DRAGON SECURITY: Volume 2: The Complete 6 Books Series

by Glenna Sinclair

  This was going to be a hell of a day!

  Chapter 10

  Kevin

  Dressed and ready to go, I was pacing in the lobby like it was my wedding day and not Dallas’. The suit we’d bought this morning fit surprisingly well despite the fact we didn’t have time for alterations. I wasn’t in the habit of wearing a suit much anymore, but I owned a few for use in undercover situations. But this one felt different. Uncomfortable in a way that had nothing to do with the fit. I think maybe it was a mental thing having to do with the events of the day.

  Dallas was getting married.

  I’d been so wrapped up in Kirsten’s feelings about this situation that I never had a chance to really think about my own take on it. Even now the idea seemed foreign, like an abstract rather than a concrete thing. Dallas was still a little girl in my mind, a child always trying to put herself in the middle of everything.

  Dallas was a nuisance at times, but she was also my saving grace on occasion after Kirsten and I had our falling out. She was the one who pulled me back into the family by insisting I be included in things Kirsten outright refused to involve me in. Dallas was the one who came to hang out with me when Kirsten decided she had better things to do. Dallas was my connection to Kirsten when things went all to hell.

  And now she was getting married, creating her own little family separate from the rest of us. It was … I was struggling to wrap my mind around it.

  I was also getting a little annoyed because Jason hadn’t come down yet. The wedding was supposed to start in fifteen minutes. Where the hell was he?

  I could see our car parked out in front of the hotel, waiting for us. I’d better go up and drag him out of his room.

  I threw my bag over my shoulder and headed to the elevator. A pretty blonde woman brushed past me as she stepped off the open elevator. She seemed slightly familiar, causing me to watch as she headed quickly to the front doors. But I couldn’t imagine where I’d seen her before. I shook my head as the elevator headed up, focusing on getting the groom to the church on time.

  Jason’s door was on the far left of the corridor, closed tight like all the others alongside it. I knocked, waited a second, then knocked again.

  “Come on, Jason, it’s a little late to get cold feet now!”

  I banged my fist on the heavy door, glancing down the hallway at a maid who was slowly making her way toward me with her heavy cart and burden of hard work on her shoulders. She smiled politely before turning to the door directly across from this one. I banged the door again.

  “Jason! After everything the two of you put me through this weekend, you had better not be late for this damn wedding!”

  There was no answer. No sound. Nothing.

  Damn fool!

  “Need some help?” the maid asked a moment later as she stepped out of the room across the hall.

  “I guess so,” I said. “My friend is getting married in fifteen minutes. We need to head over to the church.”

  “I can unlock it, but you can’t tell anyone.”

  There was a flirt in her voice, an expectation that I had no intention of fulfilling. But I smiled back, my most charming smile.

  “If you could, I’d be eternally grateful,” I said.

  Her smile widened. She turned to the door and unlocked it with her universal key, pushing it open and moving out of the way so that I could enter. But she didn’t move far enough away. Our bodies brushed as I entered the room.

  “Thanks.”

  Jason had rented himself a nice suite, one with an intense view of downtown Miami. The curtains were open, so it took me a moment to allow my eyes to adjust to the bright light. When they did, I saw a foot sticking out from behind the couch. Just a foot, twisted at an odd angle. I knew … I knew I wasn’t going to like what I was about to see. But I had to look.

  And then the maid was screaming behind me.

  Dropping my bag to the floor, I turned and pulled her into the room, allowing the door to shut behind us.

  “Quiet,” I hissed close to her ear. “Stand here and be quiet.”

  She nodded, tears in her eyes.

  I walked around the couch. Jason was there, dressed in a tux. He almost looked as though he’d fallen on a twisted ankle except for the single bullet wound in his forehead. And the blood still pooling under his body.

  Fuck, fuck, fuck!

  I bent down and studied his body, looking for any clue that might tell me what the hell was going on here. There were no defensive wounds on his hands, no sign of a struggle. His clothes weren’t disturbed in any way. It looked as though someone he knew and trusted simply walked up and held a gun to his head.

  Who would do that?

  I heard a sound behind me and turned just in time to see the maid using the room phone. I could have stopped her, but there was no reason to, really. Dallas would be devastated. I straightened up, thinking I should get over to the church and tell her before the circus began. I dragged my fingers through my hair, imagining how that conversation would go. Poor Dallas.

  I started to turn when something caught my eye. Lying on the floor, partially covered by Jason’s body, was the handle of a gun. A pearl handle with gold rivets.

  No, no, no!

  How the hell did Kirsten’s gun get here? She was with me all morning. There’s no possible way she could have … someone was setting her up. But who would want to do that?

  I needed to get that gun out of here. But the moment I squatted back down to grab it, the door burst open. A security guard from downstairs stormed into the room, yelling for me to get back from the body. And behind him was a Miami cop dressed in shorts with a massive gun on his hip.

  I couldn’t argue with that.

  I stepped back and held my hands up to show them I hadn’t disturbed anything.

  “Who are you?” the cop demanded.

  “I’m a friend of the family.”

  “What family? Do you know this man?”

  “He’s supposed to be marrying a close friend of mine in less than five minutes.”

  “Looks like he won’t make it,” the cop said as he pulled the mic of his radio off his shoulder and began calling the crime in. I backed away, headed toward the door, but the cop gestured to the security guard to keep me in the room. I had to get out of there. I had to get to Kirsten before the cops ran the serial numbers on that gun.

  What the hell was going on?

  “Who are you?” the cop asked again, coming around to stand in front of me.

  I tugged my wallet out of my back pocket and held it open, showing him not only my driver’s license, but the security certification required by my position with Dragon. The cop took my wallet and sat on the couch to write my information down in a notebook. That could be a problem.

  “Can I make a phone call?”

  “Who are you calling?”

  “The family, to let them know we’re running late.”

  “Can’t let you do that.”

  I dragged my fingers through my hair again. “The bride is still expecting him to show up.”

  “We like to inform the family ourselves. Watch for a reaction that is unexpected.”

  “You’re not going to find anything off with this family.”

  “That remains to be seen.”

  The cop handed me my wallet back. He walked over to Jason’s body and stared down at him as though he expected him to move. Without looking at me, he asked, “How did you get into the room?”

  I gestured to the maid who was still sobbing quietly on a chair across the room.

  “The maid let me in.”

  The cop nodded. “You touch anything?”

  “No, sir.”

  “You were squatting near the body when we walked in. Why?”

  “I was an investigator in the Marines for a while. It was just a habit.”

  The cop glanced at me then. “A Marine? Me too.”

  “Where’d you serve?”

  “I was in Japan most of my service.”
/>
  “I was in Afghanistan.”

  The cop made a face, but then turned his attention back to Jason. The security guard had gone over to console the maid, his back to me. I picked up my bag as quietly as possible and slid closer to the door, waiting for the cop to turn and call me back. He didn’t. And then the door opened and a half dozen cops came in, some in uniform, some not. Behind them was the manager of the hotel and more people than I could imagine was procedural for a crime scene like this one. There was no longer an opportunity to grab that gun. I had to get to Kirsten before they did.

  The crowd forced the door open. I just made my way through the sea of humanity and stepped out into the hall, strutting quickly down the hall toward the elevator. I kept expecting someone to call me back, but no one seemed to notice. They were all too fascinated by the dead body on the floor.

  I stared at the numbers on the elevator, willing it to go faster. Instead of exiting at the lobby, I rode down to the basement. It was a maze of concrete corridors, but I found the service exit and fled through the alley, hoping the security cameras in the corner weren’t working. Kirsten and I had left the rental car at the airport, but the parking garage was full of rental cars that were ripe for the picking. I walked along the slots, looking for what I needed. The moment I found it, I knelt beside the driver’s side door and worked a trick Hayden Dubois had taught me himself. Once in, the car started in seconds with another of his tricks.

  And people thought cars were impossible to hot wire these days.

  The church was less than a half mile away. I parked at the curb and rushed inside, the car left idling. The entire Kramer family was huddled together in the center of the room, laughing and crying, clearly having one of those moments families have during big days like this.

  If only they knew.

  “Hey!” Dallas said when she spotted me. “I was beginning to wonder if Jason had gotten cold feet or something. We were supposed to be married by now!”

  “No, no cold feet,” I said, lying as smoothly as a child.

  She smiled widely, turning back to her parents. “It’s time. Can you believe it?”

  “Kirsten? Can I talk to you for a second?”

  “Of course.”

  Kirsten untangled herself from her family, wiping at her face with the back of her hand even though it was dry. She smiled as she came toward me, but then her smile faltered as she saw something on my face.

  I took her hand, calling back to her parents, “I’ll have her back in a second.”

  But instead of stopping in the nave, I continued out onto the church steps and then I tugged her across the lawn. She stopped halfway to the car as I was watching the street for sirens.

  “What’s going on, Kevin?”

  I kept walking, tugging at her hand. But she planted her feet, refusing to move another inch until I explained.

  Damn stubborn woman!

  “Where are we going?”

  I turned and took her by her upper arms, forced her to focus on me. “If you’ve ever trusted me, you have to trust me now. Understand?”

  Her eyes narrowed. “There’s not going to be a wedding today, is there?”

  I shook my head, then took her hand again and started toward the car. We were nearly there, just another few feet to go, when several police cars pulled to the curb. They didn’t seemed to have noticed us yet. I yanked the door open and pushed Kirsten into the passenger seat. I had just closed the door when the cop—that damn, bitter cop!—who’d been the first on the scene spotted me.

  “Hey! Mr. McKinsey!”

  I ignored him and climbed behind the wheel, throwing the car into gear and pulling out in one, quick, fluid movement. I was hoping he wouldn’t give chase. But I couldn’t be that lucky.

  We were less than a block away when the lights and siren came on in one of the police cruisers and it headed out after us.

  “What’s happening, Kevin? Why is that cop following us?”

  I didn’t answer, just kept my hands tight on the wheel and navigated through the busy downtown Miami traffic. We had to shake him and get rid of the car. But first, we needed backup.

  I tugged my phone out of my jacket pocket and dialed Dragon.

  “Talos,” I barked into the phone, using an emergency code name I’d been assigned when I first went to work for Dragon. It was a word that would set off alarm bells throughout the firm, one I’d never been forced to use before. But I thought if it was ever warranted, this was that moment. Then I disconnected the call and tossed the phone out the window, watching as it shattered on the street.

  “Where’s your phone?”

  Kirsten was twisted in her seat, staring at the cop and the broken phone behind us.

  “What?”

  “Your phone?”

  She shook her head. “Back at the church with the rest of my things.”

  “Good.”

  I took a sudden left turn, then another, spinning the back wheels of the car and narrowly avoiding a couple of sedans as I rushed toward a huge shopping center a few blocks ahead of us. There was enough traffic and chaos that the cop got caught several blocks behind.

  I slammed the car into park in the busy mall lot and jumped out, pulling Kirsten across the seats and out onto the asphalt beside me. We ran, our bodies held low, searching for another car. I found one, an Audi that had more vulnerabilities than the owner probably knew about. In less than a minute we were on the road again, headed toward the interstate.

  Kirsten sat twisted in her seat, watching for the cop to catch up with us, but he was long gone. I reached over and tugged her shoulder, urging her back into a proper position.

  “Act normal. Don’t attract the attention of the passing cars.”

  She sat straight, her hands tucked in her lap, her eyes on the floor. She was so still for so long that I was beginning to wonder if she’d gone into shock. And then she looked at me, her eyes wide with fear.

  “What’s going on? Why were the police at the church?”

  I glanced at her, trying to figure out how to best say the words. But there was only one way.

  “Jason’s dead.”

  She didn’t react. Her eyes jumped to the windshield and she sat very still, just staring out the window.

  “He was shot, Kirsten.”

  Her eyes slid closed. “Poor Dallas.”

  I nodded, still unable to shake the image of Dallas responding to that kind of news. She wasn’t going to take it well, but her parents were there. They’d help her through this mess.

  “I should be there,” Kirsten said. “I should be with Dallas. She’s going to be so upset! She was about to marry that man!”

  “You can’t.”

  “But I …”

  She still wasn’t moving or really reacting to anything I’d said. She was hyper- focused on the windshield, her gaze never wavering. I reached over and touched her wrist and her pulse was jumping like she’d just run a fast mile.

  “What was that with your phone? Why did you toss it out the window?”

  “They can use the GPS in the phone to track us. I couldn’t take a chance.”

  “And that word? Talos?”

  “It’s a code word. It alerts Dragon that I’m in trouble. They’ll be waiting for me to call again, which is why we need to find a safe place to stop and buy a burner phone.”

  “A what?”

  “A phone that can’t be traced.”

  She nodded just a slight nod. “I should be with Dallas. She’ll need someone to help contact his family and arrange for some mortuary to pick up the body.”

  “I’m sure your parents can handle it.”

  She nodded again.

  We drove for a time in silence. She wrapped her arms around herself, wrinkling the silk of her bridesmaid’s dress. I reached over and tugged her hand free to hold it tight in my own. She glanced at me once, but I could see she was still processing everything.

  When we hit Homestead, I pulled the car off the highway and into a Walma
rt parking lot. When the car was quiet, I turned to her and took both her hands in mine.

  “Listen to me,” I said, “I found his body. There was a single gunshot wound to his forehead at close range, but no sign of a struggle. That suggests it was someone whom he knew well. Someone he trusted. We just have to find who that person might be.”

  “Why us? Why not leave the cops to it?”

  I didn’t want to just blurt it out. She was still slightly removed, clearly in shock. I ran my finger along the curve of her jaw, urging her to look up at me.

  “Where was your bag this morning? Did you ever leave it unattended?”

  “My bag?”

  “Did you leave it alone in the dressing room of the clothing store? Did you leave it on a bench or something while looking for dresses?”

  She shook her head. “It was on my shoulder the whole time. I never left it out of my sight.”

  “What about at the hotel? I don’t remember you having it in Dallas’ room.”

  “I left it in the car with the rest of our stuff.”

  I cursed softly under my breath. I’d forgotten about that. We’d left the rental at the small airport and were picked up by the car service in the car that drove Kirsten and Dallas to the church and was supposed to drive the happy couple back to the hotel. Our things were in the backseat when I put them in the car.

  “Did you check your bag after you got in the car?”

  She shook her head. “No reason to.”

  I brushed my hand over her cheek again, trying to think. “Did you know the driver? The service?”

  She shook her head again. “It was just one recommended by the service we use back home sometimes.” She brushed a piece of hair from her face. “I don’t come to Miami a lot.”

  Someone knew that was our car and saw that we had left our things inside. Someone talked the driver into letting them touch our things. Or was it the driver? Did the driver have some complacency in this?

  Who had set Kirsten up for this?

  I took her hands again, holding them close between both my own.

  “Whoever did this wants you to go down for it. They used your gun and left it under the body. The cops have your gun, Kirsten.”

  Her eyes widened as she studied my face. “But you know I didn’t—”