Escape is a FREE ebook currently available on the blog for subscribers. If you you subscribe, the system will send you a link to download the book as a pdf or a mobi (the mobi can be easily loaded to your Kindle app or device… instructions here). There is a link on the side you can use to subscribe. Don’t worry about getting overwhelmed with emails from the subscription. There is a weekly email that is sent out on Saturday mornings around 10am. I also might send out an announcement from time to time announcing deals for subscribers, but that has only been a few times in the last year.

“Look, Von, you HAVE GOT to get control of yourself.  I can’t keep cleaning up your messes.  I might be the Sheriff, but I can’t fix everything.”

“I’m sorry, Deke.  Sometimes I just can’t stop myself.  She was so pretty, and she didn’t have anyone anymore… I wanted her.  I’ll get rid of her and I promise not to do it again, ok?”

Deke looked at his brother.  Von was ten years older, but because of a head injury from the Army, he was like a giant six-year-old with hormone and impulse control issues.  Their parents were gone, and their mother’s final words to Deke were to make him promise to take care of his brother and keep him out of trouble.  Of course, she reminded him that the injury that made him like he was, was all Deke’s fault.  He never understood her rationale for that, but regardless, Von was his responsibility.

That’s what he had done for the last fifteen years, taken care of him, and kept him out of trouble… no matter the cost.  He kept a roof over his head, even though it wasn’t much, and made sure he had food.  And, like he was getting ready to do now, he took care of his messes.  This was the third girl in the last year.  There had been several others since his mom died, and he was pretty sure there had been several more before that.

“You head up to the shed, I’ll be along in a while,” Deke said, pulling out his radio to respond to a call from Betsy in dispatch.  “Von, sounds like I gotta go deal with something.  I’ll be back as soon as I can, ok?” he shouted after his brother.

“Ok, Deke.  I’ll have everything ready,” he shouted back. 

Von turned and headed to his trailer to get a couple of tools and a tarp.  A few minutes later, with everything he needed, he trundled back toward the shed.  He whistled as he made the short walk.  He figured he would have time to ask her if she’d changed her mind and fallen in love with him again before he “fixed her up” for his brother.  That made him happy.  He didn’t mind fixing her up, but he would have preferred to not have to do that.

He opened the door to the shed and saw that the light was off.  As he turned to flip the switch, juggling the stuff in his arms, he was thrown off balance by the door hitting him in the back.  Before he could react, he felt something slam into his head. 

The girl jumped down from the counter, letting go of the claw hammer, which had stuck in her torturer’s head.  As she landed on the floor, she collapsed in a heap from the weakness in her limbs.  When she had hit him, he just crumbled to the floor.  She struggled to her feet and looked back at him as she stepped through the door and saw the claw of the hammer had embedded itself into his head all the way to the handle.  She jumped back toward him and ripped the knife off his belt.  Blood was pooling up on the rough concrete floor around him. 

She hobbled into the woods as fast as she could.  She was completely naked, and her feet were raw from stepping on branches and rocks before she was even out of sight of the shabby little shack and trailer.  The morning chill wasn’t yet gone, and she tried to wrap her thin arms around her naked body to hold in the little heat she had.

As she stumbled along, she heard an engine.  She looked up and saw a Sheriff’s car running along the road.  She dropped to the ground and watched as it drove out of sight around a bend in the road.  She was quite sure she’d heard the Sheriff talking with the man who had taken her.  She couldn’t risk him finding her… not if they were talking about “getting rid of her,” she thought.    

If you like this excerpt, get the ebook for free… ad also check out my Amazon Author page for my other novels. If you want to jump headlong into the Dixon-Prince world, it all starts with my first book, Planning Vengeance. Triple Cross and Lies & Omissions just tiptoe around the Dixon-Prince characters.

This is a clip from the next book I’ll have out, shortly after the first of the year. I’m still working on the final title and then the cover art. This particular scene is after Deke’s wife’s funeral, when he figures out that the strife is not over. He makes a decision as to how to proceed.

Owen and Taki bookended Deke and Jimmy as they walked back to one of the armored, black Excursions that the company owned.  Dutch and three other guards climbed into an identical truck ahead of them.  The two vehicles pulled out of the cemetery and turned toward the cabin.  From where they were, it would be about an hour’s drive. 

Deke put his arm around his son’s shoulder and pulled him closer.  At five years old, he understood what death meant, but the finality was only now sinking in.  As he realized that his mother would never hug him again, that he wouldn’t be able to show her his latest drawing or have her tuck him into bed with a kiss on the forehead, tears started to fall from his eyes in earnest.  Even with the few words he’d been able to utter to his father, or that Taki had told his father he’d uttered to her, the older man knew exactly what he was feeling. 

“Jimmy, you know I talk to Mommy every night.  I know that she isn’t there… but I still talk to her.  You can, too,” Deke said. 

“Can she hear you?”

“I think she can, son.  I think she’s in heaven watching over us.  I know that more than anything she would want to watch you grow up… and if she can’t do it here, heaven for her would mean watching you from there.”

“Ok.  I’ll try that.  I have her picture in my room… I’ll talk to her picture.  It won’t be the same, but you’re probably right… she probably can listen to us.  I just wish she could talk back,” Jimmy said. 

“Me, too, buddy.  Me, too.”

The Excursion made the turn onto Ridgeback Road.  As much as everyone hated it, there was no way to drive to the cabin without driving past the spot Helena had died.  They would have gone somewhere else, but father and son both felt closer to her at the cabin.  It was the place she loved to be more than any other. 

The other Excursion exploded in a fireball in front of them, lifting off the ground and landing on its side.  Owen slammed on the brakes.  He smacked the shifter into reverse as the big diesel engine revved.  The rear tires spun as the axle hopped, looking for traction.  There was a Suburban behind them, and as they backed toward them, it turned to block the road. 

“Hold on, I have to ram it.  They’re blocking us in,” Owen said.  His voice carried force, but he didn’t yell the words. 

Taki pulled her handgun from her shoulder holster as she looked through the windows around the big SUV, looking for other threats. 

Their Excursion bashed into the back half of the Suburban, spinning it in the road and pushing it up on its side as bullets ricocheted off their truck.  Owen spun the wheel to the left, causing them to spin around.  He slammed the SUV into drive and stomped on the gas.  The rear glass spiderwebbed from larger caliber rounds hitting it. 

A box truck slid to a stop barely in front of them, pushing them off the side of the road.  Owen did his best to point the truck straight downhill to keep it from rolling.  They bashed through scrub and bounced over rocks as they sped down the steep incline. 

Just before they hit the lower section of road, the Excursion hit a large rock on the passenger side, forcing the truck up on its driver’s side as it hit the road. 

“Nine-one-one, what’s the nature of your emergency?” played over the truck’s speakers as Owen made the call. 

“We’re on Ridgeback Road, between the third and fourth switchback.  We’re being shot at,” he yelled, grimacing.  Blood was trickling down the side of his head, and there was a splatter of it on the inside of the window next to him where his head had stuck. 

“We have to get out of here,” Deke said. 

“This thing is a tank.  We should stay put,” Owen replied. 

“Like Dutch’s truck?  We’re getting out,” Deke repeated. 

“Mr. Swanson is right.  We need to get out and get away before they show up,” Taki said. 

She popped her seatbelt and fell on top of Owen with a grunt.  Deke undid his seatbelt and then Jimmy’s, as he held the boy in place.  Jimmy looked around, in shock, not understanding what was happening. 

Deke maneuvered past the back seat into the back of the SUV, with Jimmy following.  Taki crawled back to where they were and opened a compartment in the back.  There was a pair of rifles clamped in the hidden stash.  She pulled a release and the back door unlatched so she could open it.  She handed Deke her pistol and stepped out the back, rifle in hand. 

Owen came up behind them.  He grabbed the other rifle and squeezed around them to get out of the truck.  He wanted to be sure the area was secure before he let Jimmy and Deke out into the open. 

A round pinged off the tailgate from the road a hundred feet above. 

“Break for the downhill side on my mark.  That should be closer to the police when they come, and any pursuit coming from up the road will have trouble getting past here,” Owen said.  “When I say go, you three go.  Ok?”

“What about you?” Deke asked. 

“I’ll be right behind you.”

Owen stepped around the back of the truck and put his sights on the black Mercedes that had just come around the switchback a hundred yards away.  He unloaded a thirty-round magazine as Taki led Jimmy and Deke over the edge of the road.  He grabbed another magazine and snapped it into the rifle.  He stepped around the truck and emptied that one at the car as well.  Steam poured from the unprotected radiator. 

Swapping mags again, and grabbing a spare, he readied himself to make his sprint toward the far side of the road.  Using the truck as cover he started his run.  He built up his momentum and exploded out from behind the truck, jumping off the side of the road as rounds slammed into the ground behind him and into the trees above him. 

He landed and tried to tuck and roll, but failed miserably, landing on one leg and then smacking into a tree.  The rifle flew out of his hands, bouncing away down the hill as he dropped to the ground at the base of the tree, unable to move. 

“I’m going back up for Owen,” Taki said.  “Take Jimmy down the hill.  From the sound of the sirens, they should be here any moment.  I’ll cover you from up here.  Go,” she said. 

Deke took Jimmy’s hand and took off down the hill.  When they got to the road, they could hear gunshots from above, and there were no police vehicles in sight. 

“We need to keep moving.  Are you ok, Jimmy?”

“I’m scared, Daddy.  Is it going to be ok?” 

“It will be.  I promise.”  It wasn’t a promise just to Jimmy.  It was a promise to himself.  He realized he barely knew his own son… or his wife.  His work had consumed him and was within inches of killing him as it had killed Helena.

The two slid and bumped down another hundred feet.  As they reached the road, there was a loud explosion as a fireball rose from where the Excursion was.  Deke’s phone rang.  He looked at it for a moment.  Raul’s name popped up on the screen. 

“It’s done,” Raul said before Deke uttered a word.  “I’ll give you details when you come in, but it was bigger than I had even expected.  I also planted some emails to make a few of them think it was them trying to clean each other out.”

“Ok.  Good,” Deke said, hanging up the phone. 

He looked down at his son.  There was a look of grim determination on the face of the five-year-old.  His face was dirty from sliding down the hills, with cleaner streaks where the tears had run. 

“You want to go somewhere far away?” Deke asked the child. 

“Where Mommy is?”

“No… not there.  Just somewhere that isn’t here.  Just you and me.”

“Yeah.  I don’t like here right now.” 

Deke nodded.  “Me, either.”

He pulled his phone back out and made a call.  As he talked, they started walking down the next steep hill.  A police car streaked past behind them, not seeing them down the hill off the side of the road. 

Thirty minutes later the two emerged in a backyard in the valley.  They walked around to the front of the house and turned to walk up the sidewalk.  It was several blocks out to a main street. 

Deke flagged down a cab and asked the driver to take them to the airport.  The driver looked at him suspiciously.  “You got cash, bucko?””

Deke reached into his pocket and peeled off a fifty-dollar bill.  “This cover it?”

“Sure, climb in.  You ain’t done nothin’ illegal, have ya?” the cabbie asked. 

“No.  Just having a crap day,” Deke responded. 

“The worst,” Jimmy added. 

Fifteen minutes later they pulled up in front of the passenger terminal. 

“We need to go to the General Aviation side… where the private planes are.”

“That where you keep your private jet?” the driver said, laughing. 

“I have a whole fleet of them,” Deke said, jokingly. 

He dropped them at the curb and drove away. 

“Deke?” a man said, stepping from the office.

“Hopefully only for a little longer, Jack.  We need to disappear.”

“Glad I hadn’t left yet.  Come on, let’s get you cleaned up and we can go.”  The three of them headed inside.  Jack showed Deke and Jimmy to the maintenance employees locker room so that they could get cleaned up, while he tried to rustle up some new clothes for them.  As soon as they were ready, he led them onto the business jet and told the pilot to head for home. 

As Jimmy fell asleep in his seat, his head resting on his father’s lap, Jack asked Deke what had happened.  The two men spent the five hours of the flight talking about the day’s events. 

“I need to know if Jill Takanata and Owen Rogers are ok.  Can you find out?” Deke asked just before the plane landed. 

“Yeah.  I’ll go through channels and find out for you.  We’re already working on temporary new identities for you, too.”

If you enjoyed this, keep an eye on my Amazon Author page. There are also some other fun books available there as well.

Since this will be the next book out, I thought I would toss out another excerpt. They seem fairly popular on the blog. In the first scene, Stacy and Jim are approached by a reporter because of Stacy’s popularity at the auctions… and in the second, one of their customers lets her drive a car she designed but hadn’t been able to drive.

“Miss King,” the man said, walking quickly toward her through the hotel lobby, “can I get a moment with you?  My name is Luther Simonsen.  I’m with Motor News TV.”

“What can I do for you, Mr. Simonsen?” she replied, pulling Jim back to her side with her hand in his. 

“Please, call me Luther.  We would love to profile you and your shop on MNTV.  Your car was a hit, but beyond that, the clip of you telling the little girl she could be a car designer is going viral.”

“Well, Luther, the shop belongs to both my fiancé and I… it isn’t my shop.  If you’d like to profile us and our shop, we welcome that.  But I wouldn’t want to impart a false story,” she said firmly. 

“I understand, Miss King.  We certainly don’t wish to cut… your fiancé… out.  Just women owned businesses in this industry are rare.  That is a very powerful angle.”

She led him to the seating area in the lobby and motioned for all of them to sit down.  “Luther, please call me Stacy.  My fiancé is Jim Cook.  I don’t know if you were at the Orlando auction in June, but he sold his debut car there for over a hundred and fifty thousand dollars.  A ’69 Lincoln Mark III.  Millie and Buck Williams bought it.  I had nothing to do with that car, and Jim was an absolute unknown.  But, because of that car, Jim pulled in commissions to build more than half a million dollars in custom cars.  And the money from that car and those commissions meant that he had the freedom to let me run wild on this car… which he’d already partially built.

“I understand the angle you are pursuing, and I would love to see more women empowered in this industry.  But to downplay Jim’s role…  I’m sorry, I can’t do that.  I think we could tell a compelling story as it is.”

“Thank you, Stacy.  Perhaps I got the wrong impression.  We still want to do that profile.  You are a hot commodity right now.”

“Luther,” Jim spoke up, “if you think she’s hot now, wait until you see what we have coming out.”

“You know our number, Mr. Simonsen.  Feel free to give us a call next week.  Right now, we have a flight to catch,” Stacy said as she and Jim rose from the sofa they’d been sitting on. 

***

Stacy slipped behind the wheel of the Mercury Marauder.  It was almost sunset, and she could see the heat rising off the road in front of her.  The temperature was hovering around a hundred degrees.  She pushed the start button and the big Merc fired to life with a roar, then steadied into a rumble of barely contained violence. 

“I think I’m actually kind of nervous,” she said, laughing to Gayle, who was sitting next to her. 

“Don’t be.  Jim did a beautiful job on the engine.  It’s as gentle as a pussycat.  I pulled it off the trailer, and it was shockingly easy to drive,” she replied. 

Stacy pushed the shifter into first gear.  She eased off the clutch and rolled forward.  This was the fourth manual transmission vehicle she’d driven, and it was very different than any of the others.  Then she punched her foot to the floor.  The front end of the car threatened to leave the ground before the rear tires broke traction, screaming in protest. 

The car slewed sideways before she lifted from the throttle, steering into the skid and pushed the clutch to the floor.  A grin broke out across her face. 

“Ok, maybe this pussycat is really a lion,” Gayle laughed. 

The cloud of tire smoke wafted past them.  A little more comfortable now, Stacy gave it a second run.  She didn’t push quite as hard, but ran the car up through third gear, hitting almost a hundred miles an hour.  She tagged the brakes, slowed and turned around and drove back past where everyone was waiting.  She slowed and then slipped back into the throttle, accelerating past the cameras at over a hundred. 

“That is pretty awesome,” she said as she stepped out of the car, the camera rolling on her.  “Jim, the powertrain you designed is breathtaking.  And the car really wants to stay planted.”  She turned to Gayle, who’d stepped up next to her, “Thank you so much for letting me drive it, Gayle.” 

“Anytime, Stacy.  And I can’t wait to see what you and Jim build next.  You two are an incomparable team,” she replied.  Gayle knew exactly how to frame the interview.  She and Stacy had talked about the TV people wanting to make it more about her and less about Jim. 

I am three steps from releasing this book. It is getting a final edit, and then I need to come up with a better title, and the cover needs to be designed. So far ,the cover struggle is the hardest one…

Triple Cross is a story with the Deep State, Deep Fakes, Deep Cover.

JD Ross was satisfied with his life. Then, after ten years in the Army, his life is turned upside down because of a relationship that ended eight years before. Kicked out of the Army, the place he felt he truly belonged, he found himself being hunted for a murder he didn’t commit. And through the hunt, he had to protect his daughter. He hadn’t known she even existed, then she was the most important person in his world.

Check it out. It’s available on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited and in print. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08R2Z5ML4/

This was actually one of my favorite stories to write. Some of the Dixon-Prince characters appear in this story, but their roles are minor, although one will be more popular in future Dixon-Prince stories…

I enjoyed creating new characters and placing them in a new setting. I hope you enjoy reading this book, and I’d LOVE for you to leave a review after reading it.

Thank you.

I don’t think I have put this one on the blog. It is a little bit of a spoiler, JD Ross is captured. But now he has to fight for his life. The Deep State powers that set him up want him dead. If he is gone, there is no longer a reason to question the narrative. Check out Triple Cross on Kindle, or get a copy printed.

Thursday, October 29^th–

Prisoner 62665707 had been in isolation since arriving at the Maryland State Detention Center outside of Hagerstown.  He was being kept out of general population… genpop… for safety reasons, restricted to a single cell.

He was resting in his cell.  The lights had been out for a while, but he hadn’t been able to sleep since arriving.  As he lay there, he thought he heard a sound outside the cell.  A moment later he saw a thin sliver of light as his cell door quietly opened and someone slipped in.  As dark as it was, he could only see their shadow against the light coming through the door, but he watched to see if their moves seemed threatening. 

As the shadow approached his cot, he saw them slip something out of their sleeve… a knife.  As the mystery person reached for him, he snatched the man’s arm and twisted it around, pulling him down and off balance.  The knife was in his other hand, and it started down.  He slipped toward the foot of the bed, twisting the man’s arm as he went. 

The knife buried hilt deep in the pillow he’d been laying his head on just a moment before.  There was a sickening snap as the man’s arm finally broke.  It was followed by the prisoner snapping the heel of his hand into the jaw of the attacker.  His head bounced back as he pulled back his hand from the thrust. 

The prisoner was instantly on his feet, driving his fists into the sides of the attacker’s head.  It only took a moment for the attacker to lose consciousness.  The prisoner pulled the knife from the pillow, dropped it to the floor, and kicked it into the corridor outside of his room.  The guards should have been watching the cameras, and he didn’t want them to think he was trying to keep the knife.  He wasn’t going to give them an excuse to do anything to him. 

He sat down on the bed, expecting there would be a guard coming any minute.  Even if they were dozing, the commotion should have alerted them that something had happened in his cell.  He didn’t want to be anywhere near the knife when the guards responded.  Instead, he saw the knife come back in the hand of another inmate. 

“Don’t do it, man,” prisoner 62665707 said. 

“You’re goin’ down, bitch,” was the response. 

The newcomer leapt forward with the knife leading the way.  It was a wild, uncontrolled stab.  The prisoner easily sidestepped the attempted attack, and grabbed the arm holding the knife.  He tried to twist it around, but the newcomer broke free and spun around for a second shot. 

Out of the corner of his eye, Prisoner 62665707 saw a guard standing in the doorway.  In one hand was taser and in the other, his collapsible wand. 

As the knife lurched toward him again, Prisoner 62665707 reached out and grabbed the newcomer’s wrist.  This time he was able hang on and give it a twist.  As his wrist snapped, the newcomer dropped the knife.  Prisoner 62665707 pulled the other man toward him by his broken wrist.  The man cried out in pain as he was hoisted above the Prisoner’s head and then spun around, only to be slammed down on the concrete floor next to the bed. 

Prisoner 62665707 sat down on the bed, the unmoving form on the floor at his feet. 

“What’s going on here, Ross?” the guard finally said. 

“You tell me, Boss.  I was laying on the bed when the first guy came in.  Then waiting for you guys when the second one came in.  Not exactly like I can open the door, you know?”

“Don’t be a smart-ass.  Not if you want to make it to trial.”

Another guard walked into the cell behind the first.  It was obvious by the reaction of the first guard that he hadn’t been aware of the second until he’d stepped into his peripheral vision.

“Come on, Man!  It’s not like I’m trolling for trouble.  I’ve been in this room continuously for two days.  I’ve been outside for exactly two hours, and there were no other prisoners in the yard when I was out.”

More guards removed the beaten attackers.  A moment later, his cell door was once again locked, and he was left alone. 

“Watch yourself, Ross,” the second guard said through the door.

“I guess sleeping is off the table for a while,“ JD said through the small window in his cell door.  He walked back over and sat back down on his bed. 

I hope you enjoyed this little slice of Triple Cross. The book has a lot more action, as well as a touch of romance. Pick up your copy today!

Triple Cross is technically in the Dixon-Prince universe, but it isn’t part of the main storyline. There are a couple of characters that cross over, but it is mostly out of convenience. Oddly, there is a more solid connection in one of the books currently in progress. In Sniper (which is about one of Jack Dixon’s security people) we will find out how Ellen Stewart was pulled into the Dixon-Prince world.

Tuesday, October 20^th–

Christi bounded over the forest roads like a rally driver, catching air on some of the rises and sliding the little SUV through turns sideways.  She’d found a route over the mountains on backroads that would get her out of Colorado quickly and she could be a couple of hours into Arizona by daybreak.  With any luck, she would be in Vegas by late-afternoon.  Dinner at the latest. 

As she drove just outside St. George, Utah, she picked up one of the burner phones she’d acquired.  She dialed a number and waited as the phone rang. 

“Joseph,” she said when the man answered after the third ring, “you lied to me.  You said you were going to keep Jason safe and not let the Russians follow-through on their plan.  You let them kill the Senator and you have left Jason holding the bag for something you know he didn’t do.”

“Miss Nova,” Sanders replied, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.  You have gone rogue and helped your boyfriend kill a US Presidential candidate… an honored Senator.  How much have the Russians paid you to turn your back on this country which has done so much for you?”

She pulled to the side of the road and pulled up the internet on another phone.  She opened her bank account and found the balance to be just over ten million dollars.  If they wanted to play that game… make it look like she took the money, she would take it and then use it to fund their downfall.  She quickly keyed in a series of transfers, eventually leading to an account in the Caymans that she’d been using to shelter money she was saving.  It wasn’t traceable for either the Russians or the Americans.  She only left a few hundred dollars in the account so she could ping it to throw off pursuit.

“You tell me, Joseph.  I’m sure you’re the one that authorized the transfers.  I should have known you were lying to me the whole time.  I won’t make the same mistake twice.  How long have you been cooperating with the SVR?”

“Again, Miss Nova, I surely don’t have any idea what you are talking about.”

She ended the call and pulled back out onto the road.  A couple of miles later, she pulled into a gas station and filled up the Cherokee, using her debit card.  It would be a loud ping to anyone searching for her.  After pumping the gas, she walked into the store and picked up a few snacks.  She bumped into a man coming around the end of one of the aisles, dropping the phone into his pocket.  Two minutes later and she was back on the road, headed west toward Las Vegas.  Her phone was headed south. 

Her third phone pinged a file upload notification.  She picked it up and looked at it as she drove along the deserted road.  She was pretty sure that would be the last piece she needed. 

***

Joseph Sanders hung up the phone.  He was pissed.  When he’d originally taken over handling Christina Nova, his primary goal had been getting in her pants.  She was hot, and as far as he was concerned, that was her primary attribute.  She was already involved with the Russians, but to his knowledge, they hadn’t used her for anything of value.  He just assumed that the only reason they kept her around was because of her parents, and possibly to use in a honey-trap. 

Then they had started talking about this business with Ross.  At first, he didn’t know who it was actually being set up by… but they were running it.  When she approached him about the Russian involvement, he reported it to his superiors, and he was told to let it run its course.  After a few weeks, he figured out what was really happening.  By then, he was in too deep.  He was implicated and there was no way out unless the op ran to completion.  She hadn’t been the one that played him, but he’d been too busy staring at her ass to see what was really going on. 

“Max,” he said when he placed his call, using his normal trace masking service, “we have a problem.”

…

“She knows.  Nova might not know that Connors is pulling the strings, but she knows that we’re talking.  And she might be smart enough to figure out Connors, and then that Hayes is connected to this.”

…

“Las Vegas or Phoenix would be my guess.  I had her in southwest Utah a few minutes ago.  The phone is still active.  It looks like it’s headed to Phoenix, but Vegas isn’t out of the question.  Do you have assets that can take care of her?”

…

“As soon as she lights somewhere, I’ll get the location to you,” Sanders said before ending the call.

***

Sitting in a rest area off I-15, just outside of Las Vegas, Christi listened to Sanders’ end of the phone call he’d made to Maxin Bogdanov.  “I got you, bastard.  Now I just need the evidence to hang the rest of your friends,” she said in triumph. 

She pulled out of the rest area and rejoined traffic headed to Las Vegas.  She had a few more tricks up her sleeve.  Hopefully, she’d be alive to make them happen.  But first, she needed to sit down with her computer and put together a care package for Detective Clay.  He seemed like a smart and curious cop, and if so, he would be ready for another piece of the puzzle.  First, she had another call to make.

“Ellen, it’s Christi.  Please help him,” she said as soon as her friend picked up the phone.

“Christi?  Oh my God, where are you?” was the reply. 

“That isn’t important.  What is important is keeping him from getting killed.  There are powerful people that REALLY want him dead before he casts any doubt on being the killer.  He didn’t do this.”

“I know he didn’t.  But, right now, more than anything he wants to protect Jane, and I will do everything I can to help him… and help him protect her.”

Christi could feel the tears welling up in her eyes.  “You’re a good friend, Ellen.  I’m so thankful for you.  Jane is the only person more important to me than Jason.”

“I understand, and you have my word.  I will do everything I can for them,” Ellen replied.

Christi knew how much Ellen cared for Jason.  It had been obvious from the first time they’d met.  She had idolized him then.  He and her brother had been best friends as long as anyone could remember.  Despite her affection for Jason, or maybe because of it, the two women bonded after he left for the Army.  Christi was an only child but had often dreamed of having a little sister.  Ellen had become that little sister to her. 

Ellen hadn’t known, but Christi had been involved behind the scenes in Ellen getting her job.  And several times over the years, Christi had found herself in a place to secretly assist her.  One time, a couple of years before, Ellen had been in Berlin and Christi had seen her in a club.  She had to fight the temptation to talk with her, but she knew that it would be easier for everyone if she remained hidden. 

If she’d known then what she knew now, so many things would be different. 

If you enjoyed this, you should enjoy the rest of it. Triple Cross is a story with Deep Fakes, Deep Cover and a Deep State plot. One soldier stands in the way. All he wants is to prove his innocence.