on it, breaking it to bits.
“Leave him to me.”
Cullen spun around at the sound of the old woman’s voice. “It’s better if you don’t get involved.”
“No one will ever know.”
He began to argue, but he noticed how she stayed out of the line of sight of the camera, and she’d turned him so that his face wouldn’t be seen clearly. Nobody watching the tape would have any idea he was talking to anyone.
Her smile was wide as she held up a cell phone. “Get going, Captain.”
With a nod her way, he turned and walked to the Jeep. He wasn’t sure what made the old woman help him, but he was glad for it.
As Cullen drove off, he took one more look at the convenience store. Was it just a fluke that someone had spotted him?
He wasn’t sure. General Davis had told Mia that the Saints were everywhere. If that were the case, anyone could be a part of the group.
Cullen hated not having information. Whatever steps he and Mia made next would have to be done thoughtfully and carefully if they wanted to stay under the radar on their hunt.
His hands gripped the steering wheel harder as his foot pressed the accelerator. He sped down the road, a sudden need to get to Mia immediately riding him.