Dangerous Games (Aegis Group, #3) (23 page)

“What are you trying to say? Files?”

“Yes!” She hammered out the dots and dashes faster this time. “Wants files.”

Her wrists ached by the time she worked her way through the two words.

“That doesn’t matter, Andrea. Where are you? Can you tell me where you are? Are you okay?”

What was the shortest way to answer that?

Ok.

No clue.

“Hang tight, Andrea. We’ve almost got a lock on your location. I don’t know what you mean by
wants files
.”

He wants files. No clue which ones. Check work.

“Andrea, all I care about is getting you back, babe. We can worry about what he wants later.”

“But it’s important.” She shook the phone and the screen flickered once. Twice. It went dark. “No!”

October pawed at her, more insistent this time.

She covered her mouth with her hand.

Why had she done that?

That was stupid!

Why had she done it?

She’d had Zain. He’d understood her. And she’d blown it.

Andrea dropped the phone and cradled her head in her hands.

Was it enough? Could he find her? What was it crazy dude upstairs was after? Because it wasn’t her. None of this had anything to do with her. Just her files. Or what he thought was in her files. But what could that be?

She hadn’t been quite truthful with him though. Once, back after Dark Matter bought Grunge and they’d cracked down on personal use, she’d brought in an external hard drive to back up her MMO game and save music that wasn’t on her personal system. Had she grabbed something else? It’d been years since she’d revisited that stuff—if she even had it. But...what if...?

“D
id we get a trace on that?” Zain clenched Crystal’s phone in one hand and pointed at Max with the other.

“I barely got the request in.” Max held his hands out.

“Shit.” Zain jabbed the speed dial to Gavin. Hopefully the kid wasn’t—

“Yeah, boss?”

“Gavin, I need you to run a trace on a call that just came into a number. Ready?”

“Shoot.”

Zain recited Crystal’s number from memory and waited. Crystal stared at him, eyes wide, hands clasped. They were all on pins and needles. So far, they’d had a name and a list of crimes—then nothing.

Until now.

“Hey, boss, I ran across something,” Gavin said slowly.

“You get a location yet?” Zain knew these things took time. It wasn’t as instantaneous as it was on TV but he needed to know now.

“It’s running. So I was going over the Dark Matter people, financials, phones, the usual—and I ran across a weird phone registered to that Cliff guy.”

“Yeah? Send it to me.”

“Hey guys—what’s going on?” Patricia paused in the doorway, cups of coffee in hand.

“We found her!” Crystal blurted.

“Don’t—Say—Anything,” Zain said over Crystal’s next words. Both girls stared at him while Max and the staff manning the phones continued to work. “This can’t go beyond this room, understand?”

Both girls nodded.

They couldn’t risk word getting out. Not even to the people they thought they could trust, like Miranda.

“Gavin? How close are we?” he asked, turning his attention back to the all-important rescue.

“Close.”

“Max?” Zain whirled. Given the tricky situation, they’d need back-up. Cavalry. A fast ride.

“You tell me where, I’ll get us a detail.”

Come on, kid...

Kevin stared out the window at the long driveway leading from the old house. It’d been in the Barnes family for years. Long enough Kevin hadn’t been able to track down a different owner. It wasn’t Cliff’s. Inheritance had shunted it to a cousin or something, who used it as an occasional summer residence.

He checked the time again.

Things were not going according to plan.

Not even a little.

Kevin had never been so angry with Speckles in his entire life. Kevin also wasn’t looking forward to telling Speckles that face to face. He’d dragged his heels too long to do it over the phone.

Headlights crested the top of the hill. A car rolled down the tree lined county road, barely visible through the trees. Kevin watched, peering at the top of the car, looking for lights or anything that would indicate a squad car.

The sedan pulled onto the long drive and the headlights flipped off.

It was a dark, four-door car.

Not something Kevin recognized, but that was probably because Speckles was being overly cautious. It was likely a rental or a
borrowed
car.

Kevin went to the front door and waited, tracking Speckles as he got out of the car and jogged to the front door. Kevin let him in, stomach sinking.

Speckles had the bag.

“Any problems getting here?” Kevin asked. He took the bag. No need to ask what was inside.

“This place is damn hard to find.”

“That’s the point.” Kevin turned and led the way to the kitchen. The shattered bits of the chair were stacked up out of the way. “I’ve been trying to quietly access the Dark Matter network, but I can’t get in without setting off an alert.”

“Why are you trying to do that?” Speckles shed his rain coat and laid it over one of the remaining chairs.

Time to face the music.

“She doesn’t know what files I’m talking about. She’s clueless.” Kevin drew himself up to his full height, but Speckles still had a good six inches on him.

“She what? Of course she has the files. Miranda’s keystroke program recorded Andrea copying the files.” Speckles gripped the back of the chair.

“I cut her. She screamed like a stuck pig. If she knew, she’d have told me.”

“You what?” Speckles’ face tinged red. “I told you, nothing visible.”

“It was just her arms.”

“What did I tell you?” Speckles enunciated each word carefully.

“You wanted results. I wasn’t getting them. So I changed tactics.  Sometimes, during this sort of thing, you have to break the rules.”

“You think I don’t know that? I’m trying to not create a martyr here. Those fliers were a fucking terrible idea. She left and people were parading around with signs that said ‘I Stand With Andrea’. We do not want to make her any more of a stupid, viral symbol.”

“You said to make her want to leave. I got her to leave.”

“Yeah, well, it was a fucking bad idea.”

“We have bigger problems.” Kevin gestured at the laptop. “I can’t find the files.”

“She moved them. Hid them, maybe. Get her to tell you where they are.”

“That’s what I’m saying. Either she doesn’t know, or she’s not going to tell me unless you give me the go-ahead to put more pressure on her.” Kevin gave Speckles a pointed look. With the right amount of pressure, Kevin was pretty sure he could get just about anything out of Andrea.

Speckles pursed his lips. He didn’t like things that didn’t go according to plan. And at this point, they were completely off the rails.

“If you’re going that far...then finish it,” Speckles said.

“Just so we’re clear, you’re okay with me killing her?” Kevin crossed his arms over his chest.

“Make sure she’s never found. Leave enough evidence to pin it on Cliff. After that, do whatever you want with her.”

Kevin grinned.

That sounded like a much better plan than the stupid Trojan bullshit.

“Now, what about—” Kevin’s phone ringing interrupted Speckles. “Who is it?”

Speckles frowned and stared at the phone vibrating on the table.

“Patricia. Now what?” Kevin sighed and snatched the phone up. It was the middle of the God damned night. What the hell did she want? “What?”

“Kevin?” Patricia’s voice was high, thin—a lot like his mother’s had been.

“Yeah. What?”

“She called.”

“Who?”

“Andrea. She called Crystal somehow. Did she get your phone?”

“What?” Kevin stared at Speckles in shock.

“What’s going on?” Speckles’ eyes narrowed.

“She called. They’re tracking it now,” Patricia said.

Kevin dropped the phone on the counter, turned and sprinted for the stairs. Weak light shone from under the door.

“Wait, what are you doing? Are you fucking crazy?” Speckles grabbed him. “She knows who I am.”

“The crazy bitch called the damn cops. You have to leave. Now. I’ll fix this. Go!” Kevin shoved Speckles toward the door. “If you get caught, this whole thing is pointless. I’ll handle it. Go.”

“Don’t contact me again.” Speckles pulled his phone out and began wiping it down with his shirt sleeve.

“Toss that where no one will ever find it. Go now.” Kevin jerked the chair out from under the door knob. “When I come back up, you need to be gone.”

“I’m out of here.” Speckles strode to the front of the house.

Kevin unlocked the basement door and slammed it against the wall.

“Andrea? Andrea, what have you done?” He jogged down the stairs.

Andrea sat on the floor, the fucking cat at her feet. She jerked her head up. Ug. She was crying. Again.

“You’ve redecorated down here.” He strolled toward her. Speckles had given him the go-ahead to do whatever it took to get the files. Chances were, the cops couldn’t make it here in less than half an hour.

He could do a lot with half an hour.

Including get away.

Cliff would be implicated on DNA and circumstantial evidence alone. Kevin had been around the justice system enough to know what it took to make a charge stick. Hopefully, she wasn’t smart enough to auto-send the data anywhere.

Andrea scrambled to her feet and backed away, deeper into the basement.

Kevin wandered toward where she’d been sitting. An old cell phone, partially dismantled and wired into the phone line, dangled from the wall. He grabbed the plastic cord and yanked, jerking the whole thing off the wall. Bits of plaster fell off.

The bitch was smart.

She’d probably told whoever she’d called exactly where the files were. And the lazy cunt, Patricia, couldn’t be bothered to stick close enough to hear anything useful.

He pulled at the electrical cord, but the wires were live. Sparks shot out of the wall, arcing toward the metal dog kennel.

Andrea screamed.

Kevin blinked away the white spots.

Footsteps thumped up the stairs.

The bitch was trying to get away.

“Oh, no, you don’t!” Kevin pivoted, but tripped over something.

The cat hissed and he pitched forward onto the floor.

This was it. She was going to die. And he’d enjoy putting her down, just like he’d savored every minute of watching his mother die.

Zain leaned forward, urging Max’s SUV faster. The red and white lights cleared the road ahead of them, but they were still twenty minutes out.

“Yes, this is Detective Bowman—I need two units to go to this address. We believe a hostage situation is underway.” Max had conducted this same conversation three times, working his way through to someone who could assist.

The address the phone line Andrea had called from was in another department’s jurisdiction. This was where it got sticky, and when being a private contractor was most convenient. Zain didn’t have to care about who had jurisdiction or not when he was out to protect someone. All he wanted was for the bad guys to get what was coming to them—and the client to get extracted safely.

Only this time he wanted blood.

Kevin Lee was a dead man; he just didn’t know it yet.

“For fuck’s sake.” Max jammed the radio into the dash holder and got both hands on the wheel. “Units are
en route
. They should be there in ten minutes.”

It wouldn’t be soon enough.

The rain was picking up again. Big, fat drops of water splattered against the windshield. This was crap weather to try to breach a barricaded hostage situation. Zain had been able to pull the house up on Google maps. He didn’t like their odds. Kevin would have the tactical advantage. High ground, a good vantage point. The rain would make it difficult for them to move, much less see. Their only real leg up on Kevin would be the manpower. Unless Kevin had a whole team they were unaware of.

So far, at least a dozen people had come forward with information directly related to Kevin and comic con. The man had been there. And he’d actively set out to create a mob ready to attack her at every event.

“I still don’t understand the why,” Max said out loud. He slammed his hand against the steering wheel. “I mean, some of these sick fucks, they do it just because. But this guy? He’s got a plan. Why her?”

“I don’t know. That’s what bothers me.”

“Maybe it is all just random coincidence?”

“Could be the game.”

“Have you played it?”

“Yeah, every installment.”

“Fuck, am I the only person who has never heard of this game?”

“Depends, do you play video games?”

“No.”

“Then, I’m not surprised.”

“What’s your take on all of this?” Max accelerated, passing a semi and slower-moving vehicles. “You still don’t like Cliff for it.”

“No, I don’t. It’s too neat. Like a package tied up with a bow. I don’t think Kevin did this by himself. You saw his history. He’s a bad guy for hire. Someone has put him up to this and is making it look like Cliff is behind it.”

“I think it’s Cliff. Not everyone is good at hiding their tracks.” Max shook his head. “I have seen some crazy shit.”

“I think you’re wrong.”

“Well, good thing I’m the cop here. You just keep your girl safe.”

Zain glanced at Max.

He didn’t get it.

Keeping Andrea safe meant ensuring the right person was behind bars. If they picked up Kevin, and maybe Cliff, that was only the beginning of the problem. Whoever was behind Kevin would still be out there. And Andrea would continue to be in danger.

“How much longer?” Zain asked, tightening his grip on the overhead handle.

“Shit. In this weather? Tack on some time.”

Hold on, Andrea, we’re on our way...

Andrea shoved out the front door of the house. Her kidnapper bellowed her name, his footsteps rattling the floorboards behind her.

She launched herself off the front steps, hitting the front walk and nearly falling.

It was a scene out of a bad horror movie.