Jerrica put a hand to her throat. “You need to get help.”
“No.” Russell pounded a weak fist against the table. “I can’t tell anyone. They said not to tell.”
“Who, Russell?” Gray hunched over the table, squeezing the paper cups in his hand. “Who poisoned you? Was it to get to your mother?”
“Of course. Someone poisoned me and when I came home sick, a man and a woman dropped in on my mother and threatened her. I-I didn’t understand that much because whatever they gave me made me fade in and out. I just know they threatened her.”
“How’d you make it here? How’d you get to the hospital?” Jerrica folded her arms on the table, her fingers digging into her biceps.
“The man and my mother left. The woman stayed behind with me. I think she got a call or a text, and then she gave me a shot. As soon as I started feeling better, she left, but not before she warned me not to tell anyone anything.”
“And yet here you are.” A muscle ticked at the corner of Gray’s jaw.
Jerrica shot him a look from the corner of her eye. She was supposed to be the cold one. “The shot was supposed to make you better? Counteract the poison?”
“Yeah, but how can I trust them? They killed my mom.” Russell rubbed his eyes. “I still feel bad, but I’d recovered enough to answer the phone when the police called to tell me my mom had been shot in Washington Square Park.”
“Eat something. It might help you feel better.” Gray shoved a burger toward Russell. “How did you know to post that message on the fan board?”
“Before the man took Mom away, she tucked a note in the waistband of my sweats when they weren’t looking. After the woman left and I could move, I pulled it out. She left instructions that if anything happened to her, I was supposed to post that message on the board and to come to Times Square at eleven o’clock.” He shook his head and pulled off the cap. “I thought it was some kind of joke until the cops called.”
Jerrica traced a pattern on the table top. “She wanted me to know that she hadn’t betrayed me.”
“Betrayed you? What’s going on? My mom was a computer programmer. I don’t understand any of this.”
“Eat.” Gray held up the cups. “I’m going to get you some water.”
As Gray walked away, Russell peeled the waxy paper from the burger. “Did you work with my mom?”
“We worked at the same place—Dreadworm.”
Russell choked and went into a coughing fit.
Gray returned with the drinks and pushed a cup of water toward Russell. “Is he okay?”
“I just told him his mother and I worked for Dreadworm.”
“Why would you tell him that? You might be endangering his life even more.”
“He deserves to know. Nobody has seen us together. They have no idea Kiera left her son that note, and I’ve told you before that message board is secure. They probably think he’s still at the hospital filling out forms. Why would they follow him, anyway?”
“To make sure he doesn’t go to the police.”
Russell had recovered and gulped down some water. “I’m not going to the police. I thought about it after I found out that they killed my mom, but then I figured they could get to me if they wanted to. They poisoned me without my even knowing about it.”
“Going to the police would be pointless, Russell. The people who poisoned you and killed your mother are not going to be caught or stopped by the police.”
Toying with the burger, Russell asked, “Dreadworm? You mean that Olaf guy?”
“Yes, your mother was a hacker for Dreadworm, as I am. My coworker and I hacked into a secret database. Someone found out, and they’re trying to get us to stop.”
“By killing my mom?”
“They used your mother to get to me. She allowed it because she was trying to protect you, and now we’re going to make sure you stay safe.”
“How are you going to do that?” Russell looked around wildly. “Nobody’s safe.”
Jerrica sucked in her bottom lip. Another paranoid conspiracy theorist had just been born.
“The first step is to stay away from the police. Accept the official version of events that your mother was randomly gunned down by a transient. Bury your mother and go about your business. You know nothing. Your mother told you nothing, and they have no reason to fear you.” Gray plunged a straw into one of the soda cups. “Can you do that?”
“They have to pay for what they did to my mother, to me. I want them to pay.”
“Don’t worry, kid. They have a lot to pay for, and we’re gonna make sure they do.”
Once he started eating, Russell couldn’t stop. He finished all three burgers, all the fries, downed a couple of cups of water and then got a soda for the road.
She and Gray saw him into a taxi. As he ducked in, Jerrica put her lips close to his ear. “Olaf will pay for all your mother’s funeral expenses and the rest of your education at Columbia. Don’t worry about that.”
Russell didn’t have time to respond, as Gray slammed the door of the taxi.
He shoved his hands in his pockets and spit at the ground. “Poison. They were slowly murdering her kid to make her do their bidding.”
“And their bidding was to find me, so they know Kiera and Cedar don’t know anything about the government database.”
“Cedar does know something, though. He knows something about Olaf.”
“I don’t know why he left me that message. Am I supposed to figure out what it means? It’s Olaf. So, what?”
“Think about it.” Gray bumped her shoulder as they merged with the pedestrians on the sidewalk. “Cedar left that message right after Kiera was shot and an attempt was made to either abduct or kill you. It’s Olaf.”
A chill zigzagged down Jerrica’s back and she tripped over a crack in the sidewalk. “You mean, as in, it’s Olaf who had Kiera killed? No way.”
“I know you worship the man, but why not? He’s always been anti-government, and the people who are plotting this attack and framing Denver are nothing if not anti-government.”
“I don’t worship Olaf.” Jerrica pursed her lips. “And I know he’s anti-government, but that doesn’t mean he’s willing to kill innocent Americans to make the government look bad. He wouldn’t do that.”
“It might explain why nobody has orders to kill you. Olaf still has a soft spot for you and while he wants to stop what you’re investigating, he’s not willing to kill you to do it.”
Jerrica punched Gray’s shoulder. “Just stop. You have a distorted image of my relationship with Olaf—and you always have. He’s almost twice my age for one thing.”
“There’s about a twenty-year age difference between you. People have those relationships all the time. It’s not unusual.”
She stopped, turned to face him and grabbed both of his sleeves. “Do you really think Olaf and I are lovers or even want to be?”
“Maybe not on your side. On your side it’s more hero worship, but why wouldn’t he be in love with you?”
“I can think of a million reasons why. For one, I’m not particularly lovable.” She shook him. “You’ve given me several more reasons.”
“That’s because I’m an ass. We already established that.” He kissed her right there on the sidewalk. “You’re lovable in so many ways, I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count them.”
Leaning into him, she wrapped her arms around his waist and rested her head on his chest. “I’m glad you’re on my side...but you’re wrong about Olaf. He loves himself.”
He propped his chin on top of her head. “We’re impeding traffic. Are we going to walk all the way back to your place or are we going to grab a taxi?”
“Subway stop’s right ahead.”
As they swayed on the subway in unison, Jerrica tucked a hand into Gray’s pocket. “I’m glad Kelly got out of the city. If these people are willing to poison Kiera’s son, they wouldn’t hesitate to do the same to Amit’s girlfriend. I’m lucky. I don’t have anyone close to me they can threaten.”
“You have me.” He kissed the curve of her ear.
She curled her fingers in his pocket. “I’m not worried about you. You can take care of yourself.”
“I wish I could say the same about you.”
“What do you mean?” She tipped her head back. “I can take care of myself. You know that.”
“You’re street savvy. I’ll give you that.” He tugged on a lock of her hair sticking out of the bottom of the cap. “And you know how to take security measures...usually...but these people are different. They’re not government, or if they are, they’re not playing by any rules.”
She snorted softly. “When did the government ever play by any rules?”
“Okay, you have a right to say that.” His hand crept to the back of her neck. “When do you think you’ll have a handle on the program that can decode the transmissions?”
“I am a super hacker, but I’m not that good. It’s going to take a little time. In the meantime, maybe we lure these government moles out of their hiding places.”
The train slowed to a stop and rocked back and forth, throwing them together.
Gray put his hands on her waist. “You’re going to use yourself as bait?”
“That’s the point of going to DC to visit your very well-connected family, right? Memorial Day barbecue to rub elbows with the movers and shakers on the Hill. You know they’ll all be there if the Prescotts call. We also know whoever is at the crux of this scheme is a mover and shaker. Has to be.”
“You’re right.” He drilled a knuckle into her back to propel her off the subway. “I’ll start setting that plan in motion.”
They sneaked into her building through the alley, and Gray brushed his fist against the chalk dust left by Cedar’s message. “I wonder where he went?”
“I wonder why he went? He must be afraid of something.”
“It’s Olaf.”
“That makes no sense at all.” Jerrica pressed her lips together as she charged up the stairs ahead of Gray.
There was another reason Olaf wouldn’t betray her, but she couldn’t reveal that to Gray...yet. If they were going to get back together, she’d have to tell him at some point. Or would she? That family of his.
She held her breath as they entered her apartment until she saw Amit asleep on the sofa, the blanket across his chest rising and falling with every breath. This feeling of worrying about someone besides herself was alien.
She’d never worried about Gray, even when he was deployed. The man was solid, impenetrable. She couldn’t imagine anything or anyone getting the better of Gray Prescott.
But someone like Amit? She’d never worried about him before, but having him here in her place, dependent on her to help him, caused a whole different strain of feelings in her breast.
She hadn’t decided yet whether or not she liked it.
She put her finger to her lips. “Shh. He’s out.”
Gray picked up a pill bottle and shook it. “Looks like he took a little something for the pain.”
“Can you blame him?”
“Not at all, but he’s going to have to pull himself together and get out of here. He can join his girlfriend. We can’t leave him here alone when we go to DC.”
“I know.” She pulled the blanket up to Amit’s chin. “He’s going to lose it when we tell him about Kiera’s son and what they did to him.”
Folding his arms, Gray leaned against the kitchen counter. “Are you going to check the Cedar message board for anything?”
“I will.” Jerrica stifled a yawn. “I don’t think he’ll use it, though.”
“You should set up one of those alerts like you did on the message board you used with Kiera. Then you don’t have to keep checking it, right?”
“Yeah. I didn’t do it with his because he didn’t respond and Kiera did.”
“Now we know why she did.”
Jerrica rubbed her arms and rose from the sofa. “It’s been a terrible night. Imagine how Russell felt—to go through that poisoning all for nothing—they killed his mother anyway.”
“We’re going to put a stop to all of it, including their sarin gas attack.”
Jerrica slid her laptop from the coffee table and placed it on the counter. She accessed the TV message board they used for Cedar’s communications and she searched for any posts from Cruz, Cedar’s user name.
“Nothing.” She snapped the laptop closed. “To be continued tomorrow. I’m exhausted.”
“I am, too.”
Jerrica gathered her computer, phone and chargers and trailed after Gray up the stairs. She wouldn’t mind a repeat performance of last night’s escapades, but it didn’t feel right to have sex after someone had been murdered in front of you.
When would it feel right? How long would it take to get back to normal life? It had taken her years to even feel anything at all after the FBI killed her family.
If she were honest with herself, she’d been numb until she met Gray. He’d touched something inside her because he hadn’t been afraid of her or what she had to say. He hadn’t been afraid of her feelings and so for the first time she’d allowed them to spill out in all their ugliness. He hadn’t flinched—not once.
As Gray brushed his teeth in her bathroom, she settled cross-legged on the bed with her devices. She checked her phone for messages, and then plugged it in to the charger.
She flipped open her laptop and scanned her email. Her finger froze as she rolled across a message from a Guatemalan coffee company. She double-clicked on the message, and the words jumped from the screen.
I’m okay. Are you okay?