They said their good-byes and hung up.

Blake stared at the photograph, memorizing the faces. They were all big men, as he would expect of marines. One guy had a huge smile on his lips and another held a rifle in each hand with ammunition belts strapped over his shoulders. Two of them had a freshness behind their eyes that reminded Blake of Kansas farm boys. One had his hair so short his ears stood out. Or maybe his ears were just large.

His cell phone in his pocket rang. He checked the ID before he answered. It was Dean.

“Hear anything?”

“From Neil? No. I’m at your place with Neil’s security team. Ken Sands called in a specialist who deals with some of the higher-tech bugs seen in political circles.”

Blake’s skin started to crawl.

“Guess what we found?”

“Neil’s bug.”

“Seriously high-tech shit, too. We’re talking classified, spy on the president stuff. Sands sent a team over to Tarzana to check the system there. Homicide was just about to wrap up the naked hot tubbers as an accident. I’m going to have them call in the military police and look again.”

Blake looked at the photo in his hands. “Any ID on the driver?”

“Not yet. Wish I had a set of prints. All military personnel are fingerprinted, blood typed, and photographed when they go in. The picture we have cleaned up a little, but it’s not great.”

“Send me a copy. I’ll turn Neil’s place upside down and compare it to any he might have.”

“You’re thinking this guy knows Neil?”

“Or someone gave him a detailed description.”

Dean cussed under his breath. “This reeks.”

“Tell me about it.”

Raven tucked his car off the road and slept for four hours straight. Didn’t even bother calling in to let his boss know he was in town. There was no way he was going to take Mac on a couple hours of sleep. If anything, he’d wait until Mac was exhausted and he was rested.

He stepped out of the car and into the cool, moist air of the Colorado Rockies. A few feet away was a tall pine. He pissed on it before wiping his hands on his pants. Gotta love the great outdoors. A nice cabin in the woods away from everyone and everything would be perfect for him and his girl. He could hunt, and she could take care of their home. Once he took care of his little leftover problems, everything would fall back into place.

His left leg stiffened in the cold, reminding him of the pain he’d suffered. All because Mac didn’t call the shot in time.

Damn Billy for not stepping over Mac to do the right thing. Billy saw it coming, and weaseled out because of a kid. A stupid f**king kid that would have grown up hating all of them anyway.

That’s all right. Billy got his. And he got Billy’s girl right before he filled her with C-4 and blew the f**k out of her. That was sweet.

Raven couldn’t tell his boss that part. Wouldn’t be wise to make the boss think he liked blowing people up. When he came home, he had talked to so many shrinks that he knew exactly what questions they’d ask. More importantly, what answers they wanted to hear.

Raven made his way back to the car and tossed a handful of sour candy into his mouth.

After turning on his phone, he called in to see where his assignment had landed.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

“What if he doesn’t come?”

Rick posed the question Neil didn’t want to think about. They were going on their third day. He’d taken one of the bugged hand receivers from Blake’s home and was using it as a homing beacon for Raven. All the man had to do was check out the frequency.

But every hour that passed without the man making an appearance made him crazy. Worse, he didn’t have any contact with Gwen to know how she was holding up in his absence. If Raven were watching, he could be waiting for them to give up and go home. Thus leading him to Gwen. And that couldn’t happen.

Both he and Rick circled their camp, changing positions often. If Raven was out there, they weren’t going to give him time to settle into any one spot.

“I’ve been thinking,” Rick said in his ear. “Raven wants to kill us, right?”

“Ultimately.”

“But he wants it to look like an accident…like with Billy.”

Neil peered through his binoculars, noticed a flock of birds taking flight from a faraway pine. He kept his gaze on the activity at the base of the tree, wondering what disturbed them.

“No one will think I offed myself.”

“Double for me. So that leaves what? A hunting accident? Traffic accident?”

“We’re not driving.” A deer stood under the tree, his nose lifted in the air. Neil moved his gaze in the opposite direction of the animal.

“Where did you park your car?” Neil asked.

“Oh, damn…you don’t think he’ll blow it up?”

“Wouldn’t you?”

Rick cussed. “Knew I should have just parked it here.”

“But then he’ll know for sure there are two of us. This way there might be some doubt.”

“Not going to help my car. I just got a Cat Back system in her. Sweet ride. Fuck. Maybe I should go check on her.”

Neil chuckled. “Sure…walk into his trap. Good thinking.”

Rick mumbled another series of curses. “It’s not like I have a bank load of money to replace her when this is done. Insurance doesn’t cover everything.”

“Haven’t you been working?”

“Here and there. Nothing steady. Being in the marines is a hard life to follow with a paper-pushing job. Ya know?”

He did. “Let’s get through this first. I can always use another set of eyes.”

“Private security?”

“Might sound boring, but it seems the people I work with always have someone after them.”

“Maybe.”

“No pressure. Job’s yours if you want it.” Having Rick on his team would be like having a brother on his side.

“Might not have a choice if this f**ktard blows up my ride. Damn it, I should have thought of that.”

Neil took a few steps out of his hiding spot and looked around.

Nothing.

“I’m going toward camp. Start a fire and see what the smoke attracts.”

“Copy that.”

Neil zigzagged through the trees until he reached camp.

He’d already oiled up leaves to make more smoke than fire. He lit them, and piled green wood on top. Once assured that the smoke wouldn’t die out the minute he stepped away, Neil backtracked.