Asset Management

by Annette Mori

  “Nah, you’ve done the same for me a million times.”

  Toni looked from Ronda to Char and shook her head. The sound of clattering metal garnered her attention as she witnessed several strange women spill into the room carrying medical bags and rolling in stretchers.

  A tall commanding brunette tossed out an order. “Char, Ronda, get your butts on those stretchers while they start the IVs.” She tossed her head in the direction of Sophie. “I presume that one there is Sophie. Bunch of idiot cowboys,” she muttered.

  “We love you too, Cindy.” Ronda grinned.

  “Can I please ride with Char?” Toni asked.

  “I want to go with Sophie,” Kim chimed in.

  “Sure, why not. How about you, Ronda? Don’t you have someone just dying to accompany you to the medical hub?”

  “Yeah, you, Cindy. ’Cause I know you love me, right?” Ronda batted her lashes at Cindy.

  Cindy laughed. “Come on, stud, time for me to start an IV and give you some even better drugs than whatever you took earlier this evening to be so misinformed.”

  Ronda placed her good hand over her heart. “Oh that hurt, that really hurt.”

  Cindy kissed Ronda’s cheek and gently led her to the gurney.

  Chapter 23

  Char opened one eye, then the other and slowly became aware of her surroundings. Infirmary. Oh yeah, she remembered. She was shot last night. She attempted to shake the cobwebs from her head.

  Someone stirred next to her. She smiled when she noticed Toni’s dark hair splayed across the bed sheets covering her legs. She felt her hand entwined with Toni’s and noticed how Toni was bent over, sitting in a chair beside the bed, her head twisted in an awkward angle as she lightly snored. She had to be uncomfortable in that position.

  Char brushed her fingers against Toni’s forehead and the black head popped up.

  “How are you feeling?” Toni asked.

  “Like I’ve been shot,” Char responded glibly.

  Toni frowned. “Are you in any pain?”

  “No, I’m sure they broke out the good drugs. How are Sophie and Ronda?”

  “Sophie kept bitching the whole way—insisting she just needed a few stitches and she was good to go. Ronda kept flirting with Cindy and seemed to be in good spirits. In fact, I think she was in her element last night. The surgeon, on the other hand—I can’t remember her name—was grumbling about how you damn macho agents ought to give them forewarning when you’re going to get more than one of you shot up. She had to triage the three of you. Yours was by far the worst injury—so you win. The other two got pawned off to someone I assume has less experience,” Toni explained.

  Char turned her head and noted the occupants in the two beds next to hers. Sophie seemed to have an appendage attached to her bed in the form of Kim, and Cindy was gently brushing the hair from Ronda’s face. “I see that we all have a fan base.”

  “Oh, yeah, but you really scored because, up until a few minutes ago, when Dani was called away, your fan base totaled two.” Toni chuckled. “Ronda winked at me a few minutes ago. So she’s awake, but pretending to be asleep—probably enjoying the tender loving care of Cindy.”

  Char started to laugh then coughed. “Damn, that hurts. If I know Cindy, she’s pretending not to notice that Ronda is awake.”

  “Ooh, I’ll have to remember that trick.”

  “Shit, what time is it?”

  “Eight thirty.”

  “I assume that’s eight thirty in the morning. Damn, I need to call the office. My cover is probably compromised, but just in case, we need to come up with something plausible to tell my assistant, Sandy, why I won’t be in for several weeks.” Char raised herself up from her current position.

  Toni gently pushed Char back down. “Whoa, lay your ass back down. Dani told me she planned to take care of that first thing this morning. She probably already called Sandy and told her about your burst appendix.”

  “Nice. Good cover story. Was that her idea or yours?” Char asked.

  “Hers. Your little sister is very clever.”

  “She is, but she’s so innocent sometimes that I worry about her. She’s more fragile than she lets on. So, am I minus any particular internal organ?” Char flinched when she touched her side.

  “No, all organs intact. She did have to remove a portion of one of your intestines. The surgery took four hours. I was getting worried. I’ve gotten accustomed to hanging out with you.”

  Char squeezed Toni’s hand. “Ditto.”

  Char wasn’t ready to admit it yet, but what Maggie had warned her about was happening to her—whether she liked it or not. She was falling in love with Toni.

  “Dani and Maggie are off somewhere, plotting and planning. When all of you are fully recovered, we can talk about phase two. Ted is dead, but we let three of Viktor’s men live. I’m thinking he isn’t going to be too happy with us when they return and let him know the results of their little assault.”

  “I’m surprised Ronda let any of them live. She must be getting soft in her old age.” Char shifted in the bed and then winced.

  “Oh, I don’t think Ronda is getting soft. Cindy wouldn’t let her off the gurney. If it was anyone else besides Cindy, I think she would have eliminated them.” Toni shuddered.

  “You really are a gentle soul, huh? Does it bother you that I’ve been forced to make the choice to kill an enemy?” Char held her breath, afraid of Toni’s response.

  “No. I don’t think I could do it myself, but I understand. I don’t think any less of you. Besides, it would be hard to judge the woman I seem to be falling in love with,” Toni responded.

  “You…you…love me?” Char sputtered.

  “It’s okay. You don’t have to feel the same way. I just wanted to be totally honest with you and put that out there on the off chance we have any kind of future together.”

  A single tear rolled down Char’s face. “I do feel the same way. It’s just that my life is here with the agency and Dani, and well—you have options. I don’t want to presume that after all this is through, you’d want to join us. Two months ago, I might have tried to use every trick in the book including professing my love to you, just to get you to join. I swear on the life of my sister, I’m not feeding you a line.”

  “I believe you.” Toni leaned down and brushed her lips on Char’s. “I’ve been having a lot of fun collaborating with Dani on new inventions. Maybe the agency is my destiny.”

  “Cindy, you better get me some more anti-nausea medicine. The sweetness of those two is making me sick,” Ronda called out.

  “I knew you were awake, you little faker.” Cindy smacked Ronda’s arm.

  “Ow. What was that for? Injured warrior here.” Ronda winked.

  “Just like a regular hospital—you can’t get any rest. Would you all shut the hell up? I’m trying to nap here,” Sophie complained.

  †

  Viktor was pacing in his parlor. He was furious. He couldn’t ever remember being this angry. He was tempted to kill all three of them for their incompetence, but at this rate, he couldn’t afford to lose any more valuable employees. Something didn’t feel right about any of this. There was no way possible for three women to evade him like this—they had to have the support of a much bigger network. Viktor stroked his chin with his enormous hand. Perhaps the rumor of a secret agency was true. Well, they were fucking with the wrong person.

  I will personally make sure each and every one of them are sent to a permanent resting place, he vowed mentally.

  “Where is that imbecile, Ted?” Viktor asked.

  A large man with a buzz cut looked at the ground. “I don’t know. We woke up outside of the residence just as the place exploded. I suspect someone is an explosives expert because there was nothing left to figure out what happened. Ted was at the door and screamed at us to back away while he made contact. That’s the last thing I remember.” The man pulled a small dart from his jacket. “I found this in my shoulder. I don’t know what hap
pened to Boris, but the others found the same thing.”

  Viktor grabbed the dart from his hand and stomped on it. “Fucking sookas.”

  The man whispered, “I thought you might want to have them analyzed. Shall I retrieve the other two darts for you?”

  Viktor nodded. “Send out word that the bounty has doubled. If something happened to Ted, we’ve lost our inside advantage. I want every single man scouring the city for those women.”

  “Done. Is there anything you’d like me to do?”

  “Da. I need every scrap of information you can obtain about one of my attorneys, Heather Stiles. I had an appointment with her several weeks ago. I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that not only was she sitting at the same table with that blonde at the Republican fund-raiser, but she also had dinner with that other sooka the night of her disappearance. I want to know every last detail, including the brand of toilet paper she uses. Understand?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  †

  Dani was nervous as she and Maggie hovered around one of the monitors in the control room. She was glad that Sophie, Kim, and Toni agreed to work with them to take Viktor down. She pointed at the screen. “Do you see this?”

  “Yes,” Maggie responded.

  “I think that may be our opening. All his meetings with these particular attorneys are at their offices. I think he chooses them for his more reputable business lines. He had a meeting scheduled with Char, but then canceled the second meeting the day she brought Toni to the compound. Unfortunately, his meetings are not very predictable. It’s not ideal, but if I can improve on the range of the darts, I think we have a good chance. He usually has three guards with him, but I think I can get four darts into the pen. We still need a second person to disable anyone else in the office. It will be hard to determine how many darts we’ll need. Too bad Char’s cover is probably blown. That would be perfect because we could control everything.”

  “We need to wait until Ronda recovers. She seems to be quite proficient with this new weapon. We can’t afford to waste any of the darts. By the way, is there any chance he will be able to produce the same results with the darts we left behind. I failed to mention that to Val so her team didn’t know to recover them in the sweep.” Maggie knitted her brows.

  “No, I don’t think so. They are scheduled to disintegrate in forty-eight hours. They would need to get them to a lab and perform all kinds of tests before they discovered anything noteworthy. Frankly, I don’t even think forty-eight hours would be enough time to figure out anything significant about them.”

  “Dani, you are every bit as brilliant as Toni. You two will make a remarkable team.”

  Dani blushed. “I’m learning a lot from her, but the best thing is that I think Char’s in love with her.”

  Maggie raised her eyebrows toward the ceiling. “I did tell Char—never say never and that not all love is destructive. I believe they will be good for one another. I do hope Toni chooses to remain with our agency after we are through with this nasty business.”

  Dani turned her attention to the clanking at the control room door.

  Ronda struggled inside hobbling in with forearm crutches. “God, Dani, how do you maneuver so well with these damn things? Of course it doesn’t help when you’ve also got an injured hand.”

  “I don’t, which is why I’m in my wheelchair way too much to build my endurance. I need to get back on my regimen after this whole mess is resolved. Why aren’t you still in the infirmary? I can’t imagine Cindy just let you leave.” Dani smirked.

  “Cindy is not the boss of me.”

  The control room door burst open and Cindy glared at Ronda. “Yes, I most certainly am the boss of you—you ungrateful little shit. Get your ass back to the infirmary.”

  Ronda touched her middle and index fingers to her head and saluted Cindy. “Yes, ma’am. Do I get a treat if I comply without complaint?”

  The corners of Cindy’s mouth turned up. “Maybe.”

  Ronda walked toward Cindy as she turned her head and tossed out a parting comment, “I’d like to be involved in phase two and, if you don’t mind, I’d like to be privy to all the important facts.”

  Dani grinned. “You’ll be our star agent, I promise. You’ll have top clearance for every piece of information you need to be successful. We’ll wait until next week to set up a strategy session so, in the meantime, if I were you, I would take whatever Cindy is offering. Cindy gives the best leg massages.”

  Ronda leered at Cindy. “Can I have a massage, please? Pretty please, with sugar on top. I promise to be good. And you even have my permission to massage more than my legs.”

  Cindy glared at Ronda, but Dani saw one corner of her lips lift up.

  †

  Char sighed. She was tired of the same argument. There was no way she was going to let Ronda do this without backup. This was important to her. It was personal and Toni knew that. “Why are you being so stubborn? Val is good, but I’m better.”

  “You just had major surgery two weeks ago. Why can’t you let Ronda and Val handle this?” Toni pleaded.

  “You know why, so I don’t want to fight about this. I am perfectly capable of handling myself.”

  “The surgeon told you not to do anything strenuous for at least another month. You were shot in the stomach for fuck’s sake. You could have died so I have to ask, do you have some kind of death wish?” Toni huffed.

  A clatter at the door distracted Char from the argument.

  Dani lurched forward, awkwardly navigating the entryway with her forearm crutches.

  “Don’t you ever knock?” Char griped.

  Dani’s reaction was immediate and she blanched.

  Toni glared at Char and rushed to the door to hold it open while Dani entered. “She doesn’t mean it. She’s just pissed at me and unfortunately you caught the brunt of her anger,” Toni whispered.

  “I’m sorry, Dani. Toni’s right. I’m just angry that she’s fighting me on something so important to me. You know how I feel about the slave trade. I want to be the one to shut that bastard down—or at least play a key role.”

  “You’ve already played a key role and your reward was a slug in your gut. How much more do they expect you to sacrifice? No, I won’t allow it,” Toni asserted.

  Char didn’t want to make the situation worse. She loved Toni, but she had to establish her independence. No matter what, no one had the right to control her. “You don’t get a vote in this. My life, my body, my choice. Please, don’t ever forget that.”

  Toni slumped into a chair and began crying. “I’m sorry, I’m just really scared of losing you. I love you and I just found you so please don’t do anything to jeopardize that.”

  Char sat down next to Toni and pulled her into her arms. “Shh, I’m not going anywhere. Please trust me. Besides Ronda, I’m the best choice.”

  “I know. I’d suggest Sophie, but with her shoulder still healing I know that’s just selfish of me to even think of that alternative.”

  Dani cleared her throat. “I actually came in here for a reason. I’m sorry I didn’t knock, but there have been some recent developments that might actually shed a new light on our plans.”

  “No. I really am sorry, little sis, you don’t ever need to knock.” Char laughed. “Wait, let me rephrase that. You do need to knock on our bedroom door, but I think you already know that. So what’s the new scoop?”

  “It seems Viktor is insisting on having a meeting with you and you alone. He called Sandy to set up an appointment. Just in case, we bugged the office phones. It was a long shot because I thought for sure your cover was blown. We have evidence that Gregor transmitted a picture of you when you were having dinner together. It’s definitely a trap, but I still think we’ll have the upper hand since the meeting will take place in our territory versus his,” Dani revealed.

  “Hmm, I like it. Our odds are getting better by the minute. So what did Sandy say?” Char asked.

  “Well, that’s where it gets
a little complicated. She told Viktor that you were recovering from surgery and were not expected back for at least a month. She offered to set him up with one of the other attorneys. He refused to see anyone else. He insisted that an appointment be scheduled the minute you return. Maggie thinks you should call Sandy and tell her you’re coming back a little earlier than anticipated.” Dani shifted in her crutches. “Sorry, Toni, but I agree. I think we’ve got Viktor running scared. When someone’s angry and off kilter, they make grave errors in judgment. The sooner you return and schedule this meeting, the better.” Dani’s brow furrowed.

  “It’s okay. I understand. May I at least be at central control? I want to see everything that’s happening real time—otherwise I’ll start chomping on my toenails because my fingernails are already down to the nub. Although…it has been rather convenient in other ways.” Toni raised her eyebrows up and down in a Groucho Marx expression.

  Char blushed.

  Dani bumped her fist with Toni’s.

  Char was relieved that Toni could so easily add levity to the situation despite her concern. It was one of the things she loved most about Toni.

  †

  Viktor was eating dinner when his private security guard handed him the phone.

  “It’s that assistant of Stiles on the phone for you. I believe you have been waiting for this call,” the guard said.

  Viktor smiled and patted his napkin to his mouth. “Da, yes, you can go now.”

  “Hello. Yes, that would work with my schedule. Thank you, I appreciate you arranging for an earlier appointment. I do hope Ms. Stiles has recovered fully from her surgery.”

  Viktor ended the call and leaned back in his chair.