Face Value

by Scott, R. J.

on her face.

  "We need access to a box."

  "Do you have your reference codes and your keys?"

  Austin held up two keys. "We do." He started asking questions but Kayden had tuned the talking out.

  Carefully and without it seeming too obvious he

  checked around the room. Nothing seemed terribly out of order, but something was nagging at him. Could it be the tall guy over by the other desk who made him nervous? To all intents and purposes he was chatting to the administrator and filling in forms. Or maybe it was the short guy who appeared to be making a call on a cell phone and was idly leaning against the same desk. Frustrated that his normal sense of situation was failing him he tensed when the main entrance to this area opened and a new arrival hurried to another area before disappearing behind a door marked staff. Kayden relaxed only a small amount.

  "Can we hurry this up," he said quickly.

  Austin looked up from where he was signing

  something and then he slid the same form to Beckett.

  "If you'd like to come with me I will show you to your box." She pressed a button on her computer to hibernate the screen and then gathering the forms and a key card she led the three men to yet another exit from this main room. This door opened into a narrow corridor which

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  ended in a small antechamber of sorts. The wall was line with key pads and each rectangle of black held a number.

  Kayden hadn't been listening to the administrator's spiel but he assumed the small key that Beckett held with the 674 on it would match the correct box in the wall.

  "Your keys will indicate which box is yours. The code you have will need to be entered on the corresponding keypad. This will release the key block and then you will have access to your box."

  "How many tries do we have at the code?" Beckett asked nervously. The administrator stared at him like she had never heard the question before. Surely people forgot their codes. Some of these boxes had to have remained unopened for years.

  "You will have five chances to input the code.

  Should there be a problem the system resets and there is a twenty-four hour wait for the next attempt at five codes."

  "And after that?"

  "Then it becomes a legal matter to gain access or to assess ownership."

  She left immediately after dropping this bombshell;

  the door closed behind her and suddenly the three men were alone. Straight away the tension ramped up in Beckett and Kayden placed a reassuring hand on his arm. Beckett hunched his shoulders and exhaled noisily.

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  "We are fucked," he said miserably. "I can only remember part of mine."

  "Sit down," Austin said softly. He placed paper and pen on the table. "Relax and attempt to remember." Austin himself sat down at the other chair placed around a small table and Kayden leaned back against the only bare wall watching Beckett closely for signs of losing his lunch. He looked sick and nervous.

  Austin confidently wrote down his series of

  numbers and letters, nine in all, and placed it in front of him.

  Beckett wrote the five he could remember and then

  stopped.

  "Surely you can remember more than that," Austin commented. He turned his sheet around and tapped on it with his pen. "Look. These numbers mean something to me. The three initials of my name and my birthday. "

  "Okay that sounds easy enough," Beckett said with a half-smile. He looked at Kayden and Kayden found

  himself returning the smile. God, the kid had gotten under his skin in the past few days. "So. This is my birthday,"

  Beckett scribbled his six figure birth date on the sheet.

  Some of it must have looked familiar as he crossed off two of the numbers with an accompanying 'I already

  remembered those in the code'.

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  "No it isn't," Austin said carefully. Beckett looked up and he was obviously confused. "That is Beckett Jamieson's birthday, but your real birthday was two months earlier, in June. Same day and same year though."

  "Oh." Beckett bent his head again but not before Kayden noticed the flash of something in his eyes.

  Frustration? Sadness? Kayden couldn't tell.

  "Line your initials and the birthday up against mine." When Beckett did as Austin said they were left with an eighteen digit code.

  "Which comes first?"

  "We can try both ways."

  Kayden kept his eyes on the door as the two others

  keyed codes in. The first set failed, or at least Kayden assumed it had when raucous beeps sounded and there was no key lock dropping down. The second one produced a more subdued sound and the whir of a key lock. Beckett took a step back, clearly he was overwhelmed. His slim frame spoke of shock and fear at what might be inside and Kayden couldn't help himself. Crossing the few steps to Beckett he embraced him from behind, pulling him to lean back against him. Austin glanced over his shoulder and Kayden could see the blush that rose in the other man's face; he quickly looked away. Kayden didn't mean to make the lawyer uncomfortable but the pain in Beckett's face was

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  obvious.

  "You okay?" Kayden asked gently.

  "I didn't—I don't—I can't—" Beckett wasn't stringing together anything coherent.

  Kayden had answers for everything Beckett couldn't

  verbalize. You didn't think the code would work. You don't want to see what's inside the box. You can't stop feeling like you are going to be touching something of your mom's and that digs into you and hurts. He didn't actually say any of this though, he simply said, "I know." He tightened his hold and placed a kiss on the side of Beckett's neck. "Let's open this, get whatever is in there to whoever needs it then go home. Yeah?"

  "Back to eighteen?" Beckett asked quietly. "Back to being safe."

  Kayden's throat tightened with emotion. It wasn't

  just being exposed outside of the safe house that made Beckett scared. God knows how his thoughts had coalesced to thinking it, but at Sanctuary eighteen Beckett was safe from facing his mom's memory. Beckett was so tense and leaned so hard on Kayden that Kayden had to brace himself and push back.

  "How's your head?" He asked instead. Always a good idea to hide feelings and emotions behind the

  practicalities of medicine.

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  "Headache," Beckett answered. He turned his head and exposed more neck. Whether by accident or design, Kayden couldn't resist placing a couple more kisses on the warm skin.

  "I have meds in the car. You gonna be okay until then?"

  Beckett nodded then pressed back one more time

  before stepping away from Kayden and straightening his spine.

  "Okay, Austin," Beckett said with a voice calmer in tone than it had been in a while. "What do you say? Shall we get this box opened and get out of here?"

  Austin cast a look at Beckett and nodded and then

  looked back at Kayden. He appeared uncertain, worried almost. Kayden didn't have time to analyze the expression as Beckett turned his key and the door fell forward. The box was nothing fancy; simple and green it gave little away in its appearance that it may hold enough to destroy a family. Carefully Beckett pulled it from its cubby hole and placed it on the table they had been sitting at. Sighing audibly he slid off the lid and secrets hidden for seventeen years were exposed to the air. Austin leaned over, but it was Beckett who reached in and pulled out the contents.

  Placing each item one by one on the table Beckett finally showed the inside of the empty box to Kayden and Austin.

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  Then they began the task of sifting through what had been inside.

  Photocopies of paperwork, a small diary, a necklace

  wrapped in some kind of plastic with the warning 'do not open' in sloped cursive and various old style zip drives and floppy discs. Everything was meticulously dated.

  "We'll get this whole lot to Manny," Kayden said quickly. "He'll pull off what he can."

  "I'll need to take this."

  Kayden didn't register Austin's voice at first. It was Beckett who turned to face Austin and whose expression went from introspective from looking at the papers to shocked.

  "I'll need to take it all," Austin reinforced.

  This time Kayden paid the guy one hundred and ten

  percent attention and came face to face with the barrel of a Sig.

  "Back away Summers," Austin demanded.

  Kayden raised his hands, "you're the one with the gun Austin."

  "Hell, I saw what you did with those Feds that had been tracking me. I'm not stupid. Now back away. Please."

  His voice was strained.

  "Austin—" Beckett attempted to talk but Austin brandished the gun in his direction. Kayden stiffened. The

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  gun wasn't pointing at him anymore, it was square on Beckett and too close for Kayden to kick it away.

  "Don't talk to me, please. I don't want to talk. Just put everything back in the box and no one will get hurt."

  Kayden assessed the situation. The table was

  between him and Austin and the guy was also closer to the door. Beckett was to his right and his expression was one of horror and fear. His own weapon was in the small of his back and to reach that meant compromising the use of his hands.

  "What are you doing, Austin?" Kayden asked gently. Holding his hands up in front and away from his body in the universal gesture of innocence he took a careful step closer to Beckett. He needed to be between the gun and Beckett.

  "Stay where you are," Austin said. He was shaking; Kayden could see that from here. Shit. The guy was

  terrified and out of his comfort zone. God, he'd probably never handled a gun before in his life.

  "Talk to me, Austin." Beckett said this and then looked to Kayden for something, anything, to stop this—

  Kayden could see the unspoken plea in his eyes. He should be closer. Beckett should be behind him.

  "I can't… talk… put the stuff in the box and give it to me." Austin sounded close to losing his control and that

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  wasn't a good thing with a gun pointed at Beckett's head.

  "Okay. Stay calm Austin."

  "I can't be calm!" Austin shouted. He was acting so much out of the character they knew. Kayden instinctively realized something or someone was forcing him to do this.

  The quiet lawyer wasn't a gun brandishing maniac with fear in his eyes. "Get your gun out and place it on the floor. One hand, not both."

  Kayden reached to his belt with one hand and

  pulled the gun out, holding it in front of him with one finger.

  "Drop it," Austin ordered.

  Kayden did so.

  "Now kick it towards me."

  Kayden kicked the gun with the toe of his boot. He

  watched Austin carefully for the guy to drop his gaze to the gun. Just one second of distraction and Kayden could use it to his benefit. Austin never even glanced down.

  "Who is making you do this, Austin?" Kayden asked carefully. He hoped that Austin would swing the gun to him. He could handle the gun being on him. Maybe even take the Sig out of the equation.

  "He says he has my daughter and her family under observation."

  "Who, Austin?" Beckett beat Kayden to the

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  question but both of them really knew. "Is it Alastair?"

  Austin nodded and the gun wavered. Kayden took

  the brief relaxation as an indication he should move but he wasn't fast enough. Austin had the gun steady on Beckett's chest in an instant. "He said if I don't bring this to him then he'll hurt them."

  "We can get help. Call the cops—"

  "No," Austin's eyes were wide with horror. "He said no cops."

  "Whatever this is we can sort it out." Kayden saw the fear replaced by panic in Austin's eyes and the shaking got worse. Beckett forced everything back in the box and then pushed the lid down.

  "Take it. Just take it all." Beckett said hurriedly.

  "It's not enough to risk your family."

  "No. You don't understand." Austin's face was shiny with sweat and he brushed it away from his eyes with one hand. "Pick it up." Austin ordered.

  Beckett's eyes widened in shock but Kayden knew

  exactly where this was going. "What do you mean?"

  "Pick the box up. Alastair wants the box but he wants you as well."

  Kayden reacted viscerally. "No. Take the freaking box, Austin."

  "He wants Beckett."

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  "You're not taking Beckett." Whether it was bad luck or Austin having extremely fast reflexes but the gun hand moved toward Kayden even as he leaped the few

  steps toward Austin. He barreled into Austin with a hoarse cry but the gun was between them and the pain when it hit was faster than the noise that shook his head. Intense agony bloomed outwards from the centre of his chest. There was a shout, confusion. He could hear Beckett's voice shouting and Austin screaming back to move… just move…

  Kayden tried to move but he knew this was it.

  Unconsciousness was bearing down on him like a branding iron. Bile rose in his throat and his eyes burned; the smell of a discharged weapon burned his nostrils.

  He needed to get to Beckett. Alastair couldn't have

  him. He couldn't. Images blurred in front of his eyes and the iciness of shock permeated his entire body.

  So this is what dying is like.

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  CHAPTER 12

  Beckett stumbled and tripped ahead of Austin, the

  weight of the gun pressing in the small of his back. He was in shock. He knew that. Seeing Kayden shot point blank, leaving him behind, and with the whole last few days catching up to him it was enough to push him over the edge. Was Kayden dead? As simple as that, was the man who was protecting him dead?

  "I didn't mean to… I didn't mean to… God…"

  Austin was saying over and over, his voice thick with tears and horror. "He moved… it was an accident. I would never shoot anyone."

  Anger boiled inside Beckett but he couldn't do

  anything about it. Austin had shot and killed a man.

  Kayden. In the chest. Dead. His Kayden. They hurried past the few people who stood in the hall. No one had reacted to the gun shot. Maybe because it had happened inside an old bank safe no one had heard it? One man, tall and slim with white blond hair, stood upright suddenly from the counter he had been leaning on. His hand disappeared behind him and he pulled out a gun.

  "Federal agent. Drop your weapon." The man shouted.

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  "Just let me go," Austin near screamed as they backed out of the hall. "I have to take him," he babbled,

  "they have my family."

  Beckett lurched backward as Austin pulled on his

  jacket and together they fell out of the main door. And into chaos. Dark cars in a defensive ring, men with guns, FBI jackets that he thought only existed in the
movies, and so much panic and shouting. Drop the gun. Drop your weapon. Austin panicked and pushed Beckett ahead of him.

  Tripping, Beckett sprawled on the floor at Austin's feet.

  Eyes staring wildly Austin fell to his knees, lowered his head and dropped the gun. Beckett took his chance and crab-walked backward away from the distraught man. He watched in shock as six uniformed cops swarmed his

  captor, pinned him down and cuffed him.

  "They have his family," Beckett said quickly.

  No one was listening.

  "You have to listen." Austin was shouting; his face in the sidewalk and his eyes beseeching Beckett.

  "Wait!" Beckett shouted over the noise. He moved to the closest cop and tried to pull him off of Austin. "They have his family."

  The cop shrugged off his arm. The bank door

  opened and the tall blond guy leaped out shouting orders for a paramedic. Then Manny was there. Like some kind of

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  avenging angel he appeared from nowhere and, flashing his ID, he ran into the bank. They let Manny through and the Fed spun on his heel and followed him in.

  Finally with Austin subdued and quiet, the cops

  moved off of him and another guy, heavy set with dark hair, approached the cops and then assisted Austin in sitting upright.

  "I didn't mean to kill him, I didn't. I wouldn't do that… my family." The guy leaned in and placed a firm hand on Austin's shoulder. Beckett strained to hear but he couldn't catch anything. However the relief that passed over Austin's face could only mean his family was safe.

  The guy talking stood and then strode the six or so

  paces toward Beckett. All Beckett could do was

  instinctively shrink back. Jeez, he was big, a giant, black-haired, dark-eyed bear of a man.

  "Let's get you inside," he said to Beckett with hand extended. Beckett assumed he was meant to be letting the giant help him up. There was something in the guy's face.