by Remy Richard
“I get it, I get it. You’re smarter than the average bear,” she said with a roll of her eyes.
He continued as if she hadn’t even spoke. “And Sabrina, or whatever your name is, when I do find out, if you haven’t been helpful then you’ll be going to jail. Think about that for the next few hours. Preferably in silence.” He turned his back on her and crossed to the door. Sure enough, when he opened it she could see Sam standing in the hall a respectful distance away. Ready in case she tried to make a break for it.
“Wait!” Sabrina blurted before he made it out of the room. “I can’t tell you what I don’t know. It’s not like we go around giving out business cards to our associates. I can give you aliases, nicknames at best. This was a job that was referred to me by…a friend. I get a text every now and then about when and where to meet up.”
Sabrina paused and measured Holden’s response. There was very little. Most people would have jumped in to ask a question or express an opinion. Holden just waited until she was finished speaking. Which was dangerous. People got themselves into trouble when they didn’t know when to shut up and there was something about silence that made most people want to fill it up. Sabrina knew better though. She kept her mouth shut and waited for his response.
Holden eyed her speculatively. “So what you’re saying is that you don’t know who, you don’t know when, you don’t know how, but some guys have been and still are trying to steal my work?” He blew out a breath slowly. “How do I know you being here isn’t part of the same plan?”
Sabrina felt her heart drop. It was a lose-lose situation. He couldn’t trust that what she was saying had any truth to it. Of course he wouldn’t let her just walk away. She couldn’t just roll over though. “Except that you just told me that if I told you everything I knew you would verify it and then let me go. I don’t see any way that you could verify any of this.”
Holden nodded. “Exactly. So we’re going to be working together for a while. You may as well get used to it, start eating and stop screaming your throat raw. You’re not hurting anyone but yourself.”
He made to leave again when Sabrina let out an irritated scream. He turned back to her with one eyebrow raised. “Feel better?”
“Not in the least! This is why I don’t like people. They always take way more than you’re willing to give them.” Sabrina folded her arms and flopped down on the bed, feeling much like the teenager she’d never had a chance to be.
Holden sighed and ran a hand through his hair. She was quickly learning that was his go-to time waster when he wanted to collect his thoughts before speaking or wasn’t sure what to say.
She was desperate, so she took another shot. “What can I do to show you that I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get out of here?”
“Give me something useful. Give me information I can act on.”
“The guys I am—was—working with…they’re not nice. I was supposed to check in after recon this morning. So they probably already know that something didn’t go as planned… “ She waved a hand in the air to imply all of the rest.
Holden shrugged. “So? Are they going to try to come rescue you or something?”
“Not likely.” She couldn’t hold back a dry laugh. “No one’s rescued me in quite some time.” Sabrina froze as she realized what she’d revealed. Stress was making her sloppy.
She tried another tactic. “What would you do if someone was holding your sister against her will like this?”
“If she was held as part of a burglary, I’d turn her over my knee. But she would never do something like this,” he retorted, bristling at the mere mention of his sister.
“How nice for her,” she sneered.
Holden’s eyes showed a new alertness. “What do you know about my sister anyway?”
“Lila Reed is twenty-three, still lives at home and is a video game freak. Skilled at coding, but nowhere near her big brother’s level.”
He relaxed. “You must have the worst surveillance ever. Lila moved out a month ago.”
Sabrina immediately sat up. “You mean she’s not here?”
“No.” At the expression on her face, Holden’s eyes darkened. “Why?”
She felt her blood run cold. “Where is she”
“Like I’d tell you.”
“You should go get her. Like, now,” Sabrina said, her voice imbued with urgency.
“So I can leave you here alone? Unlikely.”
“No, so that the guys I was working with don’t take drastic measures.” It took everything to keep herself sitting on the bed. She didn’t want Holden to run off half-cocked and get himself hurt, but she had to make him believe her.
He didn’t look convinced so she continued. “Look, when I first took the job, using Lila as leverage to get you to turn over the program was very much on the table. I assured them I could get it through other means. With me gone, they just might revert to Plan B.”
Holden stared at her face, trying to gauge if she was telling the truth. “Why are you telling me this?”
“Oh my God. You demand that I tell you what I know, and when I do, you wonder why?” She threw up her hands in frustration. “Believe it or not, felonies aren’t my hobby. I’m a con artist and a petty thief. Not a kidnapper of young women. I was a young woman myself once a long time ago,” she said with a sad smile.
She held her breath as he processed the information in silence.
Finally he said, “I appreciate you telling me that. I think it’s the first bit of truth I’ve heard since you got here.” Sabrina stayed silent and allowed him his barb. “So let me be honest with you. I’m not sure if keeping you here without calling the police is the best move. But I do know that if you get arrested or if you escape, then I have one less clue toward figuring out if my sister is in danger. She moved out because of the attempted break-ins.”
“I didn’t attempt it, I actually broke-in,” Sabrina interrupted. She rolled her eyes at his sardonic look. “Whether or not Sam was waiting there to catch me, I still got in. You have a sub-standard lock system.”
“Noted,” he said dryly. “Those break-ins have been reported to the police with a…less than desired response. There’s only so much they can do for me. That’s why I hired Sam a month ago. I think you’ve seen how effective he can be.”
“Yeah, he’s a regular Captain America.”
“In any case, I think you are the best hope I have of stopping all of this nonsense.”
“I won’t be much help. But once the program is finished and in Organotech’s hands then you’re of no more use as long as you aren’t going to keep a copy around here. So how close are you to finishing?” Sabrina tipped her head to the side and tried to cover up her interest.
“A week or less. So one way or the other, you’ll be free to go by then.”
Sabrina kicked the bottom of the bed post. “It’s not the one way that scares me, it’s the other.”
“What can I do to show you that you’re safe here?”
“Let me go,” Sabrina tossed off negligently.
“I can’t do that.”
“Then I can’t trust you,” she shot back.
Holden shook his head in frustration. “Have it your way. Trust me or don’t, but what I said still stands. You’re safe here, and you’re not leaving until this is finished.” He closed the door behind him with more force than Sabrina thought was necessary. She waited with bated breath for a moment until she heard the tones of the electric lock being activated.
Stuck. Again.
Chapter Three
Holden barely restrained himself from slamming the safe room door. It had taken all of his being to keep from reacting to the news of Lila’s possible danger, but he didn’t want to give Sabrina any more ammunition than she already had.
From the look on Sam’s face, Holden could tell he had heard about the threat to his sister.
“Call Lila,” he snapped before stomping down the hallway and back into his office in time to catch the
tail end of his friends’ laughter.
“What’s so funny?” he snarled. For reasons he couldn’t explain, the meeting with Sabrina had riled him up. He sensed that she was being honest about not knowing the real identities of her accomplices but that she was holding back so much more. She had broken into his home and had apparently been part of a plot to steal his work, so why her lies should aggravate him was a mystery. But there it was.
His two best friends, Dylan and Conner, both tried to smooth their expressions into seriousness, but barely managed it. “We were just wondering why you have a screaming woman in your house,” Conner explained.
“Especially since we’re betting that you’ve never made a woman scream under any circumstances,” Dylan interjected wryly.
“That’s hysterical, guys. I can’t get enough of this comedy act.” Holden managed to regulate his steps so he wasn’t stomping and crossed the room to sit across from them in the seating area. He leaned back into the rich brown leather and took a deep breath, trying to release the tension he’d gathered from speaking with Sabrina.
Both men waited a few moments while Holden collected himself and then started in again. “Joking aside, what’s with the female screams?” Conner asked.
Holden shrugged. “A woman tried to break into the house today. I’ve got her locked in the guest bedroom.”
Dylan and Conner’s mouths hung open and Holden was pacified. He guessed they hadn’t considered that option when they were coming up with explanations.
“You’re holding a woman against her will?” Dylan croaked out.
“I know you’ve been working hard and all, Holden, but we could have set you up on a date,” Conner said with mock sincerity.
“I thought you said ‘all jokes aside’,” Holden said testily.
“Well, yeah, but that was before you gave us such excellent material,” Dylan pointed out before turning solemn. “Seriously, what is going on here?”
Holden sighed and shook his head to clear it. The more he said it out loud, the crazier it sounded. Even he had to admit that his conversations with Sabrina had bordered on the absurd. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that once she was out of his sight, there would be no finding her again.
Besides, Dylan and Conner had stuck with him through way worse. In fact, they’d been his accomplices in way worse. He needed their judgment and their expertise. And he was definitely going to need their assistance in corralling Lila, who hated being told what to do these days almost as much as Sabrina seemed to.
Dylan tried again. “This woman wouldn’t happen to be the mysterious Sabrina, would she?”
Holden nodded. “One and the same. Did you get any hits off of her name?”
“You tell me yours, and I’ll tell you mine.”
“Fine. Sam caught Sabrina trying to break in this afternoon.”
Conner opened his hands in a ‘what else’ gesture. “That’s great. She’s the person who tried to break in here a couple of weeks ago and has been creeping around. Why don’t you call the police?”
“It’s not that simple.” Holden sighed. “When Sam searched her bag, he found a flash drive she intended to use to steal the bio-printer program from me.”
His friends stuttered and spoke over each other to find out more. “How did she even know what you were working on? It’s top secret, right?”
“That’s part of what we’re trying to find out. She says her accomplices were the ones who had all of the information though,” Holden explained.
“Do you believe her?” Dylan asked.
“I don’t know what to believe right now.”
Conner tried to fill in the blanks. “I’m still not sure why you’re holding her hostage instead of calling the police.”
“We’ve questioned her a few times and she says that she overheard that there was a kidnapping plan. To take Lila.”
Both of his friends were gratifyingly stunned silent.
Holden continued, “She doesn’t know when or how and all she has are aliases for her accomplices. I don’t think she’s going to tell the police anything more than that. But that leaves Lila completely unprotected and us in the dark about what kind of threat we’re even looking for. Sam’s trying to get in touch with Lila right now.”
Dylan nodded in comprehension, if not agreement. “So what’s the plan? Do you think she truly does know more than what she’s saying?”
Holden ran his hand through his hair and tugged briefly at the strands. Something about the gesture was comforting. “I don’t know, but I think she’s at least holding back some information. It’s what I would do in her situation.”
Conner raised an eyebrow. “And you think that you and she have the same kind of responses to situations like this?”
“No. I just don’t understand her. The things she says make it sound like she has experience with crime but her actions today completely defy logic.”
His friends exchanged a glance. “I think you need to put less time into figuring out how this woman’s psyche works and more into solving that algorithm. How—” Dylan was cut off by his cell phone vibrating in his pocket. “This may be the answer we’re looking for.”
Dylan quickly read the text and replaced his phone in his jacket pocket. “My contact at the police station says that there is no criminal record for a Sabrina Kelly.” Holden let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding. “But there also aren’t any live records for that name either for a woman in her twenties. There’s one death certificate for a Sabrina Kelly from three years ago, but she died of natural causes in her eighties.”
Holden slammed a hand onto his knee. “Damn it. She used an alias. I thought as much.”
“What are you going to do now? Beat it out of her?” Conner asked casually.
“Listen, maybe you guys should consider not talking about this stuff in front of an officer of the court,” Dylan interjected.
Holden was immediately chastened. “You’re right. I never should have brought you into this.”
Dylan made a sound of frustration in his throat. “That’s not what I’m saying. Lila’s practically my little sister too. You don’t think I’m just going to walk away when there’s something I can do to help, do you? Besides I owe you.”
Holden exchanged a glance with Conner. He loved Dylan like a brother, but the man had an infuriatingly long memory and an almost fanatical need to make up for past wrongs. Real or perceived.
“For the last time, you don’t owe me anything.” Holden made his tone less strident. “But I appreciate the help. I know you guys love Lila as much as me.”
“Well, Lila is pretty much a love it or hate it kind of deal, you know,” Conner quipped.
Holden didn’t bother to hide his smile, and Dylan laughed out loud. “I dare you to say that to her face.”
“No way, this face is the only reason all the ladies love me so much,” Conner said, shaking his head.
All three men broke into laughter. “Okay,” said Holden, clearing his throat before continuing. “Since we’ve clearly veered into complete fiction, I need to bring it back around. What am I going to do about Sabrina? Or whatever her name is. Can we get your guy to run another search for her?”
Dylan was already shaking his head. “It’s not likely a second search would bring up anything more. A more thorough look would bring questions about why I wanted to know and leave a paper trail back to me bigger than the one that already exists.”
Holden winced at the reminder that he had possibly jeopardized his friend’s reputation. He had to start using his head instead of just reacting to Sabrina. “Agreed. What if I hack in and do a search of my own? It won’t take more than half an hour or so.”
Both of his friends immediately turned him down. “No way, man. You need to keep on the straight and narrow. We all do.”
“I have a woman locked in a room against her will, remember? How much further off the straight and narrow can I get?” Holden asked sardonically.
�
��When you’ve all been specifically ordered by a judge to stop hacking? A lot further,” Conner pointed out.
Holden waved away his concern. “They’ll never know I was there. Besides I’ve gotten a lot better since we were teenagers. And that was years ago.”
“You know what the difference is now? You’re an adult so you don’t get to go to juvie anymore. No hacking.”
“Fine,” Holden agreed. “So how are we going to figure out who this woman is?”
Sam entered the room in time to hear his last question. “Nothing came up on the name search?”
Dylan shook his head. “Nope. Dead end.”
All four men thought for a few seconds before Dylan offered up, “Fingerprints? That’s how we connect aliases in law enforcement. Do you have any glasses or anything she’s touched?”
“Maybe, but won’t that invoke suspicion as well? I mean, how often does a prosecutor bring in fingerprints for testing? No, we’ve got to do this without your contacts.”
Dylan allowed the point with a shrug. “Maybe so, but not all of my contacts. Can we take a picture of her or something? I can have someone in tech run it through facial recognition software. I could tell him it’s for someone in another jurisdiction. I’m already linked by the search we just ran. What’s one more?”
“I guess I could go take a picture of her now,” Holden said reluctantly. He doubted she would smile for the camera.
“Not necessary,” Sam interjected. “I can pull a still off of the security cameras. There should be couple of usable pictures on there. Plus it will seem more legit that way as opposed to a picture taken of her in this house.”
Holden nodded as Sam gestured to his computer sitting on the desk. Every camera feed and entry point could be monitored remotely through the laptop. Holden had made sure that the wireless feed was untraceable. Although the home was older, he had upgraded some of the security features when he hired Sam. Apparently not enough though.
Luckily Sam had been on hand to help choose and implement the security system. He showed how adept he was with it now, taking only a few moments to locate, crop and email three pictures of their would-be burglar from different angles. Dylan forwarded them on to his contact with instructions to return the results as soon as possible.
