Mercenary's Perfect Mission

“Coffee?” June asked as she rose from the table.

“I can get it,” Olivia replied. “You don’t have to wait on me.”

“Nonsense,” June replied and waved Olivia back into the chair. “As an official member of the household, you get one day of acclimating yourself before we assign you any duties. Scrambled eggs?”

“If it’s not too much trouble,” she replied, feeling guilty, but yet oddly relieved that for the moment somebody else was in charge.

What she wanted more than anything was to eat breakfast, regain her strength and have a chance to formulate some sort of a plan to get Ethan out of Cold Plains. Unfortunately, part of the problem was she wasn’t sure where he would be. The last time she’d seen him had been when she’d left him at the Cold Plains Day Care Center to go to work in the Community Center. But when she hadn’t returned to get him after normal work hours that day, he was simply gone.

Her stomach cramped with anxiety but she forced a smile of gratitude as June set a cup of steaming coffee in front of her. “How many people are staying here?” she asked as she waited for the coffee to cool a little bit.

“We have between eight and ten people at any one time,” June said as she broke a couple eggs into a small bowl. “The numbers are constantly in flux, but right now we have Darcy, sometimes here and sometimes at her new boyfriend’s. And then there’s Lacy Matthews and her three-year-old twins and, of course, Micah.”

“I see,” Olivia said.

“And also there’s Jesse Grainger.”

June’s cheeks pinkened slightly as she poured the eggs into an awaiting skillet. “Jesse was beaten and left for dead in the woods a month ago. His brother is one of Samuel’s followers and he’s hoping to be able to get him out of town, but Jesse has to be careful because Samuel assumes he’s dead.” There was something in June’s voice when she said Jesse’s name that indicated to Olivia that he might just be more to her than a man she had rescued from death.

“I know Lacy,” Olivia said. “She works at the Cold Plains Coffee Shop. I often went in there to get a cup of coffee on my way to work at the Community Center.”

“She finally decided to take her girls and run. Samuel was pressing to make the coffee shop a place that wouldn’t serve anyone who wasn’t a Devotee and Lacy was determined that anyone who came in was welcome to buy a coffee whether they followed Samuel’s teachings or not,” June explained.

By this time June was finished making Olivia her eggs and toast and Sam was using his sippy cup to drink a glass of milk. They fell silent for a few minutes and Olivia once again found herself going back in time, terrified by how close she’d come to falling completely and irrevocably beneath Samuel’s spell.

If she hadn’t seen Samuel murder that man with her own eyes, then perhaps today would have been the day she got her official tattoo on her hip, proclaiming her a true believer in Samuel and the philosophies he espoused. She would have turned a deaf ear to all the whispers about unsavory things going on in the town, like so many of Samuel’s other true believers.

All she’d ever wanted was a place where she felt like she belonged and she’d thought she’d found it in Cold Plains, but she’d been sucked into the vortex of an evil storm named Samuel. The only thing she could focus on now was the fact that she and Sam had escaped, but she’d been forced to leave behind her precious Ethan.

She wrapped her fingers around the warmth of the coffee mug in an effort to combat the icy chill that threatened to shiver through her as she thought of her son. Hopefully Samuel hadn’t seen her. She had no idea what anyone in town would think about her sudden disappearance, but surely somebody was taking good care of Ethan.

She had to believe that to be true and she had to figure out a way to somehow get him back where he belonged, in the safety of her loving arms.

As she finished her breakfast, Darcy entered the kitchen and bid them all good morning. As Olivia got a good look at the young, pretty woman, she was startled to realize that Darcy had a lot of the same features as Micah and Samuel. Of course her bright blue eyes were in opposition to their green ones, but she had the same cast to her chin, the same strong, bold features.

Maybe Olivia was just imagining things, dreading whatever it was that Micah thought they had to talk about. She didn’t want to think about the deep betrayal she felt where Samuel was concerned. She didn’t want to discuss building a case against him. All she wanted was to get her son back and figure out where her life went from here.

When she had finished eating, she carried her dishes to the sink and washed them as June explained that most of their water came through a filtering system from the creek that ran nearby. Electricity was provided by either solar energy or a generator that they preferred not to run unless absolutely necessary. Throughout many of the rooms, they depended on oil lanterns and candles to conserve energy.

As Micah sauntered into the room, a spark of energy surged up inside her and she couldn’t tell if it was positive or negative. There had been no man in her life since long before Sam’s birth. Maybe it was only natural that she’d respond to a hot male who had brought her to safety.

She walked over to Sam, who raised his arms to be lifted from the high chair. As she pulled him out, he snuggled against her chest with a happy sigh.

“You want to take a walk with me?” Micah asked, his gaze enigmatic.

“Okay.” She tried to ignore the pound of her heart as she followed him out of the kitchen. She reminded herself she had nothing to fear from him. He’d found her in the forest and brought her here to safety. He’d given her no real reason not to trust him … at least not yet.

Still her distrust of men in general ran deep. It had begun with her absent father, a man she had never known, and continued with Jeff Winfry, the man who had fathered Sam and Ethan. He’d promised to love her, to marry her and settle down as a family. She’d met him just after her mother’s death and even though she’d known he wasn’t Mr. Perfect, she’d believed herself in love.

There had been no settling down. Jeff had dragged her and the children from one small town to another, working odd jobs that barely kept them fed and finally he’d dumped her and the kids just outside of Cold Plains, telling her his future just didn’t include a family. Her father, Jeff and then Samuel. She was determined not to give her trust so easily again.

Micah Grayson was just as formidable from the back as he was from the front, she thought as she followed him. His shoulders were broad, his hips slim and she had to hurry to keep up with his long-legged gait.

She gasped in surprise as he opened a door and they stepped outside into the bright sunshine. They were in a small clearing filled with a babbling brook on one side and a healthy looking vegetable and herb garden on the other.

“What a beautiful place,” she exclaimed.

He nodded and motioned her to a fallen tree trunk that had been fashioned into a bench. “According to June, they try to be as self-sustaining as possible here. So, she grows what she can and depends on some of us to provide the other necessities from neighboring towns.”

She sat next to him on the bench and placed Sam on the grass at her feet where he immediately became enchanted with a leaf that had fallen from one of the nearby trees.

“Aren’t you all afraid somebody might see this place?” she asked.

Micah shook his head, his dark hair gleaming in the sunshine. “We’re sitting in a small valley between two mountains.” He pointed to the jagged edge of the range that surrounded them. “The only way to get here is through the cave and you saw last night how difficult it was to find.”

Although they sat several inches apart, despite the scent of the fresh herbs in the air, she could smell him, that woodsy, clean male scent that curled a ball of tension in her stomach.

“What was it you wanted to talk to me about?” she asked, eager to get this conversation over with and away from the man who seemed to both draw her and scare her just a little bit.

“I had your story checked out by a friend of mine, Hawk, the FBI agent. One of many trying to build a case against Samuel for the murders of those five women, among other things.” He stretched his long legs out before him, appearing to be completely at ease.

“And what did he discover?” In contrast, she was a bundle of nerves and wanted to curl into herself to escape everything that had happened in the past two days.

“That you are what you say you are.” His green eyes drifted downward, making her suddenly far too conscious of how tightly her borrowed T-shirt pulled across her breasts. She hunched her shoulders forward slightly.

His gaze lingered there for just a second and then snapped back up to meet her eyes. “You worked as a secretary in the Community Center, meaning you obviously worked closely with Samuel. You might have some valuable information that could help all of us.”

“So, basically what you’re saying is that you would like me to help you and your FBI friends.” She held his gaze intently. “I’ll do whatever I can to help you if you’ll get my son out of Cold Plains and back safely here with me. But, until that happens, I have nothing more to say to you.”

His stare grew harder, colder but she refused to look away. If he wanted to use her, then she had no qualms about using him first.

Samuel Grayson stood at the window in the large meeting room in the Community Center where an hour before he’d finished one of his nightly seminars. Although he’d given a rousing speech about love of community and building good lives here, the crowd had been smaller than usual and the sales of the healing tonic water after the meeting had been pathetic.

You’re losing control, a little voice whispered inside his head. “No,” he said aloud. It was just growing pains and the result of the investigation he knew was taking place. People were on edge because of the FBI presence in and around town, and that meant he’d just have to work harder to assure them that he had things under control.

Dammit, he’d thought he’d removed any danger to himself and his plans when he’d sent Dax Roberts, one of his most trusted men, to kill his brother. He’d known that if Micah had caught word of the investigations into the murders he wouldn’t be able to keep his nose out of things. It had been easier to take him out before he became a problem.

Unfortunately, he knew he was under investigation for the murders of those women. He knew there were people in his own town working against him and it was getting more and more difficult to tell who could and couldn’t be trusted.

His remaining henchmen—those not already in jail—had been working overtime, taking out the people who were overtly working against him, those who had taken a path in direct opposition of him.

He felt as if the walls of the town were slowly closing in on him and he didn’t like it. He didn’t like it one bit. He’d worked too hard and too long to be brought down by anyone. This was his town and he deserved all the power and money that had come along with it. He wasn’t going to let anyone take it away from him.

He turned from the window, and as he walked out of the meeting room, he paused and stared at the desk where Olivia Conner usually sat.

Yet another mystery, he thought. She’d simply vanished into thin air, leaving behind one of her children. He had no idea what had happened to her, had no idea if she was dead or alive. He’d put the child with the other one, hidden away in a secured location until he could find out what had happened to Olivia.

He’d had a couple of his men check her house and they had reported back that nothing seemed to be missing—no clothes and no baby items. There had been a Crock-Pot plugged in with what appeared to be Swiss steak charred to a crisp. They’d unplugged the pot but had touched nothing else.

It was possible she’d been grabbed off the street by the FBI because of her position at the Community Center. The joke would be on them. She knew nothing except how to schedule therapy sessions for him with the locals or renting out the space in the basement that was used for weddings and celebrations.

They’d get nothing from her that could harm him. She’d been simply the office help, although he’d been close to turning her completely, and once that happened he wouldn’t have minded a little intimate time with her. She’d been a hot little number despite her two brats.

Whatever had happened to her, it had appeared she’d had every intention of returning home the day that she had disappeared. If he didn’t hear from her soon, he would make the appropriate plans for Ethan. He would fetch a lot of money, a handsome little boy in perfect health. Just this thought alone made him feel more in control.

He was going to be fine. The people against him would eventually drift away and he would continue his work here in Cold Plains. He wouldn’t be satisfied until everyone in town sported the small D tattoo on their hip that marked them as his.

Chapter 3

By six o’clock that afternoon, Micah realized they didn’t have enough diapers for Sam. “I feel terrible,” Olivia said as several of them sat at the table. “I have a huge box at home, but I never got a chance to go back there and grab anything before I took off.”

“Not a problem,” Micah said. “I’ll sneak into town tonight to your house and grab whatever it is you need.”

June gasped. “Micah, you know you’ll be shot on sight.”

He smiled, a mirthless gesture that didn’t lighten the dark green hue of his eyes. “They’d have to see me to shoot me.”

“I don’t want to put anyone in danger,” Olivia protested.

He hadn’t seen her since their discussion that morning. Most of the time in the afternoons, Micah went to one of the darkest, smallest rooms in the cave and slept so he’d be prepared to stay up through the night when he could use the cover of darkness to explore Cold Plains.

“I’ve been in town after dark several times before. It shouldn’t be too great a challenge to get into your house, grab some things and then get out,” Micah replied.

June looked at him dubiously. “You could always drive into Laramie and pick up whatever is needed.”

“That’s fifty miles away,” Micah replied. “Besides, I intended to go in tonight anyway and see if I can find out where they might be keeping your son. I’ve already put out the word to FBI agents working the case that we’re looking for the whereabouts of a three-year-old. All I really need from you is a list and a location and a house key if you have it. I’d rather go in through the door than break a window that might draw unwanted attention to your place.”

“As important as the diapers are, I need you to find Ethan.” Her eyes were simmering pools of emotion, pools that if he wasn’t careful he felt like he might fall in.

He knew nothing personal about Olivia Conner. He had no idea what had brought her to Cold Plains, what had happened to the father of her children or who she was at her core. But, what he did know was that she drew him as a woman, not as somebody to be used to further his goals.

There was something about Olivia Conner that reminded him that he was more than just a mercenary, more than a hunter seeking the source of a deadly disease named Samuel in a small town.

Something about her softness, her aura of vulnerability reminded him that he was also a thirty-eight-year-old man who had basically been alone for all of his life.

“I just don’t want to be responsible for anyone getting hurt on my account,” she said.

“Trust me, I have no intention of getting hurt,” he replied smoothly. “Just make me a list of things you want and as soon as it gets dark, I’ll go in.” He got up from the table, both uncomfortable with her nearness and knowing he needed to get some sleep before night.

He decided to check in with Hawk and used his radio to call the agent. Cell phone usage was impossible amid the mountains and beneath the cave. So, old-fashioned handheld radios were still the best form of communication between the agents hiding out in the area.

Minutes later, Micah left the cave entrance and made the long trek down the narrow passageway that would eventually lead him to the forest where he’d found Olivia and Sam.

He got to the meeting place first and stood watchful, as usual listening for sounds of anyone else nearby. An unexpected bullet to the head had not only left him with killer migraines and a burning need for revenge, but also a heightened awareness of his surroundings. Never would anyone sneak up on him again.

Normally he didn’t hear Hawk’s approach until he was almost on top of the meeting place, but this time he heard the snap of a dried twig and the faint whisper of feet against the forest floor.

He held his gun, alarmed by the unusual noise and then relaxed only slightly as the sandy-haired, brown-eyed FBI agent appeared. He wasn’t alone. Beside him was a somber-looking dark-haired man with pain-filled brown eyes.

“It’s okay,” Hawk said, indicating that Micah could put down his gun. Micah pointed the barrel to the ground, but didn’t holster it. “This is Dr. Rafe Black and he wanted to speak to you personally.”

Micah knew that Rafe and Darcy were a couple and he also knew that Rafe was one of the good guys, helping to not only bring down Samuel, but also desperately seeking the child he’d never met but was certain existed. Rafe had his own practice in town and treated anyone who needed medical attention while walking a fine line between pretending to be part of the cult and actively working against them.

“I’m looking for my son,” Rafe said without preamble. “I had a photo of him, but it has mysteriously vanished. In the picture he was about three months old and he has brown hair and brown eyes like me. He’d be about nine months old now.”

“I heard from Darcy that you thought he’d been found,” Micah said.

Rafe nodded. “They tried to fool me by giving me somebody else’s child and pretending it was my Devin, but the real father came back and reclaimed his son.”

“And you’re sure Devin really exists?” Micah asked. Darcy had told him that Rafe had learned about his son when Abby had called him and that he’d sent money via Western Union for her and the child. Sounded like a potential scam to Micah.

Rafe’s eyes darkened. “Definitely. Abby wasn’t the kind of woman to lie. Besides, if Devin didn’t exist, then why did somebody in Cold Plains go to so much trouble to force a man to give up his own son to replace mine?”

“Good point,” Micah conceded.

Rafe shook his head. “Devin exists and he’s being hidden someplace in town. I’ll pay you whatever you want to find him. I know what you do. I know that you work for a fee. You just name your price and I’ll see to it that you get it the minute that Devin is in my arms.”

Micah held up his hand to stop Rafe’s pleas. “I’m already on the hunt for one kid and it’s possible they’re both being held in the same place. All I can promise is that I’ll look for Devin and there’s no charge. Believe me, I’m doing all this for my own satisfaction.” And of course to get Olivia to cooperate with the FBI, he reminded himself.

“You know there are rumors of secret rooms in basements where the elderly and the infirm are held until they either die or can be transported far away,” Rafe said. “I’ve done what I can to find them, but I have to be careful because I’m still trying to win people’s trust. There are also rumors about an adoption scheme and my biggest fear is that, if I don’t find Devin soon, he’ll be lost to me forever.”

His concerns echoed those of Olivia and although Micah couldn’t begin to identify with the gut-wrenching grief of a parent for a missing child, he did feel a deep worry for any child that was in his brother’s clutches.

“We’ve been searching for these hidden rooms,” Hawk said, “but so far no luck.”

“If they’re there, I’ll find them,” Micah said with grim determination. After another promise to Rafe to look for his son, the three men parted ways.

Micah headed back to the safe house, knowing that two hours later the sun would be down and darkness would begin to shroud the “perfect” little town of Cold Plains.

Once he got back, he met Olivia just inside the door, a smiling Sam in her arms. Olivia wasn’t smiling. In fact, he had yet to see her smile. Her eyes were filled with worry as she handed him a list of items she’d like retrieved from her home. Then she held out a small photo. “This is Ethan. It was taken a month ago.”

He examined the photo of the handsome little boy. His blond hair was neatly cut and his features were those of his mother. He had a bright smile and green eyes that looked eager to explore whatever lay ahead.

He needed to be with his mother and his brother. It was obvious that Olivia was the kind of mother Micah hadn’t had, a woman with the need to protect her children, and Ethan belonged here with her.

“I don’t feel good about this,” she said as she also handed him a note with her address written down and a key to the door.

Micah fought the impulse to reach out and smooth the tiny furrow that had appeared between her brows. “I’m not doing anything different than I have every night since I’ve been here. I’m getting to be an expert at skulking around houses, trying to catch snatches of conversations, identifying the people who are with Samuel and those who are secretly working against him.”

“Just be safe,” she said, the words both surprising and oddly touching to him.

At that moment Sam leaned forward in his mother’s arm and with his chubby hand grabbed Micah’s ear. “Ear,” he pronounced proudly.

An unaccustomed smile stretched Micah’s lips. “Yeah, buddy, that’s my ear.” He gently disengaged Sam’s little fingers and stepped back. “And I’m hoping the next time I see you I’ll still have both my ears.”

“Don’t even joke like that,” Olivia protested.

Suddenly he wanted to see her smile. “If I can’t manage to get him diapers then we’ll figure out a way to fashion waterproof leaf covers that will make him look like a baby Tarzan.”

He was rewarded by a smile that whispered an evocative warmth through him. “I’m not at all sure that I’m ready to raise a jungle boy.”

Just as quickly as he’d wanted her smile, he now wanted to escape it, escape her and the little boy who cast him a wide, slightly drooling grin. He’d chosen to live his life alone, trusting nobody, caring for nobody and nothing was going to change that, especially now in the midst of his battle with his brother.

“I need to prep to get out of here.” He moved past her, wanting to forget the beauty of her smile, the fact that just by looking into her soft green eyes, she got to him some way that made him both uncomfortable and just a little bit excited.

An hour later he stepped out into the deepening shadows of twilight. He had an empty rucksack on his back that could carry anything Olivia might need from her home.

As he made his way soundlessly through the woods, his mind focused only on the tasks at hand. His first was to get into Olivia’s house, retrieve the items she needed and then leave as quickly as possible.

He’d hide the filled rucksack and then return to town to try to find the secret rooms that had been rumored to hide the people, including the children, not fit for Samuel’s vision of perfection.

Micah knew tunnels had been found and some secret rooms discovered beneath the Community Center and under the hospital clinic, but there had been no sign in those places of the children or some of the other townspeople who had vanished.

He knew that none of the FBI agents working the area had been able to get close to Samuel’s house. The stately home was guarded by armed men at all times. The general consensus was that Samuel would be a fool to have any evidence inside his private abode that tied him to anything, but Micah knew how perverse his brother could be and it would be just like him to be arrogant enough to hide evidence in plain sight.