Chapter 16
Simone stopped at the hall closet to pull out her suitcase and practically bounced into her bedroom with it. After all the mayhem, she should be shattered, but she wasn’t. She was standing in a high, bright place with a stunning view in every direction. Infinite possibilities were opening before her.
This manic rush was weird. Irrational. For God’s sake, someone who had tried to help her had just died. But she couldn’t help it. Something deep inside her had burst free, triggered not by a death wish, but by a fierce will to live.
She wished she could play this cool, but she just couldn’t pretend that going into hiding with a sexy and fascinating new lover was no big deal for her. She’d be driving with him, eating with him, sleeping with him.
On the one hand was her flat-lined life of drudgery and solitude, and on the other hand was a wild adventure with a smoking hot, muscular sex god commando warrior in his leather coat.
Whoa. Tough choice.
She tossed the bloodstained jacket onto the floor. Tore off the soiled clothes she was wearing. Rifled through her clothes, throwing things into the suitcase. Grabbing this, grabbing that. Underwear, socks, pants, jeans, camis, tops and tanks. No pajamas. There was no point. The thought made her grin like a fucking idiot.
Oh for God’s sake, Brightman. Get a grip.
No. She wouldn’t. She was sick of that death grip. It had taken a scorching night of wild sex, two violent attacks, and a close encounter with a corpse to make her shake loose of it, and she wasn’t going back. Fuck the death grip. Fuck all of it.
She hurried into the bathroom, filling her beauty case. Toothbrush, shampoo, floss, makeup.
Now, what to wear in the great outdoors? Anorak. Unlined. She flipped madly through her closet. There it was, in the back of her closet. Slate blue. Perfect for walking through beautiful wild places with Zade. Beaches and forests, lakes and streams. Oh yeah.
Now for the electronics. She rummaged through cables, attachments—
Her bedside phone rang. Rand’s ringtone.
The pain clamped down like a vise. Instantly. The noise was unbearable. A screaming freight train roaring past at top speed.
She dropped to her hands and knees. Then sideways, to her butt.
The talisman. She groped for it, but the pain was huge and her defenses were down. Phone. Get it. The phone.
No possibility of fighting this time. She felt hot. The pressure was building in her head like steam.
She dragged herself toward the bedside table and knocked the phone off it with a wild grab. She groped for it, scrabbling blindly over the carpet with her hands, and hit it with her fingertips, sending it spinning even further away.
Quick, quick, before her brain was crushed.
Now she had it clutched in her icy, shaking hand. She tapped the glowing red icon for talk. Talk. She tried to speak but couldn’t get any sound out.
“Simone? Are you there? Simone?” Rand’s voice was thin and faraway. The worst of the pain began to ease. The roaring subsided.
She could see again. Breathe again.
“Simone!” Rand’s voice was louder now. “What’s going on? Are you sick?”
She concentrated hard. “Fine,” she croaked.
The second she spoke, the pain eased completely and the roaring faded to a grinding buzz. She lay on the ground, limp. Bathed in a cold sweat. She couldn’t even sit up.
“ … say something! For God’s sake, what’s wrong?”
“I’m here,” she said, with effort. “Just kinda dizzy. Low blood pressure. No biggie.”
“You’re wrong about that. I told you it’s time to see Dr. Laera! But you won’t listen to me!”
Rand launched into a scolding rant. She tuned it out as she flopped over onto her back, staring at the ceiling.
“Rand,” she said. “I don’t feel good. It’s not a good time. Let’s talk later.”
“Later when? You don’t answer your cell!” His blaring volume made pain stab through her head again.
“My phone got broken last night,” she said. “I have to get a new one today.”
“And did that happen while you were rolling around with that lowlife you scraped out of the gutter?”
“I don’t want to discuss that.” Fresh pain jabbed through her head as she said it, and she gasped silently. Talisman. She reached for it.
“Overruled. I hate to tell you this, but for your own safety, I installed surveillance in your apartment, and at this moment, I’m—”
“You installed what?” Outrage gave her the strength to sit up.
“I’m monitoring those feeds right now, and at this exact moment, your new boyfriend is in your studio, Simone. Spying on you.”
Her mind rejected that outright. Rand would automatically assume that any interest Zade might have in her place was malevolent. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“He just plugged a flash drive into your computer,” Rand said. “He took pictures of all the designs on your drafting table with his smartphone. From the second you went upstairs, he’s been busy. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, Simone. I truly do.”
She froze. Her mind stopped in its tracks. It simply would not process that information. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Watch your language. I have video, if you need visual proof. He’s breaking the law. Engaged in industrial espionage as we speak. I’m sending a link to the file right now.”
“That’s not possible,” she protested. “He didn’t even want to come here! I was the one who suggested it! He’d never met me before last night! He never even knew my name!”
“Dear God, Simone. I don’t like to invade your private business, but you put the security of my business at risk when you open your legs, so I have no choice. Look at the video. And don’t hang up on me.”
Enough strength had returned to her body to get her up, lunging for her tablet. One new email was bannered on the screen. From Rand. She opened it.
Rand was still talking, a constant grating yap, but she ignored him and clicked on the link. There was her studio from the vantage point of … yes, the antique clock that Rand had brought her as a present from Switzerland years ago. He must have monitored her with it ever since. The thought made her skin crawl.
The hidden camera inside the clock showed her studio door and Zade coming in. His face was blank. He went straight to her computer, tapped a key to wake it, and stuck a flash drive into a USB port. He stared into the screen, tapping purposefully onto the keyboard. The hidden camera rotated, catching a different angle as he held up his smartphone to photograph design schematics and specs.
His efficiency was chilling.
She collapsed on the bed, clutching the tablet. The video ended abruptly. Evidently Rand couldn’t send a streaming feed in real time.
She wanted to run downstairs. Demand an explanation from Zade. He’d explain everything. Make all the pieces fit somehow.
She tossed the tablet aside. No need for a replay. That goddamn video would be playing in her mind forever. A permanent reminder of what a love-starved, needy idiot she’d been. Falling for his ridiculous bullshit. Falling for him.
Rand was shouting. She picked up the phone.
“I saw it,” she muttered.
“I know you did. I watched you watch it.”
The ick factor hit her hard. “You’re watching me now? In my bedroom? In my underwear? Really, Rand?”
“What of it? Your life is extremely boring. A bot alerts us to anything atypical outside your normal range of activities.”
“Fuck you.”
Rand sighed. “I can always count on you to focus on the irrelevant issue. Would you be surprised to learn that your new boyfriend hired those two men to attack you last night?”
She sucked in air. Whoa. Who’d have thought that there was farther to fall.
That hole was infinitely deep when the floor no longer held you up. She had just thudded several stories further down. To someplace much darker and colder.
“Those men were paid,” he repeated. “According to them, his plan was to terrify you and then sweep in and save you. To gain your trust. And you made it so simple for him.”
She closed her eyes. Sweat beaded on her forehead. “I see,” she whispered.
“He played you. You were such an easy mark. All those advanced degrees in science clearly taught you nothing about interpersonal relationships. Or exercising caution.”
“How … how do you know? About those men?”
“Kruger witnessed the whole thing right after he spotted your car through a long-range lens, which put him too far away to intervene. But he caught up with the muggers as they ran away.”
Hired. By Zade. She still couldn’t get that detail to make sense in her head. It rattled around loose. No place to put it.
“We questioned them separately. It seems that each of them earned four hundred dollars cash in advance for last night’s performance. Which won’t pay for the loose teeth and dislocated jaws. And they’re pissing blood. Serves them right. Scum.”
She kept staring at the last, frozen frame on the tablet’s screen.
Zade, intensely focused. Betraying her. Stealing her work.
“So that’s the short version. More to come. You have a lot to learn, Simone. You simply have no clue how the world works. And you’re not helping yourself with these tantrums of yours, either. You have to get yourself in hand.”
“Guess so.” If she hadn’t been so numb, she would have laughed.
“My team is on the way. They should be there in about ten minutes. Can you keep him occupied for that long?”
“But … what are you going to—”
“We’re bringing him in, of course,” Rand said impatiently. “We have to question him. Find out who he’s working for. Obviously.”
No. This couldn’t be happening. But she’d seen him with her own eyes, when he hadn’t known she was watching. Or that anyone was watching. Violating her trust. Fucking her over.
Anger hit at last. A murderous swell of rage like nothing she’d ever felt before. “I can keep him here that long.” She didn’t recognize her own voice, it was so brittle and dry. “Warn your team that his combat skills are amazing.”
“They’re top people. Get off the phone or he’ll get suspicious. And for God’s sake, get some clothes on.”
Oh. That. She’d forgotten. She was in her underwear and Rand could see her. Nasty, but even the unclean, crawling feeling was starting to feel distant now.
“They aren’t going to hurt him, are they?” she asked. “No guns?”
“Just keep him occupied. And for God’s sake, act natural.”
Rand hung up. She sat there, slumped on the bed.
“Simone?” Zade’s voice came up from the bottom of the stairs. “We should get going. You about done up there?”
“Ah … just a couple more minutes,” she called back.
“I heard the phone ring. Who was that?”
Panic engulfed her. Easier to tell the truth—or some of it—than try to lie.
“Rand. He was worried because he couldn’t reach me on my cell.”
“What did you tell him?”
“The usual. Give me just a couple more minutes. I’ll be right down.”
“Hurry.” There was an edge to his voice.
Simone looked at the suitcase she’d been packing minutes before with such giddy abandon. The lacy lingerie lapping over the edge mocked her now.
Stupid stupid stupid. Dreaming of a big romantic adventure with a new lover. Who had apparently fucked her brains out. Fun while it lasted.
She wondered if it had been a big effort for him. Making her come like that, acting so appreciative, making her feel incredibly beautiful.
It hurt. Everywhere. She’d opened up to him so widely. Heart and soul.
She doubled over that icy, whirling hole inside her, silently screaming.
“Hey! Simone!” He was coming up the stairs.
She hurried into the en suite bathroom and locked herself inside with hands that trembled. Damp and cold. Everything shook. She wasn’t capable of acting natural right now.
“Simone?”
“Yeah?” she called back.
“You okay?”
“Fine. I’m just fine.”
“You sound strange,” he said.
She sank down onto the edge of the bathtub, suppressing silent, hysterical laughter. Strange. Hah. What an understatement. “Ah. Well, I guess it’s just, ah, hitting me now. You know. Finding Fayette, those guys attacking us. I’m just having a delayed reaction. But I’ll get through it. I’ll be okay.”
He rattled the doorknob gently. “Can I come in?”
She squeezed the miserable laughter down into the place it came from. She’d sound like a cackling madwoman if she let it out. “No,” she forced out. “I, ah, just really need a moment. Alone, I mean.”
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll wait out here.”
Shitshitshit. “Um … actually, could you go down to the kitchen and make coffee?” she improvised wildly.
In the silence that followed, she sensed his puzzlement and frustration. It pulsed right through the door. “Not a good idea. Not when hit men could be closing in on us.”
“I really doubt it, Zade. On you, maybe. Nobody ever notices that I exist. I’m just not that interesting.”
“You can still say that after what just happened?”
“Look, please. I just have to have a shot of coffee. With sugar,” she mumbled. If he couldn’t hear her, the conversation would take longer. “I’m dizzy. I need something to steady me.”
“We can get coffee at a drive-thru somewhere. Come on.”
“Not strong enough.”
“What?”
“Diner coffee. It isn’t strong enough.”
The puzzlement had turned to irritation. It vibrated at her, right through the door. Tough fucking luck. He could just suffer while she stalled him. Mercilessly.
“There’s a French press pot. Check the cupboard on the bottom to the right of the sink.” Not where she kept it. “But it could be above the toaster. Or next to the microwave.” Not in either place. “I keep ground coffee on the counter.” Nope, it was in the fridge in an unmarked canister, when she had it. Only she was out of it.
Happy hunting, you scumbag con man.
He sighed. “I’ll look. But please hurry.”
She sagged down when she heard the bedroom door close, shaking violently.
No time for a goddamn meltdown. She went back into her bedroom, forced the suitcase closed and yanked on some jeans. The clingy sweater she’d chosen in her romantic frenzy had a sexy criss-cross fabric vee over her tits and showed lots of cleavage. She’d never worn it before. She never would now.
Fuck that thing.
She wrenched the dresser open and picked out a shapeless fleece-lined cotton thing the color of dirt.
Simone composed herself in front of the mirror, trying to look normal, but a brave attempt at a smile made her wince. Better to just stick with looking haunted.
She needed to be downstairs when the team arrived. Keep him distracted while they came in. That would be tricky, as supernaturally alert as he was.
Bizarrely, what she was doing felt like a betrayal. But goddamnit, he betrayed her first.
The smell of coffee assailed her on the way downstairs. Bad coffee. He glanced over his shoulder as she walked into the kitchen. “I found an old jar of instant,” he said. “Caked hard as hell, but I scraped some out. Got a travel mug?”
“No,” she said.
“Okay.” Zade grabbed a mug from her shelf and poured. “Real cream, though. There on the counter with the sugar.”
She murmured her thanks, fixed her coffee. Took a cautious sip, grimacing.
“I know, I know,” he said. “Instant sucks.”
Simone shook her head. “It’s not that. It’s just too hot. And right now, I need something cold on my forehead.” Ever so slowly, she held a dishtowel under the faucet. Soaked it. Wrung it dry. Patted her cheeks and forehead. “That’s better,” she whispered. “A little.”
“Drink fast,” Zade said. “I’m getting a bad feeling. I want out of here now.”
She stared down into her cup, careful not to breathe in the stale, bitter aroma or she might throw up for real. She sloshed the liquid against her mouth without swallowing. She could think of absolutely nothing to say to him now.
The alarm on the door panel flashed from red to green. Rand’s security team had opened it remotely. Zade’s back was turned, but he tilted his head with a frown, as if he’d somehow sensed a change in the air.
“We need to go.” His voice vibrated with urgency. “Now.”
Dread and guilt were shredding her resolve. God, this sucked.
“What is it?” Zade looked at her face, eyes widening in alarm. “Are you sick?”
Gee thanks. He’d just handed her an out, and she felt so shitty right now, she didn’t even need to fake it.
She let her hand go slack. The handle slipped from her fingers. The mug fell and broke on the floor tiles. Coffee splashed everywhere.
She fell back against the fridge and slid abruptly down onto her ass. Thud.
Zade lunged to catch her. “Jesus! Simone? What can I do? Is there something I can get for you? I can call an ambulance—”
“Pills,” she croaked, pointing behind him. “Above the cups. Blue bottle.”
There was no blue bottle of pills above the cups, of course. She watched him frantically search for one through every cupboard and drawer in the kitchen, crashing and clattering and cursing.
Suddenly he jerked around, eyes laser sharp. “Shit,” he hissed. “They’re here! Inside the fucking house.”
He lunged for the knife block. Simone dragged herself up onto her feet.
“Get behind me.” He jerked to the side, pressing her back against the fridge as something small and hard hit the kitchen cabinet with a sharp crack. The thing bounced, spun, and came to rest on the floor. A small dart. Shiny steel casing.
He’d thrown himself in front of her. Amazing how he stayed in character.
Armored men barreled in. Zade’s butcher knife whipped through the air.
The first guy in shrieked, staggering forward against the sink, the knife jammed deep into his thigh.
More men boiled in. Zade picked up the knife block and hurled it at the one in front. A dull thud. Blood gushed out of his head as he went down.
Then all hell broke loose. A blur of legs, arms, flailing. Kicks and punches, grunts, things breaking, smashing. Zade flung an attacker into the pantry cabinet, and the doors caved in, splintering. He plucked a dart from his shoulder and flung it away. Smashed the next guy’s head down on the butcher’s block. The man fell backwards, his face a gory mess.
Darts flew. Some of them hit Zade.
Simone huddled in the corner of the kitchen, horrified. Zade stabbed a dart he’d pulled out of himself into his attacker’s neck. The guy dropped to the floor in seconds, eyes rolled up. Zade spun another guy around and wrenched his arm. A wet crunch, a howl of agony.
More armored men crowded in.
Thppt. Another dart hit Zade high in the chest. Another skittered across the kitchen counter, lodging in the wall. Zade lurched back. His movements were slowing but his eyes burned with unearthly fire. He dodged more darts—until the last one hit him in the cheek.
Simone cried out. Zade turned his ferocious dark gaze on her.
Not a word. But he knew that she was the one who had engineered his defeat and capture.
Zade collapsed. The men still standing moved toward him, but Simone scooted in before they got to him and plucked the dart out of his cheek.
She couldn’t bear to see it there. It was only as long as the palm of her hand.
“Simone, don’t touch him!”
Rand’s burly frame took up the entire kitchen entryway. He looked down at the men who were sprawled broken and bleeding in the kitchen and picked his way carefully inside.
“What a godawful mess,” he muttered.
“They shot him,” she blurted. “You said they wouldn’t.”
Rand rolled his eyes. “Shut up,” he said. “It’s time you understood how things really stand. You’ve reached the end of your leash, Simone. It stops here.”
She was bewildered. “What are you talking about? What leash? What stops here?”
Zade’s eyes locked onto hers. He couldn’t seem to move or speak, but his eyes still looked straight inside her.
How could he still do that to her, knowing what she knew about him? The guilt that swept over her made her furious. At him for lying to her. At herself for being so pathetically weak. So easily manipulated.
“Don’t you dare,” she snarled at him. “Fuck you, Zade. Don’t look at me like that. Goddamn you. I saw you spying on me!”
“Is he restrained?” Rand asked someone briskly. “Get those other idiots loaded up. For God’s sake. This is the A team? Nine to one, and only three of you are still standing?”
Zade’s eyes remained fixed on her. Rand’s men yanked his arms behind his back and forced plastic cuffs onto his wrists before they dragged him out.
She followed them out of the kitchen. She couldn’t look away. How pathetic was that. His dark eyes held hers with fixed urgency.
“ … will come with us to the Odell facility, Simone,” Rand was saying. “We need to debrief you right away about every second you spent with him.”
“No,” she said.
Rand looked incredulous. “Excuse me?”
“I’m not going. I’m not going anywhere with you. I’m done. Completely done.” Her voice quavered a little, but it was strong. But she knew a tidal wave of pain was on its way.
She tried to brace herself but it slammed into her and … God.
“ … be there for very long.” Rand was trying to soothe her, but his voice grated agonizingly on her ears. “Let’s just get this over with. You’ll feel better right away. Come on now.”
“No.” She set her teeth as the pain hit.
She would rather die right now than take any more of this shit. Enough was enough.
That conviction was a shining thread of steel in the midst of the pain and noise. She was done being fucked with. By everyone. It stopped now. If it killed her.
Zade’s eyes were trying to tell her something. He was broadcasting a telepathic message. Just as well she couldn’t hear it with the roar in her head. It had to be manipulative bullshit.
“Enough, Simone,” Rand said sharply. “You’re going and that’s final.”
“No,” she gasped out. “Not. Going.”
Rand turned to Kruger with a sigh of irritation. “Enough of this. Just do it.”
Kruger whipped out a zip tie. Simone gasped in shock as he spun her roughly around and jerked her wrists together behind her back.
She struggled, astonished as he fastened the zip tie. “What the hell?”
Rand didn’t look up to meet her eyes. He just fiddled with his phone.
“Sorry,” he said stiffly. “I hate to do this, but I had no choice.”
“Choice about what?” Her voice rose to a shriek. “What are you doing?”
“You just couldn’t leave well enough alone. You just had to keep at it. Like a hammer on a nail. Breaking the engagement to Jordan Holt, then that stupid affair with Gallagher which you somehow fucked up also. Your two-month tantrum to get out of work. That genetic test. And now, to top it all, you’ve decided to hop into bed with our industry competitors. It’s too much, Simone. Everyone’s cutting their losses, including me.”
“What do you know about the genetics test? I didn’t tell anyone about that!”
Rand just shook his head. “Such a goddamn waste,” he complained.
“Why are you doing this?” she demanded.
But he was on his phone again, ignoring her. “We have them both,” he said. “Transporting to the Odell Facility now. Get one of the reinforced holding cells ready.”
“Rand!” she yelled.
His gaze flicked to her and away again, irritated at the interruption.
Kruger jerked her closer to himself at the top of the stairs. What was left of the battered security team was still trying to drag Zade down the steps with great difficulty.
Zade looked up. His gaze was even and steady. Unsurprised. As if he knew something about all of this. More than she knew, that was for sure.
Kruger dragged her back until his hot, sour breath tickled her ear. “You dumb cunt,” he whispered. “If you wanted cock you could’ve just called me.”
He seized her breast and pinched until she almost screamed, then rubbed his stubby little dick against her bound, fisted hands
She twisted to look into his pale blue eyes. He smiled and rubbed some more.
So she was no longer an asset to be protected. She was a piece of meat to be used by any pig who felt like indulging himself.
That was what she had to look forward to.
Her fingers tightened around something small and hard. The dart that she’d pulled out of Zade’s cheek. It was still hidden in her hand.
A man dragging Zade kicked him hard in the ribs, making him gasp.
Something deep inside her snapped in that instant. She rocked forward, letting Kruger pull her back to create a counterforce. Then she jerked back suddenly, stabbing the dart right into the bulge of Kruger’s crotch. As hard as she could.
His hoarse scream deafened her. The dart’s poison fouled his breath in seconds, but she stayed strong—until he fell, bearing her down beneath him
She toppled down the stairs under his stinking weight.