Kept Secrets

by Traci Hunter Abramson

  “At least Devin will be back when that happens.”

  “I hope so.” Her mood darkened at the mention of his name.

  “Is something wrong?”

  “It’s just hard being away from Devin for so long. With our days and nights opposite, communicating isn’t as easy as it used to be.”

  “Hang in there, kiddo. This too shall pass.”

  “Promise?”

  “I promise.” He paused, then said, “Before I let you go, I hoped to ask a favor.”

  “What’s that?”

  “The financial planner who has been handling my investments is retiring. I hoped you might be willing to take over for him.” He pressed on quickly. “If you think it would be too much for you, I’ll understand, especially now that you have two babies on the way.”

  “I’d love to handle it for you. Managing investments is what I enjoy the most.”

  “Before you agree, there’s something else I should tell you.”

  “What’s that?”

  “I sold the ranch.”

  “What? You’ve lived there for as long as I can remember.”

  “That’s true, but I found a place I want to live more. The workable land is about the same size, but there’s also a dozen bungalows on the edge of the property that overlook the river and can be rented out.”

  “Where is it?”

  “Vail, a few miles from the ski resort.”

  “So you work the land during the summer months and rent to skiers during the winter. Smart.”

  “That’s what my investment adviser said too right before he announced his retirement.”

  Grace thought over her schedule. “The Fourth of July is coming up. Maybe I can fly home for a few days, and we can look over everything then.”

  “As much as I would love to see you, you don’t have to come all this way to look at spreadsheets. I can have everything sent to you.”

  “I know, but I was planning to take the time off anyway, and I’m ready to get out of the city for a while. Besides, I would love to see the new property.”

  “You just let me know when to pick you up from the airport, and I’ll be there.”

  * * *

  Devin’s stomach roiled, and his heart hammered in his chest. Groggy and disoriented, he pushed his hands onto the mattress and managed to sit up. His eyes opened a slit, and impossibly, his heartbeat quickened further. This wasn’t his bed but rather a futon mat.

  The apartment was only half the size of his own. A man with brown hair sat at the table across the room, a laptop open in front of him.

  “Where am I?” Devin asked in English.

  “You’re still in Hong Kong.”

  “Who are you?”

  “You can call me Ghost.” He shifted in his seat so he was facing Devin. “What’s the last thing you remember?”

  “I remember having drinks with some people from work. I got up to leave . . .” Devin’s voice trailed off. “I don’t know what happened after that.” He tried to bring forward the memories of the night, but nothing came. “What did happen after that?”

  A knock sounded at the door before Ghost could respond.

  Ghost rose and crossed the few feet to answer the door. Chee entered quickly, relief appearing on his face the moment he saw Devin.

  “You’re okay,” Chee said more to himself than to Devin.

  “Can one of you tell me what’s going on?”

  “You were drugged,” Ghost told him.

  “What?” Devin looked around the apartment again. “How did I end up here?”

  Chee sat at the table while Ghost leaned against the wall. “When I found the bug in your apartment, I requested some extra help for you. Ghost has been trailing you for the past several days.”

  Ghost spoke now. “I was outside the bar when your friends walked out with you. It was obvious you weren’t yourself. Two of the men were helping you call a taxi.”

  “And I ended up here how?”

  “Ghost convinced them that you were old friends. Seeing that you were ill, he insisted on taking you home.”

  “Who drugged me, then?” Devin asked. “If it had been the people I was with, they never would have let you take me.”

  “I didn’t give them a choice,” Ghost said. “Let’s just say that you weren’t the only person drugged.”

  “You drugged my coworkers?”

  “Only the two who were putting you into the car.” Ghost held up his cell phone to show Devin their pictures. Both men were lying in a narrow alley.

  “That’s Bolin and Tain.”

  “Who else were you with?” Chee asked.

  “Fai, Meilin, and Huan.”

  “One of them must have your cell phone.”

  “My cell phone?” Devin patted his pockets to find it gone. “If they have my phone, they can find Grace.”

  “We’ll make sure she stays safe.”

  “Grace?” Ghost asked.

  “His wife,” Chee said.

  Ghost sat in his seat and leaned forward. “It sounds like you need to start from the beginning.”

  * * *

  Grace watched the seconds tick slowly by. Why was it that whenever she wanted time to pass by quickly, it seemed to do the opposite?

  The night custodial staff had already come through to empty the garbage cans and vacuum. Her presence didn’t seem to deter them from their jobs, nor did they seem to worry why she was still here. A handful of other employees were also still at their desks despite the late hour. Of course, most of them were involved with international funds and had reason to keep odd hours.

  Trying to distract herself from her fatigue, she looked over the paperwork she had received from human resources. Transfer possibilities, maternity leave request forms, insurance information.

  Another glance at the clock. Five more minutes. Butterflies fluttered inside her. What would she discover when she made this call? She was afraid to know and equally afraid not to.

  Unable to concentrate, she cleaned the papers off her desk and tucked them into a file in her drawer. After shutting off her computer, she picked up the phone and dialed, keying in the calling card number she had purchased at lunch to cover the overseas charges.

  The female voice that answered spoke in a foreign tongue, presumably Cantonese.

  “Devin Shanahan, please.”

  “Devin Shanahan?” the woman repeated. Grace couldn’t tell if she was questioning her or confirming what she had said. In accented English, she finally said, “One moment.”

  The phone clicked once, and then began ringing once more. Three rings later, Devin’s recorded voice came over the line when he announced his name. The next words were automated and incomprehensible to her. A beep followed.

  Grace debated briefly whether to leave a message but decided against it. Devin had said he would be traveling the next few days, and she had the answer to at least one of her questions—he hadn’t lied about where he worked. So why had he told her he could transfer to cities that weren’t available to him?

  A new possibility surfaced, and she felt suddenly foolish for doubting him. Perhaps it hadn’t been transfer possibilities he had been looking at but rather a switch in companies in order to allow her to follow her career opportunities.

  Exhausted but feeling a little more secure in her marriage, Grace stood and gathered her purse. It was time to go get some sleep. By the week’s end, she would be able to talk to Devin, and they would plan their future without letting any misunderstandings come between them again.

  Chapter 20

  “You want me to do what?” Devin asked in English. Chee had already explained himself in Cantonese, but Devin must have misunderstood.

  “You need to go back to work tomorrow.”

  “You can’t be serious.” Devin looked over at Ghost. “He can’t be serious.”

  “He’s very serious,” Ghost responded. “And he’s right.”

  “You think one of my coworkers drugged me, and now you want me to go
back to work to let them try again? We already know I’m on someone’s radar, or we wouldn’t have found a listening device in my apartment or be here now.”

  “Exactly. What we don’t know is how you got on anyone’s radar, especially since this is your first assignment,” Ghost said.

  “We believe your job here in Hong Kong might have more to do with the Chinese wanting you here and less to do with us taking advantage of an opportunity,” Chee said.

  Devin held up his hand as he processed Chee’s words. “You think the Chinese deliberately arranged for me to get a job in Hong Kong so they could recruit me as a spy? Is that what you’re saying?”

  “Yes,” Ghost said.

  “Why?”

  “We don’t know, which is why you need to go back to work.”

  “And how do I explain why I missed work today?”

  “I called in for you this morning and said you were sick.” Nothing seemed to rattle this guy.

  “Even if I agree, what purpose would it serve?”

  “I told you before taking this assignment that the Chinese have developed a way to crack through a number of intelligence projects," Chee said. “We’ve seen a decrease in the past three years, which makes us think they may have lost their source. If they recruit you, we’ll be able to find out the method they are using to hack into our systems.”

  “If they’ve already lost their source, does it matter what method they were using?” Devin asked. “I have to be honest. After waking up without knowing where I was, I’m not exactly anxious to stick around in Hong Kong, especially considering that my wife is still in the States.”

  “The Chinese are going to find someone to give them what they want. This window of opportunity to discover what they’re doing may never open to us again.”

  “And I may not be so lucky next time someone decides to come after me. I’m sorry, but all I want to do is go home.”

  “Devin, I promised to keep Grace safe, but I can’t do that if you go to New York. For all we know, you could be followed there.”

  “Why would someone follow me there?”

  “Because if they can get to Grace, they can get to you,” Chee said solemnly. “The one thing that could cause you to turn your back on your country is your wife’s safety.”

  Devin rubbed a hand over his face. Chee was right. If he knew Grace’s life was in jeopardy, there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do to save her.

  “Go to work tomorrow,” Ghost said simply. “If anyone asks why you weren’t at work today, tell them you had a rough weekend and that you and your girlfriend broke up.”

  Chee nodded in agreement. “If the Chinese don’t make a play to recruit you, at least when you go home, they won’t know to look for Grace.”

  His heart heavy, Devin dropped his head into his hands. “Tell me what you want me to do after that.”

  * * *

  Grace turned in her leave slip first thing Monday morning. She followed that up with a request to meet with her human resources officer. Regardless of Devin’s plans, she needed to explore her options. Raising two babies in her current living situation wasn’t one she was willing to entertain. She either had to find something farther out of the city and commute or transfer to another city altogether.

  The thought of having her babies and leaving them in someone else’s care left an uncomfortable tightness in her chest, which she hadn’t expected. Though she hadn’t consciously thought about what she wanted when she started a family, she now realized that being a working mom wasn’t it, at least not in the traditional sense. Rather, she wanted what her mother had been given: the chance to stay home and raise her family. Her father had given her that gift, but Grace had no idea if such a possibility even existed with Devin.

  He was coming back in three more months, assuming he really did want to stay married to her. She forced that thought aside but couldn’t quite put it to rest completely.

  His reaction to her pregnancy continued to confuse her. She could have sworn he hadn’t even registered what she had told him. Maybe shock had prevented him from expressing his true emotions. After all, he hadn’t been expecting to talk to her at all, and the background noise indicated he wasn’t at home. If only she could talk to him now and air out all her questions.

  All weekend she had tried to make sense of everything Devin had told her about his job, but she still couldn’t get everything to add up. She had seen his airline itinerary to Hong Kong, but she couldn’t remember ever seeing anything else work related.

  Another thought surfaced, a more direct way to find out exactly what was happening with her husband. She headed for her cubicle. It looked like it was going to be a much longer day than she had originally intended.

  * * *

  Devin followed Chee and Ghost’s instructions to the letter, and he hated every minute of it. He went back to work day after day. He confided in several coworkers that he and his longtime girlfriend had broken up and that his cell phone had been stolen Saturday night. He didn’t change his routine of going to and leaving work and accepted invitations for dinner most evenings. And he didn’t call Grace.

  Though the stress of not knowing whom he could trust ate him up, not being able to call Grace was killing him, and it had only been a week. Of all of Ghost’s instructions, that was the one he had intended to ignore. He would have ignored it, except that he had never memorized her phone number. Ghost and Chee must have anticipated that fact, or he doubted they would have provided him a new phone.

  His own phone number had changed too, so he couldn’t even wait for Grace to call him.

  Chee had promised him a chance to call Grace next week, but even that seemed like an eternity away. And he’d have to use a burn phone so no one could trace it back to him.

  The listening device in his apartment was still in place, but other than a couple of business calls, he was certain he was a very boring subject. Regardless of the reasons he was under surveillance, Devin felt eyes on him everywhere he went. Every morning when he went to work, he reminded himself to look natural, and every day, he felt like he had a target on his back and that someone was going to take a shot at him.

  Three more months. Then this assignment would be over, and he would be back home where he could explain everything to Grace. He only hoped she could forgive the lies and the silence currently stretching out between them.

  * * *

  Grace was halfway to the airport before she realized she’d left her cell phone in her apartment. She checked her backpack a second time. Wallet, laptop, the passport she didn’t need, an extra pair of socks, a granola bar, lip balm. She blew out a breath in frustration. No cell phone.

  Leaning forward, she spoke to her cab driver. “Can you go back, please? I forgot something in my apartment.”

  In thickly accented English, he replied, “Yes, miss.”

  Grace looked at the clock on the dashboard and calculated how long it would take to get back to her apartment and then make the trip to JFK airport. If she hurried, she should still be able to make it with a few minutes to spare. Thank goodness she had chosen to leave early.

  Of course, if she would have simply remembered everything, she wouldn’t have needed to leave early.

  Three cabs and several other cars blocked the area in front of her building. A black SUV took the only available spot only moments before they reached it.

  Her driver pulled slowly past her building, finally parking two buildings down. “I’m sorry, but this is as close as I can get you unless you want me to circle around again.”

  With the thick morning traffic, Grace suspected she could walk the distance in half the time it would take to drive it. “I’ll walk.”

  She looked at her suitcase and computer bag on the seat next to her. Carrying everything with her would take too long, so she chose to take only the items with the highest value. The cabbie might look trustworthy enough, but that didn’t mean she needed to tempt fate and leave him with her wallet and laptop.

 
She slid one arm through the strap of her backpack, stepped from the car, and started toward her building, a little annoyed when she saw three Chinese men climb out of the SUV that had taken the last parking space. All three of them looked to be in perfect health. Surely a pregnant woman should have been entitled to the better spot.

  In a perfect world, she thought to herself. The men’s nationality made her think of her husband and the many questions she had about what had happened between them.

  Devin had said he would talk to her in a couple days. That had been six days ago.

  She had forced herself to be patient, but yesterday she had finally had enough and tried calling him at his office. Seven times.

  The first time, he had answered, but she couldn’t hear him say anything. Realizing it was a bad connection, she had hung up and called again. And again. Each of the subsequent times she’d called, the phone had rung five times and gone to voice mail.

  Walking quickly, Grace made her way down the sidewalk, weaving through the foot traffic. She had lived in New York long enough now to not be surprised when the men in front of her didn’t look back to see her or think to hold the door for the person behind them.

  If anything, the men appeared to be in a bigger rush than she was. Their dark suits and deliberate movements made her think they could have come straight out of a spy movie.

  By the time she reached the door and walked into the lobby, the men were nowhere to be found. She headed for the stairwell and rushed up the first flight. By the second flight, her steps had slowed. Deciding slow and steady would serve her better than exhausting herself before her trip, she kept her hand on the rail and made her way to the fourth floor.

  Not for the first time, she considered the one positive of her apartment: her door was right across from the stairs. She pushed the stairwell door open, took one step into the hall, and froze.

  Her front door hung open, and she could hear voices inside . . . speaking in a foreign language. Was that Chinese?

  Questions raced through her mind. Who were these men? Why were they in her apartment? What did they want? Were they looking for her specifically?