Garret's Gambit, page 6
“But he didn’t come back?”
“No,” she said. “He didn’t come back.” And, once again, the tears welled up in her eyes. “I don’t know what happened.”
“What time of day was it?” Kano asked.
“Dinnertime,” she said. “I held off telling Gregg until then.”
“Why is that?” Kano said.
“Because I worried about it all day, wondering if I should even tell him or if I should just walk away.”
“Why would you do that?” Garret said. “It’s his child, after all.” Then he stopped and said, “It is his child, isn’t it?”
She shot him a baleful look. “Yes, it’s his child, which makes you an uncle.”
“What makes you think that he didn’t just take off?” Kano asked, trying to insert a voice of reason.
“Because he’s not that kind of a guy,” she snapped. “He wouldn’t leave me like this.”
Kano looked at Garret, who shrugged, conceding the point. It wasn’t what he would have expected of his brother, but that didn’t mean that Gregg didn’t need some time to clear his head and had walked away for a few days. “How does he typically contact you?”
“On my phone, or he could come home of course. We’ve been living together for the last year.” She shot Garret a hard look. “Like you don’t already know that.”
“I don’t know anything about you guys,” he said. “I haven’t had any contact with my brother since we broke up.”
Her gaze widened. “Wow, what a surprise. And you being all about family.”
“Until I found out you had changed the family roles behind my back,” he said. “Instead of dealing with it head-on and telling me—preferably before you started sleeping with my brother.”
She glared at him. “You can insult me all you want,” she said, “but, Garret, you don’t understand.”
“Probably not,” he said, tired of the whole mess. “The bottom line is that he’s my brother, and he’s missing. I’ll do my best to find him, if I can.”
A little bit of hope clung to her gaze, and she asked, “Do you know how?”
“Well, if you can’t give me any more than what you’ve given me so far,” he said, “it’ll be damn hard.”
She just frowned at him again.
He groaned. “You’ve got to tell me a little more about that phone call. Was a name mentioned? Did it seem like it was somebody he knew? Did it sound like a work call or what?”
She frowned. “I’m not sure,” she said. “I mean that for real because he never talked about work.”
“Where were you living?”
“Belgium,” she said. “I wanted to move back to England, but he didn’t want to.”
“Of course not,” he said. “Why did you want to come to England?”
Just as she was about to launch into this big tirade, he stopped her and said, “Never mind. The fact is, you were still in Belgium when it happened. So where in Belgium were you living?”
She gave him the address, and he said, “How long did you live there?”
“One year,” she said.
“So why did you run to England?”
“Because I wanted the baby born here,” she said.
Astra just stared at her. “What? You’re hardly even showing yet. You had plenty of time. The minute your boyfriend doesn’t answer your phone calls, you come running to England. Why?”
“Because he told me to,” she said resentfully.
“When?” Garret asked, and now he was all business. “You said you’d had no contact.”
“Because of his work, he told me that, if anything ever happened to him, that I should leave, take nothing, and just go to London.”
“Well, that’s generally good advice,” he said, “but it’s not helpful at all in terms of finding him.”
“Well, he knew I wouldn’t find him anyway. I was supposed to go, to save myself.” She just stared at him, offended by his incredulous stare. “Like you wouldn’t have done the same.”
“No,” he said. “I wouldn’t have, but I can understand my brother telling you to.” He stared at Kano, looking for a clear perspective. “Suggestions?”
“Get back to civilization, where we can access our laptops, and figure out what we need to do.”
“We can do some of that here too,” Astra said. “An internet café is not very far from here. Otherwise no internet is around this area, unless you can get it on your phone.”
“Which we can,” Garret said, “but Kano is probably looking to do a much bigger search. Those databases are very bandwidth heavy, and we could be pinpointed, if somebody were looking for us.”
“Why the hell would anybody even know you’re here?” Amy said. “That’s ridiculous!”
“Because you called,” he said. “That immediately sends people alerts, especially if they’re after us.”
She snorted. “God, why is everything always about you?” she said. “This has nothing to do with you.”
“Well, I hope that’s true, but you’re also the one who left a message saying you thought Gregg had something to do with my accident. The plane crash. Remember?”
She flushed bright red at that. “No,” she said. “I didn’t mean that.”
“Seriously?” He stared at her, his heart sinking. “Then why did you say it?”
“He told me that you’d had a bad accident, but that nobody was talking and wouldn’t tell him anything. I figured, if you wouldn’t come because he was missing, you might come if it meant you could get your revenge on him.”
“Jesus Christ, Amy,” he said, rubbing his face with both hands. “Look. I don’t waste energy on revenge,” he said, his gaze narrowing. “You two are together now, and I’m just glad to be out of the whole triangle mess.” Immediately her back stiffened, as she just glared at him. “The bottom line is,” he said, “that my brother is missing, and that’s why I’m here.”
“Are you telling me it’s not because you thought you could actually get answers about the accident?”
“Answers would have been nice,” he said. “And it certainly would justify Kano being here too. But, as usual, we’re dealing with your lies and deceit. I told him that we couldn’t trust anything that came out of your mouth.”
“But you came anyway?”
“My brother is missing. How many times do I have to say that?” he said, trying to exercise patience. “No matter the circumstances with you, I need to find him. Dealing with a lying, cheating person like you makes it more complicated because I can’t believe anything you say, but I still have to get him back.”
“Why do you keep insulting me like that?” she said.
“I’m not insulting you at all,” he snapped. “It’s the truth, Amy. If you don’t like it, you shouldn’t act that way.”
“For the love of God, you two,” Astra said, “can we get back on track here, instead of hashing out all your old crap?”
“Gladly,” Garret said. “If your sister has nothing to offer, I’m out of here.”
“Wait,” Astra said, as she raced behind him. When he looked down at her, she frowned. “My sister is still in trouble.”
“I don’t know why,” he said, tilting his head.
“That’s because you’re still in a haze of anger,” she murmured. “And I get that. I really do. But remember the people at the hotel? No matter what you’re feeling about Amy right now, she’s carrying Gregg’s baby—maybe the last bit of him you’ll ever have.”
He froze, closed his eyes, and, leaning against the porch wall, said, “Shit.”
Chapter 6
What Astra had heard actually made her feel better. Because all this back-and-forth was just a sign of having an outlet for that anger, that initial rage Garret needed to vent. But no love was in his tone, nor any love in his gaze, as he stared at Amy. He appeared to be really over his relationship with her sister. That was good news.
What wasn’t good news was that he was right. Her sister, true to form, had lied and cheated to get Garret over here. But why? Because his brother was missing, and she thought that he wouldn’t care enough, which in itself proved that she didn’t really understand Garret all that much. And, once again, he held it against her for having deceived him. He was desperate to find out who was after his team. Whether that involved his brother or not didn’t make it a priority over everything else going on, including the fact that Garret’s own life was still in danger.
Astra reached up, patted Garret’s cheek, and said, “Honestly I wouldn’t have brought it up, but for the fact that she’s my sister.”
He opened his gaze, nodded slowly, and said, “And I can’t let go of the idea that it’s all still related to Gregg’s disappearance.”
“And, Garret,” she said, dropping her voice even lower. “I’m sorry that she lied. I know you’re desperate to find out what’s going on with the assault on your team, but we don’t know for sure if Gregg’s disappearance is even related. Although I would think that anything to do with Kingdom Securities is suspicious at this point.”
He stared at her, his gaze lowered, but she could see the cogs and the wheels turning in his brain. “You’re right,” he said thoughtfully. “We’ve got a search running on that company, but I think we need to deepen it.”
“I’ve got one running too,” she said, “but I’m not getting anything.”
He looked at her in surprise.
She shrugged. “Think about what I do,” she said. “I can pretty well get most things analyzed, but it’s not exactly the same field, and I can’t necessarily claim to have budget money for something like this, since it’s not about cases in the cybersex world.”
He smiled, nodded, and said, “Well, my budget isn’t limited to just those kinds of assholes. Ours covers all kinds of assholes.”
“Good for you,” she said. “Sometimes I wish I could do more.”
“You’re doing what you can, and, if everybody just did that,” he said, “we could turn the tide.”
“Instead, everybody does what they can do on the opposite side of life,” she said, “but I can’t leave my sister in this scenario.”
“I know,” he said. “Besides, she’s carrying my niece or nephew.”
“Exactly,” Astra said and was grateful that he seemed to have turned a mental corner and was getting past his old anger. Because this wasn’t the time. Astra understood his anger, but this wasn’t the time to start airing more grievances. She knew it would happen again, when they found his brother, assuming Gregg was alive. But Garret still had so much hurt inside that he would have to deal with it and with Gregg at some point. But, if she could help mitigate some of that in the meantime, it would make life easier on them all. She turned back to look at Kano, who was busy on his phone. “Can you get what you need here?”
“To a certain extent, but we need information. We’ve got people on it, but they’re not exactly getting what we need right now fast enough.”
“Can you find it faster?” she asked.
He looked at her, surprised. “It’s hard to say,” he said, “but I don’t have what I need here. The internet’s just funky enough, and my phone isn’t the best thing for accessing some of these databases.” He walked back into the living room, where Amy was curled up in the chair. “We need addresses for where he’s been living, where he works, his license plates, anything you can tell us about his friends and other cohorts.”
Her sister supplied as much of the information as she could, and she had a much more mollified attitude now, enough so that Astra wondered if Kano had said something to her.
“Now that you have whatever you deem as important,” Amy said, “you can leave.”
“I can,” Garret said, quite happily, “but I’ll make this one-time offer. You can come with us and stay safe, or you can stay here and do you.”
“That’s easy. I’ll stay here and do me,” she said instantly in a sarcastic tone.
“That’s fine,” he said. “I will also tell you this only once. Somebody was watching the hotel room you disappeared from.”
She stared at him and asked, “What do you mean?”
“Somebody,” Astra said, immediately stepping in, “was watching your hotel room. When we went in, they came in too, and they tried to attack us.”
Amy looked from one to the other in confusion. “Why do they care?”
“Well, that’s what we were hoping you could tell us,” Garret said. “Somebody is either looking for my brother and thinks you have information, or, because they already have my brother, they’re looking for you for leverage.”
“Leverage?” her voice squeaked.
“Yes,” he said. “Leverage. To make my brother talk.”
“And why would he do that?”
“Well, that’s a good question,” he said, “but, if they have you, they can hurt you and can get Gregg to reveal what they want before they hurt you too badly.”
She just stared at him, her hands going to her belly, her skin suddenly pale.
“You didn’t have to say it quite that way,” Astra said to him quietly.
“No easy way to tell her,” he said. “She’s in trouble, whether she wants to admit it or not.”
“But I don’t know anything,” Amy said.
“Well, they won’t care because my brother does know a lot,” he said. “If anybody knows that you lived with him, which I assume they do, then they’ll know that you might have information they could possibly use.”
“So what am I supposed to do?” she said.
“Hope that we weren’t followed,” Kano said quietly. “Hope that not too many people know about this place.”
She stared at him blankly. “I don’t know who might know, but I’ve never tried to hide anything.”
“Which is why it’s interesting that my brother was living with you,” he said, “because he should have known better. He should have known that he was putting you in danger.” He tilted his head to the side. “Was he there all the time?”
Slowly she shook her head. “No, not all the time, only when he could get away, which wasn’t often,” she admitted slowly.
“Where did he stay the rest of the time?” Kano asked immediately.
She glared at him.
“This isn’t about your relationship,” Astra said, getting frustrated with her sister. “This is about all of it, and you have to do what you can to keep the baby safe.”
“Like you care about the baby,” she snapped.
Astra groaned. “Let’s not bring up any more about family crap, okay? Let’s just deal with the facts at hand.”
“Wouldn’t that be nice?” Garret said. “The facts are that somebody was hunting you at the hotel, and others could be coming here to look for you.”
“Well, what happened to the ones at the hotel?” Amy asked.
“MI6 has them now,” Astra answered.
“But Gregg says MI6 is bad,” Amy said. “You just gave the enemy to the enemy?”
“Interesting that he would say that,” Garret said, “because we tend to have a dim view of MI6, but that’s only because they’re another band of authority. None of us like having to play all these games, but I wouldn’t have said they were bad.”
“That just goes to prove that your brother is smarter than you,” she said, with spirit, as if loving the fact that she could say something that might get to him.
“So here’s your chance. I’m heading out the front door right now,” Garret said, turning, walking outside, with Kano right behind him. “Either come along or stay here.”
Astra ran behind him. “Surely you won’t just leave her like that?”
“What do you want me to do?” he said, turning to look at her with surprise. “I’m not going to kidnap her. She’s already called the cops on me once, and I’m not giving her the ammunition to do that again.”
She winced. “She’s still carrying your niece or nephew, and she still might know something valuable about your brother. Think about the information she just gave you now.”
“You mean, the fact that she lied again, and that Gregg wasn’t actually living with her?”
Astra winced. “I know,” she said, “but we did get information we needed.”
“What do you want me to do?” he said.
“I want you to put aside your past grievances. If this were me, what would you do?”
He looked at her in surprise, then shrugged and said, “I wouldn’t give you a choice. I’d pick you up, toss you in the car, and take you along.”
“And why is that?”
He grinned, leaned over, and whispered, “Because I care about what happens to you.”
With that, he headed to the car, leaving her in shock.
*
The look on Astra’s face was priceless and worth every word. The thing is, Garret also meant it. He did care. He wasn’t sure exactly how much because it seemed like nothing was normal anymore, and his system was flooded with anger and hurt—that sense of betrayal, that sense of not being able to trust. But then just the thought of all those negative thoughts applied to Astra didn’t work at all. He knew that his thinking was skewed because of his experience with her sister, but Astra was a completely different kettle of fish.
He’d already run several checks on her since he’d arrived. Everything had come back positive. Everybody who worked with her loved her. She had a little bit of a history with a past relationship that was concerning, but that nagged at him more because Garret wanted to beat the crap out of the guy.
She had called for assistance at one point in time, and, when the police arrived, they took the boyfriend away for making death threats against her. He disappeared from view shortly afterward and hadn’t popped up anywhere, so Garret wasn’t exactly sure of the where, what, and how, but that was one year ago. So this guy was really off the radar or not around at all.
Garret wasn’t certain how badly affected she had been, and that was always a concern for him. But the thought of coming back here and getting tied up in another relationship that was as traumatic as the one with her sister was something Garret didn’t want to do.
