Buch lesen: «Silent Night Threat»

ONE

The nameplate on the gold bracelet that circled her wrist read Natasha. She winced at the sharp pain that split the back of her skull as she moved into a seated position and twisted the shiny chain, searching for something—anything—that might provide a clue as to what she was doing lying by the side of the road with a gun in her hand.

A gun! She scrambled backward in the dirt, leaving the weapon behind. A rumble in the distance told her a car was headed her way. Should she leave the gun there or throw it into the ditch?

Where am I? It felt as though her entire head was on fire, and black spots clouded her vision when she turned to try to take in her surroundings. What little she could make out didn’t help: a long road, grass on either side, trees along the edge of the grass. She sniffed the air but didn’t smell anything beyond lingering exhaust fumes, dirt and copper. Copper?

Warmth blossomed along the right side of her temple, a thicker and more concentrated heat than the sun’s rays beating down overhead during this unusually warm afternoon. Where was she? What day was it? What month, for that matter? No one with any sense would be lying outside midday in the heat and humidity, regardless of the location or time of year. She lifted her hand to the side of her head and touched something hot and sticky. Alarm shot through her insides as her fingers pulled back, slick with deep, crimson blood.

It’s not bright red, she thought. I’ve been here for a little while, at least.

But she had no idea how she’d gotten there. Or why. Or if she should even trust the bracelet around her wrist. Natasha? It sounded vaguely familiar, but felt strange as she rolled the word around on her tongue. She needed to get back to the city and ask... Ask who? What city?

Panic rose as her brain refused to recall important details. How did she get here? Did anyone know where she was, and would anyone miss her? Where did she work? Where did she live?

Her breath grew shallow as the lack of details increased in scope, and while some part of her cerebral cortex recognized the danger in hyperventilating while already injured and lying out in the sun, she couldn’t quell the sense of terror that threatened to send her consciousness retreating back into darkness. The black spots in her vision grew larger as the roar of the engine grew louder.

I should move, she thought, but her limbs refused to budge. I should get out of here, away from the gun. What if I’ve done something terrible?

A large shape passed by, and the vehicle engine cut out. The shape came into focus between the black spots at the same time as she heard a car door open and footsteps crunch across the side of the road toward her.

“Ma’am? Are you all right?”

She couldn’t respond. She didn’t know how, and her voice refused to cooperate. The person became clearer as he moved closer—a man with dark hair and a tanned complexion, bearing the broad shoulders of a weight lifter. She knew that because she lifted weights, too.

She did? She did!

I remember that, at least.

“I’m Special Agent Chris Barton of the FBI, and I’m here to help.” The man crouched, entering her field of vision. “Looks like you could use a ride to the hospital.” His gaze flicked down, concern blossoming across his features. She followed his line of sight, confused...and then remembered a gun sat only a few feet away from her. “Hang on... Natasha? Natasha Stark?”

“I—I don’t know.”

“You don’t know what?”

“Who that is.”

His eyes widened and cut sideways, toward the gun. Her stomach lurched as his hand slipped inside his pocket. Was he going to arrest her? “And that’s not mine. I think.”

“You think?”

“I don’t know.” She pressed the heels of her hands against her temples, trying to quell the throbbing, but the motion only sent a fresh wave of ache through whatever wounds marked her head and face. “I’m not sure. I don’t remember. I can’t remember anything.” She looked up at him and stilled a gasp of surprise at the sudden wave of familiarity that washed over her. She couldn’t place him, but she didn’t automatically flinch as he reached for her, brushing his fingers across the top of her head.

A hiss escaped from between his teeth, and she pulled away in alarm.

“Sorry,” he said, inching closer in his crouch. “You’ve got a nasty gash and growing goose eggs on different parts of your head. When you say you can’t remember anything, what do you mean? Your name? Where you are? How you got here? Who I am?”

She shrugged, her eyes becoming hot with tears. She blinked them away—this was no time to let emotions take over.

She couldn’t remember, and everything hurt. “All of the above. I mean that I can’t remember anything.”

“Nothing at all? You’re sure you don’t recognize me?”

She tried to shake her head, but the motion caused a spark of pain to rocket through her temple. She sucked air through her teeth instead of offering a response. What had he called her? Natasha? Like the bracelet, she thought. My name. It must be my name.

“Okay, okay. That’s not ideal. Look, I’m going to make a call and get an ambulance and the local police down here,” he said. “It’s going to be all right, but I don’t want to hurt you further.” He pursed his lips as he looked at her, brow furrowed.

Natasha couldn’t help but stare at his arms, flexed and tense as he rested them on his knees as he crouched. Well-defined muscles stood out in all the right places, and his dark brown eyes shone with kindness and concern. “What is it? Should I recognize you? Have we met?”

“It’s okay if you don’t remember right now. Don’t exert yourself—we can discuss it later. Hang on a sec.” He stood and ran back to his blobby vehicle—her vision still hadn’t cleared up enough to make out a proper shape—and returned with a water bottle and holding a dark blue shirt sporting the bright yellow letters FBI. He uncapped the bottle and poured a splash of water on it. “This should help. It’s a little cold, but that will probably feel good. You’ve got a lot of blood and dirt on your face. You can use the shirt to wipe it off if you want, but you might also need this to stanch any bleeding that starts up again.”

“Is that likely?”

“I have no idea. I’m an FBI agent, not a doctor.”

What did she have to lose? She ran the garment across her face. The water was chilly and refreshing, which momentarily diverted her attention from the pain that kept leaping from one side of her skull to the other. She rubbed the shirt gently across her forehead and back, wincing as the fabric came in contact with the place where she’d drawn back sticky fingers minutes earlier.

“Let me help,” he said, reaching for the shirt as she pulled it away from her face. “I can turn it inside out and pour a little more water on it.”

She’d looked up at him as he moved forward to take the garment, now grimy with dirt and blood, but he remained still as a statue in his half crouch, mouth open and fingers brushing the edge of the material. He blinked rapidly, all color drained from his cheeks as he stared at her wrist. Her bracelet? She touched it, then glanced up to meet his eyes.

“I’m Natasha,” she said. “But you said something else. My last name.”

He nodded, gaze flicking back to the shiny bracelet. “Stark. Your name is Natasha Stark, you’re an astronaut with NASA’s Orion space program, and twenty-four hours ago, you disappeared.”

* * *

Christopher Barton hardly believed his eyes. It was nearly impossible to reconcile the woman sitting in the dirt with the memory of the last time he’d seen her. Twelve years ago, Natasha Stark had been a shrinking image in his rearview mirror as he’d driven away from her and the future they’d planned on having together, and for those twelve years he’d done everything he could to put the memory of his first and only love out of his mind.

And now here she was, tossed right back into it. All it had taken was joining the FBI and getting reassigned to Brevard County in Florida after his two-year probation as a new agent, combined with raising his hand on a missing person’s case that had come up early this morning. He should have asked who the missing person was before volunteering to spearhead the search. He should have also backed down the moment he realized that it was none other than Natasha Stark, his former fiancée.

He could still scarcely believe it, and yet here she was, sitting on the ground with a gun by her side, looking up at him as though she’d never seen him before in her life. Something was very, very wrong.

“Natasha...Stark?” she asked, voice wavering. He took the shirt from her outstretched hand, and sunlight glinted off the gold bracelet around her wrist. His breath caught, and he didn’t trust himself to say another word. “I believe you. Good thing I wore my bracelet,” she mumbled, and he wasn’t sure if she was being serious or trying to make a joke. “I’m fortunate you recognized me with a face this dirty. Or did the bracelet help with that, too?”

“It didn’t have to,” he said, willing his limbs to move. He poured more water on the shirt and pressed it against her head as gently as possible. His entire body had begun to tremble, and his ankles wobbled in the crouch. He’d thought he’d be fine, once he found her. That it wouldn’t matter. Twelve years was a long time. “Hold this here. Looks like you’re not bleeding anymore, but just in case.”

“What do you mean it didn’t have to?”

Was she playing with him? It would be just like Natasha to play a prank on him—like the Natasha he knew twelve years ago, when they were still kids. Well, technically not kids but teenagers, but it seemed like more than a lifetime ago. The way she looked at him now, though...he didn’t see any mirth. She looked nervous and scared.

He tried to put the pieces together. Head trauma, confusion and a gun within reach. According to NASA, she hadn’t shown up for an appointment yesterday morning and no one had been able to get in touch with her since, putting the timeline since she’d been missing at approximately twenty-four hours. He’d only searched this area of highway based on a tip a passerby had phoned in to local police. This wasn’t the kind of case the FBI would normally be called in on, but Natasha’s situation wasn’t normal. He’d never in a million years have anticipated that she would become, of all things, an astronaut. It meant working with other people from different walks of life, different economic backgrounds, in a more sensitive capacity than many other jobs. International partnerships were on the line, and occasionally crew members on the same team didn’t even speak the same language or more than a few common critical words and phrases. Not exactly the kind of thing her parents had been great at, and he’d thought their influence had rubbed off on her. They might still be together if it hadn’t.

He pulled his phone out of his pocket and tapped it against the palm of his hand. “Let’s try to put some pieces together while we wait for help to arrive. What’s the last thing you can remember?”

A shallow sigh escaped her lips. “I’m not sure. But what you said sounds right...feels right. NASA? Yeah. I think I went in for...a physical exam. No, I was on my way to a physical exam. A checkup.”

“That’s a good start. You’re doing great. Can you tell me anything about that appointment? What time? What building?” She started to shake her head but grimaced at the movement. A humming in the distance cut through the sounds of nature and the occasional whoosh of a passing car, but he focused his attention on Natasha. She definitely needed a doctor and fast. Head trauma wasn’t the kind of injury that a person could take their time getting checked out, and considering the important details she’d already forgotten... Well, the longer the delay, the more severe the injury could become. Right now, she didn’t even remember herself, let alone him.

“At work,” she mumbled. “Because I was in space.”

“Even better. See? You haven’t forgotten everything.” He tried to reassure her and keep her calm as the buzzing noise grew louder. Were they near an airfield? He didn’t think so. “Sit tight. An ambulance will be here soon. A lot of people have been looking for you, and they’ll be glad to hear you’re all right.”

“Thank you.” Her gaze shifted past his shoulder. She squinted, like she couldn’t figure out what she saw. “Is that a drone?”

Chris twisted to look as a sudden gust of air whipped past his cheek. Dirt kicked up in the small space between them.

She coughed. “What was that?”

“That’s definitely a drone,” he said, taking in the boxy shape and the rotating blades that whipped around at high speeds to keep the device aloft. “What is it doing out here?”

The drone dropped several feet and moved closer—and this time, Chris heard the muffled bang.

“It’s shooting at us!” Natasha shouted, dropping the borrowed T-shirt. Alarm flared in Chris’s stomach. He lunged for her and wrapped her in his arms, picked her up and then dived for cover behind his truck as the drone released another shot. He opened the passenger door and lifted Natasha inside. They couldn’t stay out in the open; the drone operator could maneuver around to the other side of the vehicle and easily continue shooting.

“Lie down in there,” he instructed. “Make yourself into as small a target as possible. Cover your head.” She did as he instructed, and as soon as she was in position, Chris climbed in on her side, stepping over her to slide into the driver’s seat. A bullet slammed against his door with a clank as he started the Suburban. His window cracked and bowed inward, protecting them for now, but the bulletproof glass could only take so many hits. Without hesitation, he stepped on the gas and veered his SUV back onto the road, heart pounding in his chest.

“Tasha? You still with me?” His insides tightened as he anticipated her response.

“Yes” came her thin, choked reply. “Is it gone?”

He checked the rearview mirror. The drone still hovered in the air, but it didn’t appear to be following them. He continued checking as they drove away, and eventually the machine became a black dot in the distance. Who on earth would use a drone to shoot at Natasha? He supposed it was possible that the drone had been shooting at him, but an armed drone was the kind of weapon to be used on a fixed target—it took time to fly one, and the operator needed to know where to go. He’d been driving around for hours. She’d been by the side of the road for who knew how long. It seemed like an inefficient and cumbersome way to assassinate a person, even though it did provide an element of anonymity. Unless the police were able to take the thing down. He hadn’t gotten a good look at it, but a weaponized drone was no small thing to buy, equip and maneuver with accuracy. And if someone wanted to kill her outright, why on earth had he found Natasha lying in the dirt with no memory of how she’d gotten there and with a gun by her side?

“It’s gone,” he said. “Do you have any idea why someone would be shooting at you?”

She grew silent. Her shuddery breathing told him that not only was she in physical pain but the situation had already begun to take a mental toll. He had no doubt that once she got cleaned up and received treatment for her injuries, she’d be much better equipped to begin dealing with what was clearly memory loss.

“I’m going to use my radio to contact local police and let them know what happened here—all right? When I went to get water for you earlier, I let the FBI know I’d found you, and they contacted emergency services.” She responded with a barely audible affirmative as he fired up his Bluetooth system to make the call. “But now that we’re in the car, I’d rather not wait. We should get you to a hospital to get looked over.”

As he called in the incident to police dispatch, Natasha worked her way back up to a seated position and buckled in. From the corner of his eye, he could see she appeared to be struggling to remain conscious. He needed to get her to a doctor as quickly as possible.

“Try to stay awake,” he said. “I know it’s hard and you must be in a lot of pain, but it’s going to be a whole lot worse if you fall asleep. I’ll get you into good hands as fast as I can, so just—”

Bam! His vehicle swerved to the right before he reacted to the hit. The Suburban’s tires crunched against dirt as he gripped the wheel and corrected the vehicle’s course.

What in the world...? He checked the rearview mirror and saw nothing, then turned his head just as a second hit slammed against them, once again slightly bumping the SUV off course. With his head turned, Chris saw a navy blue Range Rover with deeply tinted windows hiding in his blind spot. He couldn’t see the driver through the front windshield, but he had a bad feeling about the situation.

After all, someone had to have been in charge of the drone. And it appeared that they weren’t pleased that Chris had found Natasha. There was no doubt in his mind—someone wanted to kill Tasha Stark, and he’d just become her human shield.