Chapter 41
“That’s a whole lot of fucking,” Holt said, his voice dangerously quiet. “Probably because that’s all you’ve got on your mind. I’ve got news for you, honey: Your boyfriend is wanted for murder and treason, and you’re looking a whole lot like an accessory to me.”
Too furious to consider the consequences, I jerked forward, ramming his gun into my sternum. “Listen, shithead,” I snarled. “Stemp just questioned me about Kane in a lie detector test less than half an hour ago. I passed. And if you’d stop trying to be Mr. Hotshot Action Hero for a nanosecond, maybe we could keep some innocent people from dying!”
The pressure of Holt’s gun slackened. “Stemp made you take a lie detector test?”
“Yes!” I glared at him in the glow of the dashboard lights. “Now get your fucking gun out of my face!”
He holstered his weapon, leering at my chest. “If that’s your face, I want to pat your cheeks.”
I fell back in my seat, vibrating. After a few moments of speechless fury, I drew several deep breaths and managed to hold onto my temper. “You’re such a fucking pig.” My words came out sounding conversational.
Holt produced a remarkably realistic oink.
Sudden hysterical giggles climbed my throat.
“Cut it out.” I tried for a commanding tone, but my voice came out choked by suppressed laughter. “I said, cut it out!” I repeated as the oinks came thick and fast. “I’m still pissed as hell at you!”
Holt eyed my quivering lips with a devilish gleam in his eye. “Laugh your ass off, Kelly,” he commanded. “You know you want to.”
With a supreme effort I controlled the giggles. “No, I actually still really want to kill you.” Anger welled up again and I barked, “What the hell were you thinking, shooting at Kane? What happened to ‘alive if possible’? And how the hell did you know he was going to meet me there? I didn’t even know.”
“I wouldn’t have killed him. I was aiming low. Legs or bike tires. If you hadn’t jumped into my line of fire I’d have gotten him for sure.” Holt’s lips curled into a predatory grin. “And I didn’t have to know where or when he was going to meet you; I only had to follow you until he did. Just like I figured he would.” His grin widened. “Brains, Kelly. That’s why I’m a top agent.”
“Too bad your so-called brains just blew this case,” I growled. “Now you can help me search a few thousand acres in the dark to see if we can find the paper he was trying to give me.”
The smile drained from his face. “Seriously?”
“Yes, seriously. Let’s go. And step it up. Maybe we’ll get lucky and find it snagged on something in the ditch.”
We didn’t get lucky; in any sense of the phrase.
After an hour of fruitless stumbling in and out of furrows and ditches in the cold darkness, I reluctantly gave up.
“It’s gone.” I slumped against my car, barely resisting the urge to curl into fetal position. “Jesus, I wish I knew what it said. I have to meet Riel and Labelle tomorrow morning at ten. What if Kane was warning me not to go?”
Leaning on the car beside me, Holt kicked the gravel with his heel, his cockiness subdued for once. “Sorry. I was following Stemp’s orders.”
I sighed. “I know.”
We stood in glum silence for a few moments.
“So what are you going to do now?” I asked. “Keep hunting Kane?”
Holt scuffed harder at the gravel. “I pretty well have to, don’t I? Those are my orders.”
“What about your orders to back me up?”
He dealt my tire a vicious kick. “How the hell should I know? Are you going to run out and get yourself killed if I don’t?”
“Probably,” I muttered.
“Nice positive attitude, Kelly.”
“Bite me.”
He snorted. “Maybe later, if you’re really nice to me.”
“In your dreams.”
“In yours, you mean.” Holt heaved himself upright. “Well, enough of this shit. I’ll follow you. If Kane went to that much trouble to make contact with you, he’ll keep trying. I can follow both sets of orders at once.”
My heart sank. Great. Just what I needed: Holt watching me while I bumbled around like an idiot. I hadn’t even spotted him tailing me. Hell, I hadn’t spotted Kane, either. What a sorry excuse for an agent.
“All I’m doing is checking those addresses Spider gave us,” I said. “If you want to follow me around, fine, but we could split up and cover them in half the time.”
“I don’t think so.” Holt glowered at me. “I’m not putting my career on the line by ignoring both sets of orders. Especially if you’re planning to get yourself killed on my watch.”
“Fine. Then brace yourself for a stimulating evening of poking around real estate in the dark.” I got into my driver’s seat and drove into the night.
I fought sleep all the way to Calgary, my eyelids dragging to half-mast only to waver open again. At last the glow of big-city streetlights welcomed me, and I navigated to the first address on the list.
Twenty minutes later I stared up at a twelve-storey office building, my heart sinking. Even if I could have sneaked past the security desk on the main floor and picked all the locks on the other floors, it would still take me forever to search the offices and service areas.
I let out a groan and let my head fall forward to rest on the steering wheel. Not a chance.
Do not curl up and cry.
I pulled myself upright again. An office building would be a dumb place to hide a hostage anyway. Too many tenants and maintenance staff poking around. Maybe the next address would be a smaller building.
It wasn’t.
I gazed up at the sheer granite wall of a highrise, fighting despair all over again.
Body throbbing with exhaustion, I pulled away from the curb and steered toward an address farther away from the downtown core. A small residential building would be an ideal place to hide a captive…
Parked in front of the last address more than two hours later, I slumped in defeat. Like all the other properties on the list, the expensive-looking fourplex had discreet security decals, obvious video surveillance, and a locked vestibule. Unless I had a camera jammer, preternatural lockpicking skills, and/or plastic explosive and a complete disregard for stealth and personal property, I wasn’t getting into any of these buildings tonight.
I hadn’t glimpsed Holt’s car since he’d pulled up behind me at the first property, which only disheartened me more. Pretty pathetic, when I knew for sure he was following me and I still couldn’t spot him. Who else might have been following me all those times I’d driven around thinking I didn’t have a tail?
Blinking away blurriness that might have been fatigue or tears, I was about to put the car in gear again when a nondescript grey sedan pulled up beside me. From the driver’s seat, Holt gave me a ‘now what?’ lift of his eyebrows.
He’d changed cars, the bastard. No wonder I hadn’t spotted him. I’d been watching for the red Audi.
That made me feel both better and worse. At least I hadn’t been too blind to spot a bright red car following me; but neither had I been smart enough to watch for any other tails.
I mimed sleeping, palms together beside my tilted head. Holt nodded and drove away, leaving me to trail back to Hellhound’s place alone.
Hellhound’s parking slot was still empty, and I crept into his apartment feeling as though nothing would ever be right again.
I was trudging toward the bedroom when my secured phone vibrated.
“Oh, God, now what?” I whimpered. Punching the Talk button, I managed a more or less professional-sounding, “Kelly.”
“Hi, Aydan, it’s me.” Spider’s cheerful voice lifted my spirits only slightly.
“Hi, Spider, what’s up?”
“Guess who’s been staying at the Macleod South Holiday Inn Express since Wednesday?”
I sucked in a breath. “Seriously?”
“Yep. Benoit Riel checked into Room 316 on Wednesday afternoon and his room is still occupied.”
“Well, isn’t that interesting!” I straightened, my fatigue falling away like a sodden overcoat. “Funny how he needs a hotel room when he’s enjoying the swanky digs at Harchman’s.”
“I thought so, too,” Spider agreed. “But he might be just using the room for a home base while he’s in Calgary, to save travelling back and forth to Harchman’s.”
“Maybe. And maybe not. Thanks, Spider.” I consulted my watch. “It’s after midnight. Why are you still at work?”
“I’m following a lead on this terror case. It doesn’t look too promising, but…” His sigh floated over the line. “I need to know for sure. If I went home now I wouldn’t sleep for thinking about it.” A smile warmed his voice. “Anyway, look who’s talking. You’re going to the Holiday Inn as soon as you hang up, aren’t you?”
“Well… yeah.”
“I knew it.” His tone went solemn. “Be careful.”
“I will. Thanks. Go home and get some sleep.”
I was almost to the hotel when I realized I’d forgotten to check in with Holt. Dammit.
Should I call him for backup?
I’d be stupid not to.
I blew out a sigh. My petty inner child really wanted to one-up him. If he was such a hotshot agent, he should still be following me. After all, I was his assigned mission.
But I had told him I was quitting for the night, so I couldn’t really blame him for wanting to grab a few hours of sleep. And how stupid would I look if I stumbled into trouble and he had to rescue me? Or worse, if he didn’t rescue me in time?
Despite some internal foot-stamping and pouting from the less-mature me, my adult self prevailed and I pulled over to call Holt’s burner number.
His brisk answer on the second ring sounded just as wide-awake as if it was the middle of the day, and I had to control a surge of irrational irritation.
“It’s Aydan,” I said. “I’m on my way to Room 316 of the Holiday Inn Express on South Macleod.”
“What, you’re making another porn video?”
“No, smartass, I’m checking it out because Riel’s been renting it since Wednesday.”
“What’s your ETA?”
“I’ll be knocking on the door in five minutes.”
“Fuck!” Rustling and some thumps bespoke Holt’s speedy departure, and when he spoke again the uneven cadence of his voice indicated he was running. “Can you make it fifteen minutes?”
Successfully squelching the desire to refuse, I said, “Okay, fifteen”, and hung up with a childish glow of satisfaction at catching Holt The Magnificent with his metaphorical pants down. Hopefully not his actual pants. I didn’t really want to think about that.
Fifteen minutes later I was on my way up to the hotel room. Holt hadn’t appeared, but he was undoubtedly somewhere nearby doing his invisible-superspy thing.
Pulse pounding, I strode down the hallway. This was likely a dead end. Riel was probably just keeping the room to use during the day. I’d knock on the door and nobody would answer; and that would be the end of my investigation, since I didn’t know how to bypass an electronic cardkey lock.
Holt probably did.
Dammit, I didn’t want to defer to him again.
I halted in front of 316.
Maybe I should wait for Holt. What if somebody answered my knock with a shotgun blast?
I squared my shoulders. That was really unlikely. And the longer I hung around in the hallway, the more suspicious I’d look on the security cameras.
Before I could second-guess myself, my hand rose and knocked on the door.
Pulse thumping in my ears, I waited.
No answer.
Halfway between relief and disappointment, I knocked again, the sharp raps echoing in the quiet corridor. I could almost feel the other guests’ annoyance focusing on my inconsiderate noise.
I pressed my ear to the door.
Was that a rustle of bedding? Or only my imagination?
I knocked once more, cringing at the thought of being that irritating person in every hotel who bangs incessantly on a door in the middle of the night…
The door jerked open and a shock of adrenaline froze me to the spot.