Blowback (The Black Cipher Files Book 1) (34 page)

For a moment, I forgot what I was supposed to do if Lucas contacted me. What was the signal? My brain fogged. Could I freaking take any thing else?

“At your two.”

I snapped back to my surroundings. I had to rescue Bella, and I couldn’t let Lucas down. I fiddled with my fork in the prearranged signal that I understood his message, then slowly moved my hand to my lap. I eased my gaze toward the spot Lucas had indicated.

Zeke Hawthorne, the NSA programmer, was across the street, staring into the window of a bike shop but he wasn’t moving. As camouflage went, his sucked. He wore a bright red sweater, rumpled, and his hair normally a charming curly mop looked like he’d been on a three day bender.

His hands were in his pockets. Didn’t look like he had a weapon but it paid to be cautious.

The microphone clipped in my bra would send my response back to Lucas. “I know him.”

Lucas’s voice came low and gentle in my ear. “Friend or foe?”

“I...don’t know anymore.”

“Best guess.”

“Friend. Maybe.” I drained my coffee. “I’ll circle around and pick the guy up.”

“Meet me one block over at our rendezvous point.”

I crossed the street, heading for Zeke. He didn’t run when he saw me. In fact, he smiled. “I guess I wasn’t too hard to spot.” He gestured with self-deprecation to his clothes.

I ignored the obvious. “What are you doing here?”

“Carson didn’t see me,” he said hopefully, eyebrows raised, a small grin playing around his mouth.

“He saw you.”

But I hadn’t. I’d been so shocked by Carson’s revelations I hadn’t even noticed him until Lucas pointed him out. That kind of mistake could get me, and Bella, dead.

Get your head in the game, Jamie.

I ignored the flat line of Zeke’s mouth. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to see if you needed any help.”

“Cut the bullshit.” I made my voice hard, mean. “You look like hell.”

“I wanted to help.” He rubbed a hand through the mass of tangled hair. “This has to do with the kidnappings, doesn’t it?”

I regarded him warily. “What do you know about them?”

“I...hear things. And I wrote the program remember?”

“You looked at the files I accessed?”

“Hell yes. I thought maybe I could help.”

His answer was a little too offhand, forcing me to think. I connected the dots. Ezekial Hawthorne was on Staci’s 5491 list. Zeke. Another TICOM descendant.

The sound of Lucas’s cell phone ringing blasted in my ear. Loudly.

“Hello,” he answered. Then Lucas whispered to me, “Listen up. We’ve got contact.”

To hell with propriety, calmness, not drawing attention to myself. I took off across the street, not bothering to say goodbye to Zeke.

“Yes, this is Ms. Hunt’s secretary.” Lucas’s voice sounded in my ear. My secretary?

I pumped toward our rendezvous point, vaguely registering that Zeke was following. Dammit. I wanted to hear the other end of this conversation.

“One moment and I’ll put you through to her.”

I was breathing fast as I approached the Jaguar. Lucas was leaning against the doorframe. I ripped the phone from Lucas’s hand, took a second to try to slow my breathing. “Hello.”

“Ms. Hunt?” It was a man’s voice.

“Yes.”

“And how am I to be sure this is you?” The brogue was back.

“You’re approximately five ten, portly at about 180 pounds, grey hair and you walk with a cane.”

He let loose with a deep belly laugh. “Excellent. I’ve a proposition for you.”

“Where are they?” Too eager. Too eager. Shit.

“Ah now, we’ll be getting to that later. I’m sorry for the mishap. Clearly I’m entertaining the wrong young couple,” he said it as if he’d picked up the wrong brand of hot dog at the store. “Luckily for them, Mr. Christian knew how to get in touch with you.”

Thank God Lucas had given Johnny his cell number.

“They’ll be returned,” he paused. “After we meet.”

The lunatic. Much more dangerous than the syringe lady, Susan. And he hadn’t said
how
Bella and Johnny would be returned.

“Will Susan be there too?”

“She goes where she is told.” His voice was no longer jovial.

“Where and when?” I wanted to be able to play off Bella’s abduction, play it cool not frantic, but my heart hammered so loudly in my ears that I could barely hear. My throat constricted.

He was a fanatic and until I figured out his main goal, he was the most dangerous man on the planet.

“Not so fast,” he said laconically. “You’re a sharp one. We need to set some ground rules.”

“Go,” I forced out through numb lips.

“We’ll meet later today.” He coughed, a raw, hacking, bark. “I’d hoped to be done before now. Unfortunately, I’ve an appointment I must take care of first.”

“Place.”

“I’ll call you at four forty-five.” He paused again. “Come alone and bring the key fob.”

Fuck. I didn’t have the key fob. But I had the files. It had to be enough.

“Is that why you’ve been after me?” I decided to let him know that I had accessed the information. I couldn’t be a total wimp, he’d get suspicious. But I couldn’t push too hard either. “To get the data back.”

“Very good. You are proving to be extremely intelligent.”

I could practically hear him rubbing his hands together. “Just what I need. Be at Reagan National Airport. I’ll be in touch.”

Smart place. Access to planes, bus, Metro, cabs. I wouldn’t be able to give a partner enough warning.

“Bring the antidote,” I said.

“You are in no position to make demands, Agent Hunt.”

Lucas’s phone beeped in my ear as the old man broke the connection.

I came back to my surroundings with a blink. On the sidewalk, Lucas had Zeke in an arm and head lock. Zeke stood, his posture relaxed, face stoic, but the line around his lips was white with tension. “You can let me go now.”

“Who is this?” Lucas jerked his head toward Zeke, not loosening his hold.

“Zeke meet Lucas. Lucas meet Zeke.” I tucked his cell phone into my pocket. I wasn’t letting go of my only link between Bella’s kidnapper and me.

“Who are you?” Zeke shrugged away from Lucas but his stance was anything but conciliatory. “Jamie doesn’t work with a partner.”

I wasn’t about to expose any more about Lucas to anyone at the NSA. I dismissed his question with a dead-eyed stare. “Why do you look like you slept in your clothes?”

“I fell asleep in the chair in my office, looking out for you,” he said grumpily.

“Why?”

“I’m beginning to wonder the same thing.”

“How did you know about the meet with Carson?”

“Jamie. I’m the one who remotely turned on the tracking device in your ring. I was worried about you.” Zeke looked uncomfortable for a moment. “After you, uh, sent your message to Carson, I relayed the information to him. Uh...I’m not sure what happened, but whatever it was is probably my fault.”

The buzzing in my head was getting louder. “You set me up?”

“Not intentionally. I was trying to help,” he laughed bitterly.

“We need to get out of here,” Lucas said grimly.

He was right. We’d been in one place too long.

“What’s the plan?” Lucas asked.

“Later.”

Zeke planted his feet, legs spread wide. “Let me help.”

“No.”

“Someone stole my encryption. I’m as invested in this as you are.”

Not even close, buddy.

“You need someone technical,” Zeke said desperately. “I might be able to trace the cell transmission. Find out where the call originated.”

That caught my attention. But still I shook my head no.

“I was kidnapped too,” Zeke blurted.

“What?” That stopped me.

He looked miserable. “A few weeks ago.”

“And you didn’t tell anyone?”

“It’s complicated.” Zeke fisted his hands and looked me square in the eye. “I have a natural resistance to truth serum drugs. They don’t work on me.”

“So....what?”

“I know I didn’t give them my encryption program.” Zeke said fiercely, “I know I didn’t.”

Not that he remembered.

“I have the right to help you get these guys. I want to know how they got my program.”

We stood there, all of us silent. I was processing. Thinking.

“He’s got a point,” Lucas said after a minute.

“Are you crazy?” I hissed. “I can’t take him along.”

“We’ve got two hostages, Bella and Johnny, and at least two combatants, Susan and the old guy. One hostage is awake, right now. But what if they’re incapacitated when we get there.”

“I’ll figure it out.”

“You can’t do this alone,” Lucas insisted.

“Watch me.”

“You need backup,” Lucas said. “We’re in this together.”

“I’ll hurt you.” I hurt everyone. Even when I wasn’t trying.

He looked at me steadily. “Maybe. Maybe not.”

My conscience wouldn’t let me take him up on the offer of backup, even though I was tempted. Unbearably so.

“I....” I looked at him, at the sincerity and the acceptance in his eyes. I really didn’t want to hurt him.

Lucas threaded his fingers with mine, his hold gentle and implacable. “I’m willing to take that chance.”

My throat tightened, my heart slowed, the ba-bump echoing in my ears. He understood me so well. A me that hadn’t existed a week ago. He’d found a tender, softer me. Nurtured me, cared for me, and protected me. I couldn’t shut him out, couldn’t turn him away.

Then he used the argument that swayed me every time. “Do it for Bella.”

Bella.

Zeke watched us volley back and forth.

“You don’t know anything about field work,” I said to Zeke. One last desperate attempt.

“I could be the control.”

“I work alone.” But I was weakening and they both sensed it.

Rage was not my friend. The last time I’d gotten angry, my family had ended up dead. I needed calm, cool planning and execution.

I couldn’t seem to erase the picture of Bella as a hostage. And every time I did a savage need to strike out filled me. I couldn’t afford the anger. I didn’t have any training at hostage rescue and Lucas was right, one against two, with an additional two incapacitated hostages, were bad odds.

If I accepted the help, it would be possible to rescue Bella. I just...had to relinquish my aloneness, my solitariness, in order to get this done. If I didn’t, Bella had a much smaller chance of survival.

I blew out my breath, realizing for the first time since I’d seen that SUV driving away, I could breathe. “Okay.”

“And we know someone with hostage rescue experience,” Lucas enticed. “Someone who also has a vested interest in rescuing those hostages.”

Although I’d trained for plenty of situations, I had no practical experience in hostage rescue. “Who?”

“Someone who would love to get Johnny’s information about Staci.”

“Who?” I demanded.

“Jordan Ramirez,” Lucas answered simply.

THIRTY-EIGHT

How the hell had I ended up with not only a partner but a team?

I stalked around the shabby motel room, scuffing at the mud brown carpeting. We still had a whole freaking hour until the instructions for the meet came through.

We’d turned on the television to a music channel but some idiot had put on rap music.

Lucas and Zeke were in a deep conversation, bonding over some stupid listening gadget they’d picked up. Zeke’s head bobbed with the beat of Nelly. There sat the idiot.

Jordan Ramirez sat in the chair by the desk, eyes closed, his body so still he looked asleep. But his eyes moved at a rapid rate beneath the closed lids and I knew he was mentally going over our plan, visualizing the take down--even without knowledge of the meeting place’s floor plan.

“What the hell are we doing here?” I snarled. I gripped the cell phone in my hand so tightly my fingers were sore.

Ramirez unfolded gracefully from the chair as Zeke hopped up and practically ran for the door. “We’ll, uh, go next door and pick up some food. Bad idea to run an op on an empty stomach.”

Ramirez silently prowled toward the exit. Pausing, hand on the knob, he assessed us both with a long look, gave one wry shake of his head. “We’ve got an hour. Get it together.”

Great. I’d turned into a raving lunatic. I had a plan. I had gadgets, weapons, partners. I shuddered. What I didn’t have was a place or a time. And every moment Bella was in the madman’s clutches, I worried.

Lucas stood slowly, treating me like I was fragile, breakable. “Try to rest.”

With gentle hands, he kneaded the rigid muscles in my neck then pressed a kiss to my hair like a father comforting a child.

But I wasn’t a child. I didn’t want tenderness. I wanted oblivion. And I had to get rid of this rage.

I shoved his hands away, ripping at my clothes, stripping off my tank top with hasty fingers, baring my breasts.

“Jamie.” Lucas tried to put my top back on.

I said grimly, “We’ve spent too much time in hotel rooms wasting opportunity.”

Life had kicked me in the ass one too many times. I wouldn’t regret this. I grabbed his hands and jammed them on my breasts. My own hands massaged the thickening bulge in his jeans.

Visual and tactile stimulation. I’d have him where I wanted him in another sixty seconds.

My nipples stabbed into his palms. I could see his helpless reaction in the way his hands curved around me, his thumbs brushed against the stiff peaks. And still he was too gentle.

“What about your one time only rule?” I heard his desperation.

“Fuck my rule.” I fisted one hand in his hair and slammed my mouth against his. With the other hand, I popped the snap on his jeans and forced the zipper down.

His hips bucked as my hand curled around his cock.

The fog surrounding me thickened. I wanted hot, raw sex. I wanted to forget the last few hours. The last few days. My whole life.

“I refuse to hurt you,” he murmured vehemently against my open mouth.

But he would. Everyone did.

Lucas whirled me around and shoved me up against the wall of the motel room. He used his teeth to nip down my throat. With firm hands he squeezed my breasts pushing them up to his mouth. He feasted, nibbling, sucking until I thought I would explode from the sensation of his slightly rough tongue against the sensitive tips, and the soft brush of his hair against my jaw.