Blowback (The Black Cipher Files Book 1) (21 page)

I deliberately answered her question incorrectly. “My eyes were a little hazy.”

Her lips tightened but she didn’t challenge me. She made a notation in that folder again. I moved imperceptibly closer, wondering if I could get a look at my file.

The phone rang in her office. We both ignored it. The ringing continued. The phone had never rung during one of our sessions before.

“They don’t seem to be hanging up.” She looked distracted and slightly harassed. “Do you mind?”

“Go ahead.” I gestured to the open door, hoping she’d leave my file on the coffee table.

“I’ll be right back.”

I had a really bad feeling about this. Phone calls during an eval session. Bringing up my family.

She took the file, but set it on the desk by the doorway. How could I steal that file? The blinds were open halfway and I stared out the window formulating a plan.

A van in the parking lot, idling by the front door, caught my eye. It hadn’t been there when I’d come in fifteen minutes ago.

I didn’t like it.

Federal buildings had strict policies about vehicles parked within a certain distance, and this truck was breaking every one of them.

The doctor was still on the phone at the desk in her inner office, her back to me. Something about this whole set up did not feel right. Again.

I jammed over to the file, flipped it open and grabbed the top few pages. Shoving them into the waistband of the tailored linen pants, I skulked toward the door.

I had to make tracks. Because if I wasn’t mistaken, that van was for me.

TWENTY-THREE

My hand was on my cell phone before I even got out of the office. The natural instinct to call Lucas stopped me cold. The fact that I instantly thought of him scared me. I didn’t need anyone. Couldn’t need anyone.

I couldn’t rely on anyone but myself. And I’d better not forget that fact.

Get your head in the game, Jamie.

Deliberately, I put the phone in my pocket. I couldn’t go out the front. Opening the back door would most likely trigger an alarm, unless I could figure out how to disable it. What if...? I strolled casually across the waiting room, crossing slowly in front of the entry door. The men in the van couldn’t get into the building unless they had a badge.

Once inside the bathroom, I locked the door. A small window faced the back of the building. I gauged the size. It would be a tight fit. I figured I had ten minutes tops before I was busted.

Hopefully security hadn’t wired the windows. Otherwise I was in deep trouble.

I ran my fingers around the perimeter of the metal frame looking for any kind of wire or security device. I found the wire within a few seconds. Shit.

I needed to create a diversion.

I peered through the frosted glass window, trying to picture what the back of the building looked like. Flipping open my cell phone, I dialed Yellow Cab and gave them the address of the office building one street over and two buildings down. Occasionally paranoia has its upside.

I slipped out of the bathroom. Casually, I picked up the flower pot and sauntered toward the back door. When I reached the double doors of bullet-proof glass, I heaved the ceramic pot across the empty lobby into the front entrance doors.

All hell broke loose.

The force of the impact set off the alarm system but didn’t break the glass. The alarm blared. A mess of dirt and leaves scattered over the carpet. I slipped out the back door before Security arrived.

Now I knew what was out the back. As I assessed the blacktop driveway and chain link fence topped with razor wire, a car shot up to me.

I tensed, ready to flee.

Lucas popped open the passenger door. “Don’t have much time.”

Lucas. Again. “How’d you know?” I hopped in and slammed the door.

“I didn’t. Just a feeling.”

“Some feeling.”

He grinned at me and tossed me a bag with a fluffy blond wig, a tube of lipstick, and rose-colored sun glasses. “Slide down.”

“Yeah.” I curved under the dash of the Toyota Camry and my relief and pleasure at seeing him tripled while I tugged on the Dolly Parton wig.

I stripped off my wrap-around blouse, leaving only the skimpy white tank top beneath. Although I tried not to let suspicion creep in, I felt it, crawling along the back of my neck. How did he always know when I was going to be in trouble?

“You seem to be making a habit of this.”

“Same thing occurred to me.” His gaze cut to me, lingering on my breasts. “Right place, right time.”

The car moved sedately through the side end of the parking lot, away from the altercation at the entrance to the building.

“Stay there until we’re past the fracas.” Lucas pretended to slow down to look at the melee. “There’s a leopard print blouse on the backseat. I’ll grab it as soon as I can.”

And then I realized he must have been close by all along. As in waiting, just in case.

“I would have thought they would make their move when you got here,” Lucas said conversationally.

He was right and if I hadn’t been so ga-ga over his appearance I should have clued into the same thought. Why hadn’t they tried to get me on the way in? Why wait until I was coming out?

“Me too.” I slipped on the pink wire-rimmed sunglasses and slopped on the coral lipstick.

“What happened?”

“I’m...not sure. But when I saw the van loitering, I knew it was time to take off.” I wish I’d gotten the license plate of the van. “You didn’t--”

“Yeah. I did.” He gestured to the dashboard and I saw a number scribbled on the rental agreement. He’d rented the car under James Koch. “We can run the plate later.”

“We need to dump the car.”

“I left my van at the airport.” He flipped his blinker on and turned carefully. “We can ditch this and pick the van up.”

So he’d dropped his van at the airport, walked to the rental car shuttles and picked up a car. With the timing, he must have left the library right behind me.

“You never had any intention of going to the library in Hanover did you?” I couldn’t tell if I was happy or pissed.

“Backup. I was providing backup.”

Checking up on me.

“Backup which you needed,” he chastised. “Was it the same people?”

Carson, Dr. Fitzhugh, Lucas and I were the only people who knew I was going to be in the psych building this afternoon.

Lucas didn’t have any reason to set me up. He had Staci’s files. I should be suspicious, but it didn’t fit. Even if he did have a disconcerting tendency to rescue me.

“You didn’t call them, did you?”

He just looked at me.

“Never hurts to ask,” I said. “You could have some sort of Munchausen by Proxy rescue thing going.”

“What?”

“Never mind.” Okay. Clearly, I was little bit rattled. “It was stupid to think that they were going to give up.”

And I wasn’t stupid. Dammit.

“But why not get you when you came out of headquarters this morning?”

I shook my head. “Too visible.” The Crypto City police had surveillance everywhere. Plus I’d used Staci’s identification to get into OPS, not my own. When I’d scanned out of the building with my Jamie Hunt badge, they might not have had time to catch me.

If I knocked out Lucas and myself, I was down to two suspects. Dr. Fitzhugh and Carson. And possibly Carson’s secretary, if she made the appointment.

Three suspects.

I closed my eyes and walked back through my time in the building.

“Don’t go on Highway 100 just yet.” I slid up into the passenger seat, knotted the leopard print blouse at my waist, and strapped in. “Turn left and then left again.”

Lucas did what I asked without question. A nice enough change. “Pull into that parking lot.”

We waited. A Yellow taxi cab screeched up to the entrance then sat.

“Quick thinking.”

I shrugged, uncomfortable with the admiration in his voice. “Not quick enough.” If Lucas hadn’t been there....

Everywhere I turned my world was crumbling. What the hell was going on? I watched but didn’t see any suspicious cars waiting for me to come out of the building.

The cab driver honked.

When no one came out, he hopped out of his car and strode to the entrance. He didn’t look annoyed. He looked ecstatic, like a government man about to nail his suspect. He jerked open the door and his jacket swung open revealing a shoulder holster with a weapon.

“Time to go.” Lucas had seen the same thing I had.

“Let’s wait.”

The offices must have been bugged. Either that or they had tapped into cell transmissions and heard my call to the cab company. I rubbed a hand over my chest.

Lucas flipped open a cell phone and pretended to be talking. We watched in silence as the pseudo-cab driver got back in. The driver waited another five minutes then got out of the cab again, not even bothering to disguise his wrist radio.

He ran into the building then stomped out a few minutes later, banging the flat of his hand on the hood of the cab before getting in and pealing away.

“Let’s get out of here.” Fine tremors shook my body. “Nice and slow.”

“In a minute.”

I was sinking into quicksand and every time I nearly got out, some new tentacle pulled me back in. I craved a simple touch. Yet I couldn’t ask. I couldn’t show that weakness. Weakness was a tool to be used against you.

Wanting warmth, compassion could backfire on me in a heartbeat. I’d lived for years without comfort. Why was I now suddenly craving the unthinkable?

“I’m fine.” The words were more for me than him.

Lucas’s hand cupped my shoulder. Possibly the least erogenous zone on the human body and yet, everything in me stood up and took notice. I shivered. Involuntary and inescapable.

His eyes narrowed at my body’s betrayal. Lucas yanked me toward him and unable to resist, I let him. He angled his head to the side, slammed his lips to mine.

This was no gentle kiss. No easy seduction.

I burned like the first time we’d come together. I reached for him as if possessed, clasped his jaw and devoured his mouth.

He licked and nipped trying to inhale me.

Everything within me combusted. My body was on fire. Heat poured through me. I wanted him inside me. Now. If the console wasn’t in the way, I’d be on top of him.

Now. Now. Now.

The word beat in my head, in rhythm with the blood pulsing through me, coursing, pounding, arousing.

I tried to pull him closer. The sharp edges of the papers from my file cut into my belly, stopping me. As much as I wanted to lose myself in the oblivion of his touch, we needed to leave in case they sent another team to investigate the area.

I untangled my fingers from his hair, pushed away from him, my back hard against the molded plastic passenger door. “We need to get out of here.” My voice was steady, even, with none of my turmoil coming through.

“Right.” He pressed his hands on the steering wheel gripping tightly. “You’re right.” But he didn’t like it.

“In case they come back.”

Lucas turned the car, taking the back exit from the parking lot, checking his rear view mirror repeatedly.

I had to get back in control, away from the spiraling emotions that had overcome me a minute ago.

“Did you bring everything with you?” I wanted to kick some ass. To fight, defend myself, my sister. But I didn’t know who I was supposed to fight. The link was there. I just had to find it.

“Of course.” He gave me a look and sped up the ramp toward the airport.

He really hadn’t needed me. In fact, with the people chasing me, he’d be far better off nowhere near me.

“Why did you come get me?”

Lucas didn’t answer. He concentrated on weaving in and out of the afternoon traffic, glancing frequently in the rear view mirror. My position afforded a view of his driver’s side mirror. No one was following.

“Why?”
Give me an answer, even if it’s a lie.

His hand snaked out and grabbed my fingers. “Our connection.”

I snorted.

“Jesus. I knew you weren’t ready to hear that. Even when I know it’s not a good idea, you push until I react. How the hell do you do that to me?” He laced his fingers with mine. It made me realize again, how seldom people touched me.

I’d been wrong. I didn’t want to hear the truth. “You don’t need me for anything.”

“We’ve been working pretty well as partners,” he countered.

“I don’t do partners.” Just like I didn’t do relationships or friends. Or sisters, I mourned.

“You do now.” His tone was merciless.

“Why?”

He switched lanes, exiting to the airport’s short term parking. “We’re linked. Somehow, someway. I can’t let you go. This...thing between us is a gift. If I don’t play it out then I’m squandering the gift to my life and yours.”

“Life is a penance,” I blurted. I kept my gaze on the steel and glass geometric design of the terminal. Life was like that building, constructed of solid beams and shatterable glass. The implacable and the fragile. I didn’t have room for fragile in my life.

I left that to Bella. Bella whose life would be all the normal mine was not. Bella who would have everything that I couldn’t. Bella who was telling family secrets to a guy who didn’t exist.

Lucas screeched into a parking stall. “Who do you have to do penance for? Who, Jamie?”

I didn’t answer. I couldn’t. No one knew about Bella. No one but Carson and me.

Carson. Who may have betrayed me.

“Fine. You want me to leave you alone?”

My heart stopped then started beating in triple time. I did want him to leave me alone. So why was my body treating his words like a hostile threat?

“Tell me where to take you so you have someone, anyone, to help you.”

My throat closed, burning with the need to cry out.

“Give me a name. Someone you can turn to.”

I was silent.

He slammed his palms against the steering wheel. “You can’t do it. You have no one.”

I still didn’t answer.

“I’m it, baby. Unless you can tell me where I can drop you off. Where you have some support. You’re stuck with me.”

“I don’t need anyone.” I forced the words out, my voice gravelly and rough.