Behind the Lies (A Montgomery Justice Novel) Read online

  Brad’s father had taught the lessons well. Control must be maintained at all times. It was the only way to succeed. To win. To be someone.

  The ball could rot. The boy would pay for a new one when Brad got his son back.

  Brad ran the beam of light across the back wall, skimmed across the blood. They’d climbed into Zach Montgomery’s yard. He didn’t care what the actor said.

  The man was a bum. No discipline. No control. Ever since Zach had moved in, he’d watched the guy come and go on a whim and then perpetually make the cover of the tabloids.

  Anyone who let themselves show their weaknesses in public was a fool.

  With a quick move, Brad vaulted to the top of the wall. He studied the drop. Far, but not too far for Jenna to help Sam down. At least his son showed some athletic prowess.

  Brad scanned right, then left. It was the only way down. He could always predict his target’s movements, but Jenna had surprised him. He didn’t get it. His wife was a coward. She wasn’t a risk taker, which is why he’d chosen her. She had been exactly what he wanted.

  The first time he’d seen her, Jenna was nothing but a street rat picking pockets. She’d been foolish enough to target him. He’d considered breaking her hand as punishment. One squeeze at the right point and she’d have been begging for mercy, but then he’d seen her eyes. He’d recognized the potential. He’d wanted her.

  After one date, he’d known she was vulnerable, that he could mold her. He’d paid her uncle enough money not only to wash his hands of her but to make her life hell on the streets.

  With nowhere to go, she’d been putty in his hands.

  She’d been his perfect wife. A woman who would question nothing.

  Until now.

  Brad didn’t like the unexpected.

  So, what had changed?

  With a quick swing, he dropped into his self-indulgent neighbor’s yard.

  The man was never here. A waste.

  The space appeared different from this angle. What would Jenna see? What would she do? He put himself in tracking mode and studied the surroundings carefully. A house with a security system. Similar to theirs, but Jenna knew nothing of electronics or surveillance. She’d barely graduated high school.

  She would have needed to check her or Sam’s injury from the wall. Brad’s gaze stopped at the pool. Towels, perhaps bandages.

  He strode to the small building off the flagstone deck. The door had been locked.

  This time when he tried the knob, it opened easily.

  There, on the stone, a drop of blood pooled on the uneven surface. An empty water bottle and juice box had been tossed in the trash can.

  Apple.

  The same apple juice that Jenna kept in the refrigerator.

  He slugged the wall; his fist broke through, leaving a hole inside the building. She’d been inches from him all the time.

  His gaze lit on the cash lying on the table, and he stilled. He thumbed through the money. Over a thousand dollars. Thrown down as if it were nothing.

  Not his Jenna. She grew up scraping by.

  Zach Montgomery’s face filtered in his vision. The bastard had known.

  He was an actor. He lied for a living.

  No one else would have left the money here. The truth sliced through Brad. Had he underestimated his neighbor? Brad pulled his cell phone from his pocket. He pressed a key.

  “Johansson.”

  “Find out everything you can about Zach Montgomery.”

  “The actor?”

  “I want the data tonight.” Brad ended the call. He had other research to do. He had to figure out whom Jenna had contacted, and what she knew.

  His identity had been compromised. He would plug the leaks and then begin again. He’d done it once.

  His son…he hadn’t planned on that small wrinkle. But he could find another woman to raise his son. And do a proper job this time.

  A simple plan. Once he found Jenna and the evidence his FBI mole had warned him about, she would have to die.

  His phone rang. He glanced at the number. His eye flinched with the tick that only appeared when one person called.

  The moment he’d agreed to the first job, he’d regretted it. Too many loose ends. He’d been right. Until today when Jenna had left him, this client had been the only person over whom he had no leverage.

  “Walters.”

  “I have another job for you. There’s been a development.”

  “I’m booked.” He peered into Montgomery’s house. He would search the premises.

  “A follow-up to the Colorado job from five years ago. Questions are being asked. I want them silenced. I want you in Denver tonight. Your target won’t be easy.”

  “That’s what you said about the last one.”

  “Well, this is a SWAT captain. John Garrison.”

  “My price just went up fifty percent. Half now. Half on completion.”

  “If you can do it within the week, I’ll double the payment.”

  Brad flicked his thumb against his pinky. It was a risk, but the fat paycheck would help his transition to his new identity. He couldn’t allow questions to remain about the Colorado job. He had a reputation. Besides, Jenna’s betrayal had made him vulnerable.

  “Done. Send the particulars to the same location.”

  “No mistakes.”

  Brad chuckled and brushed imaginary dirt from the perfectly pressed cuff of his shirt. “I don’t make mistakes or leave a trail that can be followed.”

  “Don’t challenge me too boldly, Walters. You wouldn’t want me for an enemy. I would think the last eighteen months had taught you that.”

  The call ended. Brad’s fingernails bit into his palm.

  Too many loose threads. Not enough control. Unacceptable. He could hear his father’s voice berating him from the grave. Fool, pathetic weakling, wimp.

  He would trim all the loose ends. He’d use every set of skills to make sure no one would be left who could identify him.

  No one except his son.

  * * *

  Chapter Five

  * * *

  SAM!

  Her son’s name filtered into Jenna’s foggy mind. She blinked. Pain from the bump on her head dug into her like a knight’s sword.

  Where was she? She cracked open her eyes. The sun burned into her through the car’s windshield. She couldn’t stand the light. The supple leather of the luxury seats cradled her body, yet the interior pressed on her heavy with heat. What had happened? Whose car was this?

  The memory slammed into her. The truck. The cliff.

  Sam.

  Her pained gaze found his slight frame hovering far too close to the edge of the road.

  “Don’t move, Sam.” Was that her shaking, weak voice?

  Her heart stuttered. She had to get to her son. Jenna rolled to her side, but her entire body felt weighted down. She reached out her hand toward him. “Sam,” she called, her voice barely working.

  Then she saw him. Zach Montgomery. Sam’s Dark Avenger raced across the road.

  In one fluid motion, he scooped Sam up and away from the drop-off. Jenna’s throat closed off as Zach, his eyes closed and his chin lifted to heaven, hugged her boy tight. The emotion painted on his face made Jenna swallow to avoid a sob escaping. His shoulders sagged and he carried Sam to the car.

  Jenna fell back against the seat, boneless in relief.

  “Don’t wander off without an adult,” Zach’s firm voice counseled Sam. “You could get lost. Or fall.”

  “Like the truck.”

  “Just like the truck.”

  “It got smashed,” Sam said as he scrambled into the backseat. “I wanted to see.” The door closed.

  Jenna shut her eyes. Her son was safe.

  They were both safe.

  For the moment.

  Except now Zach knew about them.

  If Brad ever found out…she’d discovered in his records exactly what he did to people who crossed him. Had she made Zach a target, too
?

  She tried to shake her head and groaned as the throbbing behind her eyes exploded.

  “Mommy!”

  Her son leaned into the front seat of the Range Rover. His small hand touched her face. She couldn’t move her head, but his cool touch reminded her why every sacrifice would be worth it.

  The car door opened and a warm body leaned over her. “Jenna. Can you open your eyes? Look at me.”

  She focused on lifting her lids. Such a small thing, but her body rebelled this time. She just couldn’t seem to compel her muscles to obey.

  A large hand folded into hers. “Can you squeeze my fingers?”

  She gripped him tight, holding on to the strong hand as if clinging to a lifeline. He’d saved her son. Saved them both.

  “Good girl.”

  His fingers tightened around hers, his strength frightening and calming at the same time. She didn’t want to let go.

  Her son’s small sniffles filtered from behind her. “Why won’t she wake up, Dark Avenger? Make her wake up.”

  “Don’t worry, Sam. I’m taking your mommy to the clinic. The doctors will get her all better.”

  She gripped his arm, her fingernails digging into his skin. “No, please,” she whispered. “No doctors. He’ll find us.”

  Zach leaned closer. The lingering scent of lavender and shampoo made something inside of him shift.

  “Your husband?” he whispered.

  She nodded, then winced. “Please.” She clutched his hand harder.

  “You have a head injury. You may need a CAT scan.”

  “No one can know,” she whispered. She opened her eyes. His icy-blue ones stared back at her. He studied her for a moment, his pointed gaze probing, searching for the truth. His thumb touched an area on her forehead. Even his gentle stroke made her wince as a shard of pain burrowed into her head.

  He let his finger follow the line of her cheekbone to her chin. “Rest, Jenna. Nothing will happen to you. I promise.”

  She shouldn’t believe him. He didn’t know about Brad. Her husband appeared to be a nonthreatening, mild-mannered traveling computer expert. Zach Montgomery was no match for a killer. He might be the Dark Avenger in movies, but Jenna knew the truth. Zach Montgomery wasn’t a real hero, only a professional pretender. He couldn’t help them.

  She tried to push away from him to sit up, but her body betrayed her again. With a groan, she sagged in the seat. She couldn’t afford faith, but here she was, relying on a man she didn’t know, who could very well be another disappointment.

  “Just don’t let Brad find us,” she whispered.

  The Hidden Springs medical clinic sat nestled at the base of Fools Peak, in a small valley with a few fields and a sparkling spring nearby. Luckily, the small town housed state-of-the-art equipment, mostly due to the numerous mountaineers going after the surrounding thirteen- and fourteen-thousand-foot peaks. Jenna would get the best care here, even though she’d tried to refuse the CAT scan.

  Now, he and Sam just waited for the results. What was taking so long? Zach scratched at the cut across his chest. It had started to itch. Healing, he hoped. Maybe he could palm some more butterflies off the nurse.

  A woman whispered to her husband across the waiting room. He nodded slightly and she smiled tentatively at Zach.

  Damn. He’d spent too much time sitting, too many chances to be identified. He normally wore his Zane Morgan disguise into town, but with Jenna hurt, he hadn’t taken the time. It wouldn’t take long for word to get out Zach Montgomery had been in Hidden Springs, Colorado. He’d blown his secret, and he really liked his cabin. If he survived the next few weeks, he’d have to sell.

  Zach shifted his gaze away, hoping they’d get the hint.

  Within a few minutes, a nurse escorted the couple out, but the knot at the base of Zach’s neck didn’t ease. Hopefully he could get Jenna and Sam back to the cabin and away from small-town questions soon.

  The little boy beside him squirmed in his chair. Zach looked down at Sam. “How are those scratches?”

  Jenna’s son sat cross-legged in the chair worrying his jeans. He flipped over his hands and stared at his palms, reddened but now clean and doctored with antiseptic. He straightened his back and looked up at Zach. “I didn’t cry. I’m a big boy. My mommy said so.”

  Zach quirked a smile. “I can see that.”

  Every so often Sam would get up, but for the most part he’d just stayed next to Zach, unmoving and not speaking—unlike Zach’s four-year-old niece, Joy. That worried Zach more than anything. Weren’t five-year-olds much more…lively and prone to trouble?

  Sam was too polite.

  “Why can’t I see my mommy?”

  Sam gazed up at Zach with eyes just like his mother’s, not only in color, but in the apprehension simmering behind the golf-course-green pools.

  Zach ruffled Sam’s hair. “The doctor is looking at her. I’m sure we’ll be able to see her soon.”

  Sam bounced his leg up and down, clearly nervous.

  “She doesn’t like doctors,” he said, his voice so low Zach had to bend closer to hear him. “My daddy made her go to a lot of them. She gets hurt a lot.”

  Zach’s lifted his gaze to the ceiling so Sam wouldn’t see the fury simmering behind Zach’s eyes. Why couldn’t his gut have been wrong? His hand itched to grab Brad Walters by the throat and give him payback for everything he’d ever done to Jenna.

  Then the disgust turned inward. Zach had lived next door and hadn’t known what was going on beyond the walls protecting him.

  Walters had given off a noxious vibe. If Zach had taken the time to meet him, he would have known something was wrong in the house behind him. When had he lost sight of the world around him?

  Even tonight, Zach had been focused on his own problems—he did have someone out to kill him after all. Walters had never been after Zach, though. He’d been after Jenna. The idea of the bastard laying a hand on someone as fragile as her…Zach tightened his fists, and his teeth ached as he gnawed over the truth.

  Vulnerable and gentle. With no one to help her.

  That would change.

  A small tug jerked him out of his contemplation. Zach cast a sidelong glance at the small boy twisting his fingers.

  “My mommy needs me.”

  Zach picked Sam up and stood him on the floor. With an unswerving gaze, Zach looked the kid square in his wide-eyed gaze. “Do you know what a lie is, Sam?”

  “When you make up a story to get out of trouble. Mommy won’t let me lie.”

  “I need you to tell me the truth. Does your daddy hurt you? Does he hit you?”

  Sam bit his lip and bowed his head, avoiding Zach’s gaze. “Not really. Sometimes he yells a lot. That’s when Mommy and me go away, ’cause he’s in time-out. That’s where he is now.” Sam scuffed his feet. “But after he’s bad, he plays ball with me or takes me to a baseball game. I like that.”

  Zach had his own suspicions about what happened between Jenna and Brad behind closed doors.

  The clinic’s double doors swung open. “Mr. Smith?” The doctor gave Zach a secretive smile. One more person who clearly knew his identity. He stood and Sam jumped up with him.

  “Your wife has a concussion, but the CAT scan doesn’t show any other concerns.” He frowned slightly. “She’s a stubborn woman and refuses to stay overnight. I hope you can convince her.”

  Zach nodded. “I’ll do what I can.”

  He took Sam’s hand and together they followed the nurse to the end of the hallway. The nurse shoved aside a curtain.

  Sam dropped Zach’s hand and bounded across the room to his mother. “Mommy!”

  He jumped on the bed.

  Jenna clutched Sam into her arms, closing her eyes in relief. She kissed his forehead. “You all right?”

  “The Dark Avenger saved us,” Sam said.

  Jenna struggled to sit up and pasted a smile on her face, but her complexion matched the white sheets.

  “Whoa, there,” Zach said,
hurrying across the room and pushing her into the pillow. “Now I can see why they want you to stay.”

  “I can’t.” Jenna’s gaze fell on her son, but she lowered her voice. “He’ll find us.”

  “Mrs. Smith?” the nurse said.

  Jenna didn’t answer, she just gaped at Zach, her vulnerable gaze tugging at emotions he’d thought he buried.

  “Mrs. Smith?” the nurse repeated, giving Zach a long, questioning look.

  Zach lifted her chin and sent Jenna a pointed stare. “Darling, the nurse is speaking to you.”

  Jenna blinked once. Her eyes widened with understanding, and she glanced at the nurse, clearing her throat. “I’m sorry. I was so relieved my son wasn’t hurt in the accident, I didn’t hear you.”

  The nurse held out papers for Jenna. “The doctor reluctantly signed your release forms. You’re free to go once you provide your signature.”

  Jenna nodded and winced, putting a hand to her head. Zach took the papers.

  The nurse sighed. “Call if you need anything.” She gave Zach one last worried look, then left.

  “You should stay tonight,” Zach said, even though he would rather get them both up the mountain.

  Jenna ignored him and eased her feet to the floor. She stood up and swayed.

  Zach let out a sharp curse.

  “You said a bad word, Dark Avenger,” Sam muttered from his mother’s side.

  Zach flushed and steadied Jenna.

  “Clothes,” she whispered. “Please.”

  With a shake of his head, Zach handed her a pile from the chair. “Come on, Sam. Your mom needs to get dressed.”

  He jumped off the bed, and Zach closed the curtain. “I’m not moving from this spot. Call if you need me.”

  There was silence. Sam stood waiting, and Zach listened. A clatter sounded.

  Zach threw open the curtain. Jenna stood in a pair of underwear, her shirt halfway on. Her long legs went on forever, though one was lined with a crisscross of barely healing cuts. Zach studied the injury before the truth slapped him. Cuts from the glass on the top of the wall surrounding his home.

  She let out a puff as she struggled with her shirt. She’d tangled the material around her. At the flash of her full breasts, Zach held his breath and walked across the room. He shoved her hands aside and righted the material.