military, and you see he’s still here. If Nicole was a credible source, Yvette wouldn’t have had her cleansed.”
“Fine. You go right ahead and be arrogant. Me, I’m gonna get the fuck out of here before that girlfriend of his turns up.”
“Oh, for God’s sake,” Marla complained. “For the nine-hundredth time, Amanda is not some hired gun. I don’t know how all this crap gets started.”
“If you say so. But I bet you a hundred bucks she’s the one who took Steph.”
Good lord, Amanda thought. All she did was take part in Derek’s stupid interrogation fantasy, and the DriveRate people thought she was a terrorist or something.
Her knee started to bob, wondering if Thomas had gotten her texts, and whether he and his team were on their way to stop Marla from taking Warnous. What if Thomas’s phone was dead, or something had gone wrong?
Knowing she shouldn’t do it, she got up and headed for the door. She slipped quietly into the night, and nearly screamed when she saw a silent crowd of dark shapes moving past the cabin.
One of them veered her direction.
Eric. He bullied her back into the shadows. “What the heck are you thinking?”
She grabbed onto him to babble whispered questions. Why was Eric back already? Was Steph okay?
Eric assured her that Steph was fine. Furious, with him and Thomas and Warnous, but fine. “Now, shut up and watch.”
He hauled her around the corner of the cabin so she could see moonlight reflecting off the lake. A single, startled yelp alerted her that something was happening on shore. So eerie. Bodies swarmed, but there was almost no sound. It took the security team less than forty seconds to capture Marla and her companion, secure Warnous, and leave the beach deserted once more.
No one got hurt. Not a single client would ever guess they had just had a major security situation. And never in her wildest dreams had Amanda ever thought she would be a willing accessory to kidnapping.
* * * * *
Three hours later, she sat curled up in one corner of a Queen Anne sofa. Thomas sat beside her, his elbows propped on his knees while Josh stood staring out a window, so coldly angry that she and Thomas had ice-cream headaches.
Josh had asked them both to meet him at Prescott house. He and Thomas had just returned from an emergency Accord meeting. Things were bad, now that Marla had been exposed as a DriveRate operative. Her betrayal hit much harder than Brent’s. This time, the enemy had been at the hearth for years, seated in the innermost circles.
Worse, there was one more DriveRate operative to identify and if Marla could remain hidden among them for so long, who else might turn out to be an enemy?
Thomas must have been thinking along the same lines. He spoke quietly, trying to reassure Josh. “We don’t know for sure that there’s another operative inside Fantasy Heights. Scott still suspects Nicole might have been the third operative. If it’s true that Derek’s woman-in-white was Yvette made up to look like someone else, then that means Yvette was on the resort at least fifteen times. She could have been the one responsible for the computer activity we haven’t explained yet.”
“Maybes and mights and ifs aren’t good enough. We need to know for certain. And we need an ID on the guy with Marla. Why can’t they figure out who he is?”
“Because his prints aren’t in any system we have access to.”
Josh muttered something. “Tell me they’ve increased security on Gail Warnous, at least.”
“No one will get near her or the boy. You have my word.”
They all fell silent once more. Josh turned toward the window while Amanda and Thomas gave each other cautious, speaking looks. They both felt terrible, and they both worried about Josh. Thomas had already confessed his plan to return to the military. He’d owned up to Steph’s kidnapping, too, and even Josh had to concede that Steph would never have left Warnous to go into treatment willingly.
Thomas had
“Fine. You go right ahead and be arrogant. Me, I’m gonna get the fuck out of here before that girlfriend of his turns up.”
“Oh, for God’s sake,” Marla complained. “For the nine-hundredth time, Amanda is not some hired gun. I don’t know how all this crap gets started.”
“If you say so. But I bet you a hundred bucks she’s the one who took Steph.”
Good lord, Amanda thought. All she did was take part in Derek’s stupid interrogation fantasy, and the DriveRate people thought she was a terrorist or something.
Her knee started to bob, wondering if Thomas had gotten her texts, and whether he and his team were on their way to stop Marla from taking Warnous. What if Thomas’s phone was dead, or something had gone wrong?
Knowing she shouldn’t do it, she got up and headed for the door. She slipped quietly into the night, and nearly screamed when she saw a silent crowd of dark shapes moving past the cabin.
One of them veered her direction.
Eric. He bullied her back into the shadows. “What the heck are you thinking?”
She grabbed onto him to babble whispered questions. Why was Eric back already? Was Steph okay?
Eric assured her that Steph was fine. Furious, with him and Thomas and Warnous, but fine. “Now, shut up and watch.”
He hauled her around the corner of the cabin so she could see moonlight reflecting off the lake. A single, startled yelp alerted her that something was happening on shore. So eerie. Bodies swarmed, but there was almost no sound. It took the security team less than forty seconds to capture Marla and her companion, secure Warnous, and leave the beach deserted once more.
No one got hurt. Not a single client would ever guess they had just had a major security situation. And never in her wildest dreams had Amanda ever thought she would be a willing accessory to kidnapping.
* * * * *
Three hours later, she sat curled up in one corner of a Queen Anne sofa. Thomas sat beside her, his elbows propped on his knees while Josh stood staring out a window, so coldly angry that she and Thomas had ice-cream headaches.
Josh had asked them both to meet him at Prescott house. He and Thomas had just returned from an emergency Accord meeting. Things were bad, now that Marla had been exposed as a DriveRate operative. Her betrayal hit much harder than Brent’s. This time, the enemy had been at the hearth for years, seated in the innermost circles.
Worse, there was one more DriveRate operative to identify and if Marla could remain hidden among them for so long, who else might turn out to be an enemy?
Thomas must have been thinking along the same lines. He spoke quietly, trying to reassure Josh. “We don’t know for sure that there’s another operative inside Fantasy Heights. Scott still suspects Nicole might have been the third operative. If it’s true that Derek’s woman-in-white was Yvette made up to look like someone else, then that means Yvette was on the resort at least fifteen times. She could have been the one responsible for the computer activity we haven’t explained yet.”
“Maybes and mights and ifs aren’t good enough. We need to know for certain. And we need an ID on the guy with Marla. Why can’t they figure out who he is?”
“Because his prints aren’t in any system we have access to.”
Josh muttered something. “Tell me they’ve increased security on Gail Warnous, at least.”
“No one will get near her or the boy. You have my word.”
They all fell silent once more. Josh turned toward the window while Amanda and Thomas gave each other cautious, speaking looks. They both felt terrible, and they both worried about Josh. Thomas had already confessed his plan to return to the military. He’d owned up to Steph’s kidnapping, too, and even Josh had to concede that Steph would never have left Warnous to go into treatment willingly.
Thomas had
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