Covert Intents: A Branson Family Novella (8 page)

“Eventually it won’t need the separate algorithm, that’s part of what we’re working on in the computer lab on campus. But yes, right now, two parts.”

“Okay. What’s the problem?”

“I realized on Thursday the algorithm had been replaced with a fake. I came across it accidentally. Whoever switched it out obviously meant to do so undetected. I found it almost by accident.”

“So one of the two parts needed is already gone.” Damn it.

Ryan’s look was pinched. “Actually… both parts are already gone.”

Seth walked all the way over to Ryan’s bed from where he had perched on the wall. “What exactly are you saying, Powell?”

“When I noticed the algorithm switch, I took the microchip.”

“Do you have it now?”

“No. I went to a restaurant on Thursday. Lydia and Dr. Hudson were there.”

Yeah, Seth had been there, had just missed Ryan by a few minutes, it seemed. And had missed Ryan kissing Rachel, which was probably for the best. But Seth didn’t mention any of this, just let the man finish.

“I wasn’t sure what to do about the algorithm code. It was possible that it had been changed on accident, just human error. But I was also afraid about security of the entire project. The three of us fought. Well, not fought, but had tense words.”

Seth nodded. “Okay.” That had to have been just minutes before Seth arrived. “Tell me more about that.”

“Lydia was defensive since she was the last one to set the algorithm. So if it was an error, it was hers. She didn’t like that. Dr. Hudson wasn’t thrilled with my accusation either.”

That could be because Hudson was sleeping with Lydia.

Ryan shook his head. “I told them I thought we needed to up security. Dr. Hudson told me I needed to not do anything rash like report it. He would look into it himself and take the necessary measures.”

“But you didn’t think that was enough.”

“No.”

“Yet you didn’t really want anyone looking into security because it was going to uncover the other things you’d done.”

“Pretty much.” Ryan nodded.

“So you decided to handle it yourself? What? Go back and get the microchip?”

“No. I went home. I walked, which was a stupid idea. I never made it. I was attacked.”

Seth rubbed his hand over his face. This didn’t make any sense. What purpose would it serve for the buyer to attack Seth?

“What was it, a warning? To back off about the security or to scare you into stealing the microchip for the buyer yourself?”

Ryan shifted in his bed. “No. I had already taken the microchip before I even went to the restaurant Thursday.”

“
What
?” Did this mean the chip and the algorithm were already gone? “Did the attacker know that?”

Ryan nodded.

“So the buyer already has the microchip.” Damn it. Seth turned away. He needed to get out of here and get the Bransons and every other available Omega agent on this. Like right now.

“No.”

Seth took a deep breath. “Finish Powell, now.”

Ryan started talking quickly. “After I had the argument with Dr. Hudson and Lydia, I got nervous. They were acting weird. Plus, two big guys were hanging there that I had seen around before. So I handed the microchip off to someone else.”

“Who?”

“I don’t think you know her, but she works on campus, not in the computer department. I kissed her and slipped it into her sweater pocket while she was distracted.”

Seth could feel his teeth grind together. “You gave the microchip t
o
Rachel Branso
n
?”

“Oh, you know her?”

“Yes.”

“She was the only one I knew for sure wasn’t in on this. I couldn’t trust any of my computer science colleagues.”

Things from the last twenty-four hours snapped into place. No wonder someone had trashed her apartment and tried to abduct her from her office.

She had the microchip.

“And you told whoever attacked you that you gave it to her.” Seth could feel rage pooling in his blood.

“I just said some girl named Rachel. I don’t think the thugs who hit me meant to put me in a coma, I just hit the wall wrong.”

Seth had no doubt that if Ryan had remained conscious he would’ve given up every detail about Rachel and she’d be dead or badly hurt and the microchip in the buyer’s hands.

“Is there anything else?” he asked the younger man who now had a sickly cast to his skin.

“No, that’s it.” Ryan’s voice was small.

“People did come after her, Powell. It’s a good thing for you she wasn’t hurt.” Or else Seth might be finishing what the thugs started.

“I’m sorry. I was just trying to make up for the other bad stuff I’d done. Make sure the buyer didn’t get his hands on the microchip.”

Seth nodded. Ryan was finished in the graduate program. He’d be lucky if he didn’t actually do some prison time. But Seth believed he’d been trying to do what he’d thought was right in this situation.

Thankfully Rachel was safe at his house. No one knew where he lived. His name and address listed at the university was totally different from his real apartment.

Cameron came inside and tilted his head towards the door. “Can we see you out here?”

Seth nodded then looked at Ryan. “I’m not sure how this is all going to play out, but I’ll be sure to let it be known that you were trying to help.”

Ryan just nodded and Seth walked out with Cameron.

“We got a report,” Juliet said once the door closed behind them. “Lydia Williams slipped her tail about thirty minutes ago.”

“Deliberately?” With D.C. traffic, tailing someone wasn’t easy. Someone could slip it without it being deliberate. That had been true in San Francisco also.

Cameron nodded. “Very deliberately.”

“Okay, I need to get back to my place. It ends up Rachel has the microchip. Ryan planted it on her.”

All three Bransons were looking at him oddly. “On Rachel?”

“It’s a long story.” He grabbed his phone to call her and realized he had two missed messages from about twenty minutes ago.

Hey, I forgot my charger at my house yesterday. Phone is about to die so I’ll just see you when you get here.

But the next one had him running down the hospital corridor at a sprint.

Lydia Williamsjust called. She’s coming over to chat
.

He called Rachel’s phone as he ran, but her battery must’ve already been dead. It went straight to voice mail.

Seth ran faster.

CHAPTER TEN

Rachel
didn’t tend to have a lot of girlfriends. She didn’t really tend to have many friends at all, actually. Her books were her friends.

But Lydia had become a pretty good friend over the past few weeks. Despite being in the computer field, Lydia wasn’t any sort of geek. She was tall and blond and striking. She worked in a male-dominated field, but that didn’t seem to faze her at all. Lydia liked knowing that all the men thought she was beautiful.

There was a hardness to Lydia, Rachel caught glimpses of it every once in a while, but she’d never been mean or unkind to Rachel. Rachel had no doubt the other woman had the savvy and drive it would take to make it in the business world.

Rachel was the opposite. But she enjoyed having a friend that was confident and beautiful.

So when she’d seen that she’d missed a couple of calls from Lydia last night and another this morning, Rachel had been kind of glad to hear from her. And then Lydia’s text:

Hey, where ARE you? Two kisses on Thursday from two different guys and then I get NO details. Need a girls chat, stat.

Rachel knew her battery was about to die in her phone. Seth had made it sound like it would be quite a while before he returned. She didn’t really just want to sit in his apartment with nothing to do. Might as well invite Lydia over.

I’m at Seth’s. He’s out for a while. Want to come over?

HECK YEAH. I’ll bring coffee
.

She gave Lydia the address. She texted Seth to tell him about her phone and Lydia. She waited, but when he didn’t respond right away she went ahead and turned her phone off. He was busy. It may be a while before he could respond.

Rachel wasn’t really sure how good she would be at girl talk. What she’d shared with Seth last night had been beyond amazing. When making love he’d made certain her mind was as fully engaged as her body, something her very few other lovers hadn’t seem to realize she needed.

Seth had all but worshipped her in his bed. She might have doubted yesterday that he truly found her beautiful, but she could not possibly have those same doubts this morning after last night. She could still feel him everywhere. If she closed her eyes she could feel his lips skimming over her throat and shoulders and beyond.

But that wasn’t the sort of stuff she wanted to share with Lydia. That was private, personal. She didn’t want to share those details with anyone but Seth. She hoped Lydia wouldn’t push for an account of their lovemaking.

Rachel had just finished getting dressed in what she’d brought from her house —yoga pants and a long sleeve shirt— and had braided her hair down her back when the doorbell rang.  Lydia must’ve been already in this general area of D.C. to have made it here so soon.

Rachel opened the door and Lydia bounded in.

“Hey sweetie.” The taller woman threw her arms around Rachel, even with coffee cups in both hands. “Look at you all here in a man’s house so early in the morning. There must have been some naughty deeds going on last night!”

Rachel returned Lydia’s enthusiastic hug a little awkwardly. She wasn’t much of a hugger.

“Not so much naughty, but very nice.”

Lydia released her and they walked into the kitchen. Rachel added some milk and sugar to the coffee cup Lydia handed her, because it needed it, but also to gain a little space.

“Rewind to Thursday and start with Ryan. Is there something going on with him? I had no idea. And now Janitor Hottie?” Lydia was firing out the questions faster than Rachel could answer them.

“No, there’s nothing going on between Ryan and I. He kissed me at the restaurant totally out of the blue. I had no idea he was interested in me like that.”

“That doesn’t seem like Ryan. There must be more between you than you’re telling me.”

Why did Lydia want to talk about Ryan? Rachel was here in Seth’s house. Obviously she had chosen him not Ryan.

She shrugged. “There’s not much to tell. It was pretty awkward.”

“How did Ryan do it? Move in fast? Slow? You guys were outside, right?”

As much as Rachel hadn’t wanted to share intimate details about her night with Seth, she definitely did not want to talk about her kiss with Ryan.

Rachel took a sip of her coffee. “Seth’s kiss was much more interesting, that’s for sure.”

Lydia wouldn’t be detoured. “But you’ve known Ryan for a while, right? Do you guys have a past? There’s more than you’re telling, isn’t there?”

Rachel shook her head, taken aback. “No. Never. I’ve never been interested in him in that way, nor did I think he was interested in me.” Despite the kiss she still wasn’t sure he was interested.

Lydia was studying her from across the table as if looking for clues. Was this how girl chats normally went? If so, Rachel hadn’t been missing much over the years. This was decidedly uncomfortable.

“Okay, no past history and Ryan just came up out of the blue and kissed you. Did he say or do anything weird?”

“Besides a very public, unprovoked kiss? Um, no.” Wasn’t that enough?

Lydia took her phone out of her pocket and texted someone. This entire situation was strange. Rachel was used to most social interactions being awkward, but this was even beyond that. Lydia finished her text and looked up from her phone.

All semblance of the friend who had come to the door a few minutes ago was gone. The person sitting across from her now was cold, calculating, unfeeling.

“This is your last chance, Rachel.” Lydia leaned forward on the table. “Tell me what is going on between you and Ryan. Are you partners?”

Rachel sat up straighter in her chair. “Nothing is going on between me and Ryan. Something happened between me and Seth, but you don’t seem to care about that.”

“The janitor? No, we definitely do not care about him. Although he was quite problematic at the university yesterday.”

We? Who was
w
e
? And why did Lydia know about what happened on campus?

Rachel stood. “I think you need to leave, Lydia.”

Lydia stood also. She was taller than Rachel, probably stronger. Should she try to get around her? A knock on the door interrupted Rachel’s thoughts. Lydia wasn’t surprised by it at all.

She grabbed Rachel’s arm and pulled her to the door a few feet away.

When Lydia opened the door two men were standing there, the man with the gun from yesterday and another guy, bald. Maybe one she saw at the restaurant. Lydia was letting them in the apartment, obviously friendly.

Rachel broke free from the other woman’s hold, sprinting toward the back door. But the first man caught her half way across the living room. He threw her so hard into the bookshelves lining Seth’s side wall that half of them fell over.

What was it with this guy and trying to kill her with books?

When he backhanded her and sent her stumbling across the floor, she realized that maybe he really planned to kill her with any means necessary.

“You should’ve just told me what you know about Ryan, Rachel.” Lydia was tsk-ing and shaking her head. “Max here isn’t known for subtlety.”

Rachel could feel blood in her mouth where her teeth had cut the inside of her cheek. She slid away from Max. The other guy was standing by the front door.

“I don’t know anything about Ryan.” She pointed at Max. “And I don’t know anything about the microchip this jerk was talking about yesterday when he grabbed me.”

“We know you have it,” Lydia said.

“Why do you think that?” Rachel could hear her voice becoming hysterical and tried to rein in her terror. “You know I’m not in the computer department. Why would I have a microchip?”

“Ryan gave it to you,” Lydia said.

“No, he didn’t. Whatever reason you think he did, he didn’t. Okay? He’s in the hospital. How could he have given me anything?”

“He gave it to you Thursday night, Rachel.”

Reality dawned. That kiss. Ryan’s weird behavior. He’d given her the microchip, slipped it in her purse or something.

“That’s right. Or did you really think he’d kissed you because he was interested?” Lydia smirked and looked Rachel up and down from where she half-laid, sprawled on the floor. “I still can’t believe the janitor wanted you. Especially once I saw him in street clothes.”

Rachel ignored the crack about her and Seth. “That may be true, but Ryan never told me about it if he gave me something.”

“He did. When I found out Ryan said he’d given it to some girl named Rachel, I knew he meant you.” Lydia leered at her. “Max tried to find the microchip at your house, then your office. He planned to question you, but your janitor boyfriend got in the way. I tried to call you last night to see if I could get any closer, but you didn’t answer.”

Max was fed up with the talking. “Where’s your purse?” He grabbed Rachel by the shirt. She cringed, preparing for another blow.

Lydia intervened. “Max, chill out. Her purse is in the kitchen.”

Rachel whimpered as Max grabbed her by her hair and pulled her up, dragging her into the kitchen. He threw her against the refrigerator —the same refrigerator where Seth had kissed her so thoroughly last night— and watched as Lydia dumped everything from her bag onto the table.

How long would it be before Seth returned? Her phone was in his bedroom. Did it have enough charge for her to turn it on and get one more call out of it? Could she even get to it at all?

She knew the microchip was important. Important enough to send someone of Seth’s caliber undercover to stop its sale. Rachel needed to do something, but what could she do? There was no way she could get around Max.

“It’s not in here,” Lydia said after she checked every section of Rachel’s purse and sorted through all its contents.

Max grabbed both of her arms and rammed her against the refrigerator. “I am tired of playing games. Where is the microchip?”

Tears welled out of Rachel’s eyes at the pain in her head. “I don’t know. I swear I don’t know.”

“What clothing were you wearing on Thursday, Rachel?” Lydia said. “Think. Could he have slipped it in something you were wearing?”

She’d worn jeans and a blouse. Nothing special. Nothing Ryan could’ve slipped something into except…

“Maybe my sweater. It’s the only other place. It has deep pockets”

“Get it.” Lydia said.

Rachel had hoped they would leave her alone or that Lydia would come with her into the bedroom and not Max so Rachel could possibly get her phone, but didn’t have any such luck. She knew she had to get away from them. The first chance she got she was going to bolt. She’d have to get far enough from Max to do that.

She noticed the cracked window as soon as she walked through the bedroom door. She was absolutely positive that window had not been open this morning.

She’d made Seth close it last night since his bedroom faced the sidewalk. Call her old fashioned, but she didn’t want anyone walking by to be able to hear them while they were in bed together.

But what did it mean? She glanced around trying not to give Max any idea she was doing so. The slightest movement of someone in the bathroom caught her attention. She looked away, not wanting to give the big man any reason to look in there. She knew there was nowhere to hide.

She grabbed her cardigan from where it had ended up on the back of the chair in Seth’s room and handed it to Max.

“I’ve got to go to the bathroom.”

Max took the sweater from her and glanced at the bathroom. There was obviously no window in there. He pushed her toward the bathroom door. “Hurry up. If you’re not out in one minute, I’m coming after you. You won’t like that.”

Rachel rushed into the bathroom and locked the door. She turned on the light, hoping to find Seth. Her jaw dropped and eyes widened as the shower curtain moved back.

“Juliet?”

What the hell was her cousin doing at her boyfriend’s apartment?