Blindsided (Sentinel Securities) (11 page)

"It's too dangerous."

"Then you stay here. But I'm going home." If these men thought for one second she was going to calmly sit here while her child was next door, they were sadly mistaken.

"Wait up, Brie." Jason took her phone out of her hand and blocked her escape. "We can call and get your neighbour to take Lucy somewhere safe."

"You honestly think she'd believe any of this over the phone? Look, you said yourself; you don't know for certain that they know where I live."

"I don’t like taking a risk like that," Jason said and Brie sent him a pointed glance toward the array of machinery and other paraphernalia around the room as if to say,
are you kidding me?
"I don't take uncalculated risks with
other
people's lives," he stressed.

"I'm not leaving my child there."

"Alright." He sent a glance toward the other men and even though no words were exchanged, they seemed to come to some mutual agreement. "I'll take you back to your house and we can give the place one final search while you're there. Maybe you'll think of something once we start looking."

We'll see about that buster,
she thought with a snarl. How dare this jerk think he could just stroll into her home and start looking through her stuff…
again!
She'd call the police the minute she got the chance, and let them sort out Declan and the bikers who were supposedly after him.

Chapter Eight

Nash didn't like the way the afternoon had panned out, not one little bit. He knew Brie was majorly pissed off at him right now, and who could blame her—she'd just discovered he'd faked an accident to get to know her and then broken into her house to go through her belongings…it wasn't the basis of a good relationship by any stretch of the imagination…whoa…
relationship
?

He did a double take at that little admission, since when did he consider knowing a woman for less than a week, a relationship?
Nash, mate, you're losin' it big time buddy.
He forced his concentration back to the road and took comfort in the fact he'd saved her life today even if she refused to acknowledge it at the moment.

Casper had gone ahead to make sure no one was lurking around the street before they got there, so he felt a little less anxious that they weren’t walking into a trap, but he didn't like today’s brazen attempt by the bikers to grab Brie. It seemed Skull was getting desperate.

As soon as he rolled to a stop, Brie was off the bike and making for the front door. By the time he'd removed his gear and kicked down the bike stand, she was inside and slamming the door on his face.

For a minute he couldn't believe his eyes. She’d given him the slip and locked him out of her house!

Banging on the door, he tried to remain calm, but inside he was fuming. "Brie, open the door."

"Just go away, Jason. You
and
your A-Team mates."

"Brie, we're trying to protect you," he tried to reason.

"You broke into my house, you've been
watching
me for over a week…just leave me the hell alone."

"I know it sounds really bad…but I swear, we're not stalkers, or perverts…you just got caught up in all this and we were trying to keep you out of it as much as we could."

"Well, consider yourself released of duty. I don't know anything about Declan's recipe and I couldn't care less what he's mixed up in. I can take care of myself and I don't need you keeping tabs on my every damn move."

"Brie—" his head set cracked and Mac's voice cut through the airways.

"There's movement down at the club house. Something's going down and I don't like it. The sooner we're outta there the better."

"Yeah, righto’. Keep me updated." Nash gave one last frustrated grunt as he stared at the front door, and straightened his shoulders. Alright, if that's the way she wanted to play it, then he'd just have to find another solution. He made his way around the house to the back door. Inserting the backdoor key into the lock, he pushed it open and marched inside. Anticipating her fury, he braced himself holding up his hands in his most unthreatening gesture as he walked slowly towards her as though approaching a frightened animal.

"Just leave me alone! I'm calling the police, I mean it," she said holding the phone up to prove her point.

"Look, I know it's been a weird few days—"

"Yeah, starting when some lunatic cashed into my car and then invited himself around for coffee and conversation, only to realize it was all just some scam to get access to my house!"

"I'm sorry alright! But now is
not
the time to get into it all."

"Nash! They're on the move, and they've got Cruz with em
’
. I think they're headed
your way
."

Nash swore, but at least Mac's news had caught Brie's attention and momentarily shut her up. "We need to get you out of here.
Now
."

"Just wait a minute! I need to think this through."

"There's no time for that now. This isn't a game—those men have murdered before and they won't think twice about doing it again."

"I
won’t
have Lucy mixed up in this."

Nash shook his head ready to argue, but Briella stood firm. "I won't have her involved Nash." He saw that he would have a mammoth battle on his hands if he continued to argue, and weighed up how long it would take to keep arguing or re-arrange plans.

"Gladys has family out of state and Declan doesn’t know her. I'll ask her to take Lucy away for a few days until we get this mess sorted."

"Will she do that?" Nash asked doubtfully.

Briella levelled a steady look at him. "She'd do anything to keep Lucy safe."

He considered her idea for a few seconds before giving a nod. "You won't have much time to get organised, so you better get moving."

Briella sent him one last anxious glance, before heading next door to see Gladys.

It was clear, watching the two women a few moments later that they shared a deep bond. Where he'd pictured most people demanding long, lengthy explanations; after only a brief outline of the situation, Gladys simply reached across the table and covered Briella's hand with her own and asked what she could do to help.

****

"You and that child are just like one of my own, you know that. I'll give Mandy a call and tell her we're on our way."

"Mrs Harvey, I have a colleague of mine coming over, if it's alright with you, we'd like to handle your travel arrangements. We need to take certain precautions to ensure both you, and Lucy's safety while getting you out of the city.

"It's Gladys, and of course. Do what you have to do."

Brie hugged Gladys tight before Nash stepped in to remind them that they had to hurry. With a flurry of activity, Brie and Gladys had two bags packed and were ready to go by the time Nick knocked at the front door.

"Oh my, they keep getting better looking by the minute, "Gladys gushed, giving Brie an approving smile.

Nick sent the older woman a lop-sided grin and extended his arm for her to take as he led her toward the dark windowed van in the driveway.

Holding Lucy tight, Brie forced a smile to her face as she took one last, long smell of the soft baby-scent of shampoo, mixed with fresh strawberries Lucy had just eaten. "Be good for Gladys, Baby. Mummy loves you so much." Brie swallowed painfully against the swollen lump of fear and anguish clogging her throat. "You're going to have so much fun."

"I want you to come too
,
mummy," Lucy said, wrapping her little pudgy arms tightly around her
mother’s
neck.

"I know baby, but I have to stay here and work." Holding the small body against her tightly, savouring the heart-swelling feel of holding the one thing in her life she could never live without, Briella reluctantly made herself put her child in the car seat that had been hastily transferred from her car into the van a few moments before. The familiar ritual of strapping Lucy into her seat acted as a balm on her emotions. If she tried really hard, she could almost convince herself she was strapping Lucy in to run downtown to the supermarket.

"You have Mr Snuffy," Lucy said, thrusting her well-loved soft toy at her mother.

"Oh no sweetheart, you take him to keep you company."

"But you don't have anyone to cuddle, " Lucy insisted, the innocent words breaking what was left of her heart, before she reached for the colouring book and pencils in her backpack.

Backing out of the car after one last hug and kiss, Briella turned to face Gladys.

"She'll be just fine," Gladys promised giving her a tight hug. "You just be careful… and you," Gladys said, lifting her gaze to hold Jason's standing behind Briella. "Make sure you take care of her."

"I promise."

Giving him a brisk nod of approval, she climbed into the backseat beside Lucy and blew them a kiss. "Say bye-bye to Mummy, Lucy," she prompted gently.

"Bye-bye Mummy," Lucy faithfully repeated, and Briella bit the inside of her lip forcefully to keep from reaching out to take her child back. Thankfully, the trust Lucy had built up with Gladys over the last few years was equal to that of a loved and treasured Granny, and although this trip was sudden, she was handling it remarkably well. It helped that she wasn't a highly strung child to begin with. Her laid back, trusting nature was in this instance, a godsend because Briella wasn't sure she'd have been able to go through with it if Lucy had kicked and screamed about going.

This was for the best
. There was no way she could risk anything happening to Lucy with these maniacs on the loose, and yet the instinct to hold on to her child—to fight against her being taken away, was so primal and wrenching that she wasn't sure she was strong enough to overcome it. She waved until the van was out of sight and Briella couldn't stop the flow of hot tears that fell down her face.

****

Briella stared silently through the front window as Nash drove into the garage. He was worried about her silence. He could almost hear the clogs turning as she tried to piece together what the hell was going on. It wasn't what he'd been expecting.

He'd half expected a barrage of endless questions and hysteria, instead he got a weird kind of controlled calm and it did anything but put his mind at ease.

"Who are you?"

Hearing her first question since he'd watched her wave off her child more than forty-five minutes earlier was almost a relief.

"We're in the security business."

"Yeah, you already told me that…who are you
really
?"

"We're
really
in the security business…just not the installing burglar alarms and driving by warehouses kinda security.
You
are
safe Brie."

He felt the sinking sensation in his gut as she sent him a steel edged look that mimicked a
'screw you mate'
before the arrival of the rest of the team caught her attention and drew her gaze away from his.

Following his lead, she opened her door and exited the vehicle slowly, her wary gaze darting from one face to another before her.

"We're sorry to have to put you out like this, but you aren't safe at your house at the moment." Mac said smoothly, ignoring her less than impressed demeanour and gesturing for her to follow him and take a seat at the table in the living area of the basement. "Were you aware that your …that Cruz, is involved with a biker gang?

"We broke up almost four years ago, when I was just pregnant with Lucy. I have no idea what he's been doing all this time."

"When was the last time you saw him?"

"A few weeks ago."

"Did you know he was in trouble?"

"He's
always
in trouble."

"Did he mention having something that could get him in trouble?"

"What are you? Cops?"

"No. We're just doing a job."

"And what job is that?"

"We work for the owner of the information Cruz stole. It's our job to get it back." Mac told her bluntly.

"Why would he tell them he gave it to me?"

The five sets of eyes fixed upon her were blatantly frank—they believed she had what they were looking for.

"He didn't
give
me anything! I saw him for no more than twenty minutes in a park—maybe three weeks ago. That's it. The first and last time I've seen him in close to four years. I
can't
help you."

"He could have stashed it somewhere without you knowing—broken into your house while you were at work…"

Yeah,
she thought, sending Nash a glare,
there's a lot of that going on lately.
"Why would he do that?"

"Maybe he thought it would be safe with you."