by Dale Mayer
“Some people think there’s more here than there is.”
“Right,” he said. He caught Gavin’s questioning expression, and Lennox shrugged, shook his head. “No, we didn’t have a thing. Just keep your eye on the road, please.”
Carolina piped up. “They should have had a thing. It would have made them both easier to live with.”
With that, Gavin started to chuckle. And then he laughed and laughed. “Okay,” he said, “now I understand all the undercurrents.”
“You do not,” Helena muttered.
“No,” Lennox said, under his breath. “You don’t.”
“Maybe not,” Gavin said, still chuckling, “but I can guess. You really should go to a hotel and take care of business.”
“Is that what having sex is to you?” Helena asked in an outraged voice. “Taking care of business?”
“Well, if it’ll stop all this crackling resentment around us, then, yes,” Gavin said. “You guys should have had a thing five years ago, and maybe you, Helena, wouldn’t have gotten married, and you, Lennox, wouldn’t have been lost for all these five years.”
“How lost was he?” Carolina asked with interest.
Lennox smacked Gavin on the shoulder. “I was not lost,” he announced. “Gavin is just being an ass.”
“If you say so,” he said and started to whistle. Unfortunately it was the wedding march. When he caught Lennox’s gaze, Gavin roared with laughter.
“Glad you’re having fun,” Lennox muttered.
“Best I’ve had yet.” He quickly changed lanes, moving into another.
“Why all the sudden lane changes?” Helena asked suspiciously.
“I just want to make sure we’re not being followed,” he said. “And—before you ask—no, we’re not.”
“God, I just want this over with.”
“And it will be,” Lennox said, “soon.”
“Three days,” she said darkly. “Three days or else …”
Chapter 11
Helena woke the next morning and froze, not recognizing the room. Her heart pounded, slamming against her chest, until she heard voices outside and recognized Lennox’s. She groaned and sagged into the mattress, remembering that they were in a safe house. It was a rancher with lots of small bedrooms. They each had a bedroom; they each had a bed. Everybody was safe, and they weren’t all that far away from her own apartment. Maybe twenty minutes if she drove and maybe an hour if she walked.
She got up, slowly walked into the bathroom, yawning. She only had her clothes in her travel bag, so at least enough for a week’s holiday. But this was a long way away from a holiday. She closed the bathroom door, hopped into the shower, and, when she felt more refreshed, she stepped out, dried off, and dressed. She pulled out her dirty clothes, wondering if a washing machine was here.
With all her clothes laid out on the bed, she looked at the dresser and decided that, since she was here for almost three days, she might as well unpack. With everything removed, her dirty laundry to the side, she put her empty carry-on bag into the closet and then walked into the kitchen. “I guess this layout makes sense if it’s a safe house,” she said, “but, if it were my place, I would want my bedroom twice as big.”
“I think they took the bedrooms and cut them in half just for that reason, so they could pack in more people,” Gavin said without looking up. He motioned at the coffeemaker and said, “That’s the second pot. You may want to get a cup now.”
“Wow,” she said, “have you already drunk a whole pot yourself?”
“Nope,” he said, “Lennox has been helping me.”
“Is Carolina up?”
“Yep, you’re the last one, sleepyhead.”
She chuckled. “I finally slept though. I feel one hundred times better.”
“Good,” he said, “so you’ll have some patience when Lennox doesn’t finish this job in three days.”
“Nope,” she said, as she sat down and reached for a section of the newspaper. “He’s got three days. Now he’s got half a day less.”
Gavin let out a bark of laughter. “Well, you’re nothing if not a hard-ass.”
“If you want to get shit done,” she said, “you have to have deadlines and discipline, and you got to make your goals.”
“And so is your goal his goal?”
She stopped, frowned at him. “What does that mean?”
Gavin shook his head. “You make your goals,” he said, “but that doesn’t mean they’re Lennox’s goals too.”
“Maybe not,” she said, “but obviously we’ve been on his enemy’s target list for a while.”
“And I wanted to ask you more details about that,” Lennox said, as he walked in to join them.
Carolina walked in beside him, came over, and hugged Helena. “You look much better.”
“What kind of details?” Helena asked.
Carolina pulled up a chair beside Helena, the two women close as always. They both looked at Lennox with quizzical glances.
“How did he find you?”
“I remember him now. We were at a coffee shop,” Carolina said promptly. “He walked up, introduced himself as one of your friends, and said that he happened to be around and recognized me.”
“And how did you know that he was telling the truth?”
“Because he knew something about your place,” she said. “Mentioned that you guys had done a couple missions together and also mentioned a couple other friends that you have in common who I also knew.”
“Right, so confidence-building, letting you know that he really does belong in my world. So why didn’t you guys go out with him?”
“You mean, besides the fact that we were both not going out with men at all then?” Carolina asked.
Lennox nodded.
“I can answer that,” Helena said. “I didn’t like something about him. I don’t want to say that I saw a ‘violent edge’ to him, but something was in his gaze. It was just wrong.”
“Wrong?” Gavin said slowly, as he put down the newspaper and looked at her. “Wrong, how?”
“Cold. Dead. As if something was going on in there that was completely disconnected from the world around us.”
“Interesting assessment,” Lennox said. “Gavin, you know him too, don’t you?”
“I do,” Gavin said. “And she’s right. There’s a coldness in him.”
“Then our instincts were a whole lot better that time,” she added, with a knowing look at Carolina. “I haven’t seen him since though.”
“Is that the only time he approached you?”
“No, we saw him several times throughout that week,” she said. She frowned and looked at Carolina. “I think it’s because of him that we switched coffee shops, wasn’t it?”
Carolina looked thoughtful, as if casting her mind back. “You know what? I think it was. We went there every morning at nine a.m. to catch up,” she said slowly to the men. “We needed that. Even though we probably spoke for four hours every evening, it was that physical contact that we needed with each other to get through the day back then. But Rob was disturbing,” she admitted.
“I think we went to a coffee shop around the corner and then saw him again, and so we stopped our coffee shop ritual. Instead we ended up picking up coffee somewhere else and walking down on the beach.”
“Right,” Carolina said. “The more we distanced from him, the angrier he seemed to be, which then made us distance even more.”
“Exactly.” Helena agreed with a solemn nod.
“Did he ever follow you home?” Lennox asked.
“How would we know?” Helena asked. “We left soon afterward with the Red Cross.”
“So, if Rob had any plans,” Carolina said, “we probably ruined them right away.”
“And it might have taken time for him to figure out just where and what you two were up to.”
“Exactly. But when scar-man found us, apparently Rob had found us in a big way,” Helena said. “Do you think he would have done somethi
ng to this guy using your name?”
“It’s possible,” Lennox said. “I can’t tell you what other people have done. I can tell you that I don’t know who this guy with the scar is. As far as I know, I’ve never met or done anything to him.”
“And this guy—Rob, your friend or not—what was his real name?”
“Just call him Rob,” he said. “I think his real name is Robert McMillan or something.”
“And did you find very many places where you crossed paths with Rob?”
“None that matter,” he said. “They were all before he was charged.”
“What about this scarred guy?”
“No way to know. But he was, as far as I can tell, in Thailand for a long time. So our time there could have overlapped.”
“Do you think he would know the girl who Rob raped?” Helena asked.
Both men looked at her with added respect.
She shrugged. “I’m just looking for a link. The other problem is, if Rob did this once, what are the chances he did it again?”
“So you think that, maybe instead of something this Rob guy did directly to the man with the scar, Rob might have done something to somebody close to the man with the scar?” Gavin asked Helena.
“I don’t know,” she said tiredly. “You’re making my brain hurt.”
“You’re the med school student with the 99.9% ranking, which probably will never be usurped,” Lennox said, scoffing. “Your brain only hurts when it doesn’t have a million things to work on.”
She shot him a look. “My brain always intimidated you,” she announced. “That’s probably why you didn’t want to go out with me.”
Silence fell at the table. And then once again, Gavin chuckled. “As I said,” he said, “you two need to spend some time together.”
“Nope,” she said. “We already spent some time together.”
“Didn’t go so well, huh?” Gavin asked.
Lennox glared at her. “Go ahead. Why don’t you just air all our dirty laundry?”
“I would, but there isn’t any to air,” she said blithely, as she waved a hand in his direction. “That’s the problem with nonstarters.”
He gave her a loud snort. “Nothing happened.”
“Nope,” she said, “one crazy-wild kiss, and both of us backed off, deciding that it wasn’t what we wanted at the time.”
“And all because of me too,” Carolina said. “Right?” The two of them exchanged looks, looked at her, and Carolina nodded. “I knew that’s what you were doing. I kept telling you both it was okay.”
“But it’s not okay,” Helena said, “because I wasn’t prepared to jeopardize our relationship.”
Carolina grabbed her best friend’s fingers and said, “Why would you think a relationship with my brother, even if you two broke up, would jeopardize us?”
“Because it happens,” she said, “and you’re too important to me.”
“You were just scared,” Carolina said. “Admit it. You were afraid that Lennox was too good to be true.”
At that, Helena laughed. “Well, he isn’t, so it all worked out.”
Just then, his phone rang. Lennox pulled it out, checked the number, and answered it. “Keane, what’s up?”
She looked over at Gavin. “Who’s Keane?”
“One of our team who runs the communication center.”
“Cool,” she said, studying Gavin’s face. Then she looked over at Lennox and said, “Or not cool.”
Gavin nodded. “It looks like not cool to me as well.”
“He arrived in the US? San Diego? Walked right through security?”
“Apparently,” Keane said. “He wasn’t supposed to be let in without questioning.”
“He was involved in the kidnapping and a hostage scenario. How the hell was he allowed to enter the country?”
“We’re still investigating all that,” Keane said. “The whole point of this call is to tell you to watch your back.” And he hung up.
“So our scarred man is Stefano Hartland, both on his birth certificate and on his current IDs,” Lennox said to the three staring at him in shock. “And he arrived two hours ago in the US. He’s already cleared customs, and they’re just now getting around to telling us.”
“Wow,” Helena said. “I thought we were all on the same team.”
“The teams are variable obviously,” he said. He glared at his phone. “So I want to get into the security in your apartment building to see if he’s figured out where you are, and then there’s my sister.” He looked at her. “You don’t have a place here any longer, do you?”
She shook her head. “No, just the one in Munich.”
“So, if you were to come here, where would you stay?”
“If not with you, with Helena of course,” she said.
“So we’re back to Helena.” Lennox worked away on his laptop, checking for cameras and security systems. “You have a high-end security system at your place.”
“Well, as good as I could get,” she said. “It’s a new apartment for me, after I divorced.”
He looked up and realized why she’d have extra security on her place, and he approved. But he hated the reason behind it. “I’ll need permission from you and the building’s owner to get into the system.”
“Or you don’t get permission,” she said. “You can get in there anyway.”
He immediately opened the chat window and asked for access to the building’s security feeds. It took at least three minutes, and then a link popped up.
“And I’m in,” he said, with a note of satisfaction. He really loved this Mavericks system. He worked his way back to this morning’s video, checking to make sure that nobody suspicious had come or gone. “Nobody’s been there so far today.”
“That you know of,” Helena said. “What if your other idiot, Rob, set up something beforehand?”
Lennox sat back, looked at her, and asked, “What are you thinking?”
“I don’t know,” she said, staring at him, and he saw the fear lurking in the back of her eyes. “But just to think that this guy even knows where I live won’t help me sleep at night.”
“Which is why,” he said, “we have to find him.”
“I get that,” she said, “but this isn’t exactly helping now.”
“It is if we can figure out if he’s found your place or not.”
“Why don’t you go back a couple days?” Carolina asked. “See if Rob showed up early.”
“No reason for him to,” Gavin said, shaking his head, “but this whole thing has been one messed-up illogical incident.” He had his laptop out too. The two of them worked away, checking on the various camera feeds.
And then Lennox froze. He tapped Gavin and said, “See if you can get a better picture of this guy.” And he gave him the time and date.
With the second laptop, Gavin opened up angles from the other cameras. “Well, look at that,” he said. “Rob.” And he pointed out the stranger with a baseball cap and sunglasses.
“And how do you know it’s Rob?” Helena asked, hopping up and running around to see him. Carolina followed.
Lennox pointed to the scar and the slightly distorted tattoo on the back of his hand. “Rob was injured with several bullets and some shrapnel in one of the missions, and it buggered up that tattoo.”
“So this was what? Four days ago?” Helena asked.
Lennox and Gavin both nodded.
“So why is he in my apartment building back then?” As they all watched the replay, Rob headed toward an apartment on the main floor and, with keys, let himself in. “That son of a bitch has an apartment in the same building?” she cried out in outrage.
“Appears to be true,” Lennox said quietly. “So now the question is, Why?”
“Well, it’s too much of a coincidence to think that he didn’t have a long-term plan for this,” Gavin said. “So he’s there because she’s there.”
“I don’t understand why it’s me though,” Helena stated, staring fro
m Lennox to Gavin and back.
“Because, like I said, that’s the only place I would go,” Carolina said. “Although we were going to Munich.”
“Except,” Helena said, as she sat back down again, “we were originally going home to San Diego,” she said, “and then we changed our plans.”
“So who would know your original plans and then wouldn’t have realized when you made a change of plans?” Lennox asked Helena and his sister.
“I don’t know,” Helena said, staring at him in shock. “We talked about it while we were at work all the time. Any number of people could have heard us.”
“But who would care?” Lennox asked, pressing the women. “That’s the real question.”
Both women shrugged. “I have no idea,” Helena stated.
“I wonder if he’s still there,” Gavin said thoughtfully. “Maybe he’s living there.”
Lennox shot him a hard look. “I suggest we go find out.”
Immediately Helena jumped to her feet. “I want to go too.”
“Well, that’s not happening,” Lennox said, with a glare in her direction.
She glared right back. “It’s my apartment!”
“No,” he said, “it’s his apartment.”
“So what does that mean though?” she asked. “Why would he be watching me?”
“To find me,” Carolina said. “And, therefore, ultimately to find Lennox.”
“So what about this other guy who landed at the airport? Stefano?” Helena asked the guys.
“For all we know, he’s part of whatever this angle Rob is working,” Lennox said.
“Maybe they’re working together on both ends. The kidnapping first and now Rob’s part. Maybe Rob was lying to you,” Gavin said to the women. “People lie all the time, particularly when it diverts attention away from them.”
Lennox frowned. “Anything’s possible.” He hopped up and said, “Gavin, stay here with the women?”
“Absolutely. What about weapons?”
“Right, we had to leave the others behind.” He stopped and looked around.
“Exactly, so now we’re stuck.”
