Operation Heartbreaker (18 page)

He loosened his grip a little, but didn’t let go of her. “I’m sorry,” he whispered against her temple. “I keep forgetting how sensitive you are.”

The curse of an empath. She had to work on that. Both had lowered their cover–his guard went down, and she’d plainly opened up.

She forced herself towards him again, but he apologetically shook his head. Instead of her mouth, he kissed her eyelids, which was somewhat sweet, but wasn’t what she had in mind. She wanted sparks, lava, and the glimmering fervor from before.

But to her dismay he withdrew and got up. He nervously pulled on his earlobe as if being caught doing something illegal. Which wasn’t far from he truth. If David or–even worse–her dad had walked in while they were rolling in the sheets, hell would seem like Disneyland to her.

“Jean sends his regards,” he tried to change the topic.

She wanted to scream. On the other hand, that would have probably caused him to leave.

Alright, if he wasn’t kissing her, they might as well talk about Jean.

“He visited you around noon, but you were sleeping.” You could call it that as well. Cole had drugged her with sedatives, that had knocked her out for hours.

“I should probably leave, too.”

Ally looked at her watch–shortly after eight. Visiting hours were long over. But that didn’t keep Viktor from getting his way. She had to smile at this, though actually she felt like crying because he wanted to leave her already.

“I’ll come back tomorrow,” he said, leaned over her and gave her a tender kiss on the mouth.

Hours after he’d left her lips still tingled. She had covered them with her fingers to savor the feeling. For the first time in her life she wasn’t fighting emotions, but was floating with them.

She pulled the blanket over her head and sighed. She’d actually fallen in love with him. Damn it!

~ *  ~

When Viktor walked out of Ally’s room, Cole grabbed him by the throat and dragged him into the storage room on the other side of the hallway. His bodyguards were already down. Cole’s knee landed in Viktor’s crotch, making him double up under groans and end up on the floor.

“Are you in pain?” Cole whispered close to his ear. “Get used to it, it’s only the beginning.” He didn’t get further, because Viktor‘s head flew back and hit his forehead. Actually, it would have hit it, but Cole was faster. He evaded the knock, just in time, after Viktor had freed himself from his grip. His elbow was aiming at Cole’s ribs. Instead of dodging, Cole ran right into him. He pinned Viktor against the wall and with one determined move dislocated his shoulder. Viktor howled.

“If you injure my daughter, get her into danger or use her in any way, this will seem like a birthday party to you. After I’ve moped the floor with your sorry ass I’ll open Ally’s eyes about you and your scum family.”

“I’m not like my dad,” Viktor gasped. Sweat was running across his face, which was twisted in pain, but Cole didn’t even consider loosening his grip.

“I couldn’t care less. The risk is too high, that’s all I need to know.”

“I can protect her.”

Cole laughed in response, but it didn’t sound joyful. “You want the list, and you know what…,” he reached into the pocket of his jeans, pulled out a USB stick and held it under Viktor’s nose. “You can have it.”

Without waiting for an answer, he turned him around so Viktor was now facing the wall with his chest, and relocated his shoulder. Viktor screamed in agony, closed his eyes tightly, and plunged his fist into the metal locker to his right. Shortly after, the pain subsided and turned into a burning throbbing.

Cole knew that, because he felt it as if he’d been the one injured. That’s the problem with empaths. There were ways to protect oneself against it, but in this case he declined.

On one side, as a sort of self-imposed punishment, on the other side to stop himself in case the rage towards Ally’s enemies would get the better of him. He wasn’t sure about the young Iwanow being her enemy. But the risk he and his kin represented was too big to be ignored.

The factor that Ally trusted this Viktor was a good sign. Then again, she was lacking experience. The boy wasn’t a dark horse. But Ally was. Cole assumed he was playing with her feelings, though he wasn’t sure if her gift was helping her to rumble Viktor’s intentions. The problem with her talent was not getting information, but to read them. This Iwanow was a sly dog.

Removing him might break Ally’s heart, but she was young and would get over it.

Viktor looked at him in disbelief. “Is that…?”

“The list. That’s what you wanted, didn’t you?” He’d found a way to copy the USB stick. Some data had been lost that way, but what was left was enough to nail Mitchel.

“I’m giving you the one time chance to show who you really are,” Cole continued with Viktor starring at the flash drive in disbelief. Cole clicked his fingers in front of Viktor’s face to attract his attention. “Listen, buddy. I won’t repeat myself. Understood?”

Viktor nodded, confusion written all over his face.

“You won’t make a move until we’ve freed the remaining test subjects from the labs.” He waited for Viktor to nod again, then continued: “Afterwards you’ll send the info contained on the stick to these people.” He handed him a folded piece of paper. “There’s a code word attached, which verifies the source.” Him, to be precise. He had a reputation with a hand-picked number of editors. This wasn’t the first time he was working with them. Nothing was more convenient than to have the opinion of the people on one’s side–and there was nothing that politicians feared more than the opposite.

Cole took a step back and stuck the pen drive into Viktor’s face.

He hesitated. “Under what condition?”

“You have to make a decision. If you take the memory stick you’ll lose the right to see Ally ever again. You won’t call her, or make any effort to contact her.” Cole’s look became steely. “Revenge or love, Iwanow. What will it be? You can’t have both.”

Though Viktor’s face was impenetrable, Cole sense the multitude of emotions that were almost overwhelming. Ally also was part of them and the depth of Viktor’s feelings were surprising. He held the flash drive out to him again, so he wouldn’t change his mind. “Take it and get out of her life,” he growled as Viktor still hesitated.

And so he did.

17

The next day Ally was already sleeping in her own bed. A few scratches were the only remains of the accident. Even her pain had magically vanished–Viktor had done a great job. Unfortunately, she hadn’t seen him after they kissed and was since then unable to think of anything else. Well, of kissing, to be exact.

After a sleepless night, David had dropped by with clothes to change into and signed the necessary discharge papers. Shortly after that they were on their way to the airport, and five hours later had landed in Seattle.

Jean and his stepfather Maurice were on the plane too and spent hours on discussions. After an endless toing and froing, they agreed to give Cole and his men four weeks until the presidential election to find the remaining test subjects and release them. The question remained how to free someone who didn’t know that they needed to be rescued. If Cole’s bailout would fail, David and Maurice would support Jean in his campaign against Mitchel. In the end, Jean had to realize that he was endangering people’s lives if he ran headfirst against the wall, trying to have it his way.

During the heated discussion Ally remained calm. She had nothing to say anyway and couldn’t help as her thoughts drifted off to Viktor. Why hadn’t he called? She would have given anything to hear his voice, his quiet laugh. But she hadn’t heard a peep. During the chaos after the explosion she’d lost his business card, so she hoped he’d call her at some point, a thought that almost drove her crazy.

Luckily, she was busy with other things after landing. Her heartache aside, she’d never been this glad to come home. The day of the break-in seemed an eternity ago. So much had changed since then, though it had only been five days.

Annie, their housekeeper, greeted them under tears. David had assigned a company with the clean-up, and under Annie’s watchful eyes they’d cleared all traces of the mess. The home office had been sealed before David’s departure, so he could deal with it after his return.

They had barely crossed the door, when Maurice already inspected the alarm system. He suggested a more sophisticated security system, one that wasn’t yet known in the States and therefore hard to disable.

Everyone in the house seemed to be busy with something. David with his vandalized office, Maurice with the security, while Annie was cooking for everybody. Jean also had his hands full–with Julie to be precise.

After a teary welcome, and Ally had brought her friend up to date, there was more waterworks involved–this time tears of joy. Julie gave her an update on her horoscope (today was a good day to face difficult tasks!), which made for more tears–now tears of laughter.

Finally, Julie’s attention focused on Jean, who’d followed the noisy welcome with growing horror. As it seemed, Julie still thought he was hot, because after Ally had been called to the phone, Julie hogged him for the rest of the day.

As Ally picked up the receiver, her heart was in her throat, but unfortunately it wasn’t Viktor at the end of the line, but her chief editor. A week ago she would have given an arm and a leg to receive a call from Renée, but right now she couldn’t care less about the newspaper.

As it turned out, the faked interview had hit like a bombshell and had become a huge success. During her absence, the clicks on her blog had exploded, the readers had left more than seven hundred commentaries. That’s why Renée not only rehired her, but agreed to take over the horrendous travel expenses.

She should have been thrilled, but the interview had been a sham, so the success had a stale taste. It should have been
her
interview, not a mock dialogue created by Viktor’s press office.

Besides, in the last few days her priorities had shifted. She knew that it was far from over–the SK matter that is. So she told her baffled chief editor she would think about it.

At the moment she had to concentrate on other things, for example surviving. The men behind the project were still alive, just like the test subjects and their offspring. Cole was out there looking for them. The fact that he declined her help nearly drove her insane.

Now that the cat was out of the bag, Ally’s blog was being recognized, and she became a local celeb. Her identity was now known and her enemies knew that she existed and where she lived. Fortunately they also knew though that if they only as much as laid a finger on her they would end up like Cyrus. Cole hadn’t made the effort to convince the Secret Service that Sergej was responsible for Cyrus’ death. He left this job to the forensics.

Nevertheless, the fact remained that she was the only way to get to Cole, so she was still in danger. When the pressure became too much she comforted herself with the thought of her dad being out there keeping an eye on her.

A few days after her adventure, David asked her into his study. Not good, she thought, and ended her call with Julie. Since Jean and Maurice were back in France, her best friend had mutated into a Skype-addicted chat-monster. Jean and Julie even called each other at night! He at least had the time lag as excuse, but Julie?

Ally bit her lip. Jealous? Her? No way! She internally sighed. If only Viktor would have called her at least once. But nothing. He had so thoroughly disappeared from her life as if someone had erased him. It hurt, like, a lot.

This and stuff like that was going through her mind as she slumped into a chair in David’s den. “What’s up?” she asked and took in the room. Barely anything had changed after the break-in. A few shelves were empty, which lead her to believe that he’d transferred some of the documents to his law office in the city. Or they’d become victim to the shredder.

David sighed, sat down on the edge of the desk opposite to her and handed her an iPad. “There’s a message for you,” was all he said.

She frowned and opened the email program. In the in-box was a message from… “Dad?” Curiously she looked up. 

David nodded. “He apparently tried to get in contact with you via your blog, but it seems you haven’t been online in a while.”

That was only partly true. She’d been onscreen, but only to look for news about Viktor. Not that it was of any use. No headline, no new picture. Not even a lousy one-liner in the gossip columns, like,
Billionaire’s Son Fooling Around with Actress Tramp.

Fine, she would’ve hated that kind of news, but at least she would have known that he was doing okay. Of course she could have used her empathic ability, but something inside her was reluctant. If she started spying on him with the aid of her gift, she wouldn’t be any better than a screwed-up stalker. It was one thing to hunt down criminals or find missing people. But satisfying personal curiosity was on a complete different page. She wouldn’t sink that low, not even for Viktor.

And why shouldn’t he be alright? He’d done what everybody in his situation would have done: Dump her.

Her hands balled to fists. Was it really that easy to let her go without so much as a shrug? Was she such a nobody, or what?

With her jaw tide, she pushed the thought aside and turned to the message.

Ally, my baby girl!

We could use your help in this case, but I want it to be your decision. David has all the facts and background reports regarding the wanted SK persons.

It seemed the Secret Service has relocated them to different locations. Attached you’ll find pictures of them. Look at them only if you are sure you want to help us. You have a gift, an invaluable talent. But you didn’t decide on it like I did, you were imposed with it.

I think it’s time to take your life into your hands and make your own decisions.

You are my daughter and I will always love you no matter what.

Cole

Tears were burning in her eyes as she was reading the message. Once, twice. A third time.

He would love her no matter what her decision would be? It felt good, but to be honest, she didn’t have to think about it. Cole wanted to save these people and give them back their lives. Right now, they were isolated in a secret division of the CIA and had no idea their gifts were being abused.

Ally took a deep breath. With a click she opened the attachment and looked at the first picture.

~ * ~

Viktor had insisted on being part of the operation. After all he was funding it, so he didn’t want to miss the fun.

When the jet landed at Baltimore International Airport, his thoughts automatically turned to Ally. Again. As a matter of fact he was constantly thinking of her. It took all his self-control to banish her from his thoughts, but his heart seemed to have developed a life of its own. As soon as he closed his eyes, her slender face inside the hospital bed appeared. She’d seemed so small and helpless, not like the stubborn person who’d rather bash in his teeth than listen to him.

Was she doing alright? Had she recovered from her injuries? A concussion wasn’t a breeze, he knew that from personal experience. If one exposed oneself to stress and noise too soon, a head trauma could turn into a long-term issue.

He didn’t wait until the machine had come to a full stop. Instead, he unbuckled the seat belt as soon as the tires of the plane had touched the runway. Patience wasn’t one of his strengths.

He hated having to stay away from Ally, but he had an agreement with Cole that he’d stick to. One could say a lot about him, but breach of promise wasn’t one of it.

Unfortunately, he wasn’t allowed to join the operation, after all he was just the money financing the whole venture. Besides, the jet had to be refueled right away so it would be ready for take-off and they could leave any minute.

According to David the operation would take an hour at most. But even the best plans could fail in the light of reality, after all there was always stuff that could come up. Unforeseen changes of guard, unannounced visitors–life could be a moody bitch.

While the men were getting off the slender plane, he pulled his cell out of his jeans pocket and dialed Ally’s number–probably for the hundredths time, only to end the call right away.

Quietly cursing, he put the mobile away again. Godammit, patience really wasn’t his thing.

~ * ~

A week after Ally had identified the people, she started up her notebook and opened the page of the
Seattle Times
. The article was small, almost inconspicuous. The corners of her moth lifted, for she knew that it wouldn’t stay that way. Soon enough, the web would be full of it.

The headline read:

EXPLOSION IN A LABORATORY

NEAR BALTIMORE

Underneath the subline said:

Rumors About a Secret Research Department

of the CIA Are Growing Stronger

Inside the article they were getting remarkably close to the truth. It stated that the lab had been a disguised government facility where illegal experiments were conducted, funded by the tax payers. The spokesman of the White House made a show of being appalled by the inquiry of the editor. President Mitchel ordered a thorough investigation. He stated that he didn’t know of any unconstitutional dealing of the CIA.

Of course he didn’t.

The article continued by stating that the head of the lab had been killed during the explosion. Several facility staff members were injured, some of them seriously. At this point a few people were still missing.

Missing? They wished! David told her they’d been rescued.

And that’s where she came in. Her current blog entry was due, Renée had been breathing down her neck about it for days. How quickly the tide had turned. But ninety thousand clicks per day had put her chief editor into some kind of ecstasy. Ally had agreed to continue writing for the paper if she was getting more freedom in exchange. As expected, Renée had agreed. With that many clicks she’d probably give Ally an office of her own.

Contrary to her chief editor, Ally was left cold by her sudden popularity. After all, it wasn’t her success, but Viktor’s public relation department. Those guys had done a really good job. During the interview Viktor appeared chatty like never before and even gave away private details, which normally wasn’t his style. He preferred to come across mysterious, evading questions aiming at his personal life by posing counter questions.

Not this time. Volubly, he chatted about his non-existent love life (my ass!), that he was still waiting for the right one (of course) and what kind of girl turned him on–intelligent and self-confident (yeah, right). If he felt like a sex symbol (no comment) and how he handled criticism (criticism? What criticism?).

Much to her annoyance she had to admit that it was a great interview, better than what she had planned. The press department hadn’t also been stingy about passing on photos. The big shot papers could get jealous at that: Viktor, barefoot, in jeans with his shirt unbuttoned, lounging on the sofa of his hotel. Viktor, shirtless, in all his muscular glory, behind his desk. Viktor with messy hair, bed-head style, and a lascivious smile around his lips. Wow!

She gave herself a mental slap in the face. It would be best if she approached the whole situation zen-style, otherwise she’d go bananas. But, damn, the guy looked so darn good that her readers would go blind. The fact that she knew first hand the pictures were neither manipulated nor in any other way photo-shopped, didn’t exactly help her case.