The tears flowed down her cheeks now, and Travis felt his own burn red with guilt.
“Tess, if I’d known you were in any danger, I never would have left on that business trip. I would have had the team in place before those men showed up.”
“And what about Rosa, huh? She worked here for a year. And you didn’t know? How are you supposed to protect me?”
Travis shook his head. “I know. I didn’t do my job. That’s going to change. But you have to help me, Tess. I can’t keep you safe if I don’t know what’s going on. I need to know what they’re after, what they want.”
“I don’t know!” she shrieked. “How should I know about any of this?”
Alice moved around the table and put a hand on Tess’s shoulder. Travis couldn’t remember when she’d ever expressed concern with that much emotion. She’d never been a very touchy-feely person. Travis had always respected her businesslike demeanor, but had found her difficult to like in a friendly way. She didn’t warm up to people easily. Oliver hadn’t moved, but Travis saw him strain to keep from going to Tess’s side, consternation clearly etched on his face.
“Okay, okay,” Travis said. “Calm down. We’ll figure this out. Alice said they were after your camera. Where’s the memory stick?”
Tess tipped her head back. “Oliver?”
Oliver hesitated, then stooped to rummage through a backpack on the floor next to him. He pulled out the memory card and leaned across the table to hand it to Travis.
“There’s nothing on that, either,” Tess said, “except photos. We checked.”
Oliver glanced at her, then directed his gaze at Travis, his face expressionless. Travis turned the memory card over in his fingers.
“I’ll have some tech guys check it out anyway,” he said. “In the meantime, if you get any more e-mails like that, tell me immediately.”
She dropped her chin and didn’t respond.
“Tess? You understand? Don’t make me hack your e-mail account.”
“You wouldn’t dare!”
“Try me.”
So much for our relationship. If Tess didn’t already hate me, threatening her privacy probably pushed her over the edge.
Travis didn’t know what else to do.
“You’re so mean,” she cried.
Travis watched tears roll silently down her cheeks. The roiling they caused in his gut and the ache in his chest were far more painful than the shrapnel from a roadside IED explosion they’d dug out of his arm. Unlike that wound, he didn’t know how to deal with the pain from this one.
He clenched his jaw and spoke through gritted teeth. “Oliver, you can go. We won’t be needing your services anymore.”
The kid stared at Travis blankly, like he was in shock.
“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Alice piped up quickly. “Tess can’t drag the team with her everywhere she goes. And who will help her with homework? You don’t have time. And I can’t imagine anybody on the team relishing the idea.”
“Forget it,” Tess said. “He already quit.”
“What do you mean, he quit?” Travis said.
Oliver stepped forward. “Sir, under the circumstances I felt that I wasn’t very well-equipped to protect Tess. That’s why I brought her home.”
“Yes, but now that the security team is back in place,” Alice said, “there’s no reason you can’t continue in your duties, Oliver. Don’t you think so, Travis?”
Travis eyed the kid, his fingers drumming the tabletop. It would mean the team would have to protect two people, not just one. Travis wasn’t convinced, but Oliver seemed bright enough.
“Okay,” Travis said, “we’ll keep you on and see how it goes. But when it comes to Tess’s safety you do exactly what I tell you. Got it?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Don’t I have a say in this?” Tess said, her voice shrill. “He doesn’t want to be with me.”
“Oliver?” Travis said quietly.
“I never said that, sir. I like the job. I told her I didn’t think I could protect her. There’s more you haven’t heard. Whoever’s after Tess nearly caught us last night.”
Little surprised Travis, but he’d assumed they’d gotten out cleanly, with no trouble once they’d left. He’d only worried about where they’d gone to ground, not whether they’d have to keep running.
I’m losing my edge—the instincts that had kept me alive in Afghanistan. The kid, though, is resourceful, apparently.
“Travis,” Alice said, “if these people are as resourceful as we think, they’ll identify Oliver eventually if they haven’t already.”
“You’re right,” Travis said. “We’ll have to keep a close watch on both of them. Oliver, I’ll want a full report later In the meantime, consider yourself still employed. And Tess, don’t think I’m finished with you. We need to talk about your visit to MondoHard and the unauthorized use of your old key card.” Tess froze, and Oliver shifted in his seat. “But not now. Tonight, when I get home from work.”
Alice briskly walked around the table. “Well, now that’s settled, I’ll rustle up something for you two to eat since we no longer have a cook. You’re late for school.”
Tess groaned. “Do I have to go? Can’t I at least take a shower and put on some clean clothes?”
“Of course,” Alice said. “Run along, and make it quick. Breakfast will be ready by the time you get back.”
Oliver looked from Alice to Tess and back, his face turning red. “Should I help?”
Travis glared at him. “Not under any circumstances, bud. Now yank those thoughts back into this kitchen before I change my mind about you.”
Oliver jumped back a pace. “Yes, sir!” The corner of his mouth twitched.
Travis suspected Oliver was mocking him, but the little smile, if that’s what it had been, was already gone. Tess got up and felt her way out of the kitchen and down the hall. Alice watched her go, and when Tess was out of earshot, she faced Travis.
“A little hard on her, weren’t you?” she said.
“She needs a wake-up call,” he said. “I thought we could breathe easy for a while, but the threat to James extends to her, too. You know that as well as I do, and her birthday isn’t far off.”
“Birthday? What happens then?” Oliver said, sliding into the chair Tess had just vacated.
“She becomes an adult,” Travis said tersely.
Alice came over and set a glass of juice in front of Oliver.
“Tess’s father owned the majority of the stock in his company,” she explained. “Since both of her parents died, the shares have been held in trust for her. Travis is the trustee. When Tess turns twenty-one, she becomes the majority stockholder.”
“Wow,” Oliver said quietly. “Cool. So she’s really rich.”
“Not cool,” Travis said. “Whoever wanted my brother out of the way may not want Tess to have control of the company, either.”
“So why haven’t any assassins tried to take you out?” Oliver said. “Maybe you’re the evil uncle, vying for control.”
Travis felt his face flush, and his fingers clenched into a fist.
Oliver suddenly grinned. “Just messing with you.”
“Probably not a good idea until you get to know me better,” Travis said, uncurling his fingers.
Oliver’s smile faded quickly. “Why would they go after her now? Isn’t she only eighteen? Which means she’s already an adult, by the way.”
Travis flushed with heat. “Don’t push it.” He paused as the import of what Oliver said slowly registered. “I don’t know why they haven’t attacked me, but my job is to protect her.“
He turned to Alice. “I’ll tell Kenny and Luis to take them to school. The cops are holding the BMW until they go over it for evidence, but I’ll get it released as soon as possible so Oliver has a way to get Tess around. In the meantime, she doesn’t go anywhere without one of the team.”
Alice nodded. “She’ll get used to it. You’ll see.”
; Travis got to his feet. “I wish we didn’t have to put a guard on her at all. I know it sucks, but she’ll just have to deal with it. Anyway, I have to meet with Marcus briefly and get to work.”
He hurried down the hall, just as worried now that Tess was present and accounted for as he’d been when he’d gotten home and discovered she was missing and on the run.
CHAPTER 28
Tess let the shower water cascade through her hair and run down her body. The scent of shampoo and soap filled the steamy enclosure. She let out a sigh. She felt safe here, cocooned in the water’s warm embrace. She stood unmoving for several minutes, hands clasped over her collarbone, thoughts running through her head as fast as the water down the drain. She wondered what would happen if she never got out of the shower.
What could they do to me? I’d insist they bring my meals, a waterproof pillow for sleeping.
She rubbed her thumb across her wrinkled, waterlogged fingertips and giggled as she imagined what the rest of her might look like if she didn’t get out—a big shar-pei. Reluctantly, she turned off the water, found her towel, and stepped out.
After drying off, she made her way to her dresser. She pulled open the top right drawer to find panties and a bra. The top left drawer held socks, sorted by color. She easily found jeans in the closet, then moved to the right and pulled a camisole top off a hanger. Choosing a sweater proved more difficult, but she found a cashmere V-neck that st was softer than anything else in her closet, so she knew it was the light blue one.
When she was dressed, she went back into the bathroom and brushed her hair and teeth. She couldn’t apply makeup, so she didn’t bother with anything except some pale lip gloss. Picking up the hairbrush again, she pulled her hair back and tied it into a ponytail. The rhythmic motions of her usual morning ritual calmed and relaxed her. She could hardly believe all that had happened in less than a day.
And Uncle Travis wants me to go to school? There’s no way I’ll be able to concentrate on schoolwork after what I’ve been through. It’s not fair.
She sighed and set the brush down where she could find it again easily. Her mother had been a neatnik. A place for everything, and everything in its place. Tess heard her mother’s voice in her head. It used to drive her nuts. What was wrong with a little mess now and again? Who cared if her clothes were draped over a chair or dumped on the floor instead of hung in the closet? But Tess had gradually come around to her mother’s point of view during the past year. Organization made life simpler—at least her life, a blind person’s life. She still disliked the work involved in keeping her belongings so orderly, but knowing where they were certainly helped.
Her mouth opened in horror.
Am I turning into my mother? God, I hope not.
Her face screwed up into a frown as she mimicked her mother’s nagging. The thought of what she must look like turned her grimace upside down, and she giggled again. An image of her mother at work in the studio over the garage popped into Tess’s head. The studio was the one place where her mother’s rules had gone out the window, at least when she’d been immersed in a project. Tess saw her mother, head bent over a pad on her drawing table, hair mussed into a rat’s nest, jeans and denim work shirt covered with splotches of color, oblivious to everything around her. No matter what the medium—oils, watercolors, charcoal, plaster, clay—her mother would manage to spread it everywhere. Sometimes it had seemed to cover every surface except the one that would ultimately reveal her inner vision. But, Tess remembered wryly, she’d always cleaned up at the end of her workday.
Tess strained to see her mother’s face in that imaginary scene. No matter how she tried to position herself, her mother’s face always seemed to be turned away, hidden. When at last Tess imagined seeing her face-on, her mother’s features refused to coalesce, leaving Tess with only a fuzzy recollection. Tess’s heart pounded and her chest tightened.
Is this what happens when people die? Their memories fade like old photographs until they’re left as only indistinct images in sepia tones?
Tess squelched the panic that threatened to rise up in her throat.
I will not forget!
To be unable to “see” her memories would be as unbearable as losing her sight all over again. She didn’t think she’d be able to live like that. At least normal people could fall back on photographs to remind them. She brushed away a tear, swallowed the lump in her throat, and found her way downstairs.
True to her word, Alice had made breakfast—pancakes—but Tess suspected they’d come out of the freezer. She chewed on one thoughtfully, smelling a hint of cardboard along with the syrup. Alice hadn’t cooked in years, not since Helen had taken over those duties. When Helen had left, Rosa had taken over.
The witch with the knife. All that time Rosa had been pretending to be nice, pretending to like me, just so she could get her hands on . . . what? What sort of software program is stored on all these electronic devices?
Tess’s hand involuntarily crept into her lap to check the slight bulge in her jeans, her fingers tracing the outline of the iPod her uncle had overlooked. Another thought pushed the memory aside.
“Alice?” Tess said. “Didn’t Helen recommend Rosa for her job when she quit?”
Silence prevailed for a moment, then Alice said, “You’re right, I believe she did.”
“Doesn’t that seem odd, considering how suddenly Helen left?”
“Who’s Helen?” Oliver said.
Tess refused to answer. Uncle Travis may have rehired the big jerk, but that didn’t mean Tess had to like it.
“She was the cook before Rosa,” Alice said. “She resigned due to an illness in the family.”
“That’s what she told us,” Tess said. “But what if it wasn’t true?”
“I’ll have Travis look into it,” Alice said.
“Is he always such a hard-ass?” Oliver said. “He didn’t even thank me for bringing Tess home—alive, I might add.”
“I’m sure he appreciates—” Alice began.
Tess swallowed another bite of pancakes and interrupted her. “Yeah, why does he have to go all Rambo on me all the time? I’m so tired of all the guns around here. Aren’t you afraid one of those guys is going to shoot you sometime? Just my luck, I’ll be raiding the fridge some night and get shot.”
“He’s SICC, Tess.” Alice said.
“What? Like, sick in the head?”
“No, as in S-I-C-C.”
Oliver’s voice chimed in at the same time as hers. “What’s that?”
“I shouldn’t be telling you this,” Alice said with a quick glance at the doorway, her voice barely above a whisper, “but given the circumstances, I suppose you’re old enough to know. Travis was in a secret branch of the Army Special Forces—the Strategic Intelligence Collection and Containment unit.”
“Intelligence? Like a spy?”
“More than that,” Alice said. “The ‘containment’ part was essentially code for ‘kill.’ Your uncle was a trained assassin.”
“Like Rosa and the men who tried to take my camera?”
“Well, not Rosa. She may have had some training, but her skills with a knife were better served chopping vegetables. She should have been able to kill me. But, yes, like the people who broke in and attacked us. Only your uncle was a whole lot better at his job than that team.”
“Maybe he would have been if he’d been here.” Tess tasted the bitterness in her words as they rolled over her tongue. “I can’t count on him like I can you and Yoshi. I don’t trust him.”
“He’s a good man, Tess,” Alice said quietly. “Give him a chance.”
“He’s had a year of chances.”
“That’s not really fair, Tess,” Alice said.
Tess didn’t care. She was sick of Uncle Travis telling her what to do. He wasn’t her father. “Well, it’s not fair he’s making me go to school, either.”
“No, probably not,” Alice said. “But since he is, you better get moving. Oliver, Kenny and Lu
is are waiting for you two out front. They’ll drive you and check in with the administration to alert school security. Since they’re armed, they won’t be allowed on campus, so don’t worry—they won’t be following you around all day. They’ll keep an eye on traffic in and out.”
“And if we have problems?” Oliver said.
“They’ll tell you what to do. Tess, don’t forget a coat on your way out.”
“I don’t need one.”
“Yes, you do. Oliver, make sure she has a coat before she goes out.”
“Yes, ma’am. You ready, Tess?”
She felt Oliver’s hand on her shoulder and started to pull away. She sighed to indicate there was no sense fighting a losing battle. She stood.
“I haven’t even done my homework,” she grumbled. “I’m going to be in so much trouble.”
Oliver’s laugh rang out. She scowled in his direction.
“Compared to the ‘trouble’ we had yesterday, that’s nothing,” he said. “I think you can handle it.”
“You don’t know my teachers.” Tess shuddered.
She let Oliver guide her out of the kitchen and down the hall, and shrugged into the coat he held for her because she knew she’d never hear the end of it if she didn’t. Outside, Oliver helped her into the backseat of an SUV. Kenny and Luis had it warmed up, for which she was grateful. The little warmth the sun had provided was gone, replaced by the cold drizzle more typical of spring around Seattle. She heard Oliver get in the seat next to her, and as soon as his seatbelt was buckled the vehicle began to accelerate smoothly.
“Ms. Barrett, I’m Luis,” a voice in front of her said.
“How nice for you,” Tess said.
Luis went on as if he hadn’t heard. “I was here before. You know, last year. You probably don’t remember me.”
She thought she heard a note of regret in his voice, but she didn’t stop to wonder why. She didn’t care. “No, I don’t. You people didn’t exactly come out and introduce yourselves.”
He still seemed unfazed. “I’m really sorry we frightened you this morning. If we’d known it was you, we wouldn’t have rushed in like that, you know, with guns and shouting and all.”
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