Page 76 of One Final Target

“Yeah.”

“Where are you?”

“In Huntington Beach, trying to stay low. I don’t know who to trust. I know you’re all the way in San Bernardino—”

“I’m in Anaheim. I didn’t go home. Tell me your cross streets and I’ll be there as soon as I can.”

Sam plugged the information into his phone, pulled on his clothes, and hurried out of the room, taking everything, not expecting to be back. Jodie had given him the address of a church off of Beach Boulevard. He found it easily, and when he pulled into the lot, Jodie stepped out of the shadows. He reached over, opened the passenger door, and she hopped in.

“Oh, Sam, I can’t thank you enough.”

“Don’t worry about it. I’m glad you trust me. What do you want to do now?”

“Go back to the house and see if the police are on scene. If there is a police presence, I believe the threat will be gone.”

She directed him back to where the safe house was. It was still dark, but there were two police cruisers, one in the driveway and one parked on the street.

Sam surveyed the street as he drove down it and saw nothing else out of place. The neighbors were out, obviously concerned about the police activity, but he doubted the shooter had hung around.

They parked and got out of the car.

One of the uniforms stepped forward. “Can I help you two?” Then he recognized Jodie. “Jodie?”

“Yeah, hey, Craig. This is Detective Sam Gresham, SanBernardino Sheriff’s office. I just ran out of the house you’re all over. There was another guy in there—is Agent Greto okay?”

Sam heard the worry in Jodie’s voice.

A paramedic’s rig rolled up to the address.

“Hang on,” Craig said, holding his hands up, eyebrows scrunched in bewilderment. “I need to catch up. There is a guy in there, alive but unconscious. Maybe drugged. He’s an agent? You say you ran out of the house?”

“I’ll explain.”

Sam listened while Jodie told the officer everything. When she finished, Craig whistled. “I saw the story on the news, about the explosive under the house in Long Beach. I didn’t realize someone was after you.”

“Did anyone who reported the shots see a car leaving?” Sam asked Craig.

“An officer just texted me that he’s talking to a possible witness. All we have at this minute is maybe a dark-colored SUV drove through the alley. They heard one or two possible gunshots.”

“Sounds about right.”

Craig pointed to the front door. “Let’s go see how the agent is doing.” Craig’s flashlight led the way to the room where Greto was. “There’s no power to the house. The electrical panel was destroyed. We made entry because the back door had been forced open.”

“How is he doing?” Jodie asked the paramedics making an assessment.

“He’s alive, breathing—slow, steady heartbeat. He appears to be under the influence,” one of the medics said. “His pupils are constricted. We’ll transport and advise you about his condition.”

“Thank God he’s not dead,” Jodie said.

Sam surveyed the house, carefully studying the alarm system,which was wireless and state-of-the-art. The power disruption shouldn’t have defeated it. Obviously whoever was responsible must have killed it before he killed the power. Collins was the computer geek with the skills to disable the alarm. And right now, he was their best lead, their target.

This was all too close for comfort. He wanted to get Jodie somewhere safe, right away.

CHAPTER42

“WHAT DO YOU MEANhe found the safe house? Are you kidding me?”

Jodie had called Mike and told him what had happened. She’d startled him out of a sound sleep, based on the rasp in his voice.

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