Ultimate Kill (Book 1 Ultimate CORE Trilogy) (CORE Series) (10 page)

No need to panic. No need to worry. When the Columbian and Mickey returned, Harrison would be the only one using the laptop. If there was an issue, he could kill the program he’d implanted with a few strokes to the keyboard.

Vlad nodded to the Styrofoam cup near the outdated TV. “No donuts, but Vlad brought Harry coffee. No cream, right?”

He sent the Russian a half smile. “With as much time as we’ve spent together, I think you’re starting to know me better than my last girlfriend.”

Vlad released a loud bark of laughter and wagged a finger. “No go there, Harry.” Vlad withdrew a cylinder package from his coat pocket and tossed it to him. “No
fresh
donuts.”

Harrison stared at the package of Hostess Donettes mini donuts. Powder sugar, his favorite. “Thanks, man. For the coffee, too. These weird hours are screwing with me.”

“It good for Harry. Vlad? He can stay wake for thirty hours without shuteye.”

“No shit?” Harrison asked and opened the cellophane wrapping. “The most I’ve managed was twenty-two. That was my first night in prison. I was too frickin’ scared to close my eyes.”

The Russian laughed again. “Vlad understand.” He grew serious, his expression almost thoughtful. “Vlad no can picture Harry in prison. Harry too…ah, the word, Vlad no remember.”

“Nerdy?” Harrison offered.

Vlad snapped his fingers, then took out his cigarettes and lighter. “Yes. Your brother, the mouse? He no good for Harry. Vlad believe Mickey Mouse get Harry in trouble.”

He already has. More times than he cared to count.

“Mickey’s a good guy. He just needs direction.”

The Russian frowned and took a long drag off the cigarette. “Maybe. Or maybe Harry need to grow
яйца
яички
,” he said, finishing in Russian and grabbing his crotch. “Who planned bank robbery that put Harry in prison?”

Harrison wiped powdered sugar on the towel. “It was Mickey’s idea, but it’s not like I told him no.”

“Before that? Who put Harry in the kiddie jail?”

Chuckling, Harrison picked up the Styrofoam cup. “It’s call juvenile detention or just juvie, not kiddie jail. And even though what had landed us there was Mickey’s idea, again, I went along with it.”

“Vlad curious. I like Harry, but not the Mouse. Harry smart. A computer wizard, no?”

“That’s why I’m here, right?”

The Russian smiled and snuffed out his cigarette. “Why not go to university, get nerdy job? Why follow the mouse when Harry could be big cheese?” he asked and laughed. “Get it? Mouse, cheese.”

Harrison smiled, but inwardly cringed. He’d been asking himself those same questions for years. When he’d been released from juvie, his parole officer had told him to break away from Mickey. That he’d go nowhere but prison if he continued to follow his brother’s lead. But he’d ignored the advice and a few years later had wound up in the Virginia Department of Corrections.
 

“I get it,” Harrison said, popping the last donut in his mouth.
 

“Do you? Take Vlad’s advice. Cut tie with the mouse.” He reached into his pocket and took out his cell phone. “Ah, text from Santiago. They’ll be here in ten. Hurry. Drink coffee. Vlad no want Santiago to know I went to store.”
 

“Got it,” he said, even though he really didn’t. Was Vlad afraid of Santiago? The Columbian scared the shit out of him, but he couldn’t imagine Vlad being afraid of anything. The Russian’s size alone could intimidate anyone.
 

Draining his coffee, he handed the cup and the donut wrapper to Vlad, who stepped out of the motel room and disposed of the trash in a nearby garbage can. When he returned, he gave Harrison a pointed look. “Remember what Vlad told Harry. Cut ties. When we arrive in Norfolk and job is kaput, you listen to Vlad. Finish job. Take money and run to university.”

“Got any brothers or sisters?” Harrison asked, unsure why the Russian decided to have this little heart to heart conversation.

Vlad gave him a big grin. “Ten of them.”

“Any of them your twin?”

The Russian frowned. “Mickey Mouse is twin brother?” He shook his head. “Vlad never guess. You no look like twins.”

“Trust me, we are. And I hear where you’re coming from. But this job is legit, so I think Mickey and me will be okay.” He kept his focus on Vlad, looking for any indication that the job they were on was
not
on the up and up. Instead, he received another grin.

“Harry right. You be okay, but Vlad still think university where Harry belong. Maybe you meet sexy co-ed, eh?” he asked and wagged his blond brows.

The motel door opened and Vlad immediately tensed. “Job done?” he asked Santiago.

The Columbian nodded as Mickey came inside and closed the door behind him. “
Sí, es completo.
” He looked to Harrison. “Sync it and we leave.”

Harrison glanced at Mickey, who wore a blank expression. Mickey had drastically changed since they’d been with Vlad and Santiago. He no longer smiled or joked around, but instead had become quiet, brooding…fearful.

“Will do,” Harrison said and, praying to God that everything had closed properly on the computer, he opened the laptop. It booted up without issue, the program he’d installed earlier nowhere in sight. With relief slowing his racing heart, he took a seat and went through the task of syncing the laptop to the device. Ten minutes later, they were ready to leave Bloomington, Indiana.

“If you have to use the head, do it now,” Santiago said. “It’s three and a half hours to Columbus, Ohio. I want to push through, install the device and
tomar la carretera
.”

“
говорят по-английски
, Колумба
,” Vlad said in Russian.

Santiago’s forehead scrunched. “What the hell did you say?”

“Speak English, Columbian,” Vlad said with a smile.
 

Laughing, Santiago slapped Vlad on the back. “Sorry,
amigo
. Bad habit. What I said is that I want to hit the road and leave Ohio this evening. It’s almost five hours to Knoxville from Columbus.”

“See if Honey Badger will give us plane,” Vlad suggested.

“Good plan,” Santiago responded and pulled his cell phone from his pocket. “I don’t mind driving to Columbus, but Knoxville?”

As Santiago placed the call, Harrison looked to his brother. Mickey kept his head down and his eyes on the floor. Whatever Santiago had him doing, it was messing with Mickey’s head. If only he could find a moment to talk to his brother, but Vlad and Santiago had made that impossible from the start. And who in the hell is Honey Badger? He’d heard the two men mention the name before, and assumed that was the code name they were using for their employer.
 

Whoever Honey Badger was, he was in for a big surprise. Although the
security
devices would still work, thanks to the program Harrison had installed while Vlad was at the store, those same devices would link straight back to the bastard once used.
 

Harrison hoped like hell the authorities knew what to look for when they finally found the devices. If they didn’t…people would die.
 

*

He rose from the chamois-soft leather office chair and approached the large windows overlooking the vast acreage surrounding his estate. The labyrinth in the center of the backyard had been created over eighty years ago. Made of tall manicured hedges and covering three quarters of an acre, the maze had fascinated him as a child. Especially because, according to his father and grandfather, at the center of the labyrinth buried treasure had been left behind by his great-grandfather, who had commissioned the structure.
 

His great-grandfather, who he was named after, had been a crazy son of a bitch. Under his rule the family business had lost speed. More money had been spent on extravagant and useless things, like the labyrinth, than the company had earned. When the old bastard had died, his grandfather had not only turned the company around, but had been prepared to tear down the maze. Fortunately his namesake had left a clause in his will protecting the intricate cluster of hedges. To his grandfather, the labyrinth had embodied failure. To him, it symbolized challenge and disappointment.

A knock came at the door. The same eagerness that had run through him as a child, when he’d fantasize about the labyrinth’s treasure, ran through him now. “Enter,” he said and glanced over his shoulder as the door opened.

The pretty maid, Alison, pushed a serving cart into the office and gave him a shy smile. “The lunch you requested, sir. Shall I set the table for you?”

He looked to the large table in the corner of the office. “No, just leave the cart by the table. I’ll serve myself.”

As Alison did as he asked, he stared at her curvy hips and ass. If he recalled, she’d only been employed for about six months. Yet there was something about her that reminded him of someone else he knew. Not that he cared. But for what he had planned it might be in his best interest to know a little more about the woman. As he’d told his pathetic wife, he did have a reputation to maintain.

“Will there be anything else?” she asked.

He motioned her to him. “I’m sure your duties don’t give you the luxury to stop and take in the beauty of my estate. Come. I’d like to show you something.”

Wariness and curiosity shown in her green eyes. She placed a hand to her flat stomach and the other to the bun holding back her dark blonde hair. “I don’t want to disturb—”

“Think nothing of it. I could use a little company.” He could use a good fucking. “Please, come look.”

She moved across the room, her steps light and tentative, until she stood a few feet away from him. When she glanced out the window, her eyes widened. “I’ve never seen the maze from this view,” she said.

Considering she worked in the kitchen and Mrs. Burrows, his head housekeeper, ran a tight ship, he’d figured as much. “What do you think of it?”
 

“It’s beautiful.” She smiled. “And a little on the scary side.”
 

“Scary? Interesting. Why do you say that?”

She looked at him hesitantly.
 

“Please, speak freely.”

“Well,” she began and glanced out the window. “When I first began working here, Mrs. Burrows showed me part of the grounds. She took me to the entrance of the maze and told me all the pathways combined equaled nearly a mile, and that the shrubbery stood about six feet. She led me inside and I couldn’t help feeling claustrophobic. The hedges are so immense, I swear I felt like they blocked out the sun.”

“Or maybe you’re just short,” he said with a smile and eyed her petite body.

She grinned. “True. I don’t know. I guess maybe I don’t like not knowing which direction to go or, more importantly, if I can find my way back.”

“You sound like my mother. She hated the maze and hated when I’d disappear inside of it.” He took a step closer to the maid and leaned against the window ledge. “When I was nine, I would sneak away from my tutors and nannies and lose myself in the complex paths. You’re right, the pyramidal cedars that make up the maze are six feet tall and I could see how they’d intimidate you.”

“They didn’t bother you?” she asked, her posture relaxing. “Even at nine?”

“Did Mrs. Burrows tell you how there’s supposed to be buried treasure within the maze?”

Alison raised her dark blonde brows. “Buried treasure?” she asked, her tone skeptical.
 

“Yes, that’s right. Supposedly my great-grandfather had buried riches near the center of the maze once it had been complete. Even though I was only nine, you better believe I was determined to find the buried treasure and, because I’d been told about my great-grandfather’s elaborate and expensive eccentricities, I imagined discovering a treasure chest filled with gold coins, diamonds, rubies and ancient Egyptian artifacts. After all, my great-grandfather had traveled the world and visited exotic locations. What kid wouldn’t have fantasized about treasure?”

“And? Did you find it?” she asked, her tone a combination of excitement and skepticism.

“It took me almost an entire summer to reach the center. I’d carry strips of different colors of ribbon in a backpack and tie the ribbon around branches so I could map out where I’ve been and where I needed to go. The day I found the center I swear was one of the best days of my life. I’d proven to myself that I could accomplish what I’d considered impossible. Of course, I was a kid, and kids do tend to be melodramatic.”

She chuckled. “Yes, they do. But I imagine you had to have been so proud of yourself.”

He moved closer. “I was. Using the colored ribbons, I ran back to the house, collected a shovel and pick from the caretaker’s garage, then ran back to the center of the maze. I worked throughout the day and evening, digging holes. Then did the same thing every day for several weeks. But I didn’t find the treasure.” What he had found had made him realize his great-grandfather truly was a crazy son of a bitch. Instead of gold coins, diamonds, rubies and ancient Egyptian artifacts, he’d found bones. Human bones.

Her eyes softened and she nodded. “That had to have been disappointing, especially after you worked so hard and had such high hopes.”