“You did, didn’t you?” I demanded. “You broke into my house in the middle of the night!”
“Yes.” His voice was barely audible.
“What did you say? I didn’t hear you.”
“Yes.” He spoke louder and the green light flashed its assent.
“You came into my bedroom. I was asleep. Naked.”
“Yes.”
“I begged, but it was no use. You didn’t stop, did you?”
His shoulders bulged with tension, his gaze glued to the floor. “No.”
“Afterward, when I was lying there crying, covered with bruises, you knew what you’d done. Didn’t you?” When he didn’t answer immediately, I jerked his head up by the hair. “Didn’t you?”
“Yes.” His voice was raw. The green light flashed its damnation.
I spared a glance at Doytchevsky. His eyes glittered, his lips stretched in a feral grin. I let my hatred leap onto my face before turning the expression toward Kane.
“But that wasn’t enough for you, was it? You did it again. And then you abandoned me in the woods, even though you knew I could barely walk afterward. Didn’t you?”
“Yes.” His face was barren, his voice bleak.
“And you’ve been following me. Hounding me. Waiting for another chance. Haven’t you?”
Kane’s shoulder slumped. “Yes.”
I stabbed a finger at the green light. “See? He admits it. He’s a filthy scumbag rapist and stalker.”
Doytchevsky drew a finger across his throat and reached for the keyboard.
Dammit, had Kane freed himself yet?
“I have more,” I blurted. “Stemp was in on it, too…”
Doytchevsky tapped some keys, apparently ending the recording. “Fascinating. I’d love to hear you take down Stemp, since he’s the one who gave the order to kill Robert in the first place. But we’re out of time. Right about now, Stemp will be realizing that you’re not coming to his party at the Knights’ office. Take the headset off him.”
As I removed the wires from Kane’s forehead, Doytchevsky stabbed a finger at Kane. “Get on the sling.”
Kane’s shoulders flexed. He must be free by now. But until Doytchevsky came closer…
Doytchevksy brandished the phone, his finger moving toward the button. “Get on the sling. Now.”
Kane heaved awkwardly onto his knees and squirmed slowly toward the square of canvas, his hands still behind his back. I eased a step away from him. Then another. Adrenaline seared my veins, my brain floating weightlessly. A little closer to Sherman’s gun, still lying on the floor only a few feet away...
“Hurry up,” Doytchevsky snapped.
An ear-splitting crash erupted from the front of the shop.
Chapter 37
The din seemed to go on forever. The high-pitched shattering of glass, the grating thunder of falling bricks, all underscored by a deep rumble that shook the building.
Earthquake? Bomb?
My overloaded mind grappled with the possibilities for an instant until I realized Doytchevsky had snatched Kane’s gun from his waistband, the muzzle swinging toward us. A gunshot exploded. I hadn’t even seen him pull the trigger.
Kane lunged toward me, arms wide, as another shot rang out. His body twisted in the air, a grunt ripping from his lips. His weight slammed me forward onto the concrete.
I thrashed free, straining toward Sherman’s gun. Doytchevsky whirled to face the back of the bay as Hellhound’s bulk crashed through the door.
Scrabbling desperately toward the gun, time slowed. My fingers touched its handgrip as Doytchevsky’s weapon tracked around toward Hellhound. I flinched at the deafening report of another gunshot. Kane hauled himself up, a crimson stain blooming on his leg like some obscene flower.
Hellhound’s gun jerked, the shot echoing off the hard walls of the bay. Doytchevsky pitched backward, his gun hand flinging open. The gun spun through the air.
Then Sherman’s gun was hard in my hand and I sprang to stand over Doytchevsky. Blood welled from his useless shoulder and his lips stretched into a hellish grin. He thrust the phone in my direction with his good hand.
Its sound annihilated the last of my hope. The last of my humanity.
Ring.
Ring.
Ring.
I watched my gun swing around to point at Doytchevsky’s face and fire again and again.
Arnie spoke close beside me, his voice curiously isolated in the soft, puffy silence. “Gimme the gun, darlin’. It’s over.”
I stared down at the mess of blood and splintered bone that had once been a man’s face. Felt nothing.
The gun was heavy in my hand. Cold. Lethal.
Good.
“Aydan, it’s done.” Arnie’s touch on my face felt distant. Somebody else’s face. Not mine.
“Come on, darlin’-”
The silence shattered into bedlam, black-clad figures pounding into the bay, shouting.
So much shouting.
Rough hands seized my shoulders, twisting the gun out of my grasp, shoving me to the floor and yanking my hands behind me into the familiar pain of restraints.
Oh, hooray.
The good guys had arrived.
Feet rushed back and forth. More shouting. Hellhound knelt under guard a few yards away, his hands bound. A knot of activity around Kane parted to reveal a dressing on his leg, his hands secured behind him as they hoisted him to his feet to limp out of the bay.
The ride back to Silverside was a blur. Our body-armoured escorts kept us separated. I could see only a sliver of Hellhound’s shoulder. I glimpsed another man, but couldn’t identify him. Probably just some poor bastard who happened to be walking by at the wrong moment. They must have had orders to grab everybody and let Stemp sort us out.
My body vibrated beyond pain, a deep thrumming torment enlivened by fiery slashes when my flayed wrists twisted in their bonds. I concentrated on numbness, refusing to hear Lola’s laughter, see her sweet wrinkled face, feel her arms around me.
One word echoed in my brain, pounding slowly with the beat of my useless heart.
Failed.
Failed.
Failed.
At last the truck jolted to a halt. More loud voices. More insistent hands half-guiding, half-shoving me into Sirius Dynamics. I fell once, my rubbery legs refusing to hold my weight, pain tearing my muscles when the hands caught me and dragged me upright again.
Then suddenly I was standing in Stemp’s office. Stemp sat behind his desk as usual, but General Briggs rose from the chair beside him as my body-armoured escort towed me into the room. I took a small measure of comfort from Briggs’s ramrod-straight posture and steady eyes.
He inclined his head toward the chair, his seamed face set in grim lines. “Please sit down, Agent Kelly. I’ll be observing this meeting.”
I perched awkwardly, trying not to put pressure on my throbbing arms. The guard laid my waist pouch on the floor beside me, but my Glock was nowhere to be seen.
Whatever. Sooner or later I’d get it back. And when I did…
Across the desk, I studied Stemp’s reptilian features as if seeing him for the first time, distantly noting the strained lines around his mouth.
What a fucking prick. No, not even a prick. I couldn’t think of any word foul enough to describe him. A monster. Trading a vibrant, loving woman for nothing more than a scrap of technology.
Some day I’d meet him in hell. A hell we both richly deserved.
“Kelly.” His abhorrent voice stirred the seething vat of my hatred. “If I release your hands, do I have your word that you’ll behave?”
“No.” My cold dead voice fell from my lips like rotting flesh from a corpse. “I’ll kill you the first chance I get. Shoot your fucking face off just like I shot Doytchevsky.”
The body-armoured man stiffened beside me and Briggs shifted in his chair. Even Stemp’s expressionless face tightened perceptibly.
“I see.” Stemp nodded to my escort. “Cut her
loose and wait outside.”
He stiffened to attention. “But, sir…”
Stemp lifted a wry eyebrow. “I presume you searched Agent Kelly for weapons before you brought her here. And General Briggs and I are both armed.”
“Yes, sir.”
The guard didn’t sound convinced, but he cut the ties on my wrists and marched out without further comment, swinging the door shut behind him.
I tried to bite back my whimpers while I dragged my aching arms around into my lap, but a small moan leaked out despite my best efforts. I eased back in the chair and breathed.
General Briggs crossed the room. “Agent Kelly, may I look at your wrists?”
I forced my burning muscles to extend my arm, and he gently peeled back the bloodstained sleeve. His face hardened as we both regarded the mess beneath.
“Did our men do this to you?” he snapped.
“No.” A few shiny beads of fresh blood oozed up in one of the cuts, belying my words. “They couldn’t help it,” I amended. “I was cut up before they put the restraints on.”
His firm hand closed on mine. “I’m sorry.”
I retrieved my hand. “It’s okay. It’s just a few little cuts.”
“I believe that is the least of the apologies we owe you.” He retraced his steps to his chair and sat, frowning.
I had only a few moments to puzzle over that cryptic remark before Stemp leaned forward. “Kane raped you repeatedly. And you believe I encouraged him. I did not. I didn’t know it was happening, and I would have acted to protect you if I had known. Why didn’t you tell me?”
Another wound opened in my heart. It might have even bled if there had been anything left inside.
Doytchevsky. That bastard. That’s what he had been doing with the computer at the pottery shop. He hadn’t just been recording…
“Doytchevsky sent you the video.” I couldn’t summon up enough energy for anything but a dead-flat statement.
“Yes. He sent it to the entire chain of command, including General Briggs,” Stemp confirmed.
“That fucking bastard.” My voice floated in from a great distance. “It was all faked. Kane has never done anything wrong, and he certainly didn’t rape me. It’s all lies.”
“Agent Kelly…”
It might have been compassion in Stemp’s eyes. I didn’t care. I didn’t want his compassion. Only his blood and his suffering.
“You recorded the video yourself.” His voice was soft. “His confession was confirmed by Dr. Travers’s lie detector. We both know the lie detector is accurate. You can’t deny this anymore, and you shouldn’t try. He’s in custody. You’re safe from him now.”
“We spoofed the lie detector.” Anger thawed the edges of my icy detachment. “Don’t you dare frame him with this bullshit.”
“Aydan.” General Briggs leaned forward, holding me with his gaze. “If we hooked Kane up to another lie detector, one we knew was working correctly, and if you asked him the same questions, would his answers be the same?”
I closed my eyes for a moment, excruciatingly weary. “Yes.” When I opened my eyes again, I read the pain in his face. “But the questions themselves were misleading,” I added. “Watch the video again. Listen to the questions. Kane was giving truthful answers about missions and briefings we’ve had over the past several months. The way I phrased the questions made it sound like forced sex, but I can give you a full explanation of the circumstances around each question. None of those circumstances involve rape or sexual harassment or any improper behaviour at all on Kane’s part.”
I met General Briggs’s eyes. “You know damn well he wouldn’t do that.”
He eased back in his chair. “I want to believe that.”
“Believe it.”
“And your allegations regarding Director Stemp’s improper conduct?”
I shot Stemp a poisonous look, wishing I could force myself to lie solely for the vicious pleasure of watching him suffer.
“If necessary, I could have made it sound as though he colluded with Kane to arrange for my rape and subsequent sexual harassment.” I held his gaze for a moment. “But that would have been lies, too.”
Both men relaxed almost imperceptibly.
“Then may I ask why you expressed such… animosity toward Director Stemp?” General Briggs pinned me with his sharp gaze.
I turned to Stemp, hatred boiling over. “Have you retrieved the…” My voice broke and I gulped hard before continuing, my voice grinding like broken glass in my throat. “…remains from the explosion yet? You bastard.”
“What?” He frowned at me for a moment before his impassive façade dissolved into a smile. “Oh. No. We got her out.”
The air refused to enter my lungs. “You… what…?”
His smile widened, lightening his eyes to warm gold. “There was no explosion. Lola Ives is safe. We got her out.”
Chapter 38
I should have been laughing and crying and jumping up and down.
I sat paralyzed in the chair, staring at Stemp’s smile.
At last I drew a breath, sweet air soothing the pain in my chest. “You… she’s safe? How…?”
“Apparently your neighbour was driving by your house around noon when he noticed your gate was open. He knew you always close it, so he drove into your yard. He knocked and rang the doorbell but got no reply, so he was suspicious already when he saw the torn paper taped to your garage door. He discovered the crumpled threat and called the police.”
“Thank you, Tom,” I murmured.
“I presume that threat was the reason you vanished without attending my briefing?”
“No. I would have come straight to you if it was just that threat. But Doytchevsky planted a bug on me and hacked the surveillance cameras here in Sirius so he could see and hear everything I did. I couldn’t communicate with you in any way without risking Lola.”
His brows snapped together as he snatched up the phone. “Webb. Kelly says our surveillance cameras have been hacked. Check it.” He hung up. “Any other security breaches I should know about?”
“No.” I still couldn’t quite believe she was safe. “How did you find Lola?”
“The police contacted Mrs. Ives’s business to see if she had arrived for work. Her business partner is her granddaughter, Linda Burton, who is currently dating Webb. She immediately called him, and he came to me…” Stemp cleared his throat. “…insisting that I intervene. Since you had already notified me of the situation, I dealt with the police and acquired the photograph for analysis. I pulled our best people onto it, but it was Webb who recognized the background once we had enhanced the photo.”
“And…” I prompted.
“Apparently Webb’s family is quite civic-minded. His parents frequently volunteer at community functions, and Webb often participates, too. He recognized the basement storage room at the community hall.”
Stemp shrugged. “It was an ideal location. The treasurer of the community association confirmed that she received an anonymous phone call on Monday morning from a man wondering if the community hall had been booked for any functions this week. When he discovered nobody would be there, it would have been an easy task for him to pick the lock and set up his bomb inside. Abducting Mrs. Ives was an easy matter with his trank gun.”
I swallowed nausea. So close to disaster.
“So the bomb…?”
“It was quite a simple improvised explosive device,” Stemp said. “Our bomb techs went in through the side wall in case there was a trigger on the door, but there wasn’t one, nor was there a booby trap on the device itself. Disarming it was a matter of snipping a wire.”
“So she’s safe.” I couldn’t seem to get it through my head.
“She’s safe.”
Lola, safe. My mind repeated the words over and over like a talisman.
“What… um…” I gave my head a shake and marshalled my wits. “What did you tell her? About why she’d been abducted?”
“Fortunat
ely, Doytchevsky tranked her without letting her hear or see him. When she regained consciousness, she was already tied up in the storage room. We told her she had been abducted by a disturbed member of an extremist religious group who thought sex shops were the work of the devil.”
I blew out a sigh. “Good. That’ll work.” My conscience prodded me. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. And thanks to you, we have the wireless network generator.”
I blinked. “Um. It was on the shelf in the back bay of the pottery shop.”
“Yes, the team retrieved it from exactly where you described it.”
“From where…” I frowned. “I didn’t describe it. I didn’t think of it until just now.”
Stemp raised a puzzled eyebrow. “You described it to the team who retrieved you. You were extremely insistent. You made them show it to you several times to confirm that they had it.”
“Oh.” I hoisted an aching arm to massage my forehead. “Right… I’d forgotten that. I remember now.”
Dimly. But then, everything was distant. Even the news of Lola’s rescue barely warmed the ice in my soul.
Deal with it later.
I turned my attention back to Stemp, realizing he had spoken again. “Sorry, what?”
“I said, please brief us on all your activities to date.”
“Right.”
I plodded through the lengthy narrative, forcing my tired mind to concentrate. When I came to the part when Kane had appeared at the pottery shop, I hesitated, wondering if there was any way to protect him from his obvious defiance of a direct order.
No. They’d seen us together on the video and captured him a few feet away from me. No hope.
I laid it out exactly as it had happened.
At last I got to the arrival of the troops. “How did you find us?” I asked.
“The tracking device you planted on Doytchevsky. I saw the signal move to his apartment this morning, so I knew you had placed it. I had a team in position outside the Knights’ office building, still believing you would be meeting Sherman there, and that Doytchevsky would attempt to intercept him. When the tracking device wasn’t converging on the office in time for four-thirty, I pulled the team and scrambled them to the device’s location.”
A Spy For a Spy Page 28