Cuckoo (Kindred Book 3) (11 page)

Thad broke first and his laugh startled them all. “I particularly liked the part when you told Cuckoo not to spend too much time on her knees,” Thad said, his lips twisted in a smile that wanted to be another laugh.

Tuck laughed and even Zave smiled. They’d heard more than just the Kahlil meeting. They’d heard her whole morning. Zara’s mouth opened when she fixated on Brodie, but no sound came out. She should have turned the damn recording off before talking to Mischa. Zara hadn’t been thinking straight because she was too busy cleaning up after Grant.

She couldn’t stay shocked. She might not have realized that the men would hear her initial meeting with Cuckoo, but she couldn’t take back what had been said, nor would she if Brodie demanded it. “I won’t apologize to her,” Zara said, starching herself with resolve. Showing Cuckoo that she was no doormat was important, and groveling would eliminate any possibility of equality between the women.

“Wouldn’t ask you to,” Brodie said. “You stood your ground.”

He didn’t smile, but his eyes warmed with pride. “Much as I’m not a fan of the woman, she’s doing a job and if she knows her stuff, then she’s in the right place,” Zara said. “If we can trust her and I’m not so sure that we can. So we should be vigilant.” Art didn’t trust her and knew she got off on criminality, those facts were enough to keep Zara suspicious.

“So Cuckoo stays put,” Tuck said. “What about Kahlil?”

Glad that Tuck was following and supporting her position, Zara was happy to return to business and happier still to stop talking about Cuckoo. “Whether or not he’s telling the truth about what he knows,” she said. “We have to take him seriously.”

“Why?” Brodie asked.

More than a question, she read curiosity rather than affront. He was testing her; this whole damn thing was a test. He wanted to know how she’d perceived Kahlil and how she’d played this forward.

“Because he’s pissed that he got fired for failing to obtain Game Time. So pissed that he went out there and found someone else to bankroll him. Not only is he spreading the word that Game Time exists just by telling his new employer, but he’s convinced the new employer of Game Time’s value. Kahlil has proven that he’s hungry and that he’s bitter, that’s not a good combination.” As Grant had demonstrated.

“There’s another hungry party,” Zave said.

She opened her hand to him in agreement, then sat down, gulping from her mug as she did. “We have to nip this in the bud. If Kahlil has heard about Grant’s death, then Sikorski has too. Both groups wanted Game Time to cause harm, and we shouldn’t assume those plans have gone away just because they lost out on the deal.”

“She’s right,” Zave said, and she was surprised that he was turning out to be her biggest ally when he’d never displayed much fondness for her before. She smiled, she’d thought the same thing about Art’s opinion of her, and he ended up being her most vehement cheerleader.

Tuck linked his hands on the table. “We have to shut them down before they get off the ground. We have to know who Kahlil is working for now.”

So much had fallen by the wayside since the loss of Art, and they were still trying to recover from that damage to their ranks. “He’s got to be in town,” Zara said.

“There’s an email address for contact in the envelope with his offer,” Brodie said. She hadn’t been aware that he’d seen the envelope. “It’s in the box you left in the kitchen.”

That’s right, the box of Grant’s things. Brodie had read her mind because she hadn’t given the envelope a second thought. “Can we trace the email?” she asked Tuck.

Tuck shrugged. “I can try if there’s activity on it. But it’s a free account. I’d guess he won’t be accessing it frequently. But I can send out a—”

“What about facial recognition?” she asked, looking to Brodie. “You said we have access to that, right?”

“You want to look for him in the city?” Tuck asked and stretched his arms toward her as he leaned forward. “We can do that. If he’s walking the streets we should be able to find him.”

Thinking ahead, she knew they couldn’t descend on him in the street in the middle of the day. But if they could track his movements through cameras, they should be able to narrow down the areas he frequented. “We could use it to find out where he’s staying, couldn’t we?”

“Yes, we could,” he said. But it was Brodie’s say so that they needed because he was the man in charge and because she didn’t want him to be disrespected, especially as it pertained to his own parents.

Making eye contact with Brodie, she hoped for some indication as to his thoughts. “Kahlil is a threat,” she said, hoping her love would see how important it was to keep tabs on this man and his intentions. “We might be able to locate him and if he has contact with whoever he’s working for—”

“I put bullets in people,” Brodie said, showing little empathy for her position. “Don’t expect me to get cozy with the guy because he’s dangling a carrot.”

“But you don’t mind if the rest of us keep tabs on him, do you?” He shrugged. That was sort of permission, so she smiled, but it was brief. “We should keep an eye on CI as well, just in case.”

“Just in case what?” Thad asked.

If it was up to her, they’d always have eyes on Cuckoo. Brodie had sort of taken care of that by putting her into a place that was monitored by cameras, but Cuckoo could do a lot of damage at CI whether she meant to or not. Beyond Cuckoo, CI held secrets of its own, a legacy left by Grant that could still bite them in the ass.

“Grant kept his work with Game Time a secret. But he did tell us that he’d started Winter Chill again. If those projects are still working—”

“We need to shut them down,” Brodie said. At least he was quick to agree with her on one subject.

“You’re the man in charge now,” she said, lifting her shoulders. “I brought Grant’s computer and if we have to go into his apartment, I can access it. All of his holdings will be distributed as per his will. Julian said that the lawyers were still trying to locate his next of kin, that would be you. If no one has been bequeathed anything yet, that would suggest everything will come to you. Grant didn’t have close friends or many girlfriends, none that he seemed to be serious about in any way.”

“Always was a charmer,” Brodie muttered and while she wouldn’t say it, she thought to herself that was another thing the brothers had in common: their inability to connect and commit. They both had trust issues, though it seemed everybody did in today’s world. She’d been with Brodie for months, and she had fought a lot of battles with him to get this close to his inner sanctum. Most women would have given up long ago.

She inhaled. “I know you weren’t Grant’s biggest fan, but we should deal with his apartment as soon as possible. We have to clear it out. We may turn up clues there that will help us figure out what he was intending to do with the new devices created by the recommissioned Winter Chill.”

Brodie was unmoved by the notion of emptying Grant’s apartment. It had to be done because they had no use for it, they’d have to sell the property. She’d spent time in that apartment as Grant’s employee back when she’d trusted him. While remembering how he was at the end, she was struck by the evolution of Grant’s character and how quickly the trigger event of losing Frank had affected his psyche.

His whole life had been dedicated to CI. Before his parents were killed, he was being groomed to take over. But he’d said it himself, when he lost all the people close to him, he realized he’d been living his life for them all these years. Now it felt like an excuse, and she couldn’t feel sorry for him because there was no excusing his actions. They lost Art because of him and had almost lost each other.

Brodie was a brooder and that could be frustrating for an outsider to deal with, but at least he never hurt anyone when he was struggling with his emotional issues. Grant’s go-to position was to take down as many people as he could as though that could somehow ease his pain.

The meeting went on, and she shook herself out of her reflection because now wasn’t the time to let her thoughts meander. She didn’t want to miss anything. “Grant said he planned to kill Sutcliffe and take over the cult,” Brodie said. “So he must have had a plan of his own.”

“Yeah,” Tuck said. “Those folks were dedicated to Sutcliffe and wouldn’t switch their allegiance to Saint without some serious persuading.”

“You saw how it went down,” Brodie said. “Maybe we’re wrong, maybe Saint didn’t think it through.”

“You think he was nuts enough that he thought showing up was going to be enough?” Thad asked.

“I’d guess his plan relied on telling Sutcliffe’s followers that he had the means to facilitate Sutcliffe’s plans. That he could give them what they wanted,” Brodie said.

“Not all of his people knew Sutcliffe’s plans,” Tuck said. “Strolling in and telling them that he planned to nuke the world wouldn’t have seduced everyone.”

“But it would get rid of those who weren’t committed to that outcome,” Zave said.

All of the men were right, the possibilities were endless, and with Grant in the ground, they had no way to interrogate him about his intentions.

“Even if we don’t figure it out, we should kill Winter Chill,” Zara said. “I don’t trust what Cuckoo would do if she found out that this technology existed.”

Tuck nodded. “It doesn’t matter what Saint’s intentions were. We need to eliminate the threat at the source.”

“CI,” Zara said. “Cuckoo will be snooping around as we speak.”

Art didn’t like Cuckoo, neither did Tuck, so she didn’t mind reiterating her reservations about having the European at the helm. Cuckoo might know business, but Zara knew a scorned woman wanted leverage. So the last thing the Kindred should do is give it to Cuckoo. They had to decommission Winter Chill right under Cuckoo’s nose, without revealing their actions to the woman Brodie had put in charge.

“It will take her time to settle in,” Zave said. “We should take advantage of that window.”

“Because once she’s confident in her role and in the systems, it will be harder for us to get in,” Tuck said. “I can limit what she can see, but if she figures out what we’re doing, we might just make her curious.”

“Mischa won’t cause trouble,” Brodie said, and he was so blank that Zara struggled to read if he was serious or how he could be so sure.

Brodie had been intimate with the woman and so knew her better than the others in the room. Cuckoo hadn’t made a great impression on her, but Mischa’s attitude towards her may have been motivated by sour grapes. Zara had the man Cuckoo had once loved. Either Cuckoo wasn’t as despicable as Zara believed her to be or Brodie was confident in his ability to control her.

Asking more questions in this environment, in front of their audience, wasn’t appropriate, this was a business meeting. Trusting Brodie, and their love, meant although she was curious, she had no real reason to question his assertion.

While she was examining her man, Thad piped up. “What is your plan for Cormack Industries?” Thad asked Brodie. Zara was glad that she wasn’t the sole person at the table invested in that answer. “What’s your plan long term? You can’t mean to keep Cuckoo there forever. She has her own company to run.”

And the last thing Zara wanted was Cuckoo in their lives full-time. Brodie’s answer didn’t assuage those concerns. “Mischa gave up full time responsibility at her father’s firm a couple of years ago. She flips around different boards, different companies, different countries,” Brodie said. “She doesn’t have a great professional attention span.”

Zara could hope that meant Cuckoo would eventually get bored at CI. But for the woman to drop everything and run at Brodie’s command, it suggested she was interested in more than just the McCormack firm.

“Why did you bring her into CI then?” Thad asked, and she appreciated that he probed for the answers she wanted but couldn’t request without coming across as a jealous girlfriend.

“Because she’s the only person I know who has the experience needed to run a multinational like CI. And she has the reputation to support her being given the position,” Brodie said. Forcing Brodie into a corner was more likely to get a person killed than satisfied. That he gave these answers without appearing pissed made Zara think he’d anticipated the questions and maybe even rehearsed the answers in his head. “I just needed it off our plates and so I put it on hers.”

The doctor wasn’t done and started to speculate. “You could absorb it into Knight Corp,” Thad said, twisting to Zave, who was at his side. “You could take over.”

Tuck laughed. “When was the last time you set foot in the Knight building?” Tuck asked Zave, though Zara didn’t know what Knight Corp was. “Have you been there in the last ten years?” Zave just shrugged. “It’s running on its own steam and that steam will run out. You don’t get the rep of being the ghost director by showing up for work every day.”

“What’s Knight Corp?” Zara asked.

“Zave’s company,” Brodie said. “He started it when he was a kid. He made his first million before he was sixteen.”

That was impressive and as her brows rose, she watched Zave’s annoyance grow. “It keeps us in chopper fuel,” Zave grumbled, and for the first time she saw him get riled, though he tried to conceal his annoyance behind an angry glare and a clenched jaw. “I don’t want CI. I don’t even want KC.”

“Which I knew,” Brodie said, giving a logical explanation for why he hadn’t done what Thad suggested. “CI can wait, let’s just forget about that and focus on finding Kahlil and shutting down Game Time.”