Indecent Proposal, page 15
I headed up to my office. Okay, so there was something fishy going on at Hardman and all the evidence had been erased. But why go after Richard if they could just delete everything from their files and bam, nothing could be pinned on them? They could let him go to the press or whoever—he’d just look crazy.
Unless. . .
Richard had called Claire in desperation. He’d known his life was in danger, and he had told her to get something from his desk. Could it be that he had a copy of the incriminating files somewhere? That was what he’d had hidden?
But if so—
My phone buzzed with an incoming call and I quickly answered. “Vaughn speaking.”
“We finally got you some info on Ace,” one of our research team told me, referring to the sniper who’d shot at Claire.
Fucking finally. “What do you have for me?”
“Not much, unfortunately, but I can tell you that Ace isn’t a man. She’s a woman. From what I did find, she took government contracts at first like a lot of ex-military, but she started going into corporate and her previous work seems to be of the rat catching kind.”
Rat-catching. That is, finding and executing people who wanted to blow the whistle—rat out, in other words—powerful companies and their shady practices.
So, Ace was a woman. That would be helpful to know. There weren’t a lot of women snipers. The military could still be pretty damn misogynistic and so it was hard for women to get into higher levels of power or elite training, like the kind that sniping required. It was very much a man’s game. Ace would’ve had to be ten times as ruthless and tough as the men around her. I had to respect that, even if it was going to cause problems for me in the near future.
“Anything else you got on her?” I asked.
“That’s it. We’re trying to find out who she was in the military—a woman sniper, that narrows it down considerably—but you know how sealed these records get.”
“Tell me about it.” I huffed out a sigh. “All right, thanks for the info.”
I disconnected the call. All right. This Ace person was going to cause me a headache, but I had to figure out where the hell Richard had—
My phone buzzed again, but this time with an incoming email. I opened it up. It was from Susan, the woman I’d met up with to question about Richard. Shit. Had Ace gotten to her?
Hello,
Yes, I’d be available to talk if you’d like. I heard about Richard through Facebook—I’m so sorry that happened. I don’t know what information I could give you, but I’m happy to help. I’ll be back in the U.S. on Monday, if that works?
My blood ran cold as I read the message. That was an email. From Susan. Telling me she was out of the country. Telling me she hadn’t yet spoken to me.
Then who the fuck had I met up with at the café?
Ace. The sniper. Was a woman.
None of Susan’s photos of her travels on Instagram had her picture in them. She didn’t take selfies or ask other people to take pictures of her. I’d gotten the impression she was camera shy, which fit her behavior when I saw her. But no, someone had just been a very, very good actress. Someone had called me as Susan and met with me, giving me false information, claiming that it was another company that was suspicious—trying to get me to look outside of Hardman.
If I hadn’t followed my gut, I might’ve been running around in circles for weeks. Fuck.
Oh, Ace was good. She was very good. She’d met me in person and I’d had no clue that she was a cold blooded killer, a combatant as seasoned as myself. She must’ve had access to company files or even security footage from Hardman of the real Susan so that she could play her part properly. And she hadn’t made the misstep that a lot of people did, which was trying to insert herself too much into the investigation. She’d simply played her little part and then sat back to watch what happened.
But if Ace had gotten this close to me—did that mean she’d followed me or tracked me somehow without me knowing?
I knew that it wasn’t logical. I had been careful and I was good at knowing when someone was tailing me. But she’d already gotten the jump on me once. Who was to say that she wouldn’t do it again?
I silently cursed the fact that I couldn’t call Claire and warn her. Such an act might allow Ace to trace the call and get to the cabin. I would just have to put on the live feed and drive to the cabin, hoping that nothing would happen along the way.
I hurried back down to my Jeep and pulled up the security footage from the cloud.
The signal came up as static. No longer working.
Shit.
CHAPTER 17
Claire
I woke up to the delicious smells of egg, tomato, and spices.
Turning over, I reached my hand, feeling that the other side of the bed was only faintly warm. I wasn’t surprised. It just made sense that Vaughn would be an early riser.
Opening my eyes, I stretched and saw that the cabin was empty. A few things were missing, like Vaughn’s boots.
I sighed. He’d headed out already, then. I stifled the curl of disappointment in my stomach. I knew that he would have to leave. He wasn’t sneaking out to avoid me and then ghost me when I tried to text or call. He had to go back and check up on things for my own damn safety.
Still. I missed him.
I felt like a door had opened with us and I wanted to step through and explore what was on the other side. And maybe I was reading things wrong, but I felt like Vaughn sensed that door too. I felt like he wanted to step through it with me.
He did make me breakfast, which was thoughtful and sweet of him, so there was that. I chose to have hope.
I got up, switched out his shirt for shorts and a tank top, then went over to the oven. I inhaled deeply of the rich, redolent scent wafting in the air. Mmm, shakshuka. I pulled it out of the oven and served myself. It was crazy delicious.
It was such a small, random thing, but Richard had rarely wanted to cook. I didn’t judge someone on whether or not they liked cooking, but there had been that expectation that I would play hostess, and that I would take care of him. That I would organize fancy meals and parties and cater to his needs. When had he ever just done something nice for me, without expecting anything in return?
Meanwhile, Vaughn cooked for me because he wanted to, no strings attached, and I couldn’t deny that it made me feel cared for, like I was special in some way. It wasn’t at all what I would’ve expected from Vaughn when I first met him, but I was finding there were layers of consideration and thoughtfulness under that cocky exterior.
I finished eating breakfast, cleaned up the kitchen, and then organized the cabin a bit. It had gotten a bit messy while we’d been… well. Focused on other things.
It took me a moment to notice it. Probably because it wasn’t a new sound, but rather the absence of a sound, something that was such a background hum that I didn’t consciously register it. But I paused while making the bed, feeling like something was different.
What was it?
I turned to look around. The microwave was still showing the time, and if I concentrated I could hear the hum of the refrigerator, so those were both still working. That meant the electricity wasn’t out.
I looked over at the keypad on the inside of the door.
It no longer had the light on that meant it was armed.
It wasn’t green either, though. It was just—off. Not locked or unlocked. Just. Off.
But the electricity was on, so it wasn’t a power failure. That meant…
Terror seized my heart like a hand of ice. Dropping the sheets, I tiptoed to the fireplace. Shit, shit, shit.
I bent down—and something whizzed over my head, just missing me, striking the wall. A bullet. It went right through where my face had just been.
A small scream escaped me on instinct, and I dropped flat to the floor. My heart pounded so loudly it felt like that was all I could hear. I strained my ears, trying to catch the noise of someone outside. Where was this person?
There was the sound of metal being blown to pieces, coming from the direction of the door, and then it was kicked open, revealing a woman standing there in tactical gear, holding a rifle over her shoulder.
“Miss Turner,” she drawled insolently. “This is your lucky day. I’ve learned I need to interrogate you for some information before I kill you.”
The same instinct that had risen up in me to sass Vaughn rose up in my throat now, and I bared my teeth at her, knowing she was responsible for Richard’s “suicide”. “You bitch. You killed Richard.”
The woman shrugged. “Like you were in love with him anyway. I watched you two for a bit before making my move. You’d moved out. Left him. Poor bastard just didn’t realize it was permanent yet.”
I scrambled to my feet, ignoring the gun now pointed at me. “You watch your fucking mouth.”
I hadn’t been in love with Richard, but I’d cared about him. I never wanted to hurt him, and I wasn’t going to let this bitch disrespect someone I cared about. Or me, for that matter.
“I’m holding the gun, sweetheart,” the woman replied. “I can do or say whatever the hell I want. Now, make this easy on both of us and tell me where the files are.”
“What files?” I asked, and I meant it. I wasn’t a good actor but I hoped my honesty would save me.
The woman entered the cabin properly, kicking the door closed behind her. I couldn’t help it—I jolted at the sound. When the woman smiled at me, I glared. There was nothing in her that made me feel that rush that I got with Vaughn, and I knew that wasn’t just because of the obvious. There was something very cold about this person, where Vaughn ran hot. When Vaughn was arrogant, I wanted to push back and see what happened. This woman just made my stomach churn. I felt like a hamster trapped in a cage with a snake.
“We know he called you,” the woman informed me. “In fact, he was on the phone with you when I killed him.”
I swallowed back the bile rising in my throat. “You didn’t use a gun for him.”
“Because this was supposed to be simple.” The woman sounded annoyed and I felt a bit of pleasure that I had probably had a part in making this not-so-simple for her. “You were supposed to lead us to the documents. And die quickly and easily.”
“Sorry I wasn’t exactly excited to just lay down and die,” I snapped. “I don’t know anything about any files, all right? You’re welcome to go look at Richard’s place yourself, because that’s what I did. I looked everywhere and there was nothing. I’m sure his parents did too in preparation for the funeral. Still! Nothing!”
The woman frowned at me, but there was a contemplative look in her eyes that I didn’t really like. “So my question now is, either I keep you alive in case you’re lying to me—and this gets really unpleasant for you—or I decide that you’re telling the truth, and I simply kill you because you’re now a liability.”
Well, shit.
“You know, you wouldn’t have had to do either of those things if you’d just accepted I didn’t know anything?” I hazarded.
I couldn’t fight this woman. I couldn’t bargain for my life. That left me with only one thing to do: find a way to stall and hope against hope that somehow, some way, Vaughn knew that I was in danger.
I didn’t know if he could find out. But he had those cameras, right? Did this woman know about them? Even if she did, surely Vaughn of all people would have some kind of backup plan or would be able to recognize that his camera feed had been messed with.
…right?
Vaughn had told me, back when we started this whole thing, that I would need to trust him to do his job and keep me safe. I was going to have to do that now, and try to keep myself alive as long as possible in the meantime.
Hopefully he’d get to me before this woman decided that my attitude was more trouble than it was worth.
I smiled sweetly at her. “You really couldn’t find the files yourself? You’re the professional, after all, not me. You couldn’t get a hold of them?”
“I’m an assassin, sweetheart, not an expert on corporate espionage.”
I snarled at her before I could stop myself. “Don’t fucking call me sweetheart.”
The woman just laughed at me. “You’re a feisty one. I guess that’s why he chose to take you on even though you’re flat broke. I was really hoping he’d turn you away, but… I couldn’t resist trying to kill you in the lobby of the company building. It would’ve been such a fucking coup. Those bastards think they’re the best of the best—but losing a client right in front of Vaughn’s face? Yeah, that would have been priceless.”
I considered the fireplace pokers next to me. One of them was a lever that would get me to the security room, which obviously was now out of the question. But the other two were actual fireplace pokers. Could I…?
“You and Vaughn are some kind of… what, rivals?” I demanded, keeping the conversation going. “It must really have rankled that he kept me hidden from you for so long.”
“We’re not rivals in the sense that we’ve met,” the woman replied, laughing. “But we all know each other in this small world. He thinks he’s the best… and there I was, sitting right across from him in a café and he had no idea who I really was.”
“You’ll be pretty recognizable now,” I replied with a sneer. “With that nasty scar on your face.”
She stared at me. “What scar?”
I grabbed the fireplace poker—one of the real ones—and flung it at her face as hard as I could.
The woman cursed and ducked, and I ran for it, trying to dart around her to get outside. If I could just run through the woods, that would give me the chance to lose her. Maybe I could cycle back around and then get into the security room without her realizing.
My hopes were dashed when the woman—an assassin, I remembered—recovered faster than I had hoped and leaped on me, tackling me to the ground, knocking the breath out of me. Her hand found my hair and gripped tightly, wrenching my head back—and where my head went, the rest of my body followed.
I shrieked instinctively in fear and pain and hated myself for it as I was yanked back.
“You little shit,” the woman spat, hauling me back over to the couch while I reached back blindly, trying to scratch at her face and kicking out behind me.
She flung me to the ground instead of the sofa, hard enough for me to hit my head, and I winced as the room temporarily went blurry and off-kilter.
“You’re more trouble than you’re worth,” she said furiously. “Maybe I should just kill you after all.”
She planted her boot hard in the middle of my back, forcing me down using her body weight. I heard the click of her gun and my whole body went cold. Fear gripped me, and my heart hammered so loudly in my chest I felt like it was going to climb up into my throat and strangle me. I couldn’t hear anything over my own frantic breathing and the pulse pounding in my ears.
My thought—probably the last thought of my life—was that I wasn’t going to go out begging. She wouldn’t get a single ‘please’ out of me, no matter what happened. I’d die defiant. I’d die with dignity.
I twisted to glare up at her with all the hatred I could muster, and waited for the—
Bang.
CHAPTER 18
Vaughn
I drove as fast as I fucking could, breaking all speed limits, but I didn’t park at the cabin when I got there because I wasn’t going to take the chance of giving myself away. I drove further, up another mountain path leading to the backup I hadn’t told Claire about: the second entrance.
If all else failed, there needed to be an emergency exit from the cabin. Fortunately, or unfortunately, I hadn’t told Claire about it. I hadn’t felt it was necessary, and in case of an emergency, I’d figured I would need to keep one final secret to myself. Something she couldn’t inadvertently give away to anyone who attacked her.
Now it looked like I’d been right to follow my instincts.
I parked the Jeep and remotely checked the security system. It was disarmed and static, as I’d feared. It was fairly bold of Ace to keep it static instead of trying to do some kind of feedback loop to fool me. But this was probably on purpose. It was a shot across the bow, a way for her to point out to me that she was attacking my client and that there was nothing I could do to stop her. She was being brazen and giving me a middle finger, daring me to try and stop her.
Well, I could fucking rise to that bait.
I leapt out of the Jeep, grabbed my gear and strapped up, taking the safety off my guns. Usually you wanted to keep the safety on no matter what, because the single twitch of a finger and you could have a real mess on your hands. Not today, though. Today, I had to be ready to shoot the second I emerged, and that split-second could mean the difference between saving Claire’s life or winding up with all of us dead.
I tramped through the woods, my heart in my throat, making me feel like I couldn’t get a full breath. I’d been on plenty of life-or-death missions in my life. Usually, it felt like I was sinking into a pair of well-worn shoes. It was comfortable and familiar. It was something I had made so much a part of me that even the adrenaline was welcome and par for the course. I was no longer on edge in a way that made me jittery. It just made me deadly.
But now… now I was nervous. I couldn’t understand it. The adrenaline, the racing of my heart, was getting to me in a way that it hadn’t in years. I felt like my hands might start shaking at any moment.
What the hell was happening to me? Why would I be so fucking nervous? I had done infiltrations with a hostage situation before. I’d even done it as a one-man mission before, when a team would carry too much risk of detection. There was no reason for me not to treat this as any other mission.
I did my best to ignore the nerves and moved through the woods until I got to the tree I had chosen as my marker years ago. It had to look like just another piece of nature to any lost hiker or suspicious person who might come by. Nobody could come across this and think, “hey, is something going on here? That’s weird.”
