Читать книгу Smokescreen - Jodie Bailey - Страница 12

THREE

Sean. Targeted. Taken by insurgents.

Ashley’s bravado wore thin. Winning the battle to go to her apartment had dampened the fear and given her a sense of control, but as they raced through Syracuse in the dark, the temporary sense of power didn’t last.

In just a few hours she’d gone from a network security consultant checking a friend’s mail to a hunted woman on the run with a man she’d hoped never to see again. This didn’t happen outside of Jason Bourne movies.

Ethan dropped one hand from the wheel and let it fall between them on the console. “You okay?”

“Why do you ask?”

“That was one mighty big sigh you just let out over there.” He sniffed. “Listen. It’s bound to not be easy right now, but we’ll figure out who’s behind all of this and find Sean. We have the benefit of knowing this wasn’t random. We have leads. It might take some time, but we’ll get it done.”

Something about the renewed confidence in his voice soothed Ashley. It washed over her in the soft darkness and made her believe he was right—it would all be okay. Eventually. She settled into the corner against the door, pulling the seat belt tighter in case anyone found them on the street and tried to take them out.

But nothing could keep the silence from pressing in. She wished there was something to talk about, but shock and weariness kept her mind focused on the monsters that could be lurking outside her home. Even that was better than letting her mind wonder if Sean was alive.

Her home. Her safe place. It would probably never be that again. Especially considering... “Have you been to my apartment before? Pulling surveillance on me?”

Ethan didn’t answer, but the fact he hadn’t asked for directions to her place spoke louder than words. The lights of his truck played across the front parking lot and he turned them off before they got to the side street of the building where her apartment was housed. He pulled into a space around a curve several buildings away from hers and cut the engine. “If you tell me where it is, I can go get it.”

And leave her here alone, a sitting duck for anyone who happened to spot her? No, thank you. Her best option was to go with him and face whatever giants might be lurking in her living room. “It’s too hard to explain, and you’ll need a screwdriver.”

His eyebrow arched, the shadow of the streetlights making him look like a supervillain in an old cartoon. All he needed was a mustache to twirl. It would have made her laugh under different circumstances.

Ashley reached for the door handle but a short grunt stopped her. Ethan flipped a switch by the steering wheel and popped his door open cautiously. When the interior lights stayed dark, he tipped her a nod and met her at the front of the truck, hand at his hip under his jacket.

Ashley’s eyes drifted closed as she wavered on her feet. She hadn’t considered he’d be armed. His reflexive movement as they faced danger spoke more than words. Even though they’d escaped the airport, she was still in a situation requiring weapons. She’d grown up around guns, been trained to use them, and still the irrational, stupid fear won every time. The memory of pain and stolen dreams overwhelmed her common sense.

Pulling in a deep breath, she released it slowly. Be strong. Focus on where you are right now. Ethan could never know how much the past still haunted her nightmares.

As much as she feared the gun at Ethan’s side, she edged closer. Right now, he was the one safe thing in her life. Ironic, considering his propensity for leaving when it suited him. Considering how her heart started to beat double-time when she’d realized he was her rescuer, it was best if she remembered that. Focus on the soft feel of the air... On the smell of smoke from someone’s fireplace... Anything other than guns and Ethan.

They slipped across the parking lot to the back, where a few feet of small yard stood between them and the protective wall that buffered the sounds from the road behind the building.

Ashley followed Ethan into the breezeway and up to the exterior stairs to the second level, stopping short when he did. The door to her apartment stood open slightly, the wood around the lock splintered. The intruders hadn’t even tried to hide their entrance. Far from fear, hot fury surged. It took a lot of chutzpah to bust into someone’s home without even caring if the whole apartment complex knew about it.

Motioning for her to follow, Ethan held a finger to his lips then slipped up the short breezeway to the stairs leading to the third floor. He ushered her underneath the open cement-and-metal structure. “Wait here.”

Ashley wanted to protest, but she knew better. Arguing would waste valuable time and he’d never let her go anyway. She stood tense against the wall, trying to make herself small.

No movement came from her apartment. The light wind that always seemed to blow through this part of the state whispered against her ears, blurring the finer sounds.

It felt like hours before Ethan appeared in the doorway, the dim lights of the breezeway playing strange shadows across his face. His eyes stood out, glittering with an emotion she couldn’t define. “It’s clear, but I wish you didn’t have to see it.”

Ashley’s mind and body downshifted into a place worse than fear. She was numb. From the inside out, she felt nothing. The chilled air, the thought she could die... Nothing connected. She wanted to pinch herself just to jolt something into her brain.

“Ash? If you tell me where it is, I can get it. You don’t have to come in. It’s probably better if—”

She didn’t let him finish. She needed to move, needed to feel something in her body, even if it was the simple forward motion of putting one foot in front of the other. Pushing past him, Ashley paused in the doorway and stared.

The streetlight in the parking lot leaked through the purple curtains at the front of the living room, casting a violet haze over the scene. Even in the dim light, it was obvious everything had been tossed, as though a tsunami had broken in the room and retreated. The light made the whole scene surreal, more frightening than it should be, the glow too much like a haunted house that had given Ashley nightmares as a child.

As badly as she wanted to flood the place with light, she knew better. It would only tip off anyone watching.

She stopped by the entrance as Ethan slipped the door shut the best he could behind her. “You’re sure you cleared the place?”

“Would I have let you in if I hadn’t?”

This sarcastic side of him didn’t even make her flinch. It tended to come out when he was stressed, worried about the unknown. The last time she’d heard it was at her hospital bedside the night her entire life blew apart.

Definitely not the place her imagination should go right now. The fear jolted again and brought a brusqueness with it. “A simple yes would have worked. I want to know they’re not going to pop up again when I pull the portable hard drive out. And I want to be double sure they don’t see what I’m about to do now.” She laid her hand against the wall and felt for the kitchen, inching forward, toes connecting with what was left of her normal life. Her sanctuary no longer brought safety. The violation fouled the air and crawled along her skin.

With no windows in the small kitchen, the blackness hung thick and inky. She could almost feel invisible hands poised to grasp her and yank her into a pit where her floor used to be.

She allowed herself a tight smile. Whoever was searching must have thought they’d found what they were looking for.

Laying hands on the small flashlight she kept in her junk drawer brought little relief, since it only served to make the darkness outside the beam even thicker, but it was better than nothing. She found a small screwdriver and, careful to keep the beam aimed at the floor and away from the windows, stepped over what she could now see. An overturned dining chair. The phone charger she’d left behind in her mad dash to make the plane. A spare key to her car.

She shoved it into her pocket. They’d need it when they went to the airport to get the keys to Sean’s post-office box from her glove box.

The light glinted off of something shiny.

Ashley swallowed hard. The Blue Willow china plate that had hung near the dining room table, the one tangible item left from her great-grandmother, had been smashed, fine pieces ground into the carpet. Something about those impossibly small shards on the floor undid her in a way nothing else could.

She bit back a sob Ethan was bound to hear.

He had. There was a scrape of movement near the door. “They found the software?”

Ashley shook her head then realized he couldn’t see her in the dark. It was a second before she could trust herself to answer. “Doubtful.” The word cracked just like the plate. She cleared her throat and straightened her shoulders. There were too many things to do, too many moves to make, for her to fall apart now. This was only the beginning.

Trying to corral her thoughts, she stepped gently over the plate and ran her hand along the wooden lip underneath the small, round dining table. Her fingers caught on a piece of duct tape barely hanging on to the wood at the far end of the curve. “They took it.”

Ethan was at her side before she even heard him move. “They took your program?” His voice drew tight, the dark magnifying the whisper until it sounded like a shout.

“No, I hid a dummy one.” She edged away, cheeks warming, even though the circumstances were wrong and history said she really shouldn’t notice. “Call it paranoia. Sean and I worked hard writing the software, and it could be worth more money than you can imagine. It’s not perfected, because we haven’t had time together to work out the bugs. Thieves want easy information they can sell. I figured if anyone ever broke into my house, they’d check obvious locations, think they’d found something important and leave. I never expected to end up needing this.”

“Still with the killer instinct. You’re something else.” The words curved on a grin Ashley could see in her mind if not in the dark. “What’d you put on it?”

It was getting hard not to tamp down the pride at his compliments. When had she gotten to the place she lit up at someone else’s approval? “Some photos my dad sent from Haiti and some medium-level encrypted files to keep anybody busy if they happen to snoop.”

“This ought to be good. What did you encrypt?”

“The stats for the postseason every year the Red Sox won the World Series.”

“Beautiful.” Ethan was all business again. “And are you sure they haven’t found the real one?”

“Not unless they moved the entertainment center.” Ashley slipped past, careful not to touch him. Something about Ethan and the dark made her want to talk, to tell him how she’d said no to Sean’s first proposal because some nagging little voice at the back of her mind whispered they were friends, not life partners. When she thought of her future, even now in the rare times she allowed herself to dream, it was Ethan in her front-porch-rocker visions.

Not that it mattered. Ethan had left her and Sean had stuck by her, his sympathy and her fear driving them into a rocky engagement that nearly ended their friendship before they realized their mistake. Even now she was growing more certain it was because Ethan had always been the one who owned her love.

This day needed to end before she capped it by opening her mouth and humiliating herself.

Stepping over scattered parts of her life as she entered the living room, Ashley scanned the area. Couch pillows and books littered the floor. Thankfully, the large wooden cabinet holding her television sat square in the wall. She’d banked on it being too heavy for anyone to move and, thankfully, she’d been right.

Tucking the screwdriver into her hip pocket, she crouched so she could move the cabinet, back braced against wood, legs providing the force. But after the rush of the day, her muscles weren’t ready to cooperate. “C’mon.” She gestured between Ethan and the cabinet. “Put your muscles into it.”

He leaned back, his shoulder brushing hers, sliding against the cabinet to get his body into position. “Can’t wait to see where this is going.”

“About six inches to the right. Now push.”

The bulk of the cabinet hesitated then slid in the dark, gaining momentum as it moved.

“Nice job.” Ashley guided Ethan out of the way and knelt in front of the wall outlet. Popping the small flashlight between her teeth, she pulled out the screwdriver and removed the outlet cover from the wall.

“You have got to be kidding me.” Ethan knelt behind her.

His breath tickled her hair. Her hands stilled, the plastic cover weightless in her fingers. For a moment she wanted to lean into him, to let him support her, to forget this whole wretched day ever happened, to pretend he was still the same Ethan and five years hadn’t changed them. The outlet cover slipped from her fingers, the motion jolting her into the moment. They didn’t have time to waste. If anyone was watching her apartment, they knew Ethan and Ashley were there and wouldn’t hesitate to return, especially if they believed she possessed Sean’s intel.

“How did you keep the electricity from wiping out the drive?” Ethan leaned closer, curiosity overtaking his sense of propriety.

“That’s a remote possibility, but it’s not in the outlet.” Ashley made quick work of two more screws and slipped the entire socket from the wall, exposing the hole where the outlet slid into place. “It’s between the walls.” She reached in with two fingers, found the duct tape attaching the small portable drive to the inside of the drywall and pulled it free. “There you have it.”

“I’ll have to remember that one.” Ethan eased to his feet and held a hand out to help her up. Ashley hesitated before she took it and then let him pull her to her feet, dropping his hand as quickly as she could steady herself. “Let’s go before they get too deep into your dummy files and figure out you’ve skunked them with your secret squirrel self, although I think it’s going to take some time for them to figure out they’re looking at Big Papi’s stellar season.”

“Here’s hoping.”

In the dim light Ethan’s gaze captured hers. “You’d have been a real asset to—” He broke the moment, stepping toward the door. “We need to get moving.”

They were mere feet from the door when a scrape and a man’s whisper leaked around the damaged frame. “Somebody’s in there.”

Ashley froze as Ethan stepped protectively in front of her, hand at his hip. “You have a balcony?”

“Off the bedroom.” With a whole other story between us and the ground. Ashley had thought many times about how she’d get out of her apartment if there was a fire, but she never dreamed she’d actually have to dangle above the bushes on the ground floor.

Ethan shoved her toward the hallway. “Think you can take the fall?”