High stakes, p.13
High Stakes, page 13
He glanced at Maria. “You agree?”
She nodded. “Anton liked to play the big man, but he was thoroughly under Volkov’s thumb.” She added bitterly, “Unfortunately, Lara is more familiar with the dynamics of their interaction, but I can vouch for that.”
“Why did you say we might have some time?” Lara asked. “You obviously thought he might be on his way here.”
“Nash knew about this airport. He knew that’s where we were heading. Under torture I don’t have the slightest doubt he would have told your father.” He paused. “But they took the Chinook when they left Stockholm. There’s a chance that they might have changed to a faster aircraft somewhere along the way, but I’d bet they’ll use the Chinook to come directly here and try to catch us off guard. So it will give us a little time to get out of here.”
“And where are we going?” Lara asked.
“I haven’t changed our destination. No one knows about the mountain house. It will still be safe.”
“Until it’s not,” Lara said. “I don’t like the idea of hiding out anywhere close to an airport where you’re expecting an attack. This is a big country. Maybe we should move on.”
“We will,” he said quietly. “But not yet. We’ll bury ourselves in the mountains for a couple of days while I gather information, look over the situation, and make a few decisions. I didn’t expect to be on the run quite so soon.” His lips twisted. “And Nash would have told your father everything he knows about me along with where I was taking you. It makes me a bit vulnerable. I don’t like that. It’s nothing I can’t handle, but I have to consider possible consequences.”
“I can see how you wouldn’t like to feel vulnerable,” Lara said sarcastically. “What a shame. Maria and I wouldn’t know what that feels like.”
“Point taken,” he said. “But it doesn’t change anything except it adds to my empathy, and I didn’t need that.” He stepped on the accelerator. “We’re still going to the mountains. You can argue with me when we get there.”
Chapter
7
Four Hours Later
I can see why you thought this place would be safe,” Lara said dryly as she held on to her seat belt while Tanner made another sharp turn through the tall jungle-like thornbush at the sides of the dirt road they were traveling. It had been a nightmare of those twists and turns since they’d left the main road a full twenty minutes ago. And that thornbush…She shivered. “I’ve never seen banks of thorn plants like those. Very intimidating. And there’s no way I could find my way here even if I knew where I was going. Are you sure you do?”
“I’m sure.” He made another sharp turn. “I covered all this ground on foot many times before I was allowed to put a foot inside a car. I was a city boy, and I can’t tell you how many times I got lost. That tends to engrave every turn into one’s memory.”
She looked at him in surprise. “You learned to drive here? This is your home?”
“Something like that. More than any other place, I suppose. We’re almost there. The gates are just beyond the next bend.” He pressed a button on his key ring as he made the turn. “I’ve let Sam Rennell know we’re coming, and he’ll probably meet us. Don’t be startled if he’s not what you’d call friendly. He was one of the hotshot, idealistic police officers injured when the South Tower came down on Nine Eleven. When he finally recovered, he had trouble…adjusting. He’s still one of the best security people on the planet, but there’s nothing young or idealistic about him.”
“He works here?” Maria asked.
“This is his home, too. I doubt if he could live anywhere else now. He’s the caretaker and wears a dozen other hats. But he’s happy here, and this is where he’ll stay.” He glanced at Lara. “So if you have trouble, you’ll have to be the ones to adapt.”
She shrugged. “We’ll only be here for a couple of days. Less if I get my way. If he’s not violent, there shouldn’t be trouble.”
“He’s not usually violent, but no promises.” They were approaching a twelve-foot stone fence, and the metal gates were swinging slowly open. “If he is, it’s usually aimed at me. That shouldn’t bother you.” They’d reached the gates, and Lara saw a huge SANDRINO PLACE engraved on the post. He drove through the gates, and a massive stone house came into view at the end of the driveway.
She gave a low whistle. “It’s a mansion. That I wasn’t expecting. It’s like fighting our way through Sleeping Beauty’s thorny forest to get to her castle.” Her gaze ran over the glittering deep-set mullioned windows. The house was in perfect repair and the gardens and floral bushes surrounding it were well kept, the lawns perfectly barbered. “It’s beautiful. Does it belong to you?”
“In a way. I sort of act as guardian.” He pulled up to the front door. “But I guarantee there will be no Sleeping Beauty lolling around to get in your way. No laziness permitted on the property. Rennell makes sure that the interior is as perfect as the gardens. In his eyes we all have our duties to perform.”
“In a way. Guardian,” Maria repeated his words thoughtfully. “Yet you seem to be in charge.” She suddenly smiled. “Maybe we should have asked if you won it in a poker game like you did the Gulfstream.”
“Not exactly. And I didn’t win Rennell, either. I guarantee they’re both more of a burden than a treasure.” He gestured to a tall, powerful man with blunt impassive features who was coming down the path toward the Land Rover. He was dressed in jeans and a blue chambray shirt; a sleek Doberman at his heels looked as powerful and menacing as the man himself. “And here he comes.” Tanner got out of the car and waited for the man to reach him. “Give me a minute and I’ll introduce you. He’ll only be interested in one thing to start out.”
He smiled at Rennell and held out his hand. “You look well. How have you been, Rennell?”
Rennell ignored his hand. “Sandrino?”
Tanner shook his head. “Not yet. I’m working on it.”
“It’s been too long,” he said bluntly. “You said you’d do it. You made a promise.”
“And I’ll keep it.” He reached down and stroked the Doberman at Rennell’s side. “How is Kembro doing?”
“Well enough,” Rennell said curtly. “When will you keep it?”
“Soon.” He nodded at Lara. “I’m working on it right now. So leave me alone, Rennell. I want it as bad as you do.” He gestured. “Maria and Lara. They’re very nice, and you should treat them as Sandrino would wish you to. I’ve brought Mallory and a few other men, too. They should be arriving any minute to do sentry duty. It was necessary.”
“I won’t let them ruin my flowers if they’re clumsy.”
“Mallory knows the rules. I don’t believe you’ll have any trouble.”
“I never have trouble. They might have trouble.” He turned away. “You can tell Mallory he can set them up in the coach house.” He glanced over his shoulder at Lara. “You’ll need the guards for her?”
“Possible. It’s just a precaution. Food?”
“I made a stew after you contacted me. How long will I have to put up with you all?”
“A few days. Mallory and his men will be keeping watch, but I’d like it if you’d also do it. Compared with you, they’ll be blind out here at Sandrino Place. You’re the one who taught me how to see.”
Rennell nodded. “Yes, I did.” He added grudgingly, “And you weren’t terrible. You never bitched when I left you out there in the wilds all night.”
“Because I knew if I did, the next time it would be for two or three nights instead of one,” Tanner said dryly. “You were nothing if not consistent.”
“I had to make sure it had sunk in. You were a city boy who thought you knew everything. Sandrino told me I should make sure that you realized there was more to learn before someone killed you. I always did what Sandrino said.” He was striding away. “You’re not dead yet, are you?”
Tanner turned back to Lara and Maria. “And now you’ve met Sam Rennell. I’m sure you’ll agree he’s one of a kind.” He was going up the steps and throwing open the front door. “You might as well go in and choose one of the suites and start settling in. It doesn’t matter which one. They’ll all be spotless and in fantastic shape. Rennell makes sure that the entire property is always as ready as if Sandrino is going to walk through that door in the next ten minutes.” He was reaching for his phone and dialing. “I’ll call Mallory and remind him that he has to smooth Rennell’s way with the men. It’s been a while since he’s been around Rennell, and he might have forgotten that when annoyed he takes no prisoners.”
“Wait,” Lara said. “Who is this Sandrino? Is that who owns this place? And why in the hell did you give Rennell the idea that I have something to do with him?”
“Because you do. And I’m aware that I have explanations to make, but I’m not in the mood right now. I’m feeling a bit raw at the moment. Maybe later.” He turned and walked away as Mallory answered.
“Maybe?” Lara repeated.
Maria nudged her arm. “You know you’ll get it out of him, you’re just impatient. It’s been a bad day for all of us.” She was gently pushing her into the house. “Distraction. I’ve never been told to make myself at home in a mansion before. So that’s what I’m going to do. Actually, I like the idea of being able to give you the chance of doing it, too. I’ve always hated not being able to give you anything better than that house on the compound. Then I’m going to have a shower, and after that I suggest we dive into that stew Rennell was talking about.” She was leading her toward the grand staircase. “But as usual you’ll do what you want to do. Which will be fine with me as long as it doesn’t involve tracking Tanner down and interrogating him when he’s this close to exploding.”
“He isn’t going to explode. He’ll just withdraw and go inside himself.” Lara shrugged. “Which would mean I won’t get what I wanted anyway. So I’ll leave him alone.”
“He’s right,” Maria said softly. “You are getting to know him. That might not be good.”
“I have to know him.” Lara stopped at the bottom of the stairs and then whirled and headed for the front door. “And I don’t feel like going up there and picking out some fancy suite. I want to look over the grounds, and then I’m going to take another glance at that thorn-jungle we drove through to get here.”
“Why?”
“I don’t like that Tanner was stressing how difficult he found it. Maybe it was a warning. And I should know how to get out of here if we need to. If I study it, it might not be that hard.”
“And then it might. It would be humiliating if I had to ask Tanner to go rescue you. You’d hate it.”
Lara smiled. “Which is why I wouldn’t let it get to that point. I’d be certain I could do it before I made an attempt. And I’d have to have a good reason.” She opened the door. “I’ll be fine. I’m just taking a look around. I’ll see you later.”
“See that you do. And not much later.”
“Right.” Lara closed the door and looked around her. Beautiful blossoms, perfect order, lush greenery…but that wasn’t what she was looking for. She wanted to see what was beneath all that perfection. She headed for the tall stone wall in the distance…
* * *
“Are you going to jump down on the other side? Or are you going to make me climb up on that wall and get you?”
Lara looked down from where she was sitting on the top of the stone wall to see Tanner in the garden below her. He didn’t look pleased, and she automatically braced herself. Then she forced herself to relax her muscles. “You don’t have to come up, I was finished here. I just wanted to take another look around.” She started to climb down the wall. “I wasn’t going anywhere. I would have taken Maria with me if I’d decided to do that.”
“That’s what I told Rennell, but he thought that if you were at all important, I might want to keep you from tearing yourself up on those bushes.” He lifted her down the last few feet to the ground. “Next time I won’t follow his advice.”
“Rennell?” She looked around and spotted him leaning against a maple tree about a hundred yards away. “I didn’t see him following me.”
“Because he didn’t want you to see him. He watched you for a while and then got nervous when you climbed the wall.”
“I wouldn’t have cared if I’d known,” she said. “I just wanted to know if I’d have as hard a time as you did on foot down there.”
“And you decided you would?”
“There’s a good chance. Those thorns look nasty. What kind of bushes are they?”
“A special variety of pyracantha. Extra large, and the leaves are poisonous. Commonly known as firethorn. Needle-sharp spikes all over those stems, and the growing tips are four-inch-long hypodermics. Nasty enough for you?”
She nodded. “I thought it might be something like that. But I had to know.”
He smiled crookedly. “Just in case?”
“Just in case.” She started back toward the mansion. “I realized how little I knew about you, and suddenly I was in an isolated place that might be difficult for me to get away from. Worse. It might be almost impossible for me to get Maria away even if I could find a way out for myself.”
“So it was my fault you perched yourself on the top of that wall?”
“It was your fault,” she said flatly. “You don’t say ‘maybe’ to me when I need answers. That sends me to look for them myself.” She turned to him as they reached the front door. “That’s a nightmare stretch of thornbushes before I could get through those woods. But they only climb ten to fifteen feet high into the trees. Once I got into the higher branches, I’d be safe from them. But, as I said, getting Maria out would have been almost impossible without getting her cut to ribbons. I can’t allow that to happen, so get your shit together and let me know what the hell is going on.” She opened the front door. “And it better be very soon, Tanner.” She slammed the door behind her.
* * *
Tanner swore beneath his breath as he whirled away from the door.
“She was angry that you stopped her from getting away?” Rennell asked.
Tanner turned to see him now standing a few feet away. “No, I told you that wasn’t what she was doing,” he said curtly. “She said that she had no intention of trying to get away; she was only looking at the possibilities if she decided she couldn’t trust me.”
“Really?” A flicker of interest lit Rennell’s face. “And I suppose those possibilities discouraged her?”
“No, she thought she could make it to the main road, but it wouldn’t be without damage, and she’d need to use the trees to get her away from the thorns.”
Rennell’s gaze went to the wall. “And would she be able to do that?”
“Probably. She once told me she’d spent six months training herself to be able to survive in the forest. When I first met her, she’d just spent three days on the run from two hit men in Avgar Forest and had already taken down one of them.” He grimaced. “Yeah, she would have had to use the trees there, if only to hide at night.”
Rennell nodded. “And we both know that someone not familiar with this property would have to use the trees in order to escape. It would be the only way to avoid being torn to pieces by the thornbushes.” He paused. “She must be much more clever than you, Tanner. You never even made an attempt to use them. You just waited for me to hunt you down. I wondered about that the first couple of times.”
“Only the first couple?”
“Before I figured it out. I thought surely you’d use the trees because I knew how much Sandrino respected you. But then I realized that you never wanted to escape; you wanted me to bring you back. It was part of the game you and Sandrino played.”
“Then you were playing it, too,” Tanner said quietly. “Because you’ve never mentioned to me that you knew. Why not?”
“He didn’t want me to know. It was always between the two of you. I had my place in his life, you had yours.”
“Then what’s different now?”
“You promised you’d bring Sandrino back.” He gazed directly into Tanner’s eyes. “You didn’t keep your promise. That changes everything.”
“No, it doesn’t. It just means I need more time.”
“You’re going to use the woman? How? Are we going to trade her for Sandrino?”
“No—well, maybe in a way. But she knows nothing about Sandrino. However, Sergai Kaskov tells me he does, and I have to keep her safe until I get the information I need from him.”
“Kaskov,” Rennell repeated. Then he shook his head. “It all sounds too clumsy and involved to me. And definitely not soon enough. It doesn’t matter if she’s safe. Trade her now and find him.” He paused. “Or I will, Tanner.”
“No, you won’t,” Tanner said softly. “Stay out of it, Rennell. Help me or disappear. Either way, I’m going to find Sandrino, and I’ll use Lara Balkon to do it. But I’m not going to let you get her killed because you’re too impatient and don’t give a damn. We’ve waited this long, and we’ll wait a little longer. Understand?”
“I understand that I might give you a little more time.” His gaze never left Tanner’s. “Or I might not. Until I make up my mind, she won’t leave here. Make sure she knows that. If she goes over that wall, you’re not going to get her back.”
“She’s not going to try to get away,” Tanner said. “I’ll work it out.” He turned and started down the path toward the coach house where Mallory and his crew were unloading equipment in the garages. “But it would help if you’d stay away from both of them until I do. Give me some space.”
“Why should I?” Rennell called after him. “When you didn’t keep your promise.”
* * *
Music Room
