Spy Now, Pay Later

by Diane Henders

  What if it was locked? What if I was wrong about Kane?

  Or what if it was open and somebody was waiting to ambush me inside…

  I shook myself. It would be open. And I had Holt for backup.

  My hand clamped around the doorknob. Turned it and opened the door.

  I drew a deep breath and stepped into the dimness.

  The unlocked door hadn’t diminished my nerves as much as I’d hoped. Pulse racing, I slipped off my boots and drew my gun. My sock feet were silent on the hardwood while I flitted from room to room in approved spy-fashion, clearing every closet and corner. At last I crept down the basement stairs and checked the laundry and weight room before holstering my gun with shaking hands.

  “The door was unlocked. The house is clear,” I muttered into my comm link. “I’m checking the basement window now…”

  It was exactly as I’d left it; closed but not latched. I hauled myself atop the dresser to peek outside. In the fading twilight I could barely make out the imprints of my sock feet melted into the snow beside the window and the drag mark from my precipitous entrance. A single set of large footprints near the fence indicated where Kane had apparently exited, but they were facing the fence and my second set of prints overlaid them.

  I sighed. Kane was smart enough to walk backward to the window and obscure his footprints as he slid back in, but I doubted if even he could climb over a six-foot fence and drop perfectly back into the same set of footprints in the pitch dark. And anyway, his incoming bootprints probably would have had dog shit in them.

  “He hasn’t been back,” I said. “I’m going to do a quick search.”

  “You want help?”

  “No, I want you watching out there.”

  Holt grunted assent, and I put him out of my mind while I pondered in the middle of the basement.

  Kane had been in such a hurry to get rid of me. Why?

  He’d had to leave to meet his informant, sure, but why did I have to leave and then come back? He could have just left me here to make my own way out later.

  If he needed me out of the house, that meant either he needed to do something in the house that I couldn’t know about, or else somebody was coming to the house.

  And if it was the former, he would have just asked me to give him some privacy.

  Okay, so that meant somebody was coming to the house. I’d bet it was the mysterious Dawn White. But Kane had said he needed his vehicle. So were they going somewhere together? And how would he know without talking to her? Unless it was in the coded message…

  I trailed over to prop my elbows on the dresser, frowning.

  That didn’t make sense. If Kane went out the window, where did his visitor go? There were only two sets of footprints outside the window; Kane’s and mine.

  So the visitor must have arrived and left by one of the doors.

  And gotten caught on Fuzzy Bunny’s surveillance…

  Excitement fizzed into my veins. If we had that video, Spider might be able to work his facial recognition magic.

  A moment later my excitement went flat faster than a soda in the sun. Yeah, no problem. All I had to do was obtain footage I wasn’t supposed to know about, from a criminal organization that was going to kill me in a day or less.

  Fabulous.

  “You okay?” Holt’s voice made me start.

  “Yeah, why?”

  “You groaned.”

  “Sorry. I’m fine.”

  I yanked my mind away from the fear yammering in my backbrain and switched to pacing in small circles. I might as well search for clues while I was here anyway.

  So if Kane knew he was going somewhere, what would he have taken with him?

  And how would I know whether he had taken anything? I had only been in this house on one other extremely memorable occasion, and I sure as hell hadn’t been paying attention to the furnishings. Except the bed…

  Don’t think about that.

  Blowing out a breath, I began in a corner of the basement and worked my way upstairs, using my tiny LED flashlight to snoop. Other than Kane’s heavy punching bag and weights in the basement, the house might have belonged to anybody. No hobby equipment or personal items, and no family photos except for the one of his dead brother, a copy of the one he kept at his condo in Calgary.

  Even his dresser and closet were devoid of personality. Mostly dark denim and dark T-shirts, though a couple of pairs of soft faded jeans languished at the bottom of a drawer, their wrinkles showing they’d been buried a long time. Black underwear that made my face heat with steamy memories. Some crisp white shirts and a couple of dark suits in the closet along with a dress military uniform. Black fatigues and military gear similar to what I’d found in Hellhound’s closet a couple of weeks ago.

  Like Stemp’s, his bathroom vanity held a single toothbrush, and there was unused luggage in the front closet. If he’d planned to leave, he hadn’t packed.

  “Nothing,” I muttered into my comm link. “Dammit. I’m coming out now.”

  Trailing up the steps of Sirius Dynamics behind Holt, I glanced at my watch and hissed tension out through my teeth. Six o’clock. An entire day gone.

  My mind shied away from what might be happening to Kane while I shuttled uselessly from one dead end to another. God, how long could he hang on?

  At the security wicket, Holt eyed me quizzically. “You going to call it a night any time soon?”

  “No, I want to get through those mission reports and all the stuff Spider dug up.” I bit down on the urge to command him to do the same, and instead said, “You can go home if you want. There’s no point in both of us being tired.”

  He let out a short bark of laughter. “What, you think I’m union or something? This job doesn’t come with a time clock. I’m going to hit the reports, too. Maybe we can find something Webb missed.”

  “Okay, thanks.” I trudged for the stairs. “Let me know when you’re done.”

  When I passed Spider’s office, I wasn’t surprised to see him still hunched over his desk.

  “Hey, Spider, how’s it going?” I inquired.

  He started and straightened, rubbing his eyes. “Not great,” he admitted. “I’ve been going over and over this data and I haven’t found anything other than what we talked about earlier.” He shot a furtive glance at the open door behind me and lowered his voice. “I found a note in one of the reports that Kane was fostering a relationship with Dawn White in order to gain her confidence, but I didn’t want to tell Holt or Dermott that. They’re already too gung-ho to make him part of a conspiracy, and anyway, it doesn’t help us figure out who she really is or what she looks like.”

  I surveyed his bloodshot eyes and strained face. “Go home and get some rest, Spider. I might have an idea, but it won’t happen tonight.”

  He shook his head and began to protest, but I overrode him with a raised hand. “Go home. I promise I’ll call you if we need you tonight, but right now the best thing you can do is be fresh and ready to go tomorrow, okay?”

  He hesitated, scraping his skinny fingers through his tousled hair. “Okay. I’ll set up the facial recognition program so it pings me at home if it catches anything. Thanks, Aydan.” He rose slowly and rubbed the back of his neck, rocking his head back and forth as if it ached. “Oh, Hellhound called looking for you,” he added. “I told him you were out searching for Kane and I didn’t know when you’d be back, and he said he’d check in later.” He grabbed his jacket. “Good night. Don’t forget to get some sleep, too. You look wiped…”

  He hurriedly corrected himself. “I mean, you look great, you always do, but… you need sleep, too.”

  Fondness warmed me enough to relax my tense face into a smile. “Thanks, Spider. Good night.”

  Much later, I blinked heavily at the computer screen as it diverged into two incomprehensible blurs. After another couple of blinks the blurs reluctantly merged into a single document again and I massaged my pounding temples, fighting to stay awake.

  Dam
mit, Kane needed me to be alert. To find some hidden clue in the mission reports I’d already read three times over…

  “I’m done.” Holt’s voice jerked my eyes open and I squinted for a moment until he swam into focus, leaning into the doorway of my office. “I’ve been through those damn reports backward and forward, and I haven’t found anything new. I’m going home to let it stew in my subconscious for a while.” His steel-blue gaze evaluated my groggy blinking. “You should, too. You look like shit.”

  I considered flipping him the bird, but I couldn’t summon the energy.

  “See you tomorrow,” I mumbled instead.

  He withdrew, and I stared at my computer screen for a few more minutes before reluctantly admitting he was right. When I dragged myself to my feet, my joints protested bitterly and I whimpered a few feeble curses while I eased the kinks out, feeling the stress vibrating in every muscle.

  As I limped down the stairs, the faint sound of music made me stop and scrub my hands over my face. Shit, I must be more tired than I thought. Hearing things…

  I resumed my slow descent, but the music got louder until my sluggish brain finally traced its source to the lobby below. When I emerged from the doors it stopped abruptly and Hellhound rose from one of the lobby chairs, guitar in hand.

  “Hey, darlin’.” He smiled, but his eyes were anxious. “How ya doin’?”

  Somehow I managed not to fling myself into his arms and burst into tears. I twisted my quivering lips into a smile-like grimace instead. “I’m okay. It’s good to see you, but what are you doing here?”

  He hefted the guitar. “Just killin’ time.”

  I squinted at my watch. “Shit, it’s nearly ten. I hope you haven’t been waiting long.”

  “Few hours.” He waved away my dismay. “No big deal.”

  “But why didn’t you call me? You could have been jamming over at Eddy’s instead of sitting here.”

  “Wasn’t really in the mood for Eddy’s tonight after all. An’ I figured if ya were still here an’ ya hadn’t called me, ya prob’ly didn’t wanna be interrupted.” He stepped closer, lowering his voice. “Any word from Kane?”

  “No.”

  The word trembled out, and he folded me into his arms. “He’s okay, darlin’, don’t worry.”

  I pulled away, hope surging while I searched his face. “Did you hear from him?”

  “No, I didn’t mean that. Sorry.” His face softened, his voice a gentle rasp. “But this ain’t the first time he’s dropped off the radar for a while. Just means he’s doin’ his job.”

  Disappointment bowed my shoulders, and Hellhound eyed me with concern. “You’re shakin’. When did ya eat last?”

  “Um…” Food. Suddenly I was ravenous. “I had a sub around two o’clock.”

  “Shit. Come on, let’s get ya somethin’ to eat. Go sign out, an’ I’ll be right there. I just gotta phone Dad an’ let him know there’s no news yet.”

  “You told him John was missing?” With an effort I prevented myself from adding, ‘What the hell were you thinking?’

  Hellhound scowled. “Nah. I wouldn’ta worried him with it, but the cops called him askin’ if he’d seen John, an’ Dad called me right after he finished talkin’ to the cops. I told him I’d let him know soon’s I knew anythin’.”

  “Dermott and Holt. Dammit.” At his questioning look, I added, “I’ll explain later.”

  He nodded and tucked his guitar into its case before pulling out his phone. I tottered to the security wicket, barely able to hold myself upright over the emptiness in my middle.

  We had just stepped out on the sidewalk a few minutes later when my phone vibrated. My heart leaped into my throat. Hands shaking, I fumbled the phone free.

  The call display read ‘Private Caller’, and I punched the button and snapped, “Hello?”

  “Bodyguard won’t do you any good, sweet-ass. I can drop him with a single shot from here.”

  Chapter 35

  Terror galvanized every muscle and I sprang in front of Hellhound, arms spread wide as I shoved him backward with my body. “Get back in the building!”

  His hand closed on my shoulder as if to move me aside. “What the hell, darlin’…?”

  “Get in the building now!” I shrieked.

  His big fist clenched on my parka to half-drag me up the steps and back inside Sirius Dynamics. He yanked me to the side and shielded me with his body, tossing his guitar case behind him. I barely saved his beloved instrument with a one-handed grab as he snapped into a combat stance facing the door.

  “What’s happenin’?” he barked, his gaze riveted on the entrance.

  Panting, I laid the guitar case down and raised the phone to my ear again. My hand shook so violently I had to lean against the wall and lock my elbow against my body with my other arm.

  Sharkface’s laughter sounded clearly over the phone. “Some bodyguard. That was pathetic.”

  My voice came out in a thin quaver. “He’s not a bodyguard. And if you hurt him I will rip your butt-ugly head off and shit down the bleeding hole.”

  “Easy, sweet-ass, don’t get your knickers in a twist. What did you find at Kane’s this afternoon?”

  “What the fuck’s goin’ on?” Hellhound demanded.

  “If you tell him anything I’ll kill him.” Sharkface’s voice was ice-cold in my ear.

  I shot a glance at the security guard behind the bulletproof glass, one hand on his sidearm and the other poised over the alarm button.

  I shook my head at the guard and laid a hand on Hellhound’s rigid shoulder. “Sorry, it was just one of my stupid friends playing a stupid joke,” I quavered.

  “Bullsh-”

  I clapped a hand over Hellhound’s mouth before he could complete the word and waved the phone.

  His eyes narrowed in comprehension as he peeled my hand away from his lips. “Well, tell the dumb fuck he scared the shit outta me,” he growled. “An’ if he does it again I’m gonna find him an’ shove his fuckin’ phone so far up his ass he’ll hafta open his mouth to dial.”

  “That wasn’t funny,” I said weakly into the phone. “He’s mad, and I don’t blame him. Don’t do that again.”

  “Good job, sweet-ass. Now come outside where I can see you. And leave your big dumb boyfriend inside.”

  I turned to Hellhound. “Sorry, the phone reception’s really bad in here. I’ll have to take this call outside. You stay here where it’s warm. I’ll just be a minute.”

  His eyes blazed and I made a frantic shushing motion before he could explode. Scowling, he flung out his hands, mouthing ‘Are you nuts?’

  I shook my head and made calming gestures before tottering toward the door again. At the doorway I turned and gave him a silent palm-out ‘stay’ command.

  His face hardened, but he remained standing where I’d left him, his fists bunched by his sides.

  Sidling out the door, I peered into the dark parking lot across the street, but I couldn’t spot Sharkface’s SUV.

  Hot anger coursed through my veins at the sound of his amused voice. “Good girl. Now, what did you find at Kane’s today?”

  “Nothing. If you saw me there then you know that anyway.” I didn’t try to hide the sullenness in my tone.

  “You better hurry up. You have to deliver that bottle tomorrow.”

  Stall.

  “It looks like he left,” I said. “I’ll need more time to track him down and get the bottle now.”

  “You don’t have more time. And you’re lying. We’re watching his house. He didn’t leave.”

  “Well, he’s gone,” I snapped. “There are footprints outside his basement window, so he must have known you were watching and sneaked away.”

  There was a muffled expletive on the other end. “Well, you better find him fast,” Sharkface growled. “Maybe his girlfriend knows where he is.”

  “If you mean his wife, she died last week. Parr knows that.”

  “No, his girlfriend. The one that was sucking face
with him on his front step while you were in his bed last night.” His tone taunted me. “Guess you weren’t good enough to keep him interested.”

  The phone sank from my ear while I gaped into the darkness. Apparently Dawn White was more than just an informant. So that’s why he wanted to be rid of me.

  After a moment I raised the phone again. “What time was that?”

  “I don’t know; you tell me. You were there when she rang the doorbell.”

  Shit!

  “He said it was a neighbour dropping off some mail that got delivered to the wrong house,” I extemporized hurriedly.

  I sounded too unconcerned. Go for indignant.

  “No wonder he took so long to come back, the bastard,” I snapped. “What did she look like?”

  “I don’t know; she had her hood up. She rang the doorbell, sucked his lips off, and left. Looked like he sent her away.”

  “So he could meet her later!” I hoped that sounded more like anger than enlightenment. “Did you get a picture?”

  “I’ll email you a video. Hurry up and find him, sweet-ass. Clock’s ticking.” He hung up, and a few moments later his dark SUV pulled out of the parking lot. The bastard had the nerve to wave as he drove away.

  My mind raced while I stood watching his taillights recede. So. Another lover from Kane’s past. Or possibly present. Apparently he’d been successful at ‘fostering’ that relationship.

  I spared a moment of sympathy for any civilian woman who’d actually tried to have a committed relationship with Kane, and turned to wobble up the stairs again. By the time I reached the top step, hope was warming the chill in my belly. Half my problem was solved. I was getting the video footage. And maybe I didn’t have to worry about Kane quite so much if Dawn was that friendly…

  When I swung the door open, Hellhound straightened from his crouch beside the doorway. “Everythin’ okay?” he demanded, his gaze still locked on the door behind me.

  I drew a deep breath and tried to hide the tremor of residual adrenaline in my voice. “Yeah. Sorry about that.”