Behind Your Back (5 page)

I’ll never admit how much this job fucks with my head. I try not to let it get to me, but it does. I shove my hands in my pockets as I walk and keep my head down. Most people are inside their houses, either in bed or basking in the glow of their televisions.

“Hey, Leo,” I say when I unlock the door. He puts both his paws on my legs and meows like I haven’t fed him in days. I check his bowl and it’s still mostly full, but I put a few more bits of kibble on top to satisfy him.

“Greedy little bastard,” I say as he sticks his head in the bowl and crunches loudly.

The first thing I do is go to the fridge and grab a beer. What I really want is a cheeseburger, but that would require me to walk to get it and I don’t want to leave the house again. So I reach for something I can throw in the microwave and hope it will fill me up where the fancy dinner hadn’t.

The microwave beeps and I go to open it, but my phone buzzes and I change direction to fetch it. Probably Cash giving me an update on Saige’s whereabouts.

I look at the screen and frown. It’s a text message, but it’s not from Cash. It’s not from any of my boys. The number is blocked.

Have a good time?

I can’t help the trickle of cold unease that drips down my spine. I am conditioned to be suspicious of everyone and everything.

But then the more-rational part of my brain kicks in and I figure it’s just a wrong number. There are plenty of people with blocked numbers for whatever reason. And since the numbers of the burner phones change constantly, that’s probably the case.

The microwave beeps again to remind me that my food is still inside. I set the phone down and go to deal with it.

I’m just going to ignore the message. The person will probably figure out that they’ve got the wrong number and that will be it.

And then I get another message.

You looked bored tonight, Mr. Brand. Did the scallops not agree with you?

I’ve conditioned myself not to panic. In my line of work, panic can kill you. So I sit and think for a moment. I know I need to get rid of the phone. Someone found my number and tracked me to the event. I go to the safe under my bed, unlock it and pull out my backup phone.

The new phone rings as soon as I text Cash about the blocked number.

“What do you mean you got a message from a blocked number? How the hell did someone hack that phone?” I roll my eyes.

“Just the same way you hack phones.”

He sputters for a moment.

“Yes, well, that’s
me
.”

“There are a lot of people who can hack phones,” I say.

“Okay, okay. I’m coming over. I want to go through it and figure out who did it. Because I will figure it out.” Guess I’m not going to bed anytime soon.

“Sure thing,” I say and then hang up.

Cash arrives just as I get a third message.

You’re not going to get away with this, you know.

I hand him the phone and he starts working with it, pressing buttons and getting a little frown line on his forehead. I grab him a beer and hand it to him without saying anything. I know not to disturb him when he’s concentrating.

“Huh,” he says, squinting at the thing. Then he gets out his laptop and plugs the phone in. Leo comes out to investigate and Cash has to keep pushing him off the keyboard.

“Huh,” he says again and I can’t take it anymore.

“What?” I say, setting my beer down a little too hard. Cash hasn’t touched his yet.

“Nothing. I just need to try something else. Don’t worry, I’ve got this.” But he doesn’t seem so confident anymore. Cash is always optimistic, but sometimes he’s a little less optimistic, which signals doom. We’re moving toward doom.

I start running names through my head of who this could possibly be. I have a long list of enemies, most of whom I have by the balls, but every now and then one of them gets stupid and tries to threaten me. Much like Mr. Chambers. He’s a possibility. But he would have had to hire someone to do it, because he definitely isn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer. Not by a long shot.

“Mother fuck!” Cash yells, slapping his hand down on the coffee table and scaring the shit out of Leo who runs and hides under the couch.

“Nothing?” I ask.

“No. This is some serious shit I’m looking at. But I can crack it. I know I can.” He sounds like he’s positively defeated, which is bad news. Not much gets past Cash.

“Listen, it’s late. Maybe you should let it go and try again in the morning.” Cash shakes his head and slams his hand on the table again. If he does that a few more times, my table is going to be reduced to sawdust.

“No, no, I can do this. If I just…” He starts muttering all sorts of tech mumbo jumbo to himself and I know I’ve lost him.

“Well, I’m beat,” I say and head to bed. He doesn’t even say goodnight.

I
don’t get much sleep. My apartment has thin walls, so I can hear the couple who live next to me having rough sex. That I could sleep through, but Cash cursing a blue streak makes me put in earplugs.

I wake up the next morning when Leo pokes me in the eye with his paw. Cash is gone. The only evidence that he was ever here is a few empty beer bottles in the sink.

The phone is gone too, and I hope he was making some progress with it. I need to know who’s gotten my number so I can pay them a little visit and remind them who has the upper hand.

I down some coffee to wake up and then take a scalding shower before I get dressed and decide to head out of the city for a while. There’s someone I need to see.

Five

I take the bus to the lot where I park my car. I only drive it when I go to visit Lizzy. I try to go to see her at least a few times a month, but I don’t get to see her as much as I’d like.

The drive to the facility takes nearly two hours. I’d keep her closer, but then again, it’s a risk.

I park in the visitor lot and head to the front desk to sign in.

“We haven’t seen you in a while, Quinn,” the nurse at the front desk says. They know me by my alias here as well.

“Work, you know?” I say with an easy smile. She smiles back, a dimple in her left cheek. She’s cute and young, wearing scrubs with cartoon characters on them, her short brown hair brushed back in a ponytail. She won’t last long here. This place will chew her up and spit her out like a piece of gum that loses its flavor too quickly.

“How is she doing today?” I ask as she leads me down the hall.

“We’re having a good day,” the nurse chirps, her smile a little too forced. “You picked a good time to come, she’s just had her lunch. It was chocolate pudding day.” That makes me smile. Lizzy loves chocolate.

The nurse, whose name is Jaime, opens the door of Lizzy’s room and announces that she has a visitor.

I walk in and she turns around, her face angry at first, as if we’re disturbing her. She sits on the bed with the television on some loud cartoon. But as soon as she sees my face, she’s up off the bed and throwing herself at me.

“Brother!” she says in my ear as she hugs me.

“Sister,” I say as I hug her back as Jaime backs out of the room and shuts the door.

Lizzy lets go of me, but takes my hand and drags me toward her bed. I sit down next to her and she grins up at me.

“I’m sorry it took me so long to come,” I say as she burrows into my chest and I put my arm around her.

“It’s okay. I knew you would come. You always come.” She sighs and I stroke her hair.

“So, what have you been up to? Getting into all kinds of trouble?” She giggles and shakes her head.

“Noooo.” She starts talking about the play she and the other residents are putting on and asks me to help her learn her lines.

“I have to practice a lot,” she says, her wide eyes serious. Even though we’re siblings, we look almost nothing alike. She’s six years my junior, but in a lot of ways, I feel as if I’m her parent.

Lizzy is blonde and small and has the biggest blue eyes I’ve ever seen. When you look into them, what shines back is pure innocence. She’s one of the only people in the world who knows me. The real me.

Lizzy gets the script for the play and proceeds to deliver her lines with dramatic flair. She’s definitely a natural, and I can’t help but laugh as she walks about the room, reciting every word to perfection.

“You don’t need to practice, Lizzy Bizzy. You’re perfect,” I say when we’re done and she takes a bow. I clap for her and she jumps back on the bed.

“Really?” she asks.

“Really,” I say, kissing her forehead.

I
hang out with Lizzy for a few hours. She tells me she has a boyfriend, but won’t give me his name. I tease her and tickle her feet and it’s just like it should be. When my mother died, I wanted to take Lizzy to live with me. But I was already deep in my work and couldn’t put her in danger. I should keep her somewhere farther away, but that’s not an option. This is one of the best facilities on the east coast and she loves it here. She has friends and gets exercise and her room is cheerful and full of her art. It’s the best solution that I can manage.

“I miss Momma,” she says as we watch one of her favorite movies.

“I know, Lizzy. I miss her too.” I give her a hug and hold her close.

“Why did Momma die?” she whispers the last word. I know she’s scared of it.

I could tell her it was because of some bad men, but I don’t. I tell her I don’t know.

“Are you sad, Brother?” she says, reaching up and pretending to wipe tears from my eyes. I’ve only cried in front of her once, but she did this then too.

“No, I’m never sad when I’m with you,” I say, smiling and wrinkling my nose. She crosses her eyes at me and then her mind switches to something else.

Eventually she falls asleep, and my phone goes off with an incoming call from Cash. I extricate myself from Lizzy’s arms and head to the bathroom to take the call.

“What have you got?” I ask.

“Why are you whispering?” he says, not answering my question.

“It doesn’t matter. Have you been able to track the phone?” I say in a low voice. I don’t want him to know where I am. I don’t talk about Lizzy to anyone. Not even Cash.

“Fuck me, but no. I’m just going to destroy the fucking thing and hope it doesn’t happen again. We might need to switch to using carrier pigeons for messages. I guess the moral of the story is that we have to be vigilant. Always.” That was bad news. I didn’t like knowing that there was something Cash couldn’t crack. He was completely self-taught, but had a network of other hacker buddies.

“Do you think it’s something you could maybe outsource?” This was a last resort.

“I could. Are you sure you want to do that?” That was a trigger you couldn’t un-pull.

“No. Let’s just hope this is a one-time thing but if it happens again we’ll try that. Listen, I’m in the middle of something so I have to go.” Having one of the nurses walk in right now wouldn’t be the best scenario.

“Sure, sure. Okay, I just wanted to give you heads up. Let me know if anything else happens.” I say I will and hang up. Lizzy is still asleep when I leave the bathroom, so I sit in the recliner next to her bed and wait. I don’t want to leave while she’s asleep. The movie she has on is loud and bright, so I turn it down and change the channel to something quieter.

I go through the events of the previous night, looking for anything I might have missed. Lizzy stirs in her sleep and mutters something.

Perhaps I’m taking on too much with Beaumont. But it’s too late to back out now. The first picture I saw of Saige flits through my mind. I’ve got to do some more research on her. That surveillance Cash set up will come in handy.

Tonight I’ll learn her habits and mold myself into exactly what she wants. Another costume.

But for right now, I’m content to be with Lizzy.

“S
o she goes to this bar a lot. It’s called Bruce’s. She also has a few friends she sees and then there’s the usual. Coffee shops, bookstore, that sort of thing. Nothing out of the ordinary,” Cash says later that night when I ask him to compile the data he’s gotten from Saige’s phone.

“What about outside the city?”

“Just the beach a few times. Pretty boring. Shouldn’t be much of a challenge.”

“And her friends?”

“I’ll send you their information as well. Most are in her echelon, except for one or two. She’s quite popular it seems.” That figures.

“Thanks, Cash.” I have some work ahead of me tonight. We hang up and I go to my computer to see what Cash added in regard to Saige’s friends. They are all daughters of her father’s friends, with the exception of Lauren “Lo” Hobbes. It’s unclear how the two of them met, but Saige visits her apartment, which wasn’t far from mine, quite frequently. I might want to put a trace on Lo’s phone as well.

She likes to frequent the bar on the weekend, which will be my first chance to make contact.

I go to bed early and Leo comes to snuggle against my chest. Inevitably my thoughts turn to my family. I usually feel a sense of guilt after I leave Lizzy and today is no exception. I’m the only one she has to care for her since I cut ties with all of my family years ago. Partly to keep them safe and partly because I didn’t need them in my life. My father’s family was more resistant, but over time they stopped trying to contact me. And since I live under an alias, my real name is nearly impossible to find anyway.

I also think about Saige. What kind of guy will she like? Charming? Or dark and brooding? I won’t know until I’ve spent at least a little time with her. Maybe I should follow her a bit and see.

A
s it does every now and then my completely legal work piles up I don’t have a chance to follow Saige for the next few days. Instead I spend my afternoons and evenings at the office.

On Tuesday I meet again with Beaumont. He is cordial and cool as always. I’m good at getting a read on people, but he’s one of those who has a lot going on below a calm façade. I would have to play my cards carefully and consider every move before I make one.

After I finish telling him how his money is doing and what I have planned for the future, we settle into the normal chitchat. I decide not to bring up Saige. I don’t want him to know how interested I am.

“Are you a golfing man at all, Mr. Brand?” I don’t want to be, but I am. All part of the job.

“I play my fair share,” I say with a smile.

“You should come to my club sometime. They’re very discreet. I’m sure I could get you in with no problems.” Every now and then I go play with my legitimate clients, to keep up appearances, but I never play with my illegitimate clients. Best not to go out in public with them.

“I’ll consider it,” I say. He tells me which club it is and, of course, it is one of the most exclusive. So exclusive they still don’t allow women.

“Well, I should probably get back to work. Make some more money so I can send it your way.” He smiles again and we shake hands. I hit the intercom button and Grace hurries to escort him out and I lean back against my chair. I feel a headache building behind my eyes

I grab two pills from my desk and swallow them with some cold coffee. It makes me cringe, but hopefully they’ll do the trick. I close my eyes and massage my temples for a moment, but then Grace’s voice comes through the intercom.

“Your next appointment is here, Mr. Brand.” I take a deep breath before I press the button.

“Send him in.”