by Me, Tara Sue
Fortunately, there was no reason for them to ever know. I’d keep it my little secret.
Or at least, that’s what I told myself as I sat back down in my chair. My hands trembled, and I hated it because it was a sign of weakness. I closed my eyes for a second and allowed the memory of the last time I heard his voice sweep over me.
It had been just another normal school day to us. Having recently turning thirteen, Piers was a year ahead of me in school, so we didn’t have any classes together. Our only time together during the day was lunch, and we ate together without fail.
That particular day, I told him I had a meeting after school and would be late leaving. I added that he didn’t have to wait for me, but he gave me a smile and said he’d see about that.
A few years ago, the recollection of that memory had gutted me. Now it only strengthened my resolve. We’d see about something; that was for damn sure.
I heard Tenor enter Mia’s office. From what Mia had told me about how the relationship between the two men deteriorated following the Atlanta trip, I could only assume how seriously Tenor took the current situation. I had a feeling nothing less than a potential catastrophe would make him share the same breathing space with Piers.
My hands no longer trembled. I could do this. I could do what was required. It’s what I’d been living for the past years. I shut off my emotions and mentally went over the next steps I needed to take.
I took the burner phone from my purse and called the number I’d long ago memorized.
“Brigitta,” he said instead of hello almost immediately. “Tell me your status.”
“Target has contacted Bachelor International about the bank account,” I reported.
“You know what to do,” the man said and hung up.
I sent a text to Mia, telling her I had left the office and would work from home for the rest of the day. Autopilot had kicked in. I could have been a robot, I worked so efficiently. I put my laptop and papers into my work tote. The desk in the small office was all neat and tidy, right down to the Back Tomorrow note I put on the desktop.
On the way out, I took a quick glance at the office next to mine. Mia’s door was still closed. Good. That meant she was still meeting with Piers and Tenor. Fingers crossed, that wouldn’t change for at least the next five minutes, because I needed to get into place.
I left the Bachelor International offices and rode the elevator down to the lobby. Even though it was the middle of the workday, there was always a plethora of people milling about around the lobby and surrounding area. I slipped behind a tall planted tree and pulled out my phone. In doing so, I could be anyone from anywhere or no one at all.
I’d scoped out the position on one of my first days at Bachelor International exactly for this reason. It allowed me to stand inconspicuously while still providing a direct line of sight to the elevator.
Once I noted Piers stepping out of the elevator, I slid my phone back into my purse and moved into the flow of people, timing it perfectly to fall in behind Piers as he exited the building. My current task was to get as much information on him as I could before making contact.
I ran through what little we’d been able to glean so far. In a nutshell, though he portrayed a persona of a respectable attorney, he allowed his personal details to be known by only a few. His exact address wasn’t known because he held so much property in the city. For all we knew, Piers bounced from place to place. The only thing we knew for a fact was that he didn’t live at the address listed as his residence on his license and other official documents.
My objective today was to pinpoint where he currently stayed. It was possible he’d driven to the matchmaking office for his meeting today, and in that case, I’d be out of luck. But I hoped that somehow fortune would smile on me and I would learn something useful.
It was ridiculously easy to follow him out of the building, drawing no attention to myself. Of course, it helped that we were in a large city and I appeared as one of many unanimous pedestrians. And the sad but true fact remained that the vast majority of people were too caught up in themselves and their own lives to pay any attention to what was happening around them.
Tailing someone was a skill I’d learned early in my childhood, and in the years that followed, I honed it to near perfection. Only once had I ever been caught. And that one time was enough to ensure it never happened again.
The farther I followed Piers, the less and less I was impressed with him. The Piers I remembered would have picked up on a tail long before now. Granted, we’d only walked a few blocks, but that would have been sufficient for the Piers of years past. I found it difficult to believe he’d allowed himself to become so soft. From the way things were starting out, it appeared this job would be much easier than I’d expected. Especially when he went through so much work to keep his residence unknown.
He’d probably grown complacent over the years. I’d seen it happen a few times. People who were at the top of their game getting blindsided because they dropped their guard. Those who thought they were too good to get caught. Trust me, no one is that good.
I tipped over an uneven break in the sidewalk, and the action caused me to look around. Speaking of not paying attention to what was happening around you, I suddenly realized I didn’t know where I was.
Shit.
I scoped the area out, desperately trying to locate a street sign or a landmark of some sort, but there was nothing I saw that looked familiar. It made little sense. How was it possible the streets weren’t marked? None of the buildings we passed had any visible numbers either. While we were far from being alone, the press of the crowd had lessened. Dread filled my stomach with bile, and I took a deep breath, telling myself I would not throw up.
Unlike normal people who had normal reactions to anxiety and nerves, my body’s knee-jerk response was to vomit. Over the years, I’d learned how to control and eventually to stop it altogether. Except, I quickly realized, when faced with the knowledge that I’d been played by my target.
Piers had disproven my earlier assumption. He was neither soft nor complacent. He’d known exactly what he was doing, somehow switching things around, all the while lulling me into complacency. He was much better than I’d given him credit for. I’d underestimated him, and it’d been a mistake to do so. I wouldn’t make that mistake twice.
For a brief second, I gave serious thought to turning around and running so he wouldn’t see me. But that seemed like an extremely cowardly thing to do, and I’d been many things, but cowardly was not one of them.
Before I could decide the best way to handle my current situation, Piers led the way into a small public park area and stopped in a secluded area. I could only stand my ground as he turned and regarded me with his deep hazel eyes.
“I know you’re following me,” he said. “Who are you, and what do you want?”
Chapter 3
Piers
You learn some lessons early when you grow up on the streets. You have to, or else you won’t survive. There were the obvious ones, where to find or steal food and how to ensure you didn’t die of frostbite. But another important one was to realize when you were being followed and knowing what to do once you found you were.
It’s a skill that had served me well. From dodging police as a child to escaping unseen in any size crowd as a man, I could always spot a tail.
Whoever was behind me as I left Bachelor International knew what they were doing. In fact, it took a few blocks before I was certain they were even there, but luck had been on my side. Based on what I could tell, it was a female. That much was obvious by the sound of her heels. Of course, there were several women around me as we were all walking, and a good number of them wore heels, but while the other footsteps faded or others joined, one remained constant throughout. My tail.
I shifted my path away from my apartment and instead switched my destination to an obscure restaurant few people knew about. Its location in an area of town I doubted many high-heel-wearing women w
ho worked in skyscrapers frequented was an additional plus.
Whoever it was shocked me by not faltering, even as the number of people walking with us decreased. Perhaps I had overestimated her. Perhaps she was not as good as I’d thought she was. Or it could be she was unaware of the potential danger that could fall upon a woman alone in this part of town.
And why was she following me anyway?
I made my way to a run-down park that stood empty at the moment. While I couldn’t in good conscience lead her any farther, I couldn’t have her following me either.
I stopped, turned, and asked in my don’t-fuck-with-me voice why she was following me.
As soon as I saw her, anything else I meant to say died on my lips.
You know her, part of my brain whispered.
There’s no way, the other part countered.
And I stood frozen, unbelieving between the two, unable to comprehend what was clearly in front of me.
She remained silent, and some part of me realized she didn’t appear nearly as surprised as I was.
“Bri?” I finally squeaked out in a voice I didn’t recognize.
“Yes, Piers,” she said. “It’s me. Brigitta.”
You always hear how in moments of grave danger, people say their life passes before their eyes. I’ll admit I always thought that was a bunch of nonsensical bullshit people made up. But as I stood there, looking at this fully grown woman I almost instantly recognized even though it’d been twenty years since the last time I’d seen her, it hit me maybe they weren’t spewing bullshit after all.
I wouldn’t go so far as to say I saw my entire past, but images of my childhood flickered before me. A childhood that encompassed a time when I was much more naive and Bri was the only person in the world who mattered to me.
“Oh my God. Bri,” I said and pulled her into my arms, not realizing until I’d already done so that she hadn’t returned the sentiment, but stood stiff and unmoving in my embrace. Immediately, I dropped my arms to my side and mentally cursed myself for acting before thinking through my actions.
“I’m sorry.” I took a step back. “That was wrong of me. I shouldn’t have touched you before checking to make sure you were okay with me doing so.”
“No.” She shook her head. “Of course it’s fine. It was just such a shock to see you.”
“I can’t imagine it was too much of a shock. You were following me.”
“Yes,” she admitted. “But trailing after what I thought was your backside differs from being confronted with your front side and having you speak to me.”
“You have to admit, though, it is better than having my backside speaking and being confrontational.”
My response must have surprised her, because her mouth had opened as if she was getting ready to say something, but at my words, the only thing she did was laugh.
It’d been a long time since anyone had laughed at anything I said, and I smiled despite myself. “How the hell have you been?” I asked. “And how did you come to be following my backside?”
“I’m good.” She nodded. “I’ve recently moved to the area and work over at the Boston Place Building. After lunch, I was coming back into the office, and I saw you getting off the elevator. I didn’t want to yell across the lobby, and there was no other way to get your attention. And besides, I wasn’t even sure it was you. The only thing I could think of to do was to follow you and see.”
Her explanation made sense, and I was probably reading too much into both her response and her body language, but for a second, I had the vaguest sense she was holding back. For the life of me, I couldn’t imagine what it could be or why she would try to deceive me. I chalked it up to my cynical nature and pushed it out of my mind.
She had changed little since the last time I’d seen her. More than likely, she was one of those fortunate few who never seemed to age. No doubt she’d still look like a teenager when she was eighty-three.
Years ago, Brigitta had been one of my best friends. When she was four years old, her aunt took her in after Bri’s parents died. Unfortunately, her aunt had no experience with children, nor did she want to get any. Bri learned early on she could do anything she wanted as long as her aunt wasn’t bothered in any way. As a result, Bri spent a lot of time outside, which is how I met her when she was eight.
I could still remember every detail of that day.
It had snowed while I slept. I’d known before I opened my eyes. The air tasted sharp and cold, and the sound around me was muted with the insulating effect snow had. I didn’t want to move and disrupt the small amount of warmth I’d managed to find, but I knew better than to stay where I was.
I crawled out of bed and pulled up the thin sheet high enough to pass the scrutiny of anyone who came to see. The attic air was just as cold as I’d feared, but complaining would gain me nothing. I slipped on my shoes and was down the stairs and out the door before the caretaker, Tom, could find me and insist I bring something back in exchange for the use of the attic.
I heard him yell something, and I ducked into the space between two buildings. He’d never tried to follow me before, but that didn’t mean he never would. After waiting for a few minutes, I peeked to see if I could spot him.
Nothing.
I let out my breath in a sigh of relief and took a step forward, inching myself toward the exit.
“I wouldn’t if I was you.”
At the realization I wasn’t alone, I jumped at the words spoken from a small voice coming from behind me.
Furious with myself because I’d failed to notice their presence and allowed them to surprise me, I spun around, planning to unleash my fury on whoever was there. I wasn’t sure who or what I expected, but it certainly wasn’t what I found.
The tongue-lashing I’d started in my head died before making it to my lips. A tiny waif of a girl sat on the ground with her knees pulled up to her chest. The way she sat obliterated any chance I had to determine her age. But one look at her huge blue eyes was all I needed to understand she’d lived more years than her age would tell. And though her hair was unkempt and her dress torn and stained, those eyes also carried intelligence that went far beyond street smarts.
“Why not?” I asked.
“If you don’t believe me, go on out there.” The upward turn of her nose conveyed exactly what she thought of me. “But if it’s that man with no hair you’re running from, he’s still out there.”
“How do you know that?” I asked. “Not because I don’t believe you or because I’m being rude. I truly want to know. He’s never waited for me before.”
For several long seconds, I didn’t think she would tell me. Then she tipped her head toward the road. “I can tell by the sound of his shoes. There’s something wrong with one of his legs. It makes him walk funny, and that’s how I could hear him. I heard him approaching and come to a stop. He hasn’t taken a step again.” She shrugged. “I think he’s waiting for you.”
She was probably right, and normally it’s something I’d have picked up on myself. It must be an off day for me, I finally decided.
“I’m sorry,” I said, more thankful than ever that I hadn’t gone off on her, but not sure what precisely I was apologizing for.
“It’s okay,” she said. “If you were running from him, you’re one of the good guys.”
“My name’s Piers.” I felt like an idiot, but at the moment, it was the only thought I had in my head.
“Mine’s Brigitta.”
I shook my head as the memory of that day slipped away. For nearly the next five years, the two of us had been almost inseparable. The only time we were apart was when we went to school, and that was because I was a year older than her and in the academically advanced courses. Then came the time when we were separated for good, but I refused to think about that. Not yet anyway.
“Piers?” Her head tilted to the side, and a familiar little grin crossed her face. “Where did you go?”
I was staring because after a second look, t
here was no way the Brigitta in front of me could ever pass as a young teen. She had changed. She’d grown into her body—and grown very well, I might add. Everything about her was one hundred percent woman.
“Just back to our past. When we first met,” I said. It was vague enough to be true, but I didn’t care. I wasn’t about to admit I’d been ogling her body. Things weren’t awkward between us, but me admitting I liked how her chest had filled out would change that in a hot minute. “How would you like to go out and catch up over dinner tonight?”
The invitation slipped out without thinking. It was as normal as breathing. I didn’t stop to think about what that meant.
She glanced at her watch. “It’s a bit early for dinner, don’t you think?”
It probably was, but I didn’t care and I didn’t bother to look at the time. All I knew was I didn’t want Brigitta out of my sight. “In that case, let’s go get some coffee and chat until it’s closer to dinnertime and then go get dinner.”
I held out my arm. We weren’t in the best of neighborhoods, after all. She took it with a hearty laugh. “You never could take no for an answer. Good to see some things never change.”
Chapter 4
Bri
Piers turned us around, and we walked back the way we’d came. He chatted about something, but to be honest, I couldn’t tell what because my mind was spinning in two thousand directions.
I wasn’t supposed to make contact with Piers yet. My assignment had been to follow and get information and only to make contact when instructed. How pissed off would the Organization be when they found out?
And they would find out. It would do no good to tell myself differently. The best thing I could do was to ensure they heard it from me first. I’d have to call in to my handler as soon as I returned to my new apartment. It was tempting to shoot off a quick text or email from my phone. That way I wouldn’t have to hear either his anger or disappointment as I informed him of my inability to follow Piers without noticing.