Blacklisted: Blacklist Operations Book #1 (14 page)

“I want to ask something, but I don’t want to piss you off.”

“Ask away,” Sophie said, reaching for her wine, missing the glass with her hand, and deciding that she’d had enough all in one choppy motion.

“How did Aidan get the best of you in Dubai? I mean, there’s no way you knew he was coming.”

“Of course I didn’t.”

“He beat you though. I can’t remember the last time that happened.”

“I was drunk,
Adele.” Despite everything that had passed between them, Sophie knew she wouldn’t look into a mirror post-shower without being scared for a long, long time. The shock of Aidan’s appearance had mixed with the margarita to create combat conditions that didn’t favor her at all.

Once she realized he was the key to reaching Oliver, she’d stopped fighting. With a single motion of her legs, she could have broken his neck on the bed and waited until
Adele came to let her out of her binds. Instead she’d sat and let him abuse her until he was convinced that she wasn’t Veronica.

Which, Sophie thought to herself, she wasn’t.

“I’m surprised you were able to restrain yourself.”

“I guess I realized that it was better to work with him. Seemed like it might be my only chance to get to Oliver. And to find out about how they’re planning to use Synthesis.
I thought Aidan was a part of it until I got to know him better. I think a lot of their agents are being told that their assignments are one thing, when really they’re another.”

Adele
shuddered. “It’s so terrible. I couldn’t sleep the first night after you told me about the bomb. That hasn’t happened since that bastard burned my face off.” She touched her nose, almost unconsciously.

“Lyle will take care of it.”

“He didn’t seem that concerned,” Adele pointed out.

“Yeah, I know. He was, though. He just doesn’t always show it.”

“Whatever you say.” Adele cornered her knight, knocked if off with a swish of her bishop. Sophie countered, taking the knight with her queen and Adele swore when her friend stuck out her tongue.

“What does he want you to do, anyway?”
Adele had asked Sophie the question each night after she’d spoken to Lyle. Each night there’d been no answer.

“Nothing. Nothing we can do until we know when Synthesis is going to
be released. He says he has data. The guys are analyzing it now.” Once they were done, he’d promised, they’d have the best possible guess on where Second Division was going to start using Synthesis.

He promised Sophie he’d send her as soon as he knew.

Daisy had woken up when Sophie’s knight had fallen and ambled over to curl up next to her master’s legs, nudging her wet nose against the rough cloth robe. Sophie absently scratched her head, thinking ahead three moves, knowing Adele didn’t have the patience for it.

The women played until dawn barely kissed the sky. Once Sophie was tucked away in the guest room, Daisy snoring softly at her feet, she gave up on thinking of Aidan and dreamed of home. Tomorrow, she told herself, we’ll make sure Aidan is still in London and I’ll spend a few days at my flat.

Aidan wouldn’t find her. He thought she was in Rome. Besides, he wouldn’t be leaving Oliver’s side until the monster was awake. Venus would give her plenty of warning before that happened.

“Another beer,” Caleb held up his empty glass and winked at the waitress, who was obviously more than happy to accommodate the men sitting in the back booth. Ignoring a group of rowdy university boys, she shook her tight ass over to the bar and pulled a few more pints, setting them down in front of Aidan and Caleb.

Aidan had already had three, and knew it was time to call it a night. Tomorrow he’d take up his vigil at Oliver’s side again.

“Aidan,” Caleb started, his voice soft in the loud bar. “I pulled you out of that hospital room for a reason.”

“Because doctors finding us with a patient who’d sprung up from an induced coma would be a bad idea?”

“Not really. The truth is, the camera is what really bothered me.”

“What camera?” Aidan’s blood ran cold.

“It’s a local model, placed between the heart monitor and the device that’s checking his blood oxygen.” Caleb brought his hands together indicate the size of the camera. “I wouldn’t even have noticed it, except that I installed one at the Hendersons’s last year.”

“Why didn’t you say something sooner?” Thoughts of evading responsibility forgotten, Aidan focused in on the possible suspects. Sophie, of course it was Sophie. Veronica, he reminded himself. Veronica. She was the one. The only one stupid or bold enough to leave a camera in the room of a man she’d left for dead. She was still in London, she was…

“Stop it, Aidan,” Caleb said, loud. The couple at the next table looked at them in reproach.

“What?”

“Don’t obsess. It wasn’t Veronica. She’s long gone man. Got her bags from the Marriott and split town. I’ve told you that.”

“What proof do you have?”

“Fuck you, man.” Caleb took a long swallow of the beer the waitress placed in front of him, smiled in approval. “Listen, the camera runs on a closed feed. It’s not connected into the wireless.”

“So someone in the hospital is watching?”
              “Lyle must have planted someone in the hospital,” he said, tossing around ideas the way they’d been doing for years.

“They have everything covered, alright,” said Aidan.

“Still pissed about the gun? How did she get it in anyway?”

“I still can’t figure it out. It wasn’t mine. I don’t carry anything that shoots such a small caliber.”

“Are you sure you went through every piece of clothing you packed?”

“Yeah.” Aidan had already gone over it in his head repeatedly. “I patted everything down, searched all the pockets of every bag I brought. Watched her like a hawk. She must’ve picked it up in Iran.”

“Sure, maybe.” He thought about it, still stumped. “Strange though. I mean, she went out every day, but not for long. Must’ve moved fast to meet with a contact. She didn’t even have a phone.”

“Why didn’t she leave you to die?”

“I was her only way in to Oliver.” Caleb was aware of that, Aidan reminded himself when having to repeat it rankled. His comrade just wanted to drive the point home. Every gasp, every movement—even when he was inside her—it was all a lie. He had to remember that.

Sophie. No, Veronica. Veronica was his mess. His big fucking mess that was sprayed red all over the office. That had taken down Sarah, Caleb and Oliver with him. If he’d learned anything while working at
Second Division, it was that every man took care of his own messes. And he’d take care of Sophie.

Veronica
.

Once Oliver gave him the go-ahead.

Maybe a part of him had wanted to take off after her. When he’d first come to in the hallway, when he’d staggered around, calling for help and realizing what she’d done, his instinct had been to pursue. No way around that. Delta Force had molded him, trained him to be a hunter and, by crossing him, by fucking around on his turf, Sophie had triggered the beast.

It wasn’t just about revenge. Not just about cleaning up his mess. She’d muddled the fuck out of his head and he didn’t know whether he’d kiss her or kill her if she was stupid enough to show up in the bar where they were drinking, her pretty pink lips pursed in apology.

He’d held back for her, he reminded himself. When she’d come into the hotel room, wet and shivering, when she’d pressed herself against him, he’d wanted to sink into her, to dominate and possess. But she’d been so pale, so delicate, that he’d put a leash on his desires, made love to her slow and sweet even when part of him, the animal, wanted to fuck her.

And he would fuck her, he promised himself. When he next saw her, they’d meet on even terms. She was just as much an animal as he. Sophie could stand there, cry her crocodile tears in her blood-spattered dress and it was all a façade. That extra piece, the hot, sneaky, fucking sly aspect lived in her too. Fiery, dark red under the pale, blue surface.

Aidan wouldn’t coax it out. He’d demand it. Then, even if part of him went cold at the thought, he’d decide if she would live or die.

“You still hungry or are you just going to pick at it?” Caleb gestured to the food sitting on Aidan’s plate.

“Food. Good.” Aidan took a bite of the turkey sandwich and chewed, still thinking of Sophie. She was probably eating good now. The woman ate more than almost anyone he’d ever met—and damn him for a fool, but he’d missed that clue too. Aidan remembered watching Veronica chain-smoke, seeing her put away plenty of pastries while she sat still and waited for someone who never showed up.

But she was Lyle’s damn daughter, too. Aidan’s research on the ferry had confirmed that much. What kind of fiend submitted his own adopted daughter to the kind of genetic manipulation that Lyle put his operatives through, Aidan wondered.

Immediately he stopped the sympathy from taking root. It was hard to think of a young girl, missing her parents, put into genetic engineering facilities for three months while they put her through the excruciating process. He’d seen videos pilfered from the facilities by a mole on Oliver’s payroll. The way the girls screamed still woke him up at night in a cold sweat.

             
Aidan looked down, surprised to find most of his sandwich eaten and Caleb staring into space. Convinced that his friend was looking at the waitress, he craned his neck, unable to locate her. Not the woman, then. Lost in thought.

“What’s up, man?”

“Who in the hospital would look at the camera? They’re probably recent.”

“U
nless they were there all along, but what’re the chances of that?”

“Who has the highest turnover?”

“I’ll set someone to look at the janitorial staff but how often would they really be in his room?”

“No. Think. They might be in his room but would they mess with his hospital equipment?”

Aidan followed his line of thinking. His eyes widened. “Someone familiar with what would be on him. Maybe someone who was there when he was moved to his room.”

“Which nurses have you spoken to the most since he was admitted?”

“Four. Two night, two days. Kristina, Kim, Venus and,” he groped mentally for the last one. “And Pepper. The first two are the night nurses.”

“Looks like we have a few women to talk to,” Caleb said and p
ulled out his wallet, setting bills on the table.

“Going to leave your number?”

“What would be the point?” They walked through the room together and, once on the street, turned back toward the hospital.

Chapter Nineteen

Aidan moved in before the woman could blink.

Caleb was right behind him with the black bag, which he slipped over Venus’s head and tightened, making sure they had the advantage immediately. When the cuffs clicked on her wrists with a cold metal snap, the tension in his body faded and he threw her over his shoulder, hustling to the car.

“Put her in the trunk,” Caleb snapped, popping it open and then slamming it as soon as Venus’s struggling body was inside.

“Let’s go,” Aidan said. He slid into the open door of the car, turned the key and soon they were out of the garage and on the road. The only clue to passersby that a third occupant
was in the car was the steady stream of muffled curses and the occasional thump from the back.

Caleb lifted the furious woman from the trunk, carrying her into the bunker under his home in Newbury. The brick structure was two miles back from the main road and shaded with trees, which gave Aidan a sense of security and the hope that no one would spot the two men. Though Caleb had bought the house because he’d liked it, tonight it was meant for dark purposes.

The bunker wasn’t utilitarian. Instead it looked like a family home with no windows and lots of lighting. The kitchen was fully equipped and while Caleb settled Venus into a chair and cuffed her to it, Aidan went in and poured a glass of water. Through the open door, he could hear the insects humming in the night. It was enough to drive a man crazy.

After the door was closed, the only sound was silence and heavy breathing. Caleb had pulled the thick black hood from Venus’s head and she panting; Aidan wondered if she was scared of the dark or if she was just fucking pissed. It was hard to tell from her expression alone.

“Venus, we know you work for Lyle.” Aidan wasn’t wasting time with preliminaries. Her eyes lit, but she stayed quiet, finally controlling her breathing so that the room lapsed into silence.

“I found your camera three days ago,” Caleb said with a cocky grin, pulling the mangled remains of it from his jacket pocket. “I grabbed it on my way out of the hospital this evening. Hope you don’t mind.”

“What’s your real name?”

“Venus Carruthers,” she said, a sarcastic grin twisting her lips.

“Wrong. You get one. Two will cost you.”

“My name is Venus,” she said again, tilting her head to the side while she studied Aidan.

“Wrong answer,” he said simply. Caleb walked out of the shadows and took her arm. His hands were gentle until he pressed down hard.

Aidan knew what she was feeling. Bullets of hot and cold would rip through her skin until her arm starting aching. Venus—or whatever her real name was—must have been new to the game, because she couldn’t hold in her expression of horror. After a minute, she was screaming and begging him to stop.

Caleb simply pressed down, maintaining his grip on the girl’s arm when she tried to rip it away.

“What’s your real name?” Caleb let go of her arm. There wasn’t even a bruise to mar her flesh.

Venus didn’t answer. She just sobbed softly in the dark, looking over Caleb’s shoulder and toward the stairs, focused on nothing.

Aidan sighed, but Caleb knelt in front of her and took her hand in his. “There are twenty places on your body that I can touch to cause severe pain. I can do it over and over. It won’t even leave a mark.” He paused. “We already know who you are. We just need to know how to stop Synthesis—.”

“And find Veronica.”

Aidan thought nothing could surprise him anymore, but when Venus turned her eyes to him, there was real confusion there. “Veronica is dead.”

“Don’t lie,” Caleb said, placing his hand on her leg this time. “I don’t want to hurt you. But what I want means nothing next to all the people who will be dead if Synthesis activates.”

“Fuck you,” she screamed, and he pressed down again.

Venus was sweating, doubled over in pain and Aidan wished he could make it stop. She was too young, like Sophie—Veronica—but he couldn’t ignore the real responsibility he had to the world. To stop what was going to happen. Even if it meant he was instrumental in causing a young woman pain.

“Admit you work for Lyle,” Caleb said softly, pressing a glass to her lips and letting Venus take a sip of water.

“I work for Lyle,” she said, shoulders hunching at the admission.

“What information did you provide to him from the camera in Oliver’s room?”

“None.” Caleb twitched and her eyes widened with panic. “None. I swear to God. I put it there for Sophie.”

“What did you tell her?” Aidan asked.

“She’s going to kill you when you find her,” Venus said, her lips trembling.

“Maybe,” Aidan agreed. “So why don’t you help me to my final destination.”

“I told her you weren’t coming until Oliver woke up,” the brunette admitted. “I told her that it would be at least a week.”

“From when?”

“Tonight. I called them before I left.”

“Them?”

“Her. Sophie. She has a dog.”

“Where is she?”

“I can’t tell you,” Venus’s body braced for the pain and she shut her eyes tight, but slowly opened them when it never came.

“You can’t leave,” Caleb said, kneeling down and putting an anklet around her leg. “This will detonate if you try. There’s a television and enough food in the kitchen to keep you for weeks, if necessary.”

“Why aren’t you going to kill me?”

“I can’t stand the idea of killing a woman,” Caleb said. “I’ll be back tomorrow so you can call Sophie and check in again. Let her know Aidan is still in the hospital with Oliver. That everything is fine.”

“I can’t do that. Sophie’s my friend.”

“You will, because you want to live,” Aidan said, looking her in the eye. “You will because you know I’ll find her with or without you.”

“Are you going to hurt her?”

He didn’t answer. Instead he unclipped her handcuffs. “Your arms and legs will feel better soon. You may want to sit there for a few minutes though.”

Aidan walked up the stairs, his mind already on Paris. He heard the woman ask Caleb what they were going to do with her.

“After we stop Synthesis—and we will—I’ll turn you in to your government as a terrorist.”

Venus shocked them both by laughing. “That’s fine, then,” she said. “And boys, I really hope you do stop Synthesis.”

“Things used to be easier,” Caleb said, pulling a beer from the fridge in the garage and then grabbing one for himself.

“You think?”

“Hell yeah. Get pumped up and fight the good fight. It was straightforward before Oliver pulled me out of the SEALs. The disposals were all bad people. Straight up black-hearted evil.”

“Not always, though.”

“No, not always.” Aidan regretted his words when Caleb’s face shut down, and knew he was thinking about Brazil.

“You didn’t have another choice, man.”

“I’m still not sure.”

“You did what you had to do.”

“Not sure of that either. Don’t want to discuss it.”

“Fair enough.” Aidan killed half the beer in one swallow. “So Sophie’s in Paris, then.”

“How can you be sure?”

“Her fucking dog is in Paris.”

“Could be a trap.”

“I’m going either way.” Aidan wasn’t heading back to the hospital, either. Shutting down what Lyle and Sophie had planned was more important than begging Oliver’s forgiveness, though he had no doubt he’d be doing that soon enough. Mentally he was already packed and on the next flight for the city of lights.

“Be careful.”

“You’re not getting rid of me that easily.”

“So everything’s okay? They don’t suspect you?” Sophie was back at her own flat, on her secure line. Venus was twenty minutes late calling, explaining that she’d had to leave the hospital and find a public phone to make the call. Too many ears hanging around the nurses’ station.

The wait made Sophie nervous—Venus was a sweet girl, inexperienced. She still got excited at the prospect of undercover and Sophie wasn’t yet ready to see it lose its sheen for her.

Sophie couldn’t remember a time when she’d wanted to go undercover, but the blazing excitement in Veronica’s eyes during their first mission made her smile. Made the pain and the doubts worth it for a few years, before her sister got her out. In the end, though, nothing was worth losing her twin. Nothing.

“Not at all,” Venus responded. “They were back again today. I’m not even sure Oliver will wake up, Soph.”

“I hope he doesn’t.” She stabbed the potato she was eating with a fork, watched steam escape from the holes she’d made. “He’s fucking evil.”

Venus didn’t say anything for a minute. The connection was poor—
it kept crackling and she wondered if it was storming in London. Before she could ask, Venus spoke again. “How’s Daisy?”

“Good,” she said. “No word from Lyle yet, though.”

“When will you hear from him?”

“Hard to tell. Whenever he figures out where I need to be to stop this damn thing.”
             

“Have you figured out how to stop it yet?” Venus was curious. It was normal, but didn’t seem like the kind of thing one should discuss over a connection with only one secure line. Sophie murmured a negative response, and stood, throwing the mangled remains of her potato in the trash.

“Daisy’s scratching at the door,” Sophie said. “Call me tomorrow. Please be safe.”

Venus said her goodbyes and hung up. Replacing her own phone in the cradle, Sophie walked over to the door and let her dog in. Daisy ran to the couch, leapt on, and buried herself in the throw pillows.

“Silly dog,” Sophie said, scratching behind her ears. She curled up with her and switched on the television. A marathon of black and white movies was playing and soon she fell asleep to dreams of shipboard weddings and waltzes.