Protect Me (22 page)

After a
moment where the only sound was Rick’s steady pulse thrumming against her ear
where it was pressed into his neck, Rick clasped Hope to him with a hand curled
around her waist and ran the other one firmly down her back, steadying her.
“Did I miss something?” he said quietly into her hair. “Sorry I left, I just…
needed to blow off some steam. You know.”

Well,
she did
now
. Never one to waste words, Hope fished the ransom note out
of her pocket and held it up. Rick studied it.

“That’s
strange,” he said. “Isn’t it? Why would they threaten you and not me?”

It was
a good point. Hope reluctantly pulled her face away from the crook of his neck
to read the note over again.

“Maybe…
maybe they were going to kidnap me?” she hazarded. Rick looked doubtful.

He
opened his mouth to reply, but before he could get any words out, they both heard
the roar of another (much less expensive) engine coming up the driveway and
sprang apart. “Ah, that would be the backup,” Hope commented as she watched Boran
pull in and park carefully. Her heart rate was only now beginning to slow.

Rick
smiled down at her. “So you wanted me back?” he teased.

Hope
didn’t even try to hold back her own smile.

There
was the sound of a car door slamming, and they both turned to see Boran clamber
out of the car and fix his sunglasses on his face. He walked over to them with an
easy, confident stride. The familiarity of his dress and walk helped settle
Hope’s nerves, too. She even gave him a quick smile. Boran raised his thick
eyebrows behind his sunglasses at her, and she stifled it. The happiness didn’t
leave her though, especially when Rick reached around to settle a hand at the
small of her back, keeping her close. It probably wasn’t very subtle, but she
couldn’t bring herself to care.

Boran
stopped in front of them and gave them both a respectful nod. Then he looked
between them.

“Well,
I’m not seeing a problem so far,” he said dryly, and Rick laughed.

A few
minutes later the three of them were settled at the kitchen table staring at
the note.

“It
just doesn’t make sense,” Rick said.

Boran
bit his lip. “Well…”

“Maybe
whoever wrote this is just trying to psych us out?” Hope guessed.

Rick
frowned. “You found it in my room, didn’t you? Maybe the note was meant for
me.”

Boran
nodded enthusiastically. “Hey, that’s an…”

“You
think?” Hope asked skeptically. “I mean, would it really occur to you to worry
about me getting kidnapped?”

“I’d
mostly worry about your poor kidnappers,” Rick grinned.

“Doesn’t
it seem…” Boran started to say, when there were footsteps at the door.

Trinity
stopped in the doorway and planted her hands on her hips.

“Did I
miss the call for a family meeting?” she teased, setting her head to the side
and letting her eyes twinkle at them.

Hope
was so pleased to see her, so pleased that Rick was safe, so happy with life in
general for not totally crapping over her, that she jumped out of her chair and
gave Trinity a hug.

“Goodness,”
Trinity laughed and hugged her back. “I guess I had good timing.”

Hope
drew back, slightly abashed. Boran was staring at her with his eyebrows raised
high, though he said nothing. Rick was beaming like the sight of her happy was
the best thing he could think of. Maybe it was.

She
went back to her place at the table just as Boran pushed his chair back and
stood up. He gestured toward the door.

“While
you fill in your friend, I’m just going to hit the bathroom. If that’s
alright.”

Hope
nodded and Trinity immediately stole his seat, staring curiously at the paper
on the table.

“There’s
a ransom note, but nobody’s been kidnapped,” Rick explained.

Trinity
quirked a grin at Hope. “Bet you were having a right old conniption.”

“Hey!”
Rick objected, though he looked amused. “You don’t know. I could have been
ready to grab a white horse and go all prince charming to rescue Hope from the
clutches of… um…”

“Yes,
that’s another problem.” Hope tapped a finger against the paper, serious once
again. “We don’t know who these morons are, and I’m not sure we need to find
out. I think we should just call the police and read the crime report later.”

Both
Trinity and Rick looked doubtful. They exchanged skeptical glances and Hope’s
heart sank in her chest.

“What
if they really do have somebody?” Trinity ventured. “They might hurt the
person.”

Hope
raised her eyebrows. “Who? We’re all here. Who could they possibly have?”

There
were footsteps at the door, and Hope glanced up at Boran, who looked sheepish.

“Got
lost,” he explained. “Great place, but…”

Rick’s
phone started ringing.

It all
seemed a little anticlimactic, to have him pulled out on business after Hope
had thought he was gone. But it was certainly better than the alternative, she
thought as she watched Rick fumble the phone out of his pocket and frown at the
screen.

“You
should probably answer that,” Boran said helpfully. Rick was too laid back to
give him a dirty look, but Hope and Trinity weren’t. He winced. “Sorry. I just
meant - don’t feel like you’re being rude. After working for that guy, I know
how it is. You’re busy.”

Rick
grinned a little and put the phone up to his ear. “Hello?”

Trinity
turned to her and said something, but Hope couldn’t hear it. All of her focus
zoomed in on the way that Rick’s eyes widened minutely and his hand froze in
place at his ear.

She was
on her feet before she realized it, and Rick didn’t even look at her, which
confirmed all her suspicions.

Trinity
opened her mouth to ask another question and Hope held up a hand for silence.
She didn’t have to say anything to Boran; he had heard the same thing she had,
the sound of a slide being pulled back rather than a muffled greeting on the
other end of the line.

“That isn’t
- ” Rick tried to say, and then cut off the words. “Yes,” he said tightly.
Another man might have taken a white-knuckled grip on the table or be pacing
around the kitchen like a caged tiger, but Rick had no tells other than the
minute tightness around his eyes and mouth. If Hope hadn’t known him so well,
she wouldn’t have known this call was anything out of the ordinary.

Rick
nodded, one of those futile gestures that everyone uses. “I understand. I’ll be
there.” The other end of the call apparently cut the line, and he calmly pulled
the phone away from his ear and set it down on the table. He stared at it.

“What
happened,” Hope said flatly, more a command than a question. Rick’s gaze
flicked back up to her. His eyebrows were knotted together in a frown. He
looked genuinely worried. Hope didn’t feel too great herself, but it was hard
for her to work up much fear with Rick and Trinity sitting whole and well in
front of her.

Rick
brought up a hand and rubbed at the line that creased his forehead with the heel
of his palm. He grimaced into the motion. “They think - you’re right, Hope,
they had accents, kind of thick and guttural and almost German. And they’ve
gotten everything backwards. They said I couldn’t trick them. That they knew we
- you and me - were a front. They knew who my real lover was.”

He
looked up and met her eyes. “Hope, they have Iseul.”

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

“Aw,
shit,” Hope said without thinking.

Thankfully
it seemed to break the tension for Trinity and Rick; the two of them blinked
and then started laughing in that way that had nothing to do with humor and
everything to do with just needing an outlet. Over their heads, Hope and Boran
traded worried looks.

When
the giggles trailed off, Rick looked up at her again. The worst of the fear had
bled away from his expression, and had firmed into determination.

“What
do we do now?” he asked her.

Indecision
wasn’t one of Hope’s flaws. She drummed her fingers along the table and felt
the pieces of the puzzle come together in her mind with a cold kind of
pleasure. “Trinity was right. They do have somebody, so we can’t risk calling
the cops. These guys are skilled enough to have broken in twice that I know of.
They could have a plant of some kind, or just be lucky, or be computer hackers
with access to the panic room feeds. They could monitor if we’re calling out,
or what the police station is doing. We just don’t know.”

“That’s
not really how hacking works…” Rick murmured. Hope glared at him and he smiled
a little. “…I mean, excellent plan, Patton. Carry on.”

An edge
of a reluctant smile rose up at the corner of her lips in response. But she was
worried too, and not just for Rick’s sake, or for the simple sanctity of human
life. People decided they were in love after a day all the time, and it didn’t
seem all that unreasonable to consider someone a friend after just a day. And
Hope had connected with Iseul.

She
wasn’t going to give up on her new friend so easily.

“What
we’re going to do is split into teams. Boran and I will go to West Farthing and
do our damndest to get Iseul out of there intact. Rick and Trinity will stay
here, monitor the phones, and be prepared to call the cops if we’re not back in
time, or we send up the flares.” Hope gave a satisfied nod and clasped her
hands behind her back. “Got it?”

“I
don’t know, Lasser…”

“Are
you out of your fool mind?”

“That’s
hilarious, do keep it in mind for when you make the real plan.”

Hope
scowled at the three dissenters and propped her hands on her hips. She leveled
a glare around the entire table. Trinity looked taken aback, so Hope dialed it
down a little. Boran’s expression didn’t change. Rick just smiled grimly.

“Keeping
in mind that Boran and I are the only ones with any practical experience, what
exactly is the problem you all seem to have?”

Her
words seemed to make Trinity pause. No such luck with Rick.

He laid
his arms on the table and leaned forward. His dark eyes caught hers. It made
her feel guilty to find him so attractive when worry was shadowing his face,
but Hope just wished…

Well.
She wasn’t really in the business of futile wishes.

“If you
think I’m going to let you walk into a trap like that, you’re crazy,” he said.

“And
what would you prefer we do? Leave Iseul at the mercy of these upstanding
citizens? Risk her life by passing the buck to the cops?”

Rick
grinned, like he was in on the joke.

“Of
course not,” he said. “I’m going to walk into with you, is all.”

Boran
and Trinity slowly turned to look at him. Hope resisted the urge to bury her
face in her palms.

“Of
course,” she echoed. “Well. Nothing can go wrong now, can it?”

Hope
stared out the passenger window and counted to ten.

Maybe
she’d feel less irritated if she did it again.

Maybe
the next time.

This
was the problem with having a genius for a - whatever. He knew all sorts of
things about employment law and culpability, or at least pretended he did.

“You’re
not my employee anymore, therefore you are in no way responsible for my
well-being and have no recourse for controlling my behavior,” Rick had told her
over the kitchen table. Hope had looked over at Boran for help, but Boran had
just shrugged and told Rick to bring samples from his lab in case they needed
leverage. Rick had been so thrilled at the unexpected backup that he’d jumped
right up and gotten the stuff before Hope had a chance to really get started
with a decent argument.

Also,
she had no idea what she could say to convince him.

Rick
shoved his upper body into the space between the two front seats and craned his
neck around to stare at Hope. “Don’t be upset,” he told her plaintively.
“Everything will be fine. I just can’t let you go off on your own, you know?
You wouldn’t let me do that either.”

Hope
glared at him, ignoring the part of her that wanted to take his hand and thread
their fingers together.

“Lean
back so your seat belt fits properly.”

Boran
shot an amused glance at her as Rick sighed and obeyed. Hope gave him the
squinty eye too.

“Don’t
you grin at me. As of right now, the only one in my good books is Trinity.”
Small mercies - Trinity had realized the need for one of them to remain safe at
the mansion with a cell phone glued to her ear. Well, relatively safe, they’d
all seen recently just how vulnerable a civilian’s house could be. There was
only so much you could do until you were attacked. But Trinity was holed up in
the panic room, so Hope felt confident that at least one of them would make it
through the evening intact.