Until It's You (14 page)

Footsteps creaked on the floor inside.

Roy’s breath held in his chest. Another step, and another. Working quickly, he pulled the glass away. It made a slight scraping noise, but did not lose its suction from the tool. He dropped the pane of glass onto a bush to his left with a single push of a button on the tool, then flipped it around and pulled out the tool’s blade. The pane crashed through the bush and hit the ground with a thud, but did not shatter.

Roy worked quickly at the screen with the blade, cutting wildly. The exact opposite of the work he had done with the glass. He exhaled, letting stale air out of his lungs, and inhaled again.

The footsteps got closer.

He pulled his dart gun out of his pocket. If he shot this fucker down with his other gun he might as well have just run in the first place, because he would definitely have to after that. It was dart gun or get out. Bullets were a last resort.

He pushed the barrel through the hole he had made in the screen and waited silently. If he got caught in the screen when the footsteps came into this bedroom, he was done. His stand would be made here.

A form came into the doorway. Roy fired. A dart whistled through the air.

And caught the form clean. A shoulder shot. He still hadn’t seen the face, but whoever it was, they were going down.

He pulled the trigger and shot again. This one to be safe. The extra dose would make the effect take hold faster. The whistling dart hit again.

Roy held still and waited. The body crashed down to the floor with a bang, shaking the room. He cringed despite himself and continued to wait.

And wait.

Nobody came running.

He checked his watch. Decided to wait one full minute. The seconds ticked by.

After forty-five seconds, he decided it had been a minute total. He climbed into the room and pulled the curtains shut.

He held still again. Still nothing. He checked his gun. Four darts left. He patted the other one to be sure it was ready in case he got in trouble.

Had Kristina really left her little brother alone? Security hadn’t exactly been tight on the place. Either she really believed in its secrecy or he was missing something. Roy had the deep, sinking feeling he was missing something.

He edged toward the doorway to the body that had fallen, praying it was Andersen. The scientist. Step by nervous step. He’d been sweating profusely, he realized. Under his arms especially. He needed a shower and some deodorant. Then a cigarette.

Came to the slumped form at the door. He looked down at the face.

Glasses. Chubby face.

It was him. He’d gotten his man.

Part of him wanted to just pick him up under his arms and get the hell out before anything else happened, but Roy powered on. This was the enemy’s base. He could gather some intel here to sweeten the pot with the boss. Better his chances of not dying.

He pulled the unconscious man—Thomas Andersen, unless he was really losing it—further into the bedroom as his heartrate settled into something reasonable. Once the man was lying flat, he moved into the next room. From his earlier casing, this looked like the main living space.

There was a couch to his right. Lying on that couch and hooked up to a tablet on the table was a man.

Roy froze, watching. The man appeared to be unconscious. Excitedly, Roy moved closer to the black leather couch.

Lying there, perfectly vulnerable, was Landon Tatum. He had the same look he’d seen at Mark’s dealership. The look that had fooled him, had let him walk right past earlier. But now he was here.

He must have been working with the investigator, somehow. They hadn’t seen it—not even the boss—but it had happened.

Roy shook his head in disbelief. Was this real? Had he inhaled a pharm or had it slipped to him? What were the odds of this shit?

He peeked over at the tablet. Bunch of medical stuff: graphs for the heartrate, some numbers that meant something to someone, a table of more numbers. Medical stuff. Stuff that didn’t matter to Roy.

What mattered now was figuring out how to play this. Would hitting someone with a dart when they were already under anesthesia kill them? If he killed Tatum the boss would murder him if it meant following him to the ends of the earth.

Maybe if he just called it in now and kept watch, that would be the most prudent thing. Even just this opportunity was enough. Keep watch to make sure Kristina wasn’t returning, keep the brother subdued, and keep Landon under wraps. In fact, he could probably just tie the guy up while he was knocked out. He didn’t know how deep people went under for Recalls—never had to do one himself—but he imagined it was deep enough to not wake up from a couple of ties.

Decided, Roy turned toward the connected kitchen he had seen earlier and caught a dart in the left shoulder.

Pain seared in his arm as confusion rang through his skull. When had someone come in? Nobody had come in. He would have heard.

He reached for his gun with his good arm and scanned to see through the pain in his arm. A dart whizzed by, inches from his fingers, and something advanced toward him. Someone.

He stood tall and wore a black long-sleeve t-shirt. The scowl on his face registered for Roy at the same time as his identity. Roy froze.

This was the other brother. The special forces bastard. Shit.

“You move, I’m going to spend the next two hours killing you as painfully as possible,” he said. “Understand?”

Roy nodded. He was fucked. The pharm in the dart took hold and the world narrowed into a single pinprick. Then it was gone. 

Kristina swirled her Merlot in its glass as she and Dunn waited for their food. The restaurant buzzed around her as she thought over the list in her blazer pocket. As much as she liked Di Roma, she wished she could be at her tablet cross referencing all these dates.

Instead, she was sitting with her boss across from her. Dunn seemed satisfied she'd said her piece, as she was equally silent. At this point, Kristina was wondering if maybe she could duck out before the meal.

Her comm buzzed.

Kristina frowned. Very, very few people had this ID, and they were unlikely to use it unless it was important. After a moment's hesitation, she looked up to Dunn to excuse herself.

Dunn seemed to have noticed what Kristina was worried about, because she had trained her cool eyes on her right on the spot where her she kept her comm. Kristina grimaced and tried to turn it into a smile.

"I'm sorry," she said quietly. "But I have to take this."

Dunn nodded once, then Kristina stood up and weaved her way past several white cloth tables until she was out in the soupy, warm night air. Only then did she pull the comm out of her pocket and check who was calling. With a swipe of her finger, she answered the call and put the comm to her ear.

“What happened?” she asked breathlessly.

“Kristina,” Kevin said, his voice hard. “Where did you go? Are you alright?”

“I’m fine. Chasing down a lead.” She swallowed hard. “What happened? Why are you calling?”

“Your security for this safe house was kind of a joke, Kris.”

Oh no.

Her heart sank. If something happened to Tom or Landon it was her fault.

“Kevin, what the hell is going on? Please tell me everyone is okay!”

Another silence, then one of Kevin's trademark grunts of disgust. “Some fucker broke in,” he growled.

A burning spread from her stomach up to her chest, tracing the lines of her ribs. She tried to speak, but her mouth had dried up like sand in the sun. With every shallow breath, it hurt worse.

After a moment, Kevin continued. “Thankfully I managed to come in and catch him with a tranq before he did too much damage. Tom’s out cold  but I think it's one of the same I used on this fucker. I just woke Tatum up from a Recall.”

She found her voice. Tom! “Oh my god, this is my fault. Oh my god. Tom!”

"It's okay, Kris," Kevin said soothingly. "It's okay. He's going to be fine. Can you get over here?”

“How long have you been keeping watch over the building?”

“We’ll talk about it when you get here. Take evasive measures. Somehow we slipped up and they found us. I have the guy’s comm and it doesn’t look like he’s been sent any messages in a while, so we might be okay. I got the thing deconstructed now. But this is bad.” He paused. “Can you make it?”

“What? Yeah, I’ll be there soon.”

“Don’t come in a straight line.”

She nodded, even though he wasn't there. Tears had welled up in her eyes from a mixture of relief, embarrassment, and fear. She blinked them away. “I know. I know.”

"Okay. I'll see you soon."

She ended the call and looked up at the restaurant. The lights traced across the huge front window whispered around the surface like anxious thoughts flitting through the night. She became conscious of the sweat on the back of her neck. If it weren’t for Kevin, her mistake with the safe house would have killed Tom.

She looked at the door. Dunn was waiting in there. Did she have something to do with this? Kevin had said there were no communications from the guy who had come into the apartment.

It was a possibility, at least. She had to do better about being on her guard.

She blinked away some more tears and then steadied herself. Checked her face in her comm. Her eyes were a little red, but the makeup hadn't smudged at least. With a deep breath, she swung the thin glass door open and walked back into the restaurant, not even making eye contact with the hostess and instead heading straight for the table she’d been sharing with Dunn. All without so much as swiping her cheap, pre-paid comm.

Dunn was on her own communication device when Kristina approached. She hastily put it away.

“Is everything alright?” she asked, her thin brows arched up in a convincing show of concern. “You looked like you were expecting some very bad news.”

“Everything’s fine,” Kristina said quickly. “But I’m going to have to cut our outing short.”

“What’s happened?”

“Family emergency,” Kristina said, keeping her eyes fixed firmly on Dunn’s face. “I won’t let it distract me for too long.”

Dunn’s face didn’t move, but her eyes looked displeased somehow nonetheless. “Of course. Are we clear on your instructions regarding the list I gave you?"

“Crystal. I’ll be in touch as soon as I have anything.”

Dunn nodded once and grabbed her wine. “Very good,” she said.

Then she took a long sip and went back to her comm. Kristina rushed out of the restaurant.

Moments later she was in an auto cab, deciding where would be best for it to take her. Wicker Park would be a good start. Take a walk, find another cab on the other end of the neighborhood. Take that close to the apartment, walk the rest of the way.

If they already knew the location, it was useless. If they didn’t, it could be the most important thing she did. She wasn't going to mess up again.

The world came unglued at its edges and seemed to be not a world, so much, as an unrelated collage of impressions assaulting Landon in something like succession. They came crooked, or he couldn’t keep them straight, and time wobbled along with any sense of direction. There were lights, the smell of real black leather near his face, the stick of sweat on that same leather. It was a couch, maybe. Voices came at him, around him, but not addressing him, mostly.

The light. There was a light, overhead on the ceiling. He opened his eyes again—blinked, perhaps—but it was sharper now, he was rising out of the heavy haze that had contained him. Second to second and moment to moment, a world coalesced around him.

Apartment. Sticking out of his arm, an IV. A Cerebral Activity Placement device on his head. Something wrong.

Achingly, gradually, he gained control of his limbs. Wiggled his toes in his socks, flexed his fingers. His hand moved over to the needle just below his elbow. Pulled it out. Little sting in the arm. Mild. CAP came off next.

He sat up and saw a man crouched over another man. The seated man had his head slumped unconsciously to one side.

Landon blinked and shook his head. He was in the apartment he had bought. For the leak. The investigation. Kristina had left. Where was Tom? Who was he looking at now?

“Who are you?” he slurred. He swallowed and tried again. “Hey! Who are you?”

The man’s attention snapped back toward Landon. He wore a black long-sleeve t-shirt and looked like some kind of ex-military. His face rang a distant bell in the back of Landon’s mind and set it to ringing out.

“Tatum," the man said gruffly. "You're out."

Landon swung his legs around on the couch so that he was sitting normally. “Who the hell are you?”

The man stood up straight and motioned with a jerk of his head toward the unconscious man at his feet. “You have a security problem.”

“I can see that. What the hell is going on?”

“I'm figuring that out. He came here for you, by the looks of it. Shot my brother with a couple of tranq darts.” He looked briefly toward the bedroom. “He’s still out.”

Landon rubbed his eyes. His brain still felt like it was sharing space in his skull with a dark storm cloud.

“You're Kevin Andersen,” he said, articulating the words as quickly as he put the information together.

Kevin Andersen nodded, then turned his attention to the man at his feet. “You know who this guy is?”

Landon eased himself more upright. "You sure they're tranqs? The darts he shot Tom with."

"Yeah. You know who this is?"

Landon shook his head, then tried to stand. Dizziness assaulted his senses and made the world tilt on one side.

He fought hard for his balance. He wasn’t about to sit back down. Not with Kevin standing there watching him.

Gritting his teeth, he straightened up, then went step-by-step to where Kevin was standing. It was a struggle, but he made it.

He could feel Kevin watching him, waiting for a show of weakness. “You’re going to be sick from the Recall drug for a while,” he said.

"I know," Landon replied.

He crouched down in a catcher's stance, knees wide, and got a good look at the unconscious man. Then a shiver erupted through his body and nearly knocked him off balance. He stood up to regain himself.

“The bastard’s name is Roy,” he said. “Saw him earlier today buying a car. And two nights ago at The Velvet.”

Kevin’s jaw worked. He was one of those guys who took his time before responding to anything, but the way he did it didn't make him seem folksy. Just patient.

“Well," he said at last.  "He found out about this place somehow. My guess is he followed someone. You, Kristina, or Tom. Anyone else been here?”

Landon stood up from his crouch. “No. Are you the one who pulled me from the Recall?”

“I am. Figured you could help me with what’s going on.”

“Did you talk to Kristina? Is she okay?”

Kevin's jaw flexed. He took even more time than he had before to answer that question.

This could be a problem.

“Yeah," Kevin said at last. "She is. What do you want with her anyway?”

Landon held himself together and kept his face neutral. “She’s investigating a leak for me.”

“This is a hell of a mess to drag her into.”

Landon shook his head. “I know. It wasn’t a mess like this when I chose her. This isn’t what I was expecting.”

“But this is what it is. And it's yours.”

“That’s true.” Landon drew himself up straight until his posture matched the former military man's. “But I’m going to get her, myself, and everyone else involved in this out of it in one piece.”

Kevin said nothing. Just kept staring right at him. It was a gaze that would whither some people. Not him, but some.

“So where have you been, anyway?” Landon asked. “Kristina said you were laying low after the attack on your office.”

“Been checking on some things,” Kevin said. “Watching to see what these fuckers do next. This is the answer, apparently.”

“How did you find the apartment?”

“Had Kristina’s comm tracked. When I saw where she was staying I checked the building out. Got a couple cameras installed in the area early this morning. I was tracking Kristina’s movement when I got a notice of suspicious activity. Saw the fucker go through the window. So I rushed back and just made it.”

Landon nodded. It was something he should have thought of, really. In another scenario this could have been deadly. “Thank you. Have you talked to Kristina?”

“She’s on her way here. Should be about an hour by my guess. Hopefully she'll be more careful this time.”

Landon let the insult toward Kristina go. That wasn't a quagmire he wanted to step in. Not now, at least.

“I'm sure she will. I'm going to get back to work running through some things until she arrives.” He motioned toward Roy. “What are you going to do with him?”

Another piercing glare, then a shrug. “Bind him, wait until he gets up, and see what he knows.”

“And then?”

“Cops, probably.”

Landon's brow quirked up. He had to keep the incredulity out of his voice. “Probably?”

“Things happen sometimes,” Kevin said. “I’m sure you know how it is.”

Landon closed his eyes. What kind of psycho was this guy, anyway? He needed to talk to Kristina about him when she arrived. If she arrived. She had
better
be alright. "If it gets to that, I don't want to know. Okay?"

Kevin's face cracked into a hint of a smile. "I wouldn't dream of letting it get to that, Tatum."

***

It took her an hour and three cabs to get back to the apartment. She’d originally planned on two, but a red Buick had been behind her most of the way to Wicker Park, so she’d take another back east before nabbing something up Lakeshore Drive.

The last two legs were clean. She was sure. She needed to put more value on her pre-paid comm, but she was clean. One thing about auto cabs is you didn’t have to worry about someone thinking it was weird you did nothing but look out the back window the whole drive.

She got dropped off further from the apartment, this time. Hoped that last step would be enough. Besides, the bastard who’d been good enough to follow her the first time had been stopped by Kevin. Assuming it was her fault in the first place. Which seemed likely, but he could have stalked Landon while he was out and just waited a very long time.

The whole deal had so many moving parts it made her head spin. So much to follow up on. So much to sift through. Still so far from a definite target that she could sink into.

She walked up to the apartment building and rang the buzzer. Several seconds passed, then she heard footsteps behind the door. The cadence was refreshingly familiar.

The door swung open. There, standing in front of her, was her big brother. She flew across the threshold and gave him a big hug.

“Good to see you too,” he said, finally squeezing her back.

She let go. “We’d better get inside.”

“Right.”

She stepped all the way and he closed the door. They both walked into the apartment itself.

The scene when she walked in was something out of a movie. Kevin had tied up the unconscious man so that his arms and legs were bound tight with duct tape. The man's head was slumped to the side, and she could already see him falling over when he came to and tried to find his balance.

She turned away and saw Landon. The gaze of his dark eyes tugged at her chest so hard it hurt.

The world seemed suddenly simpler then, for a moment, between them. Just them.

And so she walked to him, tugged on an invisible line until she came to where he was standing and, without a word, hugged him tight, her arms going under his and her fingers barely touching around his broad back, her cheek up against his hard chest. His warm, long-fingered hands were on her back firmly, bringing her in closer so that his manly natural scent enveloped her senses.

Then reality returned and suddenly she felt her brother’s cool, observant gaze on her back like an ice cube dropped from the nape of her neck. She pulled away awkwardly.

There was a loss in Landon’s eyes, but he masked it quickly. She spun to face her brother. Kevin looked at her just about the way she’d suspected. Utterly unreadable, and yet she knew he was processing this information in a way she would find out about eventually.

She turned back to Landon. “You’re okay! What happened?”

Landon pressed his lips together, looked at Kevin then back at Kristina. “I don’t know, honestly. I was in Recall and apparently Roy came in through the bedroom window. It’s the same guy I saw at the dealer.”

“The guy from The Velvet?”

“Yes.”

She needed to get everything she could on this guy as soon as possible. “Do you think he followed you from there?"

“No. I can't rule anything out, but it seems very unlikely.”

She blew out a deep breath. “How, then?”

“I don’t know.”

Kevin cleared his throat behind her. She turned her head and looked at him over her shoulder.

“You should have had this place secured," he said, not exactly angry but at least disappointed, which was kind of worse. "Set up an alarm system, cameras, something.”

Her face grew hot, but she squared up to her brother anyway. “It’s been one thing or another Kevin. I have no idea how he traced this place. If I’d known we were planning to come and go so much I would have called you and had you handle it.”

She took a deep breath and studied his unmoving face. The way he could make his face into a mask was almost creepy.

“How did you find it, anyway?” she asked.

“I got it figured from tracing your comm. Wanted to keep an eye on you from enough distance that whoever your enemy is wouldn’t notice. It worked.”

“But you didn’t follow me when you saw my comm moving?”

“I did. But those cameras I mentioned earlier. The ones I said you should have. I put them in. And they notified me of suspicious activity outside the bedroom window.”

Her fists clenched. Of course he would do that. He would make time. And it had saved her and Landon. He was always right when it came to stuff like this.

“Cameras were right," Kevin continued. "He cut the glass out and the screen. Looks like a professional job. Judging by where Tom fell, my guess is he heard him at the last minute and came to check. I’m kind of surprised he didn’t catch a bullet, to be honest.”

Her heart sank. “Is he okay?" she asked, her eyes searching the room. "Let me see him!”

“He’s fine,” Kevin said. “Unconscious, but fine.”

“He got hit by two of the same darts that they shot you with,” Landon added. “So he’ll probably be out a few more hours.”

She shook her head at both of them, her heart pounding. “Let me see him.”

Kevin motioned toward the bedroom door. “I have him resting on the bed. He’s fine, Kris.”

She nodded quickly at him, but rushed into the room anyway. This was her fault. Her fault, her fault, her fault.

Tom was lying on the bed there, looking as peaceful as the dead save for the rise and fall of his chest.

Seeing him helpless like that made her heart race. If Kevin hadn’t been his usual self...

Someone was behind her, she could feel it. She whirled around to see if Kevin was there.

No. It was Landon, watching her from a few feet inside the door. He approached when he saw she had noticed him.

Her stomach did a flip as he approached. She should be thinking right now, but nothing would come to her mind.

Finally, he came to a stop just a foot from her, so close she could smell his natural scent again. “You can’t keep blaming yourself for this,” he said, his voice low. “It’s not going to change anything, and you don’t even know if it’s your fault.”

Heat rushed to her face. She shook her head. “No, Kevin’s right. I should have been more conscious about the security situation. It had barely even crossed my mind. I just...I did what I could to avoid being tracked back the apartment. And yet that bastard tracked me.”