His eyes, so deep blue and questioning, moved over her face.

  “So we’ll go together, and hope Koko can alert and maybe attack if needed, right?”

  “Right. This will be a good time to prove himself. A good plan.” She hoped. “Meantime, I’ll call for backup.”

  “Okay, are you ready?”

  She nodded and made the call. Then she saw a hockey stick by the other door. “I’ll use this as my weapon.”

  He winced. “Don’t break my hockey stick, okay?”

  “Only if I have to protect you or Koko with it.”

  Giving her an appreciative glance, Eli went over the plan. “We’ll walk the perimeters of the property and stay in the shadows. If you have a hat in your tote bag, get it now.”

  “I have a hat and gloves,” she said, crawling to where she’d dropped her bag by the door, careful to avoid the glass by the window. Soon she was covered from head to toe. Maybe all that bundling would protect her from a bullet.

  As they crawled toward the back door, Eli managed to reach up and find the stove knob to turn off the chili.

  “We’ll have dinner later,” he said, but he didn’t sound too confident.

  * * *

  Eli stayed in front of Mallory and Koko. She’d given the dog the quiet command, and so far, he was obeying. Eli prayed Koko wouldn’t go wild and start barking again. They probably should have left him in the house, but Mallory was right. Koko had to be tested and what better time than now, after all the excitement earlier? They had to find out what was going on.

  Maybe a bad case of road rage? Or something much worse?

  Eli feared the second scenario. They worked with people who took out criminals every day, so they had access to criminal records and all kinds of information that never made it to the public. Of course, criminals tended to hold grudges. What if someone could be retaliating?

  He glanced around the wide backyard that sat below a jutting bluff, not far from the Chugach State Park. Eli had often hiked along these trails, so he knew the path up to that bluff. If they could get up there, they’d have a good view of the open ground between the house and the thicket. But that could be treacherous in the ice and snow.

  They heard another noise. “That’s coming from inside the barn,” he whispered.

  The small barn was about fifty yards from his cabin, toward the back of the property. It needed some work, but it was sturdy and built to last. Unless someone worked on destroying it right now.

  Mallory held to the back of his jacket, Koko by her side. The dog growled low, meaning he could sense the danger. But did he know the intruder?

  Mallory held on to Eli. “Why hasn’t someone arrived from headquarters?”

  “Snow, ice, treacherous roads,” he explained. “They’re short-staffed during the holidays.”

  “The dispatcher said she’d send someone immediately, but this place isn’t easy to find even when you’re in law enforcement.”

  Eli could agree with that. Though he liked the isolation most days. “Meantime, let’s check it out.”

  They maneuvered their way around trees and shrubs, but when they didn’t see anyone, Eli motioned to her. They slipped up onto the back porch of the barn. It sat dark and shuttered, its roofline hunched over with heavy snow.

  Another crash and then someone came hurling out onto the small porch and fell at their feet. Eli went into action and jumped the man, holding him down, his gun pressing into the man’s ribs. “Start talking! Who are you and why are you here?”

  A shaky voice called out, “Eli, it’s me. Aidan. Don’t shoot me, please.”

  Mallory let out a held breath while Eli flipped the man over. “Who’s Aidan?”

  “My brother.”

  Eli held the gun away as he let the boy go. “Aidan, what’s going on? Did you follow Mallory here? Did you run her off the road and then shoot at us?”

  The boy’s breath came in panting huffs. He looked scared and confused, thick bangs jutting out from his black wool cap. “Yes, I tried to get her off the road, but I wasn’t the one doing the shooting. I was trying to stall her, to get her out of the way. I came here to warn you. Someone’s out to kill both of us.” Then he glanced at Mallory. “And probably you, too.”

  THREE

  “Okay, Aidan, start over from the beginning,” Eli said, running a hand over his shaggy bangs after Mallory handed him a cup of coffee. Still reeling from finding his brother on his property, he hadn’t gotten past Aidan, a freshman in college, being in some sort of deep trouble. They were actually half-brothers, since Eli’s father had a brief affair with another woman when Eli was ten years old. She’d abandoned the baby, and that left Dad to take care of Aidan. Things around their house had been tense for a while, but at least his mother loved Aidan, too.

  Eli had just returned with Koko and was still in shock from finding his younger brother crashing through a barn door. He’d sent Aidan and Mallory inside once Aidan warned them that they were all in danger. Everett Brand, a local police officer now engaged and about to be married to team member Helena Maddox, had heard the call and come to the rescue. He’d managed to chase down the SUV leaving the premises. Everett had called in reinforcements to scour the woods for evidence, too.

  Mallory gave him a questioning stare. “Before Aidan explains, what happened out there?”

  Eli sipped his coffee and then set the cup on the counter. “Koko and I pursued the intruder into the woods on the north side of the property. We could see deep tracks in the snow, but unfortunately we lost the scent. When I heard sirens, I pulled Koko back.” He brushed off his jeans and boots. “The snow out there is knee-deep. We met Everett at the road, but when Koko alerted and tugged toward the driveway, Everett and I followed. The vehicle took off as we rounded the curve, spinning out on the snow. Everett went after it, but radioed he’d lost the SUV on the main road.”

  Mallory lowered her head. “So this person is still on the loose.”

  “Yes.”

  Eli nodded. “I gave the colonel a detailed report. Meanwhile, we’re on the lookout for the man who forced Aidan to come here.”

  Earlier, Aidan had given Eli a good description and the man’s name, but they all figured that was an alias. He’d go to ground, but they’d keep looking. Lorenza would have someone scouring the whole of Anchorage and beyond.

  The kid was shivering now, whether from the bitter cold or fright, Eli couldn’t be sure. But the warm fire and the hot coffee should help. “Aidan? We need to hear your side of this.”

  Mallory sat petting Koko. The K-9 had done his job by alerting and barking enough to scare away whoever was with Aidan. But his brother was right. They’d be back. Aidan knew the man who’d wanted to kill them. That wouldn’t go well when he reported back to the whole gang.

  Aidan gulped his coffee, then put the cup on the table beside the worn brown couch. “Lena Matson,” he said. “She got me mixed up in this mess.”

  “Who is Lena?” Mallory asked, her eyes laser sharp as she went from concerned friend into her professional protocol.

  “A girl I met at school,” Aidan replied. “We hit it off kinda quick, like, she got me, or so I thought.”

  “Go on,” Mallory said while Eli brought over bowls of slightly scorched chili.

  Aidan grabbed the chili. “I’m so hungry.”

  “Talk and eat,” Eli said. Why were teenagers always hungry?

  Aidan shoved a spoonful of the meaty chili into his mouth, then drank the water Mallory had brought to him once they’d gotten him to the cabin.

  “I met Lena in a study group,” Aidan said. “She was behind on math and history. Or so she said.”

  Eli glanced at Mallory, thinking this could take all night. “Aidan, speed this up. We’ve got to decide what to do before these people send someone else.”

  Aidan finished the food. “We got to know each other, but I noticed she dressed in really nice clothes, so I figured she was way out of my league. Her parents live in a big, fancy house and her dad owns some type of construction business—but that’s just a cover.” He shot Eli an apologetic glance. “They want your property, too.”

  Eli took notes. “Okay, so she has money, and her dad wants this property—my property? Why?”

  “Yeah, that’s the weird part—as a cover. They need secluded properties like this one and...I bragged on it and on you. Once I realized I’d been tricked, I thought back over the whole group. These kids come from nice families, so they don’t need to go around doing snatch-and-grabs.”

  Eli held up his hand. “Wait, what?”

  “They run a huge robbery ring,” Aidan said. “I found out when Lena took me to a house that’s three times the size of hers. And hers is huge.”

  “Why did she take you there?”

  “The big man lives there. The leader, she called him. Her dad works for him. They wanted me to join up,” he explained. “And...she’d told the man about this place because I went on and on to her one night about how my big brother lives here and owns a lot of acreage. Now they want it and they offered a huge price. But I told them you wouldn’t sell.” He shrugged. “But they looked up the info and saw the deed, Eli. They find stuff like that and use it to their advantage.”

  Eli glanced from Aidan to Mallory. “They can’t buy something that isn’t for sale.”

  “They can if everyone involved is dead,” Aidan blurted. “I said no, we couldn’t sell, and things got worse from there. Lena told me I needed to comply, or bad things would happen to the people I care about, even Mom and Dad. They want this property, Eli. They figured they’d just get you out of the way, I guess. I don’t know.”

  “So why did one of them come here with you?” Mallory asked, her hand stroking Koko’s head.

  “I had to think fast,” Aidan replied. “I told Lena okay, I’d see what I could do. I told them I’d talk to you. I wanted to buy myself some time.”

  Eli glanced at his brother, his expression grim. “So that’s why you came early? It’s close to Christmas break.”

  “Yeah, but they sent one of their lackeys to watch over me—meaning they didn’t want me to come here on my own. They needed to trust me, so to speak.” He leaned back on the couch, fatigue obvious as shadows played across his face. “So Frederick, the human tree—or Tree, as we call him—came with me, in his vehicle. He made me drive, you know, to keep me from, like, jumping from the car.”

  “Frederick, the man with apparently only one name and one nickname, is the man who wanted to kill us?”

  “Yes, and he’s also the man who tried to kill me when I ruined his sniper-perfect shot. Eli, you’d be dead right now if I hadn’t done something.”

  Eli nodded. “I appreciate your efforts. Why did you feel the need to run Mallory off the road?”

  “Because she was on the road,” Aidan said. “The road to your house, a road that’s less traveled, unless someone is purposely coming to your house. Mallory was collateral damage—in the way. They don’t like witnesses, but they also don’t leave any evidence. They would have made your death look like an accident, but someone else being here made things dicey—according to Tree. And, no offense, Mallory, but you were driving really slow.”

  Mallory glanced at the whiteout glistening from the front porch lights. “For obvious reasons.”

  “I understand,” Aidan said. “But Tree—he gets kind of antsy about things, and he wanted you out of the way. So he grinned, held a gun to my head and ordered me to tap your SUV with his SUV, know what I mean?”

  Mallory nodded. “I do. At first, I thought I’d imagined it but after you kept coming, I got a little scared.”

  “I’m sorry,” Aidan said, a sincerely contrite expression on his face. “I recognized your SUV from seeing it at headquarters when Eli gave me a tour, and I didn’t want to hurt you. I hoped you’d pull over and let us by. But then, Tree would have shot you if you had pulled over.” He held his hands in his shaggy dark hair. “I didn’t know what to do.”

  Mallory slanted her head toward Aidan. “This...Tree guy...he would have tried to kill me whether I stopped or not?”

  “I was afraid so.” Aidan let out a tired sigh. “I did the best I could to get you safely out of the way. I hoped you’d come here and tell Eli what had happened. And you did, thankfully.”

  “Yes, I managed to make it here alive,” Mallory said, her wry smile barely hiding her concern. “You were brave, Aidan, to put yourself on the line like that for us. And clever at that.”

  “I couldn’t let Tree kill either of you,” Aidan said. “I stopped him for now. But he’s three times bigger than me, and he’s mad, so he’ll be back. He’ll bring a lot of them with him to finish the job, too.” He glanced toward the window, fear darkening his eyes. “These people do not like to lose.”

  FOUR

  “Then we have to be ready,” Eli said. “We’ve got officers searching for the vehicle, and we’ve put out a BOLO based on your description. But if he’s the type who takes out hits on innocent people, he’ll ditch that SUV and find another means of transportation.”

  He grabbed his laptop. “Aidan, I need your phone so I can trace calls to Lena. And don’t tell me you didn’t keep some of the text messages between you two.”

  “I need my phone,” Aidan said, giving him what looked like a grimace of pain.

  “They’re probably tracking your phone,” Eli pointed out.

  Aidan tore into his jacket pocket. “Here.”

  Eli took the phone. “I’ll get to this in a minute. Let’s see how many navy blue SUVs of that make and model are out on the road. We have a partial plate, so we might be able to track the vehicle and get some prints at least. If he didn’t switch the plates.” Then he gave his younger brother a glance. “Meantime, we can narrow down any known criminals who go by the name Tree. Or Frederick.”

  Aidan nodded, then went to stare out the partially drawn drapes. “They know how to hide. They know how to find people. They know everything about me because I blabbed too much to Lena. And yeah, they probably did keep tabs on my phone. Stupid. I fell for the first girl I met in college. How pathetic is that?”

  “You’re not pathetic,” Mallory said. “You were tricked into this by people with a lot of practice.”

  She got up and pulled Aidan back down. “Don’t stand by the windows. They could still have us in their crosshairs.”

  Aidan scooted back to the couch and touched his knuckles to Koko’s nose. “Cool dog.”

  “Koko is one of our team members and he’s recuperating from an injury he received on the job,” Mallory explained. “He barked at your vehicle. He knew something was wrong.”

  “Thanks, Koko,” Aidan said. “Koko, I heard you barking when you got out of the car, too.”

  Koko woofed a low acknowledgment on that, his ears up and his eyes shining.

  Mallory told the dog to sit. “He’s still having some issues, but tonight he did try to go after that horrible Tree.”

  Eli nodded, his fingers hitting keys. “I called him back after Everett showed up.”

  Everything happened so fast after Aidan had revealed himself. Eli was still trying to put it all in chronological order.

  “Did you actually participate in any of the snatch-and-grabs?” Mallory asked, bringing Eli’s head up. He’d like to know the answer to that question, too.

  “Nope.” Aidan held both hands up. “They sure were grooming me to do that by telling me they moved certain goods through the country, to help those who didn’t have much. Like Robin Hood, I guess. I liked that idea. I’ve seen a lot of people in need, both back in Oregon and here, too. But once they started in about what I could expect and what they expected of me, I wanted out.” He shook his head. “But it was too late. They like our land, Eli. It’s off the beaten path, it’s a large acreage and it backs up to a big wilderness area where anyone can go missing. They know you have the deed to this place now. I can’t let them take it. Or harm anyone, especially you or, now, Mallory.”

  “Do they know about Mom and Dad?” Eli asked.

  Aidan’s frown darkened. “No. I never mentioned where I came from, but they did threaten to find my parents.” He slumped back down. “I’ve messed up, haven’t I?”

  Eli held up a finger. “You stopped in time and you stopped that man from killing anyone. That’s all you need to remember.”

  Mallory sat with him, her dark eyes centered on his brother. “We all mess up, Aidan. These people took advantage of you and tried to manipulate you, and you realized this was wrong, criminally wrong. Now you can do something about it. You were brave to try to stop this.” She smiled encouragingly. “You have us with you. We’re both trained to handle this. Trained in different ways than the officers on the front lines, of course. But still, we know how this works. We’ve got people searching for this man, and if I know Eli, he’s got someone out there patrolling right now.”

  Eli nodded, wondering if she’d been taken advantage of and manipulated by her ex-husband. “Everett called Helena. She’s making the rounds in the woods with her K-9 partner, Luna. Luna’s a Norwegian elkhound—she bites first and asks questions later. Oh, and not sure if you heard, but Everett and Helena are engaged to be married. She’s an excellent trooper, but Colonel Lorenza Gallo will probably send someone to help Helena. Probably another K-9 officer.”

  “And we have Koko,” Mallory said, smiling as the dog’s ears stood straight. “He’s been going through some stuff, too. But like you, he’s brave.”

  Aidan let out a sigh. “Okay, what do we do now?”

  Mallory sent Eli a quick glance. “I want you to tell us everything you can about this snatch-and-grab gang. Starting with Lena.”

  * * *

  An hour later, Eli had a clear picture of Aidan’s report, so he filed it and called Lorenza to give her another update.

 

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