WILDER DAYS Read online

  This he didn’t need. “Maybe they’ve known I was undercover for a while,” he said, trying to turn his mind to the business at hand, “and have been stringing me along while they looked into my background. There’s always a way in, if you look hard and long enough.” He didn’t think Tripp and Holly were that bright, or that patient, but knowing that someone else was behind this operation changed everything.

  How the hell had they found Vic? He didn’t go undercover using his own name. Which meant that someone had made him and held their cool while they conducted a thorough investigation. The search for personal information would not be easy; it must have taken a bit of time. Someone had traced Del’s background, ended up in Huntsville, and found Vic. Through someone they’d gone to school with? Someone she’d confided in? There were too damn many questions at this point.

  One question niggled at his brain more than the others. What if the man behind this mess was someone who knew him much better than Tripp and Holly ever had or could? Someone who’d known right where to look?

  “Holly’s hurt, so we’re going to check out some of the people she hangs with.” For all they knew, Holly was as dead as Tripp. She wouldn’t have taken her husband’s execution-style death well, no matter how badly hurt he’d been. He hoped she wasn’t dead. She was all they had.

  “Don’t they know you?”

  “Not well. I met Kirby once, but it was quick and there were several other people around. I’m hoping with the haircut and change of clothes...” He shrugged.

  “You do look different.” Out of the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of her smile. “Why, you’re almost respectable.”

  “Trust me,” he said, “it’s all an act.”

  He took his exit, left the interstate too fast and quickly found his way to the downtown street where Holly and Tripp had spent a lot of their time in the past few years. There were two bars they’d frequented, and a rented room over a pool hall.

  They were headed for the pool hall. Kirby would know where Holly was, if anyone did.

  Del parked on the street and turned to Vic. “Holly has a sister who lives in Tennessee. She mentioned her once, said her name was Cindy and that she was a real stuck-up, pain-in-the-ass, straight-laced do-gooder.” He smiled. “For the next half hour or so, you’re Cindy. Think you can follow instructions?”

  “Of course,” she said tightly.

  Del shook his head. What the hell was he doing? “Here we go.”

  Kirby was a small man, a couple of inches taller than Vic and weighing no more than a hundred and thirty pounds. But he was also tough, lean and dead-eyed. Flinty. Vic shivered as she looked at him over the long, empty bar. He was not a nice guy.

  It was still too early in the day for the pool hall to be crowded, but Kirby’s was open, and three men played at the table in the back of the room, drinking beer and smoking, laughing and casting no more than a single glance at the couple who surely did not belong in this rough place.

  “I don’t know anyone named Holly,” the owner of the seedy place said in an emotionless voice.

  If she was alone, Vic was certain she’d back out of here without speaking another word. She didn’t mind arguing with Del, but this guy? Thankfully Del was behind her to lend emotional as well as substantial support. One of his guns was tucked at his spine beneath a lightweight windbreaker.

  “Don’t give me that,” she said to Kirby, in a tone of voice she normally reserved for Noelle’s worst days. “Holly called me, and I could tell by the sound of her voice that something was very, very wrong. We drove down as quickly as we could.”

  Kirby laid his black eyes on Del, who had remained quiet to this point. “Who’s he?”

  “My...”

  “Boyfriend,” Del said, his voice deep and even. “Kyle.”

  The man behind the bar narrowed one eye as he glared at Cindy. “I thought you were married,” he said.

  “Well...”

  “What she does in her spare time is none of your business,” Del said impatiently. “Can we just find this sister and make sure she’s okay before we blow the entire day?”

  Vic turned to face Del, glad of the opportunity to take her eyes off Kirby for a moment. “Do you mind?” she asked testily. “This is important.”

  “Your sister’s probably fine,” he said. “Let’s have a drink or something. She’ll call again if she needs anything.”

  “She wouldn’t have called in the first place if she wasn’t in trouble!”

  “Look, if she’s not here, she’s not here.” He shrugged, seemingly unconcerned. “We gave it a shot.”

  “I’m not satisfied.”

  Del gave her a big grin and winked. “You will be, if we get out of here asap.”

  He was playing a role; even his facial expressions were different! He looked so relaxed, so much like the man he was pretending to be. “Can’t you be a little bit patient while I check on my sister?”

  “If I have to.”

  “You’re impossible,” she said softly.

  “And you’re stubborn as all get-out.”

  “Okay, okay,” Kirby called. Obviously he’d had enough.

  Vic turned to face Kirby and found him smiling at her. “Holly said you were a real stick-in-the-mud. Guess there are things about you that she doesn’t know. You’re more like her than I suspected.”

  She gave him her most indignant glare. “My personal life is none of your business, and for your information my sister and I are nothing alike.”

  “Can you just tell her where to find Holly so we can get out of here?” Del asked. “Please?”

  Vic gave him a cutting glance. Heaven above, what had she gotten herself into?

  Kirby hesitated, but he finally grabbed a matchbook and a pen and scribbled something on the inside cover. “Call this number,” he said as he handed the matchbook to Vic. “If Holly wants to see you, she’ll tell you where she is.”

  “Thank you,” she said, taking the offered matchbook and being careful not to touch Kirby’s fingers. The man was definitely smarmy.

  “Yeah, thanks,” Del said, taking Vic’s arm and almost dragging her toward the door. “You can use my cell to make the call. When she tells you everything is okay, then we can get down to business.”

  “Forget it, Kyle,” she said, sounding more than a little irritable. “I’m not in the mood.”

  As he opened the door, he slapped her on the butt. “You don’t mean that, darlin’.”

  They stepped onto the cracked sidewalk and the door closed behind them. The windowless pool hall was finally behind them, and Vic sighed in relief. Her knees didn’t buckle, but they did go weak.

  Del’s smile died and he lifted his hand high, two fingers held up in a kind of victory sign.

  Vic looked around her but saw nothing. “What are you doing?”

  “Giving Shock the high sign. Two fingers means shut down the phone lines so Kirby can’t call out.”

  “What if he has a cell phone?”

  Del took her arm and led her toward the car. “By the time he realizes the phone doesn’t work and goes for his cell, he will no longer be alone.”

  Vic saw them approaching then, teams of two from each end of the street, Shock and another man walking toward them from the south, two other men coming from the opposite direction.

  “Oh,” she said as Del ushered her into the passenger seat. “Aren’t you going in with them?”

  “Nope,” Del said as he slammed her door. When he slipped into the driver’s seat and started the engine, he looked directly at her. No more teasing. No more Kyle. “I’m getting you out of here.”

  As Shock opened the front door to Kirby’s, Del pulled the car onto the street.

  Vic took a deep breath that calmed her, but not by much. “Why did you claim to be Cindy’s boyfriend, Kyle? Why not just claim to be the husband? You said this Cindy was a do-gooder, right? Wasn’t it risky to claim to be a...” The word lover stuck in her throat. “Boyfriend?”

>   “Embarrassed?”

  “Of course not.” Being embarrassed was the least of her problems at the moment.

  “No rings,” Del said.

  “What?”

  “Neither of us is wearing a wedding ring. Kirby had already checked out our hands. I saw him. He wouldn’t have bought the supportive-husband bit.”

  “Oh. I didn’t notice him checking out our hands.’’

  “Yep.”

  “So if you’d said we were married, he would have known we were lying, and...”

  “And people would be shooting at us again.”

  She was going to have to learn to trust Del, at least where his job was concerned. Trust wasn’t something she found easily these days. “Now what?”

  “Now nothing. Your part here is done. Shock will call when they get out of Kirby’s, we give him the phone number Kirby gave you and then we wait.”

  “Wouldn’t you rather be—” her heart hitched and her mouth went dry “—helping Shock?”

  “Yes,” he said without hesitation.

  When Del’s cell phone rang, she almost jumped out of her seat. When he reached out his hand for the matchbook, she handed it to him, placing it on that offered palm.

  He was right—she would only get in the way. She wasn’t cut out for this.

  Del’s conversation with Shock was short and to the point. When he ended the call and placed the cell phone on the console, Vic took a deep breath. For courage. “Maybe you were right last night.”

  “I’m sure I was. About what?”

  “Me getting in the way.”

  He glanced at her, all too briefly. “You did fine.”

  “Yeah, but there’s no reason why you can’t find a place to stash me for a few days. You mentioned a friend. Someone I could stay with?”

  “No,” he answered, low and short.

  “But you said…”

  “That just would’ve been for a few hours. I dragged you into this, Vic. I’m not leaving you until it’s over.”

  That declaration should have terrified her, but instead she was uncommonly relieved.

  Chapter 9

  Vic didn’t ask where they were going. She probably expected another cheap motel, something miles off the interstate. A ratty hideaway. Something dim and uninviting. But she didn’t ask, and she didn’t complain.

  Maybe she didn’t ask because she thought silence was best. There was too much unfinished between them, good and bad. She stared out the window, mile after mile. The scenery didn’t change. Where was her mind?

  When Del was able to think rationally, he realized he couldn’t blame her for doing whatever she needed to in order to protect Noelle. In fact, he should thank her, even now, when her idea of protecting the kid was to keep Noelle away from her own father and the danger and heartbreak he might bring. He should be able to understand that.

  But when he looked at Vic he didn’t always think rationally. He thought with his gut, the emotions he usually controlled without a hitch.

  Even if he could convince himself that she had good reason for not telling him about Noelle now, when she was afraid criminals like Tripp and Holly might find and use that information, he couldn’t make himself forgive her for not telling him about the baby all those years ago. She could have looked for him when she found out she was pregnant. She could have told him that he was going to be a father, even if the idea of making him a part of her life was repugnant and unthinkable.

  A father. The very idea made him shudder. He hadn’t known his own father, and none of the men his mother took in from time to time had ever been what anyone would call a fitting father figure. When she’d met Eugene Kelsey, a good man who’d loved her the way she deserved to be loved, Del had been grown and long past needing a man to play daddy.

  But what about Noelle? Did she need him now? Or was she long past needing a father?

  He’d heard the need in Noelle’s voice when she’d called Preston. It wasn’t too late.

  They’d been driving for an hour and a half, and Vic had been completely quiet for the past hour. Just as well. Had she so much as turned her eyes his way? Probably not. But suddenly she seemed to realize where they were heading.

  She turned her head slowly. “Are you taking me home?”

  “Yep.”

  Home should be safe, it should be a haven. Tripp and Holly had robbed Vic of that security. She paled a little, her hands clenched into fists.

  “Is it safe?”

  “Shock had the place checked thoroughly late last night, and someone has been watching the place since then. Nothing going on there. It’s all clear.” He caught and held her wide-eyed stare. “We won’t stay there long. I have some things in the Jag I want to get, and I’m sure you’d like to pack a bag of your own stuff.”

  “Yeah,” she whispered.

  “If the lab team is finished at the cabin, Shock should be able to drop off the things we left behind at some point.”

  “Noelle’s things, too, I imagine,” she said softly.

  “Yep. Maybe I can get Shock to make a run out to my mom’s, drop off Noelle’s things and check on the two of them.”

  Vic nodded.

  Noelle was a delicate subject at the moment. Time to move on. “We should know soon if they managed to round up Holly.” He’d feel better once that was done, even though he now knew she was not working alone. Without Tripp, Holly was bound to be unpredictable. Tripp had never been overly bright, but he’d always been steadier than Holly. He was the one who kept her from flying off the handle, from acting irrationally and then regretting it later. Without Tripp, Holly was a much more dangerous opponent.

  When they pulled onto Vic’s street, Del spotted the car that had been posted at the curb as lookout, and lifted his hand to signal the local cop who sat in the driver’s seat. The guy looked bored. Of course he was bored. Stakeout was the most tedious duty imaginable, and this wasn’t even a local case. Shock had called in a few favors to get this kind of cooperation.

  Del escorted Vic into the house, looked over the place upstairs and down, then left her in the kitchen while he went to talk to the cop at the curb.

  “Anything?” Del asked as he approached the car.

  “Not even a Girl Scout or a Jehovah’s Witness to break the monotony,” the cop said with a yawn.

  “Del Wilder, DEA.” Del offered his hand as the cop left his car.

  “John Bohannon, HPD, burglary.”

  They shook hands, each commented on the tedium of a stakeout, then Del dismissed the investigator with his thanks. As Bohannon drove away, Del headed back for the house. He and Vic would be in and out, an hour at the most, and they wouldn’t be back until this was over. There was no need for a continuing stakeout.

  His cell phone rang as he reached the porch. “Wilder,” he said as he entered the house and closed the door behind him.

  “She’s gone,” Shock said sharply. “We didn’t miss her by more than half an hour, I swear.”

  “She knew you were coming?”

  “Maybe. Maybe not. We got to Kirby before he could’ve made the call, but there were other people around, three guys playing pool. Someone might have realized what was going on and warned her, but I don’t think so. We had the place locked down quick, and I didn’t find a cell phone on any of the pool players. I think it was just bad luck.”

  “Bad luck?”

  “It’s been a bad week, man. Let’s face it. We ain’t got the ol’ mojo on this case.”

  That was putting it mildly. “What did you find at her place?”

  “She’s hurt and trying to doctor herself. Judging by the amount of blood we found in the room where she was hiding out, she’s hurt pretty bad.”

  One wild shot in the dark as he’d rolled off the porch and still he’d hit her. Too bad Holly hadn’t gone down then and there.

  “Where are you?” Shock asked.

  “Vic’s.”

  “Get out of there, man. Now. Holly knows that place. If she’s mad enou
gh and not thinking straight, that might be where she’s headed. If she’s mobile, she’s coming your way.”

  “Give me five minutes and we’re out of here,” Del said. “I’ll call you later.” With that he disconnected, swore beneath his breath and headed for the kitchen. All was quiet here, there was no sign of Vic. He went back the way he had come and climbed the stairs, taking them two at a time.

  “Vic!” he called. “Let’s go!” Her bedroom door stood open, and he stopped there in the doorway. She sat on the edge of the bed, head down, suitcase sitting open on the bed, empty. “Hurry up,” he said, his voice lower and calmer. “They didn’t get Holly. We’ve got to get out of here now.”

  Vic lifted her head and laid her eyes on him, fearless, determined. “No,” she said softly.

  “No?” Del stepped inside the room. “The odds are, Holly will come here first thing, looking for you. Let’s go.” He reached out and took her arm.

  “Maybe we should let her come,” Vic said, her voice remaining calm. She tilted her head back to look him in the eye. “This might never be over, if we keep running and she keeps chasing and I want it to be over.”

  Of course she did. When this was over, she could send him away. “Vic, that’s not smart.” He tried to reason with her, but from the strangely serene expression on her face, none of it sunk in. God, the woman was stubborn!

  “With Noelle out of the house and safe, maybe we should think about just—” she took a deep breath and exhaled slowly “—staying here. Waiting. This cat-and-mouse thing could go on forever, and...” She went pale, her already colorless face going almost white. “We need to end this once and for all. Noelle won’t be safe as long as Holly is out there. I can’t live with that.”

  “You’re talking about making yourself bait,” Del said sharply. “Do you really want to sit here and wait for Holly and God knows who else to show up and try to kill us again?”