Reach For the Spy (8 page)

“What the hell’s that
s’posed to mean?” he demanded.

“Can’t tell you.
Classified. As usual. But it’s more of the same shit with that
technology I was using last week.”

“But you’re safe,
right? Kane’s watchin’ out for ya?

“Yeah, no problem. It’s
just going to put a bit of a damper on my love life for a
while.”

“No shit. But why’re ya
worried about me bein’ on camera outside the house?”

I scuffed at the gravel
with the toe of my shoe while I thought about my reply. “Um... it’s
complicated.” I looked up at his frown. “You know how you got
caught in the crossfire last week because Fuzzy Bunny saw us
getting friendly?”

He nodded, his face
darkening. I took his hand and stroked it, trying to erase the
memories. He closed his hands around mine.

“Ya are in danger,” he
said flatly. “An’ you’re tryin’ to keep me out of it.”

“Well... yeah, kind
of,” I admitted. Too bad his dumb-biker image was just a facade. I
couldn’t slip anything by him.

“Aydan, what d’ya need
me to do?” He studied my face, and I suppressed a shudder at the
thought of what he’d already done for me. And what it had cost
him.

“Nothing. Just don’t
get friendly with me within camera range. Or in public.”

“Okay,” he said slowly.
His head jerked up as he glanced over my shoulder. “Speakin’ a’
situations, ya got one comin’ for ya right now, I’d say.”

“Shit, what?” I wheeled
around to follow his gaze. My heart sank at the sight of the
approaching figure.

“Looks like a cowboy
carryin’ a bouquet of flowers,” Hellhound observed with a chuckle.
“Ya been busy, darlin’?”

“Shit!” I turned back
to him desperately. “You’ve got to help me.”

“I dunno, I think ya
can take him. Save a horse, ride a cowboy, ain’t that the
sayin’?”

“Very funny. He’s the
type to get attached. You know how I feel about getting
attached.”

His face softened, and
he stroked the hair back from my face. “Darlin’, maybe ya should
think about gettin’ attached again. Ya been alone a long time.”

I planted my fists on
my hips. “Are you proposing?”

“Christ, no!” The
consternation on his face made me laugh despite the gravity of the
situation.

“I feel the same way
about getting attached as you do. I like being alone. Help me out
here. You know I’d do the same for you,” I begged.

He grinned. “Hey, I
know you’re different, darlin’, but most chicks wanna settle down
in the end. I just thought ya might be gettin’ soft or
somethin’.”

I smacked him on the
chest. “No, goddammit! Stop messing around!”

I heard the soft thump
of approaching hooves behind me as Hellhound chuckled. “Okay,
darlin’, I can throw myself on this grenade for ya,” he
whispered.

He grabbed my ass and
yanked me against him. The abrupt contact shocked an involuntary
cry out of me, quickly muffled by his lips. His fist knotted in my
hair while he kissed me hard and hungrily, his magical tongue
teasing me.

Instant fire flared
through me. His hand slid intimately around my ass and between my
legs, and I gasped and shuddered with the sudden intensity of my
need.

“She said no, dirtbag!
Get your hands off her!”

Through a haze of lust,
I mentally replayed my last words and gestures and suddenly
realized how badly this could backfire.

Tom’s boots thumped to
the ground as he dismounted behind me, and I pulled away from
Hellhound and spun to face Tom’s furious scowl and clenched
fists.

“Tom, it’s okay. You
just misunderstood. Arnie’s a friend,” I gasped.

He looked slowly from
me to Hellhound’s ugly, bearded face and badass leathers. “Looks
like I misunderstood something. I just don’t know what,
exactly.”

I sighed. The horse was
eagerly devouring the bouquet Tom had dropped. Might as well make
equally short work of this situation.

“Tom, I told you last
night that I didn’t want to take things any further with you. This
is Arnie Helmand. He’s my good friend. And my lover, from time to
time. Now is one of those times.”

“Oh.” Tom frowned,
searching my face.

Tires crunched on my
gravel driveway. Shit, now what?

I turned to see Kane’s
black Expedition pull to a stop in front of Hellhound’s Harley
Fatboy.

Jesus, my yard was
starting to feel like a Village People reunion. So far I had the
cop, the biker, and the cowboy. My overstressed brain temporarily
disengaged as I glanced toward the road, half-expecting to see a
musclebound construction worker approaching.

Thank God, none
appeared.

I dragged my attention
back to the situation at hand as Kane strode up. His eyes flicked
across the tableau.

“Hellhound?” he
inquired.

“Cap,” Arnie greeted
him noncommittally.

Kane frowned at me.

“John, this is Tom
Rossburn, my neighbour,” I said weakly. “Tom, I’d like you to meet
John Kane.”

The two men measured
each other with their eyes as they shook hands. Kane returned his
attention to me. “Aydan, I need you. Now.” He turned to the other
two. “Sorry.”

Hellhound swung astride
his bike and shot Tom a warning glance. “Ya might wanna move your
horse away. This beast’s loud.”

Tom nodded brusquely.
Then he mounted and rode away without a backward glance.

Hellhound gave him some
distance before firing up the Fatboy. “See ya later, darlin’,” he
rasped over the din. He lifted a hand to Kane and me and rode down
the lane.

Kane turned to me.
“Anything I need to know about this?”

“Nope.”

“I’m sorry to bother
you on a Sunday,” Kane said. “But I need you to check a document
over at Sirius. It’s urgent. Can we leave right away?”

“Um. I have a bit of a
continuity issue. I have to circle around outside the cameras and
put the hoe back on my back porch. As if I was coming from the
garden.” I gazed up at him. “Why did you drive all the way out
here? Why didn’t you just call me?”

“I tried. You didn’t
pick up. I ran the surveillance footage back so I knew you were
here, working outside. I expected you to be out back.”

He frowned down at me,
and I suspected he was resisting the urge to ask me what the hell
had been going on. I relaxed when he apparently let it go.

“I need you to carry
your phone with you at all times,” he said. “Just in case.
Especially if you’re going to play hide and seek with the
cameras.”

I sighed, feeling the
noose tightening. “Okay.”

“What’s the story with
your neighbour? Does he suspect anything?”

“No. This was the first
time he’s ever been in the yard. But I told Hellhound about the
bugs and cameras.”

“All right. Hurry up
and get rid of your hoe. You can follow me into town, and I’ll meet
you at Sirius.”

I arrived at Sirius
Dynamics twenty minutes later and navigated the depressing security
with a sense of impending doom. I had been so looking forward to
having two full days up in the daylight and open air. My hands
started to tremble again when I opened the door at the bottom of
the concrete stairwell.

Kane and Spider looked
up from Spider’s desk in the lab as I came in. “Good, you’re here,”
Spider said. “We just intercepted this communication, and we think
it may be important.”

“That’d be a nice
change from all the tedious crap we’ve been wading through,” I
muttered as I slouched into my chair. “Where is it?”

“In the usual file
room,” Spider said.

I nodded morosely and
stepped into the network.

The digital file was
enormous. After the first fifty pages, my brain ceased to process
any of the information, and I simply decrypted the document word
for word without comprehension.

At long last, I spoke
into the network interface. “That’s it. Is there anything else you
need here?”

Spider’s voice vibrated
with excitement. “No. That was excellent. That document was a
game-changer. Come on out.”

I heaved my aching
avatar up from its chair and stumbled toward the portal. When I
stepped through, my fatigue made the pain seem worse than usual,
and I caught myself whimpering while I beat my throbbing head
against the nearest solid surface.

A few seconds later, I
recognized the solid surface as Kane’s chest when he held my head
firmly against him. “Aydan, stop,” he commanded.

I groaned and made an
effort to unclench my teeth. “I’m okay. You can let go now.”

He released me and
raised my chin to look into my eyes. “Are you sure you’re
okay?”

“Yeah. Just tired. What
time...” I raised a shaking arm to glance at my watch and
suppressed another whimper. Eight o’clock. I was starving.

Kane looked at his
watch, too, and his expression darkened. “Aydan, I’m so sorry. We
did it to you again. Can you make it upstairs?”

“Yeah. I can manage
without regular meals as long as I don’t have to run any
marathons.”

I hauled my trembling
body out of the chair and staggered for the door.

Kane’s hand was under
my elbow as he turned back. “Webb, get that document sent out
ASAP.”

“I will.” Spider turned
back to his keyboard, fingers flying.

I straightened and did
my best to approximate a normal stride down the hallway. Kane paced
beside me, watching me closely. He put his hand under my elbow
again while I dragged myself up the stairs and into the time-delay
chamber.

When the heavy door
finally released, he guided me to one of the lobby chairs. “Stay
here. I’ve got some orange juice upstairs.”

I put out a hand to
stop him. “It’s okay. I only have a problem if I exert myself. I’ll
just swing into the burger joint on the way home and grab
something.”

He eyed my trembling
hands. “I’ll follow you.”

I really wasn’t in the
mood for company, but I was too tired to argue. I sighed and headed
for the door.

The burger was greasy
and nowhere near as good as Eddy’s. I nibbled it half-heartedly
while Kane devoured his meal. When I couldn’t force myself to
swallow any more of it, I laid the remains back into the basket and
sank my aching head into my hands.

I started out of my
semi-conscious doze at the sound of Kane’s voice. “You didn’t eat
much.”

“No. Eddy’s spoiled
me,” I mumbled.

“Are you okay to
drive?”

I sat up straighter and
shook myself. “Yeah. Good night. See you tomorrow.”

The fifteen-minute
drive home seemed interminable.

When I arrived at the
farm, I parked the car and climbed the hill above the house again,
unable to face the thought of being enclosed even by my own house.
I stood for a long time on the brow of the hill, soaking up the
open space and letting the wild wind tear at my clothes and
hair.

Movement caught my eye,
and I glanced over to see Tom silhouetted on his horse again. I
sighed, feeling sorry for myself and for him. That had been a
shitty way to end things. He seemed like a nice guy.

I sat down and rested
my head on my drawn-up knees in the long red beams of the sunset,
feeling melancholy and still unwilling to go indoors.

“Aydan.” The soft voice
jerked me awake. “Are you okay?”

A gentle hand lifted
the hair away from my face, and I rolled over to peer up at Tom’s
frown in the twilight.

“What...?” I frowned
back at him, disoriented.

“Are you okay? Do you
know where you are?” he asked anxiously.

I sat up as he squatted
on his heels beside me. His horse snuffled placidly a few yards
away.

“Can you tell me your
name? Do you know what day it is?”

I shook my head
vigorously, my brain gradually rebooting when I recognized classic
first-responder orientation questions.

“Sorry. I’m fine. Yes,
I know where I am. I just fell asleep.”

“Tell me your name,” he
repeated patiently.

I laughed. “It’s okay.
My name is Aydan Kelly. It’s Sunday evening. I’m sitting on the
hillside above my farm, outside Silverside, Alberta, and I really
just fell asleep.”

The tension eased from
his shoulders and he gave me his crooked smile as he sat down on
the ground beside me, stretching out one long leg. “You scared
me.”

“Sorry. What are you
doing here?”

“I was out riding.
Just... thinking things over. I saw you up here, so I went the
other way. I didn’t want to intrude. But you were out here so long,
and when I looked over, I saw you kind of collapse onto the ground
and lie still. I was afraid something was wrong.”

“Thanks for watching
out for me. I just had too long a day, I guess.”

“Aydan... since I’m
here anyway, I owe you an apology. I was out of line last night.
You said you were widowed, and I never thought to ask if you were
involved with someone. I’m sorry. I owe your boyfriend an apology,
too. I didn’t mean to poach.”

I drew up my knees and
rested my chin on them while I stared out over the long vista
fading in the twilight. “It’s okay. And Arnie’s not my boyfriend.
He wouldn’t care one way or the other.”

“But... you said he was
your lover.”

I sighed and glanced
over at him. He really deserved the truth. Or at least as much of
it as I could tell him. “Can I be really blunt?”

He nodded. “Might as
well be, I’d say. You don’t owe me any tact.”

I stared out over the
fields again. “Arnie and I are good friends. Neither of us wants to
get involved. With anybody. Including each other. We get together
from time to time. We have a few laughs. We have sex. If he walked
in and found me in bed with another man, he’d probably apologize
for not calling first. I’d do the same for him if I walked in on
him with another woman. I know it might seem weird, but it’s what I
want right now.”