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“Finally, a little luck.” Pumping the air with her fist, she abandoned the idea of trying to pry information from the teller and hurried off in pursuit.
Apparently confident he had lost her, the van’s driver, recognizable in his Cardinals ball cap, proceeded at a normal rate of speed as he wended his way toward another residential neighborhood not far past the high school. If he so much as glanced at his rearview mirror, she didn’t see it, since she stayed several car lengths back in the hope of avoiding detection.
She slowed, pulling to the roadside a few houses short when he swung into the gravel driveway of one bungalow, more rundown that most of its neighbors’ with two dead palm trees in an overgrown front yard. After parking inside an even more dilapidated wooden garage, he quickly bailed out and pulled closed the barn-style double doors before heading toward what Sierra presumed to be a back door.
But Sierra wasn’t the only person watching, she realized, a thrill zinging through her veins when she spotted the stirring of a curtain in one of the house’s windows and caught a glimmer of sunlight off a platinum-blond head. That had to be the same pixie cut she’d seen in the missing teller’s last social media postings, a look that made the petite woman’s large, honey-brown eyes and plump, pink lips stand out in contrast. Attractive as the other woman was, Sierra dismissed the tiny twinge she felt when she wondered if Ace’s confession had come on the heels of a passionate tryst. As far as Sierra was concerned, every word of Destiny’s story stunk to high heaven.
Pulling out her phone, she placed a call directly to the police station and asked to be put through to Sergeant Colton.
Expecting to get his voice mail, she was surprised when Spencer picked up in person. And not at all shocked to hear how annoyed he sounded when she identified herself.
“What is this? You want me to put out another BOLO now, or do you have another wild goose chase you’re hoping I can run down for you?”
“I take it you spoke with Ainsley, then. Good.” Sierra made a huffing sound. “Now, if we’re done with the small talk, I have the address where Destiny Jones has been hiding.”
“You’re sure about that?” he asked, his irritation seeming to fall away.
“I’d bet your goodwill on it,” she said, just to yank the sergeant’s chain. “I saw her at the window. Single residence at 2961 Saguaro Street, with a man I believe to be her boyfriend.”
“Same white or Hispanic male in the red van from her apartment?” Spencer asked.
“Yeah. I spotted the guy and tailed him over here.”
“Do not approach,” the sergeant ordered. “I know that address—and that suspect. We’re almost certain he’s a drug dealer, very likely to be armed and dangerous—and I seriously doubt that he’s alone... Ms. Madden?”
Dropping her phone as she heard a sound just behind her driver’s side door, Sierra gasped and reached for her gun before remembering it hadn’t yet been returned to her after its recovery following the motel shootout. Her split-second indecision gave the person who’d crept up behind her the time needed to fling open her door and bellow, “Freeze!” before she could hit the door lock or put the car in Drive.
Chapter 7
The uniformed officer was no older than his midtwenties and clearly nervous, a flush in his fair cheeks and a slight tremor shaking the barrel of the weapon he’d trained on Sierra.
But his voice was firm, as was the look in his hazel eyes when he ordered, “Step out of the car, please, miss. That’s it. Now turn around and put your hands against the car.”
“Was all this really necessary?” Sierra grumbled as he frisked her, quickly but professionally, for any weapons—a search that turned up nothing more interesting that the zip ties she kept on her belt, which he decided to let her keep after she’d shown him both her bail bond agent ID card and Nevada driver’s license. “If Destiny and her boyfriend didn’t know we were here before, I’m sure they
do by now.”
“Look, I’m sorry if I startled you,” said the cop, whose name tag read Ofc J. Donovan, “but my orders were to make sure we didn’t end up having a civilian triggering another shoot-out like the one at the motel the other night.”
“I’m not the one who started that,” she reminded him. “Not that you would know it based on your department’s persecution of one of the intended victims—not to mention the person who’s gone ahead and tracked down not one but two missing persons for you in the short time I’ve been in town...not that I’m implying your department needs to step up its game in that arena.”
Judging from his scowl, the look she’d slanted his way may have suggested otherwise. Could she help it if she had outspoken eyebrows?
“Don’t get so cocky quite yet,” he said. “We haven’t determined Destiny Jones is inside that house, but as soon as my backup gets here...”
He turned his head as an unmarked car pulled up a few doors down the street and Sergeant Colton climbed out, along with what she assumed to be a plainclothes male officer, maybe a detective or someone pitching in from the administration since the department was a small one. Both were wearing vests, she saw, and Spencer quickly ordered Donovan to put his on, as well.
“And as for you,” the sergeant told her, “we appreciate your call, but you need to stay in your car. And completely clear of this operation. Do you understand?”
“Fine by me,” Sierra told him before cutting an annoyed look toward the younger cop who’d searched her. “I only hope they didn’t slip out the back while Officer Obvious was alerting the whole neighborhood by frisking me right out on the street.”
“And I hope you’re not trying to back out of your earlier identification of Destiny Jones inside that house,” Spencer told her. “Or sending my people into a dangerous situation on nothing but a fishing expedition.”
“My best friend’s a cop,” she said, figuring that Brie counted as a best friend since she was really the only friend who’d made the effort to stand by her. Even if Sierra’s desperation to pay off Ice Veins, along with her need for secrecy, had made it harder than ever for her to really be there for anyone just lately. “I’d never, ever do that—or anything I thought might come back on Ace.”
Spencer’s serious blue eyes studied her, but she didn’t waver for a moment.
“All right, then, Ms. Madden,” he said, giving her a subtle nod she took to indicate a truce between them...at least for the moment.
