Until It's You (18 page)

The door was closed, so she knocked. Anna called for her to come in. She was alone.

“Success?” Anna asked.

Kristina shook her head. "Not really. I'm going with plan B."

"What's Plan B?"

"If I call that FBI agent that you hate, you aren’t going to be mad, are you?”

Anna wore an innocent look. “Is it a call that will make her happy?”

“It’s more work for her. So maybe.”

Anna rolled her eyes. “Have at it.”

Kristina found the ID she’d stored in her comm for Agent Rachel Carter and initiated a call.

It took Carter a good twenty seconds to pick up, but once she did her voice was urgent. “This is Carter,” she answered.

“This is Kristina,” Kristina said back. “I have some info for you.”

“Is it an interview with Tatum?”

“Not quite. But I have something juicy that I think will help you with your case.”

“Okay," Carter said skeptically. "Let's have it.”

“I have a list of dates that are supposed to be meetings between Fordelli and Brantley. One of the name partners, in case you didn’t know.”

A pause on the other line. “I did. How far back?”

“Over a month, anyway.”

“And this is unusual for the firm?”

“Dunn certainly thought so. She’s the other—”

“I know. Anything else?”

“His assistant was uncooperative for me, so you might want to try going through Fordelli. I'm not even sure if these meetings are taking place, but if they are that's of interest. If they're not, I want to figure out why Dunn would give me this.”

Another pause. “Interesting. Okay.”

“I’ll message them over.”

“Thank you.”

Carter said something to someone in the room with her, or wherever she was, but Kristina couldn’t make it out. Speaker must have been muffled by her hand. Kristina waited patiently.

“By the way, I have something for you on that murder,” Carter said.

Kristina perked up in her chair. “Rose?”

“Yeah. It seems the police have some security footage on the vehicle. Plate, more importantly. It’s an orphan off a used car lot locate at Western and Belmont. Place called Moonlight. The idiot who runs it thinks he has one over on us but, you know how these things are.”

“How could he keep anything from a determined government officer? Yeah, I know.”

She could feel Carter tighten up. “Watch it.”

“I will," Kristina said, keeping her voice light. "Thanks for the tip. Really, I appreciate it.”

“CPD seems pretty tight on it, I had to really sweet talk my best contact there to get anything from them.”

“I'll try to put it to good use."

“Just get Tatum to talk to me, okay?”

“I’ll do my best."

She ended the call and looked up at Anna’s curious eyes.

“That was friendly,” Anna said.

Kristina scoffed. “Something like that. I have to run.”

"Back to Mr. Sexy Billionaire?"

"Back to doing my job."

"Wish I had a job like that."

Kristina shot daggers at her friend. "Thanks for listening," she said bitingly.

"Next time I want more details," Anna called as she left.

Kristina walked through the door and out with the ring of Anna's giggling in her ears. She came to the elevators pondering what to do next. A large part of her felt she was close to something on this investigation, could nearly taste it, but no matter how hard she thought about it she couldn't quite piece it together.

Keep grinding, then. As the elevator doors opened, that was all she could think to do: keep grinding.

When he woke up she was gone.

It took him a while to confirm, but after checking the whole apartment he'd confirmed it. She must have slipped past him in his sleep. Which was strange since he was rarely a heavy sleeper.

He sent her a text to make sure she was okay and then began getting ready himself. Took a shower, got into a shirt and slacks. Checked his messages but saw nothing.

But she was fine, right? Just bolted early in the morning for whatever reason. If she wanted to play hard to get, then she could. Water off his back.

While she sorted herself out, he needed to do something
useful
with himself. So far, the Recalls had been almost totally useless. Or at the very least, everything he'd missed the first time he'd continued to miss. He didn't have Kristina's expertise in organizing all the data he collected, so that was out. All that was left for that morning was to pore over the data Tom had collected on the pharm Kristina had been poisoned with, all the while not even being sure about who had poisoned her.

Tom woke up soon after Landon had gotten dressed. He was free of side effects from the darts he'd been hit with and similarly eager to get out of the apartment. After a brief conversation with Kevin using Landon's comm, it was decided that Tom would stay in the safe house with him. From there he could get a feel for the lay of the land in the police department and maybe get back to work.

Twenty minutes later, Landon was driving Tom to the safe house in his new Audi. Had to admit, it wasn't a bad car. Suspension was a little loose, and the brakes seemed a touch on the worn side, but a decent car.

He put the car in auto-drive, allowing him to think. As he watched the car navigate them to Kevin's safe house, his thoughts drifted to Kristina.

She obsessed him dangerously. Their night on the couch had been a culmination he wanted more than was comfortable. More than was possible, given the circumstances. He had dragged her into this and then fallen for her. By doing that, he had put them both in greater danger. Maybe she was right to try and blow him off. Get some distance between them. The two of them were a distraction to each other when neither of them could afford it.

He had to put it aside and get this damn thing over with.

But still, it pissed him off. She still hadn't even returned his text. Was she really okay?

He shook his head. Don't make things worse. If he was pissed off, then he was pissed off.

That was something he understood. He could work with pissed off.

Kevin had said there was no progress on Roy. He didn’t want to take too many more chances on physical encouragement because the police would have him eventually and you didn’t want to leave evidence of violence in cases like this. Which meant if they were going to get anything, they needed to try something else.

Something radical. There was one way he was sure he would talk, but he didn't want to go there. The Phobos project wasn’t something he wanted to have to use.

For one, synthing it would be a real pain. It would take him the rest of the day, at least. But that wasn't the real problem.

That pharm could
not
be used in live settings without more testing. It dehumanized too much, made people into little more than very complicated mechanical things. More than anything, it was a slope that would allow someone to control people utterly. Worse than slavery. Total control, and maybe even worse.

And yet, just this once, it could help them so much.

He arrived at the address Kevin had given him and re-engaged manual drive, finding a place to park just down the street from the safe house. It was another quiet neighborhood, but more rundown than the one Landon had chosen. Several houses on the block were boarded up, and those that were left were in varying degrees of disrepair. Crooked gutters, dirty windows, worn-down roofs. He didn't know much about the area, but from what he remembered there wasn't too much violent crime. It was just half-forgotten. Another good safe house location.

Tom looked over at him in a daze as they sat in the car, seemingly lost in his own thoughts.

"Is this it?" he asked. He was still wearing the ridiculous white canvas hat and large sunglasses. Landon had decided not to argue with him about his disguise.

"This is the address your brother gave me," Landon said. "So it ought to be."

They got out of the car and walked back toward the house in question.  A small, wood-siding bungalow on a street full of bungalows and ranch houses. It was painted off-white, with dark blue gutters and windows. Better kept up than most of the houses on the block, if not exactly new looking.

A perfect place to blend in when you needed to. 

The text came from Kevin. Back door open. Lock it on the way in.

Landon looked around, saw nobody looking suspicious, and walked around to the back of the house. Tom followed. They stepped through some weeds that had grown along the side of the house until they came to a concrete patio area and a screen door at the back.

He tried the screen door and found it swung open easily. The same for the door to inside. Tom followed close, seemingly spooked.

"You sure this is it?" Tom asked.

"Yes, I'm sure."

The hall they stepped into had a white laminate floor and yellow walls. It was clean, but had that strange feeling of a home that wasn't occupied very often. There were stairs to the basement directly opposite the back door, a closet to his right and what appeared to be a hall to the living room on his left.

He turned to Tom. "I'm going to go check out the basement. I imagine he's down there."

"You sure?" Tom asked, grimacing. He looked side to side. "I mean, he's dangerous, right?"

Landon shrugged, his heart pounding. This was it. "I'm sure Kevin has him tied up," he said, keeping his voice calm. "You can stay up here if you want. Your brother has to be around."

"I think I'll look for him," Tom said. He hurried away. 

Landon turned back to the stairs and descended without a word. Anticipation he could feel in his fingers built with every step.

He turned the corner at the bottom and found Kevin.

He was, of course, still wearing the clothes he'd been wearing the previous night. Tactical. Landon knew it as his uniform. Seeing him in it reminded him of the way Kevin would wear fatigues. That would, of course, be perfect.

Kevin wore a heavy scowl as he took a couple of steps toward Landon. It looked like he was itching for a fight. “Looks like you have all this all figured out," he said. "Don’t you?”

Landon stood up straight, adrenaline still surging. He was a couple inches taller than Kevin, though definitely lighter.

“Where is he?” he asked.

Kevin cocked a brow and crossed his arms. "Look at you, badass. Think you're going to break him in there?"

Landon stepped toward him until they were almost chest to chest. "Is there some kind of problem?"

Kevin stared hard at him and dropped his hands to his side. "I don't know, is there?"

"You tell me if there is. Nothing's wrong on my end."

Kevin's dark blue eyes went dead cold. It was an expression Landon had seen on Kristina's face, but it looked different on her brother. Harder.

It was unreadable on both of them. Were they really about to have a fight there? Landon knew he would lose to a soldier like Kevin. He worked out plenty and had trained on and off in boxing, but he was not a killing machine. This whole thing was ridiculous.

Finally, Kevin stepped to the side. “In the room at the end on the right," he said quietly. "Have fun.”

Landon pressed his lips together, refusing to relax. “I'm sure I will."

Kevin shrugged, and turned away to go up the stairs. Landon was left on his own.

He hesitated for a moment and took stock. The basement had been fully built out with what he guessed were soundproof materials. It seemed the entire square footage consisted of a narrow hallway that led to several rooms. Kevin had said Roy was at the last room on the right.

He started down the hallway. With each step, a discordant noise became louder, and the hallway felt darker, ever narrower. An awareness of the feeling crystalized in his mind in dimly, coupled with a vague panic.

Longer steps to cover the distance faster.

But the hall got longer.

With every step, the light from the stairs retreated further away. With every step the noise between his ears at the base of his skull vibrated across him and suddenly the dark his breath short and panic.

He's poisoning me, Landon thought. Why the hell would he poison me? Kristina didn't warn—

Her face swam in his vision now. Her natural dirty blonde hair, catlike dark blue eyes like a cold lake at sunset. Athletic body. Where was she now, while he was here, and where was—

His comm in his pocket. It was moving. Vibrating in his pocket. An alert. Someone was trying to reach him.

Landon took the device into his hand. It was there and yet his hand could barely feel. Stared at it. Answered it. A voice came.

“Landon?”

He knew that voice. “Kristina?”

“Landon, are you there?”

“Kristina.”

“You sound strange.”

"Kristina thank god you called it's your brother."

"What?"

"Kevin. I think he's poisoning me with something." He wracked his brain hard. His knees were sore and he realized he had fallen to them at some point. "The safe house basement."

A pause.

"Kristina?"

"Oh my god," she cried loudly. He jerked the comm a few inches from his ear. "He's so
twisted
!"

Landon licked his lips. His mouth was so dry. "You have to get help."

Somewhere a light. Landon blinked and realized his face was wet. The lights were off or he had lost his vision.

"I don't need help for this," she said.

Her voice sounded so
crisp
and yet everything else fuzzed out like an idea left half-developed to rot.

"Okay."

“God damn it, just stay put. Or get out if you can. If you can turn around, try and do that and just keep going. I’m calling Kevin on my way over there.”

"Are you sure it's safe?"

"For me, yeah. Better watch out for him."

***

Kristina ended her call with Landon and looked up at the skyscrapers surrounding her as she barreled down the sidewalk toward the train. Her face had set into hard lines as she walked, so she looked for all the world like she was royally pissed off. Which she was, but not at anything anyone could see. It was just her brother Kevin being a jackass.

She turned into the train station, swiped her pass, and walked up the steps to wait for the Brown Line train. As she waited, she found Kevin’s ID in her comm and gave him a call.

He picked up with a grunt. “He call you already?” he asked by way of greeting.

She closed her eyes hard for a moment, gripped by frustration. “What the fuck, Kevin? What are you doing?”

“So he did call.”

“No, I happened to call him. But what the hell do you think you’re doing?”

“I don’t like him, Kris. I don’t like this whole thing.”

“So you thought you would poison him?”

“I was running some aeros on this Roy character anyway. I just neglected to tell him about it. Should be harmless.”

She rolled her eyes. "Bullshit. You put someone under that for too long and they're fried. You know that, I know that, he knows that. You  meant to do this."

"So what if I did?" he shot. "He's done nothing but fuck up ever since he dragged you into his mess."

"You don't know what the hell you're talking about there." Her nostrils flared as she walked up the steps toward the train platform. "Our security at the safe house was my fault."

"There's no reason you should be in this other than the way he looks at you."

"There it is!" Kristina cried. "For god's sake, I'm thirty-one! I can handle my own man problems."

"I still get to have an opinion about it. And this guy's bullshit."

"Nobody asked for your opinion. And even if I did, it doesn't give you a right to put his life in danger!"

"I'll decide that."

She hated it when he did this. Hated it. But she'd known him long enough to realize this was a losing effort. “Where are you?” she asked. “I’m coming over there.”

A pause. “I’ll message you the address,” Kevin said. “But I’m warning you, Kris, there is something off about this guy. I don’t like him.”

“Your opinion is noted and disregarded. Send me the address. And please turn those pharms down before Landon loses his damn mind.”

Kevin ended the call first. She ripped the comm down from her ear and stared at the screen, her heart drumming hard in her chest. As good a big brother as he could be, his penchant for treating her like she was sixteen got very, very old. And even for him, pharming the hell out of Landon might be something he would laugh with friends about in coming years, but for the moment it was pretty reckless. A lot of people couldn't handle something like that.