1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Five

by Julie Kenner

  “Was anyone else in the office at the time?” Leo asked.

  “Only Miss Barrett.”

  “Continue.”

  “The men entered Ms. Kinsley’s office at approximately 10:59PM.”

  Maggie’s image blossomed on the screen. Leo watched as she looked up from her computer, her mouth opening in shock as the men entered her office. She got up from her desk, stumbled backward toward the window that overlooked the city. The men advanced, and one of them grabbed her, forced her back into her desk chair.

  “I don’t want to see this,” Diana said.

  Briony looked at Leo as if for permission. He nodded, and the screen went black.

  “Are these the men who chased you?” Leo asked Diana.

  “One of them,” she said, her head in her hands. “The shorter one.”

  Leo looked at Briony. “Who are they?”

  Two of the television screens came back to life, this time with pictures of the two men and a list of basic statistics.

  “We put the images through the facial recognition software and got a hit on both. The one on the left, the shorter one as Miss Barrett said, is Omar Toumi. Spent a lot of time in Algerian prison, rumored ties to organized crime there.”

  Leo let that sink in. Their business had once had rules. An honor code of sorts. But that had all ended with the fall of the Syndicate over a year ago. Now their business was like the Wild West.

  No law. No rules. No honor code.

  The name wasn’t familiar, but he wanted to ask if Omar Toumi was known to them. If they’d worked with him before. He glanced at Diana and decided against it. There was only so much she could be expected to hear without asking more questions. He would do the homework himself in private.

  “And the other one?” Leo asked.

  “Antonis Stavros.”

  Leo looked at her. “Antonis Stavros?” The name was familiar, but he couldn’t quite place it.

  She nodded. “Ties to the Greek mob, rumored dealings with arms dealers in Russia, the Middle East, Israel… You name it.”

  Leo rubbed his jaw as he processed the information, trying to formulate the questions he could conceivably ask in Diana’s company.

  “Any ties to Abbott that we know of?” he asked.

  “We’re still working on that. They have surprisingly good security. I’ll let you know when we crack it, although that’s no guarantee. A lot of it’s done by account number. Might not find anything even if Stavros did have an account there.”

  “What do we know about his family? His home?”

  The image on the screen changed to one of a map. Leo immediately recognized Morocco, the Alboran sea running between it and Spain. The image teased his mind, and he spent a few seconds trying to put his finger on the knowledge that hid there.

  “Hometown is Thessaloniki, Greece. Has a compound there, and a sister.”

  “Would she help us?” Leo didn’t have to be more specific. They needed to find Antonis Stavros. Leo needed to put him down — and anyone else who knew about Diana — before they came after her in earnest.

  “Doubt it,” Briony said. “She’s married to her brother’s best friend.”

  “Why are we even having this conversation?” Diana asked. “It’s not our problem. It’s up to the police to find these men, although I’m sure they’ll be grateful for the legwork you’ve done.”

  Leo sat in silence for a minute, debating his next move before finally deciding he didn’t have a choice. “Put it up.”

  Diana looked from him to Briony, clearly confused. A moment later, the center screen filled with a list of names. Leo waited, letting Diana’s eyes travel the length of the list as she read. Leo read as well, although he knew the list by heart. It was broken up by districts and divisions, with the names of their informants listed under each one.

  Diana stood. “What is this?”

  “I think you know,” Leo said softly.

  “I’d like to hear it from you.”

  “It’s a list of police officers on the take from organized crime.” Leo avoided looking at Briony, knowing Diana would pick up on the cue, would see it as a sign that there were more secrets to be revealed.

  “How do you know this?” she asked.

  “We know,” Leo said.

  “How?”

  Leo slammed his hand down on the table, then forced himself to draw in a calming breath before standing, facing her. “The people who work here are good at finding things out. You’re just going to have to trust me. We know.”

  She stared into his eyes, like she might find the answers to all her questions there. Then she turned away, pacing the room. “This is why you brought me here first,” she said. “To keep me from going to the police.”

  “To protect you from them,” Leo corrected her.

  “There has to be some way…” she started. “Some way to get their help.”

  “Everyone talks on the police force,” Briony said. “If you go to them, it’s almost inevitable that word will get out you’re cooperating.”

  Leo held his breath as she talked, then released it when she avoided the issue of the DOC’s status as one of Farrell’s criminal enterprises. One that was a crucial part of the business Leo conducted on a daily basis.

  “So what am I supposed to do?” Diana’s cheeks were flushed as she turned back to Leo, her eyes flashing. “Hide? Change my name?”

  “I need some time,” Leo said. “Time to find out more about Stavros and Toumi. Time to figure out a way to get them in without alerting the wrong people. Without letting them know where you are.”

  “They could be getting away right now,” Diana said. “They could be anywhere. The longer we wait, the greater the chance they’ll have disappeared.”

  “They aren’t going to disappear,” he said. “Not right away.”

  “How do you know?”

  Briony answered for him. “Because they have to find you first.”

  Chapter Nine

  Diana looked out the window, her mind spinning. Seeing the pictures of the men who had shot Maggie had sent a visceral pool of dread seeping like an oil slick through her body.

  Fear.

  Panic.

  Loss.

  She was still processing the trauma of what had happened, the reality that Maggie was dead. And then there was the other stuff — the quiet office full of hackers working at computer terminals like it was any other job. Briony, who seemed familiar with Leo.

  And Leo, who seemed familiar with it all.

  She didn’t know what it meant, but she had the sense that she didn’t have all the information. It was the same feeling she’d sometimes get doing old jigsaw puzzles with her father as an adolescent. The nagging feeling as they got close to completing the picture that there were missing pieces, her brain doing the calculation and coming up short.

  “I’m sorry,” Leo said, navigating the car back to the flat.

  “It’s not your fault London is full of crooked police.”

  He almost seemed to wince. “There are lots of good ones, too. Keeping you hidden is just a precaution.”

  She turned her face back to the window. “I know.”

  They rode the rest of the way in silence, the city passing by on the other side of the glass. She didn’t speak again until Leo pulled next to the curb two blocks from his flat.

  “Why are we parking so far away?”

  “Almost impossible to find parking up front,” he said. “I just got lucky last time.”

  She got out of the car and they started down the sidewalk toward the apartment. “What now?”

  He hesitated, like he was choosing his words carefully. “I’m going to call in some favors, see if I can get help flushing these guys out.”

  She stared up at him. “That’s a bad idea, Leo. These men are dangerous.”

  He’d always been her protector, a sentinel whose sole purpose it seemed was to keep her safe. But this wasn’t a playground bully or a high school mean girl. These men
were killers, and Leo was a media executive, more familiar with laptops and business class than assassins and arms dealers. She wouldn’t be able to survive it if he was hurt because of her. Just the thought of living in the world without Leo sent a sharp jab into the center of her heart, like a cleaver cleanly dividing it in two.

  “Don’t worry,” he said, grabbing her hand. “Everything will be okay.”

  She wondered how he could sound so sure. It was almost enough to distract her from the feel of her hand in his, the soft scratch of his skin against the softness of her own. He’d held her hand before, but there was something different about it this time. Something intimate and loaded with meaning.

  She pushed the thought aside. She was being fanciful, probably just because she’d seen him nearly naked not three hours before.

  They were half a block from the flat when Leo suddenly slowed down. She looked up to find his mouth set in a grim line, his jaw clenched.

  “What is it?” she asked.

  He looked down at her, still walking, but more slowly now. “I need you to do exactly as I say,” he said. “You’ll have questions. I won’t be able to answer them until later, but I will answer them.”

  “You’re scaring me.” The alarm bells ringing in her mind made it hard to think straight, but she was sure of this much.

  “Don’t be scared. I won’t let anything happen to you. Just do as I say, okay?”

  She didn’t have time to answer. A moment later three men stepped out of a doorway near Leo’s flat. They might have been anybody, but instinct told her that wasn’t the case.

  These were people who meant her — and Leo — harm.

  They were big, dressed in black and wearing bulky overcoats. But it wasn’t until they reached inside their jackets that she understood how much trouble she and Leo were in. And then the impossible was happening, because Leo was shoving her behind him and reaching into his own jacket, withdrawing his own weapon.

  She was struggling to process the image of Leo — her Leo — wielding an evil looking gun with what seemed to be perfect calm. But there was no time to process anything. One minute Leo was withdrawing his gun: the next, a hail of bullets erupted around them. She had to fight the urge to hit the concrete, cover her head. She would be a sitting duck then, and instinct was screaming at her to move.

  Leo backed them up into an alley, then flattened himself against the brick of an old building, The gun seemed perfectly at home in his hand. He held it near his chest, and she could tell from the calm intensity on his face that he was calculating. A moment later, he spoke.

  “I’m going to hold them off here,” he said. “You run for the other end of the alley.”

  “I’m not leaving you,” she said.

  “You’re not. But I need you to get a head start. Once I stop shooting, they’ll come for us, and I want you as close to the street as you can get. Wait for me when you get there. We’re going to make a run for the Tube.”

  “What about the car?” she asked.

  “Too easy to get stuck in traffic this time of day,” he said. “Easier to get lost underground.”

  She nodded. “Okay.”

  “Go,” he said.

  She sprinted for the other end of the alley as he started firing. He was met with answering fire from the men who had been in front of his building. The bullets fell like a cacophonous symphony, embedding themselves in the surrounding brick, ricocheting off concrete. She’d almost reached the end of the alley when the gunfire fell silent behind her. She glanced back and saw Leo sprinting toward her, his weapon still drawn. He pulled her around the corner of the building and into the street just as another storm of gunfire roared behind them.

  He took her hand, pulling her through the streets, expertly dodging pedestrians as they made their way home from work, people walking their dogs, tourists scoping out the city. They flew through them all, and the crowd seemed to part as if by magic, either because Leo knew exactly where to direct them or because people saw them coming.

  Diana’s lungs were burning by the time she saw the sign for Paddington station. Leo hit the stairs full throttle, letting go of her hand as he took the stairs two at a time with a backward glance to make sure she was with him. He took her hand again when they hit the bottom, then wound his way toward the front of the waiting train, elbowing through the crowd to make sure they got a spot. Then they were on board, smashed against one side as more people piled in.

  She drew air into her bursting lungs, trying to calm her ragged breath, the rapid beating of her heart, as Leo pulled her toward the back of the train. The conductor’s voice came over the loudspeaker, announcing their destination in a scratchy voice too distorted by the intercom to be understood. And then the bells were sounding, indicating the doors were about to close.

  Except it wasn’t fast enough. Movement caught Diana’s eye through the window, and she saw two of the black-clad men racing for the doors of the train.

  “There,” she said.

  "I know.” Leo’s voice was grim.

  She lost sight of the men in the crowd, had no way of knowing if they’d made it on board before the train started moving. Leo was still pulling her to the back as the train barreled through the tunnels under London, rattling across the tracks at what seemed like warp speed as they raced through the train cars, bumping into people and pushing them aside in their hurry to stay ahead of the men who may or may not have made it on board.

  The train was slowing down, Leo and Diana pushing through the doors into the second to last car, when Diana heard a voice shout above the crowd.

  “There!”

  She glanced back in time to see the two men from the tube platform pushing into the car she and Leo were vacating.

  “They’re too close,” she said.

  Leo didn’t miss a beat. “Just stay with me.”

  The train had almost come to a stop.

  Almost.

  They were entering the last car as the wheels squeaked against the tracks, skidding as the conductor applied the breaks. Leo pulled her through the crowd and headed for the door at the back of the final car.

  She glanced behind her and thought she saw the men pushing through the crowd. Then the train was stopped, the doors were opening, and Leo was dragging her out onto the subway platform, racing toward the stairs that would take them back onto the streets of the city.

  She was having a hard time breathing, but her body pushed her relentlessly forward, spurred on by its desire for survival. Leo half dragged her up the stairs, breaking out into the weak afternoon light. She thought they would run again. Instead, Leo pulled her into the vestibule of a small boutique. She fought panic, sure they would be caught.

  I won’t let anything happen to you. Just do as I say.

  And then, behind them in the reflection of the glass, she saw the men race past, seemingly unaware that she and Leo were right there. She couldn’t believe it would work, but a split second after they passed, Leo grabbed her arm and pulled her back onto the sidewalk. They went back the way they came, down the steps to the tube. Then they were on the train again, speeding away from the station.

  She drew in a deep breath, hardly daring to believe they’d escaped the people who had been chasing them. People undoubtedly sent by the man who’d killed Maggie.

  But they had. She was alive. They both were.

  She looked up at Leo, a new realization dawning on her. She was alive because of him. Because he’d been carrying a gun. Because he’d known how to use it.

  And that meant he’d been lying to her all along.

  Chapter Ten

  She looked around as they stepped onto the boat, half expecting someone to burst out of the crowd with a weapon. But there was nothing in the crowd to give her alarm. Just the usual group of tourists looking to see London’s sights from the water of the Thames.

  Leo kept hold of her arm and guided her to the stern. He hadn’t spoken once since they’d escaped the men who had been chasing them, and sh
e hadn’t pressed him. She didn’t know where they were going, but now she understood something new about Leo.

  He wasn’t a marketing executive for Global Media.

  Whatever he was, he was someone who knew what he was doing. Who knew how to handle a weapon — and an enemy. Who knew how to run and how to hide. She felt instinctively that she was in capable hands, and she’d let him lead her out of the Tube and through the streets, down to the dock that was the boarding spot for the Thames river tour.

  They leaned against the railing as the boat moved away from the dock. She watched the water open up between the boat and the pier, felt the boat shift under her feet. She was in no hurry to hear what Leo had to say, both because it would kill once and for all her belief that she really knew him, and because whatever he told her would be the next step in what was an epic upheaval of her life.

  The boat had picked up steam, the tinny voice of the tour guide crackling through the loudspeaker, when Leo finally spoke.

  “Ask.”

  She looked up at him. “Why don’t you just tell me?”

  He looked out over the water, his jaw tight. Even now, with all the secrets between them, she wanted nothing more than to touch him. To slip her hand around his neck, press her body to his, tell him it was all right.

  “I don’t work for Global Media,” he finally said. “I never have.”

  She sucked in a breath. She’d known. Of course, she had. But hearing him say it made it seem all the more real. She wasn’t sure she was ready for what he would say next, but there was no time for fragility.

  “I think I’ve figured out that part,” she said.

  He faced her, his eyes hardening. “I’m a criminal, Diana. I’ve never been anything but that.”

  She swallowed hard, torn between wanting to hit him and wanting to ease the pain in his eyes. “We can debate that later. Right now I just want to know how you did what you did back there. And I want to know why you have a gun.”