Chameleon's Challenge (Chameleon Assassin Series Book 3)

by BR Kingsolver

“The Grenier cabin was a misdirection.”

  Tremaine chuckled. “Peter could have gone there. Out here, he had time to heal and I can control him better. Sometimes he goes off script.”

  The pickup slowed as we neared a large cabin. Compared to the Grenier fishing cabin, the place was a palace--built of logs and rock, two stories high, with a three car garage off to the side. I estimated it was about three times the size of my townhouse. A Toronto taxi with shattered windows sat in an open garage. The truck came to a stop, and Tremaine turned it off.

  The most notable thing about the cabin was Peter Grenier, standing on the front porch with a smile on his face.

  Tremaine opened his door and shouted, “I brought you a present.” Turning to me, he said, “Get out, and be very careful about it.” He waved the gun a little to remind me of it.

  I always carry what police called a clutch piece or BUG—a backup gun—to save my butt in a situation where I either lost my primary weapon or it was no longer functional. The Marten Mini-Stealth in my right boot was so small I could cover it with my open hand. It was made of a clear fiber plastic, held five bullets, and fully loaded, it weighed only half a pound.

  As I pushed the door open and crawled out of the truck, my right side was shielded from both men.

  “Did you search her for weapons?” Grenier called. “She keeps a knife in her boot.”

  “Stop,” Tremaine ordered. I froze. “Put the knife on the seat.”

  I reached down and pulled the knife out of my left boot. Holding it aloft so they could see it, I carefully laid it on the seat and raised my hand again.

  Tremaine reached back into the truck and grabbed the knife.

  “Okay,” he said, “get out.”

  I stood on the ground with the truck’s door between me and Grenier. Tremaine’s pistol still covered me through the two open doors. Grenier came down the steps, walked up to Tremaine, and took the knife.

  “She tried to take my leg off with this thing.” He laughed—a very ugly sound. Then he walked around the front of the truck, and around the open door. The smile on his face was even uglier than his laughter.

  He carried the knife in his right hand and reached for me with his left. As his hand fell on my shoulder, I blurred my image. I reached out with my left hand and grabbed the wrist of his hand holding the knife, then I stepped into him, bringing the Mini-Stealth up and jamming the muzzle of the pistol under his chin. I pulled the trigger and dropped to the ground. A fountain of blood and brains spouted from the top of Grenier’s head.

  The sound of Tremaine’s pistol firing was amplified by the inside of the truck. Grenier’s body jerked and fell backward.

  I rolled under the truck, aimed carefully, and shot Tremaine in the shin. His leg collapsed as he screamed and fell to the ground, clutching his leg. His pistol lay beside him.

  Keeping my gun trained on the bleeding man, I inched my way back out from underneath the truck. The noise of an engine overhead caused me to look up. I had heard a distant helicopter when I first got out of the truck, now it was hovering over us, and I could see the Chamber of Commerce insignia on its side.

  There was plenty of space for it to set down in front of the garage, and I couldn’t figure out why it didn’t. I could see Wil hanging out the side of it.

  Then I realized that my image was still blurred. They were probably looking for me.

  I moved around the truck until I reached Tremaine and picked up his pistol. He was still writhing around, holding his ruined leg, crying, and cursing me. I crawled away from him toward the house. When I got to it, I crawled along the base of the wall until I made my way around the corner and out of sight of the helicopter.

  Unblurring my form, I rose to my feet and walked back around the corner, waving at the men above me. The helicopter settled down by the garage, and Wil jumped out before it even touched the ground and ran toward me.

  He swept me into his arms, lifting me off my feet, and with his face an inch from mine, asked, “Are you all right? Are you hurt?”

  “Yes, and no. I’m fine,” I answered with a smile. “Good to see you, though.”

  I didn’t expect the kiss. I really didn’t expect a long, deep kiss that totally short-circuited my brain. When he pulled his face away, I was gasping for air.

  “What in the hell did you think you were doing? You scared the crap out of me.”

  All I could do was shrug. “Heat of the moment. I wasn’t thinking at all. Tremaine yelled at me to jump in, and it was a familiar voice, so I did. I was just so pissed that Grenier was getting away again.”

  He hugged me so hard I thought he’d crush me.

  “Hey, Ace, careful with the ribs. I’m not really invincible, I only act that way when you’re around.”

  Wil started laughing. He turned around to look back toward the pickup but didn’t let go of me. A couple of men were crouched down by Tremaine.

  “What’s wrong with him?” Wil asked.

  “Probably a broken leg. I shot him.”

  “I saw Grenier’s body.”

  “Yeah, I shot him, too. I don’t think they can patch him up, though. The cops will have to settle with putting Tremaine on trial.”

  Wil nodded. “Aiding and abetting, obstruction of justice, harboring a fugitive, and kidnapping you. That’s enough to put him away for a while.”

  I reached in my pocket and pulled out my phone. Searching for the file I had just recorded, I found the part I wanted and set it to play.

  “You watched him butcher those women?”

  “Not at first. But when I saw the pictures of Camille Weeks and Sigrid Goldberg, I couldn’t get the images out of my mind. God, what a rush! Such power! I had a hard on for a week after we did Kandi.”

  “I think we can get him for more than a few minor charges,” I said.

  Chapter 26

  “Libby!” Nellie squealed as she rushed toward me. She threw her arms around me, pulled my head down, and kissed me with a lot of tongue. When she let me come up for air, she said, “I missed you!”

  “I missed you, too.”

  I looked beyond her and saw Richard O’Malley walking toward us.

  “Richard,” I said.

  “Hello, Libby.” He stuck out his hand. I took it, and to my surprise, he covered our hands with his left hand and held me there. “Thank you. Thank you so much. I’m in your debt.”

  Uncomfortable, I grinned and said, “Yes, but I’ll send you my invoice, and then we’ll be even.”

  He smiled a little. “Of course. But I owe you more than that. I believe they used to call it above and beyond the call of duty.” He held my eyes with his, an intensity I’d never seen in him. “Thank you, Libby.”

  Nellie punched me softly in the ribs. “You’re a hero. Quit being a pain and tell him he’s welcome.”

  I had to smile, and so did Richard. “You’re welcome.”

  He winked at me.

  Wil stepped forward. “We have a car and a truck for your luggage, courtesy of Director Pong. If you’ll come this way.”

  We dispatched the truck to Nellie’s apartment, and the four of us went to Dominik’s for dinner.

  Mom, dressed in an elegant evening gown, stopped by our table. She acted as though she’d never met Richard before, and I could see the relief in his eyes. Men are such dogs. The funny thing was that him visiting Lilith’s wouldn’t bother Nellie. She would rather he go there than maybe meet a woman who might replace her.

  It was the first time Mom and Wil met. They sized each other up, and I wondered what each of them were thinking.

  Mom broke the ice. “My, my,” she said, looking him up and down and embarrassing the hell out of me by licking her lips. Then she wrinkled her nose, winked at me, and said, “He’ll do,” as she turned to walk away. A bit later she sent over a couple of bottles of wine from her private stash.

  “That’s your mother?” Wil couldn’t keep the astonishment out of his voice.

  “Yeah, and Libby’s going to
look just like that when she gets older,” Nellie teased. “Better grab her now while she’s still single.”

  Nellie and Richard laughed, Wil blushed, and I felt like my face was on fire. I could never figured out why my friends take such delight in teasing me in front of my boyfriends. Not that Wil was my boyfriend, but that kiss he gave me at Tremaine’s cabin was enough to give me some hot dreams.

  After the waitress poured the wine and took our order, the conversation turned to the terrifying events we’d all just lived through.

  “I’ve known John Tremaine for twelve years,” Richard said. “I worked with the man, socialized with him and Sandra, as well as his family. I still can’t believe he did what he did.”

  “He tried to concoct some sort of fantasy conspiracy story at first, but once he realized we had him cold, he confessed. Bragged really,” Wil said. “He seems almost philosophical about getting caught. Like he gambled and lost, and that’s the way it goes.”

  I shook my head. “Wil and I disagree about that. I think Tremaine’s playing the system, hoping to escape a needle. It requires a huge amount of rage to do what he did. We’re not seeing any of that right now.”

  “But,” Richard said, “from what Pong told me, Tremaine’s objective was to eliminate enough of us above him that he could leapfrog into a Senior VP slot.”

  “Yes,” I said, “but there were layers within layers of this thing. The normal way would be to pay an assassin to take out Weeks, and maybe Renard, to create an opening. But he sensed or knew of Grenier’s rage and pathology. No one goes after executives’ families, but Tremaine is a sociopath.”

  I sat back and took a sip of my wine. “Have you wondered why almost every SVP and VP was attacked, but you weren’t?”

  Richard blinked at me. Nellie’s head swiveled back and forth between me and Richard.

  “He was setting Richard up,” Nellie said into the silence. “He planned on pinning what he did on Richard.”

  I was so proud of her. Very few people knew how incredibly smart Nellie was. “Exactament, mon cher. Richard, I don’t know why he hates you so much, but I think a major factor in why this is so convoluted and weird is that he wanted to destroy you. Killing you wasn’t enough.”

  “We found a very disturbing journal,” Wil said. “What Libby’s saying isn’t just conjecture. He really hates you. Next in line is Francois Renard. Tremaine had plans for him as well.”

  “And Peter Grenier?” Nellie asked.

  “He was just one sick son of a bitch,” I said. “Someone should have done something about him when he was six and tortured his puppy to death. Tremaine used him, but Grenier enjoyed every minute of what he did.”

  If I lived to be a hundred, the look in Grenier’s eyes when he came at me with a knife in his hand would stay with me. Never in my life had I felt so good about pulling the trigger.

  Richard bit his lip, then said, “Jack Grenier was one of the nicest people you’d ever want to meet. I’ve known Stella for thirty years. I just can’t figure out how they let their son get so out of hand.”

  “I don’t think either of them wanted him, and they felt guilty about it. I think when Peter was born, Jack did a paternity test. Stella said he never touched her again after she had Peter.”

  “But, they have a daughter,” Richard said.

  “My bet is on John Tremaine as the daughter’s father,” I said. “By the way, Mr. Renard said he wanted to get hold of Marlene Grenier. Do you know why?”

  Richard’s expression became more solumn. “We need to figure out if Peter passed his mutation on to his children.”

  I glanced at Wil, who said, “How do you plan to do that? Do you know what the specific mutation is?”

  “Well, I think it’s obvious that it’s very dangerous. I’m not sure if they can isolate exactly what caused Peter’s aberration, but if his children show any kind of mutations that we can match to his genome, then we can take steps.”

  Nellie took his hand in hers and asked, “What kind of steps?”

  “There are a lot of options,” Richard said. “Combined with information about their personality profiles, we might be able to market their abilities. At the very least, we can ensure they don’t pass it along.” He looked toward Wil. “After this incident, I think we need to consider some kind of strategy concerning our mutant population. When I was in Chicago, I spoke with several people about the uprising you had there. We need to ensure that sort of thing doesn’t happen in Toronto. It’s always better to be proactive rather than reactive. Wouldn’t you agree Director Wiberforce?”

  “Certainly,” Wil said, casting a rather worried look toward me.

  “There’s an organization in Chicago called the Modigliani Foundation,” I said. “They work with the mutant community there to help create better conditions and promote mutant businesses. Maybe we can take a look at their model.”

  Richard shrugged. “If what they’re doing is working, it would certainly be worth a look.”

  “If mutants are a threat to order, and disorder threatens profits,” I said, “then I think anything that prevents disorder is worth a look.”

  Richard smiled at me. “I wholeheartedly agree.”

  We dropped Richard and Nellie off at her apartment, and Wil took me home.

  “Any more questions as to why mutants don’t trust the corps or their scientists?” I asked as we pulled up in front of my house.

  “None. I couldn’t believe that their first thought is to sterilize a couple of pre-adolescent kids who have never been in trouble.”

  He pulled up in front of my house and stopped the car. Then he pulled my chameleon detector out from under his seat.

  “You forgot your miniature nuclear missile launcher the other day.”

  “Oh, yeah, thanks.” I snatched it away from him.

  “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to tell me how that thing works.”

  I grinned at him. “Not a chance.”

  He chuckled. “I didn’t think so.”

  I was on my guard when he walked me to the door, a place where we had encountered some uncomfortable moments in the past.

  “What are you doing tomorrow?” Wil asked.

  “No plans. Why? When are you going back to Chicago?”

  “I was hoping you might help me look for a house or maybe a condo.”

  I understood the words, but the sentence had some problems. “Look for a house where?”

  “Somewhere in or around Toronto. I don’t know the town.”

  “Why do you need to buy a house here?”

  He chuckled. “Remember I told you Chamber security is going through a reorganization? My boss has been promoted to a Senior Director position, and I’m now the Director of Security for North America. That’s why I’ve been traveling so much, setting things up. I was given a choice of where to live, and Toronto is on the list.”

  “You’re moving to Toronto?”

  He took advantage of my befuddlement by taking me in his arms and kissing me—long, deep, and surprisingly gentle. When he finally let me up for air, he asked, “So, do you have time to show me around town tomorrow?”

  My heart was hammering in my chest. “Why Toronto?”

  “Because you’re here.”

  I searched his face and found not a shred of teasing.

  “I think maybe you should come in so we can discuss this,” I said. I pulled his head down and kissed him again. He was warm and solid, and felt so good pressed against me. We fit together so well. His hands traveled over my back and my ass, and he pulled me hard against him. I licked the tip of his nose. “I think we have a lot to talk about.”

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  Coming in 2017

  Winds of Prophecy – Book 1 of the Chronicles of the Soulless

  Chameleon Assassin Book 4

  Other books by BR Kingsolver

  The Chameleon Assassin Series

  Chameleon Assassin

  Chameleon Uncovered

  Chameleon’s Challenge

  The Telepathic Clans Saga

  The Succubus Gift

  Succubus Unleashed

  Broken Dolls

  Succubus Rising

  Succubus Ascendant

  BRKingsolver.com

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