Author: Lisa Phillips
Category: Christian
Go to read content：https://onlinereadfreenovel.com/lisa-phillips/page,17,563080-sanctuary_deceived_witsec_town_series_book_4.html
Nadia’s eyes slipped shut. She sucked in a breath and forced them open. This wasn’t the place to fall asleep.
“You’re exhausted.” Bolton’s voice didn’t sound any more whole than hers. Nadia didn’t want to know what look was on his face. She couldn’t handle his emotions right now, not when hers were on overload.
Bolton settled in the seat beside her but with enough space between them that there was no risk of their touching. “What do you need?” His voice was small, and his fingers twitched like he wanted to move, but he didn’t.
So long as he didn’t tell her he was sorry, Nadia would be able to keep it together. Besides, it was her fault she’d been in that situation in the first place. Trying to make a deal with Dante had been the stupidest move of her life.
“Nadia?”
That chair. And the room. “He asked me about Sanctuary, and I think I told him where it was. He was looking for a dead woman.” She could barely convey what she was trying to say. Her thoughts were garbled in the residue of the drugs and exhaustion. Hunger. Zero adrenaline to give her any kind of energy. She was replete of any and everything she should have been able to fall back on. Jesus, help me.
She’d cried out to him so many times. Nearly every minute of every hour she’d called to the Lord to help her, and now here she was. Still needing His help…but safe. Alive. Unharmed. Thank You.
As peace settled over her, she opened her eyes. “It made no sense, Bolton. They drugged me. Everything is garbled in my head, I can’t even think.” She looked around. “Where’s Shadrach?”
“Nadia—”
She caught the look on his face and gasped. “Is he dead?”
“No. But he was hurt, badly. Dante showed up at the theater during the raid. He shot Shadrach and tried to shoot me, too. I fired at the same time, and we winged each other.”
Her face whipped around, and she scanned him with her gaze.
Bolton pointed to the blood on his ear. Like he needed any more injuries. “Ben showed up, and he ran.” He paused. “Live to fight another day, I guess.”
“I’m supposed to be clean now. And they shot me up to get answers.” She whipped her head around to look at Ben. “They mentioned Grant. I think they’re looking for him. Or someone else. Or both.” She squeezed her eyes shut. “I don’t know.”
Ben got up and walked away. His back to them. He pulled out a phone.
“You need to rest.”
She looked at him then. Looked right in his eyes, and said, “Who are you, Bolton Farrera? Why does Dante have so many questions? What does he want?”
**
Bolton stared into her dark eyes and nearly broke. He nearly told her everything, but he could barely bring himself to think about what would happen if she knew who he really was. Bolton Farrera was nothing but a coward. A product of his circumstances. Unable to do what he wanted or to live the life he dreamed of.
At every turn he’d been thwarted. Every time he’d gotten close enough to actually believe that a happy, free life was possible something happened. Slam, the door shut on his future. Until he’d hit the point that he stopped dreaming.
And then he’d met Nadia.
Bolton lifted his hand but didn’t try to reach for her. He wanted so badly to know if they’d hurt her, but he couldn’t bring himself to say that, either. Such a coward.
“Shadrach?”
“Let’s go check on him, okay?” He wasn’t going to rule out her need to be checked by a doctor. Maybe he’d suggest it, since they would be in the hospital anyway.
Nadia nodded but didn’t move. Not even the bright white sneakers on her feet twitched. He didn’t think his back could take carrying her, not the way it had been acting up. So Bolton got to his feet. He held out his hand, wishing with all his might that she would take it. A small peace offering. An indication she didn’t hate him for what Dante had done to her.
He knew now that she didn’t trust him, but if Bolton could bring himself to tell her everything maybe he could earn that back.
Nadia pressed her lips together. She set her soft, cold hand in his and got up.
Bolton lifted her hand and pressed the back of it to his chest. Her big eyes gazed up at him. “I’m glad you’re safe, Nadia.”
She ducked her head and pressed her forehead against his chest. Her breath hitched, but she didn’t cry.
Bolton wrapped his arms around her. Had Bolton ever met anyone as strong as she was?
**
Ben stood in the hall of the hospital floor where Shadrach had been admitted—though, not under his real name. He gripped the phone, trying to figure out where to channel this worry that he’d get a result fastest. “Your name has come up twice now in as many days. Want to tell me why?”
Grant chuckled. “I’m hunting Dante, same as you. That’s the assignment you put me on, boss. Checking out the mom and finding out where she’s gone and what happened. I tracked down the sheriff. Shadrach and Nadia’s mom is fine. She’s been hiding out with him, freaked out. Apparently they have a relationship, and he kept her hidden to protect her, since Dante waltzed into the compound asking for her by name. So it’s all good. How is Nadia?”
“Don’t change the subject. I know she called you before she got that wild idea to hit the bank and pay off Dante.”
“That was all her. I only told her how strong she is. Strong enough to take care of herself.”
“Yeah,” Ben scoffed. “That worked out real well.”
“I’m sorry, okay?” His older brother sighed. “I didn’t know she would do that.”
Ben blew out a long breath.
“Want to tell me about that woman Will said saved the day?”
“No.”
“A friend of yours, he said. Will looked her up. Didn’t find anything except a vague Interpol reference to long, dark hair and a preference for knives.”
Ben’s lips curled up at the corners, but he kept his voice stern. “This isn’t a gossip session. You might be in danger, and you’re getting sidetracked. Maybe you’re not cut out for field work.”
“You want to bench me? I was the director of the marshals for years.”
“Desk work.”
“You gave me a team. They’re good. They’ll keep me safe if someone comes after me.” Grant paused. “Right guys?”
Muffled laughter reached Ben’s ears through the phone line. He’d vetted every one of them, but it was never foolproof. Anyone could be bought with the right amount of money. The “team” Ben assigned to him were there to keep Grant safe, and if anything happened to his brother he’d hunt down every single one of them. “Keep an eye out. Don’t let your guard down for one second.”
“Any idea what Dante wants?”
“Yeah. Tell me what you know about Thea Farrera.”
Silence.
“That means you know something, Grant. You just don’t want to tell me.”
Grant sighed, long and low. “Excuse me for a second, fellas.” A car door slammed, and then Grant said, “Thea Farrera is, for all intents and purposes, dead.”
“Because you faked the reports and hid her somewhere. But not Sanctuary.”
“Thea didn’t want to be anywhere near Bolton. I stashed her in the farthest place I could while still being in the US.”
“And where is that?”
“Dante can’t know,” Grant said. “That’s probably why he wants to get at me. He may even have this phone bugged, so I’d better not say over the line until we know for sure we have a secure one.”
Which meant Grant was going to use alternative means to contact Will with the information. “Stay safe.”
“You too, brother. And if you tell me I’m not cut out for this one more time I’m going to punch your smug face.”
“You can try.” Ben hung up smiling.
The world was a safer place when the people he cared about weren’t the target of some criminal trying to get at him.
Ben let himself into Shadrach’s room. Machines beeped
, a good sign. The former marine was alive. His sister was safe now. He would recover.
Remy sat with Nadia, holding hands. Bolton leaned against the wall beside the door. Ben went to stand with him. “Any change?”
Bolton shook his head. “He took one to the chest. Armor piercing rounds.” And Bolton had killed the man who shot Shadrach.
“The men we caught, they’ve been taken care of?”
“Liam is combing through the package that woman got you, but it looks like everything he needs to bring down the entire ring of traffickers.”
“Good. That was good, you calling in FBI contacts. Liam’s help was invaluable.”
“Unlike those crazy Chinese dudes.”
“So long as we take them down, doesn’t it matter?” Ben extremely disliked people who traded off the innocence of others. His watch buzzed. “Will is finding Earnest.” He looked at the screen, a new message from Will.
“What about us? We need to figure out what Dante’s next move is. I don’t like the idea that he traded Nadia to Earnest and then disappeared. Where did he go? And for what?”
Ben turned so his back was to the bed and the two women. “I think he’s going after Thea and Javier.”
Bolton said, “I have to protect them, but so far that has meant not knowing where they are. And how can Dante find out their location? That has to be why he wants Grant.”
“That’s why we’re keeping Grant safe and working to protect Thea and Javier, too.” Ben read off his watch screen. “Have you ever heard of ‘Pu'u honua’?”
“What does it mean?”
Ben grinned. “It’s the Hawaiian word for Sanctuary.”
Chapter 16
Bolton set both coffee cups down on the table and sat. Nadia flexed her fingers and linked them around the cup.
“Still cold?”
She shrugged one shoulder. “I’ll be okay.”
An announcement was made over the hospital intercom system. The cafeteria was a barren wasteland. Probably everyone had already tried the coffee and then never came back.
She’d broken down, seeing her brother fighting for his life. Surgery had gone well, and they’d repaired the damage to Shadrach’s chest where the bullet had punched a hole clear through him. Now it was a waiting game, watching to see how he healed.
Nadia lifted her gaze. “What did Ben say to you in Shad’s room?”
Bolton didn’t figure she was just making light conversation. She wanted to talk, so he said, “I might have to leave.”
“Because Dante wants to know where that woman called Thea is?”
Bolton nodded. Nadia would stay with her brother, until he recovered, and then head back to Sanctuary. Bolton had just gotten her back, and now he needed to go and make sure that Thea and Javier were okay. Protecting them from Dante was the jurisdiction of the US Marshals Service, but it was also on him. He’d put them in the position of needing to be in witness protection in the first place.
“And she’s not dead.”
“That was faked. The picture they showed you was from the file, evidence. A woman had died and the DNA was switched out so it was believed to be Thea. Grant stashed her in a safe place and told no one so that Dante would think she was dead.”
“And now Dante knows she isn’t in Idaho. That’s why he wanted Grant, isn’t it? Because he’s the one person who’s going to know where she was placed in witness protection.” Nadia’s smiled evaporated. “So…you’re married? Or you were married, at one point?”
This was what she wanted to talk about. Bolton figured she deserved an explanation, but was now really the right time? She’d been through something horrendous, and he still didn’t even know the extent of it—though she didn’t appear to have been physically harmed.
“I need to know, Bolton. And I figure being drugged, interrogated, and nearly being the true story behind a made-for-TV-movie about my tragic life earns me the right to at least ask. There’s a woman out there who meant something to you at one point, and I want to know who she is.”
“There’s more to it than that, Nadia.” Bolton took a sip of his coffee and set the cup on the table. “It isn’t just about Thea. This is about me, and who I was. Or maybe who I tried to be. It’s about having a son, one I’ve never even seen—not even a picture.”
“What happened?”
“Initially we went into witness protection together. But Dante kept coming. He found us, time and time again, and Thea couldn’t handle it. She was pregnant, and I think it messed with her head having a baby inside her and being in so much danger. I don’t know. I’d like to say it was my getting hurt that clinched it for her, but I think that was simply the door she saw as her way out. I woke up in the hospital from Dante’s latest attack, and she was gone.
“Six months later Grant sent word that she’d had a boy. Javier. Like knowing his name wasn’t worse torture than living with the knowledge I would never even see him.” He blew out a breath. “I don’t know if it was the situation or if she’d never really been in love with me. Either way it was too much for her. I’ve thought about it a lot over the years. Maybe Thea was more in love with the person I was pretending to be, than with who I was. I wonder if she was ever really happy, or if she was just playing a part the exact same way I was.”
Nadia bit her lip. “What do you mean?”
“I was twenty-five. Business was good, but family ties were encroaching. They wanted a piece of what I was doing, and I was supposed to hand over nearly half the rights to a company I’d constructed myself, just because we were related. I was about to cave when the FBI showed up.”
“FBI?”
Bolton nodded. “I got a better offer. I sold the business to a friend of mine to free up my time and just worked design on commission. The FBI was investigating a ring of dirty DEA agents, hoping to bring them down discreetly. It looked like the DEA’s reach was more widespread than they’d originally thought, so I was tasked with infiltrating their operation. And it worked.”
“You worked for the FBI?”
“They actually swore me in at one point, paperwork and everything. Never went to Quantico, never sat at one of those fancy FBI desks. I think I only stepped in a field office once in my life. But yeah, I was…I don’t know, not an agent. More like an asset, or an independent contractor.” He didn’t smile. “I was young, and I made assumptions when I should have asked questions. But it was cool, for a while. Before the sheen of being one of the good guys wore off.”
“What happened?”
“It took a few years. Time during which I’d convinced the friend who’d bought the business to partner up with Thea’s father to expand. Had a pregnancy scare, got married. I thought we were happy, and I thought I was doing something good. The FBI agents who’d hired me started making…suggestions. Hide this, break in there, little insinuations like ‘if this guy disappears, it wouldn’t be so bad.’ I started to have an inkling they were padding my assignment with side jobs that helped them, so I called Ben. After we renewed our acquaintance he ripped me up one side and down the other for taking on a job like that without calling him. He found a link between the FBI guys who were my handlers and the DEA—specifically Dante and Tristan.”
“They were dirty?”
“It wasn’t overt. It never is. But there were signs, and Ben had enough proof to go above their heads. The justice department launched an investigation into members of the DEA and FBI. It took two years, living that life pretending to work for a couple of crooked FBI agents, supposedly “investigating” Dante and his partner. A double, double agent. The most we could figure was that they had an arrangement with Dante and Tristan, and they had me looking into everything to make sure they didn’t get screwed over. I was their insurance policy that Dante was holding up his end of the bargain.”
Nadia shook her head. “Wow.”
“They were pretty convincing in their pitch. And the angles they had me running seemed legit. I passed them information about a deal about to go down, s
uddenly four people turned up dead or a shipment was intercepted. I started to ask questions, but someone trashed one of the shops in the middle of the night and the damage to those bikes was in the millions. So I shut my mouth, called Ben again. If it wasn’t for him, I’d probably have been killed.”
Or he’d have left the country and made a new life for himself. Bolton certainly wouldn’t have put himself in the witness protection town of Sanctuary to hide from Dante.
“I gathered evidence against them, but the FBI agents had double crossed Dante. He killed them one night, so I told Ben where I thought they might be buried. We made a deal with the justice department, and I testified against him with what I knew of Dante’s operation. By that time Thea had figured out I was up to something, so I told her. All of it.”
Bolton winced, remembering her reaction. The way her face had twisted in rage, and she’d spewed foul words at him. “She couldn’t believe I would risk our livelihood—her shopping money—by doing something as stupid as testifying. She wouldn’t even talk about witness protection. Refused to even contemplate it, like I was the criminal doing a foul thing and hurting people.” He shook his head. “She wanted to leave, but Dante had found out what I was up to, and his army began to wage their war. FBI agents, DEA agents, guns for hire, cartels they’d partnered with. You name them, we were on their hit list.”
“Sounds like a harsh life.”
“Thea and I couldn’t go anywhere without a guard, and they moved us frequently. Usually in the middle of the night. I wasn’t sleeping, she was moody. We fought all the time, great screaming matches where picture frames get thrown across the room and furniture gets smashed.” He shook his head. “It wasn’t pretty, but I think we were just scared kids who couldn’t control what was happening. We had no idea what the future would hold, or even if we were going to live to see tomorrow.”