“I can be there,” she said. “I’m out of town. I was going to ask if I could take a few personal days. The calendar this week is light and most of the meetings—“
His excitement morphed to anger in an instant. “Are you with him?” Grant demanded. “Zara, I—“
Squeezing her eyes closed, she sat on the bottom corner of the bed. “No,” she said, and it wasn’t a lie. She was alone in this motel room. Though the scent of her lover and their joining still permeated the room. But Brodie’s essence didn’t count as a real presence, no matter how it affected the ambiance and her hormones.
“I saw Ben last night. I’m doing what you asked… I’m thinking about it.”
A few moments of silence made her hold her breath. “Zara,” he said and the tone in his voice was one of pride and gratitude. “Of course, take all the time you need. Talk to Ben. Maybe visit the compound and come back in time for the meeting with Sutcliffe. You can deliver the devices to us as a show of compliance… Albert will be pleased.”
“I’m not making any promises,” she said, because she didn’t know how this meeting would affect Kindred plans, and also because jumping on board with too much haste might appear suspicious.
“Yes, sure, ok,” Grant said, but his pace had increased and it was obvious he was jumping to the best case scenario. “Yes, take time to think. Thank you, Zara. Thank you for giving this real consideration.”
He signed off, and she was still sitting on the bottom corner of the bed looking at her phone when there was a knock at the motel room door. Crossing to check who was on the other side, she disarmed the makeshift warning system and opened the door to let the men in, while staying behind it. Tuck and Brodie came in and while they were setting up the security again, she went back to her perch on the bottom corner of the bed and considered what Grant had said.
“Did you talk to him?” Tuck asked. She nodded, before tossing the phone toward the pillow.
She took a deep breath. “He’s spoken to Sutcliffe and confirmed that he’s in London. Sutcliffe wants to meet in the Grand.”
“Meet you?” Brodie asked, coming over to sit on the bed opposite her.
Tuck sauntered closer too and rested on the table to fold his arms. “That could be risky.”
“I don’t think so,” she said, having had the time to ponder Grant’s enthusiasm, she’d decided it wasn’t a bad thing. If he was ruled by emotions, then he wouldn’t look too closely at her motivation for so suddenly switching loyalties. “He wants to meet Grant and me. Grant wants me to bring Game Time to prove my sincerity.”
“When?” Brodie asked.
“Saturday,” she said, watching the men make eye contact.
“That’s enough time,” Tuck said, reassuring them both before pushing away from his seat to round the table and sit at a laptop. He spent a lot of time on computers, he seemed to prefer them to people.
Brodie continued the interview while Tuck typed. “What else did he say?” he asked.
“I told him I had met with Ben. He encouraged me to meet up with him and to go to the compound.”
“That’s good news,” Tuck said, glancing over the top of his laptop. “We want you in there. Now you can use Grant’s suggestion.”
Tuck was happy with the news, but Brodie wasn’t looking at her, he was fixated on the floor and his frown worried her. “What is it?” she asked when he didn’t say anything for a while. “Grant was thrilled. He was flattered that I took his advice. He wants me to consider what Sutcliffe is doing.”
He made eye contact. “How thrilled?” Brodie asked.
She wasn’t used to putting a measure on someone’s mood and there was no gauge that might help her. “Eight out of ten,” she said, hazarding a guess with a loose shrug.
The answer seemed to intrigue Brodie more. “That you were meeting with Ben? Did he ask what you talked about or how you felt about the guy?”
“No,” she said. Brodie’s questions deepened her concerns. “What are you thinking, beau?”
She counted three breaths before he answered. “I don’t know,” he muttered and got up to go to the sofa in the corner. While he was putting his thoughts into order, she gave him some space.
“I’ll make some coffee,” she said. Tuck was still working and Brodie was thinking. They should all get some sleep if they wanted to be fresh in the morning. But she was beginning to realize that most Kindred work took place at night, so she would have to get used to burning the candle at both ends.
She made the coffee and took her time to read what information the Kindred had compiled on Sutcliffe’s group and the folio was concerning. Most of what the Kindred had observed led to the conclusion that Sutcliffe was building an army, just as Grant had said, and a well-equipped one at that. It proved that she’d been right about her visit to the compound. Sutcliffe had set up the wonderful appearance of idyllic living that was only half the story.
Pictures of men with guns at the gates, hiding in bushes, and strolling around the perimeter showed them in army fatigues and heavy boots. These men were strong and trained, she could tell that just by how they stood and the resolute expressions on their faces.
She was sitting on the bed with her legs stretched out in front of her. Stifling another yawn, she went back to the beginning of the stack of glossy photos, deciding to go through them again.
“You’ve been sitting there staring into your coffee for half an hour,” Tuck said. She looked up to see that he was twisted in his seat, craning around to observe Brodie who was still sitting in the corner on the couch. “Are you gonna share with the group?”
Brodie put his cup aside and rubbed his hands on the front of his thighs before he took a long breath, sat back, and linked his hands at the back of his head. “Don’t you think it’s strange that Sutcliffe and Saint are so eager to have Zara back?” he said. She put the photographs on the bed beside her to cross her legs and listen as Brodie continued. “She screwed them over, right? As far as they’re concerned, she was the one who orchestrated the double cross in Atlas. If it wasn’t for her, Sutcliffe’s men wouldn’t be dead, he wouldn’t have broken his leg, and he would have the device he needs to execute his grand plan.”
Worry joined her understanding that he was right and she wondered if he knew he was freaking her out. “I can hear you,” Zara said, linking her fingers together. Her lover didn’t acknowledge her. When Tuck glanced around at her, his serious face made her sit straighter. “Wait, I don’t understand what you’re saying.”
“I’m saying that this is all wrong,” Brodie said. “We’re used to having Art thinking about the background, about the motivations and how our enemies end up doing what they do.”
His lesson of life without Art had been harsh. But he’d learned it when Caine jumped him outside the CI building. Art had been his safety net, thinking about the things that Brodie didn’t have to. Now Brodie was learning that his safety net was gone and he had to come to these conclusions alone.
Vaulting onto his feet, Brodie was more ready for action than slumber. “We’re being played.”
With a sideways nod at Tuck, Brodie began to stride toward the door. After a few quick swipes at his keyboard, Tuck was up and moving into Brodie’s wake. She leaped off the bed.
“Wait!” she exclaimed, making the men stop less than three feet from the exit. “You can’t say something like that and then leave. What does that mean? We’re ‘being played’, are we in danger?”
Her love and their colleague weren’t concerned, but panic was making her shiver. “You’re Kindred, you’re always in danger,” Brodie said.
If she hadn’t been so perplexed, she might have been encouraged by her lover’s return to cryptic. When they first met everything he said and did was of the cryptic variety. But whatever conclusion he’d reached while sitting on the couch pondering, it meant something had to be done by him and Tuck. She was being excluded.
“Where are you going?” she asked, scared that they could be of
f to do something dangerous. “When will you be back? What can I do?”
“You’re gonna lie down and go to sleep,” he said, moving towards her.
Such a mundane suggestion took her aback. “I can’t do that.” His fire was extinguished and calm took its place. She envied his confidence. The closer he got, the more his eyes softened. When he seized the back of her neck, he touched her face, and some of his peace seeped into her.
“I’m done being angry about losing him,” Brodie said. Art. He was finally confessing the truth of his grief. “All that’s got me so far is a battered girlfriend and a bruised ego. He’d kick my ass if he knew how long I’d spent feeling sorry for myself. The Kindred comes first. What’s priority one?”
“We look out for each other,” she murmured, fixated on his certainty.
“That’s right, and you’ve proved your commitment to us by keeping everything together while I was busy boozing. It’s not gonna happen again. The Kindred Chief doesn’t get the luxury of downtime. I’ve had my head up my ass for too long. It should never have gotten this fucking far. But it has, so I need to get us out of it.”
She couldn’t see Tuck because Brodie’s body blocked her view, but she could feel his smile and his relief, because it had to be as tangible as hers. As tempting as it was to make a joke about never sleeping with her boss, she thought the better of it because her other boss was Brodie’s brother.
If he was excluding her, he had his reasons. She had to prove her confidence in him. “I trust you to come home safe,” she said. “But is there anything I should know?”
“This is a game and I’ve finally figured it out.”
“Will you clue the rest of us in?” she asked.
“I’ll clue Swift in,” Brodie said. It seemed unfair that the hacker was let in on the secret while she was kept in the dark. But Brodie would have his reasons, and they wouldn’t have anything to do with a lack of trust. “It’s not that I don’t trust you.”
“I know that,” she said with a smile as he’d just read her mind. “Worrying about you has become something of a habit.”
Every day for more than three months, her life had been dedicated to making sure Brodie had everything he needed. Her concern for his well-being was engrained, and she wouldn’t want it any other way. Having him as such a dominant part of her thoughts empowered her and it lightened her other woes because Brodie was a monolith and she finally had him back.
“I want you to get your beauty sleep,” he said, wrapping his fingers around the section of her hair in front of her shoulder. “Because I need you thinking tomorrow. You’re gonna make that Ben bastard fall for you so hard you’ll have him begging for table scraps.”
He didn’t lose his confidence, in fact Brodie smiled. Zara forgot to breathe for a second and glanced around to check she was still in the right reality. “You want me to—“
“Just show him those big browns that get me hard, baby, flutter those sexy lashes… He won’t be getting his hands on you. Right now, I gotta go.”
Kissing her quick, he spun to head for the exit Tuck had prepared for them. “But,” she stuttered, taking an aimless step. “What—“
Brodie stopped in the doorway to look at her once more. “Sutcliffe has an army and to fight them, we’ll need one of our own,” he said and went out into the night, closing the door on his statement.
Brodie had purpose and seeing him invigorated was encouraging, yet he’d told her to sleep. Excitement made it difficult for her to relax and it was frustrating to know only half the plan. Somehow, that unknown paled against the realization that Brodie was back with her. Raven was back at his peak. Sutcliffe wasn’t going to know what had hit him.
TWENTY-ONE
“I think you owe me.”
Friday night, in the bar with Ben, Zara’s attention had been drifting, but it snapped back to him when he made that statement. The audacity of his smile prompted Zara to think he was making a joke. But she wasn’t in much of a joking mood.
The place was alive with people and the music was energetic. Raven and Swift were at their posts opposite the vast glass façade, and she was safe. But she was still in the dark as to what Brodie had meant about them being played. Brodie and Tuck whispered with each other or went out and left her alone. They were cooking something up and she didn’t know what it was.
“I owe you?” she asked.
Ben was still smiling, he held the neck of his beer bottle and pulled it closer. “We’ve seen each other every day. We’ve talked all about my life and Albert’s, tonight I’m supposed to take you over to the house.”
They’d talked earlier in the week about her want to go back to the compound, and he’d promised to take her tonight. She wasn’t wild about the visit being nocturnal. Especially given that her Kindred cohorts couldn’t keep eyes on her there. They’d been watching since she’d met up with Ben in the bar, but they wouldn’t witness what went on inside the compound where there was no external line of sight.
Keeping her anxiety to herself, Zara didn’t want the men to think that she couldn’t handle the job. They might not be present to view her every step in the Sutcliffe house, but she would be carrying audio and visual equipment. If she got into trouble, they’d get her out.
Brodie had assured her that he’d blast the place off the face of the earth before he’d abandon her if she needed him. Recalling her love’s vehemence helped her to return Ben’s smile. Ben didn’t make her nervous. He was a physical therapist who clearly had no idea what Albert Sutcliffe was capable of.
Her anxiety came from her mission. She had to plant bugs at the Sutcliffe house. She had to find out the location of the cult’s arsenal. Tuck found records of equipment and ammunition being bought, yet they hadn’t seen deliveries to the house. They’d been unsuccessful in locating any hoarding site using their original ground and aerial observations.
As if tonight wasn’t stressful enough, tomorrow she had to travel back to her apartment and prepare for her meeting with Grant and Sutcliffe, where she was supposed to hand over the device the Kindred had been keeping hidden for months. She wasn’t worried about her safety. She was worried about letting down the people who were relying on her.
Playing it coy, she averted her eyes. “What is it that you think you want from me?” she asked Ben.
“I feel like I don’t know anything about you, Zara,” he said as he swayed closer. “How did a girl like you get mixed up in this?”
Over the course of the week, they’d talked about their lives, but she’d rather cover old ground than confess the whole truth. “I’ve worked for Grant McCormack for five years. I know all of his business dealings.”
“And you always subscribe to his ideology?”
“No,” she said.
This conversation was edging into dangerous territory. “You said that Albert killed your friend,” Ben said and she wondered if he was testing her. “But your friend killed his nephew.”
This suggested he’d been talking to Sutcliffe about her. “You think this is a game of tit for tat?” she asked, lifting her glass to squeeze her straw between her lips. “My friend did what he did because he was protecting me.”
“Sutcliffe said you loved him, that he got into your head.”
Any news on Sutcliffe’s thoughts was welcomed, but it wasn’t pleasant to know they’d been discussing her personal life. “He did,” she said, examining the grain of the tabletop. “In the way a lover does.”
Softening her tone, she fluttered her lashes at him and leaned closer. “That’s it, baby,” Brodie said into her ear. “Show him that smile. Use your assets, Swallow.”
Initially, she’d been surprised that he was giving such commands, but every time he murmured in her ear, her sexual awareness peaked. Brodie aroused her with his words out here in public, just like he did in their bedroom. These meetings served as foreplay that always eradicated her anxiety of overthinking the next step.
Brodie guided her, giving her permission an
d instruction, using her to get what he needed from Ben. She was a tool that gave him leverage. But he rewarded his instrument when he got her alone and their passion was given release.
She widened her eyes and did as her lover told her to. Folding her forearms onto the table, she pushed her upper arms tighter around her bosom and was amazed to realize that the more she amplified her cleavage the more relaxed and therefore malleable, Ben became. These little maneuvers had been working all week.
“It’s getting late,” Ben said, dragging his admiring attention upward. “Are you ready to get out of here?”
With a nod and a coquettish smile, she rose from the table and let him help her on with her jacket. “Are we going straight to the compound?” she asked, allowing him to take her hand as they left the bar.
Brodie wouldn’t be happy that Ben was touching her. But that Ben thought he was allowed to take these small liberties suggested to her that their plan to seduce him had worked. “Yeah,” Ben said. “It will be quiet tonight.”
Quiet tonight meant nothing to her because she didn’t know how busy the place usually was. But she got into his truck with him sparing a brief glance in the direction of Brodie’s position.
“We’re gonna be right behind you,” Brodie said as Ben started his truck. “We’ll still hear every word.”
But Brodie wouldn’t have a line of sight. They’d found positions of weakness in the defenses, Zara knew because she’d heard the guys talking about it and the map laid out on the table in the motel room showed where those weaknesses were. If they had to get to her, they would. But they wouldn’t risk exposure by sneaking onto the property because they didn’t need Sutcliffe and his people strengthening their defenses.
The journey was short and when they got to the gate, it was open. There were no men or guns around either, meaning this was another staged event for her. There were some lights that she could make out through the trees here and there, but she didn’t see people or homes. In comparison to the drive through McCormack land, this drive was short. The house was lit up, but still, there were no people.
Swallow (Kindred Book 2) Page 25
