To Take Up the Sword Read online

  “Where’s yours?”

  He pointed to the nightstand.

  “Okay.” She took it and tested its weight.

  He tried to ignore how sexy she looked handling his gun.

  “Do you know how to use it?”

  “Please. I grew up down here. Used to deer hunt with my dad on the weekends. Serena, too. I hope I won’t have to use it.”

  Lea folded the blanket to make a pallet on the floor. She walked to the front door, flipped off the light switch and using her cellphone as a flashlight, settled onto her makeshift bed.

  “Suit yourself.” Gabe called back to her and tossed her a pillow off the bed.

  “I will. Sleep well.”

  “You’re just as stubborn as Serena. So are you seeing anyone?”

  “No.”

  “Good. I hate competition. Sleep well, Leannan.”

  “L-E-A, Lea. So, are you?”

  “I’d never have kissed you if I were in a relationship with someone. It goes against my code.”

  “Serena was the exception to the rule?”

  “She wanted to be.”

  * * * *

  His laughter carried through the air between them. The sound of it caressed her skin, sending a shiver through her that had nothing to do with the chill in the room. She twisted and turned, trying to get comfortable on the hard motel floor, which was definitely made of concrete. I am an idiot.

  She barely knew him, but she was certain he wouldn’t hurt her or force himself on her. Though he’d probably try very hard to convince her she wanted him. The truth was she did. The bed and the man lying in it called to her enticingly What was stopping her really? Fear? His obvious previous liaison with her sister? Probably. She’d never been known for her adventurous nature, unlike her older sister. Lea punched and puffed up the motel grade pillow and tried to get comfortable. Finally she wadded her jacket, stuffed it between her shoulder and the pillow and nodded off.

  Lea didn’t know how long she slept, but she woke with an uneasiness. Someone was in the room with her. She stopped short of calling out. It could be Gabe. She wrapped her hand around the gun he’d lent her and prayed there wouldn’t be a time she’d have to actually use it.

  Lea. They’re almost here. Wake Gabriel. Get out. Hurry. You don’t have much time.

  Serena’s voice again. Maybe the stress had knocked her off her rocker, but the air in the room felt heavy and odd. “Sissy?” Lea whispered. A hint of jasmine perfumed the room. The scent had been Serena’s favorite.

  Yes! You’re wasting time. They’re at the front desk. Hurry! Do you want to die?

  Lea scrambled up and pulled on her jacket. Gabe had shed his shirt and shoes and slept deeply on top of the coverlet. “Gabe! Wake up!” She touched his bare shoulder and shook him.

  He came awake, instantly alert.

  “What is it?”

  “We have to leave. Hurry, they’re outside.” She grabbed the huge purse she habitually carried, and handed him his shirt.

  He ignored it.

  “Can’t you hear them?”

  “I don’t hear anything.” Gabe’s voice was flat and wary, giving Lea a hint of his training and focus.

  “I can’t explain how I know, but they found us.” She wasn’t quite ready to give up the fact her dead sister may or may not be actually speaking to her from the grave.

  The crunch of gravel under tires was a sonic boom inside her head.

  * * * *

  He thought for a moment she’d changed her mind and come to him, but the terror in her voice was real. He believed her. How could she have known? Was she a psychic? “Get the blanket and pillow off the floor.” Gabe paused only to see that she obeyed his request, then slipped on his shoes and began shaping the pillows and blankets under the covers until they looked like two sleeping forms in the dark. He heard gravel crack under tires outside the door.

  “In the bathroom, now, and keep quiet.” Damn. She was right. He fought back the weariness, tried to focus on the task at hand. He’d have to kill those men if he and Lea were to have any chance of escape.

  “We have to run. Gabe, please,” Lea begged. Her hand was cold and clammy in his. More than fear, there was something in her touch he didn’t recognize, a sort of odd familiarity.

  “There isn’t time. Trust me.” He pushed her behind him. The night exploded with the sound of the front motel room door being kicked in. One man riddled the bed with a hailstorm of bullets, his target the two sleeping bodies in the bed. Gabe peeked through the open bathroom door. The assailant yanked the sheets off the bed.

  “Damn, he knows. Stay here,” Gabe whispered to Lea and slipped into the bedroom. The butt of his pistol warmed with his grip. He pointed it and fired three shots into the darkness.

  * * * *

  Lea heard four gunshots and silence. What if he’d been hit? What would she do? Should she try to turn the diamonds in herself? Soft footfalls on the carpeting in the bedroom came closer to her. Were they Gabe’s or a killer’s? She covered her mouth with one hand to stifle the scream lodged in her throat. Oh God. Oh God. Her hand tightening on Gabe’s clutch piece, she strained to see through the dark. In the near darkness she saw Gabe standing in the open front doorway, his arm raised and sweeping from one side to the other, obviously searching for another attacker. A form lay on the floor at his feet. Lea watched him bend to check the man’s pulse. A shadow moved across the floor. Remembering the back door of the room, Lea was certain Gabe had secured it. The shadow of a man moved across the floor and pointed a gun in the direction of Gabe’s bent head. Lea heard the resounding click of a hammer being cocked and something ticking. There was only one choice. She squeezed the trigger.

  Chapter 5

  The pop of his clutch piece made Gabe cringe, knowing for all his agent training, he’d only been saved by Lea’s aim and southern upbringing. A body fell beside him with a sickening thud. He’d had only a second to turn when he heard the click of the man’s gun. Not enough time to turn and fire to save himself. He didn’t have to check to know the man was dead, and didn’t dare flip on the light to check faces and confirm these were the men after Lea. If there were others, a light would give away his position in the room. From the dim moonlight, he could barely see Lea standing in the dark bathroom doorway. Something hung from her hand. His gun? “Lea?” He walked to her and took the gun from her limp fingers before she could shoot herself in the foot with it. However accomplished a hunter she might have been at one time, shooting a deer and putting lead into another person were worlds apart. Even a mentally strong person could go into shock when faced with the reality of human death.

  “Is he dead? Did I kill him? He was going to kill you, Gabe. Can’t let you die. Can’t. I killed a man in front of an FBI agent. God.” She babbled and shook violently. Her voice was thick with tears.

  “Yes. We have to go.”

  Lea stood rooted to the tile floor of the bathroom. She’d looped her huge bag over her head and across her chest to free her hands.

  “Tick, tick, tick… There’s a bomb. Serena told me so.”

  Gabe could hear it now, too. A soft ticking sound coming from the kitchenette area in the back of the room. “Sorry about this, but there’s no time.” Gabe grabbed Lea around the waist and flipped her up over his shoulder in a fireman’s carry, ran out of the room and across the parking lot, to the night man’s desk enclosure. A peek through the glass told him the watchman was dead. Blood spattered all over the glass windows and floor.

  “Hell. These people are crazy!”

  “Dead. Serena said he was dead.” Lea mumbled, her voice muffled by his back.

  Waves of heat and sound crashed into them as room thirty-four exploded into a massive fireball, taking the Jeep and surrounding rooms and storage building with it. Lea screamed with such misery he thought she may have been injured, but he would have to find a way to get them both out of here before the rest of the building went up in flames. There would be a firewall between each of t
he rooms and that would give them a couple of minutes if they were lucky, maybe.

  Parked behind the office that held the night man’s desk sat an old beat-up Chevy truck, probably a seventyish model. He considered it commandeering a vehicle when he eased Lea into the cab and turned the key that had been left in the ignition switch. Thank God for small favors. He hated hot-wiring vehicles.

  The engine roared to life and with it Gabe left his old self behind. Firemen would find the attendant and two assailants, and after they ran the tag, if it was still recognizable, would assume he had died in the explosion. It would take time to obtain dental records and make a positive identification. By that time he and Lea would be so far gone, no one would ever find them.

  * * * *

  Ashton Smythe watched the evening news from his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee with a growing sense of anger. Outside the burning mass of timber and concrete that had once been a seedy motel off the interstate were the almost unrecognizable forms of a black midsize sedan and the agent’s yellow Jeep.

  Damn Gabriel Spiller straight to the devil’s own flaming hell. He’d stolen a year of his life. A year spent locked behind bars in a maximum security facility with rapists, thugs and thieves. He would make the bastard pay. Leannan O’Neil was another matter. He wasn’t entirely sure what she knew, or if she’d found the diamonds, but they weren’t in her house when his men had torn it apart.

  He had to get those stones back.

  The newscaster’s voice caught his attention. “At this time, four bodies have been found among the rubble of the still smoldering Sunshine Motel. One is believed to be Sam Crowe, attendant of the establishment. Dental records will be used to identify the other three. The whereabouts of the green 1976 model Chevrolet truck habitually driven by Mr. Crowe is still unknown at this time.” The blonde reporter ran up to a cop. “Officer, can you give us a statement? Was the fire electrical or do you suspect arson? Can you explain the disappearance of the attendant’s vehicle?”

  “The fire is under investigation, but otherwise we have no comment at this time.” She was cut off and the camera panned back over the smoldering ruins of the motel. Missing truck? Someone made it out alive, but who? His men were dead. It was the only reason their SUV was still parked in front of the last room. It would have been too much of a risk to leave it. Spiller and possibly O’Neil were alive. Obviously, they had escaped in the stolen vehicle. He just had to find them.

  He picked up his cellphone and made a call to his contact in the Department of Motor Vehicles.

  * * * *

  Lea stared straight ahead into the dark, tears rolling down her cheeks. No matter what he said to her, Gabe could get no reaction except tears. Lea was going into shock. She needed warmth, food, and rest, possibly medical attention, but nothing was going to change the fact she had taken a life. Gabe could only assume in her world there was no way to justify that sin. Not unless it was to save someone she loved, and she didn’t love him. Oh, she was definitely attracted to him, but love was another story.

  Gabe pounded the dashboard again in an effort to get the heat in the old truck working, but it continued to blow out cold air. He finally just gave up on it, wishing for the jacket he’d left behind in the Jeep now destroyed outside the motel. At least he’d had the sense to keep the diamonds in his jeans pocket, or those would have been lost as well. Lea’s coat wasn’t much better. Only a thin windbreaker, it provided little respite from the cold. Their possessions were limited to the clothes on their back, whatever surprises the truck held–which appeared to be nothing from the inside of the cab–and the contents of Lea’s huge bag.

  “Leannan.”

  She looked over at him, her expression a mask of despair.

  “Come here next to me. The heater isn’t working. We’ll both be warmer. Come on, baby.” He patted the seat next to him. Lea scooted across the bench seat until she sat next to him. Burrowing into his side, she rested her head against his chest. Gabe wrapped his free arm around her shoulders and held her close while her tears soaked his shirt.

  “I’m tired of running. I didn’t want to kill him.”

  Gabe ran his fingers down the length of her hair as he’d longed to do since that first kiss in the cabin. “I know, baby. We’re just about done running. I’m going to take you somewhere safe. Trust me.”

  Lea shivered under his arm. “I do, Gabe.”

  “Sleep. It will be about another half an hour before we get there. Are you hungry?”

  “I guess. Where are we going?”

  “Waynesboro, Tennessee. There’s a safe house there. Mac–that’s my partner–is going to meet us and take the diamonds back to Washington.” Then she’d go back to her life, her students, rebuild her home and forget about him. Something fierce roared to the surface of his heart. I don’t want to lose Lea. I can’t. She’s something special. Something Serena could never have been.

  “I want to go home, but I can’t. I don’t have anything left.”

  “You have me, Leannan.”

  Gabe passed the Welcome sign for Waynesboro, took note of the high school on the right as he passed by and headed into the old square layout of the town, turned left twice past the shops in the storefronts and pulled into a space outside a restaurant on the corner of the four main shopping buildings that ran each face of the square. In the dawn light it was easy to recognize the bright green awnings that decorated the outside of Emerald’s Restaurant. “Come on. Let’s get some breakfast.”

  * * * *

  Lea snuggled into Gabe’s shoulder when he helped her out of the truck and wrapped his arm around her. She caught a glimpse of herself in the early morning sunlight bouncing off the truck window. She looked as bad as she felt. They made an odd-looking pair, the angel with soot streaked hair and the small, plain, red-haired woman with puffy eyes.

  He opened the door for her and she stepped into the warmth. For some reason, it made her shake all the harder. Gabe took a booth seat in the back of the restaurant, probably so he could watch the parking lot and front door. Lea slid in next to him as a waitress came to take their order.

  “What can I get you, honey?” The pretty woman winked at Gabriel and smiled a friendly smile at Lea, diplomatically avoiding questions about their appearance.

  “Give us just a minute, but bring coffee for both of us while we decide, please.”

  She left to get their drinks.

  “What do you think you’d like?”

  She didn’t know. Didn’t care if she ate or not, but figured it would make him happy if she did, so she said “Just order a breakfast plate with bacon and scrambled eggs, I guess. I have to wash my hands.” Lea slid out of the booth and went in search of the bathroom.

  The restaurant was decorated with dark-toned wood and really played up the name with emerald colored fixtures and material. As she closed the bathroom door, she noticed even the toilet seat was padded green plastic. She turned the faucet as hot as she could stand it and bathed her arms, face and neck with green foamy soap. God, she wanted a hot shower. Maybe then she could scrub the filth of what she’d done away. But she couldn’t wash away the sound of Gabriel’s gun going off, of slug hitting flesh, of her own maniacal words as she tried to warn him about the bomb Serena had told her about.

  She wasn’t psychic, but suddenly her dead sister was talking to her inside her mind, giving warnings that so far had kept them alive. And what about Gabe? Why did she feel so close to him? Was it her sister’s ghostly influence? Or more?

  Chapter 6

  Trees in full autumn color glistened with jewel-toned radiance, letting only flashes of sunlight blink past Gabe’s eyes. The old truck groaned and bounced along another six miles, past acres of farmland with grazing black-and-white cows and bright red barns, until he came to a long gravel driveway and turned onto the road.

  The place hadn’t changed much on the outside since he’d last stayed there. An old farmhouse, it was white, two stories, with green shutters framing the windows. The
large front porch held a swing and just enough decoration to keep it from looking suspicious, while half of the front porch was screened in and wrapped around to the back of the house. Gabe parked in the back and shut off the engine.

  He didn’t see any sign of Mac or that he’d been here recently, but then again Mac tended to disappear without a trace when he wanted, a trait that made him a great field agent but drove his superiors crazy.

  He cringed when Lea stuck her head out the window for a better look.

  “It’s a pretty house, sort of a lazy, laid-back style. We lived in an apartment when I was a kid, but I used to dream about living out in the country.”

  “I thought your dad took you hunting? Didn’t you live in a rural area?”

  “He was a member of a hunting club about twenty minutes away from town. When he could get away from work, we’d take every chance to fish, hunt and just enjoy the outdoors.”

  “I’m going to get the key. I don’t think anybody knows where this place is, but get down on the floorboard just in case. I don’t want anyone to see you.”

  “Okay.”

  Gabe shut the truck door as quietly as possible, just in case someone had beaten them there. Scanning the tree line, he saw nothing out of place and ran to the little metal bridge where the key had been hidden. A few moments later, he unlocked the back door and walked into the kitchen of the old farmhouse. It was warm in spite of sitting empty. The house thermostat had been set to keep it a comfortable seventy degrees year round.

  He checked the pantry and found it stocked with non-perishables, soups and other canned foods. The fridge was empty, but the freezer was full of quick stuff. Okay, so they’d be able to hole up here for a little while.

  * * * *

  Lea saw Gabe wave from the back door. She grabbed her bag and climbed out of the truck, running the few feet to the house. The screen door slammed behind her as she walked up to the kitchen door.

  Gabe took her hand and pulled her inside.

  “Is it safe?”