By the time he was ready to go back onto the streets, he not only had a way back to the States, but he had two months off with pay. Whoever his sister had contacted on his behalf, they had fallen all over themselves getting him home. James asked her if she was going to be all right.
“I could have killed him six months ago. He was right there in my sights, and I could have blown his fucking head off, and no one would have been happier about it than me.” He asked her what had happened. “Belinda. She asked me not to do it. Said that it would haunt her if I did. I told her he was going to kill her someday, and she told me that it was her lot in life. But that if he would die now, by the gunshot to the head, she’d lose her babies because no one would ever believe she’d not killed him.”
That was true. Belinda had been trying her best to leave Butch for years. The man would drag her back every time, hurting her and the girls more each time. When Paige told him to go, to be careful, he knew she’d have to deal with this on her own. Paige would carry the guilt to her grave if she really thought it had been her fault their sister was dead because of something she’d not done when she could have.
~*~
Harris was looking over contracts she should have done days ago to purchase the land they were going to build on. Also, they were going to purchase the surrounding acreage. That way, if necessary, they could expand as much as they wanted. She had a feeling they’d have a mob on their hands once word got out what they were doing. When her phone rang next to her, she picked it up without looking at who it might be. “Hello, Harrison Parker. But I guess you go by Agent Harrison Parker Marshall now, don’t you?” The voice. Because she did know it and not the person on the other end of the call, it terrified her in ways she could not deal with right now. “If they put you in charge of sending your men to other countries, I might just have to tender my resignation as an American citizen. Christ, they were all killed, as well as about half a dozen civilians. Stupid rookie mistake, Harrison. Even for you.”
“I didn’t send anyone out of the country.” The laughter was like nails going down a chalkboard, devoid of humor and full of spiteful hatred. “What happened? Perhaps then I can send someone to you, and you can train them on—”
“They couldn’t even speak the language. Who does that? You apparently. Stupid woman. Some of the people in that place were parents with children and had someone to go home to nightly.” She asked again what she was talking about. “They spoke of finding a man by the name of Avery. That was just before they were blasted away by some men who don’t take kindly to American service men being so close to their families. Last or first name? I haven’t any clue. But killed they were because no one taught them any kind of rules of engagement when taking down a person.”
“I didn’t send anyone there.” She pulled up her satellite computer and looked to see if she could capture a location on the caller. “Why don’t you give me your name, and we’ll have a nice lunch at my expense.”
“No. Why do you think I’m going to go anywhere that you are? I’m not. So leave it alone.”
Harris moved around to the last location she had, and then the computer bounced her to a different country, as well as five or six places in that region. “You’re bouncing. I guess I would be better off just giving up on trying to find you.”
“You say that, but I know for a fact that you’re not stopping. You’re too pig-headed and stupid to think anyone is smarter than you.” Harris watched the IP address jump all over the world. It even repeated the same place several times before the few seconds it would take her to make the identification a hit. “I have their wallets. That would cause a great deal of trouble for you should they have been found with their badges on. Also, you might want to remember this for the next time you send out bunnies, that—”
“Bunnies?” She told her what she meant by that. “All right. I guess that’s as good a description as I’ve heard. Soft and cuddly, but worthless when it came to having any idea how to get away. But I swear to you, I did not send anyone to wherever happened.”
The voice gave her the location using longitude and latitude. Since Harris had access to the satellite in the sky, she put in the numbers, and the camera zeroed right in on the restaurant. She was still looking it over when the voice spoke again.
“Fifteen people died there. A loss of income for an entire family. The people working there, they were helping a family of eight when you blasted their place.” Once again, she told her she’d not done it. “Then who?”
“I’m looking now. I swear to you on the life of my unborn child that I had nothing to do with this. Nothing. I’m seeing who did it right now. I am looking for a man by the name of Avery. His sister has been murdered, and I need for him to come home.”
