by M. D. Cooper
“So far so good. But just because they aren’t saying it doesn’t mean they don’t know it.”
“Yeah. So how long has it been, then?”
“Two days. We called in a nurse Marky knew who was willing to make a call all the way out here and keep his mouth shut. Unfortunately, that meant no first-rate hospital care for you, so we kept you under to let you heal. Plus, you’ll have a scar.” He looked apologetic.
“Cool. Scars are badass. Like badges of honor.”
He smiled. “Yeah?”
“Yeah. Well, a leg one, anyway. I’d be pissed if it were on my face.”
“I kind of want to pretend there’s one on your face, too, but that seems too mean,” he admitted.
“Yeah. Good call on that one.” She smeared her hands over her face. “Okay. So, last question. Did we get what we needed?”
He hesitated. “Mostly. Tell you what. You tell me what you want to eat, and we can talk about that after I’ve brought a tray for you.”
“A tray? I can’t just to sit at the table like a normal person?”
“If you want to. But wouldn’t it be nicer if I brought it to you?” He smiled, and a dimple sank into his cheek.
She couldn’t resist smiling back. “Yeah. It would.”
“See? So what do you want?”
“Fried eggs on noodles. Rice. And a big ham sandwich, like this thick.” She used her thumb and forefinger to indicate the width of her foot.”
Kippy laughed. “You must be all better if you can eat all that. I don’t know if we have it all, but I’ll see what I can come up with.”
He reached the door and paused. “Oh. Do you…I mean, you should have help getting up if you need to go…you know.”
“Uh.” She blinked. “I was kind of planning to shuffle to the bathroom once you were gone.”
“How about I help you to the door?” he bargained.
“Okay.”
He went over and put his arm around her waist to help her out of bed. She slid the right leg out first, which was fine. Then she moved the second one and it felt like someone else’s leg. Twice its regular size and full of burning, aching pain.
“How does it feel?” he asked.
“Bad.”
“Like, you can deal with it bad, or if I weren’t here you’d be screaming kind of bad?”
“Somewhere in the middle,” she admitted, “but closer to the dealing with it side.”
He supported her while she cautiously made small steps toward the bathroom. The combination of wound and inactivity had her feeling stiff and weak.
She hated it. She needed to shake this off fast. “Okay. We’ve made it to the door. I shall now pee in privacy while you make me food.”
He looked torn. “Are you sure you won’t need help back to the bed?”
“I’ll be okay. I just need to work out the stiffness.” She gave him an encouraging smile.
“I’ll be mad if you fall or something,” he warned.
“I’m fine. Go. I’m starving.”
He relented. “Okay. Just be careful, okay?”
She waved him off. Once he’d gone, she closed the door, making sure to move slowly and be cautious.
Without him there, she definitely felt less secure, but she was determined to prove that she was on the mend.
* * * * *
“You have delivered me nothing that I requested, other than the noodles.” Reece surveyed her food curiously.
“We’ll get a delivery today. We’re a little low, since the place wasn’t stocked to feed so many people. That Tommy eats a whole lot more than you’d think.” Kippy sat next to her bed, watching her.
She took a bite of noodles. “They’re good.”
The rest was a strange hodgepodge of sliced cheese, pickled radishes, and a plain tortilla.
“You owe me a sandwich, though,” she added.
“Sure. We’ll have a sandwich date as soon as we get back home.” He said it easily with a smile, but Reece had to wonder at the technical definition of his use of the word ‘date.’
Did he mean they’d go grab some food to stuff in their faces at an appointed time, or did he mean a date kind of date?
Was it bad if she wanted it to be a date kind of date? Would that risk screwing things up for them forever?
“Sandwiches are good.” Sure, it was a lame thing to say, but it was all she had that was suitably unrevealing.
Casually, she switched topics. “Have you checked in on Aunt Ruth and Dex?”
“Yeah. They’re fine.”
She twirled up some more noodles. “Did you tell the others I’m awake?”
“Nope. I wanted to give you a chance to eat first. Once they know you’re awake, they’ll come flooding in here to see for themselves.
“Think so?” She rather liked the idea of all those people caring about her wellbeing.
“I know so.”
“Okay, then. Fill me in on what happened with you guys and what information we got. I’m a little mad that Schramm and I didn’t have a chance to do more than serve as a minor distraction.” She frowned.
She sat up straighter. “And you know what else? I don’t even know where my milkshake went. I had it, then I didn’t. It must have gotten dropped somewhere.”
That reminded her of knocking the milkshake out of Schramm’s hands, and she giggled. She’d tell Kippy that story later, as she didn’t want to get distracted. “So what did we get?”
He watched her, shaking his head. “Wow, it’s like you’re having a whole conversation with yourself. It must be exhausting inside your head. Okay. The first part of it went off fine. Marky and Raya conned their way in. Not too surprising. Raya met her objectives and got Marky to the right place, where she got into the system and started pulling down the necessary data. We’ve been looking at what she got, and it’s some good stuff. The unfortunate part is that it’s mostly circumstantial. There’s no dead-on proof. The alarm went off before we could get that.”
Reece groaned, frustrated. “What caused the alarm to go off?”
Kippy handed her a napkin, which she took as a hint that she had food on her face, so she wiped her mouth.
He said, “They apparently implemented random periodic reauthentication. I bet it’s a real pain in the butt for people who work there, but every so often, everyone has to log back into their accounts in order to continue working. Marky didn’t expect that, and she was about a second and a half too late in coming up with the reauthentication code.”
She sighed. “So close. Now what? Does Schramm have another idea?”
“Actually, yes, thanks to what Marky found.”
She paused with a forkful of noodles halfway to her mouth. “Really? What is it?”
“I’m not sure. He’s keeping us as uninformed as possible, in case we do get caught. If we’re simple contractors who didn’t know anything, it’ll go much better for us.”
She nodded. “Yeah. I’m glad he’s being careful. I don’t want any of you to end up in trouble because of this.”
He shrugged. “We’ve all assumed the risk via our own free will. We want to help you, and to do that, it would be best if we knew more.”
“It may come to that, depending on what happens next. We’re limited in who we can ask for help.”
“Way to make me feel like second choice.”
She looked up quickly, but his eyes were crinkled with humor. “It’s not that. You’re my first choice. I just don’t want you getting hurt because of me.”
“I know. But if I were in trouble, you’d be right in front, stepping in front of bullets and stuff, right? Don’t even say you wouldn’t because I know better.”
“That’s different.”
“What,” he pressed, “because this is what you do for a living? Don’t think I’ve ever been thrilled about it. But it’s what you want, and so that’s the end of it. This time, I’m insisting that this is what I want. And that’s the end of it. Okay?”
She studied him and
saw total conviction in the slant of his eyebrows and the lines around his mouth.
He wasn’t going to budge this time.
“Okay. You’re in, then.”
He looked surprised. “I kind of thought you’d put up more of a fight.”
“I can see you’re serious. Plus, my noodles are getting cold.” She slurped some up, just to make her point. She paused. “Plus, you’re awfully cute.”
He brightened. “I am?”
Had she just said that? It must be whatever medication they’d given her.
She stuffed her mouth with more noodles.
* * * * *
“This has not been my week, health-wise.” Reece grimaced as she hobbled across the farmhouse’s living room. Fortunately, it was big enough to hold six people. With no promise of imminent mayhem, Tommy had gone back to tend his shop. He’d turned out to be very helpful in their escape from Trumark, and Reece was grateful. He’d made her promise to call him when there were more people to shoot at.
She was surprised that the others hadn’t returned home. They all had jobs. But here they were, hanging out in the farmhouse, plotting on retaliating against Cooper Fields.
“Any better?” Marky gave Reece a sympathetic smile.
“Everything except the leg is just fine. What did they shoot me with, anyway? Razor blades?”
“Standard ammo,” Trey said. “It just always hurts more to get shot than people think.”
Reece made a scoffing sound and sat on the chair he vacated for her. He squeezed in next to Raya, even though there was a hardback chair on the other side of the room.
No doubt he’d claim the couch was more comfortable, which it was, but Reece knew that was just an excuse to get close to his new girlfriend.
“It’ll be another day or two before I’m getting around like normal,” she said. It would still probably hurt, but she didn’t have time to waste on healing.
She didn’t mind waiting on old-fashioned healing. Not as much as someone who hadn’t grown up doing it out of necessity, anyway. Though given the choice, she’d have a hospital do most of the healing for her.
“So fill me in on what we got, what we didn’t, and what our new objective is,” she said. “I’m sure we’re all disappointed that the Trumark hit didn’t get us everything we need, like we’d hoped, but at least we got out alive and not too badly harmed.”
Schramm said, “We got enough information to know what we need to do next, along with exactly where we can find that information. It’s a shame we couldn’t get it from Trumark, but there’s another place.”
Reece nodded. “Okay.”
“The good news is that we’ll know exactly what we’re getting into, since it’s familiar,” Schramm continued.
“Are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Reece squinted at him.
Schramm nodded.
A riot of conflicting emotions ricocheted through her. “We’re going to infiltrate Rexcare’s headquarters.”
“It seems fitting, I think, since our problems began there. Why shouldn’t they end there, as well?” Schramm wore a determined expression.
Why? Well, because they had strong security even on a regular day, but no doubt, Cooper Fields was on alert and would have additional safeguards. Compared to getting into Rexcare, their busting into Trumark would seem like a wee prank. A warm-up for the real thing.
She looked around the room at all the faces. Schramm, Trey, Raya, Marky, Apolla, and Kippy. They were all committed to this, and they were risking a lot.
It was scary. Reece had always done her job on her own, a sole entity of corporate justice. Now she had not only a partner, but a whole team of people she cared about. Some of them she cared a lot about.
And yet…the idea of the challenge of getting into Rexcare, and the satisfaction she’d get when they pulled it off, excited her. A lot.
Reece took a deep breath. “Okay. Let’s figure out how we’ll do this.”
* * * * *
The solution to Cooper Field’s sabotage, as they determined it to be, was a three-pronged approach.
Step One: Hit Rexcare. Get the info.
Step Two: Refuse to be removed from the building. Hole up. Fight back.
Step Three: Get the information to the board. Insist that they recognize Cooper Fields’ machinations and dismiss him, return Schramm, Reece, and Trey to their regular positions and see that any criminal charges against the others were dropped.
What a lot of effort just to return things to the way they’d been.
Secretly, Reece also had intentions of getting even with Cooper Fields once everything had been set right, but she didn’t share that with the others. They’d try to dissuade her, and she had no intentions of being dissuaded. Someone who had caused her friends so much difficulty simply had to be dealt with.
Plus, he’d inconvenienced her, too. Feeding him a revenge sandwich was a duty she couldn’t neglect.
When Schramm, Reece, Marky, and Apolla put their heads together, they came up with a comprehensive tactical plan to get into the headquarters building, get to where they needed to be, access the information and download it, and get that information to the board.
The rest should pretty much take care of itself.
“I’m going to have to pull in some favors for this,” Apolla said, frowning at the schematics they had sketched out on the table. “I’m set up to do surveillance from the exterior. Doing it from the inside, and slapping it together when we get there, will require some hardware I don’t have.”
“Is it that different, exterior and interior?” Reece asked.
Apolla nodded, deep in thought. “Similar concepts, in general, but different approaches. “
Marky ran her fingers through her short, spiked pale-blonde hair. “My job’s pretty much the same, whether inside or out, but cracking Rexcare will be easier thanks to what you two have given me. But I could speed things up if I got some new hardware, too.”
“A few seconds could mean the difference between success and failure, so whatever will buy us time, we have to do.” Schramm looked from Marky to Apolla. “Cooper will be looking for us, but other than that, waiting a day or two to get the supplies we need won’t make any difference. He’ll already know about us busting into Trumark.”
“At least he doesn’t know what we got,” Marky said. “Since I was able to hide that.”
“Right.” Schramm clapped his hands together, making a surprisingly loud crack. “Figure out what you need, where you can get it, how long it will take, and report back.”
He ducked his head. “Er…I mean please. I forgot for a second that we weren’t in a board room and you aren’t my employees.”
Reece had never expected to see Schramm embarrassed. It was kind of cute, in the sense that she’d rarely seen him uncertain about anything. Every now and then, she saw past the veneer of executive persona and saw a real person underneath.
Marky’s eyes seemed to linger on Schramm, and Reece wondered if she was thinking the same thing.
Maybe not. Marky hadn’t known him until recently, so she had no prior understanding of him to compare his current behavior with. She was probably just curious about him.
Or maybe…
Nah. Executives weren’t Marky’s type. She liked her men a lot more capricious and unpredictable.
Silly thought.
“I guess that leaves me without a job for once,” Reece said, not feeling a bit bad about it. Considering the fact that she’d gotten shot and gone through the pain of having her Link jailbroken, she’d already done a lot of the heavy lifting on this venture. If others could pitch in, all the better.
She’d contribute in a simpler way. “I’ll make some lunch.’
In the kitchen, she assembled a bounty of fresh ingredients and began chopping and peeling. As she sliced carrots, Kippy came in.
“Look at you, pretending you can cook,” he teased, standing behind her and peeking over her shoulder.
“I can so. L
ook. I’m cooking.”
“Nuh uh,” he chuckled. “Cooking involves heat and changing ingredients from one form into another. What you’re doing is preparing.”
“It’s the same thing.” She paused and made a shooing gesture over her shoulder without looking back at him.
“Is not,” he argued.
“Is too. Stop that or I won’t let you have any.”
“Give me a bite of carrot and I’ll quit,” he promised.
“Fine.” She picked up a slice of the purple vegetable and turned to hand it to him, but he leaned down, mouth opening.
Feeling a little weird about it, she put the piece of carrot in his mouth. Her fingers grazed his lips and she was suddenly aware that they were stomach to stomach, with her back against the countertop.
Kippy chewed slowly and swallowed, his gaze not leaving hers.
Reece’s hand suddenly seemed homeless, hanging in midair. She rested it gingerly against his chest. The air felt thick and she reached for some words to cut through it. “That kiss, a little while back. We never talked about it.”
“That’s true.” He put his hands on her waist. “We didn’t.”
“Was it just spontaneous, or did it…mean something?”
“What do you think?”
“I think it means something.” She had to look away to be able to say it.
“I think you’re right.”
She was about half a breath away from throwing caution to the wind and going for a repeat performance, but instead made a last-ditch effort to remain objective. “But what if—”
Raya’s voice pierced the moment. “Do we still have any tea? I’m—” She broke off abruptly. “Oh. Sorry.”
Reece’s cheeks tingled and she returned to cutting carrots. “You’ll need to brew it, but we have lots.
Kippy moved away and pulled a large pitcher off a shelf. “I can help. Especially since I was the one that finished off the last of the tea this morning.”
Reece’s cheeks cooled as she finished slicing the carrots and moved on to some avocadoes. She sneaked a glance at Kippy, who seemed entirely at ease filling the pitcher with ice and handing Raya a stirring spoon.
It felt strange having that kind of chemistry with Kippy. And kind of…nice. And worrying.
