“Did you notice that?” Ace said as we stopped at the gate.
“What’s that?” I said, looking at him, then following the direction of his gaze.
I looked at the bottom of the gate and noticed a few minor scratches and a small dent.
“That wasn’t there before,” Ace said.
“You sure?”
I had to admit that with Summer back in my life, I no longer noticed little things like that.
“Yeah,” Ace said. “I’m sure. There were no scratches and certainly no dent the last time I came through these gates.”
I nonetheless opened the gate and drove up to the house.
All was quiet, and at first glance, all looked normal, until I noticed the box on the front porch.
“Did you order something?” I said staring at the cardboard box.
“No,” Ace said. “I was hoping you had.”
“Shit,” I said. “How the hell did they make it all the way to the house? I’m certain it’s not a delivery service that would do that.”
I reluctantly got out of the car and headed to the porch.
Ace came up beside me and we both stared at the box.
“Do you want me to open it?” he said.
I shook my head and reached down to pick up the square box. It was relatively heavy.
“What do you think?” Ace said.
“I don’t know. A bowling ball?”
“Want to bring it inside?”
“No,” I said. “I don’t think so. Whatever it is, I have a feeling it’ll be something that I don’t want in the house.”
I set the box back down and stooped down to open it. The stench hit me and was strong enough to send me falling back.
“What the hell…?” Ace let out as he covered his nose and mouth with his shirt.
I opened the box. The first thing I saw was a flash of copper hair.
“Holy shit,” I muttered.
“Fuck,” Ace said. “Is that a head?”
“I think so,” I said as I tilted the box slightly to the side.
“Who?”
I peered into the box. “Shit. I think it’s Francis.”
“The new Head of Operations?” Ace said. “No shit.”
“Damn it,” I let out as I closed the box. “Damn it!”
Ace stood and turned away, his hand over his mouth. “What disgusting people are we dealing with here?”
I shook my head. “Poor Francis. Shit. It’s not fair.”
“Parker,” Ace said quietly.
I looked up to see him at the small wrought iron table by the door. I stood and went to join him. On the table was a sheet of paper. All that appeared on the paper was a large circle drawn in blood.
“Well,” I said. “I think we’ve found who the disgusting people are.”
“This is insane,” Ace said.
I shook my head. “This means the war has begun.”
“Really?” Ace said. “Haven’t we been at war with them for a while now?”
“No,” I said softly as I looked at the red circle. “That was just a one-sided assassination attempt. I was just trying to get back at them for all that’s happened. But now, they’re retaliating. Now, this is war.”
“Man,” Ace said, a slight tremble to his voice. “What a shitty war this is going to be.”
“Right,” I said. “That means we’re going to have to tighten up the security even more.”
I turned away and headed into the house. “See what you can do about increasing security for all TechUp employees.”
“Just here in California, or…?”
“Everywhere,” I said. “Increase security everywhere. And that means here at the house, too.” I turned to look at him them. “That means you, too. You have to be more careful.”
“Yeah,” Ace said.
“I mean it, Ace,” I insisted. “You can’t take this lightly. I want you to look over your shoulder all the time.”
“I will.” He was quiet a moment and fidgeted uneasily.
“What is it?” I said.
“Summer.”
“Right,” I said turning to him and remembering our previous discussion. “Yeah. What the hell was all that about. I’ve never seen you be so rude to someone.”
“I wasn’t rude,” Ace said. “I was just… not as friendly as I usually am.”
“Fine. Call it whatever you want,” I said. “But why? What did she do to you?”
“I don’t know.” Ace said softly, almost to himself. “There’s something about her… something that just leaves me feeling uneasy.”
I chuckled. “Come on, Ace. You’re always uneasy around pretty girls. I’ve seen you. You…”
“This is different, Parker,” he said. “It’s not a simple matter of being nervous around her… of not knowing what to say. There’s something about her that I don’t trust.”
I glared at him. “Damn it, Ace. Summer lost her memory. She barely knows who she is and she’s trying to get back to her old self. Come on. Give her a chance.”
He just looked at me, his face more solemn than I’d ever seen it. He shook his head.
“Be careful around her, Parker,” he said. “Don’t assume that she’s the innocent girl you once knew.”
Chapter 18
Dante Black/Parker James
With the cardboard box containing Francis Knowles’ head tucked under my arm, I headed out to the farthest and most secluded corner of my property.
Between a Joshua tree and a cluster of creosote bushes, I dug a small but deep hole then put the box in and covered it with a good layer of dirt.
For a long moment I stood there looking at the small mound. As fitting, I said a few words.
Ace and I had argued about what to do about the murder. We discussed contacting the police. They had already been contacted by employees of TechUp when Francis was seen being pushed into a dark sedan by two beefy men.
But I knew that nothing good could come of my involvement in the situation. They would ask too many questions that I was not in a position to answer. For the time being, there was no point in implicating anyone from the Inner Circle.
Besides, I had absolutely no proof that it was one of them. The red circle in blood would be meaningless to the police.
I knew how the Inner Circle worked: leave no verifiable trace.
As I made my way back to the house, I thought of our options. Protecting everyone from TechUp would be difficult, if not impossible.
So, whose head would I be receiving next if this went on?
I got to the house and went straight to the kitchen for a glass of cool water. The sun was relentless and the heat stifling.
“Hey,” Ace called out from down the hall. “Parker. Is that you?”
“Yeah,” I said lazily as I walked to the computer room.
“I’ve already added more security to our offices in Italy and France.”
“That was quick,” I said.
“Yeah. Now I’m going to settle Norway and Denmark.”
“Good,” I said. “Stay on it and let me know if you run into any trouble. I have a few connections of my own that I can use if things don’t pan out like you plan.”