“Sam, you see too much,” came Xavier’s voice from the corner of the room.
I straightened up when I saw him sitting on the edge of the desk across the room.
When did he get here?
“What’s going on, Xavier? What the hell’s going on?”
He held up his phone to his ear and spoke into it. “Security’s down, guys. You’re good to go in.”
He clicked the phone off, put it in his pocket and stood.
“It’s us, isn’t it? We’re the bad guys.” My God, I can’t believe I fell for this shit. Although how would I have seen it coming?
He shrugged. “We’re neither good nor bad, Sam. You should know by now that we’re basically pawns. We do work for the highest bidder. Doesn’t matter who it is. The good, the bad, or the deadly.”
“Why? What happened to you? We work for the government.”
He laughed. “Really? You think you could walk into a government building and tell them you work for them? Can you get a fucking reference?”
“Who was that you were talking to?” It could have been Oz or someone else. God, it could have been Patrick.
I took him for a friend, but maybe he wasn’t.
“Whatever you think you can do now you can’t. But you were so helpful being the tech of this operation. Couldn’t have done it without you. We’d never have known the chip was in the house, and thanks so much for disabling the entire security system. Well done.”
I moved to get up but something hit me in the back of my head. Something hard. I knew it for what it was before my brain processed it.
Baseball bat.
It was the same stinging sensation I felt when Ray, my foster father, hit me with his bat when I was fifteen. Except Ray didn’t hit me as hard as he would have if he wasn’t drunk. The person who hit now meant to take me down and out.
The impact made me see stars in an instant, then blackness as I hit the ground.
* * *
I didn’t know what time it was when I came to. It was dark outside.
My head…
My…
Bradley. He was at the house. His cell was there when I located him, so he must have been there when whoever it was went inside.
I stood up a little too quickly and nearly fell over. I had to grab onto the edge of the table to steady myself.
I was a damn pawn in a game. A damn pawn.
My crew, the crew, used me. Used me to steal the chip. One guess that they were the threat to national security.
I didn’t have time to think about what they would use the damn thing for. Instinct told me Bradley was in danger. I didn’t know if I could do anything to help him, but I’d try.
I jumped in my car and headed over to his place. Pulling out my phone, I saw a missed call from Olivia. Damn it. I was supposed to meet her.
It was seven. I was supposed to meet her at four.
I didn’t spare the time it would take to call her. Instead I followed the dark dread that pushed me to Bradley’s house.
The front door was slightly ajar when I went up to it. Pushing it open, I went inside.
“Bradley,” I called out.
Nothing, no answer.
I turned the corner to his office. That door was wide open. So were the bookcase and the door leading to the lab.
I ran inside and down the steps.
Then I saw him.
I stopped short and released a sharp gasp. I saw Bradley lying on the ground with his head wide open and his lips blue. An angry red line bruised his neck.
He’d been strangled. Dead.
Suddenly that too-late feeling flashed through me and reminded me of Coop. Although Bradley looked dead, I still rushed to his side.
“God, what’d I do?”
A creak on the step snapped my head to that direction just in time to see two officers holding their guns right at me.
“Freeze! Don’t move!” the largest one said.
I did freeze. Froze up in mind and body.
How’d the cops get here so fast? Stupid question I knew the answer to.
Great.
I wasn’t just the pawn in the game—the crew set me up too.
My dear Olivia, I’m so sorry. Once again I let you down…
To be continued…
Dear Olivia Page 18
