by Dale Mayer
Ice laughed. “He’s very determined not to let it make a difference in his life. When it first happened, we were all stunned, and then immediately we remembered this was Stone. That man can handle anything,” she admitted. “Only that wasn’t fair, because he still had to adjust. It didn’t matter how capable, good, or awesome he was, he still lost a major part of his body, and it will take time to deal with the fallout.”
“More time than anyone really realizes, I think,” Lissa said. “The stump is a bit puffy-looking. And sometimes he hisses when he puts on the prosthesis.”
Ice turned to study Lissa’s face. “He gets sidelined if he does too much. He’s actually been forced into office duty because he stayed on it longer than he should,” she said with a smile. “I know he still pushes it, but it’s way better than it used to be.”
“He needs a better design for the leg.” Lissa studied Ice. “Does he have a physiotherapist or specialist who works with him?”
“Of course. Plus, many doctors and engineers. The problem is taking his leg to a whole new level.” At that Ice laughed. “And that means a lot more going on in that replacement leg than normal.”
“A whole new level?” Lissa wasn’t sure if she should ask.
She’d seen the man in action. She almost couldn’t imagine. But then she thought about how alert he always was, how aware and protective. And that he carried a weapon with confidence, almost like it was a part of him. And what a liability not having that leg could be, but he’d turned it into the opposite.
“Oh, I know.” She grinned. “He’s trying to figure out how to turn it into a weapon.”
Ice stood up and laughed. “I see you’re getting to know him.”
“In many ways, yes, but not anywhere near enough,” Lissa admitted.
Ice walked to the door. Before she opened it, she turned and said, “Make sure if you walk down that path, you’re prepared to go the distance.” She studied Lissa’s face for a long moment. “He was betrayed before. A mistake that cost him his leg. The guy is due for some good times, not more hard ones.”
Ice turned and opened the door for someone, somehow knowing he stood on the other side.
Alfred walked in with a tray in his hands. “Coffee and a treat, ladies.”
Lissa jumped to her feet and ran over. “Oh, my goodness, how did you know?”
“How did I know you would be starving? Because I noticed how much you eat at any one time.” He grinned. “Ice is the same way. So I brought double portions for both of you.” He walked over and set the tray down on the small table. “Looks like it’ll be a very early morning here. The prisoner has just been brought into the compound. You’re staying here?”
“Yes.” Lissa glanced at Ice and then at Alfred. “I’ll stay here until Stone’s free.”
“I’ll tell him.” Alfred walked out the door, closing it quietly behind him.
Lissa suddenly wondered at his question. “Does that make me a prisoner?” she asked slowly.
Ice turned to stare at her. “No,” Ice said calmly. “It means you’re always to be with someone. Never alone.”
“Oh,” Lissa said in a small voice. “Because I can’t be trusted?” She’d really rather know how the land lay on that topic. If she wasn’t welcome, she didn’t want to be here.
But Ice’s response surprised her. She laughed freely, the light sound tinkling around the room. “Good Lord, no. If we didn’t trust you, you wouldn’t be within one hundred miles of here. It’s because you’re a target and we have to make sure we keep you safe.”
“Oh. Okay, that’s much better.” She reached for a huge muffin and took a bite.
Ice stared at her. “You know, very few people would think that being a target was much better than not being trusted.”
“Maybe it’s because they don’t have my father. He never trusted me to do anything, nor my word,” she mumbled around her bite. “Gives one a complex, you know?”
“I’m sure it does. But it’s well past time to leave behind your father and whatever influence he had over you and begin a new life. You’ve been your own person for a long time. Don’t stop now.”
Lissa stared at the very intuitive woman. “You’re right, you know?”
Ice nodded. “Yep, I am.” She picked up one of the other muffins on the plate and said, “We see it all the time in the military. As a child, you join a family unit. Then grow and mature, gaining confidence and separating. In your case, you needed to leave to achieve that. Maybe you did that years ago. I don’t know, but, with all this chaos going on, knowing that someone is trying to hurt you, it does make you want to revert back to being a little girl, looking for your parents to take care of you. However …”
“However, as they barely ever took care of me before, my fallback plan isn’t working.” Lissa studied the muffin in her hand, but her thoughts were on her past as she thought about Ice’s words because that was exactly what had happened. “I just don’t want to have transference issues from my father to Stone,” she admitted quietly. “I really like Stone, but I don’t want to put that burden on anybody. And in my next relationship, I want a partner, not a father figure.”
“Damn good thing,” Ice said cheerfully. “Stone is nobody’s idea of a father figure. He’s a hell of a good man. But he also needs a partner. He doesn’t need somebody that he’s forced to look after. A limpet attached to his side for him to be the big bad hero. That man lives that same scenario. He needs somebody who can walk beside him and hold him when he needs it, help him make decisions when they have to be made. Not just someone looking at him to create the world she wants to live in. Relationships are all about both people making their lives work together.”
How very perceptive of the woman. It said a lot about her relationship with Levi. They looked great together physically, and yet that affection and caring obviously went deep between them.
“You’re right. But Stone is a big presence to live up to. I’m not sure I’m good enough,” she admitted quietly. “That’s been a problem for me since forever. Men who are bigger than life and expect more than I can give. Men who give decrees, and expect people to follow them, and do it so perfectly they’re never disappointed.”
“Stone’s not like that. He’s not like your father in any way. And that’s something you need to separate out very clearly. They always say women marry their fathers. But I also happen to think we marry the qualities we like in our fathers and we’re happy to ditch the parts we don’t want. If your father was an alcoholic, it doesn’t mean you have to marry one. But, if your father was a very generous, caring animal lover, maybe that’s the part of him you want to take forward into your next relationship. It’s all about balance. And when things go off balance, it gets very hellish.”
“And you’re speaking from experience, I presume.”
“I am. Thankfully most of that’s in the past. Relationships aren’t too much work when you’re with the right person, but they are something that you work at.”
“Oh, I like that phrase. No one ever explained it in that way.” Lissa reached for a second muffin. She ate half of it in silence as she thought about Ice’s words. “Does everybody live here in the compound?”
Ice shot her a look and then nodded. “Lately everybody does. Several apartments are being outfitted and some of the men will move into those instead of the rooms. But like everything else, it’s a work in progress.”
There was silence for a few moments as Ice’s gaze moved constantly from the monitors to Lissa and back. “What’s worrying you?”
“My relationship with Stone actually.” Lissa shrugged. “You know, there’s the normal dating thing, and then the nights over at various places, followed by the living together.” She laughed. “We sort of skipped all the other parts and just jumped into the last. I’m afraid I’ve intruded in some way.”
“So maybe rather than worry, you should talk to Stone about taking some time out just for the two of you to go to a movie or for a meal, even take a
picnic out in the blue yonder and just discuss things.”
Lissa brightened at that idea. “Actually that sounds lovely.” Her mind was spinning. Possibilities wafted in and out. Because that was exactly what she needed—time with Stone.
Then Ice burst her bubble. “You’ll have to wait until this problem is solved,” Ice reminded her. “No taking off just the two of you when we have snipers following us to the house.”
“Right.” Reality crashed in once again.
*
He didn’t know if it was by accident or deliberate that he could overhear parts of the conversation through Ice’s headset, but thankfully his comm unit worked just fine now. Either way Stone was damn grateful for the opportunity to hear the girls talk. It surprised him, but it also made him feel a whole lot better about Lissa. And Ice was right; he and Lissa needed time together to talk. But reality was a bitch, and right now Levi was questioning a sniper sitting in a chair inside the compound.
“Is there any point asking more questions when the asshole isn’t answering?” Stone asked Levi. “Why not call the authorities? They’re just a phone call away.”
Merk and Rhodes remained silent but gave a small nod Levi’s way.
Harrison snorted. “Screw that. Without answers, we’ll just dig a ditch out back and dump him in. Remember that comment about a mass grave? We really need to work on that.”
From the looks of the man sitting in the chair he was of Mexican descent, likely a rebel from across the border needing the money and so he took on the job. He’d talk if they forced it out of him, but they probably couldn’t trust what came from his mouth.
Suddenly Stone was sick of the whole mess. He looked at Levi and said, “Just kill the asshole. None of it matters anyway.”
Levi turned, walked to the bench, and picked up a handgun. He checked that it was loaded and turned around to face the man in the chair.
Something about Stone’s voice or Levi’s actions said they meant business and really didn’t give a shit if the shooter lived or died because all of a sudden, the man took notice.
“No, wait.”
Levi stopped and looked at him. But a bored look was on his face, as if to say, Make it good or else. “I’m listening. Better be something worthwhile. I’ve already lost enough sleep this night.”
“I got a phone call. The person asked me to check out the property.”
“Who called you, when, and why?” Levi crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the workbench.
“I don’t know the man’s name. We don’t ask questions like that. He said there’d be cash for the information, if it was any good.” The man spread his hands. “Cash is a little thin on the ground these days. I needed the money.”
“What information were you supposed to give him?”
“He wanted to know how many people were here and the kind of setup you had. He understood this was a large property, and I needed to drive partway and walk the rest. But I couldn’t get any closer without being seen.”
The man’s face oozed earnestness. Stone tended to believe him.
“How were you to get the information to him, and where was your money to be sent?” Levi asked.
Stone walked from one side to the other, his mind busy. No renovations had been done lately, though they were gearing up to do two more apartments. But they hadn’t had any workmen in recently. They didn’t even get mail delivered here. Everything was picked up in town. On purpose. Everybody who came through the gates to this place had to be vetted and security here had to be tight. They’d been busy with jobs of their own.
The odd person drove down the road, saw the locked gates, turned, and left again. And there had been a couple of those.
They could check the camera feed to get the vehicles’ license plates. That was a hell of a damn good idea.
Isolation wasn’t everything, but it sure removed a lot of variables in a situation like this.
To Levi, Stone said, “I’ll go check out the surveillance cameras. See if we’ve had any ‘lost’ vehicles around lately. Might have been the man who called him.”
“Good idea. In the meantime, I’ll get the rest of the information out of this asshole.”
Chapter 19
When the knock sounded on the door, Lissa already knew who stood there. She could see his face from the hallway monitors. That was how Ice had seen Alfred arrive earlier. Lissa looked at Ice and asked, “Can I open it?”
Ice nodded, her gaze never leaving the monitors in front of her. Lissa opened the door and smiled up at Stone. She stepped back so he could enter.
He came in, his voice low when he asked, “How are you doing?”
She beamed. “I’m fine, thanks. How are you? You’re the one who went out there after that man.”
He let that roll off his shoulders with a shrug and proceeded to pull up a chair beside Ice. “Ice, do you have the video feed for the last few days? Maybe go back as far as a week. We’re looking for any vehicles that came to the compound and turned around, as if expecting something else to be here. You know, like if the person was lost. We want the license plates and if we can, pictures of the driver. Somehow someone knew we were here. And if they followed us in, they would have known it was one way.”
“Unless they use Google Earth,” Lissa said, listening to the conversation with interest. “I do that all the time. It would’ve shown the road stops and that a big compound was here.”
Ice turned the monitor setup to run the feed, then hit Start. Lissa and Stone sat side by side and watched as it ran in Fast Forward. They slowed the video as a car drove up six days ago with an older couple in it. They got out and stared, then shrugged, turned the car around, and headed into town.
“I presume they were just lost?” Lissa said.
“Probably.”
It also made sense if it was an older couple. She turned her head to watch the feed moving again.
Two days ago a truck came in, pulled up at the curve before the gate, and parked. For ten minutes the driver sat and surveyed the compound. Stone leaned in, then quickly adjusted the monitor to get a close-up. He froze. “That’s him,” he snapped. “That’s the guy we’re holding downstairs.”
“I thought you said you were looking for somebody different?”
“That’s what he said.”
“Is it possible somebody else came by earlier than a week ago?” Lissa asked.
“Sure, we get people all the time,” Ice said. “But if this relates to you, then it happened since we rescued you from Afghanistan.”
“Oh.” She had forgotten about that. “So maybe we should run the last day and a half and see if there was a second vehicle?”
Stone hit the button, and the feed continued. On the other side of them, having marked down the date and time stamp, Ice brought up a different feed from the ridge. Lissa’s gaze went from one side to the other, trying to take it all in. As soon as they ran through the rest of the time and realized no other vehicles had showed up on the one monitor, they shifted to the other she had set up and hit Play. Sure enough a truck turned around without coming into the compound and headed back the way it came. They could only watch his tracks for a few miles before the feed lost sight of it.
Stone stood up to study the man’s face clearly on the feed.
“Could you positively identify the driver from that monitor image? I can make barely make out his features.” Lissa asked. “Or is it possible it just looks like him?” With the two of them staring at her, Lissa shrugged. “I’m just wondering if you mistook the identity of the driver, and there are actually two people.”
“I suspect it’s the same driver both times,” Stone said. “And he’s trying to throw us offtrack by making it seem like there’s somebody else. I do think he was probably contacted and hired for this job, yet that person did not come here himself.” Stone walked to the doorway. “He wouldn’t take that step if he were trying to stay hidden.”
That made a strange kind of sense to her too
. She hopped up to her feet impulsively and said, “Can I come with you?”
He turned to her, looked over at Ice, and then nodded. “We got the culprit downstairs,” he said. He held out his hand. “You might as well come and see if you recognize him.”
“No reason why I would,” she said as she left the room.
Stone closed the door securely behind them, leaving Ice locked in again.
“Is there always somebody in that room?” Lissa asked.
“No, but when we’re having security issues, like we are right now, then somebody is always tracking.”
She nodded. “That actually makes me feel a lot better.”
“It doesn’t necessarily take people to keep the entire system running,” he said quietly. “It runs automatically twenty-four hours a day. But it doesn’t send out alerts if somebody is seen, so we need to be watching the monitors to see an intruder in real time. However, the feeds are always there to refer back to every day, and you can bet we do check.”
“I hadn’t considered that your job might be this dangerous,” she said. “I figured this was all just because of me.”
He laughed. “It might be right now,” he said, “but this place was attacked a month ago, and that had nothing to do with you.”
“So you’re in danger living here?”
As he was several steps ahead of her, he stopped, turned to look at her, and said, “No, absolutely not. This is probably the safest place any of us could be right now.”
She nodded, but it was hard to equate. “My life used to be very calm and quiet,” she said. “Never any of this danger or secrecy.”
“Most of the time we don’t have any either. But it’s our job in the private security business to handle trouble all over the world and we try to make sure we don’t bring those problems home.” He stepped in front of her, still standing on the stairs, and said, “Don’t forget. We were all well-trained in the military and we’re good at what we do. There’ll always be assholes out there. And there’ll always be a need for people like us to stand up for the little people.”