A View to a Thrill (Masters and Mercenaries Book 7) (8 page)

His voice came over the line, the sound harsh in her ears. “Chelsea, I am so sorry.”

Her whole body went cold because she could hear him breathing. He was panting as if he’d just run a long way.

Or as if he was scared for his life.

Simon’s whole body had gone stiff. He’d obviously heard the same thing she had.

“Al? What’s going on?” Chelsea asked.

His voice came out in stuttery pants. “I didn’t know. You have to understand, Chelsea. I didn’t know. I’m a rebel, not a killer. They just wanted me to write some code and then hack into a server. It was so much money. I thought they were just idiots. When I figured it out it was too late.”

“What are you talking about? You had a job go bad?” It wouldn’t be the first time. They’d all gotten into trouble at one time or another. The plan was always to run and hide and find a new identity. There was a whole team of hackers Chelsea had befriended. They helped each other when the heat got bad. “Who were you working for? Mob? Cartel? I told you to stay away from the Yakuza. It’s not like anime. How much do you need and where should I send it?”

He would need cash to run. She certainly owed it to him. He’d helped her and Charlotte more than once. Al had been one of the only people she could actually count on.

A sniffle came over the line. “Won’t work. Money won’t change anything. Nothing’s going to work, Chels. Nothing but you. Hey, you remember the fun we had in Europe? When we spent that weekend there? That was a good time.”

They’d met the once. Why was he reminiscing when he obviously needed help? “Yeah, it was a blast. Have you called Jim and gotten a new passport? You need to move and fast. I’m in the same boat quite frankly, as evidenced by my earlier message.”

“Chelsea, I sent you a package.”

She shrugged as Simon stared at her. “A package, why?”

Another sniffle from Al. “I needed someone to know.”

Where is the package?
Simon mouthed the question.

“Where did you send this package? What addy did you use?” She had a dozen different e-mail addresses. She used them for different reasons and with different people, but Al could figure out all of them. He was that good.

“I didn’t do digital.”

Now the room really went cold. Fuck. He was serious if he’d sent a hard copy. “To my home location?”

Had he sent her the damn bomb? What the hell? Or was the package the reason she’d gotten the bomb?

Simon was suddenly behind her. She could feel his heat and she knew she wasn’t alone. Somehow she resisted the urge to lean back into him, to beg him to put his arms around her. It was right there, always there. The minute she’d met him, she’d felt that instant connection that seemed to be more about her girl parts than her brain. There was this weird part of her that truly believed that Simon would take care of her.

There was the sound of sniffling and a hard cry before his voice came back on the line. “I’m so sorry. I couldn’t think of anyone else who would do it. I shouldn’t have given them your name. I should have just done what they said.”

Tension ran along her spine. What was he trying to tell her? “Who, Al? What are you talking about? Who were you working for? The Russians?”

It made her halfway sick, but the Russian mob was pretty much into everything these days. She had to hope it wasn’t her father’s syndicate. Her cousin’s syndicate. Her father and uncle were dead and Dusan led the syndicate now. Dusan, who had oddly helped her. She could remember when everyone was looking for the man who had almost raped her and Dusan had looked back at her and Charlotte and given them a solemn nod before turning back to their father and claiming that he knew where the man had gone. Dusan had claimed her almost rapist was a drug addict and he’d gotten lost in the scene. Strangely, she rather thought Dusan would let her be. If it was Russians, at the very least it wasn’t her blood. It gave her an odd sense of courage.

“Worse. So much worse. Not mob. Not Yakuza. They’re everywhere.” She heard a hiccupping sound. “I’m so sorry, Chelsea. I wish I’d kissed you that day. You remember the time we spent together in Europe. Sometimes I still feel the wind in my hair and the sun on my face. I really do. That was a beautiful day.”

She’d met him once in Italy. They’d had pizza and talked incessantly about the craft of coding. Not once had he seemed like he wanted to kiss her. Actually, she’d kind of gotten the feeling he played for the other team. She’d been very comfortable around him. Al had been the kind of guy she could actually talk to. Of all the people she’d met through her hacking and bargaining, she’d probably been closest to Al.

The voice changed abruptly. “As you can tell, Miss Dennis, he’s very apologetic. How long he remains that way is up to you.”

There was not breathy panting to this voice. Smooth. Calm and collected. The professional had arrived. It made her go cold.

“Who the hell are you?” She couldn’t imagine who had found Al.

No hesitation at the question. He simply moved forward. “I represent a group of men interested in maintaining a certain level of balance in the world. What Mr. Krum has done threatens that balance. He took a very reasonable work order and chose to misuse his power. You wouldn’t want to be a part of that, would you?”

“Hang up the phone, Chelsea,” Simon ordered.

“Oh, my. That sounds like a British accent.” The voice over the line came through so much clearer than Al’s had. “Might you be with Simon Weston? That is helpful information.”

Simon’s hand came around, but she was faster. She moved away. She couldn’t let him hang up the phone. Al obviously needed her, and she wasn’t going to let him hang. “Who are you?”

“I’m the man who is going to kill Albert Krum if you don’t tell me where you are. I need your physical location. You’re obviously not at home. I’ve sent people there. Are you with Weston?”

“Hang up that bloody phone, Chelsea.” Simon didn’t keep his voice down this time.

But she couldn’t listen to him. Al needed her. “Don’t hurt him.” Albert Krum wasn’t violent. He could be a bit mercenary but then he’d helped her take down some nasty organizations, too. He’d helped her move money from some big corporations to orphans in the Sudan. He’d played pranks on dumbass CEOs and he sent her links to YouTube videos where dogs did cute things. Al was her friend. Her real friend. She couldn’t let him hang.

“I don’t want to, but one does what one must, Miss Dennis. It’s my job and I’ll do it if you don’t tell me where the information is. He sent you a file folder. I can’t tell if he did it by mail or in virtual form. His lie detection was inconclusive. I only know that he sent the information to you and he truly cares for you. He believes you two are friends. I have a gun to his head right now. Is he your friend? Do you want me to pull the trigger? He won’t tell me where he sent it except to you.”

“Don’t.” She couldn’t be the reason he died. She just didn’t know the information this guy needed. “Maybe he sent it to my home. I’ve been gone for a couple of weeks. I didn’t get all of my mail. I’ll go and look.”

She’d already looked and someone had sent her a damn bomb. In two different ways. It wasn’t at her place. But in that moment, she would promise him anything to make sure Al lived.

That smooth as silk voice didn’t hesitate. “No. Your home has already been thoroughly searched. It’s not there. Where else would he have sent it in order to reach you? I’m not foolish, Miss Dennis. I know who you are. You’re The Broker. You have more than one address. Tell me now or I’ll put a slug through your friend’s brain.”

If Al wouldn’t tell them then he was serious about it. “I don’t know, but I can find out. I do have more than one place he could have sent it to. You have to give me time. I can’t just hop on the net and find out. Some of those places require a personal visit. Give me time.”

Simon practically jumped on her. She felt his body slam into hers and then he was reaching for her phone. He easily wrestled the phone away. He hung up with a flick of his thumb.

“Simon!”

He stepped back, his eyes on the phone. “You were on the line for long enough for them to trace you. That’s why they let him call you in the first place. Damn it. You have five minutes. We’re leaving in three hundred seconds. If it isn’t in your hands or on your body, it’s staying here.”

He took the phone and tossed it on the table and then started to walk away.

“How could you hang up like that?” She felt like her feet were glued to the floor. He’d just ruined everything.

When Simon turned, all of their prior intimacy was gone and there was nothing left but the cold-blooded agent who would do his job as surely as the man who had spoken to her on the phone. “Don’t look at me like that. They would have killed him anyway. It was inevitable. I don’t know who they are yet, but I know the type. When it comes to their plots, everyone dies. There is no exchange with men like this. Your friend was dead the moment he took that job, and he was obviously trying to warn you about something. He could have told them where he stashed the package and allowed them to retrieve it and likely kill you as well. He did the right thing by handling the situation the way he did. He kept his bloody mouth shut so you could have a chance. Now get your things so his sacrifice wasn’t in vain.”

She started to pick up her phone. Maybe she could call them back, offer whoever was on the other end of the line a deal. Maybe she could still save Al. “Simon, you have to let me call back. He’s my friend. He was a good friend. He even came out to Venice to meet me once. I can’t just let him die.”

Simon moved in front of her, his body a wall between her and the phone. “Don’t you dare touch it, Chelsea. The mobile and its very-easy-to-track GPS will stay here. You now have four minutes.”

Without another thought, she ran to grab her computer. It looked like she wasn’t staying in Dallas after all.

Chapter Four

Simon selected a shirt from the dresser and quickly pulled it on, buttoning up with the ease of long practice. He exchanged his pajama bottoms for a pair of slacks and got into his dress shoes. He could put on a suit in less than two minutes. He would have preferred to shave before he headed out, but the fact that whoever was on the other end of that line had known his name meant there was no time for proper grooming. They had to move and fast.

Luckily, he was a man with a plan.

However, the idea of leaving Ian completely in the dark was now discarded. If they knew Simon’s name, they certainly knew Ian’s. He grabbed his phone and sent a quick text.

Have Chelsea. Trouble on the way. Expect company and watch your back. Will check in later.

He couldn’t take the chance that they would go after Charlotte to get to Chelsea. If they knew anything at all about her, they would know she loved her sister above everyone else. He tossed his own phone on the bed. He wouldn’t use it again. He had burners in his go bag, but he had something to pick up before they left for a motel and he tried to figure this mess out.

His phone immediately started ringing.

“Are you going to answer that?” Chelsea grabbed her laptop. She’d managed to put on her shoes. She stopped and stared at him. “How did you have time to put on a suit?”

Because he firmly believed in being dressed for the occasion, and there was almost never an occasion to not wear a suit. He was working after all. He needed to remind himself that this was strictly work. He was nothing more than a curiosity for her.

“I’m a gentleman. I can dress quickly. And I’m certainly not answering that phone.” He knew who it was and the minute Ian spoke to him he would take over. Simon wasn’t willing to let that happen. He reached into his closet and pulled out his shoulder holster. He slipped it on and quickly checked the clip in his SIG. “Are you ready?”

“Simon, we have to help Al.”

She looked so bloody beautiful standing there. Her whole body was soft, entreating him to do her bidding. Her eyes gleamed up at him. He wanted nothing more than to indulge her, but he wasn’t naïve. “Your friend is already dead and we will join him if we don’t leave now.”

Her rich brown hair shook. “He can’t be dead. Surely they’ll keep him alive for a while.”

Simon pulled his jacket on over the shoulder holster. It was perfectly tailored so there was no break in the line. He caught a glance in the mirror. He looked every inch the gentleman, but it was a mirage. Everything about him was a mirage. Chelsea would find that out soon enough. “I assure you he’s gone. He either wouldn’t tell them where he sent the information and they killed him or he did and they killed him. There is no other option. And either way, they will come here and they will try to take you.”

“I turned the locator off on my phone a long time ago, Weston. I’m not a newb.”

He wasn’t sure what she meant by that but she wasn’t thinking straight. “He knows you’re with me and he obviously has agents in the area. They’re on their way here. It’s time to go and you can’t take that with you. Pull the hard drive. We need to go.”

She shook her head. “It’s an SSD. I can’t pull the hard drive. Simon. I would have to take apart the system. I need this computer.”