Ronne reached into his pocket and pulled out his keys. It was an easy one to find, the lone brassy one in a group of silver. He hesitated once more, then inserted the key, and turned it.
He opened the door, and immediately felt the wave of emotion coming from the living room. Sam was here, but something was clearly wrong. Ronne sighed, hung up his coat in the hallway, and made his way cautiously toward the main room. This was the most difficult part of being a Raven... Not the fights, and the blood, even the killing of other werewolves that did, on occasion, need to be done... No, the hardest part was the psychological maintenance, literally taking care of your Wolf, at times. They may not physically change, but Ravens went through it all.
Sam huddled on the sofa, her eyes closed, a large afghan tucked around her. It didn’t take super hearing or vision to tell she’d been crying... Her face was still damp from the tears, and the sounds of moisture were still in her nose. Ronne watched her for a moment, feeling a little pull in his stomach for her. It was pointless, and something he diverted into honing his skills at every chance he got, telling himself the yen for her helped him focus on her more precisely, helped him be more useful to her... He couldn’t ruin his value to her by allowing his reaction to become feelings that simply could not be.
Ronne headed for the bathroom, grabbing the box of tissues from the shelf near the sink, and returned to find Sam’s eyes open and looking at him. He smiled affably.
“Hey.”
“Hey.” Her tone was soft, and husky from crying for who knew how long. Ronne pulled a couple of tissues from the box and handed them to her.
“Bad day, huh?”
Sam took them, her eyes tearing again. “Yeah... bad day.” Then the floodgates opened, and between sobs Ronne managed to gather that Vincent had left early that morning in a huff, and she hadn’t heard from him, and Lenny Jackson had betrayed her...
“Wait... Lenny betrayed you how?”
Sam took a deep, ragged breath before she replied. “He’s working for Congresswoman Strong. He’s totally on her side.”
“Um... that’s interesting,” Ronne frowned.
“Interesting? I tell you one of my closest friends, my former partner, I might add, has turned on me because I’m a, and I quote, ‘monster’, and is working for the manipulative Nazi who is trying to take over the city, and all you can say is ‘interesting’?”
Ronne bit his lip, trying not to smile because smiling now when Sam was so incensed would be asking for a punch in the face, and the bruising was just starting to fade from the last one he’d gotten.
“Sam...” He paused and reached into his pocket to pull out a piece of paper. “You need to get dressed... We have work to do, and not a lot of time to get there.”
“Work?” Sam frowned, though Ronne could see she was shifting gears away from her anger and hurt already. “What kind of work, what do you mean?”
“Congresswoman Strong will be at a Campaign Rally tonight, starting at eight o’clock.” Ronne held up the piece of paper. “Which gives us a small window of time to get into her house and get to that server. This is the pass code for the house’s security system.”
Sam’s mouth had dropped open and remained that way as she took the piece of paper and looked at the sequence of numbers on it.
“So, get yourself together and get changed. Wear something with NYPD on it... maybe a tee shirt... oh, and the hat, if you’ve got one.”
Sam closed her mouth and glared at him. “Of course, I’ve got one. Frank...” She waved the paper in the air. “How did you get this?”
Ronne shook his head. “Can’t say. But it’s legit.” Sam looked at him closely for a minute, like she was searching for some clue there as to what was going on, where this came from. Ronne tried to stay as impassive as possible... It was better for her if she didn’t know. Right now, her anger protected her, and others, and Ronne had enough to worry about without having to find some way to look after Lenny’s family, and the man himself. Eventually, Sam would know, and she would feel bad because she’d judged him...
“Frank?”
“Yeah?”
“Last night, you were completely against doing this.” Sam looked at him, her eyes narrowing as she spoke. “Why the sudden change of heart?”
“Truth?”
“Of course.”
“Is anyone else here?”
Sam shook her head. “No, Ben and Alice went to the Library. Why?”
“I don’t trust her... You know that... I didn’t want you, or anyone else, going in on something like this with her involved.”
“I don’t know what I’m looking for, though.”
Ronne shook his head. “Sure, you do. We’re looking for anything and everything. Pictures and documents. We’ll just take it all.” He sighed. “Personally, I think she wanted to get in so she could decide what we get, and that makes me want to take it all. How about you?”
Sam nodded slowly. “Good point. Alright, give me ten minutes.” She rushed out of the room, and Ronne exhaled with relief. At least he wasn’t the only one who thought Alice Kremer’s epiphany might be a double-edged sword.
24
West 95th Street
Entrance to Pomondor Walk
“Evening, officers.” The older gentleman touched the brim of his hat in greeting and held the gate open. “Nice night, isn’t it?”
“That it is,” agreed Ronne, and took over holding the gate so the old gentleman could exit, and Sam could enter. The old gentleman nodded, then frowned with concern as he looked between the two of them.
“I do hope everything’s alright.”
“Of course,” Sam chimed in, and flashed her pearliest smile. “Just checking out an alarm system. It keeps going off, so they thought we should come by and take a look.”
“Ah, good, good. Well, then, a pleasant night to you both.” The old gentleman tapped his hat again and started away down the street.
“And you as well,” Ronne called after him. He shared a look with Sam, and then the two turned and made their way up the stairs and into the courtyard.
“Damn, I could totally live here,” Sam said quietly, her eyes taking in the well-kept front gardens, blooming flower boxes, and brilliantly eclectic house colors. She adjusted her baseball hat slightly, pulling it down a little. Between her large sunglasses and the hat, little of Sam’s face was visible. Ronne had also garbed up in NYPD-issue casual gear, and his own hat and sunglasses combo obscured almost all his face, too. Their cover was good, an excellent story that so far was working perfectly, but they wanted to be as non-descript as possible.
Several residents were out in the courtyard, watering plants, or weeding in the garden. Ronne nudged Sam and jerked his head toward the blue house on the right, a small brick home.
“That it?” Sam asked quietly. Ronne gave a short nod, and the pair made a beeline for the front door.
“Excuse me,” a voice called to them, and Sam and Ronne both slowed and turned toward the voice’s source, a middle-aged man with thinning gray hair, and dirt smudged on his cheek. He’d obviously wiped his face while weeding the flower beds and didn’t realize it was all over his face. Or perhaps he didn’t care. “Mrs. Strong isn’t home. Can I help you?”
Ronne gave him a polite nod. “No, sir. We’re hear at the Congresswoman’s request. She’s been having some trouble with her security system malfunctioning. We stopped by to take a look.” Garden Man looked at them both in turn, then smiled, and Sam felt herself silently exhaling with relief. He seemed to be buying it and nodded with some satisfaction.
“Well, don’t let me keep you. Thank you both for your service.” They exchanged some further pleasantries at that, thankfully brief, and soon Sam and Ronne were standing in front of Strong’s front door.
“How are we getting in?”
“Key.” Ronne squatted down, and counted the rocks lining the right side of the front stoop. One...two...three...four... He carefully reached in his pocket and pulled out
a pair of latex gloves, slipping them on before he picked up the rock, and flipped it over. He quickly slid the bottom of the key holder open and took out a key.
“Hang on,” Sam whispered. “What about the dog? The Black Lab?”
Ronne smirked. “Ah... well, Charlie’s routine trip to the vet today lead to an overnight stay for monitoring.” He winked and shook his head. “Don’t even ask.”
“Okay... Aren’t you afraid the neighbors are going to remember us and tell her?” Sam asked, as she watched Ronne take the key and insert it in the door. He shook his head as the door popped open. The alarm began to sound, but Ronne scooted in and, seconds later, the alarm stopped. He looked out, throwing a smile and a wave at the neighbors who were all looking at the house. Some waved back, others smiled, but everyone ultimately went back to whatever they had been doing before the sound of the alarm had pierced the twilight quiet.
“To answer your question, no, I’m not worried about that.” Ronne closed the door behind them and locked it. “I’m more worried about the thugs that are probably going to show up here in about twenty minutes, depending upon traffic.” He reached in his pocket, and pulled out another pair of gloves, handing them to her. “Put these on. We don’t want to leave any prints.”
“Thugs?” Ronne’s eyes roamed over the downstairs of the house, searching for anything mechanical looking.
“It would never be this easy. I’m sure Strong has an app on her phone to monitor the alarm system.” He went to the security alarm control pad and hit the button to rearm it. “This, and the locked door, will buy us a few extra seconds. Where is this thing supposed to be?”
“Alice said it was in a closet upstairs.” The pair ran up the stairs, Ronne ducking to avoid cracking his head on the low ceilings.
Sam was grateful once again the Congresswoman’s house, or at least this one, was small, because they found the server in less than a minute. Now came the difficult part, at least for Sam, and she wished Ben were here to speed the process up a bit.
“Now what do we do?” Ronne asked.
“Okay, what Ben told me last night is that I need to send the files to the cloud...” Sam glanced at Ronne, but he shrugged.
“No idea. I’m afraid I won’t be much help there.” He smirked. “Maybe we should have brought the girl after all. Or Ben.”
Sam shook her head. “No, I can do this.” She quickly took out her phone and dialed, praying Ben would answer.
“Hey, you guys got it?”
“Not yet. Tell me what to do, I’m looking at it.”
“Okay, can you... hang on, what?” Sam could hear murmuring in the background, most likely Alice. She felt a twinge of anxiety about her, a twinge she’d kept feeling since she’d showed up with Vincent yesterday. She had a feeling Ronne was right about her on many levels, and, though the young woman was clearly upset with many things the Pack was doing, it may not be enough to redeem her, so to speak.
“Okay, Sam? Change of plans.” Ben cleared his throat. “Don’t worry, this is better. Alice says there is a hard drive in the house... Several of them, in fact. They’re in a lockbox on the shelf in the bedroom closet, right above the server. Do you see the box?” Sam looked up but couldn’t see anything.
“Frank? Look up on that top shelf... Do you see a lockbox?”
Ronne stepped forward and nodded. “Yep. Black, with silver trim. You want me to grab it?”
“Yeah.” Ronne grabbed the lockbox and handed it down to her. Sam quickly looked it over, and noted the combination lock on it, before she spoke into the phone. “Okay, Benny, I need the combo for this.” There was more muttering on the other side of the line.
“The combo is 0-7-9-2-1.” Sam quickly spun the dial, lining each number up in turn, then pulled the lock. It popped open, and Sam quickly raised the lid. The entire lockbox brimmed with papers, flash drives, and hard drive storage boxes. Sam quickly covered the mouthpiece of the phone, and motioned Ronne closer. He bent down, his eyes on the wealth of information and evidence in the box.
“Can we get all of this out of here?” Ronne looked at her for a moment, then reached into his pocket and pulled out a small square of cloth. It swished as he moved it, and Sam could tell it had the texture of a windbreaker. In one quick movement, Ronne shook it out... and they had a small bag.
“It’ll be tight, but everything should fit. You want everything, right?”
Sam held up a hand and returned to the phone. “Okay, Ben, we’re in. I’m hanging up, I need my hands. See you soon.” Sam hung up the phone without waiting for a reply and turned back to Ronne.
“Absolutely. Everything in there.” Ronne quickly grabbed the items from the lockbox. He used the papers to form a kind of base in the bag, then loaded the flash drives and hard drives in. When the box was empty, he closed it up, and spun the dial.
“How heavy is the bag?” Sam asked, and in reply Ronne handed it to her. It wasn’t bad, though she was glad they didn’t need to walk many blocks to get it out. Of course, there was the question of the residents who saw them go in with nothing. She said as much to Ronne, watching as he replaced the box on the shelf and carefully shut the door.
“The dark should help.” He peeked out the window, which looked out onto the courtyard below. “Oh shit!”
“What?” Sam got to her feet quickly, slinging the bag over her head and across her chest, messenger style.
“We have company.” As if on-cue, the doorknob downstairs rattled, and the alarm started to go off. Seconds later, it stopped.
“She disarmed it, probably remotely.” Ronne looked around for another route out.
“Back window.” The pair hurried to the windows facing the back of the house. Sam quickly put one up and looked down. There wasn’t enough room to jump safely... at least, not to jump down. Across the small gap, though, was another low roof, part of the development that extended outside the gated community.
Sam turned to Ronne. “Can you jump it?”
Ronne turned, gauging the space. It would be a jump, but doable... unless he missed. He turned back to her and nodded.
“Yeah, I can do it. You go first. Take the bag.”
Sam hesitated. “Don’t pull that noble shit, okay?”
“I’m not. Go!” Sam heard the door crash open downstairs, and she didn’t hesitate. She climbed onto the windowsill and launched herself across the narrow space between the buildings, landing lightly on the other side. She quickly gained her balance and turned back just as Ronne jumped.
He’d jumped well, and cleared the alley without difficulty, though Sam did have to grab him when he landed to keep him from falling backwards, and down. Without a word, the pair hurried along the roof edge as fast as they could, heading for the intersection up ahead. It would likely be a bit of a jump to the ground below, but luck was on their side as they neared the street. The roof dropped lower, eventually ending over a porch, which brought them within a story of the ground. Ronne spotted the drainpipe, and quickly shimmied down to the ground, Sam following moments later, shimmying part way down, and jumping the rest of the way.
“Where are we?” Ronne looked around for the street signs.
“95th. Should we go back to Broadway?”
Sam shook her head. “South first. Let’s put some distance between us and them. They’ll catch our scent soon enough and come after us. We want to be as far away as possible when they latch onto it.”
With that, Sam and Ronne started south, first at a slow pace, so as not to attract attention. By 91st Street, though, they were running, and dodged into the 86th Street Subway Station.
Sam stood on the platform, anxiously waiting for the next train to arrive. She shifted the bag, feeling its weight. It would hold up until they got home, and then... the whoosh of an approaching train stirred her hair.
“We take this one, whatever it is.” Ronne nodded in response, and a few minutes later they were barreling through the tunnels beneath the city, on their way home with a precious cargo
Sam hoped would give them the information they needed to stop Strong and her cronies... before it was too late.
25
THE TRAIN RIDE HAD been uneventful, and Sam had found herself forgetting they were being pursued as she’d struggled to avoid being squished in the crowded train car.
By the time she and Ronne reached Kenmare, and the alley leading to the Bowery, they were almost walking at a leisurely pace. As they turned into the alley, Sam felt an overwhelming sense of déjà vu, and slowed almost to a stop. Ronne noticed immediately and backtracked to her side.
“What’s the matter? Are they coming?”
Sam shook her head slowly. “No. Just... flashbacks...”
Ronne nodded. “You want to go a different way?”
“No. I’m fine...” Sam trailed off, and quickly inhaled, searching for the scent she’d just gotten a whiff of on her last inhalation. There...
“What? Wolves?” Ronne asked, and Sam could sense him shifting into defensive mode as he waited for her answer.
“Nope. Ben.” As soon as she said his name, she saw a figure duck into the alley from off the Bowery. He was breathing very heavily, and, even from a distance, it was easy to see he was disheveled.
“Benny!” Ben turned immediately at the sound of his name, startled by the sound, and then relieved when he saw who it was. He hurried toward them, meeting the pair halfway through the alley.
“Benny, what’s going on? Are you alright? Where’s Alice?”
“Werewolves.” Ben was breathing heavily, and it slowed him down considerably. He took a couple of deep, slow, calming breaths, before he continued. “We’d just gotten back to the apartment, were talking about lunch. Then someone started pounding on the door. Alice said she could smell them... wolves... So, I stuffed things in my backpack, and we went out the window.
The Bloodline Series Box Set Page 58