Cold in the Shadows 5 (25 page)

At some point he had to tell her the truth, but he’d wait until she was somewhere safe, somewhere where walking away didn’t mean he was leaving her unprotected.

Parker sauntered into the room and Killion became aware of the rumpled state of the sheets and the scent of sex in the air. The fact it reflected badly on him wasn’t the issue. He didn’t want Parker getting the wrong idea about Audrey.

He closed the door behind the newcomer. “I didn’t expect you to come yourself.”

“I wasn’t sure who else to trust.”

That was a little ominous.

“I assume Dr. Lockhart is in the bathroom?” Parker asked.

Killion nodded, but didn’t move to tell her to come out.

“You don’t trust me?” Parker asked quietly.

“Someone tracked me to an island in the middle of nowhere and very few people knew about it.” He was the one holding the gun, but something about Parker made the spot between his shoulder blades itch.

Parker’s eyes were watchful. “I don’t blame you for being cautious.” He held his arms aloft and turned slowly in a circle to prove he wasn’t armed. “But I have a woman I love back home, pregnant with my baby, and just out of the hospital. I only left her side because I wanted to help Dr. Lockhart and find this assassin. I promised Mal I’d come home to her safe. I get that you’re uncertain about what’s going on—we all are—but you need to put the gun away.”

Killion held his stare for a few more seconds then relented. He shoved the weapon in the waistband of his shorts, walked over to his duffel to find a T-shirt. He pulled it on, strapped on his holster and covered it with an unbuttoned shirt. He pushed his feet into the cheap sneakers he’d bought yesterday.

Alex Parker paced the room, helping himself to a drink of water. “Jed and I
were
the only ones in the BAU who knew exactly where you were. I checked out your buddies from across the pond and there is no record of communications that suggest they contacted Gómez, but it’s impossible to know for sure. What I did discover was someone inside the Agency accessed the flight plan of the helicopter the Brits used and checked out the satellite images.”

“Inside the Agency?” Killion gritted his teeth. “Who?”

“I don’t know,” Parker admitted. “Some bright young thing realized I was in the system before I could dig too deep.” A line cut through his cheek when he smiled. “That doesn’t happen to me very often. I was impressed.”

Killion raised a brow. “They know it was you?”

Parker rinsed his water glass and put it on the drainer. “Nah. The feds are going to pay a visit to a man called Hugo Lutz. And while they’re looking at his PC for evidence of hacking into a government agency they’ll find thousands of images of child pornography.”

“Planted?” Killion asked.

“Nope. Hugo has a sickness that involves underage kids. If he stopped at just looking I might not have lured the feds to him.” Parker shrugged. “I covered my tracks and gave the authorities one of the bad guys to chew on. Frazer was in on the decision. There’s a dark webmaster Lutz works with whom I’m hoping he’ll give up for a little less jail time…”

“Not my problem.” Killion eyed him narrowly. “I only care about getting Dr. Lockhart to safety and tracking down whoever is behind this thing.”

“You’re right. The webmaster can wait.” Parker checked his watch. “I’ve got a private jet waiting for us on the tarmac. We can discuss it there.”

The bathroom door opened, and there stood Audrey, her hair nicely brushed and pulled back in some sort of improvised ponytail, looking like little orphan Annie, holding her toothbrush in one hand, deadly weapon in the other.

“Dr. Lockhart, I presume?” said Parker.

She nodded, looking too damn good in the sundress he’d picked out for her.

“I’m Alex Parker.” The guy didn’t move. Probably a good thing as Killion was so tense the air in his lungs felt like it was brushing up against an electric field. The woman had totally messed with his objectivity. Great. Just when she needed him most he was at his weakest.

Audrey’s eyes were wide and scared, but she straightened her spine and gave Parker a nod. “I wish I could say it was nice to meet you, but under the circumstances…” She moved into the room and handed Killion the handgun. Then she turned and reached out to shake Parker’s hand. Killion held his breath. Alex gave him a pointed look as he calmly shook Audrey’s hand.

Killion grunted. His tension was contagious and he was behaving like the greenest rookie. He had to get over his fear for Audrey and do his job before he did something stupid and got them all killed.

“There are some sandals in the bag over there.” Killion pointed to the chair farthest away from Alex Parker.

Parker smiled and went and sat in a wicker chair in the opposite corner of the room, leaning forward and immediately making himself look less of a threat. This guy was good. Killion watched him like a damned hawk.

Parker concentrated on Audrey as she put on her shoes with shaking hands. “I know what it’s like to be scared, Dr. Lockhart. I was in a Moroccan prison for a time and scared was my first name. My last name was witless.”

“How did you get out?” asked Audrey.

“You don’t wanna know.”

“You said someone in the Agency tracked the helicopter flight plan?” Audrey asked.

“We can’t talk about that here—”

“Okay,” she interrupted the guy, “I’m used to people not answering my questions.” She shot Killion a pointed look. “But what’s to stop them doing the same thing with your airplane?”

Parker grinned and Audrey seemed a little blindsided.

“Move it, Aud,” Killion interrupted. A person would have to be dumb as a rock not to see Alex Parker’s charm. Bastard. “We’ll discuss it on the road.”

Parker rose to his feet. Killion grabbed their stuff. “Let’s go. We’ve already been here too long.” He held the door wide for Parker to lead the way. Audrey followed but before she could exit, he stopped her with a gentle touch on her arm, leaned down and whispered close to her ear, “Thanks for the best honeymoon, ever.”

Chapter Sixteen

T
HEY SAT ON
a private jet that smelled of leather and money. Audrey couldn’t help but admire the gleaming interior and the crew who wore blue shirts and crisp black pants as they busied themselves for takeoff.

Once they were in the air, Alex Parker waved away the stewardess who joined the pilots in the cockpit, and then made everyone coffee. He pulled a keychain from his pocket and tossed it on the table. A little red light lit up on it. “Now we can talk without being electronically monitored.”

“It doesn’t affect the plane’s computers?” she asked.

“I guess we’ll find out.” Parker quirked a brow.

Audrey’s mouth dropped open.

“He’s messing with you.” Killion shot the guy a look. “Or he better be.”

Parker took three mugs to the cockpit and then again closed the door on the crew. When he came back he filled three more mugs. “I am messing with you. The signal blocker has a clearly defined radius of three feet, so huddle up.”

Audrey leaned in. “Why won’t whoever was checking us out in the CIA connect us with you and this jet?” She’d had her ear pressed to the bathroom door and had heard every word. “I’m assuming they could link you to the island in some way?”

Parker put a hot drink on the table in front of her along with a small carton of milk. “If they had the right resources theoretically they could. If it was me, I could and would. Which is why Frazer used one of his contacts to lend us one of their jets, and I sent the company jet to Alaska on another project.”

He poured milk into his coffee and sipped. “So our being on this airplane could be tracked, but it’s a long shot and I don’t think it will be. Short of an invisibility cloak this was the best way I could figure to get you back onto US soil without leaving a trail.”

“What about when we land?” asked Killion. He’d become distant since leaving the hotel. His comment about the honeymoon had taken her by surprise, but it almost seemed to bookend what had happened between them. Now he was back to cold and clinical. Clearly only the mission mattered.

Parker dug into a bag on the seat and tossed them both passports.

Killion looked at his and then picked up Audrey’s and passed it to her. “Not bad.”

She looked at her unsmiling photograph and new name. It was of her, but it wasn’t a photograph she’d ever had taken.

“Computer generated,” said Parker. “Feebs have their own people.”

“Traceable?”

Parker shook his head. “These guys don’t even exist in the system.”

Killion grunted. “Good.”

“I don’t think I can do this,” she realized suddenly. “I’m a terrible liar.”

Parker held her gaze. “All you need to do is look the border control guard in the eye and remember your new name and what you were doing in Jamaica. We used the newlywed theme. Allows for a little name confusion and it means Killion can keep his arm around you the entire time—sometimes we all need that extra bit of support.”

There were lots of secrets in Parker’s eyes, but there was kindness too.

Killion was focused on the details. “What about biometrics?”

“I took care of it.”

Killion looked disgusted. “You better be the only one able to access those databases.”

“One of my firm’s contracts is Homeland Security and Border Protection. I’ve set this up as a demonstration as to how current loopholes in the system could be exploited by the right hacker.” He crossed his legs at the ankles and clasped his hands together. “They didn’t believe I could do it so I’m proving them wrong. It’s one of the things they pay me to do.”

“So they’re effectively paying you to smuggle a wanted fugitive back into the country?” Audrey was both impressed and horrified.

“We discussed the options. With a potential CIA breach we had to run this far below the radar until we know for certain exactly what we are dealing with.”

“Do you have a chief suspect yet?” she asked, crossing her arms as both men looked at her with decidedly guarded expressions.

“Gabriel Brightman,” Parker revealed, shooting a glance at Killion.

“Rebecca’s father?” She sucked in a breath. “No. You were wrong about me, you must be wrong about him, too.”

Both men’s expressions turned implacable, but they didn’t know Gabriel. “He wouldn’t do that to me. He’s supported my studies, he even created a scholarship program in Rebecca’s name and made sure I was the first recipient.”

“He fits the profile,” Parker said. “Powerful businessman who has been affected by personal tragedy and whom the justice system failed. Someone in his company
is
in regular contact with
Mano de Dios
.”

She processed this. “But why would he want me dead?”

“You lived while his daughter died.” Killion didn’t cushion the blow. “He might have presented a loving and sympathetic front, but inside it’s possible he hated and resented you for being the one to survive while the child he loved died.”

Audrey shivered and Killion dug into his duffel and pulled out a hoodie for her. Their fingers brushed as she took it and their eyes connected. He blanked his features before he looked away.

God.

“How do we figure out who in the CIA might be dirty?” asked Killion. “To connect the Brits to Audrey means they figured out I was the one who stole Gómez’s plane.” Audrey could see Killion’s brain working and it was fascinating. “They either checked hotel security cameras and got a picture of me checking in or got hold of my driver’s license from the car rental company, and ran it through the database.”

“No one ran your photo through any database,” Parker told him.

There were a few seconds of tense silence, although she didn’t know what that meant.

“So someone recognized a photo of me. Someone I know personally or that I’ve worked with in the intelligence community.”

“You have any enemies?” asked Parker.

“Are you fucking kidding me?”

Parker shrugged. “So it could be anyone, but we have to assume the worst and that someone within Langley is feeding information to the bad guys.”

Killion looked thoughtful for a moment. “Or some analyst is fulfilling requests from an Intelligence Officer they trust in the field.”

Audrey had a thought. “You said you thought it was me because they used batrachotoxin, correct?”

Killion tilted his head as he looked at her. He was so familiar and handsome she felt a quiver around the region of her heart.

“Well?” she prompted.

“It wasn’t just because they used batrachotoxin. It was batrachotoxin with DNA traceable to frogs you worked on in your lab.” His lips pulled back. “University security is lousy by the way.”

“You broke into my lab at the university?” Her lips parted in surprise.

Killion gave her a thin smile that was scary rather than reassuring. “And your office. Gabriel Brightman is a regular visitor to the campus.”

“He gives a lot of money to the college.” She felt numb and huddled into his hoodie and wished she could get the other Killion back. He kept pushing her away, probably so when he left she’d be happy to get rid of him. What he didn’t seem to understand was, she’d known from the start he’d never stay.

“Your computer could do with a better firewall,” added Parker.

“Great.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “You two have no appreciation for the law.”

The two men looked at one another.

Killion leaned forward. “We couldn’t get a warrant because we can’t admit a crime has been committed. We’re working on time sensitive information with the sort of stakes that start wars. In this instance I’ll do whatever it takes to get the information I need.”

“Does that include sleeping with your prime suspect?” she asked silkily.

Parker winced.

Killion narrowed his eyes. “Probably, darlin’, but by the time you and I got together it was painfully obvious you were nothing more than an ordinary frog biologist.”

Hurt froze her in place. She hadn’t expected his casual dismissal to sting so much.

Killion ran his hands through his hair and closed his eyes. “Okay, back up. That didn’t come out the way I meant it.”