From an Unknown Sender, page 27
She wasn’t looking forward to that conversation, but it would likely be a vast improvement to the grilling the police had just given her, her dad, and Cole at the police station. Since Lars and Marit hadn’t fired any weapons, the police had been good enough to take their statements at the dock. Isabelle, Cole, and her dad, on the other hand, had been separated and interviewed before they’d finally been released.
Now they had to fight their way through rush-hour traffic as they made their way toward her father’s hotel. Isabelle was quickly learning why so many locals rode their bicycles year-round.
Her dad swiveled in his seat so he could see her more clearly, but she didn’t miss the way he winced when he did so. “Now that your friends aren’t with us, I want to know how you ended up at the dock today.”
“Are you sure you don’t need to go to the hospital?” Isabelle asked.
“I’m sure. I’ll put some ice on any swelling when I get back to the hotel,” he said. “Now, tell me how you found Sahil.”
“Cole decoded the rest of the message we found on the flash drive in the first package I redirected,” Isabelle said. “It gave us the place and time.”
“And your friends? Why were they there?”
“They were already at the dock, working,” Cole said. “It was the classic example of being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“As much as I was reluctant to involve civilians, I’m not sure we would have caught Sahil without their help,” Isabelle’s dad said.
“I agree.” Cole pulled up to a red light and checked his mirrors twice before he asked, “How did you know to come to the dock today?”
“Heinrich Resch was arrested last night for knowingly allowing illegal funding activities through his bank. In the course of his interrogation, he made a plea deal and gave us information.”
“He told you where to find Sahil,” Isabelle said.
“Yes. I caught the first flight out of Vienna, but it was delayed,” her dad said. “If that hadn’t happened, I would have gotten to the dock before Sahil arrived.”
“Why didn’t you call to let us know what was going on?” Cole asked.
“I planned to call you when I got here.” He shot an apologetic look at Cole before casting his gaze on Isabelle.
Isabelle guessed at the source of the communication breakdown. “You didn’t have a way to call me without Mom overhearing, did you?”
“No,” he said. “She insisted on taking me to the airport, and I couldn’t talk about classified information once I was traveling.”
Isabelle let the events of the day replay in her mind, right down to the moment her father had surprised her with his arrival. “Thanks for showing up in time to help us chase Sahil down.”
“If we’re right about his organization, the arrests we made today should topple the whole thing, especially with their funds frozen.”
“Not a bad day’s work,” Cole said.
Her dad scowled. “If it’s all the same to you, I’d prefer my daughter not be involved in intel work on days when people are pointing guns.”
Even though Isabelle preferred to avoid armed conflicts, she said, “Dad, I can handle myself.”
“As you demonstrated quite nicely today, but I worry about you enough as it is. I don’t want you to become Cole’s new partner in fieldwork.”
Even though she and Cole made a great team, Isabelle did her best to appease her father. “I’m not planning on it.”
Cole pulled up in front of her father’s hotel.
“Did you two want to come in and join me for dinner?” her dad asked.
A shared meal with her father and boyfriend or a double date with Lars and Marit. As much as she loved her father, Cole won out. “Thanks, Dad, but we’d better get back and check on Lars and Marit.” She climbed out of the car and gave her dad a hug. “I’ll call you later.”
“Maybe we can meet for breakfast tomorrow.” Her dad nodded at Cole. “All of us.”
“I’d like that,” Isabelle said.
“Me too,” Cole said.
Isabelle said her goodbyes and climbed into the front seat. She watched her father walk inside before she turned to Cole. “I still can’t believe he showed up today.”
“How are you going to explain all of this to Lars and Marit?” Cole asked. “I think they’ve kind of gotten used to the idea that you have self-defense skills, but your dad arriving armed in a foreign country doesn’t fall into the normal range.”
“Neither of us comes from normal families,” Isabelle said.
“No, we don’t, but Lars and Marit have no idea that we both have generations of intelligence officers in our families.” Cole laid his hand on Isabelle’s. “I already told Lars that your dad is the one who taught you how to shoot.”
“I guess we do the best we can to keep our explanations vague.”
Cole put the car into gear. “I think Lars and Marit know we’ll tell them as much as we’re able.”
“Yeah. They probably do.”
Chapter 41
Lars had begun to wonder if Cole had caved and was having dinner with Isabelle’s father when a light knock sounded on Marit’s door. Moments later, Cole and Isabelle walked in.
“Hey,” Lars said. “How did everything go at the police station?”
“As well as could be expected, given that we participated in a deadly shootout on one of their busiest waterways.” Cole peeled his knit hat off his head and dropped into the nearest armchair. “Lucky for us, the Dutch authorities are thrilled that a huge drug-running operation has been shut down, and I think it’s fair to say that more than one government is going to be extremely relieved when they learn Sahil is in custody.”
“It was a pretty amazing team effort.” Isabelle took a seat on the arm of Cole’s chair.
He placed his hand on her back. “Yeah. Thanks, guys. We couldn’t have asked for better boat captains.”
As much as Lars appreciated Cole’s acknowledgment of his and Marit’s roles today, he couldn’t help but notice that his cousin had avoided any mention of the part Isabelle’s father had played. “Isabelle’s father’s arrival at the dock was an unexpected bonus,” he said. “Want to tell us how that happened?”
“I think I may have mentioned it before—my dad works for the diplomatic corps,” Isabelle said. “He caught wind of what we were up against here and came to help out.” She shrugged. “I’m not sure how he pulled off such incredible timing, but I agree, it couldn’t have been better.”
“Are we to assume that he works for the same branch of the diplomatic corps as Cole?” Marit asked knowingly.
Isabelle’s smile gave nothing away. “That, I can’t tell you. Not even my mother knows exactly what he does at work.”
It was exactly the kind of nonanswer Lars had expected.
“We dropped him off at the hotel and came right back here.” Cole eyed the Chinese takeaway boxes lining the coffee table, and Lars could almost hear his cousin’s stomach growl. “Any chance you saved us some food?”
Marit offered him one of the boxes. “Here you go. Mandarin chicken. Lars said it was your favorite.”
Cole took the box and tossed Lars a grateful look. “Thanks.”
Lars nodded. “I have my moments.” He passed Isabelle one of the other boxes. “We ordered you chow mein. I hope that’s okay. It has lots of green things in it.”
“That’s perfect.” Isabelle accepted the box with a smile. “I might be able to persuade Cole to trade me a bite of his mandarin chicken for some of my veggies.”
“Only for you,” Cole said, his mouth already full.
Marit exchanged a meaningful look with Isabelle, and Isabelle’s smile widened.
“I’ll grab you some water,” Marit said.
She headed to the kitchen, and Lars’s phone rang. He slid it out of his pocket. Tess. Gratitude flooded over him. She was safe, and Sahil could not threaten her or Marit again.
“Hi, Tess. Where are you calling from?”
“The turquoise salon at Falcon Point,” she said. “But it’s not turquoise anymore. Anna’s done an incredible job with the interior design since we were last here.”
“I bet.”
“She and Beckett got back last night—a few days earlier than they’d originally planned—and we have a proposition for you.”
Should he be worried? An Anna-and-Tess combination was a powerful force to be reckoned with.
“I’m listening.”
“Come to Falcon Point,” she said. “Tomorrow. And bring Marit, Cole, and Isabelle with you. Even if we can only be together for a day or two before everyone has to go back to work, it would be worth it.”
He couldn’t argue with that. And right now, spending time at Falcon Point with the people he cared about most sounded like the best idea he’d heard in ages. “Hang on a second, Tess.” He lowered the phone.
Cole swallowed what was in his mouth and raised his eyebrows. “Is Tess okay?”
“Yeah. She and Bram are still at Falcon Point.” He hesitated. “When do you have to be back in Vienna?”
“I need to call my boss, but if I ask, I imagine she’ll give me a day or two before I need to be back in the office.”
“What about you, Isabelle?” Lars asked.
“I’m off until the end of the week,” she said.
So was Marit. And he could take his work with him.
Marit set two glasses of water in front of Cole and Isabelle and reclaimed her place beside him. “What’s going on?”
“We’ve been invited to Falcon Point,” Lars said. “Anna and Beckett are back. Tess and Bram are still there. And they want us to join them.”
“All of us?” Marit asked.
“Yeah.” Tess had only just made the suggestion, but Lars’s desire to go to Falcon Point with Marit was rising with every passing second. He threaded his fingers between hers. Would she come? “We could fly out tomorrow.”
“If Isabelle can go, I’m in,” Cole said.
Isabelle’s expression softened. “I’d love to.”
That left only one person.
“What do you think, Marit?”
She smiled, and his hope took flight. “I think yes.”
Grinning, Lars raised his phone to his ear again. “Did you hear that, Tess?”
“You’re coming?” she gasped, and he heard Anna squeal in the background.
“I’ll text you our flight information as soon as we’ve booked.”
“Anna’s so excited, she’s already planning activities for us.”
Lars laughed. “We’ll see you soon.” He hung up the phone and turned to Marit.
She was looking at him with wide eyes. “We’re really going to Falcon Point tomorrow?”
He smiled and drew her closer. “It looks that way.”
“It will be the vacation we didn’t have this week,” Isabelle said.
“With no security videos or guns anywhere to be seen,” Lars added.
“Uh, not watching security videos shouldn’t be a problem . . . but no guns . . .” Cole pulled a face. “That, I can’t promise.”
Lars stared at him. “Tell me you’re joking.”
“Hey, the family put me in charge of security at Falcon Point, remember?”
Lars rolled his eyes, and with an unrepentant grin, Cole shoveled another forkful of mandarin chicken into his mouth.
About the Author
Traci Hunter Abramson was born in Arizona, where she lived until moving to Venezuela for a study-abroad program. After graduating from Brigham Young University, she worked for the Central Intelligence Agency, eventually resigning in order to raise her family. She credits the CIA with giving her a wealth of ideas as well as the skills needed to survive her children’s teenage years. She loves to travel and recently retired after spending twenty-six years coaching her local high school swim team. She has written more than forty best-selling novels and is a seven-time Whitney Award winner, including 2017 and 2019 Best Novel of the Year.
She also loves hearing from her readers. If you would like to contact her, she can be reached through the following:
Website: www.traciabramson.com
Facebook page: facebook.com/tracihabramson
Facebook group: Traci’s Friends
Bookbub: bookbub.com/authors/traci-hunter-abramson
Twitter: @traciabramson
Instagram: instagram.com/traciabramson
About the Author
Sian Ann Bessey was born in Cambridge, England, and grew up on the island of Anglesey off the coast of North Wales. She left her homeland to attend university in the US, where she earned a bachelor’s degree in communications, with a minor in English.
She began her writing career as a student, publishing several articles in magazines while still in college. Since then, she has published historical romance and romantic suspense novels, along with a variety of children’s books. She is a USA Today best-selling author, a Foreword Reviews Book of the Year finalist, and a Whitney Award finalist.
Sian and her husband, Kent, are the parents of five children and the grandparents of three beautiful girls and two handsome boys. They currently live in southeast Idaho, and although Sian doesn’t have the opportunity to speak Welsh very often anymore, Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch still rolls off her tongue.
Traveling, reading, cooking, and being with her grandchildren are some of Sian’s favorite activities. She also loves hearing from her readers. If you would like to contact her, she can be reached through the following:
Website: www.sianannbessey.com
Facebook page: Sian Ann Bessey
Facebook group: Author Sian Ann Bessey’s Corner
Instagram: @sian_bessey
Other Books by Traci Hunter Abramson
Undercurrents Series
Undercurrents
Ripple Effect
The Deep End
Saint Squad Series
Freefall
Lockdown
Crossfire
Backlash
Smoke Screen
Code Word
Lock and Key
Drop Zone
Spotlight
Tripwire
Redemption
Covert Ops
Royal Series
Royal Target
Royal Secrets
Royal Brides
Royal Heir
Guardian Series
Failsafe
Safe House
Sanctuary
On the Run
In Harm’s Way
Not Dead Yet
Unseen
Dream’s Edge Series
Dancing to Freedom*
An Unlikely Pair
Broken Dreams*
Dreams of Gold
The Best Mistake*
Worlds Collide
Falcon Point Series
Heirs of Falcon Point
The Danger with Diamonds
From an Unknown Sender
Stand-Alones
Obsession
Proximity
Entangled*
Twisted Fate*
Sinister Secrets*
Deep Cover
Mistaken Reality
Kept Secrets
Chances Are
Chance for Home
A Change of Fortune
The Fiction Kitchen Trio Cookbook
* Novella
Georgian Gentlemen Series
The Noble Smuggler
An Uncommon Earl
An Alleged Rogue
An Unfamiliar Duke
The Unassuming Curator
Contemporary
Forgotten Notes
Cover of Darkness
Deception
You Came for Me
The Insider
The Gem Thief
Historical
Within the Dark Hills
One Last Spring
To Win a Lady’s Heart
For Castle and Crown
The Heart of the Rebellion
The Call of the Sea
Other Books by Sian Ann Bessey
Falcon Point Series
Heirs of Falcon Point
The Danger with Diamonds
From an Unknown Sender
Georgian Gentlemen Series
The Noble Smuggler
An Uncommon Earl
An Alleged Rogue
An Unfamiliar Duke
The Unassuming Curator
Contemporary
Forgotten Notes
Cover of Darkness
Deception
You Came for Me
The Insider
The Gem Thief
Historical
Within the Dark Hills
One Last Spring
To Win a Lady’s Heart
For Castle and Crown
The Heart of the Rebellion
The Call of the Sea
Kids on a Mission Series
Escape from Germany
Uprising in Samoa
