Blood & Lace

by Trinity Scott

  Alyson’s eyes lit with hope. “That would be great, Gage.” But then her gaze lowered. “I’ve really never had anyone believe in me. I’ve gotten this far believing in myself.” She hiccupped, and he could tell the possibility that she might cry had not completely passed. She gestured to her water-filled eyes and dabbed at them with the sleeve of her oversize shirt. “Sorry I’m so emotional. I’m being silly. It’s just . . . my parents are really old-fashioned. They wanted me to be a teacher or a nurse. Literally those were the only two options.”

  Gage sucked in a breath, unsure how to proceed as he had hoped his agreeing to considering her going undercover would be the end of the conversation.

  “It’s like I disappoint them just by existing. Because I’ll never be who they wanted me to be. They don’t understand anything about what I do or what I’m capable of. Computer code is all gibberish and nonsense to them. My mom can barely turn on a computer.”

  “I’m sorry to hear that. You’re a very bright and talented young woman. You, uh, have a lot of potential. If you weren’t so set on law school, I’d suggest you apply for the bureau.”

  “Really?” Her entire body seemed to spark to life. “Gage, that means a lot to me. I’ve considered it, actually. But I don’t think I can play by the rules, you know? If someone’s life is on the line, I’d do what I’m doing now for Chloe. For Eden. I’d go in the gray areas. That’s where I do my best work.”

  Gage nodded. “I’m struggling with it myself in the moment. Not getting this warrant . . .” He stopped before he said something he didn’t want to say. Not getting it meant Ulrich got more time to get away with what he’d done. Meant the slim possibility of Eden being alive got slimmer.

  Seemingly over her possible breakdown, Alyson pleaded with him. “Let me do this, Gage. You know Elaina thinks it’s a good idea, and she’s the most educated of all of us. Holt won’t argue. Chloe needs me. She needs me to help find out what happened to her sister.”

  “Not if it means risking your life, Aly,” Chloe broke in softly. “I’d never trade your life or your safety like that.”

  “I know. I just meant I have a certain set of skills. A very particular set—”

  “No, you are not quoting Liam Neeson right now.” Chloe pinched the bridge of her nose.

  “What? He’s a badass.” Alyson shrugged before turning back to Gage. “You’re the only one with an issue with me going in. But seriously, I’m the right person for this and you know it.” She began ticking off the facts on her fingers. “I’m the right age, look the part, have the knowledge necessary to access Ulrich’s server, and am really one hell of an actress. If I ever went up against my roommate in an audition, I’m pretty sure I’d get the part over her.”

  Gage sighed in defeat. “Well I’ve yet to see your acting skills, but you’re correct about the rest. Maybe we could do a test run. See how you react to—”

  Chloe interrupted by clearing her throat.

  Gage looked back and forth between the women. Alyson wore a smug smile while Chloe looked slightly ashamed of herself.

  “We’ve already done a test run.” Alyson glanced down at her hands. “My parents are retired from MIT. I knew how to decipher binary code before I could read actual words. They couldn’t be more proud of me. The only thing they were bummed about was that I didn’t go to their alma mater.”

  “I was the test run.” He’d been played. By a twenty-two-year-old and his . . . whatever Chloe was to him. Funny, the word girlfriend had popped into his mind. He’d never had an actual girlfriend and never truly wanted one. But something about her made him want to stake a claim. “So all that stuff about no one believing in you?”

  Alyson shrugged. “Sorry. I just wanted you to see that I can do this. I can cry on command. I can think fast on my feet. And I’m not taking this lightly. If this Ulrich guy is as dangerous as I think he is, I’ll have to be on guard all the time. And be careful. Which I will be. Promise.”

  Gage didn’t give in right then. He still didn’t like the idea of sending an innocent young woman who wasn’t a trained agent into the field. The risks were higher than he knew anyone had considered. He knew because of what he did day in and day out. The kinds of people he tracked, people like Ulrich, had no trouble treating human beings like they were anything but.

  The truth was, if Ulrich was into trafficking girls, wired up or not, shit could go sideways with Alyson. Fast. Human error could result in catastrophe. He knew firsthand. She could be in a shipping container heading God knows where before anyone could say boo if Ulrich or anyone working for him caught onto her.

  He needed them to understand that fully before they moved forward with this.

  “Listen to me,” he said, glancing from her to Chloe and back again. “This is not a game, it’s not a virtual situation. It’s real and the danger is real. One wrong move, one wrong word, and your throat is slit and I’m listening to you gurgle blood on the fucking wire.”

  Alyson’s face paled. “I get that. I swear I do.”

  “You’re confident and bright and I know this. But I pulled the smartest woman I knew down from the rafters where we found her body. And she was a federally trained agent with years of experience. So I’m sorry I’m not rushing to throw you to the wolves. But I want you to know exactly what you’re risking.”

  “You’re risking your life, Aly.” Chloe’s voice was hollow. She was torn, he could hear it. She wanted answers, wanted access to Ulrich. And Aly was the way to get that. But she’d grown close to the girl and genuinely cared for her. “I wish I could do this instead.”

  Gage turned angrily to face her. “No. They’d know right away exactly what you were up to.”

  “I know.”

  “It has to be me,” Aly reminded them. “Guys, I swear, I can do this. I am scared and I have no desire to die. But I’m failing to see any other options here.”

  “I have one,” Elaina said as she and Holt stepped into the doorway.

  Gage was all ears.

  “What if Aly pretended to be a runaway? Or said she had an ill, bedridden mother with medical bills piling up? Desperate for work, she can say she met Brian Wells at a coffee shop where she was applying for work, and he recommended Red Light?”

  Gage frowned. It was a detailed plan, but he didn’t see how it was helpful. It still involved Alyson going in alone.

  “She’ll be a prime candidate for his ‘other enterprise,’ as Wells called it. If no one is looking for her. She can get in and out, get what she needs—focusing on access to the server and keys to the storage unit—as quickly as possible. I’ll rush in as soon as she signals that she has what she needs, pretending to be her distraught mother. I’ll wear a decent disguise, a wig, frumpy clothing. I’ll say she’s underage, threaten to call the police, whisk her out of there and bam, they move on, business as usual, and forget the crazy runaway and her overprotective mother.”

  Aly grinned. “Meanwhile we’ll scour their server, search the units, get something to justify a warrant, and set up the raid. If any trace of Eden is to be found, we will find it.”

  Chloe glanced at Gage and he could see that she approved. Holt didn’t look thrilled, but he hadn’t pointed out any flaws in the plan.

  “It includes illegal search and seizure, so we’ll have to be creative. But it’s the lowest-risk scenario I could come up with,” Elaina offered.

  Gage rolled his neck. “Everyone good with this?”

  “Hell no,” Holt announced unexpectedly. “I’m not.”

  Everyone turned to look at him.

  “And why’s that?” Elaina glared at him while everyone looked on. “Because there’s no heavy artillery or flashbang involved?”

  “Because disguise or no disguise, you’ve interviewed him and he might recognize you later. The moment he realizes he’s being set up he could crash his entire system just to keep us out, or worse.”

  “Worse?” Chloe couldn’t imagine anything worse than putting all of this effort in onl
y to have it all fall apart—for all their hard work to be for nothing.

  Holt looked at each of the women before he spoke. “He could get spooked and panic, put bullets in both of their fucking heads.”

  Gage thought it over, weighed the probability of that in his head, then nodded. “So what would you suggest?”

  “I’ll go,” Holt offered. “Be the pissed-off strict military dad she’s run away from and pull her ass out of there over my shoulder.”

  “Not a bad idea,” Gage admitted. “Probably safer for you in there than Elaina anyway, since he’s seen her before.”

  Everyone seemed to reach a silent agreement, but Elaina was clearly a little miffed. Gage decided to let her and Holt sort that one out later. He had to focus on the task at hand.

  “I say we stage the actual meeting with Brian,” Alyson added. “At a nearby coffee shop. In case he’s being watched.”

  Chloe looked impressed. “Probably a good idea.”

  This wasn’t by the book by any means. Sending in Alyson and Holt, hacking Ulrich’s server, stealing keys to a private storage unit? As Elaina mentioned, it was going to be hell trying to doctor up everything in reverse in hopes they could get the warrant so that everything they found would be admissible in the case against Ulrich.

  But he’d given up on playing by the book at this point.

  It was full of red tape and procedural protocols that didn’t take into consideration the fact that time was precious and lives were at stake.

  “Okay.” He jerked his head toward Elaina. “Call Wells.”

  Chloe surprised him by objecting. “Actually, would it be okay if I called him? I wanted to talk to him some more about Eden.”

  For some reason, that made Gage uncomfortable. He hoped it wasn’t just his own male bullshit but didn’t know what else it could be. He couldn’t think of a single logical reason for Chloe not to have access to Wells, so he shrugged.

  “Fine by me.”

  He truly hated the word fine.

  24

  Chloe’s conversation with Brian couldn’t have gone better. More and more she was starting to see what Eden saw in him.

  He was kind, down-to-earth, unassuming, articulate, and educated. He agreed to helping them stage the meeting with Aly and was eager to help in any way he could.

  After she told him about the plan with Aly and Holt, she asked him how he’d ended up working for Red Light. That was the one issue she could tell Gage still had with him. But her sister worked there too, and she was a good person, so it wasn’t a flaw, in Chloe’s opinion.

  He’d sighed. “Not a lot of opportunity for struggling film students from Indiana, unfortunately. I’d wanted to be a director, thought I’d move to LA and make it big in no time. But before I knew it, I could barely pay the rent working multiple jobs.”

  Chloe understood. “Same kind of deal for writers. I thought I’d spend my days typing the next great American novel on my top-of-the-line laptop while adjusting my designer glasses and sipping overpriced coffee. I ended up at the paper, working all hours of the day and night on ancient computers, drinking sewage from a machine in the lobby, wondering when the last time I’d showered was.”

  Brian chuckled good-naturedly. “Life never turns out how we expect, does it?”

  “It definitely doesn’t.”

  “I’m glad we got to talk, Chloe.” Brian was quiet for a moment. “Eden had only good things to say about you. She was really looking forward to your visit.”

  Chloe smiled to herself. “Was she okay? The last time we’d talked, when I’d agreed to come out during my suspension, she’d seemed . . . off.”

  “Stress, I think.” Brian cleared his throat. “The two jobs, Caroline going MIA, and just life in general were starting to get to her.”

  Chloe frowned. Eden had almost seemed afraid to tell her over the phone. As if she feared someone had been listening.

  “Was anyone bothering her? Was Ulrich doing more than just harassing her at work?”

  “She didn’t mention it to me if he was. But then again, sometimes Eden wasn’t quick to open up. We’d only been dating for a brief time. She kept a lot to herself.”

  Chloe knew that. They both had issues from their childhood that had taught them to keep their problems to themselves. “We have that in common.”

  “I see.” After a brief pause, his somber voice came through the line. “Tell me something, Chloe. And be honest.”

  “Okay,” she answered slowly. “I can try.”

  “Do you think she’s still alive?”

  No one had asked her that this entire time. She was a crime reporter. She knew the odds were against it. It had been nearly three weeks since her sister disappeared without a trace.

  “I don’t know,” she whispered. “I hope so.”

  “I like talking to you,” Brian admitted, making her feel slightly awkward. “Makes me feel closer to her somehow.”

  Chloe didn’t know what to make of that. She figured maybe it was like how being in Eden’s house made her feel as if some part of her sister still existed somewhere.

  “I guess Gage or Elaina will be calling you with the specifics on the meeting with Aly. Maybe we can talk again soon.”

  “Sounds good. Have a good night, Chloe.”

  “You too.” With that, she hung up, realizing that somehow, she now felt a little closer to Eden too.

  The next day, the day before Aly was going to meet with Brian and then go undercover into Red Light Productions started off chaotically.

  Gage was having some trouble with the surveillance equipment Aly was supposed to plant using the blueprint of the building Brian had provided, so he ended up going into the office at the crack of dawn to get it repaired. Aly had dropped her cell phone while implanting a recording device. The screen had shattered, so she had to go purchase a new one. Elaina got called to consult on another case for the FBI and had to fly to Denver that afternoon and then fly back that night. And Holt was determined that someone had been prowling around the house the night before.

  “I check the perimeter morning, noon, and night, and I’m telling you, there are footprints by Eden’s bedroom window that shouldn’t be there. They weren’t there at my last check last night, but they were there this morning. The grass and flowers are matted. Someone stood there. For a while.”

  Chloe rubbed her eyes. This was one hell of a discovery to wake up to.

  Gage had just gotten back to the house and was pacing like a madman. “We can’t come here anymore. I had a feeling, once she was seen in the club and her tires were slashed. It wasn’t random. Someone was watching. Now they’re watching her right under our fucking noses. They could be watching all of us.”

  “I wanted to be here,” Chloe reminded him. “This is my fault.”

  He gaped at her. So did Aly.

  “Hon, none of this is your fault.” Aly rubbed her back gently.

  “Right. Exactly. But this changes things.” Gage raked a hand through his hair. “I want all of us to split up as of today.” He turned to Holt. “You and Elaina find separate hotels close to the highway when she gets back tonight. Check in with each other to make sure you’re safely in your rooms.”

  “I’ll be back from Denver at eight,” Elaina told Holt.

  “I’ll pick you up from the airport and we can find hotels.”

  With that settled, Gage pointed to Aly. “You go to your parents’ house and check in with me the minute you get there. Take your roommate with you. We aren’t taking any chances.”

  That left only Chloe. She didn’t ask where she was going. Gage obviously didn’t want everyone to know wherever it was, so she waited him out.

  Once the others had left she sat quietly on the couch, sipping coffee. She knew they had to go, but she wasn’t ready to leave the house just yet.

  Gage joined her with his own cup a few minutes later.

  “I’m worried. Maybe we should find an agent to replace Aly.”

  His eyes softe
ned for the first time that day. “I don’t know a single one who could access the information that she’s capable of accessing. Not in a limited amount of time. Believe me, if I did, there’s no way in hell she’d be doing this.”

  Chloe leaned back and rested her head on the couch. “About the other night . . .”

  “I screwed up,” Gage said, causing a dull, stabbing ache to form in her chest. “You were vulnerable and exposed and I took advantage of a situation that I shouldn’t have.”

  She glared at him. “Really? That’s what you’re going with? I was vulnerable and you took advantage of poor, pitiful me?”

  He looked flabbergasted, for lack of a better word. “Well hell, Chloe. I don’t know. I didn’t mean for that to happen.”

  “But it did. I wanted it. I’m an adult, vulnerable or not.”

  Their gazes locked from across the couch. “I wanted it too. Badly. Obviously.”

  Chloe broke the stare to glance down at her coffee. “I just wanted you to know that’s not—I mean, the costume, the getup and the seductive webcast—I don’t usually do things like that. Eden is the daring one. The sexy one who models lingerie for a living. What turned you on, what led to what happened between us, that’s not me.”

  “You really think that’s what it was?” Gage tilted his head like a confused puppy. “We’ve spent the past week pretty tightly in each other’s pockets. I’m aware of who you are and aren’t. I wish I could say the guy who practically attacked you on the bedroom floor wasn’t me. But it was. Part of me. Part of me is a selfish bastard who takes what he wants—consequences be damned.”

  “Well part of me enjoyed dressing up and turning you on. I wanted you in that room. Twisted as it may be, I wanted you to watch. I wanted you to want me like that.”

  Gage arched an eyebrow. “How about we just accept that we all have complex personalities and leave it at that? That we both get to have some light and some darkness within us?”

  Chloe grinned. “I think I can manage that.”

  “For the record, I’m equally as attracted to you sitting here in yoga pants as I was that night.”