K-9 Hunter, page 13
When DJ nodded, Gavin angled the screen so he looked directly into the dragon’s maw. He didn’t bother with introducing himself. The old man seemed well versed on their investigation. No doubt he had confidential dossiers on all of them. “You forget, Drako, that Marco Barbieri confronted your grandson. He is the primary witness. As soon as we apprehend Taimar, he will be going to jail for attempted murder.”
“Not if my lawyers have anything to say about it.” He frowned in fake concern. “It must have been an unfortunate accident or self-defense. I promise you, my grandson would not fail if he made such an attempt.”
Gavin had more questions. He might have tried a more subtle approach, but their time was almost up. He returned to the first line of inquiry. “How long have you been speaking with Marco?”
“Maxim,” he corrected. “A few weeks, perhaps a month, perhaps more.”
“Why did you wait until recently to make contact?”
“I wasn’t sure he’d want to hear from me.”
That was the most honest statement Drako had made. Marco’s testimony had put the dragon in jail but had also caused him to give up his beloved restaurant in Jersey and completely alter his lifestyle. By all logic, they ought to hate each other. “What changed your mind?”
“A man reaches a point in his life when he seeks the reassurance of old friends. When I think of Maxim, I can almost taste his delicious borscht and chicken Kiev. I have a chef here in Sheridan, but he’s not as good.”
“Are you telling me that, in spite of your differences, you’ve developed a cordial relationship?”
“We deepened our existing friendship.”
“If you’re such good buddies, he must tell you everything.”
“Da.”
Gavin hoped that Marco had been circumspect. “What do you think of his sanctuary? Pretty nice setup, isn’t it?”
For an instant, Drako’s smug expression vanished. “Sanctuary?”
“He must have mentioned it to you. Since you’re so close.”
“Da, of course. Remind me again of the location.” His left eyelid twitched. “I’m an old man. I tend to forget addresses and such.”
Gavin didn’t buy this excuse. He’d surprised Drako with the mention of a sanctuary, which made him think that was the best place he could take Piper and Sofia. If the Dragons didn’t know it existed, they couldn’t find it.
“That’s all for now, Drako. But we’ll be in touch.”
* * *
AFTER HOURS IN the vacant offices at Overton Hospital, Piper went down a narrow hallway with doors on each side and into an examination room with Gavin while DJ, Sofia and Izzy stayed in the outer office and polished off the calzones and cannolis. When Gavin closed the door to the tiny room, Piper assumed the role of doctor, gave him a clinical look and ordered, “All right, young man, take off your pants and hop up on the table.”
“You first.”
She was glad to see him smile. He hadn’t shaved this morning and dark stubble outlined his jaw. Sexy. “How was your conversation with Drako?”
“Irritating as hell. He knows too much about our investigation.”
Someone on the inside feeding him information? “You said there might be a rat.”
“And when I find out who it is, I’ll make sure he or she has a cell near Drako so they can talk to each other all the time. The old man mentioned DJ’s wife and you—a witness to the shooting—by name.”
A chill trickled down her spine. She was a truffle hunter with a stay-at-home business selling and designing software. Not the sort of person who had contact with an infamous crime boss. Wrong place, wrong time. “How did I stumble into this?”
“I mention his comment to emphasize—once again—that the danger to you and Izzy is very real. You’re on the Dragon’s radar.”
“How long is Drako going to be a threat?”
“Well, he’s ninety-six and supposedly ill, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the old man lived to be a hundred and twenty.”
“In prison?” She perched on a stool where a doctor usually sat when making notes on a patient’s condition. “That doesn’t sound like a great life.”
“He’s got a beautiful nurse named Alexandra, a personal chef and round-the-clock care. Not a bad deal.” Gavin sank into a chair beneath an anatomical poster of a heart with the valves, muscles, veins and arteries in shades of purple and magenta. “Drako wants more than physical satisfaction. He feeds on power, thrives on it. He wants to be free. That’s why he talked to Marco and why Ivanov is headed toward the West Coast. I’m sure it’s all part of a plot, but I don’t know what they’re thinking.”
“What can we do?”
“It’s your job—and Sofia’s—to stay safe. That’s all you need to worry about.”
“Don’t die? I think I can handle that,” she said. “Can we go to Marco’s hideout?”
“When I mentioned sanctuary, Drako didn’t know what I was talking about. He hasn’t heard about the secret hideaway, which means it might be a very safe place while we wait for Marco to recuperate and figure out what we need to do next.”
She liked the idea, liked it a lot. Staying at a secret sanctuary sounded a hundred times better than being cramped in a hotel or—even worse—stuck in an FBI safe house with a bunch of bossy know-it-all agents. “Might be ideal, but I’m not going to count on it. I’ve found that when something sounds too good to be true, it usually is.”
“Never look on the bright side, right?”
“Call me a realist.”
“I’ll need to check the location of Marco’s sanctuary with Beekman and make sure there isn’t a paper trail of loans and deeds that would lead to the doorstep. And my computer whiz will verify that we have no electronic signal that can be tracked. Beekman will be the only ranking marshal who knows where we are, and I trust him to keep his mouth shut.”
“Does anyone other than Chef Rosa know about this place?”
“She assured me that she was the only one.”
When Piper had talked with Rosa at Bella Trattoria, she’d had the sense that there might have been something deeper than friendship between he and Marco. She’d been divorced for three years, enough time for the sparks to fly between them. “Do you think he took Rosa there for a rendezvous?”
“She’d tell me, wouldn’t she?”
Not if it was a secret. Piper liked the idea of Marco and Rosa sneaking off to a private place where they could be alone. “I’m certain the sanctuary isn’t common knowledge.”
“In any case,” he said, “until I get verification from Beekman and arrange the details, don’t tell Sofia. If the sanctuary works out, her attitude might improve.”
Piper didn’t know what to think about the talented teen whose moods shifted constantly and ranged in intensity from one to one hundred and back again. “It’s hard to gauge what goes on in her head. She’s devastated by her dad’s condition, then she’s outraged, then depressed, then excited.”
“Typical teenager,” Gavin said.
“Is she?”
“I come from a small family. My sisters are ten and twelve years older than me, so I was always the baby. But my oldest sister has two teenaged boys, fifteen and thirteen, and I wouldn’t leave either of them alone with a loaded weapon or a wallet full of cash. They’re good kids, but not great when it comes to impulse control.”
Getting close to Sofia caused Piper to wonder about her hopes for someday having two children, a boy and a girl. Were all teenagers so difficult? The wonderful moments when Sofia wholeheartedly embraced her might not be worth the hours of sulking and rude outbursts? “Her only consistent focus is on the boyfriend. She wants to talk to Logan on the phone or see him or tell him where we are so he can come see her.”
“No contact between them,” he said. “And we won’t tell Sofia about the sanctuary until we’re in the car on the way to the actual location.”
“Maybe a little before that so she has time to get used to the idea.” She glanced up into his coffee-colored eyes and hopefully suggested, “Maybe you can tell her.”
Immediately, he shook his head. “Given a choice between slashing my way through fifty miles of red tape and facing off with an angry sixteen-year-old, I’ll pick the tape every time.”
When she reached for the door handle, he caught her hand and turned her toward him. Surprised by the warmth of his touch, she confronted him head-on and noticed a subtle difference in his expression. His gaze sharpened. The jut of his jaw showed determination.
“When I was talking to Drako,” he said, “and the evil, old dragon mentioned you by name, my gut exploded. I’ve never felt outrage like that before. The inside of my skull burst into a fiery red. Sounds dramatic, huh? But it was real. If Yuri Drako had been in the room, I would have killed him.”
Though she couldn’t look away from him, she shook her head. “That’s not true.”
“Yeah, it is. I know it’s my job to protect you, but this overwhelming urge wasn’t based on my sworn duty as a marshal. This feeling went deeper. I’d give my life for you, Piper. That’s not a lie.”
She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She didn’t understand what was happening between them. They barely knew each other. How could they so quickly reach this level of intensity? She was far too sensible to be swept off her feet.
With his free hand, he opened the door. Time to return to the real world.
The first sound she heard was Sofia’s voice whining. “It’s not fair. You’re not fair.”
Marshal DJ responded. “Nobody promised life would be fair.”
“Let me use your phone for five minutes.”
Izzy stood beside her, providing canine backup. The dog seemed to think Sofia could do no wrong. She gave a supportive, little bark.
“Just five minutes.” Sofia held up her hand, fingers splayed. “After that, I promise I’ll be quiet.”
“Not going to happen,” DJ said.
Piper hated to interrupt when DJ seemed to have the situation under control, but Sofia spotted her, dashed toward her and launched a more aggressive plea. “Tell him, Piper. I need to make one phone call, really need to.”
“You want to call Logan?”
“Who else?” She bit her lower lip. “Puh-leeze. Don’t you trust me?”
Not a bit. “I’m afraid a phone call isn’t appropriate.”
While she was occupied with Sofia, DJ and Gavin dodged through the glass door and escaped the reception area of the outpatient offices. Not that she and Sofia were left alone. Two officers posted at the door acted as bodyguards. Never alone, they were watched over like a couple of eggs about to hatch. Piper understood the necessity but found the constant surveillance to be insulting, as if she and Sofia and Izzy were incapable of handling themselves.
“If you were me,” Sofia said, “you’d want to call the person who meant more to you than anyone else in the whole world. Wouldn’t you?”
Piper refused to make that comparison. “It’s not the same thing. I’m an adult who has been married, divorced, moved across the country and started a new life. You’ve got miles to go before you earn the right to call the shots.”
“But it’s my life.” She threw her hands in the air. “Omigod, I can’t wait to be old enough to make my own decisions. Someday, I want to live in a safe little cabin like yours and have my own life.”
She has a point. Being older didn’t necessarily mean wiser. Piper reconsidered. If Sofia talked to her boyfriend and didn’t arrange a meeting, there wasn’t a problem. What could it possibly hurt?
“Five minutes,” Piper said. “And you can’t make any plans with him.”
“Will you be listening?” Sofia asked.
“Absolutely.” She led the way to the back of the receptionist’s desk and pointed to the landline. “Do it before I change my mind.”
Sofia planted a kiss on Piper’s cheek. “You’re so much cooler than the marshals.”
Or so much dumber. “Five minutes. And after this, no more whining.”
She went around to the front of the desk to give Sofia a sense of privacy and listened while she crooned to Logan about how much she missed him and couldn’t wait to see him. Piper was glad the conversation stayed at the PG level and the L-word wasn’t used.
When time was almost up, Piper called out, “That’s four minutes. One more to go. Wrap it up.”
Through the glass door of the office, she saw an unfamiliar figure. He showed a badge and identification card to the officers standing guard. When they read his documents, they straightened their shoulders. For a moment, she thought they might salute.
The stranger pushed the door open. He wore the sort of perfectly fitted suit that she recognized from her days as a corporate executive. Dark gray and virgin wool, probably Tom Ford, with a blue shirt and no necktie. His shoes were Armani. His wavy brown hair showed expert styling. His vivid blue eyes and smirky grin radiated confidence.
As soon as he entered, Izzy stuck her tail in the air and leaned down on her front paws—her Downward-Facing Dog position—indicating she’d found something that smelled. It might have been the stranger’s citrusy cologne or something more sinister.
Izzy growled.
Piper demanded, “Who are you?”
“Marshal Phillip Esposito from Jersey. You must be the truffle hunter.”
Sofia popped up from behind the desk. And Esposito identified her. “Sofia Barbieri.”
When he leaned down to pat Izzy, the dog responded with another growl. Piper trusted her dog’s instincts. Marshal Phillip T. Esposito was trouble.
Chapter Fourteen
Almost midnight and still lightly raining, Gavin set out in the SUV, headed for Marco’s sanctuary. He was the driver, and Piper—in the passenger seat—was the navigator. In the middle seat were two rookie marshals, Frieda Mays and Zach Smith, who Gavin couldn’t help thinking of as Frick and Frack, though both the man and the woman were smart and qualified. They’d joined his team last night, flying in from the California office, and had no prior association with the Dragons, which meant they couldn’t be suspected of feeding information to Yuri Drako.
In the third row of seats, Sofia and Izzy slept under a couple of blankets from the hospital. The teen was finally quiet. After she’d gotten her way and made her phone call to the boyfriend, her attitude had switched from whiny complaints to more assertive demands and references to herself as a “grown-up,” as if the label gave her the right to be pushy. Instead of being pleased that they were going to a place her father had prepared especially for her, Sofia resented being stuck in the middle of nowhere. Plus, she’d insisted they make frequent visits to her father in the hospital no matter how inconvenient. Also, most important, she’d completely rejected the possibility that she and Marco would need to move to a different WITSEC location in another part of the country. Not her. No way. She’d planted roots in Oregon with her boyfriend and her career as a pop star was about to take off.
Gavin went through a series of sharp turns, doubles back and screeching stops—maneuvers designed to shake any vehicle that might attempt to follow them into the misty night. While he drove, he considered Piper’s first impression of Esposito. She hadn’t liked him. Neither had Izzy. For that matter, Gavin thought the marshal from Jersey was too smug and full of himself to be a good investigator. Too bad. They had to get along.
Satisfied that their SUV wasn’t being tailed, he contacted DJ on the untraceable SAT phone with a scrambled signal that Beekman had provided. Throughout their journey so far, DJ had been watching Gavin’s rear.
“I appreciate your help,” Gavin said, “you can drop back and leave us. If you need to make contact, go through Beekman. I’ll check in with you twice a day for updates.”
“My last report for today is a big fat zero. Still no sign of Taimar. No activity on his credit cards. No sighting of his motorcycle. Tomorrow, I’ll go to Eugene where he went to college and look for former friends he might bunk with.”
“Taimar Drako went to University of Oregon?”
“He was a star hockey player. Go Ducks.”
“Good luck,” Gavin said. “When you find him—”
“I’ll arrest him for attempted murder. See you, man. I’m headed back to Portland. Might even catch a few hours in bed with my beautiful new wife.”
Gavin wished he could wholeheartedly trust DJ, whom he’d worked with for several years, but until he identified the rat, everybody was suspect. After a few miles, he whipped a final U-turn and glanced over at Piper. “Are you ready take over as navigator and tell me where to go?”
“Don’t tempt me.”
“You can’t be angry. I went to a lot of trouble to arrange for us to stay at Marco’s sanctuary. It’s hidden away in a forest. A secret place. That’s the kind of stuff you like.”
“A hermit like me? Is that what you’re implying?”
When he turned and saw her grinning, he knew she was teasing. “Just read the directions.”
“The map that Marco put together isn’t exactly precise.” Using the dim light from the dashboard, she squinted at the piece of paper from the “sanctuary” envelope. “He uses landmarks instead of street signs, but I’m familiar with this area. We’re not far from my cabin in Yamhill.”
For an instant, he wished their destination was her beloved cabin. Just him and Piper without Sofia or Frick and Frack. The dog could come. “Starting here. We’re driving south on Highway 101.”
“Take the first exit after we pass Crab Corner Café and go left.”
Within five miles, he sighted the drive-up diner with a huge well-lit sign featuring a dancing crab waving a top hat and cane. The exit led to a two-lane road headed east, away from the coast and into the surrounding forest, somewhat of a disappointment to Gavin. His favorite part of Oregon had to be the rugged coast with lighthouses, roiling surf and massive offshore rocks. When he’d learned that the sanctuary lay in that direction, he had imagined a walk on the beach at sundown with Piper. A chance to know each other better, even though their budding relationship came with an expiration date if she opted for WITSEC.
