Читать книгу Disruptive Force - Elle James - Страница 13

CJ spent the next day logged on to her laptop at a coffee shop with free Wi-Fi. It was an unsecured network, but sometimes she found being one needle in a haystack of browser users helped mask her more than logging on to unique systems with huge firewalls. Trinity had a way around firewalls. She’d searched for the first half of the day, tapping into computers, trying to find the IP address for Chris Carpenter’s home computer and digging into the man’s bank and phone records.

She didn’t find any large sums of money deposited to Carpenter’s account. If he was involved with Trinity, he might have a secret account set up in a foreign location like the Cayman Islands. She’d need access to whatever computer he used to find whatever information he might have stored regarding secret accounts and passwords. In the meantime, she wanted to follow Carpenter to find out for herself if he was meeting with anyone who had any connection to Trinity.

After a lunch of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, she donned the black wig, knocked on Gladys’s door and took Sweet Pea for a walk, going the opposite direction from Cole’s town house. Somehow, she managed to stroll around several blocks, making a complete circle that landed her in front of Cole’s place, though. He didn’t jog by this time, and she didn’t see him peering through his window, looking for her.

A stab of disappointment struck her. She couldn’t understand why. She’d bet her life on remaining alone. Why would seeing a stranger occasionally mean anything to her?

Because, after a year of being alone, she knew there were people out there who had her best interests at heart. She wasn’t truly alone anymore. And it felt good.

That thought warmed her cold soul. For too long, she’d had to squelch all emotions. Her training with Trinity had emphasized that point. Any recruit who cried was punished severely. After one or two beatings, she’d learned to hold back her emotions, to swallow the tears and get tough. By doing so, she lessened or erased the pain.

When she’d been tasked with killing the pregnant woman, it had been the first crack in the wall she’d built around her heart. Having the backing of Declan’s Defenders was chinking away at more of the mortar that held her emotions at bay. Talking via voice or text with Cole reminded her of the vulnerability of emotions. It scared her to open up to anyone, to leave herself exposed to the kindness of others.

Hell, even the happiness Sweet Pea displayed when she’d come to take her for a walk had pinched CJ’s heart. She needed to be alone, to remain aloof, to fight her own battles.

But Trinity was bigger than one person could deal with. She’d had to get help. She’d had to trust others to get the job done.

After she left Sweet Pea with Gladys, she went back to her sublet town house, showered and changed into a little black dress she’d picked up at the secondhand store, black heels and the long blond wig. Taking a circuitous route to the nearest station, she rode the metro into DC and got off near the pub Carpenter frequented.

She arrived well before five o’clock, found a stool at the far end of the bar and ordered vodka and cranberry juice, figuring it was girlie enough for a blonde woman wearing a sexy black dress. CJ preferred whiskey or beer, but the drink was cool and refreshing. Now all she had to do was wait for Carpenter to arrive.

If he arrived.

The first thirty minutes passed with a couple tourists wandering in and ordering beer. They left after they’d finished their beers to find someplace to eat.

The bartender asked a couple of times if he could get her another drink, which CJ politely declined.

A glance at the time on her cell phone indicated it was well past five thirty and creeping up on six. CJ had begun to think Carpenter wouldn’t make his usual stop and her time there would have been a waste.

Then the door opened and a man in a dark gray suit entered and found a table in a shadowy corner.

From the pictures CJ had found online, the man was Chris Carpenter.

She studied him out of the corner of her eye, taking in the nice suit and tie, the highly polished shoes and the fact that he was staring at the entrance as if he was worried or expecting someone.

CJ kept her head down, watched and waited.

A couple minutes later, another man walked through the door and took a seat at the bar. He wore an Atlanta Braves baseball cap, jeans and a Led Zeppelin revival T-shirt. After ordering a drink, he removed the cap and ran his fingers through his hair, making it stand on end. He ordered the whiskey CJ wished she was drinking.

When he turned his profile toward her, she sucked in a sharp breath.

Cole.

She couldn’t forget the close-cropped, dark brown hair, square jaw and his nose that wasn’t quite straight but had a bump in it like it had been broken at some point in his life.

Another man walked through the door and sat on one of the stools in between CJ and Cole. He ordered a draft beer. When the tall mug came, he lifted it, turned in his seat and looked around the bar.

Was this a man who’d come to talk to a traitor?

CJ stared at the mirror behind the bar, watching the man’s every move. He turned to her, got off his stool and moved to the one next to her.

He hitched his leg up on the stool and set his mug on the bar. Then he leaned toward her. “Hey, beautiful, you come here often?”

She shook her head, not wanting to start a conversation with him.

“Can I buy you a drink?”

Again, she shook her head and lifted the half-empty glass of the drink she’d been nursing for the past hour and a half. The ice had melted and the liquid had grown lukewarm. CJ didn’t care. She didn’t want another drink as much as she wanted to find the leader of Trinity and put an end to the terror.

“Not much of a talker, are you?” the man said and leaned closer. “That’s okay, talk is overrated. What say you and I go get some supper, then find a place with some music?”

The idiot couldn’t take ignoring him as an answer. Apparently, he had to have things spelled out for him.

CJ drew in a deep breath and spoke softly but with a steely edge. “I’m not interested.”

“If you want to wait until you finish your drink, I’m flexible,” the man said.

She didn’t look at the man, just set her drink on the bar and started talking.

“Sir, I’m not interested in drinking, eating or sleeping with you, now or in the future. You might as well move on.”

The man’s lips pressed into a thin line. “I’m being really nice. Asking all polite, and everything.”

CJ slipped to the edge of her bar stool, ready to take the man down if he so much as touched her. Meanwhile, a brunette, wearing a slim-line black skirt with a white button-down blouse, entered the bar, pushed a long strand of her chocolate-brown hair out of her face and looked around, as if trying to get her eyes to adjust to dim lighting. After a few minutes, she scanned the interior. She must have found who she was looking for because she didn’t stand around long. Hiking her cross-body purse up onto her shoulder, she walked past Cole, CJ and the man bugging the fire out of her and slipped into the booth beside Chris Carpenter’s. She sat with her back to Chris.

“You sure look hungry,” the guy beside CJ was saying. “What would it hurt for you to come share a meal with me?” Obnoxious Man couldn’t get the hint that his attention was unwanted.

“Darla, honey.” The familiar male voice cut into Obnoxious Man’s continued pressuring. “I’m sorry I was late.” Cole slipped an arm over her shoulder and bent to brush a kiss across her lips.

CJ was so surprised, she forgot to breathe. When Cole set her at arm’s length, he turned to the man beside her. “Do I have you to thank for keeping my fiancée company while she waited for me to get off work?”

The man’s brow furrowed. “Don’t know what you’re talking about. Didn’t know the lady was spoken for.” And obviously hadn’t seen Cole sitting at the bar a few stools away.

“No worries,” Cole said. “My baby knows how to take care of herself.” He winked and looked down at CJ. “Ready to go? We have a few stops on the way home.”

She smiled, though she wanted to frown. What was his game? Then she shot a glance at the booth where Chris Carpenter had been sitting. He was gone. And so was the female who’d sat in the booth beside his.

CJ hopped up from her stool, slipped her arm through Cole’s and started for the door, muttering beneath her breath, “How did you know it was me?”

“Wasn’t positive at first, but once the light shone on your green eyes, I knew.” He grinned as he held the door for her to leave the bar and step out onto the sidewalk.

“We’ve met only once before. How did you remember I had green eyes?”

He shook his head. “They reminded me of the color of the live oak leaves on the trees back home in Texas, but that would be a lie. They are actually the color of the paint job on my Hummer, a kind of gray-olive color.”

CJ glanced left then right, not seeing their quarry immediately. “I’m not quite sure if that’s an insult or a compliment, and I really don’t care. Do you see him?”

Cole had been looking. “There. Looks like he’s headed for the metro.”

“Let’s catch him before he gets away.”

Cole had replaced his ball cap on his head. Taking her hand, he walked at a quick pace.

Though several inches shorter than Cole, CJ kept up with him and they made it to the station at the same time Chris Carpenter climbed aboard the train with the same woman who’d been sitting in the booth beside his.

COLE SPOTTED CHRIS and a woman stepping onto the train. He hurried CJ along and entered a different car before the doors shut and the train slid out of the station.

“Any idea who the woman is?” CJ asked beside him. Like him, she was staring through the windows separating their car from the next one.

Carpenter and the woman sat side by side, facing them. Cole didn’t recognize her, but based on her business suit, she probably worked somewhere on Capitol Hill or in one of the business offices nearby.

What her relationship with Carpenter was, Cole could only guess. They didn’t hold hands, touch or even talk to each other. But they sat together.

Cole glanced at the train map on the inside of the car. They were headed toward Arlington, Virginia. He noted that the train had several stops to make as it moved through the city toward the countryside.

Carpenter and his lady friend weren’t on for long. At the second stop, they got off.

Cole and CJ stood at the exit to their car until Carpenter passed. Once they were well past them, Cole and CJ left the train and followed Carpenter and the woman to a hotel.

“I guess that explains why he’s seeing a marriage counselor,” CJ said.

“I’d bet my last dollar that woman he was with wasn’t his wife,” Cole said.

“Is it worth hanging out to find out for sure?”

“You can if you want,” Cole said. “But I’m thinking it might be a good idea to plot our next move. With Carpenter being a creature of habit and going to the bar every day after work and getting a little frisky afterward, we might use that time to get into his home computer.”

“You think, like I do, that he’d keep any information of value on his computer at home?”

Cole shrugged. “It would be safer at home than in the West Wing. We just need to ascertain Mrs. Carpenter’s schedule and work around it.”

“Tomorrow night, maybe?” CJ confirmed. “That would give us time to figure out the best plan.”

“Tomorrow, as long as Mrs. C is also out of the house.”

CJ held out her hand to Cole. “We’re on for tomorrow night.”

“Partners?” Cole took her hand in his, an electric awareness zipping up his arm and spreading throughout his body.

Her eyes narrowed. “I like to work alone. But I guess it would be better to have someone looking out for me.”

“Then it’s a date.” Cole grinned.

“If breaking and entering someone’s home is what you consider a date,” CJ said, “then I guess it is.”

Cole grinned all the way back to the metro. When they got on the same train heading farther into Arlington, he leaned close to her and asked. “So that was you yesterday with the black hair, walking the white dog, wasn’t it?”

CJ’s chin lifted. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Cole’s grin broadened. “Right.” He’d bet his favorite semiautomatic rifle that he was right.

Working with CJ would be a challenge. The first part of which would be getting her to trust him enough to stick around.

For a late-evening ride, the train was still crowded with people trying to get home from the city.

Aware of the fact Trinity wanted CJ dead, Cole kept a vigilant watch on the passengers, considering each and every one of them a potential Trinity agent.

A couple passengers, in particular, captured his attention. Every time he looked over at them, they were staring at CJ. Granted, in the little black dress and the blond wig, she was a knockout. But there was something else. A furtiveness about them. When they thought someone was watching them, they looked away quickly.

One was a young man wearing jeans and a brown leather jacket, his hands in the pockets.

Cole moved to place his body between the young man and CJ in case one of those pockets contained a handgun.

The other potential Trinity operative was a woman with long black hair and dark eyes. Tall, slim and athletic, she looked like she could take down a linebacker with a few well-placed side kicks to the knees.

“Is it getting warm in here to you?” CJ murmured in a low tone.

He understood what she was talking about. “Could be.”

The train rolled into a station three stops from the one closest to his town house. A few people got off, but not the two Cole had his eye on.

A second before the train doors were due to close, CJ slipped out.

Cole didn’t have time to react before the doors closed and the train jerked into motion.

The two people he’d been watching turned toward the platform as the train left the station.

Already, CJ had disappeared from sight.

Cole worried for her safety. Trinity agents didn’t give up easily. But then CJ had survived for a year on her own. She knew how to escape and evade.

Having been a part of a combat team, Cole knew a little about stealth and camouflage. CJ brought it to an entirely different level. He hoped that by teaming with her, he didn’t put her at more of a risk than she already was. If Trinity thought he could be an asset they could hold over her to force her out into the open, they wouldn’t hesitate to use him. With that in mind, he pulled the same stunt as CJ at the next stop. He waited until the last moment.

As the doors started to slide closed, he stepped out onto the platform. The doors closed with the two people he’d been watching staring at him through narrowed eyes.

Cole didn’t wait around for anyone else to catch up with him. He took off on foot and jogged the rest of the way to his town house, taking a twisting, turning route, checking behind him as he went to make certain no one was following. Not that it would make a big difference. If someone wanted to find him, they could. His whereabouts weren’t a secret like CJ’s.

When he arrived at his place, he entered, locked the door and checked all the other locks to ensure they were secure.

Once he was certain he was alone and fairly safe, he texted CJ. Make it back?

No response.

Cole waited for the next hour, giving her time to return. When she still didn’t respond, he called Declan and reported on the night. Declan promised to swing into action if needed but urged him to hang tight a while longer in case CJ came home.

He stayed awake for a long time, wondering if she was still alive and what he could have done differently to keep her from getting away without him.

He knew he couldn’t have acted any faster. She had the advantage. CJ knew what she was going to do next. No one else did. Hopefully, that paid off for her and kept her alive until they could bring Trinity down.