Blood Heat (Dangerous Ground 3) Read online

  “Were you followed?” Hedwig looked from Taylor to Will.

  “Why would we be?” He drew his handcuffs and approached the bed. Hedwig awkwardly levered herself up, her expression defiant.

  Taylor stopped. “Seriously? Didn’t we just do this?”

  In answer, she tucked her hands behind her back.

  “Oh for —” He looked at Will. Will, damn him, looked like he was trying not to laugh. Like this was funny? Well, maybe one day. Not at the moment. “Feel free to jump in here anytime, Brandt.”

  “Why? You’re doing fine.”

  Taylor looked back at Hedwig. She bared her teeth at him. No shit. Bared her tiny white teeth like Monty Python’s Rabbit of Caerbannog. Like something raised in an underground den — which was probably not far from the truth.

  “Listen, little girl. We can do this the civilized way, or I can knock you on your ass and do it the other way. Why don’t you think about that kid you’re carrying?”

  “I am thinking about him!”

  The dark side of Planned Parenthood.

  “We need to call for backup,” Will said.

  He was right, as much as Taylor hated to admit it. This was already way more complicated than he’d anticipated, and transporting a pregnant female prisoner from New Mexico to Los Angeles…

  “No.” Astonishingly, Hedwig caught his arm. “Please no.”

  Taylor took advantage of her distraction to grab her right arm, turning her to snap the cuff on her wrist. She began to struggle. “Front or back?” he asked Will.

  Will looked blank. “Front or back what?”

  “Cuffing her. Do I cuff her in front or in back?”

  “How should I know? You’re the one with the nieces and nephews.”

  “So far I haven’t had to arrest any of them.”

  William grimaced. “There’s protocol on this, right?”

  “I assume.” He’d also assumed Will would be familiar with the protocol. Will was generally better at dealing with the gentler sex. Not that their prisoner exactly qualified.

  Taylor stepped forward, using a standing leg sweep to knock Hedwig’s feet out from under her. She overbalanced and dropped down on the bed again, bouncing a little, puffing angrily. She glared up at him as he snapped the second cuff on her.

  It had to be the pregnancy thing, because no way should he be feeling anything but cold contempt for this murdering bitch.

  “How far along are you?” Will joined them bedside.

  She tossed her hair out of her face. “Eight months.”

  Taylor met Will’s eyes. Will shook his head. Taylor sighed. “I’ll call for backup,” Will said again, and Taylor nodded.

  “No. Please no.” Hedwig held up her cuffed hands in supplication. “I’ll make a deal with you.”

  “This ought to be good.”

  “Save your breath,” Will told her.

  “But I didn’t kill that man. You have to believe me. I didn’t have anything to do with it. I swear.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Taylor said. “You weren’t even in LA at the time.”

  “I wasn’t in LA at the time.”

  Will already had his cell phone out and was dialing.

  Hedwig said desperately, “If you call the police, they’ll hand me straight over to the FBI and I’ll be killed. And my baby too.”

  “Someone’s been watching the X-Files again,” Taylor told Will.

  Will snorted.

  “Anyway, you won’t be handed over to the FBI. You’ll be handed over to the Marshal Service, who may or may not hand you back to us.”

  It worried him, though. That…teary-eyed intensity as she gazed up at them. Not that he hadn’t known his share of bold-faced liars. Enough so he thought he was pretty good at telling truth from fiction. Believed he had an instinct for it. And it was a silly lie — not being in LA at the time — easily disproved, right? So she’d probably come up with something better if she was alibiing herself. She’d had enough time to think of a stronger story. Seven months.

  Hedwig was still pleading, still insisting. “It’s the truth. I’m telling you the truth. If you’re not going to listen to me, if you’re going to drag me back to LA, then at least do yourself a favor and take me in on your own. If you’re halfway good at your job, we all might even make it alive.” Even with her hands cuffed, she unconsciously, protectively cradled her belly.

  It wasn’t science, but…

  “Brandt, wait.”

  Will paused, his look watchful.

  “We’ve got her in custody. We don’t need local support now. Let’s take her back on our own.”

  Will’s expression was pained. “Come on. You don’t believe that bullshit about the police and the FBI trying to kill her?”

  “No.” Taylor said more firmly, “No way. But it won’t hurt to be on the safe side.”

  “Yeah, well I don’t think you and me trying to transport her back to LA is on the safe side.”

  “If she cooperates —”

  Will’s jaw dropped. He recovered immediately. “Uh, buddy boy…” He glanced at their prisoner, who was tensely following their exchange. “If anything goes wrong…”

  “What could go wrong? We’re just going to drive up to Sierra Blanca, board a plane with her, and fly back in to Los Angeles.”

  “Like she goes into labor.”

  Taylor chewed his lip.

  “It’ll be our heads on Popsicle sticks.”

  Taylor nodded. “But what if, just on the off chance, there is something to what she’s saying?”

  “What is she saying? So far all I’ve heard is the usual I been framed!”

  “I was framed,” Hedwig put in.

  Will raised his eyebrows.

  “Who framed you?” Taylor asked.

  “I don’t know.”

  “Oh! Well!” Will gave Taylor an exasperated look.

  “If I knew, I’d have given the name up a long time ago,” Hedwig protested. “But it’s someone at the DEA. I know that for sure.”

  “Why’s that?” asked Will. “Why couldn’t it be the FBI? Or the CIA? Or the PTA?”

  “Because I was working with the DEA as an informant, and some of the information I had implicated agents at a high level.”

  The pause that followed her words was filled in by the dogs baying in the kennel behind the house and Ramirez’s continuing, though increasingly hoarse, rants from downstairs.

  “You’re saying there’s a mole in the DEA?” Taylor headed off Will’s questions.

  But Will had another question in mind. “Who were you informing on? Who was the target?”

  Hedwig hesitated.

  Will’s gaze met Taylor’s. “Who?” they questioned at the same time.

  “Mikhail Bashnakov.”

  “Who?” Taylor could feel Will’s stare.

  He said carefully, colorlessly, “Mikhail Bashnakov. The Technician.”

  “Yes,” Hedwig said softly.

  There was a flash of white outside the bedroom window, followed by a long rolling boom of thunder. Perfect timing. Pretty funny, in fact. Except…not. Taylor had the horrifying sensation of having reached his hand into a cookie jar, only to find a coiled rattlesnake.

  “Who’s Mikhail Bashnakov?” Unlike Taylor, Will made it a policy not to concern himself with crimes that were unrelated to the DSS. It was Will’s view that their game preserve was stocked with all the bad guys they could ever require — and that was certainly true.

  “He’s a kingpin in one of the Russian drug cartels,” Taylor told him.

  Hedwig nodded confirmation.

  “Oh. Good.” The mildness of that made Taylor’s lips twitch. Yeah. No wonder he loved Will.

  “Let me see if I have this straight,” Will stated. “You were framed for killing a DSS director by someone within the DEA who was afraid that your information would implicate him — or her — in the Russian drug trade?”

  “Yes. That’s what I believe.”

  “And I believe this i
s total bullshit.”

  “What if it’s not?” Taylor intervened.

  “You keep saying that. What if it is?”

  “Well, what does it matter in that case? I’m not saying we turn her loose. I’m saying we take her back to LA ourselves. That was the original plan, right? Escort her back to LA?”

  “Yes.”

  “So?”

  When Will had no immediate response, Taylor pressed, “So that’s what we do. Except we don’t advertise the fact that we’ve picked her up. We just…take her back.”

  “Yes,” Hedwig pleaded. “That’s all I’m asking. That you take me in yourselves.”

  “See. I don’t trust that.” Will nodded at Hedwig’s strained face.

  “I don’t trust it either. That just means we’re prepared for anything she might try.”

  He could see Will struggling with it, but it made sense. Right? This had been the plan from the beginning — before Denver PD lost Hedwig in the system. Whatever the hell system that had been. True, the original plan would have supplied them with backup and resources they didn’t currently have, but if there was a chance that what Hedwig was telling them was true — and Taylor followed the news enough to know there was more than a chance that it was — the best chance of all of them reaching home safe and sound was to slide in under the radar. To make it back to California before anyone knew they’d even located their quarry.

  “This is the way you want to play it?” Will asked finally.

  Taylor nodded.

  “Okay.” Will’s smile was sour. “Your call. For the record, I think it’s a lousy idea.”

  Will went downstairs to have a friendly chat with Ramirez while Taylor gave Hedwig five minutes to dress and pack an overnight bag. He had no idea what essentials a pregnant woman might need. He’d been overseas during his sister’s pregnancies — not that the circumstances were similar, and not that he would have paid attention even if they had been. If their prisoner wanted anything very complicated, she was going to have to do without. Anyway, it was a little over an hour to the airport, and then a short, hopefully direct flight to Los Angeles. A toothbrush and her spectacles ought to do her, in his opinion.

  He kept the door half-open while she dressed, observing impersonally while offering the illusion of privacy.

  Downstairs he could hear Ramirez bellowing at Will and Will’s quiet responses. It took a lot to get Will really worked up. Like Will, Taylor wasn’t concerned with Ramirez. If he needed persuading to go along with the change in plans, Taylor had no doubt that Hedwig could handle it. She seemed like a resourceful girl, appearances to the contrary. Either that or unbelievably lucky.

  The door to the bedroom swung open. Hedwig had changed into jeans and a loose green and white-checked smock thingie. Her hair was tied back in a lank ponytail, and she wore her glasses. She carried a white denim jacket draped over one arm, and she held a small flat overnight case. She looked like a timid kindergarten teacher. Taylor took the jacket and the overnight case, setting them aside to examine at his leisure.

  Hedwig made a scornful sound at this display of suspiciousness.

  “Hands behind your head.”

  “How stupid do you think I am?” she demanded as he briskly patted her down.

  “I don’t know. How stupid do you think I am?”

  “Totally stupid.”

  He laughed. “Ask a silly question.” He sort of liked the sheer outrageous balls of her. Anyway, he was just making double sure, knowing Will would expect this, but he didn’t expect — nor did he find — that she’d tried to arm herself while he was looking on. “Sorry, but I have to cuff you again.”

  “That’s not necessary.”

  “Maybe not, but that’s the way we’re doing it.”

  Taylor snapped the cuffs on her wrists again, retrieved her bag and jacket, and nodded for her to precede him down the hall, watching critically as she moved. She didn’t have that ungainly pregnant-lady waddle, but no way was she going to be outrunning them. That didn’t mean she wouldn’t try any other means that presented itself to get rid of them. He would. Anyone would. Yep, it was better to keep her cuffed.

  “Did you search her?” Will asked when they reached downstairs.

  Taylor assented.

  Ramirez was still cuffed. He sat on the floor, glaring out of a puffy eye. Blood crusted his nostrils.

  “You okay, chiquita?” he asked Hedwig.

  She nodded. “I’m so sorry, Reuben. Did they hurt you?”

  Ramirez shook his head. “It’s my fault. I should have shot this pig when I had the chance. I should have turned the dog on him. I should have —”

  “Don’t blame yourself, Reuben.”

  “Cute couple.” That was Will.

  “Yeah. Reuben and Juliet. You better explain the facts of life to your boyfriend,” Taylor told Hedwig.

  “He’s not my boyfriend.”

  Will’s gaze rolled to meet Taylor’s; Taylor could practically hear the casters clicking. “This could take all night.”

  Taylor ignored that. “Well, whatever Senor Ramirez is, we’d prefer to turn him loose, but if he comes trailing after us, things are going to get messy. If what you’ve told us is true, the less attention we attract, the better.”

  Hedwig scowled over this, then rattled off a string of Spanish.

  “In English,” Will interrupted.

  “It’s better if I go with them,” Hedwig told Ramirez. “Better for everyone.”

  “They’re not cops, chiquita. You can’t trust them. They’re Feds.”

  “I know. They’re Diplomatic Security.”

  “Who? What’s Diplomatic Security? I never heard of them.”

  “I think our PR machine is broken,” Taylor told Will.

  “If they were part of it, we’d be dead now,” Hedwig said. “They’re going to take me in themselves.”

  “Bullshit. Don’t trust them, Kelila.”

  “The trust is all on this side.” Will was losing patience. “In fact, if I had my way, you’d be on your way to jail and we’d be handing your girlfriend over to anyone who’d take her.”

  Taylor couldn’t tell if he meant it or not. If Will really was dead set against this — well, there was more at stake here than the honor of the DSS or their own professional reputations. More at stake for Will, certainly. But if Will was dead set against taking her back themselves, he’d say so. He wasn’t one for beating around the bush.

  Ramirez was stubbornly shaking his head. Taylor’s unease increased. “We can’t waste any more time here. Make up your mind.”

  “Reuben…please.”

  “Here’s what we’re going to do,” Will said. “I’m going to take the cuffs off you.” He was talking to Ramirez. “You’re going to get hold of Cujo out there, and then the three of us are walking out of here. If it all goes smoothly, that’ll be the end of it. Your part of it, anyway. If you do anything stupid, I’m arresting you and handing you over to the Ruidoso cops for aiding and abetting a fugitive.”

  Ramirez looked at Hedwig. “It’s okay,” she said. “Really. Just do what they tell you. Please.”

  Ramirez was still shaking his head as he rose. He stood sullenly while Will uncuffed him. Well, he didn’t like it, but that made it unanimous. So long as he followed orders…

  He did. He went to the door and shouted for the dog. It trotted inside, nails ticking on tile, woofing aggressively. Ramirez grabbed its collar and held tight, muttering what he apparently imagined were soothing noises.

  Dog and man watched in silence as Will, followed by Hedwig and then Taylor, moved briskly across the exposed yard. The night air smelled of distant pines and approaching rain. The Sierra Blanca Mountains stood silent and silver beneath the scaffolding of clouds and stars.

  Man and dog were still silhouetted in the lighted doorway when they reached the road.

  Will closed the heavy wooden gate behind them, and they started, still single file, down the dirt road lined with the twisted, tortured
forms of Joshua trees. They’d parked the rental car about a mile from the house. It felt like the middle of nowhere, nothing to see but sagebrush and cactus. Lightning flashed overhead like a failing light behind a lavender veil. Thunder boomed and rolled away into the forest-covered mountains.

  Beautiful if you liked that kind of thing. Taylor didn’t particularly. He was a city boy through and through.

  Fortunately it wasn’t cold. In fact, despite the threat of rain, it was unseasonably warm for this time of year in the Lincoln National Forest.

  The girl, Kelila — no, better to think of her as Hedwig — was breathing fast as they hurried her along the deeply rutted road. Were they pushing her too hard? Speaking for himself, Taylor felt they couldn’t get to the car a minute too soon. The vast panorama of the desert, however majestic, made him feel too exposed. Vulnerable.

  He was relieved to spot the gleam of the car roof a few yards ahead.

  The moon had been out when they’d parked earlier that evening. Now it was too dark to see past the brush and cactus. Still, everything seemed undisturbed.

  Several feet from the car, Will swore and stopped in his tracks.

  Taylor tensed, his hand automatically rising toward his shoulder holster. “What’s wrong?”

  “We’ve got a flat.”

  Taylor moved past the girl. Sure enough, the right side of the sedan slumped to the side. The front tire was completely flat.

  “Hell.” He quickly scanned the surrounding landscape. Between the razor-sharp rocks dotting the sand and the wickedly spiked cactus, a flat wasn’t impossible, but his disquiet ratcheted up another notch.

  Will gave voice to his own thought. “This just keeps getting better and better.”

  Hedwig laughed, the sound startling in the still night.

  Taylor rounded on her. “Why don’t we have you change it?”

  Will made a faint sound. Something between calming and disapproving.

  They returned to studying the tire as though there might be some trick of the light. “Rock, paper, scissors?” suggested Taylor.