Thanks to FicreaderT for the assistance on the plotline!

Chapter 15

If it were any other time, the calypso music wafting on the balmy breeze would have soothed Jesse's nerves and enticed him to order another one of those fruity drinks that really packed a punch. But this was not one of those times. He wasn't here on vacation. He was on the run from the CIA because of what happened with Anson. When he fled Miami, he made contact with an old friend who was sympathetic to his situation. Levi Cutler, a man with shady connections and an even shadier business, acquired a mass of wealth that allowed him to live in the Caymans in a semi-retired state. He helped Jesse flee the States and take refuge in his home until things blew over. Jesse spent his time searching for a way to clear their names, but he kept coming up on one obstacle after another.

He sat on a beach chair, tired and frustrated by his inability to change anything. Mike, Fi, and Sam were using aliases and doing a damn fine job of keeping under the radar. Although, he did find a newspaper article about an incident in a small Texas town, and at the moment, the electronic version splashed across his computer screen. Jesse reread it and noted that the accompanying photo finally came up. It was a picture someone had taken on a different occasion, and it was kind of fuzzy, but other than the hair color there was no doubt in Jesse's mind that it was Sam.

"Jesse! Helloooo!"

He blinked behind his sunglasses and glanced up at the person who spoke to him. "What's up Levi?"

"I've got a visitor for you. Two, actually." Jesse tensed up, and Levi noticed the cautious posture. He smiled. "It's two ladies." He stepped out of the way and let the two women come forward.

"Maddie," Jesse blurted and abruptly stood, nearly losing his laptop in the sand. He juggled it and set it down on the seat he vacated. "And Elsa. Wow, this is quite a surprise." He reached out and gave them both hugs.

"We know." Maddie stood before him, her eyes darting about and her hands clasped, her fingers strangling a smoldering cigarette. "We need your help, Jesse."

"Sure, what is it?"

"We need to find Sammy, Michael and Fiona," Elsa said, her eyes pleading with him. "The last time either of us heard anything was a few days ago, when Michael called Maddie. They were on their way somewhere, but Michael couldn't say exactly where. According to a coded letter Sammy sent me, the three are supposed to meet up on November first in Fort Collins, Colorado at a diner."

"Well, I know Sam was in some little hodunk called Grandy, Texas recently. Here, check this out." Jesse picked up the computer and showed them the article. He watched Elsa's eyes dart back and forth quickly as she read the screen, and a fine mist covered them by the time she was done. She reached out and touched the screen over Sam's photograph, her fingers tracing the side of his face.

"He looks like he's doing well," she said finally. "Is he still in this town?"

"No. The article says he left not long after the incident. I was just trying to run a check on his alias to see if anything came up. That's how I found this. I was also going to check on Mike & Fi's cover IDs."

"Do you think that maybe they met up somewhere?"

"It would be great if they did, but not likely," Jesse answered. "It sure would help in finding them if they're together."

Elsa sighed. "Then we might just have to wait until November and meet them at the diner," she said, disappointment tempering her voice. "That's a long time to wait. So much can happen between now and then, and I have this awful feeling that something bad will happen before then."

"We've had to wait this long," Maddie said as she touched Elsa's arm. "We just have to hope for the best."

"Jesse, what can we do? How can we help you find them?"

"Well," Jesse hesitated and gave Elsa an uncomfortable smirk. "Unless you've got security clearance with the CIA, not much. I'm tip-toeing around with my clearances as it is. If the Feds get wind of what I'm trying to look at and trace me here, I'm in deep trouble." He tucked the computer under his arm. "Ladies, I think the best thing for you to do is go back to Miami and wait it out. Be there for the meeting in Colorado, but in the meantime, like Maddie said, hope for the best. I'll keep trying from this end."

"Jesse, what was the name of that little town in Texas?"

He looked into Elsa's eyes and saw a serious determination in them. "You can't do this..."

"I will. If I'd known Sammy was going to leave without me, he never would have gotten one foot out the door. Now I'm taking this one shred of evidence we have and try to find him. Someone in that town must know which way he went!"

"Elsa, this is too dangerous! You don't know the reach that Anson has, and how he's influenced the agency!" He held up a hand. "Okay, let's hold on a second here, alright? I have a couple people I can contact. They're still loyal to Michael. They know what's been going on, and they've been trying to work from the inside out to set the record straight."

"Fine. What should we do?"

Jesse sighed deeply, holding off a chuckle. This woman Sam found himself had some real nerve, but she was also naive. Elsa had no clue how precarious everything was, and that it wasn't as simple as just showing up in a little town in Texas and locking onto Sam's trail. Jesse couldn't help, because the moment the agency discovered he was on American soil, they'd be after him too and then he wouldn't be of any use to anyone. An idea formed in his head. It was crazy, but if nothing else, it would ease Elsa and Maddie's minds a little.

"Come on into the house. I want to talk to you about this." He beckoned them with his arm as he moved toward the small beach house that Levi let him use as his base. Jesse offered them something to drink, and once they were settled into chairs at a small round table, he sat with them.

Elsa looked at Jesse's computer screen, staring at the picture of Sam.

Maddie asked, "What's your plan, Jesse?" He raised an eyebrow, pretending innocence. Maddie glared at him like a mother who knew her child was up to something. She pointed an unlit cigarette at him as she spoke. "You can't fool me, sweetheart. I've been around you too long, I know when you're coming up with something."

"Yeah, this probably won't amount to anything, but at least it's something for you to do." He turned his attention to Elsa. "I want you two to go back to the States and locate this town, Grandy, Texas. Talk to the people there, but don't make it too obvious that you're hunting for Sam. You'll be looking for Jake Baldwin."

"I suppose I could pose as his sweetheart, trying to find him." Elsa batted her eyes.

"It's true enough," Maddie said.

Jesse laughed. "That'll do." Then he sobered. "But be careful. We don't want to get anybody's suspicions up. See if anyone knows where he went, then call me." He wrote his number on a piece of paper and gave it to Elsa. "In the meantime, I'll stay here and see if I can get through this web of security and find their whereabouts. If I do, I'll let you know and then catch up to you. You're not going alone to meet up with them. We don't know what they're up against right now, and you could be walking into something really messy."

"What about your friends in the agency," Maddie asked.

"I'll talk to them."

"Who are they?"

"Maddie..."

"Come on, Jesse! It might be good for us to know who they are, so we can contact them if we need help and, God forbid, we can't get a hold of you!"

He closed his eyes and dropped his head in his hands. Jesse knew Maddie could be stubborn, and he anticipated it, but with Elsa on her side... If either of them started crying, he knew he was done for. "Okay, fine. My contacts are Dani Pearce and Tom Card."

Elsa's eyes grew wide and her tone went up a notch. "Card? Sammy said he didn't trust that guy!"

"Yeah, well, I wasn't too sure about him myself. But when things started falling apart, and people were pointing fingers at Mike, Fi, and Sam, he defended them. He blew me away. We can trust him, really." He took the paper he placed in front of Elsa and wrote more numbers on it. "That one is Dani's, and the second one is Card's. Use them only if necessary."

Elsa took the paper and programmed the numbers into her phone. "Okay, Jesse, what's your alias?"

"Alias?"

"Yes. I don't want to put you in my directory as Jesse Porter. That would be dangerous," Elsa replied and smirked. "How about... Jay P." She grinned. "Very cool. People will think I know a rapper or something." She snickered as she entered the name. "I'll figure out something for Pearce and Card, something that I'll know who they are but anybody looking at my phone would have no clue."

He glanced at her sideways, a smile playing on his lips. "Has Sam been teaching you some spy craft?"

Elsa's smile widened. "Not really. I think I picked it up through osmosis."

Jesse spent some time going over the plan with Maddie and Elsa, and they stuck around to see what kind of information he could dig up to assist them. The women flanked him and stared at the screen as he tapped wildly at the keyboard.

"Hey, Jesse?"

"Yeah, Maddie?"

"They've been on the run for awhile. How are they financing this?"

"I would think they'd have to get jobs somewhere," Elsa said. "Work under the table for cash, most likely."

"Maybe not." Jesse tapped the edge of the computer. "I know Michael and Fiona had fake Socials. I think Sam had one too. Let me do a search for a Sean McKellar in the SSN database."

"You can do that?" Elsa's eyes were wide with surprise.

Jesse smiled. "You'd be amazed what I can still get into. Sometimes our government isn't so efficient to take away access keys. I've been able to get into CIFA files, despite quitting last year. I have some clearance that overlaps for CIA files, but not as much as Mike would have had." As he spoke, he tapped away at the keyboard. "Ah, here we go. There are ten people with the name Sean McKellar."

"Great." Maddie muttered. "Can you narrow them down?"

"Yep." He clicked a couple of filters and the list shortened to three that showed the same age range. One more tap of keys, and he was left with one name. "Cross your fingers, ladies. Let's hope this is our man."

Jesse clicked on the entry, and an employment history popped up. Maddie and Elsa gasped in unison. "That's him! It has to be Michael!" Maddie pointed to the screen. "Look at that, jobs at security firms in Buffalo and Indianapolis."

Elsa nodded, but frowned. "His history ends there, and that was about two weeks ago. What happened afterwards?"

"Okay, don't get excited, Elsa. Let's look up Fi." He printed a copy of Michael's history first, then searched for Fiona. There were more records with her alias, so it took a little longer to narrow it down. "You know what? I have an idea. Maddie, you said they got married, right?"

"Yes."

"Okay, let me see if I can get into the city of Buffalo's records and find something."

A half hour later, Jesse had the information he needed on Michael and Fiona, but the trail went cold in Iowa. Sam's trail was even shorter, still stuck in Grandy, Texas. "Sorry, that's the best I could do."

"We'll just have to start with this, then." Elsa glanced at Maddie. "So, what should we do? Follow Michael and Fiona's trail, or Sam's? Or we split up and handle both?"

"No way," Jesse held up his hand to stop her. "You are not doing this alone!"

"Well then, what do you suggest, smart guy?" Elsa sat forward in her chair, staring at him, her hand on her hip in a defiant pose.

Jesse wanted to scream. It was really sweet and admirable that Elsa was so set on finding Sam, but she had no idea what she could be getting herself into. "Okay, fine. I'll call Dani and Tom, and see if they can accompany you. I'd go myself, but... I'll be right back." He got up from the table. "Excuse me, ladies." He grabbed his phone and left the room.

"You know, he's really starting to piss me off," Elsa said, and Maddie stared at her. "He's acting like we're a couple of kids and we can't take care of ourselves."

"Elsa, I've helped Michael with some of his cases. I know how dangerous things can get."

"Sammy told me a lot about what he's done, at least the things that weren't classified. I wanted to know exactly what kind of man I was falling in love with, and I know he was completely honest with me. I'm not afraid, Maddie." A fierceness filled her eyes that caused Maddie to sit back in her seat. "I wish I could tell you how much I love him. When that Rebecca woman almost killed him and he called me and left that message, it was then that I knew how devastated I would be without him. These months have been killing me inside, Maddie! I will risk everything to get my Sammy back. Everything."

"Your life?"

"Yes. I'm willing to take the chance."

Maddie was speechless at first, but she recovered and responded. "I understand how you feel. I lost Michael for ten years, and I have no intention of losing him again."

"Good, then we agree. We're going after our men." Elsa grinned.

Jesse returned after awhile, long enough for the women to finish their drinks and for Elsa to do a little browsing of the internet searching for anything more on her Jake Baldwin. As Jesse entered the room, she gasped and quickly took her hands off the keyboard as if it suddenly burst into flames.

"What were you doing?"

"Nothing you need to worry about, Jesse. Just trying to look for something on the 'net about Jake Baldwin."

"And?"

"Nothing that I could pinpoint to him. He's not the only one out there." Her shoulders slumped and she leaned into the table. "So what's the word?"

"Dani will go with one of you. She needs to know which one so she can make arrangements."

"And what about Card?" Maddie asked.

Jesse shook his head. "He's not coming. He ordered me to go with one of you. Apparently, he's managed to get the heat off me, so I'm in the clear to go back to the States."

Maddie's mouth twisted. "How nice. Now why couldn't he do that for Michael, Fiona, and Sam?"

"He's workin' on it, Maddie! Just chill! In the meantime, we've gotta find them."

"I don't care who goes with me." Elsa said and turned to him. "Sorry, Jesse, but I just want to get to Grandy and find out what those people know about Sam."

He nodded. "Okay, I'll go with Maddie. I'll let Dani know to meet you at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport."

"She's not in Miami? We could hook up there," Elsa said. "I have to go back and pack a little bag anyway."

"No, it'll be safer if you meet up in a more neutral location." He smiled slightly. "You can say you're going on business, meeting with a realtor or something to look at locations for a new hotel."

A bright smile crossed Elsa's face. "I like it, Jesse! Brilliant!" She jumped up from her seat. "So, let's get to it, then! Let's go!"

"How did you two get here, anyway?"

"I have a private jet," Elsa replied. "Why?"

"I talked to Levi. He'll take Maddie and me back to Miami in his private jet, and you take yours. It's better for us to split up."

"Okay. Good luck, you two!" Elsa smiled, gave them each a hug, and followed Levi out of the house.

Jesse let out a breath. "That woman..."

"She's madly in love, Jesse. Haven't you ever felt that way about a woman, that you would do anything for her?"

He developed a faraway look as he replied, "Yes, I have, Maddie. And it scared me then as much as this scares me now."