Girl Undercover 6 & 7: Emma's Secret & The Truth (17 page)

“So what do you think, Gabi?” Ian asked when we had completed a full loop around the building that housed Nikkei.

“That you’re right. We do need to try to find Mr. Stenger and work our way down the chain of command. If Stenger refuses to change his mind, we could make him at least send different orders to the killer hybrids via the microchips. Unless he’s invented something that’s made him impervious to pain, he’ll do what we want…” I gave Ian a wry smile. I wasn’t a believer in torture in general, but in this case I was willing to make an exception. “But at the same time we should think of ways—quiet, non-obvious ways—how to get the rest of the world to help us stop these monsters. For example, we should talk to my captain back at the station in L.A. He has a lot of contacts in law enforcement across the country.”

“Agreed. But finding Mr. Stenger should be our main focus.”

“Fine.”

As we approached the entrance to the club having rounded the building a second time, Jonah came out, one of his clients walking behind him. Almost immediately, the tall, handsome trainer spotted me and Ian jogging toward them. The broad smile that was on his face suddenly twisted into an ugly grimace, making him look like he was about to snarl. When we were about ten yards away, I realized that Jonah was glaring at Ian only, not at me. I didn’t think I had ever seen so much hatred spelled out on someone’s face the way it was on this young man’s right then.

What the hell?

What did Jonah have against Ian?

“Let’s go inside the club,” Ian murmured, grabbing my arm and making me slow down to a walk.

“Okay,” I murmured back, throwing a glance in his direction. Based on his frown, I could tell that he had also noted how Jonah was glaring at him. But it didn’t seem like he was about to let that stop us from entering the club. We would have to pass Jonah in order to do so.

Jonah said something to his client, who nodded and started to jog along the track, away from me and Ian. Jonah himself remained a few feet before the club entrance, having placed his fists on his hips, all the while looking at Ian like he wanted to jump him.

“What the hell’s wrong with him?” I muttered to Ian as we got closer to the entrance.

“You got me beat,” Ian muttered back.

As we were only a couple of yards away from Jonah, he took a step to the side so that he completely blocked the entrance. We stopped before him.

“What, are you not gonna let us through?” I asked Jonah with a tentative smile on my lips, like I thought he was only playing with us. I didn’t think that for a second.

“You’re not gonna get it,” Jonah hissed at Ian, his pretty blue eyes having narrowed into tiny slits.

“Get what?” Ian asked, not appearing perturbed in the least by Jonah’s aggressive demeanor and strange words.

Jonah scoffed with disdain. “You know exactly what I’m talking about, man. It’s going to be all mine, rest assured of that.” He nodded at me. “She too.”

Ian smiled. “Whatever you say, pal. For now though, if you’d let us through, I’d appreciate it.”

I expected Jonah to lunge at Ian then, but instead he took a step to the side, giving us room to open the glass door that led into the club.

“Thanks, bloke,” Ian said and pushed the door open, letting me go in first. A moment later, we were both inside Nikkei again, Jonah’s angry gaze burning through the glass as he watched us leave.

Chapter 5

We continued down the walkway next to the track and then took a right, heading farther into the club, out of sight of furious Jonah, before we opened our mouths.

“Okay, so what the hell was
that
about?” I asked Ian in a low voice. “What was he talking about?”

Ian shook his head slowly. “I’m telling you, I have no
bloody
idea.”

“Really?” I couldn’t help but finding that hard to believe. Then again, I found pretty much everything that I’d learned in the last forty-eight hours hard to believe, so what else was new?

“Really,” Ian confirmed. “I don’t even know the guy. Where are we going?”

“Let’s go to the fifth floor and lift some weights. But you have seen him before, haven’t you? He’s the same trainer who was so annoyed that we were hogging the row machine once, remember?”

Ian nodded. “Ah, yes, I do remember that. Other than that though, I haven’t noticed him.”

We reached the stairs leading up to the fifth floor and began climbing them.

“Well, can you at least make an educated guess about what that was all about considering all that you know?” I asked. “Do you think he has something to do with Adler? I’m thinking he and his twin sister are super humans now. Actually, I think several of the new trainers might be.”

“Yes, you’re probably right about that many of them are super humans; I’ve long thought so myself, and that certainly includes this bloke now. Unfortunately, I can’t make an educated guess about what he’s so pissed about, though.”

“Well, clearly I seem to be part of it. I mean, since I’m gonna be
his
one day.” I rolled my eyes and scoffed at this silly idea. Whatever made Jonah think this? I had always known he had something of a crush on me, but I’d never thought it had been all that serious. I must have been wrong about that. Even so, what had that got to do with him being so incredibly furious with Ian? Something struck me then. Looking over my shoulder to be sure no one was walking behind us as we kept climbing the stairs, I said to Ian, “Is it possible that he knows you and I are hooking up?”

Ian gazed at me. “Only if you told him. I personally don’t kiss and tell.”

“I haven’t said a word.” Having reached the fifth floor, I nodded toward the far corner of the huge workout area we entered where all the heavy free weights and machines were located. “Let’s go do some pull-ups. No one’s there.”

I smiled and waved at a couple of trainers and members I knew on our way over to the pull-up machine. As we neared it, I thought of how Jonah had been at the club the evening I was supposed to meet up with my text stalker—who didn’t turn out to be Ron after all.

Is Jonah the person behind those nasty texts?

He definitely had easy access to my phone number and was well aware of the rape murders that had been happening here on the Upper West Side of Manhattan; it was a topic that had often come up in the trainers’ lounge, especially after one of our own members had fallen victim to the rapist.

No,
I decided. Unless Jonah was also a computer whiz like Ian, he couldn’t be. Only someone like that would have figured out how to use Ian’s network to route the texts, making it seem like Ian was behind them. As far as I knew, Jonah’s college majors had been biology and Latin.

Then again, the fact that he seemed to hate Ian so much would explain why he’d want to make it seem like Ian was behind the texts. Maybe someone had helped him figure out how to route the texts…

As we reached the pull-up machine, I turned to Ian and told him my thoughts.

He rubbed his chin and narrowed his eyes while pondering this. “Interesting… Have you received more texts since the one that wanted you to come to the sundeck?”

I had to think about that for a moment to be entirely sure. “No. That was the last one.”

“Well, he may very well be the one behind the texts even if he isn’t a computer expert. If he’s a super human, which we both believe that he is, chances are he’s in touch with people at Adler. And we know
they
are very good with computers, to use those words lightly. He might be using someone there to help him, exactly like you suggested.”

I nodded. “It does seem that way, doesn’t it. Do a set of twelve pull-ups now.”

“Okay,” Ian climbed up the machine and grabbed the handles, then pulled himself up and down twelve times. He lowered himself back to me. “How’s your relationship with him?”

“So-so. It started out good, but lately he’s become kinda moody. He barely says hi to me when I see him these days.”

“Based on what he said out on the track, it sounds like he may have a crush on you. Have you seen signs of that?”

“Yes. He flirted with me quite a bit when I first got to the club and kept that up for some time. Then it was like something changed and he became increasingly pissy around me.”

“If you didn’t reciprocate and he sensed that you instead had become involved with me, his feelings might’ve gotten hurt. Do you think he’d talk to you if you confronted him about what happened on the track?”

“I have no idea, but I suppose it’s worth a shot.”

***

When I was back home later that night, I checked my email to see if Brady had gotten back to me. There was still no sign of him in my inbox.

I scrunched up my mouth as I tried to make sense out of that. Brady was nothing if not reliable. If he told you he’d do something, you could count on him following through every single time. So why was there no email from him?

I found George’s number among my contacts and dialed him. He answered after the third ring, much to my relief.

“Longoria, how are you? It’s been a while. Everything good?”

“Yes, yes,” I said hurriedly before I remembered that everything was not good at all—the world as we knew it was going to come to an end unless Ian and I could find a way to stop it. A way that wasn’t as tenuous as just trying to make Mr. Stenger change his mind. But at the moment, I didn’t feel like getting into all that with George. There was plenty of time for that later. So I said, “Captain Brady emailed me a few days ago about two suspects that had been arrested for Nick’s case. Do you know anything about that?”

“Yes, two men were arrested and then cross-examined by Detective Garcia. But they were cut loose in the end. That same day in fact.”

“Really? Detective Garcia did the cross? Why not Brady? In the email, he told me he’d do it, and that he also believed that the two suspects were as good as a sure thing. You know the captain doesn’t use words such as those unless he means them.”

“No, I do know that. So you didn’t hear then?”

“Hear what?” I gripped the phone more tightly; I didn’t like the sound of George’s voice.

“Captain Brady had a heart attack a few days ago. Actually, I think it was the same day that he was going to do the cross of the two suspects… Yes, it was that same morning.”

“What?
He had a heart attack? Is he okay?”
Please don’t tell me he is dead…
I wasn’t sure I’d be able to handle hearing that.

“He’s alive, but he’s at the hospital still, in critical condition. That was the last I heard.”

I exhaled, my body relaxing somewhat. Being in critical condition was better than being dead.

“I’m sorry, Gabi,” George said. “I should have called and let you know as soon as I found out, but I’ve been really busy lately. Also, part of me didn’t want to worry you unnecessarily, if I’m going to be completely honest. We’re all hoping that he’ll be better soon.”

“That’s okay, George. I totally understand. I’m sure he’ll be fine.” He
had to
be. Captain Brady wasn’t allowed to die too. That would be so unfair.

We spoke some more, then hung up. I pressed the phone against my chest as I mouthed a quiet prayer that Captain Brady would be fine. No wonder I hadn’t heard from him if he was lying in a hospital bed, fighting for his life.

I thought about the two suspects that had been cut loose after being interrogated by Detective Garcia. Carlos Garcia was a decent detective who had worked years longer than I had at the LAPD, having been promoted to level three status last year. I had no reason to question why he’d been chosen to interrogate the suspects in place of Brady. Even so, it irked me that it had come to nothing when Brady had appeared so convinced that these two men were it. Why had he been so convinced?

I pondered calling up UCLA Medical Center where George had told me Brady was and see if I could talk to the captain, find out what had made him so sure they were behind Nick’s murder. But I soon gave up on that idea; there was no chance in hell that any nurse would allow me to speak to Brady if he was still in critical condition. I’d just have to wait until he was feeling better.
I’ll shoot him an email and ask him to get back to me when he is able to,
I thought.

But what if he dies?
a small voice in my head asked.
Then you’ll never find out, Gabi.

A sense of discomfort jolted me as I considered this possibility. If he was in critical condition, it could very well happen, even though I didn’t want to admit this to myself.

Fuck.
What the hell should I do? I couldn’t just sit here and wait to see if he responded to my email. I needed to do something. Anything was better than just waiting.

I Googled the number to the UCLA Medical Center and soon found it. Having dialed it, I held the phone against my ear, listening to the rings as they went through.

“UCLA Medical Center, how can I help you?” a pleasant female voice answered.

“Hello,” I began, having taken a deep breath to steady my voice. “I’m calling about one of your patients. A James Brady. My name is Gabriella Longoria and I’m a friend of his. I was told he was in critical condition having suffered a heart attack. Has his condition improved?”

“What was the name again?”

“James Brady. He’s a captain at the LAPD and I’m one of his detectives.”

“Hold on a moment and I’ll check for you. May I put you on hold?”

“Of course.”

While I was waiting for the nurse to get back on the line, I chewed on my nails, praying that she wouldn’t tell me that he had in fact already passed. By the time she was back, very little of my nails remained.

“Detective Longoria?”

“Yes, I’m still here.”

“Good news. The captain’s condition has improved somewhat. He’s now considered to be in serious condition only, not critical.”

I couldn’t stop myself from letting out the big breath that I’d been holding and a gasp came out of my mouth. “Oh, thank God for that! Thank you so much for giving me this information, nurse.”

“You’re welcome, Detective. Have a good evening.”