moan for uncle 5 (6 page)

"If I could do it myself I would, but I need you to retrieve it for me."

She backed away from him a foot or so, shaking her head while her face paled. "I don't think I can. I... I can't cut your arm open Grant!"

"Honey you have to."

"Won't it hurt?"

Grant grinned at her, hoping to sooth her frazzled nerves. "No worse than my back is hurting at this moment." He took her hand once more and tugged her closer to him. Leaning over he kissed her lips tenderly. "I trust you."

She gulped and looked down at the knife in her trembling hand then over at his arm. Her bottom lip began to tremble, but she nodded and positioned herself behind him. "How did it get there?"

Grant shrugged and then tensed up as he felt the sharp tip of the knife touching the skin of his upper arm. "My guess is Diana implanted it while I was knocked out. They're easy to implant kind of like an ear piercing gun... in a way. The gun lodges the chip under the skin. It's a relatively painless procedure. Getting them out is the painful part."

"Oh." She took a deep breath in, steadying her nerves and hand and then exhaled. "Ready?"

Taking a deep breath in Grant nodded.
"Yup."
The blade pinched as it cut open the skin and a warm trickle of blood made its way down his arm. Nikki groaned and for a moment Grant feared she was going to pass out again. There was another more painful pinch as Nikki retrieved the device. Less than a minute later she was passing the chip to him and bandaging up his throbbing arm.

Relief washed over him as he held the tiny glass capsule between his fingers. "This particular tracking chip has a signal of about two miles so they would have to be close to find us. Doesn't mean they haven't already, but we might still be safe. In a city the size of the Boston area, finding a signal to this chip would be a needle in a haystack."

Standing he made his way to the bathroom wrapped the capsule up in toilet paper and flushed it. If they hadn't already found him and Nikki then the tracking device would be of no use to them now.

"So are we okay?" she asked, running a nervous hand through her dark - still wet - locks.

"I need you to strip down so I can make sure they didn't implant you as well."

A look of fear flashed over her features, but she did as told. He carefully inspected every inch of her naked body. Clean. He let out a breath of air he hadn't realized he'd been holding. He had dreaded the idea of having to remove a chip from her.

"I'm good?"

Grant nodded his confirmation. "Yeah, but pack our things. We're leaving."

Quickly she got redressed and then walked over to him, wrapping her arms around his waist as she looked up at him. "But you said... It was a needle in a haystack. You need to rest, Grant. Can't..."

He cupped her cheek in his palm, closed his eyes and lowered his lips to her forehead. "I will
not
take chances with your safety, Nikki. We need to get as far from here as possible." Not waiting for a response, he brushed past her and grabbed the t-shirt from the dresser that they had purchased for him. Instead of 'I Love Boston,' this one read simply 'Red
Sox
.'

Walking over to the window, he pulled back the drapes just slightly and peered out into the parking lot. The day was quickly giving into the night, leaving red, orange and purple streaks in the semi-night sky. In roughly half an hour any telltale sign of day would be completely gone.

Nikki walked up behind him and put a tentative hand on his shoulder. "Do you see anything?"

"No.
Nothing."
He didn't, but then again he didn't expect to. If they had found them already, then it could play out one of two ways. Either, they would break into the room and overpower him and Nikki or they would simply wait and watch, hoping Grant would take them to what they were after. If he were a betting man, he'd bet on the latter.

"Then maybe it's fine. Maybe..."

He released the curtain and let it fall back into place, then turned to Nikki and gave her a reassuring hug, kissing the top of her head. "We're leaving, we'll take the Lincoln and then when I'm certain we're not being followed we'll find alternative means of transportation and accommodation. You ready?"

"As I'll ever be."

Chapter 6

Nikki learned quickly how serious Grant was when he said he would do whatever it took to keep her safe. They changed cars three times - the first two of the three cars he had broken into he had running in less than sixty seconds. They drove for over three hours and eventually ended up across town from their original location pulling up at yet another motel. The vehicle that they pulled up to the motel in was a black Dodge Ram 4x4 and to Nikki's surprise it was actually Grant's own vehicle, licensed under Victor
Ackles
.

She had no idea Grant even had a vehicle in Boston. For that matter she had no idea he also went by the name of Victor
Ackles
. He had felt it was safe to pick up the truck because Diana was unaware of his Victor
Ackles
alias so the truck was safe. Nikki trusted him, and his judgement, but she kept getting a nagging tingle in the back of her mind about Diana; as though she knew a hell of a lot more about Grant than even he realized.

She pushed the suspicions to the back of her mind. Grant was the expert at the spy stuff, she reasoned with herself. She was a scared, confused and exhausted college student who was being paranoid. But more importantly than that, as much as Grant refused to admit it, she could tell he needed to rest. He'd lost an obscene amount of blood, enough that she was in shock over that fact that he was still conscious.

Parking the car in front of the door to the reception desk, Grant visibly winced as he opened the door and hopped from the truck. Nikki bit her tongue, wanting to jump out and assist him, but knowing his pride wouldn't allow it. He was far from fine, despite assuring her a number of times over the past few hours that he was. However, she could do nothing but accept his word for it.

Several minutes later, with a room key in hand he slipped back behind the driver's seat and found their assigned room. The motel was small, perhaps fifty ground floor units, all with outside entrances. Theirs was room number twenty-six and just happened to be at the end of the line of rooms.

Jumping from the truck, she quickly made her way to the back, and lowered the tailgate grabbing the duffle bag of clothing and other essentials that he had told her earlier was there, before he had a chance to get to it. To her surprise and concern he didn't insist on getting it himself, but accepted her help and made his way over to unlock the door.

Slamming the tailgate shut she tossed the bag, which easily weighed twenty-five pounds over her shoulder and locked down the lid before following him into the room.

"I'm sorry,
Nik
, I should have got that. I just..." he wobbled slightly and grabbed the dresser for support before making his way to the bed.

Frowning, she dropped the bag to the floor and rushed over to him, slipping a hand around his waist, and taking care not to touch any of the numerous areas on his back that were injured. "It's okay Grant. Let's get you to bed."

He didn't protest at her helping him to the bed, or her assistance with removing his boots, bloodied jeans and t-shirt. She was further dismayed to see that blood was beginning to seep through some of the bandages.

"Would it make any difference if I told you that I really,
really
think you need to go to the hospital?"

"I'll be fine, just a couple of hours’ sleep and I'll be fine. In the inside pocket of the bag there are some pills. Would you get me a couple
Nik
?" He attempted to give her a reassuring smile as he lay on the queen sized bed, positioned on his stomach. Nikki guessed it would be a while before his back would be healed enough for him to lie on it.

"Sure." Rushing over to the bag, she unzipped it, found the inner pocket and retrieved the said bottle of pills. She opened it and dispensed several onto her palm, replaced the cap and put the bottle back where she’d found it. After grabbing the complementary bottle of water from the dresser, she rushed back to him, falling to her knees at the side of the bed as she passed the pills to him.

Seeing her concerned expression, once he finished swallowing the pills, he reached over and ran a hand through her hair, locking gazes with her. "I'll be fine. I've gone through
a lot
worse. Trust me. Now come and lie down with me; we should be safe until morning."

She took his hand, pressed his palm to her mouth, kissed it tenderly and then gave it a light squeeze before letting it go.
"Alright.
I trust you."

He managed to smile as he closed his eyes. "Good. Now get some rest, we have a long day tomorrow."

By the time she had gotten to her feet he was already asleep. She leaned over and kissed his temple, before making her way back to his duffle bag. There was a first aid kit inside so she grabbed it and made her way back over to the bed. Sitting down next to him she flipped open the white plastic case and removed what she needed to redress his bandages. She worked slowly and gently, taking care not to disturb him.

Once done she slid into bed next to him, bundled her pillow under her head and lay watching him sleep until the adrenaline of the day's events wore off and her own tiredness overtook her.

****

Nikki awoke the next day, to a bright stream of sunlight filling the room. She didn't open her eyes immediately, but reached over to Grant, only to find him missing. "Grant!" Alarm raced through her, and her eyes flew open.

"It's about time you woke up."

Grant's teasing voice drifted to her from across the room. Sitting up she rubbed her eyes and glanced in the direction of his voice. Grant was dressed in fresh clothing, sitting at the two person table, a laptop open before him, eating some sort of fast food breakfast sandwich and grinning over at her.

Reaching into a brown paper bag beside him he pulled out another breakfast sandwich and waved it at her. "Hungry?"

Nikki looked down at the spot where Grant had virtually passed out the previous night and then back at him. There were a few faint blood stains on the sheets, so she hadn't been imagining the extensiveness of his injuries. She'd never seen such a miraculous recovery.

"How are you feeling?"

Grant chuckled and took another large bite from his sandwich, chewed a few times, winked at her and swallowed. "It takes a lot more than a little beating to take me down for long."

Leaping out of the bed, she rushed to him, throwing her arms around his neck and covered his face with kisses.
"Oh-my-God!
I thought that maybe... That..."

He fell back into the chair, from the force of her falling into his arms and groaned.
"Nikki... honey.
I feel better, but my back still hurts like a bitch."

She leapt back, her hand shooting to her mouth and her eyes widening in horror. Had she hurt him again? She silently cursed herself for not thinking.

"No. No... I'm fine.
Just... sore."
He grabbed the wrapped sandwich once more and thrust it at her. "Here. Eat. We have a long day today.
A lot to do."

"So what's going on?" She took a seat across from him in the other wooden table chair,
unwrapped
the breakfast sandwich and took a bite. The greasy bacon, egg and cheese concoction on a bagel wouldn't have been her first choice, and far from a healthy breakfast but at that moment - and considering that she hadn't eaten in almost twenty-four hours - it tasted as good as any fine cuisine would have.

"Well, I got in contact with the agency and apparently Diana went off the grid a few days ago. They had been suspecting she was playing both sides for some time now, but have never been able to prove it.

"So what are they going to do about it?
About us?"

"Nothing."

Nikki was about to take another bite, but froze, her mouth hanging open. "What?
Nothing?"

"
Sahr
has been my assignment for a couple of years now. They want me to finish what I started."

"No," She shook her head violently. "No. You're injured Grant." She dropped the sandwich to the table and glared over at him. "What exactly do they want you to do?"

"
Sahr
, his associates and Diana are all in Boston, presumably in search of the two of us. I’m putting you into protective custody and taking care of it. But first I have something to show you." He crumpled the wrapper of the first sandwich into a ball and tossed it into the nearby waste can, then proceeded to
unwrap
another and took a big bite.

"No."

Grant stopped chewing, frowned and swallowed. "What do you mean no? You have to, it's already been arranged."

"I mean no."

Fire reared up in his eyes at her refusal, but she wasn't backing down. There was no way she was leaving him, not while he was injured. End of story.

"Think sensibly. Think about our baby if not yourself."

Leaning on her elbows over the table she caught his angry glare. "The safest place I can be is with you. I will
not
, sit in some safe house or wherever you plan on taking me and go out of my mind wondering if you’re safe."

Dropping the breakfast sandwich, he leaned over the computer monitor, his face inches from hers. Determined steel grey eyes locked onto equally determined sapphire blue ones. "I'll take you there by force if I have to."

"I'll leave there as soon as you drop me off." she countered.

He smirked at her, "I'll have them sedate you."

"You need me."

"I need you safe."

Both combatants stared hard at each other, both refusing to back down.

Heaving a loud sigh, Grant leaned back into the chair. "We'll discuss this later,
after
you see what I have to show you. Then maybe you'll understand why I need to take care of this alone."