They said that he and a man that had looked very similar to him had raped a girl in the dorms. She’d been drugged and then raped. But both men, she’d told the police, had worn condoms as well as when they tied her up, they had worn plastic all over their body. Because Leo had been unable to perform such an act—an act, they’d called it—he’d been let out. But, as he knew, there wasn’t any DNA to get either of them into court. Lyman had not done it, but the problem was, he could never prove his innocence any more than they could prove that he had done it.
“When are you going to go get us some dinner?” He glared at the door, pulling out his weapon when his father pounded on the door again. “Lyman. Stop jerking off to that catalog and go to get us some dinner. We have decided on that chicken place. We’ve already written up what we want, so high tail your butt out and pick it up. Now, darn it.”
And because he was living here—rent free, his father reminded him all the time—he was the one that was going to run and tote for them. Like he had nothing better to do than to do their errands and run food back and forth. They’d even call him at work and have him pick up groceries on the way home. As if he had no life other than to be there for them. This shit was getting mighty old too.
Getting into his beat-up car, he drove to the chicken place that had just opened. He had a list, as his dad had said, of the things that they wanted, and he simply told the girl to double it and to add some extra mashed potatoes without gravy in it. That was for him. His back had been sore since he’d had to kill Agent Farquhar. And every time he had to sit for very long, it hurt more. Lyman figured he could eat his potatoes lying on his bed. Gravy would just be too messy, he thought.
Killing Farquhar hadn’t been easy. He should have thought of how heavy the man was when he decided that in order for it not to look like murder, he had to change up his MO. The man weighed about two hundred pounds, and all of it was muscle.
The killing hadn’t been too hard—he’d knocked him down the stairs. But to have to hang him like he had, it had cost him every muscle he had and some he didn’t. Christ almighty, what did that guy eat? Cows standing in the field?
He was laughing when she called his name. And when he handed over his credit card, he waited on his receipt. This was a business expense, or it would be when he was finished with it.
As soon as he was in his car and on his way home again, he thought of his family. His mom had disappeared a while back. She’d just left one day after he’d gone to school and not returned—or so his dad had told him. Lyman had thought it was odd that she’d not even taken her car, but Dad explained that she had left it behind in lieu of payment for her half of the household expenses. Like a twenty-year old car would help all that much. But Leo had told him the real story—that their father had murdered their mother and buried her near the house.
If only he could blame this entire mess on both of them, he’d be free of them. But it wasn’t going to happen. Not in this lifetime. And all because of one woman—Adaline Dyer. He’d been willing to have her killed by his own men simply to have his father like him. But it had been more than that. Lyman had liked her in the beginning. Now he loathed her as much as his father did.
He’d been asking her out for weeks before all this. Well, he’d been leaving her notes on her desk. Flowers when he could, as well as chocolates. Lyman had tried everything he could think of to get her to go out with him. Then one day, he finally got the balls to approach her.
She’d been talking to her boss, Conair, about some kind of gun that she’d been using. Specs—he knew that was what they were called. He had no idea. Since he’d graduated from the academy, he’d not once looked at another book on guns, knives, or safety equipment. So when she asked him what sort of rifle he used when out in the field, he’d had no answer for the woman.
“Don’t you hit the range, Agent Finch? Not at all?” He said that he was busy over at the FBI. He said it so that she’d have no doubt that he was a busy man. “But you have time to stalk me. I want you to stop it, Lyman. You and I, we’re never going to happen. I don’t date within the job. Hell, I don’t date at all. I’m not sure I’d ever date an agent anyway, but not you. All right?”
“That’s for sure.” The other man, Cody, he sat down with him. All Lyman wanted to do was ask her out, and now he had an audience. “I’ve been asking her out for months. Gives me this story about how I have a wife and six kids. I only have four.”
Agent Cody had no wife, nor did he have children as far as Lyman could find out about him. He did date a great deal, sometimes every night, but no children, and he doubted even now that he’d ever asked the woman out. She wasn’t his type. Lyman wasn’t even sure she was his type.
Addie and Cody were laughing, and even though he wasn’t sure what the joke was about, he laughed as well. When he realized they were not going to leave her alone long enough for him to speak to her, he asked her out on a date. The two men peeled away like they were a skin to her banana.
“I told you, Lyman, I don’t date. Thanks though.” He nodded, then asked her why not. “Well, first of all, I don’t date, as I’ve said several times. And secondly, I don’t care for you. You might be a nice guy and all, but there is something about you that makes me want to run away. I don’t know, perhaps it’s only me. But no, I’m not going to go out with you. And you should really stop sending me things. Notes and such aren’t for the workplace.”
“But I want to take you out.” He sounded, even to his ears, like a whiney ten-year-old. “Please? We can have a really good time. We’ll see a movie and have dinner.”
She was shaking her head, and he knew then that she was going to tell her buddies that he was such a baby and couldn’t take no for an answer. They’d laugh it up, have a good one on him, and he’d be the laughingstock of the CIA in no time. There was no hope for it. So he had been out to get her long before his father had asked him about killing her. The favor, as he’d deemed it, had gotten him into more shit than the rape of a woman that he’d not touched.
Fuck that shit.
After that, he’d decided that he was going to figure out a way to get back at her. And when his department was in charge of transporting Boone to his home after the interview, his father decided that it was the perfect time for him to get back at them. By killing the woman that had laughed at him behind his back. While he’d never seen her do it, he knew that she was.
Having his brother hack into the system got him all the information he needed. Leo didn’t know why he needed it, other than another lie that he’d told him. And that had made him his partner. In what, Lyman didn’t know, but Leo liked the title and that was all it took. Now this shit.
When he got home, they dove into the food like they’d not eaten all day. Which, since he’d not been there to serve them, they might not have. And when they ate every bit of the food, including his potatoes, he wished then that he’d tripled the order.
It was getting harder and harder for him to want to be around these people. Lyman supposed that he really hated all people, and that was why he’d become an agent. His hopes to blow away a few people out of his life, namely his family, and get away with it had failed him as well.
Chapter 5
“Then when we were jumping out of the winder, this here guy came at us with a knife. An Injun. I ain’t never seen one of them before. Have you, Xand?” Xander was taking notes today instead of writing. And Charles was proving to be very entertaining. Which was good—his mind was worried about Addie. He told him he’d never seen a real Indian. “Well, I have to tell you. I sure hope to never seen one again. They’re a frightful bunch with their long hair hanging down. Did you know that they put grease on it to keep it smooth? Tried that once. All it did was make the dogs follow me around to have a nibble of it. Durned dogs anyways.”
Today he was going to take notes, then tomorrow, when Charles had to rest from today, Xander would spend the day writing, transcribing his notes into a spreadsheet then making them into a s
tory. He was also going to be here this morning when the crew came in to look at the subflooring of the basement.
Today was the day. Penny was at school, and he was going to hopefully have her mom out before she returned. Quinn was going to pick her up after school, then take her out with his mom to go shopping for her birthday. It was a big one, he’d been told—she was going to be twelve. Her last year as a little girl. Xander wasn’t sure what turning the magical twelve was all about, but he went with it. Like he did a lot of things when it came to girls and such.
He wanted to go and spend the day with Addie. She was gone still, but might be home at any moment. Besides, as she had pointed out, he couldn’t help her. Xander was reasonably sure that she didn’t want him around because he distracted her. Which he did, as much as he could, he thought with a smile.
“You thinking I might be able to go and see the movie when it’s done?” He asked Charles how far he could travel. “Durn near anywhere I wanna go. Last time I was having a hankerin’ for a bit of sight seein’, I traveled all the way to California.” He said the word like it was five syllables instead of four.
“You do realize that things have changed a bit, don’t you? I mean, we can travel all the way there in a plane and it only takes a few hours. And travel around the entire world in no time at all. I’m not sure how long, but less time than it did when you were a young man.” Charles said his favorite words, hot dang. “Yes, well, we can drive there too, but that takes a bit longer.”
The doorbell rang, and he told Charles he’d be back. Of course, the ghost went with him. As they were making their way to the front, Asim appeared in front of him. Shaking his big head, he told Xander to move out of the way of the door.
“I don’t know who the people are.” He asked how many. “Dozen or so. I have sent Bug to check to see—”
The door exploded inward and in walked four men, armed with their guns up and pointed right at Xander. At the order to get to his knees, he did so, but watched Asim. She was growling like she was going to rip their throats out. As he watched, the wolf spread out her wings and grew to about the size of a horse. This was not going to end well for the men. He’d be fine, he knew, but not so much the men.
“Call her off.” The man in front screamed at him again and again to call her off. But until he knew what the fuck was going on, he wasn’t doing anything of the kind. Then he saw Addie, and she was carrying someone in her arms. Standing, a shot was fired at him just as Asim leapt. He didn’t feel anything, so he thought that whatever had been done, he’d not been a victim.
Things were hairy there for a few minutes. It wasn’t until a large man in a pair of jeans and a sweatshirt came through the door that it started to calm. He was barking orders like it was his job, and everyone seemed to be following them all.
As soon as Xander touched the woman that Addie was holding, he could feel her exhaustion and fear.
“I’ve put her to sleep so we could travel here. She’s been hiding for the last couple of days. We have to keep her from being found by the Feds.” He told her anything that she wanted. “This is my friend, Jamie Riddell, the woman I was telling you about. I’ll tell you more as soon as we get her hidden away. Her dad is here too.”
He looked at the man still barking orders, and he smiled at him. There was something familiar about him, but he just couldn’t place him. As he and Addie started up the stairs, a cat, a tiger, came with them. He surmised that it was the father, but that didn’t explain who the other man was.
Jamie came awake just as the large tiger got up on the bed with her. Almost as soon as she saw him, Jamie hugged the cat to her and sobbed. She wasn’t making much sense, but it mattered little, as she was safe while she was here.
“I’ve brought a team with me to keep us all safe. They’re going to your parents now. I’m sorry about the door.” He said it was all right and told the man, the stranger, to have a seat. “You have no idea who I am, do you? I’m sorry about that. I truly am. I’m Ben Baker.”
“Okay?” Then it hit him. “Holy shit, the president. The president of the United States, right? What the hell are...? What the heck are you doing here? In our house?”
“You said he’d not be dense about this. I was worried for a minute when he didn’t know me.” Addie told him to stop being an ass. “But you did tell me he’d be surprised that I was here.”
“Don’t be a moron, Ben. You know as well as I do that with you being in any house without a suit and tie, no one would know you. Also, he’s not throwing a fit, like you said he would.” Xander asked why he was supposed to throw a fit. “Because you’re a wolf and he’s a lion. Do you care?”
“No. I mean, so long as you’re home and safe, he could be Satan himself for all I cared. I don’t know if I’d be so welcoming, but there you have it.” He looked at the tiger and Jamie. “What’s going on, if I can know?”
Ben, as he insisted they all call him, laughed. “Addie here is one of my top-notch workers for the CIA. I know what she is and all that and figured that her job set was perfect for what I needed. A hitman. However, I had no idea that others would try and use her for the same.”
“Boone.” He nodded. “What’s going on with that? I’m assuming, since you’re here and Jamie is too, that you didn’t order the hit on the man as we’ve been told. I have no idea why I thought that. But it’s been running around in my head for a few days now. The fact that the Feds ordered the hit and Addie is not being.... Never mind. You didn’t order the hit, did you?”
“No, I did not. I wanted him to bring out the others, the men that he worked with, and get them all in a clean sweep. I didn’t care at all if he should get himself murdered, I just didn’t want it done at my doorstep, so to speak.” Xander nodded. “I’m to understand that you have a special kind of help too. The wolf at the door.”
“Asim. Yes. Why?” He told him. “Well, I think that’s a good thing, don’t you? I mean, your men did come into our home, busting down our door. If she has them shivering in their boots, then they’re very lucky that she didn’t kill them all. I don’t care all that much for having guns pointed at my head, nor do I care to have my door busted open either.”
Ben laughed. “You’re a perfect match for Addie, I think. Has she told you that she works for me?” Addie said that she didn’t work for him at all. “Yes, my dear, you do. So long as you work for a government agency that I oversee, then you work for me. I came to Jamie’s aid a few days ago. This is the first time I was able to get away so that I could bring her here. Where I’m assuming that she’ll be safe. Right?”
“Jamie couldn’t be in safer hands than in my house. Especially with Addie here. As you’re aware, she’s the best there is.” He heard the men downstairs and thought perhaps they were making themselves useful to Grayson. “They break anything, and they will fix or replace it.”
They talked about the contract and the way that things were set up. The same name kept coming up—Finch. Or as Jamie called him, Birdman. The things that the man was in trouble for was a long laundry list that didn’t look to Xander like it would ever wash out.
“I’m not making a move on him just yet, because to be honest with you, I haven’t any idea what he’s doing all this for. Yes, I can understand that Boone did need to be taken off the streets. And there was trouble in the offices before he came around. Also, and this is just between us, I think Finch is responsible for the deaths of Agents Conair, Cody, and Farquhar. I just don’t know how or why yet.” Xander wasn’t sure that he knew the right answer, but he might have one. When he cleared his throat, Ben laughed again. “Go ahead, son. I think some fresh eyes would do us all a world of good.”
“He’s very good at that too.” Addie explained how he’d figured out the numbers that had been given to her.
“I guessed, to be honest. And the numbers looked like something we learned in Boy Scouts, in learning to read a map. But that’s a story for another time. What if he killed the three of them because of the cont
ract that you can’t find?” He asked him why he’d jumped to that conclusion. “Jamie. You said yourself that you didn’t think that Farquhar would have hung himself. He had a lot going for him, and he was happy being on the job. Cody didn’t drive.”
“How did you know that?” Xander looked at Asim, who was sitting near the fireplace in the office, where they had all moved. “This sigil of yours, what else can it do that we can use? I do not want this to get out that we have someone in the justice department going off on his own agenda.”
“I can have him take me to the bodies. Because of the nature of their deaths, none of the men have been buried.”
Jamie stood up and handed her father, who was a big man now, the bag that she’d gotten from a faerie, she told them. “If he can get in and out without any trouble, he can take me there too. With my abilities to fit in the bag, no one will be the wiser. Now, I know that we can’t use this in a court of law, but it’ll give us something to go on. At least lead us in the right direction.”
No one wanted her to go. But her argument was too sound. Her logic was perfect. The magic would only allow her to use the bag. No one else would be able to load it, nor would they be able to slip inside of it. Her father had gotten her away in it, and that was the only reason that she was alive now. While everyone agreed that Bug would go with her, no one wanted her to go alone.
“I’ll go, Xander.” He looked at Charles. “I might only be a ghosty, but I can do a few things that will distract them people from finding her there. A little push here, a trip up there. You let me go with her and I’ll keep them camera things off’n her too.”
That settled it. Yes, Charles could be a little off in things, but he was as sharp as a tack when it came to playing with the lives of humans. When the bag was filled with a few things she might need from Gabe—like knives, sample kits, as well as some evidence bags—she slipped herself into the bag like one might slip a long knife into a leather sheath. An arm entered the small bag. Then her head after that, with the rest of her body following. Charles went ahead of her to scoop—his word, not theirs—and make sure she was “gonna be fine as rain.”
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