A Colby Christmas Rescue (Colby Agency: The Next Generation #1)

Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

Excalibur Court, 7:00 a.m.

To her surprise Jamie had managed to sleep. Maybe sheer exhaustion had helped. Whatever the reasons, she was grateful to wake up somewhat refreshed. It was always easier to stay focused with a few hours of sleep under one’s belt.

When she was a child, her grandmother had always warned that a lack of sleep stole one’s waking life. Stole one’s ability to function...to remember. Jamie had always taken sleep very seriously because of those warnings.

For the past hour she had been lying in her bed, mulling over the things Abi had said last night. He had a plan for not only getting the mission completed successfully but also for ensuring no one was arrested. She actually could not see how he planned to make that happen, but she could hope.

What they were about to do was illegal. Not just a little crime either. This was kidnapping. A felony. This wasn’t the sort of dance on the edge you walked away so easily from. Though she might be able to argue that in her case she had no choice in the matter since her brother’s life was at stake. She was, to a large degree, being forced to participate. Still, the powers that be would wonder why she hadn’t called the proper authorities. Fear for her brother’s safety was a fairly good defense. Their phones were monitored—no unauthorized calls. To go against that edict was to risk Luke’s life. As for Abi, he was assuredly breaking numerous laws with no mitigating factors to provide relief. He no doubt expected to get away scot-free.

The Colby Agency had the best attorneys in the country but that worry wasn’t a priority right now. Jamie wasn’t really worried for her future. As long as she avoided shooting anyone, she could potentially see her way clear—legally speaking—of this business. Whatever happened, her endgame was to rescue her brother. Optimally, she would do this without harming anyone else or getting herself shot.

Keeping Poe out of trouble was her top priority next to rescuing Luke. She would not allow Poe to be hurt by this mess. When she’d come to bed last night, she had lingered outside his door. The need to talk to him, to just be with him had been almost overwhelming. But she had made the right decision.

They were good friends. Very good friends. Since that kiss, it had become harder and harder to pretend she didn’t feel other things for him. But she didn’t want to harm their friendship in any way.

Poe was the reason she’d been so vulnerable to Abi last year. Even before the kiss that she and Poe had shared, she’d been attracted to him. Funny how those things happened when you were least expecting them.

Get your head on straight, Jamie. After a quick shower, she tugged on the wardrobe selection for today. The fact that Abi had known what size jeans she wore wasn’t such a big surprise. That he’d done so well selecting items she would feel comfortable in was an added plus. The sweatshirt sported a Chicago Cubs logo. She shook her head. Nice of him to try to make her feel at home. She pulled on a pair of socks and the sneakers she’d worn from LA. She wondered if the Santa she and Poe had rescued fully understood yet that they had saved his life. Sometimes targets were so flustered about being plucked from whatever their circumstances that they never got that they were damned lucky to still be breathing.

She brushed her hair and pulled it into a ponytail. She and Poe needed to discuss a potential exit strategy—for him anyway. This wasn’t really his fight and he needed to know she would understand if he ducked out.

But he wouldn’t. She knew him too well. She and Poe had been friends for a while now. Good friends. She understood that if he had his way, they would take their relationship to the next level. He had never said as much and was fairly subtle about it, but the signs were unmistakable. Not happening. Jamie didn’t want to risk what they had. It sounded cliché, but it was true. Falling in love wasn’t on her agenda just now anyway.

She was young. They both were. They had plenty of time to fall in love. Her grandmother would be the first to say Jamie should stay focused on her career for now. All the rest could come later.

She removed her cell from its charger and tucked it into her hip pocket. Since this mission was to go down tonight, maybe Abi would be ready to share the details this morning. No matter that she wouldn’t say as much, on some level she understood his hesitance. The sooner he shared the ins and outs of the mission, the sooner she and Poe could consider options for reacting differently than was intended. The sooner a leak could happen. He was just practicing extra careful precautions.

She walked to the door, leaned against it and listened. All quiet. She eased the door open and looked both ways. Hall was clear. The distinct scent of coffee wafted from downstairs and had her leaning in that direction. But before going down, she wanted to see if Poe was still in his room.

Across the hall, she listened at his door. She didn’t hear anything so she rapped softly on the door. “Poe,” she whispered, “you up?”

Usually, he was up before her. It was possible he was already downstairs, but since she hadn’t heard voices, she suspected not. She couldn’t see him and Abi standing around in the kitchen staring at each other without exchanging at least a few words.

Then again, maybe she could see them glaring at each other, circling the room like two wrestlers about to tangle.

She knocked again and when no answer came, she opted to give the knob a turn and see if the door was locked. It was not. It opened with little effort. The room was empty. Bed unmade. No surprise there. Poe wasn’t exactly the neatest dude on the planet. He would insist he had other assets, and he would be right. She had never met anyone who could read a scene the way he could. He almost had a sixth sense when it came to seeing the details. The FBI had wanted him so badly, but like her, Poe had wanted to do something different...something maybe more relevant.

Certainly, this operation had not been on either of their agendas.

Since the bathroom door stood partially open, she checked in there and found no sign of Poe. A towel hung over the shower door, suggesting he had showered before leaving the room or before bed last night. She wandered back into the hall. Maybe he had gone downstairs, and he and Abi actually were down there staring at each other, waiting to see who broke first.

Listening intently for any sign of life, she descended the stairs and made her way through the living room and into the kitchen.

No Poe. No Abi.

Then she spotted Abi on the patio, savoring his coffee. Steam rose from the mug he held, matching the steam wafting from the pool. He stared toward the house belonging to the doctor. She wondered if he was suffering second thoughts about what he had agreed to do.

Where the heck was Poe?

She made a full round of the first floor. Checked the powder room and the small library. She even had a look out the front windows. No Poe.

Worry started its slow creep around the edges of her mind. Poe wouldn’t just leave without telling her where he was going. Besides, she was fairly confident that Abi wouldn’t allow either of them to leave until this was done.

When she still found no sign of Poe, she opened the door onto the patio and joined Abi. “Good morning.”

He gave her a nod. “Morning.” He frowned. “No coffee?”

“I was looking for Poe. Have you spoken to him this morning?”

Abi’s gaze narrowed. “I haven’t seen him this morning. Did you check his room?”

“I did. He doesn’t appear to be down here either.” Now she was getting worried. Her nerves jangled. Poe wouldn’t just try to leave without telling her. Her worry turned to suspicion, and she had a bad feeling that Abi knew more than he was telling.

“All right. Let’s have a look,” he suggested. “We can cover more ground if we split up. I’ll go outside. You go through the house again.”

She shook her head. “No. You go through the house. I want to look outside.” She’d already been through the house.

He started to argue but then decided against it. “Fine. Just keep a low profile. There are neighbors up here.”

Jamie walked to the front door, pulled on her coat and headed outside. Excalibur Court was a single, dead end street. There were about a dozen large houses that circled the short street. The ones on their side overlooked the valley below where Dr. Case’s house sat nestled amid the thick woods. On the other side of the street, the houses backed up to another cul-de-sac. The area was thickly wooded so there was some amount of privacy despite the number of houses.

Jamie walked to the end of the drive and surveyed the cul-de-sac. There were no vehicles in the driveways. There were probably rules about leaving a vehicle outside the garage. There was one dark sedan at the end of the cul-de-sac parked in the common area. She watched it for a moment. Didn’t see anyone inside. The street was quiet. A breeze whipped through the air, reminding Jamie that it was almost Christmas and cold. Lots colder than in LA.

She liked the Los Angeles area, particularly the weather, but she spent most of her time in DC. Went with the territory of her work. She never knew where her next assignment would be. So far in the past year she had been assigned in all directions. Poe had worked with her on three missions.

Worry niggled at her again.

Where the hell was he?

She called his cell. Three rings and it went to voice mail. “Hey, where are you?”

A deeper worry started to gnaw at her. He wouldn’t just leave like this. Not possible.

She walked around the yard. Ventured several yards into the woods at the back of the house. No sign of Poe. She called out his name a couple of times with no response. This was wrong. Then she went back in the house.

Abi was on his phone.

Maybe Poe had called him with an explanation? But why wouldn’t he call Jamie?

She kept her cool until Abi ended his call. Then she demanded, “Was that him?”

“No. It was not. In fact, that was a colleague who is monitoring the comings and goings on the roads in and out of this development and he says no one has come in or gone out this morning.”

She wasn’t surprised that he had backup watching the street. He would be a fool not to have support nearby. It would be nice if he shared details like that, but arguing about it right now wasn’t an option.

“Something’s wrong.” Jamie moved to the wall of glass doors that led out onto the patio and looked out over the valley below. “He wouldn’t just leave.”

Abi joined her. “Are you sure about that?”

She turned on him. “What I’m sure about,” she said pointedly, “is that if he isn’t here, then something has happened to him and since you’re in charge of this operation, it’s your job to know what that is.”

He moved his head side to side in a somber manner. “I have not seen him this morning.”

“Then I suggest you back up the footage on your security cameras and see what happened.” If he dared to tell her there were no cameras, she might just have to punch him.

He nodded. “I can do that.”

In the living room, he picked up the remote to the television and turned it on. Then he opened a drawer on one of the side tables and withdrew another remote. This one he pointed at the television screen and made a number of selections.

A new app opened, and several views of the house appeared on the screen. He ran the video back and, sure enough, just before daylight, Poe exited a side door in the kitchen.

“You didn’t set the alarm?” This was ridiculous. Why would Abi take that sort of risk?

“I did set the alarm before I went to bed. I can only assume he disarmed it. It was armed when I got up this morning, which is why I didn’t consider that he’d gone outside.”

Poe was good. Figuring out a way around the code to disarm the security system wasn’t outside his purview, but why would he do that without telling her?

“The question,” Abi went on, “is why would he leave?”

“It would not be because he wanted to,” Jamie argued. If Abi was accusing Poe of something he could just back off. Poe would never double-cross her. She gestured to the screen. “Are there exterior cameras?” It was a silly question. Who had such an elaborate security system inside and then nothing outside?

Another click of the remote and they were looking at the yard around the house. The front was clear. So was the back. The view extended to the woods. While she watched, Abi ran the video back until it showed Poe as he walked out that side door.

Jamie held her breath as she watched him walk around the iron fence that separated the pool area from the rest of the yard. He continued past this area and straight toward the woods.

“This is wrong,” Jamie said, outright fear rising inside her now.

“We should go out there and have a look,” Abi suggested.

He led the way to the same kitchen side door that Poe had used. They exited the house and walked the cobblestone path toward the grassy area between the pool and the woods.

There was no way Poe would leave like this without telling her. No way. There had to be something about this that she didn’t know. A call from someone who had warned of imminent danger. Something.

Once they were in the woods, the lack of light made seeing any disturbance of the underbrush difficult. Jamie stood still and visually searched the area, looking for any indication that a person had cut through that underbrush.

Then she saw what she was looking for. A bent twig on a limb. She headed in that direction. Abi was right behind her. She inspected the bushes and the ground. Someone had definitely been through here recently.

She turned on the flashlight app of her phone and scanned the ground. The light flashed over something shiny.

Her heart bumped harder against her sternum.

She reached down and sifted through the leaves. Her fingers hit a cool and firm object.

Her gut clenched as her fingers curled around a cell phone.

The screen of Poe’s cell instantly lit with the missed call notifications from her attempts to reach him.

She started forward, looking for more indications of where the brush had been parted. Her heart pounded so hard she couldn’t catch her breath. Why would he come out here? Why wouldn’t he tell her whatever was on his mind?

A thought occurred to her, and she whirled on Abi. “You didn’t plant any tracking devices?”

He looked away before answering the question. “Only on you. I wasn’t expecting you to have company.”

Fury roaring through her, she started to search once more. If Poe was lying out here injured, she needed to find him.

Abi didn’t argue or question her actions. He just followed suit, picking his way through the brush and searching the same as she did.

An hour later it was obvious they weren’t going to find him.

The underbrush became spotty as they neared the drop down the hillside. At that point there was no longer any indication Poe had been out there.

They went back in the house and watched the security footage. Poe went into the woods, but he never came out.

This was wrong, wrong, wrong.

Jamie paced the floor. Where would he have gone? She supposed he could have cut left and come out around one of the other houses.

“I need to check with the neighbors.” That was the only possible next move.

“You can’t do that,” Abi argued. “We cannot call attention to ourselves.”

“I don’t care. I need to find my partner—my friend.”

Abi held up his hands. “What you need is coffee.”

Had he lost his mind? “I don’t need coffee.”

He poured a cup and placed it on the island. “Just sit down and drink. We need to think.”

She took a breath and then did as he asked. She slid onto a stool and picked up the cup. She hadn’t had any coffee this morning and suddenly she needed the caffeine desperately.

“First,” Abi suggested, “let’s approach this logically.”

She drank from the cup rather than taking a bite out of his head.

“Let’s consider the reasons Poe would leave.” He gestured to her. “You know him better than me. What do you think?”

“Someone may have called him with information he couldn’t ignore.”

“Do you have the pass code for his phone so we can see who he has spoken to?”

She made a face. “If I did I would have already checked. All I saw were the latest notifications and that was where I called him. To see beyond that I would need the pass code.”

“We can assume someone may have called him not only with news he couldn’t ignore, but also with something he didn’t feel he could share. Does he have family who may have needed his help?”

Jamie shook her head. “No one he’s close to.”

“What about your employer?”

“Maybe. But I can’t imagine why he wouldn’t have told me.” That was the part that made no sense at all. Poe would not just leave like this...not while leaving her behind.

“Then we have to assume it’s someone from this end.”

She was surprised that Abi made the statement. “Is there someone who wanted to stop this mission? Maybe someone who feels it’s the wrong move?”

“That’s always possible, but I was not informed of this if that is the case. I can make some calls. See if there’s something I should know. Check with my people to see if he’s left the area.”

Why the hell didn’t he just say that already?

“I would appreciate that.” She took a breath, forced her nerves to calm. “He wouldn’t leave like this without telling me unless he felt there was no other option.”

“Drink your coffee,” Abi said again. “I’ll make some calls.”

He walked outside onto the patio. Jamie watched and finished off her coffee. There was a chance Poe could have decided to take a risk to put protective measures in place. Not that she was going to share this with Abi. Poe didn’t trust Abi. He was concerned about how this would shake down and, in Jamie’s opinion, there was reason to be concerned. Poe may have believed that the best way to head off trouble was for him to bow out, making it look as if it was not voluntary. Then he would take up a position to watch, to be in place in the event Jamie needed an extraction.

It was an option they always discussed for their joint missions. It wasn’t one they’d ever had to use. More important, they had not talked about the option in this situation.

Whatever the case, the fact that he didn’t share his decision with her may have been to allow her to look completely uninvolved to Abi.

If that wasn’t the case, then something bad had happened to Poe and Jamie was really worried. The possibility that Abi could be involved was all the more troubling.

If he was injured—or worse—and someone wanted answers about what they were doing, Poe was in serious trouble because he had no real answers. Until now, Abi had shared basically nothing with them beyond the name of the target.

Which, she supposed, was the point. You couldn’t tell anyone what you didn’t know.

For Poe, that could end up being a very bad thing. Not having the answers his abductor wanted wouldn’t keep him alive.