Under the Wire: Bad Boys Undercover by Helenkay Dimon Read Free Book Online Page B

every desk and around every pile, Parker stood in the middle of what looked to be the main office area. “Clear.”
    “Clear.” Reid didn’t get what had happened or where her team had gone. Only the three of them stood in the building now. He motioned for Cara to come farther inside. “I think we can rule out that animals attacked you. This mess was done by men.”
    “Did you see any of them the other night by the tents?” Parker shot her an unblinking stare. “Any clue what we’re looking for here?”
    The devastation showed on her face. So pale and drawn. She bent down and picked up a stapler with shaking hands then set it on the edge of one of the desks. “I thought we were being hit by a freak storm. It was so loud and disconcerting and then . . .”
    Reid ached for her, for what she’d been through. He knew if he’d lost his team without explanation it would hollow him out. The “no man left behind” motto meant something to him. “What is it?”
    She winced. “I passed out. I remember the fear and bits and pieces, but mostly my memory picks up the next morning when I woke up wrapped in the tent with blood all over me and it.”
    Parker hissed through his teeth. “That’s pretty fucked up.”
    Anxiety edged up on Reid. They’d been talking and walking and he’d missed a pretty big fucking step in the process. “I get the blood on your clothes isn’t yours, but we need to know the rest. Were you injured?”
    “My head was killing me during the storm, and for a day after.” She touched her hair then dropped her hand again. “I was still hazy when you two arrived.”
    A huge grin lit Parker’s face. “But seeing Reid made you snap out of it.”
    Reid thought this might be a good time to punch something. “Shutting up now would be good.”
    “Honestly? He’s not entirely wrong.” She went back to juggling the pocketknife in her palms. “From experience, I know I need to be awake and on my game to take you on.”
    “Thanks, I think.” And that was enough of that talk. Reid nodded in the direction of the satphone sticking out of Parker’s front pocket. “Anything?”
    “Already tried and nope.”
    Not exactly the answer Reid wanted to hear. “The only possibilities for that other than malfunction—”
    “The phone wouldn’t dare fail on your watch.” Caratopped the comment off with an eye roll that suggested she didn’t find either of the men in front of her all that bright.
    “—are a signal jammer or weather.” Reid stopped long enough to spare her a quick glance to let her know he’d heard her joke and was ignoring it. “I’m going with human interference.”
    Parker nodded. “Humans tend to mess up a lot of assignments for us.”
    “Someone is jamming the signal from a satellite?” she asked, as if mulling the words over, tasting each one, as she said them.
    Reid once again fought back the urge to point out how much technology sucked and how often it failed. Refraining from stating the obvious made his head pound. “That’s not quite how it works, but yes. They—whoever the hell ‘they’ are—can block us from using the satphone, but only within a limited range. We should be able to get far enough to break free of the interference.”
    “Unless this ‘they’ follows us.” Parker emphasized each word.
    Reid knew that was for his benefit. Sort of a this-is-your-fault thing. “Right. Then we can’t get a message out.”
    “Which is a big fucking deal since we’re supposed to be in Montana right now, so no one even knows to look for us here.” Parker’s mouth fell into a flat lineas he sat down on the edge of one of the two standing desks and glared at Reid. “This is the last time we vacation together.”
    “It’s a shame no one implanted a tracker in you two.” Cara went to work picking up laptops and checking them to see if they turned on.
    Parker smiled at Reid.
    Reid debated filling her in, but thought she might find some comfort in knowing where