“He’s not dead,” he said, “but he’ll wish he is, if you leave him with me.”
“He’s responsible for kidnapping your girlfriend, huh?”
“Something like that,” he said in a hard growl. He looked down at the guy. “You might want to interrogate him. He’s connected with some intelligence theft.”
“We will,” he said. “And I think, in your case, you need a safe house for the night.”
“Brenna needs some more rest to get off the drugs,” he said, staring back at the Jeep. And there she was, sitting up, staring at him, her face pure white, gaunt, her eyes huge. “Yeah, she’s had a pretty rough time of it.”
“Gimme your hotel room key,” Jonas said. “We’ll collect everything and bring it to you.” He added, “My guys’ll escort you to the safe house.”
And, with that, Jerricho had to be content. He headed back to the Jeep and said, “We’re getting a safe house for the night.” A horn honked behind him, and it was the vehicle he was to follow. He pulled out, did a three-point turn, and followed them.
“What about our stuff?” she asked from the back seat, trying to lean forward but not able to get too far.
“Not that we have anything important that can’t easily be replaced, but he’ll bring it all,” he said.
“Good,” she said, “and I’m happy to not go back to that same hotel. I’d never sleep again there.”
“Not sure I would either.”
“Sorry,” she said, “didn’t mean to scare you.”
He looked at her and shook his head. “You’re not responsible,” he said.
She sat back. “Feels like I am. I opened the door, when I wasn’t supposed to.”
“Yeah, for that, you’re responsible,” he said, with a chuckle.
“You told me that you were on your way up.”
“I know, and I should have been there. They saw us come in, or they were tracking our phones or had a listening device in the hotel,” he said. “I don’t know which it was, but it’s pretty shitty. And I’m sorry for what you went through.”
“It’s okay,” she whispered. “I’m just feeling a little rough still. Matter of fact, I feel like I’ll puke.”
“Put your head down between your legs,” he said, “and take a deep breath.”
She lowered her head and took several deep breaths. “It’s not that bad,” she said, slowly straightening up again. “It’s just been a rough day.”
“A rough couple days,” he said. “But better times ahead.”
She smiled at that.
He grinned at her through the rearview mirror. “You’re doing fine,” he said. “Remember that.”
“Thank you.”
He continued to follow the MI6 agent until they made it to the safe house. It looked like an apartment complex. They parked underground, the three of them following the agent. They ended up in an upstairs apartment.
The agent said, “I’ll come back in a little bit with the rest of your gear.” And they were locked in.
She looked around and said, “It’s two bedrooms and a couch in the living room.”
“Regardless of whether it’s a safe house or not,” Killian said, “we’ll be doing four-hour watches. You need to go to sleep.”
She shrugged and said, “I’m tired for sure. But, more than that, it’s the damn drugs.”
“Are you still feeling the effects of the chloroform or just sick to your stomach?” Jerricho asked her.
“Nauseated. Not like I still need to sleep or anything, just feel ill.”
“Go lie down,” he ordered.
She glared at him. “I will,” she said, “in my own time.”
He smiled. “Getting feisty again, huh?”
“Getting tired of being ordered around,” she said.
“Right,” he said. And then with exaggerated politeness, he said, “Would you please go lie down?”
She sighed. “Fine.” And she turned and flounced away.
Killian looked back at Jerricho. “Do you want first watch?”
“Yes. I’ll take possession of the delivery when it gets here. I ordered two laptops plus…” he said, “I want you to get your ass in bed.”
Killian shook his head.
“I’ll take the first watch, and then I’ll go lie down with her afterward.”
At that, Killian considered the matter and then nodded. “Okay, I’m good with that.” He went into the other bedroom.
Jerricho was relieved. He knew that he still needed some time to destress. He went and had a quick shower, even as he hated his nerves jangling at him. It would be a while before he forgot that blind panicky feeling after realizing that she was nowhere to be found. He blamed himself for that. He should have posted a guard, somebody, outside. Somebody, somewhere, should have been on the watch to make sure she was okay.
That part really would keep him up at night. Why? What was it about her that they wanted? Unless they understood that any connection to Jessie was something that they needed to eradicate. And that would be much harder to address.
When a text came in, he waited a few moments then brought in the package waiting for him. Grateful for the system that worked so well, he brought it inside and unpacked the top laptop. He turned it on and while it booted, he picked up his clothes.
Fully dressed again, he headed back out to the living room, put on some coffee, checked the fridge, and found sandwiches and some basic groceries. Pulling out one of the ready-made sandwiches, he sat down for a quick meal and a cup of coffee, while his mind churned through the details. Then he went back to his laptop, where he started bouncing ideas off Diesel.
Neither of them could quite understand the motivation as to why they had gone after Brenna, unless it was that theory about cleaning up threads. And the Mavericks had certainly seen that happen time and time again, but they couldn’t confirm it either way. Besides, if she truly were a thread to clean up, the gunman would have just killed her. So why kidnap her?
With his tummy full, he relaxed, as he thought about what had just gone down. The Jessie connection blew him away. But it was just so often the way things went. He checked his watch, realizing his four hours were half over. He smiled at that because the next two hours would be nothing. He started cleaning up some of his notes, making lists of what they needed to do.
And when he got a text from Jonas saying the man didn’t survive the crash, Jerricho swore. He picked up the phone and called him. “I didn’t kill him,” he said.
“No,” he said, “he took a head injury, and his chest took a severe blow. Looks like he had a heart attack at the same time right afterward. Anyway he’s gone,” Jonas said. “We’re doing our best to pick up what we can when we knock on everything in his life. You know how that works,” he said.
“Yep,” he said, “I do know how it works. Let me know if you find anything.”
“What are your plans now?”
“As much as I’d like to follow up and find whoever ordered the attack,” he said, “I need to get Brenna back to the US.”