“Why don’t we just get a car?” I suggested. I really wanted to put some distance between my past and me. “We’ll return it.”
“No. We can’t draw any more attention to us.”
The two of us jumped the for sale home’s fence into the backyard and hunkered down. When Trisha finished the call, she railed me with questions.
“Who did you know, and why can’t they know about you?” We sat with our backs against the wall waiting. It was the perfect sharing time, but I really wasn’t in the mood for sharing.
“I know almost all of them, but I doubt they’d remember me. It’s been too long, but my red hair is a dead giveaway, and my name’s different. I just can’t… And we don’t even know what side they’re on.”
“Melissa, spill! Why do we start feeling a pulse when they’re around? Why can I feel things that I know aren’t my feelings?”
“I..I don’t know,” I whispered as I picked at the grass. “I don’t know why we’re feeling those…um, tingles. It didn’t happen before when I knew them.”
Trisha nodded. “Okay, but how do you know them?”
My shoulders tensed as I remembered. ”I was young when my mom died. My dad had been on a mission at the time.” Or at least he was supposed to be. No reason to get into my messy family history right now, or the series of events that lead me from my family, to my guardian, Mr. Hanson, and from there to the farm. “When no one came to claim me, I went into a foster home. I spent that summer with them, those guys back there. My dad, though, he never came for me, but his handler did. I never said goodbye.”
“Melissa, I..” Trisha started, but then I heard it. The squeal of car brakes. We both got up and rushed towards the front where the taxi waited for us next door.
I made it inside the taxi cab, but Trisha didn’t. I turned to see black shadows move within the darkness once again and Trisha go down, a dart sticking out of her shoulder.
“Whoa lady, are we going or what?” the cabby ask nervously.
I started to get back out of the cab. I wasn’t about to leave her behind, but she shook her head, urging me to go. Her eyes pleaded. Leave me behind. I didn’t want to, but she needed someone on the outside to save her.
I slammed my door shut just before a dart hit the window.
“Holy hell, lady!”
“Go, go!” I yelled. As I turned to the back window, I gave her the two finger wave that meant, ‘I’m coming back for you.’ That was the message I conveyed to her. Not left behind, just temporarily separated.
I watched as a large man grabbed her just before she hit the ground. Then, someone slammed into the cab, trying to stop us. It was him. I recognized that blond hair and those green eyes. Dallon. I was sure of it. He banged on the door, trying to open it. “Open the door, Melissa!”
I knew I was screwed.
“Drive faster,” I demanded of the cabbie as I kept my eyes on Dallon as he tried to keep up. “Don’t stop.”
***
I struggled to keep track of where they took Trisha after I ditched the cabbie but wasn’t able to. My mind swirled with a million questions on why I ran into them. Why now? Why like this?
The storm caused me to seek shelter in a hotel and steal a room. It wasn’t easy, but I managed to snag the housekeeping’s universal keycard and use it to unlock a room. After I had it, I went looking for a computer I could hack into.
Down in the lobby, a young clerk stood alone behind the front desk at the moment. She looked maybe seventeen or barely eighteen and wore a nametag that said Maria.
I had no money. Left it all in the car back at the cafe. But Maria didn’t know any better. For all she knew, I could have checked in yesterday. Down in the lobby was a complimentary computer with wi-fi. Trish wasn’t the only one with hacking skills, and if I could get on it after the storm passed, I might be able to see if she had used her hacker signature.
Every hacker had one. It was like a thumbprint. Everyone had fingers, but no one had the same fingerprints. Well, unless they were identical, but that was a whole other elephant.
Each time the thunder boomed, I jerked. I didn’t like storms. It reminded me of another time. A time where things weren’t so good. Thunder always invaded my nightmares. Pacing the floor of the hotel lobby got me nothing but a mind full of questions and a nervous tic of tapping my thigh.
Today was not my day.
I paced by the dining hall. Leftovers still filled the banquet table from the hotel’s complimentary breakfast. My stomach growled.
“First tornado?” Maria asked.
My gaze strayed to where she stood behind the counter and found her studying me. She saw too much.
I shook my head. “Nope. Just don’t like them. The damn things are unpredictable.”
“If it makes you feel any better, it almost never jumps the river,” her soft twang reassured me.
“Unless it’s already on our side.” The part of me that saw every possible outcome wouldn’t let me be pacified.
“Have you been to downtown Texarkana? They have some old history there. Old homes and buildings. My mama says, if those older-than-dirt homes are still standing, we have nothing to worry about.”
I paused, thinking about what she said. One of our safe houses was in an area like that. “Those hundred-year-old homes down on the state line?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
I pursed my lips. We had a safe house there.
The storm went on for more than an hour before it calmed, and we were back in the green zone. I asked Maria where the complimentary computer was at.
She held out a piece of paper. “You’ll need the passcode.”
I took it. “Thanks.”
“Sure. Do you…want something to eat?” She gestured to the dining area I’d been pacing by and gave me a smile.
My stomach growled. The last thing I fed it was coffee and that was close to five a.m. this morning. But I still had my pride. “I’m good.”
She shrugged. “It either gets thrown out or taken to a shelter. You can take some up to your room.”
I eyed her. “Thanks. I might do that.”
While I walked over to the computer, I tried to get rid of the image of Dallon banging on the cabbie window as he tried to open it. The way he looked at me when he realized who I was. When he yelled my name. So much confusion. Anger. Desperation with no explanation.
I shook myself out of those thoughts as I focused on another. Was his brother there, too?
Did the troublesome three stay together like they wanted?
On the far side of the lobby, near the exit doors, was an alcove with a few computers. I sat at the far one, trying to rid my thoughts of what happened yesterday and logged in. It took me a bit to get past the hotel’s firewalls, but I did it in a half hour and found nothing of Trisha.
Creating a temporary computer password so no one else could log on, I put the computer in sleep mode and went to the dining area to grab some of the leftover food and headed back up to the room. I was running out of time and ideas. I could call Mack, but that would open up a whole other can of worms. So, I waited. I didn’t know who I could trust with Myter still involved.
***
On the second morning, I came back down to the lobby, found the same young girl, and gave a wave heading to the breakfast area like the others were doing
In the dining area, I grabbed a bagel and a glass of orange juice and went to a table, waiting people out.
I was leaving today. If Trisha hadn’t hacked a computer and used her signature, I was going to call the director and hoped she’d believed me. If Trisha did use her signature, I was going to call Mack. He’ could get things moving on exposing Myter.
When Maria came into the dining area and started to clean up, it broke me out of my musing. I chewed slowly. Why did she abandon her post to clean up in here? Didn’t they have other staff to do that?
I leaned forward a bit to peek out of the archway that separated the lobby and dining area and spotted
a new clerk at the front desk. That might make things a little more difficult.
“Hey, Maria,” the woman at the front called out to the younger clerk. I pulled back into my seat, hiding. “Sorry about not getting in sooner, but, you know, kids.”
Maria turned, bypassing me, and glanced in the direction of lobby. “It’s fine. Been kinda slow anyways.” She took her phone from her pocket and checked the screen. “Looks like the weather’s going to be rainy today.” She slid her phone back into her back pocket and went on. “But when is it ever not a rainy day during tornado season?”
The two of them talked briefly about hotel things as I finished my bagel and cleaned up my spot.
Making my way back out to the lobby and over to the computer I had been at yesterday, I gave the new person a nod, sat down at the old desk, and did my thing.
My lips curled up when I found Trisha’s hacker signature, but I frowned when I read her search record. According to her research, it stated her father died in the shooting at the drug warehouse and not Agent Craig. That worried me because for Myter to make such a claim, it was either true and he killed her father after he helped me escape, or Myter now held him hostage with no intent to allow him to live.
As I read more, I realized Myter was actually the lead agent on the case. The two-timing ass. I needed to contact Mack. If Mack still trusted Myter, he needed to fix that pronto. I just hoped he wasn’t as dirty as the backstabbing scum, Myter.
I took in the address from where Trisha had hacked, and my hackles rose quickly. She was a state over from where I was, but just barely. I was already on the border, so I only had to drive across the state line to Oklahoma.
I hadn’t been back to that state since I spent a summer there, living with Mrs. Farnsworth. It was where I met the guys. I would have to drive right through the same town.
The realization made me hesitant, but I needed to do this. Think smart, I told myself. Trisha needed me, and I wasn’t going to leave her behind.
Realizing I needed help and a phone, I glanced over to Maria and wondered if I could lift the one from her back pocket. It was the only way. I needed a ride, too.
I erased all evidence that could trace me back to the hotel and logged out. Standing, I deliberately made my way back to the dining hall, approaching Maria from the back as she washed down tables. She turned slightly, and her gaze caught mine.
She stilled. “All done?”
I nodded and rounded the table to her right. “Yep, but do you think I could snag a water bottle before you put everything away?”
She nodded. “Of course.” She twisted to the left and pointed to a mini fridge in the corner, giving me her back. I carelessly bumped into her and snagged the phone from her pocket.
“Whoops, sorry!” I gave her a grin, pocketing the phone. “Lost my balance.”
She shrugged, not noticing. “It happens. Just grab one from the mini fridge there.”
“Thanks.” I grabbed one and quickly left the hotel before she realized I stole her phone.
Mack
Melissa
Outside, toward the back of the hotel, I spot a sweet motorcycle I’d love to get my hands on and headed toward it. I pulled out the phone and quickly dialed Mack, going through the appropriate codes, before I reached him.
“Tools and More. You break it, we fix it,” an aged voice answered.
“My tool broke, and I have the Mack warranty.”
“What’s your UPC Code?” the man asked.
I tensed. “Sweet Firecracker.”
“Hold on.” The phone clicked.
A second later, a voice as smooth as honey came on. “Hello there, Firecracker.”
I ignored his seductive voice and dove right into the issue. “We have a hella of a breach.”
“Explain.” His teasing voice became hard as steel. All business, now.
“Myter. You can’t trust him. He murdered Agent Craig and possibly has Agent Frank Macintosh for ransom.”
“That’s a hefty claim, Firecracker. Any proof?”
I grabbed the flash drive that hung around my neck as I tensed, remembering. “A witness.”
“Who?”
“Me, Mack. I saw the whole thing. Agent Macintosh came in at the end. If Myter has him, any ransom he demands is worthless. He won’t ever let him live past what he needs him for.”
“And what’s that?”
“I’m not sure, but I’m going to find out.”
“No. You need to come in. Your father—”
“Is an ass.” I growled out, glancing around the area to make sure no one stood nearby.
I grew up believing both of my parents died after our house was attacked. Later on in life, I found out the truth about my mother’s murder. My father and his team were supposed to go on a mission that night, but the mission came to him. My father was given a heads up just minutes before the enemy hit, and that little piece of information enabled him to live. Those same people killed my mother.
I was rushed to the secure room but never made it. I heard shots and was passed off to someone else.
My guardian, Mr. Hanson.
At the time, I didn’t know why I was left with him for so long, but now, I do. With all the traveling we did wasn’t to avoid the killers, it was to evade my rescuers.
I was kidnapped that night. Not saved. The man I grew to love like the father, whose death I’d mourned as much as my own parents’, was a sick and twisted person. He was my enemy. One of my father’s team members killed him when I was eventually rescued, but dear dad didn’t bring me home.
Instead, he left me to believe I’d lost yet another person I loved. Let me go into foster care, where I stayed for three months until someone new came for me. My mother was dead, and I, now, hated my father as much as I hated the person who took me.
Mack’s voice breaks through my thoughts. “It takes an ass to make an ass.”
“Now, you’re being one,” I told him as I walked to the motorcycle and started tinkering with it.
“Come in, Firecracker, or we’ll do this the hard way. I’ve taken your word and started the process of bringing him in. Now, you need to do the same.”
“Can’t,” I told him, straddling the bike and putting the phone against my ear and shoulder. I ripped out the wires and sparked them together as I held the clutch down with my foot and listened to it roar.
“I’m not asking,” he growled.
I dropped the wires and grabbed the phone once again. “And I’m not listening. Goodbye, Mack.” I hung up and threw the phone across the black asphalt where it landed in a shallow puddle. Twisting up my red hair, I shoved it into the collar of my shirt so it wouldn’t flap in the wind while I drove. I revved up the engine and took off toward the state line.
Trisha needed me. Especially if she thought her father was dead.
***
Hours later, I raced down the highway, trying to keep my speed limit only ten over. I purposely stopped to fill up the tank before I reached the town that held those summer memories so I could go the rest of the way without pause. That way, I could avoid any run-ins.
Not that anyone would remember me from all those years ago.
I needed to be smart. To remember the rules. The rules kept me safe, and right now, I was going against them. Rule number three, save yourself. I never liked that one. It was too selfish not to think of others when they needed saving.
Leaving my hair tucked, I used a stolen card I found in the saddle compartment and filled up my gas tank while studying everyone around me. The wind blew across my face, and tickles of loose hair teased at the nape of my neck. I pulled my collar up higher to hide the escaped strands.
People always stared when they saw my mass of fiery red curls, and right now, that was not the type of attention I wanted. Maybe if I was clubbing, trying to gain the eye of a potential target, sure, but not here. Not today.
Nervous about where I was, I finished filling my tank and did a mental check to make sure I wasn’t
missing that sensation. That the low buzz or connection I had with, whoever it was, wasn’t there.
I swung my leg back over my sweet ride and sped off, merging back onto the highway.
For a brief moment, I lost focus, and a huge, black pickup swerved off into the second lane, missing me by mere inches. It honked as they sped at a high speed past me.
Asshole, I thought as my heart raced. Even I knew better than to go that fast.
I may be badass, but I was still human. The driver was lucky I didn’t have time to track them down and give them a piece of my mind. But, I had more important things to worry about. It had only been a few hours since I found Trisha’s hackers signal, and I was too close to stop now.
The cold seeped into my body as I drove, almost keeping up with the black truck ahead. Then I felt it again. The low buzzing sensation that signaled they found me.
I revved my engine to go faster just as another pickup came up on my tail. This one was black, too. My gut told me to find out what in the hell was going on, but my mind told me to run.
My mind won as I wove in and out of traffic. I couldn’t go to Trisha. If I did, I would lead them right to her. So I drove fast and dangerous until the town came into view. I took the second off ramp when what I really needed was the one five ramps ahead.
When I checked in my rear view mirror, I didn’t see them, but the buzzing still filled my body. I took a sharp left, racing under the bridge and toward a gas station up ahead.
Some guy was opening the door to his car after gassing up when I pulled along side him. He jumped back against the hood of his car as if he thought I was going to run over his feet, and I smirked. Parking beside him, I shook my hair out, going for the shock factor, then let my kickstand down so I could climb off the bike.
The man in question stared in awe and possibly shock as I tugged on my saddle bag before turning to him, grabbing his keys from his raised hand.
“I’m going to need this,” I told him with a blinding smile as I pushed him out of the way and climbed into his car. I sped off, leaving him in open-mouthed shock, standing next to my abandoned bike.
Sweet Firecracker Page 3