The Belial Stone(55)

“Mine, either.”

“Is he dead, too?” she asked, her voice quiet.

He nodded and a tear rolled down her cheek. And then she began to shake and her legs gave out.

Jake grabbed her before she could hit the floor. He pulled her into his arms. She didn’t resist. “I’ve got you, honey. I’ve got you.”

He carried her out of the room, cursing whoever was putting her through this again.





CHAPTER 40



“So silver lining, they weren’t superhumans,” Jake said as he walked with Laney down to their new room ninety minutes later. He couldn’t say angels. He might have accepted that reality in his mind, but he was not ready to say the word out loud.

A hotel manager had offered them the use of a different room to get cleaned up in and to comp their room. He’d apologized profusely for the incident. The man was probably more concerned about them potentially suing the Redfield. Jake took pity on the poor man and assured him that they did not hold the hotel to blame in any way for the attack.

The police had a mobile fingerprint scanner and the results had come in almost immediately. Both assailants were Russian nationals who were wanted in a string of countries for various violent acts. Reading through the lines, Jake knew what they were - assassins.

Jake gestured to room 209 down the hall. Laney walked towards it without comment. He was worried. She hadn’t said a word since the attack, except to answer the police’s questions. She seemed to have shut down.

Jake opened the door and let her walk in first. “We’ll get cleaned up and then leave for the airport in a few hours.”

She looked back at him. “The police don’t need us to stay in town?”

Inwardly, he breathed a sigh of relief that she was at least speaking. “No. Henry gave them a call and smoothed the waters. He assured them we’d return if necessary.”

He placed her bag on the couch. Before they’d changed rooms, he’d collected her stuff, not wanting her to have to face the evidence of violence in the other suite. He watched with concern as she gathered it from the couch. Once again silent, she carried it into one of the bedrooms and closed the door behind her.

He didn’t like her silence or the stiffness in her posture. But he was at a loss as to what he could do to help her. He was used to violent confrontation, and providing comfort generally did not come with the territory. He found himself now in the uncomfortable position of wanting to offer that comfort and having absolutely no idea how to accomplish it.





CHAPTER 41



Baltimore, MD



Henry stood staring out his office window. The sun was just beginning to peek out over the hills. He normally loved this time of day. Watching the sunrise gave him a sense of calm and peace.

Today, though, the red streaks of the sunrise seemed more like an angry warning than a peaceful omen. And after the attack on Laney and Jake last night, he had a feeling that things were going to start getting a lot more dangerous for all of them.

But at least they seemed to finally be making some headway in this case. After Patrick had relayed the information that Jake and Laney had gathered from the University of Saint Paul, Danny had run a search for connections between Montana, AFP, and Priddle. And they’d hit pay dirt. Unsurprisingly, AFP was a strong supporter of Montana Senator Robert Kensington.

What was surprising, however, was that Kensington had purchased, through a number of shell companies, a 300-acre ranch a few miles outside of Havre, Montana about a year ago, just before all the men began to go missing. Henry had contacted an operative on the West Coast last night to check it out and to meet up with Jake and Laney when they arrived in Montana later this morning.

He pulled his gaze from the sky when the door to his office opened. Patrick walked in with a handful of printouts and a plate of donuts. Haggard lines circled the priest’s eyes. His walk seemed slower, as if his body had somehow aged overnight.

The day before, Patrick had made Henry promise that he would be told if there was any threat to Laney, no matter the time, day or night. After Henry had received Jake’s call last night and spoken with the Saint Paul P.D., he’d kept his word. Waking Patrick, he’d watched the anguish cut across the priest's face at the news. And he’d known there was nothing he could do to ease the man’s suffering, or his own.

So the two men had headed to the main building to continue working on the case. Patrick was looking for more information on the Belial Stone and Henry was reviewing all the information on AFP and their Montana connections.

Danny had joined them about an hour ago. They were making some progress tying AFP and Kensington more strongly to the missing men, although there still wasn’t enough to bring the information to the authorities. And you didn’t go up against a United States Senator without an iron-clad case.