Nuclear Survival: Western Strength (Book 1): Bear The Brunt

by Tate, Harley

  “A year.”

  Lainey glowered. “I am not calling her.”

  “You have to. She’s the only reporter sniffing around nuclear bombs and terrorism that we could find.”

  “She’ll never take my call. You’d have better luck.”

  “Right. Some random guy she’s never heard of? You’ve got name recognition at least.”

  “The wrong kind.”

  Keith leaned across the console and squeezed her shoulder. “Daphne looked everywhere, Lainey. Crystal’s the only one reporting anything like what Midge told you.”

  Lainey softened. She shouldn’t take out her frustration on Keith. It wasn’t his fault a barracuda with a press pass was the only lead. She tucked her hair behind her ears. “There have to be a million reporters in the United States. Thousands in Los Angeles. Why her?”

  “To make your life even harder.” He smiled. “Give her a call. The worst that happens is she won’t talk to you.”

  “If she doesn’t pick up, we are not driving all the way to the Times.”

  Keith scrunched up his face. “What do you mean? The Times building is almost around the corner.”

  “They lost the lease last year. The entire paper relocated to El Segundo.”

  Keith groaned. “That’s over an hour without traffic.”

  “When does that happen? I’ve seen the highway stop at 2 a.m. for no reason whatsoever. With all that news out there and the panic? It’ll take forever.” Lainey pulled out her phone. “If she won’t talk to me, we should go get Bear.”

  Keith reached out a hand. “I don’t want to stop you from your story. I know how important it is to you.”

  Lainey suppressed a grimace. He meant well, but Keith’s words hit hard. The job ripped them apart the first time and here it was again, getting in the way. “Bear is more important than the story.”

  He stared at her for a moment, an emotion she couldn’t read washing over his face. “Thanks, Lainey.”

  She nodded and turned to her purse, digging for the stack of business cards. She pulled out Crystal’s and dialed her cell phone number. It rang and rang until Crystal’s nasal monotone griped at her to leave a message.

  She hit End and dialed again. Dammit, Crystal. Pick up. Voicemail. She dialed again. “I told you, there’s no way she’s going to—”

  “What do you want?”

  Lainey gave a start. “Crystal!”

  “No. It’s Gal Gadot. Of course it’s Crystal. What happened, KSBF finally figure out you’re a poser and kick you to the curb?”

  “No.” Lainey exhaled and tried to stay professional. “It’s about your reporting on the blackout.”

  Crystal didn’t respond.

  “Are you there?”

  “Yeah. What about it?”

  Lainey lowered her voice even though no one could hear her inside the van. “I’ve got a source saying the same things.”

  “You pulling my leg?”

  “No.” Lainey shifted in the worn passenger seat. The reporter in her wanted to hold the information close and not give Crystal an inch, but if bombs were already in play, then she needed to suck it up and be the better person. “I’ve received intel about twenty-five bombs en route to major—”

  Crystal cut her off with a hiss. “Not on the phone.”

  “I can’t make it to the Times’ office.”

  “The twenty-four-hour diner in Beverly Grove. Retro building kind of looks like a spaceship. Know it?”

  Lainey frowned. “On Ventura?”

  “Table in the back.” The phone beeped with the end of the call and Lainey dropped her hand.

  “What’d she say?”

  “She won’t talk over the phone.”

  “So we’re out of luck?”

  “Not exactly. You know that 1950s-era diner on Ventura?”

  “The one open all night?”

  Lainey nodded. “She’s at a table in the back.”

  Keith started the van. “Let’s hope she’s still there when we get there.”

  He eased out of the parking deck and through the streets of UCLA’s campus until they emerged onto the winding curves of Sunset Boulevard. They blew past the entrance to Bel Air, with its vintage iron scrollwork and down Burton Way with its grass median and clusters of palm trees.

  Lainey twisted a clump of hair around her fingers. The middle of the night in one of the nicest parts of Los Angeles and it was business as usual. Gone were the throngs of commuters stuck in gridlock. Absent were rioters or residents evacuating in a panic.

  She thought about the East Coast and ran the numbers in her head. Eleven hours since the blackout. Eleven hours of chaos and confusion and lack of information. Was Chicago a war zone? Did her mother make it out before everything fell apart?

  The van bounced over the lip of concrete leading into the diner’s parking lot. A single car blotted out a window in the front of the restaurant.

  “You think that’s her?” Keith motioned to the low-riding hatchback as he pulled the van in alongside it.

  “I hope so.” Lainey grabbed her bag and was out of the van before Keith had a chance to pull the key from the ignition. She hurried to the glass front door and yanked it open as Keith loped to catch up. He grabbed the door by the frame as she ducked inside.

  A handful of patrons glanced up. A man nursing coffee at the counter. A couple of teenagers conspiring together in a booth. Only one didn’t bother: a woman in the back with her head bent over a glowing computer. Crystal.

  Lainey strode straight toward her and slid into the booth. “Thanks for meeting me.”

  Crystal didn’t look up. “I didn’t say you could bring a friend.”

  Keith grinned. “Pretend I’m a bodyguard.”

  “Didn’t agree to one of them, either.”

  “Cool it, Crystal. He’s my cameraman.”

  Crystal flicked her eyes up at last, meeting Lainey’s stare across the table. “I’m regretting this already.”

  The waitress appeared, waving a coffee pot in their general direction. Lainey and Keith both flipped over the white porcelain mugs and she filled them as she spoke. “Kitchen’s on limited service. We got pie and anything off the griddle. No burgers, no fries.”

  Keith ordered a plate of eggs and pancakes and Lainey made it two. If they were going to stay up all night, they needed more than caffeine and water to tide them over. As the waitress retreated, Lainey turned back to Crystal.

  “If I give you what I have, will you return the favor?”

  “Depends on if it’s good or not.” Crystal’s voice dripped as much condescension as her Coke glass dripped condensed water onto the Formica. “If you waste my time, you won’t get a thing.”

  Lainey pulled up her sister’s information on her phone and handed it across the table. “That’s everything I’ve got.”

  Crystal scrolled, chewed-on nail flicking across the screen over and over. After a moment, her eyes narrowed. “Where’d you get this?”

  “Confidential source.”

  “A hacker kid?”

  Lainey’s eyes widened. Had Midge contacted another reporter? It couldn’t be. “Describe her.”

  “Not a her. A him. Sounds young. Scared. He called me yesterday spewing a whole bunch of crap about bombs and airplanes falling from the sky and a bunch of other stuff. I blew him off at first, but then the reports about the blackout started coming in.”

  Lainey pressed her lips together. It had to be Baker. Lainey didn’t know him well. She’d only met him once while visiting Midge at college. “If it’s who I’m thinking of, he’s a friend of my sister’s. Goes to school with her.”

  “He was leaving some hacker conference. Said he had to get home to his mom in Denver.”

  Lainey leaned back. “That’s Baker. Midge said he was from there.” She reeled. It wasn’t just her sister trying to stop the attacks. Baker was involved, too. She took her phone back from Crystal. “Has he sent you anything else?”

  “Not since yester
day. He’s gone completely dark.”

  “So you don’t have anything else?” Lainey’s heart hammered in her chest. They couldn’t have gotten this close to find out Crystal had nothing more than Baker’s files.

  “I didn’t say that.”

  The waitress returned with arms full of food, forcing Lainey to hold her question. She waited until the woman moved out of earshot before leaning forward. “What else do you have? Is it true? Are the bombs real?”

  “I don’t know.” Crystal sipped her Coke and motioned for Lainey and Keith to eat. “Don’t let me stop you. Once those eggs get cold, they’re nasty.”

  Lainey shoveled a forkful of food into her mouth and Keith did the same. She spoke around the soft, salty yolk. “Come on, Crystal. Give me something.”

  After a moment, Crystal set the glass down and turned to her computer, typing and moving her fingers across the trackpad. “I was given a confidential report a few hours ago. The blackout over the East Coast was caused by a high-altitude ballistic missile.”

  Frustration bubbled up inside Lainey and she sloshed her coffee in Crystal’s direction. “We already know that.”

  “It was launched from a cargo ship off the coast.”

  That information was new. “Any idea who was responsible?”

  “No, and that’s the strange thing. So far, the federal government hasn’t said a word. Sure, individual states have declared states of emergency and the National Guard has been mobilized, but the president? Radio silent. Congress, too.”

  Keith polished off his plate and Lainey hurried to catch up. Crystal was right about eating while the food was hot. She forced down a cooling bite as she thought about everything she knew. Baker shared his info with Crystal, Midge with her. What about Rick? He’d still never gotten back to her. She pointed her fork at her phone. “I’ve got a private investigator on the case in New York and he’s MIA. Now when I call it says the number is out of service.”

  “Name?”

  “Rick Easton.”

  Crystal’s fingers flew across the keyboard. “Normal spelling?”

  Lainey nodded.

  “That’s weird, because I can’t find him at all. Did he have a website?”

  Lainey gave her the address.

  “Gone.” Crystal shook her head. “It’s like he never existed.”

  A chill ran through Lainey’s body. She turned to Keith. “You don’t think—”

  Keith sobered. “Do either of you have any evidence this was an inside job?”

  “You mean a domestic terrorist?”

  “I’m thinking more governmental at this point.”

  “No way.” Lainey waved him off. “That’s impossible.”

  “Not necessarily.” Crystal straightened up, her pupils contracting with excitement. “Something came into the tip line overnight and I dismissed it out of hand, but maybe I shouldn’t have.” She typed again before spinning the computer toward Lainey. “Hit the Play button.”

  Lainey did as Crystal requested and a distinctly British voice began to speak. “This is a message for any reporter at the Times with enough bollocks to report the truth. Bombs are coming. People in power know everything. Get your bloody arses in gear and report on it before it’s too late.”

  “That’s it?” Lainey leaned back. “There’s nothing to it at all.”

  “I didn’t think so at first, either. But then I tracked down the location of the caller.”

  “You can do that?”

  “Sometimes. He used Wi-Fi calling and you’ll never believe where he called from.”

  “London?”

  “Nope.” Crystal beamed like she’d won a Pulitzer. “The Los Angeles British Consulate.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  KEITH

  24-Hour Diner Parking Lot

  Los Angeles, California

  Saturday, 2:00 a.m. PST

  Keith tugged the driver door shut and turned to Lainey in the passenger seat. They couldn’t drive all the way back to the British Consulate on the basis of Crystal’s tip. The message lacked any real information and Keith wasn’t sure about Crystal’s calling-from-the-Consulate theory. How many Brits lived in Los Angeles? Thousands, at least. The guy could have been calling from a cell phone that just happened to pick up the Consulate’s Wi-Fi.

  He knew Lainey was worried about Rick’s complete disappearance—hell, Keith was, too—but they needed more to go on than Crystal’s information, and he needed to get home. Now. He turned to Lainey. She sat hunched over her phone, staring at a map.

  “We can’t drive to the Consulate offices. They’re all the way back by the FBI.”

  She jerked her head up. “You heard Crystal, it’s the best lead we’ve got. If someone in there knows something—”

  “They won’t tell us.” Keith tore a hand through his hair. “It’s two in the morning, Lainey. Bear’s got to be desperate by now.” He was a sensible guy, but the longer they left Bear hanging, the less patient he became. “If there’s a bomb in the city, I’ve got to get to him. I have to make sure he’s safe.”

  Lainey didn’t respond.

  Keith pressed. “We can take an hour and regroup. Figure out a plan instead of chasing a possibility. I know Rick’s disappearance is worrying you, but I’ve got to think about Bear. Once he’s with me, I’ll go wherever you want.”

  “Promise?”

  He nodded.

  “All right. Let’s go.” Lainey fell silent as Keith backed the van out of the space and headed toward his apartment. He sped down an empty West Third Street, passing not a single moving car. A delivery truck blinked hazard lights outside the loading dock of a grocery store, but apart from the driver wheeling in cases of milk, they didn’t see a soul. He parked on the first floor of the deck and was out of the van and rushing up the stairs before Lainey even opened her door.

  As soon as Keith stuck his key in the lock, Bear’s claws scrabbled at the door. Keith pushed it open and the shaggy retriever bounded to him, almost knocking him down as he jumped all over. “Come on, buddy. Let’s get you out.” They ran back the way Keith had come, passing Lainey halfway up the stairs. Bear barked in greeting, jumping and spinning in a circle. Lainey laughed.

  “Come on boy, you can see her in a minute.” He ushered Bear out to the dog run, and as soon as Bear finished his business, he took off, racing back to the apartment and to Lainey.

  Keith found them both on the couch, Lainey smothered in a wagging whirlwind of fur and slobber. “I think he missed you.”

  Lainey’s voice emerged from behind the dog. “I didn’t think he’d remember me. He was just a puppy.”

  “Bear loves you. Of course he’d remember.” Keith regretted the words as soon as he said them. Lainey had enough to deal with without wondering whether he still harbored any feelings for her. He called out to his dog. “Bear, come.”

  Reluctantly, the dog hopped off the couch and made his way over to Keith. “Good boy. Now let’s get you some dinner.” Keith avoided eye contact with Lainey as he walked into the kitchen and dug the dog food out from the cabinet. He filled Bear’s bowl and topped up his water before finally turning around.

  Lainey leaned against the kitchen bar, arms folded across her chest. Wrinkles turned her dress into a crepe paper shift and dried sweat smudged her eye makeup into raccoon rings around her eyes.

  “You’re welcome to take a shower.”

  Her brow pinched.

  He held up his hands. “I just thought you might want to wash the day off. A cold shower might help keep you awake, too. You’ve got to be running on empty.”

  “Is it that obvious?” She pressed a hand against her cheek as she turned halfway to glance at the bathroom door.

  “Daphne left some chick soap in there. You won’t have to worry about smelling like a lumberjack.”

  Lainey snorted out a laugh. “Well when you put it like that, how can I refuse?”

  Bear finished the last of his food and waddled over to Lainey. A fat blob of drool dr
ibbled from his mouth down her leg.

  She shook her head. “I guess all the men in this house are trying to tell me something.” She scratched the dog behind the ear. “I won’t take long.” As she disappeared into the single bathroom, Keith exhaled.

  Ever since they broke up, he’d tried to tell himself he didn’t care. That all of those feelings were misguided and wrong. That he shouldn’t want her back. But it was no use. Even Bear missed Lainey.

  Did she feel the same? Back when they dated, nothing he did ever trumped her job. Striving for another promotion, working all hours—it was everything Keith hated about the rat race. He had a roof over his head, a good dog, and a decent job without too many jerks around to ruin his day. It was enough for him, but not for Lainey.

  He sagged onto a bar stool. Would everything that happened over the past day change her? Would she come out of this experience with a new set of priorities? Keith could hope.

  Maybe after all of this craziness died down…

  The trill of a phone cut off Keith’s thoughts and he slid off the stool. The noise came from inside Lainey’s bag. He hesitated. The shower water still echoed though the pipes in the wall. Would she want him answering it? What if it was her mother? Or her sister? She would never forgive him if he missed it.

  Keith ran toward the bag, digging through her things with his meaty fingers before finding the teal-cased phone. The call came up Unknown. Keith swiped it to connect and brought it up to his ear. “Hello?”

  “Lainey?”

  “No. Who’s this?”

  A string of curses cut across the line and Keith knew exactly who it was. “Rick, is that you? It’s Keith Harper.”

  “Figures she’d shack up with you again.” The line fuzzed and Keith missed whatever insult came next. “Get her the hell out of there.”

  “What are you talking about?”

  “The bombs are in play.”

  The line crackled and Keith hoped he’d misheard. “Rick? Are you there?”

  “—hell out of Los Angeles. Far away as possible. They—”

  Keith frowned. “You keep breaking up.”

  “—soon. Get out.”

  “Where are you?”