Page 13 of Stella's Christmas Rescue
Jordan walks in and asks, “What else is wrong?”
I shake my head. “You two are friends, right?”
He nods. “Yeah.”
“Then, talk some sense into him for me. I need some crackers to settle my stomach.” I stomp down the stairs and think I’ll probably be found dead on them one day. I search for a box of saltines and maybe some bourbon. The agents in the kitchen have most of everything bagged up, so I’m not in their way. I’m glad for it. The sooner they leave, the sooner I can pretend this is all just a nightmare.
One of them stares at me. “What?”
She smiles bashfully, “Way to go.”
“What are you talking about?”
Then, she points to the blood splatter on the floor and gives me a thumbs up. I want to vomit when I see the blood, but her pride in me gives me another thought.
I can fight back.
5
“What do you mean, they won’t relocate her immediately?” I’m close to losing it at Wes, even though I know that’s not his fault. He’s not high enough on the food chain for this to be his choice.
He closes his eyes and hangs his head. “Stella is not great at following the rules for witnesses, and my boss didn’t approve her relocation here in the first place. Jordan, I’m in a real bind here.”
I shake my head in confusion. “Wait, how is she here, if the relocation wasn’t approved?”
His lips tighten and he quietly admits, “I fudged the paperwork to get Stella here.”
I’m shocked. Wes is a by—the—numbers guy. “Why would you do that?”
His eyes dart around while he closes her bedroom door. “Stella’s case is different than most of my witnesses. Many of them are not first—hand murder witnesses. They’re usually criminals themselves, or damn close to it. Someone who thought it was fine to bribe a mayor, because that’s just how business gets done in Boston’ or something like that. Stella, on the other hand, is completely innocent. But the program doesn’t have a special good guy category for witnesses, so it doesn’t grant leeway to those who should have it, and let me be clear, she should have it. So, I faked my boss’ signature on Stella’s relocation paperwork to get her here, because I knew you’d help out.”
I’m worried for him. “Are you in some kind of trouble over that?”
“My boss knows what I did, and I’m in her crosshairs as far as furloughs go, but for now, my job is safe. It’ll stay that way, if I can get Stella onto the witness stand.”
It’s my part in it that makes no sense. “Why amIin this diabolical plan of yours?”
“I know you, Jordan. I trust you with my life. Ihavetrusted you with my life, if you recall our days in the service together.”
“Oh, I remember. And you returned the favor a time or two.”
He laughs, “It was eight times, and we both know it.”
I grin and tell him, “I’ll give you seven, but I had that sniper in my sights in Bogota. I woulda got him.”
“Sure,” he rolls his eyes. “The point is, my department budget was slashed. There was talk of booting Stella out of the program entirely, because she plays it fast and loose with the rules, which costs a lot. The more risks a witness takes, the more likely they are to run into trouble. And when they run into trouble, they call me. Every call has a cost to it. My boss needs to cut the most expensive witnesses from the program to make the budget work. You can thank your Senator for cutting our budget, by the way.”
“That’s seriously messed up. They’d let her get murdered over money?”
“Her and others. We’re the federal government and we do not have unlimited funds.” He sighs hard. “But I’m not letting Riker get his hands on her. The world needs him behind bars. Or dead. Dead would be more cost effective. There have been over 1,200 global deaths associated with his weapons smuggling ring. It’s one of the largest rings like it in the world. They’re making arrests as fast as they can, but you know how it is.”
“Slow, I imagine. What rules is Stella breaking?”
“She keeps in contact with her family.”
We had talked about his work a lot, and I know most of the rules. I close my eyes and sigh. “That’s a huge one.”
“Yeah. And I don’t know how to stop her, outside of cutting all lines of communication between her and the rest of the world. But she won’t be any good to anyone, if she loses her mind, which I think that would do. I’ve offered her the skinny bride program, but she won’t take it.”
