Vengeance

by JL Wilson

  At some point Lucinda bent over me where I knelt next to a woman with a nasty slash in her arm. "Do you have identification?" Lucinda murmured into my ear. Cerberus watched us from a few feet away, his pale blue eyes watering with dust and smoke.

  I looked up at her, startled. "Don't you know who I am?"

  She nodded to the left and I followed her gaze. Several ambulances had arrived and police cars were coming into the area, lights flashing. "They may have questions about your medical background. I know I do."

  "My wallet is in my back pocket. I have a medical ID."

  She plucked the wallet out of my pocket, her hand caressing my back as she leaned on me. "I have the feeling there's a lot to learn about you." After kissing me on the cheek, she walked across the lot, thumbing through my wallet as she went. People once again moved toward her, calling out questions that she answered with short, quick gestures. I smiled at the sight--Lucinda, small, competent and in charge in her pale blue blouse and torn blue pants, looking like a little general issuing orders with Cerberus by her side, her faithful assistant.

  My Lucinda.

  I straightened up from my patient a few minutes later and retrieved my jacket, left on the ground. Cara was gone, presumably vanished into one of the waiting ambulances. I went to talk to the paramedics. Lucinda joined me, handing me my wallet with a murmured, "Here you go, Dr. Hayden."

  You've got some explaining to do, Cerberus said from his spot at her side.

  I looked down at him. His fur was matted and dirty. Those enormous paws were crusty with grime and chunks of concrete dirt. You're going to need another bath.

  No problem. He looked up at Lucinda with adoration. Maybe she'll do it.

  I put my jacket around Lucinda's shoulders and hugged her to me. "Did I tell you how glad I am we made it out of there unharmed?" I savored a brief moment of her body against mine, her curly hair tickling my jaw where she was tucked under my chin.

  "We are lucky, aren't we?" She slipped her arms into the sleeves and hugged me back. "Let's go deal with the aftermath. Then I have a few things I'd like to discuss with you."

  "After I've taken inventory of your body," I said in an aside as we joined a huddle of firemen and paramedics.

  "I'm the boss, remember? We'll do what I say."

  I grinned at the thought, but sobered as I approached the men. "What happened?" I asked an older man in a fireman's turnout gear with John McIntyre printed in heavy black letters above his Fire Chief's insignia.

  "This is my fiancé, Dr. Hayden," Lucinda said. She kept one hand on Cerberus's head where he leaned against her side, opposite me.

  Her words stunned me so much I barely tracked what the man said. Her fiancé? I pulled her tighter against me and she slipped an arm around my waist, holding on to me in reply.

  "...bomb, probably localized in the west end of the building," McIntyre said, his voice rough from smoke. "We found what looks like pieces of a timing device." He looked around the parking lot. "It could have been a lot worse."

  Lucinda nodded. "Luckily we have a holiday and a lot of the employees are gone. I checked with Marion Engler, our chief administrative assistant in Human Resources. I believe everyone is accounted for." Her eyes flickered to the grassy strip on the far side of the lot where I had tended the wounded. Jeff was being loaded onto a stretcher. "We were lucky." Her arm tightened around my waist and I know what she was thinking. We were lucky her niece didn't kill us all.

  Are you sure it was Kat? Cerberus asked. This seems extreme just to get control of a company.

  "I need statements from everyone in the building." This was from a short, stocky man with a pockmarked face and bushy mustache. "We'll take initial statements here then you need to come to the station later to sign them." He gestured us to two white panel trucks nearby with "Mobile Crime Scene Unit" emblazoned on the side in blocky black letters.

  Cerberus followed Lucinda. "You can leave the dog outside," he said.

  Lucinda gave him an imperious look. "I don't think so." She and Cerberus swept ahead of the police officer and vanished into the truck. He turned to look at me, but I just shrugged then followed another officer into a different van. A different police officer took down my personal details, then stepped me through the events that led up to this moment in the parking lot. I explained about my medical background, implying that it was the reason Lucinda hired me as her consultant. The officer didn't question this assumption. I just hoped that if he and his confederates compared notes later, everything would sync.

  I emerged from the police van to a damp mist that wrapped around the parking lot. The fire was out and Delacroix Labs was a forlorn hulk, the gray concrete blackened with a thin sheen of water coating the front, coalescing into ice in spots. Police personnel were screwing large boards into place and bright yellow crime scene tape completed the picture.

  I saw Lucinda across the lot, talking to someone who had their back to me. Cerberus was at her side, staring up intently at the person speaking. I started toward them when the person shifted position. Kathryn Delacroix looked over her shoulder at me.

  I almost ran across the lot, anxious to get that bitch somewhere private where I could throttle her to death. "What are you doing here?"

  Lucinda took my hand. "Nico, stop. Don't." She interposed herself between us, physically blocking me from reaching her niece. I could feel Lucinda's concern as well as an overwhelming sense of relief. I realized she trusted her niece.

  "You're being too nice," I snapped.

  Kat Delacroix watched us, her face impassive. "We need to talk." She moved toward a dark sedan parked nearby, its engine running. She looked down at Cerberus, who flanked Lucinda on the other side. "Without the company."

  No way, lady. Where Lucinda goes, I go.

  "What is it with you people?" Lucinda demanded. "He's just a little bit dirtier than I am."

  "He's a dog, Aunt Lucinda."

  "And?" Lucinda shook her head in exasperation and opened the car door.

  "Why the hell haven't you been arrested?" I demanded, following Lucinda to the car.

  "Because I didn't cause this explosion. Robert Meyer did." Kat Delacroix slid into the front seat behind the steering wheel and turned to watch us get into the back, Cerberus first then Lucinda ahead of me, clutching my jacket, which she still wore. Before I could debate this comment, Kat pulled out a wallet and handed it to me.

  I flipped it open. "Kathryn Delacroix, Special Agent, Homeland Security" was emblazoned on an ID next to an official-looking badge. I slapped the wallet shut and handed it back to her then turned to Lucinda. "Did you know this?"

  "Yes and no." She faced me on the back seat, leaning against Cerberus as she did so. "I knew Kat was in Homeland Security and she was investigating Robert. I didn't know why."

  Ooh, a G-woman, Cerberus murmured. Better be careful. He peered at me, his face resting on Lucinda's shoulder.

  "Damn it, Lucinda." I longed to shake her but settled for a quick glare in her direction. "When are you going to trust me?"

  "Trust has nothing to do with it," Kat Delacroix said. I realized this was who she really was--a competent, well-trained professional who was not about to take any crap from me. "I swore Aunt Cinda and my grandfather to secrecy." She overrode me when I would have spoken. "We don't have much time. I'm trying to find Masterson and I need your help."

  "You said 'Meyer' before."

  Good point.

  Her plain, broad face creased into a frown. "Meyer, Masterson--does it matter? Meyer convinced my grandfather to fake his own death in order to avoid an investigation into illegal offshore banking. Of course, Meyer was the one who got him involved in the first place, that son of a bitch."

  I glanced at Lucinda. "The men in your family have an unfortunate habit of screwing up their financial lives."

  She rolled her eyes. "Tell me about it."

  "Grandfather has kept an eye on the company all this time," Kat continued. "He discovered Meyer was into something ille
gal and he called me. I started an investigation and realized that Grandfather was right. Robert Meyer was consorting with a group who would love to have a medical base in the United States. I let Meyer know I could be persuaded to sell my shares of Delacroix stock. That was all he needed." She snorted unpleasantly. "Why do men assume that a plain woman will lose all common sense when a handsome man pays attention to her?"

  Lucinda looked at me, her mischievous eyes belying her innocent expression. "Yes, Nico. Why is that?"

  Don't answer that. Cerberus peeked around her shoulder at me.

  "No comment."

  "Two months ago, Grandfather came to me and told me that he found Meyer's journals." Kat's gaze zeroed in on me. "The journals mentioned you. I started doing some digging."

  "And what did you find?" I tried to keep my voice light but was aware of Lucinda, watching this exchange with intent gray eyes.

  "I discovered your interest in my Aunt Lucinda." Kat glanced at Lucinda then returned her attention to me. "In his journals, Meyer says that if he can put Lucinda in the line of fire, he'll draw you out."

  I started to speak but once again she drowned out my words.

  "I started to wonder why he wanted to draw you out. I asked my grandfather to give me the copies he made of all of Meyer's journals." Kat stared at me, her gaze implacable. "That's when Grandfather confessed that Meyer had created a so-called immortality virus." She smiled mirthlessly. "Nonsense, of course, but Grandfather believed it. I played along because I wanted to find out what Meyer was up to."

  Her voice didn't ring true. I don't know if Lucinda heard it, but Kat Delacroix was lying. But I wasn't sure where the lie was centered. There were so many opportunities for lies in everything she said. Did she realize that there truly was a virus? Was that it? Was she covering it up?

  "Then I found out that Parker Madison arranged to have you assigned to my aunt," Kat said. "I hoped that would tip Robert Meyer's hand." Her gaze moved to the building behind us. "I didn't think he'd do this."

  Parker Madison had me assigned? I looked at Cerberus.

  Parker said Kat did the arranging. Why would Parker lie? Or is she lying?

  "Assigned?" Lucinda asked, her voice ominously low. "What does that mean?" She glared at me. "To do what?"

  Oh, oh. She's really pissed off. Cerberus snuffled at Lucinda's ear but she pushed him away and resumed glaring at me.

  "Well, Nico?" she demanded.

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  "Assigned to your protection. I work for the government, remember?" I glared at Kat, who blinked at this blatant lie. I hurried to change the subject. "So where does that leave us?"

  Kat's mask of calm twitched and I saw real concern in her eyes. "We need you and Aunt Lucinda to help us."

  I was one step ahead of her. "Bait in a trap. You need us to lure Parker into the open?"

  I don't like this.

  Lucinda shook her head, her dark curls dancing. "I won't put him in danger. I can do this alone."

  I took Lucinda's face in my hands. "No way." I glanced beyond her to Cerberus. "We're all in this together." I turned back to Kat. "Where?" Our eyes met. I suddenly saw in their dark depths the entire duplicitous future laid out before me.

  She was lying, all right. The government knew the virus was real. They wanted me, preferably alive, but dead would serve their purpose too, in order to verify the effects of Meyer's virus. And Lucinda had already been the bait in the trap that caught me, put there by her niece.

  I wonder if Kat cares that Lucinda was almost killed, Cerberus whispered.

  I was suffocating on the lies and double-crosses. Somehow I doubt it. I jerked open the back door. "We're going home."

  "Wait--you need protection."

  She wasn't worried about Lucinda. She was worried about me. She needed me to get her hands on Meyer's virus. I couldn't stand being near her any longer. I dragged Lucinda out of the car, Cerberus leaping around her to race ahead of us. "Do what you want. We're leaving." I stalked over to the Cayenne, fuming with anger.

  Lucinda edged in front me as I approached the driver's side, jingling the car keys I'd handed her earlier. "I'll drive," she said confidently. "I didn't get a rental car yet. Isn't this the one you wanted me to use?"

  "Lucinda, I don't have time to--"

  "You're right, we don't have time to argue. Meyer is probably waiting for us at your house already. We need to get there and kill that son of a bitch."

  I stared at her. "What?"

  "We need to get to him before the government does. If they do get him, who knows what will happen to the virus?" She tugged on the SUV's door. "Does this have a security code?"

  "1790," I said, my mind racing. "What virus?"

  "Quit trying to bullshit me." She tapped in the code and opened the front door then the back. "Hop in," she said to Cerberus.

  Thanks. Let's get going. He glanced at me. You look like you're going to have a heart attack. Get with it. Let's go.

  He was right. I felt like I might have a coronary. "What do you mean, bullshit you?"

  She slid onto the driver's seat. "Is this the car I was supposed to use?"

  "Yes, it is." I got into the passenger side and smiled when I saw her in the driver's seat. The headrest hid her from view and the SUV's control panel dwarfed her.

  "I may as well get used to it then." She jammed the key into the ignition as she examined the various controls.

  "I didn't think you wanted to use one of my cars."

  "I don't mind driving an SUV, but that Jag looked too expensive for me."

  If she thought a Porsche Cayenne was significantly cheaper than a Jaguar S-type, I wasn't going to disabuse her of the notion. "That's fine, I trust you. With my car and with my heart."

  Oh, nice touch.

  I looked back at Cerberus. He grinned at me. Lucinda also grinned. "Flatterer."

  "I'm just telling the truth." As I fastened my seatbelt, I caught a glimpse of Kathryn Delacroix, standing next to the sedan and talking urgently on a mobile phone. John Fairchild was approaching her, his face set and angry. We didn't have much time.

  "Take Lincoln Avenue to 94th," I said, my mind racing. "Then go north on--"

  "I know, I know." Lucinda piloted us out of the parking lot and onto the street, driving with a confident carelessness that left me breathless. She didn't seem aware that the vehicle she was driving was at least twice as large as her usual mode of transportation. We had several narrow misses with smaller cars before she adjusted.

  We were silent until she got to the boulevard that would take us to my house. "Are you going to explain it, Nico? The virus? The government conspiracy?"

  I watched her hands clench and unclench on the steering wheel, remembering what Cerberus had said. 'Reincarnation is a bit hard to grasp unless you're intimately involved in it. Try a good lie.' Maybe the truth would do.

  Give it a try. It can't hurt.

  I glanced back at him then took the plunge. "I love you. Do you love me?"

  "It's not about that."

  "Do you love me?" I touched her hand, which gripped the wheel so tightly I was afraid it would break.

  Her voice was a low whisper. "Yes."

  "Leave it at that for now. When there's time, I'll explain everything. But I need to think." I squeezed her hand. "I need to plan."

  She started to speak then closed her jaw with a snap. "Okay. But I want a complete explanation later."

  I nodded, relieved. "You'll have it." I prayed I'd be able to keep that promise.

  Lucinda pulled into my driveway ten minutes later. Good Friday was an important religious day, so I wasn't surprised by the quiet neighborhood. I opened the garage door and pressed the remote for the house door. Cerberus bounded out, sniffing anxiously at the ground. David Delacroix is here, he panted.

  "Daddy's here? Where?" Lucinda looked around, confused.

  Cerberus dashed to her then stopped, peering beyond me to the street. She heard me. She's close to remembering it all. Co
me on! He raced out to the street.

  "Haidess."

  Lucinda and I both turned. David Delacroix was striding across the street from Mrs. Taylor's house. I saw my neighbors in their doorway, waving. He probably waited with them until he saw our car in the drive. I once again thanked God or whatever entity protected elderly fools.

  "Daddy?" Lucinda raced past me before I could stop her.

  I pulled my Colt from under the SUV seat, hiding it under the jacket Lucinda let slip from her shoulders. Lucinda was in her father's arms, his face pressed to her hair and tears rolling down his sunken cheeks. Cerberus milling around their legs with excited little yips and much licking of any exposed flesh he could find.

  "Inside." I grabbed Delacroix by the arm. "Now."

  "What? What's wrong?" Lucinda looked up at me. "Oh. You're right."

  I hustled them into the house, grabbing my security headset on the way as Cerberus raced ahead of us. I touched the keypad near the door to activate the perimeter alarms. "You're not dead," I said, tossing my jacket on the counter. "Why not? The police told me you'd died."

  "That was Kat's doing. She did it to try to smoke you out into the open." Delacroix paused in the entryway door then came inside as the door automatically shut and locked behind him. "She lied to you."

  I'm going to check, Cerberus called out as he raced through the hall and toward the steps leading upstairs.

  I ran a hand over my hair, hoping to rub intelligence into my brain. "What the hell is it with your family?" I came further into the room to lean against the counter. "Are you all congenital liars?"

  Delacroix pulled Lucinda to him, keeping her close with an arm around her shoulders. His gaze flickered to The Velveteen Rabbit book, which I'd left on the counter. "Kat read Meyer's journals and told me the virus wasn't real. She didn't tell me it had been tested at a government lab." He squeezed Lucinda's shoulder. "She used us all to get close to Meyer and the virus."