“You have the strangest mood swings,” Zeke commented from the bed.
“Why? Because I decided to get dressed?” I was getting defensive. Maybe I should just stay away, let him and Liam have the house.
“No, because you went from being peaceful and quiet to being in a frantic hurry.” Zeke shook his head. “I don’t understand you at all.”
“Join the club, I don’t understand me either.” I tossed my clothes into a pile and ran to the bathroom, locking the door behind me.
It was the grief, I hoped. Surely I was not going to start lusting after Zeke. That would be terrible. Most things that are unobtainable are not things I have to deal with in the course of my life. Zeke I had to deal with. I took my shirt off, tossing it in the hamper. It landed gently, rolled in a ball, on top of a black T-shirt. The T-shirt wasn’t mine. Zeke was obviously very comfortable here. But if he thought I was going to do his laundry he was mistaken. I didn’t even want to do my own laundry, usually I paid someone else to take care of it.
“Nadine, you didn’t…” Zeke stepped into the bathroom. I let out a yelp, searching for something to cover myself with.
“Are those real?” He tilted his head sideways. I blushed all the way down to my toes.
“Of course they’re real.” I replied defensively, covering my chest with my hands.
“You have no idea what I’m talking about.” Zeke grinned and pointed. A vase of white carnations sat on the sink counter. Mother.
“I knew that’s what you meant.” I finally found the towel, yanked it from the rod and wrapped in it.
“No you didn’t. What do you want for breakfast?”
“I don’t know,” I blushed again. “Um, what can you fix?”
This was probably the weirdest conversation I’d had in a while. Normally I didn’t talk to men when I was standing half nude in my bathroom. Pathetically, we were discussing flowers and breakfast. My priorities were definitely out of whack.
“Just about anything. How about I whip up some pancakes and burnt bacon?”
“Ok,” I frowned, “would you get out of my bathroom.”
“Sure,” he turned, opening the door. “And Nadine, I’ve already seen you topless, I know those are real.”
I blushed again and threw my shirt at his back. It hit the door, slid down the wall, and ended up crumbled on the floor. My face burned, but at least he wasn’t here to see it. I took a long hot shower prolonging the next face to face with Zeke.
When I did finally give up and go downstairs I found Melina, Liam, Zeke and Ivan sitting around the table. They noticed me watching from the living room. They all seemed comparatively happy. I didn’t understand that, one of my agents had died and they were sitting around the table, talking, smiling. It seemed wrong, disrespectful. Zeke got up from his spot and fixed me a plate. I hadn’t asked, he’d just done it. He replaced his plate with mine, moving to the bar to eat.
“I’m taking mom home with me today,” Ivan said as I cut into a pancake. It was covered in thick rich syrup, more than was actually necessary. Just the way I liked it. I wondered if Melina had told Zeke how much I liked maple syrup. Shoving the bite into my mouth I also tasted honey. Yep, mom had definitely been snitching my food likes to Zeke. I shrugged at him, no longer in the mood for conversation.
“We questioned the suspects for several hours, but they didn’t give anything up. We are still searching the hospital room to see if we can link them to it. And I’m talking to my captain and the district attorney about a line up.” Ivan continued.
“I didn’t see them,” I looked up at him.
“Not for you,” he sighed. “For Anubis. I know, that sounds a little weird, but I think Anubis could identify him. He’s a pretty smart dog.”
“A line up for a dog. That is a little weird. How are they taking it?”
“Well, the district attorney was receptive, but we have to get a judge to sign off on it because the suspect’s lawyer is fighting it. We have some experts coming in to testify that animals are actually more reliable than people with identifications.”
“So if you get the green light for this, how do you intend to do it?”
“We’ll take Anubis to the station and let him in the room with the suspects. Tell him to pick out the one he bit or something and wait to see if he finds him.”
“Dogs can smell wounds.”
“Yes, but they will all have bandages on their arms. We’ll do it pretty much in the same fashion as a line up with a human witness. If nothing else it might be entertaining to watch all six men cower in fear.” Ivan looked over at the dogs, they were all trying to curl up on my couch. It was a tight fit and they weren’t supposed to be there. Dogs in my bed, fine, but dogs on my couch wasn’t. Odd, I know. I ignored it, turning my attention back to my brother.
“And if you can’t get the judge to sign off on an animal witness?”
“Well, then we have to go back to doing good, old fashioned police work. We’ve gotten warrants for their houses and vehicles, telephone records and tons of other stuff, but it could take days to go through all of it. And after the lineup I am officially off the case. Conflict of interest.”
“Yeah, I’m surprised they let you stay this long.” I sighed. I’d eaten about half my pancakes and couldn’t remember doing it. Pushing the plate away I stood up.
“I have to go to the office this morning. Liam will you make sure mom gets to Ivan’s ok?”
“Of course,” Liam smiled at me. “Nadine, this wasn’t your fault.”
“I know.”
“Liar.” Liam stood up as well. He pulled me into him, gently hugging me.
“You feel guilty for it, don’t try to tell me otherwise, I know you. You think this is your fault, but all your agents know the risk. They do it anyway. If you could control everything, your company would be unnecessary. Don’t let that guilt and grief make you stupid.” He let go. Stepping back from me.
“I have a news flash for everyone, this isn’t the first time I’ve had to deal with an employee’s death. I’m not going to get stupid, I’m going to make sure that whoever hired these assholes, gets what he deserves.”
“I’m not sure I should be hearing this,” Ivan frowned at me.
“Don’t worry, Nadine may rough him up a bit, but when she’s done, she’ll handcuff him and throw him from a moving car into the parking lot of a police station. She always tries the law first.” I’d almost forgotten Zeke was in the room.
He was of course, lying. I had killed one person, probably in self-defense, but I hadn’t gone to the police first or even afterwards. Eventually, I’d made a statement to a DEA agent that was a friend of mine in KC. However, the day after that statement was made, I’d fled the country for Russia. See, the vacation had been partly pleasure, partly a security measure. If charges had been filed, I was going to make myself disappear for a while.
“I agree with Liam, don’t do anything stupid, arresting you would suck and mom would hold it against me for the rest of my life.” Ivan hugged me.
“Nadine, take care of yourself, we’ll call you when your brothers get here.” Mom followed their lead.
“Wait!” I suddenly remembered something. “Send Vladik to my house and keep Devlin with you, Ivan.” No need for all of us to suffer during this family crisis.
“Liam, do you want a car or do you want to be picked up once Vladik arrives?” I asked.
“Pick me up from Ivan’s when you get done with your work stuff today.” Everyone left except Zeke and myself. It was the most alone I’d been in days. My house was quiet. It was very nice. I sat back down at the table.
“I’ve already talked to Lucy, she is making the funeral as well as flight arrangements for Thomas’s family. She’s also scheduled some time to have you talk to everyone about security measures from this point on.”
“I don’t know what else to do. I think those with families will be all right, but single and living alone might be a problem. It doesn’t seem like th
is guy is willing to pay top dollar for professional help yet, so we need to find him before he does.”
“The security thing is a bit of a puzzle.” Zeke frowned, coming over taking the chair next to me. “A buddy system might still be the best option. If you force us to keep partners with us all the time, it would add protection to those with families and without.”
“Yeah, so we make Lucy and her family move in with Jacob and his family.” I gave a light laugh. “I can’t see that working.”
“No, it wouldn’t, but you could make Heather move in with Lucy and her family. That would give Lucy’s family a body guard and keep Heather from being alone.”
“What about our clients?”
“We only have six clients right now that we can’t cancel; a warehouse for an antique store, bouncers for a club, a rock concert in three days, guards for some high echelon invitation only party in two days, bodyguards for some doctors and clinic that has been getting death threats and a lab.”
“I’m not canceling contracts, that’s completely out of the question. Besides, the security agents are less likely to be targeted while they are working.”
“How do you figure?”
“No one knows where they are.” I frowned again. “Is everyone assigned to a job this week?”
“Everyone but Anthony, Sebastian, Heather, Greg, Patrick and myself. We moved things around to protect you and Alex.”
“Fine, we assign everyone but Anthony, Sebastian and you. Pair everyone up with their work partner so that they can car pool. Wait, why am I telling you this… I should be telling it to the employees.” I frowned. “I think it’s time to go to the office.”
Zeke stood up, grabbing the keys to the Hummer. He checked the doors and windows in every room before letting me into the garage. I thought he was a little paranoid, anyone who had seen my house in the last couple of days wasn’t going to attack it. Crazy mothers are good for several things.
Chapter Fifteen
We drove in silence, I was lost in my own thoughts. The world whizzed by the window without me noticing. Zeke seemed lost in his too, preferring the quietness in the Hummer to talking. The Hummer was expertly maneuvered into a parking space. I was kind of surprised by this, most people have trouble with Hummers, they are just so damn big. He dug out his cell phone and locked the doors. Obviously, I wasn’t allowed to get out of the car just yet.
“Jacob, how many non-employees are in the building?” Zeke spoke quietly into his phone. Even with the silence of the garage, I couldn’t hear Jacob’s reply, it made me wish that people would use speaker phone.
“Good, lock the front doors and hang up a sign that says closed.” He closed the phone and looked at me. “As soon as Jacob comes into the garage you can get out, until then, make yourself comfortable.”
“Why am I being held hostage in my car?” I frowned at him.
“Because there are two non-employees in the building. You are this company’s top priority and as secure as this building seems to be, it’s always possible someone could discover a way around them.”
“The company will survive my death. I’ve made sure of that.”
“How?”
“Because it becomes a shareholder company. My brothers get their name on the paperwork, but they actually don’t hold control of the company. Each brother gets 12.5% of the company shares, giving them 50% of the company. You, Anthony, Alex and Sebastian get the other 50%. This ensures that my brothers can’t make serious structural changes without the agreement of at least one of you and you four can’t make changes without my brothers.” I looked at him.
“Us? Why us?”
“Because this company wouldn’t be successful without you guys, duh. I mean, if it was just me, I’d have gone broke and died a long time ago. I had considered just turning it over to the three of you, but I was worried my brothers would feel left out and resentful. I threw in Alex to offset the mix. She’ll almost always oppose anything Ivan agrees too. Those two just can’t get along to save their souls.”
“You’ve given it a lot of thought.” Zeke’s voice was soft.
“Well, I’ve had to, I mean, I’m obviously not going to live forever and at the rate I’m going, most of the time I don’t think I’ll make it to forty. It’s worth a lot of thought. I’ll never have the survival skills that most of you have, I’ll never be that good. I may be an optimist, but I’m also a realist. Eventually, I’m going to met someone that is just that much better than me.” I shrugged, it was the truth. No other way to put it.
“Maybe not, just stick with us, we’ll help keep you alive, at least until forty.” Zeke said comfortingly.
Jacob stuck his head out the door. Zeke unlocked the doors of the Hummer and we entered the parking garage. It was weird to be skulking through my own garage, it was a pretty secure place to park. I made sure of that, spending top dollar for an entrance gate and other security measures.
“Everyone is here, we have a couple of reserves watching our current assignments. They all wanted to hear it from you.” Jacob told me as we entered the building.
I was led to our largest conference room. It was standing room only. People leaned against the walls and squished into the empty spaces. They made a hole for me to walk through until I was standing in front of the assembled mass. This was going to be hard.
“I’m sure everyone got my text message this morning.”
There were several nods and a couple of “yeah”s from the group. I pushed forward.
“At about 12:20 a.m. someone crept into Thomas Gamble’s hospital room and killed him. We believe it was the same people that attempted to shoot me yesterday in front of Thomas’s home. I received an anonymous call saying he was only the first and given an ultimatum. I’ve had no contact with the anonymous caller since then, but I expect I will. The threat has been made that he will continue to kill off my employees unless I give him what he wants. At this moment, I’m not sure what that is. Because of this threat, we are going to have to tighten security both in the office and our homes. I know this is a shitty way to live, but hopefully it won’t continue much longer. I think if we can survive and catch this particular thug, the press might continue, but the attempts and threats won’t.”
“Why do you say that?” Someone from the back asked.
“If we survive this, then it will be the second one in about two weeks. I think that will minimize the desire of others to get involved. My kidnapping and subsequent saving in the space of one evening might have deterred all but the most determined. Doing the same to a second one, will show that we are not to be messed with. Any of us. Tighter security is going to create a few inconveniences though. I do not want a repeat of what happened to Thomas. He lived alone, worked strange hours and his neighbors didn’t really know anything about him. This is an undesirable situation. For those of you that live alone, I suggest you get a temporary roommate. Whether this is another agent, staff member or violent aggressive pet, is your choice, but a necessity. Car pooling is also a necessity, travel leaves us vulnerable to attack. If you decide to get a pet to use as a roommate, I recommend a large attack dog or something most people are afraid of.” I looked at one of the agents, “for example, the reticulated python kept by James is a pretty good deterrent, but only if he is free to roam the house.
As for our workload. We are not canceling any jobs nor are we going to stop talking to clients. All of them are routine and it would be hard for something unusual to happen at them. The one exception is the concert. I know that normally we wander around singly, I don’t think that’s a good idea this time. You will be paired up unless you are between the pit and the stage, where I’m going to increase agents. For the most part, it will work as normal. Only six people are not assigned to the concert. I will be calling in reserves as well as talking with the house security before the concert. It is imperative that we go about our business like it’s just another day. If we show that we are crumbling, it will bring more threats and attacks.”
“Nadine, you’re forgetting something,” Lucy whispered.
“The funeral arrangements are being made by Lucy, she will be sending out the information later today or tomorrow.” She frowned as I spoke. I sighed, giving in.
“Lastly, I will not be in the office until this most recent thug is apprehended. It has been decided that I am the primary target. Anthony has ordered me under house arrest. Because the security agents here seem to be pretty well booked, he has called in reinforcements. I can’t say I’m particularly happy about this, but my opinion wasn’t asked. My brothers, Liam, Devlin, and Vladik are all going to be around. I have been lead to believe that they will be underfoot for at least the next week. Expect them to be joining us. I am leaving Jacob in charge, since Anthony, Sebastian and Zeke will all be out of the office. Since I refuse to be under house arrest alone, I have order Anthony and Sebastian to keep Alex Zeitzev under house arrest as well.” Several people laughed at this. At least they were taking it well.
“Since Alex’s office is short two detectives, she has recommended a replacement office. Mackenzie Remington’s number has been given to Jacob and we will be referring people there for a while. Also, since Alex was scheduled to help with security for the concert, she is being gracious enough to loan a few extra, needed, personnel for the security there. However, this could change the more time she spends with Sebastian, she may decide she hates me and refuse the manpower.” I smiled, a couple of people agreed.
“Jokes aside, this most recent threat is being taken very seriously. He hired people to scare me into giving up information. This means he has money and is willing to use it. This first attack was an amateur hit, the next may not be. And he has promised a next. I am doing what I can to ensure we don’t get that far, but I am stuck waiting on him. I don’t want anyone to be caught off guard. Thomas was attacked in his home before we knew the threat existed, the same cannot be said now. The mystery man has both my cell number, land line and the cell numbers of Anthony and Zeke. This means he’s done his homework. If you leave yourself vulnerable, he will exploit it. I beg that you not make it easy for him. I don’t want to lose any more agents, we are all family and it hurts when you leave us.
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