Acceptable Risks

by Natalie J. Damschroder

  She found the doctor immediately, her curly red hair noticeable even in the dimness. Gabby sat alone at a table in the middle of the room. Lark couldn’t believe she worked for the country’s top security firm. Jason would never sit with everything exposed. She should have taken a corner table, or at least one against the wall.

  Amazing how training prevailed. Over the years, as life and career had made her visits with her father less frequent, his quizzing and training had taken a back seat. She’d always done self-defense maintenance, the kind any normal woman living on her own would do. But despite the eight years that had passed since her father gave up on Lark joining his business, his training had stuck. She’d automatically counted the doors in the room, pinpointed a few hiding places, cataloged the bartender’s relevant stats. It was almost as if her father were here with her.

  Get to work, then. She smiled at the bartender and moved closer to the gleaming oak bar. “Would you believe we ran out of napkins?” she said to him. “Teddy is going to get some, but I wondered if you could spare a handful to get us by until he gets back.”

  The bartender grunted and walked to the other end of the bar. Lark idly looked around, wondering where leather jacket guy was. Gabby was the only other person in the room.

  “Here.”

  Lark smiled again and took the brown-paper-wrapped stack of napkins. “Thank you. You’re a doll.”

  “Plan ahead next time.”

  “Sure.” She indicated the room behind her. “Quiet today, huh?”

  He shrugged.

  “Us, too, mostly. We have a few people in now. Some guy came in with a leather jacket on. Can you believe that? In June?”

  The bartender didn’t say, “Hey, he came in here, too!” and he didn’t seem to care what she was talking about. But the doctor swung her head toward Lark and made eye contact, her own widening behind oval-framed glasses. She looked around frantically before starting to rise. Lark shook her head subtly but sharply, smiled at the guy behind the bar one more time, and went back out to the lobby.

  Gabby knew who the guy was. Or maybe she’d seen him enter the hotel behind her. Or, Lark supposed, she’d turned automatically at the sound of Lark’s voice. But she hadn’t looked until Lark mentioned the leather jacket guy. And she’d obviously recognized Lark. Probably from a picture on her father’s desk. She wished Jason were over here to tell her what to do.

  She had to figure out where the leather jacket guy was. They couldn’t talk to Gabby until she was in the clear. Spotting a tall ferny plant in one corner of the lobby, she sidled over, dropped the napkins, and slipped behind the plant as she started picking them up.

  A moment later Gabby hurried out of the restaurant. But instead of making a beeline for the front door, she veered right down a hallway lined with room doors. Lark had picked the right spot; she could see all the way to the exit door at the end.

  No one followed Gabby. Lark wanted to, but she waited, her breathing shallow, every muscle poised to act. Several seconds after the doctor left the building, someone came down the wide staircase behind Lark with hurrying footsteps. She peered carefully upward, and sure enough, it was the leather jacket guy. But he went straight out the front door and got in a car parked outside. He hadn’t even pulled away when a woman wearing a strapless spandex dress and six-inch clear platforms clumped down the stairs. Her platinum hair was a bird’s nest, and she was tucking money into her cleavage.

  Shit. They’d been fooled.

  Leaving the napkins scattered on the floor, Lark hustled down the hall Gabby had taken. But too much time had passed. When she got to the outside door, she couldn’t see the redhead anywhere. Dammit! Her cell phone rang. She ignored it and shoved through the door to the outside, searching around the parked cars. Could Gabby be behind the dumpster, or had she turned left and gone back to her car on the main street?

  When the phone rang a third time, she flipped it open without checking the number, still focused on her search.

  “Where are you?” demanded Jason.

  “Outside the hotel,” she answered automatically

  “Where?”

  “On the side. Did you see the doctor?”

  “Yeah, I’ve got her.”

  Lark blew out a breath. Thank goodness.

  “Head back to the alley,” Jason continued, “we’ll pick you up. Any sign of the leather jacket guy?”

  “Yeah, he was getting a quickie upstairs.” She wove between cars, head up, looking for the Range Rover. “A hooker came down right after he did, and he wasn’t in the bar and didn’t go after Gabby when she left.”

  “Figures. Okay, I see you.” He disconnected and pulled up next to her a few seconds later. Gabby was in the front seat, her eyes huge, her hand wrapped in the strap hanging just in front of her side window.

  Jealousy was a quick, surprising burn in Lark’s gut, but she hesitated only a moment before yanking open the back door and bouncing onto the seat. “I’m in.”

  Jason took off. Lark put on her seatbelt and leaned over the seat to address Gabby. “Why did you go out the side door when you came out of the restaurant?”

  The doctor twisted to try to look at Lark, but didn’t let go of her strap. “I heard you say something about a guy in a leather coat. I figured you saw someone follow me in, so I went out the other door and circled around to my car. I was going to call Jason from the road.”

  “You did the right thing,” Jason assured her.

  Lark shoved herself back into her seat, a little perturbed. If Gabby was being watched, a different exit from the same lobby wasn’t going to throw them off. If Lark had been the one being followed, and used that evasive technique, Jason would lecture her, not praise her.

  They rode in tension-drenched silence until Jason stopped a few miles away, in a small gravel lot on a hill, where a picnic table and a trashcan both leaned under a tall maple tree. He got out and the women followed.

  “We can see anyone coming from here, and they can’t get a good angle on us.” He sat on the top of the table, his booted feet braced on the bench. “Gabby, do you know Lark?”

  The doctor awkwardly held out a hand, her face pinkening to clash with her dark red hair. “I know who you are, Ms. Madrassa. It’s a pleasure to meet you, really.”

  “You, too.” Lark’s irritation faded under the doctor’s sincerity. “I see you made my preliminary research into a real miracle.” She nodded at Jason.

  “Well, a lot of us worked together to make it happen. And Jason deserves all the credit for pulling through. Any patient can die if they give up, or live if they work hard enough at it. Well, within reason.” She gave a faint laugh. “You know what I mean.”

  “Basically. When did you last talk to my father?”

  Gabby’s back was to Jason and she didn’t see his beaming smile at Lark’s “interrogation” tactic. But he also didn’t see the doctor’s startled look.

  “In person was yesterday evening, shortly after the end of the work day. I had a message from him in the lab last night. I must have been in the bathroom when he called. He didn’t seem to need a call back.”

  “When was that?”

  “About eleven.”

  “What were you doing in the lab at eleven?” Jason asked.

  Gabby shifted to talk to both of them. “Um…I’m always—I mean, usually—it’s not a lab, Jason.” Her flush deepened. “I’m often there very late. You know that.”

  “But I’m not there anymore to attend to.”

  “No. Actually, that’s why I was there.” She shoved her hands into the pockets of her dress. “I felt a little adrift and went back to start planning our next steps. With the research. We have to backtrack now, and—”

  “What did his message say?” Lark interrupted.

  “He asked me to give Jason a copy of all my research on his treatments, and his medical file, when he came in today.”

  Jason cursed.

  “Did you?” Lark demanded.

  “Lark, I di
dn’t—” Jason started.

  “Did you?” she repeated, stepping closer to Gabby, stretching the scant couple of inches she had over the doctor in height. “Did you give the information to Jason or someone looking like him? Or did you in fact collude with—”

  “That’s enough, Lark.”

  She backed off, slightly ashamed at the devastated look on Gabby’s face. “Too far, huh?”

  “A little.” Jason slid off the table. “The first part was good, though.”

  “What the hell is going on?” Gabby stiffened. No longer flushed, she fisted her hands on her hips and swiveled her head back and forth between them. “Of course I didn’t give the information to Jason or anyone looking like him. I’ve been alone all morning, until you called and told me to come here.”

  “Where is the information now?” Jason asked her more gently.

  “Here.” She pulled a flash drive out of her tiny purse. “Since I was seeing you, I figured I should hand it over.”

  “Don’t.” Jason curled his hand over Gabby’s. Lark’s fingers twitched. She wanted to see the data, dive into the miracle her work had helped create. But there’d be time for that later. Her father, and the bigger mess his disappearance was tied to, came first.

  “But Matthew said—”

  “It wasn’t him,” Jason interrupted. “Or he was coerced. Keep it, and don’t give it to anyone. Understand me? In fact, it’s probably best if you disappear for a few days.”

  But despite her security gaffes, Gabby was no dummy. “No one coerces Matthew,” she asserted. “If he gave me instructions under duress, he’s drugged, or worse.” She pushed the flash drive deep into her bag again and frowned, as if thinking hard. A moment later, she shook her head. “I think it wasn’t him. His speech patterns were off. The whole message seemed strange, but I decided it was just because I—” She blushed again, even darker than before. “I’m going back to the lab—I mean, the facility. Someone needs to guard it.”

  “Hummingbird has perfect security,” Lark said, knowing there was no such thing. “Your work is safe.”

  “You think I care about my work?” She glared at Lark through her glasses. “I care about Jason. And about your father. If someone wants my research and it would save either man’s life, they can have it.”

  “Gabby—”

  “Chill, Jason, I’m not going to give it up. If someone tries to steal it, they’ll get a corrupted file they won’t be able to access for shit. The real risk is them getting their hands on information about your vulnerabilities. I have to go protect that stuff.”

  Jason nodded. “All right. We’ll drive you back.”

  “To my car. Then you go find Matthew and stay far away from Hummingbird.”

  Lark had to admit she liked the woman, after all.

  * * *

  Jason followed Gabby long enough to make sure she wasn’t followed—easy enough to determine on these small-town streets—then headed for the highway. He’d have preferred going with Gabby back to the lab to help her secure the data, but they had more than one calculated risk to consider. Matt was in more immediate danger.

  “What next?” Lark asked.

  “Kemmerling’s office.”

  She raised her eyebrows at him. “Isn’t that a little, oh, nuts?”

  He glanced over his shoulder for traffic and merged onto the moderately busy highway. “We need information. We have no idea where to start looking for your father.”

  “What about the woman who was at the house this morning?”

  “I don’t think we’ll get a lead on her from the shade of lipstick on the mug.”

  Lark sighed. “What I meant was, unless she showed up out of the blue, there’s got to be a record somewhere of her contacting Dad.”

  Jason’s hands clenched and released on the wheel. “True. But we can’t go back to Hummingbird to check the call log on Matt’s phone. Gabby can’t get into the office. Caitlyn won’t be in until Monday. And his cell phone is probably gone. The lead is too vague to follow right now.”

  “You think Isaac has information at his office? Or even Dad?”

  Jason hated the hopefulness in her voice. “Not Matt, no.” Isaac wouldn’t be dumb enough to keep Matt someplace he could easily get out of. But Isaac was also unreasonably cocky, and would probably think his own ground couldn’t be penetrated. He might have something in his office Jason could use.

  The problem was what to do with Lark. He couldn’t leave her vulnerable on the outside, and he didn’t want to take her inside with him.

  “Where’s his office?” Lark asked.

  “M Street in DC.”

  “How are you getting in?”

  “I don’t know yet. I have to scope it out.” A cramp shot across his shoulders, and he loosened his hold on the wheel. Lark wasn’t bombarding him with questions to annoy him. She was worried. But understanding didn’t make the interrogation less grating.

  But then he glanced at her and forgot his irritation. She was gnawing her full lower lip. When it slid from between her teeth it was reddened, and for a second he imagined soothing it with his tongue. Stop that. He looked away from her mouth, but his gaze fell to her tightly folded arms plumping her chest into the V of her light blue T-shirt.

  Damn. He tore his eyes away and back to the road.

  “I wonder what happened to Nils,” Lark mused.

  Jason frowned and struggled to trace the conversation back. “I don’t know what that means.”

  “Nils is the gopher I told you about. And you texted Dad about it?”

  The memory popped. “Yeah.”

  “Dad said in his message that he was taken care of. But it had to be a lie, right? Something the kidnapper made him say.”

  “I forgot about him,” Jason admitted.

  Lark snorted, making his lips twitch. It must be catching.

  “Not in top form, huh Templeton?”

  Now, that was unfair. Especially since she was the reason. “Cut me some slack. I nearly died. I’ve been out of the field for six months.”

  “Oh, yeah. I forgot.”

  Now Jason snorted and Lark laughed, and pretty soon they were both a little beyond normal.

  “Oh, Jason,” Lark finished with a slight whimper. “I don’t want…Dad…”

  “I know.” He put his hand on her leg again, and she put her hand on top of his, and it was starting to feel familiar.

  Chapter Ten

  Kemmerling Security turned out to be on the fourth floor of a building down the street from the National Geographic Society, whose museum was open. It was a good spot for Lark to wait. Public and random, and she wouldn’t look out of place loitering over the exhibits.

  Jason walked the two blocks back to Kemmerling Security. He gained entry into the building by signing in to visit the accountant on the second floor, and took the elevator to the third instead. As soon as the door opened he swung out and to his left, reaching for the stairwell door. He didn’t even think about it until he’d walked through. Even then, he was up three steps toward the fourth floor before it hit him. The cement stairs, painted cinderblock walls and metal rail spun. He tipped and had to grab the rail to keep from falling over. Panic slammed into him and he threw himself against the wall, away from the rail. His breathing rasped, echoing around him, duetting with the churning pulse in his ears. For God knew how long he stood frozen, halfway between the third and fourth floor landings.