Acceptable Risks (22 page)

Matthew and Isaac both instinctively froze when the gun went off. Matthew spun, certain he’d see Gabby’s lifeless body on the ground, but John still aimed his pistol into the air, one hand locked around Gabby’s arm.

Before Matthew could move, before his heart could even start beating again, Isaac yanked his arms back and snapped cuffs on him.

“Nice try,” he gloated, but scowled when his phone rang. He didn’t look at the display before barking, “What!” into it. Everyone stood watching him while he listened to the caller, John shifting his handgun back toward Gabby as if to ensure Matthew didn’t move.

Isaac said too little to tell Matthew anything, and hung up after only a few seconds. “I have to go back to the city,” he told John. “Let’s get these two back inside. I’ll be back to finish things.”

“Problems?” Matthew asked mildly.

“Nothing to do with you,” Isaac assured him, glancing at his watch.

“You can go ahead,” John said. “I’ve got these two.”

Isaac didn’t look convinced.

John waved the pistol near Gabby’s ear. “I mean it. He won’t risk anything when I’ve got this.”

Isaac opened his mouth, but when his phone chimed again, he made a half-impatient, half-threatening gesture at John, and stomped off to his car.

Matthew watched him go with regret. That was their way out of here. Or it would have been, if they could get away. He eyed John, calculating ways to overpower him, but even with John gone soft, Matthew didn’t think he could beat him with his hands literally tied behind his back. He’d have to wait until they were inside again, and…

John, who’d been watching the taillights of Isaac’s car until they disappeared down the lane, holstered his pistol and let go of Gabby. She flinched away, but not far, and looked confused.

Matthew shifted when John walked toward him, trying to keep the man in front of him and position himself between their guard and Gabby. But John held up a key before circling around behind him. A moment later, the cuffs fell away.

“He’ll be a couple of hours,” John said gruffly. “Stay on guard, though, ‘cause it’ll take you longer than that to get to civilization.”

Matthew didn’t state the obvious, but he at least had to ask why. “You don’t have a way out of here, either. You can come with us.” He sensed Gabby’s reaction to that, but had to make the offer.

But John shook his head. “I don’t like what Kemmerling’s doing. But I can get out without making an enemy of him. He won’t want an employee who gets overpowered so easily.” He smirked, and Matthew smiled back.

“You really want to do that?”

John nodded stoically and led the way inside. Matthew gestured for Gabby to stay in the yard, and followed his former employee back into the cabin.

“How do you want it?” he asked him, setting his body.

John grimaced. “Don’t tell me. And make it convinci—”

Matthew walloped him. And then he made it convincing.

* * *

“I told you, I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Half an hour of questions, badgering and threats, and Carl still wouldn’t admit he’d had ulterior motives in trying to weasel his way back into her life. Lark wished she’d brought her pitchfork, though she doubted they would have let her check it on the plane.

“Look, Carl,” she began again, but Jason caught her wrist and tugged her away from her ex-boyfriend’s desk. They’d had to track him down at work, which wasn’t that unusual for a Sunday. “What?” she barked, whirling on him. He looked as implacable as ever, where she was certain she had a wild-eyed, wild-haired look that wouldn’t convince anybody to tell her anything.

“He doesn’t know anything,” Jason said. “We might as well let him get back to work.”

“Thank you.” Carl picked up a pen and flipped open a file folder. “I just don’t know what—”

“I’m sure his name on Isaac’s list is meaningless,” Jason told her, not looking at Carl at all. “He obviously wouldn’t betray you.”

“Certainly not.” His affront was not only half-hearted, but false enough to be insulting.

“But—” Lark began, not sure what Jason was doing but willing to try to go along with it.

“Isaac had to have his name for some other reason.”

“Ohhh.” Lark tried not to grin. “Like, targeting him? People he thought I cared about, maybe?”

“What’s that now?” Carl looked up. “Target for what?”

“We have no idea,” Jason said. He backed toward the door, pulling Lark with him. “If he hasn’t approached you, there’s a slim possibility he might want to do you harm.”

“But he has approached me,” Carl blurted. His brow wrinkled. “He wouldn’t…” He trailed off and pressed his lips together, his eyes unfocused. He was obviously trying to think through what he knew and what Jason had implied.

Lark waited. When his expression cleared, she pounced. “When did he approach you? Before or after we broke up?”

“After. But it wasn’t anything, you know,
wrong
. He had that fellowship with you in Indonesia and said you got some of his papers. He asked me to try to get them for him.”

Lark sighed at his stupidity. “Why couldn’t he have just asked me for them himself?”

“Well, you know. After things went bad between you—”

Lark laughed, but there was no humor in the sound, only annoyance. “Jesus Christ, Carl, you’re a lawyer. Why would you believe that crap? Did he pay you?”

His face reddened. Of course he’d paid him.

“But you didn’t tell him we’d broken up and you had no access. You had to try to get back in my good graces, because you’re greedy and clueless.” If her father suffered because of Carl’s stupidity… “What else did he tell you?” she demanded.

“Nothing. I didn’t ask for anything else. I understand about women scorned.”

Lark snorted. Jason ignored her and moved back to the desk, leaning over it with both us-boys camaraderie and mild intimidation.

Carl responded to both, leaning back but appealing, “C’mon, man, you know how it is.”

“I do know how it is.” Jason’s voice was low. “I know much better than you do how it is. You’re in a lot of danger, Carl. You’d better tell me everything Isaac said to you.”

“That’s all he said.” A look of cunning slid over his face. “I did hear a name, though.”

Jason straightened. “So? We’ve got names.”

“Not this one, I bet.” He leaned back in his seat and braced his hands behind his head. “I only ever talked to Kemmerling on the phone. But one time, someone told him he had another call, and he immediately hung up on me to take it.”

Lark rolled her eyes and started toward the door. This trip had been a huge waste of time. They’d questioned her boss, Ralph, who had no idea what they were talking about and had no reason to hide it if he had. Stuart was even more clueless. He claimed he found an envelope with money and a note on his desk asking him to make sure the greenhouse door stayed unlocked. A botanist of the stereotypical absent-minded-professor variety, he’d assumed it was work-related and never even considered that it was a bribe.

Lark had expected Carl to be their best source. He’d actively and sneakily tried to steal from her. She’d believed his greed and eagerness would have been enough for Isaac to reveal something, anything, important, but here, too, Carl had just been an idiot.

Behind her, he was trying to negotiate payment in return for the name he claimed to have overheard. Lark barely listened to Jason decline to pay him, but the word that finally echoed in the room made her blood run cold.

“Okay, okay, fine. It was Kolanko.”

Chapter Nineteen

“We don’t jump to conclusions.”

“Okay.”

Jason started the engine of the rental car and pulled away from the curb, cutting off a taxi without even a backward glance.

“It could have meant anything.”

“I know.”

Lark’s short, flat responses worried him. The news that Kemmerling had been communicating with Kolanko was cause for concern, but not this extreme shock. He navigated the Sunday-quiet streets for a moment, then tried again to reassure her.

“It might not have been Kolanko on the phone, just someone saying his name.”

“Sure.”

“Dammit, Lark!” He slammed on the brakes in front of her apartment building and glared at her. “Stop it! You’re freaking me the hell out!”

That got her attention. She turned to face him and he was alarmed by the pure lack of color in her skin and the glassiness of her eyes. “Lark, what the hell is wrong with you?”

“I don’t—Jason.” She drew a deep, shuddering breath and her skin pinkened. “I don’t know. There’s something…” She looked out the window as if just now becoming aware of where they were. “Let’s go upstairs.”

“Wait. I have to park.” He circled the block twice before a spot opened up, then he slid in ahead of a Cadillac SUV and ignored the driver’s cursing. Lark led him up the elevator to her apartment, letting Jason check the alarm and clear the rooms before she went past the foyer.

“It doesn’t look like anyone’s been here since we left,” he said.

“I know. The security guy on duty, Will, told me everything’s been fine.”

That didn’t ensure no one had been here. He went into the kitchen and filled a glass of water from the dispenser in the front of her refrigerator. When he came back into the living room, she was perched on the edge of the sofa, back ramrod straight, staring a hole in the wall on the other side of the room. Jason sat next to her and put the water glass in her hand, wrapping his fingers around hers until he felt her muscles tighten to hold it.

“Come on, sweetheart. Pull it together.”

The endearment worked. She snapped her head around, eyes flashing, and Jason couldn’t help himself. He kissed her. It was a quick one, not passionate, but he didn’t withhold his concern and affection. When he pulled back, Lark had relaxed.

“What’s going on in there?” He tapped the side of her head.

She shook it slightly. “I don’t know. There’s something I should know or realize or figure out. But I can’t
get
it.” She stood and paced a little, testing the dust on a table near the foyer archway and repositioning a small chair. “Dad said Kolanko didn’t blame him. That he was grateful to him—and to you—for saving him and his daughter. Especially from a threat none of them saw coming…” She went stiff again. Jason waited. Her mouth hung slightly open in surprise, and he knew she was close to whatever her subconscious was trying to tell her.

But after a moment she snapped her mouth shut and shook her head harder. “That’s it, but not it. Only part of it. A threat none of you saw coming. What can that mean?”

Jason sat back on the soft microfiber sofa. “Looking at the obvious, we were prepared for an attack or infiltration by a business enemy, or an extremist who had a problem with Kolanko’s arms dealings.”

“Were they illegal?” Lark started pacing again, this time ignoring everything around her. “The arms dealings?”

“No, not as far as the government is concerned. They do business with him, but the official policy is not to buy from or sell to anyone who supplies enemies of the United States.”

“But he could still do it without us knowing.”

“Unlikely.” She shot him a doubting look. He spread his hands. “Look, I’m not in government espionage, but I do work with the Department of Defense and other alphabet agencies. They aren’t always on the up and up, that’s true, but they for damned sure know who they’re dealing with.”

Lark pursed her lips. “But it’s irrelevant because the attack on Kolanko came from family.”

“Yes.” Jason got there the same time she did, his brain clicking as her expression cleared. “Ella is family.”

“Of a sort,” she agreed. “But—”

“It’s a tenuous connection, but it’s a lot fewer than six degrees of separation.”

Lark sat next to him again, clearly disturbed.

“Her name was on Isaac’s list,” Jason pointed out.

“I know.” She sighed and leaned back against the cushions. “I thought the list meant he wanted to get information from her, or find a way to exploit the connection. Maybe trick her, or threaten her to try to influence Dad. But now…”

“Now you’re wondering if she’s directly involved.”

She nodded miserably. Jason stroked his hand down her hair, and she leaned into him for a second before straightening.

“What do you remember about her? She’s your mother’s sister, you said. Her only one?”

“They were about two years apart, I think. Ella’s older. She was always very driven. One of those aunts who breezes into family events bearing gifts, and leaves before it’s time to clean up. Working all the time, disdainful of my mom’s traditional path.”

“Had they been close before? When they were younger?”

Lark lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know. I only remember her from my childhood, and by then she was pretty far along her path of success.”

“What happened when your mother died?” Jason’s blood sizzled the way it did when he was getting close to an enemy, whether it was someone trying to steal priceless items from a museum or plant a pipe bomb at a business summit. He took Lark’s hand, almost unconsciously, as if touching her would connect their brains even more than they already were. He’d only known her for three days, but the way they clicked together gave him a buzz.

Lark rubbed Jason’s fingers with her thumb, her brain moving faster, the memories flowing in a slideshow. “Ella visited more often in the last few years, when Mom was in bed a lot, or had difficulty leaving the house without getting sick.”

“She probably wanted to spend more time with her sister, if she knew she was—” He cut himself off, and Lark smiled and squeezed his hand.

“It’s okay to say dying. I’ve lived with the reality for ten years. But no, I don’t think it was sisterly affection.” She let her gaze unfocus, watching the memories flash in and out of her internal vision. Jason sat motionless beside her, quiet while she remembered.

Memories were funny things. Most of the stuff she could dredge up was stupid. Ella shaking the Sweet’N Low packet when she knew it wouldn’t open that way, and how her aunt had laughed at her when she said so. She didn’t use Sweet’N Low at age nine and her mother had gently explained it was to shake the powder to the bottom of the packet so it didn’t spill when she opened it.

Not a helpful memory.

And it wasn’t like her mother had had a sickbed, with a long, drawn-out decline. Her respiratory system had been weak, prone to infection, and eventually her body had been unable to battle back to health. At least, that was how she remembered it. Adults never revealed everything to kids, though, not even precocious teenagers. Maybe there had been more to it. Maybe she’d known for years that her time was limited. Ella’s visits could have been, as Jason suggested, for her to spend whatever time she could with her.

“Or the will,” she murmured, something jolting into her memory. What had it been about the will? When had she heard it? She closed her eyes, trying to visualize where she’d been… In the kitchen. She’d been doing dishes, and her mother and aunt had been at the kitchen table. Not a good place if they didn’t want her to hear, but maybe…she started humming the music to Hanson’s “MMMBop.” Yeah, she’d had headphones on, but between tracks on the CD in her Discman, she’d heard Ella say something about a will. She’d turned the volume down and listened. Hadn’t understood what they were talking about, except that it sounded important. But now? She tried harder to call up the words.

“None of those assets have anything to do with Matthew,” Ella had argued. “You acquired them before you got married.”

Her mother’s tinkling laughter, not diminished by her shortness of breath. “I didn’t acquire them at all. Grandfather set up an account for me. I’ve never touched it. It’ll pay for Lark’s education.”

Lark remembered a petulant tone in Ella’s response. “Of course, let the child use it. Forget about anyone else.”

“Ella, it was Grandfather’s wish—”

“That I get screwed. Yes, we’ve discussed his unequal affection before.”

The clock on the mantel chimed, jerking Lark out of her reverie, but she’d remembered enough.

“There was something about some money my great-grandfather left my mother but not Ella, I think,” she told Jason. “She had a lot of resentment about that.” Enough to make the memory stick in her brain.

“You think she wanted your mother to will it to her?” Jason asked.

“I’m pretty sure. Ella argued that it was Darron family money and should remain in the Darron family. She didn’t consider me a Darron, I guess.” That should hurt, but curiously didn’t. Not as much as the idea that Ella might have directly betrayed Lark’s father.

“Where’s the money now?”

She shrugged. “I have no idea. Dad paid for my schooling on his own, without using Mom’s money. He’s told me I have a safety net if I need it, but I don’t know what form it’s in. Trust fund, probably. I haven’t needed it, so I haven’t asked.”

She watched Jason ponder that while she sank deeper into the sofa and let her head rest on the cushion behind her. She couldn’t believe it had only been three days since he rescued her from Don and Isaac. She remembered that first ride to the safe house, when the sparks of attraction had flared, when the danger and urgency weren’t so intense. Only three days. Yet she looked at Jason now and it seemed there had never been a time she didn’t know him like this. When he wasn’t a part of her.

And didn’t that just suck? He was like her father, too chivalrous or self-sacrificing or maybe even the opposite, too selfish to share himself with a woman. To share the risks as well as the joy of being with someone you loved. His reluctance to talk about any future for them this morning in the barn was a warning. A precursor to “letting her down easy.” Lark didn’t know how to convince him he was wrong, especially when part of her still thought he was right.

Jason’s gaze sharpened on her face and he frowned. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.”
What would you do if I kissed you right now?
A real kiss, not the distraction he’d applied a few minutes ago. “I guess the next step is to find Aunt Ella.”

Jason let go of her hand to glance at his watch. “It’s too late to call Caitlyn today. We’ll catch her first thing in the morning to get a number and track your aunt down.” He looked up at her from under the shock of blond hair that had fallen over his forehead. “Unless you thought of a way to reach her.”

Lark shook her head as her hand stretched out and brushed his hair back. “I haven’t talked to her since Mom died. We don’t even exchange Christmas cards.” Her hand lingered on the side of his face, a couple of days’ worth of stubble scratching her palm. A heaviness in her chest that she hadn’t been completely aware of swelled to bursting. The words, ridiculous words, crowded the back of her throat. It took all her strength to keep her mouth closed, to battle back the emotion threatening to gush out of her.

She didn’t need to have felt this way before to understand it. People always said you’d know love when you felt it for real. They were right. But Lark hadn’t been prepared for it to be so complicated.

Jason caught her hand against his jaw, then lowered it to the sofa and released it. Lark swallowed hard, annoyed at her disappointment. He wouldn’t feel it just because she did. Nothing had changed since this morning.