Girl Undercover 12: Showdown (7 page)

“You’ll know I’m right if you never again see or hear this man in your mind,” I said, which made me suddenly remember that Dr. Kelly had mentioned that for the reversal to work completely, Brady needed to get Haldol into his system on a regular basis. I told him this and pulled out the paper bag with the bottle and the syringes that I had put in my purse.

“According to what that doctor said, you need to inject 30 mg into your body on a regular basis,” I said to Brady. “Unfortunately, I don’t know what he meant by regular basis.”

“No?” Brady said, looking worried. Then he rolled his eyes and bitterly said, “Well, I suppose I can just use the man appearing in my head
again
as a gauge.”

I couldn’t help but laugh a little; the man making another appearance was a good gauge. Of course, as long as it didn’t mean it was already too late then.

“Do you know how to inject the medication?” I asked him. “It seems it’s important you inject it into a vein and not subcutaneously.”

“Mary will know how to inject it into a vein,” Brady said.

Right, Brady’s wife was a nurse. She would definitely know how to inject the Haldol properly.

“Okay,” I said. “Just have her do it then. Though, you might want to do it as soon as you start feeling off, not when the man is already making full-blown appearances in your mind.”

I checked the time. It was past nine in the evening and we were all tired.

“Listen,” I said. “It’s been a long day and I think we can all benefit from some rest. Especially you, Captain.” I reached across the table and patted his hands that were folded over the paper bag. “You’ve been through a lot.”

“Yes,” he nodded. “We’ve all been through a lot. Let’s call it a night and then resume tomorrow. I’ll be up before dawn as usual tomorrow, and then I’ll think of ways we can stop these bastards.” He and George got to their feet.

“Please text me in the morning so I know that you’re still with me,” I told Brady. “And use this number, not my regular phone.” I gave him my latest burner number.

Five minutes later, I had said goodbye to the two men and was on my way to my Toyota. It bothered me that Ian had still not returned my call, and it also bothered me that we had no idea if The Adler Group would know that Brady was no longer an untouchable. Would they notice that their messages and commandos were no longer going through? Sadly, there was no way of knowing this. We could only hope they wouldn’t.

I unlocked the car door and entered the car, then drove to my hotel room at the W, all the while keeping my phone in my lap in case Ian tried to call me.

By the time I was in the elevator, heading to my room, two entire hours had passed since I had called the Brit and I had yet to hear from him.

What the hell was going on?

It was bad enough that he hadn’t picked up when I called the first time, but then not returning my call? What was he thinking? With less than ten days to go—barely nine now—the two of us should be glued to our phones so that we could reach each other in a matter of seconds. I blew out an annoyed breath as I swiped the keycard that opened my door and entered my room.

Inside it, I threw myself on the big bed and stared up into the ceiling, the phone on my stomach.

Well, he will call soon,
I assured myself. He must have fallen asleep or something.

But he didn’t, and at some point soon after that I found myself falling asleep.

I awoke the following morning because the California sun was glaring into my eyes, prying them open. I’d never gotten a chance to close the curtains before the windows.

Groggily, I opened my eyes and it only took me a few seconds to know where I was and all that was going on. The only thing I didn’t get was how I had managed to fall asleep so easily when so much was at stake. But I had, and there was nothing else to do but to accept that fact, then move on with the day. At least it appeared like it was early.

Remembering that I had placed my phone on my stomach, I reached for it. It was no longer there. Fear surged through me at this discovery, but I soon calmed down when I noticed that it was lying on the bed beside me, and that there was still some battery left in it.

I brought it to my face, hoping to see some missed calls from Ian. To my disappointment, the only missed call displayed on the screen was from Captain Brady. I assumed the voicemail I had was also from him. Just to be sure, I played it.

It was from Brady, telling me he was still feeling like himself and to call him when I got a chance.

I sat up in bed, rubbing my eyes. Now I was really getting worried. Why was Ian not calling me? I checked the time. Like I had assumed, it was early, only seven a.m., which meant that it was ten in New York. He’d had ample time to get back to me. So why wasn’t he?

I tried calling him, but again his voicemail picked up. I left another message—sounding a lot more worried than annoyed this time around—begging him to call me as soon as he heard it.

As I hung up, my heart was heavy with fear. What if something had happened to Ian? For him not to get back to me was beyond weird, not like him at all, especially now.

What if he had tried to get his hands on Jonah, but failed and Jonah had killed him? I knew very well what Jonah was capable of, and after him freaking out about someone watching him, this could easily be the case. When he realized someone was in fact watching him, which Ian definitely was, he might have done something drastic, hired bodyguards to be sure he was safe. Maybe the guards had found Ian, brought him to Jonah, who no doubt would have killed him when he saw the person who was stalking him.

He already hated Ian, so the choice of punishment would be a no-brainer…

My airways tightened as panic worked its way through me at the thought of Ian being dead, leaving me alone to face Stenger and The Adler Group. My heart galloped against my ribcage.
How will I be able to do that on my own?
Even though Brady was back, I didn’t think I would be able to do it. What with him being dependent on the Haldol, I felt as though I could lose him to The Adler Group any moment.

Oh, God, will I
do
without Ian?

With a tremendous amount of willpower, I pushed myself out of bed and stumbled toward the bathroom. I needed to take a shower. It would wake me up, help me deal with this situation. I couldn’t just give up and stay in bed, despite that I wanted to do just that, creep under the covers and pretend I was five years old again.

When I returned to the bedroom, wrapped in big, fluffy hotel bath towels, I heard the sound of a phone ringing. It took me a few seconds to realize that it was in fact my phone because I had yet to get used to the odd-sounding ringtone. Only as I ran around the bed and saw how the phone that I had plugged in to the wall had lit up did I get it.

Ian is calling finally!

I hurried over and squatted beside the phone, picking it up. As I glanced at the screen, my heart sank like a stone in water. It wasn’t Ian’s number, but one I didn’t recognize.

Crestfallen, I pressed the Talk button and put the phone against my ear.

“Hello?”

“Gabi, it’s me, Ian.”

I closed my eyes and a fierce rush of gratitude at hearing Ian’s voice went through me. I grinned, thinking that I should’ve known he wouldn’t leave me to deal with this practically on my own. He wasn’t so stupid he’d let Jonah get control over him. But soon the gratitude was replaced with anger—why the hell had it taken him so long to get back to me?

“Where the hell have you been?” I snapped. “I was worried out of my mind that something had happened to you. Didn’t you hear my messages?”

“Yes, I did see that you called, but I didn’t get a chance to pick up or even listen to your message. Or messages you said? You left more than one?”

“Yes, I called you twice. Why did it take you so long to call me back?”

“I was busy with Jonah. What did the messages say?”

“Well, it was really only one message that contained important information. I managed to fix Brady. He’s no longer an untouchable.”

Ian sucked in an ecstatic breath. “You did?
Brilliant!”

“Yeah, I know, isn’t it? And what were
you
doing in the meantime, while I was busy helping us getting through this mess?”

“I found Stenger.”

Chapter 6

I nearly dropped my phone. “Wha...? That’d better not be a joke, Mr. Armory,” I added sternly. As casually as he’d said those three words, they simply couldn’t be true.

“It’s not a joke,” Ian said, his voice dead serious. “Jonah finally told me where he was. Unless he’s lying—which I highly doubt that he is—Stenger lives in a house in Alpine, New Jersey. I’m going there in a few to check it out.”

I could hardly believe my ears. “Jonah gave you that information voluntarily?”

Ian gave that soft chuckle I had come to know so well and miss so much while in L.A. “Of course he didn’t. I had to work hard to get it out of him, which was why I missed your call. The boy put up a good fight—at least more than I’d expected out of a chicken shit hothead like him. But eventually he relented.”

“You kidnapped him then?”

“Yes. He’s still at my place. And if turns out he lied about his father’s whereabouts, he’s a dead man.”

“He’s at your place? Really? Is that a good idea?”

“Sure, it’s as good as any other place.”

“Are you there right now?”

“No, I stepped out for a moment. I needed some fresh air. It was a long, arduous night for both me and Jonah. Besides, it was time for me to get a new burner.”

Ah, so
that’s
why I hadn’t recognized his number.

“So he’s at your place on his own right now?” I asked. “What if he tries to escape?”

“He’s not going anywhere. Massimo is watching him.”

Even though I wanted to be mad at Ian, I couldn’t. The absurdity of his small, gray cat sitting watchdog over big, mean Jonah was just too much. A giggle that took on a life of its own came out of me, making my body shake and snorting sounds coming out of my mouth.

“Gabi, are you okay?” Ian asked. “You sound like you’re having some kind of seizure. Don’t worry about Jonah escaping. I was just kidding about Massimo watching him. Obviously I made sure he can’t get anywhere before I stepped out.”

I finally controlled myself. “Sorry. No, I’m fine. I was just laughing really hard when I thought of Massimo keeping Jonah in check. Thanks for that; I needed a good laugh. So you’re about to go see how he lives now then? Stenger, I mean.”

“Yes. I just wanted to talk to you before. I’d really like it if you could be here with me so we can plan how to best approach him. Now that you’ve fixed Brady, nothing’s keeping you on the West Coast, correct?”

“No, I can come back any time now.”

“Great. Want me to book you a ticket?”

I was about to protest and tell him that I could do that myself. Then I thought of how efficiently he’d taken care of getting me a flight the last time. “Sure, that would be great. I could be ready to leave my hotel in thirty minutes.”

“I’ll find you something that’ll leave in the next few hours. Keep your phone with you at all times. I’ll call you as soon as I’ve found you the right flight.”

We disconnected and I threw on some clothes, then immediately began to pack my bag so that I’d be ready to check out from the hotel when Ian called.

He did call only twenty minutes later, while I was talking to Brady. My captain was back at the office, trying to figure out who might be involved with The Adler Group out of all his contacts in law enforcement across the country. And at the division. We suspected we had one or more moles there who'd been updating Adler about what I was up to. It was the only explanation as to how they had been able to transmit information about me to Brady pretty much in real time.

“I found you a flight that leaves LAX at ten twenty,” Ian said. “You think you can make that?”

I checked the time. It wasn’t even eight a.m. yet. “Definitely.”

“Great. It lands at La Guardia at five past seven New York time tonight. I’ll be there to pick you up.”

***

As I walked through the sliding doors to the small arrivals hall at the La Guardia Airport several hours later, I immediately spotted Ian. His unshaven face and mussed mop of blond hair stood in stark contrast to the neat navy cashmere sweater and dark slacks that he wore. I felt a big grin spread across my face, and I moved as fast as I could toward him with my big suitcase in tow. He returned my grin, and as I got closer, I noted that there were dark circles under his chameleon eyes. Which were bloodshot. He looked like he hadn’t slept in days.

He opened his arms wide and I slid between them, hugging him with as much fierceness as he hugged me. As I inhaled the familiar smell of him, I realized just how much I had missed him. I closed my eyes and smiled, enjoying the feeling of having his arms around me again.

“It’s good to have you back, Gabi,” he mumbled into my ear, smoothing my hair away from my neck.

As we finally let go a little, he looked down into my face, deep into my eyes. The air between us felt suddenly tense, like it had been infused with electricity, and, for a moment, I was sure that he’d lean in and crash his lips to mine. As I held his gaze, I found myself wishing that he would.

He did kiss me, but not on my mouth and certainly not with lots of passion. Instead, he pressed a sisterly peck to my forehead, which made me feel like it was Dante holding me in his arms.

I swallowed back the disappointment that surged through me and told myself that it was better that he insisted on treating me as a friend only, not someone he’d shared quite a few great nights with. We had way more important things to focus on and worry about than the confusing situation between us.
Yes, it
is
much better,
I cheered myself quietly. Even so, I couldn’t let go of the nagging sensation that suggested that maybe I had imagined him ever having feelings for me. Maybe he’d just been horny and had needed the release sex gave him as much as I had at the time. Hey, he was a man after all. The sensation bothered me so much that I instantly forced it to retreat.