by Nikki Duncan
There’s no indication she’s in danger.
Not that logic kept her out of his head.
“So, Ava is reporting updates to you now?” While Kami stuck to a text every two to three hours that said only Hey. Anyone could be sending that. It was transparent, but he hadn’t been able to come up with a better solution.
“She’s tweeting.” Liam narrowed his eyes. “They were going to work out about thirty minutes ago.”
“Twitter? You’re using Twitter to connect with an agent from another branch for the sake of our investigation?”
“She’s a former agent, and do you have a better idea? Anyone in the mansion monitoring her moves would think nothing of it.”
“Even better. You’re chatting it up with a rogue agent from another agency on Twitter in regards to our investigation. And anyone with half a brain will see right through it.”
Liam shrugged. “Not with the profile Tyler set up for me and not as fast as they’ll catch on to Kami’s precisely timed texts to your number.”
Breck gritted his teeth. He didn’t see the appeal of updating the world every time you got on a treadmill or went for a teeth cleaning, but maybe the mundane entertained some people. Seemed more like a colossal waste of time to him. Though it was apparently coming in useful for Liam.
He’d spent the last few days stalling Edwin while he worked on how he was going to protect himself with Kami came back to him, and he had no doubt that she would be sent back with whatever it was they used to hypnotize their victims. He’d looked for a brush with someone else’s DNA, but he never had company, which left his own as the only option.
Liam’s phone beeped. He read a message and lifted his eyes. “Would you like an update, or do you prefer to wait for your text?”
No. “Yes.” Damn it. He didn’t want to care, but it worried him that Kami was out of his reach. That Liam was right about him having her check in. That he would get to her too late if she needed help because he hadn’t thought of the safest way for her to stay in touch.
It didn’t matter to him that Ava was former Homeland Security and had agreed to help keep an eye on Kami. He didn’t know why she’d gone in undercover, and it didn’t matter. He was the one who’d promised to keep Kami safe. He didn’t like relying on someone he didn’t know.
“Kami just got a present. New perfume.”
“Can you call Ava? See if she can find out where they’re making it?”
“Yep.”
A knock sounded at the door. The locked handles jiggled. Liam stood and headed to the private apartment to go down the private elevator he’d used to enter unseen. “I’ll call you.”
“Liam, wait around.” It would be Edwin coming back for another round of arguments as to why he should sign the contract.
“You got it, boss.”
Breck walked to the door, amused to find Edwin waiting impatiently outside. He was clearly pissed by not having full access to the office. “What’s up, Eddie?”
“It is Edwin.” He enunciated each word slowly, as if it would make any difference this far into their association.
“Right.” He’d stepped up his efforts to piss off Edwin the last couple days. Changing the locks and access codes on Trevor’s spaces had been the first step. “What can I do for you?”
“I just took a call from General Scott. He is asking where we stand on the Oedipus contract.”
“We are at an impasse due to unfavorable terms.” And the fact that I’ve shredded the contract and destroyed the virus according to Trevor’s instructions. Breck walked behind the desk and sank into the high-back leather chair. Edwin sat stiffly where Liam had sprawled moments earlier. “Even if the contract was satisfactory and mutually beneficial, the program hasn’t been widely enough tested to be viable for use and distribution.”
“The program is ready. Eston White can finish testing it.”
Breck glanced at the documentation Trevor had provided. Documentation with huge gaps of data timelines missing. He leaned back in the chair and tapped the edges of the file Edwin believed to hold the contract. “Answer me a question, Eddie.”
Edwin ground his teeth. His lips pressed together. “Yes, sir.”
“What do you stand to gain by securing my signature on this contract?”
“I’m sure I do not know what you mean.”
“Of course you do.” Breck leaned forward and braced his elbows on the desk. “But I’ll spell it out for you.”
“Please do.” Smugness saturated the air around Edwin.
It was the same smugness Breck had seen on the faces of hundreds of criminals who underestimated him. Criminals who sat opposite him in the interrogation room. Criminals who soon found themselves backed into a corner they couldn’t talk their way out of.
Pleasure thrilled through him at the thought of having Edwin in that room. It got even better when he imagined the scene with Edwin wearing prison-issue clothes rather than the designer labels he preferred. “As head of this company and the only one with the power to execute this contract, I should be taking any calls from General Scott.”
Edwin opened his mouth. Breck help up a hand to stop him. “You are smart enough to know from these reports you’ve verified that the program on the table is for an electronic virus of mass destruction. Once it gets into a network of computers it’ll be like fire on a trail of gasoline.” Breck slammed his hands flat on the desk with a pop. Edwin jumped. “It will spread with malicious speed and if—no, when—it hits the Internet it will wipe out the technological backbone of the world.”
“That is a bit dramatic.”
“Bruce Willis did a Die Hard movie where some terrorists used a similar premise. Only you want me to sign over the software to the government. You’re asking me to turn the United States into the world’s worst terrorist.”
“The software is safe.”
“Fine. Show me the documentation on the protocols that make it safe.” Breck shoved some papers toward Edwin. “Show me the shield that regular people can affordably install to protect their lives and identities. Show me the functioning program that keeps this bitch of a virus out of the financial institutions where it would bankrupt the world in a blink.”
“That—”
“Is highly possible! I visited the lab downstairs and watched this in action. There is no stopping it, so whatever you’re getting paid isn’t enough. Not that the amount will matter when your money vanishes from whatever bank you put it in.”
Edwin blanched. Sweat rolled along his hair line. He stood rigidly and faced Breck. “You are mistaken on every level. The necessary safeguards are in place to protect the world.”
“Then this is the first time in history the safeguards have been created before the problem, which is remarkable given the accidental discovery. I’ve been informed the virus was supposed to be a legitimate satellite tracking program. You think there’s protection against this. That it can be controlled. You’re wrong.”
“No, sir. You are.”
“How did you test the safeguards? There’s no evidence of those tests. And if the shields are widespread and in place, like you claim, there would be no need for such a weapon as this virus.” It was time to push Edwin’s back to the wall and force him to show his true colors. “I will not sign the contract.”
“Needless suffering can be avoided.” Edwin walked to the door and stopped. “You only have to sign.”
Breck neither moved nor reacted as Edwin closed the door behind him. He knew a threat when he heard one, but he needed proof of Edwin’s duplicity before he could arrest the spineless pustule plaguing society. Besides, waiting to see if he followed through on the threat, or who tried to, would provide some action as well as proof.
Once he had Edwin and his accomplice behind bars, Trevor could return to work. Breck could put his free time and resources into finding Lori. And damn it, he would stop worrying about Kami’s safety.
They would return to their regular lives. Though he might be more i
nclined to eat out on karaoke night. Or have more reason than before to stay away.
His chest constricted. Rubbing his hand over his heart, he went to the private suite he’d avoided since that first night with Kami. Not that his home granted mental peace now. Everywhere he turned it seemed she’d been there, with the exception of the cover ID apartment he hated.
Her orange blossom scent and the arousal it raised in him lingered. Taunted.
He braced himself for the memory of his time spent with Kami and pushed open the door. Liam turned to face him as he wrapped up his phone call.
“Yep. Thanks, Ava. See you then.”
Relieved he didn’t have to wait long, Breck jerked his head and went back to the office. “She have anything?”
“Madame V just visited Kami with another assignment and instructions to wear her new perfume.”
“Where’s their lab?”
“Ava hasn’t found it at the mansion, but there are a few places with security panels she hasn’t been able to get past. How exactly do you think this stuff works?”
Liam was skeptical anyone could use perfume to murder, and damned if a part of Breck didn’t still find it implausible. A bigger part pushed him along the path that anything was possible given the right resources and enough time.
“I’m not sure. Maybe there’s something in the concoction that short circuits something in the brain. Like those people who have no fear because the self-preservation center in their brain doesn’t work.”
“That isn’t murder.”
“Attempted at the very least, but if it plays out like I think it might, I’m going to push for first-degree murder. In a sense, it’s intentional murder by a form of poisoning.”
“It’s certainly premeditated.” Liam thought it out and nodded. “Even if they did short-circuit Trevor’s brain, he wasn’t pushed into traffic. How are you going to prove it was poisoning or brainwashing or whatever if we don’t find the lab?”
“The lab will cinch things, but short of that, Trevor remembers a phone call before his accident. Tyler did some checking on his line and Kami’s stepbrother’s. Both received a call shortly before their accidents.”
“The calls?”
“Came from pre-paid cell phones that were only used once.”
“You’re saying they were coerced, brainwashed or hypnotized over the phone. What judge or jury is going to believe this?”
His team was open-minded. They didn’t jump to conclusions or prognosticate. Gathering facts and proof were the only way to do the job. The process was time-consuming and frustrating. He hated it at times like this, but it was necessary if he wanted to see bastards pay their dues.
These bastards would pay for as many counts as he could pile on them. “I know there’s been one death and an attempted one. Between that, the contracts and the connecting escort, we’ll have a case.”
“Except we don’t have that first escort. And now you fit into that profile, only with a different girl.”
“Except for the death part, but I’m thinking that could change when Kami gets here.” Everything in his gut told him he was her new assignment. They didn’t need Lori to wrap up the case, but he would find her.
“How do you want to play this?”
“Cautiously.”
“Kami, what’s bothering you?” Ava lay back on the grass in what had become their spot the last few days. “You get to see your CEO again.”
“He’s not my CEO.” Though he’d felt like it when he sang that song. Hell, she’d thought she was picking something fun the crowd could get into. Something to take off the pressure or embarrassment Breck might have felt.
“Come on. You smile every time you send him a text message and you frown every time he doesn’t message you back.”
“How do you know I’ve texted him?” She almost argued the disappointment angle, but there wasn’t much point. Ava was right.
“Because when you text him, you get the same goofy look on your face you had when you came home the morning after your last date with him.”
“You’re… I do not get a goofy look over Breck.” She plucked some grass from the ground and shredded it. “Why do you think he hasn’t called or messaged me back?”
“See, you do like him.”
“Am annoyed by him more like.” The man had been on her mind non-stop since she’d left his apartment a few days ago.
The impressions she’d gotten of him the last night they’d been together were contradictory to say the least. At work he was a refined CEO with everything perfectly arranged. The apartment off of his office was comfortable, but didn’t seem to fit Breck.
When he’d taken her to the bar though, where Heather had known his name, he’d seemed to fit. They knew his preferences and he was familiar enough with the place to have known they had a regular karaoke night, and that he preferred to avoid it. She’d never known a CEO who’d seemed more at home at a hole-in-the-wall joint than in a fancy French or Italian restaurant.
And he’d kissed her. She’d been too stunned by the power of his emotions to analyze it at the time, but he’d only kissed her one time. He’d used his mouth on her, but never had he kissed her mouth except maybe the corner of her lips. No, he’d always held a part of himself in reserve until he’d kissed her, and when he’d pulled away his walls had been back in place.
“He’s a man. He’s supposed to annoy you. Stop messaging him, and I bet he’ll contact you quickly enough.”
She’d considered that, and under normal circumstances the tactic might work. But there was nothing normal about her relationship with Breck. “I… It’s complicated.”
Most women didn’t take a man’s DNA so she could likely be sent back to kill him. Granted, as far as Madame V was concerned, Kami didn’t know she was to be used as a pawn in Breck’s accidental death. She couldn’t not send him the updates he’d asked for. She couldn’t deny him the information his friends might need to save his life or someone else’s.
Whatever role he saw her playing in his quest for answers for Trevor, he’d slotted her back into a safe place. Part of him might enjoy her company, but he wanted her out of his life. It was the only explanation for that kiss and his behavior since.
“Maybe he’s feeling threatened. Men like to make the moves.”
He didn’t mind her making some moves, in fact he’d given her considerable freedom. There were times, though, he shifted them automatically into more traditional roles. He was the protector. She was the one to be protected.
He was chivalrous and gentlemanly in an old-fashioned way at formal events, he was confrontational around Trevor and a generous lover in private. Hell, she couldn’t figure him out. He was fun and joking one minute and intense and serious the next.
Even on her assignments the last couple of nights, she’d done nothing more than think about Breck and the few times they’d been together. She and the elderly man she’d been assigned to accompany to a Scrabble tournament had lost because she’d been too busy analyzing the finer points of every glance and touch in an attempt to figure out what make Breck tick.
The really pathetic part was that on the second date with another elderly gentleman, they’d spent the evening talking about his late wife. And then he’d coaxed her into talking about the man she so obviously had on her mind. She’d meant to ask him how old he’d been when he stopped playing games and hiding from emotions, but he’d sidetracked her with the fantastic stories of his youth. She’d considered herself lucky not to be having sex with random men and had given both men her personal cell and told them to call her directly the next time they wanted company.
They were too sweet to be paying for companionship, and she loved listening to their stories. They showed her a man’s job didn’t define him, and it was possible to amass a mini-fortune without sacrificing the moral center. They inspired her to hold out for a dedicated love with a man who would work with her as a partner.
“Ava, do you think I’m crazy? Do you think I’m o
ff-base with my opinion about…you know.” She hadn’t named Madame V, but she’d voiced her opinion that if Lori had left it wasn’t in an effort to escape oppression.
“No. If anything, the longer I’m here the more plausible it seems.” She rolled to her side and propped her head on her hand. “I went into town yesterday and did some research.”
“What kind of research?”
“On the mansion. This place has been around forever, and if you ask me there are some hidden rooms that aren’t accounted for.”
“They could be in the secured sections.” Which would make sense if they were hiding a lab somewhere on-site for their concoctions.
“Maybe, but not all of them.”
“You don’t think they’re hiding Lori in a secret room somewhere?” The mansion was filled with tech gear and high-end surveillance that ensured the girls stayed in the approved areas.
“I would hate to think that, but it could explain why no one has heard from her. And how quickly her room was cleared.”
Kami shuddered at the idea of being banished into a hidden part of the mansion. It was another layer of heinous behavior that she didn’t want to imagine. There was enough on her mind already.
“I did manage to get a copy of Lori’s personnel file from Madame’s office.”
“What?” Kami dropped the grass she was shredding and turned fully to Ava. “When did you do that? How did you do it without being caught? She has surveillance everywhere.”
Ava shrugged. “A little hacking to loop the feed of her empty office, a picked locked and a digital camera to copy the files. It was nothing.”
“She could have caught you.” Kami dug her hands into her hair and groaned. Ava acted as if was no big deal that she’d put her life on the line for answers about a woman they’d never met. “Could you just… What would she have done to you?”
“She would have tried to kill me, I’m sure.”
“Then you know you shouldn’t have risked it.”
“Yes, mother. I’m guessing from the lecture that you don’t want to know what I found.”
“No. I want to know.” She laughed and leaned her elbows on her knees. Her conversations with Ava were always unpredictable, much like Ava.
