"Come on, Laurie. Please? There's nothing wrong with me using it when you aren't, is there?"
There was. Laurie worked a lot on her computer, storing a lot of private information on it. She had it all under encryption, of course, but that didn’t mean it was completely safe. He could do all manner of things, like visit unsafe sites, and a computer virus might pass through the firewalls she'd put up, and even encrypted, she could lose everything. When had she last backed up her data? She'd never had reason to because she was always careful. The only reason she'd done it in the first place was because it made sense, but she didn’t always remember to keep it up.
She didn’t want Karl destroying her house, but she didn’t want him messing with her work, either.
He noticed her hesitating and narrowed his eyes. "Why don’t you just buy me a phone, then? Because you already said no to a computer and won't let me use yours."
"Like hell," she snapped back immediately. "I can't afford it right now or I would have done it already."
Not something he would be satisfied with, anyway, and she couldn’t pay his cell phone bills above hers with everything else she had on her budget if they didn’t want to go hungry. Hell, who was she kidding? She would be the one going hungry because her brother was just that selfish.
They continued arguing back and forth, Laurie hugging the computer protectively to her chest.
"All right," he finally admitted after some more arguing, "my 'Russian buddies' gave me some bad schwag for 'all my hard work' and I wanted to relax and enjoy it." He didn’t get specific, didn’t even explain exactly what they'd given him, but by the twist in her expression, she had some idea.
Laurie barely heard everything else, she didn’t even care for any more details. Her brother had low-grade marijuana, and he brought it to her house, intending to use it while watching porn on her computer.
"You know that hanging out with drug dealers and doing favors for them is courting jail," she angrily pointed out. "You can't keep doing that sort of thing! You got lucky before, but I am not Dad. There's only so much trouble I can get you out of if I even can at all, if you do something stupid and end up getting caught by the police."
He just waved at her dismissively. "Whatever. Just let me use the computer. Weren’t you doing something outside? Just go back to doing that, and by the time you come back I'll be finished with it and you can have it back."
She glared at him. Like hell, she was just going to do that now. But she didn’t know exactly what to say to him. She finally just left in disgust, without another word, planning to make an early dinner for herself and then go for a badly needed bike ride.
Chapter 4
She was out riding alone when Mickey came up beside her.
"Hello," he said.
Laurie had been lost in thought. If it hadn't been for long years of experience on a bike, he would have startled her and she would have done something stupid and fallen. It would have hurt, because she was moving at a relatively fast speed, needing the feel of the wind in her face to help her clear her mind.
Her hands squeezed on the handlebars, just a little, before she relaxed them, the movement of her feet not stuttering as she pedaled evenly. She shot a glance at him, before staring straight ahead.
"What are you doing here?" the words were out of her mouth before she could call them back, and she winced.
Way to ask the obvious.
She shot another glance at him out the corner of her eye. He was on a bike, of course, since it was the only way he could have been keeping up with her. He was even dressed up in gear, a tank top, bike shorts, sneakers, a helmet and knee and elbow pads. She could tell by that, and by the look of his bike, that he at least had some interest in bikes like she did.
Laurie pretty much rode her bike everywhere. She didn’t have a car, didn’t have the funds for it, and she loved it. Not to mention, she got exercise in without having to make an appearance at the gym to keep in shape. She'd gotten on her bike to get away from the house, get away from her brother and the rest of her problems so she could at least forget them for a short moment.
Now she was a little glad that she did because it meant she got to see Mickey before their coffee date the next day.
Hearing him chuckle beside her, she was brought out of her thoughts. Then she remembered the words that came out of her mouth.
"Forget it!" she blurted out before he could respond. "I can see what you're doing, just… I just didn’t really expect anyone."
Actually, there was still the question of why he was keeping up with her at all. He was dressed in full gear, which meant he must have anticipated a full workout. He didn’t look like he was breaking a sweat, and Laurie assumed if he got serious, there was no way she could keep up with him in terms of speed.
"I kinda guessed. I was a little worried, calling out to you, but I've been beside you for a bit and you didn’t seem to notice me riding up next to you at all. I didn’t want to startle you and make you crash."
She ignored the apologetic note in his voice, focusing on something else. "When did you ride up beside me?" she asked, surprise coloring her voice.
She hadn't noticed. Usually, she was hyper aware when she was on her bike. It was the safest way to ride; to be careless was to endanger her life, after all. How could she not have noticed someone coming up next to her? Or was she really that troubled by everything going on?
Who was she kidding? Of course, she was that troubled. What had she been thinking getting on a bike to forget her problems? She could end up doing something stupid like crashing into a car or something because she wasn’t paying attention. She could have gone to the park because there were paths for cycling and there would be fewer obstacles there, but then it would require more concentration than she was putting into the whole exercise just then, so it might just end up being more dangerous.
"It hasn’t been all that long," Mickey replied. "Not even a minute before I spoke up. I figured it would be weird, and probably startle you worse, if I just kept quiet and you suddenly noticed me riding silently beside you like some creep."
Laughter bubbled from her throat in light giggles. "I wouldn’t go so far as to think you're a creep, though yeah, that would have surprised me." She bit her lip. If she had noticed at all without him calling out to her. "I would have noticed you without panicking if you'd just gone a bit ahead of me. Though I probably wouldn’t have realized it was you. Where are you headed?"
She shot him a curious look, wondering if he had somewhere he needed to be.
"Nowhere, really. I like biking, and I wanted to check out the area, so I thought why not do both? Do you mind if I just stick with you for a while?"
"No, that's fine." There was a slight bump as her bike went off the sidewalk, crossed an empty road and went up the sidewalk on the other side, Mickey right beside her.
"Did you get to talk to your brother?"
She glanced over at him. "Not really. By the time I went inside, he…" her voice trailed off, her face flushing. She didn’t want to mention the porn thing. It would be too damn embarrassing, though mentioning the drugs would probably be a worse idea. "We talked a bit. I'm not sure how to help him, so I came out for a ride to clear my head and think. What were you doing?"
"Hmm," he hummed, glancing at her as she did the same to him. "Well, I was putting away most of my stuff, but at least the movers are gone…"
They talked some more as they rode. It didn’t take her long to notice, though, that he was asking a lot of questions about her brother: did he work, was he violent, did he have friends over, did he have any drug or gang connections? Laurie pretty much just went with the questions, barely realizing what she was answering until he got to the last one.
Her brother brought marijuana into her house, that he got from his 'Russian buddies' for something he'd done for them. She didn’t bother to ask what, but she didn’t think she could just blurt that sort of thing out to anyone, especially not her new neighbor no matter how
hot he looked. They were strangers before that morning, and she wasn’t getting in as many questions, the few she did were answered vaguely, so that hadn't really changed on her end.
Mickey was fairly smooth about it, too, mixing the questions in with the others, but she was observant enough to notice them regardless. Still, if he hadn't asked about the drug and gang connections, she wouldn’t have stopped and thought so much about it.
"What's with all the interest in my brother?" she asked finally.
She was a little suspicious of him, but part of her was a little put out that he was keeping up with her just so they could talk about her brother.
Mickey realized he must have taken the questioning too far too soon. He didn’t want her getting suspicious this early, so he scrambled his mind and quickly made up a story.
"Uh, well, see... Don’t get mad, but my movers warned me that a big teenager in a baseball cap and sweatpants had been looking over the stuff coming out of the truck like he planned to take some of it. It's why I stuck around until the guys were done and gone before taking my bike out, then I ran into you by coincidence…"
Laurie winced. It would be just like her brother to do something like that, especially since she had locked her computer away when she was out of the house. And since the bike was all she had, he'd have to walk wherever he wanted to go, and it would be a bit of a walk to get anywhere. Her brother was lazy, he wouldn’t go far to look for entertainment.
The 'big' didn’t fit him, though. He was on the skinny side with a hollow chest, and all the drug use hadn't done any wonders for his physique. But for some reason, he thought he was hot because of his 'abs,' which he showed off as if he had the body of a god. Laurie could never bring herself to tell him that he just looked starved, with most of his ribs visible in his chest.
"Though my brother is an ass and has some questionable friends," she hastened to tell him, "I've never heard of him stealing anything. He was probably just messing with you guys so you don’t have to be so worried about that. I am so sorry about him, though. I swear he is harmless."
She chewed on her lip. Well, she hoped so, anyway. She couldn’t exactly say she was sure anymore.
Mickey quickly backed off, seeing the frown on Laurie's face. She was clearly protective of her brother and insisting on this would only alienate her.
"Maybe you're right. They could have just been wrong, anyway. I was just being cautious because I'm new to the area. Are you still up for coffee later?" he asked cautiously.
"Sure," she agreed, though the talk of Karl acting like even more of a delinquent than usual had her worried.
Chapter 5
Mickey checked in with his handler later that evening. He'd spent a while with Laurie before going home, gathering more info on both her and her brother. If he'd enjoyed the time with her, too, well, there wasn’t anything wrong with it. No one would ever know.
He reported on his impressions of Laurie and her brother. There were things about Laurie that he'd noticed that were, technically, irrelevant to the case, but he catalogued them anyway. How she seemed to care for her brother, even though he annoyed her. She was definitely keeping info about him secret, though that could just be because they were still strangers. She was protective of her brother, but he knew that she knew he was doing a bunch of stuff that wasn't strictly legal, although he was sure she didn’t know the extent of it.
She was stressed, probably in over her head. Her brother showed up on her doorstep and she lent him a place to stay. He doubted, however, she'd expected all the problems it came with taking care of a problematic youth, considering she was only a couple of years younger than Mickey and had been living alone in the eight years since she'd left her father's home.
It would only get worse for her.
He hadn't gotten a lot out of her brother, from the brief moment he'd seen him, to the time when he'd talked with Laurie about him before she got cautious with any questions to deal with her brother.
"I don’t think she knows what her brother is up to, exactly, but she knows he's into something. She got pretty defensive a few times when I asked questions about him that put him in a negative light, legally speaking, a few times she deflected the question or outright ignored it. Karl, I haven't technically met, but he looked like any other delinquent his age. Wherever he came from, whoever he was with, probably has a tie to the investigation."
Laurie wouldn’t know. He'd seen how troubled she was, even though she was defending her brother. She clearly knew something was up but had no idea how to deal with it. He'd have felt sorry for her—actually, he did feel sorry for her—but if Karl was into something he shouldn't be, then she shouldn’t have been protecting him.
There was a low hum, then a long silence over the phone. His report was done, so he just waited silently, not hanging up. His handler would be the one to decide their conversation was over. He expected questions, at least, but none came.
"It's been revealed that Karl seems to be the one responsible," his handler said. "The information came in, finally, so we're sure now."
Mickey clenched his jaw, feeling sorrier for Laurie. There was no way she could protect her brother from this, not from the government.
Karl was suspected of the theft of several sensitive Pentagon communications by using his father's login credentials. It had only been a supposition before when he was informed nearly two weeks ago of his new job. He would have hoped, for Laurie's sake, that the report was false since she was the one stuck with her brother, and would be involved in his problems because of it.
"The CIA only knows this because the general made, albeit reluctantly, a report of his son being caught at his computer but without much detail. But a preliminary investigation was carried out and it was at the time the information was accessed. The boy's father has been cooperative with the investigation but is unaware that Karl is now being directly monitored."
He nodded, even though his handler couldn’t see, agreeing to the silent order. "I'll make sure to keep a low profile, sir."
There was a short silence on the line, but he knew his handler was pleased. "The general was asked not to tell his children about the investigation. Whatever you're going to do out there, do it fast. People are going to be out for that kid's blood soon. There is only so long we can keep information of this magnitude in check."
Of course. The boy, as idiotic as he was, had managed to access some critical files. Mickey wondered if he even knew what he'd cost his country, or if he was just another spoiled brat wanting to get back at his father. He wondered if the kid knew the shit he was dragging his sister into. At any moment, if the people he was affiliated with felt there was a risk because of the info they got from him, they might just decide to cut their losses. Both Karl and Laurie would then be in danger from them.
No arrests could be made because no one was sure what the kid did with the information he got or who he gave it out to. They were definitely his Russian buddies, drug dealers that didn’t mind selling information, either. They needed to get something concrete on them and to make the arrest before the information made it out to someone who'd know the most effective way to use it to cripple the country.
After a few more minutes, he was finally excused and he ended the call. He made plans in his head, thinking of all the ways he could end this as quickly and quietly as possible, so Laurie wouldn’t have to be dragged into it. It was a matter of national security, after all.
Later that night, Mickey was monitoring the Nash house when he noticed Karl going out. Considering how late it was, with the rest of the house dark and quiet, he was probably sneaking out. Likely to go get more drugs.
Mickey moved quickly to follow, grabbing a few things on his way out. Lucky for him, they didn’t have a car, because that would have just been a pain. Tracking a car would be so much easier at night, but he was more worried about giving himself away. He could keep up with the kid just fine as it was and stay concealed, as long as he was careful. He grabbed his bike
, tucking away some equipment in his dark cargo jacket, pulling up the hood.
He tailed Karl discreetly. Not that there seemed to be any need. The kid didn’t bother checking to see he wasn’t being followed, but that was no reason to blow his cover. If he was positive about where the kid was going, he wouldn’t want whoever the kid was meeting to notice him, either.
Mickey followed Karl all the way to a house in Ridgley. He stopped a distance away until he saw the kid go into the house, and snuck in closer. He set up his shotgun mic across the street and waited to see who Karl met with and what they talked about.
Chapter 6
Karl met with Randy, his buddy.
Randy looked much younger than his twenty-five years, skinny and small, a fast talker with scruffy medium white hair, a five o'clock shadow, bulging hazel eyes and bad teeth, and spoke with a thick accent. It was hard to remember sometimes why they were even friends.
But Karl wasn’t with the guy for his looks or his personality—he just wanted the drugs, and his buddy was usually all too happy to provide.
Randy opened the door for him, letting him inside, and they proceed to get high, watch porn, and tell vile jokes about women.
It was pretty much all they ended up doing together when they hung out. It hadn't been all that often before, but he had more freedom ever since he'd moved into his sister's place. Even if he'd had to sneak out, it was still easier than dealing with their dad. Even if she realized he was sneaking out, she'd maybe complain and let him go anyway, or just let him do whatever he wanted.
Really, if he could have his way, he'd rather stay here. There was all the stuff he liked, and his buddy was good about letting him hang around sometimes. Still, there was some problem with him staying over long term, which was why he'd had to show up at his sister's place not long after he left home. He got the stuff his friend wanted from him, so they at least allowed him to stay for a couple of days before kicking him out.
Deadly Seduction (Romantic Secret Agents Series Book 2) Page 3
