She followed EJ out of the room. Sarah was already halfway down the stairs, eager to get on the road. Sage took a deep breath, steadying her nerves. She had been nervous enough when she’d thought they had a plan and now she didn’t know what to expect. Before they left, EJ disappeared into the study, motioning to her to wait. Moments later he appeared back through the door.
“Change your mind about that phone call?”
He shook his head and patted his hip. “No. Bringing along another sort of reinforcement.”
When she realized he meant a gun, she shivered. “Do you really think that’s necessary?”
“Better to be safe than sorry.”
Sage walked out of the room behind him, feeling about as unsafe as she ever had.
12
CRUNCHED BEHIND a Dumpster at the edge of the park, Ian lay on the damp grass, looking down over the dock. The river glimmered under the moon, and mosquitoes buzzed around his head, but he barely noticed, his attention on the sailboat at the end of the dock. He wondered how Locke had gotten his hands on such a beauty—probably he’d stolen it. Or bought it with stolen money. Either way, it would be more evidence against him.
There were only a few boats latched to the moorings, and this one stuck out like a sore thumb—the only recreation boat among the fishing vessels. Locke really was arrogant—he didn’t think anyone would be looking for him or he didn’t care. The boat was also the only one with a light on in the middle of the night. A cool blue light that looked like a computer screen glowing in a dark room.
Ian’s gut told him he’d found the right boat. For the last half hour there’d been no movement at all. Locke was either sleeping or he wasn’t on the boat.
Or it was a trap.
Even if that was the case, Ian planned on walking into it—he was ending this tonight.
When this situation was resolved, he was going to be not only speaking forcefully in Sage’s defense but also hopefully providing enough evidence against Locke and how he’d set her up to take the fall to bolster his request to have her criminal record either dropped or at least sealed from the public view. She was going to have her shot at a successful life; he’d see she wasn’t heading out into the world with a felony conviction weighing her down. She’d be free. Free of the past, free of Locke. And free of him.
The thought caused a little twist in his gut, but he knew it was the right thing to do. She’d wasted enough of her life. Now was time for her to go out and live it.
But first he had to get to that computer, disable the virus—if he could—or force Locke to do it. He double-checked the pistol he’d attached firmly to his side. He wasn’t taking any chances—this guy was going down, tonight. Raising himself stealthily from the ground, he ambled forward, heading toward the boat.
He didn’t get far when something tugged at his ankle and he did a swift spin, falling to the ground and pulling his gun. Luckily there was enough light for him to recognize EJ’s pissed-off expression.
“What, you take off to cowboy this deal on your own and now you’re going to shoot me?”
Ian glowered and put his gun back in the holster.
“What the hell are you doing here? You could blow this whole thing with a stunt like that. Or get yourself shot.”
“You’re not trigger-happy—I was pretty sure you’d check to see who I was first.”
“Glad you have faith in me. Now why the hell are you here? And where are Sage and Sarah?”
EJ thumbed back to the parking lot. “In the truck. Waiting on my signal.” He gestured to the radio attached to his jacket pocket. “Sarah saw you take off from the house. Not quite as stealthy as you think in your old age,” he said, answering Ian’s unspoken question.
“Well, you can just go back there with them.”
EJ peered to the end of the dock toward the sailboat. “Looks like Locke isn’t bothering to hide all that well. It’s probably a trap.”
Ian rose and then turned, hissing. “Listen, I’m doing this alone. Stay out here and make sure Sage is okay.”
“Don’t be an idiot, Ian. You know it’s stupid to go in there alone. We’re supposed to be a team, right? Or is this how you always plan for it to work? You leave us behind and head out on your own?”
The comment hit home, but Ian shook it off.
“This is different. I’m not putting Sage on the line again. I shouldn’t have done it earlier. I can handle Locke myself.”
“She’s tough. And she’s worried about you.”
“All the more reason for her not to be here. She could get hurt, EJ. Go make sure she’s safe. Please. You shouldn’t have left them back there alone—we don’t know where Locke is or what he has planned.”
“Okay. But here—” EJ tossed Ian the radio and looked away, giving in reluctantly “—we’re thirty seconds that way. If you need us, just hit the button.”
“Will do.”
SAGE AND SARAH SAT ON pins and needles, waiting for some sound to emit from the small radio that Sarah had a death grip on, but it remained silent. Sage sighed impatiently.
“We should go. They might need us.”
“You’re right, let’s—”
The door to the truck opened as she reached for the handle, and Sage nearly jumped out of her skin. It was EJ.
“You found him?”
EJ nodded. “He wants to hit the boat alone. He has the radio, he’ll call for backup if he needs it.”
“How could you let him go in there alone? What if we can’t get there in time?” Sage’s anxiety levels were busting through the roof, and it was reflected in her voice. EJ put a calming hand on her shoulder.
“He knows what he’s doing. This could work. The boat looked unoccupied, and if Ian can get in there and assess the situation, this could go easier than we expected.”
“Or it could be a trap.”
EJ raised an eyebrow at Sage’s acuity for understanding the situation. “Could be. But Ian knows that and he’ll react accordingly. It’s only a trap if you don’t suspect it.”
“Hmm. Oh…” She put a hand to her stomach, pressing lightly.
“What?”
Sage looked down, seeming embarrassed. “I, uh, have to go.”
“Now? Here?”
She shrugged. “You guys rousted me out of bed so fast that I didn’t have a chance. And I think all this is getting to my stomach—I don’t feel too well.”
EJ eyed her speculatively. “Nice try, but we’re all staying here.”
Sage pressed the case, glaring at him. “I am going to the bathroom. There’s one over there, in the marina. It’s lit and you can see me. You can go with me if you want, I don’t care, but I’m going.”
“Fine, I will go along. I’ll take a pit stop as well.”
“Okay, I’m not staying here by myself,” Sarah piped in.
Moments later they were walking quickly across the wet grass toward the small white building where the restrooms were housed. Sage wished she’d seen EJ return so she would know for sure which direction he’d headed back from. But she had seem him leave, so she had some idea where to go. However, for the moment she played it cool and stopped by the edge of the building, making her case appear urgent. She hoped to hell there was a window, and if not, she’d have to work something out while they took their turns. “Me first.”
EJ nodded, and Sarah looked around, peering into the darkness that surrounded them. Sage disappeared into the small building.
Inside she saw there was a slim window above the toilet—luck was with her. It would be a tight fit, but she could make it. She flushed the toilet to mask any noise she might make and quickly ambled up and over the sill. She rolled out and hit the ground with a thud, sharp edges of brush scraping her skin, but she barely felt it. Then she was around the corner of the building, running for her life—or maybe for Ian’s. She had to help—Locke wanted her and he would stop at nothing to have her.
Looking back, she saw EJ pulling at the locked door, knocking. She
didn’t have long before they figured it out. Running, she soon found the sailboat at the end of the dock—and the dark figure moving past the window on the other side of the curtain. Was it Ian? Or Locke?
IAN WAS TOO LATE. He stared at the screen, the lines of code spinning before him—the virus had been executed. Locke had set it off early. He cursed, then looked closer. On another laptop on a separate table, it wasn’t computer codes but numbers—bank transactions—that were flashing on the screen.
He sat, hitting a few keys, and watched as the sums in the accounts grew larger by pennies, then by dollars. A few more keystrokes and he felt the sinking in his chest—all the bank accounts were in Sage’s name. Offshore, illegal bank accounts. For a moment his head spun with the new information, then a red-hot anger settled in his gut.
Locke was doing it again—using her to set up his own scam. The virus wasn’t going to disable electronic purchases or send any kind of social message, it was simply bilking hundreds of thousands of dollars—and probably millions by the time it was done—a few pennies at a time from accounts all over the world.
This is how Locke planned on supporting himself and Sage—and getting her to stay with him for as long as he wanted. He could potentially hold this over her head forever.
“I see you’ve discovered my surprise. It really was a gift for LadyBug, but you haven’t spoiled it. I always have a contingency plan.”
Ian turned slowly, his hand at his waist, and he heard the telling click of a gun being cocked. Locke was standing directly in front of him—he hadn’t heard him approach. He must have been waiting, watching, hiding in the boat’s closet. Shit.
“You can just slide that over to me, on the floor. Slowly.”
“It won’t hold up. You can’t do it to her again, Locke. You played your card getting her to take the fall for you once. It won’t happen again.”
Locke laughed. “You’re wrong. I could manage to send her away for a very long time—ruin her life completely. But that’s not what I want. I love her, you know, and I just managed to find a way to keep her with me and live in style.”
“She’ll never go with you, and I’ll never let her take the rap for this.”
Locke clucked condescendingly. “Oh, you haven’t gone and fallen in love now, have you? What a pity, seeing as I’ll probably have to kill you. That will be hard on LadyBug. She has a soft heart, I think, in spite of how she comes across. But don’t worry—I’m more than man enough to make her forget you.”
Ian’s anger flashed, but he choked it down. He had to find a way to stall, to signal the others with the radio clipped to his jacket. Trying to appear unconcerned, he laughed.
“Love? Hardly. But she was sweet, I’ll give you that. But you’ll never get your hands on her—she’s not coming.”
He could hear Locke suck in an angry breath, spitting out one word. “What?”
“I’m solo on this one, you jerk-off. It’s just you and me. I changed the plan. Sage is under watch by another member of my team. She won’t be coming out to play. She’s on our side now.”
“You’d better—”
Just as Ian thought to make his move, knowing he’d rattled Locke, he turned, hearing the sliding of the door opening, and his heart thundered in his ears as his instincts told him what his eyesight confirmed a second later—Sage. Somehow she’d managed to slip away from EJ and Sarah. She looked pale, but her eyes were burning brightly as she looked at him in total…contempt? She went to Locke’s side, smiling.
“Darling. What have we here?”
Locke’s eyebrow cocked, and he looked over at Sage, keeping the gun trained on Ian. “Well, well. Your friend the cop said you weren’t coming. In fact, he said you were playing on his team now. Is that true?”
“He tried to keep me away, but he couldn’t. There was no way I was not showing up tonight.”
Ian felt a surge of revulsion as Sage slid her palm over Locke’s chest.
“The tables have turned, Ian. You’ve screwed me, and now I’m screwing you right back.” She wandered over to the computers, assessing the symbols dancing across the screen, and her eyes became wide in delight. “These are ours?”
“Yours, my sweet. A gift.”
Ian broke in. “A gift? You’ll go to prison for a long time for stealing that much cash, Sage. He’s setting you up again.”
Sage leveled a playfully dangerous look at Locke. “Would you do that to me?”
He laughed. “Yes, but as it turns out, I’ll need you to access that money—it’s all in your name after all. I may have written the virus and executed the plan, but the payload is all in your name, baby girl. You are a rich woman now. We can be together, do anything you want. Anywhere.”
Looking like a kid on Christmas morning, Sage went over to Locke. Raising up on tiptoe, she dragged her tongue along the skin of his neck, and Ian felt his blood run cold when Locke closed his eyes and shuddered in response. And that split second she’d given Ian—and he had to believe she’d done that—was all he needed to flick the switch on the radio. Now EJ and Sarah should be able to hear them and know what was happening.
“You know, I might be able to be convinced to let this all just go away.” Ian tilted his head toward the computers. “There’s a lot of cash there—maybe you could see your way through to sharing some of it.”
“Why would I bother?” Locke wrapped his free arm around Sage, who was still staring up at him adoringly. He then smiled at Ian, satisfaction in his eyes. Locke was high on control, believing he’d won, and that made him stupid, Ian hoped.
“Because then you two can take off without a murder rap hanging over your heads. I can disappear, and the entire thing just gets forgotten. Killing me will make it hard for you to keep a low profile.”
“He’s right, Locke. We could just—”
“No. I make the decisions, I make the rules.”
Sage pushed away from Locke. “I never signed on for murder.”
Locke pulled her back roughly, “You’ll just do as you’re told, baby girl. We will have enough money there to do whatever we want. The cop is just trying to save his own skin. And if you don’t like that, maybe you should join him. I can always change the names on those accounts easily enough and find another body for my bed.”
Suddenly Sage appeared completely outraged. Ian hoped she knew what she was doing. “I thought I was more than that to you! I’m just another body for your bed?”
Locke shrugged. “You want to be more than that, you have to earn it.”
“Anything. How?”
Locke smiled viciously. “Get the cop’s gun.”
Ian saw Sage swallow as her eyes searched the floor and she found the weapon and picked it up.
“Point it at him.”
He watched her eyes change slightly, darkening, her pulse slamming so hard he could see it from where he stood. His gut clenched as Locke trained his pistol on Sage now.
“Shoot him.”
“What?”
“Prove your loyalty to me. Shoot him.”
“I d-don’t know h-how.” Her voice shook, and Ian looked at her panicked eyes, fearing she was going to lose it. Ian’s voice was like a whip as he saw Locke’s finger pressed the trigger on his own gun.
“If you shoot her, I’ll kill you—you can’t get both of us.” Ian spoke urgently, trying to keep his voice level.
Locke’s glanced toward him was contemptuous. “I guess we’ll just have to see. Shoot him, Sage.”
Sage stared into Ian’s eyes, her pupils dilated fully, her face drained of any color as she pulled the cylinder back, her movements robotic. She was breathing more heavily now, and Ian just hoped if she got a shot off she could miss him or not wound him mortally, though the quarters they were in were pretty cramped. If she pulled it off, she’d have to move fast enough to avoid Locke’s shot.
Seconds later, chaos ensued. Ian heard something smash and realized Sage had squeezed the trigger and shot the laptop on the table behind him. S
ince the screens provided their only light, the room became that much darker, and almost within the same second Ian launched himself forward toward Locke, slamming into him just in time to hear another shot fired. His heart stopped as he looked around wildly, searching for Sage, the acrid odour of gunshot everywhere.
He couldn’t see her and he yelled her name like a madman, trying to see where she’d fallen. Please let her be all right. The words became a chant as he searched the room. Before he could make out what was happening, he felt a solid slam to his head and he pitched backward into the dark, banging into the table. More noise—he looked up to see EJ and Sarah crashing down the stairs of the cabin. But what had hit him?
Blinking to clear his vision, he saw EJ, gun drawn, standing next to Sarah, staring toward the other end of the cabin. Ian followed his glance and felt his heart plunge. Someone had hit a light switch and the small room was brightly lit again—enough so that Ian could see why EJ and Sarah were staring with such horror.
Sage had been hit.
Ian trained his mind not to panic and assessed the wound from a distance. It was a shoulder entry, not fatal, but she had passed out. Locke knelt by her, pulling her up next to him, his gun pressed against her temple.
“Drop your gun, hero,” he instructed EJ. EJ’s eyes met Ian’s and Ian nodded. EJ’s gun clattered to the floor. Locke moved forward, dragging Sage’s deadweight with him.
“You so much as move, she’s dead. Get out of my way. Now!”
Ian saw Locke was on the edge—he had murder in his eyes—and motioned EJ and Sarah to move away from the door. Locke headed to the door.
“Leave her here. We won’t follow,” Ian said.
Locke laughed, and blood dribbled from his lip where Ian must have knocked him over. He was covered with other blood, as well—Sage’s blood. “You’re right. She’s my insurance of that.”
“No, just the opposite. You take her, I won’t stop coming after you. I won’t stop until you’re dead.” Ian pinned Locke with his gaze. “Locke, if you love her, let us help her.”
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