“Amy!”
I walked away, never looking back. I could hear her crying; I could hear the sobs wracking her body. I told myself I didn’t care, but I heard them for a long time in my dreams. Still do sometimes.
“One of the guys we were with…he followed her and heard what you said. If not for Emily’s handler—he was across the street and was able to call for backup—they would have gotten word to their superiors that we were CIA. They arrested him and his friends, called it a success despite the fact that even Emily’s bosses suspected there were was more than what they were able to get out of them during interrogation. All in all, fifty people were arrested out of that operation. But Emily felt like she could have gotten more, could have stopped the attacks that happened this year, if she hadn’t allowed you to blow our cover.”
“So she’s dead because of me.”
“No,” Dominic said, reaching for my hand. “She’s dead because she found more than she’d expected to. Because she made the choice to go rogue. Because she didn’t allow me or Edgar or anyone else help her.”
I shook my head, thinking of those sobs, of my sister’s heart breaking behind me. I pulled away from Dominic and stood, needing to move. I went into the bathroom and began gathering my things, shoving them into bags. Dominic didn’t try to talk to me. In fact, he left the room, giving me a few minutes to process.
“Let me drive.”
He hesitated, but he handed me the keys. We were on the road not ten minutes later. He watched me in the darkness of the car, but exhaustion finally overcame him, and he stretched out in the small space of the passenger seat and was asleep before we hit the city limits. I couldn’t stop thinking about what he’d told me. I was glad to have the activity of driving because I was pretty sure I would have gone insane if I’d had nothing but my thoughts to keep me busy.
My sister was a CIA agent.
I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. One day we were all college students, all three hanging out together on campus, working at pretending to be adults. Then Dominic failed his economics class for the second time and decided that school just wasn’t his thing. I was scared and frustrated when he told me he’d joined the Army, but proud, too. Emily was with me when I watched him get on that bus that took him to basic training, holding my hand and telling me it was going to be okay.
And then she left two months later.
It was an honor to study at the Sorbonne—even if it wasn’t technically the Sorbonne anymore. We were happy for her. Once again, I stood and watched someone I loved go away, standing in the airport with my parents. Then I returned home and finished the last of my junior year and my entire senior year of college all by myself. To begin my life without the two most important people in my life.
She was CIA. She was trying to save the world from terrorist, and I was here, teaching high school student about Shakespeare. And he was…what? Fighting terrorists on the ground and helping her with her intelligence gathering. They were heroes, and I had the nerve to turn my back on them, accuse them of something ugly and push them out of my life.
Who was I to do that?
The sun was coming up as we passed through Tucson. Dominic grunted as he slowly began to wake.
“What time is it?”
“A little after six.”
He sat up and studied the road signs for a moment. Then he pointed.
“Get off there.”
“Are we stopping for breakfast?”
I hadn’t eaten in nearly forty-eight hours. It was partly my fault, but that didn’t do anything to calm the ache in my belly.
He shook his head. “We need to get rid of this car. Someone might have put two and two together by now.”
He gestured toward the exit he wanted me to take. I slowed the car as we came to a stop sign. He pointed several more times, guiding me into a residential part of the city. We cruised up and down the streets for quite a while before he finally saw what he wanted.
“Pull to the curb.”
He reached into the back seat and grabbed his duffle along with a couple of my Walmart bags. Then, just like we belonged and it was our right, he climbed behind the wheel of a car that some unlucky person had started, but then left for some reason. Maybe he was letting the engine warm up. Or he’d forgotten to kiss his wife goodbye. Whatever it was, the car had the keys in it so we wouldn’t raise eyebrows if anyone happened to get too close.
Dominic drove away as casually as can be, rejoining the interstate and taking us through a long string of tiny towns on the way to El Paso.
“You’ve done that before.”
“I’ve done a lot of things.”
I agreed with that. I studied his profile in the morning light, admiring the way his nose seemed to balance the symmetry of his face perfectly. I remembered the first time I saw him it was from this angle. It was in freshman English and he was sitting to my left with a group of frat boy want-to-bes. I was staring at him because I’d never seen anyone quite as beautiful as he was, and he looked over at me, a soft smile bringing out the deep dimple in his left cheek. I blushed, thinking he’d make fun of me with his friends. But he didn’t. He followed me out into the hallway and asked if I’d like to get a coffee with him.
He didn’t even like coffee.
“Do you still hate coffee?”
He glanced at me. “Not as much. The Army teaches you to tolerate a lot of things you never thought you could.”
“I always wondered why you asked me to coffee that first time rather than lunch.”
“Because I didn’t have enough money to pay for us both to eat. I thought coffee would be cheaper.”
I laughed. “You didn’t have to buy me anything. I would have gone and sat in the park with you.”
“I wanted to impress you.”
“Just looking at you was impressive enough.”
“I could say the same.”
I blushed even as a flattered smile burst over my face.
The road hummed under us, the car riding smoothly over the asphalt. I sat back a little, trying to find a comfortable position.
“You should get some sleep. We have a full day ahead of us.”
“What’s next?”
“We go to Emily’s apartment and see if we can find what it was these people were after.”
“The terrorists?”
“Yes.”
“She must have found something important if they killed her for it.”
Dominic glanced at me. “That’s probably the understatement of the year.”
I smiled again, recognizing one of his favorite sarcasms. He glanced at me and smiled, too. And, for a minute, it felt as though we were back to who we were six years ago. And it was nice.
Chapter 7
Megan
I walked into the office, a stack of files in one arm, a coffee cup in my other hand. Sam came around her desk and took the files, setting them on the edge of her desk.
“Have you heard from Dominic?”
Sam shook her head, a dark cloud of worry crossing her expression. “Do you think he’s okay?”
“He’s smart. I’m sure he’s keeping one step ahead of whatever is going on.”
“The police seemed to really think he was involved in that girl’s murder.”
“He did take off.”
Sam frowned. “It doesn’t look good. But I’m sure he had a good reason.”
I went into my office and sat hard in my desk chair. Sam came in a moment later with a cup of coffee of her own. She settled in a chair in front of my desk while I glanced over the messages that cumulated over night from the monitors who watched over our security systems. Three had gone off in the night, two were false alarms. One was a break in at a business complex downtown, but our people arrived in time to stop a theft.
“Heard from Dante yet?”
“He was in just after you left last night. Said he had a personal thing to take care of and would be in touch sometime today.”
I frowned, glancing at her. “I had a
case for him.”
“Sorry. I didn’t think you would mind.”
“Did he say how long this personal thing would take?”
“No.”
“What about Hayden?”
“He’s across town today, finishing up that corporate thing he did with Dominic.”
I shook my head, setting the file folder on the case to one side. Maybe Marcus.
I pulled up my emails, perusing the subject lines as I tried to organize them by priority. A boom at the front of the office caught my attention. I got up, Sam right behind me, and went to my office door just in time to see a squadron of uniform cops come through the main doors.
“What’s going on?”
“Megan Bradford?”
“That’s me.”
The man in the cheap suit who came along with the uniforms held out a piece of paper.
“Warrant to search these premises.”
“For what?”
“Read the warrant.”
He began barking orders, telling the monitors to move away from their stations. I opened the warrant and read the important parts as quickly as I could.
“Hey! This doesn’t include our computers. Or client files.”
The detective turned. “Don’t interfere, Ms. Bradford.”
“This is for phone records belonging to the firm, email belonging to the firm, and anything related to Dominic Gil. That does not include those computer stations.”
The cop’s eyes narrowed. “I’m going to have to ask you to leave the building, Ms. Bradford.”
“And I’m going to have to ask you to restrict yourself to your own warrant.”
The cop glared at me. But he didn’t argue.
“Alright, gentlemen,” he called out, “please collect all cellphones that belong to Dragon Security, along with computers that receive email owned by Dragon Security.”
“No. You only get the emails, not the computers. We’d be happy to print them out for you.”
The detective narrowed his eyes as he came close to me, thinking he could intimidate me by standing toe to toe with me.
“You are interfering with a police investigation. That is a misdemeanor.”
“No. I’m following the letter of the warrant, as you should be doing.” I pressed the warrant to his chest. “Why don’t you go see if you can get a judge to sign off on what you really want.”
He glared at me, but he knew I had him trapped. He gave up, gesturing for the uniforms to leave the building.
“I want the printed emails ready in two hours. And your personnel records on Dominic Gil, along with anything else that might be helpful in locating him.”
“Yes, sir.”
He studied my face for a long moment, then turned on his heel and left.
I quickly ducked into my office and pulled my personal cell out of my back pocket. First I called my father—CEO of Bradford Telecommunications—and then I called the number Dominic had left for me.
“Do not call the office. Do not use the codename Crow. Do not attempt to contact anyone but me and only on this number.”
I disconnected the call, hoping my father was right about being able to make numbers disappear from my private cellphone records. I didn’t want to be the reason Dominic was found by either the police, or anyone else who might be looking for him.
Chapter 8
Dominic
We drove into town a little after midnight. Amy was asleep, her head cradled on a pillow of her hands. I considered just leaving her there, but decided that this was a moment she needed to be a part of.
“Ames,” I said, leaning close to her so that my lips were close to her ear. “Time to wake up.”
She peeked at me from under her lashes, a soft groan slipping from between her lips.
“Where are we?”
“Arlington.”
She sat up, leaning forward to stretch out her back. I moved out of her way and watched, finding the whole thing a little familiar. I used to make fun of her for working her body out like a cat might do every morning when she first woke. She was doing it now, stretching her back, then stretching her arms and legs.
“Okay now?” I asked when she finally settled.
“Great.”
She looked out the windshield up at the apartment building we were parked beside.
“What is this?”
“Emily’s apartment.”
She turned so quickly that it must have hurt the way she moved her neck.
“Excuse me?”
“This is Emily’s. We need to go up and see if we can find the information she had that these people were so threatened by.”
“She lived here?”
“Yes.”
“How are we going to get in?”
“Elizabeth will let us in.”
I got out of the car and waited for her to follow. She was still staring up at the building, as if she was expecting for it to have a big sign that said, “Emily lives here!” It was actually a very ordinary looking building, three stories and painted a simple beige. It wasn’t unlike the apartment complex where Amy and I lived during college. That complex was still overflowing with college students, still near all the hottest nightclubs.
“Amy?”
She finally got out and followed me as I led the way up the stairs. Elizabeth and Emily were on the second floor. I grabbed her hand as I led the way down the narrow corridor to the right door.
Elizabeth opened the door, her dark hair falling over her face to hide the red splotches from her tears.
“Hey,” I said, pulling her into my chest with my free hand. She wrapped her arms around my neck and buried her face against me. I felt a sob vibrate through her. I didn’t know what to say. What do you say to someone who’s just lost the love of her life?
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, pulling back to wipe the tears from her face. She caught sight of Amy, and she froze, the color draining from her face.
“Oh, my God!”
“Lizzie, this is Amy.”
Elizabeth stared at Amy another long second, then shivered, shaking herself back to reality.
“I’m sorry. You just look so much like her.”
Amy nodded, a soft smile touching her face. “We got that a lot.”
Elizabeth eyed her a minute longer. “Hell, sorry,” she mumbled, stepping back. “Come inside.”
“Thank you for this, Lizzie,” I said.
“Of course. Anything you need.”
It was weird walking into Emily’s apartment without Emily there. Every time I’d been there in the past, she was here, greeting me with a big hug and a kiss. Emily was a personality that couldn’t be held back. She was always talking, always laughing. She was a light that I thought couldn’t be snuffed out. And Elizabeth…this wasn’t the Elizabeth I knew. She was just a shadow.
“Edgar mentioned that she might have been prepared to mail something to him. Do you think—?”
“Anything she might have prepared to be mailed would be on her desk. Or in the bedroom next to her side of the bed.”
I crossed the room to the small alcove that Emily had called her office. There was a desk, a computer, and a pile of paperwork from her job at the insurance company. I dug through the paperwork, feeling like a grim reaper. I could feel Elizabeth watching me, chewing her nails as she did. I glanced at her, and she tried a smile, but her chin was quivering.
“I’m sorry,” I said, going to her. “Do you want us to come back?”
“If this is going to help you find who did this, I want you to search as much as you need to.”
I kissed her forehead lightly. “I’ll make them pay.”
She looked up at me, her dark eyes intense as she stared into my eyes. “I know you will.”
I turned back to the stack of papers, but there was nothing there. I checked the drawers, under the computer, but there was nothing. I sort of turned, looking around the room. There was nothing out of place, nothing that looked like what I wanted. Elizabeth gest
ured to the bedroom door.
“Go on.”
Amy was watching the whole thing, leaning back against the wall, her arms crossed over her chest as she took it all in. I touched her arm as I walked past her.
Emily wasn’t the most organized person in the world. I could tell which side of the bed was hers compared to Elizabeth’s. Emily’s night table was stacked high with books and papers, a few envelopes, water bottles, snack food wrappers, and things I didn’t think I wanted to recognize. I sat on the edge of the bed and began to carefully rifle through it all. It was kind of obvious that the police had been there because there was actually some organization to the mess. And fingerprint dust—though I wasn’t sure why that had been necessary.
There was nothing on top of the table, but I pulled open the drawer underneath and found an envelope with Edgar’s pseudonym on it.
Oscar Philips.
It didn’t look disturbed. I pulled it out and tore a corner open. When I turned it up on end, a flash drive fell out.
Bingo.
“Find what you were looking for?” Elizabeth asked from the doorway.
“Yeah. I think so.”
I walked over to her and lifted her chin. She was crying, the tears falling silently.
“I can’t sleep,” she whispered softly. “I can’t eat. I can’t…I miss her so much I can’t breathe.”
“I know.”
“She told me that she was leaving it all behind. She said that she just wanted to finish this last little bit, and then it would be over. That we would go wherever I wanted. We were planning a life, Dom.”
“I know. She told me about it. The Caribbean.”
She nodded, her tears flowing freely. “It was supposed to be soon. She just had this little bit.”
“Can you tell me what it was like the last couple of weeks? Did she say anything about someone following her?”
“No. But she wouldn’t have told me if she’d known.” She wiped the tears from her face with the sleeves of her bathrobe. “But she did mention that she thought she’d done something stupid. She said she’d been going to Denton, watching her sister come and go from work. She thought that maybe someone had seen her do that.”
Amy gasped. I was torn between comforting the sobbing woman in front of me or the frightened woman behind her.
DOMINIC (Dragon Security Book 3) Page 6