by Toby Neal
“Sorry. I just…” Sophie could practically see Jake pushing a hand through his hair in annoyance. “Just come back here so we can go over the plan, please. Partner. Equal. Most ass-kicking female of my acquaintance whose expertise I need on this case.”
“That’s better.” She smiled. “On my way.”
Shank Miller looked even paler than Sophie remembered as one of his bodyguards opened the limo’s door. Decorative chains clanked from his leathers as he got out, his long hair bundled back and rings gleaming in his ears. The man likely slept during the day to rest up for his nighttime concerts, much like the vampire he resembled.
Sophie had changed out of Mary Watson’s outfit in the guest room into her standard work outfit, and she stood with the other staff as the rocker greeted Jake with a hug and backslap. Antigua, Pepe, and their two junior security staff all stood in a row with Sophie on the end, a queue of servants greeting the lord of the manor upon his return.
Miller worked his way down the line of staff, greeting them and asking personal questions about their family and health. No wonder the man was popular.
“Hello, beautiful,” Miller purred when he reached Sophie, taking her hand to press a kiss on the back of it. His dark eyes, lined in kohl, twinkled up at her. “I have been working out hard. Trying to build some bulk.”
“That’s nice, Mr. Miller. I’m sure your health has benefited,” Sophie said politely. Clearly the rocker had not forgotten an earlier, tactless comment she had made about his physique. “I would be happy to join you for a workout some time.”
“I will take you up on that. So, remind me of your role here, again?” He hadn’t let go of Sophie’s hand, and Jake frowned from behind the rocker’s back.
“I’m Jake’s partner with Security Solutions. My specialty is computers and I’m here to support your team, but mostly to train the artificial intelligence home monitoring security system we’ve installed,” Sophie said.
Miller turned to Jake. “Brilliant and beautiful.”
“I know. And you’re only schmoozing her because she said you look like a heroin addict and implied you weren’t attractive.”
“I was struck to the heart,” Miller agreed. “My delicate male ego is still trying to recover.”
Sophie removed her hand from Miller’s and rubbed residual dampness on her pants, a gesture he watched with fascination. “Like I said, I’ll be pleased to work out with you some time. I hope you are not still offended.”
“Is she always this literal?” Miller asked Jake.
“Afraid so.” They both studied her.
Sophie cleared her throat. “We should really move on to more urgent business, like the problem of Blondie and how to catch her. You should be flattered, Mr. Miller. Some women would like to love you to death. Literally.”
“Don’t remind me.” Miller shook his head and turned to head for the double doors of the mansion, addressing the two bodyguards standing by the limo. “Butch, Andy, bring my things and that nastiness that was delivered to my hotel room. I’ll meet you all in the living room once I’ve had a shower and feel human again from the plane flight.”
When the Security Solutions team gathered, sitting around an octagonal card table to review the Blondie situation, Shank did look better. Sipping a green drink Antigua had prepared for him, he gestured to the bag of Barbie dolls on the table. “I want to know how Blondie found me in Quebec. As you can see, I gave Butch and Andy the night off so we could speak freely.” He took another sip of the green drink. “Herold, my bodyguard for the longest amount of time, retired last year and I just don’t trust these two the same way. Can you check them out? I mean, more thoroughly than just the usual background check?” Miller’s eyes found Sophie. “I hear you have some sort of super program that can find out everything about a guy down to his dick size.”
“That would be an unusual search parameter,” Sophie said, as Jesse and Ronnie snorted with laughter. “But yes, I can do a deeper background check on them, pull up their financials and so on—though I must warn you, it’s not strictly legal to do so.”
Miller waved a hand. “They’ve signed agreements to have transparent records, not that I’ve utilized that clause in the contract. No one but my immediate team knew my location in Quebec, and I went in and out of the hotel in disguise. I’m worried one of them sold me out.”
Jake sat forward, resting his elbows on the green felt surface of the table. “We discussed how Blondie got dolls into the estate here while you were gone, which seemed to show she didn’t know where you were. It’s concerning to see that she found you.”
“That’s why I’m home now.” Miller drained the last of the health drink.
Sophie picked up the bag to examine three new plastic figures. “Any prints on these?”
“No. The guys checked,” Miller said.
Sophie shook the figures out onto the card table and examined them closely. Each one was labeled with a day and time of retrieval. The blonde female figures continued to wear bridal outfits, but the mutilations on the male figure had progressed: both arms missing, both arms and a leg, and finally, limbless and sawed in half.
The attention to detail on the hand-drawn tattoos was remarkable.
“That last one sure is creepy.” Miller pointed to the dismembered doll, his mouth twisted down.
“Indeed it is.” Sophie looked up at Jake. “Did you tell Mr. Miller what Dr. Kinoshita said in her evaluation?”
“Female. Obsessed. Escalating. There’s a potential for bodily harm if she gets ahold of you,” Jake told Miller.
The rocker shuddered. “God forbid.”
“You should read the report.” Jake pushed a copy from his file over to Miller.
Miller pushed it back. “I’m having enough trouble sleeping without giving this psycho any more room in my head. I trust you all to handle this.” He stood abruptly. “I’m going to get some rest. Let me know when you’ve come up with a plan to catch this bitch.” He left, and closed the door a little too hard.
Sophie looked at Jake and their two staffers. “He seems upset.”
“Wouldn’t you be? Look into the backgrounds of those bodyguards, pronto. I ran the usual Security Solutions protocol on them and found nothing.”
“I will, of course.” Sophie frowned thoughtfully, picking up one of the dolls. “I don’t remember seeing this ‘tattoo’ drawn on one of these dolls before.” Sophie pointed to a tattoo on the male figure’s groin, an area beneath what would have been his beltline and not visible to public scrutiny. “Looks like it might have been someone Miller had sex with? I don’t believe there are photos circulating of this tattoo, do you?”
“We’ve thought of that. Have a whole album of blondes he’s slept with, and mini-profiles on them,” Jake said. “I can show them to you, if you like. Shank is partial to blondes, so there’ve been a lot.”
“Not necessary right now. This person really studied his tattoos. Have you considered it might be one of the artists who worked on him?”
Jake’s brows snapped together in a frown. “No. But that’s a good lead to pursue. In the meantime, I want to lay out our ideas to lure Blondie out into the open. And until we clear his bodyguards and the rest of the staff, the plan doesn’t go beyond this room.”
Chapter Eleven
Done with the meeting eventually, Sophie dove into the familiar wired world as soon as she’d set up her laptop in the same guest room she’d used before. Putting on her headphones, turning up the air conditioning, dimming the lights, she settled her body into an ergonomic chair as her fingers flew over the keyboard. Not even sleeping felt so much like an escape.
She had missed the gray maze of the cyber world, a place where she traveled weightless, bodiless, fast and free, screened from distractions by Beethoven crashing in her ears.
Sophie routed the cams set around the house into the central processing software and sped up the image integration, gathering all the bits and pieces gathered over the time that Security Solutions had been wo
rking at Miller’s house. She then launched the compilation and assessment algorithm and trained the cameras on Miller’s sleeping and living areas. A few days of data gathering, and the AI software would have all the information it needed, now that the master of the house was back in residence.
She moved on to using DAVID for a deep background check on the two bodyguards. It didn’t take long to uncover a financial weakness in the profile of Daniel “Butch” Callahan, the older of the guards. A former Army sergeant, Callahan was in debt to two ex-wives and seemed to have a gambling problem, if his frequent flights to Vegas were any indication. He ran a balance close to redline in most of his accounts.
A touch on her shoulder jerked Sophie around. She took off her headphones. “Antigua! I’m sorry, I didn’t hear you come in.”
Antigua set a tray heaped with beautiful island food onto the desk beside Sophie. “Half of a sunrise papaya, filled with homemade yogurt. Pineapple muffin. Mango pancakes.” She set a large mug of steaming, dark liquid beside it. “And Thai tea, just the way you like it.”
Sophie pushed her chair back from the desk, reaching up to stretch her arms above her head, groaning at the stiffness. “You are very kind, Antigua. Thank you.”
Antigua squeezed Sophie’s shoulder. “I don’t know if you noticed, but it’s two p.m.”
“I got absorbed in my work.” Sophie shook her head, but that made her aware of the beginnings of a headache behind her eyes, tired from focusing on the screen. “I lost track of time.” She picked up the tea and took a sip. “This is delicious.”
“I have to keep our best computer gal fueled up.” Antigua rested a hip on the desk as Sophie sat down and dug into the papaya, moaning at the delicious taste and sensuous texture. “We’ve been worried about you since the attack on the beach.”
“Jake is a …” Sophie search for the word, trying out an Americanism. “Fussbudget.”
“Not just Jake. Our whole team has been concerned.” Antigua straightened the linen napkin she had brought with the meal, smoothing the seams precisely beside Sophie’s plate. “I hope you’re okay. I have been sending you positive energy.”
“Thank you. Knowing that my ex is loose and trying to kill me is difficult.” Sophie looked up at the other woman. “It’s good to be back at my computer, to have something to take my mind off it.”
“I understand.” Antigua paused for a moment. She cast her eyes down and cleared her throat. “Jake and I are sleeping together. I just thought you should know.”
Sophie’s face froze into the neutral mask she had learned to hide behind. Her chest seized up but she made herself breathe normally. She didn’t care, did she? She’d made choices, and so had Jake.
“None of my business. I already have a boyfriend.” Sophie’s heart pounded with strange, slow thumps as if a hand were squeezing it. “But I’d think my partner would have told me if he wanted me to know something so personal.”
“You know guys.” Antigua flipped a hand and smiled, her luminous teeth flashing. “The last to kiss and tell.” She stood with a fluid movement. “But you’re partners, so I thought I’d keep you in the loop. I think he was really into you at one time. I hope you’re okay with the situation. Wouldn’t want it to be awkward.”
“Why would it be awkward?” Sophie made herself smile. “I’m glad for Jake to have someone. Just like I do.”
“We’re having fun.” Antigua’s smile was so bright it hurt Sophie’s eyes. She really liked Jake. “I’ll let him know I told you.”
The woman squeezed Sophie’s shoulder again as she left the room, leaving the scent of Tahitian gardenias in her wake.
Sophie had the same feeling as when that Welsh fighter Mega Hammer had caught her in the solar plexus last year and her breath had been blasted out of her lungs. She forced herself to finish the food on the plate. That assessing look in Antigua’s eyes had been measuring how attached Sophie was to Jake.
No, it was none of Sophie’s business what those two did in their private time. She had chosen Connor, and just thinking about their night together warmed her, in spite of all the questions that remained.
Done with the meal in spite of her lack of appetite, Sophie took the plate into the kitchen and rinsed the dishes at the sink, relieved Antigua was nowhere to be seen.
Jake entered, dressed in his usual all-black, vibrating with energy. “Did you make any progress?”
“I did.” Just looking at him, Sophie felt better. She really was glad he had someone—he deserved to be loved! “Looks like there might be an issue with one of the…subjects.” Sophie flicked her head in the direction of the camera embedded in the corner of the kitchen. Talking about the bodyguards on video was not a good idea. Jake gave a curt nod.
“Let’s go to the surveillance center and you can get me up to speed.”
He led her toward the guest cottage where the center was set up. The main room was cluttered with surveillance equipment, monitors, and the personal items of three men living in close quarters, and Sophie immediately felt claustrophobic, glad to have her own bedroom and workstation elsewhere in the house. She perched on a seat at the small multipurpose round table. “Did you talk to Detective Cruz about what happened to Miller in Quebec? What is MPD doing to address the increased threat?”
“I did call Cruz, and he said they’d try to throw a few more patrols our way. Cruz said that there’s really not much they can do. Certainly not more than we can do as a professional team on the premises. But let me get you up to speed on some leads we have, and I’ll give you the final psych report to read.” Jake unlocked a metal cabinet and withdrew a file. “For you to take back to your room. Dr. Kinoshita wants hard copy only, as a security measure—this report should not get circulated.”
“Of course.” Sophie took the file as Jake lifted a magnetized felt cover off of a hidden white board on the wall. Various theories were brainstormed off of a cartoon drawing of Shank. Ex-Girlfriend or Sex Partner was the biggest offshoot, with names and dates branching off of the topic. Additional categories included Former Employee, Concert groupie/Fan, Someone from Early Life. A small new branch, dated today in a different color, was labeled Tattoo Artist Connection?
“This reminds me of my FBI days.” Sophie said. “This is more than a standard security firm would do.”
“Of course. If we find the perp, we’ll provide the best security for our client, especially given the constraints of local law enforcement.” Jake said. “Besides, we’re Security Solutions, not some cheesy rent-a-cop outfit.”
“Yes.” Sophie looked down at the folder in front of her. “Well, I have some reading here to do. But as for the bodyguards, I think we should warn Miller that Butch Callahan has a debt issue and is vulnerable—though I didn’t see any payments coming in to deal with his current debt load. Likely he’d try to conceal that.” She filled Jake in on what DAVID had uncovered. “Did you decide when we’re going to try to capture Blondie?”
“Tomorrow night. You’re to stay inside the compound and monitor via electronic security.” His statement was terse and flat.
“I heard the plan in the den.” Sophie suppressed a wave of irritation. He was always trying to bully her into a passive role. “As soon as it’s executed, I’ll be leaving. Anything else?”
Jake turned away from the board, an abrupt movement. His biceps bulged as he jammed the lid onto his pen with unnecessary force, his face stoic. “No, nothing. Since you’re in such a hurry to be on your way.”
Sophie felt an answering flare of anger, a hot coal that melted some of the chill around her heart. “I don’t know what you want from me.”
“Something you’ve never been willing to give.”
Sophie’s nostrils flared. “You’re sleeping with Antigua, and you’re acting like I owe you something?” She stood up, smacking the folder down on the table like a rifle shot. “Son of a poxy whore!”
Jake’s eyes widened. “Cuss me out in English, if you’re going to insult me. I just meant frie
ndship. Honesty. You’re always shutting me out, and I don’t know why.”
“Because I don’t like you, Jake Dunn. You’re a loud, type A, annoying alpha male who’s always getting in my space, both physically and emotionally, and trying to bully and protect me when I don’t need it.” Sophie’s pulse hammered in her veins and her hands had drawn into fists. “How’s that for honesty?”
Jake waited a beat. “Antigua must have told you we were banging. Are you jealous?” He cocked his head. “Is that why you’re so pissed off?”
“Banging? That’s your word for it? Oh, my God.” Sophie slammed back the chair and headed for the door. “Preening peacock! Foul breath of an infidel! You’re disgusting!”
“Sorry for irritating you with my personal life,” Jake called after her as Sophie slammed the door of the cottage.
She strode back to her room.
Was she jealous? No! She was infuriated by Jake’s demeaning attitude toward Antigua—a capable, skilled, beautiful woman who deserved more, probably hoped for more, and was going to get her heart broken.
Sophie was too agitated to read the psychologist’s report. She changed into exercise clothes and went to the state-of-the-art gym off the back of the house.
Shank Miller was sitting on a reclining bike, pedaling in a desultory way, doodling on a pad of paper. Headphones cradled long hair pulled back in a ponytail. His narrow, tattooed white torso was eerily familiar to Sophie because of the montage of skin art she’d memorized through examining the plastic figures—but a buff, tan Ken doll he was not. At the sight of her, Miller sped up and set the notebook aside.
Sophie picked up a weighted jump rope from a neat stack of gear on a shelf in one corner of the room. “If you are looking for bulk, the bike probably isn’t the best choice.”
“I need stamina just as much,” Miller said. “I burn a lot of calories during a concert, and I need to keep my energy up for several hours at a time.”
“Well then, disregard. I’m sure Jake has taken everything you need in your routine into consideration.” Sophie found a spot on the padded mat and began jumping, warming up.
