“You don’t know what she’s been through. She doesn’t need this too.” Leland stared down at his partner, his jaw clenched.
Tully shook his head. “She’s a strong person and she can handle herself. You have to trust her.” He stared back at Leland. “And me.”
Leland tamped down his anger but then the fear it was repressing rose up. He slumped into his chair again. “It’s making me crazy to sit in this goddamn van with nothing to do except worry about her.”
“Don’t you have a computer program you could work on? That might take your mind off things.”
Tully knew him well, but he was talking about the old Leland. The one who buried himself in work so he wouldn’t have to feel the emotions he didn’t like. “No, I’m going to suffer through this with her.”
Tully gave him a long, considering look. “Not that I want you to suffer, but it’s good that you’re getting your head out of the cyberworld. I’m liking Dawn more and more all the time.”
“Glad to hear it because you’re going to be seeing her more and more.”
“Oho, so that’s the way the wind blows.” Tully smacked him on the shoulder. “I was hoping you’d wake up and smell the coffee.”
“Jesus, Tully, could you mix any more metaphors?” But Leland grinned as elation rushed through him like a clear mountain stream. Sitting in a truck with nothing to do but feel profound anxiety breathing down his neck had forced him to consider some serious matters. Like his grief and how he had buried it. And how Dawn had shown him a way to face it.
“All I know is she’s gotten you away from the office when no one else could,” Tully said. “That argues for some strong feelings on your part.”
Leland thought about claiming it was the Wi-Fi issue that had drawn him out of the office. He’d told himself that often enough. But he was done with avoiding his emotions. “I’d say my feelings are getting stronger every minute. Which explains why I don’t want her hanging around arms dealers who might be pissed off that their buyer is in custody.” He glared at Tully as the image of an unarmed Dawn facing down a machine-gun-toting Chad seared through his brain.
“We’ve been through this before.”
“Okay, but I go in to get her just before the gym closes. I don’t want her to be there without customers to protect her.”
Tully shook his head. “They’ll recognize you.”
“Of course they will. As Lee Wellmont, looking for a refund of his membership dues since things didn’t work out with his personal trainer. Or maybe Lee realizes he made a big mistake letting Dawn go and he wants to make amends.” Leland smiled at the idea of playacting a reunion with Dawn and leaned back in the chair, bumping his head against a monitor. “Jesus, couldn’t you get a bigger van?”
Tully snorted. “You’re just cranky because I won’t let you see your girlfriend.”
Chapter 19
“And breathe out,” Dawn instructed her client, completing the final portion of her last training session for the day. Or rather for the night, since she’d had appointments all evening. She offered her hand to the middle-aged insurance salesman stretched out on the mat. “You worked hard. Make sure to keep hydrating when you get home.”
He allowed her to pull him to his feet. “I work hard every time with you. But it’s always worth it. I feel so much better after I’m done. And I look better too.” He smiled a happy smile before he took a long swallow of water.
Sometimes she loved her clients. Tonight, though, she wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of the gym with its stench of danger. She’d been so tense all day that she could count the knots in her neck and shoulder muscles. It infuriated her that the place where she usually felt secure had become a prison she needed to escape from.
But she understood why the FBI—or whoever was running this show now—needed her to stay. She realized that she hadn’t seen Chad around since Vicky had yanked him into her office. That was weird because he definitely had evening clients.
She shrugged to counteract the clench of anxiety his unusual behavior induced.
“See you tomorrow,” her client said as he started toward the locker rooms.
“Try to stretch before we begin,” she reminded him.
He held up a hand in acknowledgment and kept walking. Dawn wiped down the mat and hung it on the rack before a bad feeling made her stomach spasm again. Chad couldn’t have slipped through the FBI’s fingers, could he? At least she didn’t need to feel guilty if he had. She’d done what they asked her.
Fifteen minutes till closing time and then she could bolt out of there to find out what was going on.
As she walked toward the locker rooms, she noticed that the towel shelves in the treadmill room were nearly empty. She’d check her secret phone for messages and restock the shelves. Better to keep busy than to worry fruitlessly about Chad’s whereabouts.
“Dawn, wait!”
She stopped and turned at the same time to see Leland striding toward her, wearing an odd, apologetic smile. Her heart did a somersault as she took in his long legs, wide shoulders, and nerdy glasses over those vivid blue eyes. He managed to look both hot and comforting at the same time. She had to resist the overwhelming urge to throw herself into his arms.
“Leland, what are you doing here?” Shit, he was supposed to be Lee here. She glanced around to see if anyone was nearby to hear her slip, but the room was deserted.
He didn’t look worried so her tension ratcheted down a notch.
However, when he got close, he threw her a warning glance before setting that strange fake smile back in place. “Dawn, I came to ask for a refund, but then I realized I had made a terrible mistake. Will you give me a second chance?” He spoke loudly and she realized he was putting on a show. But for whom?
“A second chance?” Then she remembered their silly cover story. She exaggerated a wary glance. “Maybe. Take me out for dinner and we’ll see if we can talk things through. You really hurt me, you know.”
He let his head drop forward as though ashamed. “I know. I was a jerk. Can you forgive me?”
It seemed like they were going through this whole charade for no one since the room was empty.
“Dawn, you still here?” Chad’s voice made her twitch and comprehend Leland’s act.
“Yeah, I was just going to refill the towel shelves when my, um, client showed up.”
“No need. I’ll take care of it.” Chad walked into the equipment room. He was dressed in jeans and a black T-shirt rather than his training clothes.
Leland pivoted around to face him. “Chad, good to—”
“You!” Chad shouted, his face contorting with anger. “I know who you really are, you fucking asshole!”
“Chad!” Dawn cried. “He’s a client!”
“No, he’s a fucking rat and the reason I just lost my best customer.” Chad’s face was bright red. “That deal was going to put me in the big time but you screwed it up.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Leland said in a voice of utter disdain. “I came to ask Dawn for a second chance and you start calling me names. You’re the asshole.”
He must have learned that tone at his fancy private school.
Chad smiled in a horrible way, his mouth curving but his eyes flat and hard. “You’re some kind of computer genius, so you traced the dark web traffic to my website.” He shifted his creepy gaze to Dawn. “You brought him in. All that whining to Ramón about how unhappy the customers were. Jesus, you couldn’t keep your nose out of it for the few weeks I needed to close this deal.”
He reached behind his back in a gesture that sent a wave of panic through Dawn. But panic was an old nemesis, and she’d learned to deal with it. She fought back the blackness fogging her vision, refusing to freak out.
Before Dawn could see what Chad had in his hand, Leland shouted, “Zulu, Zulu!” and shoved her behind him, his body shielding her from Chad.
A piece of information popped into her head from one of the self-
defense classes she’d taken, something she’d thought was useless at the time. She grabbed Leland’s wrist and yanked him backward, yelling, “Pool!” Then she turned and bolted for the big glass doors, praying that the thud of footsteps following her was Leland and not Chad.
“What the fuck?!” Chad bellowed.
Dawn slammed open the door and ducked as a gunshot cracked from behind her and glass shattered around her shoulders.
“Leland?” She looked back to see him upright and running, his body still between her and Chad. Another gunshot rang out and she heard Leland curse.
Then they were at the edge of the pool. Dawn screamed, “Zulu,” just in case Tully hadn’t heard Leland, and dove in, Leland arcing into the water beside her.
She struggled to swim underwater, her clothes and sneakers creating enough drag to make it like moving through molasses. How many feet of water had the self-defense instructor said would slow a bullet to nonlethal speed? She was pretty sure it was five, and the pool was six-and-a-half feet deep, so she stayed as close to the bottom as she could. Of course, they’d have to come up for air soon, but she hoped Tully and his team would have ridden to their rescue by then.
She glanced sideways to check on Leland. He swam beside her but with an awkward, lopsided stroke. When she looked more closely, she saw a ribbon of blood trailing through the water behind him.
Rage and terror boiled up inside her. She fought back the terror with the fact that he was keeping up with her in the water, so he couldn’t be dying. She embraced the rage for the strength it gave her.
When they got to what she estimated was the middle of the pool, she slowed the pace, her lungs beginning to crave fresh oxygen. Being an experienced swimmer, Leland could probably hold his breath longer than she could, except he was injured. She paddled just enough to keep herself flat against the tiled bottom of the pool and turned her head to check on him.
He was doing the same, his face toward her. His glasses were gone and the ribbon of blood spiraled upward now, seeming to come from his left arm. She wanted to put her hand against it to stanch the flow but knew the pressure would just push his body away from her.
She heard more gunshots but they were muffled by the water. She prayed her memory of the depth was correct, although she supposed it didn’t really matter. She couldn’t make the pool any deeper.
Her lungs began to burn and her vision began to blur, but she stayed down. She knew that Leland wouldn’t let her surface alone, and she wasn’t going to expose him to another bullet. They just needed to give Tully enough time to find them. It was hard, though, when the water pressed against her chest like it wanted to squeeze the air out of her. She let out a slow stream of bubbles to ease her bursting lungs.
Suddenly, Leland took off away from her, his long legs kicking powerfully. What the hell was he doing? When she saw him rotate and plant his feet on the bottom of the pool, she realized he knew she needed to breathe and was planning to surface first to draw Chad’s attention away from her.
No way was she going to let him be the only target. She twisted to get her sneakers down and pushed hard so she would shoot to the surface. Now Chad would have to figure out who he wanted to shoot more. Maybe making that decision would slow him down enough for them both to dive again.
As her head broke through the surface of the water, she braced herself, wondering how much being shot would hurt. While she sucked in a deep breath, she did a swift scan of the pool’s edge and nearly gulped water when she saw Chad, using a two-handed grip to aim his gun toward the spot where she knew Leland had come up.
“Hey, Chad, you asshole, I’m the one who screwed you!” she yelled before sucking in a fast breath and diving hard.
She struck off the bottom to launch herself in Leland’s direction, relieved to see that he was underwater again. Her lungs were already complaining because she’d used up precious air shouting and hadn’t had time to fully replenish it. As long as her distraction had kept Leland from getting shot again, she didn’t care.
And then she heard voices—commanding voices, the kind you heard on TV shows when the cavalry showed up and told the bad guys to drop their weapons. The water muffled the words so she couldn’t be sure, but it sounded like Tully had arrived.
She kept swimming toward Leland, just in case it wasn’t Tully or he needed more time to disarm Chad. She realized Leland was moving toward her too, his hair billowing around his head with each surge forward, that terrifying red ribbon still streaming from his arm.
He gave a final kick to reach her, grabbing one of her hands to pull her in against him before rocketing them both to the surface.
She gasped in air at the same time she saw Tully standing by the edge of the pool wearing a bulletproof vest and gripping a big black handgun. Two men were holding on to Chad, whose arms were wrenched behind his back. “Oh, thank God!” She pressed her face into Leland’s neck, his skin wet but warm against her cheek.
His arm tightened around her as the scissoring of his powerful legs kept them afloat. “Are you all right?” his voice rasped beside her ear.
She nodded against him, relief and the need for air making it hard to speak. Then she remembered that he wasn’t all right. “Tully,” she shouted. “Leland got shot. He needs a doctor.”
The curses that came out of Tully’s mouth were impressive before he yelled to his guys to call an ambulance. Then he placed his gun on the cement, shrugged out of his vest, and did a racing dive into the pool. He came up on Leland’s opposite side, his gaze already searching his partner’s body. “Where are you hit, buddy?”
“It’s just my arm,” Leland said, sounding irritated. “I don’t need an ambulance and you didn’t have to dive into the pool like some kind of superhero.”
Tully raised his eyebrows at Dawn. “He can’t be hurt too badly if he’s grousing at me. Which arm?”
“The left one,” Dawn said to forestall Leland’s refusal of attention.
“Okay, let’s get you out of the water so I can see what’s going on.” He looked at Dawn. “Will you be okay if I take his right arm?”
Leland still held her against his side with his good arm. It felt so wonderful that she hadn’t thought how hard it must be for him to keep them both up.
“I’m capable of swimming on my own,” Leland panted when Dawn tried to twist out of his grasp.
“Well, you can’t swim while you’re holding on to me,” she pointed out.
“If you don’t put your arm over my shoulders, I’ll put you in a headlock and tow you to the side,” Tully threatened his partner.
“Traitor,” Leland muttered at Dawn, but he let Tully sling his right arm over his shoulders and guide him to the ladder at the edge of the pool.
Dawn paddled along behind, hating the swirl of red in the water. At least it was only coming from Leland’s arm. Or so she kept repeating to herself to stave off the fear that squeezed her heart.
Leland hauled himself up the ladder one-handed, water cascading from his clothing. As Tully’s men grabbed Leland to help him, a loud screech sounded from behind them.
“What the fuck is going on in my pool?” Vicky’s voice was shrill. “Who the hell are you? This is private property. I’m calling the cops.”
“Vicky, shut up!” Chad snapped.
Tully vaulted out of the pool despite his soaking-wet clothes and positioned himself in front of Vicky, where she stood glaring in the glass-strewn doorway. “Ma’am, I’m Tully Gibson, here on behalf of the FBI. One of your employees”—he gestured toward Chad, who still stood between Tully’s two men—“attempted to shoot one of your clients as well as a trainer.”
Vicky spun to face Chad and shrieked, “You fucking moron, why’d you have to shoot at them? Now there’s blood in my beautiful pool and the health department’s probably going to make me drain it. Do you know how much it costs to fill this pool? Why didn’t you just take your goddamn guns and go, like we agreed?”
“Because your nosy little bitch of a trai
ner brought down whoever the hell these guys are on top of us,” Chad yelled back. “The blood in the pool is the least of your worries, you stupid cunt.”
“That’s enough,” Tully snapped.
Vicky spun again and pointed a glittering talon at Tully. “What the fuck do you mean ‘on behalf of the FBI’? Are you the FBI or aren’t you? Because if you aren’t, get the hell out of my gym!” She began to advance toward him.
“Ma’am, stop or I’ll have to handcuff you,” Tully said. “The FBI will be here soon.”
Dawn scrambled up the ladder behind Leland. Taking his right wrist, she tugged him away from Chad and Vicky toward a chair on the opposite side of the pool. “Sit and I’ll get a towel.”
He obeyed, sinking onto the chair before he caught her hand. His blue eyes blazed up at her from under the wet hair plastered to his face. “You’re sure you’re okay?”
She squeezed his hand. “I’m fine.” At least physically. Emotionally was a whole different ball game. “You’re the one leaving a dramatic trail of blood in the water.”
“It’s just a graze, I swear. More annoying than painful.”
She didn’t believe him because she’d seen how awkwardly he swam. “We’ll let the medics give us their expert opinion on that. In the meantime, I want to stop the bleeding.” She gave him a soft kiss and rested her forehead against his for a moment before she slipped her hand out of his grasp. “Maybe press your hand against the wound until I get back?”
He dutifully put his palm against his upper arm and winced. She made no comment before she headed toward the towel cabinet, her sneakers squishing with every step.
Two of Tully’s men now stood on either side of Vicky, but she continued to spew vitriol at Chad. He ignored her, gazing straight ahead as she berated him about the pool, the guns, the Wi-Fi, and his stupidity. Dawn gave them a wide berth.
She yanked clean towels off the shelf and heaved a sigh of relief when a group of people wearing jackets with FBI stenciled on them strode through the door to the pool, their shoes crunching on the broken glass. One shouted, “Hey, Gibson! What have you got for us?”
The Hacker Page 24