Freak (15 page)

“What does it mean?” Tom asked, his glare boring
into Natasha as he pressed the paper into the glass with his palm.

Her eyes moved back and forth quickly over the page in front of her and he could practically see the gears in her brain working. She knew what the gibberish meant, that much was clear. What she was undecided on was what to do with that knowledge.

“What does it mean, Natasha?” Tom repeated. Her eyes flicked to him as if she was surprised by the sudden interruption in her thought process. “Intel is going to figure it out eventually. You may as well tell me now.”

We're so close,
he thought, trying to keep his expression impassive.
So
 . . .
close.

Natasha's mouth curled into her trademark smirk. “I will give you no more help,” she said. “You have yet to release my daughter.”

“That's because the intel you gave us last time didn't get us anywhere. You know how it works, Natasha. You lead us to an arrest and then we make good on the agreement,” Tom told her. “You give me this . . . you help me bring in Yuri, and Tatiana goes free.”

“How stupid do you think I am, Tom?” Natasha snapped, her eyes flashing. “You can keep us both here for the rest of our lives dangling my daughter's freedom in front of me whenever you want something. No.” She turned her back on him and paced away. “I will give
you nothing more. You have betrayed my trust.”

Tom saw red and it was all he could do to keep from pounding his fists against the glass.
He
had betrayed
her
trust? Who had wheedled her way into his life? Into his
heart?
And then tried to kill his daughter, for God's sake!

“You know what this is, don't you?” Tom said, the paper fluttering slightly in his hand. “You could help me if you wanted to.”

Natasha turned her defiant profile to him and he knew he was right. He knew that somewhere in her mind was the information that he needed—the information that would ensure Gaia's safety. And she was denying him.

“I could have helped you,” Tom told her through his teeth. He wondered if the human body could actually shake apart from repressed rage. “I could have gotten you both out of here. You've just sealed your own fate. And your daughter's.”

Then he turned on his heel and rushed back down the hallway. The MP at the end of the hall unlocked the door for him and Tom strode through. All he could think, over and over, was that he had failed. Natasha was their last hope for tracking down Yuri, but so far he had failed to get her to talk. And time is of the essence.

If anything happened to Gaia now, it was all on him.

Who to trust?

SAM WOKE UP LATE SUNDAY MORNING
to the sound of his cell phone singing the theme from
Star Wars.
He pressed his fingertips into his eyes, then fumbled on the floor for the jacket he'd been wearing last night. The number displayed on the screen was unfamiliar and started with an area code he'd never even seen before. Confused and half asleep, he hit the talk button and brought the phone to his ear.

“Yeah?” he said gruffly, falling back into his pillows.

“Sam? It's Dmitri.”

Instantly Sam was awake, heart hammering, senses on the alert, sitting up straight in bed.
He's a very dangerous man,
Gaia's voice said in the back of his mind.
Find out where he is.

“Oh . . . hey,” Sam said, because he had to say something. He bunched his sheet up in his lap and clasped it against his chest, praying for the right things to say. He couldn't mess this up. Gaia needed him.

“I had to leave again,” Dmitri told him. “Have you been to the apartment?”

“Yeah . . . I was there yesterday,” Sam said, his brain working overtime to choose his words carefully. “Is everything okay?”

“Yes, everything is fine, but I need to see you and Gaia,” Dmitri told him.

He's a very dangerous man. . . .

But he didn't sound dangerous. He sounded like Dmitri, the kindly old man who had been a victim of Loki's, just like Sam had been.

“Where are you?” Sam blurted. Luckily it was a logical question under the circumstances. If Dmitri wanted to see them he was going to have to tell him where they would meet.

“I can't tell you that right now,” Dmitri said. “But I need you to bring Gaia to the art museum in Philadelphia tomorrow afternoon. I will meet you on the steps at exactly two
P.M
. I'm trusting you to do this, Sam.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, Dmitri, what the hell is going on?” Sam asked, his courage growing slightly. Anyone would be completely baffled and freaked by this phone call even if he didn't suspect that Dmitri was bad news. “You can't just expect us to go all the way to Philadelphia without giving us a reason.”

“It's for your own safety,” Dmitri told him calmly. “Sam, we have to trust each other.”

Sam took a deep breath against the hammering in his chest. Gaia told him to trust her and now Dmitri was telling him to trust him. There was a point in time recently when Gaia had shown no confidence in him whatsoever—when she'd accused him of trying to kill her and turned her back on him entirely. Meanwhile, Dmitri had never done anything but help him.

Sam had a choice to make. Who was it going to be? The girl who had broken his heart and stabbed him in the back, or the man who'd given him a home and money to get back on his feet?

Sam closed his eyes, his stomach clenching. “Okay,” he said. “We'll be there.”

It
is an odd feeling, knowing there is not a soul on Earth you can trust. I thought I knew Tom. I thought that he would make sure that the CIA made good on its promise. They told me that if I talked, they would free my daughter. I talked, yet my daughter is still in prison. Still sequestered from life. Still suffering. I thought I could trust Tom. But then, how can I blame him, after what I have done to him?

I could have told him what those numbers meant. I could have told him exactly where Yuri is. But what is the point? If Tom goes there, he will die. If Gaia goes there, she will be taken. And Yuri will find some way to punish me and possibly Tatiana as well. Yuri is everywhere. He is everything. And betraying him is a grave mistake. I learned that the hard way.

Sooner or later Tom would have deciphered that Yuri was alive. I
gave him nothing when I gave him that information. But if Yuri were to find Tom on his doorstep he would know who sent him there and Tatiana and I would pay with our lives.

I have to do what little I can to protect my daughter. My silence is all I have left.

Still, I hope I am wrong. I hope that Tom will find Yuri and bring him to justice. That Tom will prevail. Yuri must pay for what he has done to us. He must pay.

Who knew that donning Kevlar could be so intimate?

Choosing Him

GAIA, JAKE, TOM, AND OLIVER SAT
around the dining room table on Sunday afternoon, each poring over a separate copy of Yuri's list of coordinates. Maps covered the table. They were marked with red dots in various places, indicating the listed locales. The work was hard and tedious and the longer it went on, the more coiled Gaia became. They were never going to get anywhere this way and they knew it. Just figuring out the locations meant nothing unless someone told them the significance of the list.

The advantage was gone. Yuri was out there somewhere and they were never going to find him.

A sudden rap at the door took them all by surprise. Gaia got up and checked through the peephole. Sam stood on the other side of the door, looking around him like a lamb who'd just been tossed into the lion's den.

“Sam? What's wrong?” Gaia asked, ripping the door open.

“He called me,” Sam said, holding out his cell phone like it was an explosive device.

Tom was on his feet in an instant. “Who? Yuri?”

“No. Dmitiri,” Sam said, walking into the room and taking in the maps, the endless cups of coffee . . . Jake. And then Oliver. Sam took an instinctive step
back and Gaia took an instinctive step closer to him to help him feel safe.

“Dmitri and Yuri are the same guy,” Jake said, leaning back in his chair. He rested his muscled arm across the top, nonchalantly showing off his brawn.

“Well, who's Yuri?” Sam asked, ignoring Jake and turning away from Oliver.

“My grandfather. It's a really long story,” Gaia began.

“Forget that now. He contacted you?” Tom asked, walking over and taking the cell phone from Sam's trembling fingers.

“Uh . . . yeah . . . it's the last number in there,” Sam said, visibly fighting to control his emotions. He stuffed his hands under his arms and pressed his elbows down into his sides. “He wanted me to bring Gaia to meet him. He said two o'clock tomorrow afternoon on the steps at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.”

“Philadelphia?” Oliver said, looking over Tom's shoulder as he scrolled to the phone number. Both brothers' faces lit up when they saw the digits displayed there.

“We've got him,” Tom said, meeting Oliver's gaze. Gaia's heart took a leap as her uncle looked up at her and smiled. After all this work, after being stonewalled by Natasha, after hours of brainstorming, Sam had just walked in and given them the key.

“How could he be so careless?” Tom asked. “All we
have to do is trace this number through the satellite provider and we have his exact location.”

“He wants Gaia and he's getting desperate,” Oliver said. “Kidnapping her didn't work so he went to his next best hope.”

He looked at Sam as he said this and Sam's face went ashen. Gaia had to get him out of there before he got sick or worse. She opened the door and pulled Sam out into the hallway.

“Are you okay?” she asked him.

“This is all a little weird,” Sam admitted with an embarrassed laugh. “Dmitri is your grandfather? What the hell is that about? And why is he so dangerous?”

“Sam, my grandfather is a very bad man,” Gaia said, looking into Sam's green eyes and feeling more grateful toward him than she'd ever felt toward anyone. “And you just helped us find him. We're going to get him because of you.”

Sam swallowed and looked down at his shoes. “Gaia, I . . . I don't even know what to say. I'm . . . glad I could help?” he added with a shrug.

“I'm going to explain all of this to you, I swear,” Gaia said. “But right now I've got to get back in there and help them.”

Sam nodded. “Is there anything else I can do?” He sounded almost hopeful that she'd ask for more. But he'd done enough. And now all she wanted was for him to be safe.

“You have no idea how much you've done already,” she said. And then, on impulse, she reached up and hugged him, tightening her arms around his neck. Sam held her so close she could feel his heart beating against her chest, matching the quickened pace of her own pulse. When she pulled away and looked into his eyes it was so simple to imagine herself kissing him. Choosing him. Being with him.

But she couldn't. She was moving on. And Sam had to move on, too.

“Thank you,” she told him sincerely.

And before he could say anything more, she slipped back into the apartment and closed the door on Sam.

An Actual Girl

GAIA SAT ACROSS FROM JAKE AT THE
dining room table early Sunday afternoon, watching him shovel food into his mouth. She couldn't believe how quickly everything had changed. It had taken less than an hour for her father and Oliver to track Yuri's cell phone down to an
address in north Philadelphia. Once they'd come up with a game plan, Oliver had run out to the corner deli and bought sandwiches, salads, and fruit to fortify them for the trip. None of them had taken in a normal meal all day and Oliver was of the opinion that they had no chance against Yuri unless they were well fed and focused.

“Enjoying that?” Gaia asked, raising her eyebrows as Jake shoved half a turkey hero into his mouth at once.

“Uh, you're one to talk,” he said, eyeing her chest. Gaia looked down to find a big chunk of potato salad stuck to the front of her light blue T-shirt.

Oh, that's attractive,
she thought, wiping it up with her finger.

Jake smiled at her, his blue eyes twinkling, and Gaia flushed. Every time she saw Jake, the temperature of whatever room they were in seemed to skyrocket. More and more she found herself blushing around him. And smiling. And wondering what her hair was doing. She found herself acting like an actual girl.

“Gaia, you have your battle gear?” Tom asked, walking in from his bedroom.

A girl with battle gear,
Gaia reminded herself. Somehow she had a feeling she would never qualify for a femininity award.

“Yeah,” she said, wiping her mouth with the back
of her hand. She grabbed her bulletproof vest from the chair next to her and pulled it on and zipped up the sides. She reached over her left shoulder and groped for the nylon strap, but couldn't get it in her grasp.

“I got it,” Jake said, rising from his seat. Gaia couldn't help noticing he used an actual napkin to wipe his face. He came up behind Gaia and lifted the strap. Gaia could feel his breath on her neck and tried not to react, but there was nothing she could do to control the omnipresent tingle.

Sam may have made her pulse race earlier that day, but Jake excited something new inside of her—something she felt in every inch of her body, heart and soul. There was no point in denying it anymore. She was falling for him.

“You okay?” Jake asked, as he snapped the strap to her shoulder and tightened it.

Gaia swallowed hard, her throat constricting. Who knew that donning Kevlar could be so intimate?

“Fine,” Gaia replied. She went over to the table and picked up the paper plates and bags and soda cans. “You better get ready.”