I reached the beautiful, all white beach house and pulled into the drive. The street was quiet with little movement about. It was early. I looked at my watch. Maybe a little too early. If I remembered correctly, Aunt Sookie wasn’t an early riser. She typically stayed up late, enjoying the nightlife, and she would get up in time for lunch.
The year that Summer had lived with her, she’d had to get up well before sunup every morning to teach an acting class at her Acting Academy.
I got out of the car and looked at the house. It sure was a cool place. Aunt Sookie, the eternal hippie, often referred to it as ‘The Pad’. The only color to the house was by way of the greenery that adorned the front yard and a few of the flowering bushes. But it was an elegant house that stood out from the others.
During the time that I had known her, not only had Summer lived here, but also the Donovans, who owned one of the largest data security companies in the world. Nat Donovan, Summer’s crush for years, and the oldest of the three Donovan children was on my radar as a rival and a possible hit, for years, until he disappeared.
From the looks of Summer appearing in England at the Queen’s charity event at the Albert and Victoria Museum, it seemed Nat Donovan, or who may seemed like Nat, had suddenly re-appeared.
Aunt Sookie was a saint the entire time I’d known Summer, and she had a hard time refusing anyone. Hopefully, she wouldn’t refuse me. I needed a safe and quiet place to regroup.
“Well,” I said as I headed up the walkway to the door. “Sorry to wake you, Sookie, but I’m here now. I might as well.”
I hesitated a moment more with my finger poised over the doorbell. “I really am sorry about this, Aunt Sookie.”
I pressed on the doorbell and heard the musical chimes inside.
No answer.
I rang again then looked into the window. I could see clear through the house to the ocean on the other side. Everything was white. White walls, white leather sofa, white curtains, all over white marble floors.
But there was no movement. Nothing.
I backed away from the door and looked at the house, trying to catch any movement inside any window. Maybe she was in the shower.
The neighbor scrambled out of her house with a travel mug in one hand, her car keys in the other and a portfolio under her arm. As she made her way to her classic silver Alfa Romeo, I headed back down to the drive.
“Hey,” I called out. “Excuse me. Would you happen to know if Sookie is out on location? On a shoot somewhere?”
“Oh,” the woman said as she opened the car door and set her things inside. “Are you a friend of Sookie’s?”
“Yes,” I said glancing into the windows again. “She’s not expecting me, so she might still be asleep, but…”
“I’m so sorry to have to tell you this,” the woman said, her face showing the full extent of her sorrow. “I really am sorry, but Sookie passed away a few months ago.”
“What?” I gasped. “Are you sure?”
She gave me a funny look. “Yes,” she said. “I’m quite sure. I was here when the ambulance arrived and I saw… well, you probably don’t want to know. But it wasn’t pretty. I really am sorry, kid.”
Aunt Sookie was dead. It was a devastating blow. For the year that Summer had lived with her, I’d gotten to know her well. I’d liked her, respected her. She liked me with Summer. She even helped me keep tabs on Summer after the accident for the first few weeks. She was someone rare… someone I could trust.
And now she was gone.
Shit.
What else could go wrong?
Chapter 11
Dante Black/Parker James
After the neighbor got into her car and drove off, I sat on the stoop and tried to find other options. It seemed like everywhere I turned, something went wrong. Aunt Sookie… she was like family, especially since she was Summer’s aunt and was someone who knew how Summer and I were close.
I looked up and down the street. As the morning got brighter, more and more people were going about their day, going off to school or work. But after a while, things got quiet again making the pinging of my phone all the more startling.
I looked down at my phone. Another message from Ace.
Not this again.
Space Race
I snorted as I saw the code words Ace and I had established long ago. He knew how easy it was to send a message pretending to be someone else. We had given each other code words that only we knew to ensure any message sent was truly coming from us.
Every so often, we changed them. These new words had been changed on the plane on our way to the States.
Damn it. It was just more proof of how fucking distracted I was due to Summer’s appearance. There had been no code word on last night’s message and it should have been a dead giveaway. I couldn’t let that happen again. I had to stay focused. I’d almost paid for that mistake with my life.
I looked at Ace’s message.
Hey, man. What happened to you? I went back to the hotel and everything’s gone. Except that… well you know. Anyway. Shit is going down. I think we need to relocate. Remember those coordinates you gave me a while back… in case. Well, I’m here… waiting. Come meet me here as soon as you can.
I entered my code word: Parking Garage
Hold tight. I’m on my way.
I sent the message then got into my car and headed to the old Episcopal church at the south end of Los Angeles.
The parking lot to the gothic style church was empty as I drove through and came out on the other side. Not wanting to arouse suspicion or attention, I drove down past a few houses and parked the car on the street. Then I walked back and headed to the door that led down to the basement.
Though Ace had used a code word, I was still on guard. I didn’t want to be ambushed a second time. As I opened the heavy old door, I pulled my gun out.
“Ace?” I said as I went down the stairs and arrived at a large empty space.
“Over here,” he said loudly.
I put my gun away and went to him.
The basement was a safehouse that my father had set up some years earlier. There were a few comfortable cots set up on one side with a big screen TV. In the other corner was a functional kitchen with good sized fridge, a range and double sink. The counter was filled with appliances: toaster, coffee machine, microwave oven. We had everything we needed. On the other side where Ace sat, there was a wall of computers, monitors and other surveillance equipment.
As I walked up to him, Ace turned to me.
“Shit,” I let out. “What the fuck happened to you?”
His face was bruised, his lip swollen and cut open and he couldn’t see through one eye because it was so blue and puffy.
“Let’s just say the guy got in a few shots before I could break free and run the hell out of there.” He got up and headed to the kitchen. He’d never been the type to make a fuss over things like that. He never whined or complained, no matter what happened.
Since knowing him there had been a few times when he’d gotten beat up. But he got up, and life went on.
“I got some pizza left over from last night. You hungry?”
“No,” I said. Actually, I was famished, but my stomach was in knots and pizza wasn’t what I had in mind for breakfast.