Blowback (The Black Cipher Files Book 1) (38 page)

“You aren’t sure,” I said flatly. Shit.

“Not sure enough to give it to my daughter.” She was getting agitated again.

“Why’d you take hostages?”

“Another mistake. We had your position. When they went in they found two people so they took them both.”

Liam had his weapon up again.

I glared at him. “Uh, could you put down that weapon? Guns in the hands of amateurs make me nervous. You know they get antsy and pull the trigger. Very messy.” Must be the Sodium Pentothal taking over.

“Shush.”

“What if I brought backup?”

“You didn’t bring any backup. Your file indicates that you always work alone.”

“Always work alone,” I said morosely. My head sort of lobbed as I shook it. Alone. I’d been alone forever. Except for one short incredible week. The future stretched before me, a barren wasteland. “I’m always alone.”

I still hadn’t seen or heard Lucas. Since the transmission about the CDC, Zeke had also been suspiciously silent.

“Where are the hostages?” Shit. I shouldn’t have brought them up, shouldn’t have reminded them that I cared.

Susan said, “She didn’t believe you would come for them.”

I felt as if a knife twisted in my gut, sorrow at how much I had messed up with my sister. “I’m a mean woman and she knows it.”

Liam shifted awkwardly to the edge of the sofa. “I can’t wait to see how you react with this new drug.” He eyed me as he heaved his bulk up from the sofa. His gun hand didn’t waver but I wouldn’t take bets on his accidentally pulling the trigger. “You will be a fascinating subject.”

I didn’t back away, even though I wanted to. Instead, I crossed my legs and slouched back in the chair, letting the drugs she’d given me make my muscles lax. I waited for him to come closer, praying the weapon muzzle that I’d seen in my peripheral vision sticking through the bedroom door was from one of my crew and not an unknown third kidnapper.

Keep his attention on you, Jamie.
“Who told you to stop?”

His eyes froze.

Oops. Wrong thing to say.

“It’s of no consequence.” The old man set the weapon on the coffee table and pulled a syringe from the pocket of his seersucker jacket.

Susan shook her head. “No, Liam.”

The old man thumped toward me with intent, the syringe gripped tightly in his pudgy hand. In an uneven gait, he came closer, the unmistakable hospital smell overwhelming.

I watched his eyes, waiting for the indication he really was going to inject me. There was no remorse or regret in his gaze. He wasn’t just determined--this was a man with nothing to lose.

Susan cried, “Liam. Don’t.”

She glanced toward the bedroom again, then pulled my weapon from the back of her pants. Shit.

“Please. Don’t make me do this.” She didn’t seem to be talking to Liam anymore as she pointed my weapon at him.

If she fired and the bullet went through soft tissue, I was going to have a hole in me somewhere. Assuming she didn’t completely miss him and hit me instead, which was a distinct possibility because of the way her hand was shaking.

A sound rustled from the other room.

Liam didn’t pause, but kept coming toward me. “We’ve got to keep the experiment going. It’s my only chance....”

I heard the whoosh of the silencer only after he started falling, two neat holes appearing just above his ear. Brain matter splattered all over Susan. Well-placed, extremely accurate headshots. And they hadn’t come from Susan.

Susan ran to the kitchenette area, her face was stark white, and threw up in the sink.

I knew the shots hadn’t come from my team. We hadn’t brought live rounds, only tranquilizers, which meant either she or I was the next target of the unknown gunman.

Fatalistically I waited for the next bullet to strike. My only regret was not telling Lucas how much he meant to me.

FORTY-TWO

Fuck that.

I wasn’t giving up without a fight. The shots had come from the bedroom. I threw my weight to the left, falling, hitting the hard tile floor, my shoulder bearing the brunt of the fall. Then I started inching my body toward the bedroom, using my feet against anything I could push off of to inch along the carpet.

I heard a thud as Susan’s body hit the floor. This time there was no silencer. Different weapon or different shooter?

The hard Berber carpeting was rough beneath my cheek, my shoulder ached, and I’d lost the feeling in my left hand. Please don’t let my faith have been misplaced. Let the second shot mean Lucas was here.

If he wasn’t, I’d failed. Everyone. My sister. Lucas. Myself. Again.

But I wasn’t going to lay there and wait. I scooted along, ignoring the throbbing in my shoulder.

Then I felt Lucas close, and saw his Nikes and the frayed hem of his jeans. My head swirled as he righted the chair. He used one hand to hold my wrists while using his knife to slice at the bindings. “You okay?”

“Cold. Shoulder aches.” I twisted my head side to side. My vision was a little blurry. “I...might have knocked my head when I fell. Bella?”

“She’s fine.”

Relief fizzed through me and my dizziness increased. Bella wouldn’t want to see me, but at least I knew she was safe. “Johnny?”

“Fine, too.” Lucas admonished me as he untied my ankles, “You promised no heroics.”

“I kept that promise.” Mostly.

“You call taunting a madman safe?”

“I’m fine.” I tilted my head toward Susan, then straightened it quickly as I saw stars. “Is she....”

“Tranquilized. She’ll wake in a cell.”

When she woke, we would have the final answers about how the subjects were picked and how the CDC had access to the NSA information.

“Good.” My circulation restarted with a frenzy, my blood tingling. “Where were you guys?”

“We got held up by your boss.” He massaged my raw wrists.

“Carson?”

“Yeah. He intercepted us when we were coming in the window of room 505.” Kneeling in front of me, Lucas rubbed up and down my arms with a gentle, impersonal touch. “Otherwise we’d have stopped whoever shot him.” Lucas jerked his head toward Liam. “By the time we got to 503, the shooter was headed down the stairwell.”

“He’s gone.”

I heard the soft pad of footsteps behind me as someone came through the connecting door. Then Zeke was standing in front of me.

“He was dying.” Zeke said, “Liam Odette, used to be in bio-terrorism at the CDC, but he was replaced a few months ago after being diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer.”

“That’s why there was no time.” I shook my arms out, bringing the circulation back with a vengeance. “Who shot him?”

“Didn’t get a clear look.” Zeke’s gaze cut to the blood spatter on the wing chair, then shifted away. “Ramirez went after the shooter.”

“Did the hostages...see anything?” I asked, praying my sister hadn’t witnessed Liam’s death.

“They were blindfolded. They never saw any faces,” Lucas replied. He stood up and held out his hand. I reached out ignoring the ache already pounding through my bones, and let him pull me gingerly to my feet.

Zeke said, “We’ve got a clean up crew on the way. Should be here any minute.”

My hand was still clasped in Lucas’s. Relief poured through me. Bella was okay. And suddenly I realized I’d been willing to trust Lucas with Bella’s life. Why wasn’t I willing to trust him with my heart?

Before I could confess, Bella rushed up to me, her fist against her lips.

“I’m sorry.” I had to get that out first. “My intent was to protect you from this world.”

Lucas dropped my hand as Bella flung herself at me and wrapped her arms around my waist. “
I’m
sorry. I shouldn’t have...I was so upset....”

I shrugged as if joy wasn’t streaming through me like the drug in my bloodstream. But I couldn’t quite make myself believe what I thought I was hearing.

She squeezed me tight. “I’m sorry. Don’t go away again. Please.”

I stared at Lucas over her shoulder, asking silently, ‘What should I do’?

‘Hug her back’, he mouthed.

My arms came up slowly, tentatively. I wrapped them around her and hung on for dear life. It was everything I’d wished and hoped for in the dark of the night when I’d been alone and lonely.

And it wasn’t enough.

She was warm in my arms. I was tired, sore, overwhelmed with information and thrilled. I knew I should leave it. But...“Maybe we could...get together...do...something.” What did sisters do together when they were adults?

Bella nodded against me. “I’d like that.”

Yeah. Me too. A family.

“Oh.” Bella stepped back. I covered her eyes before she could look at the mess Liam Odette had made in death.

“I forgot.” Bella blinked against my hand and tried to push it away. “Shouldn’t we go untie Uncle Carson?”

“Go ahead.” Lucas explained to me, “We put him in the chair next to the bed.”

As I let her go, Bella looked at me one more time and squeezed my hand. Maybe she was just as unsure as I was about what to do next.

Uncle
Carson? I’d deal with that later. “What’s Carson doing here?”

“Apparently he came to help,” Lucas said. “But since I wasn’t sure whose side he was on, I voted to tie him up and we brought him next door with us. I didn’t want him out of my sight.”

“You got the drop on Carson?” I smiled. “You really need to be more specific about what you did for the FBI.”

Lucas sidestepped my request artfully. “He insisted he had only been trying to get evidence against whoever was behind the kidnappings. But he did admit...reluctantly, that perhaps he’d left you to twist a little too long.”

I said, “It’s good he’s here. We’re going to need his help to get this straightened out.”

My heart pounded, pouring adrenaline and hope through my bloodstream. Lucas hadn’t left yet.

I needed to tell him--

“Shooter’s gone. Got the weapon.” Winded and shaking his head, Jordan Ramirez ran back in the room.

“That looks like mine.” It had the same custom grip and it had been missing since I’d been abducted. Who was the shooter?

“You’ll figure it out,” Lucas said.

You. Suddenly I hated that word.

I turned and looked back toward the bedroom. I could see Bella, working Carson free of bungee cords. “I appreciate your help,” I said, turning back to Jordan.

Jordan Ramirez eyed me for a moment, then nodded. “Thanks for the lead on Staci.”

Lucas gestured toward Johnny, who stood in the doorway, his eyes blank with shock and horror as he stared at Liam Odette’s body. “Did he give you any good information?”

“I showed him a picture of Staci.”

“Was it her?”

“He identified her features but insisted she’d had much darker skin. At least I’ve got a starting point.” Ramirez curled his fingers around mine. “Thank you.”

The distress in his eyes was easy to see. Why hadn’t Staci contacted him? Why had she let him believe she was dead?

As best I could, I answered his unspoken question. “I guess you won’t know until you find her.”

He was definitely going looking. Staci needed that antidote.

“Yeah.” His face grim, he nodded abruptly. “I have to go.”

I hoped, for his sake, he found her soon. “Good luck.”

Careful not to disturb any more of the scene than necessary, we walked toward the bedroom. The odor of gunpowder and death hung in the room. This mess was going to be a long string to unravel.

When we reached the doorway, I stopped, turned toward Lucas. Who still hadn’t left. Everything was different. I was different.

I’d finally connected with my sister. It wasn’t perfect, but it was a start. I stood looking at Lucas, the strong line of his jaw, the softer slash of his mouth, and the absolute love in his eyes. “I don’t want to go back. I want to go forward. Go small.”

He lowered his brows in a perplexed frown. “Small is...good.”

I needed a hug. Needed to hold on to him. More than I needed anything in my life before this moment.

I wrapped my sore arms around his waist and rested my head over the reassuring, steady beat of his heart. “You haven’t left.”

“Ah...not yet.”

I held onto him tightly. My heartbeat syncing in time with his. Hoping he’d understand all the things I wanted to say but didn’t know if I could get out.

Lucas curled his arms around me. “One question.”

I cleared my throat and stared up into his eyes. “This is number five.”

“Yeah.”

“You sure you want this to be your last question?” I was struck by the vulnerability in his gaze. “Maybe you want to... keep one in reserve.”

“Reserve,” he repeated slowly. “As in...stick around for awhile?”

“Yeah.” I looked at him steadily, hoping he could see the acceptance in my gaze, hoping he’d stay, hoping he wouldn’t leave. “Unless you’re dying to ask this last question.”

“You just answered it.”

“Good.”

I could see the kiss coming. Knew it wasn’t a mistake. It was right. His mouth brushed mine with tenderness we both deserved.

“I have this on tape you know.” A smile brightened his face, joy shimmering back at me.

“I’m under the influence of truth serum.” I might just keep it my little secret that I’d had resistance training.

He laughed. “Good point.”

“So, you have one question left, better think long and hard before you ask.”

It was as close as I could come to voicing out loud that I wanted to explore the connection between us. That maybe I finally understood, my needing him wasn’t a weakness, having Lucas around made me stronger.

But he understood.

He knew me.

***

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