Bounty Hunter Honor

The Forest Ridge Mall had three levels. The food court was on the bottom; the other two levels looked down upon it. Rex had guessed that Peter had chosen this location so he or a coconspirator could observe from a high perch. Rex scanned the people near the railings above him.

“There,” said Gavin, pointing with his eyes. “Two o’clock to you. A blond guy in a black shirt, talking on a cell phone. His body language says he’s angry.”

Rex saw him. He could have been Peter Danilov, but Nadia had only been able to provide a grainy, outdated photo of her ex-husband. He had apparently taken all photos with him when they’d divorced, anticipating something like this. Lori was currently tracking down other photos—his employee ID picture, from when he’d worked at JanCo as a low-level lab tech, or his mug shot from when he’d been arrested for assaulting Nadia. But they hadn’t arrived yet.

“Let’s go,” Rex said. Their plan was to follow a suspect, if they found one, which was one of the reasons Rex had brought Gavin with him. Two people could tail someone easier than one could, and with less chance of being spotted.

He didn’t like leaving Nadia unprotected, but she’d been instructed to remain exactly where she was until she received a prearranged signal from him or someone on the team to return to her car.

As Rex and Gavin rode the escalator up to the second level where their suspect was, Rex spoke into his walkie-talkie headset, which resembled a cell phone accessory. “Beau, you copy?”

“I’m here.”

“Any action around the car?”

“Nope.”

Rex tamped down his irritation at Beau’s less-than-military lingo on the walkie-talkie. Beau was an ex-cop, the emphasis being on ex. He didn’t care for anything that smacked of rules and regulations, including radio codes. But no one could argue with Beau’s results. He got the job done, and Rex couldn’t think of anyone he’d rather have at his back.

“We’ve made a visual ID of a suspect. I’ll need your help tailing him once he exits the mall. Blond guy in a black T-shirt, about six feet, one-eighty pounds—”

“Hold on,” Gavin interrupted.

As they reached the second level, their suspect turned around and smiled as a redheaded girl about ten years old approached him. They hugged, and Rex could see the relief evident in his face. “I told you to wait for me at the bookstore,” he scolded. “You scared me to death.”

Gavin and Rex looked at each other. No wonder the man had been agitated on the phone—he’d lost his daughter. They could also both see, now that they’d gotten a good look at the man, that he was closer to fifty than forty—way too old to be Peter.

“Hell,” Rex muttered. He spoke into the walkie-talkie again. “Cancel the previous. Wrong guy.”

Rex headed for the down escalator, which descended through a forest of carefully sculpted trees still sporting their Christmas lights, though it was January. He peered through the trees, searching for Nadia’s red jacket, feeling inexplicably anxious about having left her vulnerable, even for a couple of minutes.

Moments later, he realized his anxiety was perfectly well placed. Nadia was gone.

“Where’d she go?” Gavin asked, sounding as bewildered as Rex felt.

“Damn it!” He scanned the crowd for any sign of a red shirt and a curly mop of black hair.

“Maybe she went to the bathroom,” Gavin said uncertainly.

“She wouldn’t. I made myself pretty clear, didn’t I? That she wasn’t to move from that table? If she did, she must have had a good reason.”

“You hardly know her,” Gavin argued. “For her, maybe a call of nature is a good reason.”

But Rex felt he did know her. Technically they’d met only four hours ago. But he’d seen that haunted look in the eyes of other women, other mothers who feared they would never see their children again. He might not know exactly how Nadia felt, but he understood how a woman in her situation thought. And she wouldn’t take an unnecessary risk.

Had she been lured here for a kidnapping? But if that had been her ex-husband’s goal, why stage it here in a crowd? Why not a more remote location?

“Hey, is that her?” Gavin asked, pointing to a speck of red far down the mall concourse.

Rex pulled a tiny pair of binoculars from his jacket and peered toward the retreating woman who walked side by side with a dark-haired man. He couldn’t see her face, but he could tell by her walk that it was Nadia. As a sniper, he’d learned to identify people from a distance. Now it was second nature to catalog the way people walked, how they moved their hands when they talked, how they cocked their heads, how their hips swayed with— He pulled his mind back to the present.

“It’s her,” he confirmed. “Let’s move.”

They hurried down the concourse, breaking into a sprint as Nadia and her companion neared the entrance of a department store. The shoppers they breezed past gave them strange stares.

“Beau, you read?” Rex said into the walkie-talkie.

“Ten-four, good buddy.”

“Change of plans. Nadia is heading into JCPenney with an unknown person. Male, six feet, one-seventy, dark hair.”

“Dark hair?”

“Be ready to take over pursuit if they exit the store. Under no circumstances are you to allow Nadia to enter this guy’s vehicle.”

“IS SHE EATING?” Nadia asked, hurrying to keep up with Peter as he strode toward JCPenney. Her heart pounded and her skin was awash in goose bumps, and she had to resist the urge to look behind her to see if Rex was following.

She had disobeyed one of Rex’s direct orders. She wasn’t supposed to have moved from her table at the food court until he gave her the signal. But Rex and Gavin had both disappeared, and then there was Peter, his blond hair dyed brown, whispering in her ear the most seductive of songs: “You win. Come with me, and I’ll let you see Lily.”

She hadn’t seen him coming. Peter always did have the ability to move quickly and silently, like a cat. When he’d told her that her baby was close by, her body had moved almost of its own accord, her mother’s instincts craving contact with her offspring.

Her Nana Tania had always emphasized the need for flexibility when it came to matters of intrigue. Peter suddenly appearing in person was an unforeseen event, she reasoned. Rex would approve of her impromptu response, she was almost sure. This might be their best chance of recovering Lily. Rex would follow, and he would have help from Beau and Gavin.

Provided Rex had seen her leave with Peter. Oh, God, what if he hadn’t? She wasn’t in danger, though, really, was she? In this public place, what could he do? He hadn’t pulled a gun, hadn’t shown her any sign of force at all. He’d merely told her that his girlfriend was with Lily in another part of the mall, and this would be Nadia’s one and only chance to see her daughter until after the Petro-Nano was delivered.

Peter set a zigzagging course through the department store, pausing often to see if anyone was following.

“I’m here alone,” Nadia said, certain Rex wouldn’t reveal his presence.

“You double-crossed me once,” Peter said. “You’d do it again in a heartbeat if you thought you could get away with it.” He paused long enough to look her in the eye in a way that made her shrivel inside. For a moment, all she could think about was the feel of his fist making contact with her face, the sickening thud-crunch, the explosion of pain and the keening scream that had sounded strange and alien, but which had come from her own throat. And she knew he would make her suffer for not meekly following his orders. If he knew she’d gotten help, if he knew she’d lied to him, his retribution would be that much worse.

Even if he had to exact it from a prison cell.

She shivered.

“All right. Come on. Lily is in my car with Denise.”

Nadia hadn’t counted on Peter taking her outside. She was afraid of what he might do in the relative isolation of the parking lot. But surely Rex and his buddies were watching.

As they exited the store into a cold, gray day, Nadia zipped up her inadequate windbreaker. The parking lot wasn’t all that isolated, she realized with some relief. It was a busy Saturday afternoon. People were coming and going.

Then she noticed a blond woman heading toward her, and she tensed. Lori, Rex’s sister. They’d left her back at the First Strike office doing computer searches. What was she doing here?

Lori was going to pass very close to them. But there was no reason to worry, Nadia thought. Peter wouldn’t recognize her.

“Nadia?”

Lori had stopped squarely in front of them. Panicking, Nadia looked blankly at Lori. Was she going to just give away the game right here in front of Peter? Or, she thought giddily, had the team already recovered Lily?