Lethal Memory (A Counterstrike Novel Book 2)

by Jannine Gallant

  “I hope she finds something soon because I’m flat out of ideas at this point.” Scarlet’s tone held an underlying anxiety she couldn’t disguise. “Once this asshole has the information on that laptop . . .”

  “Riley is expendable.” When the plane rolled to a stop near the Counterstrike hanger at the small, municipal airport, Noah surged to his feet. “She’ll buy herself the time we need to find her. We’re close. I can feel it.”

  He wouldn’t let himself believe anything else.

  “Damn right we are!” Luna let out a whoop. “Gotcha, you bastard! I know who has Riley.”

  * * * *

  Riley sat on the couch, holding her grandfather’s hand while Price Wagner paced back and forth in front of the smoked glass coffee table. In her opinion, the modern furniture decorating the home clashed with the Federal style architecture. A random and pointless observation, but she couldn’t bear to think about what would happen to them once the files on her computer were verified.

  If they can decipher them. She clung to the hope that whoever was working with this man wasn’t as smart as he thought.

  Wagner had taken her laptop—which she’d unlocked the second he held the revolver to her grandfather’s head—into another room, spoken to someone who’d arrived shortly afterward, and then rejoined them. Nearly an hour had slowly ticked by in the interim.

  Far too much time to think.

  Her heart ached, knowing she might never see Noah again. And she hated herself for endangering her grandpa.

  As if feeling her pain, her grandfather released her hand and rose to his feet to stare down their adversary. “I don’t know why you’re holding us here Mr. Wagner, but I’ve had about enough of this nonsense. Shoot me, if you intend to, but you’ll not harm Riley. Am I clear on that?”

  “So, you’ve said. Numerous times. Please sit down, Clement.” He waved the gun. “This shouldn’t take much longer.”

  Her grandfather’s brows lowered in a bewildered frown. “You’ll let us leave soon?”

  Wagner didn’t bother to respond as his cell dinged. Lifting it off the table, he read the text, glanced toward the hallway, and let out a harsh breath. “It seems my associate is having difficulty understanding some of your notes.”

  Riley barely suppressed a smile. Stall for time. Give Jaimee a chance to find us.

  “I input a lot of that data rather quickly as pieces of my memory returned. I know what all those cryptic notations mean, even if they may seem disjointed.”

  His eyes darkened with irritation. “Apparently, I’ll need your services for a while longer.” He pointed toward the door. “I’ll keep Clement here with me as insurance while you clarify your notes. If you try to leave the house, the consequences won’t be pretty.”

  “I won’t.”

  “I don’t like this one bit.” Her grandfather gripped her arm as she stood to step past him. “Where are you going?”

  “She’ll be just across the hall where I can keep an eye on her. Sit down, Clement.” Wagner spoke harshly before turning his gaze on her. “Don’t try my patience, Riley. Give him what he needs.”

  She nodded and forced a smile. “I’ll be okay, Grandpa. Don’t worry about me.”

  “But I am worried. What happens to me doesn’t matter in the least. You’re the one I care about.”

  “We’ll both be fine. I promise.” She left the room and crossed the parquet floor toward a door left slightly ajar. A man wearing a blue sweatshirt and a beanie sat hunched over her laptop, open on a desk. When she stopped in the doorway, he jerked around, and his eyes widened behind his glasses.

  “Charles?” She gripped the door jam. “I can’t believe this.” Tears burned in her eyes. “You’re behind this—the attacks on me. My kidnapping?”

  “I’m not behind anything. I’m as much of a victim as you are. If you’d shared your final test results with me, no one would have gotten hurt.”

  “You’re the victim?” She couldn’t stop shaking. “I trusted you!”

  “I didn’t want this, for Christ’s sake. I didn’t intend for any of this to happen.”

  “Maybe you should explain, then.”

  His gaze darted to the empty hallway behind her. “Price is close to losing it. I don’t want to piss him off even more.”

  “He’ll kill me once he has what he wants. The least you can do is tell me why.”

  Charles tugged off his beanie and ran his hands through his hair. “I tried to warn you when Murdock got impatient and sent those goons to the lab. Who the hell do you think emailed that anonymous tip?” He jabbed a finger at his chest. “Me, that’s who.”

  “I don’t understand.” She walked farther into the room. “Why would you betray me in the first place?”

  “Because Price owns me.” His voice cracked. “He paid for my education. His son was my best friend growing up. When Kel got involved with drugs in high school, I was the one who did my damnedest to save him. I failed.” He hung his head. “Then he helped be out of a nasty situation when I was an undergrad and has been holding that over my head. Misleading you wasn’t easy, but it’s not the first time I’ve faced a situation I hated.”

  “Wagner bribed you to steal my work by paying your way through grad school?” She gritted her teeth to keep from screaming. “This is about money?”

  “Not just money. He had leverage to back up his threats. Besides, it didn’t seem wrong in the beginning. His requests for information were harmless. I didn’t think giving him your preliminary findings would hurt anything. Anyone. Certainly not you. But he got more demanding over the last year as his early symptoms of dementia progressed. When I tried to back out of our arrangement, he made it clear I was in too deep to say no. He would have ruined me.”

  Riley sat on the edge of the only other chair in the office. “How does Vortex play into this?”

  “Price is one of the major shareholders of the company. Originally, all he cared about was getting the cure for himself, but then Murdock found out what was going on and convinced him they could make a fortune if they got the formula and took the drug to market.” Charles stared at her, his face a mask of regret. “Price didn’t authorize your kidnapping. That was all Murdock, jumping the gun when you became so secretive toward the end.”

  “So, I’m to blame because I stopped sharing my results?” She released a harsh breath. “I didn’t want you to be involved if there was any fallout over the injections I gave my grandfather. I was trying to protect you.”

  “I’ve done my best to convince him not to hurt you.” His eyes watered, and he pulled off his glasses to wipe them. “After Counterstrike rescued you, and your memory was impaired, Price was determined to pry the information out of you by any means necessary. I told him you’d confide in me when you got your memory back, but he’d lost all patience.”

  “Yet, here you are, still going along with his agenda. You must have let him into Counterstrike headquarters today. You’re far from innocent.”

  “Only after he took your grandfather as insurance. Becca was clueless. I used her as an excuse to get into the house without making you suspicious. I was praying Price would find the laptop and take the damn thing. End of story. But nothing worked out the way he planned. Not today, and not at the meeting scheduled with Dr. Ernst.”

  “Why didn’t you simply tell me?”

  “I didn’t want you to know I was involved.” He stared at the laptop screen, which had gone blank while they talked. “Just do what he wants, Riley. He won’t stop until he has that formula.”

  “Once he does, he’ll kill me.” She gripped her hands into tight fists. “He’ll kill my grandfather.”

  Footsteps came down the hall, and Wagner stopped in the doorway a moment later. His cold, direct gaze pinned her to her seat. “I heard a lot of chatter coming from this room. Maybe I didn’t make my expectations clear.”

  “Oh, you did.” Riley maintained eye-contact. “I felt the least I deserved was an explanation.”

&nb
sp; “Did you, now? Does your grandfather deserve to die quickly, or would you prefer his death to be slow and painful? Your choice, Riley.”

  She reached out with a shaking hand and turned the laptop to face her. After logging back in, she scrolled through the file and glanced at Charles. “What questions did you have?”

  “The sequencing here isn’t clear.” He pointed at the screen.

  Riley began typing, and after a minute, Wagner retreated.

  “You have to help us,” she whispered. “Call your uncle. Or is he in on this, too?”

  Charles shook his head. “Last night, I told him Price was coming for you. He tried to warn you, and he promised to do what he could to keep my name out of any investigation.”

  Riley paused with her fingers hovering over the keyboard. “How’d Wagner find out where I was?”

  “Once, he mentioned it was amazing what money could buy down at the precinct when a cop is desperate enough. My uncle didn’t know who was feeding him information so he had to move carefully.”

  “Call him now. Have you considered you’ll be expendable once you’ve verified these files? Wagner won’t let you simply walk away, not after he commits murder.”

  Charles pressed a hand to his stomach. “You think I didn’t figure that out? Too late, as it happens. He took my phone when I arrived, locked this place up tight, and turned on the alarm. He has a gun, and he won’t hesitate to shoot me if I try anything.”

  Riley stopped typing and stared at him. “Jaimee must have called the police when she discovered I was missing. If your uncle knows Wagner is behind this, why hasn’t he shown up here to arrest him?”

  “Because this isn’t his house. Price isn’t stupid. This place belongs to one of the other Vortex board members who’s currently out of town. He told me to meet him here to verify your files after I dropped Becca off on campus. I thought he was only bringing the laptop with him, not you, so I agreed.”

  “My laptop was in my car, not in the room.” She studied the screen in front of her. “There. I clarified that section. Now what?”

  “I’ve been stalling ever since I got here.” He spoke in a low voice. “I don’t think we can keep him waiting much longer.”

  “Then it’s time to be proactive.” She shut the laptop. “I’ll distract him, and you get the hell out of here. You owe me a fighting chance, and I can’t leave my grandpa here alone.”

  “I’m sorry, Riley, but I don’t intend to take a bullet for you. I’m not a hero like Noah.”

  She pushed back her chair and gave him a look of utter contempt. “You’re right about that. You’re nothing like Noah.”

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  “Price Wagner isn’t at his house.” Brasher’s tone was flat and unequivocal. “I also went to his law firm, but he hasn’t been around in a few days. The police searched his office at Vortex. None of his co-workers or the family members I contacted know where he is. The man doesn’t appear to have many close friends.”

  Noah let the detective’s words sink in as Wolf weaved through traffic, speeding toward Boston. “How did you know Wagner abducted Riley?”

  The cop was silent for a moment before speaking. “I got a tip from a reliable source. I won’t say more than that.”

  “Your reliable source doesn’t know where Wagner took her?”

  “I’m afraid I can’t reach him. I’ve been trying.”

  “Where do we look next?” Noah stared out the window of the SUV as they approached the Harvard Bridge, wondering how he managed to sound so calm when all he wanted was to reach through the connection, grip Brasher around the neck, and shake an answer out of him.

  “I’ll get back to you when I know more.”

  Noah disconnected. “My guess is Brasher’s source is his nephew. The fact that Charles was at Counterstrike headquarters earlier can’t be a coincidence. That punk knows more than he’s told us.” Scrolling through his phone, he dialed Charles’s number. When it immediately went to voicemail, he waited impatiently for the beep. “Call me, you little shit, or I swear to God I’ll kill you myself.”

  “I think you’re right, Patch.” In the back seat, Luna glanced up from her computer screen. “Here’s the connection. Charles was friends with Wagner’s son, Kelvin. Charles found him after his buddy ODed on pain killers and called 9-1-1. They couldn’t save him. I also discovered regular payments from one of Wagner’s subsidiary accounts to Trimountaine University. I’d bet money he’s paying Charles’s grad school tuition.”

  “Can you get an address for him? Maybe they’re holding Riley at his apartment.”

  “Brasher would have looked for him there.” Wolf glanced away from the traffic clogged street as they inched over the bridge. “Wagner must have taken her someplace where he couldn’t be easily traced.”

  “What about that girl who arrived at Counterstrike headquarters with Charles? Riley’s friend with the guilty conscience?” GQ pulled his phone from his pocket and typed something. “Maybe she knows where he went after he dropped her off.”

  “I don’t have her number,” Noah answered. “Her name is Becca something.”

  “I just texted Scarlet. She was in contact with her when Riley was kidnapped, so she’ll have it.” GQ grunted in satisfaction. “Becca Swain. Here’s her number.”

  “Smart thinking.” Noah entered the information into his phone, put it on speaker, and pressed to connect. Nerves strung to the breaking point, he waited while the phone rang.

  “Hello,” a hesitant female voice answered.

  “Becca, this is Noah, Riley’s friend.”

  “Riley said you were out of town.” Her voice went up a notch. “Please don’t tell me something is wrong.”

  “Can’t do that. Riley’s missing.” He spoke abruptly. “I’m hoping you can help us find her.”

  “Oh, my God. Oh, no! I just spoke to her a couple of hours ago. What happened?”

  “Did someone go with you and Charles to Counterstrike headquarters?”

  “No. Mr. Wagner—he’s a board member or someone important at Vortex since I saw him coming out of one of the plush offices there once. Anyway, he told us where Riley was staying, but he didn’t come with us to the townhouse.”

  Noah met Wolf’s skeptical gaze and grimaced. “What about Charles? What happened after you left Counterstrike headquarters?”

  “He brought me back to Cambridge. I think he was late for class or something because he was in a big rush, especially after he took a phone call. I was a little afraid because he was driving so fast.”

  “Who called him?”

  “I don’t know, but I think he planned to meet someone. He repeated an address out loud, the way you do when you want to remember something.”

  All the breath rushed out of Noah’s lungs. With an effort, he forced himself to speak calmly. “I need that address, Becca.”

  “I’m not sure I remember it. Louisburg Square, but I didn’t pay attention to the number.”

  Luna started typing on her laptop. “I’ll pull up property owners and see if something pops.”

  “Can you tell me anything else that might help?” Noah asked.

  “I wish I could.” Becca’s voice was tearful. “I can’t believe Charles would hurt Riley. I always thought he had a thing for her.”

  “Good to know. Thank you.” He hung up before she could respond.

  “We’re only five minutes away from Louisburg Square.” GQ lifted a bag from the rear of the SUV. He unzipped it and handed out sidearms, ammunition magazines, and communication devices. Lifting out pieces of a rifle, along with a silencer, he fit them into a rectangular case. “I don’t know what sort of vantage point I might have, but I want to be prepared.”

  “I cross-referenced the property owners with Vortex employees and shareholders. One name was on both lists, Ralph Coates.” Luna typed faster. “He and his wife went through Italian customs in Rome five days ago.”

  “Wagner knew the house would be empty.” Noah adjusted his e
arpiece and slid the magazine into his revolver.

  Luna nodded. “The house is on the north-west corner of the street, facing a small park with trees.”

  “Maybe I can get an angle from one of them if there’s a hostage situation.” GQ met Noah’s gaze. “My hope is it won’t come to that.”

  “Mine, too. There’ll be plenty of foot traffic this time of the afternoon when people are getting home from work. Let’s hope we can go in quietly.”

  Wolf swerved the SUV into a parking spot when a car pulled away from the curb. With the skill of long practice, he just cleared the bumpers of the cars on either side as he eased the big vehicle into the tight space.

  “This is close enough.” He turned off the engine. “GQ, get into position in the park with a view of the front windows. Luna, take a stroll past the house. Maybe there’ll be a blind raised or a curtain askew, and you’ll get eyes on our target. Patch and I will scope out the rear.”

  Noah stepped out of the SUV and walked beside Wolf at a fast clip, avoiding other pedestrians. Covering the intervening blocks, they approached from the west on Pinckney Street.

  “That’s the one.” Noah took a quick look around the corner before fading back.

  The house, red brick with black shutters like all the others on the street, showed no signs of life. No open windows. Drapes pulled tight. The side windows at street level were barred, and there was no access to the rear of the building.

  “Shit.”

  Wolf grimaced. “We go in from the front or not at all.”

  “There are trees back there, which indicates some sort of enclosed yards. Maybe we try entering through the house next door. Jumping any fence between properties won’t be a problem.”

  “Luna, are you able to see anything?” Wolf spoke into his mouthpiece.

  “Shadows moving behind the curtains in the front room of the target house. I’d swear someone is pacing in there. It looks like the door is alarmed. There’s a sticker from a security company.”