Going Rogue in Red Rye County, page 1
“I gotta move. You need to go home.”
“That’s not happening,” he insisted. “People want you dead, but I’m not one of them. You have to trust someone before it’s too late, Min.”
Anger spiraled low in her belly. “Gosh, you mean like when I trusted you last year? Thanks, but no thanks, Jacobs. I hereby free you of any guilt or misguided duty you feel necessary to save me from my enemies. They’re my problem. Not yours.”
“Wrong. They were our problem then, and they are our problem now.”
“If they were our problem then, why did you abandon me?” she asked.
“I didn’t abandon you.”
“It doesn’t matter right now. This is my battle. Go home. My life has been over since I first stepped foot in that house in Red Rye. I was a dead woman walking and didn’t even know it. Now, I know it. You’d be better off walking away now with your life.”
GOING ROGUE IN RED RYE COUNTY
Katie Mettner
Katie Mettner wears the title of “the only person to lose her leg after falling down the bunny hill” and loves decorating her prosthetic leg to fit the season. She lives in Northern Wisconsin with her own happily-ever-after and wishes for a dog, now that her children are grown. Katie has an addiction to coffee and Twitter and a lessening aversion to Pinterest—now that she’s quit trying to make the things she pins.
Books by Katie Mettner
Harlequin Intrigue
Secure One
Going Rogue in Red Rye County
CAST OF CHARACTERS
FBI Special Agent Wilhelmina August—Mina is injured and on the run after an undercover job goes sideways. Her motto is Trust No One, and that includes her partner, Roman Jacobs.
FBI Special Agent Roman Jacobs—Roman has spent a year searching for his partner after she went missing from her hospital bed. He’s determined to prove to her the botched rescue wasn’t his fault or die trying.
The Madame—Known only by her moniker, she is building an empire on the backs of vulnerable women. She rules with an iron fist, and every woman in the Red Rye house fears her, including Mina.
The Miss—As second-in-command, she follows The Madame’s orders to a T. Or does she?
Marlise—Bought by The Madame, but holds an alliance with Mina. If the FBI wants her to talk, they’d better find her friend.
Special Agent in Charge David Moore—He assigned Mina the undercover job then failed to protect her. He’ll stop at nothing to get his agent back alive.
Cal Newfellow—Roman’s foster brother and owner of Secure One Security. As a mercenary turned businessman, there isn’t much Cal can’t do or obtain. Roman trusts him, but should Mina?
To my husband.
For picking me up when I fall, dusting me off and reminding me that the stories I tell matter. Your unwavering faith in me is the reason this book exists. I love you.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Epilogue
Excerpt from Conard County: K-9 Detectives by Rachel Lee
Chapter One
Mina stole the gun from the safe while he slept. Smith & Wesson. A .38 revolver. Small. Point-and-shoot. That was all that mattered when she tucked it under her waistband. She patted the inside of the safe, pleased to find extra rounds and a stack of hundreds Nathan had been saving for a rainy day. Someday, she’d make it right, but for now, she’d have to owe him one. Hell, if it helped her get out of this alive, she might owe him her life.
On her way to the front door, Mina paused and pulled the curtain back from the living-room window. Dim headlights swept across the lawn as an old pickup truck swung around the corner. She ducked her head back. That was the third time she’d seen the same battered pickup since dinner. It was trying too hard to fit in here in Chester. Her trained eye said it stuck out like a sore thumb. Mina had to wonder how long it had been casing the place. She didn’t know, but its appearance told her one thing—time was running out. Correction. Her time had run out.
Another peek out the window showed her neighbors having a party on their front porch, and while they’d be good noise cover, if they spotted her, they’d tell the person driving the truck exactly when she’d left and what direction she’d headed. She couldn’t let that happen. Her only escape was out the back, where she had her route planned through the trees, if she wanted to avoid the road and whoever was in that truck.
She bit back a strangled snort as she plastered herself against the outside wall of the laundry room. As if she didn’t know who was in that truck. She knew, and they weren’t Boy Scouts. Maybe she should say they weren’t Girl Scouts. Nah, there was no way The Madame would send girls. The Madame would send thugs who she knew without a shadow of a doubt Mina couldn’t beat.
She’d have to go it on foot for now. She paused for a moment to make sure Nathan hadn’t awakened. Fat chance of that happening considering how many sleeping pills she’d dumped in his beer the second time she saw that truck in the neighborhood. Guilt lanced through her, but she didn’t have time to dwell on it, so she grabbed her go-bag from the laundry room, slung it over her shoulders and grasped the walking pole waiting at the door. It was now or never. Her heart pounded, and the blood rushed through her veins at the idea of stepping out into the open. She had twenty feet of open space to clear before she’d meet the tree line. Twenty feet was nothing if you could run, but it was an eternity when you couldn’t. And Mina couldn’t. She could barely walk and was held up by nothing more than a carbon fiber leg brace, the sturdy walking pole and a lot of determination.
A glance through the curtain on the back door and a deep breath in gave her the strength to turn the doorknob and step out to the concrete steps. She paused and picked her way down the steps carefully. Falling this early in the game was a guaranteed death sentence. She took her time, but when her feet hit the grass, she dug the pole in for all she was worth and half ran, half limped toward the trees. Those trees were the reason she rented a room here. The long oak fence on each side of the property blocking the neighbors’ view helped too. It gave her cover to her surefire escape route. Surefire if the men looking for her didn’t know about it, that is.
She hesitated on her next step. Did the men who were after her know about the woods? She couldn’t say for sure, but she would have to assume they did. All of that said, her choices were limited. The street left her wide open to the people in the truck. At least the woods gave her cover, and she knew them better than anyone. She’d mapped out multiple escape routes through the underbrush—routes others wouldn’t know existed. If they tried to follow, she’d hear them crashing through the underbrush, and that would give her time to change direction.
Finally swallowed up by the dark branches of the trees, Mina let out half the breath she’d been holding. She quickly found the first stash of supplies she’d tucked under a tree for an emergency. She knelt, but old habits kicked in, and she glanced up at the tree canopy. She’d lucked out. The stars were hidden behind heavy clouds, giving her a chance to escape unseen. The weather could buy her hours. Hours she’d need to get out of this one-horse town. It wasn’t going to be easy, and she knew it, but Mina had little choice in the matter now. The sands in her hourglass had run out much quicker than expected and left her questioning everything—including her roommate’s allegiance to her.
Mina forced her mind to calm. “You’ve been trained to escape dangerous situations,” she reminded herself as she shook out her shoulders. “You might be a little bit dented and rusty, but it’s like riding a bike. Trust in yourself.”
Her pep talk over, she felt around for the stash hidden inside the hollowed-out tree. Mina’s backpack only held her personal items that wouldn’t raise her roommate’s suspicions should he check the bag. She always knew if she had to run for the trees, a different set of supplies would be needed to survive. She dropped her backpack and slipped her tactical chest pack on, immediately hiking the backpack over it and strapping it on. She moved the gun to its rightful spot on her hip and ran her hands over the chest pack, making sure everything was in place.
Binoculars, compass, spare burner phone, emergency shelter, knife, protein bars, water and maps of the topography of North Dakota. She was as ready as she’d ever be.
The walk to Bismarck was going to take a full three days, and that was if she could walk the required miles each day. Chances were good that wouldn’t happen. Her foot had been getting worse instead of better, and it was going to make traveling through the woods nearly impossible. Regardless, she had to stay hidden as she worked her way toward the storage unit outside of Bismarck, where a car, a new name and a new life waited for her. That was how it had been for the last year. A new car, name and town every three months, no matter what. This time, she got lazy. When she made it two weeks past the three-month mark, she stayed. She
Her back plastered against the tree, Mina took a calming breath and shook out her legs. “You got this, girl,” she muttered to herself.
That had been Mina’s mantra all her life until her injury. Now, a year later, she was still dealing with the fallout from it, and it was going to get worse before it got better. She would need every ounce of strength she had to survive.
“Clear your head,” she chanted, her breath making little puffs of white in the cold October air. A deep breath in squared her shoulders naturally, and she pushed off into the darkened forest. It was time to move if she ever wanted to see the light of day again.
* * *
ROMAN PULLED THE rumbly truck over to the curb and put it in Park. He doused the dim headlights on the old truck, which had more rust than paint but was forgettable in a town like Chester, North Dakota. He had to be forgettable, for his partner’s sake. Special Agent Wilhelmina August had been his partner for six years, and as far as he was concerned, she still was.
He eyed the neat-as-a-pin two-story home across the street from where he’d parked. He couldn’t picture Mina August living there. At least not the Mina August he knew a year ago. The Mina August of today, he didn’t know a thing about, and that was what drove him to this tiny town on a Sunday night.
Roman tipped his head side to side to force the negative thoughts away. He was here to make right what he’d done wrong, but first, he had to convince Mina he wasn’t here to hurt her. That would be his biggest challenge, considering their last encounter. She was a federal agent, but she was also a scared woman who was alone, on the run and in pain. Guilt ripped through him as swiftly as wildfire. She was alone because he hadn’t prepared for every scenario. She was running for her life because he hadn’t mitigated the threat before it was too late. She was in pain because he failed to do his job. They both knew it, which was why Mina would shoot first and ask questions later. The phrase trust no one was ingrained in them at the academy, and Roman had no doubt Mina would trust him least of all.
Taking a few deep breaths, Roman calmed his mind and focused on the task at hand. Getting Mina somewhere safe. He climbed from the truck and approached a group of people sitting on a porch next door to Mina’s rented room. He’d been driving around the block every thirty minutes, hoping to see her outside, but it hadn’t happened. He could wait no longer. He’d thought about sneaking around the back of the house to see what was there, but with his luck, it would be a Doberman. He wasn’t in the mood for a trip to the ER. He had tracked Mina to Chester after a full year of searching, and he wouldn’t let her get away now.
“Hey, is Caitlyn around?” he asked, approaching the sidewalk with nonchalance. He just needed to confirm her location.
“There ain’t no Caitlyn here, man,” a dude said right before he spit a wad of chewing tobacco over the porch railing.
Classy. Roman fought hard against the eye roll threatening his composure.
“Shoot, she told me she was 1897 North Bradford Street,” he answered, making a show of looking at the house number.
A woman hooked her thumb over her shoulder. “That’s next door. This is 1895. A woman moved in there, but we don’t know her name. Not super friendly. She rarely leaves the place. I’d go crazy myself but to each their own.” She took a long draw on her cigarette like it was life-giving oxygen.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Roman said, lacing his words with contriteness. “Well, here,” he said, jogging up the sidewalk with a picture in his hand. “That’s my friend Caitlyn. Does she look like the woman next door?”
“Sure does,” said the dude before spitting more tobacco out the side of his lip.
Roman glanced to his right and shrugged. “House is dark, so she must be gone or sleeping. I’ll stop by tomorrow. Thanks for the help.” He raised his hand in a wave and jogged back to his truck. He rolled halfway down the street before he flipped the headlights on and rumbled out of the neighborhood. Something didn’t feel right. If Roman had learned one thing after the fiasco in Red Rye, it was to follow his gut. His gut told him to turn left and make one last pass around the property.
He’d gotten confirmation that Mina lived there, but there was no point knocking on the door when it was buttoned up tight and no lights were on. With the neighbors outside, he couldn’t sneak into the backyard either. Roman knew her as well as he knew himself, and if she noticed his truck circling the house, she’d be gone. Tomorrow he’d knock on the door, and she’d either be there or she wouldn’t, but at least in the daylight, he might avoid getting shot. The deep bass of his laughter filled the truck.
“As if, man. The first thing she’s going to do when she sees you darken her doorstep is shoot. She won’t even bother asking questions.”
Probably true and rightly so. As far as his partner was concerned, he’d let her down, and while she didn’t know the whole story, the part she did know looked damning. He wasn’t the guy she thought he was, and that bothered him. He’d spent the past year looking for her just to prove he wasn’t heartless enough to let her get hurt on purpose. Or worse yet, that he was working for The Madame. If she believed he was the reason the operation went sideways, he’d never get within ten feet of her. The guilt raging through him forced a grunt from his lips. They’d been partners for six years, and he prayed Mina knew he’d never compromise an operation for his own gain.
Darkness had fallen since the last time he’d turned down the old dirt road that made up the back half of the property Mina rented. It wasn’t a block so much as it was three streets and a gravel road through the forest. It would make a perfect escape route, and he had no doubt that was why she’d rented that house. He tapped the brake and pulled the truck over to the side of the road before he doused the lights.
An escape route.
A fence protected the backyard on each side, and Roman would bet his shield the back door led directly to the tree line. She’d be prepared to run. He didn’t even question the truth of that statement. The problem was, knowing what he knew, how was Mina going to go it on foot? She’d need a vehicle sooner rather than later. Roman disabled the dome light and slid out of the truck. He walked a bit until he’d lined himself up with the back of Mina’s house.
Wait. No. She wouldn’t do that. She’d work those trees to her advantage and cross the road somewhere else. She would walk this grove of trees halfway down the block, cross the dirt road in three steps and be back in the trees. That was what he’d do. Staying in the grass off the edge of the road, Roman searched for any sign of footprints. They wouldn’t be solid proof she was on the run, but no one was going to be walking on this road in the rain for fun.
He walked another quarter of a mile before he noticed a tumble of gravel off the edge of the road. The heel depression told him it was manmade. Or, in this case, more likely made by a woman. He flicked his flashlight up onto the road and noticed three prints, the left one with a drag on the toe. The sole pattern, and the word Vibram stamped in the dirt, gave her away. Mina wore one specific brand of boots, and he’d spent enough time following her footprints to know the sole pattern intimately. He’d found his partner. Well, he found where she had been. Now, the search reset.
Roman shook his head as he pulled himself into his truck. He hadn’t been this close to Mina in a year. He wasn’t going to let her slip through his fingers. A light mist was on his windshield when he got back inside the truck, and he ran the wipers. He had to find her before The Madame did. He’d spooked her, which he expected, but he couldn’t let her get away. The night would be long, but if he could track her down, it would be worth it.
With the rain falling, he’d easily be able to follow her footprints through the woods, but he’d likely get shot before he could say his piece. Roman only saw one option. Find where the trees ended and be waiting for her there.
