“We’re looking for her.” Adam grasped her by the shoulders. “Heidi, I think you need to—”
“I need to find his daughter.” She pushed Adam’s hands away and turned. She needed to move, do something, but her stomach felt funny and the drums were beating harder.
Water splashed on tile.
“Shit,” Adam muttered.
Heidi turned toward the windows and paced across the room, opening them to let in some breeze.
The sound of the tap faded.
She stared out at the suburban spread they’d taken up residence in for the time being. There’d been a day when she’d wanted this for her and Adam. Deep down, she still wanted it, but was she willing to risk the chance of her snapping and going crazy? What if she killed him?
“Hi, what’s going on? Can I see your arms?”
“What’s wrong with my—” Heidi held out her hands and stared at her forearms. Deep scratches lined them from elbow to wrist. When had that happened? She caught sight of the rest of her. When had she taken her clothes off? She didn’t remember that.
Adam took her hands in his and pulled her away from the windows.
“I have to find her, Adam. I need to find Mr. Reddy’s daughter. When did this happen?”
“We will. Come here.”
Adam grabbed one of his t-shirts and put it on over her head. Then he pressed his wrist to her forehead, checking for a temperature.
“I’m fine.” She pulled away, but he didn’t let go of her.
“You’re not. Heidi, your arms are bleeding and...”
“And what?”
“Look at yourself.” He pulled her to the mirror and stood behind her. “Your eyes are bloodshot, you’re pale, your arms—”
“You don’t get to skip out on years of my life and start caring for me now,” she snapped and pulled away from him. “I’m fine. You should be worried about finding the daughter. We have to find the daughter. She has kids, right? What about them? We need to find them, Adam. They need to be the priority.”
“Right now I’m worried about you. You’re not acting right, Hi.”
“How would you know?” She turned to face him. She loved Adam, but she didn’t want them to end up like her parents. “You don’t know me anymore.”
“Heidi—”
“No. No. You need to leave. I need to find Mr. Reddy’s family. You can’t be here. I can’t be around you. This isn’t working. You have to leave.”
“Alright. Alright.” Adam held his hands up, palms out.
Heidi held her breath and watched him back out of the door.
He was leaving.
It was what she wanted, and yet she didn’t like seeing him bail on her. Again. Still, it was better off than both of them being dead.
9.
TUESDAY. SAFE HOUSE, Mumbai, India.
Adam descended the stairs. He could feel the cool air tickling the back of his throat. There was something he could be doing, but he didn’t know what. Nothing could have prepared him for that.
What the hell was wrong with Heidi?
The others stood in the main room staring at him.
They had to have heard her screaming. Hell, he’d barely been able to keep from cringing at her volume.
“How is she?” Cindy asked.
“When the hell did that start?” He gestured at the ceiling. A thump of something hitting the ground punctuated his question.
“John and I were discussing this when you came inside. She doesn’t appear to have a fever or any physical signs of sickness, but we don’t know what she was exposed to while she was being held.” Cindy merely shrugged as though she hadn’t just landed a bomb in Adam’s lap.
“You think she was dosed with something?” he asked.
“That, or stress,” John said.
“This afternoon was stressful, but would it really bring out this kind of response?” Cindy frowned at the ceiling. They could all hear Heidi yelling at nothing.
“It makes sense if you know her history,” John said.
Adam glanced at the older man. The lines of worry on his face indicated that he knew.
“What history?” Cindy asked.
John glanced at Adam, but didn’t speak.
“Her parents killed themselves. She barged in and saw the bodies. Wasn’t anything we could do to stop her.” Adam’s stomach rolled. He’d been just a little too slow to realize what she was doing, and then he couldn’t catch her fast enough.
“If she is sick, what are her symptoms then? Is it contagious? Are we infected?” Kyle asked.
“We need to be prepared to deal with this,” Grant said.
“Hard to say without some form of test. Examining her in this state will be difficult.” Cindy grimaced.
“She was feverish and pale. Her eyes were bloodshot. She’s...it’s like she’s hyper. She’s scratched her forearms to the point that she’s starting to bleed. And, she didn’t remember taking off her clothes.” Adam hated admitting what had happened, but Heidi needed help he couldn’t provide. Not with her like this.
“If she’s sick, we need gloves, masks and some way to determine what she’s been infected with.” Cindy ticked off the items on her fingers.
“Make a list,” Adam said.
“Zain should have more for us soon.” Kyle checked his watch. “Let’s make a supply run, get food, that way when we know more we’re ready to act.”
“Sounds good to me,” Cindy said.
“Kyle?” Adam jerked his head toward the next room.
His Team Lead followed him while the others watched.
Adam wasn’t ready to say this in front of others, not with everything they were going through.
“What’s up?” Kyle asked.
“I think me being around is irritating Heidi, and she’s obsessed with the Reddy girl. Something’s not right. I don’t know if it’s stress or...” Adam swallowed. If she’d been infected with something in Peru that was just now manifesting, he wasn’t sure he could handle that.
“Okay, we will go for supplies and leave the others here to babysit. Don’t worry about it. Heidi will be fine.” Kyle smacked Adam on the shoulder. “Meet you in the truck?”
Adam nodded and strode out to the garage.
Most of what Heidi had yelled at the end was gibberish, but he’d understood enough to get the gist. He wasn’t sure if he wanted this to be a product of stress or an unknown disease. A sickness could be cured, at least in theory. If this was stress, there might be no recovering from this for them.
Adam got in the SUV and stared at the house door.
He wanted to be here, but if he stayed he’d go upstairs and there was no doubt that she’d gotten louder and more demonstrative when he’d been there.
Kyle came out a few minutes later and climbed into the passenger seat. He thrust a piece of paper with an address and a list of things on it at him.
Neither spoke while Adam got them on the road headed to a medical supply store for the basics Cindy and John had listed for them.
“How are you doing with all this?” Kyle asked after a couple blocks.
Adam shrugged. He didn’t have words to answer that question. Not right now. Not with Heidi unwell.
“Don’t jump to conclusions right now. Wait and see, okay?” Kyle glanced at him.
That worried expression knocked a memory lose. Adam had meant to talk to Kyle later and later was now.
“Grant thinks you’re distracted.”
“Yeah, he would. That son of a bitch lives, breathes and shits work. Sometimes I swear he’s a robot.” Kyle muttered a few uncomplimentary words about the Lepta Team Leader. “He might be right though. Don’t tell him I said that?”
“How’s your dad?” Adam was pretty certain he’d asked already, but it never hurt to do it again.
“Not good.” Kyle blew out a breath and leaned back. “They want to set us up with home hospice, but he’s refusing.”
Adam had overheard one of those conversations. The
y were far more colorful than Kyle admitted to. Adam wasn’t sure if he should wish Kyle’s father well, or a speedy passing, so he kept his trap shut.
“What about Heidi? Before you two seemed to be doing better.” Kyle glanced at him.
“Yeah, we were.”
“I had a completely different picture in my head of her. I wanted to not like her, but she’s feisty. I can see why she’d be good for you.”
Adam didn’t respond.
He had to believe that whatever was wrong with Heidi would pass. He’d get her back, and then he could work on keeping her. They had a ways to go before he told Kyle he was planning on retiring, but if they survived this and if Heidi would let him in, he planned on staying. They’d lost too many years and let too much come between them. There wasn’t another person on this planet Adam loved more than her. It’d merely become clearer over the years.
They made the circuit to a medical supply store then a place with an English menu and back to the house in less than an hour. There were perks to being far enough outside the city that the evening traffic didn’t slow them down.
Adam pulled back into the garage. At a glance, everything appeared in order and Grant replied to Kyle’s text with an all clear sign.
Nothing about Heidi’s state, however.
They got out, juggling food and medical supplies, and carried the load into the house.
Grant and Riley were at the kitchen bar with their laptops wearing identical frowns. Since the cowboy liked to smile and joke most of the time, it set of warning bells.
“What’s happened?” Kyle asked, beating Adam to the punch.
“Zain says he’s cracked the hard drive and will have something for us in a few minutes,” Grant replied.
“And Heidi?” Kyle glanced at Adam. “How’s she?”
“She stopped yelling. Cindy is up there with her trying to get her to take a shower in case that will help. She’s developed a real fever.” Riley leaned back and his gaze went to Adam.
Adam hated that news. He’d hoped for stress, that whatever was twisting her mind could be figured out. But if she’d come down with something, that posed a kind of risk they weren’t prepared to handle. And what would it continue to do to Heidi? How did they cure it? Was it contagious? What if they’d spread some new sickness across South America, Europe and Asia?
“Well, we can’t do anything about it right now. Best thing to do is eat and make a plan. Let’s let Cindy take a look at her and see what she things.” Kyle took boxes out of the bags.
“I’ll run this up to the ladies.” Riley stood and accepted both a bag of food and the medical supplies.
“Let John know we have food,” Kyle said.
“Will do.” Riley gave them a little salute then headed for the stairs.
Grant remained focused on his laptop. Kyle glanced at the man a few times, but when the Lepta Team Leader made no effort to interact, Kyle seemed to shrug it off. So long as they got everything done, Adam didn’t care if they were best buddies.
“Zain’s calling,” Grant announced.
Adam and Kyle rounded the bar to stand behind Grant.
“Hey guys.” Zain’s face filled the screen. “I’ve got a lot to go over, so reference the email I’m sending to you now. First, Reddy kept meticulous notes so we know what they were given, how much, when, how much they made, all of that sort of stuff. We also know the three companies he’s repaid investor money to. I present to you three heads of the hydra.”
The screen blipped from Zain’s face to a white screen with three company names. None of them were familiar.
“Companies one and two are effectively gone, but this third one still has physical holdings outside the city, including a lease on a large facility that is almost up. It’s not that far from you guys. Could be worth checking out.” The screen went back to Zain. “I’m also working on tracking the money, the emails Reddy had for these people and every digital record. If there’s a way to find them through this stuff, we’ll do it.”
“We’ve got a problem here.” Kyle glanced at Adam. “Heidi is sick or...”
“It could be a stress induced episode.” Adam wished that were the case. They saw plenty of those with people they rescued, but this time was something decidedly worse.
“Shit,” Zain muttered.
“Cindy and John are trying to determine what’s wrong with her,” Grant said.
“Okay. Keep me updated. If we need to get her to a facility, I’ll find out what’s our best option and send that to you.” Zain glanced away. “There’s still nothing about the sniper. I’m monitoring what I can from here. Abigail’s helping us, but that’s only going to get us so far without local support. We need to discuss taking this to someone. I know the clients suspect someone in the CDC is linked to this, so—Justice Department? Military? Do we go straight to the top and try to contact the head of the Health and Human Services Department?”
“If this is as big as we think it is, this is a global problem. Go straight to the top,” Kyle said.
“I’ll take it up with the Admiral, then let you know what our next move is. Go check out that facility.”
The call ended, and they stood there in silence for a moment.
This was getting heavy. They’d been in some deep shit over the last year, but this might be pushing the envelope further than they’d ever taken it. Or, it could be that this was worse because it was Heidi. Adam always wanted to do right by their clients, but he’d never been invested in some of their jobs like the others. For him, there was a professional line that he didn’t cross.
Heidi saw lines as things to be broken. Smashed. For them, there were no boundaries, which made this that much more difficult.
“You need a minute?” Kyle asked.
“No,” Adam muttered.
“Okay. Well, two of us need to go check out the address Zain sent.” Kyle glanced at him. “Adam, do you want to stay here or...?”
“No. I need to do something.” Adam was helpless here. He couldn’t even sit next to Heidi and hold her hand without fearing he’d set her off again like before.
“Okay, then how about you and Riley go, check out the site, while Grant and I coordinate our next move with Zain. How’s that sound?” Kyle looked between Adam and Grant.
“Fine by me,” Grant said.
Riley descended the stairs without John.
“John’s helping Cindy.” Riley stared at Grant, not meeting Adam’s eyes. It was the downturn at the corner of his mouth that gave away the severity of what was going on upstairs. Things weren’t good.
“We’ll get him some dinner. You’re going to suit up and go with Adam.” Grant thumbed over his shoulder.
“Mind eating in the car?” Adam asked.
“Fine by me.” Riley shrugged.
He followed Adam into the dining room where they spent a few moments switching out civilian clothing for protective gear and a few non-lethal protection measures. Since India had one of the strictest gun policies in the world they’d opted to check the bulk of their firearms into police custody upon arriving in the country. That didn’t mean they weren’t without protection, but it made their job harder. Sometimes playing within the bounds of the law sucked.
Riley didn’t try to chat as they got into the SUV and Adam plugged their destination plugged into the GPS. They rode in silence for at least fifteen minutes before Riley began to hum, probably some country song.
“I can hear you grinding your teeth, you know?” Riley turned his head and stared at Adam. “Your girl’s going to be okay.”
They didn’t know that. They didn’t know anything about what Heidi had been through. What if she didn’t remember it all? What if she was a walking human bomb? The possibilities were terrifying.
“I take it things haven’t always been perfect between you two.” Riley turned back to stare at the highway as they merged onto the faster lanes of traffic. “My parents have been divorced and re-married twice. It’s some crazy shit. Sometimes I
think that’s what made my younger brother move all the way to Texas, just to get away from them.”
Adam clenched his teeth tighter and kept driving. Crazy he could handle. Heidi had always been wild. That was their secret. They balanced each other out.
He prayed she survived long enough for them to figure this all out.
TUESDAY. SAFE HOUSE, Mumbai, India.
Heidi twisted the lock on her room.
Cindy was such a bitch.
There. Heidi had said it. At least to herself.
People liked Cindy. She was well respected and had a lot of clout, but she was a damn bitch. Always knew better than everyone else. The only reason Heidi had approached Cindy about her suspicions was because John insisted they needed her expertise.
“What a bitch,” Heidi muttered.
She turned and eyed the Styrofoam boxes on the dresser. Cindy wanted her to eat that stuff. She couldn’t trust Cindy. Heidi’s gut said so. She had to trust her instincts. Those were what had saved her time and time again whenever things got really bad between Mom and Dad.
Heidi marched across the room and dumped the meal into the waste basket.
There.
She shivered.
The sun was setting, so it made sense it would be cooler, but cold? She stared at the bed. A nap might be nice. But what if Cindy came in here while she was sleeping?
Someone knocked on the bedroom door, then rattled the locked door.
“Heidi? Hey, it’s Kyle.”
“I’m going to bed.” Heidi glanced around.
The chair.
“Everything okay? The others said they were worried about you.”
“Fine. Just fine.” She grabbed the chair and carried it to the door.
First came Kyle, then Adam and she couldn’t have him here. She and Adam were done. If they weren’t done, one of them would die and there were already enough dead dragging her down.
The lights flickered and the AC unit sputtered to a stop.
“Shit. I’ll be back,” Kyle said.
“Don’t hurry,” she muttered.
God, it was cold. Her teeth were chattering and goose bumps had broken out on her arms and legs.
Dangerous in Motion (Aegis Group Alpha Team, #4) Page 13