Until It's You, page 19
“Why?”
“Orders. I told you that too. I don't know anything else exactly for situations like this. You guys think people are stupid, but people aren't stupid.”
Landon nodded, his mind working overdrive as he searched for a weakness in Roy's body language. The man was exhausted but holding firm. “I did hear you the first time," he said lightly. "Who were you supposed to call when you were done?”
“What?”
That was something. “Said you’d never seen the boss," Landon said, picking up the pace. "But who do you call? To tell them you have followed your orders?”
Roy's eyes buzzed around the room. His voice was strong, but his mind wasn't quite with it. “Listen, why the hell should I talk to you? If you’re going to turn me over the cops then you won’t hurt me too much. If you aren’t going to turn me over, then I don’t see a way I’m not dead.”
Landon watched, holding very still.
Roy shrugged and pressed his lips together, eyes open wide. “I ain’t seeing an awful lot of incentive. Neither you nor the soldier have it in him to torture me. Not unhinged enough. I've seen that shit, and you don't forget it.”
There it was. That had been fast. “How you liking these pharms he’s pumping into you?” Landon asked, returning Roy’s shrug. He traced the pad of his thumb in a small circle along the side of his finger, idly.
Roy’s face was stone. “It’s temporary. In and out like bad music. Guys like you put your finger in people’s ears and push our buttons and we respond like fucking puppets. You just have to live with it. I’ll live with it. You have to train your mind to hold onto a piece of yourself that knows the pharms won't actually kill you, and ride out the rest. Just like anything else.”
Landon looked at Roy skeptically. “Finger in people’s ears? The pharms people interact with in their daily lives are all positive.”
Those bugged out eyes again. “Who the fuck are you to say what’s positive?”
"I'm a business man who guesses. The market decides if I'm right." He shrugged. "It turns out people enjoy the pharms my company sells.”
“How the fuck am I supposed to know if I actually want it or my brain is being tricked into wanting it?" Roy spat on the ground near Landon's feet. "With that fucking finger. It's all just a treadmill of bullshit you put people on to get them to tomorrow so they can spend some more money.”
“That isn’t how it works.” Landon shifted in his seat. Why was he arguing this, anyway? “Pharms don’t directly control desire. Anything that people ingest is an amplification of what’s already there.”
“Bullshit.”
Landon locked his eyes with Roy’s. “One of us knows the science.”
Roy shook his head, still agitated. “It doesn’t fucking matter. There’s an effect people don’t understand, but they like it. Fucking sheep, everyone.”
Landon's nostrils flared. His hands were in fists again, just like they'd been with Kevin. Who was rattling who here, anyway?
Whatever. This was as good a transition as any for his threat. Part of him even wanted to follow through, against his better judgment.
“You must hate me,” he said quietly.
Roy scoffed. “They say you're a genius.”
“Wouldn’t want to let me control you,” Landon continued.
That made him still. “What?”
“You don’t know anything about what you’re doing or even who it’s for, right? Just following orders. All you can do, isn't it?”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Do you know why your boss is after me?”
“No.”
“Are you sure?”
Roy's eyes flicked toward the door, then back to Landon. “Yeah, I'm sure.”
Landon licked his lips and brought his hands together, then leaned forward so his elbows were on his knees. His face was maybe a foot from Roy's. “So if I said I had a dosage of the Phobos project with your name on it," he said, his voice quiet. "That wouldn’t mean anything to you. Right?”
Roy didn't flinch, but drops of sweat had formed under his eyes. “Knowing you it sounds like scary shit.”
Landon leaned back. “It is. Because if I give it to you, you will be my fucking slave. And then you’ll tell me everything you know.” He put his hand up as Roy opened his mouth to object. “Save it. You’re not cooperating because you don’t have an incentive. This is an incentive.”
Roy looked away, into a corner of the room. He was silent for a moment. “Bullshit. If you have this stuff you would have used it already.”
Landon shook his head. “I don’t want to use it. Really. There’s a reason your boss is trying to steal it from me. But if I have to use it on you to protect myself and the people around me, I will. I didn't get to where I am by being sentimental.”
Again, Roy looked away. Landon studied him carefully as he seemed to weigh his options. The air in the room was still, the lightbulb above them unwavering. It was a place that felt like death—just another moment in time absent the presence of days. At the very least, it was un-life.
The silence weighed down. Dimly, Landon thought he might have heard a creak in the floorboards that indicated Kevin was walking around. He couldn’t be sure it wasn’t in his head.
Roy looked up. “Get me my comm.”
“What?”
“You win, I’ll help you. Get me my comm.”
Landon shook his head. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Listen. I have an ID in my comm that I can message. I send a message and then I take the asset to a motel. I wait there. They confirm and they come in. That's all I can do for you.”
“Who’s they?”
“Don’t know. Might be the boss, might be another goon like me. This asset seems high-profile enough to be the boss.”
"Why do you sound like you're some kind of armed forces? You really call your victims assets?"
Roy grit his teeth. "You people think everyone is stupid."
“And you’ve never seen your boss.” Landon shook his head. “This sounds like so much bullshit.”
Roy sat up straight and his expression shifted into a puppy dog begging look. “Listen, you can use the comm and send the message yourself if you’re worried I’m up to something.”
Landon stood up and went to the door. This was the point where he should talk to Kevin. Even if the guy was an asshole.
“We’ll see about that,” he said.
He stood up and left the room. Walked down the hallway with the aero fans still turning on full blast. Went up the stairs. He emerged and walked around the corner, through an underused living room and into a bright kitchen. Tom was sitting at a white kitchen table, while Kevin was leaning against the yellow laminate counter. Their conversation stopped as soon as Landon came into the room.
"Learn anything?" Kevin asked.
Landon shrugged, trying to appear nonchalant. "He says he wants to play ball. Asked for his comm. He wants us to send a message to an ID in there."
Kevin perked up with interest. "What for?"
"Meet up at a motel, supposedly.”
“Who's the contact? His boss?”
“Maybe. Or someone who knows where the boss is.”
“So he still won’t admit he knows who his boss is?”
Landon shook his head. “No.”
Kevin grimaced, then looked over at the clock on the oven. Landon's eyes went to Tom.
Tom wore a look of utter panic. He didn't seem to like his brother and sister's line of work. It was a wonder they were from the same family.
Finally, Kevin let out a long sigh. “I don’t love it," he said. "At all. But I need to get him into the cops soon. This might be the best we can do.”
Landon nodded. It was amazing that this was the same guy he'd just talked to on the stairs twenty minutes ago. “If it’s legit, it’s a step.”
“If it’s legit.” Kevin straightened up. “I’ll go in with you. You said he needs his comm?”
“Yes.”
Kevin nodded and disappeared from the room. Tom looked up at Landon as if he were about to say something, then turned away. That was strange. Tom had been acting strange in general, the more he thought about it.
Kevin returned after just a moment with a thin, plastic-covered comm in his hand. “Let’s go,” he said.
They returned to the basement wordlessly, then back into the room where Roy was waiting. The captive man sat up straighter as they came in.
“Tatum says you want to set up a meet with your boss,” Kevin said.
Roy looked at Kevin eagerly. “That’s right.”
“Why?”
Roy looked to Landon. “It seems better than the alternative.”
Kevin gave Landon his own quick look, but didn't press it. He walked right up to Roy and towered over him. “If I find out you fucked me on this, I will kill you. If you get away, I will find you, and then I'll kill you. It will be slow, and it will be very, very painful. Do you understand me?”
Roy looked back at him, defiant. “That’s different from the plan if I don’t fuck you, right?”
Kevin was still, then a smile cracked across his lips. “You’re not my type,” he said.
He took the comm and tossed it to Landon. Landon caught it deftly. Kevin stepped back.
Landon stepped forward. “Okay. What is the ID I send the message to?”
“I didn’t label it,” Roy said, “but it’s the last one I used. It was a call.”
Landon navigated through the comm’s menus and found the ID quickly. It was an old OS, but intuitive enough. He opened up the messages app.
“Okay,” he said. “Message?”
“’Having people over at my place tonight.’ Period. ‘Usual crew.’ Period. ‘Will you come?’ Question mark at the end.”
Landon typed the message out. He looked over at Kevin, whose eyes were fixed on Roy. He looked back at Roy. “That it?”
Roy nodded. “That’s it.”
Kevin cleared his throat loudly and put his hands in his pocket, his eyes still skeptical. “What's the code?”
Roy turned to him. “First sentence says I have the asset and I am transporting him to the motel. Second is nothing unusual to report. The third part is number of words. Three words so three hours.”
“You use the code in case of law enforcement?”
Another nod. It was like Roy was doing q&a at a pharm seminar. “Yeah. Looks like a regular message. Shouldn’t trigger anything with all the A.I. bullshit they run.”
“Who came up with it?”
Roy shrugged. “Don't know. Used it on a job a long time ago and it gets used a lot.” He gave a nasty smile. "Guy I learned it from is dead, so I can't ask him. Sorry."
Kevin looked and Landon, who shrugged. He didn't like this or Roy at all, but he had to admit he was an interesting specimen. A very strange mix of stupid and savvy.
“Where’s your usual spot?” Kevin pressed.
Roy looked to the ceiling then back to Kevin. “Motel just inside the city on Milwaukee. Called Moonlight Grove. You know it?”
“I’m going to check it out.” He straightened up. "How long for a response?"
"Should be fast."
"What's the code for responding?"
"Even number of words means yes. Odd means no."
“What’s your distress signal?”
Roy screwed his face up so his jowls were pressed up into a something between a double and triple chin. “This isn’t a fucking spy agency. If I’m in distress I’m probably also dead.”
Kevin rolled his eyes. “Well didn’t you pick a good time to fuck up?”
“I guess,” Roy said with a shrug.
The comm in Landon’s hand buzzed. He read the message on the screen.
Sure thing.
“We’re on,” Roy said.
Kevin nodded. “Kris is coming here. I’m going to go check this motel out. You good to wait for her and then bring him over?”
Landon considered briefly, then answered with a short nod. The plan made sense. Plus, it would give him time with Kristina outside of Kevin’s watchful eye. That was a plus.
“Yes,” he said simply.
Kevin gave him a long glare that he was sure contained all manners of torture if Kristina made a peep about being mistreated. Landon held his gaze.
“Good,” Kevin said. He turned to Roy. “If this goes south and you leave me alive, I will hunt you down until one of us is dead. Do you understand me?”
For once, Roy didn’t smile. “Yeah,” he said. “I got it.”
“You better.”
And with a final look to Landon, Kevin left the room. Soon, Landon heard his footsteps on the stairs. Then nothing.
Landon took a seat on the same chair he’d been using earlier and locked eyes with Roy. “If you end up fucking us on this, he’s going to be the least of your worries.”
Roy looked back defiantly. “If you want to scare me, just turn the damn aeros back on,” he said. His eyes looked weary, as if he were on the last reserves of his energy. “I get it, you’re pissed. This thing will go off. Trust me.”
Landon shook his head. “I don’t trust you. But it better go off.”
CHAPTER 21
Once Kristina got off the Irving Park bus, it only took her a few minutes to find the address Kevin had messaged to her. It was a cute bungalow, typical of the neighborhoods this far west. Totally unremarkable. Not too rundown, not too new. He had good taste for this kind of thing.
She walked up the front steps and knocked on the door. After a few seconds, she heard footsteps. Then the door swung open, and rather than her brother on the front steps it was Landon.
Her shoulders tensed and she wasn't quite sure why.
“Hi,” he said, his dark eyes still tense from whatever he’d been doing. “You made it.”
“I did,” she said, a lump in her throat. “Where’s Kevin?”
“He went to go check on something. Come in. Tom's out back getting some air. I think he's lost in thought, but he won't say what it's about.”
After a moment of hesitation, she walked through the door and into a small foyer. To her left, what appeared to be a small living room with couches that hadn’t been occupied in ages. To her right, a hallway into a bright kitchen.
The door closed behind her. She turned to Landon and looked up into his dark eyes. Then he was on her, his body pressed up tight against hers, the hard metal of the door at her back. He kissed her roughly—desperately—and she kissed him back, her hands gripping his hard arms. Their tongues rolled together, tangled like sheets they had never shared but would, she suddenly knew in the deepest part of herself, soon.
"Kristina," he whispered, with such intensity that it sent a shiver through her.
Then she looked up and saw the clock on the wall. Suddenly she straightened up like a bolt. Realization of what she was doing and the situation they were in crashed down on her. She dropped her hands from Landon’s hair and pulled away, her eyes still on his perfect face.
“Stop,” she said breathlessly. “Please stop.”
He heaved a deep breath, his eyes frantic and searching. She could feel the heat coming from his throbbing chest. They were still so close.
His hand twitched on her back, then went up to her hair, caressing down the nape of her neck and around to her shoulder. “I will,” he said throatily, almost a growl. Every word was chopped, being forced out. “But I want you. Badly.”
“We can’t,” Kristina said, fighting against the warm feeling growing inside her. “You have to cut this shit out or I'm going to get upset.”
Another agonizing moment of hesitation. His face contorted into a scowl. Kristina held her breath. Was that too much?
"You’re right,” he said finally. “For now.”
But the scowl remained. Panic surged through her. She didn't want him to stop...but she did? What did she want? Not for him to be mad.
The back door swung open and then closed with a slam. They scurried away from each other in a panic. A chair scraped against the wood floor of the kitchen. Then silence.
Landon's eyes went to the back door. "That would be Tom," he said.
He led the way toward the sound without a word. She followed him gingerly, her mind in a million places and nowhere. She didn't need him upset with her on top of everything else. But if she told him she didn't mean what she'd said, she was back to square one with him jumping her every chance he got. That wasn't...responsible either.
Still scrambling, she joined him in the kitchen. Tom had taken up a seat on the couch, and seemed to be occupied with a tablet.
"Hi," she said hesitantly.
Tom's shoulders jerked and he sat up straight. "I didn't hear you come in," he said. His eyes went to Landon. "You have some lipstick around your mouth."
Kristina reddened as Tom went back to his tab. That seemed to be about all he had to say on the matter.
Landon rubbed his mouth with the back of his hand. "Must be jelly from breakfast," he muttered.
Tom didn't even look up. He was the opposite of Kevin when it came to her and men. She didn't know if it was a more evolved opinion or if he just didn't care. Probably the latter.
They both watched him in silence for a moment, then Landon cleared his throat. "Anything in particular you're thinking about, Tom? You look kind of out of it."
Tom looked up from his tab, shook his head. His eyes went back down.
Landon shared a glance with Kristina. She shook her head. There was no point in trying to get through to him if he didn't want to talk. It was one of his quirks. A survival mechanism, maybe.
"Where's Roy?" she asked, trying to break through the awkwardness she felt.
Landon hesitated, then motioned with his head toward the back of the house. "Downstairs. Want to see him?"
She swallowed hard and studied him. He was wearing a jet black button down shirt and navy slacks that hugged his toned thighs. Her eyes seemed to travel all the way up to the inseam of his pants seemingly on their own.
If she went down there with him, was he going to make another move? Would she stop him?
"Yeah," she said, tearing her eyes away and back to Landon's face. "Lead the way."
