Assassin's Promise, The Red Team Series, Book 5 (11 page)

Remi looked over at the half-moon table in the foyer where her keys lay. “Um. No. I’ll drive my car. I’ll follow you.”

“Negative. You’re with me.” Greer picked up the keys from the table and handed them to Angel. “Your car in the garage?”

Her gaze bounced between the two men. She nodded.

Greer pulled her dented front door open, letting the night air into the foyer. Its cool touch matched the cold panic knotting her insides. She was in way over her head. And she was just going along with it. She wanted to run. She wanted to fight. She’d long ago told herself she would never again be subject to the edicts of madmen, yet here she was, letting one make critical decisions on her behalf.
 

Her phone pinged. Grateful for the excuse to break contact with Greer, she dug it out of her pocket. “Oh, God. It’s them. They booted up my computer.”

Greer nodded. “Copy that.” She wasn’t certain he was talking to her. “My teammate saw the message. He’ll deal with it,” Greer said as he reached over to take her phone and shut it off. “Don’t open that message. Now what’s it gonna be? You comin’ with me, or you hangin’ here with my friends for your baddies to come back when the clown doesn’t make them laugh?”

Her breathing was shallow. There was no choice to make. No choice at all. “I’ll go with you.”

He nodded and lifted her suitcase and laptop bag, then stepped over the threshold. They walked down to a big black SUV parked at the curb in front of her house. He tossed her suitcase in the back hatch, then handed her computer bag to her.
 

“So, where are we going?” she asked

“Wolf Creek Bend.”

That was way the hell out in the middle of nowhere, at the base of the Medicine Bow Mountains. “What’s up there?”

He looked out of his side mirror as he pulled onto the street. “Your last hope in the hell that’s become your life.”

Chapter Ten

Remi watched the barren land roll past as they drove west out of Laramie. The moon had finally risen, spreading its sepia light over summer-brown hills. They were heading away from civilization at a breakneck speed.
 

She looked over at her traveling companion. The muscular lines of his neck and face were lit by the pale green dashboard light. His brown hair was brushed back from his forehead in waves that rippled toward the back of his head.
 

He appeared rational, calm.
 

She was bewildered that she’d gone with him so meekly and unnerved that it didn’t feel wrong. It made no sense. The only person who knew she was headed away from her home was waiting to make her termination official. She hadn’t told her assistant where she was going, a fact that she wondered about now. Clancy was brilliant, and could one day be a phenomenal scholar, but there was something off about him, something that had made her keep him at a distance over the two years she’d been teaching at the university.

“Who are you? For real,” she asked Greer.
 

He looked over at her. The green dash light illuminated his serious face. “Shall I lie to make you comfortable now that your world is standing on its head?”

“No. I need you to be honest with me.”

He faced the road. “I’m a consultant in the security industry.”

Somehow, she doubted that was good news. “What is your job, exactly?”

“I hunt, find, and kill bad guys.” His smile broke into the silence that followed his words.

“Hahaha. You’re not really great at calming nerves. You should probably never read stories to children. I think even Humpty Dumpty would sound sinister if you read it.”

“True. And that, Remi, is me in a nutshell.” The smile ended, falling from a mouth that looked as if it never knew true joy.
 

Remi’s stomach knotted. She faced forward, staring into the dark that swallowed the light from their headlights as the road twisted and rose up into the national forest.

“I thought you were a computer programmer.”

“I am.”

“So you moonlight as an assassin?”

“‘Assassin’ is such a harsh word.”
 

“Finding Sally’s not your real focus, is it?”

His grip on the steering wheel tightened. “No. She is real, though. And I promised her I would keep her safe.” He looked at Remi. “But I didn’t.”

“So you and your band of merry mercenaries got together to find her?”

He tilted his head as he considered his answer. “Only one of us is really merry.”

“Greer,” she said, in her best unamused professor’s voice. “I need answers.”

“You’ll get them. When we get to Wolf Creek Bend.”

Ignoring the bone he tossed her way, she continued digging. “Are you with the WKB?”

“No.”

A more chilling idea hit her. “The Friends?”

“No. Relax, professor. You’ll know what you need to know shortly.”

She gaped at him. “‘Relax’? Really? Your life isn’t the one on the line right now.”

“The hell it isn’t.”

She scrubbed her hands over her face, then pressed them against her mouth. “I think I’m going to vomit.”

He looked over at her. “For real?”

She focused on breathing, but her skin was growing cold and clammy. She nodded. “It’s a panic reaction.”

“Shit.” He pulled over and stopped the car. “Don’t go running through the wayside. There are rattlers everywhere. Just lean out the door.”

She pushed the door open. Cool evening air spilled into the cab. She released her seatbelt and turned to sit facing the open prairie. This was it. This was her only chance to run. She sucked in a few long, slow breaths. Go or stay? Her indecision roiled in her stomach.
 

Greer had helped her twice already. Surely she could trust him?

Or had he saved her only to preserve her for something much, much worse?

She leaned over and folded her arms about her waist, reminding herself she knew how to survive—just look how far she’d come. A girl with minimal education until high school, no hope in hell of being free. She’d managed not only a diploma, but also an undergraduate degree and two advanced degrees. And now she was a professor at a public university.
 

For a few more days, anyway, unless she complied. She had no choice. She was going to have to put her research on hold. She could still draft the articles she’d had in mind, just not submit them for publication yet. She’d have to come up with something else to submit to the sociological journals if she wanted to stay on her tenure track, which she could do. She had plenty of primary data from the other groups she’d studied.
 

Her sigh was deep and long and drew the attention of the madman driving them into the night. He reached over to touch her. His hand was warm and big and comforting on her back. She looked over at him, pleased the nausea was subsiding.

 
“It’s going to be all right, Remi. You’re safe now. No one will harm you where we’re going. We’ve been fighting the WKB for a while. Believe it or not, they’re a symptom of a much bigger problem.”

She watched him over her shoulder. She liked the sound of his voice. Words were just words, but intent was something else all together. Her gut said his intent was solid.
 

Greer watched her silently, the hard lines of his face stark in the green light. “Let me know when you’re ready to go again. I don’t want to linger longer than we have to.”

She looked at the open field beyond the car door and decided to see where this was going. The panic had crested. For now. She resettled herself in the cab and shut the door.
 

They soon cut through the edge of Wolf Creek Bend and out again into the dark mountain road, bordered on both sides by tall, slim evergreens. Up, up, up. Her ears popped as the elevation shifted. It seemed they drove a long way out of town, but it was only minutes. At last he began to slow down, then turned right onto a long drive.
 

The little ranch house he stopped in front of was lit inside and out. “Whose house is this?” she asked.

“A friend’s.”

They got out of the SUV. She collected her purse and laptop case while he grabbed her suitcase, then they both paused between the SUV and the house. “Greer, I can’t exist in a vacuum. I need some info from you,” she said as she looked up at him.
 

He looked down at her. The big farm light that lit the drive silhouetted his face, making pockets of shadows where his eyes were, beneath his cheekbones, under his chin. “I know. It’s coming.”

The front door opened. A man stepped out onto the porch. His blond hair was sliced off in a sharp flattop. He nodded at them. “Dr. Chase, Greer. Get in here. We need to get started.” He went back into the house without introducing himself.

“How many of you are there?” She was pretty sure Flattop hadn’t been among those she’d run into at the village a couple of nights ago.

“As many as we need for the job we’re here to do.”

“Thanks.” She started for the front steps. “As usual, that’s astoundingly ambiguous.”

She walked into the house, then stopped. She could see the living room, dining room, and part of the kitchen, all of it empty of humans but full of old farm furniture. Where did Flattop go?

“Remi, if you’ll follow me, I’ll get you settled before we begin.” He turned and pulled her suitcase behind him down a hallway to the bedrooms. “You have your choice of rooms.” He went into the one at the end of the hallway. “I suggest you take the master. You’ll be most comfortable here. I’ll wait for you in the living room.”

She walked into the room, then turned around. “Greer, what is it that we’re beginning?”

His face was stony. “Come out when you’re ready. ”

She stepped into the hall, still holding her purse and laptop. “I’m ready.” She blinked. “At least, I’m as settled as I’m going to be. Let’s begin whatever this is.”

He held her gaze for another minute, then nodded and walked back into the living room.

She followed him down the hall and across the living room to the stairs. At the basement door, she paused, sending him a panicked glance.

“I won’t leave your side,” he said in a voice that was barely a whisper.

This was so cloak and dagger. A sane person would either laugh or run; she was frozen in place. “What’s in there?” she asked, delaying the inevitable.

He pulled the door to, giving them a moment of privacy. “An old rec room.” His face took on an intensity she’d never seen.
 

Yeah, that didn’t scare her.
 

“Trust me. Please.” He bent his head to the side and gave her a small smile. “And there’s a bathroom, in case your stomach complains again.”

She crossed her free hand over her stomach. “Am I going to need it?”

“There are a lot of us. And we can be overwhelming.”

A blond man with eyes like ice opened the door. “Dr. Chase, I’m Owen Tremaine. I own the company these men work for. There’s nothing here but a simple basement.” He flashed Greer a chilling look, then set those steely eyes on her again. “Won’t you please join us? There are things we need to discuss that have to do with our work and your safety.”
 

He stepped back and gestured for her to enter. She pursed her lips, but did as the head guy requested. At least the room was just a room. It was large and open, but the number of men filling it made it seem half its size—seven of them, including Greer and his boss. She thought of the two who’d remained back at her townhouse and wondered how many more there were. She stopped just inside the room. The boss nodded to the flattop guy, then crossed the room to stand at a space against a wall to her right.
 

Greer touched her elbow as he gestured to each of the men, calling off their names—all of which rolled into a big, scrambled lump of information. Usually she was excellent at remembering names and faces and titles; it was a skill she’d learned to rely on when she first entered mainstream America and one she used extensively as a professor and researcher.
 

She nodded to the men. True to his word, Greer remained standing with her. She would never admit the hint of cinnamon and vanilla that swirled between them was at all comforting. Surely someone who smelled like a cookie couldn’t be terribly dangerous, right?

“Please, have a seat, professor.” The flattop guy gestured toward an empty chair. Kit Bolanger—her mind trotted out his info from the introductions that had just happened. He was Greer’s team lead. Was he the one Sally had tried to kill? Who would send a young girl to do that job?
 

The chair she was being offered was sandwiched between two dark-haired men—Rocco and Kelan. Her panic had to be receding if she was able to recall names. She set her things on the chair, then stayed where she was next to Greer.

“I think I’ll stand, thank you,” she said, letting her expression slip into a mask of bland interest.
 

Greer stood so close, their arms and feet touched. She could feel his heat. His dominance. It should have inflamed her panic, but it didn’t. She hooked her pinky through his, felt comforted when his finger bent to hold hers. She wasn’t a coward. Usually. She was just waaaay out of her element.
 

The flattop guy was talking. She forced herself to focus on him. “You picked a helluva year to study the Friendship Community.”

“Actually, I began studying them three years ago, though I hadn’t been invited to their compound until this year.”
 

Kit propped himself against the arm of one of the couches. “Well, it seems they have an association with the group we’re studying—the White Kingdom Brotherhood.” He shot a glance toward Greer. “I understand you’ve been having some run-ins with them.”

“Yes.”

“Can you tell us what their interest in the Friends is?”

“I don’t know what it is. My focus has been on the community itself, not on peripheral populations.” She suspected the WKB was simply touchy about anyone getting too close to their compound. The Friends’ property abutted the WKB’s longest boundary line. “Frankly, I have no interest in the WKB.”