Hidden Impact (11 page)

Marc was fast.

“Vic and I will head out to see if we can get access to him. If he wakes up.” Marc sounded dubious. “If you read between the lines, the prognosis isn’t good. Doctor mentions it’s the most serious case of straight up food poisoning he’s encountered. They’re looking for some sort of allergen or other slow-acting contributor to the issue.”

Gabe scowled. “If the guy had a peanut allergy, wouldn’t it hit right away?”

“Anaphylactic shock is the most dramatic, but according to Google, there’s slower ways for allergies to present themselves. If it hit on digestion, it could explain why it took longer to show up.” And Marc’s Google-fu was near Jedi level.

If it was food poisoning due to something he actually ate. None of his team specialized in poisoning and neither did Jewel—they all preferred more directs means of confronting a person—but they’d worked with others who had. Jewel knew those names as well as Gabe did. Easy to induce the food reaction, and it looked completely natural. Travelers suffered from food poisoning all the time.

Course, if it
had
been a natural reaction to something the guy ate, it was very interesting timing.

No way for his team to know for sure right now.

“All right. Keep me posted. We want to know what this guy has to do with things.”

“Roger that.” Ending the call, Gabe decided to address next steps.

He’d dropped Maylin off at the front of the embassy, waiting for her to enter safely. Not likely to be much danger for her there, with all of the surveillance on property. Plus Gabe assumed whoever was tracking her had their attention on her phone, back at Centurion Corporation outside Seattle. Especially with Marc simulating normal activity on the phone, logging into email and apps as well as running predictable web searches.

But his ex was particularly good at remembering faces and recognizing family resemblance. If she was in the middle of all this, the embassy didn’t seem so safe anymore.

Chapter Ten

“I haven’t technically left the embassy.” And Gabe wasn’t there to hear her mumbled defense anyway. Nope. A good thing too. Maylin stood just in front of the entranceway, still on the embassy grounds, with the late afternoon breeze clearing away some of the embarrassment and frustration she’d built up over the course of the afternoon.

Hours of wasted time.

Oh, it wasn’t the cool reception when she’d first entered that bothered her. She’d been an entrepreneur for too many years to be intimidated by the formalities and the initial insistence that she make an appointment with some unspecified official who likely would be out of office anyway. She could and did handle those obstacles. The consultant badge associating her with the Centurion Corporation private military organization helped get her past the more difficult barriers when she might not otherwise have been able to as a random visitor. Subject Matter Expert had a much more valid ring to it than Desperate Client Who Almost Became Road Pizza.

And it wasn’t the patronizing attitude either. It would be politically incorrect to claim it was cultural. But it would also be ignoring reality to claim there wasn’t a social structure at the embassy, and she came in at the low end of the pecking order as a supplicant, consultant or not. It’d been a childhood survival skill to keep her frustration under control when her parents’ Chinese friends made social events a complex dance of backhanded compliments and thinly veiled verbal barbs. Besides, if she took a step back and observed objectively, every culture had a flavor of it. It was just the
way
they did it. Human nature, maybe.

It was what had happened once she’d found someone to help her. When they’d genuinely tried to run searches and couldn’t find any record of her emailed inquiries or phone messages. When they had no record of her little sister’s visa.

When they’d asked her if she was sure her little sister had gone to China at all.

To her shame, she’d been so incredibly frustrated and angry, tears had threatened. She had to step outside to calm herself despite Gabe’s warning to stay inside the embassy. It would damage any small respect she’d gained if they saw her cry, and stepping away at all was an acknowledgment of her lack of composure. And that, in itself, would set her back hours.

Time wouldn’t turn back, and she needed to get back to the person trying to help her before the nice man left for the day and she’d have to start her story all over again, going through the same searches. She pulled out her temporary phone to check her messages. For one thing, Gabe might have texted her. For another, it would give her a reason for having gone outside since there was no reception inside the building. She’d be able to save face to some extent.

“Excuse me.”

The unaccented, American voice was so close, Maylin jumped.

A blonde woman stood within inches, tipping her head to one side with a soft smile. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you. I couldn’t help overhearing you inside.”

Interesting. Maylin forced her brow to remain smooth, her lips to shape a return smile. The woman hadn’t been anywhere in sight as far as Maylin had noticed.

“I’m afraid the aide had to leave for the day and the embassy will be closing soon.”

Oh no.
Ice washed through Maylin’s body and her smile froze on her face. She never should have left. Now she’d have to start all over again tomorrow.

“Perhaps you could tell me more about your little sister?” The woman was tall, leaning too close into Maylin’s personal space. Her gaze was sharp and her smile reminded Maylin of a Cheshire cat. “I’ve worked in DC for years now and maybe I have a few connections who could be of help. Missing persons cases are difficult, otherwise, and I’m sure you’ve been running into a lot of red tape.”

Every internal alarm went off inside Maylin’s head. The woman had too much information for absolutely no good reason.

“Depends on your definition of help.” Gabe’s voice flowed through Maylin, washing away the tension. She wasn’t alone with this stranger who knew too many things.

The woman stepped past Maylin in a smooth motion, the intensity of her focus completely transferred to Gabe where he stood outside the embassy gates. Without waiting for any signal, Maylin strode directly past the woman to join him. Might have been wiser to circle around the stranger, but what would she do on embassy grounds in broad daylight? Another place with less light and Maylin might have been more cautious. But for the time being, she was done losing face.

Once Maylin reached him, Gabe’s gaze flicked over her in a lightning assessment before fastening on the woman following her. “What brings you here, Jewel?”

Jewel halted on the sidewalk outside the gate, facing them both. She and Gabe squared off, maintaining several yards between them.

“Gabriel.” Sensuality oozed out of every pore and her posture became fluid, feline, an invitation. “It’s been a while. Have you been taking good care of yourself?”

Why did the question sound more like an innuendo than a courtesy? Maylin tried to ignore the twist in her stomach.

“Why are you here?” More bite to Gabe’s question this time.

Good. Maylin kept her own expression neutral. This was one of those times where she’d follow his lead but wouldn’t spare a moment’s guilt for slamming him with questions after they were alone. Timing and all that.

“I’ve got a job to do, obviously.” The woman, Jewel, leaned her hand on her hip. “You being here makes things a little more complicated than expected. Of course, I’m sure we could come to an understanding of some sort.”

“I’m not too fond of your assumption.” Gabe’s body language was aggressive and chilling at the same time. From the cold, flat look in his eyes to the thin line of his lips to the straight set of his shoulders. Anyone leaving the embassy would see a few people talking, but Maylin was caught up in the tension between them. Gabe could explode at any moment and she planned to be ready to duck if he said so.

Jewel still stood relaxed, with an almost lazy smile playing on her very red lips. “Well, I’m guessing you’re not quite as fond of me since last we met.”

Gabe had been shifting forward in small movements until Maylin realized she was leaning to one side to see around him. How did he do that? With the embassy gates at her immediate left and Gabe between her and this Jewel person, Maylin glanced around them, figuring this was too public a place for Jewel to try anything truly dangerous. There were people on the street. Heck, more people were walking up and down the sidewalks than when she’d arrived earlier in the day. End of the workday, probably end of classes for many of the university students too. Rush hour, university campus style.

“Where’s her sister?” Gabe’s question wrenched Maylin’s attention back to their discussion.

Jewel widened her eyes and batted mascara-lengthened lashes. “What makes you think I know where she is?”

Gabe jerked his chin up and down in a short, small motion. “You didn’t say you didn’t know.”

Maylin wanted to reach out and shake Jewel, demand the woman spit out whatever it was she knew instead of playing games. Probably not the best idea. She balled her hands into fists at her sides instead.

“Well, you
are
very good at reading body language, so I do my best not to lie to your face, Gabriel.” Jewel studied her nails.

“But you’d put a bullet in my back.” Gabe spat the statement out and Jewel’s already pale skin turned a few shades chalkier. “Problem with a bullet when it doesn’t go through and through is someone could dig that bitch out and work forensics magic.”

Any worries about jealousy were fading with that bit of information. Dislike for the woman was slowly burning into an active hatred. Jewel knew important things about An-mei and had hurt her man. Maylin was going to wipe the arrogant look off Jewel’s face someday.

“You sure you didn’t lose too much blood in your last mission?” Jewel’s comment came out flippant, her composure recovered quick as anything.

Too much hung in the air between the two and Maylin soaked it in, tried to commit every detail of the confrontation to memory. She was going to be thinking hard on it later.

“You owe me,” Gabe growled. “Where is her sister?”

“No.” The word dropped from Jewel’s mouth like a stone. “You owe
me
for not taking a head shot on that contract. Anyone else would’ve taken you out permanently rather than risk having you come after them, but the primary objective was specifically to disable the team and ensure the target didn’t make it out alive. I made a field decision and you’re alive because of it. Keep that in mind.” The Cheshire cat smile returned in the long beat of silence that followed. “Besides, your little friend here would find her sister far quicker with me. And she wouldn’t have to fly to the other side of the world on a wild goose chase, either.”

It was tempting to run toward Jewel. Scream at her. Demand. But Maylin bit her lip and stayed right where she was. In this situation, Gabe had the lead. It was important. And acting on any impulse would likely land her right in whatever Jewel had in mind. Maylin was not going to give the woman the satisfaction.

Without making a move, Gabe somehow loomed. His big, bad and dangerous unlocked without any visible effort on his part. “Walk away, Jewel. This is a Centurion Corporation job.”

Jewel’s smile faded a fraction. Her eyes darted, focusing on Gabe then Maylin then back to Gabe. “I’m with Edict now. There is no walking away.”

Gabe stiffened, his broad shoulders and back frozen for a split second before he relaxed again into the ready-to-move posture Maylin always admired about him. This tightrope walking on the edge of action was exhausting her and she wanted to shout. Make something happen.

After a pause, Jewel flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Take the tiny woman back to wherever you plan to stash her and keep her under wraps. If she quits looking for what she’s lost, she can go back to her life with no worries.”

Oh, no way.

“Not likely.” Maylin took a step forward, but Gabe’s arm blocked her momentum. Anger burned away thought process and Maylin only wanted to get right up into Jewel’s face.

Jewel laughed, a short bark. “Remember to look both ways before you cross the street, then.”

Maylin opened her mouth to say something. A hundred questions crowded, jostling to be the first out. But Gabe was herding her to one side and into his rental car.

“Stay down,” Gabe muttered before shutting the passenger-side door and striding around to the driver’s side. Once inside, he kept his attention on Jewel as he started up the car and pulled away from the curb.

Scrunched up in the seat, Maylin fought a nasty internal battle with the part of her most likely to tell him where to shove his orders and jump out of the car. She could assert herself. Prove she was her own woman and go confront this Jewel person, try to make the woman tell her how to find her sister. But Gabe was a professional and obviously knew Jewel. The comments they’d tossed back and forth had too many layers of meaning, too many references to things unspoken. Too much history.

Besides, Jewel had wanted Maylin to go with her. Reason enough to follow Gabe’s instructions. Call it intuition or instinct or questionable survival skill. Maylin didn’t trust Jewel in any way, shape or form.

So she wasn’t going to ditch Gabe to go with the woman. But she wasn’t going to follow along blindly either. It’d been several long minutes and she was done with waiting for him to speak to her. “Are we far enough away for you to tell me why you stuffed me in the car instead of making that woman tell you where my sister is?”

“No.” Gabe sighed. “Yes. I’m sorry.”

A little of the resentment loosened inside Maylin’s chest. He sounded sincere. It was hard to let someone else make the decisions, but Gabe kept proving he wasn’t taking her acquiescence for granted. “Apology accepted.”

And to be fair, frequent traffic light stops meant they hadn’t traveled more than a few miles as yet. Washington, DC, and the surrounding areas were much more confusing to her than Seattle. The street layout didn’t make it easy for her to picture a map of the area in her mind or get her bearings.

“You’re lucky I got there when I did.” Gabe’s grip on the driving wheel tightened. “You weren’t supposed to step outside the embassy.”

Maylin shook her head. If he could apologize, so could she. “I’m sorry too. Could she have taken me off embassy grounds?”

Gabe took in a deep breath. “She was trying to coax you, get you to walk with her. Then, it wouldn’t take much to snatch you off the street.”

True. Maylin could picture it pretty readily. She closed her eyes and recalled several cars on the street. No black minivans or windowless work vans, but more than one had been an SUV or similar larger vehicle. Not hard to shove someone into one of those and drive away. She needed to take these things in more at the moment instead of in hindsight.

“But why?” The question burst from her and she took a moment to slow down, try not to sound panicked. “Why do they want me at all? If they were trying to silence me, stop me from looking for An-mei, I understand why they would try to run me over. But these other things that have been happening. They’re trying to take me alive and I don’t understand.”

It didn’t make any sense. And she needed for it to make sense or she was going to go crazy.

“You’d be leverage. Your sister is capable of conducting valuable research. But they can’t beat her into doing what they want. They need her in reasonably good condition and able to think. That’s where having you in custody makes sense. They can threaten you to gain her cooperation. It’s a good sign because it could mean your sister is alive and resisting. As long as you’re loose, we’ve got a better chance of getting to her before she fulfills their use for her. And you’re turning out to be valuable.” Despite his positive words, Gabe’s tone remained serious. “They’re going to try harder and harder to get to you. I want to say as long as you do what I tell you to, you’ll be fine, but my team and I can’t anticipate every move. We’ll do our best, but your chances increase exponentially if you keep your calm and think clearly on your own too.”