Unchained (53 page)

“Remy. Look at what you’re wearing. What the fuck is that outfit called? Penniless artist along the Seine? Shit, girl. Baggy overalls? Paint stained at that! And an AC/DC t-shirt?”

“I was painting,” she groused uncomfortably because she knew he was right.

“Your idea of getting dressed up is brushing your hair and putting on clean sneakers.”

“Oh, yeah?” she snapped when her feelings got hurt. “Well, you wear skinny jeans. Or used to,” she hastily added when it dawned on her that Jace had been through quite a transformation in the months he’d been in Arizona.

The guy who’d been her rock during a difficult time patted her hand and smile warmly. “Be that as it may, Remy. It wouldn’t hurt you to remember who you are. Who you used to be. Give it a try. Couldn’t hurt.”

A
MORE STILTED
or uncomfortable meal wasn’t possible
, Drae thought as the five of them gathered around the table in Lacey’s kitchen.

Between Alex and Meghan exchanging pained looks, Lacey walking around like a ghost, and Victoria trying her damnedest to keep as much distance between them as possible, he felt like a helpless kid while all the adults in the room were acting strangely.

They were eating in awkward silence when he and Alex looked up at the same time. A notification was posting on Cam’s computer. Without any hesitation, they both jumped up and scrambled into the study.

“What is it?” Lacey asked breathlessly when she followed seconds later. “Is it Cameron?”

“Hold on,” Alex scolded with his hand up. Peering over the big man’s shoulder, they read the long, detailed message in unison. Their contact at State was responding, and it seemed initially as though the news was good. Or better than it could have been.

But as they read on, the real-time information got less detailed and more ambiguous. They were already aware of the Karachi to Paris transfer. What they really needed to know was whether the bombing in Paris had anything to do with the safe house and whether Cam was still under deep cover.

Victoria had her arm around a pale and shaking Lacey while Meghan stood on Alex’s other side and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Honey?”

Drae looked at his wife and tried to communicate with his expression—telling her it wasn’t great news, but it was good information. Then he waited to hear what the Major thought.

“I think he’s okay. There’s a lot of gray language in this, but I’m sensing there’s more to this situation with Cameron than meets the eye. Do you agree, Drae?” he asked with a hard glance at him over a shoulder.

He didn’t immediately respond. They were missing something. A key piece to the puzzle, and without it, none of this would ever make sense.

Looking at Lacey, he asked, “Honey, explain to us again exactly what happened the day Cam left.”

“Um, okay,” she said silkily. “Well, let’s see. It was quite early. Dylan gets up at first light, so we were still in our pajamas and had set up for breakfast in the kitchen when they showed up.”

“Okay, stop,” Drae instructed. “Nice and slow. Who showed up and how did they get here?”

“Oh,” she said with her fingers twining through her long ponytail. “Calder told me later he and Stephanie were on a sunrise ride when they saw a line of black SUVs speeding along the access road. They were already past the turnoff, so he figured from the get-go that with Alex gone, the attention would be on Cameron or you, Drae.”

“So from the first second, it was clear the agency wasn’t involved.”

“Right.”

He and Alex exchanged a dark look and seemed to both think,
Fuck
, at the same time.

“What happened when they got here?”

“Well, Cameron heard the cars approaching. Because it was so early, he went to check it out.”

“Did he seem concerned at that point?” Alex asked.

Lacey’s eyes widened. “Yes. I’ve never seen him like that. The minute he saw the caravan of black vehicles, something came over him. A hardness. He was … guarded. I remember he looked at the baby for a long time. And then he told me to stay put. That he’d go see what was up and come tell me if it was anything important.”

“Were you able to see or hear any conversations?”

“Not at first,” she explained. “Several people came to the door, and another group of men circled the house. They were outside the kitchen door,” she said with a nod of her head at the patio. “And then an agent in a black suit wearing an earpiece came into the kitchen and wouldn’t let me leave.”

Ah jeez,
he thought. This was no simple seek and find. The black suits don’t drop by for a visit with no reason in mind.

“Calder and Stephanie tried to come to the kitchen and a ruckus broke out when the agents outside stopped them. It was scary. The guy watching me had a hand on his gun. I didn’t know what to think.”

“Take your pick,” Alex growled. “CIA. FBI. NSA.”

“Oh, no,” Lacey told them vehemently with a shake of her head. “They were Secret Service. And maybe a senator or something like that. Didn’t Cameron’s message to you, Drae, explain that?”

“Message? What message? I didn’t get any message.”

Alex sneered and gave a violent shake of his head. “Those motherfuckers blasted the area with white noise. Anything he tried to send while they were on property vanished into thin air.”

“When you spoke to Cam, what did he say?”

“Said they called him in. Oh, and there was an argument. Raised voices. He was mad. Really, really mad.”

Victoria spoke up. “Lacey, did you have your iPad that morning? Where is it now?

“Um, it’s in the drawer over there.” She pointed. “And, yeah, it was in Cameron’s office. I shredded my lightning cord, and he was charging it for me.”

Drae watched his wife retrieve the tablet and power it on. Then Alex suddenly perked up and barked, “Tori! You’re fucking brilliant.”

“What’s going on?” Drae asked.

“Lacey’s iPad pretty much never goes on the network. Cam would know that. If he tried to access his computer, he’d know right away about being blocked. Do the math.”

“I use it for school, not as a toy. Don’t need another distraction. When I want to upload a file or email an assignment, I connect to our Wi-Fi and then disconnect when I’m finished. And that morning? Cameron had me bring up his email, but it wasn’t working.”

Alex smiled for the first time all day. “If I know Cam, he left a message on the iPad and made sure it wasn’t connected or set to Bluetooth. No connection, no white noise wiping everything clean.”

“Found it,” Tori said. “It’s in Notes. Here,” she said, handing the small device to him and Alex. “Read.”

Five lines. And it was enough. All in their unique Justice code so even a prying busybody wouldn’t know the content.

“Whoa,” Alex muttered.

“Good lord,” Drae agreed. “No wonder there’s an information blackout.”

Lacey wanted to see the note, but the words made no sense.

“We were all correct about one thing. This is no ordinary seek-and-find. He’s deep cover to find a high-value target with American ties that would suggest it’s somebody pretty important.”

“Um, guys,” Meghan interrupted. “I was just checking on my phone for CNN updates about the bombing.”

“What’s going on?” Alex asked.

“Half a page beneath the top news stories, there’s a report about the Vice President’s grandson being in a car accident overseas. London, it says. He’s being med-evacked by the military and brought back to the States.”

Drae was incredulous. “That seems oddly coincidental, doesn’t it?”

“Sorry,” Lacey murmured. “Can someone explain what’s going on?”

“Sweetie,” his wife answered gently. “I think what this means is the high-value seek-and-find was the grandson.”

“But London? What happened to the safe house in Paris?”

“If I had to guess,” Alex said. “I’d say the safe house was compromised, and they got out of there before the blast. London isn’t that far from Paris, and they went before making a press announcement, so there’d be no discernible connection between a bomb blast in France and a car accident in England.”

“Does that mean my husband is coming home?”

Everyone in the room heard the agony in Lacey’s voice. When the poor woman started to shake uncontrollably, Meghan was on her in a flash.

“Stay calm, sweetie. Think about the baby.”

“Baby?” he and Victoria bellowed at the same time.

“Oh,” Alex said with a sly smile. “Guess we forgot to share. Lacey’s pregnant. Looks like we have an honest-to-god baby epidemic.”

Baby epidemic? What the fuck did that mean? Gritting his teeth, he forced himself not to glance in his wife’s direction.

“First Stephanie and now Lacey!”

Where was a feather to knock him over with when he needed one?

Stephanie? Pregnant? How the hell was that even possible?

Drae couldn’t avoid looking at Victoria when he heard her gasp. She seemed incredibly sad when what he expected was to see happiness on her face.

No wonder she was upset last night. Her goddamn mother was pregnant and what did he do? Start blathering a load of nonsense about vasectomies and protecting her.

Yep. He was the crown price of asshats.

Her closet looked like a disaster zone. Clothes flung everywhere, and a pile of sandals, boots, and sneakers pushed to one corner. She didn’t know why she even bothered to look. Remy knew a cocktail dress wasn’t going to magically appear any more than a plain cotton sundress would. Still, though, she dug deep hoping she had her funeral outfit.

Funeral outfit. What an awful term. What made it even worse was the description was painfully accurate. Maybe it was her years in the military or the edge-of-formal upbringing—didn’t matter which. All she knew was, when it was time to be respectful, Remy knew the drill.

Turned out after a long search, the ugly black skirt and blazer didn’t make the trip to Arizona. Just as well. She hated the boxy suit and couldn’t imagine why she’d bought it in the first place.

In the end, she went with simplicity. With each garment she put on, Remy steeled herself for the evening ahead. It felt like strapping on battle armor, and shook her up when she thought about why she felt so much mental protection was necessary.

Doubling up on antiperspirant against the possibility her nervousness would result in sweat spots showing through her clothes, she took things even further by dressing in front of an oscillating fan in a vain attempt to stay cool.

Dressed and ready a full twenty minutes before she expected Finn to arrive, she flopped onto the sofa, sat awkwardly, and hunched over with her forearms resting on her thighs as she twisted the strap of a purse she didn’t know she had until an hour ago.

The longer she sat, the more nervous she got.

What did Finn expect of her tonight? What part was she playing?

Being herself wasn’t an option.
Pfft.
Nobody got the real Remington Bisset except maybe Jace.

So she fretted and made up bizarre scenarios in her head.

Would he be loud and obnoxious? He was halfway there, so anything was possible.

Maybe he’d be one of those turd blossoms who expected a date to eat but then shut up. Let the men do all the talking.