Chapter 17 #2
“There’s a lot that Ethan doesn’t know. And it goes both ways. He doesn’t tell me shit, because he has to be the big man who handles it all alone. He won’t let me contribute, or let me help with anything. So I’ve been investigating on my own.”
“Oh, shit.” I blew out a sharp breath. “So…the prison. You tracked me down.”
“Yes. I hacked your friends’ messaging system. Someone said something about putting someone in prison. So I searched mugshot databases, and I found you. James.”
I shook my head. This clusterfuck was compounding at a terrifying rate.
“Who put you in prison, Jed?” she demanded. “Who arranged to get you out?”
“I’m not telling you jack shit,” I said. “You’re the one who should explain yourself to me.”
“I did nothing wrong. I’m not the one who sold Shane out.”
I jerked the Jeep to a halt, shocked. “You think I sold Shane out?”
She shrugged. “I’ve been exploring every avenue of inquiry. I followed the money, and the money says you did. So does the forensic evidence. Then you vanished, and that didn’t look all that innocent, either.”
“The money and the evidence were manipulated, Sandee! I mean, Freya. And I went into fucking prison, undercover, to find info on Shane!” I had to stop, breathe, fight to control myself. “You really think I’m capable of fucking over my friend?”
“I wouldn’t have thought so. Ethan and Shane trusted you, and they’re no dummies. But I don’t know you, really. Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men, and all that.”
I waited until I could control my voice, and started the car up again. “Why the whole seduction schtick?” I asked her. “What was all that about?”
Her face blushed faintly. “I had to establish a connection,” she said primly.
“You think I would spill sensitive intel to a bubblehead like Sandee?”
“Pillow talk. People get careless. And yes, it was thin, I admit it. But it was as good a plan as anything else I could come up with. And don’t badmouth Sandee. She’s a sweet girl, and she means well. And after all, Jed. You fucked her.”
I didn’t flinch. “She said she wanted it, and I took her at her word. You can’t blame me for that. Nobody told me she was a duplicitous, whoring spy.”
Freya shrugged. “Well, hell. People are just full of surprises.”
I bit back a sharp comment. She’d brushed up against death twice in the last twenty-four hours. I could handle a little snark. It wasn’t necessary to scold her.
The world would punish her plenty without my help. It already had.
Besides, I was still reeling from the news. I had spent the night boning the innocent kid sister of my comrades-at-arms, with a carnal intensity that would make the Masters brothers pound me into sausage meat if they ever knew. Holy God.
She was blessedly silent for a few minutes, but I knew it was too good to last.
“So, who is that guy?” she asked.
“What fucking business is it of yours?” I snarled.
“Well, he almost maimed and killed me. And he knew my name, and Holly’s name. That makes him my business. Does he have anything to do with Shane?”
I glanced over at her. “What do you think?”
She harrumphed. “I think you’re capable of mortally pissing people off on your own merits. But I doubt he’d have reason to know my name and Holly’s name if he didn’t have something to do with Shane. So tell me. Who is he?”
I gave in to the inevitable. “Wex Boer is his name.”
She glanced over at me, eyes widening. “Wait. I know that name. From the Ready Line massacre. Wex Boer’s outfit partnered with you and Shane, right?”
“Yeah, that’s right,” I said. “Sometimes.”
“But…but that’s impossible, Jed. That can’t be Boer. He’s dead. Burned in the fire. Positively IDed with DNA, dental records.”
“That’s what he wants you to think.” It was painful to say it, it sounded so much like a bullshit conspiracy theory that only an idiot would swallow.
“But he faked it. I have no idea how. And I was supposed to die for real that day, in a fake car accident. They pushed my car off a bridge. I messed them up by surviving it.”
She studied me intently, frowning. As if trying to read my mind. My heart.
“I was their fall guy,” I said. “Someone wanted SmokeScreen. To use it, or sell it. Shane was part of the deal, because he knew the codes to open it. There was a guy doing time in Kalaharee who had dealings with Boer and was willing to bargain intel. I went into prison to cultivate him. I almost pulled it off, but then you came along. And now Boer’s in the wind. ”
“He fell off the cliff, Jed,” Freya said. “He probably broke his neck.”
I shook my head. “No way. He won’t die that easy.
He’s a tough motherfucker. He has a stab wound in the shoulder, and some bruises, but you better believe he’s not dead.
Just regrouping. And he’s added you to his list of people to punish.
Lucky you. You know, Freya, your brothers always bragged about how smart you were.
The genius of the family, yada yada. But this stunt you’re pulling? It does not say ‘smart’ to me.”
“Tell me more about this Boer,” she said.
The careful tone in her voice bugged me. As if she was humoring someone who was having breakdown. “Shut up and let me think,” I snarled. “I’m not trusting sensitive intel to you. Not until I know how he found me. Who sold me out.”
She was silent for a minute. “I think I know how he found us,” she said.
That took me by surprise. “Yeah? How?”
She bit her lip, looking guilty and embarrassed. “By, um…tracking my phone. He must have hacked my phone ages ago. And followed us to the cabin with it.”
“But I took your phone!” I said. “I gutted your fucking phone!”
She cleared her throat, shooting me a nervous glance. “Um, actually…you gutted Sandee’s phone,” she corrected. “Not Freya’s.”
My guts clenched. “You have another phone? You’ve been using it?”
“Well, of course. I’m sorry, Jed. I never dreamed anyone would track me with it. Other than Ethan, of course.” She opened up a seam in her coat hem, and pulled out a smartphone. “I turned it on for maybe two minutes, max, this morning. And I guess…I guess that was enough for them to nail us down.”
“So that’s why you sneaked out,” I said. “I assume they’re still tracking us now.”
“God, of course not! I’ve been leaving out the battery so Ethan can’t track me! But I put it back when I get in touch with Holly. It must be the phone, because I didn’t tell anyone where I was going. I rented a car at the airport, and no one on earth knew what I was doing.”
I held out my hand. After a moment’s hesitation, she reluctantly handed them over. I buzzed the window down, and flung the device out into the snow.
Freya sighed. “Oh, God, Jed. That was not necessary.”
“You have the fucking nerve to say that to me, after everything that’s happened? So who did you call this morning? And what did you tell them?”
She hesitated. “I didn’t tell anybody anything,” she said, her voice small. “It was Holly’s birthday. She turned nine today. I just called to wish her a happy birthday. And tell her that I loved her.”
I realized, after a moment, that my mouth hung open. Fuck.
“So you risked my whole op, and both our necks, to say happy birthday to a kid,” I said.
“Yes. I’m sorry. I truly didn’t know that I was on anybody’s radar, at least not as Freya Masters.
But listen, Jed. If what you’re trying to accomplish has to do with Shane, I want to be involved.
Let me be on the list of people that bastard wants to punish.
That’s exactly where I belong. Bring him on. ” Wild anger lit up her beautiful eyes.
She wasn’t scared. She wasn’t cowed. Damn.
I realized right then, in a blinding flash, just how hard it was going to be to keep this woman safe.
I was in bigger trouble than I ever dreamed.