by Honor James
“Whoever did this, Byrne, they are good. Like crazy good and I don’t know how to stop them.” That was a tough admission, but she made it.
“How long do you figure they would have needed?” he asked, shooting her a look. A look that said he already had an answer but wanted to know her thoughts. That look said that whatever she told him was going to either make or break the entire case, fast.
“Two to three days, tops. It would depend on how long it would take to mentally break her down that’s why I’m saying three days. She’s one strong lady, don’t get me wrong, but she’s also a woman and has her breaking point. So yeah, I’m saying two days but no more than a third day.”
“Shit,” he muttered, pushing a hand through his hair. “Before she joined the AEDA she worked for the FBI I think it was. She was working a case with her partner and they were off the grid for a time, doing whatever they were doing. At some point she dragged herself up and out of wherever she was, not in the best of shape and her partner was dead. Best guess by the higher ups, she was MIA for about two days. Maybe longer because they had limited contact.”
“That would do it,” she whispered. “Two days of torture.” Luna shivered. “That poor woman.” She was stronger than Luna, which was why Lilly was in the field and Luna was in cryptology. Well that and Luna loved puzzles. “So you need to go back to wherever she was before joining the AEDA and retrace her last steps so that you can find the link to whoever this person is. They are good though, and deprogramming her will take a hell of a lot of time and skill.” She had both right now, joys.
“What would we need to know how to deprogram her? And if you say someone that was there I might just have to smack you upside the head. Cause if we could have found one of those, we would have. At least any that might have been alive,” he muttered. “So, what would be needed? In great detail since I will be relaying this to others.”
“Me,” she said simply. She did blush and added, “Since tech doesn’t like me and I seem to short circuit everything that I touch that is tech I have had to use the old ways of learning since coming out of my coma.” They all knew her history, she just didn’t like to discuss it, mostly because she was a woman without a past. She truly had no idea who she was before she woke from her coma. “And someone to hold back her mates because it’s going to hurt to deprogram her, but it won’t kill her.”
“All right, what else do we need, besides you I mean?” he asked. “I mean, you’re wanting me to go dig into the couple of days prior to her turning up. So is there something specific I need to be looking for? Or am I just being sent off on a wild goose chase?”
“I need to know where the last point of contact was for her. The very last thing she can recall. I need that so that I can try to figure out what they might have used as a stressor point. The mind has a weird way of working and once you hit a certain point, it will blank the hurtful and painful parts out. It’s to protect us.”
Drumming his fingers on the table Byrne nodded slowly. “That’s going to be a problem. She’s had several sessions with various shrinks over the last while and she’s blank a lot longer than she was missing. She can’t recall the three days prior where her bosses had her on the phone or video conference. We have all the footage and recordings but she doesn’t remember making any of those calls. It’s like they wiped out more than just the time they had her.”
“Well you find the last place she was and I will help her out of that.” She held up a hand and said, “Shrinks can’t fix the missing pieces, only someone that can undo what was done to her can help her find those days. I just wish that it was that easy for me to find my missing years.” Oh well, suck it up, buttercup, and move on, she told herself.
The Luhpyne was staring at her now, no, not so much at her as through her. Like he was seeing inside of her. “Sometimes it’s best not to dwell on the past, even one you don’t remember. Maybe there’s a damned good reason your mind won’t let you recall it.”
“Oh believe me, I realize that one,” Luna retorted. “That’s my cross to bear though. I am who I am because of those missing years. I’m Luna Black, a name I chose for myself instead of Jane Doe.” She shrugged and smiled. “Thank you for coming by. I feel unsettled because of the attack on Cryptology.”
Getting to his feet he looked down at her. “I’ll head out in the morning to do some digging. I’ll also send over the recordings so you can review them and see if there’s anything in them that will be of use. And, just so you know, as of this moment you are now not to go anywhere without protection. I brought two agents with me who will be your shadows until this is all resolved. I made you a target in this mess but I’m not letting you end up like some of the others have who got involved. And, no, you don’t get to argue. Your only choices are if they stay here or if you move to a secure location.”
“Wait, what?” she asked in shock. “How am I a target?” Even if she had just been feeling like one a moment earlier. “Oh crap balls. Seriously?” she whispered and then added, “The attack on crypto, aimed at me?” Oh lord, as if she wasn’t enough of a pariah at work now they would all blame her for the loss of their things that they all kept cluttered on their desks. “Shoot. My place isn’t big enough for two more agents, especially if they are freaking massive like you.” But she didn’t want to leave her place either. It was soothing, calming, and it was grounded to hell and back again so she didn’t kill everything in the house, herself included.
“You’re a target because you’re working on this project. You’re a target because I gave you the materials to look over. You’re a target because someone in the AEDA is betraying us all by giving out classified information that they shouldn’t even know exists. Everything was in hard copies I was working on and what I gave you. It never once left my side until I gave it to you and, from what I know about you, I doubt you let it out of your sight once either. Which means we have moles that are everywhere in the AEDA. Moles that are working for the ones that hurt Lilly and are now trying to stop this investigation, one way or another. So, yeah, you’re a target and you’re going to be protected.”
Oh fudgenuggets. This so wasn’t going to work well, at all. “You do realize that most of the AEDA agents hate me right? None of them can be around me for long without wanting to rip my head from my shoulders.” Mostly because they scared the hell out of her and she accidently shocked them with her ever-present electroshock that she seemed to carry around like a shield. “I don’t know if any of them will be willing to spend more than an hour at a time with me,” she admitted with a frown.
“Well, I found two that as long as you don’t cook them with your little.” He waved a hand. “Whatever it is, they’ll survive. And you might find you can tolerate them as well. Now, do you want to stay here or got to a safe house that’s large enough for all three of you. We have a couple we can retrofit with about an hour’s notice so you don’t blow out the neighborhood’s power supply if you touch something.”
“It’s not that bad. It’s just that I carry a static shock. I have since I woke up in the hospital. Personally I think that it’s the metal plate that they put in my head, but that’s just me.” She shrugged and then sighed. “Fine. We will go to a larger home but when they kill me just know that I told you so.”
“They won’t kill you,” Byrne said, a slow smile curling his lips. He looked way too smug for her comfort level. “I would bet on it. In fact, I would bet on a whole lot more than that but I’d be giving it all away. And there’s no fun in knowing the ending to a story ahead of time, is there?”
Luna frowned and shook her head. She pulled her long brown hair up into a messy bun that she secured with rubber elastic bands and frowned. “You are bad,” she told him and turned, the hints of scrollwork tattoos showing from her hairline and down into her shirt along her spine. “Now then, let’s get gone should we?”
“Are you planning on packing anything to take with you? I’m sure they won’t mind if you decide to run around naked but
you might. They both tend to like the AC up a bit higher than is the norm, no matter what the season is. So you should take at least a sweater with you, other than that you can argue with the large males about the thermostat.” His eyes popped up to her face as soon as she turned to look at him. And he still had that “I know something you don’t know” look on his face.
“You are a very, very bad man,” she grumbled and put all of her paperwork into a bag and confessed. “I always have a go-bag in my front closet. It has cash, clothes, and things I would need on the run.” She had run before, that much was clear. “And what is it that you are hedging on telling me?” she asked with a frown.
“Oh, nothing, nothing at all,” Byrne said with a chuckle. Shaking his head he eyed her up and down before moving to the front door. Luna Black was much more than she appeared. The markings down her spine told that story but obviously no one had ever gotten a good look at them. He on the other hand now knew that the two agents she’d be shacking up with were in for one hell of an interesting time. Pulling the door open he waved his arm toward it. “After you, Ms. Black.”
“You are dangerous. Has anyone ever told you that? How in the world did you convince Briar that you were, what was it she said the other day?” She grabbed her pack and go-bag and after putting them on snapped her fingers and with a grin said, “That’s right. Said that you were as sweet as sugar. How in the world do you fool that poor woman?” She was teasing, the laughter dancing in her eyes said as much.
“Because I kiss her and all thoughts fly from her head.” He laughed deeply. “That and I give a killer massage and she damn well knows it. Beyond all that, both Danel and I can cook so it’s one less thing she ever has to worry about.” Stepping out of the house behind her he snagged her keys to lock the door and then handed them back. “We need to get moving so you can get situated and tell me all the things that are wrong.”
Luna rolled her eyes. “What do you mean tell you all the things that are wrong? Do I really come off as a complainer to you?” She went through life, she kept on going no matter what got in her way. She didn’t back down and she faced the shit that life tossed her way. Always. That’s who she was since she woke up from her coma and who she would continue to be.
“Not in the least. But you are a woman. Women always have issues with anything a man does, it is a proven fact. I live with one, there is always something we men could improve upon and thus we just learn to wait for the inevitable. It usually begins with, well you could have. Or the other one is, you know if you’d only,” he looked down at her. “After a while we don’t even flinch, we just nod and go about our day. Not that Briar does much of that, but she is a very unique and special woman.”
Luna smirked and shook her head. “Yes she is. You are totally lucky that she came around to your guys’ point of view.” Everyone knew about Briar and what happened to her, the fact that she was now very happily mated to a Luhpyne was incredible and spoke of the woman’s strength.
“Meh, we’re rather persistent and pesky when the need arises.” He chuckled. Walking ahead of her down the sidewalk he stopped next to one of the custom outfitted SUV’s that the AEDA agents used at all times. Opening the door for her he shot her an angelic look, only way to describe the look on his face. “She just finally realized that she couldn’t live without us and we were gracious enough to accept her falling into our arms as she did.”
Luna rolled her eyes and laughed. “Oh good lord does she know that you tell these tall tales about her to everyone within ear range? She would seriously put you on the couch or something if she knew, you do realize that don’t you?”
“Who the hell do you think I get most of these from?” he asked. Shutting the door he jogged around the vehicle and climbed in next to her. Starting the engine he pulled away from the curb. “Besides, any of them I come up with I have to clear with her first so she’s never caught by surprise by someone mentioning them around her.”
“Are you serious?” Holy Mother that was something she didn’t know. “Wow. Now that’s just stinking impressive. Period. I can’t believe that you guys really are able to joke and carry on with her about that. I mean seriously?” She snickered. “I like it though. Gives me hope for the men out there in the world. Now if only I could find one that I didn’t shock every other time I touched him.”
If not for the look of amusement on his face she would have assumed he was choking given the noise he made. “Sorry.” He waved a hand when she looked at him. “Inside joke like thing going on. And yes, we can tease with her about things like that because we are her mates. We’ve found it keeps both Danel and I out of any serious trouble if we clear all that kind of shit with her way before using it.”
“Right, gotcha.” She shook her head and leaned back in the seat. “So who is it that you are going to put me with so I can say a little prayer for what little sanity that they might have because of having me living with them for heaven’s only knows how long.” She cracked open her eyes and turned to look at him, “How long will it be anyway?”
“It will be however long it needs to be to ensure we stop this entire mess. Which means, buckle up, buttercup, you’re in for the long haul. As to who your roomies shall be—” He shot her a look. “Don’t know if you know them or not. Kristjan and Volker.” He lifted an eyebrow in question before returning his attention to the road.
She frowned and tilted her head. “I don’t think that I’ve met them,” she admitted. “Then again there are a great many people who say that they have met me and I don’t recall them.” She was weird like that. Give her something strange or a piece of code and she recalled everything about it but give her a person’s name and she couldn’t recall it to save her ass.
“You likely haven’t met either one. You may have seen them in passing but that would be about it. Volker was on an overseas trade with another of the AEDA offices for some training for about a year and a half. And Kristjan’s been hopping around to various field offices and other policing units doing some work with them to bring them up to speed on cases and issues we’ve been finding for the last three. The last time either of them was in the office was around three months ago and it was for a day. Before that it would have been about eight months ago, give or take.”
Byrne switched lanes and then took a turn, shooting her a quick look. “So don’t worry about it, you really don’t know these two. But you’ll have a hell of a lot of time in the next little while to get to know them.” He gave her that smug little grin again, even threw in a chuckle that she’d swear had a bit of an evil edge going on.
“Wonderful. And you really promise that they won’t try to gut me after the first day?” The worry was clear in her tone. She realized that she was very hard to be around, she didn’t know why but she was. “If they want out though you have to let them. I will go to one of the other safe houses and remain alone. I mean it. Don’t force them into something they don’t want, please?”
“If any of you, you or them, want out of this we will arrange something different. And no, I seriously doubt that they will want to gut you.” What he said under his breath next she couldn’t quite catch but she could have sworn he said something about them jumping her. “It will be just fine, Ms. Black, trust me.”
“I seriously hope that you are right because I really would like to live a little longer. I still haven’t figured out how old that I am now so yeah.” She shrugged. “But if you trust them I will.” There were very few people she trusted, Byrne was one of them.
“I do trust them, I’ve had more than a few dealings with them over the years and they are solid. If anything happens, trust in them and do whatever they say. They will not, under any circumstances, let you get hurt because of this fucking mess I dropped you into. Keep your phone close and on at all times. We’re going to stay as old school as we can with communications since they are harder to mess with and track than in the good old days.” He chuckled and shook his head. “Damned clichés but they do work well for th
e situation.”
“Well yeah we have to since I kill the chips. And make sure that the house has a landline phone as well because I kill cell phones rapidly as well. I have no clue why, but I do.” She blushed. “Remember, I’m the defective one?” Oh she knew what they all said about her, but she didn’t care, couldn’t let it affect her.
“You are not defective,” he said. “You are unique, Ms. Black. Don’t let anyone else ever tell you otherwise. And, if you feel the need, you can point out the assholes with the issue and I’ll personally introduce them to the mean side of a Luhpyne for you.”
“That’s very sweet but not necessary. I’ve long since stopped caring what others think of me. I can’t allow it to affect me or I wouldn’t be able to do my job and I am damn good at my job. I am the best cryptologist that the AEDA has, hell that the Earth has and I know it.” It wasn’t vanity because she allowed others to take the credit, it was simple truth.
“Well, the offers always there,” he told her. Taking another turn he slowed down and then pulled over in front of a two-story house that looked just like every other house on the block. Hell, likely in the entire neighborhood. Turning off the engine he got out and moved around to open her door for her. “Ready to meet the roommates?”
“As ready as I am going to get,” Luna said with a half smile. Grabbing her go-bag and pack she looked to him. “Well come on. I’m totally following you just in case they have heard rumors about me. That way they shoot you first. You are Luhpyne and will likely survive. I’m human and wouldn’t.”
Harumphing at her, Byrne rolled his eyes and led the way. And he muttered too, a lot, all the way up to the door. Knocking a couple of times he inserted the key and opened the door, stepping inside ahead of her. Both hands going right up into the air. “Seriously?” he asked in a mocking tone. “You saw me coming and yet you still have to point those at me?”
