“Would you kiss me now?”
“Not now or later. Not here or there. I would not kiss you anywhere.”
“You do not kiss ninjas in the rain or in a plane?”
“Or on your knees or if you say pl—”
Brandt moved his hands from her legs and wrapped his arms around her, pulling her closer to him, and sealing his lips against her mouth. The swift movement wasn’t entirely unexpected, but what shocked her was how gentle the kiss was, as if he were unsure this was a good idea after all. The tentative feel of him appealed to Bonnie. She thought he’d plunder her mouth, force his tongue through her lips, but he didn’t. He brushed his lips back and forth over hers, then he drew back a fraction, the tips of his lips a hairsbreadth from hers.
“See me,” he whispered. “Kiss me.”
Bonnie closed her eyes. “No,” she breathed.
I can resist him.
But the whimsy was so tempting. She snaked her other hand under his suit jacket, and he chuckled and flinched away for a second then nuzzled her neck.
“You’re ticklish?” she said.
“Extremely. You won’t tell, will you?” He rained kisses along her neck and nipped the skin under her ear.
“Leverage.” She sighed and dropped her head back.
He planted a wet kiss where her neck and shoulder met then withdrew, moving his hands back to her legs, running them up and down the sides of her thighs. He grinned at her.
“Are we done?” she asked.
“Define done.”
“With…” She gestured with her hand to him then her.
“I was thinking this was a start, but you won’t kiss me, and you said you didn’t want to join the Mile High Club. Still. This is only about a thirty-minute flight anyway.”
Bonnie slid back toward the chair, and Brandt lifted her up to the cushion. He gazed at her as if he’d won this battle of kiss or no kiss. “How whimsical do you want to be? I could ask the pilot to keep going, change our flight plan.”
“See? This is what I was talking about. You’re just playing with me. Let’s see how I can manipulate the put-upon mother of three with a mortgage. Give her a little excitement.”
“Close your eyes for a minute.”
“Why?”
“Because I’m going to get up off the floor, and I don’t want you to watch me. My legs are asleep.”
“Oh, for heaven’s sake. Who cares?”
“I’m trying to be suave here.”
“Make jokes. You’re good at that.”
Brandt hit his leg a couple of times and with some effort put his foot underneath him and stood unsteadily before he collapsed on his own chair. “I know you don’t believe this, Bonnie, but you are the most exciting woman I’ve met in a really long time.”
“Well, that’s just sad.”
“I know. Isn’t it? The lonely life of a ninja. Do you feel sorry for me?”
“Sorry isn’t the word I’d use, no.”
“You could kiss me, but let’s stay in the chair.”
Bonnie sighed. “I almost believed you were serious, that there was something deep you knew I had seen.”
“Well, yeah, but then you started tickling me.”
“Why are you bringing me on this trip? So you can show me your manufactured consulting company in a made-up town that probably isn’t even in Kentucky? Your kiss was probably one more smoke screen.”
“A very pleasurable smoke screen. I am bringing you to Bellini so you can see it’s a real place because I want you to help me.”
“Help you how?
“Remember I asked you about finding someone?”
“The person that you only have the birth certificate for?”
“Yes.”
“I just can’t believe with the people you work with, what they were able to do in a government office building, and you breaking into the computer, that you can’t find this guy yourself. Who is he?”
“He’s my brother.”
“Your brother?”
“Yes. As far as I know, the only family I have, so any help you can give me would be appreciated.”
Chapter Eleven
Brandt eyed her steadily, waiting for her answer.
Bonnie shrugged. “I don’t think I can do more than what you’ve probably already done, but sure, I’ll try.”
The magnificent grin that lit up his face struck Bonnie so much she forgot to breathe.
“Now, I could kiss you.”
She inhaled and held up a warning hand. “Don’t. I need to temper my whimsy. Do you have any information about your brother I could look at?”
Brandt bent over and retrieved the leather satchel he’d brought with him. Withdrawing a folder, he handed it to her. “There’s a tabletop you can pull up from the side of the chair,” he said.
Bonnie put on her glasses and adjusted the table over her chair. She opened the folder and read the first paper there: a copy of a birth certificate for Marshall Lee Sherrod. “He’s a year younger than you. How’d you get the birth certificate?”
“I took it with me the night police took us. I thought if I had his birth certificate with me, they wouldn’t be able to separate us.”
“The police took you from your parents?”
“My mother.”
“How old were you?”
“Seven.”
“What happened next?”
Brandt sighed. “It’s all so fuzzy. I remember Marshall and me huddled together when the cops came. I remember them pulling us apart, and I was fighting them so I could stay with Marshall, and then I remember being in the back of the police car…I don’t know. It must have been bad because I can’t remember anything else about that night. I never saw him again.”
“What about your mother?”
“I never saw her again either. She died.”
“She died because of what happened that night?”
“No. It was later.”
“When did she die?”
Brandt named a date. “My case worker came and visited me on my eighth birthday. He brought me her death notice from the newspaper.”
Bonnie shook her head and sighed. “Happy birthday, and, oh, by the way, your mom died.”
“Meh. It was a long time ago. And anyway, he brought me some video games and a system to play them on. I don’t remember being upset about my mom. I do remember how excited I was to have the games.”
Bonnie looked through the file but didn’t see the death notice. Even though he was only eight when he received it, the fact he no longer had it, but still had his brother’s birth certificate from two years earlier, seemed significant. Do you mind if I write on these papers?”
“No.”
Bonnie made some notes and leafed through the other papers—lists of organizations Brandt had contacted looking for Marshall without any luck.
“It’s like he disappeared that night.”
“Where were you living when the police took you from your mom?”
“Right here in Carlton Heights, Kentucky.”
“Why did the police come?”
“Mom’s boyfriend was a dealer. He was beating on her—nothing new there, and then the police stormed in.”
“My God, Brandt. That must have been terrible.”
“Ah, yes, and losing Marshall was the worst and going from foster home to foster home until I came to live with Delores. She was so wonderful. Saved my life, that woman did. And she made the best coconut cake. She got to where she’d make one once a month because she knew how much I loved it.”
The fact Brandt seemed to have no feelings whatsoever about his mother’s death struck Bonnie. No anger. No sadness. Nothing. She stored the piece of information in her mind and continued.
“You said you don’t remember anything after you were in the police car. What about before? Do you remember being outside walking to the police car? Was it hot or cold?”
“It was…cool. Nippy.”
“Do you remember what Marshall
was wearing? Or what clothes you had on?”
Brandt didn’t answer. Bonnie looked from the paper to him. He shook his head.
“Did you all have a Christmas tree up?”
“There wasn’t Christmas back then.”
“How about the neighbors? Did you notice any Christmas lights or Halloween decorations as you went to the police car?”
Brandt rubbed his forehead, as if attempting to massage the memory into existence. Bonnie knew this couldn’t be easy for him, so she gave him time to think, to remember. She continued to read. Brandt had attempted to search the foster care database, but hadn’t found anyone with his brother’s name. If he had possessed his brother’s birth certificate, was it possible they didn’t know Marshall’s real name?
“There was a jack-o’-lantern on the stoop next door. I remember because it seemed to be laughing at us for being arrested.”
“Except you weren’t being arrested. The police were just taking you away from a dangerous situation.”
Brandt leaned forward, rested his elbows on his knees, and a look of dejection flashed across his face, then it was gone, but Bonnie had seen it. “I was just a stupid kid. What did I know?”
Bonnie adjusted her glasses and suppressed the urge to crawl into his lap, gather him to her and hold him, tell him it would be all right, that she couldn’t erase the pain of so long ago, but she’d do her best to help him find his brother.
“I’m glad that jack-o’-lantern was sneering at you. That means we know about what time of year this happened.” She could scour the newspaper and police reports for the incident. Before the plane landed, Bonnie had gotten a few more details of the night Brandt and his brother had been separated, including the name of the street where they’d lived and the name of his mother’s dealer boyfriend. Going back almost forty years to search for a seven-year-old wasn’t an easy thing to do—like looking for a needle in a haystack—but it was possible. The needle was definitely there. It would just take time. Bonnie may not be good at whimsy, but she loved playing hide-and-seek—if she could be the one seeking.
When they touched down at a small airstrip, Bonnie saw only a train track and trees. A car was waiting for them, and Brandt invited her to ride in the front. She recognized the woman driving—Sheri Stillthorpe. She looked a lot less frumpy than she had the day she’d been impersonating a secretary in the vice president’s office.
“Do you remember Sheri?” Brandt asked from the backseat.
Sheri cast her a dismissive glance.
“She’s mad because she doesn’t think I should bring women to work.”
“Did Batman ever bring Mary Jane to the bat cave? No, he did not.”
“Of course, he didn’t. Mary Jane was Spiderman’s girlfriend. Batman would have brought Vicki Vale to the bat cave, if you’re talking movies. If you want to be authentic and decide from the comic books who his girlfriend was, then the closest he had to a significant other might be Selina Kyle, AKA Catwoman.”
“Marry me, Bonnie,” Brandt crooned.
Bonnie turned and looked at Brandt over her shoulder. “You would propose marriage because I know who Batman’s girlfriend was? How have you managed to stay single for forty years?”
“He hasn’t stayed still long enough to get caught,” Sheri groused then shot Bonnie a meaningful look. “Until now.”
“Good thing I’m not fishing.”
“She means you’ve already caught me by finding me. This is the first time any of us have ever been detected.”
“Perhaps, but I found you because of a personal matter. It wasn’t business.”
“It was your business.”
Bonnie shrugged. “My job is looking for beneficiaries. It took me months to track you down.”
“You shouldn’t have been able to track him at all.”
Bonnie looked out the side window instead of snapping at the other woman who was, in effect, criticizing Brandt for going to his foster mother’s funeral. Brandt was a big boy and Bonnie was sure he could defend himself if need be.
“She’s very good at what she does, Sheri. You know what they call her at her office?”
“The Bloodhound. Yeah, I know.”
“How do you know that?” Bonnie asked.
Sheri rolled her eyes and pointed her thumb at Brandt. “He brags.”
Sheri drove a circuitous route to an old house on what appeared to be a horse farm. When she paused at a closed gate, they slowly opened. Bonnie looked at the black painted borders fencing in the trees in the large yard. “How come you took Highway 14? It looked like Rural Route 4738 intersects it, and it ends right there. That would have been a more direct way to get here. I’ve already told Brandt I have to be back by four.”
Sheri’s mouth tightened.
“See what I mean?” Brandt said.
Sheri didn’t respond as she drove through the opening and followed a dirt drive around the house to the back where a new four-car garage opened one of its doors; Sheri maneuvered the car inside. Two other cars resided in the other spaces, and one vacant.
“Does someone live here?” Bonnie asked.
Sheri turned off the engine and left the car.
Brandt and Bonnie exited on the other side and stood next to each other. He placed his hands in his pockets and grinned. “This is a big step for all of us, having you here. You understand if we don’t answer too many questions.”
“’Cause then you’ll have to kill me?”
“No. That’s a cliché, and therefore predictable.” He walked toward the door Sheri had just gone through then slammed shut. “And I did promise to get you back safely.”
“She’s angry.”
“She’ll get over it.” He held the door open for Bonnie and ushered her into a spacious room with several desks spaced throughout, and large screens on one wall. One screen must have been someone’s computer monitor; the other was an aerial view of the outside of the house that switched to another view as Bonnie watched it.
“There are no windows in this room. How can that be? As big as this room is, it must be most of the first story of the house, and the outside of the house showed windows.”
“Oh, my God, would you stop with the interrogation?” Sheri yelled from somewhere.
Brandt laughed.
“Where is she?”
Brandt pointed upward, and Bonnie followed his finger. A spiral staircase led to a balcony that lined two of the walls. Sheri disappeared into one of the second story doorways.
“This is really amazing.”
Someone cleared his throat, and Bonnie turned.
David Bentley stood next to Brandt.
“You!” Bonnie exclaimed at the man who had impersonated the vice president of security. He wore blue jeans and a T-shirt, but it was definitely the same man.
He nodded his head with a twinkle in his eye and offered his hand in greeting. Bonnie hesitated a second before she shook it.
“Hello, I’m David Bentley.”
“Really? That’s really your name?”
“Yeah. We try to lie as little as possible. Easier to keep track that way.”
“And you have children?”
“Why do you ask?” Brandt asked.
“While he was squatting in my office building, he told me he had kids. I’m curious how being a ninja fits family into his life.” Bonnie turned to David. “You are also a ninja, aren’t you?”
A sound of frustration reached Bonnie from upstairs. Sheri appeared at the balcony. “No more questions.”
“They’re her kids, too,” Brandt whispered.
Bonnie nodded and looked at each person in turn. “So. You brought me here. I assume because Vivian Walker agreed to this, I have a specific assignment.”
“Yes. We are going to advise you on information security for the Retirement Systems. We’ve prepared a portfolio of weaknesses, possible threats, and recommendations, which we will go over with you, then you can take it back to Vivian and report to her.”
Bonnie shook her head. “I don’t think so. I work in benefits. I’m not involved with these kinds of issues.” She took out her cell phone. “I’ll have to call Ms. Walker and verify this.”
“That won’t work here.”
Bonnie paused her dialing. “No service?”
“No.”
“You don’t have service out here? That must be inconvenient.”
“We have service, but you don’t.” Brandt handed her his cell phone and led her over to a table and pulled out a chair for her. “We’ll give you a few minutes to talk to her. Can I get you something to drink? Coffee, water, cola, tea”—he glanced up toward the balcony—“Kool-Aid.”
“Screw you, Brandt,” Sheri said.
Bonnie called Vivian and received her confirmation concerning information security. “I don’t know what you did, Bonnie, but whatever it is, keep it up. Brandt Sherrod offered to do this consulting if you were willing to be the liaison on it.”
“A liaison? What does that entail?”
“Two weeks on the project then one day a week after that until the consulting is done.”
“I can’t stay in Bellini, Kentucky, two weeks. He said he’d bring me back this afternoon.”
“He covers all transportation costs, and you and he work out the arrangements. But I would think most of your time will be here since this is where the security issues are.”
“I wish I had known this before Mr. Brewer handed me the folder you gave him and I boarded that plane. I’ve got open cases that are time sensitive.”
“Brandt appears to be flexible with his time. Tie up the loose ends if you need to, but I’d really like to make this a priority.”
“Has it occurred to you that the security they breached and the office set up was just a stunt to get the Commonwealth’s business?”
“The consulting is pro bono.”
Bonnie stood up and walked the perimeter of the room, scrutinizing where the windows should have been. “Yeah? Well, what about whatever recommendations they make? Contract it out to partners or take a percentage from the security and computer companies we engage with because of their recommendations.”
Vivian didn’t respond right away, so Bonnie continued.
Unforgettable Heroes II Boxed Set Page 102
