Just to twist the knife a little deeper, she throws my words from our elevator ride back at me. “But you’re not him, remember?”
She doesn’t even bother to look at me when she says it.
O’Doul ignores our back and forth and accepts Tabby’s suggestion. “Fine, we’ll do it right after the press conference. Be back here at five p.m. sharp tomorrow. And in the meantime,” he glances meaningfully at me, “stay out of trouble.”
Oh, great. Here’s the part where I’m supposed to get Tabby to let me babysit her again. No problemo. I might as well just castrate myself first and get it over with.
“I’m staying right here,” she says to O’Doul. To Special Agent Chan, she says, “No offense, but there’s no way I’m not here to watch while you extract data from my baby.”
Indifferent, Chan shrugs, but O’Doul is looking more and more like he’s going to keel over from stress. He glares at me. “Will you deal with this, please?” he says gruffly, waving in Tabby’s direction. Then he whips his cell from his pocket and stabs his fingers against the screen to make a call.
Tabby sends me a look that says if I take a step in her direction, I’ll get a knife shoved through my thorax. Then she steps backward into the office and slams the door.
“Well,” says Ryan beside me, “looks like we’re hangin’ out here for a while. I’ll get us some chow.”
By the time we’re ready to make the call to Killgaard the next day, Chan has finished extracting the data from Tabby’s computer, Miranda has given an epic performance as a damsel in distress at a mobbed press conference on the steps of the studio, and Tabby and I are apparently not on speaking terms because she’s refused to acknowledge my existence every time we’re in a room together.
I’m persona non grata, and it’s really crossing my wires. I’ve got a head full of scrambled eggs.
As for the FBI, they’re more hyper than a bunch of little kids on Christmas morning. I’ve never seen a bunch of grown men so giggly and excited. Apparently, Killgaard has been involved in so many previously uncredited high-level hacks, he’s shot right to the top of the Cyber Most Wanted List.
Yes, they really have one of those. Which is where I suspect Tabby’s name will appear if this all falls apart and I have to smuggle her to safety across some international border in the hidden compartment of the Hummer.
I’m pacing back and forth in front of the office windows when Ryan ambles in, fresh from a shower in the employee gym on the first floor.
“What’s the 411?” he asks, dropping the duffel bag with his clothes and shaving kit on the floor beneath the window.
“Just waiting on these fucknuts to get their shit together.”
Rodriguez and Chan are on the other side of the room at Chan’s desk, arguing over who should sit where during the call. O’Doul and Miranda are deep in discussion outside the adjacent office, where Tabby’s been for hours. She’s emerged only once, to shower and grab a sandwich from the food platters delivered at regular intervals from the cafeteria.
She’s not eating enough. She’s not sleeping enough. I’m worried about her, but there’s nothing I can do about it.
Which sucks so hard, I want to break something.
“Where’s your girlfriend?” asks Ryan without a hint of sarcasm.
Knowing it will only wind him up if I deny Tabby’s my girlfriend, I tip my chin toward the closed office door.
Ryan looks at me. I can tell he’s trying not to smile. “You’re still in the doghouse, huh?”
“Why is this so funny to you?”
He shrugs. “Because I’ve never seen you not get something you want.” Smiling, he adds, “I think a little groveling will be good for your character.”
“There’s nothing wrong with my character. And I don’t grovel.”
“Not yet.”
“Jesus,” I mutter, aggravated. “Remind me why I thought it was a good idea to bring you here?”
Ryan’s smile widens. “Because right now you’ve got a boner where your brain used to be, and I can see stuff that you can’t. For instance, that little interaction between Tabby and Miranda, all that Machiavelli bullshit back and forth. What was that about?”
I think for a moment, recalling the scene. “The smart chick equivalent of a big dick contest?”
“Nope.”
Realizing he’s right, I slowly nod. Their exchange seemed weird to me at the time too. Loaded with unspoken layers of meaning. I glance at Miranda on the other side of the room. She must feel me watching, because she looks over and smiles.
It looks fake. As fake as the tears she manufactured for the press conference.
Ryan says quietly, “She’s been a client for what? Three years?”
“Yeah. She signed on right around the same time…”
The same time I met Tabby.
When I stiffen, Ryan looks at me. “Get your game face on, brother,” he says under his breath, still smiling like he doesn’t have a care in the world. “I have a feeling all the pawns are about to get moved around the board.”
Ryan’s mention of pawns jars my memory. It was something Tabby said to me right before we left for LA. We were standing in her kitchen, and she’d just told me the job had a ninety-nine percent failure rate no matter how well I was prepared to go up against Søren.
“Whatever you think his endgame is, you’ll be wrong. He’ll always be five moves ahead of you, no matter how well you plan, and there’s only one way you’ll ever catch him.”
“Which is?”
“By using me as bait.”
The hair on the back of my neck prickles. “Ryan. You ever play chess?”
“Yep.”
“You any good at it?”
“Yeah, actually. My dad taught me. We played all the time when I was a kid. Why?”
Looking between O’Doul, Miranda, Rodriguez, Chan, and the rest of the FBI agents working at their various stations around the room, I ask, “What’s the most valuable piece on the board?”
“Technically the king. The goal is to get him in checkmate. That wins the game. He’s the most important piece, but he’s not the most powerful.”
“Who’s the most powerful?”
The door on the opposite side of the room opens. Tabby stands there, outlined in light. Despite being pale and somber, despite the dark hollows under her eyes that betray her fatigue, her chin is up. Her back is straight. Her legs are braced shoulder-width apart.
She looks ready for battle.
Ryan says, “The queen.”
Twenty-Three
Connor
“Are you ready, Miss West?”
In answer to O’Doul’s question, Tabby nods. “But I’d like to request that the room be cleared when we do this. It could get a little…personal.”
I wonder what the word is for when you feel jealousy, anger, hurt, betrayal, outrage, and the urge to scream, Fuck! at the top of your lungs, all at once.
“Fine.” says O’Doul. “We’ll need Special Agent Chan on this, though. He’ll be recording the call.”
“Okay.”
O’Doul looks at his men and points at the door. “Everybody out.” He glances at Ryan and me. “Sorry, boys.”
“Connor can stay,” says Tabby quietly. She doesn’t look at me, instead walks over to the whiteboard, turns her back on the room, and folds her arms across her chest.
No one contradicts O’Doul’s order. Even Rodriguez keeps his mouth shut as he rises from his desk and exits the room. They all seem to know how important this is, how much it would mean if they can locate Killgaard, and seem willing to set their egos aside if it means they get a little closer to their goal.
I, on the other hand, have just gotten a giant ego boost in the form of Tabby wanting me to stay. I feel like a cat that’s just been stroked down its back. I’m so happy, I could purr.
Ryan leans a little closer. “Our client doesn’t look too excited about the turn of events.”
That’s an understatement.
In fact, Miranda looks as if she might curl her hands around Tabby’s throat.
“Well, obviously, I’m not going anywhere,” Miranda says, her fake smile replaced with a very real scowl.
O’Doul glances at Tabby. She’s got her back to me so I can’t see her expression, but whatever he sees on her face makes him shake his head.
“Sorry, Ms. Lawson. We really need to—”
“This is my studio. This person Killgaard threatened me, stole from me, is attempting extortion from me. I have a very personal investment in the outcome of this investigation. I’ve assisted in any way I can—”
“It’s not about you,” interrupts Tabby, still staring at the whiteboard. She turns her head and looks at Miranda. In profile, her face is lovely. But her expression…let’s just say I’m really glad I’m not on the receiving end of that.
“It most certainly is!” protests Miranda, her voice shrill.
In contrast to Miranda’s flustered heat, Tabby is cool as ice. In fact, it seems to me that the longer this investigation continues, the more Miranda’s famous control unravels and the more Tabby’s fire burns arctic cold.
With chilling calmness, Tabby says, “It’s never been about you, Miranda. But if you don’t get out of my face in two seconds, it will be.”
Ryan chuckles. “Girl fight. Cool.”
O’Doul intercedes before any punches can get thrown. “This might be your studio, Ms. Lawson, but this is my investigation.” He jerks his thumb in the direction of the door.
Face flaming, Miranda looks to me for help. “Connor.”
I spread my hands in a helpless gesture. “Sorry, Miranda. You heard the man. He’s in charge.”
Her exhalation sounds like a cobra hiss. Nostrils flaring, she turns on her heel and storms from the room.
Ryan says, “Maybe she needs a neck massage.” He winks at me and then, with a swagger, follows her out.
O’Doul sighs heavily and scrubs a hand over his face. “Chan.”
“Yes, sir, we’re all ready. Miss West, all we need from you is the number we’ll be calling, and then we can begin.”
Tabby looks at him. “Walk me through it. Tell me about the software, the tracking, how you record it, everything.”
Chan shakes his head. “I can’t. Sorry.” When her look sours, he hurries to add, “But trust me, the technology is state-of-the-art. Untraceable.”
She looks dubious, most likely because he uttered the dreaded word “trust.”
“Let’s do a trial run. Why don’t you call me on my cell first to see if I can detect anything unusual?”
O’Doul says flatly, “No. And don’t bother asking again.”
When I walk closer, it distracts her from the argument I can see coming. As if we’re magnets repelling each other, she moves to the other side of Chan’s desk. “Suit yourself.”
I take up position directly across from her, the desk a buffer between us. O’Doul comes to stand beside me as Chan logs into his computer, navigates through a maze of prompts and pop-up windows, and then comes to a box with the words “Enter destination” beside it.
“Before we begin,” says O’Doul, “a few words of warning.”
Tabby cuts him a look.
“Obviously, you know that everything said will be recorded.”
He doesn’t have to explain the subtext: Don’t try anything funny, because we’ll have it all on tape. Also: Prison.
Tabby says drily, “Obviously.”
“The object is simply to keep him on the line for sixty seconds. Keep him engaged, keep him talking. But if at any time I feel that the conversation is veering toward something that will compromise the investigation, I’ll have Chan disconnect the call. Which will mean our agreement is null and void.”
Again unsaid: Prison.
With her icy calm still intact, Tabby replies, “You don’t have to paint the pictures on the walls for me, O’Doul. I get it.”
“Good. One final thing.” O’Doul turns his gaze to me. “No noise whatsoever from the peanut gallery. I want total silence in this room while they’re speaking. If I get anything less than total silence, if you even clear your fucking throat, I’ll consider it sabotage.”
More prison.
I feel vaguely insulted and want to tell him so, but decide to bite my tongue so I don’t get thrown out before we even start. I’d chew off my own arm to be in the room during this phone call. So I swallow my pride and nod.
He turns his attention back to Tabby. “The origin of the signal will be digitally cloaked, so if he asks why—”
“He won’t ask why.”
When O’Doul raises his brows, she explains. “I’ve been cloaking all my digital signals since forever. In fact, he’s the one who taught me how. He’ll expect not to be able to trace my location.” Her voice darker, she adds, “Which is why he’ll try to, so you better hope your shit is tight, or this whole thing will blow up in our faces.”
Unthinking, Chan starts to give her an explanation of just how good the FBI software is, but O’Doul barks at him to shut up before he can get half a dozen words in. Chan turns red and mutters an apology.
O’Doul drags a chair next to Chan’s desk and points to it. “Sit,” he instructs Tabby. Uncharacteristically obedient, she sinks into it without a word.
She’s pale. Her hands fidget on her thighs. She swallows, breathing shallowly. Beneath her veneer of calm, she’s nervous.
Adrenaline snakes a jittery path through my veins.
Chan’s hands hover over the keyboard. “Sir?”
“Proceed. Tabby, give him the number.”
Tabby recites it robotically off the top of her head. I know she has a photographic memory, but it still irks me that she can recall so easily a number she claims never to have dialed in almost a decade.
Chan enters it, his fingers expertly flying over the keys. Then we wait.
A hiss, a faint click, and then the lonely electronic sound of a phone ringing somewhere out in the vast emptiness of cyberspace.
Three rings. Four. Five. The tension in the room ratchets higher.
When the line is finally picked up, the voice that barks through the speakers is so unexpectedly loud and jarring, I wince.
“Bună ziua, cine este?”
It’s a male, his age indeterminate, the language—for the moment—unknown.
Without hesitating, Tabby answers in the same harsh tongue. “Spune-master care iad are peste congelate.”
I exchange sharp glances with O’Doul. His eyes tell me in no uncertain terms to keep my trap shut or get personally acquainted with a five-by-seven-foot cell. I look at Tabby, but she isn’t looking back at me. She’s staring straight ahead, unblinking. Her fidgeting hands have fallen still on her legs.
A pause follows. In the background, I hear street noise: traffic, a car horn, the squawk of a pigeon, people chattering nearby. I listen intently, trying to pick up any clues about who might be on the other end of that line, his location or even general whereabouts, when finally, in heavily accented English, the voice says, “He’ll be pleased.”
What the ever-loving fuck?
“How can the master contact you?” continues the voice.
My eyes bulge. Master?
Tabby looks to O’Doul for direction. He whips a yellow pad off Chan’s desk, dashes off a number, and holds it out. Tabby reads it aloud.
The voice makes a noise of assent. “You will wait.” Then abruptly, the call is cut off.
Bewildered, Chan says, “He hung up.”
“He’ll call back,” Tabby says quietly. “It won’t be long.”
O’Doul is irritated. “Chan, did you get anything?”
Chan quickly navigates around the software interface and then shakes his head. “No. We need more time to dial down to the country and city.”
“What’s the country code at the beginning of the number?”
Chan types into his interface and then shakes his head. “No matches.”
O’Doul cur
ses and then turns to Tabby. “What language were you speaking?”
“Romanian.”
Suspicion is etched into his blunt features. “So we just called Romania?”
“Maybe. Probably not. The man who answered the phone could know several languages. Today he could’ve been instructed to answer in Romanian…maybe last week his instructions were to answer in Italian. I don’t know. We can’t assume anything, except that that phone won’t be anywhere near Søren’s actual location. From the sounds of it, we called a pay phone on a busy street. He’d have picked a spot with bad cell phone reception, poor infrastructure, or an area where a sizeable part of the population doesn’t own mobile phones. That pay phone probably gets used by dozens or even hundreds of people a day.”
I hate to admit it, but that’s a smart move. If that pay phone were located and put under surveillance, you’d have dozens of suspects to follow…and dozens more the day after that. And on and on. It would be a logistical nightmare.
O’Doul slowly lets out a breath. “So someone has been paid to answer that phone when it rings, and then relay any messages to Søren.”
Tabby nods. “And there are probably several more someones in between who know nothing of the links in the chain beyond the one past themselves. And before the call even got to that pay phone, it was bounced through different telecommunications satellites in different countries and the encryption changed an infinite number of times before finally reaching its destination. I told you there would be layer after layer of obfuscation. His paranoia is almost as big as his ego.”
“What did you say when he picked up the phone?” My voice is rough.
When Tabby turns her head and our eyes meet, I’m startled by how wide her pupils are dilated. It almost looks as if she’s recently ingested drugs.
“I said to tell the master that hell has frozen over.”
We stare at each other. The moment stretches out. I feel like I’m on the verge of understanding something important, something I’ve been missing that’s the key to this entire mystery, when a distinct electronic ring comes through Chan’s computer speakers.
Wicked Sexy (Wicked Games Series Book 2) Page 19