Killer Assignment

by Black, Maggie K.

  He’d taken three steps down the beach before Zack’s words made him stop. “Well, I could always take her to the police station instead. You can stay here and get an early start on your holiday.”

  “I’m canceling my vacation.” Mark turned back. “I’m flying to Lebanon in three days. Then Zimbabwe. Then Romania. I’ll be gone for six months. Maybe more. So I’ll see her off safely today, be back here tomorrow night, then Sunday I’ll need you to drop me at a bus station.” He sighed. “So you see, even if I wanted to pursue a relationship with Katie, it couldn’t happen. And anything that did happen between us would be a mistake. At best, an open-ended long-distance relationship with no hope of ever actually being together. And at worst she’d be...” His voice trailed off.

  Zack chuckled again and went back to poking the fire. Tension gripped Mark’s shoulders, and for a moment he was tempted to pick up something and throw it. Nothing about this was funny.

  “Just drop it, okay?” Mark’s voice rose. “What I was going to say was fling. That’s what Katie would be to me—a fling. You don’t think we both deserve better than that?”

  The smile dropped from Zack’s face. He waved his hand downward as though trying to lower the temperature. “You might want to—”

  “To what? Look, Katie is amazing.” He was practically shouting. “But I’m not about to burden her with the truth about my life. We don’t have a future together. Not with her as a partner. Not with her as a wife. She’s just someone who landed in my lap, who needed to be rescued, nothing more.”

  Zack raised a finger to his lips in warning. The tent flap flew open. Katie stepped out. Her face was so calm and composed that for a moment he hoped she hadn’t heard his outburst. Then he saw the tiny tremor in her lower lip and realized just how tightly she was pressing her lips together. Noticed the polite, self-controlled mask that had snapped over her eyes in place of real, heartfelt emotion. His heart sunk like a stone. She’d heard enough.

  For one gut-wrenching moment, his eyes still searched her face, looking for a chink in her emotional armor. If he could just catch a flash of anger or a glimmer of hurt, he’d know how to respond. He’d be able to figure out how to rush in with the right word to say and save her from the pain. He’d be able to fix this—to go from villain to hero. She walked over to the fallen chair, picked it up and sat down. Mark grabbed the rucksack and strode down the beach.

  TEN

  Katie watched the flames flicker and dance and focused on pushing the overheard snatches of conversation out of her mind. So what if he couldn’t see himself having a future with her? She couldn’t afford to think about that now. Judging by the arc of the sun in the sky, the afternoon was quickly disappearing. Chances were she’d miss the media briefing and have to play catch-up tomorrow. Not to mention reporting her stolen wallet, replacing her belongings, finding a hotel room, explaining to work why she’d been off the grid all day. She sighed. Ethan had better be in one of his more understanding moods.

  Zack walked over to his metal food box and pulled out some cans. He came back, sat in front of the fire and slowly spooned a tin of beans into a metal pot. He did the same with a tin of meat and then another of tomatoes. Then he mixed them all together in the pot and stirred it over the campfire. His motions were slow, deliberate, relaxed. Whereas here she was practically ready to pelt down the beach and sprint through the woods if it would get her life back on track any faster. A thousand unasked questions clattered in her mind. But something told her he wasn’t about to tell her anything she wanted to know.

  Finally she said, “How well do you know Mark?”

  The spoon paused but only briefly. “About as well as anybody does, I reckon.”

  “You care about him, don’t you?”

  Zack’s jaw tightened ever so slightly. “He’s like a brother to me.”

  Yeah, she could see that. “I’m not going to ask you to break his confidence. But he’s obviously keeping something from me. Something he doesn’t trust me with...” Was that why he’d said she could never be anything more than a fling? Sudden tears rushed to her eyes. She swallowed hard. “What am I supposed to do?”

  Zack’s eyes met hers again. They were as gray and unflinching as steel. “Trust him, Katie. Trust him with your life.”

  * * *

  She breathed a sigh of relief when Mark came jogging back, dressed in clean jeans and a simple navy shirt. He nodded politely, then sat on the other side of the fire, his thoughts lost far beyond her reach. Lunch was simple but filling. Zack had only one set of dishes. So he divided the chili between a plate, a bowl and the pot, and they used slices of bread to spoon it into their mouths. Then they washed the meal down with water from Zack’s canteen.

  She sat down on the beach, watching the sun glisten off the water as she listened to Mark and Zack pore over a map. The plan was to cut straight through the woods, due north, until they hit a road. Then they’d head west. A breeze rustled in the trees around her. She closed her eyes and lay back. It had been years since she’d been anywhere this peaceful. The thought hit her with a jolt—if everything had gone as planned, she would never have seen any of it. She’d have never met Mark or even stopped in Cobalt. Rather, she would have just gone from the concrete jungle of the city, to the train, to a hotel, to the event at the Shieldses’ without even pausing for breath.

  Was that what it took to make her slow down? A knife to her throat? Her life in danger?

  She couldn’t remember the last time she’d gone this long without checking her phone. She’d tried drying it out by burying it in a bowl of dry rice from Zack’s food supplies. Surprisingly, the power button had begun glowing again, but when she turned it on the screen remained blank. The remains were now back in her pocket. Hopefully, she could at least transfer its memory and data to a new phone.

  “Did I tell you I own a really small island?”

  She opened her eyes.

  Mark was kneeling beside her. “It’s on a lake like this. Not all that far from here.” He looked out over the water, the dark blue echoing back in the green of his eyes. “It’s really, really tiny. I used to think I was going to build a house on it. Move up here. But it’s never going to happen.”

  “Why are you telling me this?” She pulled herself up to sitting.

  “Because it’s something nobody else really knows about me. And because I actually do want you to know me better. I just don’t know where or how to start.”

  So a peace offering then. One private tidbit of information to make up for everything he wasn’t telling her.

  Mark stood slowly and stretched out his hand to take hers. But when she shook her head, he stuffed it into his pocket and stood back. “You heard me arguing with Zack, didn’t you?”

  “Yes.” She climbed to her feet. “We’re in this together, Mark. I have to trust you. You have to trust me, too.”

  He closed his eyes like he was listening to an argument inside his head. Then he opened them again, filled with look of such regret that for a moment she wished she could just let herself hug him. “You’re right. You deserve the complete truth. All of it. Just not here, okay? Not like this. Let me get you safely to the police and put a call in to my partner, Nick. Then tonight, how about I take you out for dinner, somewhere quiet and private and then—” he took a deep breath “—I’ll tell you everything. You can decide what you want to do from there. Until then, I’m just hoping you can trust me. Is that all right with you?”

  Not really, but it wasn’t like she was brimming with options. “Okay. I’ll drop it until then. But tonight, you tell me everything. Before the sun sets tonight.” She reached for his hand. “Promise?”

  He reached for her hand, enveloping her fingers in his. He shook her hand solemnly. “I promise. Now come on. I want to show you how Zack hides his bike.”

  She followed him a few yards down the
beach until they reached what looked like a random mass of brush. Reaching in, Mark grabbed the bush with both hands and pulled. A camouflage tarp peeled away, showing a powerful off-road motorcycle underneath.

  She laughed. “That’s a neat trick.”

  He rolled up the tarp, cleanly folding away the fake branches.

  “Mark made it for me.” Zack was striding up the beach. “The man’s a total genius.” He eased the bike out of its hiding place. “Now, you’re going to want to head down the beach about thirty yards. Then you’ll see a gap in the trees on your left. It’s a moose track, I think. I’ve used it before. You should have no problem.”

  Mark clasped Zack on the shoulder. “Thanks again. You’re a lifesaver. I’ll come back for you tomorrow.”

  “No hurry. Just take care of Katie, and come back whenever you can. I just wish I’d brought my firearm with me. I hate the idea of sending you off unarmed.”

  Mark swung his leg easily over the motorcycle. Then he reached for Katie’s hand and pulled her up behind him. “It’s okay. My firearm license was in my wallet anyway, and I don’t think the police would take too kindly to an unidentified armed man cruising down the highway.”

  Zack reached into his pocket and pulled out a couple of twenties and a prepaid credit card. “Take this. You’ll have enough gas to make it to the highway. But you may have to stop to fuel up on the way and you’ll both probably have some other expenses until you can sort your stuff out.”

  “Thanks, man. I’ll pay you back.”

  “I know you will.”

  Mark reached out to take the borrowed money. But Zack grabbed him by the arm instead. The money fell onto the sand as Zack pulled Mark’s arm in for a closer look at the leather strap encircling his wrist. “Hold on. If this is what I think it is, this could be a total game changer.”

  * * *

  Five minutes later, they were sitting back at the campfire while Zack turned the GPS medallion over in his hands.

  “I’m telling you,” Mark said, “it’s been deactivated. I scanned it thoroughly when I got it, and it wasn’t emitting any signal.”

  Zack’s brow furrowed. “But there used to be a way of reactivating it. If so, I might even be able to trigger the emergency beacon.”

  Emergency beacon? Katie looked from one man to the other. The idea of someone giving their grandson a medallion with a tracking GPS in it was rare but not unheard of. There were a host of stylish GPS options for people traveling in dangerous countries or who wanted to ensure their kid’s safety. Some companies installed a GPS in their employees’ cell phones or cars—though the ones that weren’t up-front about it tended to face stiff fines for violating the right to privacy. But an emergency beacon?

  Zack disappeared into his tent and reappeared with a metal twist tie. Carefully, he stripped the plastic off, revealing the long, thin wire underneath. “May I?”

  Mark nodded. Zack split the wire in two and then bent each wire in half. He stuck the pieces into tiny holes on each side of the medallion. Mark slid over beside Katie. His forearm brushed against hers, as if he wanted to take her hand but wasn’t sure if he should.

  “Why did your grandmother give you an emergency beacon?” she whispered.

  “She was afraid someone might try to kidnap me. My family history is a mess. Someone kidnapped my sister when I was little, and although we got her back okay, she never really recovered.”

  Katie’s hand rose to her throat. “I’m so sorry. But why...”

  Mark’s eyes met hers. Pleading with her to trust him just one last time. “Tonight. Before the sun sets. I will tell you everything—every horrible, sordid detail about my family and my past—”

  She slid her fingers between his and squeezed. “Tonight.”

  Zack jumped to his feet. “Got it. The GPS is now active again. Although I have no idea if anyone would be monitoring the signal now, I can program the signal into my GPS tracker so that at least I will know where you are.” Then he frowned. “I don’t remember how to activate the emergency beacon though.”

  “You grab both sides of the medallion at once and twist it,” Mark said slowly, like he was reciting something from a long forgotten instruction manual. “It’s the same motion as if you were trying to unscrew a jar lid. There’s a connector in the middle, and if the seal breaks, the beacon emits an alarm. Or at least it used to.”

  Katie’s fingers tightened in his. “What happens if the alarm goes off?”

  “Honestly? I have no idea.”

  * * *

  It was like flying without an airplane. Katie tightened her arms around Mark’s waist and stifled a gasp as the bike shot through the forest. Huge wheels skimmed along the ground. The track wound harshly: left, right, left, right. Rocks, trees, lakes, sky blended into a blur rushing past her eyes. The heavy thrum of the motorcycle engine filled her ears.

  Trust him, Katie. Trust him with your life.

  What choice did she have? Sure, when they reached the police station there would be statements to give, decisions to be made, work to be done. Not to mention she’d have an undoubtedly infuriated Ethan to contact and calm.

  When the engine stopped, when she stepped down off that bike she would need to be in control again. She would be the one grabbing the handlebars and forcing her life forward in the way it needed to go.

  But as for this moment, she was out of control. She was the passenger, holding on to Mark as he drove her forward at his speed with his hand on the throttle. Leaving her with nothing to do but hold on to him and gasp.

  The dirt path widened. They skimmed along a road by the water’s edge, dodging between the rocks and holes like a skipping stone. The pale blue expanse of endless sky filled her eyes.

  Trust him.

  She closed her eyes and leaned her body against the warmth of his back, feeling the motorcycle vibrations move through his body into hers. She cleared her mind until, one by one, the host of clamoring voices who filled her brain with their incessant demands for attention were drowned out by roar of the wind rushing up around her and the steady beat of the bike pulsing through her. And still the bike rode on.

  They shot out of the forest and onto the paved expanse of a straight, modern highway. For a moment, she thought she could see an old log trading house ahead on her right and then realized it was relatively modern gas station and souvenir store. A large wooden bear out front held a sign encouraging them to try their luck at the mini-golf course in the back. But the place seemed deserted, darkness filling the empty space between the gingham curtains and window boxes.

  Mark eased on the gas and pulled in. He cut the engine. Silence hit her like a wave as the pulsing noise of the engine disappeared, leaving nothing but the gentle hush of wind floating through the trees around them. He pulled off his helmet and ran his fingers through his sweat-soaked hair.

  She unclasped her helmet and pulled it off. Mark reached up to sweep a lock of hair off her face. “You okay?”

  She nodded, feeling his fingers moving gently along her face. “That was unbelievable.”

  “Not too fast?”

  She shook her head.

  Sliding his hand away from her slowly, Mark took a step back and let out a long, deep breath. “You really are something else.” He’d said it so quietly Katie was left wondering if she’d really heard him.

  Mark looked around at the empty parking lot then glanced down at his watch. “We’re still about twenty minutes from Timmins. But we’re running pretty low on gas, so I thought I’d better stop and fill up.”

  She slid off the bike. “This place looks closed.”

  “It is. But they have a pay pump. Just give me a few minutes, and we’ll be back on our way.”

  Nodding faintly, Katie glanced along to where the sun was beginning its slow journey back down toward the tree line. The
afternoon was disappearing.

  Then Mark stepped toward her. As the sun fell across his back, the shadows on his face looked deeper, his eyes darker. “I told Zack I’d return the bike tomorrow. But tonight I’m going to book a room in the same hotel you do. If they’ve got space.” He chuckled. “If they don’t, I guess I’ll camp out in the lobby. Just to make sure you’re not alone. Just to be there in case anything... I mean, I just couldn’t...” He reached for her, sliding his arms around her waist. The rough skin on his cheek brushed against her face. “The whole bike ride here, I kept trying to wrap my head around my logical next moves. But all I could think about was how badly it was going to kill me to say goodbye to you tomorrow.”

  He stroked his fingers along the top of her head, down her neck and along her spine until they found the soft dip in the small of her back. He pulled her closer to him, deepening their hug. He leaned forward until his lips brushed against her forehead. “It just feels too soon to say goodbye. Now that I’ve met you, how can I just walk away without knowing I did everything I possibly could to protect you, to keep you...safe?”

  Her hands slipped up around his neck, brushing her fingertips along the soft hair at the nape of his neck. His breath quickened. Her eyes closed. “We don’t have a future together. Not with her as a partner. Not with her as a wife. She’s just someone who landed in my lap, who needed to be rescued, nothing more.”

  “I never asked you to protect me.” Like a diver breaking through the ice, Katie wrenched herself away from him. “I heard what you told Zack.” Hot tears threatened to spill from underneath her lids. “How I was just someone needing rescuing. Nothing more.”

  Raising both her hands to his chest, she gently pushed him away. But her will almost faltered when she saw the strength and intensity building in his eyes. “I am not some lost kitten that needs to be rescued. I don’t need you to shelter me, or protect me, or follow me around, wrap me up in cotton wool to make sure I’m okay. I’m always going to be thankful you were there for me. I owe you my life and I know it. But you don’t really know me, and I...I don’t know who you are, either.”