SLEEPER (Crossfire Series) (29 page)

“She doesn’t trust anything CIA, but I do have an update on her condition,” Reed said. “The most important thing is she came back of her own free will, looking for my help. She’s upstairs in the suite now, so at least she’s safe from bounty hunters. By the way, last night she said the trigger line twice to me. Nothing happened. She also attempted to tell me about her past this morning, except that she called what happened to her brainwashing.”

“She said the line out loud?” Nikki asked. “That could mean that the trigger’s beginning its effect on her. Depending on how deep the hypnotic treatment was, neuro-triggers act as timers.”

“No, wait,” Amber chimed in. “You said she talked about her past to you. Did she mention her sister?”

“No,” Reed said. “I specifically asked whether she was the one who was abused. She never brought up her kidnapped sister story she told you about. Also, her main concern is to not let the CIA take the girls under their care because they abused her trust when they did the same to her.”

“Nikki, did you hear that?” Amber asked, excitement in her voice. “She would never say anything like that to me. During all the years I’ve known her, she was very secretive whenever I brought up her past. Those final couple of months, she gave me the kidnapped sister background. She didn’t lie to Reed this time.”

“Yes, that part of it is very encouraging. It’s also clear now she isn’t going on any mission to return the device to any group or person. Those girls are her number one priority.”

Reed was glad to hear Amber’s views. He’d had to curb his own exhilaration when Lily had started to talk about her past. The questions he’d asked her were very important, not just for him but also for how GEM would deal with her.

“Yes, I agree,” he said. “She’s shown no interest in selling anything. In spite of being pushed to the point where she didn’t have any single option left but me as a gunrunner, she didn’t do what we’d anticipated. Instead, she proposed an alternative.”

He told them about Lily asking him to help her by posing as a person who could deliver her up for the reward money. He found it tougher than he’d thought to talk about the previous night with as little emotion as possible, for he was still reeling from his own discovery about how much he’d grown to care for Lily. Before, it had been a duty to protect her; now, it was personal. But he didn’t want that to come through in his debriefings. He wanted those making the team decisions to come to the conclusion about Lily as objectively as possible.

“That’s the Lily I’ve always known,” Amber said. “She has always put those girls first.”

“We do know they used her strong emotions as a way of controlling her,” Nikki noted. She sighed and added softly, “Rape can break a person physically and mentally. The victim might push the memory away, or she might choose to channel her fear or her hatred toward a goal. In Lily’s case, they made sure it was the latter. Activating the mind trigger meant a higher emotional level toward topics that generated hatred and fear. Those emotions are the driving force of sleeper cells.”

“Yes, and so in the last couple of months, she was almost incoherently fanatic to Hawk, Brad, and me,” Amber said. “She started accusing us of not acting fast enough, not caring about the girls’ safety enough…nothing satisfied her, not even when Tatiana started talking again. Hawk was the one who got through that girl’s wall of silence, yet Lily went off on him as if what he’d done had damaged the girl worse. I should have wondered about that more.”

Reed wanted to go after those bastards. There must be a place in hell for people who would abuse victims a second time. And the thought of Lily…he clenched his jaw in anger.

“Amber, there was no way you could have guessed what was happening to Lily,” Nikki said gently. “Reed, did you notice any of the same hostility when it came to discussing the girls’ present problems?”

“No.” Thank God, no. He’d kept an ear open for unusual outbursts or even the accusations that Amber had brought up. Lily hadn’t shown any sign of that behavior. She was upset and afraid, but so damn brave about it he felt like a cad for doing his job. “I made a suggestion and she’s agreed to let me do it my way.”

“What’s that?”

“As you know, she wanted me to basically be the one to take her in for the reward money. I told her since those girls were her number one reason she would consider taking such a risk, we should take care of that problem first.” He paused, knowing that his own proposal was going to be controversial. He looked at the portrait of his father. “I’m getting the passports and transporting the girls out. This way, she’ll see I can be trusted. Also, with them out of the way, she has nothing to lose. GEM can make a deal with her—the weapon device for…whatever she wants.”

He wanted to say freedom, but that would clue the others in on how personal this had become for him. He needed permission to do this and didn’t want his motives—that it was important to ease Lily’s worries—to be questioned. To him, it was a matter of priorities—take care of what was important to Lily first, then go from there.

“And after that?” Nikki prompted.

Of course, to GEM and to his commander, Admiral Madison,
their
number one priority would be to get the device out of anyone’s hands. However, Reed didn’t see any point in forcing Lily to tell. It would destroy the fragile thing growing between them and he didn’t want that to happen. Now it was up to him to strike up a delicate balance between his duty and his heart. He would accomplish what he’d set out to do—get that device and deliver it to GEM. He also knew he would have to bring in Lily as well, for her sake. GEM had promised Amber Hutchens they would help her friend.

“I’m hoping she won’t put up a fight when I tell her the truth.” To Reed, Lily was fine the way she was, but he knew if she even half understood what the CIA had done to her, she was probably living in constant fear, wondering whether she would be reactivated. Hell, he would go crazy if it’d happened to him. He added, “Trust is important to her.”

“She trusts you enough to believe you won’t dump the girls and run off with the money,” Nikki pointed out.

That had been on his mind too. “She’s very close to giving up,” he warned. “I think she’s hoping everything will turn out fine after she’s gone.”

“Like I said before, you’re her last hope, Reed,” Nikki said, “but she hasn’t thought things through. What’s going to happen when she gives herself up to these people?”

“I think she knows,” Reed said grimly. It wouldn’t be hard to get her to tell where the weapon was hidden. Gunther Galbert was probably the one who had activated her in the first place. He would know how to put Lily under his control again. “I’m not going to allow that to happen.”

Not a snowball’s chance in hell.

CHAPTER 17

Over the next few days, Reed quietly retrieved files from his accounts and portfolio, something he’d not done in years. It felt natural to help Lily as much as he could. He’d never transferred such a large amount of money before. As a Vincenzio, he had a sizable bank account open in his name, but for years he hadn’t checked how much was in there. He’d known it was substantial. His father had given his brothers and him a small percentage of Vincenzio holdings when each of them had turned twelve.

When he was a kid, he’d dipped in and had had more than most teenagers. He’d been able to afford almost anything without asking his parents to buy it for him. He’d never known how privileged he was till he started surfing and met the kids on the beach. Most of them had worked so they could buy the cool surfing and body boards they’d cherished. Reed still had the first board he’d actually worked for when he’d applied for a job at Arch’s surf shop.

Reed looked at the numbers on the computer screen. He’d always known he was wealthy or at least well-to-do. His father’s hotel empire was very successful. The stocks Reed owned brought in good dividends without any of his input. But he’d never thought of it as his own money.

Since leaving home, he’d started his own savings, his own life. He returned home for visits, that was all, and participated less and less in the family affairs. Much to his father’s disappointment, he supposed. After all, his two older brothers had settled into the hotel business and branched out from there after their wild days.

Of course, his own savings wouldn’t cover a portion of the expense of purchasing illegal passports and the cash it was going to need to cover transportation of a bunch of girls. He had to smile wryly. Hadn’t Arch told him that he would need all that money some day?

Hey, he gave it to you, didn’t he? So it’s yours. Keep it, dude. You’re gonna use it for something special one day.

“Right again, old man.” Lily was special. He couldn’t let pride stand in the way. He would deal with the repercussions later. GEM had wanted to take the girls in and move them legally, but that wasn’t what Lily would want. He knew she’d become suspicious and worried. No, this way she would see the girls off with her own eyes. He’d said there were people who would take in these girls once they were out of the country; he would have her contact them and start arranging things the way she’d always had. This way she would be hands-on and in control of the process. Perhaps then she would see he had no intention of hurting her.

He let himself out of the office. One more errand and he would go back up to the suite. He wondered what Lily was doing. Perhaps she’d called Tatiana with the news they would all be going back to their respective countries soon. He wondered what she would say if she knew about his background. They’d only been enjoying each other the last few days and he hadn’t given her a chance to question him.

“Sir, your father called about three hours ago. He told me the moment you’re out of conference you’re to call him immediately,” Petr said, looking up from his paperwork. “Shall I connect for you?”

Reed had left specific instructions not to be disturbed while he was in the office. “All right.” He’d put it off long enough. “Call him.”

“Here you go, sir.”

Reed took the receiver from Petr. “Hello, Father,” he said. “How are you?”

As always, his father got straight to the point. “Mylos, I’ve a suspicion your mother has gone there to see you. She heard that you’re staying at the suite and she’s disappeared this morning. She’s been waiting impatiently for your call this past week.”

Shit. “When?” Reed asked.

“She should be waiting for you in the suite. You really should’ve called. She’s off her medication again. I found some pills this morning hidden in a wad of tissues.”

Double shit. “I’ve to go, Father. I’ll talk to you later.” Reed hung up without waiting for a reply.

His mother. Up there with Lily. Not a good thing.

* * *

Lily felt like screaming. How could she have missed all the clues? If she’d stayed there, she would have bloodied him. And that would have made his mother even more hysterical than she was already. An American. A swimmer. A sharpshooter. That tan on that beautifully sculptured body. She accelerated onto the freeway, stepping hard on the gas pedal.

A Navy SEAL.

She’d known it was his mother the moment the petite woman had walked into the suite. The dark blond hair, high cheekbones, clear gray eyes that darted around the room before resting on hers—they were the same as Reed’s.

Then she’d started questioning Lily nonstop about where “Mylos” was, why hadn’t he called, who she was, before Lily realized that “Mylos” must be Reed himself. The woman had never stopped to give Lily a chance to reply, though.

Reed’s mother had sounded and acted overwrought, to the point she’d broken down in tears when she’d found out that Reed—Mylos—hadn’t been hiding from her, that he really hadn’t been in the suite. It was then, when she’d gone into a long, rambling speech about his having joined the SEALs to get away from her, that he could have a nice job at any of the hotels his father owned, that she missed him so much, everything had clicked into place.

The hotel…the suite. The “friend” who owned the penthouse was Reed’s own family, probably his father. When they’d walked through the hotel lobby a couple of times, she’d noticed a few speculative glances from the staff, but she’d assumed it’d been curiosity about guests staying on one of their luxury floors.

She’d needed to get away. There had been something clearly wrong with Reed’s mother, though. The woman hadn’t even noticed when Lily had gone into the bedroom to change back into her clothes.

Lily gripped the steering wheel tightly. Stupid, stupid, stupid. There was only one conclusion she could come to now that she knew Reed was also a Navy SEAL. He was, no doubt, working with Hawk McMillan, the only other SEAL she’d met. Hawk had been looking for a certain weapon a few months ago in Macedonia, and since she was the one who had stolen the item, she now knew exactly what Reed—Mylos Vincenzio, she corrected herself dourly—was after.

“He and quite a number of other people,” she said aloud grimly, checking the rearview mirror. “Let’s face it, Lily Noretski, you’re a very popular chick.”

There were cars behind her, but when she slowed down, they went around her, speeding past. She didn’t see any vehicles following closely.

Disgusted, she smacked her hand against the steering wheel. She’d really fallen for his cock-and-bull story about being a gunrunner wanting a new life. He’d probably been following some script to slowly gain her trust so he could get his hands on the weapon.

“And then I’m off to jail.” Or worse. Much, much worse.

But her alternative was the same. She knew Reed didn’t work for the people who had put out a reward for her or he wouldn’t have saved her all those times. Nor did it make sense he would take her to that hotel when she’d almost drowned. No, he and Hawk were part of some other agency. Either way, everyone was after her, and she was running out of time and places to hide.