Keep My Baby Safe

by Bella Grant

  They reached the fence protecting the business and circled the property carefully, looking for an existing gap they could squeeze through but found nothing. Tasha wiped the water from her face as she considered.

  “Any ideas?” she whispered, her voice barely audible above the hissing rain.

  He thought for a moment. “Going over is a problem because of the barbed wired. You don’t want to cut the fence…” He paused as he ran possibilities over his mind. “Yeah. I got something. Wait here,” he said as he began to back away.

  “What? Where are you going?”

  “To get the jack and tire iron from the car. I’ll be right back.”

  He gave her a quick kiss and backed away. He probably shouldn’t have done it, but she looked so damned sexy crouched there, her face covered with rain, he couldn’t resist. He trotted to the Land Cruiser, removed the jack and tire iron, then returned the same way he came.

  He found Tasha right where he’d left her. “This way.”

  He led her back to the only place they’d found that offered even a chance of getting in, but the natural depression under the fence was too narrow for even Tasha. He’d strained at the fence, and though he could pull the mesh some, he hadn’t been able to move it enough for her to squeeze under.

  Dan attacked the ground with sharp end of the tool, breaking up the hard soil and pulling it aside with his hands to widen and enlarge the opening. It wasn’t the best tool for the job, but it was all he had. Grunting and sweating, he toiled until he thought hole was big enough. He placed the jack under the fence and cranked, watching as the device raised the bottom of the fence, making the passage large enough for them to squirm under. Tasha went first, then Dan. It was a tight squeeze for him, but he finally managed to work his way under.

  “You’re a mess,” Tasha whispered.

  “Pot, meet kettle,” Dan murmured in return.

  She grinned and they began working their way toward the office building, using the hulking generators for cover.

  They reached the office without incident and spent a moment squeegeeing water off themselves to minimize the drips they were going to leave. Tasha shook her hands, water droplets flying, before she pulled her pick kit from her back pocket. In seconds she had the door open and they slipped inside. Not every building in Talish was air-conditioned, despite the tropical heat, but this one was. That would help dry any water they left behind.

  They began a systematic search of the records. They’d rifled through about half the records when Dan shivered. He was beginning to get chilled. He turned his light on Tasha to see how she was coping and smiled.

  “Cold?” he asked, putting the beam of his light on her breasts to illuminate the nipples clearly visible through her shirt.

  “Freezing my ass off,” she murmured, never slowing in her search. “If you’d stop staring at my tits and help me, we can get out of here and you can warm me up.”

  He laughed and went back to his task. Thirty minutes later, Tasha shut the last drawer. “Shit! Nothing,” she growled as she looked around the office. “What am I missing?”

  “Maybe there’s nothing here to find.”

  The company had rented more than a dozen generators in the last month. They’d written down the names, addresses, and type of each one, and they would have to check them all.

  “Then why did silver Merc man come here, especially after we set him up?”

  He shrugged. “Don’t know.”

  She looked around the office again. “Shit. They are either doing this off the books or we looked right at it and didn’t recognize it.”

  They spent another hour prowling through desks, but still came up empty.

  “Let’s go,” Tasha said. “Nothing else to do here.” She flapped the small notebook that held the information they’d collected. “Tomorrow we’ll verify all these generators are where they say they are.”

  “And if not?”

  She smiled. “Then Boris and Natasha may have to pay a visit.”

  He grinned as they stepped into the rain. “What about the tour?”

  “It doesn’t leave until ten. We can do what we have to before we leave.”

  He nodded quickly as they hurried back to the fence. The hole he’d dug was partially full of muddy water, but they had no choice and slithered under again. Dan removed the jack and pushed the mound of dirt back into the hole, stomping it down with his foot to disguise what they’d done. The fence was slightly deformed from the jack, but there was nothing he could do about that.

  He finished and they worked their way back to the vehicle, Dan carrying the jack and the tire iron. He was looking forward to getting out of his wet clothes, a shower, something to eat, then holding Tasha in his arms the rest of the evening. After all the teasing in the car he was going to fuck her good, but he was looking forward to the post-coitus snuggle almost as much. Holding her last night, and again this morning, had filled him with a sense of peace he hadn’t felt in almost a year. He couldn’t describe it, but it somehow felt…right.

  He was stowing the jack when the police car arrived. “You there, what are you doing?” a man’s voice asked.

  Dan squinted in the headlights and flashing blue light on the car’s roof. “Is there a problem, officer?”

  “I asked you what you were doing.”

  “We had a flat. I just finished changing the tire.”

  The officer stepped around to the front of the car but kept his distance. “Is that how you got so muddy?”

  Dan licked his lips and decided to go for the big lie. “I had to crawl under the car. Whatever punctured the tire hit something underneath. I was checking to make sure it was okay.”

  “Was she under there too?”

  “Is there a problem? We had to stop to change a flat, that’s all.”

  The Orkut police didn’t carry firearms, but the man drew his baton. “Don’t move.” He pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed. “I have them,” the officer said before pocketing his phone again. “You’re going to have to go to the station.”

  “Why?” Tasha asked, using her Laura Connolly accent.

  “Questioning.”

  Dan looked at Tasha. This entire situation felt wrong, and from the look on her face, she knew it too. He started moving toward the car. “Okay, but this is all a big misunderstanding,” he began.

  The officer was so focused on him as the threat, he never saw Tasha coming. As the officer turned away, she stepped up behind him, twisted his baton out of his hand with a quick snap of her wrist, and flipped it around to catch it by the handle. Before he could react, she brought the heavy metal baton around in a whistling arc to impact the side of his knee.

  The officer screamed in pain as his knee collapsed and he tumbled to the ground. He tried to scramble away, but Dan’s booted foot was waiting for him. His face exploded in a shower of blood, then he was still. Dan knelt and rolled the man over, pressing his finger to his neck. The pulse was strong and steady. The man would have a hell of a headache and it would days before he’d be able to walk without pain, but he’d live. Tasha wiped the baton then tossed it on the ground beside the officer.

  “I hope we didn’t just fuck up,” he said as they piled into the Toyota.

  “That was no cop, or if he was, he was dirty. We damn sure wouldn’t have gone to the station,” she said as the Land Cruiser surged away.

  “You think the cops are looking for us?”

  “Not as much as Kangka. I’d bet that guy staked out the car and was waiting for us to come back. You can bet your ass when he doesn’t show up in a little while, the rest of the police force will be looking for us.” She pulled her dark wig off. “Boris and Natasha are burned.”

  As he drove, Dan pulled his wig off as well. “Now what?”

  “Nothing’s changed. Tomorrow we check all these generators to make sure they’re where they’re supposed to be. If one is missing, we pay a little visit to the owner of the place on Monday.”

  “And i
f they’re all where they’re supposed to be?”

  She smiled but it didn’t touch her eyes. “After this, we pay a visit anyway.”

  Natasha

  Tasha sighed as something warm and soft caressed her lips. She opened her mouth slightly, and the kiss deepened as Dan’s tongue danced along her lips.

  “That’s nice,” she purred, her eyes still closed.

  Last night, they’d dumped the Land Cruiser and vacated their hotel. Anything connected to Boris and Natasha had to be abandoned, and since they’d checked into the Grand Orkut with Russian passports, she was afraid someone would come calling. They would have to secure a new car today, and they couldn’t rent it. Their only two identities were now, probably, compromised.

  They’d checked into a sleazy little hotel on the outskirts of Talish and spent the night. They hadn’t made love, afraid someone would come through the door and kill them while they were distracted and had taken turns sleeping while the other sat, weapon in hand, on watch. Dan had slept first, then she’d woken him at two so she could sleep. She’d desperately wanted to join him in the bed, to feel his arms around her, afraid the guilt would come storming back. But it hadn’t. She could feel the loss of her friends, but the guilt that seemed to drain the life from her didn’t return.

  She smiled. ‘Made love,’ not ‘fucked.’ Funny how she thought of it in those terms.

  She shook off the sleep and scooted up in the bed. Dan looked a little tired from the lack of sleep last night, but that didn’t make him any less fuckable. He was showered, dressed, and appeared to be ready to face the day. She yawned and rolled out of the bed and into Dan’s arms. She kissed him properly as she pressed herself into him, wishing she could feel his flesh against hers. He groaned softly as the kiss dissolved.

  “What?” she murmured.

  “I want you.”

  She smiled and drew her finger softly over his lips. She knew exactly how he felt, but this wasn’t the time or the place. “And I want you. Tonight.”

  She kissed him again but drew back with a smile as he tried draw her deeper into the kiss. She was hanging onto her resolve by her fingertips as it was. Another kiss like the one they’d just shared and they’d be knocking boots within minutes.

  She stepped into the shower, trying to touch as few places as possible. Last night, she’d selected someplace inconspicuous. This place obviously served the escort trade as they heard men and women fucking loudly, the women urging the men on like in a porn movie, on both sides of them all night.

  “What are we going to do about a car?” he asked as she scrubbed her hair.

  “I have an idea.”

  “What?”

  “You don’t want to know,” she said as she stuck her head under the tepid water.

  “You’re talking about stealing one?”

  “We can’t rent one anymore, not with our identities compromised.”

  “Stealing a car will bring the police down on us.”

  “Not if we’re clever about it.”

  “What’s that mean?”

  Her eyes and mouth remained tightly closed as she rinsed her face to protect herself from anything that might be in the water. She slapped the shower off then held her hand out. Dan placed a towel in it and she dried her face. She wrinkled her nose. The towel smelled of bleach and something less identifiable.

  “It means I’ll show you.”

  While she dressed, Dan went for breakfast and bottled water. There was no way she was brushing her teeth using this water.

  A few minutes later, he stepped into the room with two cups of coffee, several pieces of toast, and two bottles of water tucked under his arm.

  “This is all I could find,” he said as she accepted the cup.

  “We’ll get something later.”

  They’d only had the plantains for lunch and had missed dinner entirely, so she was starving, but there was little Dan could do about it. Now that they were sure Kangka was on to them, they had to be careful.

  They brushed their teeth using the bottled water and left the hotel. She smiled to herself when a whore they passed in the hall glanced at her and Dan with obvious envy. They would come back for their bags later, assuming someone didn’t steal them.

  They caught a cab to the dealer that claimed to have the largest selection of used cars in Talish. The lot was large with cars parked everywhere without apparent rhyme or reason. It was perfect for their needs. She and Dan wandered about the lot, hand in hand, two people window shopping for cars on a Sunday morning.

  “Grab the plates off that car,” she said, pointing at a car parked to the side that still had the blue and white Orkut plates on it. “I’m going to get the keys.”

  While Dan worked on the plates, using his small pocketknife as a screwdriver, she picked the lock on the office door. Once inside, she set to work on the key safe. It took her almost three minutes to get the cheap ass lock on the safe open when it had taken her less than thirty seconds to open the door. She smiled in triumph as she swung the door open. She searched the offices until she found what she was looking for. She dumped the candy carefully on the desk and then returned to the safe with the plastic box. She loaded all the Mitsubishi keys into the box and returned to the lot.

  It took her almost five minutes to find the proper keys for the car she wanted, a white 1999 Mitsubishi Mirage that appeared to be in reasonable shape. The car wasn’t nearly as nice as their rented Toyota, but it would be almost invisible as the Mirage was a very popular car in Orkut. Now that they had the key to the car, Dan set about installing the plates while Tasha returned all the keys to the key safe, locked it, and placed the candy box back as she found it.

  Dan was waiting behind the wheel as she stepped out of the offices and checked to make sure the door was locked. With luck, it would be days before anyone noticed the car was gone.

  “Where do we start?” he asked as they turned into the road.

  “First, we have to find another car that looks like this one.”

  “What? Why?”

  “We’re going to steal the plates and replace them with the ones on this car. That way, if the car is seen and the cops run the plates, they’ll match the car but more importantly, send them on a wild goose chase.”

  He shook his head, and she liked how his look, part surprised understanding and part admiration, made her feel. It was the same feeling of success she got when she’d accomplished a difficult task. She turned so he wouldn’t see the smile tugging at her lips. The same feeling she got when she made him come extra hard.

  They prowled the street until they found another Mirage of the proper year and color. While Tasha kept watch, Dan again used his knife to remove the plates from their donor car and replaced them with the plates he’d liberated from the car at the dealership. They drove away, then found a quiet parking lot where he could install the clean plates.

  “I wonder how long it will be before they notice the plates on their car are wrong?” Dan asked as he settled back into their now ‘clean,’ car.

  “Probably when the police pull them over for having stolen plates or something. We’ll be long gone by then.”

  They’d covered their tracks as best they could, given their circumstances. They returned to their hotel, gathered their bags, and left. From now on, it would be check in, sleep, and leave. She smiled as Dan tossed their two bags into the back of the little hatchback. From now on, it would be check in, fuck, sleep, and then leave, she amended.

  Checking each location turned out to be a snap. Most of the generators were placed so they could be easily seen. All had the company’s logo, a large green lightning bolt inside a circle with MEP underneath, painted on them. By lunch, they were finished, and all the generators had been accounted for.

  “That was a total bust,” Dan fumed as they left the last place to check.

  “Not necessarily,” she corrected. “Now, when we pay Mobile Electric Power a visit, we know what to pretend like we know.”

 
; He snickered. “So, what are we going to do until tomorrow?”

  “I don’t know about you, but I could use a shower and some sleep. I didn’t sleep very well last night because I kept feeling like bugs were crawling on me, and I think I was dirtier when I got out of the shower than when I got in.” She shuddered comically.

  He grinned. “I know the feeling.”

  “Good. Let’s find a place to crash, get a good night’s sleep, and tomorrow we can squeeze MEP and see what they know.”

  They stopped for lunch. She nearly swooned as she bit into her slice of pizza. It wasn’t the traditional pizza she was used to in America. The sauce was spicier with a distinct smoky flavor, and the meat and cheese were unlike anything she’d tasted on a pizza before, but it was still delicious. Her eyes moved continuously while not being obvious about it, and Dan did the same. A small smile pulled at her lips. They made a great team.

  She’d sworn after the Argus debacle she was done with field work. The Vispin incident had only reinforced that feeling. But now, with Dan, the feeling that danger was all around and that any slip, any mistake, could lead to disaster, was thrilling. She’d denied it when he accused her of getting off on playing Jane Bond. It had been the truth when she’d said it. But now? When in Moscow, she worked alone, but having Dan at her side, the thrill of fieldwork was back. She hadn’t realized that she missed it. Connecting the dots as an analyst could be thrilling in its own way, but nothing compared to knowing that people, if they discovered you, would do you harm to get the blood pumping.

  “Ready?” Tasha asked as she drained the last of her beer.

  “Yep,” he said as he tossed his napkin on the table.

  As they walked to their car, he took her hand. She didn’t know if it was to sell the idea they were a couple or if it was something he wanted to do, but either way, the gesture made her smile.

  “Where are we staying tonight?”

  She checked her phone. “I’m thinking the Mount George.”

  She turned the phone so he could see a picture of the hotel, built to house the British elite when Orkut was still a colony of the empire. The building revealed it’s nineteenth-century origins with its bulk and grey stone façade.