“Um…” Leo eyed Holt and me standing side by side. Despite the painful-looking mark on his jaw, Holt wore a calm and pleasant expression. I did my best to match it.
“Just… what they said,” Leo said slowly. “Aydan had her back to Holt, and he came up behind her fast and grabbed her shoulder. She spun around and hit him once. That’s all.”
“See? No big deal,” Holt said easily. “Nice elbow strike, by the way, Kelly. Have you been studying martial arts?”
I managed a laugh that didn’t sound too false. “Nope. Like I said, just a dumb-luck shot.”
Nobody needed to know about the heavy bag I’d installed in my basement, or the muay thai training videos I’d been studying.
Stemp gave us a look that made it clear he could smell bullshit, but he turned back to Leo without comment. We stood in silence while he signed out at the security wicket, and when the exit door closed behind him I let out a breath of relief.
“Show’s over, folks,” I deadpanned to Jack and Reggie. “Just move along. Nothing to see here.”
Reggie snorted amusement, but the smile didn’t stay on his face long. Taking a couple of steps forward, he stood toe to toe with Holt, staring up into the taller man’s face with deadly intensity.
“Don’t manhandle Aydan again,” he said quietly. “Or I will fuck you up in ways you can’t even imagine.” His fire-ravaged features lent the words spine-chilling menace, and he gave Holt one last glare before turning his back and stalking away. Jack gave us a tentative smile and a little finger-wave before hurrying after him.
“Christ, that fugly sonofabitch gives me the creeps,” Holt muttered. “What’d you do to get on his good side? Suck his-” His eyes widened at my expression, and he snapped his mouth shut so fast I heard his teeth click. “Sorry,” he mumbled. “That was Holt The Asshole talking.”
I fought my anger under control. “I thought I recognized that voice,” I said lightly. “I’m glad he’s gone now.”
Holt’s posture eased. “Yeah. Listen, I need to talk to you. Not here.” He indicated the public lobby with a jerk of his chin.
“Let’s go up to my office,” I said, hoping this wasn’t just a ploy to get me alone so he could kill me at his leisure.
We walked upstairs without speaking, and when we entered my office he swung the door shut behind him.
“So what’s up?” I asked, holding my voice steady and wondering whether I could grab my gun out of my ankle holster before he could twist my head off.
Holt dropped onto my sofa and propped his boots on my coffee table with a weary sigh. “Fucking Grandin.”
“Um… would ‘fucking’ be a verb or an adjective?” I inquired cautiously. “Because if it’s an adjective I’m right there with you; but if you’re talking about literally fucking Grandin, he’s all yours.”
Holt barked out a laugh. “Don’t tell me; let me guess. You were an English major.”
“Nope. Bookkeeper. Accuracy is very important, especially if it keeps me from ending up in bed with guys like Grandin.”
“True.” Holt’s grin vanished, his jaw hardening. “So… things just got a whole lot more complicated. Grandin’s claiming he was under official CIA orders the whole time.”
“To kill an FBI agent and an MI6 agent and sell me? How stupid does he think we are?”
“That’s what I thought.” Holt frowned. “But… the lie detector corroborates his story. He said he had orders to have the U.S. scientists fake their weapon demo; so he coordinated that with them and their Weapons director. That whole thing was just a ruse to frame you and extradite you.”
“Yeah, we’d already figured that out,” I agreed. “And somebody in the U.S. government has a lot of explaining to do to Five Eyes about that. But there’s no way Grandin had orders for the rest of it.”
Holt rubbed his forehead, frowning. “He swears he got a second set of orders after he framed you at the conference. The orders said Dirk and Rand were dirty and he was authorized to use deadly force against them; and he’d get a cash bonus if he abducted you and handed you over to a contact instead of waiting on the official extradition. Then he was supposed to pretend you’d attacked him and escaped.”
My stomach tightened as I processed that. “So they intended to bury me. Extradition would have taken too long and left a paper trail, but this… it would look as though I’d gone rogue and vanished. The U.S. could claim ignorance of the whole thing, and nobody would ever know where I’d ended up.”
“Yeah. And Grandin’s orders said if anything went wrong he should sit tight, claim diplomatic immunity, and they’d have him safely back on U.S. soil within twelve hours. That’s why he wasn’t talking earlier, but now the twelve hours is long past and the U.S. government is denying they ever issued those orders. Grandin says he got set up.”
“But… hang on.” I planted my fists on my hips. “When he kidnapped me he said he had a better market, and he called me Arlene Widdenback. And I seriously doubt the CIA pays cash bonuses to agents just for following orders. He’s bullshitting. He might have gotten so-called ‘orders’ from somewhere, but he had to know they weren’t legit.”
Holt scowled. “Maybe. He’s been careful about the way he answers my questions. But the Arlene Widdenback thing is probably a dead end. Grandin knew about your cover identity from your dossier with U.S. Customs, so he just assumed that’s what it was about. He says nobody specifically told him to abduct Arlene Widdenback.”
I grimaced. “Great. Nothing like narrowing the field.”
Holt grunted agreement and went on, “So Grandin finally coughed up the phone number for his contact. He was supposed to call the number and arrange a drop as soon as he had you. He’s never met the contact in person, but we have to assume they know who he is. So it looks like our only option is to set up a sting with you as bait.”
I fell into my chair and buried my head in my hands. “Absolutely fucking marvelous.”
My voice came out thin and tremulous, and Holt snapped, “Have you got a problem with that?”
I had been teetering on the edge of admitting I was in no shape mentally or physically to undertake that kind of mission; but the contempt in his tone prodded my stubborn pride.
I raised my head from my hands and gave him a level look. “We have a problem with that. Stemp just rescinded my active-duty status.”
“What the hell? What did you do?” Holt demanded. “Couldn’t you game the psych evaluation? I thought you had that covered.”
Still prickling with irritation, I snapped, “I passed my psych evaluation.”
“But?”
“Stemp nailed me on a technicality.” Before Holt could dig for details, I went on, “It’s no big deal. I should be back to active duty tomorrow.”
“Oh.” He relaxed. “Okay, good. I won’t have anything set up before then anyway.” He removed his feet from my coffee table and rose, stretching and flexing his neck. “Christ, did you have to go to town on me like that?” He touched the swollen spot on his jaw and winced. “You knew damn well it was me.”
“I’m sorry,” I said sincerely. “I did know it was you, but you startled the hell out of me and by the time my brain caught up with my reflexes it was too late.”
“Huh.” He gave me a narrow look. “Lucky for you Stemp showed up when he did.”
“I’m still thanking my lucky stars.”
Holt must have heard the profound truth in my voice. He laughed. “Way to suck up, Kelly. Don’t worry, I probably wouldn’t have killed you outright. Remember, I’m gaming my psych evaluations, too.” Heading for the door, he added, “I’ll run the sting mission by Stemp and bring you into the loop as soon as we have a strategy. Catch you later.”
As he vanished down the hall, I fell back in my chair with a whimper of sheer despair.
Chapter 25
My cell phone vibrated as I stepped out of Sirius Dynamics into a bitter wind that whipped my breath away. The call display showed Hellhound’s number, and I acc
epted the call with a smile.
“Hey, darlin’, wave at me,” he said. “I’m lookin’ at ya from the parkin’ lot.”
My grin widened as I waved in the direction of the Subaru Forester idling across the street. “Hey, you creepy stalker,” I teased. “Are you planning to take me to the bar, get me drunk, and take advantage of me?”
“Sounds like a helluva plan.” His voice deepened. “Hey, little girl, come here. I got candy.”
“Mm, I bet you do. Be right there.” I crossed the street and hurried over.
He got out of the SUV as I trotted up, and a moment later I was engulfed in the gentle strength of his hug. Burying my face in his parka, I closed my eyes and let the hurt and fear and anger of the day fall away.
“Hey, darlin’,” Arnie rasped softly, his lips against my hair. “It’s okay. Everythin’s gonna be okay.”
Somehow I managed to stop myself from saying ‘everything’s okay now that you’re here’. Instead, I gave him an extra squeeze and pulled away with a smile. “Thanks for coming. I’m really glad you’re here.”
“Glad I am, too. Hey…” He stroked my quivering hand with frown. “You’re shakin’. Are ya cold? Come on an’ get in the SUV an’ get warmed up.”
“No, I’m just tired and hungry.” I sighed. “And I’ve got one more stop before we go to Eddy’s. Why don’t you head over there and I’ll meet you as soon as I can?”
He frowned. “If you’re so hungry you’re shakin’, ya oughta eat first. ’Specially if ya think ya might run into trouble.” He studied me worriedly. “Are ya gonna be safe, where you’re goin’?”
“Yeah; no big deal,” I assured him. “I just have to stop in at the hospital to check on John and Daniel and Ian.”
“That doesn’t sound like a big enough emergency to skip a meal for.”
“No, but I just…” I trailed off as his words filtered through the fog in my brain. “Shit, you’re right. It can wait. I’m too tired to think straight.”
Hellhound grinned. “An’ that’s why I’m here. Hop in, darlin’. Let’s get ya fed an’ watered.”
“Maybe even beered,” I said hopefully as I hurried around to the passenger side.
The lunch crowd was trickling out when we arrived at Blue Eddy’s, and my favourite table in the corner had just been vacated. Hellhound and I slid into the two chairs with their backs to the wall.
“Ah,” Hellhound said with satisfaction as he shed his jacket and dumped it on one of the remaining chairs. “Best table in the place.”
Darlene hurried over to take our orders, returning with our beer in minutes. I sucked back a cold crisp swallow with a groan of satisfaction. “Damn, that’s good.”
Hellhound grinned. “Hope I can make ya moan like that later.”
“You always do.” I hitched my chair closer to his so I could lean into his shoulder with a contented sigh.
My sigh trailed off into a frown and I sat up again.
“What, darlin’?” Hellhound followed my sightline with a frown of his own. “Uh-oh.”
Our table gave us a commanding view of the entire bar, including the private corridor that led to Eddy’s office. Eddy and another man stood in the hallway talking, their body language tense.
The other man wore a suit that was too expensive for the atmosphere at Blue Eddy’s and he loomed threateningly over Eddy, scowling. Eddy faced him squarely, fists clenched by his sides. I could only see his back, but there was more than anger in his posture.
“I never saw Eddy pissed off before,” Hellhound said.
My pulse sped up as I assessed Eddy’s jerky gestures and the withdrawn angle of his body. “He’s not just pissed off. He’s scared.” I leaned back, resting my ankle on my knee. A quick survey of the bar assured me that nobody was looking, and I slipped my trank pistol out of my ankle holster and into the back of my pants. “I’m going over there. Watch my back.”
“Right behind ya,” Hellhound growled.
We strolled toward the two men. The man in the suit gave us a hostile glare, and Eddy turned to face us.
“Oh. Hi, Aydan; Hellhound. Um, can I talk to you later?” He glanced at the other man, anxiety in his eyes. “I’m just in the middle of something here.”
“Yeah, I can see that,” Hellhound rumbled. “Doesn’t look like a good somethin’, either.” He shot a look at the suit-clad man that would have made any sensible person turn tail and flee.
“Uh…” The man eyed Hellhound’s shit-kicker boots and bearded battle-scarred face, and took an uncertain step backward. Then he squared his shoulders and summoned a sneer. “Strong-arm tactics, Carlson? That’s not going to win you any points with AHS.”
“No, no.” Eddy spread his hands in a placating gesture. “That’s not it at all. These are my friends…” He gave us a look that implored us to back off.
“Sorry, we didn’t mean to interrupt,” I said hurriedly. “It’s just that I’m Eddy’s bookkeeper, and I have a quick question for him. It’ll only take a minute.”
“Take as long as you want,” the stranger snapped. “I’ll be in the kitchen.” He strode in that direction, pulling out his phone as he went.
“Sorry, Aydan, now’s not a good time,” Eddy said rapidly. “I’ll talk to you later, okay? Gotta go.” He hurried after the other man.
“AHS. Alberta Health Services,” Hellhound said as we sat down at our table again. “That ain’t good.”
“I can’t imagine Eddy would ever have a problem with the health inspectors,” I replied. “I’ve been in that kitchen. It’s spotless. And Eddy’s kitchen staff have been with him for years. He treats them like family. There’s no way they’d get sloppy and risk a health violation.”
“He sure looked nervous, though,” Hellhound pointed out.
“Yeah…” I frowned and gulped some beer. It didn’t taste quite as good anymore.
Darlene arrived a few minutes later with our burgers and a strained smile.
“What’s with the health inspector?” I asked quietly as she placed the plates on the table.
She glanced anxiously over her shoulder. “I don’t know,” she whispered, her face tense. “We had a routine inspection a few months ago, but this guy’s acting like he expects to find rat poison in the soup or something. Our kitchen is clean, it’s always been clean, and the food’s always fresh. Eddy loves his customers and he’d never serve bad food!” She gave us a desperate look. “Don’t tell anybody, okay? If Eddy ever went out of business, I’d… I’d just…” Her voice choked off and she blinked rapidly as her eyes filled.
“It’s okay, Eddy’s our friend, too,” I comforted her. “We’re on your side. We won’t say a thing.”
“Thanks.” She pasted on a smile. “Enjoy your burgers…” Her smile wobbled. “If… if you still want them…”
“Hell yeah!” Hellhound took a giant bite. “Kickass,” he mumbled through his mouthful. “Just like always.”
My stomach let out a growl loud enough to be heard over the music. “Nobody’s taking this beauty away from me,” I told Darlene, pulling my plate closer. “Don’t worry, it’s probably just a screwup at AHS.”
She squared her shoulders. “You’re right. Of course.” She put on another smile and scurried off to attend to the rest of the patrons.
We ate in silence for a while, concentrating on the delicious burgers and our own thoughts.
What if they closed Eddy down? This was my home away from home. My haven of good food, good music, good company…
“Fuck,” Hellhound said, glowering at his plate.
My gut clenched. “What’s wrong? Is there something wrong with your food?”
“Huh?” He looked up, his scowl clearing. “Oh. Fuck no, nothin’ like that. Sorry. Just thinkin’.” He absently stuffed a few fries in his mouth and chewed, frowning into middle distance.
I waited.
After a moment he blinked and returned his attention to me just as Eddy hurried over.
“I smell a rat,” He
llhound began.
“Well, don’t say anything to the other customers,” Eddy joked as he slid into one of the chairs across from us, but the usual twinkle was absent from his eyes. “Sorry about that… um… earlier. Everything’s fine. Nothing to worry about.”
I studied him. “Don’t take this wrong, Eddy, but I think you’re fibbing.”
He gave me a hunted look, and I reached across the table to take his hand. “Talk to us, Eddy. We’re your friends. Let us help.”
His grip tightened. “I…” He hesitated, clearly torn. “Oh, heck; I’m not going to lie to you.” He blew out a tense breath. “Somebody called the health department on us. Claimed they’d found a dead mouse in their salad.”
“Gross!” I said at the same time as Hellhound snapped, “Somebody’s harassin’ ya, I knew it. That’s what I meant earlier when I said I smelled a rat.”
“That’s what I told the inspector,” Eddy agreed. “There’s no way that really happened. Nobody’s sent a salad back with a complaint in…” He gazed up at the ceiling as if counting back years.
“Ever,” he finished, returning his attention to us. “Nobody ever sent a salad back, that I can remember. And they sure as heck didn’t do it yesterday, when the complaint was filed with the AHS.” He leaned forward, lowering his voice. “But this morning…”
He glanced from side to side and leaned in closer to whisper, “There was a dead mouse in the corner of the kitchen. But I know we don’t have mice. They leave mouse dirt everywhere. We’d have known they were there long before one upped and died right out in plain sight.”
“Somebody planted it,” I said with certainty. “Somebody’s trying to get you in…” I suddenly realized I was still holding his hand.
Just like I had yesterday.
I pulled my hand away. “…trouble,” I finished, feeling ill.
“What, Aydan?” Hellhound demanded. “What’s wrong?”
They know how to get to Kelly.
“Eddy,” I said in a small voice. “I’m sorry, but I think this might be my fault.”
“What?” Eddy let out an incredulous laugh. “Not unless you sleep-drove to town carrying a dead mouse, let yourself in, dumped the corpse, locked everything up again, and drove home again without ever waking up. Because I can’t imagine you intentionally doing anything like this.”
Friends In Spy Places Page 20