14. Chapter 14
Chapter fourteen
Isla spent the day making pies for Thanksgiving dinner, between feeding the team. Mitch walked in just before lunch and scanned the pies lining the counter.
“How many pies do we need?”
“I made two pumpkin, one cherry, two apple, and one mincemeat. Do you think it’s enough?
I want everyone to have their favorite for dessert.
I still need to make a chocolate cream pie and a banana cream.
” Mitch looked at her in wonder. Isla soaked it in.
“I’ve asked the whole team what their favorite dishes are.
I haven’t had the chance to ask you. What’s yours? ”
Mitch waved her off. “Whatever you make is fine with me. You’ve already gone overboard with this meal.”
Isla pretended to pout. “Now, don’t tell me you don’t have a special dish. Everyone has one. Tell me, please.”
Mitch caved. “Okay, fine. Every year my mom makes popovers. We can never get enough of them and there’s always a battle for the last one in the basket.”
“You’re in luck,” Isla laughed. “I had them on the menu. My mom makes popovers for every holiday. My dad would eat two before he even ate his dinner and then wonder why he wasn’t hungry.”
Mitch smiled. “Sometimes my mom would make them on Sunday mornings. They were so good. I’d fill them with whipped butter and strawberry jam.
Just the thought of them makes my mouth water.
” He chuckled. “Do you have time for a training session after lunch? I want to continue our training. I have a few more moves I would like to teach you. I’d also like to take you to the firing range and teach you how to use a gun. ”
Isla’s stomach dropped. “Mitch, I’m not sure I want to learn how to use a gun. Just the thought of shooting at someone makes my stomach flip.”
“I want to know you can protect yourself just in case you need to. Believe me when I say, if it comes to you or the person trying to kill you, it gets easy. Besides, you’ll probably never have to use a gun, I just want you to be prepared.”
Isla sighed. “Fine, you can teach me. But for the record, I don’t like this.”
“I understand,” said Mitch. “Just humor me. Okay?”
Isla and Mitch walked to the training center in silence. Mitch unlocked the door and flicked on the lights.
“Are you ready to take me down?” he asked as he led her over to the mats. “Let’s warm up and then I want you to demonstrate what I taught you the other day.”
Mitch put her through her paces. She was a good student. She had mastered all the techniques he had shown her the other day. “You’ve been practicing.”
“Colt helped me out. I dropped him three out of the five times I tried. And he gave me a few new tips as well. Do you want me to show you?”
“What did he teach you?”
“I want you to put your hands around my neck and I’ll show you what I need to do to get out of it.’’
Mitch gripped her throat tightly, but not enough to cut off her breath. She brought her hands up and forced his hands up and away from her face.
“Good, you’re a natural. I’m proud of you.” He took his hands and cupped her face as he leaned down and dropped a gentle kiss on her lips. “I could take you right here.”
“I wish you would,” said Isla.
Mitch groaned. “I’m nervous Lara will be scouting the area or something.”
“Mitch, when this is all over, I want to talk to you about what this is,” said Isla. “You’re all I can think about.”
“I’m counting on it,” said Mitch. “Just touching while training you arouses me and that’s never happened to me before.”
Isla smiled and flirted, “Well, then let’s keep training.”
They worked out on the mats for an hour and then headed for the shooting range.
Mitch unlocked a vault and pulled a gun from the case along with a box of ammo.
He turned to her, checking the gun’s chamber to make sure there were no bullets.
“I want you to get comfortable handling it without bullets first. Feel its weight and lift it to your face. How does it feel in your hand?”
“It’s heavy, but not as heavy as I thought it would be,” Isla said as she handed it back to him.
“Here’s some ear and eye protection. Put these on and stand on the side of me and watch what I do.”
Isla stood behind and to the side of him as he raised the gun and aimed at the paper target. He fired off the round and then pulled off his ear and eye protection and looked at her with a serious face. “Are you ready to try? I’m putting only one shot in the chamber. Come in front of me.”
Isla stood in front of the divider and Mitch handed her the gun, then raised her arms to where he wanted them to be. “Now use the sight to line up your shot, release the safety, and pull the trigger.”
Isla pulled the trigger. The shot kicked her back into Mitch’s chest and went wide to the left of the target.
“How did that feel?” Mitch said.
“I didn’t expect such a kickback,” Isla said. She frowned. “I wasn’t even close to the target. Mitch, I don’t think I can do this.”
“I don’t want to hear can’t. You’ve picked up everything I’ve taught you so far. I know you can do this. It just takes practice.” Mitch took the gun from her hands and filled the chamber and handed it back. “Now again. I want you to unload the whole clip.”
She positioned herself like Mitch had shown her and pulled the trigger until the clip was empty. Mitch brought the target forward and she had actually hit the sheet of paper twice. She hadn’t hit the body target, but she had hit the paper.
“I did it! I hit the paper!” she screeched excitedly.
“You hit the paper,” he chuckled. “Come on, let’s try again.”
They practiced for the next hour and in that hour, she actually hit the body outline on the paper three out of ten shots. Mitch told her to aim center body mass. She had hit that twice.
“That’s enough for today,” Mitch said, taking the gun from her. “We’ll practice again tomorrow. You did great today for a person that’s never fired a gun before. We’ll make you a marksman before you know it.”
“I don’t think I want to be a marksman, Mitch,” Isla said seriously. Just hearing the sound of the shots gave her flashbacks to the night she saw Jim Watkins murdered. “But I’ll do this because you want me to.”
“Good, because I want you to be safe, Molly.” Mitch looked around at the mountains. The clouds were gathering and the wind had picked up since they had left. “I feel a storm coming in.”
Mary Carlson had just been met at her door by Hernandez’s henchman, Roberto Mendez. “You better have news for me, Mary,” he said as he stared daggers at her.
“I think I found something today,” Mary said. Her voice quivered with fear. “I just need a few hours to track the information down.”
“Then let’s go inside. I can wait,” Roberto said as he pushed her through the door.
“Can’t I just call you when I find something? I can’t work with you breathing down my neck.”
“If you like that neck of yours, you’ll shut up and get to work. I’m not leaving until I get what I need,” he threatened.
Mary hung her coat in the closet and walked into the back bedroom and sat behind her computer. Roberto walked in behind her and sat in the chair in the corner.
“How long is this going to take?” he growled at her.
“I don’t know. It might even be another dead end. It’s just a hunch I have.”
Mary’s fingers flew even though her hands shook.
She started looking into state property tax records in the state of Virginia.
There were twenty-eight properties in Virginia that were owned by the last name Hughes.
After an hour, she had narrowed down six properties that could be where Larkin’s cabin was.
Three of them were in Albemarle County, two were in Clarke County, and the last one was in Fluvanna County.
She turned around and handed Roberto a sheet of paper.
“I believe Mitchell Larkin is the agent in charge of the case. I haven’t found anything to believe that he isn’t.
He’s been supposedly out on family leave, but his entire team has not been in the office for weeks.
I’ve been able to look into the files that show the addresses of all the safe houses that the Agency has within a ten-hour radius of Pittsburgh and I’ve come up with nothing that tells me that Pierce is being hidden in any of them.
However, one of my co-workers told me recently that Larkin has a family hunting cabin in the mountains of Virginia.
I looked through the state’s property tax records and didn’t find any property in Larkin’s name. ”
Roberto looked at the paper, listening calmly. Mary regained her composure.
“Today I was able to hack into Larkin’s personnel file and his mother’s maiden name is Hughes.
What you have there is a list of addresses that could be where they are keeping Pierce.
The property tax records don’t indicate Larkin’s mother’s first name.
However, we have to consider that one of these properties could be owned by Larkin’s family.
I think if you find that property, you’ll find Pierce.
I hope it’s enough, but I haven’t been able to find anything else.
I haven’t been able to hack into anything that pertains to Pierce. This is the best I can do.”
He nodded. “I’ll take it from here. Keep looking. If you find anything else, I want to know about it. Do you understand?”
“I understand,” said Mary, walking Mendez to the door. She was safe, for now.