Found in Bliss

  He lifted one of the blinds, hoping Nate wasn’t storming the clinic. The sheriff of Bliss stood in the parking lot, his hands on a woman’s elbows, locking her arms into a pair of not-padded handcuffs. What the hell?

  Caleb strode out of the clinic, not bothering to put on his boots. He was happy he’d felt weird cleaning in the altogether, or Nate Wright might have been getting to see more of him than he wanted to. As it was, he’d only put on his jeans. He was sure he looked like a disheveled crazy as he jogged across the thin lawn toward the parking lot.

  “Nate, what the hell is going on?”

  Nate looked up, a frown on his face. “You know this woman?”

  He turned her around. She was a slender woman with brown, plainly cut hair. He searched for the name Alexei had given her. Jessie. She’d been with a dark-haired man. If he’d guessed, he would have bet they were a couple. “I met her a little bit ago. I think she said her name was Jessie.”

  She’d also been in Trio the night before. He’d noticed her. Her eyes had almost constantly been on Alexei, though she’d held hands with the man she’d sat with.

  “Yes, my name is Jessie Wilson, and I was with Alexei Markov.” The woman didn’t plead. She sounded pissed off. “It’s kind of my job. If you will just check the badge in my back pocket, we can clear this up.”

  Nate nodded and Cameron Briggs came up behind the suspect. He quickly pulled a wallet from the woman’s back pocket and opened it up.

  “It claims she’s Jessica Wilson, and she’s a US Marshal.”

  “Sheriff, the aliens know all the best forgers,” a familiar voice said.

  Caleb turned and suddenly Mel was standing beside him. The older man wore coveralls, a thermal shirt, and sneakers. He was never without his trucker hat. It was lined with heavy-duty tinfoil to keep the death rays away.

  “She’s an alien?” Caleb asked. It was a decent bet. Mel assumed most outsiders were aliens.

  “No idea. I don’t think so. She doesn’t have the look. And I didn’t see her wearing one of the amulets the Els wear. She could be an Anakim. You would know them better as Elders. You see, the Elders are actually about nine to eleven feet tall, but they wear these amulets that molecularly condense them down to regular size. I don’t see the amulet. And she’s neither reptilian nor one of the Grays. I think she’s a real, live human asshole.” He turned toward Caleb expectantly. “Although we should probably check her just in case. You could do an exam. Check for a prehensile tail.”

  “I am not checking anyone’s tail, Mel. She’s human.”

  “Hey!” Jessie’s partner ran across the street, holding his hands up in the universal sign for “don’t shoot me.” “My name is Michael McMahon. I’m a US Marshal. That’s my partner, Jessie.”

  “I tried to explain to this small-town asshole that I’m doing my job. I was waiting for you when I saw someone playing around with that little Ford over there.” She gestured back to the parking lot where Alexei had parked Holly’s car.

  Caleb felt his stomach turn.

  Michael managed to convince everyone to let him pull his badge out of his pocket. He flashed it around. “We’re Alexei Markov’s handlers. We followed him when he left Florida because there’s still some danger to him. Even though technically he left the program, Jessie and I wanted to stick close to him until the appeals court hands down its verdict on two of his cases. We’ve been following him around. Though we’re supposed to keep a low profile.”

  Jessie practically snarled at him. “Do not blame this on me. Alexei drove that car around all day. Was I just supposed to let some asswipe mess around with it? He was suspicious.”

  Nate turned to Mel. “Did you see this man?”

  Mel shrugged. “I only saw her, but that doesn’t mean I couldn’t have missed something. She was under the car.”

  “Because the man had run off. I’m not sure if he was a bad guy or not. I couldn’t exactly chase down a tourist who was tying his shoe. I had to check. I think he did something. It looks like there was something attached to the bottom of the car.”

  The door to the clinic opened, and Alexei stood there. Caleb didn’t miss the way his right hand snaked behind his back. There was little doubt that his partner was hiding the gun he carried. Alexei reholstered the weapon and walked out. Caleb saw the slats to the blinds open.

  “Holly, it’s safe. You can come out,” Caleb yelled.

  “I tell her to stay in bedroom. Our woman needs her hearing checked,” Alexei grumbled. He caught sight of the Marshals, and his face fell. He turned to Nate. “I can explain.”

  Nate waved him off with a roll of his blue eyes. “I can take a wild guess. You couldn’t keep your dick in your pants long enough for the US legal system to work its way through all the fuckers you put in jail. The Marshals are trying to keep you alive.”

  “Alexei?” Holly walked up to Alexei, her feet bare and her hair still tousled. “Is that true?”

  Alexei turned to Holly, his face grave. “That is truth, what sheriff say. Though I was going to grovel a bit more. I would not have come for you if I do not think it is safe.”

  “Well, we might have to rethink that,” Nate said as he uncuffed the female Marshal. “I had a nice talk with Long-Haired Roger. Someone tampered with Caleb’s truck.”

  Holly’s hand was suddenly in his. He heard her startled gasp. “Oh, god. Someone tried to kill me.”

  “Or Caleb.” Deputy Briggs pulled out a tablet and started making notes. “It was Caleb’s truck. And now Holly’s car in front of Caleb’s clinic.”

  “But I be driving car around.” Alexei’s accent had gotten deeply thick again. Caleb was starting to get his tells. When Alexei got emotional, his accent was almost too thick to understand.

  “You didn’t drive my truck,” Caleb pointed out.

  “No. But I stand by it for almost an hour before I walk in yesterday morning. I watched Nell walk in. I was a little afraid to be talking to you. What if someone saw me and thought it was my truck? What if there is someone in town trying to get to me? What if they learn how much it would hurt me if they got to Holly or you instead?”

  Caleb squeezed Holly’s hand, noting Alexei was holding her other hand. It felt right.

  “Sheriff, she checks out.” Logan swaggered onto the scene. He seemed to have gotten control of himself, but there was a red rim to his eyes that bespoke of many nights’ lost sleep. “She is who she says she is, though her boss was surprised to find out she was in Colorado.”

  Jessie took back her badge. She shoved it in her pants and glared at the sheriff. “We’re doing this under the radar. I think it’s too early to take him out of the program. Look, we spent a lot of time with the big guy. He was supposed to settle down in Boca Raton under the name Howard Solev. He had all his papers. He was supposed to be a recent immigrant working for a security company. We worked hard to set up a safe life for him. Imagine our surprise when he disappeared. I knew he had someone he cared about here. Arrest me for giving a crap.”

  Nate stared down at her, giving her the same look Caleb had seen him give speeders and other minor irritants. “Look, Marshal, here’s what I know. I know that someone deliberately tampered with Dr. Burke’s truck.”

  “Don’t let Long-Haired Roger discount my Sasquatch theory. I think they’re rising up against industry and big business, Sheriff. I don’t think they like gas-guzzling trucks,” Mel said seriously.

  Nate expression never changed. “I will keep that in mind. Cam, be sure to place environmentally friendly Sasquatches on the board of suspects.”

  Cam grinned. “Will do, Sheriff.”

  “What is wrong with you people?” Jessie asked.

  “Not a damn thing,” the sheriff replied. “Now, my second problem is that I have US Marshals in my town who don’t do me the courtesy of informing my office that they’re here and working a case. Don’t give me that bullshit about caring about him. You’re carrying a gun, and you’re more than willing to use it. You owe me th
e courtesy of letting me know what’s going on.”

  “Yes, we do, Sheriff.” Michael seemed to be the more reasonable of the two. “We’re sorry. We honestly didn’t think anything would happen to him. We’ve been keeping tabs on him from a distance. This town seems pretty good about protecting its own. We didn’t even have to step in when Ms. Lang’s son showed up. He almost immediately had six men on him.”

  “I liked that part.”

  Caleb looked to his left. Nick stood there with a cup from Stella’s. He took a long drag from the straw. Caleb noted that the Farley boys were with him.

  Nick grinned at him. “Look, I made friends. They’re showing me all the cool spots.”

  “Like the place where all the girls bathe naked because they think no one can see them,” one of the brothers said.

  Nick shook his head. “Yeah, I wasn’t so interested in that one. And the nudists are way funkier than I would have thought. But I liked the Feed Store Church. And there were a couple of people miming their distaste for Wall Street on the square. That was pretty awesome.”

  So that’s what Nell and Henry were up to this afternoon.

  “So what’s up with the feds?” Bobby Farley asked.

  “They’re here about Alexei.” Will looked over and waved at the Russian. “Hey, man! We’re glad to see you. We need a coach for little league hockey. I should warn you, it’s really just me and Bobby. You wouldn’t have much of a team.”

  Alexei warmed immediately. “We do not need many peoples. We merely need to be meaner than the rest. This I can teach you. If I am not dead.”

  Bobby looked to the sheriff, a thoughtful expression on his face. “Yeah, the sheriff is worried about that, too. Though he also thinks it could be Holly’s ex-husband because he’s a son of a bitch or Caleb’s family. He has a whole board of suspects.”

  Nate Wright’s eyes widened. “You two little shits. Did you bug my station house again? I swear to god, I am talking to your mother.”

  Neither boy looked particularly intimidated. Will shrugged. “We didn’t bug the station house. We just invented a little machine that amplifies sound. We didn’t even have to use the full range. You can be really loud, Sheriff.”

  Nick pointed to both kids. “I love these kids. If only I’d had you on my side a year ago. But there’s no way Dad would hurt Mom. He’s a dickhead, but he wouldn’t hurt her.”

  Just as Nick said the words, there was a horrific boom and fire shot to the sky. It came from the parking area not fifty yards away. The sound cracked, splitting the air with a terrible roar. That sound seemed to be everywhere, invading his consciousness and making the world seem unreal.

  Caleb’s ears flared with pain. Too loud. And then everything was muffled by an odd ring. They would be ringing for hours.

  Alexei leapt into action, covering Holly with his big body, and Caleb took the kids. He felt the blast from the explosion heat his skin as he tugged at the kids, trying to protect them with his own body. He covered Nick’s head with one hand and pulled the twins in with the other.

  When it was over, he looked to Nick, who had lost his “perpetually amused with the world” expression. His eyes were wide with terror. He stood and tried to brush away the smoke that seemed to be everywhere. An acrid smell permeated the air.

  Caleb was well aware he was speaking far too loudly as he talked to Nick. “Take care of the boys. I need to check on your mother.”

  Holly’s son nodded and immediately took the twins under his wing. He moved them away from the site to the other side of Main Street. Logan was moving Jessie and Michael to the other side, too. Cam checked on Mel.

  Nate was already on his radio. “Hope, get the fire department out here. Yes, we just had a bomb go off. Try like hell to keep people away from the area.”

  But they were already streaming out of homes and businesses. Well-meaning citizens were suddenly everywhere. Chaos. It was chaos. Caleb was far too well acquainted with chaos. Holly. He needed to get to Holly.

  “I don’t think the Sasquatch did that, Doc,” Mel yelled. “They’re not real good with electronics!”

  Caleb ignored him and moved to Holly. Alexei had her on the ground, his big body covering every inch of her. She was struggling beneath him, but he wouldn’t budge.

  “Is danger passed?” Alexei asked, yelling a bit.

  It was a good thing because Caleb’s ears were still ringing. “It’s good.”

  It was also good to know that Alexei had her back even when she was fighting him.

  Alexei let her up.

  “Nicky?” She looked around for her son.

  “He’s fine, sweetheart. I think we’re all fine.”

  “My ears are ringing,” she said, calming visibly once she could see her son.

  “Mine, too,” Alexei said, pulling at his ears.

  Caleb slapped at his hand. “It’s tinnitus. It’ll go away. Don’t pull at them.”

  Nate walked over. “I think we need to take this to the station house. Logan and Cam are going to stay here and see if we can get anything off the car—once it’s not a flaming ball anymore. We need to talk. All of us.”

  Nick stepped up, his face white as a sheet. “I think I should come, too. I think maybe my dad might be more involved than I think.”

  “What?” Holly asked, taking his hand.

  “Well, I might be blackmailing him, and he might be really pissed off.”

  Yeah, it was definitely time to talk.

  * * * *

  Vince was just about ready to call it a job. A fucked-up job. A big, old pile-of-shit job. He’d never before screwed up the way he had in this town.

  He trudged through the woods, cursing nature at every turn. Where had he parked his Jeep? He’d seen an opportunity to get at one of the vehicles the target used. It seemed to be the only car left between the three of them, and if he got one of the others, his employer was okay with that. Collateral damage.

  But he’d been made. Oh, they might not know exactly who he was, but they knew someone was after one of the townspeople. It wouldn’t take them too long to figure out who was the target. They only had three fucking choices.

  And the sheriff seemed much smarter than a local yokel. The whole fucking town was a bastion for former feds and conspiracy nuts, and every goddamn one of them had a gun.

  Life was easier in New York.

  He’d blown the car because he was afraid he’d left something behind. He knew he’d done a hack job on it, but he couldn’t get at the damn car while it was parked at the woman’s cabin. Last night had proven that. He’d watched as six huge men had shown up to take care of one skinny-ass kid.

  No way. No how.

  The parking lot of the clinic was away from the street. It was surrounded by a concrete wall. He’d watched the three of them enter the clinic after his botched attempt to take out the target with the car he’d stolen after hiding his Jeep on the mountain. He’d listened and heard the freaks all having sex. After deciding they would be occupied for a while, he’d decided to give it a go.

  And that dumb bitch had found him. He’d barely gotten the device in place when she’d called out to him like they were old friends or something. She’d said hi and he’d taken off.

  He’d barely made it over the wall when the sirens had started up.

  He felt sick to his stomach. He wasn’t this guy. He wasn’t the guy who screwed up. He should never have taken the job. He should have known how many goddamn eyes would be on the target.

  But he wouldn’t quit. He would just simplify finish the fucking job. No more accidents. No more close encounters.

  The target was getting a bullet to the brain the next chance Vince got.

  He was going to end this.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Holly stopped her pacing long enough to stare down at her only child.

  “Dad told me to get a hobby.” Nicky sat back in his chair with a little shrug. He had a cup of coffee in his hand and looked distinctly uncomfortable to
be sitting in the Bliss County Sheriff’s Office.

  They sat in the main room, all of them. It was getting crowded. The US Marshals Alexei had neglected to mention to her sat together watching the scene play out. They leaned against the back wall, talking to each other in low tones. Alexei looked as uncomfortable as Nicky, though Holly was sure it was for different reasons. The last time Alexei had been in this room, he’d nearly died. He’d been shot in the gut, and only Caleb’s sure hands had saved him. She remembered how it had felt to clutch him and know she couldn’t hold him together. It had been horrible, and she hadn’t even been in love with the man then.

  Now she wasn’t sure she would be able to survive it. She tried to give him a reassuring smile before she turned back to her baby boy.

  “So explain to me how blackmailing your father is a good hobby. I think he was talking about something like stamp collecting or reading. I doubt he meant for you to dabble in crime.”

  Nicky leaned forward. “It was photography. It seemed like a good idea. And Dad made a really good subject. I mean, he didn’t know at the time that he was the subject, but he was really good.”

  She put her head in her hand. He was so stubborn. “Please tell me you didn’t do what I think you did.”

  “I think the boy catches father with many womens.” Alexei sat back in his chair and gave Nicky a look of deep respect. “This could ruin career. How much did you get?”

  “Don’t encourage him,” she said Alexei’s way. The last thing Nicky needed was a partner in crime. He seemed to be doing so well on his own.

  Caleb leaned forward, joining the other two men. “It wasn’t money, was it? You wanted out. You wanted to be free of the whole ‘political family’ thing. I can understand that. It’s hard. Everyone’s always looking at you. You can’t just be yourself. You have to live up to the family name.”

  Nicky pointed to Caleb. “He gets it. I did it to get away from my dad, but I also took a lot of money. Hey, I wanted to be free, not dirt poor.”