a Touch of Intrigue (9 page)

My legs froze again. Sweat broke out on my forehead, and hard as I fought it, I panicked. “I can’t move, Pierce. He’s doing something to trap my legs.”

Pierce had him in a neck lock before I finished my sentence. “What the fuck, asshole?”

A series of gurgling sounds came from Fred, and Pierce adjusted his hold. “Again.”

Abruptly my legs were free. I shook them out, then jogged in a circle, thrilled to be moving. And then I got in Fred’s very red face. “Never again you freaking jerk. Stay out of my head.”

Another shaft of pain shot into my skull. I screamed, rubbed furiously at my scalp, trying to stop the agony.

Pierce let go of Fred, and let him drop to the ground.

The pain stopped. Another burst of panic exploded in me. “He has control over me, Pierce.”

“That I do, Ms. Gray. The mechanism has been in place since you were knee high to a grasshopper.” He smiled at the old-fashioned colloquialism, then cocked his head and stared at me. “But I haven’t been using it very long.”

A chill raced along my spine. “The pain in my neck?”

He pointed his finger at me. “Smart girl.”

Pierce shifted position.

Fred whirled, turning the finger-point toward Tynan. “Whatever you do to me, I can do worse to her. I don’t think you want to test that now, do you Tap?”

Pierce’s aura glowed red.

Mine matched his. I was sure of it. Knowing that this man could subject me to that much pain on a whim had knocked my temper into revenge mode. But I’d learned a thing or three about revenge. “Why? What is it? And how do I get my freedom back?”

He chortled, sly. “Xola and Jayme made the decision to put me in control.”

My gut immediately rejected that idea. “Surely you can come up with a better lie than that.”

Fred shrugged. “Take it or leave it. That’s all I’ve got.”

Pierce was so pissed off he’d gone icy calm. And that was a whole lot scarier than anything Fred could come up with.
You gotta diffuse this, Everly.

“A word, Pierce,” I said, taking several steps away from Fred.

He followed me, shoulders stiff, hands fisted, and waves of seething anger banked so tightly it bathed the air with teeming energy. His jaw was clenched, silent.

“I want to play along with him until we know exactly what’s going on. We need time to read through all those papers I appropriated from Fion Connor’s car, and we need to ensure Cait’s safety. Exactly how much power, and the freedom to use it, does Fred have?”

“Infinite until death.” Pierce’s tone left no doubt that Fred should be at least part way through writing his epitaph or it wouldn’t get finished.

“Don’t kill him. At least not until we figure out how he’s controlling me, and if the ability can, or has, been transferred to more people in Fred’s organization.” That unwelcome edge of panic nipped at me, pushing me to keep Fred in spitting distance in case his death left me permanently controllable by outside sources.

Pierce’s grunt was noncommittal, but he didn’t shoot Fred on the spot, so I sucked in a breath and went toe-to-toe with my new nemesis. “Start at the beginning. No detours. No lies. What do you want from me?”

Fred’s eyes sparkled with what I could only guess was excitement. I barely kept from breaking his nose. Played it out a few times in my mind, then smiled, and snuck a sideways glance at Pierce. He must have been all over what I’d been thinking, because he nodded. Situation diffused. I shifted my focus back to Fred. “Use your words, Fred. Surely you have
some
that aren’t lies.”

He shoved his hands in his pockets, took them out and shook them. “You’ll come to work for me. You’ll be assigned to our Amazon site, guarded, while you work on perfecting Xola’s formula. When you hand it over, and the efficacy of it tests out, I’ll, ah, release my control over you.” He was lying. I spotted the movement of his thumb over his finger.

I weighed my options: live with mind-numbing pain or step into my mother’s shoes. The shoes were a lousy fit. “I’m not a scientist, and I have no idea what any of the components of that formula are. So I have to ask, why me?”

He shuffled his feet. “Genetic link. You’re the only living person with any connection to that formula.”

I counted to twenty-three before Fred continued. “Other than Caitlin Connor, of course.”

My heart plummeted. Damn, they knew about Cait being my cousin, and probably about Fion Connor and Eamon Grady ingesting the formula in a twisted attempt to make a baby with…who knew what qualities and abilities? Cait would be struggling with those the rest of her life. My old fears knotted in my stomach, and I started to question my right to have children. I’d come to peace with it. Sort of. But reality continued to eat at me.

Pierce must have sensed my distress, because he pressed his hand against my lower back in silent support. I tipped my head back, and looked deep into his eyes. “Me, not Cait.” It was a simple decision.

Or maybe not so simple for Tynan. “Neither.” His tone didn’t allow for wiggle room.

Fred sneered, arrogant as hell.

“I want time with no monitoring or interference from you. If I can create the formula here and turn it over before the end of two weeks, you’ll disappear from my life and never, ever, go anywhere near Cait.”

Pierce stiffened.

Fred shook his head. “No deal. You’d be getting two weeks, and there’s nothing in it for me but a delay in the inevitable.”

Think, Everly. Think.
Blood pounded in my veins. “The inevitable?” I asked, buying time.

“I ship both you and Ms. Connor to the Amazon under armed guard until you hand over every note you make on every test you run, explicit instructions for reproducing the formula, and proof that it works.”

I froze. “You’re going to test it on a living subject?”

Fred shrugged. Too much movement for the weight of his bones. He’d probably been broad-shouldered when he
handled
my mother. “The price of war. We’ll pick a death row inmate if it eases your conscience.”

Bile rose in my throat. I swallowed. “That scenario favors
only
you. Offer me a compromise.”

Tynan’s fingers dug into my back.

Fred rolled his eyes up, considered the clear, blue sky. “Two weeks, but we monitor this property. Cameras, flybys, and I’ll do unscheduled drop in visits.”

It was better than I’d hoped for.

Pierce flattened his hand, and gave me the faintest of nods. “Two weeks. Your conditions. Now, get off my land.”

He pulled an electronic device of some sort from his pocket and pushed a button on it. “Your wish is my command,” he said, bending into an elaborate bow. He shoved a business card into my hand. “Call me if you change your mind. I have the pull to get you out of tight spots just like Tap does.”

“What tight spots?”

Fred smiled, sly. “Heard The Yard wanted to charge you with trespassing on Fion Connor’s estate.”

I waved my hand at his words. “I had permission from a resident. Cait not only provided me with a map of the interior, but she also gave me the alarm code. That’s not trespassing, Fred.”

“Maybe not. Maybe so. Depends on the politics.”

A helicopter came into view, hovered, and then landed on the roof of the cottage.

And how the hell was
that
possible?

EIGHT

I HIKED MY SHOULDERS UP,
tucked my head, and stuffed my fingers in
my ears to protect myself from the buffeting wind and shuddering thwhop-thwhop drone of the helicopter. The pilot banked, and I stared after the chopper, my pissed off, pent up energy rushing to the surface as it faded to a distant, dark speck. After it disappeared, I whirled to face Pierce. “We have to find Millie and Harlan. Yesterday.”

“That’s your plan?”

“It’s a start. Millie knows the formula, knows the plants I’ll need to recreate it. And with any luck, she’ll know the antidote. I have two weeks to produce both,
and
find a way to combine them so that damn formula will never be viable.” I breathed in, taking a quick assessment of my gut feelings. They were…fine, stable. “Oddly, I don’t have a single doubt I can do this. Must have something to do with when we shared our blood, because normally I’d be a stuttering, stammering mess.”

Pierce crossed his arms, and narrowed his eyes. “Fred isn’t looking for a null formula.”

I’d thought of that. “Nope. But that’s what he’s getting. And there has to be some way to permanently destroy at least one of the plants that’s required to make the formula a lethal substance.” I considered the inherent problems with my plan. “But finding Millie is absolutely critical because she has a bunch of knowledge, and without that I’m up a creek.”

Pierce snaked an arm around me, pulling me close. “She better the fuck know how Fred programmed you.”

I’d thought about that, too. “Um-hmm,” I mumbled into his chest, then inhaled the scent of soap and pissed off male. “Love how you smell. It’s intoxicating.”

He planted a kiss on the top of my head. “Search now. Intoxicate later.”

I leaned back, looked into his eyes. “Wait. How could a simple cottage roof support a helicopter? I’m thinking Fred has had access to the property for a long time. And it certainly explains how he got in our house without navigating the maze.”

“Lightweight chopper, but still previous access is a good bet, Belisama.”

We made our way, inch-by-inch, through the cottage. At first we focused on the structure, because a chopper landing on the roof, lightweight or not, rattled uncomfortably in my brain. It took some effort, but we finally discovered an access stairway to the roof. Pierce checked out the helipad, and sure enough the cottage had been constructed to support a lightweight aluminum chopper deck. I strolled around, touching the surface, but only picked up images of the comings and goings. “It happened fairly often, Pierce. There are some old, foggy images of Millie arriving when she was still badly burned and heavily medicated. Harlan was with her.” A chill ricocheted down my spine. “Fred moved them here. Does that mean my grandfather has been collaborating with Fred?” My voice rose to an embarrassing squeal.

Pierce shook his head. “I don’t know, Everly.” It was one of the few times I’d heard Pierce sound nervous. He palmed his cell and punched in a number. It didn’t take but a minute for him to give his team instructions to trace any and all links between Fred and Aukele.

“You, know,” I said, tapping my foot. “You’ve given your gurus an impossible task. As magical and talented as they are, they’re no match for either my grandfather or Fred, especially if they’ve been operating in a magical furtive mode.”

His grunt was unhappy. “Not expecting much. Let’s move inside.”

The cottage smelled like Millie’s eucalyptus cleaning mixture, and it was apparent she and Harlan had lived there, and that they’d left in a hurry. Clothes were scattered around the bedroom, there were unwashed breakfast dishes in the sink, the bed had tangled sheets, and there was a big pot of my favorite tomato basil soup in the refrigerator. When I discovered it, I took if out of the fridge, opened the lid, and the delicious scent of the tomatoes and herbs wafted through the room. Tears rolled down my cheeks. “She made this for us. My fingers are showing me they didn’t want to leave, but there isn’t a single clue about how they were taken or where they went. My best guess is that either Fred or some other horrific government person kidnapped them. Millie would never leave her home in this condition unless it was under duress.”

This time Pierce’s grunt told me he was in complete agreement.

I put the pot back into the refrigerator. “You didn’t hear a helicopter early this morning, did you?”

“No.” He sounded tense, probably because he knew what I was going to ask next.

I huffed out a labored sigh. “We need to talk about Fred, who he works for, and why he calls you Tap.”

“Got that. Home first, recon, then talk.” He lifted the Kimber from his ankle holster, handed it to me. “Don’t hesitate to shoot. Until I know what groundwork Fred and Aukele have in place, we’re on high alert.”

How could two old men be causing so dang much trouble? We made our way to the house in record time and in silence, both lost in our own thoughts. Pierce locked me inside, then headed out to search every inch of the property. I didn’t even try to tag along, mostly because I was positive Pierce wouldn’t find anything or anyone, but also because I needed some alone time.

Even though Fred implied he “owned” Millie and Harlan, I knew it wasn’t true. They’d grown up in the Huna tradition with my grandparents, so whatever brainwashing techniques Fred tried would have failed. And all three of them would have been able to convince him he’d been successful. I’d seen firsthand that Grandfather could pull off any persona he chose without a hitch, ergo so could Millie and Harlan. And that meant they’d probably left clues for me.

To find them, I’d need complete quiet, no interruptions, and especially no male hormones screwing with my brain.

It would have been better if Pierce and I had talked through the Tap issue before I started searching the house, but exploring the outer property was equally critical, and as he’d said before he left, we’d get it done faster if we divided the load.