How Spy I Am Read online

  “Who’s Cassandra?” Kane inquired cautiously.

  “My granddaughter. You know that.” I shot him a frown. “Where in the wide blue heavens did I leave my purse? Did you see it? It’s pink with a silver buckle…”

  Kane took my arm gently. “I think you’d better sit down for a minute.” He pressed me down on the sofa. “You don’t have a granddaughter. And I’ve never seen you carry a purse.”

  I frowned at him. What in heaven’s name was the man going on about?

  “Of course I have a granddaughter,” I argued. “She’s three and a half, she goes to daycare in the mornings and spends afternoons with me while her mama works, and I’m going to be late to pick her up!”

  I tried to get up again, but he held my arm firmly. Spider closed in from the other side, wide-eyed. “Aydan, you’re scaring me.”

  Merciful Lord, they’d all lost their minds.

  “Who’s Aydan?” I asked.

  Chapter 2

  Spider turned a chalk-white face to John Smith. “Call Dr. Kraus, quick!”

  Smith was already reaching for the phone. Kane placed a hand under my elbow and lifted me gently.

  “Let’s go downstairs,” he said, his calm voice completely at odds with the tense lines around his mouth. “We’re just going to have a doctor check you over.”

  “For heaven’s sake, John, I know where Sam’s lab is, but you know I don’t have time for this right now,” I protested. “That poor child will think I’ve abandoned her just like her daddy did. I have to go.”

  Spider came to stand beside me, wearing a sympathetic expression. He slid a comforting arm around my shoulders to give me a squeeze, but I could feel his hand trembling.

  “It’s okay,” he soothed. “You go and pick Cassandra up, and we can finish up tomorrow. We’ll just walk down to the lobby with you.”

  My surge of gratitude and affection was tempered with an odd sense of displacement, but I let it go. Cassandra had to come first, no matter what. Thank heaven Spider understood that.

  I made for the door, Kane still hovering at my elbow while Smith brought up the rear. Spider slipped ahead of us to disappear down the stairs.

  When we came out on the main floor, a glimpse of bare tree branches outside the window made me stumble to a halt, my head swimming. That’s right, today’s forecast had threatened the first snow of the season.

  But the grass had been green when I left the house in the morning, and it was shaping up to be another hot, humid day in Macon.

  Another wave of dizziness shook me.

  Hello, Betty, you’re not in Georgia anymore.

  Spider and Sam Kraus hurried toward us. Sam’s normally jolly face was drawn with concern. “Aydan, what’s wrong? Are you all right?”

  “I think so.” I turned my head experimentally back and forth. “I was really dizzy for a minute there, but it’s gone now.”

  Sam shot a questioning look at the frowning faces surrounding me.

  “Aydan?” Kane asked cautiously.

  “Yeah…?” I frowned back at him.

  There was something important I was supposed to do…

  “Do you know who you are?”

  “Yeah, why?”

  His grey gaze searched my face. “Tell me your name.”

  I surveyed him worriedly for a second. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine. Just tell me your name, please.”

  “Oookay… My name is Aydan Kelly.”

  A faint sense of wrongness made me rub my temples while another name flitted through my mind, fading into invisible distance.

  Betty.

  I frowned at Kane. “Who the hell is Betty Hooper from Macon, Georgia?”

  “I haven’t a clue.” He shot a glance at the others, who returned puzzled looks and shrugs. Kane turned back to me. “Do you still need to pick up your granddaughter?”

  I squeezed my eyes shut on another wave of vertigo. “I don’t have a granddaughter.” My knees tried to let go. “Oh, thank God, I don’t have a granddaughter.”

  I slumped against the wall, sucking in a breath of sheer relief. “I don’t have a granddaughter. I don’t have a daughter who’s a single mother. Nobody needs me. Oh, thank God.”

  “Come and sit down.” Kane’s strong arm closed around me, and he helped me to one of the chairs in the reception area.

  I collapsed into it and hid my face in my shaking hands. The sense of deliverance was as intense as waking in my own bed after the previous night’s horrible dreams of captivity. I controlled my breathing with an effort, wrestling for composure.

  At last, I drew a long breath and sat up.

  “Are you okay?” Spider asked.

  “Yeah.” I took another slow breath. “Yeah. I’m okay. That was… weird.”

  The dizziness subsided at last, and the vivid memories of people I’d never met and places I’d never visited began to fade to sepia tones.

  “Can you walk now?” Sam asked. “We need to get you into my lab and see if we can figure out what happened, if you’re okay to go down now.”

  I shot an unhappy look at the heavy steel door, my pulse pounding again. “Yeah, I’m fine. Well, as fine as I ever am when I have to go into the secured area.”

  Kane hovered beside me as I rose, and I trailed reluctantly over to activate the retinal scanner.

  When the latch released, I turned to the others. “You guys go on ahead. I’ll come after you.”

  “No,” Kane disagreed. “I’ll come with you. Just in case.”

  I sighed and stepped into the chamber. As soon as the door closed behind us, I stepped forward for the next retinal scan. Kane stood beside me, and I moved away as unobtrusively as I could, mentally counting down the seconds and willing my fists not to clench.

  As usual, he missed nothing. “Sorry,” he said, and stepped back to flatten himself against the opposite wall.

  I drew in a shallow breath, willing the claustrophobia away with all my might. “Thanks.”

  Seated in Sam’s underground lab, I rolled my shoulders, trying to release the knotted tension. A ring of anxious faces surrounded me as he placed the band of trailing wires around my forehead.

  “Just relax,” Sam soothed. “I’m just going to do a quick scan and check it against your data from last week. Nothing to worry about.”

  “Easy for you to say,” I snapped, clinging to a crumbling edge above the abyss of panic. I clenched my teeth and concentrated on my breathing. In. Out. Ocean waves.

  Not trapped. I could leave if I wanted. Oh, God, what if they decided I was crazy and locked me down?

  The chair arms creaked faintly under my grip, and Kane tucked a warm hand over my bloodless knuckles.

  “Aydan, try to relax,” he urged. “Just belly breathe. Nice and slow.”

  “I am,” I gritted. “This is me being calm, all right?”

  “All right,” he agreed, his grip tightening when I twitched violently.

  “It’s okay,” Sam crooned. “It’s okay, don’t worry, I was just moving one of these wire leads…”

  “Just get it done, already!” I barked.

  Smith’s murmur drifted from behind me. “She’s very agitated. Maybe she should be kept under observation for a while.”

  Before I could give in to the urge to leap up and run screaming, Spider’s quick voice reassured him. “No, this is normal. She’s just really claustrophobic. I’d be more worried if she was calm.”

  Thank you, Spider. I mentally heaped blessings on his head, and a few minutes later, Sam spoke again.

  “I don’t see anything to concern me here. There’s some higher-than-normal activity in the frontal lobe…” He glanced at my uncomprehending expression and elaborated, “…the area that controls cognition and memory. But it’s certainly not outside the parameters of normality in the global sense, and it was subsiding even while I was monitoring.”

  Sam didn’t quite meet my eyes as he gave me a reassuring smile and removed the instrumentation from my foreh
ead. “It sounds to me as though you just got tangled up in some data, maybe somebody’s personal blog or something, and you absorbed a great deal of their information too quickly for you to process. Stay out of the network this afternoon, get some rest, and you should be fine tomorrow.”

  “Oh, thank you!” I held back the urge to throw my arms around him and fled for the stairs instead.

  By the time the secured door opened into the lobby, my legs were twitching with the urge to run. I snatched up the jacket I’d left on the chair and hurried to the security desk, unclipping my security fob.

  “I’m going over to Blue Eddy’s. I should’ve been there at eleven, and I’m late. Then I’m due at Up & Coming at one. I’ll be back around three,” I threw over my shoulder.

  “Wait.” Kane’s voice stopped me in the doorway.

  I turned, holding back the urge to snap at him from sheer pent-up nervous energy. “What?”

  “You should stay here for a while, just in case you have another… episode.”

  My heart rate ticked up another notch. “Sam said I was fine. It was just some weird thing in the network.”

  Kane frowned. “I think he’s taking it too lightly. I don’t see how he can know for certain it was something in the network. What if it wasn’t?”

  “He said it was just a harmless collision in the network.” I swallowed fear. “He should know, this is his life’s work. And he didn’t seem worried at all.”

  “But he’s not-” Kane broke off and apparently decided to try another tack. “We really need to work on your cover.”

  I blew out a breath and rubbed at my forehead. “Yeah, but in the mean time, this is my cover. I’m a bookkeeper, remember? That means I actually have to show up at my clients’ places and do some bookkeeping occasionally.”

  “If Fuzzy Bunny captures you, you won’t be bookkeeping for anybody ever again. Call Eddy and tell him you’ll come tomorrow instead.”

  “No.” I shot him an exasperated glance. “Eddy is one of my favourite clients. I spend my entire goddamn life here except for a few lousy hours a week when I get to do what I really do.”

  “Aydan…” His expression was a mixture of annoyance and pleading. “You know how important this is. Your life is on the line.”

  I sighed and gave in to both logic and the anxiety I’d been trying to deny.

  “Fine, I’ll just grab lunch at Eddy’s and then come right back.” I turned and hurried out, hoping the compromise was good enough to prevent him from dragging me bodily back into the building. When I made it outside without incident, I gulped grateful breaths of the crisp October air while I walked to my car.

  At Blue Eddy’s, I let myself in the back door of the bar and felt the weight of Sirius Dynamics ease from my shoulders at the sound of the piano.

  The waitress waved as I passed the kitchen. “Hi Aydan! You want your usual?”

  “Yeah, thanks, Darlene.” I shrugged the tension out of my muscles and followed the beguiling sound of the blues.

  Eddy glanced up from the keyboard with his usual warm smile. “Hi, Aydan!”

  The music pouring from his fingers never faltered, and I sank down to sit on the back corner of the stage, leaning my head against the wall behind me.

  “Hi, Eddy. Have I told you lately how much I love coming here and listening to you play?”

  He grinned. “Only every second time you’re here.” The music dwindled to a halt as he sobered, frowning. “Aydan, are you okay? You’re really pale.”

  I summoned up a smile. “I’m fine, Eddy, thanks. Just tired.”

  “Why don’t you go home and have a rest?” he suggested. “You can come in tomorrow instead. And maybe you should get a checkup. You work out and eat well. You shouldn’t be feeling so run-down.”

  I seized the opportunity. “Thanks. You’re probably right. Maybe I will make a doctor’s appointment…” I rose to head for a table before I had to lie to him any more.

  My waist pouch vibrated and I fumbled hurriedly for my phone, catching the call just before it went to voice mail.

  “Is this Aydan Kelly?” The precise female voice at the other end of the line sounded vaguely familiar.

  “Speaking,” I responded, suppressing a yawn and racking my sleepy brain. Not one of my bookkeeping clients…

  “This is Miss Emma Lacey, Arnold Helmand’s neighbour. Are you the tall young woman with the long red hair who visits him from time to time?”

  I couldn’t help smiling. Forty-seven was hardly young, but I guessed it was all about perspective.

  “Yes, Miss Lacey, that’s me.” I remembered the very proper retired schoolteacher and bit back the urge to correct myself and say ‘It is I’. “How are you?” I inquired instead.

  “I am very well, thank you,” she said crisply. “But I am quite concerned about Arnold. Did you know that he was in a motorcycle accident last evening?”

  Chapter 3

  Fear plunged icy talons into my heart and threatened to rip it from my chest. I swallowed hard and held onto composure, but when I spoke, my voice was thin and breathless. “No, I didn’t know. Is he…”

  “He is badly injured…” she began.

  The phone creaked under the sudden clenching of my fingers. “Where is he?” I interrupted. My voice trembled, and I sucked in a deep breath to steady it before demanding, “Which hospital?”

  “He should be in the hospital,” she replied disapprovingly. “But he is at home. He makes light of his injuries because he doesn’t want to alarm me, but heaven only knows what he is hiding. He isn’t even capable of walking without the aid of crutches. I thought that you would want to know.”

  Terror eased with the knowledge that he was able to move around under his own power, and I shoved aside the old bad memories.

  “Thank you so much for calling, Miss Lacey. I’ll leave Silverside immediately. I should be in Calgary in about two hours.”

  Punching the disconnect button, I surrendered to my trembling knees and sank down on the edge of the stage again, taking a few yoga belly breaths. In. Out. Slow like ocean waves.

  Eddy vacated the piano stool to kneel beside me. “Aydan, what’s wrong? Are you okay?”

  “Arnie Helmand was in a motorcycle accident.” I took a couple more breaths.

  Eddy’s forehead creased with concern. “Hellhound? That biker guy who’s such an amazing guitarist? Is he… how bad is it?”

  “It sounds like he’s in rough shape, but he’s not in the hospital, so maybe it’s not as bad as it sounds. Eddy, I’ve got to go. I’ll let you know when I can come and do your books…”

  “It’s okay,” he interrupted. He beckoned to Darlene before turning back to me. “The books aren’t important. Darlene will wrap up your burger to go, so make sure you eat it. Drive carefully.” He squeezed my hand. “Think good thoughts. He’ll be okay.”

  Moments later I was out the door, the heat of the burger comforting my cold hand. I punched my speed-dial button with a quivering finger while I hurried to my car.

  “Kane.” His strong baritone restored some warmth to my body, and I drew in a deep, calming breath.

  “John, it’s Aydan. Arnie’s neighbour just called to tell me Arnie crashed his bike. I’m going down to Calgary to see him. I’m leaving now.”

  “How bad?” he snapped, the words humming with steel-cable tension.

  Jeez, way to dump news about a guy’s best friend. Remorse stabbing me, I hastened to offer what reassurance I could. “She said he was in bad shape, but apparently he’s at home, getting around on crutches and resisting any suggestions of medical care.”

  “Oh.” Kane’s reply came out on a breath, and his voice was deep with relief when he spoke again. “That sounds like him. As long he’s rejecting medical treatment, it’s a good sign.”

  He hesitated. “You know you shouldn’t leave. Stemp’s not going to like this.”

  “Fuck Stemp.”

  “No, thanks. He’s not my type.”

  I blew out
a breath between clenched teeth. “I don’t give a shit whether Stemp likes it or not. Yesterday he told me I have to report all my comings and goings to you. So I’m reporting. I’m going. We’re done here.”

  “Aydan, wait. Why don’t you just call Hellhound first? If he’s at home, it might not be that serious. You know how rough he looked when he left yesterday…”

  Guilt twisted my stomach at the too-fresh memory of brutal fists slamming into his face and body. The horrible flat meaty thud of impact. His blood spattering the floor. All because he was trying to protect me…

  Kane was still talking. “…she’s an elderly lady, she was probably just shocked by all the bruises and bandages…”

  “She said he was on crutches,” I interrupted. “There was nothing wrong with his legs yesterday. And you know damn well he’d lie and say he was fine even if he was at death’s door.”

  After another short hesitation, he replied, “All right. I’ll cover for you with Stemp, but call me as soon as you get to Calgary, and get back here as soon as you can. We still need to meet this afternoon. If you have to stay with Hellhound…” He paused.

  Did I hear jealousy in his voice? Shit, this was going to get complicated…

  “We can figure it out after we know how he is,” he finished. “Be careful. Watch your back. And if you feel dizzy or confused or unusual in any way, call me immediately.”

  “Okay.” I hung up with relief.

  When I hurried up to Arnie’s condo building two hours later, an elderly woman popped out the door, her energy belying her tiny, frail-looking figure. Miss Lacey ushered me through the lobby, and I followed while she climbed the stairs to the third floor slowly but steadily, apparently disdaining the elevator.

  I knocked, and Miss Lacey and I stood in silence in the hallway outside Arnie’s door. No sound came from inside. We exchanged a look and I knocked again, louder this time.

  Tension mounted while we waited. I saw my worry mirrored on her face as she stiffened her already arrow-straight posture. “Try one more time,” she commanded. “If he doesn’t answer, I’ll use the key he gave me.”