He smiles. ‘But I’m not going to. It would be like killing myself.’ He pauses. ‘You’re an extension of me. When you were gone so long, I felt like someone had amputated a part of me. Finding you again was like a miracle.’
I hear the words, but he hasn’t tried to come closer. He hasn’t tried anything. We are just standing here, the bike between us.
Call me crazy, but I believe him. Neither of us has been completely honest with the other from the start, but the part of him that’s Tracker – the real Tracker – the part of him that I know so well, he’s the one who’s talking to me now. I am more sure of that than I have been of anything in a while.
He reaches over and puts his hand over mine. ‘Stay with me and you can be free,’ he whispers. ‘I’m offering you everything. Come back with me, Tina.’
I consider my options. I want desperately to be free, but if I leave now, I never will be. He senses that I’m wavering, but he does not push. He doesn’t have to.
‘If I go with you,’ I say, ready to negotiate, ‘I don’t want to stay in that apartment. Not with you and Heather. I need my own place. My own space.’
‘I’ll see what I can do. Anything else?’
I haven’t thought this through. I should have had a list of demands, because no doubt I’ll come up with something and this might be my only chance to ask. But I can’t think beyond my own privacy right now. I shake my head. ‘I don’t know.’
‘OK.’ Zeke leans down and picks up his phone and shield, putting them in his pockets before gently taking hold of the bike’s handlebars and moving it out from between us. My hand is still on it, though. I don’t want to release it. It’s almost as if I do, he will be taking everything from me. Perhaps he is.
Finally, I let go. I watch him wheel the bike to his car, open the back hatch, and lift it up, placing it inside. I pick the laptop up off the table and stuff it into the backpack, shifting it over my shoulder, the weight of the pack my only comfort. He beckons me to the car, and I get in, a sinking feeling in my gut.
If I’m wrong about him, this could be the biggest mistake of my life.
TWENTY-SIX
He doesn’t start the car up right away once we’re inside and I wonder what he’s waiting for. Finally he says, ‘The reason we’re here, in Miami, is because of DeMarco.’
I already knew that.
‘But we’re also here because Ian Cartwright is here.’ He pauses. ‘Ian and I are working together.’
Working together? I try to wrap my head around this, try to find the words that have escaped me. Finally, all I can ask is: ‘Is that why his son is working on your team?’
He gives a short snort. ‘I was wondering how long it would take you to see it. The resemblance, I mean.’
‘Did you tell Ian I’m here?’
Zeke chuckles. ‘God, no. Why would I do that?’
I consider this for a moment. How would Ian know where I am? The laptop? Zeke’s GPS? Or the other one?
‘Tell me how Daniel ended up on your team.’
‘He got into trouble. He hacked into his school’s system and changed grades.’
A boy after my own heart. I have no idea if Zeke knows my own history of doing just that at the University of Miami back in the day, a move that got me expelled, and I’m not about to tell him. I suddenly have some sympathy for the boy.
‘That doesn’t tell me how he ended up with you. And why isn’t he in another school?’
‘He graduated last year. Think of this as his gap year.’
‘Working for the FBI?’
‘Ian came to me—’
‘He came to you?’
Zeke sighs. ‘Tina, you’ve been away a long time. A lot has happened. Your old boyfriend is feeding us information from his boss, and he came to us because he was afraid if DeMarco found out what Daniel could do, he’d enlist him. So we got custody. Ian’s strictly hands-off; he’s got instructions to stay away. As far as DeMarco knows, Daniel’s at boarding school. He doesn’t really give a crap about Ian’s kid, so it’s not on his radar.’
‘Ian’s got another boy,’ I say, remembering a search I’d done online.
‘And he really is at boarding school.’
I feel a rush of sadness for Ian, for Amelie, for those two kids. I know what it’s like to grow up in a house without attentive parents, but at least I had a home. My father would never have sent me away.
I shrug the thought away, though, and concentrate on something else. ‘Ian’s not strictly hands-off.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I saw him. Earlier.’
‘You saw him?’
‘His car was outside my room. The room I had at a motel.’ Before he can say anything else, I tell him. ‘I tracked his cell phone.’
‘How? How do you know it was him?’
I’m having doubts now about telling him, but it’s too late. I tell him how I saw Ian and Amelie at Tony’s house earlier. ‘It was the same car.’
‘You tracked his cell phone? How did you get the number?’ I hear suspicion in his voice.
‘You say I’m good.’
‘You found it online?’
I really don’t want to tell him I talked to Adriana. Especially because I was impersonating an FBI agent. So I let him think what he wants to think.
‘How did you track it?’
‘What, are you worried I’ll be tracking you next?’
It’s too dark for me to see his expression, but he’s quiet for a second, and then: ‘Tell me how you did it.’
‘It’s pretty basic. Anyone could do it.’ I explain about the program that I used, how I remotely installed the app into Ian’s phone without him knowing.
He gives me a sidelong glance. ‘No, Tina. Not everyone can do that. Did you get the number from the cell phone company?’
Again, I let him believe that by not saying anything. I could have done it that way.
‘Why is he staying at Tony’s?’ I ask.
‘Because that’s where he stays in Miami. You’re sure it was the same car?’
Now that he’s asked, I cannot be sure. It looked like the same one, but maybe it wasn’t. Yet I’m not ready to concede. ‘If it wasn’t, then who was it?’
‘Maybe it was another guest?’
‘He was outside, watching me.’
‘You saw him?’
‘No.’ Maybe I’m being as paranoid as he’s suggesting. Maybe it was just a coincidence. If I believed in coincidences. I hate it that I’m doubting myself. That I am not trusting my own instincts. ‘I may not have seen who was inside the car, but whoever it was, was watching me, my room. When I went outside, the car took off.’
‘You went outside?’ He is incredulous.
‘Yes. Maybe it was stupid—’
‘It was colossally stupid, Tina.’
Somebody’s out to kill me. He doesn’t have to say it. But I do have something I need to bring up. ‘There’s only one way Ian would know how to find me, if you’re telling me the truth that you haven’t told him I’m here.’
Zeke nods. ‘Daniel.’
‘Somehow he knows who I am. Maybe he’s the one who put that other GPS in the laptop.’
He frowns, and we both speak at the same time. ‘It’s Ian.’
Even though I’ve been suspicious of Zeke, we are still in sync, like always. We both know that the reason Ian came to Block Island was for the money. He’s still angry that he didn’t get any after the bank job; he still thinks I have it or at least had it.
‘Ian could be behind everything,’ I say softly. ‘He could have gotten Daniel to put that remote access Trojan into my laptop and shadow me.’ I pause. ‘How, exactly, did you end up working with him?’
He shakes his head. ‘Let’s get out of here first.’ He starts up the car.
‘I don’t want to go back.’
‘I don’t blame you, but I think it’s time to have a little chat with Daniel.’
TWENTY-SEVEN
He pul
ls out on to Crandon Boulevard, and I am wistful for the short time I have spent here, walking the beach, riding the bike as though nothing is wrong. When everything is wrong.
The bike. I need to return it. I point this out, and Zeke shrugs. ‘I’ll bring it back tomorrow.’
I sink back in my seat and watch the shadows of the trees as we speed back to the mainland.
‘You went back to your house, didn’t you?’ Zeke asks after a few minutes.
‘Yes.’
‘How was it?’
Good question. I change the subject. ‘I did something earlier.’
He glances at me and frowns. ‘What?’
‘I had one of those devices – you know, the ones that create their own wireless network?’
‘You did? Where did you get it?’
‘That’s not worth discussing.’ I don’t want to go into the whole story. ‘But I was able to get into a couple of computers.’
‘Able how?’
‘Like my shadow.’
He doesn’t say anything, waiting for me.
‘Someone was in the deep web.’
‘Who?’
‘I don’t know. It kicked off because the battery died before I could find out. I didn’t see much.’
‘Where was this?’
‘Near Tony DeMarco’s house.’ I don’t wait for him to react. ‘Ian wasn’t home. I saw that by tracking his phone, and Daniel was at the apartment, right? So it couldn’t have been either of them. But it could’ve been anyone in the area, not necessarily at Tony’s. So it might be nothing. Just some hacker.’
‘Where did you get it?’ he asks again.
I sigh. ‘I picked it up off some kid at a coffee shop. I took it, because he was clearly taking advantage of it.’ I hesitate. ‘I may have threatened him by saying I was FBI and could arrest him.’
Zeke chuckles. ‘So you stole it off him, and then used his account to break into someone else’s computer. You’re FBI after my own heart. See, you belong with us.’
My silence tells him that I’m not so sure about that.
His silence tells me that he’s deep in thought, and I have a feeling I know what he’s thinking.
‘This might be the way in,’ I say before he does.
‘Into Tony’s deep web site, right.’ He pauses. ‘I don’t know why I didn’t think about this before.’
‘Because you’ve been busy trying to hack in through the site, not directly through his computer. You know, you wouldn’t need a team to do it that way.’
‘All I needed was you,’ he says. ‘I knew that all along.’
‘But now that you know how to do it, you don’t need me, either.’
We have stopped at a light, and he gives me a sidelong glance. ‘You haven’t been listening to me, Tina.’
The car begins to move again, and I notice that we are not going toward the causeway. I don’t have to ask where we’re headed. ‘It’s out of juice,’ I try.
He ignores me, and we ride in silence until we are passing my old house. The car slows enough for me to see that there are no lights on inside. The ‘For Sale’ sign feels ominous. In a way, I feel as though this is apropos. The house is best left to the ghosts.
As we approach Tony’s house, however, it’s clear that someone is awake here. The windows are brightly lit, although I see no one inside.
‘It’s just over there,’ I say, indicating where I left the wireless router.
The car moves over to the side of the road, and I’ve got the door open even before we stop. In a swift move, I lean down, reaching down where I left it, my fingers finally finding it. I clutch it in my palm as I climb back into the car.
We are almost back to Crandon Boulevard when I see the headlights in the side-view mirror. They are coming up on us fast. Zeke glances in the rear-view mirror and then back at the road.
‘Hold on,’ he says softly.
I grip the armrest as the car speeds up, watching the headlights behind us. We have a rental, and the car behind us clearly has more power. It’s dark, and I can’t see what make and model it is, but I begin to suspect that this is not a random case of road rage.
Zeke jerks the steering wheel to the right, turning on to Crandon, the car fishtailing.
‘The bike,’ I say.
‘It’ll be OK.’ His short, clipped tone doesn’t do much to assuage my concern.
I’m not so sure when I feel the first tap. Zeke is trying to speed up more, but our car doesn’t have the power and the one behind us is now pushing us up the road. I can’t speak, even if I wanted to. My heart is pounding. Zeke’s hands are tight around the wheel, struggling to keep the car under some kind of control, but I wonder how long he can keep it up. The speedometer reads ninety miles an hour now.
I spot brake lights ahead. Someone’s turning; the blinker is on. I’m afraid my fingers will break, I’m gripping the sides of the seat so tightly. I glance over at Zeke and see his jaw is set; he’s as tense as I am, which doesn’t make me feel any better. I wish he had some FBI trick he could pull out of his pocket, get us out of this before we’re killed or kill someone else.
Because the latter is looking likely as we are going even faster now, and the car ahead of us is waiting for cars to pass in the other lane before turning.
Just as we come up on it, the car turns, none the wiser, and suddenly the one that’s been pushing us veers to the right, scraping the side of the rental and speeding past. Instead of slowing down, we speed up, Zeke’s foot heavy on the accelerator as he tries to catch up to the other car, which keeps getting further away because the rental just doesn’t have the same power.
A car turns from a side street into our lane; the yellow light turns red. Zeke slams on the brake. We jerk forward, the seat belt taut against my chest. I can hardly breathe and am afraid I’m bruised, although it’s better than the alternative. We are merely inches from the car in front of us. I may never breathe normally again.
‘Are you OK?’
I take a few deep breaths and nod, although I’m sure I’m really not OK.
‘Did you see the type of car it was?’ Zeke’s asking. I can’t tell if he’s as shaken as I am, but maybe he’s had more experience with things like this than I have, because he asks so matter-of-factly and his voice is calm.
‘No. It’s dark. I didn’t see.’ My voice sounds as though it’s coming from somewhere else, almost like an out-of-body thing.
He doesn’t speak for a few seconds, then says, ‘I think it was a BMW.’
TWENTY-EIGHT
We are both thinking the same thing. It’s Ian.
‘He must have seen us when we got the device,’ I state the obvious. ‘But I didn’t see anyone around. He came out of nowhere.’ I pause. ‘Besides him giving Daniel to you, how, exactly, are you and Ian working together? Or is that the extent of it?’
Instead of answering, Zeke pulls to the side of the road and starts to get out.
‘What are you doing?’ I ask.
‘Your bike.’
I scramble out of the car, too, and meet him at the back. The bike is half out of the car and half in, but it doesn’t look the worse for wear, considering. He picks it up and adjusts its angle in the trunk and tries to secure it, but is not very successful. ‘We’ll just go slow,’ he says.
‘Unless he comes back to finish the job,’ I mutter.
‘You’re sure you’re OK?’
‘I’m fine. I just had someone try to run me off the road, but yeah, I’m OK.’ I don’t even try to keep the sarcasm out of my voice.
‘Let’s go.’
We climb back in, he starts the engine, and the car begins to move again, at a normal speed. The engine sounds a little bit louder than it was before, as though in protest that it has to continue working.
‘So, to answer your question about Ian,’ Zeke says, ‘it started a few years after Paris. I knew Ian was working both sides, even though he really didn’t give us too much information. Tony kept him at a distance; Ian ha
d ripped him off once before and he wasn’t going to let that happen again, but for some reason it seemed the old man liked him.’
Ian has that way about him, so this doesn’t surprise me.
‘I kept an eye on him. Even though he’s been helping the FBI for years, our personal collaboration, so to speak, is relatively new. Within the last year, since you left Block Island.’ He pauses a second, then adds, ‘I know what happened between you two there.’
He’s not talking about how Ian and I left it. He’s talking about how we became lovers again – albeit for a short period. He’s jealous.
‘So let me get this straight. You found me to keep me away from Ian?’
‘Initially, I guess. But he’s the one who told me that Tony has some sort of site in the deep web. He didn’t know any more than that, though. When I found you in Quebec, I knew you could help. You were the only one I could trust.’ He studies me for a moment, then says, ‘I’d like you to talk to Daniel. I think you might be able to get through to him.’
Because I know what it’s like to be used by someone you trust.
Zeke continues. ‘He’s a kid. I’m pretty good at reading people, and Daniel’s not bad, just a little misguided. His skills are good. He found a few things on the Waste Land site, but like everything else, it’s not directly connected to DeMarco.’
‘That could be on purpose. To throw you off it.’
‘His father could be advising him,’ he admits.
‘You think Ian is sort of a double agent?’
‘Wouldn’t be the first time.’
‘You’re right. And Ian can be very persuasive when he wants to be.’ I was so vulnerable. Maybe Daniel is, too. Maybe he’s as anxious for his father’s love as I’d been. ‘I’m not very good with actual interaction,’ I say.
Zeke chuckles. ‘Understatement. But you have common ground.’
‘If he’s doing Ian’s bidding, he’s not going to tell me anything.’
‘Maybe not directly.’
‘If Ian is behind this, then why didn’t he kill me when he was at the motel? I was there by myself. I came out of the room. No one would’ve ever known.’
Betrayed Page 12
