Cloak and Dagger (The IMA Book 1) (36 page)

The thought of my ring being added to his collection of trophies, like a hunter displaying the severed heads of his game, made me sick to my stomach. I pulled away, and whispered, “No.”

“
You don't think so?” His gray eyes had an odd glint. Sick. He was so sick. I wondered if he had a trophy from Michael in there, which one might have been his.

“
You're wrong. Michael doesn't love me — he never loved me and if you can't see that, you must be…” I stared at the wall of his office for inspiration but that didn't help. All I could think about were severed heads and trophies. “I was just a convenience. He wanted an accomplice and a” —
say it —
“a quick fuck.” I didn't have to feign the humiliated blush that colored my cheeks.

Adrian paused, glancing at me. It was a cold look, quick and appraising. I couldn't glean anything from it, though I hoped it meant that he hadn't believed I'd own up to what had transpired between us and that it would lend credence to my falsehoods.

“
And I suppose,” he said, running his fingers down his tie, “That he wouldn't be coming after you, at this very moment, because you would simply be another loose end? That he hopes I'll do the trimming for him? Is that the gist of it, Christina?”

“
Yes,” I said, relieved that he'd understood. “That's right.”

Adrian shoved me back, hard. Hard enough to make my teeth rattle around inside my skull. “You persist in telling the most blatant lies. If you didn't amuse me so much, I'd make you pay dearly for such insolence.”

I froze, a deer in the headlights. He stared back with the expression of a snake eying a cornered mouse, then pressed a button on his watch. The door opened and a guard entered the room, weapon drawn. “At ease,” he said, without so much as a blink.

“
What do you need, sir?”

“
Have you gotten the trace on Boutilier?”

“
He's on his way. One of the guard spotted him on Highway 99.”

“
How soon until he arrives?”

“
At the speed he's going? About twenty minutes. Sir.”

“
Twenty minutes,” Adrian repeated, glancing down at me. “That
is
impressive.”

“
What are your orders, sir?”

“
Guard the main entrance and prepare a welcome for the boy. We wouldn't want it to seem to easy, after all. But don't make it too difficult. I want him in here alive,” he glanced at me, “and…relatively unharmed. Do what you must to make it convincing. Dismissed.”

“
What are you going to do?”

“
It is foolish to lie to those who have the trade down to an art, Christina.” He flicked open his knife. “Particularly since I have known Michael a long time.” Cold steel pressed against my throat. “A
very
long time. I've never seen him act this way before. It's almost as if he genuinely loves you. And he does, doesn't he?”

I choked.

“
I don't know.”

“
Do you love him?”

“
I don't
know
!”

“
And yet you slept with him, anyway. You're quite the cold-hearted little harpy.” He bent to whisper in my ear, “It would be a pity to let Michael find you safe after all that effort, wouldn't it? Let's not disappoint him.” With that, he let the knife slice through my shirt.

Michael:

Highway 99 was dark and empty. There were few lights, their brightness obscured further by the mist that hung in the air like a heavy curtain, which thickened as we got closer to the coast. I kept my eyes trained on the path my headlights burned into the darkness.

“
Where are you taking me?”

Shannon had been silent for the last twenty minutes, and her voice nearly made me start. I debated on whether or not to answer. She had tried to escape at the gas station, when I stopped to refill the car, by honking the horn in an attempt to draw attention. The only attention she'd drawn was mine, and I was still pissed about that.

After a pause, I said, “To save the girl
you
got in this mess.”

She looked relieved. “You don't need me for that.”

“
Nice try, Shannon,” I said. “You're coming with me.”

“
I told you, I didn't mean to! I'm sorry! But it wasn't my fault. You have to understand that.” Did I? From what I understood, she'd brought this on the both of them single-handedly. “Please, please,
please
let me go,” she begged. “You can just let me off at the next stop. I promise I won't talk — to anyone!”

“
You got involved in something that didn't involve you.” I didn't take my eyes off the road. “Now you've got to suffer the consequences. Tough luck.”

The base was on the Olympic Peninsula, a far distance from Seattle. It was the rainiest place in the country, and an ideal spot for lying low. The perpetually gray skies and an average rainfall of fifty inches per year did not make it an ideal traveling location. As I drove, a light drizzle began fall, becoming a steady pulsing rain.

I pulled up in front of the building around 5am. There were a few other cars in the lot. I unlocked the glove compartment and took out a handgun, eliciting an exclamation from the other seat. This was not the IMA  as I had known it. Callaghan had likely implemented changes. Bad ones. I drew back the safety. I'd have to be ready — for anything.

“
If you want to return to your apartment alive, I suggest you not do anything stupid. If you do, it won't be me you'll deal with — it'll be
them
.” Her eyes flickered to the dimly-lit windows and I saw her bite her lip. “That's right.”

“
More spies?” she asked, trying and failing to sound defiant. “Like you?”

“
Not like me.” I pressed the button for the trunk. “Worse.” I got out the jumper cables I always kept around in case of emergency, and used them to tie Shannon to her seat. “It's a mob run by a man without a conscience. You've heard of psychopaths? He's the genuine article.”

I picked the lock. Walked through the door. No alarm went off, which surprised me. Perhaps the alarm had been silent. I assumed it had. I walked briskly, the rubber soles of my shoes muted the echo of my footsteps as I passed through the halls.

I wasn't ambushed until I got to the staircase. Five guards: all of them wearing bulletproof vests, all expecting me. The first fired quickly. It was the move of an amateur. I went for him with my fists. I only had a couple bullets in my gun and I intended to save at least one for Callaghan.

I dodged a shot from one of the other guards and struck a hard blow on the back of the first guard's head. He went down without much fight after that, mouth hanging open, a strand of drool trickling out of his slack mouth to puddle on the title.

One of the other guards fired at me from behind. It was closer shot, far more accurate than the first guard had been. They obviously weren't trying to kill me, or I would have already been dead. Callaghan was probably still operating under the delusion that he could persuade me to work for him. This gave me a clear advantage — I intended to use it.

I landed a blow on the third guard, right under the jaw, snapping his head back and stunning him temporarily. The second guard, who had fired the gun at me when my back was turned, made another lunge for me. I made the mistake of turning to confront the attack directly, and was grabbed from behind by the fourth guard. A swift kick to my abdomen winded me.

Grinning, the guard moved closer, readying for another attack. I aimed a kick at his knee, swiping his legs out from beneath him. The guard dropped to the floor, cursing, and the guard holding me said, “Hey — ” and cuffed my temple, hard enough to make my ears ring.

Meanwhile, the third guard had recovered from my punching him in the throat and was moving towards me, his cocked-back fist and steely glare suggesting he wanted seconds. I waited, ducking my head at the last minute, so the blow landed in the face of the forth guard. He grunted in pain, releasing me from his hold, and I was free to whip out my gun and aim it at the third guard. “Where is your boss? Don't make me waste a bullet on you.”

The second guard answered, “Second floor. Room three-two-seven C.”

“
If I find out you lied to me…”

“
He's telling the truth,” the fourth guard said. Both his hands were clasped to his face and his eyes were watering. The third guard had broken his nose when he'd tried to punch me.

I headed up the next flight of stairs. I had no other leads. If the guards were wrong, I could force the correct answers out of them on my way back down. The rooms passed by in a blur, only the numbers catching my attention.
There it is
.

I yanked open the specified door, which was unlocked, and entered the room. I wasn't sure what I had expected, but nothing could have prepared me for what I saw. It was an office — a nice one — but looked as though a cyclone had passed through. A tea service was scattered about on the floor with spilled tea soaking into the scarlet rug. Chairs were upturned. In the midst of this mess, Christina was trapped beneath the bastard. He'd trapped both her arms above her head with one hand. The other was out of view, hurting her. Her clothes were slashed — and her skin, where Callaghan had been too careless with the knife. She looked up, her face naked with misery. Something in her gaze made my stomach clench, filling me with fierce, wordless rage. “Michael,” she whispered.

No
.

Callaghan looked up, too. “I expected you thirty seconds ago, Michael. You're getting slow.” Shaking his head, he got up without further pretense, leaving her lying on the floor like a discarded rag. I took off my jacket, draping it around her shoulders. There were marks on her throat where he had drawn blood and several others he'd clearly meant for me to find. I'd put a bullet in him for all of them.

“
You bastard.”

He slid his arms back into his shirtsleeves, ignoring me. A ring glinted at his chest, tied around his neck with a leather thong. It looked vaguely familiar, though I couldn't say why.

“
What the fuck have you done?”

“
I'm afraid your pretty friend will be out of commission for a while. Perhaps you should have gotten here faster, Michael.”

I got to my feet. “Give me one reason why I shouldn't blow your head off right now.”

“
Letting passion rule you like a little boy,” he scoffed. “Why am I unsurprised?”

I cocked the gun. Behind me, the door opened. I heard several clicks echo my own. With a sinking feeling, I realized my arrogance had led me straight into a trap. The guards on the staircase had, in retrospect, gone down far too easily. What if they had been instructed to miss, and threatened so that my attacks seemed like a bit of schoolboy fisticuffs in comparison?

I turned my head, and what I saw immediately confirmed my suspicions. Ten guards were standing in the doorway now. I even recognized a couple of them from Target Island. They did not look pleased to see me. The feeling was mutual.

Callaghan began to do up the buttons of his shirt. “The guards on the staircase were instructed to miss,” he said, voicing my own suspicions. “These guards are under no such order. I don't think you'll be able to dodge their bullets quite so easily — unless you care to try?”

The taunt gave me pause. I knew full well who I was dealing with, and that his attempt at killing me was something he took great pleasure in lording over me, but at the same time, it lacked the usual ring of diplomacy I was accustomed to. The IMA was about the
appearance of choice
. Or had been. I said as much, privately thinking that Kent had been right all along. The IMA would have been better off with another leader. Any leader.

Adrian barked out a laugh. “Choice? I don't need to bargain with you to know you're desperate. You have no choice.” He snorted. “To think you used to be the best. Pitiful.”

“
Not really,” I bit back, “Not considering who the competition was.”

The good-humored malice left his face, leaving him with the flat, dull eyes of a snake. “Drop the bloody gun, Michael Boutilier, before I let them fill your empty skull with bullets.”

I let it fall to the floor with a clatter — I'd made my point. One of the guards quickly broke rank to seize the weapon and secret it away.

“
You've had ample time to consider my generous offer.” Callaghan shook out his suit vest, frowning as he buttoned it over the shirt. “It's time for you to decide.”

“
I don't think working alongside a turncoat would be good for company morale.”

“
He's right, sir,” one of the guards spoke up before the bastard could respond. “He already betrayed this organization once. His skills make him an even greater threat. The risk clearly outweighs the gain, in this case — with all due respect, sir.”

“
He also destroyed Target Island. Him and the girl.”