Authors: Samantha Cole
“And if we don’t find it, what then?” she cried into his shoulder.
“One step at a time, baby. We’ll find a way out of this. One step at a time.”
“Viktor? It’s Ruslan.”
“Vhat you have for me?”
“Ve traced rental to business in Tampa. Trident Security. Former military. Place vell-guarded. Paranoid group.”
“
Blyat!
Any sign of girl?”
“Nyet.”
“Keep looking. I vant that money. Kill anyone who gets in vay.”
“Horosho.”
Viktor the Bull hung up the phone and tossed it on his desk. He was this close to getting the money the fucking accountant had stolen from Sergei the Wolf years ago. The higher-ups had written it off long ago, despite it being a lot of money, because they had plenty to burn. But thanks to a talented computer geek, fifteen million dollars was finally within Viktor’s reach. When he’d gotten the okay to off Volkov, he’d renewed his efforts to find Ivan Maier. With a little money thrown in the right direction twelve years ago, they’d learned the accountant and his daughter had survived the ‘accident’. Unfortunately the trail went cold after a few sightings. Now with a facial-recognition program, he was on the hunt again. And this time, he would succeed.
* * *
The two rental vehicles pulled up to the forgotten piece of land. It, along with surrounding properties, had been abandoned long ago. A few dilapidated barns and houses, built over seven decades in the past, dotted the area. Brody was able to hack into the local government computers and get the coordinates of Ivan Maier’s childhood home, or what was left of it. Irina had been right. All that remained from the old home was the foundation, charred pieces of wood, and a brick chimney. The weeds and a few animals in the area had made their home in the ruins.
All four of them exited the vehicles and stared in dismay at the sight before them. A breeze blew Kat’s hair in several directions and she quickly put it up into a pony-tail with a band she pulled from her pocket. “So, now what? What are we looking for?”
Boomer held out his hand to her. “Watch your step. There’s lots of old debris around and you can’t see it well with these damn weeds.”
As Boomer led her closer to the foundation, Marco jumped down into what had been the basement. It looked like the area was a hangout for juveniles with nothing better to do. Empty beer bottles, soda cans, garbage, and the occasional used condom littered the area. Devon circled the area around the foundation and inspected the chimney before joining his teammate in the hole. Instead of jumping, he pushed aside a useless metal door and took a set of cement stairs which once lead to the backyard.
From the former front steps, Boomer and Kat scanned the area below. “Anything?”
“Aside from all this crap, Boom, I’m not seeing anything out of place,” Marco told him while kicking some rubbish out of the way. “It’s either long gone or well-hidden. Did Kat’s aunt say anything about an underground shelter or well on the property?”
Kat pulled out her cell phone. “No, she didn’t, but I can call her.”
Boomer nodded his agreement. “It’s a possibility, but there were other pictures from this property in the album. He picked the ones in front of the house for a reason.”
They spent the next twenty minutes searching above and below ground, and Kat made several calls to her aunt whenever they had questions. Frustrated, but unwilling to give up, Boomer jumped into the basement.
Devon walked over to where his teammate landed on two feet and held out his hand. “Let me see the photo again.”
“Here.” He gave his boss the picture and they examined it together. Young Ivan was standing at the corner of the house, where the front and chimney sides met. Nothing stood out, and Devon turned it over to the writing on the back.
“Fuck.” Boomer threw his hands up in irritation and spun around in a circle. “Ivan couldn’t fucking say ‘X’ marks the spot?”
The others mumbled in agreement as he stood facing what was left of the fireplace on the first floor. There had to be something they were missing. He tilted his head back and stared at the sky as if it held the answers. The morning sun was still over his right shoulder.
Son of a bitch!
He quickly checked the compass on his military watch and then stared up at the chimney again.
“Holy shit! I think I’ve got it.” Praying his epiphany was right, he scrambled up the stairs to the backyard and jogged around the foundation to the right.
“What?” Devon was on his heels with Marco not much further behind. “What is it?”
The three of them stopped and gazed at the partially damaged brickwork, but only Boomer understood what he was looking at. “This side of the house is facing northwest.” He took the photo back from Devon. “It says ‘NW dash X’
.
Northwest. And look at the upper left corner before the chimney narrows…there’s an ‘X’ on that brick. It’s like a crossword puzzle, I think. I remember Ivan doing them all the time…in ink! ‘17D dash 24A’ Seventeen down and twenty-four across.”
As Marco stepped up to the bricks and began counting down and across, Devon smacked Boomer on the back. “I’ll tell Ian not to bother with the crossword dictionary as your Christmas present.”
He snorted then yelled for Kat to join them. She was skirting the foundation when Marco pulled out his Leatherman knife. With her phone to her ear, she gaped at the trio clustered close to the brick wall. “Aunt Irina, I’ll call you back.” She disconnected the call. “What is it? Did you find something?”
“Nice code-breaking, Baby Boomer, the brick here is loose.” Marco slid the blade into the mortar cracks and wiggled it a few times. When the brick was out far enough, he used his fingers to pry it the rest of the way and stepped aside. “You solved it, you get to put your hand in there.”
The opening went further than the brick had and Boomer shivered as he thought about all of the creepy-crawlers which might be in the dark crevice—spiders were not one of his favorite things. Peering into the small space, he announced, “I think there’s something in there.” Reaching in, his hand found a small shelf inside and sitting on it was a long, round piece of plastic. He pulled the object out and glanced at the others. An old Pepsi bottle with a piece of paper rolled up and tucked inside was apparently their next clue. “Why do I suddenly get the urge to sing ‘Message In A Bottle’ by The Police?”
Kat took it from him and with a turn, unscrewed the cap. Using her pinkie she was able to slide the note out and then unrolled it. Ivan Maier’s handwriting appeared. “Is he kidding me? Really, dad? Another bunch of numbers? God, even in death the man can be infuriating! He’s lucky I still love him.”
Taking the paper back from her, Boomer handed it to Marco. “Looks like routing and account numbers. Think Egghead can find it?”
“Is whiskey wet?” he retorted, as he pulled his phone from his pocket and brought up the number he needed.
“Don’t tell him I asked, he’ll go on an hour long tangent.”
“Try a five-hour tangent. Egghead? Got a job for you.”
* * *
Twenty minutes later, they were all headed back to Charlotte with Devon driving the lead car. In Benny’s passenger seat, Kat stared out the window, still in a state of disbelief. Brody, whoever he was, had been able to trace the numbers to a bank and an account in the Cayman Islands without any trouble. From what he was able to figure out, Ivan Maier had opened the secret account three years before the hit was put out on him and his family. The initial deposit had been a mere one thousand dollars with no other activity until the day fifteen million dollars was transferred in from a bank in Switzerland. Since then, the money had just sat there collecting interest to a grand total of twenty-three million dollars and change.
It was obvious her father had planned his revenge ahead, in case he ever needed to go through with it. While he never touched a cent of the money, two years after he and Kat had settled into Portland, he’d contacted the bank and named her as a joint account holder. Kat was a millionaire on paper, but the money was tainted with the blood of her mother, brother, and anyone else those bastards had killed or hurt in the name of greed. And she wanted no part of it.
“Now what do we do? I mean, I don’t want to hand the money back over to criminals, but I’ll do it if it means I get my life back.”
“First things first. We’ll head back to the Sawyers’ and get the rest of the team on a conference call with our FBI contact. We’ll figure this out, I promise you, baby.” He brought her hand, which he’d been holding to his mouth, and kissed her knuckles. “I promise. Then you and I are going to get to know each other all over again.” Leering at her, he licked her fingers. “Over and over and over again.”
Kat groaned then giggled. “We have people trying to kidnap me, with probably no qualms about killing you and your team if you stand in their way. I have over twenty-three million dollars in ill-gotten gains in a bank in the Cayman Islands, and you’re thinking of sex.”
“Kitten, when it comes to you, I’m always thinking of sex.” Benny froze, then moaned and smacked the back of his head on the seat’s headrest. “Shit!”
“What’s wrong?”
“I forgot my dad’s birthday was yesterday. I never called him. Shit.”
She squeezed his hand. “I’m sure he’ll understand. Weren’t they going to the Billy Joel special last night?”
“Yeah. We’re almost at the Sawyers’. I’ll call him when we get there.”
“Will you tell him happy birthday from me, too?”
Benny glanced at her before his eyes returned to the road “Of course, baby. But I’m sure he’d love to hear it directly from you. My folks have always loved you.” And she had always loved them. After returning to Sarasota Wednesday evening, Rick had told his wife about Kat’s miraculous return and she’d called Benny’s cell phone right after their pizza dinner in the motel. Kat and Eileen Michaelson had laughed and cried over the phone for about twenty minutes before promising to see each other as soon as possible.
Kat’s smile grew wider as he pulled into the long drive, waiting behind Devon for the electronic gate to open. They had reached their temporary home. “I’ve always loved them, too. I still remember the barbeques at your house when your dad’s team returned home from wherever they’d been. Those are some of my favorite memories from back then.”
Snorting, he put the car in park. “You were just hot for the guys on my dad’s team. So were my cousins, Jessica and Vicki.”
“Oh my God, I forgot all about them. How’re they doing?”
“Jess is in California working for some big-shot Hollywood producer and Vicki is married to a cop in New York and is a pediatric nurse.”
“Wow.” They climbed out of the car at the same time. “That’s great. I’m happy for them. Do you see them at all?”
He shrugged and pulled out his phone. “Not as much as we’d like. The last time we were all together was about a year and a half ago at Vicki’s wedding.”
Before making the call, Benny escorted Kat inside. While there was a fence surrounding the entire property, she knew he felt better if she was out of sight. Following her up to their bedroom to pack up once more, he hit the speed-dial for his dad’s cell. “Hey, Pop. Happy belated birthday. Sorry, I didn’t get a chance to call you.”
* * *
Rick Michaelson’s deep voice came over the line. “No problem, son. How is everything going? You all right?”
Boomer filled him in on what had happened since they last spoke two days ago and assured him, despite Jake being injured, everything else seemed to be falling into place. Now they had to figure out what to do with the money and how to get the Russians’ target off Kat’s back for good.
“You need me?”
Sighing, he sat on the bed while Kat began to gather her things from the bathroom. “Not up here, Pop. We have one of Chase’s pilots heading up to Charlotte to bring us home. We’ll be having a team pow-wow in the morning if you want to take a ride up, but it’s up to you.”
“Margaret wants to take us out for breakfast for my birthday in the morning, so I’ll head up after we eat. Figure I’ll get to you around fourteen hundred. Sound good?”
“That’s cool. Tell Aunt Margaret I said hello. Ian is getting in touch with Keon, and Carter has been hitting up his contacts, so maybe we’ll have a plan by then.” Kat walked back into the room looking lost and confused over everything that had transpired. A thought occurred to Boomer. “Why don’t you bring mom with you, so she can see Kat? They can visit with Angie, Jenn, and Kristen.”
Her mouth turned upward and she nodded enthusiastically while his father agreed it was an excellent idea. He let Kat say a quick ‘happy birthday’ before she handed the phone back to him and began to fold her clothes into her duffel bag. After Rick said his goodbyes, Boomer hung up and hooked his finger into a belt loop on her jeans. Pulling her in between his legs, his eyes met hers. “You okay? You know I’m not going to let anything happen to you, right?”
This time when she nodded, it wasn’t in delight. Her gaze shifted to the side and he knew something was bothering her. “Kitten, listen to me.” He waited until she was looking at him again. “I know with everything going on, the last thing you want to hear from me is a bunch of D/s rules. But one thing I’m going to insist on from this point on is honesty. I need you to be honest and tell me what you’re thinking and feeling.”
“About what?”
He shrugged then pulled her closer. “About anything and everything. I want to know when and why you’re happy, sad, scared, excited…horny.” She giggled while he smirked and waggled his eyebrows at her. “There’s the smile I was looking for. But I mean it, baby, talk to me. Tell me what’s going on in your pretty little head.”