Lynette Eason - A Silent Pursuit

Now she recognized him.

Jase.

Relief sucked the breath from her. She pushed the door open, gave a shiver as cold wind buffeted the car and climbed out in time to hear Ian say, “Man, you should give a guy some warning before coming out of the shadows like that. I could’ve shot you.”

Jase barked a short laugh. “Not you.”

“I thought you were gone, and when I saw someone moving around out here…”

The man shrugged. “Thought I’d make sure there wasn’t anything that was going to jump out and scare you when you got here.”

“Yeah, right.”

A ghost of a smile crossed Jase’s face. “From what I can tell, it’s clean. I went inside and looked around a bit, but didn’t want to disturb too much in case you wanted a forensics team to come out here and see what they could find. The rest of the time I’ve been watching. There’s been no movement, nothing. There’s no one here.”

“Great. Thanks. What else?”

“I made some phone calls.”

“To whom?” Gina blurted as she rounded the car to stand near the two men.

Ian took her arm and said, “Let’s get inside. I don’t like you being out in the open like this.”

She knew Ian just meant to guide her inside; he had no idea that the warmth of his hand through her flimsy sweater sleeve burned like a branding iron. Fire zinged along her nerve endings, and the initial attraction she’d felt for him earlier returned full force.

Shivering at another gust of freezing wind, she pulled away and headed for the door of the house. “I don’t have a key.” She’d left the ring on the end table along with her purse, having had no time to grab them before her flight from the house. Nor her coat. She reminded herself to get that before they left.

She reached for the knob just to see.

It twisted under her palm, and alarm zipped through her.

She stepped back—right into Ian’s chest. His hands came up to rest on her goose-pimpled shoulders. “What’s wrong?”

“It’s unlocked.”

She looked at Jase, who nodded. “Just to be on the cautious side, I climbed in the window you left open when you ran. There really wasn’t any need, though. The guys were gone and didn’t bother to lock the door when they left.”

Gina wilted with relief as Ian grunted, “I’m surprised they closed it.”

They entered the small foyer and Jase shut the door behind them. Destruction greeted her weary eyes. From the left to the right, debris had been strewn. Her purse had been dumped, but nothing appeared to be missing.

She walked into the den and felt despair sweep through her. Sighing, she said, “I had the door locked last night.” She turned and looked at Ian. “I thought you would be here any minute but couldn’t bring myself to leave it unlocked. Not after what happened the week before.” She shuddered at the remembered terror of walking into her house and being threatened. She nodded to the door they’d just entered. “I heard the door squeak and for a brief moment, I thought it was you, then remembered I’d locked it.” She gave a self-deprecating smile as she took in the chaos once more. “Guess a flimsy little lock like that wasn’t going to keep them out, huh?” Her fingers worried the golden locket, still securely fastened around her neck.

Ian’s hand came up and snagged hers, stilling the nervous habit. “Don’t worry about it now. In the future we’ll take more precautions.”

We. She liked the sound of that. Perhaps too much.

Gina pulled her hand from his and laced her fingers together in front of her. “All right.” She sighed. “I suppose the next step is to go through the house and figure out what they were looking for.”

Jase gave her a look. “What about the police?”

“No, thanks. There’s nothing they can do. These guys go higher than the police. And Mario specifically said not to go to them.” She rubbed her weary eyes. “I just want to go through everything and see if anything looks—” she spread her hands, palms up, and shrugged “—whatever…suspicious? I don’t know. I’m just praying I’ll know it when I see it. I’m going to change into some warmer clothes, then get started.”

Jase and Ian exchanged a look, then split up to help search.

Two hours later Ian slid another book on the shelf as Jason entered the study. “I need to talk to you about something.”

Turning, fatigue gripping him, Ian dusted his hands against his jeans and looked at the man he’d once called friend. “What?”

Gina slipped into the room and sat behind the desk. Jase shot a pointed look in her direction and raised a brow at Ian. Ian looked at her and sighed. “You can talk in front of her. Whatever you know, she needs to know, too. These guys aren’t playing around. Tell us what you found out.”

Gina’s appreciative glance warmed him even as he worried about what Jase had to say and how it might affect her.

Jason hesitated, then said, “I talked to several guys in the unit. Everyone is still together except you, me, Mario, Bandit and Les.” Les Carson had been one of the team, a Ranger who’d taken a liking to Mario and had been one of Mario’s best buds. As had Bandit McGuire.

“Where’s Les?”

Jase rubbed his face and shut his eyes for a brief moment. “Dead. The official report says he was killed on a mission.”

“The unofficial report?”

“He was arrested for treason and managed to hang himself in his cell.”

Ian flinched. He hadn’t heard this. How had he not known this? He looked back at Jase. Of course, the team would have covered for him to save his family from both the humiliation of having a traitor in the family and possible retaliation from those with a grudge against a man who would betray not just his country but also his team.

“What about Bandit?”

A shrug. “No one seems to know. He dropped off the edge of the earth about a year ago. If anyone knows where he is, no one’s talking. Not even to me. He’s either so deep undercover he’ll never surface or he’s dead and no one’s talking about that either. I asked Mac about him and got shut up fast.”

“And is Robbie Stillman still with Mac?”

“Yes. He took your place.”

“That’s what I heard.”

“He’s all right, I guess. Not the friendliest guy around but does a good job. I’d trust him with my back. Seems like he’s got a lot of personal problems, though.”

“Why are you helping us?” Ian stared hard at Jase, demanding a truthful answer, remembering his worry that he was trusting the wrong person.

Gina watched them from her seat behind the desk, quiet, almost invisible. Ian hadn’t forgotten her presence, though.

Jason paced from one end of the den to the next. “When you called me, I wasn’t sure if I should get involved.”

“Again—why?”

“Because you and Mario were close, like brothers. Then you disappeared. And then Mario’s behavior right before he died…It was so off.”

“That’s what you said. Can you think of anything more?”

“After one of our missions in South America, he seemed to withdraw from the rest of us. He would have surges of anger and would disappear for long periods of time…and other stuff. He even requested a leave of absence from the unit, but no one seems to know why.”

“Was the leave granted?”

“No.”

Ian frowned. “Why not?”

Jase shrugged. “I have no idea—he never said—but it was right before he died.”

Gina intervened. “His grandmother died about a year ago. Maybe he was upset about that. He never really had time to process the loss. The day after her funeral he was deployed to a mission in Venezuela, I think.”

“Could be—” Jase paced over to the bookshelf “—but like I said, the guys aren’t talking much. There’s something else going on and they’re covering for him.”