Next Exit, No Outlet

by CW Browning

  Damon looked at them and she thought she saw the faintest glimmer of a laugh in the icy blue eyes of the assassin. But it was gone as quickly as it came. He turned his head and led them swiftly along the barrier wall, around the corner, and up the down ramp. From her perch in Blake’s arms, Stephanie could see Viper clearly over his shoulder. She was still bent over the driver on the ground and Stephanie turned her eyes away quickly. She didn’t want to know what was happening there. She’d seen that side of Alina before, and decided that she never wanted to see it again. Now here it was, in all its terrifying glory.

  She shivered and Blake glanced down at her, squeezing briefly. He thought she was upset over the attack, and she was willing to let him believe that. It was better than the truth: that she was terrified of the killer her best friend had become.

  Chapter Three

  Alina rode through the security gate and into the parking lot off North 8th Street in Philadelphia. A high-rise towered above the lot and, straight head at the end of the aisle, her Shelby GT 500 was backed into the assigned spot against a brick wall. Damon leaned against the hood, his arms crossed over his chest and one ankle crossed over the other, looking dark and forbidding. The passenger side door was open and Blake stood next to it with one arm braced against the roof. As she pulled into the lot, he looked up.

  Damon watched as she pulled up in front of the Mustang and turned off the motorcycle, pulling the helmet off. The look on his face was unreadable, but she knew from the set of his shoulders and the clench of his jaw that he wasn’t happy. He uncrossed his arms and tossed her keys over as she got off his bike.

  “Any problems?” he asked.

  “No. You?” She caught her keys with one hand and tossed him his with her other.

  “No.”

  Alina nodded and looked at Stephanie through the windshield.

  “How is she?”

  “Shaken up, but not hurt.” Damon straightened. “Do you have all your safe houses programmed into your onboard Nav system?”

  Alina flashed a grin. “It got you here, didn’t it?”

  Damon grunted.

  “And now those two know one of your safe spots,” he muttered. “Not good.”

  “I didn’t have much of a choice,” she retorted, turning toward Blake. “How is she?” she asked, raising her voice and walking around the front of her car.

  “She’s completely freaked out, but fine,” Stephanie called from inside the car, bringing a smile to Blake’s otherwise grim face. Blood had dried around a gash on his cheekbone and he looked ready to go to war.

  Alina reached the open door and looked in at Stephanie. She was seated sideways with her cane leaning against the dash and her purse on the floor.

  “Good. Let’s get you inside and away from the cameras.”

  “Where are we?” Blake asked, reaching a hand to help Stephanie out of the low sports car. “Are you sure it’s safe?”

  Alina looked at him, a very faint look of amusement on her face.

  “It better be. It’s one of my safe houses.”

  Blake glanced at her, surprised.

  “You have a safe house in Philly? Why? You live across the bridge!”

  “Why not?”

  “How many safe houses do you keep?” Stephanie demanded, gaining her feet and leaning on her cane.

  “Enough.”

  Alina glanced around the dark parking lot and moved towards the entrance to the building, beeping the Shelby’s car alarm on as she did so. Damon waited for Blake and Stephanie to follow her, then turned toward the motorcycle.

  “Where’s he going?” Stephanie asked as they reached the double glass doors to the lobby.

  Alina opened the door and motioned them inside, not even glancing back at Damon.

  “To secure the perimeter.”

  Stephanie made a face at the brief answer and went into the brightly lit lobby, looking around. It was small with a row of elevators directly in front of them. On the right was a wall of mailboxes with call buttons, and on the left was a row of plush, comfortable chairs for waiting visitors. Alina went to an elevator and pressed the button, glancing at her watch.

  “What time did you actually discharge from the hospital?” she asked.

  Stephanie thought for a minute.

  “I guess it was about seven-thirty,” she said slowly, looking at Blake. “Right?”

  “It was closer to eight, I think,” he answered. “It’ll be on the paperwork. Why?”

  The elevator opened and they got in. Alina swiped a fob on her keychain in front of the pad and the doors slid closed silently. A second later, the car began a swift and silent ascent.

  “The death squad got there right after you discharged,” she said, turning to face them. “That means someone told them you were being released.”

  “What if I had stayed?” Stephanie asked. “They wanted to keep me and do some scans. They didn’t want me to leave.”

  “They were going to admit you?”

  “Yes.”

  Alina’s lips tightened and her face took on the impassive mask that Stephanie hated. She turned back to the doors as the elevator came to a gentle stop and they slid open. Stephanie and Blake followed her into a wide corridor with hardwood floors and fresh, white walls. Without a word, Alina led the way to the door on the right and unlocked it. Flipping the switch inside the door, she moved aside so they could enter while she typed in the code on the alarm keypad.

  “How do you know they weren’t there before we discharged?” Blake asked, following Stephanie into the condo and closing the door behind them.

  Alina turned away from the keypad and dropped her keys onto a sideboard table against the wall in the entryway.

  “Because I was already there.”

  She strode down the short hallway into a large living room with a wall of windows overlooking the city and Blake and Stephanie glanced at each other.

  “How...? Why...?” Stephanie stammered, following her. “What do you mean you were already there?”

  Alina turned on the lamp next to the couch and picked up a remote. Pointing it at the windows, she pressed a button and thick, red shades slid down to cover the windows, blocking out the night.

  “I was on my way home when I passed your accident,” she said, turning to face them. “One of the ambulances was just pulling away. Damon picked up the EMT call from your ambulance to the hospital, so we knew where you were.”

  “And you just hung out in the parking garage?” Stephanie dropped onto the couch. “Why didn’t you come in?”

  “Because I had a feeling they’d try again.” Alina looked at Blake. “Your car was tagged. They were following you as well.”

  “So your friend said,” he replied, sitting next to Stephanie. “Why would they follow me?”

  “As a fail-safe to get to her.” Alina walked to the galley kitchen on the left and went in. “They know you’re working together. In fact, they probably know everything about you, right down to what kind of dog food Buddy eats.”

  Stephanie gasped.

  “Oh my God, Buddy!” she exclaimed. “He’s all alone at the apartment!”

  “I know,” Blake said. “I’ll have to go get him but, without my car, I don’t know how.”

  Alina looked over the open bar that separated the kitchen from the living room.

  “You’re not going anywhere,” she said flatly. “You’re both staying here until I find out who’s behind this. I’ll get Buddy.”

  Blake stared at her. “What?”

  “You heard me.” She opened the refrigerator where a case of water was stocked on the top shelf. “I’ll take care of him.”

  “Oh, that would be awesome,” Stephanie answered before Blake could object. “Will you bring him here?”

  Alina pulled out two bottles and turned to leave the kitchen.

  “That’s not possible. No animals allowed.” She walked over to hand them each a water. “I’ll take him to my house. He’ll be fine there. Raven won’t t
ake on a dog of his size.”

  “Raven?” Blake asked with a nod of thanks for the water.

  Alina smiled for the first time. “My hawk.”

  He choked. “Your hawk?!”

  Stephanie laughed outright.

  “I guess it does sound weird,” she said, opening her water and taking a long drink. “It’s really just a pet bird, only bigger,” she added when she was finished.

  “What the hell are you doing with a pet hawk?” Blake demanded, staring at Alina as if she had three heads.

  She shrugged.

  “He seems to like me.” She went over to an armchair and sat down, fixing Stephanie with an unreadable look. “Tell me what the hell is going on. Start from the beginning.”

  Stephanie sighed and sat back on the couch, shifting her leg uncomfortably.

  “I wasn’t going to tell you any of this,” she began. “You have enough going on without worrying about me.”

  Alina raised an eyebrow. “I do?”

  “Yes, you do!” Stephanie exclaimed, disgruntled. “Good God woman, are you even human?!”

  “That’s a little harsh,” Blake murmured, “even if her hair does look like something out of a Cold War thriller.”

  Alina’s lips twitched, the only acknowledgment she gave the weak jab.

  “I like it,” Stephanie told him. “I think it looks good. It suits her.”

  “Hm,” Blake grunted, sipping his water.

  “What do I have going on that you think is more important than someone sending a hit team after you?”

  “You have people trying to kill you!”

  “I can assure you, there’s nothing new in that.”

  Stephanie glowered at her.

  “Damon got shot when someone was aiming for you. Then they shot up John’s funeral, and God knows what they’ll do next. Don’t tell me this is just another day at the office for you.”

  “Actually, it is.” A deep voice spoke behind them, and Stephanie and Blake visibly jumped. “Viper seems to attract fans wherever she goes. I can’t imagine why.”

  Damon walked into the living room and glanced at Blake and Stephanie on the couch. Seeing their water bottles, he looked at Alina.

  “You have water?”

  “In the fridge.”

  He turned to go into the kitchen.

  “Well, I wasn’t about to add to the number of people throwing bullets her way,” Stephanie tossed over her shoulder in his direction. “What kind of friend would I be if I put her in danger like that?”

  Alina stared at her impassively, not trusting herself to look into the kitchen where Damon was at the fridge. She knew she’d see her feeling of disbelief mirrored in his eyes.

  “Trust me, you’re not putting me in any more danger than I’m already in,” she said after a moment of silence, the faintest hint of steel in her voice.

  “Well, you know everything now, anyway,” Stephanie said with a shrug. “The other night, someone broke into my apartment and was still there when I got home. They hit me over the head, and when I came to, Blake and Buddy were there.”

  “Buddy?” Damon asked from the kitchen.

  “His pit bull. You’ll meet him later,” Alina said. She turned her gaze to Blake. “What happened when you got there?”

  “Buddy went berserk and tore through the apartment to the back door. It was just closing, and I never saw them. By the time I’d checked Stephanie, they were gone.”

  “And nothing was missing?” Damon asked, coming back into the living room with two bottles of water in his hand. “Are you sure?”

  Stephanie nodded.

  “Yes. The next morning, I discovered that they’d copied the hard-drive from my laptop. That was it.”

  Damon walked over to Alina and handed her one of the bottles. Sitting on the arm of the chair, he looked at Stephanie.

  “What was on your laptop?”

  “That’s just it! Nothing! I have no idea what they were after.”

  “The safe wasn’t touched? You’re sure?” Alina asked.

  “Yes. Nothing was missing.”

  “Nothing else happened the next day?”

  “No. I went to physical therapy and was home the rest of the day. Then today I went to work. When I tried to leave this afternoon, someone shot at me. Ballistics dug a high-powered rifle round out of the car, so I would never have seen them. Thank God I dropped my keys and they hit the car.”

  Alina and Damon glanced at each other.

  “What?” Blake asked, seeing the glance pass between them. “What are you thinking?”

  “If she was home all day yesterday, that would have been the perfect time to go after her,” Damon said reluctantly. “Why didn’t they? Why wait until she was at work and have the added risk of trying to do it in a Federal building?”

  Blake frowned. “I have no good answer for that.”

  “Something changed,” Alina said slowly, opening her water and taking a sip.

  “What?” Stephanie asked, her brows coming together in a frown. “What do you mean?”

  “Maybe they didn’t take the easy target you presented because they weren’t going to come after you again.”

  “What could possibly have changed that made them want to kill me?!”

  “They didn’t find what they were looking for on your laptop, for one,” Damon said.

  “That would be all the more reason not to kill her,” Blake pointed out. “If they think she knows something or has something, she’s no good to them dead.”

  “He’s right,” Alina murmured. She looked at Stephanie consideringly. “This doesn’t have anything to do with what they’re looking for, at least not entirely. Something else changed to make her a target.”

  “What about the car accident?” Damon asked. “Tell us what happened there.”

  “A black SUV plowed into the passenger side and spun me through the intersection into oncoming traffic. I got hit again. When the car finally stopped, the driver approached me.” Stephanie paused and took a long drink of water. “He tried to stick me with a needle.”

  “What?” Alina asked sharply, her eyes narrowing sharply. “A syringe?”

  Stephanie nodded tiredly.

  “He tried to grab my arm but I managed to fight him off long enough to get my gun out and knock the syringe out of his hand. There was a struggle for it and I stabbed him in the arm. He backed up a couple of steps and went down. He stayed down, and when police got there, he was dead.”

  Damon looked at Alina, his face grim.

  “Neurotoxin?” she suggested, her eyes on his.

  “It could have been a couple different things,” he replied slowly, “but if it happened that quickly, my money’s on SUX.”

  “SUX?” Blake repeated.

  “Succinylcholine,” Alina explained. “It’s a paralytic drug. It works on the neuromuscular system.”

  “Basically, it paralyzes all the muscles in your body. They stop functioning altogether, and that includes the lungs and respiratory system. The victim asphyxiates in seconds,” Damon explained. “Certainly less than a minute. It’s usually undetected because the enzymes in our body start breaking it down immediately. Most doctors think the victim died of a heart attack.”

  Stephanie stared at them speechlessly, stunned.

  “Who are you people?” she finally exclaimed. “How do you know this stuff? Hell, I didn’t even know potassium chloride was still a thing until Lina said someone shot John full of it!”

  Despite the grimness of the situation, Alina felt her lips pulling upwards.

  “It’s our job to know this stuff,” she said.

  Damon shifted on the arm of the chair and stretched his arm along the back, behind her head.

  “We wouldn’t be very effective if we didn’t,” he agreed, his eyes dancing.

  “Well, you’re definitely effective,” Stephanie muttered.

  Alina saw her shiver and felt a twinge of remorse. Stephanie had caught a glimpse of Viper once before, and t
heir friendship had changed because of it. Tonight, she saw her again, but this time it was much worse. This time Stephanie had seen Viper attacking multiple enemies as effortlessly as she had been trained to do, without emotion or compunction.

  Blake shook his head.

  “I can’t wrap my head around this,” he muttered. “You’re saying John was killed with potassium chloride, and then someone tried to shoot Stephanie up with a paralytic drug. Who has the resources for all this? They showed up tonight in full gear, with assault rifles. Who do they think Stephanie is?”

  “A priority one target,” Alina said, her voice hard.

  Damon looked at her sharply. “Again? That term’s popping up a lot lately.”

  She nodded. “I know.”

  Blake cleared his throat.

  “Care to loop us in over here?” he asked. “We don’t speak assassin.”

  A look of amusement crossed Damon’s face and Alina smiled faintly.

  “It means someone wants her dead yesterday, at any cost,” she told them, her brief smile vanishing. “Whatever it is that changed, it bumped Stephanie to the top of their most wanted list. They won’t stop until she’s dead.”

  Chapter Four

  Alina’s words hung heavily in the air, all the more sinister because everyone in the room knew they were true. What color that remained in Stephanie’s face drained away and Blake’s jaw tightened as he scowled. Before he could open his mouth to say anything, Alina felt her phone vibrate against her hip and she frowned, reaching into her pocket. She glanced at the screen and let out a soft sigh, raising the phone to her ear impatiently.

  “Yes?”

  “Where the hell have you been?!” Angela Bolan demanded without ceremony. “Where is everyone?”

  Alina was silent for a beat, irritation washing through her at her old friend’s tone.

  “Excuse me?” she finally asked, her voice dangerously soft.

  Damon looked down at her sharply, his brow creasing, while Stephanie and Blake glanced at each other then back to Alina.

  “I went to Stephanie’s at seven to meet Blake and waited for half an hour, but he never showed up,” Angela told her furiously. “So I drove all the way out to the boondocks where you live, expecting to find him there with Stephanie, but no one was there either! Not Stephanie, not Blake, not you, not even Damon! I tried calling Steph, but it goes straight to voicemail. I tried calling you earlier, but it went straight to voicemail. No one’s picking up, I’ve been all over South Jersey tonight, and I want some answers!”