Brain (21 page)

Harmony

Since I was certain someone in the Russian Mafia had at least one person in the NSA working on their side, we took a convoluted path to Mobile, Alabama, with the final leg from Charleston, South Carolina in the back of a small van owned by a rock group on their way to Texas for a concert.

They dropped us off in an area of town with no cameras, and we walked a half mile to a restaurant, got something to eat, and then took a cab to the airport.

Brain’s body went stiff as we got out of the cab, but he paid the driver and collected our luggage before taking my arm and walking towards the hangar we were supposed to meet everyone.

Meanwhile, Brain had me on full alert as he practically dragged me to the door of the hangar, muttering, “Motherfucking asshole,” repeatedly under his breath.

He threw open the door and went in as if he were ready to fight, his voice angry and growly as he demanded, “Why the fuck are you here?”

I froze in the door as I saw Duke, Gonzo, and Bash. Ranger, the man who’d helped us in the range at Drake security, walked to me, herded me another step inside so he could close the door behind me, and said, “They’re part of your team, and I understand there are bad feelings, but this is Aaron’s idea of trying to fix things.” He looked at the men, who were talking not-so-quietly about why they were here, and looked back to me. “I was under the impression we only needed to worry about Brain, but I smelled fear when you first saw them, and now there’s disgust and anger along with it. Are you okay?”

I shook my head. “I’m on board with him making up with Duke, but I can’t be around Gonzo or Bash.”

He looked at me a few seconds and said, “Okay, I believe you.” He sighed and told me, “I’m in love with someone, so don’t think I’m hitting on you, okay? I’m in charge of the op, and it’s my job to keep you safe. I know you and Brain are tight, and have no intentions of doing anything to break the connection the two of you have, yeah?”

I nodded, not sure where he was going with this, until he said, “Okay. I’m a wolf, like your boyfriend, and I feel the need to protect you from whoever, or whatever, terrified you when you first saw them. Stick with me, and we’ll see if we can’t get through this, okay?”

I nodded, and he straightened and turned around, let loose a shrill whistle, and when everyone shut up, he said, “Gonzo and Bash, I need ya’ll in the airplane, please. Duke and Brain, I’d like you to come here and talk to Harmony, since this trip’s about her.”

Ranger handed an envelope to Brain, but I was distracted by Duke who said, “Damn, Harmony, I’m sorry. What can we do to make you more at ease?”

Apparently, I smelled terrified to all of them. I shook my head and told him, “Send Gonzo and Bash away.”

“If we do that, we’ll have to postpone the op,” said Ranger. “Aaron can pull other guys in, but they’ll cost you three to ten grand a day, depending on who’s available, and probably only be slightly better than those two. The RTMC guys are volunteering their time, so you won’t owe Aaron anything else when you get back.”

“I don’t care,” I told them. “I have money, I don’t need charity from anyone. Bash enjoyed humiliating me, and Gonzo was...” I shook my head, folded my arms across my chest. “I don’t want anything from either of them.” I looked to Brain and asked, “What does the note say?”

He handed it to me, and I read:

I know you’ll be angry with me again, and I don’t blame you, but I’ve lived a long time and I know how rare truly good friends are. I also know a genuine family when I see one, and the Chattanooga RTMC is one, and there’s a huge hole with you gone. I can see the missing spot in your heart, where your brothers used to be. Harmony can’t fill it for you. She can do a lot, but if you think she’ll replace them, you’re asking for trouble in your relationship with her, too. This is the last time I’ll play the meddling asshole. If this doesn’t work, I’ll bow out, but I had to give it one last try.

Aaron

I looked to Brain and said, “Just making up with Duke won’t be enough, will it?”

He shook his head. “Doesn’t matter. You’re never going to be around Bash and Gonzo, I can smell your distress, and I’d just as soon beat the hell out of them as look at them.”

“So the op’s off?” asked Ranger.

Brain answered, “Damned straight,” as I said, “Maybe not.”

Everyone looked at me, and I asked, “Who goes into the bank with me?”

Duke answered, “I do.”

“Okay, then, we’ll be in a huge-assed villa on the beach, right?” It’d better be big, I was paying seventeen hundred dollars a night for it.

“Yes.”

“Fine, then we’ll figure out a schedule so I don’t see them. Put’em on the opposite end of the house from me, and make sure they aren’t around when I’m out of the bedroom. I plan to spend most of my time out on the veranda with a good book and a huge sun hat and glasses, since I can’t be seen around town.”

“You sure?” asked Brain.

“Yeah. We’ve put a ton of planning into this, and I intend to give Aaron a piece of my mind at some point, but I can also see he meant well, even if it was misplaced.” I looked to Duke and said, “I know how close you and Brain were, and I’m sorry my situation came between the two of you.”

“Give me five minutes to make some adjustments to the plane’s interior, and then ya’ll can come on board,” Ranger told us before he walked to the plane with long, purposeful strides.

Duke held his hand out to Brain and said, “Truce for the length of the op?”

Brain looked at Duke’s hand a few seconds, looked at me, and I nodded. He looked back to Duke as he shook his hand. “Until we get her home safe.”

We spent a very awkward five minutes waiting, and when we went into the plane, a section of aisles had partitions around them so we couldn’t see who was in the seats.

Ranger motioned us to the seats at the front of the plane, and said, “I’ll be your pilot this evening, and our flight should take just under two hours. There’s no staff, so if you want something to drink or eat, feel free to raid the fridge and cabinets. I have some snacks in the cockpit, if I want a cold drink I’ll let ya’ll know.” He grinned. “I’m sure ya’ll would prefer to bring me one, rather than have me leave the cockpit to get it myself.”

Once we were in the air, Brain unbuckled his seatbelt and said, “I need to talk to Ranger. I’ll be back in a bit.”

Duke was sitting in the aisle in front of me, though the seats were tall and luxurious, so I couldn’t see him. I’d brought my e-reader loaded with books, and planned to take the opportunity to get caught up on some reading.

* * * *

Brain

“I assume you’ll create a chart for guard duty?”

Ranger nodded. “You’ll be her personal guard while she’s inside, Duke will take over, with his face reconfigured, when she’s outside the house. The windows have a coating so no one can see inside.”

“So, the rest of you will be alternating guard shifts?”

He nodded. “Three hour shifts, rotated between myself, Gonzo, and Bash. We’ll likely pull Duke in for the occasional night shift when she’s with you. She’ll have two people watching at all times — either you or Duke with her, plus one outside watching the area. I know you’ve brought cameras, and will be watching with those, too.”

“She’s good at strategy, better than Gonzo, Bash, and Duke put together times three, and possibly better than me in some areas, certainly as good as me in most.”

Ranger nodded. “Aaron told me she needs physical protection, but she’s to be involved in all data, info, and planning. Good to know you have confidence in her abilities, as well.”

“She’s damned good at running and evading, so it’s important we not block her from escaping, if things go to shit. She and I’ve already arranged a rendezvous point, should we become separated.”

“I smelled the gun on her.”

“Yeah, I’ve had her in the Atlanta RTMC’s range a few times since we shot with you. She’s faster with her taser, and will likely go for it in a one-on-one situation, but I feel better with her having a firearm, in case we run into a situation the taser won’t help.”

We talked a little more, and I went back to my seat. Duke was sitting with his eyes closed, but not asleep, and Harmony was deep into her book.

I took my seat beside Harmony, kissed her cheek, and pulled my tablet from my backpack.

Harmony

Our villa was beyond gorgeous, and it was really too bad we weren’t here on vacation.

Ranger had used a fake Florida ID to rent a family mini-van, which he’d driven into the hangar. The villa came with a garage, so I’d gone from airplane to van to house without anyone seeing me. To anyone watching, there were only guys here.

The veranda was private, designed so stars wanting to be sure the paparazzi didn’t get a shot of them could safely spend time outside. I’d still wear a floppy hat and sunglasses, though.

I had four hours until I needed to get to the bank, to be sure I made the request for cash in time for them to get it in their delivery two days from now.

Gonzo and Bash left to rent two scooters, this time with fake New York identification, and Duke and I went out the side door of the villa. I wore a bright yellow bathing suit and blonde wig with yellow sunglasses, he wore swim trunks and a t-shirt. I carried a medium sized purse.

We walked down the road to a bar, stopped to get a drink. His drink was real, since werewolves can’t get drunk, but mine was just a soda. We went into a family bathroom, I pulled a sundress over the bathing suit, changed to a darker wig, and swapped the sunglasses out for dark brown ones. Duke changed to casual knee length khaki’s and a collared pullover shirt, and we both swapped our lightweight flip-flops for sandals. I pulled a large brown beach bag from the purse, and put the purse and everything else into the beach bag. We’d rolled and packed everything into the purse really tight, but didn’t have time for it, now.

We made our way a half-mile down the street, wandered in and out of some boutique and souvenir shops, stopped to get ice cream cones, took our shoes off and walked down the beach as we ate our treats, and finally made it to the public parking lot where Bash and Gonzo had parked our scooters.

Duke didn’t look like himself. Not even a little. His waist was smaller, his arms were bigger, he was a little taller, and his face was totally different. He also had stuff sprayed in his hair to make it look a lot lighter, and it was styled different.

So, it was easier for me to cut up with him, talk to him, and be natural, even though I kept remembering him coming at me with the needle to knock me out, when I heard his voice. Still, seeing him as different helped make it easier.

We rode to the bank and I pulled my wallet out before I walked in the door, so no one could see inside the zipped beach bag. We asked to speak with the manager, told them I didn’t have an appointment but I had several million dollars in their bank so I assumed he would see me. They asked for my name and account number, and a few minutes later we were taken to the back.

I was going to leave fifty thousand dollars in the account, because closing it completely didn’t give them incentive to make sure the cash arrived in two days. I filled out the request and handed it over — if this had been a public bank, I’d have needed to answer a bunch of questions, but I’d done my research when I found a private bank, so the request didn’t faze the manager in the least.

Duke and I didn’t have a cellphone on us, though we each had a two-way radio — currently turned off — for communication if things went sideways. However, we left the bank, got back on our scooters, drove a good ways outside of town where there were no cameras, and met the guys in the van.

Gonzo was dressed as Duke, Bash was dressed as me, and they donned our helmets and took our places on the scooters while Duke and I got into the back of the van.

The asshole duo would ride the bikes to a hotel parking garage, park them and start walking to the elevator. Brain would kill the cameras, and they’d put the scooters in a truck with a cab over the back, then go into the hotel, change clothes in an empty room (thanks to Brain forging a key card for them), hang out in the restaurant a while, and then take a few taxis back to the house, leaving the truck in the garage to move later.

Brain

Longest four hours of my life. It was as if my own heart was out riding around, in danger.

And I had to trust Duke, of all people, to keep her safe.

I’d meant to be waiting for her in the villa’s garage when they pulled in, but the bank manager received a phone call I needed to hear.

I switched it so it came across on the speakers as well as my headphones, so they could hear as they came in.

“Yeah, I called about the account you asked me to keep an eye on. A girl came in with the right ID, right passcodes. She’s drawing all but fifty grand out in cash. Will be back day after tomorrow to get it.”

I smelled Harmony’s terror when the Russian’s voice came over the speaker, but I didn’t mute it — she wouldn’t thank me for it, later.

I’ll need your video feeds showing her pulling into the parking lot, walking and talking inside the building, and then pulling out of the lot. Did you give her a time frame to come back?

The truck usually delivers by ten in the morning.

Thank you for the information. When we receive the video feeds, I’ll wire the money to you. Same account as last time?

Yes.

The call disconnected without either saying goodbye, and I left the audio feeds going to the speakers in case there was another call, and took my headphones off so I could walk to Harmony and hold her.

She shrank away from me, and I let her, but I bent down so we were eye level and said, “Hold me, Buttercup. He’ll never hurt you again, I promise.”

She threw her arms around me, held me tight, and as I stood, she wrapped her legs around me, too. I touched the sides of her hips, enough to comfort without trapping her, and walked back to the armless chair I’d been using as my command central chair.

“The rest of you can go, I’ll keep an eye on things in here, and let’s plan to meet in an hour and a half for a sitrep.”

Duke and Ranger left without another word, and Harmony sat in my lap with me holding her a good five minutes before finally lifting her head to say, “Thanks. What can I do to help in here?”

I pointed her to another laptop and answered, “Watch the network traffic coming and going to the bank. Odds are the manager will send a link so the Russians can see all the feeds and take the parts they want, in which case we should be able to easily see their IP address. If he emails it, we’ll have to monitor the email to see where they log in from to retrieve it.”

She needed to get her mind on something else, be productive, and I knew she was as good as me and wouldn’t miss anything.

Fifteen minutes into us working side-by-side, I told her, “My wolf needs me to hold you again. Are you going to be okay?”

She turned to me, threw her arms around me from the side, and I slid sideways and pulled her to me, holding her, but smelling for distress just in case.

Thankfully, she saw my arms as safety and comfort, and she let me hold her until I let go and kissed her cheek, then her forehead.

“Do you want me to keep his voice in my headphones, if we hear him again? Just tell you what’s said so you don’t have to hear him?”

She shook her head. “No, I know him, and it’s possible I can glean something from his tone of voice the rest of you would miss.” She held my gaze, let me see her strength. “Don’t shield me from anything, Brain. I’ve done this on my own long before you came along. It’s great to have help, but you have to know I’m not going to let anyone cushion me from reality.”

I nodded and gave her a peck on the forehead, then brushed my lips across hers, and dipped down to tease her lips with my tongue until she opened and let me in, smiling as we kissed, and I knew she was okay.

* * * *

Harmony

I asked for Gonzo and Bash to be brought in for the meeting. This was about everyone’s safety, and leaving team members out of informational meetings was a bad idea. I’d just have to put my big girl panties on and deal with it.

They were in the room when Brain and I entered, and I ignored my body’s knee-jerk anger response when I saw them.

Ranger growled, low in his chest, and patted the empty sofa cushion beside him. When I sat, he looked at me, his eyes dark, and said, “If the Russian comes here there’s a good chance I’ll rip him to pieces, because I don’t know what he did to you, but the kind of terror I smelled when you heard his voice tells me it was bad.” He looked around the room, and back to me. “If you want me to, I’ll tear into Gonzo and Bash. Not enough to kill them, and they’ll be okay again by the time we need them, but it’ll still hurt like hell.”

“Can’t let you do that,” came Duke’s deeper than normal voice from behind Ranger. We all looked at him, and he said, “They were actin’ on my orders. You need to tear someone apart, it should be me. I didn’t know she’d been tortured, but to be honest, we might’ve used that to our advantage, if we’d known.”

“You know what?” I told them, pissed at the whole situation. “None of that matters right now. Yeah, I had a moment when I heard Ivankov’s voice, but I’m okay now, and no one will right the wrongs for me — I can take care of handling that, myself. Ivankov’s son was tortured and killed because of events I set in motion, and he knows his other adult children who’ve chosen the same career path are at risk as well, if he comes after me again, and yet he’s decided to risk it. I went after his son because I couldn’t get to him, before. If he comes here, he’s mine, understood?”

I looked everyone in the eye, and they all seemed to understand I meant what I said. I nodded and started the meeting by letting them listen to the bank manager make the original call to Ivankov and leave a message, and then the return call. I outlined what we’d picked up from network traffic, and the fact Ivankov is apparently in New York right now, and not Russia, which means he could very well come here in person.

“Brain is watching the flight manifests, to see if he buys a ticket, though we know he likely has access to a private plane so it may not net us anything. We’re also watching his email, cellphone, and texting activity.”

Brain picked up with, “I’ve viewed the feeds they’ll have access to — traffic and security cams from around the city, and I feel confident they’ll lose the trail so they can’t follow her back to here, and then when they reverse the feeds, to see where she came from, they’ll lose the trail there, too. I don’t foresee them attacking the house, though we’ll need to keep our guard up, obviously. Our next big danger zone is likely when Harmony and Duke leave the bank with the money, since the Russians will think they’ll get her and her cash all at once. We already know the game plan for D-day, and as of this moment I see no reason to alter those plans.”

I looked at Bash, got eye contact, and said, “Thanks for wearing a dress, today. I know it was asking a lot of you, and it’s appreciated.” I scanned the room and added, “Thanks to all of you, actually. I’m going out onto the veranda to read for a while.” I touched Ranger’s arm and asked, “Ranger, would you mind being my plus-one outside for a while, so Brain can keep an eye on communications?”

“I’m capable of manning the control room, if you’d rather have Brain outside.”

“No offense to either of you, but he’s better with electronics, and you’re better with personal security. I think we need to play to our strengths, right now. I’ll relieve him in the control room in a few hours, so he can have some down time.”

I went to the room I shared with Brain, changed clothes, washed my face, and got my hat and sunglasses. Ranger met me downstairs, also in a hat and sunglasses, and walked me out to the veranda. As I sat, he said, “A few questions, and then I won’t bring it up again.”

I looked at him without agreeing to answer anything, and he asked, “How long did they have you?”

“Counting the plane ride halfway ‘round the world, seventeen days. I thought the first seven were bad, but then Ivankov arrived, and… things got infinitely worse.” I paused as I considered how much to tell him, and finally said, “He isn’t the man who demanded my capture, he’s just one of their lead torturers. My beef with him is personal, and now his with me is personal, as well. I made things right with his boss, and Ivankov was long ago told to leave me alone, but I’m the one who got away, and he couldn’t let me go. I thought going after his son would make him back off, and it did for a while, but apparently not anymore.”

Ranger looked doubtful. “You made things right with the Russian Mafia, after they felt the need to capture and torture you, and you escaped?”

I nodded. “I didn’t have the names to give them when they tortured me, which is a good thing, because my cred went way up for not divulging. Plus, they’d have probably killed me once they had the info, and then I’d have never managed to escape. However, I knew something else they wanted to know, so I traded them that info, plus a job I knew they were struggling to handle. So far, they’ve kept their end of the deal, though they’d already set the NSA and FBI on me, which has been a bitch to live with.”

“You don’t seem eat up inside over being the cause of Ivankov’s son’s death.”

I smiled, and knew it to be what people had told me in the past was my ‘scary smile’. I saw the recognition in his eyes when he understood I’d kill in order to survive, and wouldn’t be sorry about it, and I told him, “His son was a bad man. My intention was for him to suffer horrible torture at the hands of his Mafia family, but I’m not sorry the man didn’t survive the ordeal. I was passed out and likely near death many times when they threw cold water on me, or put something under my nose to bring me back to consciousness. Ivankov didn’t
let
me die, no matter how badly I wanted to.”

“If we get him, he has to die, or you’ll always be looking over your shoulder after him.”

“I know.”

“I was going to offer to kill him for you. My soul has enough stains on it, one more won’t hurt it… but now I’m not so certain you’ll take the offer in the spirit it’s intended.”

I shook my head. “If you get a shot, take it, but don’t step in to save me from having to do it, if I have a shot.”

“Deal, but if I step in front of you to catch a bullet, it’s because I can heal from it, and you might not. Okay?”

I smiled. “Yeah, okay.”

I read for a few hours, and then relieved Brain, though he merely sat in a more comfortable chair behind me, his eyes closed. He said he just needed to be in the same room with me a while.

I kept an eye on things using his set up, and poked around on Ivankov’s IP address with my laptop proxied so he’d never trace back to me. I got into his computer, but all I learned was the man liked really sick porn.

Apparently, my smell changed when I saw it, and Brain was to me in an instant. “I’m okay,” I assured him, “just a little disgusted at his porn collection, is all.”

“You seemed okay interacting with Duke, making it look real. Anything you need to talk about?”

I shook my head as I looked through Ivankov’s other folders and files, and Brain watched from his seat beside me.

“Him looking different made it easier. Every time I see his face, I see him coming at me with that damned syringe, and feel the panic at being out of control and not knowing where I’d wake up.” I sighed. “You did it to me, too, but then you went out of your way to treat me with respect, even though I was your prisoner. It was about power and revenge for them. It was different, and I’m having a hard time moving past it.”

“You don’t have to move past it. When we finish here, you’ll never have to see them again, and I intend to have a discussion with Aaron that’ll guarantee we don’t run into this problem again.”

“No, Brain. Aaron’s right. They’re your family, and families fight sometimes, but they make up. I’ll figure out a way to be okay with Duke, eventually, and while I may never be okay with Gonzo or Bash, I need you to be able to join your family, again, so I’ll work it out enough I can be in the same room with them.” I ran my fingers through his silky hair and reminded him, “I was the bad guy at the time. Bash enjoyed humiliating me, and Gonzo was a cold assed bastard, but neither of them actually hurt me. I’ve survived worse, and Bash was probably a little humiliated in the dress today. Seriously, I’ll get over it. They’re trying.”

He shook his head and leaned down to brush his lips across my cheek. “I’ll leave you alone so you can snoop through his computer. If he has a log-in for the Mafia’s systems, he’s probably had the software remember his passwords, that’s where I’d head from here.”

“Already looked. I have the IP address he logs into, but nothing more. I installed a keylogger that’ll email me his strokes at three o’clock every morning, and I already put an exception for it in his firewall. If we don’t get something out of it in the next couple of days, I’ll decide whether I want in bad enough to hack in. Honestly, at this point I’m inclined to leave the organization alone and just focus on him.”

“Are you gonna be okay if you come face to face with him?”

I took my hands off the keyboard, turned to Brain, and met his gaze. “Before, I wasn’t sure, but now, with you in my life, and the healing I’ve done with your help, I will be. I might fall apart afterwards, but I’ll be fine while I’m facing him, if it comes to it.”

I held his gaze until I could see he believed me, and I turned back to the laptop. “I’m only going to stay in another three or four minutes, and then we can chat about whatever you want.”

As it turned out, he didn’t want to chat. He called Bash in to watch everything, and he took me upstairs to bed.

As I slid into my pajamas, he said, “I’m just going to take them off.”

“You’re the one who keeps reminding me about wolf hearing. No way can I relax, knowing they’re listening.”

He sat on the side of the bed, pulled me to him so I was standing between his legs. “I know why you had to touch Duke, let him put his arm around you, hold his hand, but my wolf’s having trouble with it. I don’t ask for a lot, but I kind of need this, tonight.”