Forefront had been small but heavily financed. Its main goal had been the destabilization of political and economic partnerships between Switzerland and other major nations. Notably, America and Europe. Rumor was they’d disbanded when their leader had been killed as well.
Jacob frowned at the information. He didn’t remember the week before that explosion or the members he’d identified in that warehouse before the world went to hell.
“Looks like he came prepared, according to Grange,” Justice continued. “Silenced weapon at his back and a small pack equipped with all the tools needed to torture helpless women. Bastard even had several devices he must have meant to rape her with.”
His hands clenched, fingers nearly numbing at the grip he had on the leather-covered steering wheel.
Yeah, that sounded like the information that did exist on the group.
They had been responsible for the torture and murder of another young woman in Switzerland just before Jacob had nearly died investigating them. A translator working for Germany had been found, tortured to death, just days before a German politician had been assassinated. Jacob had been given the task of identifying the group members and taking out whoever had given that order. And to this day, he still wasn’t certain if he’d managed to complete the mission because the memories of that last week had never returned.
“I’ll be waiting at your ranch for you,” Justice finished his report. “You have a team in front of you and one following, if you need them.”
Personally, he would have ditched the help and gone hunting himself, if he didn’t have Sallie’s safety to consider. But there was Sallie. And there were questions he was determined to find the answers to. Who was she? Why did he know her, yet not remember her? And why the fuck couldn’t he get answers where she was concerned?
With those final words from the other man, Jacob reached up and deactivated the small communications device before returning his hand to the wheel. He didn’t look at Sallie, though he could feel her eyes on him, feel the fear and uncertainty he glimpsed on her face.
“Lily’s fine,” he stated, forcibly controlling his voice and his need to jerk her to his side. “She’s with Pride. They’re ahead of us, heading for the ranch. Once I talk to her, she’ll be sent to the Culpeppers’ to join Gram until I have this figured out.”
“There’s nothing to figure out.” She was all but wheezing, desperation and an edge of panic filling her voice now. “I need my car … my purse … I’ll leave…”
She would leave? Well, wasn’t that just incredibly thoughtful of her. He’d be damned if she was going anywhere without him.
“Over my dead body.” Jacob had to force the words past his lips as he shot her a hard glance. “I’ll be damned if you’re going anywhere. How many fucking times have you run, Sallie? How long has this shit been going on?”
He had a stranglehold on the steering wheel as he fought to keep from stopping the vehicle and demanding answers now, demanding she explain why he couldn’t let her go, and why she wanted to go when she was in so much danger.
“It may well be over your dead body.” The pain in her voice lashed at him, made his chest ache in a way it had only ached after the dreams that haunted him. “I had no idea they were this close, Jacob.” Her voice broke and he heard the ragged breath she took before continuing. “I wouldn’t have stayed if I’d known. I wouldn’t have seen you in danger or risked Lily.”
She wasn’t crying, but he could hear the need in her voice, and in her words, he heard something more.
What the hell made her think he needed protection? She was crazy, he decided. Why did she think he wasn’t strong enough to protect her? Son of a bitch, what kind of man was she used to that she had remained alone, believing it was in her place to protect everyone from whatever danger followed her?
Until he’d all but forced himself into her life, she’d been alone. She’d arrived in Deer Haven alone and she’d remained alone but for a few friends. She’d would have been scared, always looking over her shoulder. She was still scared, he realized. She pushed anyone who tried to get close to her away, distanced herself, in case she was found.
“You actually think I need you to protect me?” He couldn’t help the snarl in his voice. “Goddammit, Sallie, you should have told me you were in danger. You should have let me help you.”
Let him help her?
Sallie could only shake her head. No one could help her; she’d learned that the first time she’d run. A neighbor had heard her screams and he’d nearly paid with his life. She’d never forget the blood that soaked his shirt, or her terror after her attacker had run.
She’d been lucky … too lucky, she knew. Whoever she was running from didn’t want to kill her yet. Unfortunately, she had no idea what they did want from her.
“This is the third attack, Jacob,” she whispered. “If they were going to kill me, I’d be dead. I don’t know who he wanted, or what he was trying to accomplish. But he’s never cared if he hurt anyone who’s tried to get in his way whenever he catches up with me. All I can do is run and try to hide again.”
“Who’s he looking for?” he snapped. “I heard him demand where ‘he’ was? Who?”
“I don’t know.” The cry was torn from her. “I’ve never known. I’m divorced, I didn’t live a dangerous life, my ex-husband didn’t stay in contact. I’m a nobody. Whoever’s been chasing me has to be crazed.”
A nobody. And she actually believed that? He could hear the certainty in her voice, in the pain and confusion that filled it.
“Crazed?” he snapped as he made the turn to the ranch. “Baby, the man who attacked you is linked to a Swiss militant group with delusions of becoming a major terrorist presence. A fucking assassin. So you wanna tell me why a fucking terrorist has followed you from wherever the hell you came from and just what he fucking wants from you?”
Sallie flinched, the uncontrolled response part shock, part terror.
The deepened pitch of Jacob’s voice was filled with danger, suspicion, and knowledge. He knew her background listed her as being from Oklahoma. Everyone knew that. It was her standard answer since her stepfather had drilled it into her on the drive there three years before.
He was suspicious of her, and a terrorist had targeted her. A Swiss terrorist. She’d been to Switzerland once in her life, and she’d met Jacob, as well as her ex-husband, there.
Where is he?
It was the same demand that had been made each time she’d been attacked.
The first time had been only hours after her ex-husband had served annulment papers on her and left. The husband that hadn’t been able to touch her in all the time she’d known him. To this day neither she nor her stepfather knew where he’d disappeared to.
“You better find some place to hide, baby,” John warned her as he paused at the front door after giving her the annulment decree, staring at her somberly. “At this point, that bastard has screwed both of us.”
Who the bastard in question was, she’d never been certain.
Swallowing past the fear in her throat, Sallie watched as Jacob pulled the truck into the opened garage door, the panel sliding closed again as he parked.