Behind Closed Doors (The Mccloud Series Book 1)

by Shannon McKenna

  He touched his head and looked at his bloody fingers. “And leave me all alone with my possible concussion? I could slip into a coma and die, you know.”

  She gritted her teeth. “I can stop by a neighbor’s house and tell someone to come and look after you.”

  “Let me give you a tip, Raine. The next time you try to coerce somebody at gunpoint, don’t offer them milk and cookies and a nice warm blankie while you’re at it. It totally fucks your credibility. Now put that thing down. You look stupid.”

  Raine sighed and let the gun drop. “So give me a break,” she mumbled. “I’m learning this stuff as I go.”

  “I’ll go with you,” Connor said.

  “No!”

  They looked down. The exclamation had come from Ed. He struggled against his bonds. “McCloud, I have to tell you something—”

  “Tell it to the judge, Riggs. I’m already nauseous from that conk on the head. Hearing another dose of your bullshit would really make me puke my guts out.”

  “No, please. This is important. You’ve got to help me.”

  “Help you? I’ve got to help who?” Connor limped slowly around Riggs’s twitching form. He braced himself against the cane, wedged his foot beneath the other man and flopped him over.

  Blood had run in rivulets across Ed’s forehead and under his eyes, like a grisly carnival mask. “Not me,” he rasped. “Erin.”

  Connor’s face froze. “What are you talking about?”

  “Erin?” Raine asked.

  “His daughter,” Connor said, his voice almost unrecognizable. “What about Erin, Riggs? Spit it out. We’ve got things to do.”

  “Novak’s got her,” Ed rasped. “That’s why I needed the Lazar girl. To do…the trade.”

  Connor’s face abruptly drained of all color. “This isn’t happening. Tell me this isn’t happening, Riggs. Tell me you’re shitting me.”

  “If I can’t make the trade, you’ve got to help Erin, McCloud.”

  Connor’s cane went spinning and clattering across the floor. He dropped down next to Ed and seized him by his jacket, hauling him up with a violent yank. “Novak got Erin, and you don’t even call me? You stay quiet to save your own worthless hide? You fuck-up. You don’t even deserve to call yourself her father. Why didn’t you tell me before?”

  Ed’s eyes squeezed shut. “Too late,” he said, panting. “Couldn’t risk it. Novak’s men…watching. The whole thing had gone too far.”

  “Yeah, well, the whole thing has just stopped. Right here,” Connor hissed. He let Ed drop to the floor with a thud, and struggled to his feet. Raine retrieved his cane and handed it to him. He took it, his mouth thin and hard with fury.

  Ed opened his eyes again and fixed them on Raine. “Your icon on the system is a jewel,” he said. “I got the monitor from Victor. Saw the signal drive by this morning when the car left, but I knew you were still here. Victor wanted me to guard you. Keep you safe from Novak. Fucking joke. Like I could ever keep anybody safe from anything, in my whole life.” He panted, swallowed. “Then Novak got to me. With Erin.”

  “Where is Erin now?” Connor asked.

  “Crystal Mountain. With her friends,” Ed wheezed. “Lots of Novak’s men. A guy named Georg has orders to…to hurt her, if I don’t deliver the Lazar girl. Please, McCloud. Erin always liked you. Idolized you. Do it for her, not for me. She’s innocent. I’m not, but she is.”

  Connor gestured for Raine to follow him and walked into the kitchen, oblivious to the mess of broken appliances and crockery. He opened a cupboard and dumped loose macaroni noodles out of a plastic container into his shaking hand until a set of keys dropped into it. “Here.” He put them into her hands. “It’s probably too late, but give it your best shot. Turn right at the end of the driveway, follow the signs for Endicott Falls until you see Mosley Road south. Follow that for ten miles, and you’ll see signs for the interstate.”

  “You’re going to go and rescue his daughter?”

  His haggard face tightened with doubt. “Davy and Sean and Seth are all three tough sons-of-bitches. They know what they’re getting into,” he said, as if trying to convince himself. “And you look like you can take care of yourself just fine, from what I can see. But Erin…she hasn’t got a clue. I went to her graduation party, for God’s sake.”

  She gave him a quick, impulsive hug. “Good luck, Connor,” she said. “You’re one of the good guys.”

  “Oh, yeah? What’s a good guy supposed to do with that?” He jerked his head towards the office, where Ed groaned and wheezed.

  “Lock him in the attic,” she said coolly. “He’s rolled his dice. He can take his chances with the rest of us.”

  He gave her an admiring grin. “Spoken like a true heartless adventuress,” he said. “You’re as tough as nails, Raine, you know that?”

  “Not really, but it’s sweet of you to say so,” she called back.

  She found the hand monitor on the passenger seat of Riggs’s car. She pulled out on the road in Seth’s bronze Mercury, and drove as fast as she dared, with no driver’s license and a stolen gun stuck prominently into her jeans. She had to get to him before Victor and Novak closed in.

  Seth thought he was the hunter, but he was actually the prey.

  Chapter 26

  Davy punched the number for the third time, scowling. He snapped shut the mouthpiece. “Line’s dead,” he said. “We can’t get in touch with Connor.”

  There was a brief, grim silence.

  “That sucks.” Sean’s voice was unusually thoughtful.

  “Could be a coincidence,” Davy offered.

  Seth snorted as he pulled off onto the exit that led to Lazar’s usual marina. “Want to bet?”

  “Nope,” Davy and Sean said in unison.

  Seth’s mind raced. “If you guys want to bow out now, be my guest,” he said. “I’ll think no less of you for it. On the contrary. My opinion of your intelligence will rise. Sharply.”

  Sean gave him a goofy grin and pulled his green ski mask down over his pretty boy face. “Get stuffed.”

  “Yeah,” Davy said. “Ditto.”

  Seth let out his breath in a long, silent sigh. The McClouds were like ticks. Once they dug in, they were hell to get rid of.

  “So? What’s the plan?” Sean sounded untroubled. “You can track the Corazon icon from here, can’t you?”

  “Get my laptop out of the bag,” Seth said.

  Sean opened up the laptop and logged on. “OK. X-Ray Specs is up and running. I’ve got the map on screen. Now what?”

  “Click the top right button and wait for the prompt.”

  “Password?”

  “Retribution,” Seth muttered.

  “Oooh,” Sean crooned. “That gives me the shivers.”

  Seth scowled. “You’re not supposed to be having this much fun.”

  “Hey. Just because you’re having woman problems, does that mean I have to be all down in the mouth? Lighten up, already.”

  “Stop being a pain in the ass, Sean,” Davy said wearily.

  “I’m a little brother. That’s what we do best.” Sean grimaced, and shot a pained look at Seth. “Oops. Sorry,” he muttered.

  “Just give me the goddamn laptop,” Seth growled. He reached back for it, but Sean kept a tight hold on it, humming cheerfully.

  “Wait, wait,” he said. “I see the…oh, man, bingo! You really do have a romantic streak, don’t you?”

  “What do you see?” Seth barked.

  “The icon. A little heart with an arrow through it. The Corazon, right? One point three kilometers west and moving south, right along with us. We’re practically on top of the guy. It’s destiny.”

  The parking attendant in the garage of the Lazar building leaped up when she got out of the car, his face a comical mask of alarm.

  “Good morning, Jeremy,” she said. “I’m sorry I don’t have my employee tags or my parking sticker with me today, but it doesn’t matter. I promise I won’t be long.”

  “
Huh?” Jeremy’s jaw dropped comically. “Who?”

  The elevator ride was a trip through an alternate universe. The people that surrounded her stared at her like she had two heads. They were so pressed and polished. Their world was safe and comprehensible and controllable. She wanted to scream at them, warn them that their worst nightmares could materialize and jump out at them any time, with long, dripping yellow fangs bared. Oh yes, indeedy, they could, boys and girls.

  She controlled herself with a huge effort of will. It was not her job to warn these people. Thank God her snarled-up hair was so big and frizzy today, long enough to cover up the gun stuck at the small of her back. The skimpy T-shirt certainly didn’t cover anything. Her butt was practically hanging right out of the low-slung jeans.

  “Excuse me,” she said as the elevator door opened, and they all recoiled to let her out first. She could get used to this, she reflected, trying not to laugh. Maybe she should permanently change her look.

  The same thing happened in the Lazar Import & Export office. People who had browbeaten and ordered her around all month scurried out of her way, eyes wide, flattening themselves against the walls to give her space. As if she were dangerous. A spark of grim amusement kindled inside her. She’d come a long way from the girl whose knees had knocked when she had to serve melon chunks and mini-muffins to a room full of suits.

  Harriet bore down on her like a fighter jet as she strode down the corridor for Victor’s office. She blocked Raine’s path, her tight, pinched mouth trembling with outrage. “How dare you come here looking like a slut! Have you lost your mind? You’ve got blood on your face, and you’re actually…dirty!” Her voice cracked with horror.

  Raine swallowed down a cackle of hysterical laughter. “Out of my way,” she ordered. “I need to get into that office, right now.”

  “No!” Harriet held out her arms, prepared to martyr herself. “No amount of intimacy with Mr. Lazar gives you the right to intrude on—”

  “He’s my father, Harriet,” Raine snapped.

  Harriet jerked back, her eyes huge and startled behind the frames of her glasses.

  Raine advanced upon her. “So get your bony ass out of my way. I’m having a really bad day, as you might have noticed, and I don’t have the time or the patience to explain myself to you. Go!”

  Harriet swallowed and backed away, her face stiff. “Call security,” she said to the cluster of staring, murmuring people behind her.

  Security. Lovely. She wouldn’t have much time. Raine locked the door and dropped into the thronelike desk chair. The computer was already logged on, the password request up, cursor blinking dutifully.

  She seized the phone, punching in Seth’s cell phone number. The recorded voice informed her that the phone was out of range. Would she like to leave a message? She slammed it down and rubbed her burning eyes. What was it that Victor had said? More than four letters. Less than ten. What he wanted from her.

  Damn him. Always a power struggle, always a guessing game. What she wouldn’t give to have the power to make people rack their brains trying to guess what she wanted from them. As if. She had to beg for what she wanted on her hands and knees. And she never got it anyway.

  Oh, stop it. This was no time for self-pity. She had to concentrate. Victor was a control freak. He liked to control people by….

  She typed in “fear.” It didn’t work. She tried “control.” “Revenge.”

  No go.

  She tried “power.” Then “respect.” Still nothing. She squeezed her eyes shut. She had to think like him. More convoluted, more abstract. Victor was nothing if not abstract. But nothing came to her brain; stress had battered it to a numb pulp. She shook her head to clear it and just started typing in every word that popped into her head.

  She tried “trust.” “Truth.” “Honor.” “Justice.” “Courage.” No. She tried “Mercy.” “Forgiveness.”

  She hesitated for a long time, bit her lip hard and typed in “love.”

  Nothing.

  She swore, using some of the brand-new, violent combinations of words she had learned in the past few days from listening to Seth.

  The goddamned password should have been “love.” That was what she wanted it to be, sentimental idiot that she was, always wanting what she couldn’t have, seeking love where it couldn’t be found. She wanted out of this screaming madhouse of hate and revenge. She wanted to rescue them all: herself, Seth, Connor, even the unknown, hapless Erin. She wanted to rescue the perfect, precious bliss she had known last night before the killer came and murdered it.

  She wanted to go back in time, rescue Peter from Ed, rescue Victor from himself, rescue everyone from their fear and desperation and loneliness. But she was so small and helpless, and the boat was drifting away from her. She needed help, a moment of pure grace from the great mysterious unknown to help her unravel this puzzle, please—

  Her hands dropped into her lap. Her swollen eyes stared at the computer screen, frozen in a moment of exquisite, paralyzing hope.

  She spun back to the keyboard, and very carefully typed in “g-r-a-c-e.” She entered it.

  Password accepted. The menu options popped up, inviting her to proceed. She blinked the tears she had no time for, and clicked on the glasses icon. The X-Ray Specs logo flashed up, a catchy blur of animation that her eyes were too watery to follow. She selected, “Last area viewed.” Then “Track all.”

  A map popped up on the screen, showing a large chunk of the residential neighborhood of her Templeton Street house. Tiny colored points blinked all over the place. She wiped her eyes and nose on her grimy, sticky arm. There was a big magnifying glass on the tool bar. She dragged it over the map, letting her eyes relax and unfocus. One moment of grace, she prayed silently. One little moment, and she would take care of the rest.

  There it was, a flicker of movement at the bottom of the screen. She dragged the magnifying glass to the point, and selected Zoom, vaguely aware that someone was yelling and pounding on the door.

  The jewel icon was on the move southbound on Carstairs Road, a parallel of Templeton. It turned off the main road, and stopped. She knew that place. It had been a timber baron’s luxury estate back in the twenties. Now it was an abandoned, dilapidated mansion surrounded by a big, overgrown forest park. She had jogged there, back in the days before she’d gotten too tired to jog.

  The office door burst open. That was all the grace she was going to get. A burly man in a security uniform peeked in and eyed her as if she were a rabid animal. “Miss, I’m afraid you’re going to have to, uh, come with me now,” he rumbled, trying to look stern.

  “I don’t think so,” she said politely. “I’ve got things to do.”

  He stepped in front of her, blocking her path to the door.

  Damn. She’d hoped to avoid this, but there was no time to waste. She reached back, pulled out Ed’s Glock and gave the man a big, toothy smile. “I’m out of here,” she said. “Have a great day.”

  The guy almost tripped over himself to get out of her way, and Harriet squawked in protest. “See? I told you she was dangerous!”

  Raine backed away from the horrified faces of the people she’d been trying so hard to please and placate for the last month. The Glock was intimidating, but it wasn’t going to take them long to figure out that she would never use the thing.

  “Uh…I’ll see you guys around,” she said. “It’s been real.”

  She stuck the Glock back into her pants and ran like hell.

  The cell phone rang. Victor checked the number before picking it up. It was Mara, whom he had assigned to watch the monitor in the control room. Memories of what he had done to the delectable, adventurous Mara in his bedroom the night before flashed through his mind. Memorable, yes, but the girl had better have a damn good reason for calling other than pillow talk. He pushed the button. “Yes?”

  “Mr. Lazar, the jewel icon is very close to the marina, and moving closer,” Mara said.

  He was unpleasantly startled.
“Are you sure?”

  “Yes. It’s at the level of Morehead Street. Moving south, at about thirty miles an hour. It’s within range of your monitor.”

  He pulled the monitor out of his coat pocket, entered the password and keyed in the code. Mara was right. Katya was here.

  “Thank you, Mara. Carry on.” He broke the connection and pulled the collar of his coat higher, chilled to the bone.

  Katya wasn’t supposed to be here. She should be far out of reach, guarded by both Mackey and Riggs.

  He should abort the meeting. Something was very wrong. He could feel it. But if Novak had Katya in his grasp, he couldn’t walk away. He had thought himself invulnerable, but Katya was his weak point. She always had been. And he had nothing to bargain with but a piece of cold metal, and images from a nightmare.

  They were approaching the marina. The readout on the monitor shifted constantly with the changing flow of spatial information.

  He switched off the useless thing and flung it into the water.

  Maybe it wasn’t Katya. Maybe someone else was carrying one of her tagged belongings. Maybe it was a malfunction. He could only hope.

  To think that after all his plotting and planning, that he should be reduced to relying upon something so fragile as hope.

  “I have got to get myself a pair of these,” Sean said, staring through the foggy woods with his goggles. “I haven’t been so jazzed since the last time we burgled that bastard. I can already spot three…no, four of Novak’s goons with the long-range TI function. Playing with your toys is like having superhuman powers.”

  “That’s the whole idea,” Seth said. He handed a pair to Davy and looped his own around his neck. He handed a tiny mike and earphone set to the brothers, identical in their green camouflage gear. They put them on with a swift efficiency that showed such equipment was not new to them.

  “So what’s your plan?” Davy asked. “March up to the front door and ring the bell?”

  “No way to do recon if you don’t know the site. I was going to wing it. You guys got any ideas, let’s hear ’em.”