by Sofia Grey
The kid fired the Glock again, hitting Casey’s partner, then pushed the attendant to one side and ran through the terminal.
Jack leapt in pursuit, with Aiden by his side, but it was too late. There was another rattle of gunfire, and the kid fell to the floor, bleeding profusely from the chest.
Jack was first on the scene. He tried to staunch the bleeding, while Casey yelled for assistance, but it was too late. The kid was dead.
It was creeping toward five in the morning, when Jack and the others left the terminal. The kid had been wheeled away to the morgue. Casey’s partner and the fallen security guard were both badly wounded, but not critical. Apart from a thumping headache, and a dwindling surge of adrenaline, it was over. They retrieved the kid’s luggage—a single shoulder bag—and then headed to the office.
Casey, alone now, appeared to be badly shaken by the incident.
“Hey, man,” said Jack. “These things happen sometimes.”
Uh oh. His words of sympathy were not well received. Casey got right up in his face. “We’ve never screwed up like that before,” he snarled. “Everything was fine, until he saw you two Yanks with your Pommy boyfriend. You’re the ones who fucked it all up. Crashing in there, like Clint-fuckin’-Eastwood. Did he know you from somewhere?”
“Now wait a minute—” Jack’s hackles rose at the insults, but he paused when Tanner placed a warning hand on his arm.
“Leave it,” Tanner said. “It’s not gonna help.”
Jack shook him off and stomped away, biting his tongue to keep from yelling. It was just adrenaline. Casey was stressed. Hell, they were all stressed.
Casey’s words repeated in Jack’s head, as they drove back to the house, dawn breaking in the sky and greeting them.
Did the kid recognise him from somewhere?
*
Charlie stared at his mother. The streets flashed past in the background, along with a myriad of familiar shops and buildings. Everything was as it should be.
Everything felt wrong.
He licked dry lips. “What did you say?” There was a slim chance he misheard. Perhaps she’d said... well, anything else at all.
“He wasn’t your real dad.”
No, there it was again.
Charlie’d experienced bad trips on acid, seen visions, and hallucinated. Elephants had materialised in front of him, and one time he thought he could fly. But never, in twenty years of drugs, did he imagine this.
Words dribbled out of his mouth, unchecked and senseless. “Who was he? Rodney? Was he really your husband?”
Her face was so white, Charlie wondered if she would faint, but then she took a deep breath. “Rodney was always my husband.”
He gestured for her to continue. He couldn’t speak.
“I don’t know how to tell you this.” Mum sank her face into her hands, tears oozing through her fingers.
“Just tell me.” It was a struggle to force out the words.
“I know you never saw eye to eye with Rodney, but he was a good man, Charlie. Better than you think.”
There was one chance here that could redeem this un-fucking-believable situation. Charlie grasped at it. “Are you saying you were already pregnant when you married? With someone else’s kid?”
Please let her say yes.
She shook her head. Wet eyes stared at him.
“He was working away on the oil rigs when I fell pregnant. I knew you couldn’t be his, and he did too.”
“Whoa, just rewind a minute. When you fell pregnant? You make it sound like a frigging accident.”
Mum glared at him. “Don’t you swear at me, Charlie Jones.”
This was fucking unreal. He almost laughed. “Sorry. But I’d really like to know this. How did you fall pregnant while your husband was working away?”
“I had an affair.”
No. This was a very bad dream. Charlie closed his eyes. He’d wake and find himself somewhere else. In bed with Daisy. Yeah, that’d do nicely. Unfortunately, when he opened his eyes, Mum stared at him.
Behind her, he saw the gleaming lights of the Trafford Centre shopping mall. He swallowed and gulped in some air. Was he going to be sick?
The taxi would be stopping in a minute. Charlie leaned forward and spoke to the driver, his voice hoarse. “Drive around the block please, mate. I’ll tell you when to stop.”
He faced Mum again. Where to start? A million questions screamed to be answered. It was just a matter of which first.
“So who was it? Who was my real father?”
Like opening the flood gates, Mum’s story burst out of her, punctuated by sniffs and sobs. Lonely at home, while Dad—Rodney—worked away, Mum started playing Bridge with some friends. One man in particular became more than that. Before long, he’d call in to see her and do little jobs around the house. He claimed his wife was unhappy in their marriage.
“His wife?” Charlie couldn’t help interrupting. “He was married?”
She continued, as though he hadn’t spoken. “I fell in love with him, Charlie. I know you won’t understand, but he was everything I wanted. I fell pregnant, and yes, it was an accident. He’d already told me he couldn’t leave his wife. She was also pregnant. When he learned I was carrying his child, he was beside himself.”
The taxi driver glanced over his shoulder but carried on driving, probably riveted by this drama. Charlie hoped to God the man didn’t recognise him.
Mum carried on. “Rodney came home, and I told him straight. I planned to leave. But he fell apart. He begged me on his knees to stay, and promised he’d bring you up as his own. You’d never know. He’d love you just the same.”
“You stayed with him.”
There was a hint of a proud smile. “Yes. He stuck by me, and not many men would have done that.”
Dear God, what happened? Everything Charlie thought he knew. None of it was true. His life was one giant, stinking lie.
Silently, Mum passed him a blue envelope. “I promised Rodney I would give you this. Please don’t read it in front of me. I don’t know what he says, and I don’t want to.”
Charlie was sorely tempted to hurl it out of the window, but somehow, he stuffed it into his pocket. The taxi driver was making another approach to the mall. Charlie had to get out of here.
He tapped the driver’s shoulder. “This is fine now, mate. Let us out here, please.”
They climbed out, and he paid the fare, breathing in the icy crispness of the raw January air. How far would he have to go, to escape from this? If he started running now, could he ever leave it behind?
“I need to be alone.” He could hardly speak, but Mum nodded.
“I’ll sort out a taxi home.”
“One last thing.” He searched her face and groped for the question, the most important of all. Did he dare to ask? Did he want to know the answer?
“Who was it? My real father? Do I know him?”
Her eyes closed briefly, and then she gave him a sad little smile. As they stood there, in front of the mall, fountains trickling and gurgling in the background, and people going about their business as normal, Charlie’s world disintegrated some more.
“You did. It was Trevor. Trevor Hamilton.”
AJ’s father.
TUESDAY 16 JANUARY
Chapter Fourteen
It was like a re-run of yesterday morning. Juli woke alone in Jack’s bed, but this time, she didn’t recall him being here at all. She took a moment to stretch and push her tangled hair from her face, before reaching for her phone. There were no missed calls or messages from him. Where was he? She’d have remembered if he came to bed.
So what woke her? Her alarm hadn’t gone off yet.
The bedroom door clicked open, and in came Jack. He yawned as he stepped through the doorway, but then their gazes met, and his face broke into a huge smile. “Hey,” he said in a low voice. “I could get used to this.”
So could Juli. She smiled in return, and climbed out of bed to greet him properly. “Have
you been out all night, or...” The words died in her throat. Dark red stains spattered his shirt. “Is that blood?” Her voice rose to a squeak. “Oh my God. Are you okay?” Her heart thumped so hard, she thought it might bruise her ribs. She hurried to his side, reaching to pull his jacket to one side, careful not to touch it. “You’re hurt. What happened?”
“I’m okay.” He caught her hands and squeezed them. “Juli, I’m okay. It’s not mine.”
She stared at him. What did he mean?
“It’s not my blood. Take a breath and come back to me.”
Not his blood. Okay. Another thought lurched out of nowhere. “Tanner?”
“Not his, either. We’re both fine.”
“Thank God.” She longed to throw her arms around his neck and claim him in a kiss, but not like this. “Do you need to shower?”
“Yeah. Gimme a minute.” He sank onto the bed with another massive, jaw-cracking yawn. “Shit. I need some sleep,” he said, almost to himself.
Juli perched on the bed next to him. “Have you been out all night?”
There were two things that freaked Juli. She was scared of heights, and she hated the sight of blood. Always had, ever since her mum sliced her hand open on a bread knife, when Juli was a child. Seeing the stains on Jack’s shirt made bile rise in her throat. “What happened?” She repeated the question, but he didn’t answer it.
“I’m gonna jump under the shower, and then I need to crash for a few hours,” he said. “Will you wake me up?”
A few hours? Questions surged, but she held her tongue. He looked exhausted. “Of course,” she said and pressed a fleeting kiss across his lips.
If he didn’t look so wiped out, she’d get in the shower with him. As it was, she waited until she heard the water running, then turned down the bed, gathered her things, and left for her room.
Where had he been? And what the hell was he doing that meant he’d stay out all night and come home covered in someone else’s blood?
Juli dawdled through her own shower, then dressed and headed for the kitchen, to get breakfast. It wasn’t even seven in the morning yet. Would anyone else be up?
Yes. Jordan sat at the table, working on his laptop, an empty plate and mug beside him.
“Good morning,” she said. “Can I get you a fresh coffee?”
He glanced up. “That’d be good, thanks. I’m going through the pitch for LindenCore. I asked Nick to make some changes, which he did. While you’re here, I’ll walk you through them.”
How long had he been up already? “Of course.”
She made and poured the drinks, and then sat beside her boss, while he pointed out the revisions to the presentation. It didn’t look wildly different to her, but she was focused on the technical details and not the sales side.
Alex was next into the kitchen and seemed grateful to find hot coffee in the pot. “I’m making tea for Sylvie, but I’ll finish this while it’s fresh.” He sat at the table opposite them and took a long drink. “You know,” he continued, “I had ideas of this being a holiday, where we could all chill out and relax together.”
Jordan leaned back in his seat, a wry smile on his face. “I was kinda looking forward to that too. Hopefully when this conference is over.”
“Yeah,” said Alex. “And we nail the stalker and lock up the maybe-terrorist. Instead of a quiet holiday, it feels more like I’ve stepped into an episode of Scooby Doo.”
Yup, Juli could identify with that. She hid her smile.
Jordan chuckled. “I don’t recall Daphne or Velma getting pregnant in Scooby Doo. The first thing you’ll always remember from this tour will be learning about Sylvie’s pregnancy. I guarantee it. The shock of impending fatherhood can never be overestimated.”
“You’re probably right. And on that note, I’ll take Syl her tea.”
Jordan resumed work but glanced at Juli with a smile. “It feels normal to be friends with Alex and Sylvie now, but I guess it seems odd to you, right?”
“A bit. Okay, a lot.”
“They’re normal people. Apart from the crazy fans and the stalker, that is.”
It was the perfect segue into asking about Jack. She knew so little about him, other than that he rocked her body like he owned it. She was hungry for any snippets of information. “And that’s why they hired bodyguards? For Callum?”
“Yeah. I’d used Jack and Tanner before. They were the obvious choice for this job.” He touched the laptop screen “Now, look at the changes to this page. This is where I would expect questions for you to field.”
The moment was gone.
*
Charlie walked away from the mall, striding as far as he could without thinking. There was something comforting about the sensation of moving steadily, breath going in and out. People talked about the bottom falling out of their world. Was this how it felt?
He ended up sitting on the ground, leaning against a giant concrete pillar, one of the supports for the M60 motorway that careered over his head. The early-evening traffic provided a torrent of noise. He found it strangely reassuring that the world continued as normal for everyone else.
In the blink of an eye, his life had changed into something he no longer recognised. He’d have preferred to face a pack of starving lions. Anything but this madness.
It was fully dark by the time he staggered to his feet, arse damp from sitting on the concrete. He should have been feeling the cold, but weirdly, he couldn’t feel anything. Would he ever feel anything again?
Only one thing was brilliantly crystal clear. He wasn’t staying for the funeral.
He’d have to walk to the shopping mall, to find a taxi, but within the hour, he’d have his bag packed and be on the way back to Wellington. And Daisy.
*
“Rise and shine, sweetheart.”
Jack opened his eyes, to see Tanner grinning down at him.
“Juli asked me to wake you up,” said his friend. “I draw the line at kissing you, though.”
“Glad to hear it,” Jack growled, as he sat up and rubbed his eyes. “Have they left for the conference?”
“Yep. I’ve put Lucky with them today. We’ve got business to attend to. Casey called. They ID’d the kid from the airport and want us down there.”
The prospect of Lucky sticking with Juli all day didn’t appeal. He’d probably try some more of his Gallic charm on her, but the decision was made. Jack was also disappointed that Juli hadn’t woken him before she left.
He’d call her later, to see if she was okay.
After a quick shower and a giant mug of coffee, they set off for Wellington with Aiden. The journey would take twenty minutes. He had time to text Juli.
Hi. I kinda hoped you’d come to wake me. What happened?!?
Her reply was instant.
Morning! You looked so tired. Thought you needed the sleep! We’re at the conference all day. Will I see you later? J x
Jack smiled as he tapped a reply.
You bet! Have a good day. I’ll txt u later.
“So”—Tanner flashed him a grin—“you and Juli, huh?”
“What can I say? It’s my charming personality.”
“Yeah, yeah. How much have you told her? About Yanni?”
“Nothing. She only knows what she learned in the briefing the other night. It’s safer that way.”
Tanner nodded, and then focused on the road again.
Part of Jack thought Juli should know the kind of guy Yanni was and the things he was mixed up in, but at the same time, it would increase the risk for her. What she didn’t know, she couldn’t accidentally share. Keeping her safe felt more important than ever.
Before long, they were in the city centre and back at Casey’s office, where they settled into a briefing room with a couple of other Kiwi agents. Casey wasted no time with preamble.
“Mika Rashwan. Twenty-four years old, member of one of the spinoff groups from Japanese sect AUM Shinrikyo.” Casey flicked through screens on his laptop, as he read the hea
dlines.
“He travelled into Godzone—that’s New Zealand, for you monkeys—using a stolen passport originally belonging to student Andrew Grant. As far as we can tell, he worked with Yanni in East Timor and briefly in Madrid.”
Casey glared at Jack, his face drawn and tired. “We can safely assume he recognized you as one of Yanni’s lieutenants.”
“Shit.” Did Rashwan think Jack had switched sides? Or that he was there to pull him out? Christ only knew. But could they use this to their advantage?
Casey displayed the contents of Rashwan’s shoulder bag and the few personal possessions he’d carried.
The bag held nothing unusual—just clothes, toiletries, and a guidebook for travelling around NZ. No phone, or any identification bar the passport. He’d been ID-ed by his fingerprints. The Kiwis had already pulled everything apart and searched through the bag for hidden pockets, with no joy.
Aiden picked up the iPod. A slim black model, it looked new and shiny. He flicked through the menu and smiled. “Bingo,” he murmured.
He dug into his bag, pulled out a multi-ended cable, and connected the iPod to a free USB socket on his laptop. Moments later, he turned the screen to show what he’d found.
“He’s using the iPod as a data storage unit. It’s configured for 4GB of data. Not much, but let’s take a look.” He opened a file. What looked like an advert for a washing machine flashed up.
With a puzzled look on his face, Aiden clicked on a second file. This opened up to show another advert, this time for an air-conditioning unit.
“O...kay. He sold domestic appliances to raise funds for AUM?” Tanner sounded sceptical. “And what kind of ads are they? Sure don’t look like eBay.”
“They’re TradeMe ads.” Casey rolled his eyes. “The Kiwi equivalent of eBay. And better than eBay—it’s exclusive. Let me guess. You guys don’t bother doing any local research before you go on an op?”
What an asshole. Jack longed to use Casey for target practice. What was it with his attitude?
