Swallow (Kindred Book 2) (26 page)

“I think you owe me.”

Friday night, in the bar with Ben, Zara’s attention had been drifting, but it snapped back to him when he made that statement. The audacity of his smile prompted Zara to think he was making a joke. But she wasn’t in much of a joking mood.

The place was alive with people and the music was energetic. Raven and Swift were at their posts opposite the vast glass façade, and she was safe. But she was still in the dark as to what Brodie had meant about them being played. Brodie and Tuck whispered with each other or went out and left her alone. They were cooking something up and she didn’t know what it was.

“I owe you?” she asked.

Ben was still smiling, he held the neck of his beer bottle and pulled it closer. “We’ve seen each other every day. We’ve talked all about my life and Albert’s, tonight I’m supposed to take you over to the house.”

They’d talked earlier in the week about her want to go back to the compound, and he’d promised to take her tonight. She wasn’t wild about the visit being nocturnal. Especially given that her Kindred cohorts couldn’t keep eyes on her there. They’d been watching since she’d met up with Ben in the bar, but they wouldn’t witness what went on inside the compound where there was no external line of sight.

Keeping her anxiety to herself, Zara didn’t want the men to think that she couldn’t handle the job. They might not be present to view her every step in the Sutcliffe house, but she would be carrying audio and visual equipment. If she got into trouble, they’d get her out.

Brodie had assured her that he’d blast the place off the face of the earth before he’d abandon her if she needed him. Recalling her love’s vehemence helped her to return Ben’s smile. Ben didn’t make her nervous. He was a physical therapist who clearly had no idea what Albert Sutcliffe was capable of.

Her anxiety came from her mission. She had to plant bugs at the Sutcliffe house. She had to find out the location of the cult’s arsenal. Tuck found records of equipment and ammunition being bought, yet they hadn’t seen deliveries to the house. They’d been unsuccessful in locating any hoarding site using their original ground and aerial observations.

As if tonight wasn’t stressful enough, tomorrow she had to travel back to her apartment and prepare for her meeting with Grant and Sutcliffe, where she was supposed to hand over the device the Kindred had been keeping hidden for months. She wasn’t worried about her safety. She was worried about letting down the people who were relying on her.

Playing it coy, she averted her eyes. “What is it that you think you want from me?” she asked Ben.

“I feel like I don’t know anything about you, Zara,” he said as he swayed closer. “How did a girl like you get mixed up in this?”

Over the course of the week, they’d talked about their lives, but she’d rather cover old ground than confess the whole truth. “I’ve worked for Grant McCormack for five years. I know all of his business dealings.”

“And you always subscribe to his ideology?”

“No,” she said.

This conversation was edging into dangerous territory. “You said that Albert killed your friend,” Ben said and she wondered if he was testing her. “But your friend killed his nephew.”

This suggested he’d been talking to Sutcliffe about her. “You think this is a game of tit for tat?” she asked, lifting her glass to squeeze her straw between her lips. “My friend did what he did because he was protecting me.”

“Sutcliffe said you loved him, that he got into your head.”

Any news on Sutcliffe’s thoughts was welcomed, but it wasn’t pleasant to know they’d been discussing her personal life. “He did,” she said, examining the grain of the tabletop. “In the way a lover does.”

Softening her tone, she fluttered her lashes at him and leaned closer. “That’s it, baby,” Brodie said into her ear. “Show him that smile. Use your assets, Swallow.”

Initially, she’d been surprised that he was giving such commands, but every time he murmured in her ear, her sexual awareness peaked. Brodie aroused her with his words out here in public, just like he did in their bedroom. These meetings served as foreplay that always eradicated her anxiety of overthinking the next step.

Brodie guided her, giving her permission and instruction, using her to get what he needed from Ben. She was a tool that gave him leverage. But he rewarded his instrument when he got her alone and their passion was given release.

She widened her eyes and did as her lover told her to. Folding her forearms onto the table, she pushed her upper arms tighter around her bosom and was amazed to realize that the more she amplified her cleavage the more relaxed and therefore malleable, Ben became. These little maneuvers had been working all week.

“It’s getting late,” Ben said, dragging his admiring attention upward. “Are you ready to get out of here?”

With a nod and a coquettish smile, she rose from the table and let him help her on with her jacket. “Are we going straight to the compound?” she asked, allowing him to take her hand as they left the bar.

Brodie wouldn’t be happy that Ben was touching her. But that Ben thought he was allowed to take these small liberties suggested to her that their plan to seduce him had worked. “Yeah,” Ben said. “It will be quiet tonight.”

Quiet tonight meant nothing to her because she didn’t know how busy the place usually was. But she got into his truck with him sparing a brief glance in the direction of Brodie’s position.

“We’re gonna be right behind you,” Brodie said as Ben started his truck. “We’ll still hear every word.”

But Brodie wouldn’t have a line of sight. They’d found positions of weakness in the defenses, Zara knew because she’d heard the guys talking about it and the map laid out on the table in the motel room showed where those weaknesses were. If they had to get to her, they would. But they wouldn’t risk exposure by sneaking onto the property because they didn’t need Sutcliffe and his people strengthening their defenses.

The journey was short and when they got to the gate, it was open. There were no men or guns around either, meaning this was another staged event for her. There were some lights that she could make out through the trees here and there, but she didn’t see people or homes. In comparison to the drive through McCormack land, this drive was short. The house was lit up, but still, there were no people.

“Where is everyone?” she asked when Ben parked his truck and came around to help her out.

“Like I said, it’s late,” Ben said, keeping hold of her hand as he led her up the grand front stairs to the doublewide door. When she’d come here with Grant, they’d gone in and out the back, now she had the privilege of using the main entrance.

The L-shaped hall had stairs to the right. To the left was a long corridor, which led to the kitchen, and had doors leading off it. Having had the tour, she knew which of these rooms were communal and which were bedrooms. But that didn’t make her lower her guard. Anyone could be in those rooms lying in wait to harm her.

Ben didn’t try to take her through any of the doors. With his hand still in hers, he took her down the corridor and into the kitchen at the back of the building. It was no longer the homely room that it had been before. When Ben stopped by the vast table, she knew he was awaiting her reaction to what lay around them.

There were no guns. But the table was covered with other items, flashlights, heavy boots, camping equipment, and dehydrated food. A couple of hunting knives were secreted beneath a tackle box, which made her wonder what was inside, she doubted it had anything to do with fishing.

“Wow,” she said. “Are you planning a trip?” She walked away from him, around the head of the table, trying to catalog what was laid out.

Being careful to look out for weapons, as Tuck had advised her to do the last time she came here, she was surprised not to see any. Though in truth, the lack of hardware was noteworthy. This was another carefully choreographed scene that she was supposed to happen upon. Sutcliffe was letting her see what he wanted her to see and no more.

Touching an item here and there, she ran a fingernail along the table and with a deliberate push of her fingertip beneath the tabletop, she affixed the audio bug Tuck had given her. It was larger than the ones they put in their ear because it needed its own power source. But she did her best to stretch as far under as she could without appearing awkward. Brodie and Tuck had made her think it was no big deal, but as soon as she stepped away from the device, she began to sweat. Now there was evidence on the premises that she was a mole and not interested in Sutcliffe’s cause.

“We keep a regular check on inventory. We wouldn’t want to run out of anything we might need,” Ben said, gripping the back of one of the wooden chairs that stood around the table.

“Inventory,” she muttered and cast her eyes around to the papers stuck on the wall of the kitchen perpendicular to the back door, again, these hadn’t been here the last time. She didn’t have much of a memory for maps, but the one just below her eye level was interesting. There were street names she recognized, this was a local map, yet it was hand drawn. “This is quite a sight to see.”

Raven and Swift had been quiet in her ear. They’d told her the range of the audio and visual equipment that she wore was around a mile. In her judgment, the road she and Ben had driven from the front gate was long enough that they would be pushing those boundaries.

“Swift’s patching in.”

The sound of Brodie’s voice in her ear made her draw in a breath that Ben had to hear, but she sighed it out in a deliberate attempt to allay any suspicions he might have about her sudden show of relief.

Trying to appear overwhelmed and impressed, she ogled everything she could. “This is so much information, how do you keep track of it all?”

Ben came to her side. “No one knows every piece of information. We keep track of our own little corner and everyone works together as a team to make sure nothing gets missed,” Ben said.

“Take a step back,” Brodie said in her ear and while touching the line of her necklace to keep it steady, she did just that, and took the chance to look upward.

The pendant had a camera in it, but she wasn’t sure it was picking anything up. The bug under the table would allow the Kindred to keep track of her conversation because it was more powerful than the one in her ear. But she needed them to be able to see what she was seeing. Swift was good and might be able to piggyback his signal on the planted bug, making it act as a relay. If that didn’t work, they would have to make a decision to either get closer or back away. If they chose the latter, valuable intel might be lost, so it would be up to her to remember what she could.

“What’s this one?” she asked Ben, touching the local map with a fingernail. Brodie had told her to leave as few prints as possible.

But if Sutcliffe wanted her fingerprint all he would have to do is ask Grant for it. The CI doors were all secured with fingerprint recognition technology, so her print was on the CI system. Still, she did what she was told and used her newly manicured nails to do the touching for her.

“That’s our storage facility,” Ben said, coming even closer to her side to examine the map with her. “Mr. Sutcliffe likes to be ready for any scenario. If for any reason we had to split up or leave in a hurry, we have supplies there that could help us find a new place to settle.”

Playing dumb, she glanced at him. “Why would you have to leave in a hurry?” she asked and curled a fingertip around her necklace.

“I’m with you, don’t you worry, baby,” Brodie said into her ear, and she smiled.

The smile made Ben relax, which was good because he’d probably share more. But her expression was meant for her love. She needed his reassurance because being alone this deep in enemy territory was unsettling.

“Mr. Sutcliffe is a thorough man,” Ben said, putting a hand on her shoulder. “He looks after his people. You know, I’m glad that you’re going to meet with him tomorrow night. I hope you’ll join us… soon.”

Join us. That was a joke. Tuck had briefed her and Brodie that afternoon and she’d been shocked to hear that there had been an epidemic of hostage situations all across the northeast. None were big enough to warrant major national coverage. Most were written off as simply robberies and the cash was no doubt funding Sutcliffe’s cause. The calling card at each scene revealed the truth to those who knew it. “4 Tim” was written, scratched, or scorched into walls or furniture at each scene.

The other Kindred were fueled by this news that Sutcliffe was carrying out a war at home, against his people, rather than one abroad. But they also voiced concerns that these raids could be rehearsals for something bigger that could be coming if Sutcliffe got his hands on Game Time.

Zara heard something else when Tuck was recounting the details of the stick-ups. Tim was in the forefront of Sutcliffe’s mind and his nephew had become a martyr to the cause. Beyond the fact that suggested anyone who was killed as a result of Sutcliffe’s misguided mission would be elevated to martyr status, it also meant these people held a grudge.

Grant had told her that Sutcliffe wanted revenge and when she heard Tim’s name was being used as a beacon at each scene, her concern for Brodie ratcheted up. He would be a prize. Anyone who could take down the man who had taken down Tim would be a hero, but she wasn’t interested in being widowed. Brodie told her to use her fear, just like she used her anger to achieve results and it surprised her just how effective that was.