Kate Sherwood - Dark Horse 01 - Dark Horse (45 page)

He looks up and sees the two men watching him, then turns the page and looks at the report inside. It’s pretty scary reading. There’s a summary of the lives of all three of them, showing how they’d gotten in trouble on their own, and then how Krista and Scott had joined up, and then a mysterious appearance by Dan’s father. The story closes with all three of them wanted in connection with a series of armed robberies. Apparently they’re still at large.

Dan wonders what happened to his little sister. They’d never been close, exactly, but she and he had banded together sometimes against their stepfather, had been allies if not friends. He wonders if all this would have happened if he’d been a little stronger, if he’d been able to pull himself out of his own anger and misery and found a way to help her out. He remembers Justin had suggested that they look her up, but that he had said he didn’t want to. He hadn’t wanted anything from the difficult past to touch his perfect present. He checks the dates with some trepidation, but is relieved to find that Krista had started getting in trouble shortly after he’d left. By the time he had been in a place to really help her, she had already been well down the road to trouble. Still, he should have done something….

He remembers his audience and looks up. They’re still watching him closely. He’s not sure what the appropriate response to this information would be, so he just goes for honesty. “Shit. I had no idea.”

Bill nods. “The part we’re most concerned about is… if you turn to”—he reaches over and leafs through the stack of papers in front of Dan—“this page, it shows a list of known associates of Scott Russert.” Dan looks at the list of names, and then back up at Bill, and shrugs. “You may not recognize them, but a lot of law enforcement officers would. These people are members of organized crime families, in Texas, Nevada, and right here in California.” He purses his lips. “These are the sorts of people who could actually have the resources and intelligence to plan a successful kidnapping attempt on Ms. Kaminski, or to be a threat to the Kaminski interests in a variety of other ways.”

Dan feels a little sick.
He
might know that he has nothing to do with his family, but how can he prove it, especially to two people who are paid to be suspicious? He wonders if he’s about to lose his perfect job just because his family is fucked up.

He feels tired, again. He looks up at Bill. “What can I say? I mean… I haven’t seen either one of them in more than a decade. If they got in touch with me… I don’t know. Krista’s my sister, I’d try to help her, but in a ‘turn yourself in, and we’ll get you a good lawyer’ way, not… I would never do anything to risk Tat’s safety.”

Bill nods. “I realize that it’s a difficult situation.” He pauses, as if being careful of his words. “Because of the nature of the work you’re doing, we consider it necessary for you to have the highest level of security clearance. For that level of clearance, family is considered as a possible challenge to a person’s loyalty, and in this case, your family is of serious concern.” He smiles a little at Dan. “On a personal level, I believe you that you have had no contact with your family members, and I sympathize with your situation. I think it’s admirable that you’ve been able to overcome some difficult beginnings and create a new life for yourself.”

Dan steels himself. “But….”

“But we will have to review this situation very carefully, in consultation with our managers and our full security team. I can’t say for sure what their recommendation to Mr. Kaminski will be, but… it would be very unusual for a person with that family background to be employed in an environment that requires such a high level of security.” He sighs. “We’ll be contacting Mr. Kaminski immediately, and advising him that our concerns are still not fully resolved. We may be able to find temporary measures that will satisfy the need for security while still allowing you to continue with your employment, but….”

Neil takes over. “When are you scheduled to work next?”

“I make my own schedule. I was planning to go down maybe this evening or for sure tomorrow morning.”
Neil shakes his head. “We won’t be able to have this sorted out by this evening. We’ll contact Mr. Kaminski and advise him that you won’t be able to work today, and that we’ve asked you not to return to the barn until further notice.” He glances over at Bill. “We’re also a little concerned about your living arrangements. This house is within the security cordon of the family property, so there aren’t many barriers between it and the main house. Given the situation… I’m sorry, but we’re either going to have to ask you to leave the property now, and we’ll put you up in a hotel until this is dealt with, or we’re going to have to put our security team on a heightened alert, which will likely be alarming and upsetting to Miss Kaminski.”

“Are you… are you kidding me?” Dan turns to Bill. “Is this for real? I have to move out, or else I’m the sort of person who enjoys scaring a little girl? I’ve—” He realizes that he’s practically yelling, and tries to calm down a little. “I’ve been working with Tat for a couple weeks now with no problems. I shared a room with her brother for the last two nights, for fuck’s sake! If I wanted to hurt the family, I’ve already had plenty of chances.”

Neil’s jaw works a little. “There were some regrettable oversights in the security screening for this enterprise, and we are working very hard to determine why they occurred and to find ways to make sure they don’t ever re-occur. At this point, I can tell you that if we had insisted on completing a full security check before you came onto the property we would have recommended strongly against your employment, at least in this capacity. As it is, your two weeks of service work in your favor, but are hardly enough to override the other concerns.”
Dan shakes his head. “This is so fucked up.”

Neil isn’t giving him a lot of space. “If you’d like, we can give you a few minutes to decide how you’d like to proceed.”

“A few—” Dan breaks off in disgust. “Yeah, sure, give me a few minutes. That’ll take care of everything.” He glances over at Bill, who’s looking a little helpless. Dan goes back to the front hall and grabs his bags from the trip, then goes back through the kitchen, ignoring the two men, and heads into the laundry room. He takes the garment bag that carries his show clothes and hangs it next to the washer, then takes the duffel and upends it, scattering his dirty clothes all over the floor. There are some clean clothes folded and piled on top of the dryer, and Dan stuffs them into the duffel. A couple pairs of jeans, a few T-shirts, socks and underwear. He’s ready to go. He just has no idea where he’s going
to
.

Chapter 35

N
EIL
and Bill watch wordlessly as Dan angrily stuffs his clothes into the duffel bag and grabs his toiletry kit from where he’d left it on the stairs. He starts toward the front door, then stops sharply and turns into the living room. He opens the door of the entertainment unit and pulls out a nearly full bottle of Wild Turkey, and stuffs it in his bag. Neil and Bill are watching this, too, of course, and he glares at them defiantly as he walks by them and out the door. He doesn’t wait for them to catch up, just sets his bag in the bed of the truck and climbs behind the wheel. He starts the truck and backs it up to turn around, and is about to pull away when Bill appears beside him and taps on the glass of the window. Dan thinks about just peeling out, ignoring him completely, but he controls the impulse and rolls down the window instead.

“If you want to follow us into town, we can get you set up at a hotel and—” And Dan’s had enough. He rolls up the window as he’s pulling out of the driveway. He’s not following anyone anywhere.

He gets a couple miles down the road when he starts to feel a bit stupid. The situation is fucked up, there’s no doubt about that, but maybe he’s being a bit of a baby about things. This is always his problem. He either over thinks or doesn’t think at all. Either all brain or all heart, never a balance of the two. Then he thinks about losing the job he’d moved out here for, losing access to Justin’s horses, all because of the stupid behavior of two people he has nothing to do with. He decides he’s right to be completely pissed off. That doesn’t mean that he’s got to be stupid about it, though. Why pay for his own hotel when he could be billing Kaminski? It’s not like his soon-to-be-ex-employer can’t afford it.

Dan thinks about just driving, leaving the whole mess behind. He’s got enough money. He could just arrange to get his stuff and his horse shipped to wherever he’s going. Taking off is what he used to do when things got to be too much, and it worked pretty well, really. He’d settled down for a while in Kentucky, but that had been because Justin had made it worth fighting through the hard parts. There isn’t anyone here with that kind of pull, and Dan had been stupid to pretend that there might be.

Then he thinks of Jeff. None of this is Jeff’s fault. None of it’s really Evan’s fault, either, but Dan doesn’t want to think about it in those terms. He’d rather think about Jeff. Jeff is so calming, so relaxing. He makes Dan feel like everything will be all right, even when Dan knows that some things will never be all right ever again. Dan thinks about calling him, but Jeff is part of Evan’s world, and that’s what Dan’s trying to forget about. He curses the timing. If this had happened yesterday, he could have gone over to Ryan’s, and had one more night of peace and easiness before he left. But yesterday Dan had been off at a stupid horse show, working his ass off so that Kaminski’s business would do well, so that Kaminski’s spoiled little sister could have a fun hobby. And Ryan had left this morning.

His phone rings in his jacket pocket, and he pulls it out and looks at the call display. Kaminski. No, Dan’s not quite ready for that call just yet. He needs a glass or two of bourbon before he wants to talk to him. The problem is figuring out where to go. He thinks of his baby sister, on the run from the law. She must feel like this all the time, always trying to get away from her mistakes, never anywhere safe to go. Yeah, Dan’s going to need that bourbon pretty soon.

His phone rings again, but this time the caller display shows that it’s Jeff. Dan isn’t stupid. The timing of that made it pretty clear that Evan had called his boyfriend to get him to deal with the situation, but Dan can’t help himself. He wants to talk to Jeff.

He’s on the edge of town now, and he pulls onto the side of the road before picking up his phone and flipping it open.
“Hello.” He tries to sound chipper and strong. If Jeff’s going to be reporting back, Dan doesn’t want to give him anything to say.

“Dan, hey. Evan just called me in a bit of a fit. Can you tell me what’s going on?” Jeff sounds more curious than alarmed. Dan can’t say for sure whether it’s an act.

“What, he didn’t tell you? He just called you up, said he was in a fit, and hung up?”

Jeff laughs a little. “Pretty much, actually. He said there was some mix-up with the security clearances and that the guys had gone way over the line, and that he was on his way into a meeting with them, and you weren’t picking up the phone. He sounded a bit worried.”

“Did he?” Dan’s in no mood to care about Kaminski’s nerves. “Hey, Jeff, where are you?”

 

Jeff only sounds a little surprised. “I’m at my place. Why, do you want to come over?”

Dan knows that it’s not a great idea, but he’s tired of trying to do the smart thing, or the right thing. What good has that done him? He’s worked his ass off to follow their rules, and now he’s losing what he wants because of someone else’s screwups. So, enough with doing the smart thing. If people are going to think that he’s a no-good loser, then at least he can have some fun….

“Yeah, I do. Give me directions.”

If Jeff is surprised by Dan’s directness, he gives no indication. He gives Dan simple directions to his place, and then tells him that he’s been painting all day and needs to clean up and take a shower. If there’s no answer when Dan knocks, he should just come right in. Dan likes the sound of that.

He arrives at Jeff’s place less than ten minutes after the call. It’s a modest house, more of a cottage maybe, but it’s on a good-sized lot, and there’s a gate leading to a fenced backyard. That must be nice for Lou. There’s a lot of natural wood, and some big windows. It looks like a good place for Jeff to live.

Dan heads up to the front door and knocks, but then barely waits before he pushes it open and goes inside. Lou greets him gently, and then goes back to lie down on her bed in the living room. Dan’s got that feeling he used to get, animalistic, almost predatory. He feels like he’s stalking his prey in its own den, and he likes the adrenaline. He likes the feeling of being the one to make things happen for a change, instead of just sitting back and waiting for everything to happen to him. He used to be like this, and he thought he’d left it behind, but apparently he’s not allowed to leave things behind, and this is one aspect of his personality that he’s glad to resurrect.

He hears a change in the sounds of the house, and realizes that he was hearing the shower when he first came in and now it’s been shut off. That’s too bad, a lost opportunity, but it’s not the end of the world. Dan moves in the direction the sound had been coming from. He pushes open a door with his finger tips, and he sees a bedroom, lots of browns and deep reds, an oversize bed… clearly Jeff’s room. This is confirmed when the door on the far side of the room opens with a cloud of steam, and Jeff appears, wearing a dark navy bathrobe. Dan approves of bathrobes. They’re easy to open.

Jeff sees him and looks a little startled. “Hey, Dan! You made it in good time. Just give me a minute to throw some clothes on, and we can have a beer on the deck.”

Dan doesn’t say anything, just takes a step closer. Jeff notices, and he isn’t stupid. He looks Dan in the eye, and shakes his head slowly. “No, Dan.” He sounds regretful. “Not like this, man. Not when you’re upset about something else or mad at Evan.”

Dan smiles a little as he takes another step. “I’m not upset, Jeff. And I’m not mad at Evan.” He takes another step. Jeff isn’t moving closer, but he’s not moving away, either. “It just seems like we’ve been dancing around this for too long, you know? Making it too complicated.” Another step, and he’s right in front of Jeff. “I want you, you want me… it’s time to do something about that, man.”