Chapter Fourteen

 

 

“Why the hell is there a massive castle in the middle of Toronto?” Owen asked, glancing around the balcony at the grounds below. It was another gloriously beautiful day, with powder blue skies and fluffy white clouds that made a stunning contrast to the vivid green of the gardens below.

And the ultra-modern buildings all around them. He would have expected this gothic mansion in the middle of London, but not here.

Becca stared out at the fountain and the large trees. “It was built by Sir Henry Pellatt before World War I. He was the financier who brought electricity to the city.”

She said the words but there was a distance to her tone. He hated that.

He moved in, putting his hands on her shoulders. “If you’re nervous about this, we can leave right now. I promise we can figure out who sent that note to you without having to face him or her down.”

He wasn’t particularly happy about this mission of hers, but he’d seen the stubborn gleam in her eyes when she’d asked him to go with her. The fact that she’d asked him and not simply gone off on her own had made him reluctant to argue with her.

Still, he wished they were here to do nothing more than take the place in like the tourists milling all around them.

“I think this place is cool. I’ve been here all morning, and you should go down to the stables. They were the first thing Pellatt built, and during World War II, they were used to conceal Canada’s research for sonar devices that could detect U-boats,” a voice only he could hear said.

He touched his earpiece, the one he’d concealed even from Becca, and wished Robert wasn’t listening in. It was one more betrayal, but he couldn’t help it this time. If this was some kind of trap Levi Green had set, he couldn’t be here without backup. Becca hadn’t questioned the small device in his left ear, so he was fairly certain she hadn’t noticed it.

“Well, I’ve seen nothing of any interest,” a deeper voice said. Sasha was here as well. They’d decided Becca wouldn’t recognize him when he wasn’t wearing his janitorial uniform. He was walking the grounds with a camera. Sasha would be the one on the third floor when the time came.

“I have to do this.” Becca had turned and stared up at him.

It was hard having two completely separate conversations going on. Becca had zero idea he had another one going on in his ear, and she would likely be pissed as hell at him for bringing in his crew. He focused on her as Sasha and Robert argued in his ear about how interesting this place was. “You don’t. I told you I’ll handle this.”

“If this is a whistle-blower, then I need to be strong enough to face whoever it is,” she said resolutely.

They’d had this argument over breakfast. She had a theory that whoever had anonymously left the note requesting her meeting here was some kind of whistle-blower who’d discovered something nefarious going on at Huisman. There was definitely something going on, but he wasn’t at all sure they were dealing with a person of good intent. “Why not simply come into your office and tell you what they need to say? Why all the subterfuge?”

She glanced down at her watch. She’d been doing it all morning. Only ten minutes to go. He’d convinced her they shouldn’t simply stand around at the meet-up spot.

“Because whoever this is, he or she is afraid,” Becca replied. “It’s the only explanation.”

He could come up with another couple of explanations, none of them good. “They posed it as a riddle. A person who was scared wouldn’t want to confuse you.”

She waved off the argument. “It’s a little dramatic, but it was easy enough to figure out. A million dollars is missing, Owen. What if someone from one of the other teams is siphoning money off my accounts and hoping I wouldn’t notice? I do have one of the biggest budgets at Huisman, and I’m not known for being that great about keeping up with spending.”

“Because you’re a brilliant brat and people throw money at you all the time.” He’d definitely learned that about her. She was one of the single most sought after researchers in the world. He’d seen all the events she turned down, the numerous speaking engagements and offers to host her at various universities and hospitals around the world.

“The money isn’t important.”

“You can say that because you’ve always had it,” he replied, his stomach clenching at the sensation of being hungry. It wasn’t so much a visual memory that stroked across his brain but rather a feeling of pure guilt that came from knowing his mum was hungry while he and his sister were eating. He could feel himself pushing a plate toward her, trying to get her to take his portion because he would get food at school.

“Are you okay?” Her hands were suddenly on either side of his cheek. “You went pale.”

Something was definitely happening in his brain. The sensations came more and more often, that feeling of déjà vu that had started to make up his memory. Or rather replace it. He couldn’t trust it.

“I’m fine,” he replied. “And we’re going to have to work to help you pay closer attention to detail so this can’t ever happen to you again. Phoebe told me she’ll have something for us by the end of next week. She thinks she can figure out where the money went. She might not be able to give us a definitive who, but she’ll point us to where we should look.” Another lie. He was piling them on. He’d lied to her about work just this morning, saying it was his day off. He didn’t bother to tell her she was his work. “And that’s an excellent reason we don’t need to be here.”

A stubborn look hit her face, and he knew he wasn’t going to win this. “I want to look this person in the face and let them know I’m here to help. I’m not afraid. If someone thinks they can get away with this by stealing from my funds, I have to handle it. I’m already going to have to deal with Paul, and that’s not going to be a fun conversation.”

Yes, he was interested in Paul Huisman. Huisman had met with Levi Green. Green had disappeared after that first day, but that didn’t mean he was gone. Showing up in front of the Huisman building felt like an announcement of intent to him. The question was what was his intent. The fact that they hadn’t managed to find Green again meant the game was definitely afoot.

He really hated Levi Green.

“This would be an excellent time to feel out her relationship with Huisman,” Robert pointed out, his voice coming through loud and clear over the earpiece.

It was a reminder that he hadn’t done that before now. He should have pressed her for information over the last couple of days, but he’d been too busy making her scream out his name to gather useful intel. He slid his hand into hers as they started to walk back into the majestic house. “Do you think he could have anything at all to do with this?”

“Why would he?” Her arm rubbed against his as she walked close to him. “He’s rich all on his own. The Huisman family is incredibly wealthy. He lives in this massive house, and here in the city that means something.”

“For some people there is never enough money,” Sasha said. “By the way, I’m in position. You’ve got five minutes to the meet. I’m in a good place. She can’t see me, but I should be able to hear, and that means you should as well.”

It was good to know they were ready. He wasn’t. He wasn’t at all ready to step back and let her walk into this without him right at her side. “Does he like you?”

“I wouldn’t say like,” she admitted. “I think he respects me. At least my research. He’s always picking at me about how I run the team. He thinks I’m sloppy about admin duties, but then we all know he’s right.”

It wouldn’t matter if she could do what she said she would, but it was something a man like Huisman might use if he wanted to get rid of her. “Would you consider yourself rivals?”

“We don’t work on the same things.” She followed him as they rounded the corner and found the stairs that led up to the third floor.

“I thought you both were neurologists.”

“We are, but we’re working on different things.” She frowned as she moved up the stairs. “Okay, so it’s pretty close when you think about it. We’re working on the same group of diseases, but our approaches are different, if that makes sense. Our focuses are different. He thinks he can solve the problem purely with drug therapy. There’s a reason we keep our projects separate but we share a lot of the same funding. I use occupational therapies as well because the human body is an amazing thing. Especially the brain. Often if you give it the right stimulation it can heal itself.”

“Was he upset when you were put at the head of the department?”

“Yes, but we both know why they did it. The Huisman name is already on the foundation doors. They wanted my name to help bring in donors,” she explained. “I get the foundation a lot of attention.”

“I find it interesting that she is a…how do you say…rock star in this world and yet she does not tour,” Sasha mused. “She hasn’t left Canada for anything but to go home and visit her family in two years. It’s odd. Most of the doctors around the building travel a lot. There are rumors that she’s afraid of flying. There’s always gossip about her.”

Yes, he was sure there was plenty of gossip about the young rock star of a neurologist.

“So you’re kind of the face of the foundation?” He was interested in why she didn’t travel. From what he could tell before that summer with McDonald, she’d traveled quite a bit. At least four or five times a year, and to fairly exotic locales.

“Not really,” she admitted. “I think that might be one of the reasons they hired me, but I want to work on my research. A few years back I got way too invested in being…I don’t know what the word is…celebrated, maybe. When I was fresh out of med school, I worked on a project that led to a new therapy for stroke patients. It kind of made me a celebrity in the medical world. I got a little lost in that.”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand what you mean.” He knew exactly what she meant, but he was supposed to be a bodyguard, not an operative who’d studied up on her.

“There are a lot of opportunities out there.” There was a hesitance to her tone that let him know she was reluctant to talk about this. They reached the top of the stairs and she moved to the side. “There are conferences and retreats. You get invited to work with various projects. They pay for everything and treat you like a celebrity. It’s easy to let that go to your head if you’re not careful. I lost myself in it for a few years. My ex-husband and I would go all over the world. He would come with me most of the time, and he made a lot of connections that way. When we divorced, I decided it was taking the focus off my own research, so now I’m staying put for a while.”

“She stopped traveling after she left McDonald’s project,” Robert whispered in his ear.

A lot had happened around that time. He thought it went deeper than merely a job going wrong or her husband cheating on her, but he couldn’t push her on it. He needed to figure out how to get her talking about her time with McDonald, but he couldn’t ask her outright. He would get her in bed and figure something out. She was more open when she was naked and sated. He would push her about her past projects and see where it led.

“There she is. The duchess.” Becca turned her face up to him. “You can’t be too close or they won’t come talk to me.”

He nodded and she stepped away, walking to her right. The third floor of Casa Loma served as the Regimental Museum for the Queen’s Own Rifles of Canada. There were portraits and displays all along the hallway that led to the stairs. It hadn’t been difficult to figure out where the “duchess” resided. A quick Internet search had brought up the fact that HRH the Duchess of Cornwall, Camilla Parker Bowles, was the colonel-in-chief for the regiment, and a large portrait of her was displayed at the end of the hall.

Becca moved toward that portrait. She stopped briefly at a couple of the paintings of the military men who’d served the regiment.

“She’s not very good at this,” Sasha said.

Owen looked down the hall and sure enough there was the big guy at the edge of the balcony overlooking the floors below. He was good at “this.” If Owen hadn’t known who he was, he would think the man was nothing more than a tourist taking photos of Casa Loma. He had a professional-looking camera, and he moved around as though trying to get exactly the right shot.

“I’m in place,” Robert said. “And Jax and Ezra are monitoring the security cameras in case Green shows up. Relax, Owen. He won’t nab her here, and we might have a better idea of what he’s planning.”

He wished he could calm down. He would feel better once he’d gotten Becca talking about her time with McDonald. It might slip out where she’d stashed the box McDonald had sent her, or he might find out she’d gotten rid of the damn thing. He actually wouldn’t mind that being the outcome. He wanted to clear her name and make it obvious to everyone that she had nothing to do with McDonald and couldn’t be used for her knowledge because she didn’t have any.

Maybe then he would breathe easy.

He forced himself to move into the rooms that housed the exhibits. He wouldn’t be able to watch her, but he had eyes on her. And there were plenty of weapons. He’d walked into a whole room filled with antique weapons dating back to World War One. They wouldn’t be functional to shoot with, but a couple of them had actual bayonets, and he wouldn’t mind a good skewering if Levi Green was the one being skewered.

Robert was in the adjoining room. He nodded Owen’s way. From where Robert was standing, it appeared he could see out but Becca wouldn’t be able to see in.

She was safe. As safe as he could possibly make her.

“Have we considered the fact that Green might make the same play he did with River?” Robert asked when he got close enough they could speak quietly. It was odd to hear the conversation both with his actual ear and through the earpiece.

“We should be able to hear the conversation. If it starts to go bad, I’ll move in.” He’d thought about this. It had kept him up half the night wondering how he would handle it if she found out he was lying.

“She’s in position, but there’s a woman standing in front of the portrait. Sasha, play it cool. We can take her picture off CCTV. Are those working?” Robert asked quietly.

They were alone in the exhibit room, but a few people were milling about in the hall outside.

“We’ve got a good view.” Jax’s voice came over the line. “I’ll pull stills off the feed of everyone she comes in contact with. It looks like she’s having a conversation with the other tourist.”

They went still because he’d planted a bug on Becca’s handbag so they could hear the meeting.

“I like her suit,” an unfamiliar voice said. “It’s fitting somehow.”

“I was thinking it was a bit dour,” Becca replied.

“I don’t know. It kind of fits with the whole colonel-in-chief thing.” He could practically hear the shrug in the woman’s voice. “The British are an odd lot. Of course where I originally come from the politics are even weirder and much more deadly. Our president is practically a king, so I think it’s good to be Canadian. Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to bump into you. I’m a klutz.”

“I’m all right,” Becca said. “No harm done.”

He wanted to see what was going on.

Robert held out a hand. “She’s fine. The other woman stumbled a little. She’s in incredibly high heels.”

“We have another problem,” Jax said. “I didn’t catch him when he came in. I’m sorry. This place is huge and there are a ton of cameras to watch. He’s a tenacious asshole.”

Fuck. Green was here. He’d known it would happen and he still wasn’t ready for it. His first instinct was to haul Becca into his arms and run with her.

“Green?” Robert asked.

He could hear the woman Becca had been talking to wish her a good day.

“No, and there’s a reason for that,” Jax said. “Ezra was informed a couple of minutes ago that Green is at CSIS.”

Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the closest thing Canada had to the CIA. Was he checking in or something more nefarious?

“Carter?” Becca sounded surprised.

It appeared the whistle-blower had shown up, and it wasn’t at all who they’d expected. Carter Adams was here, and it looked like he had something to say. Well, there was a reason he’d been following her all week.

Owen started to go out, to help her. He wasn’t leaving her alone with a man who obviously had an ax to grind.

Robert held out a hand.

And then Carter said something that had Owen standing still, his whole soul in complete shock.

 

* * * *

 

“Oh, I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to bump into you. I’m a klutz.” The pretty woman with the long black hair who’d teased her about the difference between Canadian and Chinese politics had bumped into her, and naturally she’d dropped her bag.

The lady in the insanely high heels knelt down, grabbing the bag before everything could fall out of it. Becca only had to reach for her keys and the protein bar she kept around but never quite convinced herself to eat.

The woman handed her back the bag and wished her a nice day before walking off.

She was alone again. Owen was wandering around somewhere, and she was waiting here like a spy or something. Was he right? Owen thought this was pretty crazy, but she couldn’t let it go. She couldn’t get rid of the feeling that something was wrong.

Except for the night when Owen had made her feel like a sex goddess. She’d learned that even incredibly awkward positions could be made superhot when she found the right partner.

Her backside still ached from where he’d spanked her. After she’d lost the plug, he’d started everything over again, though the second time he’d taken her to the shower. He’d cleaned her up and then proceeded to get her dirty as hell all over again.

She was going to let him do it. She was going to let him have her in a way no one else had and she was shocked that it was something she was looking forward to.

She glanced around. Was she going to stand here all afternoon? She needed to be back at the office, writing up the latest round of test results, but no she was here playing the spy because she couldn’t let it go. It was something she needed to deal with because her control issues were becoming a problem.

And she’d recently discovered that giving up control could be a good thing.

Another ten minutes and she would go find Owen and put this all firmly in his hands. She would go back to work and wait for him to figure this thing out.

She glanced over at the stairs and wished she’d come here for the right reasons. The place was incredible, and she would love to learn more about the history of it. Next week she was taking the whole weekend off and she was going to explore this city with her new boyfriend.

A familiar face came into view.

What the hell was Carter doing here? She felt her eyes widen at the sight of him as she settled her tote back over her shoulder. Now she realized her crappy choice of accessories wasn’t the worst thing that had happened to her today. Carter was here. He’d obviously come straight from work. He was in his normal uniform of pressed slacks, a button-down he’d buttoned up, and shiny loafers. She’d avoided him all week, but it looked like she couldn’t now. He looked up and down the hall and his stare found hers. He turned and there was no doubt in her mind that he wasn’t surprised to see her.

“You sent the message.” She tried to wrap her head around any other explanation for why he was here. He didn’t have anything to do with accounting and he could easily have dropped all the drama and had this conversation with her anywhere else. They lived in the same building. No one would have listened in on them there.

“I didn’t send you anything.” He stared at her, his arms crossed over his chest. “But I did need to talk to you away from the office. I’ve been trying to have this conversation for a solid week, but you’re always with that ape-man boyfriend of yours. I decided this place is crowded enough to risk it. I doubt that asshole will try anything in public. One of the interns overheard you talking about being here this afternoon.”

Damn it. She’d talked to Owen on her cell phone this morning. She remembered one of the interns being in the room at the time. This was why she wasn’t a spy.

“Did you think you could get away with it?” Carter asked in a cold tone.

“With what?”

His eyes narrowed. “I know you’re planning on getting rid of me. God, and to think I believed you could be the one woman in the world for me.”

“I thought that was some woman in nephrology.” He’d mentioned that he’d grown disillusioned with a woman.

“I lied. It was always you,” he returned. “I’m embarrassed to say it now, but from the moment I heard you were coming to the foundation, I thought we could have something special. You have a great mind and I have all the resources to make you even greater. We could have made an excellent team. We did make an excellent team.”

“I never gave you any reason to believe we could be more than friends, and this is an inappropriate conversation. I need you to leave.” Why had she told Owen to stay away? She wasn’t comfortable with Carter. The hallway was public, but there was only one tall man in a ballcap at the end of the balcony railing. He was taking pictures and paying absolutely no attention to the drama playing out behind him. Owen was back in the exhibits waiting for her to come for him.

“Of course you did, but then that’s what women like you do,” Carter hissed. “You get what you want out of a guy like me and then go find some asshole with muscles to fuck.”

She wasn’t going to let him do this to her. He’d obviously set this up. She didn’t completely understand why, but he hated her deep down. “I’ll be having a talk with the foundation human resources when I get back to the office. Don’t bother me again.”

He leaned toward her, his voice a quiet snarl. “I’ll have a talk with them, too. I’ll have a long talk with them about Project Tabula Rasa.”

The words stopped her in her tracks. Tabula Rasa. It was Latin for blank slate. She forced herself to turn. Tabula Rasa was what Hope McDonald had privately called her work. It was a nickname and not anything that would have been on her formal files or the work she might have tried to publish about it. McDonald had been working for a pharmaceutical company at one of their European labs at the time. “What about Tabula Rasa?”

The project had taken place in the lab she’d run from and sworn to never go back to. The universe seemed intent on reminding her of that terrible day.

He stared at her for a moment and then something dawned over his face. It was as though he’d figured something out, some puzzle piece falling into place. “Well, now who holds the cards? I know about what you did when you worked with Hope McDonald. They kept it quiet, but I know what she was really working on.”

“She was working on memory function,” Becca replied. McDonald had been creepy and a little weird, but she hadn’t been the problem. Her staff, on the other hand… She wouldn’t think about it. Dr. McDonald had been almost worshipful of her patients, especially the ex-military ones.

“She was working on how to erase memory,” Carter said. “And you helped her.”

Heat flashed through her. It had always been there, the idea that McDonald wasn’t what she seemed. Hadn’t that asshole told her that?

You’ve got no idea what’s really happening here, do you? They say you’re so smart, but you can’t see what’s right in front of your face. Let’s see if you’re good for anything at all…

“I helped her with her research and her research was all about restoring memory. She did an enormous amount of good for soldiers with retrograde memory loss. She was dedicated to them.” The whole McDonald family had been about service. Hope McDonald had specialized in helping soldiers with brain injuries and memory loss. Her father had been a senator serving on the Armed Forces committee, and her sister Faith worked with various medical charities in Third World countries. Hope and her father were gone now, but they’d done their part to help. “You should think before you start trying to ruin the reputations of people who aren’t here to defend themselves. But I am, and I’d like to know exactly what you’re accusing me of, Carter.”

“I bet you would.” An infuriatingly smug smile appeared on his face. “I think the ethics board at Huisman would be interested in your part of that project.”

“My part was to help her understand how plaque is formed and new ways to destroy it,” she shot back. She had no idea what he was talking about. He was playing a game. He couldn’t possibly know something about the project that she didn’t.

“How are you going to explain what you did to Tomas?”

She shook her head. “Tomas?” A memory flashed across her brain, a vision of a handsome young man with sandy blond hair and blue eyes that held his pain. “Tomas Miller? He had long-term memory loss brought on by a combination of injury and PTSD. He was a patient of Dr. McDonald’s. I treated him for a few weeks. I couldn’t manage to make any headway with him. It was a frustrating case. What does he have to do with anything?”

“So much, but it’s obvious you’re going to play the innocent. Think about that before you try to get me fired. I know things about you. Things that could kill your career. I think we’ll have to talk about this again. Privately,” he said, a leer in his eyes. “I have a much better hand than I thought I did. I’ll see you back at the office.”

He turned on his heels and walked away.

What the hell had just happened?

She forced herself to take a deep breath. She wasn’t going to talk to Owen about this. It was lucky that he hadn’t seen Carter here. He already didn’t like the man, and she wasn’t going to give him an excuse to go after him. Owen could get in trouble if they got into a fight.

Then there was the fact that she didn’t want to ever talk to Owen about what a coward she’d been. He never had to know. It was one of the great things about dating a man who wasn’t in the business. He wouldn’t know to ask why she’d left such a prestigious position.

He didn’t have to know that she’d run and never looked back until yesterday.

Except Carter seemed to know something. Who had he talked to? There were plenty of people who knew about the project, but not many who’d known what McDonald had called it. She’d been a bit paranoid about her research. She’d thought someone was watching and waiting to steal it. It was over the top, but Becca had written it off as the doctor had been in the corporate jungle for far too long.

Tomas. Guilt rose hard and overwhelming when she thought about the man. He’d needed her help and she’d failed him. She’d thought she might be getting somewhere with him when the incident had happened and she’d left. She’d left him behind. He was alive out there somewhere, but why would he talk to Carter about her? Could he even have remembered her? His retrograde memory loss was one of the worst she’d ever seen. Tomas could forget the previous day.

She would never forget the hollow look in his eyes, like he knew his whole world was right there but he couldn’t touch it. McDonald have been so devoted to helping him. She’d brought him into the lab many times, escorting him herself.

Did Tomas miss Hope McDonald? Or had he utterly forgotten the doctor who’d tried to help him.

She should have looked him up. She shouldn’t have let fear lead her when a patient might need her. Who had taken over his care after McDonald died?

She stood there because she wasn’t sure how she would react when Owen questioned her. And he would question her.

What had happened to all of McDonald’s patients?

Bile rose in her throat. She’d wanted to never have to think about that summer again, but it looked like she couldn’t help it.

She had to figure out what Carter thought he had on her. What unethical thing had she done? And how did this have anything at all to do with the missing money?

“Rebecca?”

She turned and Owen was standing there. It took everything she had not to walk into his arms. Owen looked big and safe and she wanted him to hug her, but there was something about his stance that made her hold off. He seemed to be in full-on bodyguard mode, and it put a coldness in his eyes. “Yes?”

“It’s been longer than we agreed on,” he said, glancing around as though looking for a threat.

She’d already met the threat and it was time to go and figure out what the hell was going on. “I’m sorry I wasted your time.”

She couldn’t tell him about Carter. Not yet. She needed more information. But she also needed him. Her hand was shaking so she held it out.

He stared down at it for a moment and she had the most horrible fear that he wouldn’t take it.

The expression on his face cleared and his hand encompassed hers. “I’ll take you back to work.”

She wanted to ask him what had put that dark look on his face, but it might open up questions she didn’t want to answer right now.

“I think I should probably work late tonight.” She needed to do some research. It might be time to face those months of her life and what had happened during them. But she couldn’t do that with a building filled with curious doctors. Gossip had already bitten her in the ass once today.

She expected an argument from him. Earlier, she’d promised him she would be home for dinner every night so they could spend sweet time together. He’d made it plain that he wanted attention, and she had been more than willing to give it to him.

“I think I need to work late myself,” was all he said.

They walked down the stairs, utterly silent.