COLE (Dragon Security Book 1) (4 page)

“Yeah?”

“You were in uniform standing between your parents. You were smiling.”

“That was while I was on leave after basic training.” I leaned back in my stool and studied her face a second. “I can’t believe he still had that picture.”

“He was proud of you. He said that you were off saving the world while he was stuck in an office, crunching numbers. I think he felt a little inadequate compared to you.”

I shook my head. “Peter was always the better one. Better at everything. And kinder.”

“He was kind.”

“Too good to be true sometimes.”

“He was.”

She sounded like she knew him so well, like she had a right to know him. I didn’t like it.

I pushed my plate away and stood.

“Are you sticking around here for a while?”

“Yeah, I suppose.”

I tossed a couple of twenty-dollar bills on the counter. “Don’t go anywhere else. I’ll be back.”

I needed space. I needed to think.

Peter was my brother. I thought I knew everything there was to know about his life. But listening to her talk about him, I suddenly felt like I knew nothing. Should I be questioning everything I knew? Should I wonder why Peter was coming out here, why he was talking to this stranger? What was I missing?

“There’s something more to this, Megan…”

“I know.”

“Why was Peter coming out here?”

I could hear the wheels spinning in Megan’s head, even over the miles between us. I leaned against my car, the phone pressed to the side of my head, and listened to her working something, worrying it over and over. She’d already been thinking about it, but she had yet to find an answer.

“I don’t know.” She sighed. “I called Dad and asked him, but he has no idea either.”

“Did you tell him about—?”

“No, not yet. I wanted to wait until we could tell them together.”

I glanced back at the diner. Amber was still at the counter, eating the last of the sandwich I’d left behind. She was hunched over like an animal protecting its prey. What was it that Peter saw when he looked at her? She was beautiful. Her hair was like spun straw and her eyes this shade of green that seemed to see right through me. But there were thousands of beautiful women in Houston alone. What was it about this one girl that drew Peter to her?

What the hell was going on here?

Amber

I could feel his eyes on me as I worked my shift at the diner. He stared at me as though I were some sort of enigma he was trying to solve. I wished he would just leave, just leave my baby and me alone. I wished I’d never gone to Houston. I’m not even sure why I did. That guy…he never approached me, never said anything to me. For all I know, it was a coincidence that he was outside my trailer that morning. Maybe he was looking for someone else.

But I knew deep in my gut that he was there watching me. And that scared me to death.

I had enough trouble without having some bald guy following me around, watching my every move.

“How’s it going, Amber?”

Tyler, a guy I went to school with once upon a time, smacked my ass as I walked past him, two plates of food heavy in my hands. I nearly fell, but managed to catch myself by smacking my hip painfully against the side of a stool.

I didn’t see Peter’s brother—Cole—come up until I heard his voice.

“What’s the matter with you?” he asked Tyler in a low, deep tone. “You get off on hitting pregnant women?”

“Just gave her a tap, friend.”

“You nearly knocked her over.”

“Not my fault the girl has no balance.”

Tina, one of the other waitresses, shot me a warning glance. I quickly delivered the food I was carrying and backtracked to the counter.

“The girl’s pregnant. I suggest you leave her alone.”

“And I suggest you mind your own damn business!”

“She
is
my business.”

“What? Are you the father?”

I managed to step between them just as Cole looked like he was going to go ballistic. I lay my hands on his chest, trying to ignore the fact that he was incredibly fit under that snug, black t-shirt, as I pushed him back against the stool that’d saved me from falling flat on my face.

“That’s enough,” I said, trying to keep my voice low so that Art, my boss, didn’t hear what was happening.

“Who is this guy, Amber?”

I twisted, pushing Tyler back into his stool. “Nobody. Just…let it go, okay?”

“He needs to apologize,” Cole announced.

“No…”

I shook my head, but I knew this thing was out of control already because Art was coming out of his office, his beady eyes stuck on me. This wasn’t good.

“I need to apologize? For what? For slapping Amber on the ass? She don’t mind, do you, sweetheart?”

Tyler grabbed my ass again, squeezing it hard, right under Cole’s nose. I reacted—knowing that I shouldn’t—turning slightly and slamming my knee into Tyler’s crotch. It couldn’t have been that bad since my belly got in the way and I wasn’t able to give as much force as I wanted, but it got the job done. Tyler fell to the floor, grabbing his crotch and moaning.

“You’re fired!”

“Art…” I turned and could see by the look on his face that he wasn’t in the mood to negotiate, but I had to try. “He grabbed me first. What was I supposed to do?”

“This is the third time you’ve done this! The second to Tyler. I can’t have this sort of thing going on in my diner, Amber. I told you that the last time.”

“So I’m supposed to allow him to grab me wherever he wants?”

“You’re a waitress, Amber. Not the fucking Queen of England. It comes with the job.”

I just stared at him, lost for what to say. I couldn’t lose my job. Not now. But this…I walked around the counter and grabbed my bag.

“I could sue you for this, Art. And all these people”—I gestured round the room—“are my witnesses. He grabbed me first. Twice. He fucking deserved what he got.”

I stormed out of the building, as best as I could, and wrenched open the door to my car. Tina ran up behind me and pressed some crumpled bills into my hand.

“Your tips for tonight.”

I kissed her cheek. “Thanks.”

“You’ll be okay. You’ll find something else.”

We both knew there was nothing else in this town, but I nodded. “I’ll be fine.”

I half fell, half wedged myself into the car and turned the key. Of course the starter chose that moment to die completely. Just a grinding sound filled the car. This car wasn’t going anywhere tonight.

And that was the last straw.

I slammed my hands against the steering wheel over and over again, a scream slipping from my lips before tears just flowed like an open faucet. What was I going to do? This baby was due in three weeks and I didn’t have a job, my electricity was about to be turned off, my cell phone was already off, my water would be turned off next week. I had no groceries, no gas money, and no way of getting this damn car fixed! I had nothing.

If not for the baby…

“Let me drive you home.”

I’d almost forgotten about Cole. He knelt beside my open car door and looked up at me.

I shook my head. “I don’t need you.”

“You need someone. Your starter’s gone. This car isn’t moving unless you have the money to call a tow truck.”

I groaned. I couldn’t even do that. And if I left the car here for longer than a day or two, Art would have it towed. Then I’d have that mess to deal with.

Could things get any worse?

The pain in my back suddenly tightened. It’d been doing that for two days now, and it was beginning to drive me crazy. Like the constant pain wasn’t enough, it had to get worse on regular intervals. I wanted this baby out. I wanted my body back. But then I remembered I didn’t have a crib, I didn’t have but two little cute outfits to dress the baby in, and I only had a single pack of diapers. How was I going to take care of a baby with that?

I scrubbed at my cheeks with the back of my hand. No matter how hopeless it all seemed, I wasn’t going to give Cole Bradford the satisfaction of watching me fall apart.

“I’ll get a ride from someone.”

“And then what? Are you going to fix the starter yourself?”

“If I had the money for the part.” I saw surprise burst into his eyes. “I know how to work on a car. Do you?”

He made a waving gesture with his hand. “Let me drive you home. I’m going there anyway.”

“How long are you going to watch me?”

“Until we identify that stalker of yours. That is, of course, if he ever shows himself.”

“Maybe you scared him off.”

“Maybe.”

He stood up and held out his hand to me. I reluctantly took it, aware that he was right about what he’d said. There was no point bothering someone else for a ride when he was going that way anyway. And I could really use a nice, long, hot bath while I still had water.

His car was…I’d never sat in a car like this one before. The seats were leather and smelled like leather. Everything was bright and shiny, and there were more electric gadgets than I was pretty sure were required to operate a car. It was fascinating. I wanted to run my hands over everything then pinch myself to be sure I wasn’t having some sort of fantastic dream.

But I kept my hands to myself. The baby was wiggling deep in my belly, rubbing against my bladder like he wanted to play basketball with it or something. But then his foot pushed out against my upper belly, just above my belly button.

“What’s wrong with your stomach?”

I glanced at Cole. “What do you mean?”

“It’s oddly shaped there.” He made a sort of pointing gesture toward me. “It wasn’t like that a minute ago.”

“It’s the baby. That’s a foot.” I reached for his hand. “You can touch it.”

He pulled away. “I don’t want to hurt it or anything.”

“You can’t hurt him. He’s well protected.”

Cole hesitated a second longer, but then he rested his hand over the spot where the baby’s foot was pushing out. The baby moved, shifting his foot to another spot like he was annoyed by the heat of Cole’s hand. But then he came back, pushing hard against Cole again.

He drew his hand back, his eyes wide with surprise.

“That was the baby?”

I nodded. “Kind of weird, huh?”

He stared at me for a second, his eyes moving from my face to my belly. Then he started the car, focusing on the windshield as he drove in silence. I watched him, watching his big hands move confidently over the steering wheel. That’s when I noticed something funny about his hand that I’d seen only once before.

“Your pinky’s kind of crooked.”

He held his right hand up and glanced at the smallest finger. “Yeah. It’s not really a big deal. I can use it just fine. It’s just a cosmetic thing.”

“Peter’s right pinky finger was like that, too.”

Cole glanced at me. “It’s a family trait. My dad and grandfather have it, too.”

I ran my hand over my belly, thinking about my baby.

“If it’s a boy—and it’s Peter’s—your baby will have it, too.”

“And if he doesn’t?”

“Then we’ll know you’re lying.” He held his hand up again, almost admiringly. “Better hope it’s a girl. That’ll buy you a little more time.”

The thing was…I already knew it was a boy.

Cole

I walked her to her door. The front steps of her tiny trailer were a little rotted, making me pick out my steps carefully. When I reached the front door, she was already inside. She’d left the door open, so I assumed that was her way of giving me permission to go in.

I was completely blown away by what I saw.

It was a small trailer, a kitchen in the front, a tiny living room, and a narrow hallway that I assumed led to a single bedroom. It was sparsely furnished, just a table with a broken leg, a couch, and a couple of portable trays set up around the room. The carpet was threadbare, the kitchen cabinets practically falling from their hinges, and holes in the thin particleboard that passed as walls.

She was nowhere to be seen, so I went into the kitchen and opened the fridge. There was a nearly empty gallon of milk and a single orange. In the cabinets were mismatched dishes—cracked and chipped, but clean—but no food. When I made my way up the hallway, there was a massive hole covered with a thin piece of plywood right in the center of the floor.

What the hell? This place was uninhabitable!

“You plan to bring a baby home to this place?”

She poked her head around the bedroom door. “What do you mean?”

“Look at this place! It’s a rat’s nest.”

She stepped into the doorway and crossed her arms over her chest. “I know it doesn’t look like much—”

“Much? There’s a fucking hole in the floor!”

She blushed, but there was this defiance in her eyes that was like little swords flying.

“It’s the best I could do. In case you haven’t noticed, there isn’t much decent housing in this town for those of us working for minimum wage. It’s the best place I could find for what I could afford to pay—”

“You actually pay for this place? They should pay
you
to live here.”

She snorted. “Wouldn’t that be nice?” She stepped back slightly, tugging at the bottom edge of her uniform. “If you don’t mind…you don’t have to leave, but I was going to take a bath.”

“No.”

I shook my head, turning to look around me again. There were more holes in the walls here, like someone lost his temper and put his fist through them. And the breeze coming through the hole…there was no way I was going to let her stay here.

“No? What do you mean, no?”

“Pack your things.”

“What? Why?”

“I’m taking you to Houston.”

“Why?”

She stepped back, clearing the way for me to go into the bedroom. It was the smallest room I think I ever saw. It was almost completely filled by the double-sized bed in the center of it with just barely a few inches to walk around it on any side. There were no closets, so her clothing was just sort of stacked in one corner of the room. And the bathroom…I wanted to be sick when I saw the mildew stains and the cracked porcelain. Again, the room was clean, but the fixtures were so old that there was no telling what diseases she was exposing that baby to just by breathing the air.

I grabbed a stack of clothes and set them on the edge of the bed.

“Where’s your suitcase?”

“What suitcase? I don’t own a suitcase.”

“Then a bag.”

“No.” She moved up beside me, heat just rolling off her body, pushing my hands away from her clothes. “I’m not going anywhere. I told you, I don’t want your help.”

“You need someone’s help, and I’m the only one here.”

“I don’t need anyone’s help.”

But even as she said it, she moaned, reaching to rub the small of her back.

I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, but I knew I couldn’t let her stay here. Not in these conditions, not alone. I still thought she was a gold digger, that she was after something she thought Peter owed her. But I could see that she was also desperately struggling, and if there was even the teeniest chance the baby was Peter’s, I couldn’t let her stay here.

I lifted her up into my arms and carried her down the hallway.

“What are you doing?” she demanded, pushing against my shoulder.

“I’m taking you to Houston.”

“I don’t want to go to Houston.”

“Why not? You have nothing left here.”

“You don’t know anything about me!” She slapped my shoulder before pushing against it again, managing to wedge quite a wide space between herself and me, making me strain to keep from dropping her. “You don’t know what I have here, what I’m doing with my life. All you know is what you’ve assumed!”

I set her on her feet beside my car and pushed her back against the cool metal side.

“You live in squalor. You can’t afford to pay your bills. And you just lost your job. I know enough.”

She opened her mouth, ready to argue again, but then her face twisted with pain.

“And you need to see a doctor.” I brushed a piece of hair out of her face. “Have you seen a decent doctor since you got pregnant?”

“I go to the free clinic. They do a good job there.”

“Yeah, well, if that kid’s Peter’s, it deserves more than just a good job.”

“And now you believe me?”

“No. But I’m not taking any chances.”

I wrenched open the car door and pushed her to the seat, barely waiting for her to fold herself inside before slamming the door. It crossed my mind to lock the doors just for the amount of time it would take me to walk around, but I could see that she was completely exhausted. She wasn’t going to fight me anymore.

I didn’t bother to get her clothes, but I did think to grab her bag with her ID inside. I pulled out of there, trying to decide how to explain to Megan that I brought the target home with me. I could put her up in a hotel, but I could watch her closer at my place. But that presented its own problems. I’d only been out of the military for two months. I barely had the lease signed and there was little furniture there right now. I’d ordered some, but it took time. The guest bedroom was completely bare. But the master was complete.

I glanced at her, thoughts of her lying in my bed more pleasant than I wanted to admit. She was looking down at her feet, her hands on her belly. She was angry. I got that. But this was for her own good. Tomorrow, I’d talk to Megan, and we’d figure out the best thing to do. Megan would understand. And she’d know what to do.

I hit the highway, and we were about ten miles out of town when headlights flashed in my rearview mirror. I flipped the mirror up to get the glare out of my eyes. When I did, I thought I saw a bald head behind the wheel of the other car.

“What kind of car did that guy drive?”

Amber suddenly sat up in her seat, looking over her shoulder through the back window of my Audi. I could feel the tension radiating off of her.

“One like that.”

“Is that him?”

She shook her head. “I can’t tell for sure.”

I took the next exit off the highway, going a little too fast as I followed the access road to a small country road going west. I glanced in the rearview just in time to see the car behind us do the same thing.

“What’s out here?”

“Nothing. Just ranchland.”

I sped up as the road rolled out straight in front of us. He kept right up with us.

“It’s him.”

Amber twisted to look back again, but then she made this little squealing sound, her hand moving over her belly. She sat up straight, facing the windshield, her face completely devoid of color. I couldn’t worry about that right now. I had to figure out what this guy was up to.

I slowed the car down to let him catch up. I wanted to see what he would do, but the guy just stayed on our tail, not trying to run us off the road, not trying to catch our attention in anyway. It didn’t make sense to me. If he wanted something from Amber, wouldn’t he at least try to get us to pull over?

I decided I’d pull over and have a talk with him. What could it hurt?

I reached across Amber and took a loaded handgun from the glove box.

“What the hell?” She scrunched up a little, pulling as far from the gun as she could in the tight confines of the car.

“I’m going to talk to this guy.”

“Are you crazy?”

“You want to know why he’s following us?”

She glanced back over her shoulder, then looked at me.

“What if he has a bigger gun?”

“I was a sniper in the Marines. He won’t get the drop on me.”

I carefully pulled the car to the side of the road, parking on the soft shoulder, but leaving the engine running. I watched in the rearview as this guy did the same thing. He sat behind the wheel of his car, both hands up where I could see them. I waited a full minute before I started to get out of the car.

“Be careful,” Amber said, touching my thigh lightly.

I looked back at her. She was so pale, and she was sweating, her hair stuck to her face in a multitude of places. It was a warm night, but the air conditioning was running. I was almost cold.

I reached over and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear.

“Keep the doors locked. I’ll be right back.”

She nodded, her eyes sliding closed as she ran her hand over her belly.

I walked toward the back of the car, pulling the slide on the gun to move a bullet into place. The man watched me, his eyes wide as he spotted the gun. He held his hands up where I could clearly see them. I approached the driver’s side door as cautiously as I could, yanking the door open and pulling him out in one fluid motion. The second he was on the ground, I aimed the gun at his head.

“Who are you? What do you want with Amber?”

“I just wanted to talk!” He held his hands up, his body curled on his side to protect as much as he could. “I just needed to ask her something.”

“About what?”

“About Peter Bradford.”

I kicked his hip to force him to turn onto his side.

“How do you know Peter Bradford?”

“I don’t, really. He was just…he came to me and asked me questions. And then he was dead, and now someone else is asking the same questions.”

“What questions?”

He shook his head, clearly unwilling to be completely honest with me. But then I dropped into a squat and pressed the barrel of my gun against his temple.

“Tell me what you know.”

The man was shaking, and I could smell the distinct odor of urine. He closed his eyes, his hands still raised in front of him.

“Peter was asking questions about software code. My company makes computer chips, and he thought that we were using code that was illegally obtained. He wouldn’t tell me where he got his information, but he clearly thought someone at his company had done something illegal. And now…this guy came to my office a week ago and wanted to know about the same code. He said he worked with Peter.”

“What’d he look like?”

“Tall. Dark hair. Brown eyes.”

“That describes half of Texas.”

The guy just shook his head.

“Why come after Amber?”

“I just…I saw them talking the night I met with Peter. I thought she might know something about what Peter was looking into. I just…I thought if I knew what he was after, I might know what this other man was after.”

I looked up at my car, but I couldn’t see anything more than the back of the front seats.

“She doesn’t know anything. Stay away from her, understand?”

“Yeah.”

“But that other guy…” I reached into my back pocket, pulling out one of Megan’s business cards, and tossed it onto his chest. “If he shows up again, call this number. Tell them it’s about Peter.”

The man nodded more enthusiastically than the moment required.

I stood up and moved back, ejecting the cartridge from the gun and watching as it bounced across his chest.

“Remember what I said.”

The guy nodded again. Then he rolled over and crawled into his car. He was gone before I even got back to my own car.

That was…odd. There was something strange going on here. But before I could analyze it, Amber screamed.