Deadly Testimony

by Piper J. Drake

  “So are you the kid’s real uncle?” Could be his son. There was family resemblance in the lines of the kid’s face, his bone structure.

  “Yes.” Kyle was apparently still struggling with his responses because he’d gone terse. She sort of missed his lengthier conversational habits. It wasn’t often she got to be around a man who could converse with more than four-letter words and the occasional grunt.

  Not fair. The Centurion Corporation, her fire team in particular, tended toward the more intelligent. But they’d all developed a habit of short sentences.

  “Did you know they were in the States?” Keeping him talking was the best idea for now. She needed to know what he wanted to do, whether she was going to have to subdue him to keep him safe, and what could be done about them. If there should be something done.

  Even family could betray a person.

  “No.” He stopped and dragged his fingers through his hair. “Not yet. I knew they were requesting visas. I was helping them prepare to come here. They were supposed to wait until after all of this was resolved and I could make permanent arrangements for us all to live together.”

  Part of her melted a little. The battle-ready part of her tensed. All the more reason for him to go rushing out there to attempt a save he wasn’t equipped to manage.

  And damn but Phoenix Biotech had some serious reach if they could find and pluck his family out of a different country to use them as bait.

  “This is a trap. You understand that, right?” She was sure he did, but best to get it out in the open. Sometimes forcing a person to speak the words out loud helped them think more rationally. He wasn’t doing badly so far.

  He only nodded at first. “Douglas worded his message to be incredibly obvious. I imagine he’s expecting me to call the office, contact him via his direct line. I have it.”

  Tempting. “Let’s wait until we talk through the options first.”

  “We?” Hope made his voice crack. “I had expected to have to argue with you, find some way to get past you to help them.”

  Not a bad guess. “I haven’t said I’m letting you go anywhere. But we can talk about what options there are too because I’m not the sort to leave the situation as it is. First, do you really think they’d kill your family?”

  He stood perfectly still.

  “Think. Rationally. As public as this interview was, nothing could happen immediately. Someone would notice somewhere that the two of them disappeared.” Most likely.

  “Not so.” He resumed pacing. “It might be a national news channel, but this was broadcasted for the local feed. Hard to say what level of exposure the cast had gotten outside the Seattle area. Truly, fairly few people will remember this beyond the brief feel-good moment any other charity news spot would engender. Even fewer would think to inquire or research what happened after the moment in the spotlight.”

  He had a point. A reasonable one. This wasn’t reality television and there wasn’t a follow-up episode to see how the people were doing a few months later. Some news stories had follow-ups but plenty didn’t.

  “This is the type of short public relations clip to fade into obscurity.” He waved a hand at the laptop. “What actually happens to my sister and her son will matter very much to me, but isn’t going to be noticed by anyone else.”

  “All right. Then we need to know more.” These situations sucked. Hostage, kidnappings, these had a nasty chance of going badly. And the last time they’d had to deal with one, there’d been a lot of explosions and gunfire involved.

  “What else can I tell you?” Agitated. And rightly so.

  She needed him to calm down. “Walking out there to trade yourself for them is relatively stupid. Thank you for not doing that while I was gone.”

  Actually, the relief she felt about that was something she should probably think about later. It was almost dizzying.

  Kyle blew out a breath and sat on the edge of the bed. “What can I tell you that will help?”

  She opened her mouth, but he held up a hand.

  “These are people, good people, better than me. I want you to think of them as such.” His gaze bore into hers with his determination to make her believe his words. “They deserve a safe and happy life far more than I do.”

  “You said they were applying for visas. I’m not going to make assumptions or guess.” She didn’t relax but she did give him a small nod to acknowledge his message. “Where were they and why did they want to come here?”

  A small smile flashed across his lips. “I am slightly surprised you ask why. Many would simply assume that of course people would want to come here. In truth, my older sister was very happy in Korea. She chose to stay with her husband when my family moved here.”

  “Okay.” Well, Korea was not one of the countries she’d ever been to. Being able to recognize people from different parts of the world was one thing, and a useful skill, but actually having traveled there was a completely different life goal.

  Kyle continued, “My sister’s marriage was seon—a type of arranged marriage in Korean customs.”

  “They still do that kind of thing?” Normally, Lizzy bit her tongue about things like this. Different cultures had different customs. With Kyle, she tended to let herself go a little unfiltered. For good or bad, it was what it was for the time being.

  He held up his hands. “In South Korea, marriage is considered to be a merging of two whole bloodlines. Such a decision involves the families of both the bride and the groom. Often, parents encourage and arrange a meeting for the two intended in the hopes of a match but the decision is ultimately theirs. For my sister, there were several seon with different suitors before she actually married.”

  “Ah.” Lizzy didn’t know what to say. It seemed less arranged and more like parental involvement. Which, if she thought about it, could be a different kind of pressure but just as tough to live with.

  “Our parents were, of course, eager for her to choose her husband. He and his family were a good match for ours. He, in particular, seemed a good balance for her in personality, achievements and appearance.”

  “Of course.” Okay, maybe her tone had gone dry, deadpan, whatever.

  Kyle’s gaze found hers again and he smiled, but there was sadness in his eyes. “When any dating can start, here or there or anywhere, what can anyone go on but such things? And of those three characteristics, only two are actually quantifiable. Parents do their best, but there’s no way to know for sure. They can only hope. It is not unusual to hope our loved ones can be happy, I think.”

  She could give him that. But she wasn’t going to say anything for the moment. Family interference in her choices hadn’t ever been something she’d been willing to accept—not in childhood or as an adult.

  “In any case, my sister dated her husband for a year before they married. It’s not so different from the way it works here in the US.” Kyle shrugged. “If anything, in such arranged marriages, there’s less chance of strain during the actual marriage. Since parents are involved in the choosing, there is significantly less chance of family opposition to the union.”

  Familiarity. Culture. What a person grows up with and considers normal. It’d be an interesting conversation to explore under other circumstances.

  “I can imagine.” She rolled her shoulders, trying to ease the tension out of them and stay loose. “I’m not sure I’m good with the tradition itself. It’s something to think on when there’s more time to consider the context, but I’m to going to go with it for now. If she was happily married, then why are she and her son here now, on their own?”

  The sadness spread across his whole face now. His shoulders slumped. “I’m not sure. I only know her husband decided on a divorce a year ago. She was going to tell me why when she and her son arrived here.”

  “Was his family in agreement with the divorce? Wa
s yours?”

  He tipped his head. “You were listening.”

  She resisted the urge to tap her foot. For a man in a rush, he was telling a long story. Or maybe he didn’t know how to tell it when he was still trying to unravel it himself. “Yes. I was listening. I’ll process my own opinions on it later. Right now I’m taking mental notes on what might matter to help you with your current problem.”

  He nodded. After a moment, he started up again. “Our family came here to establish a presence in the US while her husband’s family saw to the combined family business interests back in Korea. My father did well enough starting a software company to support life sciences. I learned some of what I know of the industry from him. But the stress of it, of living in a place so different from where you grew up, of trying to make a name. It overwhelmed him. He died of a heart attack. And with him, the US presence of the family business was gone, as well. My mother got sick and passed away not long after. So for my sister, there is only me left here. Our extended family fell out of touch with me when I didn’t try to resurrect the family business here.”

  His recounting had become flat, his voice distant. He’d compartmentalized his feelings about those times and he wasn’t willing to feel right now.

  She didn’t blame him. While the background information was necessary, the confusion brought on by old angst wasn’t useful. “And his family?”

  “I would guess they were eager for him to make a connection with a new wife, most likely with a family to provide more valuable networking for the business in Korea.” Still delivered with a flat tone, sparks of anger were showing up in his gaze now. “Either way, once the divorce was final, he saw to it they had some funding but there was little to hold them in Korea. My nephew has a potential for a bright future here, doing something he loves.”

  And Kyle was reinventing himself and his lifestyle to provide for it.

  She didn’t know this woman or her son. But the man who was her brother, the kid’s uncle, she was starting to see some incredible things about him.

  “All this means no one to come looking for them if something happens to them. I get it now.” Thus his agitation when she’d returned. The danger to them was very real if Phoenix Biotech could easily make them disappear.

  “There is only me.” Kyle was quiet, his pride completely set aside. What was left sitting in front of her was a man determined to do what it took to make his family safe. “Please, Isabelle, let me go get them.”

  “No.” She’d have given the same answer even before she’d known the nature of the leverage Phoenix Biotech had on him. “Whatever it is you’re going to testify is enough to be worth not just your life, but theirs too. So no, you are not going to run straight to them.”

  If he hated her for it, so be it. They had chemistry. Respect for each other. And while the first had been freaking amazing, losing the second would hurt more.

  Neither he nor she was going to have any sort of respect left if he did what Phoenix Biotech wanted him to do and prove he was too stupid to live.

  Kyle stood but didn’t take a step toward her or the door behind her. Instead, he copied her stance. “What will we do instead?”

  “Gather more information, for one thing.” It was her turn to pace, keeping him in her peripheral field of view as she did. He was smart enough to be sneaky and she was not about to let him surprise her now that she was absorbed in the problem at hand. “I need to head out to get a report I was waiting on anyway. While I’m out, away from here, I’ll put in a call to our friend in the streaming video. We’ll find out what they wanted you to do.”

  “I’m going with you.” He tensed, ready for an argument. Even if his fists weren’t up, his guard was in every other way.

  “Yes. You are.” She smiled, ridiculously amused for no good reason. But they were about to go out and make some things happen. A challenge. So much better than hiding, even if it was crazy. It didn’t make sense. But that was the beauty of it. It was unpredictable. “They’re expecting you to either come rushing out into the open or stay hidden. They’re expecting you to have to fight with your protection personnel either way. It’s time better applied to finding a solution. Something they don’t think you can pull off.”

  “But you and I together can?” Humor was softening the hard line of his lips pressed together. “Whimsical. How much can the two of us really do to make my sister and her son safe?”

  No room for whimsy here if they were going to be goddamned heroes.

  She took the cover off one of the plates of food and snagged a barely warm truffle fry. “We can do recon, then plan. Then we can do something they won’t expect.”

  Unfortunately, since their opponent seemed to have a solid idea of how Kyle and the regular authorities tended to think, she was going to have to do some improvisation without his involvement in the decision-making process.

  “I’ll tell you what we’re doing, when I can.” She held out a truffle fry to him. After a moment, he crossed the room to where she was standing and took the offering. “And for when there’s not time to tell you, make sure you understand and then get your agreement, you’re going to have to have some faith and follow my lead. No questions. No hesitation. Deal?”

  “Do I have a choice?” His voice was wry now, but his anger had been tucked away. Controlled.

  “Not really. You hired me to protect you. To get you to the trial alive and in one piece, that’s going to mean saving you from your own too-stupid-to-live moments.” She wanted to reach out, touch him, give him the reassurance actual tactile contact could give in ways words couldn’t. But this thing between them was so new, she didn’t know if it would be welcome. “If that means I need to figure out a way to help your sister and your nephew too, then I will. But we’re still going to do this my way.”

  She thought he might balk. His stubborn streak wouldn’t be a surprise here. It was in his nature to be the leader and expect others to follow. Hell, she was fairly sure it was why Austin and Weaver had had so much trouble with him.

  Instead, Kyle took her hand in his and lifted it to press a kiss against the back of her hand. Then he turned her hand over and touched his lips to the pulse point on the inside of her wrist. “You’re in the lead. For now.”

  Chapter Seventeen

  It always seemed to be different with Lizzy.

  Kyle hid a smile as the two of them left the hotel together. Previously she’d made them leave separately, one after the other at varying time intervals. This time, they left as a couple and bid each other goodbye at the street corner while he got in a cab and she walked.

  She’d scowled about it, considering it a risk to be separated from him for long but his cab ride took him up to Pike Place Market uneventfully, where he waited by the tourist-filled area watching parents take pictures of their children climbing over the metal pig. Cognizant of her warnings, he stayed under the cover of the market’s permanent roof.

  In minutes, she was there, in a different outfit and wearing sunglasses. Her hair was up and tucked under another of her endless supply of cute hats.

  Studying her, once she joined him, he couldn’t help but grin. “You enjoy this.”

  “What?” Behind her sunglasses, she must be scanning the area. She didn’t simply look out over the streets at the people, he’d learned. She looked up over the balconies and rooftops, into windows if possible, and shadowy areas between buildings.

  Places he’d never thought to look for watchers—or shooters—until he’d met her.

  “You enjoy the different hats and sunglasses. Even the wigs.” Of course, it made sense to change looks as they were remaining in the city. “It’s amazing how accessories can completely change the way a person looks, but it isn’t just about the practicality. You relish trying new ones.”

  She turned her face toward him slowly. Telltale flags of color ha
d risen up on her cheeks. She didn’t say anything.

  He grinned even more, delighted, actually. Her lack of commentary meant he was right. She seemed to prefer silence to lying. A preference he appreciated.

  “Hats, sunglasses, scarves.” The gift possibilities were endless. “You have excellent taste, in every style I’ve seen so far. How many variations do you have packed away in your backpack?”

  She sighed and tugged at his elbow, taking them into the crowded market. In a tucked-away corner between stalls, she handed him a hat and sunglasses while she swapped her own.

  Actually, it was very clever. Such items packed small, compact, and required little effort to shake out and wear. It allowed for effective quick changing. At first, he’d felt ridiculous but now it was a precaution with an element of fun to it.

  “Mix and match helps with variety.” Lizzy didn’t look at him as she spoke, letting her hand trail along the edge of a vendor table as they wound through the market. “I started with just a couple, but one of my teammates got me hooked on picking up a little something wherever we went.”

  “A good idea.” Even though she was going through the motions of browsing, he’d noticed she’d never bought anything. “But you haven’t done that with me. Too familiar with the items here?”

  She lived in the Seattle area, after all. Or at least he presumed she did. She hadn’t actually shared much information about herself.

  Picking up a trinket, she paused to give the vendor a quick smile. As she set it down and continued to browse, he almost missed her answer. “We’re in the middle of a live contract right now. Even if I don’t mean to, something I pick up is a memory. For me, and for anyone watching me. It’s better not to.”