Desert Secrets Read online

  In a matter of seconds, the exchange was over. His attacker stared up at Colton from the cement floor.

  Colton looked around. The air in the room was finally beginning to clear. He saw that Bret had managed to take down one of the intruders, as well.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, ignoring the assailant for the moment.

  “I’m fine. But where’s the third man?”

  Colton tried not to panic. “Where’s Lexi?”

  “Lexi!” He shouted out her name, but there was no answer.

  Another wave of panic seeped through him. Besides the four of them, the room was empty. Had this been the plan all along? A distraction to ensure they got her?

  Colton turned back to the guy he’d just taken out. He picked up the man’s gun and aimed it at his heart. Blood ran from the assailant’s nose and down his face from where Colton had hit him.

  “Where did he take her?”

  “I don’t know. Her leaving wasn’t part of the plan.”

  “Then what was your plan?”

  The man’s jaw jutted out in defiance, his lips pressed tightly together as he turned his head.

  Colton pressed his boot against the man’s shoulder as added encouragement.

  He winced in pain. “Okay… We were supposed to let him see that his sister was alive, then he was going to give us the account numbers for the money he’d stolen. The smoke was to ensure we weren’t ambushed when we entered the room.”

  “Looks like your plan didn’t work,” Colton said, but he wasn’t sure what had actually transpired. Had Trent grabbed his sister in all the commotion? “What were you supposed to do with us when this was over?”

  “Kill you.”

  Colton felt his gut tense. So there had never been any intentions of any of them walking out of here alive.

  “Colton Landry?”

  Six heavily armed men wearing fatigues rushed through the door and into the lingering smoke. Colton shifted his weapons and aimed it at the lead intruder’s heart.

  “Stop right there—”

  “Slow down.” One of the men held up his hand. “We’re on your side.”

  Colton noted the USA patch on his uniform, but even with the familiar insignia, he wasn’t ready to blindly trust anyone again. “Who are you?”

  “Lieutenant Samuel E. Stevens. US Army. We were sent here to take you back to the capital.” The man’s gaze shifted to the floor. “Though it doesn’t look like you need us now.”

  “There was a third man, who escaped,” Colton said. “And he took Lexi Shannon, the woman who was with us. We believe the man was her brother. She never would have left on her own.”

  “Trent Hudson,” the lieutenant said.

  Colton nodded. “Lexi’s stepbrother.”

  The lieutenant signaled to two of the soldiers to handcuff the men on the ground.

  Colton stepped up to the lieutenant. “Tell me what’s going on.”

  “We arrested Mr. Hudson in a hotel room in the capital, and after some persuasion he eventually agreed to help us find you. He was fitted with a tracking device so we could keep tabs on him at all times,” the lieutenant said. “That’s how we found you.”

  “And the Moroccan government,” Bret asked. “What are they doing here?”

  “This ended up being a joint operation between their government and ours. We wanted our hands on Adam Tazi, who’s on the FBI’s most-wanted list for dealing weapons and a long line of other felonies. The Moroccan government wanted him caught for crimes in this country. Trent made a deal with the FBI. A lower sentence for his involvement with Adam Tazi’s enterprises if he helped us capture the man and help us to find you.”

  “And did you find Tazi?” Colton asked.

  “We arrested him on our way here.”

  “Well, apparently Trent backed out on your deal, because he’s gone and so is his sister.” Colton frowned. His least concern at the moment was Trent. They needed to find Lexi. “What about the tracking device he was wearing? We need to find them.”

  As he stepped out of the room and into the blistering sunlight behind the lieutenant, one of the soldiers walked toward them and announced that Trent had dumped the tracking device.

  Colton tried to control the alarm he felt. The rotors of a helicopter pulsed in the distance. But there was no sign of Lexi or her brother.

  “We can still find him.” The lieutenant spouted off a string of instructions into his radio. “There’s only one main road out of here back to the city. We’ve got a local ground team right behind us. The only reason we didn’t wait to go in is because we realized you were under attack. But my men will find them.”

  “And in the meantime?” Bret asked.

  “We’re going to get you out of here.” He called out orders to one of his men. “The helicopter will take you to Rabat.”

  Colton hesitated at the offer. There was no way he was going anywhere without Lexi. Trent might be her family, but Colton was certain that her safety wasn’t one of his priorities. He’d already double-crossed the government despite whatever deal they’d made, not to mention the money he’d embezzled from his boss. Trent Hudson wasn’t a man to be trusted.

  “Let my brother-in-law go with the helicopter. He’s going to need a thorough medical exam once he gets to the capital, but I’m coming with you.”

  “My orders were to get both of you back to Rabat,” the lieutenant said above the roar of the helicopter rotors.

  Colton bit back a sharp response. He understood the lieutenant’s position, but as far as he was concerned, this wasn’t a negotiation. He was staying, with or without the soldier’s permission. “After two tours of duty in Afghanistan, I know how to handle myself.”

  “You did bring down Adam’s men with no firepower. That’s enough to impress any of us.”

  “I’ll see you in Rabat, then.” Colton grabbed his brother-in-law into a tight bear hug and said goodbye before heading back with the lieutenant for the three Land Rovers that had just arrived. “You know Trent was never planning to come back with you.”

  “What do you think he’s doing, then?”

  “I think he took Lexi as leverage. A guarantee that he could escape across the border into Spain and disappear without getting shot.”

  “He’ll never make it.”

  “You can’t be sure of that. He’s got Lexi, the funds and the motivation with nothing to lose at this point.”

  The lieutenant pulled open the driver’s door to the Land Rover. “Then let’s make sure he doesn’t make it.”

  SIXTEEN

  Lexi bit the edge of her lip as Trent sped across the sand in the stolen Land Rover. She’d expected Adam’s men to return, but she’d never expected this. Her lungs still burned from breathing in the fumes from the smoke bomb, but her heart hurt more. She never imagined her own brother would stoop to kidnapping her.

  “I’m sorry, Lexi.” Trent finally broke the silence between them.

  Sorry? He had no idea what his actions had put her through the past few days. Sorry couldn’t begin to make up for what he’d done.

  “If you’re sorry, then tell me what’s going on.” She glanced at him, but he kept his eyes on the road straight ahead of them. “Tell me what you’re doing here, why you took me and why we left Colton and Bret back there.”

  His fingers tightened against the steering wheel. “You’d been taken hostage. I’m your brother. What did you expect me to do? They would have killed you.”

  “Don’t even start to play games with me, Trent.”

  “Their orders were to kill you.”

  She didn’t believe him. Because it was just another lie. She knew him well enough to be certain he hadn’t come all this way just to rescue her. With him there was always a hidden agenda. Whatever his motivation was, she knew it was a selfish one.

  “I know about the embezzlement and the lengths Adam is willing to take to recover his money.” Lexi leaned back against the headrest. She was tired and achy and wanted to
go home, but first she needed to convince him to stop whatever he was trying to do. “I want to know what your plan is now. You do have one, don’t you?”

  “Those men back there…they’re involved in a lot of highly illegal things.”

  “And from what I understand, so are you. Why did you really come with them, and where are we going now?”

  “It was my only way out, selling out both sides. And I needed some kind of guarantee that I could leave the country and get into Europe without getting shot on sight.”

  “So you took me.”

  “I’m sorry to have to involved you—”

  “No, you’re not.” She reached up to scratch her arm, then drew in a sharp breath, temporarily shoving Trent’s betrayal aside. Blood had seeped through the sleeve of her dress and was running down her arm. “Trent…”

  “What’s wrong?”

  “I don’t know.” She pulled her hand away. It was covered with blood. “I don’t remember getting hurt.”

  Neither had she felt any pain. Maybe it was because of the adrenaline, but now that she saw the trail of blood dripping down her arm, she could feel the intense sting of the wound slicing through her like a hot knife.

  “You must have been shot,” Trent said.

  “Shot?” She shook her head. “That’s not possible.”

  Or was it? She’d heard at least one gunshot.

  “There’s probably a first aid kit in here somewhere,” Trent said. “Look in the glove compartment and under the seat. If nothing else, you need to stop the bleeding.”

  She started looking, but that wasn’t all she needed.

  “We need to go back, Trent.” She felt under the seat with her fingers, then pulled out a small first aid kit. “We have to get help. And I need to make sure Colton and Bret are okay.”

  Trent pressed his foot against the brake, stopping the vehicle, then grabbed the kit from her. “Forget it. We’re not turning back. But let me at least try to wrap your arm up.”

  She felt the muscles in her back and shoulders tense as he opened up the box and pulled out a compress dressing and a small roll of tape. Her heart was racing. Since when was she afraid of her own brother? Saying nothing, she felt the burn of the injury as he pulled up her sleeve, then pressed the dressing against her arm.

  “It’s just a surface wound. You’ll be fine.”

  Except she wasn’t fine.

  “Tell me why you’re here. Why we’re here,” she said.

  “Long story short, I struck a deal with the FBI. But it didn’t take me long to realize that while I don’t want to face the retribution from Adam and his men, I also don’t want to be stuck in prison for the next decade.” Trent ripped off the tape and made sure the makeshift bandage was secure. “So I took the third door, which will hopefully land me on some tropical island somewhere completely off the grid.”

  “And in the meantime, you don’t care who gets hurt?”

  Trent finished bandaging her up, then dumped the first aid kit on the floorboard in front of her and started driving again. “If you’re talking about your friends back at the compound, then you’ll be happy to know that the US military were right behind me. If all went according to plan, which I’m sure it did, they arrested Adam and his men.”

  “How did they know how to find us?”

  “They fitted me with a tracking device so they could follow me.”

  “And I’m guessing you ditched the device?”

  “You bet I did.”

  Lexi worked to put the pieces of the puzzle together. At least there was a chance that Colton and Bret were okay. “So why is our military showing up now?”

  “Adam Tazi’s on the FBI’s Most Wanted list. That’s pretty good motivation. Made striking a deal with them easy.”

  “And you?” she asked. “What do they want with you?”

  “Somehow my name got connected with Tazi and my passport was flagged.” Trent fought to stay in the ruts of a stretch of soft sand. “I never meant to hurt you, Lexi. You have to believe that. I honestly never thought Adam would involve you in this.”

  “So you didn’t think there would be consequences to stealing money from a man wanted by the FBI?”

  “It wasn’t supposed to end this way. I was going to disappear. Start over somewhere on the other side of the world and no one would get hurt. It’s not like Adam doesn’t have millions coming in far and beyond what I took.”

  “But people did get hurt, and I got caught in the cross fire.” Literally. “I don’t understand how you thought you could simply disappear?”

  “That was—and still is—my plan. When I came to see you, I didn’t think he’d connect us. I never talked about you, and we have different last names. I needed a place where I’d be safe until I could finish clearing the money and work out the details to disappear.”

  “What about your father? What’s he going to think when you end up in prison?”

  “Like I said. I have no intention of going to prison. Not even at a reduced sentence. That’s why I have you. All I need is a second chance to start over and put all of this behind me.”

  Lexi shook her head. Her arm was beginning to throb along with her head. She reached for the first aid kit, needing something for the pain, but even more, needed a way to get through to her brother.

  Didn’t he understand that there was no way he was going to be able to simply walk into Spain with a marked passport? And if—when—the FBI took him back into custody, any deal he’d made with them was already off the table.

  She found an individual package of Tylenol and managed to swallow them without water. “You’ll never make it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “You’ll never make it across the border. And even before that, you’ll have to deal with the frequent police checks on the main road. They’ll demand passports. Yours is marked and I don’t have one. And then what? But if you turn yourself in now—”

  “Forget it, Lexi. Because I have connections. There are people who you can pay to smuggle you across the border. It’s the connection I was working on before all of this went down. I’ll get a new identity and disappear, and you won’t have to put up with my indiscretions anymore.”

  She glanced over and caught the determined set of his jaw. “What happened, Trent?”

  “What do you mean? How did I go from being the black sheep of the family to a wanted criminal?” He shook his head. “It’s easier than you think. You see an opportunity—right or wrong—and you decide to take it. Eventually you end up where I am.”

  “There’s always a way out—”

  “Don’t start preaching at me. My dad did enough of that over the years.”

  “Maybe, but there are always choices.”

  He’d never been one to listen to anyone else. He’d always preferred to learn the hard way. But this time his decisions might very well have cost him everything.

  Five minutes later, he pulled onto the main road and headed north. She knew they were five, maybe six hours from the border of Morocco and Spain. What she didn’t know was where Colton and Bret were. Because despite Trent’s assurances, she didn’t even know if they were alive. The men who’d set off the smoke bomb had been armed. And even with Colton’s military experience, the odds against them had been high.

  “So what happens now?” she asked, breaking the silence.

  “You come with me to the border as my insurance policy until I can disappear into Europe where I’ve got someone waiting to pick me up. It will be a lot easier for me to hide there than it is here.”

  “What about me?”

  “Assuming everything goes as planned, and no one tries to stop me, you can head back to Morocco. There are always foreigners driving down who can give you a lift.”

  So this was how it was going to end? With him dumping her off at the border of some third-world country while he disappeared? At least it would be over. Though that hung on a very big if they even made it there.

  Lexi studied the road
ahead of them, then looked at Trent. Just as she’d said, there was a blockade with uniformed police.

  “Trent…”

  “It’s not a big deal. Most of the time they just wave people on.”

  He might sound in control, but she didn’t miss the edge in his voice.

  “And if they don’t?” she asked. “If they stop you and ask for my passport?”

  “I don’t want to hurt you, Lexi.” He pressed his lips together, then lowered his voice when he spoke again. “I’m sorry. But please. Don’t test my patience. Because I’m going to get out of this country one way or another, and I’m not afraid to do whatever it takes to make that happen.”

  She felt her mouth go dry, unable to speculate if he would actually follow through with his threat as one of the uniformed police officers holding an AK-47 stepped out into the road and signaled for them to stop.

  *

  Colton caught himself tapping his fingers against his leg in the front seat of the Land Rover. He flattened out his hand. He needed an outlet for his nervous energy. No matter what had happened back there, he felt responsible. Lexi had counted on his protection and yet he’d been unable to stop her from vanishing.

  “How long till we get to the main road?” he asked the lieutenant, who had taken the wheel and was driving as fast as he could across the sand back toward the coast.

  “A couple miles at the most.”

  He started tapping again. The problem was that once they got to the main road there was no way to say for certain if Trent had headed north or south. Or if he’d decided to hunker down in the city until things quieted down.

  He dismissed the last idea immediately. Trent was smart he would want to get as far away from the authorities as possible. Which left the other two options. But even then, only one was truly viable. Heading south would take him down into the Western Sahara and Mauritania. If he were Trent, Colton would head north then take a ferry out of Tangier, a Moroccan port city on the Strait of Gibraltar, or for the right price, he could even pay someone to smuggle him across the eight mile stretch of shipping lanes into Spain.

  “Which way are you planning on heading once we get to the main road?”