Pitch Black: A Romantic Thriller (Blackwood Security Book 1) (30 page)

“I’m not sure about this.”

“The way I see it, you don’t have a lot of choice. I don’t know how much you remember about last night, but you nearly got shot in the head. Trust me when I say you can’t do this alone.”

Deep down, Luke knew that. He’d swum so far out of his depth he was surprised he hadn’t drowned already. He sagged back against the counter, spent. His brain overrode his panic and told him to accept the assistance they were offering.

“So what do we do now?”

“First we need to work out why Tia was taken. That’s key in finding out who has her,” Dan said.

She got up and poured another cup of coffee from a warming jug, then slid it in Luke’s direction. “Take a seat.” She motioned to the stool in front of the cup.

He did so. Despite having only just got up, there was a weariness percolating through him he couldn’t shake. He sipped at the drink, hoping it would give him some much needed energy.

“Have you had any threats made against you? Or Tia? Any problems at work?” Nick asked.

“Nothing. This came out of the blue.”

“Have you noticed anybody following you? Seen any cars parked up in strange places?”

“No and no. Believe me, I’ve been thinking this through myself.”

“I thought as much, but I need to ask. Ash would have noticed even if you didn’t,” Nick said.

Ash again. How was she involved in this?

Nick continued, “What are your thoughts on the ransom?”

“They wanted £250,000 plus the source code for my company’s new product.”

“I know.”

“How?” Luke hadn’t told anyone that.

Nick shrugged. “Not important. How much is that source code worth?”

“Millions, in the right hands.”

“What does it do?”

“It incorporates the usual firewall and anti-virus software, but the key feature is when it detects a threat, instead of just blocking it, the code I wrote starts tracking it back to its source. Simply put, it turns the tables on malicious hackers. There are a lot of people who don’t want it to see the light of day.”

“So who would steal it? Hackers?”

“Possibly. Or our competitors. It’s light years ahead of anything else on the market at the moment. Some individuals in the industry have dubious morals, and they’d be quite happy to use it as a base for their own software.”

“So hackers, competitors. Who else?”

Luke sighed. “Anyone looking to make a quick buck. They wouldn’t have to use the product themselves—buyers would be lining up for it. If the code gets out, my reputation’ll be trashed, and my company’ll end up in the toilet. We’ve sunk a lot of resources into that program.”

“Who knows about its existence?”

“Everyone who reads the industry press. I’ve been doing interviews about it for months.”

“So the person who took it wouldn’t have to be a techie then? Not if they could simply sell it on?” asked Dan.

“No, although I spent a few hours modifying the code so it didn’t quite work. Nothing too obvious, though, in case they noticed and took it out on Tia. A good programmer could probably fix the changes in a couple of months.”

Dan stood up to pour herself another cup of coffee. “Top up?” she asked Nick.

He nodded and handed his cup over. Luke felt too sick to drink his. How could they stay so calm?

When Dan sat down again, she asked, “So the guy you gave the ransom to, what do you remember about him?”

Luke fought his way through the sludge in his head. “Not much. Things are coming back to me in bits and pieces, but I’m still not sure what happened.”

“Talk us through what you do remember.”

“The message gave me coordinates for a clearing in the woods. I was supposed to leave the bag there, except when I arrived, I saw a man on the far side, watching me.”

“You’re sure it was a male?” Nick asked.

“I didn’t get a good look at his face, but when he punched me later, it bloody hurt. I doubt a woman would have such a vicious right hook.”

Nick laughed at that. “You’d be surprised.”

“It wasn’t fucking funny.” Luke’s jaw still ached from the hit.

Nick grew serious again. “Sorry. Wind back a bit. What happened when you saw him?”

“I walked towards him, but he held a hand up so I stopped. He came to me instead.”

“Then what?”

“I asked where Tia was, and he told me I’d find out when I handed the bag over. So I did, but he only laughed.”

“That was it? He laughed?”

“No, then he spoke to me.”

“And…?” Dan prompted.

Luke rubbed his temples, trying to remember. What were the words? He caught the edge of his stitches with one finger, and the pain helped focus his mind.

“He said he was disappointed, that he never expected me to be such a pushover. I told him I just wanted my sister back, and that we had a deal. He said, ‘I never said we had a deal. You took my life and I’m getting it back.’” Luke closed his eyes. “At least I think that’s what he said.”

“Any idea what he meant by that?”

“Not a clue. It doesn’t make much sense, does it? He was wearing a hat and had a scarf over the bottom half of his face. His voice was kind of high pitched and it didn’t sound familiar either.”

“And were those his exact words?”

“I’m not a hundred percent sure. It’s all a bit hazy.”

“That’s okay. A little haziness is to be expected. Can you remember what happened next?” Dan asked.

“He took a gun out his pocket.” Luke shuddered. “A gun! I wasn’t going to outrun a bullet, so I leapt at him. What else could I do? That’s when he punched me. We struggled, and he hit me again. I guess that’s how I got this.” Luke gently touched his cut again. “Then I ended up on the ground, but everything’s black after that.” That was more than he’d recalled this morning. Talking had jogged his memory.

Dan tapped her nails on the counter. They were turquoise with black dots, too playful for such a serious situation. “That’s okay. We’ve got more to work with now. His comment about you taking his life suggests your paths have crossed before, so we’ll concentrate our efforts on your past. Can we get access to your employee files? Have you fired anybody who might have borne a grudge?”

That was something else Luke had racked his brains over. “I can’t think of anyone, but I’ll arrange access to the files. Whoever this guy is, he’s well on his way to taking my life now, isn’t he? I mean, he’s got my sister, a chunk of my money and the software I’ve spent years developing. What else is there?” Luke put his head in his hands and leaned forward onto the counter. Ash popped into his head. A week ago, she’d have been on that list, but where did they stand now?

“Oh, he didn’t get the ransom,” Dan said chirpily. “Ash got that. It’s in the strong room.”

“What?”

“I guess you forgot that part. The guy was about to shoot you when Ash got there. She stopped him, but when she checked on you she lost ground in the chase. Bastard jumped in a van and escaped. He dropped the bag though. Probably the knife he had lodged in his bicep made it a bit uncomfortable to carry.”

“Have I missed something? How did he get a knife in his bicep?”

“Ash,” Dan said, simply.

“Let me get this straight—Ash got close enough to a man carrying a gun to stab him in the arm? He could have shot her! Does she have a death wish?”

“Oh no, she wasn’t that close, about twenty metres away by all accounts. She threw the knife,” Dan answered, as if it was the most natural thing in the world.

“You’re shitting me! Is she crazy?”

Nick and Dan just looked at each other.

“Yes,” they replied in unison.

Chapter 30

THE DAY AFTER the attempted ransom drop I got up at five, but not because I wanted to. I’d thought I would sleep better in one of my own beds, but instead I relived the chase through the woods in my own unique way. I ended up running through the house and only woke when I fell over the coffee table in the lounge.

I sat on the floor breathing hard. The pain across my shins told me I’d have a lovely bruise later. Why did this have to happen? I hadn’t suffered from such an awful sleepwalking episode for months. Since before I met Luke, in fact. I swore under my breath then froze as I heard a noise behind me. Strong arms reached under my armpits and pulled me to my feet. It was Nick. I recognised the aftershave and his own earthy smell under it.

He spun me round to face him. “Fucking hell, are the nightmares getting worse?”

“They were bad after the funeral, but they got better. I went two weeks without one before the thing with Tia.”

“What did you dream of this time? I could hardly keep up. You’ve done a couple of laps of each floor and been up and down all four staircases.”

“I was chasing the kidnapper, but no matter how fast I ran, I couldn’t catch him. Then I fell and woke up.”

“Christ, it’ll be a nightmare for everyone if those demons are back.”

“I know that, Nick. Believe me, I know it.” Even in my sleep I couldn’t do right.

His face softened. “Come on, let’s go back to bed.”

“What’s the point? I won’t sleep. I might as well go into the office and do something useful.”

“Are you sure you’re ready for that?” His voice held a hint of concern. That was Nick all over. He rarely held a grudge for long.

“I’ve got to go sometime, haven’t I? It might as well be today. Everyone’ll be whispering behind my back anyway—they might as well do it to my face.”

The weather forecast predicted a crisp, clear day, so I whipped the cover off the Aston Martin. I’d barely driven it and I needed to lift my spirits. Metallic black with a black leather interior, it had a paddle shift gearbox and a top speed of 205 mph. Not that I’d ever drive so fast. Well, at least not in London. Too many traffic lights. Even though I was stuck behind a black cab, I couldn’t help smiling as I pulled onto the road.

I had to take pleasure in the small things nowadays.

I made good time, and when I walked into the large, modern building hidden away on a back street in Kings Cross, I found that one of the conference rooms had already been commandeered as an incident room for the investigation. Nye and a few others spent had the night there, and what little information we’d gathered was projected onto the wall in an electronic index card system.

Despite their efforts, the only concrete lead was the van, and that wasn’t looking hopeful. Mack emailed to say she’d hacked into the police database overnight and found the plates were stolen. They’d been taken almost four months ago from a silver Mercedes Sprinter van parked in South London.

Despite the multitude of automatic number plate recognition cameras dotted around the city, the registration number hadn’t been spotted since. Either the kidnapper only put the plates on his van recently or he’d been driving it outside London. Or the bastard had just been plain lucky.

If it was the latter, I intended to make that luck run out.

“I’ve sent a couple of guys to the owner’s address in case the theft wasn’t genuine,” Nye said.

“I saw a Ford in the woods, not a Mercedes.”

Nye leaned back in his seat. “I wanted to cover all bases, and we haven’t found any other leads.”

“You were right to send them. I’ll get the cops to keep an eye out as well, off record.”

For that, I called an acquaintance in the Metropolitan Police. Jason was a good guy, one of the few cops I trusted. He saw the bigger picture rather than striving to keep his paperwork shipshape and his statistics up.

His methods meant he wasn’t always popular with his superiors, and more than once he’d shared his frustrations over a drink. I’d offered him a job more than once, but for the moment his loyalty lay with the Met. He genuinely believed he could help make the city a better place, and I had to respect his tenacity.

It had been months since I’d spoken to him. Did he know about my break?

“It’s Emmy. Long time, no speak.”

“You’re not kidding, mate. I heard you’d gone AWOL.”

“I needed some time off. You know, with everything that happened.”

“Fair enough. Look, I’m sorry about your husband. Nobody deserves that.”

“Thanks, it was a shock to lose him.” I didn’t want his sympathy, and I didn’t want to discuss the past, so I moved the conversation back to the problem at hand. “I need to call in a favour.”

“I had a feeling this wasn’t a social call. What do you want?”

He was right. I didn’t do social calls. “Can you keep an eye out for a white Ford Transit?” I read out the registration number.

“All right. If anything gets picked up, what do you want done?”

“Nothing, just call me with the details. Quickly, yeah?”

“Right-oh. Don’t suppose you want to tell me what this is about?”

I laughed. “You know me better than that, Jase.”

“Always did play your cards close to your chest. Talk to you soon.”

“Sure, and thanks.”

I hung up, shoving the amber phone, which I’d recently been reunited with, back into my pocket with the red phone, and Ash’s phone. At this rate I was going to need more pockets.

At least when I was living with Luke, I hadn’t needed to cart so much crap around me. By the time I’d filled my pockets with the phones, a wallet, a couple of knives, lip balm, some flexicuffs, tissues, pepper spray, a pen, a torch, a lighter, and a tube of mascara, I felt like a pack pony.