“So, we’d need to get Hollan in order to get that second code?” Alex said.
Isaac nodded. “Exactly. We can’t just go in hoping to kill Hollan and grab the memory stick. If he’s got it locked away somewhere, which he’s bound to have, we’re going to need to take him alive.”
I balled my fists under the table, that familiar feeling of anger rumbling around inside of me. I didn’t want Hollan to be taken alive. I wanted him dead, and I wanted to be the one to do it, but I knew saying so out loud to the guys wasn’t going to get me anywhere. They might not take me along if they thought I’d do something to jeopardize their mission again.
“What about my Aunt Sarah?” I asked instead. “What did your boss say to do to help her?”
Isaac shook his head. He didn’t quite meet my eye, his gaze flicking across me, not landing on my face. “He didn’t. I’m sorry, Darcy. Your aunt isn’t part of our project. We can’t get her involved.”
My stomach dropped. “But she might be in danger! You said so yourself.”
“I know, but that’s not our concern.”
I brought my fists down hard on the table with a bang, making them all jump. “It’s my concern! She’s the only family I have left. I can’t just abandon her.” I forced myself to calm, inhaling through my nose, my jaw tight and lips pressed together as I thought hard. “You said before that Hollan was likely to be watching Aunt Sarah because he knew that would be my first point of contact, should I get the chance of contacting anyone, right?”
Isaac watched me, not giving anything away through his expression.
I rambled on. “He still wants me for the code, so is that idea of him watching Aunt Sarah going to change? If he wants me for the code, and you want him for the memory stick, isn’t it a good idea to go to Aunt Sarah? It might lure him out enough for you to be able to take him captive.”
Across the table, Kingsley sat up straighter, and Clay and Alex exchanged a glance.
“He’ll still be proactive about trying to get to me for the code. He’s not going to be just hanging out at this hideout of his, is he? Do you even know where it is?”
Lines appeared between Isaac’s light brown eyebrows. “Not yet, but we’ll find out.”
“But only by finding Hollan,” I said, warming to my theme, “and the best place to find him is probably my Aunt Sarah’s house.”
“She’s got a point,” Lorcan called out from the couch, and I delivered him a grateful smile.
Isaac fixed me with his green gaze, more curious now than annoyed. “So, you’re suggesting we stake out your aunt’s house and let Hollan come to us?”
“Exactly.”
“If we do that,” he said, “you’re staying here.”
I sat up straight, pushing my shoulders back and lifting my chin. “No chance. I’m the one Hollan wants.” I wasn’t going to let him sideline me. I had as much of a stake in this as any of them, if not more.
Isaac gave a frustrated growl. “That’s why we can’t risk him getting a hold of you.”
“Unless I’m there, too, Hollan might not think it’s even worth his while being there. He might just have his men deal with you guys. If they report back that I’m there, he’s bound to come as well.”
Isaac finished his food and got to his feet, shaking his head as he moved around the cabin. “I don’t know. I don’t like it.”
“Neither do I, but if it works, then surely it’s worth it.”
His lips thinned, a muscle beside his eye twitching. “And if it doesn’t, we lose you.”
I took a breath. “Maybe that wouldn’t be a bad thing either. You know Hollan wants the code and he’s going to take me back to wherever he’s got the memory stick hidden. You guys have the code now, and I’m sure as hell not telling Hollan. You just need to follow him, and he’ll lead you right to it.”
“With you as a hostage,” he bit out.
My mouth ran dry. I could hardly believe I was suggesting such a thing. Had I completely lost my mind? I didn’t want Hollan to grab me. I hated the bastard. But if it would help the others, then I’d do it for them. And I’d do it for my dad, too.
“He’s not going to hurt me,” I tried to reassure Isaac as much as myself. “He wants what’s in my head.”
Isaac stopped beside the sink and turned to face the table, his arms folded across his chest. “No, he’s not going to kill you. But he can hurt you as much as he likes.”
Silence fell around the table as what had just been discussed sank in.
“I don’t like it,” Clay said. “Maybe we can see if Hollan will come to the aunt’s house, but I’m not going to offer up Darcy like some kind of reward package.”
Alex shook his head. “I don’t like it either. Going to her house is one thing, but I won’t let Darcy be used like bait.”
Kingsley rubbed his hand across his mouth. “I don’t know. I think it’s a good plan. If it was anyone other than Darcy ...”
I jumped in. “Don’t make me being a girl have anything to do with this decision. “If it was one of you guys, you wouldn’t be thinking twice.”
“If you were one of us,” Kingsley said, “you’d have spent your life training for how to react in dangerous situations.”
“Maybe. But my dad was an FBI agent, and I’ve not exactly led a sheltered life. I know how to take care of myself.”
Isaac shook his head. “No, love. You’re not going to offer yourself up to Hollan. But you can come with us to watch your aunt’s house and see if Hollan goes there, okay? If he does, we can step in and grab him.”
I knew his offer was to placate me, but I didn’t want to push Isaac further. I was just relieved I’d be able to make sure Aunt Sarah was okay.
I nodded. “Agreed.”
“There’s no point in going today. Hollan will have lost men back at the house. He’ll need to regroup, and refocus, too, and he’ll expect us to do the same. We’ll get some rest here, and leave in the early hours so we can get there under the cover of darkness.”
“What about Lorcan?” I asked, wondering how he was going to cope with all this movement.
“I’ll be all right,” Lorcan called from the couch. “Some painkillers and a bit of rest and I’ll be good as new.”
“You were shot,” I said in disbelief.
He rubbed his hand over the tattoos which vanished beneath the t-shirt sleeve hiding the bandaged wound. “Only a flesh wound. I’m fine.”
These guys were tough, there was no doubt about that.
My pulse quickened at the thought of heading home again. Though it was the house I’d spent my whole life in, it felt as though it had been months since I’d last been there instead of a matter of days. I prayed Aunt Sarah would be okay. What was she thinking now, wondering what had happened to me? Did she believe me when I said I’d been taken, or did she still think I’d run off, or gotten myself involved with some illegal gang? She must have thought I was up to no good for the FBI to have gotten involved. I hoped she wasn’t feeling disappointed in me. I longed to tell her the truth about what had been happening, but I certainly wasn’t going to risk another phone call.
The next time I spoke to her, it would be face to face, and hopefully Isaac and the others would have Hollan and the location of the memory stick.
Chapter Four
Everyone had finished eating, so we rose from the table to help clean up. I learned Clay did the cooking, which meant he got out of the dishes. Seemed like a fair deal to me. Lorcan also got out of helping, on account of the gunshot wound, which also seemed fair.
I stood beside Kingsley as he washed up, his big hands sunk into the bowl, the white of the bubbles a contrast against his black skin. I used a tea towel to dry each plate as he handed it to me, the material squeaking against the clean surface. Kingsley teased me that I was doing a bad job and not drying things properly, bumping me with his hip, so I nudged him in return and pointed out any dirty spots he had missed.
“Darcy,” Isaac called, interrupt
ing us. “Got a minute? I want to show you something.”
I glanced to Kingsley to make sure he didn’t mind me abandoning my post, and he gave me a brief nod to tell me I could go. I finished the plate I’d been working on, stacked it in the cupboard, then walked over to where Isaac was waiting for me.
He watched me approach, his head doing that little tilting to one side thing he did. “I got the feeling you weren’t overly convinced that we were well enough equipped here to be safe, so I wanted to put your mind at ease.”
Isaac and I hadn’t had the easiest of relationships so far, but that little bit of consideration caused something inside me to soften toward him. “Thanks, Isaac.”
“You’re welcome, love.”
He went to the cellar trap door and swung it open, revealing the stairs leading down into darkness. As he did so, his shirt sleeve rode up a little, flashing the bandage which cover the cut I’d given him. My stomach turned at both the sight of the bandage and the hole in the ground.
I pulled a face. “Oh, God. Not the cellar!”
A horrible thought jarred through me. He wasn’t going to lock me down there, was he? What if this was all just a lure, and the things he’d said at the table about me being allowed to come with them were all lies used to placate me?
No, I tried to reassure myself. The others wouldn’t let him do that. They’d have my back. Yet the thought had made me realize I still didn’t trust Isaac one hundred percent. Truth be told, he probably didn’t fully trust me, either. After all, it had only been a few days earlier that I’d slashed his arm open with a razor blade.
Isaac chuckled, and I thought it might be the first time I’d ever heard him laugh. I didn’t know what to think about the fact that the first thing that had made him laugh was also my discomfort.
“I won’t lock you down there, I promise,” he said, as though he’d plucked the thought from my head. He looked at me, his gaze intense, making my heart race. “I know you’re not going anywhere.”
I glanced back at the others, looking for reassurance. Lorcan napped on the couch. Alex had joined Kingsley at the sink. Clay was flicking through a book he had picked up, though I’d never taken him to be much of a reader. None of them appeared concerned about Isaac luring me into the cellar.
Isaac started down the steps, and, cautiously, I followed. He reached the bottom, and flicked on a switch. The room filled with light, and my mouth dropped open. The place was filled with computers, huge screens, and multiple keyboards. I remembered how one of the guys had told me computers were Isaac’s thing. If that were the case, he must be in heaven down here.
“I wanted you to see that we’re prepared. This place might not look like much, but it’s kitted out should anything happen. The walls are coated in fire retardant paint, and so is the trap door leading down here. If something ever happened to the cabin, the whole place could burn to the ground, and everything sealed inside here would still be safe—including us, if needed.”
I looked around at the innocuously white painted walls in surprise. They didn’t look any different than any other painted wall. “That is reassuring.”
I wondered if the cellar in the other house could have done with the same thing. They could have still burned the place down, but hidden down there and waited until Hollan and his men had gone. But then I remembered the amount of bricks and concrete that collapsed during the fire. This place was just a matter of logs and some furniture. We’d have had to have been dug out of the other cellar, and that still wouldn’t have guaranteed survival. They’d done the right thing by running.
“Is this where you contacted your boss from?” I asked.
Isaac nodded. “Yeah, and I’m going to need to contact him again to let him know we plan to pin down Hollan at your house tomorrow. It would be best if you weren’t down here when I did. What’s happened with you—with us—isn’t exactly protocol, and I don’t want to give him any reason to think he needs to step in. Hollan finding us is bad enough. I don’t want him to figure out the reason behind it.”
“I’m sorry about—” I started, feeling wretched, but Isaac lifted a hand to cut me off.
“We learned from it,” he said. “We all learned from it. Our treatment of you gave you every reason not to trust us, and we didn’t trust you, either. I hope we can move past that now.”
I nodded. “We can, thank you, Isaac.” He was the one person I didn’t think I’d ever thank. Yet strangely, after I’d allowed him to touch me in front of the others, a tenuous relationship had begun to build between us. I wondered if what happened would be a onetime thing, or if I’d ever get a repeat performance. He knew I’d kissed both Lorcan and Clay, though neither kisses had been intentional, they’d just kind of happened. I hadn’t seen any kind of jealousy on any of the men’s faces when Isaac had his fingers inside me. They’d watched, and I’d seen how their lips had parted, how they’d shifted positions, perhaps to hide erections, or even perhaps to apply more pressure where they’d wanted it, but none of them had told Isaac to stop.
“Leave me now,” Isaac said, perhaps reading my thoughts on my face again. “I’ve got work to do.” His persona had turned colder again. Maybe this was the man he needed to be for his work, but I thought there was a more passionate side of him underneath.
I did as he asked and turned and climbed back up the stairs. We’d left the hatch open when we’d come down, but after I’d climbed up, Clay stepped forward and swung the hatch back down again, shutting Isaac in.
“You’re better off leaving him alone when he’s working,” Clay said.
“Yeah, that’s what he told me. What’s this boss of yours like? He seems scary.”
“He’s tough, but he has to be. Isaac makes some hard decisions, but this guy’s decisions are a hundred times harder. He’s the one who makes calls on things you won’t have even thought to be a call.”
I frowned, not understanding. “A call?”
“Some people aren’t all they seem on the surface,” he said cryptically. “Sometimes those people need to be taken out, for the good of the country.”
My jaw dropped. “Are you talking about killing people?”
“They tend to be unfortunate accidents, but yes, sometimes people have to die.”
The guys were killers? Sure, I’d seen them shoot the FBI agents who’d tried to take me from my home, but, looking back, I understood why they’d done it. If those men hadn’t been killed, I’d be in Hollan’s possession right now. Why did I think it was okay to justify those deaths to myself, but the idea of assassinating someone who was dangerous didn’t sit right with me?
Isaac wasn’t the only one good at reading my thoughts. “We’re not the ones who are the assassins, sugar. I’m not saying we won’t kill if we have to, but those jobs aren’t given to us. I’m just trying to give you an idea of the sort of jobs our boss oversees.”
I breathed a sigh of relief. I don’t know why it was important for me not to see them as some kind of undercover assassin team, but it was.
Alex had taken a seat beside Lorcan on the couch and was working on changing the dressing. Blood had soaked through the first, but it appeared to have stopped now. When Alex wiped down the wound, Lorcan didn’t wince as badly as he’d done during the application of the first dressing in the car. I hated to think of what might have happened if the bullet had landed just a little farther to left. If it had hit his spinal cord, or had even ended up more deeply embedded in his shoulder, Lorcan could have died. This place would have a whole different feel to it if Lorcan had died in the house or back in the car. I couldn’t imagine one of the guys missing, yet tomorrow we’d be putting ourselves in danger once again, and there was always a chance someone might not make it back.
I left them to it, and went to explore the rest of the cabin.
I discovered three bedrooms, two with two single beds each, and the third with a double. I didn’t need to be good at math to figure out there were six of us and five beds, which meant I’d be
sharing with someone again. I’d be happy to share with any of them except Isaac. Despite the fact he’d had his fingers inside me, I still found him the most intimidating, and I didn’t think I’d stand any chance of sleeping if he was lying beside me.
Lorcan, with his shoulder, also needed some space.
When I went back into the living area, Isaac was climbing back out of the cellar.
“Okay, we’re good to go,” he said, swinging the hatch back down. This time, he pulled the rug across it, too, and Clay stepped in to help.
With the furniture back in place, Isaac straightened. “I want us to be prepared. Each room has a gun safe, and we can take extra weapons from them for tomorrow. I’m sure we’ll be fine for tonight, but, in case we need it, the code on each of them is six-one-nine-one.” He looked toward me. “Think you can remember that?”
The numbers jumped in front of my eyes, flashing over again in order. Six-one-nine-one.
They still didn’t know about my synesthesia. “Yeah, I think I’ll be able to remember that.”
“Good. We still have the guns we took from the house, and there’s spare ammo in the cabinet above the refrigerator. I’m not expecting any trouble here, but it’s always best to be prepared.”
“Were you a Boy Scout, too?” I asked with a grin.
His gaze was cool, not returning my smile. “We’re better than Boy Scouts.”
I looked around. “So, where’s everyone going to be sleeping?”
Clay stepped in beside me and possessively hooked his arm around my neck. “Alex got you last night. Tonight, you’re all mine.”
His words sent a thrill through me and I glanced up at him. He gave me a wink. The memory of our little make out session at the top of the stairs was fresh in my mind, and a shiver of anticipation went through me at the thought of being in such close proximity to Clay all night.
Someone could have offered to take the couch, but I didn’t want that, and, from the lack of offers, I knew they didn’t either.
Unraveling Darkness Page 3