“But wouldn’t your sensor pick up any tracking devices?”
“Yes, but the lighter we travel, the easier it will be to disappear.”
“My cello. It’s my grandmother’s. I just don’t want anything to happen to it.”
“Is there anything else in your belongings you have to have?” He set the cello case, canvas bag of books, and the laptop on the asphalt.
“No, nothing that can’t be replaced.” Calista dropped into the driver seat.
Adam moved around to the passenger door, opened it, and placed her instrument on the floor next to her. “For now, it stays. If I’m not back in five minutes, get the hell out of here. There is an untraceable bank card in the glove compartment, as well as cash.”
He took out a pen from his coat pocket. Lifting Calista’s hand, he scribbled something on the inside of her wrist. It tickled, but her nerves were too jumpy to laugh.
“Give me five minutes. If I’m not back, leave. I’ll find you.” He reached into the car and keyed in an address into the GPS. “I’ll meet up with you here. If Robert isn’t there,” he said, raising her wrist again, “trust only this man.”
“I trust Pete.”
“But Pete can’t protect you.” He tapped her wrist. “This man can and will.” In a deep, hoarse whisper, he said, “Please take care of my daughter.”
Adam didn’t wait around for her response, but grabbed their belongings and jogged across the parking lot. Calista followed his progress until he disappeared into the entrance of the hotel. She glanced at the clock on the dashboard. Could she really leave him here?
Calista met Anna’s wide-eyed stare in the mirror. “It’s going to be okay, Anna. Your dad will be right back.”
Anna moved her head back and forth. She fumbled with the seatbelt clip until she had it undone, and climbed over the console into Calista’s lap, burying her head in her chest.
“It’s going to be okay,” she said again, cradling the child in her arms. Taking in a calming breath, she began to hum her favorite childhood lullaby, never taking her eyes off the clock.
Four minutes and thirty-seven seconds later, a black CR-V with no headlights pulled right behind them. Calista’s heart dropped to her stomach. Where did it come from?
She didn’t hear a thing. It had to be Adam because Anna didn’t react. But God, what if it wasn’t? When someone stepped out of the vehicle, all Calista could make out was a general height and build.
“Anna, crawl onto the floorboard of the backseat. Now.”
She helped ease the child over the console. As soon as she was lying prone on the floor, Calista reached for the Glock with her left hand and placed her right hand on the keys in the ignition.
Adam stuck his head into the back window.
“Shit, Adam. You almost made me pee my pants.” Calista charged out of the car, one hand planted on her hip while the other gripped the weapon.
He placed his hand lightly on the gun, lowering the barrel to the ground. “Let go, Calista.” He gently pried it from her hand. “I’m sorry I startled you.”
He stuck the gun into his holster. A slight grin touched the corners of his lips. She wanted to punch him, hard. He didn’t look sorry at all.
When he opened the back door, his daughter moved into his arms. He grabbed her stuffed elephant, quilt, and backpack, and then faced Calista.
“I want you to rethink going with us. If this hotel doesn’t work for you, I have several safe houses I can hide you in until I figure out if your identity has been compromised. You don’t have to give up anything. In a couple of days, you can return to your life and this will just be a bad dream.”
Her temper rose, but she banked it down. “How do I just walk away from that sweet girl after what’s she’s been through tonight? I did that to my best friend, and that didn’t work out so well. You don’t know what you’re asking.” A cold chill spiked down her spine. Anna reached for her hand, the pressure almost painful. “Talk to me. Tell me what I can do.”
Anna flung herself into Calista’s arms, wrapping her arms and legs tightly around her.
“It’s okay. I’m not going anywhere.” Her gaze held Adam’s. “And don’t tell me you don’t want me mixed up in your problems. I’m right smack in the middle of it.” She reached into her back pocket of her jeans and pulled out her cell phone. “I forgot I had this on me.” She handed it to Adam. “Just toss it.”
Fear had a nasty, bitter taste that settled in the back of her throat. Giving up her cell phone meant breaking contact with Pete. What would this do to him?
Adam’s face grew tense. In fact, his whole body was one hard, taut muscle, but his eyes held a deep retching sadness. He reached over and tried to take Anna, but she wouldn’t let go. He let out a sigh and stepped back.
“Let go of Calista.”
If anything, the child’s grip grew tighter.
“We can’t stand around arguing.” Calista raised her wrist. “You said this guy could be trusted. If that’s so, will it matter if I stay with you for another few hours? I know it doesn’t make any sense. Anna wants me with you, and you can keep us all safe.”
“I don’t know that, Calista. Damn it, you can’t know that.”
She didn’t miss the anguish in his voice. “I’m willing to chance it for Anna.”
Maybe Anna’s clinging was just a desperate attempt to hold onto another female, a substitute for what she lost. Calista did the same thing after her parents died in a drunk driver accident when she was only eleven. The pain, the loss never went away.
Caring for the frightened little girl in her arms wasn’t a choice but a necessity. She strolled over to the CR-V, cradling Anna close to her chest. “This is the right thing to do right now.”
Adam reached inside his coat pocket and handed her a flip phone. “We need it to stay in touch with Pete. We’ll replace this phone with another after each call.”
“And my phone?”
“Is there anything on it that isn’t backed up some place else?”
“No.”
He dropped it onto the asphalt and smashed it with his boot heel, kicking the remains down the storage drain. “I owe you a new cell phone.”
“You don’t owe me anything…”
His palm caressed her cheek. “I owe you more than I can ever repay. Your number will come up on Pete’s phone as unknown caller. You will need to check in with him and let him know what’s going on.”
Calista did not look forward to that conversation. She replaced the phone in her pocket. “Is this yours or are we borrowing it?” she said, nodding at the black CR-V.
He pressed his lips together. “This is a company vehicle. I’ve spent too many years fighting people who had no respect for the law. I don’t break them unless I have to.” After opening the back door, he reached for his daughter. “Let go, Anna, just long enough for Calista to get settled.” Anna released her hold and went into her father’s arms.
Calista scooted over to the seat behind the driver. Adam leaned in and set his daughter behind the passenger’s seat. She leaned her head down on Calista’s lap, using the quilt as a pillow. Adam buckled her seat belt and draped his jacket over her shoulders.
Calista fussed with the jacket as Adam placed his hand over hers. She kept her eyes down. It was late and she was tired of arguing with him.
His palm cupped her chin and turned her face to meet his. Instead of expressing total frustration, his features softened, and a tender smile touched the corner of his lips.
“Thank you, Calista… for caring.” His eyes scanned the darkness. “It’s been a long time since anyone has worried about me.”
“Are you going to tell me about the telepathic thing?”
“It’s totally new to me. I…maybe we can figure it out together, but it will have to wait for now.”
His lips brushed across hers with such tenderness, she almost forgot she held his child in her lap. Calista covered his hand with hers and deepened the kiss for an instant befor
e he broke away. He stepped back, soundlessly shutting the door of the CR-V.
She ran her tongue over her bottom lip. The simple kiss released a hunger in her she didn’t know existed. For the first time that evening, she was truly scared.
Four
As Adam maneuvered through the light traffic on the parkway heading into Washington D.C., his attention drifted between the rained-soaked asphalt and the backseat. Calista’s lids grew heavy, but she fought sleep, keeping her guard up to protect his daughter. Damn. How did he let this happen? Calista couldn’t become another victim of the nightmare that was his life.
His thumb pressed the send icon on his cell phone and the text disappeared off the screen. He waited a moment, but when nothing came back, he resent the text. Fuck, Colin. Answer me!
Colin White never ignored Adam’s texts. His partner had worked the protection detail with Adam earlier that evening and offered to replace their gear in the secure storage unit then return to the office to take care of the after-action report. That was usually Adam’s responsibility, but Colin pushed him out the door. He touched the small bandage on his forehead. The earlier evening events seemed like a lifetime ago.
He coded in a number on his cell phone and the surveillance footage at the unit popped on the screen. Everything looked fine. Then he tried the code for his offices. Nothing. After several tries, he shut the phone off and tossed it into the seat next to him.
“I can hear you grinding your teeth all the way back here.”
He smiled, but it didn’t ease the strain from Calista’s eyes. “I need to check in at the office. Why don’t you try closing your eyes for a few minutes?”
“What’s wrong?”
“Nothing, or at least nothing new.”
“Adam?”
He let out a shaky, frustrated groan. “My partner isn’t responding to my texts. I need to check on him.”
“Do you think Ludis…”
“I don’t know, Calista. It’ll take at least twenty minutes to drive into DuPont Circle. Please try to sleep.”
“I’m keeping you company,” she said as her eyelids closed, popped open, and then closed again. Not wanting to be alone with his thoughts, Adam almost woke her up, a selfish act for his own sanity.
He grieved for Rina, though he could never define what she meant to him. They were a team—Rina, Colin, and him. As operatives, they understood and accepted each other. They were closer than most siblings, but also strangers to each other. Off the job, they had their separate lives until the day Adam and Rina became a couple, and then they disappeared.
The chain of command wanted answers. Colin was left to deal with the fallout, answering questions that didn’t have answers while relaying insider information on the investigation to his colleagues in hiding. He retired three years later and opened the security firm with Adam as his silent partner.
Adam worked selective assignments alone, but he prided himself on being there for Colin when crap fell through the cracks. It was essential he kept off anyone’s radar, and so far, his ghost role worked. He was an expert of hiding in plain sight, acting when needed, and disappearing just as quickly.
It worked because they were a strong team in constant communication. Something was wrong. Pressing on the accelerator, he maneuvered around several cars and hitched his speed to a good twenty miles over the speed limit.
While the road held no interest, the adrenaline pumping through his veins kept Adam’s mind on high alert when all he wanted to do was shut down. As a damn good strategist, he never needed his skills more than now. But for his mind to work, he had to let go of the images of Rina lying in her own blood, staring into nothingness.
He choked down the acid in his throat as he clamped his jaw tight, tension shooting straight to his head. But that was okay with him. He needed the pain.
God… Rina. How was he going to survive without her? There wasn’t a secret, a nightmare, anything about him Rina didn’t know. And that information got her killed. Somehow, he had to put it all away and focus on the now.
He entered onto DuPont Circle, circling the block twice before he turned into a side street. The odd triangular-shaped building that housed the firm was dark and quiet. Several cars were parked in the small gated parking lot, where he spotted Colin’s black Miata immediately. The only reason his friend wouldn’t answer Adam’s call was that he couldn’t.
There was no way he could leave Anna and Calista in the car while he checked out the offices on the sixth floor. He exited the area and made his way out of the city, pulling into one of the lighted parking spots at the New Carrollton metro station fifteen minutes later. He took great care opening the door without a sound, so as not to wake Calista and Anna. He unlocked the trunk and pulled out his laptop. A few minutes on the computer would confirm what his heart already mourned.
Once he had control of the building’s camera footage, he worked his way through the firm room by room until he reached the inner office. Adam had set up those cameras himself. With a final click, his screen answered his questions.
Colin sat at his desk, his face beaten beyond recognition. His body was strapped into the chair with coils. Ludis tortured his friend before he put a bullet between his eyes.
Adam slammed the laptop, his control at the breaking point. With every ounce of training charged to the surface, he returned the computer to its bag and closed the trunk without a sound. He reached for his phone and dialed 911. He couldn’t save his friend, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to leave him alone until the staff showed up.
His friends were dead. Why was Ludis so desperate to find him that he would go to these lengths?
“Are you okay, Daddy?”
Anna’s soft voice broke through his anger. He glanced at her through the side window. He didn’t have the heart to make her say it out loud. “I’m fine, sweetheart. Go back to sleep.”
Her lower lip quivered as her eyes filled with tears. “I want Mommy.”
“I know, sweetie. She didn’t want to leave you. She loves you, baby girl. Very much.”
Anna let out a shaky sigh. By some miracle, his words gave her some comfort because she laid her head on Calista’s lap and closed her eyes. Moments later, her breathing slowed, and she drifted into sleep.
His world wasn’t a kind place to live, but at least the life he lived had rules. When did the crazy telepathic thing begin? Rina never kept secrets, especially about Anna. The moment her sweet, panicked voice hit him, there wasn’t time to dissect it, the pain shutting out reason. But now, shit.
The only person with answers was Anna, and she seemed unaware of any change. At least the head pain was one-sided. That wasn’t something he could ever miss, his daughter in physical pain. But that wasn’t where his questions stopped. Did she witness that bastard killing her mother? Did Ludis see her? Could she identify Ludis?
Adam worked his way around the Beltway to the Washington/Baltimore Parkway. Once in Baltimore, he exited onto Pratt Street. He rolled his shoulders as his mind settled on one conclusion: he’d fucked up somewhere and led Ludis right to Rina’s and Anna’s doorstep. Anna was motherless because of him. He rubbed his abdomen with a slow circular motion and welcomed the churning acid. It was his penance, and he didn’t care if it ate him alive from the inside out.
Calista jolted awake. “Where are we?”
“Baltimore. We’re about five minutes from a bed.”
He slowed as he drove through downtown past Camden Yards, Inner Harbor, and into Fells Point, where he turned into a large empty church parking lot. He cut the headlights, maneuvered around the back of the church, and backed into the darkest spot, facing the two-story rectory.
“Why are we stopping here?”
“I have a friend who can help us, but I need to check it out first. Lay Anna on the seat and come up front.”
Calista did what he asked and crawled over the console into the driver’s seat. He reached for her hand and held it between his two large hands. “Same rules apply
as at the hotel. If I’m not back in five minutes, get out of here.”
He nodded toward an alley off the back of the lot. He caressed the number he penned on her wrist with his thumb. “Take the alley to Pratt. Keep your lights off. Find a place to lay low and contact the man on your wrist.”
He pulled the Glock from his holster, setting it on the driver’s seat. He watched as Calista swallowed. Fear etched in her eyes and he wanted to kick himself. His first mistake—he should have hurled Calista’s butt out of his car on the damn entrance ramp, called her a cab, and driven away. And what was he thinking, giving into Anna’s pleas?
“Calista, this is a safe place. I’m just being cautious.”
Adam exited the vehicle, shutting the door without so much as a click. He kept to the shadows, working around the shrubs that surrounded the porch. Nothing was out of the ordinary. He pulled out a pick and had the door unlocked in seconds. With one quick glance at the CR-V in the lot, he slipped into the dark foyer.
The familiar waxy scent of linseed and lavender oils filled his nostrils. His eyes adjusted to the darkness almost instantly. A hardwood floor beam creaked, and the silhouette of a man stood in the doorway of the living room. Adam clenched the butt of his weapon but kept it pointing downward at his side.
“Relax, Adam. It’s me.” The man was dressed in black pants and a black clerical shirt with a white plastic strip at the collar. “I have a doorbell, you know.”
The tension drained from his body. “Sorry, Robert. It hasn’t been a good night. Are things good here?”
The priest stiffened. “What’s going on?”
“I’m not alone. Give me a sec.”
He left the rectory as quietly as he entered. This time he called out to Calista as he approached the car. “It’s me,” he said, and opened the back door of the vehicle. He reached in and carefully lifted Anna into his arms. She wrapped her hands around his neck and set her head on his shoulder but remained asleep. Calista scrambled for the quilt and stuffed elephant, got out on her side, and moved around to the back of the CR-V. Adam reached for Calista’s cello, but she grabbed the handle first.
In the Shadow of Malice Book 3 Page 4