Blood Knot (3 page)

Sumitomo Mitsui Bank Commercial Depository, Raffles City Tower, Raffles Avenue, Singapore—Eleven months ago

THE JOB HAD almost been too easy. Right from the start Winter had been nervous about the set up, although Sebastian had kept reassuring her that if they systematically checked their security and kept to their normal procedures, then they would be able to cope with anything unexpected that came at them.

It was hard to pass up a two million dollar pay day. It bothered her that Pedro Slavomir had been first to pass, though. What had he seen about this job that she could not?

But the job had gone flawlessly. To begin, they had misdirected. It was inevitable that rumors might leak of a potential job. When the gossip emerged, it had been easy to draw attention to a more obvious target, the retail Sumitomo Mitsui Bank on Temasek Avenue. Very few people were aware of Sumitomo’s new commercial facility in the Raffles tower, which easily surpassed the retail branch in turnover.

After cocktails and dancing in the Raffles Hotel, Sebastian and Winter had made their tipsy way to their hotel room around one a.m., looking for all the world like a couple about to spend the night in each other’s arms. They were dressed just like other elegant Raffles guests. Winter wore a beaded blue evening gown that hugged her figure and glittered every time she moved. It had little straps over her shoulders to hold it up and there was discreet boning and support to make the most of her cleavage. A split in the dress ran up her left thigh, showing off her silk stockings and Jimmy Choo stilettos.

Sebastian was turning heads as usual. If they hadn’t been working, he could have taken his pick of a dozen men or women who were doing everything but drool on his shoulder. He wore a dark charcoal suit that shouted good taste and expense. It made the most of his height and seemed to make a statement of the fact that he was a man who preferred the physical to the mental. Winter could feel it in her own responses to his good looks. She was aware of her own appearance and glad that she looked her best, even though she knew it was wasted on Sebastian. Lastly, he wore a black shirt and a dull green tie that gleamed and made the most of his blond hair and green eyes.

At just over six foot high, Sebastian stood out amongst the Raffles guests. Then, when he spoke and people heard his natural well-rounded English accent, the clean vowels, and his deep, thoughtful tones, they were mesmerized. If he happened to catch their gaze and speak to them directly, they were his. Hook, line and sinker. Sebastian could do with them what he wanted after that. He merely had to smile and give them that sleepy, charming look of his and they would tumble into bed with him and think it was all their idea.

Winter had seen it so many times she had become inured to it now.

At least they were working tonight. She had grown used to being left sitting alone to find her own company but tonight…she couldn’t put her finger on it. It would make a difference tonight.

Just after one a.m., they put aside the last of a long series of Martinis that had been discreetly poured into potted palms, washroom sinks and toilet bowls, spilt, and otherwise disposed of. Then they staggered up the elegant Raffles staircase, ostensibly heading for their room. As soon as they were out of sight of the hotel staff and guests, they straightened up and began to walk faster.

In two minutes they were standing at the door that led onto the roof of the hotel. Winter took off her stilettos and Sebastian removed his jacket. From his pockets he pulled a pair of light rubber pumps to protect her feet and give her some footing over the silk stockings. She hitched one side of the beaded gown up and clipped it to her hip. The other side was split, giving her room to move. Her hair, black as midnight, she normally kept in a short, simple hairstyle which made her work easier. She nodded to Sebastian.

He transferred his Glocks to the holsters under his arms and readjusted the straps now he could let them show, added the flick knife and other gear from the pockets of his jacket to loops and straps designed to hold them, which he had added to the holsters.

“
Let’s go,” she murmured, and disabled the alarm on the door.

They slipped out onto the roof and dropped their shoes and jacket just outside the door. Winter took a breath, feeling the low grade fizz and buzz of excitement she always got these days when the job was on.

In thirteen minutes, they had breached the Raffles Tower and reached the twentieth floor. Security was tighter on the twentieth floor, as the Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation had their own security.

Here, Winter and Sebastian split up, for each had their own assignments, matched to their skills. And Winter had things to do that she didn’t want Sebastian to see.

Sebastian hesitated. “Be careful,” he said in a murmur, breaking their usual silence. His eyes were narrowed, concentrating. She knew he was listening hard. His hearing was often phenomenal.

She scowled and gave him a push.
Go
. His task was inside the vault, this time.

Sebastian shook his head and left, moving fast and silently. He didn’t look back.

After a moment while she tried to puzzle through his uncharacteristic break with practice, she turned and hurried down the wide, silent corridor she was in. This corridor, from the schematics they had been able to purchase, surrounded the vault and data centre on three sides. The fourth side of the vault and data centre was the twenty floor drop to the street below. The guards strolled the corridor ceaselessly, in random patterns. The corporation didn’t depend upon cameras. That factor, Winter bet, had been the one that had made Pedro Slavomir pass the job up. Given the peculiar conditions of the delivery that the contract demanded, it made it almost impossible, unless you had certain skills…

There was a guard up ahead, his back to her.

Winter unclipped her dress, dropping it back down so it looked normal. She shifted her walk, making it more seductive, pushing her hips forward. She smiled. When the guard turned around, he saw her and for two precious, startled seconds he hesitated, stunned to see a woman in evening wear shimmying her way towards him. Then his brain caught up with his instincts and reason took over. There was no possible way she could be in this corridor at this time of night unless she had overcome at least six security barriers.

He reached down and back for his gun, but it was too late, Winter was already within reach of him. She rested her hand on his arm on his arm. “It’s alright,” she soothed. “Everything’s going to be okay.”

He paused, gazing at her. “It is?”

She halted the flow of his endorphins she had sent streaming into his blood as soon as she had touched him. The adrenalin spike from seeing her had been countered now. He, like most men in security and military forces, had a highly responsive biology and was easy to manipulate. She concentrated instead on soothing chemicals. Calm and happy juices. “Sure is,” she told him. “Everything’s just fine. Why don’t you sit down?”

She had learned long ago to make them sit, first. The bruises they got from falling raised too many questions later.

“
Okay,” he said happily and sat on the floor. He grinned up at her.

Winter reached into his mind, riffling through the acids and proteins there, looking for the most recent patterns. “You’re not going to remember anything about me when you wake up later. You will wake refreshed from a short sleep and feel guilty about falling asleep on the job, but that’s all.” She found the sugars and fats that marked his most recent memories. “You won’t remember anything out of the ordinary other than you fell asleep. And it was a lovely sleep.”

“
Okay.”

She put him to sleep and lowered his head to the ground. He was smiling in his sleep and she quickly adjusted the memories she had found, smoothing out the patterns and spikes. Dreams from his sleep would take their place.

Winter stood up and took one of the syringes from the pouch on her hip. Sebastian and the few who knew of them thought they were her secret wonder drug, her personal weapon that knocked people cold and left them with no memory of events afterwards. This, in part, enhanced Winter Manon Kennedy’s mighty reputation for breaking into the impossible-to-reach places, the unbreakable vaults, the unassailable locations.

If only they knew the truth. She grimaced and squirted the saline in the syringe onto her dress where the beading would hide the wet patch and put the syringe back in her pouch. The guard was snoring now, still smiling. Under the closed lids, his eyes were moving rapidly backwards and forward in deep REM.

One down, seven to go.

She paused to adjust her own arousal. It was always this way. Touching others, reaching inside them, especially combined with a job, gave her a rush. At first, she had resented that it was so. Now she learned to accept that life had shaped circumstances and her in such a way that this was how she was. She tamped down the arousal enough to ignore it and moved on.

Eight minutes and forty seconds later, seven of the eight guards were sleeping peacefully. She couldn’t find the eighth. He seemed to be eluding her. Finally, she rounded the corner of the last turn of the corridor, slowing down, her caution ratcheted up high. There was nowhere else the guard could be but somewhere in this last stubby wing of the corridor.

The corridor was empty. Winter didn’t let her guard down as she slowly traversed the twenty yard long passage. There were doors all along the corridor. He had to be behind one of them. She just had to draw him out.

Winter inched down the long length of the corridor, until cold steel touched her bare back. “Stop right there.” The guard had the sing-song cadences of a native Singaporean and from the direction of his voice, he was short. Winter estimated he was shorter than her own five foot nine inches.

She backed up half a step.

“
I said stop,” he repeated.

Winter wasn’t going to be able to reach him that way. She turned her head enough to sight him over her shoulder. He had his gun fully extended from his body. It didn’t matter. A finger was just as good a contact point for her as a chest or a face. She could reach into a body with her fingertip touching through thin cloth, like a business shirt, or the shirts the guards wore. But she had to be able to touch, at least. Contact was essential.

This one wasn’t going to let her get that close.

Except sometimes talking would get them to lower their guard enough.

“
I suppose you’re wondering what I’m doing here,” she began.

“
Shut up,” he snapped.

“
I got lost, you see—”

“
I said, shut up!” he screamed.

Crap.

Suddenly, there was a sharp sound of snapping wood, muffled. The guard grunted and sighed. Winter twisted to see what had happened.

The guard was crumpling to the polished, gleaming floor. Sebastian stood over him, a broken broom handle in his hand, the inner core of the spruce handle showing startling white in the dull night lights of the corridor. The bristled end lay on the floor next to the slowly oozing guard.

Winter jumped forward to catch the guard before he hit the linoleum too hard. “Damn it, I told you before, no violence unless necessary!” She reached for the guard’s wrist, intending to soothe him, just as she had the others. She couldn’t send him to sleep until she had sent Sebastian away on a pretext.

“
A gun at your back doesn’t make it necessary?” Sebastian replied. His tone was at once amazed and offended.

“
No, it doesn’t,” she snapped, stepping around the guard to face him. “Damn it, how many times do we have to do this, Sebastian? You take care of your stuff. I take care of mine. I was handling it. I don’t need you to rescue me, take care of me, or watch out for me. It just trips me up and makes you dangerous. It screws up the job. Is that clear?”

His face hardened. “Clear as crystal,” he said flatly. He gaze flickered past her.

Eleven months later, dozens of recalls later, Winter still could not put together in her mind a visual sequence of what Sebastian did next. Only logic supplied her with what he must have actually done.

He must have seen the guard she had failed to put to sleep stir behind her and reach for the broken off broomstick. The guard picked up the jagged, pointed end and reared up behind Winter, who was stupidly facing Sebastian. The guard aimed the sharp end of the broomstick at her back.

Sebastian grabbed Winter’s shoulders and spun her out of the way, using a strength and speed she had never seen before. He moved so fast, in fact, that she couldn’t follow the movement with her naked eye.

He pulled her around, out of the way of the up-thrusting spike of the broomstick, which put him in front of it.

The sharp, broken-off end punched through his ribs and into the right ventricle of his heart. Sebastian gasped, his eyes widening.

The point of the stake pushed up against the front of his ribcage and Winter could
feel
the grinding of the point against his bones.

Through his grip on her shoulders Winter measured instant shock circle through him. Shock…and something else. For the first time in the nearly two years since Sebastian had strolled into her life she went inside his body.

She ripped her way in without thought, without care. She just wanted to stop the pain.