by Desiree Holt
“I’m not leaving here until I see her.” Dan’s tone of voice left no room for argument. “That’s final. And I need to find out what room she’ll be in.”
Rick knew that meant harassing whoever was in charge until he got his information. He let him go off on his own to handle it and sat down with Faith.
“He needs to do something to work off that tension,” he told her. “Pestering the hospital personnel is as good an outlet as any, I guess.”
“Dan will get his head on straight as soon as he sees Mia,” she commented. “Then he’ll get back to business.”
Rick glanced at Faith. “Like I mentioned before, I take it there’s something a little more than consulting going on there? I mean, he’s always been such a loner and he’s known Mia less than a week.”
“Relax.” Faith smiled at him. “Mark always said if Dan ever finally found someone, it wouldn’t be any ordinary type of woman. It also wouldn’t be one of these long, drawn-out things. That’s just the way he is. And they do seem connected on some level, which I believe they are. But of course I would.”
Rick grinned back. “Yes, you would.”
“Room two forty,” Dan told them, striding back into the waiting room. “I’m going outside to make some calls in the meantime. Rick, I need you with me. Faith, are you…?”
“I’m here for the duration,” she told him. She opened her tote bag and pulled out her little netbook. ”Maybe I’ll have better luck with my characters in a different setting. You guys go do what you need to do.”
She booted up on her little machine and settled down to write.
“Something smells here,” Dan said, as he and Rick took the elevator downstairs. “Someone planted a sniper in those trees and it wasn’t any distraught mother. And now that I take a step back, Stan’s killing was just a little too public. If they really wanted his biometrics, they’d have found a way to kill him off premises and dump his body so we couldn’t find him. At least not before Friday. Someone’s yanking our chain and I intend to find out who. And damn soon.”
* * * * *
“Speaking of Stan Forbush, anything back on him yet?” Dan asked Rick when they reached the parking lot.
“Not much. Holcomb said they’re going through everything in his office and his home, looking for something a little bit off. Nothing’s turned up yet. The guy looks as if he was exactly what he appeared to be, just a dedicated nerd who lived for his designs. Oscar was Chase’s brainchild but Stan made it happen. By the way, he got the call from the hospital about Mia and told them to give anything they recovered of the bullet to you.”
“I’m telling you, my neck itches on that one. I think the whole thing with his death was staged.”
“But to what purpose?” Rick frowned. “All it did was get the cops and us crawling all over the place and up everyone’s backside. Shine a spotlight on everyone.”
Dan pulled out his cell phone and speed dialed a number. “I don’t know. I just feel like we’re missing something. Well, the cops can keep doing their thing but we’re not hanging around anymore waiting to see what turns up. Mark?” he spoke into his phone. “How‘s everything there?”
“About like you’d expect,” Mark told him. “Cops are still poking around asking the wrong questions and driving everyone nuts.”
“Okay. Rick’s here at the hospital with me. We’ll be leaving in about an hour. Go through the ID system again and see if there’s anything we missed, any glitch where Stan’s…parts might be valuable. Then go through his office yourself. I think this is all a dead-end, set up to throw us off the track but do it anyway. Meet us back at my hotel in ninety minutes.” He clicked off.
“I agree with you,” Rick told him. “I think Forbush’s death is a red herring.”
“Yeah but why? What’s it supposed to lead us away from?” He punched speed dial on his phone again. “Mark? One more thing. Get the latest list of the people coming to this shindig on Friday. Email it from your BlackBerry to Andy. Ask him to check out everything about them including what kind of toothpaste they use. We’ll call him from the hotel.”
Rick frowned. “You think there’s a ringer in that group?”
“I think there’s a ringer somewhere but I can’t figure out where. And Mia’s in no shape to help us put the pieces of the puzzle together.”
“Someone apparently wanted to make sure she wouldn’t be around to help us with anything.”
“Maybe this, maybe that.” Dan rubbed his hand over his face. “We have plenty of questions and almost no answers. The only thing we know for sure is that Oscar is safe. Thank God for that.” He thought for a moment, then flipped open his phone again and punched in some numbers.
“Most exalted nerd in the universe and master of the famed Dragon,” Andy said when he answered the phone.
“Your title gets bigger every time I call you,” Dan told him.
“That’s instead of the raise I keep expecting.”
“Yeah, yeah, yeah. Listen, Mark’s going to email you a list and some instructions in a little bit. In the meantime I want you to write down these names.” He rattled off the key people at Carpenter Techtronics.
“I already did a search on them,” Andy reminded them.
“This time I want you to dig deeper. Check out their bank accounts. See if they have any hidden secrets anywhere.”
“You mean you want me to hack into forbidden databases and provide you with code-protected information,” Andy joked.
“Okay, you’ve had your laugh for the day. Just do it. I’ll call you when I get back to the hotel.”
“You think one of our golden stars is involved?” Rick asked, eyebrows raised.
“I think we need to take another close look at them. Nothing else is turning up. It’s got to be someone inside but I’ll be damned if I can figure out who.”
He checked with Holcomb and gave him a report on Mia’s condition and spoke with Lieutenant Santos at Mia’s house.
“I called the head of our security teams as soon as Mia went into surgery,” he told Rick. “Mike is picking up four men and flying them here to guard her in two-man shifts. Just in case. They should be here any minute now.”
His calls completed for the moment, he headed back inside, Rick close on his heels.
“I should be able to see her by now,” he told his friend. “I just need to look at her for myself. Then, as soon as the security team gets here, we’re on the way.”
He paused in the doorway of Mia’s room, gathering himself before he walked in. He’d seen his men wounded badly in action, seen friends injured, shot, knifed. But nothing gave him the punch to the gut that seeing Mia like this did.
She looked so small in the hospital bed and so pale against the white sheets. Machines beeped and whirred, monitoring her vital signs, pumping life-giving fluids into her system, feeding her oxygen. A morphine drip dulled the pain. One arm had been slipped into the sleeve of a hospital gown. The other lay on the covers, a bulky bandage covering her entire shoulder area and part of her chest.
He felt as if a giant fist was squeezing his heart and a fear greater than any he’d ever known gripped him. The most dangerous missions, the imminent threat of his own death, the feeling of dread when a mission felt like it was going south—none of that could compare to the sheer terror at the thought of losing Mia.
For so many years—as a Marine and then as the head of Phoenix—he’d held himself emotionally aloof. All of his energies had been focused on getting the job done. He was firmly convinced that a woman in his life would soften his edge, distort his focus.
And then he walked into that museum office and he hadn’t been the same since. Now, when he’d barely opened his heart and gathered Mia in, he stood in great danger of losing her.
He forced his feet forward to the side of the bed. The nurse adjusting the apparatus smiled at him and stepped aside. He took Mia’s small hand in his and squeezed it gently.
“I love you, Mia. Get well for me. I’m
going to get the people who did this and that’s a promise.” He leaned over, careful not to jar or jostle or dislodge anything and kissed her lips. They were so cold it frightened him.
“She’s still coming out from the anesthetic,” the nurse told him, sensing his worry. “But all her vitals are good. I’m sure the doctor told you that the next forty-eight hours are critical but I have a feeling she’ll do just fine.”
“Take good care of her,” Dan said fiercely.
“The best,” she told him.
Faith was standing in the doorway. “I got something to eat while she was still in recovery. I’m good for the night.”
“Your husband will have my head,” Dan told her.
“I’m hoping you’ll keep him too busy to notice.” She grinned and moved into the room. “Oh, by the way.” She crooked a finger at Dan. When he was close to her she opened her purse two inches and pointed at her little Kahr P 9mm nestled there. “Sssh. It was Mark’s idea. I never leave home without it.”
Dan almost laughed at that. He was about to comment when Rick said, “The guys are here.”
Dan shook hands with two men in gray slacks, white shirts and blazers with the Phoenix logo on the pockets, giving them a full briefing. Each of them also carried a handgun concealed beneath the blazer. Dan had hunted up the hospital administrator earlier and cleared it all with him.
He was reluctant to leave, nagged by a feeling that if he was gone the lifeline that connected him with Mia would snap.
“She’ll be okay, Dan,” Faith told him. “Really. You need to go out and find out who’s doing this.”
He kissed Mia one last time, then nodded at Rick. “Let’s go.”
Chapter Fifteen
The three men sat around the table in Dan’s hotel suite, computer printouts stacked around them with more spitting out of the printer Dan had set up with his laptop. More paper sat on the floor around them, discarded. Andy had been as good as his word. Better, even, digging through databases Dan and the others had never even heard of and probably didn’t want to.
“So what have we got?” Dan pulled his pad of paper closer to him to look at the list he’d been making. “One. Mia’s visions of Oscar disappearing, of a knife being wielded killing someone, of the bombing and of numbers and blocks. Two. Her car gets bombed, the bomber gets killed and she gets shot by a sniper after a demonstration at her house. Which we all agree someone was paid to stage.”
“And using a woman who has real grief to do it,” Mark put in. “So someone with no conscience.”
“Three. Stan Forbush’s death and the killer making off with his eye and finger. But that’s a puzzle because the killer never had a chance to use them to get at Oscar, although someone knocked out the guards. They wanted us to think the theft had occurred. Why? What did they hope to accomplish?”
“Four,” Rick put in. “A sniper using a Longbow T-76 rifle, not necessarily a common choice. And who in our little party would know someone like that? Be able to convince them to do this?”
“Andy’s digging into everyone involved with this,” Dan went on. “Including the entire list of Carpenter employees. Plus companies that might want to sabotage Carpenter. But basically, after three days, we real smart guys have no leads whatsoever. What a pile of garbage.”
“Okay.” Rick leaned back in his chair, stretching his cramped muscles. “I concentrated on the States first, although the shooter could have come from anywhere. But more than fifty Longbow T-76 sniper rifles have been sold in the past six months. That’s a shitload of people to track down.”
Dan looked at the sheet with the list of names and addresses. “Well, they’re certainly all over the place. We’ll need an army to go after them. I think we need to give this list to Holcomb and let him use his resources for this.”
Mark nodded. “I’ll give him a call and fax it to him. He’ll be pissed at us if we don’t follow procedure on it, anyway.”
But when he reached Holcomb’s office, all he could do was leave a message. “He’s out,” he reported to Dan and Rick. “They said he’d be back in about half an hour but then he’s got some kind of meeting going on.”
“I hope it has to do with finding out who shot Mia,” Dan said, his voice tight.
“Holcomb knows his job,” Rick reminded them. “He won’t let anything slip through the cracks, regardless of his personal feelings.”
“Andy’s done a yeoman’s job digging into things,” Rick commented, studying another sheet of paper. “I never realized exactly how many companies are working on the same kinds of things as Carpenter. Or that they’d stoop to whatever means to steal or sabotage a project. There are at least ten cases listed here where people have gone to prison for just that kind of thing.”
“Makes it hard for the government to decide who they can trust when they open up for bids.” Dan drew a red line beneath five different company names on the list he was working on. “These are the most likely ones to check into first. They’re hurting for big projects, they have contracts on the line and they aren’t above playing dirty.” He slid the paper over to Mark. “Call Andy and tell him we want to know if he and the Dragon can find any connection between the people at these companies and anyone at Carpenter.”
“Isn’t that kind of a long shot?”
“Right now everything’s a long shot.” Dan rubbed his hand along the back of his neck. “The next thing we’ve got to do is plow through all the data he sent on the key people at Carpenter. By the way, how are they doing over there?”
“I left our people in place and told them to report to me every two hours. Chase happened to flip on the television and there was the report of Mia’s shooting. That’s what happens when you have media camped out everywhere.”
“What was his reaction?”
“He’s worried how all of this is going to affect his big event on Friday. If people will still show up if they think a killer’s running around loose. And Joy, of course, hanging onto Chase like a prize in a cereal box, asked if we had this many people killed on all of our cases.”
“Nice. Such a sweet person.” Dan’s mouth twisted in a grimace. “Although I guess I know how she feels.”
“Otherwise I managed to get them focused on the details for Friday. Plus I reminded Chase he needs to supervise the other projects they have in process, since Stan isn’t available any longer.” He picked up his cell phone and punched a speed dial number.
“I’m still bothered by that.” Rich had finished his calls and returned to the table.
Dan raised an eyebrow. “By Stan’s death?”
“Yeah. Whoever did it had to know we’d immediately shut down the biometric system and reprogram it. They had too small a window of opportunity to be able to do anything.”
“I wish Mia was here. This would be a good time for one of her visions.” His face tightened at the thought of Mia’s situation.
“How is she?” Rick asked.
“I just called her room half an hour ago and talked to Faith. So far she’s holding her own.” He pounded his fist on the table. “Damn it. Has Andy come up with anything regarding those numbers and toys?”
“Working on it,” Rick said. “Fortunately the Dragon can run several programs simultaneously.”
“Check with him again.” He pushed back from the table. “Sorry, guys but I’ve got to go to the hospital. I won’t be long. I just want to…check on her myself.”
“No problem. We’ve got things covered here.”
* * * * *
Mia was in a warm, dark place, formless, yards and yards of soft velvet cocooning her. Then a faint beam of light pierced the darkness, the air shimmered and Dan was standing before her, gloriously naked. A golden light flickered behind him, outlining him in its glow. “I want you.” He stretched out a hand to her, lust flaring in his eyes.
Mia took his hand, its warmth and strength infusing her, and let him draw her forward.
“I want you, too,” she whispered.
“
You don’t know just how much I love fucking you. Feeling my cock in your tight little pussy.”
Heat skittered through her and liquid flooded her cunt. His strong, muscular arms cocooned her against his lean, hard body, the thickness of his cock branding itself against the soft skin of her belly. His hands reached out and cupped her breasts, tugging gently to draw her closer. He dropped his eyes to fasten on the rhythm of his thumbs as they brushed back and forth against her swollen, throbbing nipples. When he lowered his mouth and took one hardened tip inside she whimpered softly.
One hand slid to her ass, the fingers dancing over her skin to the hot crevice between the cheeks. Mia had to lock her knees to keep herself upright. His scent wrapped itself around her and all of her nerve endings sizzled.
That marauding finger played up and down the cleft of her buttocks, each time moving closer to her hot, tiny opening. Mia clung to him with one hand but let the other drift lower through the fine hair on his chest, scraping across his flat nipples, drawing an involuntary gasp from him. Then down, down past his hard, flat abdomen, to find the heat of his erection. When she closed her slim fingers around it he groaned and shut his eyes, his face flushed as she stroked up and down, up and down.
“Better quit that,” he rasped, “or I’ll get to the end before you do.”
“But I like it,” she protested in a low voice.
She couldn’t stop herself from rubbing her thumb across the velvety head, spreading the thick bead of liquid from the slit over the baby-soft skin. Her hand moved lower then, finding the soft sac that held his balls, rubbing them with her fingers before shifting to stroke his heated cock again.
Dan suddenly moved his hands, brushing hers away, and dropped to his knees in front of her, stroking the soft nest of curls between her thighs. Carefully he pried open her lips, like opening a flower, and placed a kiss directly on her clit. His tongue flicked back and forth over the bundle of nerves, drawing a whimper from her. Anchoring her in place with one hand, he stole the other around to stroke through the cheeks of her ass to find that tiny opening. He stabbed at her clit over and over before finally taking it between his teeth. As he bit down gently on it, one finger breached her rear opening and a climax shuddered through her.