CHAPTER TWELVE

 

After dropping his father off at the apartment where he and Carly had been earlier, Garrett made his way to the coffee shop. He stepped inside the brightly lit shop with only a minute to spare. A quick glance around and he had the exits, various doors, and customers all located. He also found the person he had come to meet, Martha. She didn’t look as he was accustomed to seeing her, all business suits and neat hair. This Martha looked just as capable, but in a very different vein. Scarpelli’s comment about their time in bed popped into Garrett’s head, followed quickly by similarities to his ex-lover and her man-eating tendencies. He walked directly to her table.

“Go get a drink, love.”

“I’m not thirsty,” Garrett said pulling out a chair. She put her foot on the seat before he could sit down.

“Trust me, you’ve got a lot of work to do, you need the caffeine.”

Glaring at her he released the chair and walked to the counter. After receiving his black coffee, he returned to the table. “Happy?”

“Hmmm, ecstatic,” she said, patting the chair next to her. He sat, knowing you had to play the game to get what you needed in cases like this. “So, how was your vacation?”

“Where’s Carly?” he asked, ignoring her attempt at conversation.

“Tucked away in a safe place. Well, safe for now.”

“Meaning?” If he had to pull every scrap of information from her he just might kill her before he learned what he needed.

She stroked a hand over his thigh. “I’ve missed you. The office just isn’t the same without your tempting body to look at. And your brain,” she said, running blood red fingernails through his hair, “though it’s caused me some frustration, is very sexy. You know, Garrett, I think you and I could have had something.”

“Not in this lifetime,” he said. He sipped his coffee and stared out the window. Did she honestly think she could seduce him into getting what she wanted? Whatever that might be.

Martha made a tsking sound as she dragged one of those damned fingernails down the side of his face. “Too true. You proved yourself to be just like all the others. Too soft.”

Soft did not describe how he felt at the moment. “If you don’t let Carly go, you’ll find out just how hard I can be.”

“And if you don’t do as you’re told, you’ll find out just how nasty I can be, so I suggest you stop voicing idle threats. So tell me, how is your father? Did you two have a nice visit?”

“That was a big gamble. It’s been a long time since I spoke to the man. How could you be sure I’d care?”

Martha’s mouth turned up at one corner. “Well, I needed to get you away from that little piece of fluff. I knew you wouldn’t leave her behind in Colorado with Scarpelli running around. Plus, I hate to tell you this, sweetheart, but you’re not the man of steel you think. Being at odds with your father has probably been eating you up inside for years. I’ve been researching you for a long time. I had you pegged as a marshmallow after your first few weeks at Blackthorn. You don’t have the killer instinct a good corporate lawyer needs.”

“Believe me, that instinct is pretty strong right now,” he said.

Stroking the back of her fingers over his cheek, Martha laughed. “You two are quite the couple. She threatened me, too. Not that a priss like her could even hope to win, but she has plenty of spit and vinegar in her, as they say.

“When she first saw her brother on the floor she charged me, all righteous indignation. Granted, the gun at his head stopped her. But when I told her what I had planned for you, lover, her compliant nature disappeared. I think she was jealous.”

“I doubt it. She just doesn’t like people to get hurt,” Garrett said, though the love shining from Carly’s eyes the last time they’d made love told him it was a lie.

“Oh I didn’t tell her I was going to hurt you. That wouldn’t have been any fun at all. Unfortunately, with our tight schedule I couldn’t go into as much detail as I would have liked, but she got the message. From the whitening of your knuckles on your fist, I’d say you did, too,” Martha said. “Is she really that good?”

Garrett turned his head slightly, meeting her gaze head on. He didn’t answer and Martha smiled.

“Perfect, then I know you’ll follow orders.”

Her cold eyes stared into his. With her body half turned toward him, she kept one hand on his thigh and one grasping under his hair at the base of his neck. “Now, lover, listen well. I won’t repeat myself and I’m a stickler for details as you know.

“You have one hour to clear the computer logs of all information regarding everyone but yourself, in both the Blackthorn and Clandestine investigations or Little Miss Spitfire is dead. You will then have one hour to gather all hard and digital copies, including the ones I know you made yourself, to bring to me, or Little Miss Spitfire is dead. Exactly two hours after you walk out of here, I’ll call you with a time and location to meet with the items I’ve mentioned as well as the password for that fat bank account you had hidden away. Any questions?”

Pain sliced up the side of Garrett’s head as his jaw clamped hard enough to crack it. He forced himself to nod.

“And Garrett?” She waited for him to look at her. “I’ll be monitoring both systems. I’ll know when you’re in and what you take out. One wrong keystroke or one minute late and,” she smiled in an I-dare-you kind of way before continuing. “Let’s just say the explosion in the garage was a warm up.”

Suddenly she was pressing her gaudy red lips to his. Garrett thought he would gag, but forced himself not to respond one way or the other. When she broke the kiss he wiped his mouth as an evil smile pulled at her lips.

“Mmmm, coffee and fear. Two of my favorite things,” she said. “Now go, the clock’s ticking.”

 

# # #

 

Carly shivered. The slight movement made her head pound. Placing her hands against the cold floor . . . cold floor? Opening her eyes she realized it was a floor. A cold, bare, cement floor. She pushed up a little then rolled over to her bottom. She sat back against a wall and gave herself a minute to fight the nausea rising in her throat.

While waiting for it to subside the night’s events slammed to the forefront of her mind.

William on the floor in the hallway. A woman standing over him, pointing a gun at his head. The silence on the elevator. The short blindfolded ride.

Wait. It had been a short ride. She was still near the Clandestine building. If she could get out of here, she could probably find her way back, get help for William, and let Garrett know she was fine before he did something stupid. Think, Carly girl. Think!

Using the name Garrett called her when trying to convince her of something helped center her. She rested her head back against the wall and tried to look around the room. It was dark with only a dim slice of light under what must be the door. Crawling toward it, she reached up to try the doorknob. Knowing it would be locked the tears that filled her eyes with the verification surprised her. She wiped harshly at both eyes in frustration.

“Stop acting like a damsel in distress. When was the last time you waited to be rescued? Now get it together and think,” she told herself, sitting next to the door, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the low light.

The space wasn’t big, more like a storeroom than anything else. Some empty cardboard boxes were tossed in one corner. A couple of buckets, a mop, and a deep sink lined the opposite wall. Against the back wall she noticed a tall supply cabinet.

Climbing to her feet she started across the floor toward it. The room started spinning. Weaving side to side she fell against the cold metal surface, slid her hand down and pulled on the handle. Nothing. She yanked it several more times. Realizing she was losing control again, Carly stopped and took several deep breaths.

It’s okay, Carly girl. Calm down, it will be okay. I’ll take care of it.

Yeah, that’s what Garrett would say. He’s the only one allowed to worry. Well not this time. No way would she let that woman hurt the two people she loved more than life. She slapped her hand against the cabinet then plowed it through her hair. Her fingers touched one of the jeweled Bobbie pins she’d used when dressing for dinner. Two thoughts immediately popped into her head. First, the look in Garrett’s eyes when she’d walked into the room after dressing for dinner. And second, how she used to pick the lock on her brother’s bedroom door.

Carly slid down the front of the cabinet to her knees and started working the pin in the lock. She might not be MacGyver, but there might be something in there she could pry the door open with. Or maybe unscrew the hinges. Yeah, she’d seen that done before. As she heard the lock pop she prayed for a flashlight. It would make looking for things easier, not to mention easing her tension from sitting in a strange dark room.

 

# # #

 

Garrett hailed a cab and headed straight to the Clandestine offices. Using the cell phone he’d borrowed from his father, in case Martha was somehow tracking his, he called Clay. “How’s William?”

“Furious.”

“That’s better than dead,” Garrett said, releasing a concerned breath. “I’m on my way. I’ve got two hours. I need to do some work on the Blackthorn and Clandestine investigations. That will take a good chunk of the first hour, so while I’m doing that I need you to get any paper and digital copies of them.”

“Already working on it. What else?”

“With luck,” Garrett winced at the expression, never one to trust in it, “that will leave us enough time to find Carly and catch Martha and whoever she’s still working with.”

“Who? Murphy’s in jail and Scarpelli’s dead. You think Blackthorn’s involved?” Clay asked.

“No, it’s got to be someone at Clandestine, someone high up and good with the computer end. There’s got to be a trace of them somewhere. Get William on it if his head’s clear enough. Start with whoever’s working tonight, then anyone who has had any access to either investigation.” A series of beeps reached Garrett’s ear. He knew William was grabbing the phone away from Clay.

“What did that bitch do with my sister?”

“If I knew I would . . .” Garrett took a deep breath, scrubbing a hand over his face. “I don’t know. She has to be close though. Martha couldn’t have gotten to the apartment, stashed Carly, and gotten across town to Buddy’s in the time she allowed me otherwise.”

“If she has help she could.”

“I don’t think so. Martha’s greedy; she’s not going to share with anyone she doesn’t have to. My guess is the person helping her is some high end tech geek she could easily seduce. Having seen her in action now, and knowing the life most of those guys lead, none of them would have a chance.”

“Fine, but why take Carly in the first place? Why not me? I’m the one working with you.”

“She needs my cooperation, my codes and my money. And she needed a way to guarantee she got it,” Garrett said as the cab pulled up to the Clandestine building. He pushed a fifty through the payment slot and exited the car. “She needed to take someone she knew I wouldn’t risk. Someone I--”

“Son-of-a-bitch, now you fall in love with my sister?”

See, all emotion ever gets you is in trouble. Garrett shook off the negatives. Plenty of time for that after he took care of business. “You can beat the crap out of me later,” he said, swiping his ID and entering the building. “Right now we need to take care of business and get her back. I’m on my way up.”

 

# # #

 

Forty-seven minutes after leaving the coffee shop, Garrett stretched his neck. Tension had it popping and cracking as he bent from side to side. When he stood every muscle in his body screamed from being held so tight for so long. He’d finished wiping the files clean.

“What have you got?” he asked turning toward William across the room.

“Give me a minute. You just hit the last key,” William said.

“We don’t have a lot of minutes. Where’s Clay? He’s been gone too long.”

“Got it. Basement, northeast corner. They just signed off,” William said as he stood and grabbed a gun from the desk drawer.

Garret was already walking out the apartment door. In the hallway he pushed the buttons for both elevators. “They have to come up to the second floor from there if they want to go out the back. Front would be too obvious at this hour. Get down to the fifth floor and lock-up all the elevators there. I’ll take the back. You block their path to the front if I’m wrong.”

Slamming open the stairwell doors, Garrett made his way down ten flights. Sliding down and jumping over banisters got him there fast. The sound of running feet told him it wasn’t fast enough. He tore down the hallway. In the dim light he saw something on the floor up ahead. He slid to a stop beside a body.

Clay lifted a hand to blood at the side of his head. “Go. He’s getting away.”

Garrett jumped up and ran to the corner. He slammed into the wall as he tried to turn without slowing down. Bouncing off the wall he bolted down another hallway to some stairs. Easing open the door he ducked back as a bullet hit the concrete wall beside him. When he heard running again, he pushed the door open and rushed to the stairs. More bullets came, but he was ready.

Using the surveillance mirror to place his target, he positioned himself and took aim. The bullet hit the man in the shoulder. He stumbled on the step and fell down, landing at Garrett’s feet on the landing. He glared down at the man and the laptop he’d been carrying in pieces all around them.

“You stupid son-of-a -- ahhhh.”

Garrett stepped on the shoulder with the bullet wound. “I’d watch what I say if I were you. I still have a gun, I’ve had a bitch of a night, and there are no witnesses around to say it wasn’t self-defense if I shoot you.”

The man’s eyes grew wide as Garrett lifted the gun and pointed straight at him.

“Where’s Carly?”

“I don’t know,” the man choked out.

“Wrong answer,” Garrett said, pressing his foot down harder. The man screamed in pain, but at the moment, Garrett didn’t care. All that mattered was finding Carly.

“I don’t know anything about a Carly. I’m just supposed to meet Martha for my payoff after verifying you cleaned the files.”

“Martha’s not monitoring the computer work, too?” Garrett asked.

“No, she only had access to Blackthorn programs. I worked this side.”

“You thieving weasel,” Clay said, coming up beside Garrett. “I’m gonna nail your miserable hide to the wall for this.”

Garrett grabbed hold of Clay’s arm as he reached toward the man. “First we find Carly and catch Martha. Then you can do whatever you want with him,” he said. Clay nodded and Garrett released his hold. “Let’s get him and the pieces of his computer upstairs and see what William can do with it.”

As he pulled the man to his feet, the phone Martha had given Garrett started to ring. He handed the man over to Clay who guided him out of the stairwell. Glancing at his watch, Garrett realized exactly one hour had passed. When the door closed, he flipped the phone open.

“I’m a little busy right now,” he said, after flipping the phone open.

“Yes, I see you’ve finished with the computer work. There’s been a change in plan. You’ve got half an hour to get the rest done.”

“I can’t get to my copy of the files that fast,” he said, trying to stall for time. He had brought his copy with him when they left for dinner, but he wanted time to find Carly. “You said an hour.”

“Blame the weather, a storm’s brewing. I need to leave sooner than expected. I’ll call in half an hour with a location.”

Garrett gathered the pieces of the computer before running down the stairs, through the doorway and down the hall to the main stairwell. Two flights later he exited the stairs and took the elevator to the tenth floor. Striding into the apartment he dumped the broken computer on the desk in front of William.

“I’ve got half an hour to find Carly.”

“I thought you said--”

“Martha changed the timeline. And we both know she’s not letting Carly or me walk away. So see if you can retrieve anything from this while I question our guest some more.”

 

# # #

 

Carly stopped her efforts to pry open the door and listened intently. She heard something. Or someone? Pressing her ear to the door hoping to hear better she waited. If it was Martha coming back, Carly wanted to take her by surprise. Then she heard a deep voice.

“Carly! Carly!”

She started pounding on the door at the sound of Garrett’s voice. “I’m in here. Garrett, I’m in here.” Something slammed against the door silencing her. She heard heavy breathing and imagined Garrett’s hands spread on the other side of the door.

“Carly girl, is that you? Are you all right?”

“Yes, yes, I’m fine. Are you? And William?”

“Thank God. I was worried I’d never . . . uh, Carly?” Garrett asked.

“What? What’s wrong?”

“Did she tie you up or can you move around? Is there something you can hide behind?” Garrett asked.

“I can move. Why do I need to hide?” Silence greeted her question. Fear that Martha had snuck up on him and knocked him unconscious gripped Carly’s throat. “Garrett?”

“I don’t want to scare you, but there’s an explosive attached to the door. I’m going to try and disarm it, but just in case something goes wrong I want you as far away as you can get.”

“No, leave it alone. Call the police. Get out of here!” Carly screamed.

“There’s not time, darlin’.” Garrett stared at the timer on the device. He had less than ten minutes to do something he’d only done in a controlled environment before. Could he do it? He wished William or Clay were here. Both of them were better with this stuff than he could ever hope to be.

“Carly?” he asked, unsure whether she was still close enough to hear him.

“Garrett, I love you, please go. I don’t want you hurt.”

He heard the tears in her voice as he knelt on the floor to get a closer look at the device. He wanted to tell her, but couldn’t. If he managed to get the bomb disarmed, she shouldn’t feel tied to him because of something she said under such stress. If he didn’t disarm it and died, he didn’t want her grieving over his worthless ass. So, he lied.

He pressed his head against the door as if it were touching to hers. He had to force the words from his throat. “You’re just saying that because you think I can’t do this.” I love you, too.

From behind the door a thud greeted his words. “Damn you, Garrett.”

Garrett couldn’t hold back the grin that pulled at his mouth. That was his Carly, never give up. “I already am,” whispered from his lips.

“Please go.”

“Not going to happen,” he told her. “Just know I never wanted you involved in this. I’m sorry.” He wanted to tell her something else, but still couldn’t force the words passed his lips. “Now, get behind something.”

“It’s not your fault, damn it. Get out of here.”

“You know I can’t. Get away from the door. It will all be over in five minutes.”

The building they were in was under renovation, so the air conditioning wasn’t running. Sweat, from both nerves and the heat, dripped down his face. He wiped his forehead with his shirt sleeve. Noise from behind the door told him Carly was moving things around, so hopefully she was barricading herself. Trying to concentrate on the task at hand, he blocked the noise out. He slipped his hand in the pocket of his slacks and pulled out a pocket knife. Reaching in his coat pocket he pulled out his cell.

Pushing speed-dial for Clay, he examined the components while waiting for him to answer. The red numbers flashing on the timer kept distracting him. Garrett’s eyes widened as cold metal pressed against the back of his neck.

 

~~~