Christmas Justice (Carder Texas Connections #7)(42)

“I know what I saw,” Garrett said. “First your sister’s evidence pointing to James, and now this.”

She scooted into the front seat and gripped the steering wheel. It couldn’t be. “He might not have been the perfect father or even around much, but he’s a patriot through and through. And he’s definitely no traitor.”

“Well, neither am I,” Garrett snapped. “Yet I’m being hunted. He told lies about me, acted like the heartbroken, betrayed mentor, supposedly to save my life. But now I have to wonder. What better way to hide your true leanings than to throw someone close to you to the wolves and mourn the treason?”

She didn’t want to admit the plan sounded good—just simple enough and brilliant enough to have her father’s name attached to it. But she wouldn’t—couldn’t—believe James McCallister would do that to Garrett.

“Why did he save your life, then?” Laurel shot back, desperate to convince him—and herself—that her father hadn’t betrayed both of them.

“I haven’t figured that out yet.”

“If my dad really were responsible for all of this, he wouldn’t have kept you alive. He wouldn’t have given you your new identity.” Laurel put her arm on the back of the seat and faced him. “And Dad sure wouldn’t have—” she glanced back at Molly “—caused the explosion in Virginia,” she said under her breath.

The little girl’s wide eyes went back and forth between them, her lip trembling.

“You’re making me cry. I don’t like fighting.”

Garrett’s eyes softened. “Sorry, sugar. Your aunt and I didn’t mean to scare you.”

Molly hunkered back in the seat, hugging Mr. Houdini close. “Mommy and Daddy fighted about her job all the time.”

Laurel twisted in the car. “I didn’t know that. What did they say?”

“Daddy wanted Mommy to stay at home with me. I wanted her to stay home, too. Now she’ll never stay with me.” Molly hugged the stuffed animal and picked at its neck. “She said she was doing something ’portant and couldn’t stop them.”

“I’m sorry, Molly.” Laurel shot Garrett a glare. “We won’t fight anymore. Will we?”

He shook his head. “I’m not lying to Molly, because we’re going to disagree about this.” He gave Molly a small smile. “But, sugar, we’ll promise to discuss things more quietly next time. Okay?”

Laurel sighed and started the engine. “Fine. Then where do we go now? Because I need another look at those files.”

“To the next town,” Garrett said. “I’ll pick up a cell phone.”

Still disgruntled, she pressed the accelerator and the SUV took off on the lonely Texas highway. “I still can’t believe you, of all people, would assume my father is guilty. They made you out to be a traitor, too.”

Garrett didn’t say anything at first. “I don’t want to believe it. But those chips... James had them developed. He wanted to tag each operative. That way he’d know where they were.”

“Seems reasonable. If you were captured—”

“It was reasonable, except that we already knew there was a leak in the organization. So he ended the program. No one else had access to the technology, yet I was tagged after the explosion. Now someone is trying to kill us. What would you think?”

“What about the person who designed the chips?” Laurel challenged. “Or the organization that funded the program? My father is ops, not administration.”

Garrett stroked his chin, where his beard had grown in since they’d left town. It gave him that outlaw look that Laurel, as a CIA analyst on the run for her life, shouldn’t find sexy. But she did.

“Interesting,” he said. “I always thought of the killer as ops, but you’re right. There are too many layers. That requires redirecting funding and resources. Administrative skills and the ability to hide funding transfers.” He drummed his fingers on his knee. “But how do we follow that string to this whole conspiracy?”

“What about Fiona?” Laurel said. “She’s got to be going crazy with James missing, and she’d know who has that kind of power.”

“I didn’t want to involve her, but we’re out of options,” Garrett said. “It might be time to bring her in. We’re running out of leads. And time.”

“And we need someone on the inside, Garrett. You know that.” They’d eaten up miles of West Texas roads with not a pair of headlights to be seen. Laurel began to relax. Just a little. Still, they needed communication equipment.

“Let’s wait and see if the file has something more.” Garrett scanned the pitch-dark horizon. “If not, we’ll call her.”

“I need access to a computer to look at the file.”

“We’ve gone far enough. Find a place to pull over out of sight. With the chip gone, we should be safe. We’ll sleep until daybreak, then head for a public library. That’s our best shot of opening Ivy’s file.”

*

DARKNESS SURROUNDED THE SUV. A gust of wind shook the vehicle. Garrett shifted his shoulder, seeking relief from the pain. The wound hurt, but he’d had worse. Laurel had rounded the car, slipped into the backseat and cuddled Molly next to her.