While You Were Dead (21 page)

So proper. So upstanding. Kat wondered all over again what was wrong with her that she couldn’t love this man. Her smile was not quite as forced when he finished hailing the waitress and sat down across from her.

“Taken to running into things head-first, have we?” His eyes were on her forehead.

“Something like that,” she murmured.

The waitress brought steaming hot coffee. Vic picked up her mug. “Are we sweet tonight, or bitter?”

Tears stung her eyes again. It was all so familiar. So safe. Would they be talking about Max tonight, or merely her day at the office? She gave him a grimace that would have to pass for a smile and reached for her mug. “Bitter, I’m afraid.”

“I thought as much.” He relinquished the mug, but not before he’d softly stroked her fingers. “Well, then. Tell good old Uncle Victor all about it.”

She opened her mouth to do just that and heard Max’s voice as clearly as if he spoke in her ear.

You don’t want to do that, baby.

“I—”

Mitch. Get the information about Mitch. Find Lizzie.

Only she couldn’t lie to Vic. She’d never been able to lie to Vic. She took a sip of her coffee, closed her eyes for a moment as the brew burned her throat and let out all her breath in one long exhale. “A-a friend’s c-child was kidnapped.” She gripped her mug and ordered her voice to steady, her eyes to meet Vic’s. “We’re not sure, but we believe Mitch may have something to do with it.”

“But this Mitch character said it involved your mother.”

Kat nodded. “It does. Mitch contacted mom first. He may have nothing to do with the other, but my friend, he thinks it might. He doesn’t believe in—”

“Coincidence?”

Kat froze. How could he know that?

Across the table, Vic laughed and touched his temple with delight. “I still have it, Kat, darling. Admit it!”

Still unnerved, Kat only watched him.

“Have you forgotten, Kat? How well I’ve always read you?” He looked distraught. “I’m sorry, love. But you know those lovely eyes of yours have always betrayed you, don’t you? It’s rare when I don’t know the next word out of your beautiful mouth.” He cleared his throat. “If it upsets you, I shan’t do it again.”

She shook her head. “I’m sorry,” she whispered, and sighed. She always ended up apologizing to Vic. “I had forgotten. Tonight it was just. . .strange.”

“So your friend thinks Mitch might be involved in the child-napping?”

“Yes. And we haven’t been able to locate him.”

Vic’s sweet smile split his face. “I’m delighted I can help.”

“You’ve got his number, you said?”

Vic leaned across the table and kept his voice hushed. “I’ve got more than that.”

Enticed, Kat leaned toward him. “More than his number?”

“I know where he is.”

##

Max twisted restlessly, searching the mists in his mind for Kat. She’d been here, not too long ago, offering a heavenly nectar that tasted like strawberries. If he could find her, he wouldn’t have to go back. He twisted and pain tore through his body.

“Lie still,” she’d said. “Lie still. This will help.”

Strawberries. Strawberries and the faint scent of lilac that meant she was near.

He couldn’t smell her now.

“Kat?” he called as the cold mists swirled deeper and denser.

“Come and get me, Ice,” the darkness hissed back. “Come and finish it.”

“I did. It is finished.” His voice sounded so weak. So unsure. Max swung his arms, trying to clear away the fog.

“Finish it,” the voice taunted. “Or I’ll finish you.”

The mists got darker. Thicker. Swirled until the pain Max felt in his body was swallowed up.

Then vanished, taking Max with it.

The man called Ice melted into the side of a mountain, surveying the small valley below him. A woman, a young latina from the look of her, tended an outdoor fire, stirring a huge iron pot of laundry with a stick. It looked like a scene from a movie, depicting life in the woods one hundred years ago. Ice gripped his state-of-the-art rifle and sited. The woman appeared to be alone. He knew it was just that. Appearance. She appeared to be pregnant, too. Ice didn’t believe that either, but it didn’t matter. The woman was not his concern. Her lover was.

The mole was responsible for the deaths of half a dozen men from his unit. His brothers. Ice could still see the photographs Viper had laid out on the table. One by one, Blade set them up, watched them die. Men who would have died for him. He’d betrayed them. For money.

No.

No quick bullet here. Not when it had taken three years to find him. Blade would know his destiny before it found him. Sharp. Swift. Painless. But first he would know.

The late spring Mexican sun was merciless. He’d been here, waiting, for hours now. Hot sweat beaded and dripped along his back, his brow. Max didn’t move. Clocked once at fourteen hours of such still, silent surveillance, he knew he could do more. Whatever it took. Enemies had stepped carefully around him. . .over him, all without ever knowing he was there. Until it was too late. No, he wouldn’t move.

This would end today. Kat was waiting.

The woman moved back into the shack. He heard voices, one male, one female. Hers took on a decidedly crisper edge and then rang out across the valley.

“Of course he’s there! You know he’s there! I can feel him, Peter!” The shout ended in a wail.

Peter. Ice knew him only as Blade. He felt one sliver of anticipation race up his spine then all his emotions faded. Like a bag of marbles with a large hole in the bottom, the man waiting on the hillside was empty inside.

A man appeared in the doorway of the shack, a rifle slung over his shoulder. Ice sited, but didn’t breathe. The man spun in a slow circle, shielding his eyes from the sun, surveying the hills surrounding his valley. Ice almost smiled. He wouldn’t be seen. He never was.

“Ice! I didn’t set them up. I wouldn’t betray the team. You know that.”

He knew no such thing. He’d seen the proof himself, insisted on it before he’d accepted the assignment. Blade was lying.

He watched his one-time friend lift the rifle strap from his shoulder with one finger. Again Blade twirled, the sun reflecting dully off of his own sniper’s tool as he slowly completed another 180 degrees. “I’m puttin’ it down, Ice.” He slung the rifle to the ground, too far away for him to retrieve it should Ice miss. A useless gesture. Ice never missed. “Take me in, buddy.” Blade’s knife, his signature weapon, clattered to the ground atop the rifle. “Let’s have a trial.”

Ice felt an irritating blip of annoyance. Only because it was Blade. Only because he, too, had trusted the man with his own life. Too many times to count.

End it.

At the last second, Blade turned again, facing Ice–staring right at him. He lifted his hands in a universal gesture of surrender.

And died.

##

Vic did know where Mitch was, or at least he had the physical address of the phone number Mitch had given him. Kat watched in breathless amazement as a map appeared on the small screen in Vic’s car. The unit was almost identical to the one she had in her own car.

“Bloody technology’s grand, isn’t it?” Vic turned the screen so she could see more clearly. “Of course that begs the question of what to do now.”

Not for Kat, it didn’t. From the moment she’d taken Max’s gun–the little one he hadn’t shown her–she’d known a feeling of inevitability. Of course it would come to this. In her mind, the outcome was just as certain. She’d be back before Max woke up. With Lizzie by her side.

She leaned further into Vic’s rented car and pressed a kiss against his cheek. “Thank you so much.”

“What are you going to do?”

She smiled. “Go see Mitch, of course.” She closed his car door and headed for her own, parked just three spaces down.

Vic caught her arm as she reached to open her door. “Katherine, please. I really must object. You suspect the man of being involved in a child-napping, you can’t just go knocking at his door.”

Kat gave him a cool smile and gently, but firmly, removed his hand from her arm. “Give me a little credit, Vic.” He relaxed a little, enough for her to push past him and get her door open. “I’m not going to knock,” she announced as she sat and pulled the door closed in one smooth motion.

She wasn’t fast enough for Vic. At the risk of great harm to his fingers, he inserted his hand into the opening, not allowing her door to close. Kat sighed. He never had known when to give up and leave. Apparently he still didn’t.

“You can’t mean that, Kat.”

“Oh, I do. But I’ll be careful.”

“But you can’t–“

”Yes. I can. And I will.”

“At least call the police.”

“No. This is–it’s personal. You wouldn’t understand.”

“Then I’ll go with you.”

She almost laughed. Right in his face. The picture of staid Vic, with his upper-crust beard and thousand dollar suit, being of any use against whoever had her daughter was nearly too much. At the last second, she managed not to, but only because she knew how much it would hurt him if she did. “Thank you, Vic. But no.”

“Then let me call someone.”

“There isn’t anyone to call. Mitch was very clear. I’m to go alone. I’m just going a little early, that’s all.”

Vic shook his head, looking quite perturbed. “I cannot allow it.”

“You can’t stop me.” The warning was calm, but very clear.

For a moment he looked sad, and then he patted her arm. “You always did underestimate me, dear Kat. From the very beginning. But maybe that was part of our problem.”

He took a step back and Kat rewarded him with a quick smile. Steady, reliable Vic. He never could control her, even though he’d really wanted to. That was definitely part of their problem.

##

Max jerked to full awareness. Or at least as much awareness as he was allowed, with his head still spinning from the drugs. Blade’s lifeless eyes continued to accuse him in his mind. The dream was too close, burned into his brain cells. Funny, his final mission was the only one he ever dreamed about. The only one that haunted him.

His ribs ached, and his back. The rest of his body, too, though less. He tried to scrub the sleep from his eyes and ended up scratching his forehead with the splint. He swore irritably, swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat up. Kat wasn’t here, at least not in the room. Two nights of sleeping next to her had been enough to revitalize his keen awareness of her.

He remembered. . .what did he remember? Strawberries. And Kat. Sleep. And Kat, next to him. Kissing him. Kat. Now gone. Strawberries?

“Kat!” he bellowed, but only half-heartedly. She wasn’t there. Her house was empty. He staggered down the hall, hand on the wall to support him. In her fastidious kitchen, the blender sold her out. He ran a finger around the froth-covered interior. Tasted strawberries and cream.

Still swaying, he fumbled for a paper towel and laid it out on the counter before snagging the small glass out of the sink. It too was coated with the pink-tinged treat. Max upended it on the paper towel and found the evidence he was after. Gritty remnants of medication littered the towel. His curse echoed through the empty house.

Why? What the hell had happened while he’d slept? Where the hell was Kat?

##

Kat wiped her sweating palms on her black leggings and took the 120th Street exit off of I-25. Seven more miles, give or take. How accurate were these GPS gadgets anyway? Was it possible Lizzie could really be this close? She drove past shopping centers and strip malls before turning left on Holly. The neighborhood was suddenly residential. At the last stop sign, she frowned at her well-lit GPS screen. According to Vic, Mitch’s location was within a mile. Would they really keep Lizzie in a tidy little suburb like this?

You need to ask a question like that after what you did to Max?

Would they drug her? Kat shivered, knowing the answer. They’d cut off her toe. If drugs didn’t work, they could easily go further than drugs. She stomped down on the accelerator when the light turned green. She’d know soon enough.

The speedometer clocked another half-mile before she swerved and pulled over. Vic was right on one account. She had to get Lizzie. Now. Tonight. But she didn’t have to be stupid about it. She reached for her cell phone and dialed Detective Reicher. Her dash clock told her it was approaching midnight, he’d probably be home in bed. All the better to reach him.

He answered on the third ring. “What’s the problem, Doc?”

Kat swallowed hard. Confessing her intentions to Vic hadn’t been hard. Reicher was probably going to take some convincing. “I’m going after Lizzie, Detective.”