Protecting the Enemy (18 page)

She couldn’t stay. Maybe she was losing her mind like her second cousin had. Maybe she’d come from a long line of crazy people. “I have to go. Please don’t make this any harder than it has to be.”

Reid’s eyes pleaded with her. “I can help you. Don’t leave me. If you want to leave, take me with you.”

Feeling like she was drowning, she wiggled out of his arms. “I can’t.”

“If you leave, I can’t promise I’ll be waiting here if you change your mind,” his voice was barely more than a whisper.

She grabbed her coat and turned to look at him before opening the door. “I wouldn’t expect you to.”

***

Reid got out of bed and slipped on some jeans. He had to go after her. She wasn’t being reasonable. He flung open the door. “Julianna!” His breath was visible in the chilled air. He didn’t see her, so he ran down the snow covered steps barefoot. He went around the building and looked both ways. Her car was gone. The cold shocked him into what had just happened. Shit!
She was gone and he had no idea where she was headed.

His feet were numb by the time he got back inside the apartment, but his heart was another matter. The pure agony deep inside his chest was all too recognizable. Her cell phone was still on the table. He raked his fingers through his hair. Maybe she’d come right back for it. She had to.

He went over to the bed and reached for her pillow. He reached inside the pillowcase… her money was gone. His heart dropped. She’d come back. She would. He tried to convince himself. His stomach growled reminding him he’d skipped breakfast and lunch. He took a shower and went downstairs to grab some food.

His hope that maybe Julianna had returned in the five minutes he was gone was crushed when he opened the door to an empty apartment. He swallowed the lump in his throat and ate a couple bites of take out. His stomach turned. He tossed the rest of his Chinese into the trashcan.

He should have stopped her. He should have searched harder for her when he ran after her, but deep down he knew that he couldn’t help her. He was at peace with what he’d done. They’d been lied to and manipulated and now it was time to move on. Julianna was different though. He could tell she was more affected by the truth. It didn’t help matters that it turned out her whole family had been involved. A family she’d not even known had existed. As much as he wanted to fix everything, there were some things a person just couldn’t erase.

***

Julianna hated to leave Reid, but he didn’t understand. He wasn’t having trouble with moving on as she was. Of course, it wasn’t his family that had betrayed him. Her own dad had had her mom killed and meant to do the same to her. Her second cousin had turned Julianna into a killer. Her life was more complicated than a daytime soap opera.

As much as she wanted to immerse herself in Reid, she couldn’t. It wasn’t fair to either of them. She had to figure out what she wanted and how she would ever go on with the burden she carried.

Meandering the streets of Baltimore without a plan was not her brightest idea. Feeling lost was scary. Before she knew what happened she was sitting in front of Reid’s brother’s church. She’d never been a religious person, but something drew her there. Julianna parked her car and got out. Something pulled her inside. She walked up to the last pew and sat down, unsure what to do or even why she’d driven there. The heat of the church caused her remove her coat.

“Good place to warm up.” A male voice startled her. She turned to look and was surprised to see a man that resembled Reid, though not nearly as handsome. But that didn’t make sense, they weren’t biological brothers.

“Yes.” She stood up. “I was just leaving.”

He sat down in the pew across from her. “Don’t rush off on my account. Was there something on your mind? I’m always here to listen and provide guidance.”

Of course she couldn’t tell him what was bothering her, at least not exactly. “I’ve done some things that I am ashamed of. At the time I did these things, I thought I was protecting people, providing justice.” She looked down at her lap, afraid he’d be able to see the truth in her eyes. “But I learned recently, that what I did may not have been protecting the right people. I don’t know how to live with myself, knowing that what I’ve done may have caused a lot more harm than good.”

“I see.” He folded his hands in his lap. “You know God forgives us no matter our trespasses. You must first forgive yourself.”

She bit her lip and pulled at a loose string on her coat. “But I don’t think I can.”

“The harm you think you may have caused, maybe you should go to those people and simply apologize. Maybe it isn’t as bad as you think.”

He had a point. She needed to acknowledge what she’d done, at least to herself. While she couldn’t really apologize to the men, she could apologize to their loved ones, in a way that wouldn’t incriminate her. “Thank you. You’ve been a big help.” She stood up.

He smiled placing a hand on the back of the pew. “Any time.”

***

Just having a plan, already made Julianna feel better. She’d go to the loved ones of the men she’d killed, look into their eyes and apologize for their loss. It wouldn’t change things for them or bring the men back, but at least it was her acknowledging that they were men and perhaps not the enemy.

She would need a certain computer hacker’s help. She parked her car down the street from his house, in the only free space. The snow dusted sidewalks sparkled like diamonds in the sunlight. The temperature was dropping, because of the wind. The sky was a grayish-blue which seemed appropriate. Julianna pulled her thin wool coat up tighter around her neck. As she walked up to his house she could see her breath. It was odd not carrying a gun after all that time she’d spent looking over her shoulder, afraid for her life.

When she first knocked on Weasel’s door he didn’t answer, so she knocked harder.

The door opened. Weasel stood in a pair of X-Men boxers paired with a wrinkled T-shirt. “You’re not bleeding are you?”

She laughed. “No, not today, but I do need your help.”

He rubbed the goosebumps on his skinny arms. “Come in, it’s freezing.”

She walked inside. Even though it had to be close to
noon, by the looks of the tumbled sheets hanging off the bed, she’d woken him. “Sorry to wake you from your beauty rest.” She resisted the usual urge to tousle his shaggy hair as if he were her kid brother. A sibling would have been nice she realized.

He grinned. “You can wake me anytime. As long as you’re not asking me to stitch you up.”

She stood beside his desk. “How was the cruise?”

He shrugged. “It was okay. Mom liked it.”

“I was wondering if you would look up some people for me. I need previous addresses of some deceased men. And I need you to look into my mom. I want to know if there are more relatives I don’t know about.” She gave him a pleading look. “I’ll order pizza.”

“Sure, okay.” He cleared the books away from the chair.

She sat down and wrote the names of the men she’d erased. Each name had been etched into her brain. She slid the paper over to him. “Oh and if Reid asks, I was never here.”

His forehead crinkled. “Uh, that dude kind of scares me. Do I really need to lie, because I’m pretty sure he’ll know if I’m lying.”

Maybe Reid wouldn’t come looking for her anyway. “It’s okay. Never mind.” She picked up his phone. “Meat lovers’?”

He nodded, already whisking his fingers across the keys. “Better make it an extra-large. This could take a while.”

***

Reid strode out of the jewelry store with the tiny velvet box tucked into his coat pocket. The next time he asked Julianna, it wouldn’t be a secret. The next time he’d put the ring on her finger where it belonged. He got into his Jag and drove to over Weasel’s place. He had a gut feeling Julianna may have gone there. He had to know that she was okay.

Reid knocked on Weasel’s door determined to find out if the kid had seen Jewels.

His favorite hacker peeped his head out. “Come in.”

Reid walked inside. He crossed his arms and stared at Weasel without saying a word.

“Shit!” Weasel sat down on the edge of his bed. “What do you want to know?”

“All of it. Was Julianna here?”

He nodded. “Yes. She had me look up addresses of some dead guys.”

Poor Julianna. Why was she torturing herself this way? They were only following orders. Innocents were sometimes casualties of war. As much as he hated it, they couldn’t change what they’d done. Neither of them would have killed those people if they’d known the truth. They were not to blame. Senator Grant, his wife and Brandon Voss were to blame. The blood was on their hands. Why couldn’t Jewels see that? “Okay. Anything else?”

“She had me look into her mom and if she had any living relatives.”

He raised an eyebrow. “And?”

“She has a grandma living in
Connecticut.”

Maybe she just went to visit her grandma. If the woman was anything like Boss… shit. “That’s all?”

“Yeah, that’s all I could find.”

“Thanks for the information.” Reid pulled a hundred dollar bill out of his wallet.

Weasel held up his hand. “That’s okay. I wanted to help her.”

“Are you sure? A hundred can buy a lot of T-shirts and Mountain Dews.”

He laughed. “I’m good. Is she in some kind of trouble?”

“Not anymore than usual.” Reid sighed. He just hoped that after she finished whatever she was doing, she’d come back to him. Because he was angry and hurt, he’d lied to her when he said he may not wait. He’d wait as long as it took, because she was worth every agonizing minute and so much more.

Chapter 17

J
ulianna wasn’t sure if she wanted to go meet her grandma in Connecticut or not. What if she rejected her like her foster parents had? She knew how bad rejection felt, because of the flash backs she’d had of not belonging. She’d deal with that information later. She had something else to do first.

Wishing she could turn around and just forget about this crazy plan, Julianna stood in front of the white brick, Tudor style home. The home where her first mark, Mitchell Baird, had lived. The man had been in his fifties and she was led to believe a very dangerous threat to the citizens of
Baltimore.

What would she say? Her hand went to her neck. She frowned. In a rush to leave Reid, she’d forgotten her necklace. She’d have to make due without it. She took a deep breath and rang the doorbell.

A woman in her forties opened the door. Her strawberry blonde hair was up in a ponytail with one loose strand hanging alongside her face. “Yes?”

“Hi, I’m looking for Mitchell Baird.”

The woman’s hand dropped to her side. “I’m afraid he’s passed away.”

Julianna swallowed the lump in her throat. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. “I’m sorry.”

The woman’s back straightened. “How did you know my husband?”

“I met him once at a cocktail party. He told me to find him if I ever needed a job.”

The woman nodded. “Sounds like him. Good luck finding a job.” She reached to close the door.

“I’m very sorry for your loss.” Julianna meant those words more than the woman would ever know.

“Don’t be. My husband was a sleaze bag.” She waved her hand in the air as if she were referring to something as insignificant as the weather. “But hey aren’t all politicians?”

Julianna didn’t know what to say. The woman wasn’t grieving for sure. And maybe the man had been a sleaze bag. She walked down the sidewalk, unsettled. She should feel better. After all, the man’s own wife didn’t even miss him. And she had apologized… sort of.

Julianna got back into her car and took the list of addresses out of her pocket. Warm tears streamed down her cold face. She wiped them away with the back of her hand. She wanted to move on, wanted to forget ETE 7 forever. But instead, it seemed the only thing her brain was letting her forget were the good memories between her and Reid.

Unsure what to make of what had just happened she drove to the second address, not too far from the first. She bit her lip as she parked the car. Not knowing what to expect she walked up to the house where her second mark, Nicholas Sutherland had lived. The house wasn’t as nice as the last. It was kind of run down, actually. Was it empty? She peered into the windows to find that is was. She sat down on the ice cold concrete.
I’m not sure if you deserved to die, so I am truly sorry, Nicholas. I was made to believe lives were at stake and I acted on that belief.
She sat motionless and looked out to the street, her mind blank.

After a few minutes, she stood up and brushed the dusting of snow off of her coat. Even with her knee-high boots, her toes were frozen. She removed the folded up paper and looked at the directions to the last address. Victor West, her third mark. If she remembered right, he wasn’t as taken with her looks as the others had been.

Twenty minutes later, she parked in front of the last house. The sun peeked out of the clouds just as she walked up the path to Victor’s house. The house was modern and impressive. She stood on the porch for a moment. Emotionally spent and ready for this quest to come to an end, she rang the doorbell.