Brain (7 page)

Brain

I’d been out of the shower long enough to hear a good part of the conversation, but at this question, I finally stepped into the room.

“Yeah,” Grace said, her voice so low I might not have heard it without my werewolf hearing. I could smell the fury emanating from every pore of her body. She’d been pushed to do it, and was still pissed she’d had to, but wasn’t in the least bit sorry about it. Whatever situation he’d been in, she’d kill again if she were back in it and it was the only way out.

“One of the Russians, would be my guess,” I said as I stepped into the room enough to get her attention. “We know you escaped, and the bounty on your head tripled.”

She nodded and said, “He’d been one of the men who’d tortured me, and when I had an opportunity to go, the only way out was through him. I should’ve been happy to kill him, to make him hurt, but…” she shook her head and put her forehead back on her knees. “His death wasn’t satisfying. It didn’t take away any of my pain. It kept any more from happening, but if there’d been a way for me to get away without killing them, I would’ve.”

Them
. She’d killed more than one person to escape.

“Why did you keep the Ice persona?” I asked. “Wouldn’t it have been easier to create a new hacker identity, so you wouldn’t have to be constantly looking over your shoulder for them?”

“Ice could charge ten times more than a new identity. Everyone but the Russians thought I was a man, and for some reason they never put the truth out, so there wasn’t too much danger except when I was actually online, or when I needed to surface long enough to be paid.” She shrugged. “I knew how to hide online, and I was careful about how I was paid. No one found me until
you
.”

I smelled the lie, and figured it was time I let her know exactly how much I knew about her. I stayed on the other side of the sofa and kept my voice soft. “Because Putin is in bed with the Russian Mafia, he told our government some stuff about you, to put them on your trail. You haven’t just been running from the Russians, but from the NSA and Homeland Security.”

Her head snapped to me in surprise — I’d found out way more about her than she’d expected. I gave a tight smile as I told her, “I know what we’re getting into by helping you.” I looked at Duke. “She was right. I told her I didn’t want her laying a single finger on any electronics until I gave the okay. She seems to be trying to earn some trust with us.”

“Did you know she’s read through the Atlanta gang force’s notes on us?”

I shook my head. “No, seems you still get the award for knowing which questions to ask.”

“I told her she has three days to give us everything she knows or has deduced about the Disciples. If she wants insurance, she’ll need to come up with something else.”

I looked at Ice in question, and she shrugged. “Haven’t had time to consider it, yet.”

“You told me she’s smart,” said Duke. “I assume she’ll come to the right conclusion.” Duke looked back to Ice. “Okay, chicklet, something you aren’t telling me about what you found in our file in Atlanta. Spit it out.”

* * * *

Ice

I shook my head, rolled my eyes, and said, “They keep track of the MC during the full moon… well, the nights around it, too, so three nights in all. I don’t think they really believe they’re werewolves, but it seems to be the running joke, and they try to set up surveillance, and even follow them outside of the city and county. It’s kind of crazy.” The two of them exchanged a look I couldn’t decipher, and I added, “I don’t want to know where they go. None of my business. I’m not asking, just telling you what I saw in their notes.”

Brain chuckled. “You know how misdirection works. Looks like we’ve successfully sent them on a wild-goose chase… or in this case, a werewolf chase. Why were you hesitant to tell Duke what you found?”

“Come
on
! It just sounds crazy!”

“Yep, that’s the idea,” Duke said. “Okay, anything else?”

I looked at Brain. “You have at least two hacker identities online. I doubt anyone else saw the similarities between the way Wulff and Cyclops build code, but I had a reason to look, and I saw it.”

He nodded. “Which means we’ve worked together, long ago, before your problems with the Russian Mafia.”

I tilted my head I agreement. “The online game that led to a half-dozen of us getting job offers.”

“You have to know why I didn’t take it, why didn’t you?” he asked.

“I was still in college, wasn’t ready to get a real job, and… I knew it was the government, and didn’t want to work for Uncle Sam.”

“Did you know it was the NSA?”

“The people who knocked on my door introduced themselves as NSA.”

He shrugged his shoulders. “They didn’t when they came calling on me. Not sure if that was because of my dad, or what.”

“Am I supposed to know who your dad is?”

* * * *

Brain

Fuck
, I shouldn’t have mentioned my family. I tried to look nonchalant as I answered, “You said you only investigated the president of the Chattanooga and Atlanta chapters, and the club as a whole before accepting the job from the Disciples… so probably not.” I looked towards Duke. “I’m guessing you want to move her today?”

“You really think befriending her is the way to go?”

“We’d have never gotten information from her with torture. We’ve made the deal, Duke.”

Duke shook his head, looked at Grace a few seconds, back to me. “We’re gonna have two men on her for the next week. I’m gonna need you at the compound some of that time, so you can’t be with her all day. You can’t have McGyver, Dawg, Dozer, or Tank, and you don’t want Bash. I wouldn’t recommend Gonzo, but I’m not ruling him out. Figure out which two you want and I’ll notify them they’re on rotation. Up to you to figure out the schedule, but the three of you will need to work it so there’s always two on her, and you’re gonna be at the compound a lot.” He looked at her again, back to me. “You’ll have to brief them on protocol when you aren’t around. You don’t want her tied like Bash did, fine. Figure out how they can put her so she can’t escape.”

“Mr. Duke? Sir? If the MC’s going to arrange for me to get a new face and a new life, I don’t want to escape.”

Duke shook his head. “We need to make sure that’s the case this week, and no, I can’t tell you why.”

She gave him an appraising look and I knew she’d figure it out. Sure enough, a few seconds later she noted, “You’re going after the Disciples, and you want to make sure I don’t tell them?”

Duke merely raised his eyebrows, and Grace said, “If you trust me enough to let me in on the plans, I can help.”

“What do you want?”

She looked at me, back to Duke. “Nothing — just some goodwill between us. My initial research on the club made me think ya’ll were merely another gang, another rival of the Disciples, no better than them. Once Brain came after me and I dug deeper, I realized ya’ll aren’t like them. I wouldn’t go so far as to say you’re good, but you seem to have a set of your own morals you live by, and I can appreciate that.” She shrugged. “My deal with Brain is with all of you, and I don’t want to see any more of the MC get hurt. If I can help with the plans, I will.”

Duke looked at me, putting the ball in my court, and I told her, “Okay, Ice… Fuck,
Grace
. That’s hard to get used to.” I shook my head, took a breath, continued. “Draw up plans for how you’d go after them if money and technology were no object, and you had, say, a dozen men who knew how to handle weapons, and could take the Disciples fist-to-fist, if it comes to it. You’ll try to keep fatalities to a minimum on their side, to zero on our side.”

She nodded. “Give me until around noon tomorrow, to come up with it and perfect it?”

“Yeah,” Duke said, his eyes still appraising her. He looked to me, his mind not made up. “I’d planned to knock her out for the move.”

I nodded, knowing he was right and it was the best way to transport her, but it was going to piss her off, and it wasn’t the right move if we wanted her on our side. I sighed and turned away, so I wasn’t looking at either of them, composed my face, and then turned back and stepped to the coffee table to get my laptop.

“If Bash hadn’t humiliated her and tied her in such a painful position for so long, knocking her out again would piss her off, but she’d get over it.” I glanced at her, back to Duke. “I’ll run into town and buy a cheap laptop, something I can take apart and work on without too much trouble. I’ll put the software on she’ll need in order to come up with her plan and communicate it to us, and I’ll remove the wi-fi hardware, so there’s no way she can connect with it. We’ll wait until dark tonight to move her, and put her in the backseat of the Expedition with the laptop. I’ll follow on my bike.”

I looked at Ice…
Grace
. “Will you promise not to do anything to draw attention to yourself while we move you? We’ll have to blindfold you for the last thirty minutes of the drive. If you’re prone to being carsick, you’ll want us to knock you out for that part, anyway, so we may as well knock you out for the entire trip.”

She shook her head. “As long as it isn’t a super-curvy mountain road, I should be okay. Since you won’t let me go for a run, I still feel sluggish from the last time you drugged me, and I’d just as soon you not do it again.”

I looked at her a few seconds, assessing, and told Duke, “Let’s rent a storage locker for my bike, and send a prospect up sometime this week with a trailer to bring it home. I’ll pay gas for the trip to get it, out of my pocket. That way I can ride in the back with her.”

“No,” she said. “You know how much cash I have in my backpack. I’ll pay the gas, and whatever other expenses you incur to make me comfortable while I’m your captive.”

Ice

Brain and Duke exchanged a look I couldn’t decipher, and Brain went to the kitchen, saying, “There’s a waffle iron in here. I’m making waffles, sausage, and scrambled eggs.”

“I brought Brain some work to do, and it might be good if we clear out and give him some quiet after breakfast. If you have appropriate footwear and aren’t opposed to running in the woods, I’ll run with you, let you stretch your legs.”

“You trust me enough to take me out unrestrained, and yet you have my feet zip-tied together while sitting on the sofa?”

He shook his head. “Brought a shock collar. You take off running, you’ll find yourself on the ground in a world of hurt.”

I wanted to call him a fucking asshole and suggest he put the shock collar up his ass, but the memory of Brain’s grim face as he repeatedly told me I needed to get Duke on my side held my tongue, so instead I said, “I don’t want to wear a shock collar. Perhaps you can just let me do push-ups and sit-ups here, and maybe let me run in place?”

I was starting to detest the way he looked at me, as if he could see inside my head, inside my fucking soul. Brain did the same thing, and it was disconcerting coming from him, but Duke was creeping me out. I stayed quiet, though, and let him think.

“Brain tells me you were the only daughter, with five brothers, and when your mother died, your father sent you to boarding school so you could grow up like a proper young lady. You only went home for Christmas, and a few weeks of the summer, when you weren’t at one camp or another, learning a skill.”

He hadn’t asked a question, and I was aware of my own history. He looked as if he expected a response, though, so I gave him one. “Yeah, poor little rich girl, having to live at boarding school. I’ve heard it all before, so let’s not go through it again. Did you have a point? Or a question?”

“I know your dad died a year after you went on the run. Have you been in contact with any of your brothers, or any other family? Is there anyone you intend to keep in contact with?”

“One of my brothers is the mayor, another is the DA, and another is situating himself for a run at congress. They’d all prefer to forget their sister is wanted by Homeland Security. Of the other two, one’s a doctor and is wrapped up in his own life, but Danny’s an artist and has no aspirations to lead or take care of people. He sees the world through different eyes than… yeah, I’ve been in contact with him. Not enough anyone’ll notice, and I had to wait a few years to be sure the NSA wasn’t monitoring my family to try to catch me, but it’s been nice, having a few conversations a year with him. I haven’t told him any of my aliases, and he has no way to contact me. I keep tabs on him and show up when I know he’s alone. He lives in the woods, in the middle of nowhere, so he can work without being disturbed. I get to find out what’s going on in his life, hear how my other brothers are doing, and assure him I’m fine, but I don’t tell him anything about my life, really. He just wants me to assure him I’m safe, and I’m happy, and he doesn’t ask questions beyond that.”

“You’re gonna keep doing that? Once your face changes? The more people who know you’ve undergone plastic surgery, the less chance this has of working.”

I shook my head. “I don’t know, Mr. Duke. I haven’t had a chance to think everything through, yet. I wore a wig when I went to him before, so he wouldn’t know I had short hair, just in case he told someone he’d seen me. I wore make-up and a cute outfit, so he’d think I was the same as before. I monitored his correspondence those first years, and he never told anyone via electronic means. I don’t know if he’s told my other brothers privately and in person, and I never asked him.”

“You had no one, while you were on the run?”

“Since most everyone thinks Ice is a man, I didn’t have to worry so much when I was Destiny. I’ve had a few boyfriends, though they all eventually started asking too many questions and I had to leave.” I shrugged. “No one has known my story, known who I was, if that’s your question, but I’ve had human interaction, people I could spend time with, party with, whatever.”

“How long do you stay in a city?”

“I was in Seattle nearly a year, and I went back and forth from Fort Lauderdale to Daytona Beach for nearly two years, acting like a tourist. I don’t think I managed any other cities for more than a few months, though.”

“You ready to settle down?”

“Maybe. If I decide to do something that needs a degree, I’ll have to stay in one place at least four years.” I shrugged again. “I don’t have the answers you’re looking for, Mr. Duke. I suddenly have options I didn’t have before, but the prospect of putting down roots only to have to leave in the middle of the night makes me not want to put down the roots in the first place. Do I dare buy land, build stables, and buy horses? Teach kids to ride in the winter, hold riding camps and maybe even some adventure camps in the summer? Will that
really
be an option? I don’t know.”

Duke leaned forward, his elbows on his spread knees, hands relaxed between them, head bowed. When he looked up, his eyes were scary, dark, intense. “If you were a man I’d take you out back and fight you, beat the hell out of you, and then shake hands and not be pissed anymore. Still wouldn’t trust you right away, but the resentment for getting one of my men hurt could be mostly be wiped.”

“I have a disguise in my backpack. I can look like a man in about five minutes.”

He shook his head. “No, I can’t hit a woman with my fists, and I’ll never strike you in any way while you’re bound, unless you make a move against me.” He nodded towards the kitchen. “I’ll carry you in, sit you in a chair, and help Brain with breakfast.”

“I’ll carry her in,” Brain called from the kitchen. “She’s used to me. Let me get these waffles out and I’ll be there.”

Duke shook his head, and terror shot through my body as he picked me up, slung me over his shoulder, and walked to the kitchen. “I’m not hurtin’ her, Brain.” He pulled a kitchen chair away from the table, and sat me in it — not rough enough to jar me, but not exactly gentle, either. “But you may want to convince her to wear the collar and go for a walk with me in the woods so you can get some work done.”

“No one lays a hand on her but me.” The look Brain gave Duke was scary, and I sensed problems, but also knew I’d make it worse by trying to intercede.

“You asking, or telling?” Duke asked, his voice a quiet threat.

“Telling, Duke. No one lays a hand on her but me.”

“Can’t make any promises. Let’s take care of breakfast, deal with it later.”

When we finished eating, Duke told Brain to go ahead and run into town to get the laptop, and Brain wanted to argue, but nodded and climbed onto his bike and roared away.

Without another word, Duke lifted me over his shoulder, carried me back to the living room, and sat me on the sofa. He dug around in a duffel, came out with a syringe, and I started begging, “No, please don’t knock me out, Mr. Duke, Sir. God, not again, I don’t want to be…” he pushed me sideways, put a knee in my back, held my arm with an iron grip, and stuck the needle into my upper arm. I screamed in both pain and frustration as the burning liquid shot into the muscle.

“Sorry, ice princess, but Brain’s grown too attached to you and isn’t thinking clearly. I won’t put Bash on you again, but Brain’s out of the picture, as far as you’re concerned.” He made a phone call and asked, “Where’s Brain’s bike?”

He nodded, hung up without saying goodbye, and lifted me again, though thankfully he didn’t sling me over his shoulder this time. My head was starting to swim and there was a good chance I’d have lost my waffles and eggs.

He put me in the back seat, saw I was groggy, helped me lie down, and said, “Night night,” before getting into the driver’s seat, tossing his duffel in the passenger floorboard, and driving off.