There was a distant ping, and suddenly a clamor of voices and footsteps as the workers returned to their office. Kyle continued on, ducking into a small office and shutting the door behind them. Before Sebastian could ask what exactly the plan was, Kyle was standing on the desk, unscrewing the grate over an air vent in the ceiling.
He gestured sharply to Sebastian, and Sebastian clambered up onto the desk beside him. Kyle interlaced his fingers, palms up, and Sebastian placed his foot there for a boost. Once he was up in the narrow shaft, he heard the thunk of Kyle’s duffel and then Kyle himself joining him in the tight space.
On his stomach, Sebastian pulled himself forward, slithering as fast as he could. Kyle whispered for him to turn right down an intersecting shaft, and Sebastian continued on, moving as quickly and quietly as he could. When he reached a wall, he peered out through another grate into what he feared was an elevator shaft.
He couldn’t see down, but he couldn’t imagine what else the space was. When he glanced back at Kyle, Kyle was typing into his phone. “What are you doing?” Sebastian asked, voice low.
“Ground support is bringing up the elevator.” He reached into his bag and passed Sebastian something that looked like a laser gun. “The grate is screwed in from the other side. Melt it around the edges and pull it off.”
Sebastian discovered the tool was some kind of laser gun, except this laser burned through metal like a knife through warm butter. The elevator rumbled toward them. When Sebastian had the grate off, he leaned out into the shaft cautiously. The elevator roof had stopped about ten feet below. “How are we supposed to get on?”
“Just jump down and we’ll get through the access panel.”
“Jump?” Sebastian’s voice raised an octave. “I can’t.”
“Yes, you can. Shimmy around and go feet first. I’ll hold on to you.”
“I…I don’t like heights.”
“Turn around. Now.”
Since there was nowhere else to go, Sebastian did as he was told, scooting backward until his legs dangled in the air, the edge of the vent digging into his hips. He gripped the metal bottom of the air duct, fingernails white.
Kyle pried Sebastian’s hands up, clasping them. “The elevator’s right there. You can’t fall.”
“There’s some space around it. I could slip in between the elevator and the shaft and we’re fifteen stories up and—”
“I won’t let you fall.” Kyle squeezed Sebastian’s hands.
Heart thumping painfully, Sebastian swallowed, his mouth bone-dry. He inched out until his armpits were on the edge of the shaft, his body dangling as panic flapped against his rib cage. “I can’t.”
Kyle didn’t respond, and the next thing Sebastian knew, he was falling. A scream lodged in his throat as he jolted to a stop. Above him, Kyle hung halfway out of the vent, his arms fully extended, holding on to Sebastian. “Let go. It’s only a few feet.”
Struggling to force air into his lungs, Sebastian shook his head.
“It’s okay, Sebastian. Let go.” Kyle’s tone was soothing, in direct contrast to the orders he’d barked earlier.
There’s no other way. Screwing his eyes shut, Sebastian released his grip.
He landed with a thud on the elevator roof a second later. It really had been only a few feet, and he felt silly for his panic. The duffel landed beside him, and when he looked up, Kyle was somersaulting out of the duct. He landed gracefully beside Sebastian without comment and knelt to open the service hatch.
Dropping into the service elevator was much easier, and Sebastian was breathing normally again as they traveled down to the ground floor. “I’m sorry. It’s a phobia.”
Kyle was typing on his phone again. “It’s all right.” He sent the message and reached out, rubbing Sebastian’s arm almost unconsciously. Then, as if he realized what he was doing, he jammed his hand in his pocket.
“I know it’s stupid, the whole heights thing. Thanks for…” He waved his hand around.
Kyle gazed at Sebastian evenly for a long moment. “You’re stronger than you think.”
Then the elevator opened, and they were off.
The car he’d requested waited on a side street two blocks away, the keys resting on the front driver’s side tire. Kyle tossed them to Sebastian. “Drive.”
“Where to?”
“Out of Rome. Somewhere quiet. Isolated.”
Sebastian froze, clearly uneasy. “Why?”
Tell him to shut up and get in the goddamned car. Instead he took a step closer, reaching for Sebastian’s hand and squeezing it. “I told you not to worry about that.” Kyle remembered the heat of Sebastian’s body beneath his, his throaty cries as Kyle moved inside him, his fierce kisses…
He dropped Sebastian’s hand and strode around the car. For the last time, focus. “Come on.”
As Sebastian navigated traffic, Kyle scanned the document from Arrigo’s safe, which was a single page.
“Sucks that it wasn’t in there. The Chimera, I mean,” Sebastian said. He seemed uneasy, likely because Kyle had been hot and cold with him all day. Hell, since they’d met.
“I didn’t expect it to be. Wherever it is now, it’s under very heavy guard. I doubt your father’s letting it out of his sight.” Kyle flipped the page over.
“Then why did we risk going there?”
“For this.” Kyle tapped the paper. “We need to find out who his buyer is.”
Sebastian merged onto the freeway. “I thought you said it was terrorists.”
“It is. Unfortunately there are plenty of groups to choose from. This narrows it down.”
Glancing over, Sebastian’s brow furrowed. “It’s all numbers.”
“It’s encoded, of course.” He pulled out his phone and tapped away. “I’ll get one of the computer techs started on it.”
“But if they haven’t made the exchange yet…”
“No way would your father hand anything over without a sizable deposit. This is likely the contract. With banking information would be nice.”
“You guys can just trace transactions and find out who made them? Even on Swiss accounts? I’m sure my father uses them.”
“Not instantly, but yes. It can take a few hours or a few days. It depends. First they have to crack the code. They’ll give me an estimate in a couple of hours.”
“What are we going to do in the meantime?”
“Get us into the country and you’ll find out.”
Sebastian glanced over, wary.
Kyle smirked. “It’s important. Trust me.”
“Like I have a choice?”
“We all have choices.”
Sebastian kept his eyes on the road.
“Why are you afraid of heights?” The question slipped out before Kyle could stop it. You shouldn’t care. It’s irrelevant.
Sebastian paused before answering. “It’s stupid. When I was a kid—eight or nine—I climbed a tree at my grandparents’ place in Sicily. It was a huge Banyan tree, with all these twisty branches. I’d always been fascinated by it.” He paused again, eyes on the road. “I climbed up really high. I remember feeling like I was climbing to heaven. I didn’t look down until it was too late.”
“You were stuck.”
“Yeah.” He smiled ruefully. “I started crying and calling for my mother. My father came instead, absolutely furious. Told me to stop being a little girl and climb down. But it was like I was frozen up on this branch, my fingernails dug into in the bark.”
Kyle waited for him to continue, anger beginning to simmer in his gut.
“My brother told me he’d climb up and get me, but my father wouldn’t let him. He yanked Ben back down by his collar. My father’s face was beet red. I remember thinking it was like he was going to explode. He told me I had to come down on my own. But I couldn’t move.”
“How did you get down?”
“Ben snuck out in the middle of the night and climbed up to get me.”
“Your father left you up there in
the dark? Alone?” He regretted that he hadn’t had the opportunity to make Arrigo Brambani bleed.
“Said he’d make a man of me yet. In the morning my mom had a big bruise on her cheek. Said she tripped.”
Kyle clenched his jaw. “Father of the year.”
“Yeah. For so many reasons. I never thought he’d want to kill me, though. I still thought…” He shook his head. “Well, now I know.” He glanced over. “What about your father?”
Kyle’s body tensed. “What about him?”
“What was he like?”
Memories of his father flickered through his mind: the booming laugh; spinning Kyle’s mother around the kitchen for an impromptu dance; cheering in the bleachers as Kyle rounded the Little League bases; the spit and polish of his uniform. He cleared his throat. “Just your average father.” The recollection of the spittle on his face and the slam of the front door behind him as Kyle was shoved out of the house rang in his ears.
“So why don’t you talk to him anymore? Or your mom?”
“The job,” Kyle lied.
“On the train you said there was nothing to say to them.”
He shifted and drummed his fingers on his thigh. “Are we almost there?”
Sebastian let him off the hook. “Yeah. Anyway, that’s why I’m afraid of heights. Of falling, really. I have trouble even climbing a ladder. It’s stupid, I know.”
“It’s not stupid.” He wondered how many times Arrigo had called Sebastian names growing up.
“I bet you don’t have any irrational phobias.”
“Not really.” Kyle shrugged. “But I’m a superspy, remember?”
Sebastian laughed. “Was that a joke?”
He couldn’t help but smile in return.
“So where do you live? Do you have a home somewhere?” Sebastian exited the highway.
Kyle thought of his lifeless apartment. “I have a place in New York. I’m not there much, though. I’d rather be working.”
“New York? I love it there. When I was a kid we got to stay in the Waldorf Astoria and see Cats. Do you live in Manhattan?”
“Yes. Hell’s Kitchen.”
Sebastian made a turn onto a country road. “Is it as scary as it sounds?”
“No.” Kyle chuckled. “It’s changed a lot over the years. Lots of good restaurants and it’s close to the theater district. I can walk to Central Park. It’s convenient.”
“Wait, you go to the theater? Like, you get home from a long day of spying and you see The Lion King or something?”
“I’m not exactly the Disney type. But yes, I like the theater. Saw a few good plays last year.”
Sebastian didn’t answer, and when Kyle looked over, Sebastian was watching him with an incredulous smile. Kyle was suddenly self-conscious—an emotion he was unfamiliar with. “What?”
Turning his eyes back to the road, Sebastian shook his head. “Nothing. You’re just…surprising.”
“When I’m not working, I need to stay busy. Keep my mind occupied.”
“I just didn’t peg you for a Broadway fan.” Sebastian grinned. “Guess you’re gay after all.”
“I haven’t convinced you yet?” Seemingly of its own accord, Kyle’s voice had dropped an octave, and he cursed himself. Stop it! No more flirting. No more talking about your life. He cleared his throat and looked out the window, sitting up straighter. “Do you know where we’re going? We shouldn’t waste time.”
“Yeah. We’re almost there.”
When Kyle glanced back, Sebastian was watching him with a gaze that was far too knowing. The kid had gotten under his skin, and he had to put a stop to it. He shouldn’t have told him anything personal. But it had been so long since anyone had asked, and he found himself saying and doing things he normally never would.
They stopped in a small village to pick up lunch, and Sebastian drove them out into swaths of farmland. They finally stopped by a field that didn’t seem to have anything around it for miles. Sebastian killed the engine. “Does this work?”
“It works.”
Kyle went around and opened the trunk. He’d requested the car “fully loaded,” and sure enough there was a cache of weapons and ammunition under the false bottom of the trunk. As he pulled out a pistol, Sebastian appeared. He stared at the gun, then up at Kyle. Apprehensive but not afraid.
“If you want to survive, you’d better learn how to shoot.” He held out the pistol, handle toward Sebastian.
After a moment’s hesitation, Sebastian took hold of it. “I don’t want to shoot anyone.”
“Sometimes you have to. There are plenty of people out there who won’t hesitate to shoot. If you do, you’re dead. It’s a simple equation.”
Using rocks and their soda cans from lunch, Kyle set up targets. Sebastian missed wildly at first and then started getting closer. Kyle stood behind him, coaching. “Use both hands. Keep steady, and squeeze the trigger with as little movement as possible.”
“I’m never going to be able to hit anything. Not at this distance.”
“Accuracy is difficult with handguns, but when you’re being chased, you can’t stop to assemble a rifle. Try again.”
Sebastian planted his feet and went through all the steps Kyle had shown him. Kyle stepped to the side, watching the concentration and determination on Sebastian’s face. Sebastian squeezed off another shot that hit the base of one of the rock targets.
After a deep breath, Sebastian reset and took another shot. The soda can went flying with a metallic clang, and Sebastian whooped with joy. “Did you see that?”
In that moment, with the sun streaming down and a smile of pride lighting up his face, Sebastian was irresistible. One hand threading through his golden hair, Kyle drew him close and pressed their lips together.
Just one kiss.
Sebastian melted into him, his arms circling Kyle’s waist. Their mouths opened, and they stroked softly with their tongues. Kyle breathed Sebastian in, pulling him closer. This time there was no great sense of urgency, and they both seemed content to explore each other’s mouths. He knew this was reckless, but Kyle couldn’t resist.
He wasn’t sure how long they’d been standing there when the dart pierced the back of his neck. He took a sharp breath, breaking the kiss and reaching for the gun in his jacket—which he’d left in the car. He shoved at Sebastian. “Run.”
Sebastian squinted in concern, arms still locked around Kyle. “What?”
As his head spun, he stumbled and sank to his knees. You let your guard down.
“Kyle?” Sebastian followed him to the ground, clutching him with eyes wide. “What’s happening? What’s wrong?”
As the blackness rushed in, Kyle heard the approaching opponents. He ordered his hands and limbs to work, but toppled over onto the warm grass. Sebastian gasped, and a shot rang out.
Then it was over.
Chapter Nine
A persistent ache penetrated Kyle’s consciousness. His shoulders felt as if they might dislocate, his arms wrenched behind the back of the hard wooden chair he sat in. Metal handcuffs enclosed his wrists, and each ankle was bound to the chair legs with heavy rope.
He hadn’t opened his eyes yet or given any indication he was awake. He breathed steadily. There was at least one other person in the room. Kyle listened intently. His head was still foggy from the drug, and he struggled to concentrate and not drift back into a fog. Whoever was in the room was conscious, as he—Kyle was certain it was a man—coughed approximately every ten seconds.
It wasn’t Sebastian; of that much Kyle was sure. The door opened, and footsteps sounded on a concrete or stone floor. Some kind of warehouse, Kyle guessed. The air was damp and dank. Surely their location was suitably isolated. He had no idea how long he’d been under.
Pain exploded in his jaw as a fist struck him. “Wake up, Mr. Grant.”
Kyle opened his eyes to find a middle-aged man with blond, wiry hair looming over him. The man wore a neatly pressed suit. He bared his teeth in an approximati
on of a smile. “Nice of you to join us. Now let’s make this easy on everyone, shall we?”
Kyle had known the moment the dart hit him that it wasn’t Brambani’s men. Hit men had no use for prisoners. The man’s Danish accent confirmed it; Brambani’s men had all been Italian. Of course it was possible Brambani had looked elsewhere to find someone competent, but Kyle doubted it.
As Kyle’s fuzzy mind put the pieces together, he peered around the empty concrete room. Fluorescent lights flickered somewhere behind him, and the walls and floor were stained with blood. A disused slaughterhouse, perhaps.
Turning his head took Herculean effort, but Kyle glanced behind him. Another ten feet of concrete. Empty. Sebastian wasn’t here, and if he wasn’t here he was—
The grief struck like a snakebite, and Kyle’s chest burned. He dug his fingernails into his palms as he fought to remain impassive.
Dead.
Sebastian would have been of no use to these men. As the drug overtook Kyle, they’d have executed Sebastian. A bullet in the skull, less than a second. He was likely still in that field, the sun streaming down as the flies gathered, and—
The sharp clap of the blond man’s flat hand across Kyle’s other cheek echoed in the abattoir. The memory of Sebastian’s face filled Kyle’s vision, and a terrible sadness and inexplicable sense of loss flooded him, as though he’d been hit by another poisoned dart.
You barely knew him.
“Tell me where it is, and we can all be on our way.” The Dane smiled, his teeth gleaming in the gray, dingy room.
Swallowing, Kyle could still taste Sebastian on his tongue, and he tamped down the howl that threatened to rip from his throat. You shouldn’t care. You can’t care. Focus! Keeping his face blank, he allowed himself a deep, slow breath.
The incomprehensible sorrow coalesced into a soundless fury, and Kyle met the Dane’s gaze evenly as he examined his options.
The Dane pulled over another chair close to Kyle’s, crossing his legs elegantly as he unbuttoned his suit jacket and sat back. “Your reputation precedes you, of course. I must say I was surprised to find you with the young man.”
The Chimera Affair: Gay Romance Page 11
