The Sniper
Page 14
He nodded in approval and said, “Okay, when we get inside, let me do the talking. It’s important that Tom not sense that anything is amiss.”
“Right. Just smile and nod like a good little puppet.”
“Something like that. Are you capable of simply smiling and nodding like a good puppet?” he teased and she rolled her eyes at his question.
“Only when properly motivated,” she replied dryly, rubbing her hands on her dress before she was introduced to the man who was trying to kill her man. Sweaty, clammy palms were simply not a great way to start a relationship; not to mention it might tip Tom off that they were onto him.
The doors slid open with a metal groan and Nathan led her down the corridor to a closed double door. He knocked twice and then walked in, seemingly just as he always did and Jaci followed with her dopey smile plastered on her face and hopefully love-struck stars in her eyes. Oh, please let this work!
* * *
Tom jumped when Nathan walked in and after recognizing who had interrupted him, a tremulous smile followed. “There you are! Where have you been, my boy? Cryptic emails are enough to send an old man into a heart attack,” he teased, his gaze alighting on Jaci quizzically. “And who is your lovely lady friend?”
“Sorry I’ve been incommunicado for the past few days but I needed to spend some quality time with my girl, Jaci Williams.”
Something flickered in Tom’s eyes and Nathan wasn’t sure if it was confusion or guilt but it was definitely not something good. So far, Tom was exhibiting every classic sign of subterfuge from the darting gaze to the slight tremble in his fingers as he clenched them together in a seemingly innocent gesture. “Your girl? I didn’t realize you were dating again.”
“She took pity on me and took me back,” Nathan answered, linking his fingers through hers for emphasis. “Hey, the reason I’ve stopped by is because I need to cash in some of my vacation time. We have plans to do some traveling.”
“Yes, yes, I’m sure you have plenty on the books,” Tom said, the lines on his face seeming deeper. He swallowed and glanced out the window to the city below. “Good to see you, Nathan. I was worried.”
“Worried? Why?” Nathan asked, forcing a casualness to his tone that he didn’t feel. His nerves were strung tighter than bowstrings as he held his breath waiting for Tom to tip his hand somehow.
Tom seemed to hear what he’d just said and backtracked clumsily, saying, “Nothing, nothing. So travel, eh? Sounds good,” he said, as he rubbed his forehead with his forefingers. “I’m sorry, I haven’t been feeling well. I can’t seem to shake this miserable cold.”
“You poor thing,” Jaci murmured and glanced at Nathan purposefully. “We should let him get back to work so he can finish and go home and rest.”
“Yeah,” he agreed, adding with a slightly narrowed stare. “One last thing before we go.... I was thinking of taking your advice and investing. What was that company you were talking about a few months back? Tessara something or another?”
At the mention of his company, Tom looked up and his stare sharpened. “Why the sudden interest?”
Nathan’s stomach clenched at the raw emotion in Tom’s eyes and affected a casual shrug. “I just figured you’ve never steered me wrong before and I needed to broaden my investment portfolio. I trust your judgment.” He let that sentiment sit between them and he hoped Tom felt the crush of his conscience before he continued, “Besides, maybe I’ll do as well as you and I can buy my own pleasure cruiser.”
“Well, yes, yes, investing is good. But give it a little time. You don’t want to jump into anything prematurely.” He slid paperwork across the desk for Nathan to sign and Nathan saw it was a request for time off. Nathan signed his name and acted as if it was just another day when in fact, he wanted to yell at the man for betraying him.
Why, Tom? Nathan almost wanted Tom to simply admit that he’d been the one to put the hit out on him because it would beat this terrible hole growing in Nathan’s heart. Tom shook a few pills into his hand and tossed them back with a swallow of water and Nathan couldn’t help but wonder if a guilty conscience was eating at him or if it was something else. Nathan paused at the door and Tom looked as if poised to say something but he thought better of it and simply waved him on with a brittle smile.
“Could he act more guilty?” Jaci whispered as they walked to the elevator. “Do you need any more proof that your boss sold you out?”
He remained silent. He didn’t want to talk about it. Yeah, Tom looked guilty, all right, but there was something else lurking behind the guilt that kept snagging Nathan’s train of thought. Fear.
Tom had been afraid of something and Nathan didn’t think it was him. Maybe he was still trying to find a reason—any reason to believe in Tom—but he knew he had to talk to Tom away from the office. And without Jaci.
Chapter 19
Nathan hadn’t spoken much since leaving his office and Jaci didn’t know how to broach the subject that was likely weighing on his mind. But as she opened her mouth to say something—anything—Nathan cut in with his plan.
“I will take you back to the safe house—”
“No way,” she interrupted, putting her foot down. There was no way she was going to stay in that house. “We can stay at my place. Obviously they wouldn’t assume that we would go there, because it’s the last place we should go.”
“That’s some dizzying logic and I’m not willing to bank our lives on it,” Nathan said. “But if you’re not willing to stay at the safe house then we will have to stay at a motel. We can pay with cash so our credit cards aren’t traced. But I doubt a motel will be any better than the safe house accommodations.”
“Why? Even a creepy little motel has clean sheets and running water,” she countered. “So what happens next? Can you go to the authorities? Maybe the FBI or the CIA or some other branch of the government that’s not so clandestine? Maybe they’d like to know that someone within ID is running amok? That’s got to be worth something, right?”
Nathan grunted in response and she wasn’t quite sure if he agreed or disagreed. He’d officially gone into silent mode, which wasn’t helpful at all. “Care to share? Inquiring minds want to know.”
He sighed and focused on the road. “Tom was like a father to me. My own father was an ass and out of my life so early. It’s hard to reconcile that Tom wasn’t who he pretended to be.”
Jaci could appreciate that; that’s pretty much how she’d felt when Nathan had dumped her so unceremoniously. She reached over and caressed his shoulder. “I’m sorry. That really sucks.”
He accepted her commiseration but otherwise remained silent and she exhaled a long breath, wishing he would share his feelings. But that was Nathan in a nutshell—stoic. “We’ll swing by McDonald’s and pick up some grub and then check into the hotel,” he said, changing lanes to switch to a different freeway. “Then after we’re settled in the hotel, and I’m sure that no one has followed us, I have some other errands to run while you stay behind.”
“Like hell I am. Do we have to go over this again? It’s not a hard concept to grasp. I’m not leaving your side. Besides, don’t you watch movies? The girl who gets left behind is the one who gets murdered.”
“You’ll be fine. But if it would make you feel more secure, I’ll leave you with my gun.”
“I guess I’d feel more secure if I knew how to shoot a gun. With my luck I’d end up shooting off my foot.”
“I won’t be gone long. But there are some things I can’t do with you on my tail. Will you trust me?”
Jaci bit her lip, knowing that he was asking her to take a leap of faith, but she was a little short in the trust department—especially when it came to him being honest with her. “Promise me you’re not going to go off on your own and go back to Tom’s,” she said.
“I’m not going to do
anything that will put me in harm’s way,” he said, neatly sidestepping her request. But she wasn’t dumb and because he actually thought she’d fall for something so transparent, she reached over and pinched him for trying to evade her question.
He yelped and cast her a dirty look. “What was that for? Are you trying to make us crash?” he asked, irritated.
“You treat me like I’m stupid. Just tell me the truth. Are you going to Tom or not? I know something’s been bothering you since we left the building and because you won’t tell me I can only assume that it’s something you think I don’t want to hear. So just level with me.... Are you going back to Tom?”
“Relax,” Nathan said. “I have to run by my place and pick up some more ammo and guns—it’s not like I can walk into the gun shop and buy new supplies. But I have an arsenal in my house as well as extra cash that we’re going to need, so chill out and just relax in the hotel, okay? Maybe enjoy a bath and decompress a little. You’ve been through a lot in a short period of time. You need to unplug for a bit for your sanity. Trust me, I know how it feels to burn both ends of the candle and the result is pretty ugly.”
Was she being a total toad because she didn’t believe him? She couldn’t escape the niggling sense that he was telling her what she wanted to hear so she wouldn’t worry. She hated that she just couldn’t take him at his word. But if anything happened to him, she’d die—possibly literally.
“I don’t want you to get hurt.”
Nathan heard the sincerity in her voice and he backed down, actually smiling at her. “I’ll be fine. I feel naked without supplies and have everything I need back at my place. But I can’t take you with me because on the off chance that someone is watching my house, I don’t want them to see or target you.”
She relented. His explanation made a bit of sense. And then she felt like a butt for not believing him. “Okay,” she agreed. “But don’t take too long because my imagination will go crazy and I might have to go looking for you.”
“Do not come looking for me. I promise I won’t take too long. But I need to know that you are safe so please, stay put.”
She smiled. “Well, when you put it so nicely...” Then she tapped her cheek for a kiss. He chuckled and leaned in but as he went to press a kiss to her cheek, she turned and he caught her lips instead. He swept his tongue through her mouth and she smiled against his lips.
He pulled away, knowing in his eyes. “You did that on purpose,” he accused lightly and she didn’t deny it.
She wanted all of this to be over so they could spend more time kissing and less time running for their lives. Jaci sighed and wondered if that day was ever going to happen.
* * *
Nathan waited in the shadows of Tom’s stately house to ensure he was alone before he let himself in through the back patio. Nathan flipped the latch silently and remembered a conversation he’d had with Tom once about the lax security on his own home.
“You, of all people, know how important a good security system is,” Nathan had scolded Tom when he’d seen the flimsy lock mechanism on the back patio door. “This is your worst vulnerability. Do you know how easily I could gain access to your home with this lock? You might as well leave it unlocked with a Welcome Intruder sign on the door.”
But Tom had laughed off Nathan’s warning, saying, “You worry too much. You’re going to turn gray prematurely. Besides, I have two dogs who would chew off an intruder’s face before they could get very far.”
It was true that Zeus and Magnus, two Dobermans, were fierce enough in looks, but in actuality they were big lovers who would rather lick a person to death than chew someone’s face off as Tom had boasted. Case in point, the two dogs had trotted over to Nathan the minute he’d breached the backyard and whined for pats on the head and bacon treats.
Nathan listened to the sounds of the house and heard the faint strain of a television coming from the den. He stealthily made his way toward the sound and when he saw Tom’s silhouette reclining in his large overstuffed chair, he walked into the room, startling Tom so badly, his face immediately paled. “N-Nathan? What are you doing here?” he asked, his gaze darting.
“It’s time to cut the bullshit, Tom,” Nathan said, his mouth firming against the distasteful business at hand. “Why’d you do it?”
Tom’s lip trembled and for the first time Nathan saw the press of time weighing on the older man. He appeared to have aged overnight as deep lines carved grooves into his skin and more white had populated itself through his thinning hair. “I don’t know what you’re talking about...”
“You were like a father to me,” Nathan said, cutting into the excuses and the lies. “I trusted you.”
Tom shook his head, mopping his suddenly damp forehead with his hand, seemingly frustrated by the turn of events. “Nathan, you have to go. I will talk to you later but not now. There’s more at stake than you know and I don’t have the time to explain. Take your girl and go find a place to hole up for a few weeks.”
Nathan frowned, thrown off guard. “What’s going on? Did you order the hit on me?” Tom looked wounded and ashamed at the same time and Nathan didn’t know what to think. If anything he was more confused than ever but he desperately wanted to believe that Tom hadn’t been involved, no matter how incriminating the circumstantial evidence appeared. A different thought occurred to Nathan as he peered at his mentor. “Are you in some kind of trouble?”
“I never wanted you to get hurt but you kept asking questions. I told you to drop it but you wouldn’t let it go,” Tom said, rising from his chair to go to the bar, where he poured himself a shaky drink. “Things got out of hand so quickly...”
“What got out of hand?” Nathan asked. “Tom, you’re not making any sense.”
Tom turned and his mouth trembled as if he were crumbling from the inside out and he simply shook his head and finished his whiskey in one swallow. “You have to believe that I never wanted you to get mixed up in any of this. I don’t even know how it all happened and why it turned bad. It seemed a simple thing—make a little extra money with a good investment—but nothing is ever simple. I should’ve known.”
Nathan was losing his patience. “Tom, if you don’t start making some sense I’m going to have to report your actions to your superior.” But Nathan’s threat bounced off Tom as if he hadn’t even heard. Tom seemed locked in his own world, mumbling to himself and pouring shot after shot, numbing something inside only he knew about. Frustrated, Nathan grabbed Tom by the lapels of his shirt and jerked him around to face him. “Did you know about the hit on me and Jaci?” he ground out, his teeth clenched.
“Only after the fact,” Tom whispered but his eyes welled. “I had no choice. She was going to ruin me if I didn’t keep quiet and I took the coward’s way out. By the time I realized what was happening, I was in too deep to pull out. I’m sorry.”
“Who?” Nathan asked, searching his mentor’s face. “Who are you so afraid of?”
Tom opened his mouth to answer but there was a small popping sound as a projectile punctured the glass window, burying itself in Tom’s skull, effectively ending the conversation. Tom’s eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed into Nathan’s arms. NO! Nathan helped Tom’s body to the ground and came away with his hands red from the small wound as it began to weep a river of blood. Damn it!
“What have you gotten yourself into, Tom?” he muttered as he stepped away, careful to stay clear of the spreading blood pool. He surveyed the shatter pattern on the glass to try and gauge the distance the shot was taken from and took careful note of the surrounding vantage points based on the trajectory of the bullet. He knew from the concentric fracture of the glass, which was relatively clean and unblemished, the shot had come from long range—a sniper hit. He ducked away from the window, knowing whoever had fired the shot might still be watching, putting Nathan in the crosshairs, too.
Chapter 20
Jaci had just finished a bath in the reasonably clean bathtub at the hotel when Nathan hurried through the door and quickly rebolted the lock. She could tell he was rattled but when he turned and she saw blood splatter on his jeans, she thought the worst. “You’ve been shot again?” she cried, rushing to him but he barked at her to keep away as he stripped. “What do you mean ‘keep away’?” she asked, confused and hurt.
“It’s not my blood,” he explained in a curt tone as he made quick work of stripping naked. He strode nude into the bathroom and turned the water on full blast, then while the water heated back up, he scooped the bloody clothes and stuffed them into the dry cleaning bag and tied it tightly closed. He said to her, “I have a change of clothes in the backseat of the truck. Go get them and bring them to me while I scrub down.” At her reluctance, he gave her a hard look and pointed, “Go! I’ll explain in a minute but I need to get clean.”
Jaci jerked a small nod and quickly unbolted the lock with shaking fingers and ran to the truck to find what he’d asked for. A small bag was tucked beneath the driver side seat and she pulled it free. She ran back to the hotel and slammed the door, her heart hammering and her mind going to the worst of places. Nathan emerged from the steamy bathroom, toweling off, and she tossed him the clothes. “Did you kill someone?” she asked, almost afraid to know the answer.
“No,” he bit out. “But someone is most definitely dead and it’s going to look like I did it if we don’t get some answers real quick. They couldn’t frame me for your death because you’re still alive so they found someone else to kill and blame me for.”