Game of Fear (Montgomery Justice #3)(81)
Gabe tensed as Whitney pulled up in a gray, nondescript rental vehicle. He still hadn’t said anything to his brother, but Deb kept giving him sidelong looks as if waiting. Maybe Zach wouldn’t recognize the family resemblance, even though her beautiful features matched Zach the most.
She walked up, carrying a duffel and a briefcase, her face wary but determined. Gabe had to respect her for that. This couldn’t be easy to face yet another Montgomery brother on such short notice.
Which, he realized, meant Zach was going to kill him for not forewarning him at all.
“There were no witnesses,” Zach said, filling them in. “We don’t know who was in the plane. The NTSB will look it over, but they probably won’t find anything. Not if they run true to bad guy form.”
“Is that technical talk?” Deb teased.
“You bet. I can throw in the word minions, too, if you want.” Zach grinned.
Gabe growled. There was that damned smile again. “So what did the guy at the airport say?”
“The Angel Fire airstrip owner said he had no record of the call sign on the plane. He also said that I owe him a car to replace the one I borrowed. His insurance doesn’t cover aerial assault. Fortunately, my insurance company does, but they aren’t going to like me anymore. Two cars, one helicopter, and a cabin in the woods all decimated within the last year. I’m not their favorite customer at the moment.”
Whitney walked up to them.
Zach turned to greet her, then did a slight double take. “Have we met?”
“Whitney Blackstone, Federal Bureau of Investigation.” She flashed her credentials, then held out her hand and he shook it, but he kept staring into her eyes.
“You look very familiar. Are you sure we haven’t met?” Zach asked slowly.
“No, I think I’d remember meeting the Dark Avenger.”
“Well, hell,” he said, rubbing his well-past-five-o’clock shadow. “I was hoping my scruffy whisker disguise would work better than that.”
“Don’t worry. One of my specialties is face recognition and recall. Yours is rather memorable from your stints on the tabloid covers.”
“Ouch. Haven’t you heard I’ve reformed?”
“Congratulations.” Whitney turned to Gabe. “Now could we get on with this? The police are waiting to take your statements.”
Gabe couldn’t believe this exchange. They were bickering like siblings. Holy crap. The fact that they were both Montgomerys was frickin’ obvious. Zach had to know. Based on the speculation in his eyes, it was only a matter of time before he put Whitney’s appearance together with her identity.
A long while, and many repetitive interviews later, they were released.
Whitney had one last conference with the cops before she walked back to the group, standing next to Deb. “We can go now.” She tilted her head toward Zach. “Have you filed the flight plan to Winslow yet?”
“All taken care of, though I’d like to know why we’re going there,” he said, still studying her. “We were just waiting on you.”
“Then let’s go.”
They climbed into the Learjet and buckled in. Gabe asked Deb to sit in the copilot’s seat beside Zach. The gesture was probably futile, but he figured the less interaction Zach had with Whitney, the better.
After Zach finished his checklist, he slid in the pilot’s seat and turned around to face his half sister. “So, are we distant cousins or something? My dad was an only child, but you have to be somewhere on his side of the family.”
“You’ve figured it out already, haven’t you, Zach?”
The excrement-flinging fan was winding up now.
“Spell it out for me. I’m feeling a little slow.”
Whitney paled, then raised her chin. “Somehow I doubt that.”
She clicked her seat belt into place.
“I’m your half sister,” she said, her tone professional. “And before you ask, I’ll tell you everything I know. Your parents separated for a short while. Your father got drunk, took my mother to bed one time, and I’m the result. Now that that little turd has been dropped into the punch bowl, we have more important things to worry about. Can we talk about Winslow?”
The Warden gave Ashley a look of such utter hatred that she shivered. The red-haired man followed out the door and slammed it behind them. Ashley bent over and gripped her knees to steady them. Thank God they were gone.
She glanced up at Niko. She didn’t know what to make of him, but he’d saved her butt twice now.
“You have a death wish, Lansing?”
“You and I both know that my having a death wish is not going to matter within a few days. Tell me I’m wrong.”
Please, tell me I’m wrong.
He met her gaze. “You’re not wrong. And it probably ends tomorrow.”
Hearing her suspicions confirmed made everything more real. That they were happening so soon made her blanch.
“Will anyone survive?” she rasped.
He was silent for a long time, then, without answering, he slapped a bracelet cuff around her ankle. “No use trying to take it off,” he said. “Every few feet there’s a detector. We’ll know where you are. It takes a special screwdriver to remove it without triggering an alarm.”