Shadow, p.18
Shadow, page 18
part #6 of Linear Tactical Series
Gavin chuckled and turned Craig toward the grill, and away from Dorian and Ray, with a hand on the shoulder. “With this group, are you kidding? Lady probably needs them to keep from being traumatized. That’s what Ghost gets for bringing someone he only met last week. He should know better.”
Heath fell in step beside them. “It’s good to see you, Craig. Everything happened so fast after the failed sting operation, I didn’t get much chance to talk to you. I’m really sorry we weren’t able to catch your buyer.”
Craig grimaced, but at least now he was distracted. Good. If he and Gavin could keep him over here at the tables for a few more minutes, the rest of the team would get Dorian and Ray out into the surrounding woods without it being obvious and raising Craig’s suspicions.
And once they were in the woods, there were no worries. No one found Dorian and Ray out there if they didn’t want to be found.
“Actually, there’s some bad news. Troy Powell was murdered two days ago. He was out on bail awaiting trial.”
Heath let out a curse. Goddammit, he hated to hear that. He really thought the kid had been scared into going straight and would be okay. “Any leads on who did it?”
“Nothing definitive so far, but it wasn’t pretty. He was tortured before he was killed.”
Heath scrubbed a hand across his face. Damn it all more. “Revenge for reneging on his promise to sell the microchip?”
Gavin handed Craig a plate of food. “It’s possible. Or to see if he had anything else of any value in that head of his. I don’t know.”
Heath tensed as a small hand slipped around his arm. “Hey guys. Everybody okay?”
He glanced down at Lyn, who’d walked over with Kendrick. Shit. The wrong word out of her could be disastrous. She could unwittingly prove everything he and Gavin had said about Ray to be false.
Gavin realized the same thing. “Hey, sis. Have you met Craig Franklin? He was the FBI agent in charge of the operation at WCU. Craig, this is my sister Jacquelyn and the bald dude is Kendrick Foster.”
She nodded. “Nice to meet you, Agent Franklin.”
“Please, call me Craig.”
Heath nodded. “Craig was just telling—”
“Do you happen to know the woman Dorian brought?” Craig interrupted Heath. “These guys don’t know her, but I thought maybe you’d talked to her. You know, woman to woman.”
Both Heath and Gavin tensed. Craig was still suspicious. And Lyn had no idea about the potential disaster they were skirting. Finding out who Ray was, and that she was still alive, could trigger a massive manhunt.
“The woman Dorian brought?” Lyn repeated. “Oh, yeah, sure, I talked to her.”
Shit. Heath wrapped an arm around Lyn, trying to think of a way to signal her without making it so completely obvious.
“Charlie’s great,” Lyn continued without missing a beat. “I love talking to pregnant ladies. And watching them eat is hilarious.”
“Pregnant?” Craig asked.
“Yeah, she was due last week. Bless her heart. That’s Dorian’s wife, right?”
Heath relaxed. Lyn had figured it out without them needing to tell her anything.
Of course she had. She may not have chosen a profession in law enforcement or trained in tactical awareness like her father and brothers, but that didn’t mean she didn’t have the same instincts they had.
This woman was every kind of smart. Smart in terms of academics. Smart in terms of awareness.
Smart in terms of stealing his heart without him even being aware of it.
“No, silly, Charlie’s married to Finn, not Dorian.” Heath kissed her temple. “Thank you,” he whispered so no one else could hear.
“Dorian’s friend is the one with the headphones,” Craig said.
“Oh. Yeah.” Lyn shrugged and gave everyone a ditzy smile that looked so unnatural Heath almost laughed. “I can’t tell everyone apart. No, sorry, I’m not sure who she is.”
“Craig gave us some bad news.” Heath tightened his arm around Lyn. Time to get this conversation off Dorian and Ray. “Evidently Troy Powell was killed a few days ago.”
All traces of ditziness fell from her features. “Oh no. Troy?”
Heath kissed the top of her head again. “I’m sorry, Almost.”
Craig nodded. “Looks like it was probably some of the bad guys he fell in with when selling the microchip.”
“Oh no.” Lyn buried her face against Heath’s side. “He was my age.”
He pulled her close and shook his head at Craig. Lyn definitely didn’t need to know that Troy had been tortured. “I know.”
Craig pushed his plate away. “I’m sorry. Hell, I wasn’t planning on finding a cookout when I came to see you guys. I didn’t mean to disrupt.”
“No, it’s okay.” Lyn peeked back out, pulling herself together. “I just hate to hear that about Troy.”
Heath nodded. “We all do.”
“Look, I’m not going to stay.” Craig pulled out his phone, opened a picture, and handed it to Heath. “I also wanted to see if this happened to jog your memory.”
Heath studied a picture of a slender man with dirty-blond hair. “Who is this?”
“Guy goes by the name of Keith Saunders. He’s an information and weapons broker the bureau has been after for a while. Big player on the West Coast and is moving east. We think he’s the buyer. Stands to reason he’s also the guy who killed Troy.”
Heath handed the phone back to Craig. “I don’t recognize him at all. I’m sorry. I didn’t get any visual that night.”
Craig nodded. “I knew it was a long shot but wanted to check. Listen, I’m going to go, so you can enjoy the rest of your event. I’ll keep you posted if we catch a break in Powell’s case.”
Heath shook his hand. “Sorry I’m not any more help.”
“How is your head doing, by the way? Any better?”
Heath didn’t even remember mentioning the gibberish in his brain to Craig, but at this point it wasn’t a huge secret. “About the same. Might just have to be something I learn to live with.”
Lyn squeezed his hand, and he looked down at her.
Yeah. If he had to learn to live with these voices in his head, then so be it. He’d visit Dr. Diaz, the new shrink in town, some more. See if there was anything he could do to help compartmentalize it better.
Knowing that Lyn knew and would be standing next to him as he learned to adapt made him ready to move forward.
Craig nodded. “Yeah, I guess we’ve all got stuff we have to learn to live with.”
Gavin stood up with him. “I’ll walk you out, Craig.”
Heath, Lyn, and Kendrick watched the two men go.
“I’ll go let Dorian and Ray know he’s gone,” Kendrick said.
“Thanks, man.” Heath nodded but knew Dorian and Ray were probably already out of reach. It had been hard enough for them without Craig showing up—sheer bad luck. But Heath wouldn’t be surprised if Ray and Dorian didn’t surface again for a while.
“Do you think Craig heard about Dorian and suspects Ray?” Kendrick asked.
Heath shook his head. “No. Nobody here would let that information out of our immediate group.”
Kendrick looked like he was going to say something but then shrugged and headed off in Dorian and Ray’s last known direction.
“Craig seemed awfully interested in them,” Lyn said.
“I think he got lucky—just happened to stop by and that law enforcement sixth-sense you were talking about kicked in.”
“Do you think he’ll pursue it?”
Heath wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her close. “Honestly, no. Thanks to you pretending you thought Charlie was Dorian’s date. Brainiac.”
She shrugged and smiled weakly. “Seemed like the right thing to say at the time.”
“It was a brilliant thing to say. Really got Craig off the scent.”
“I hate what happened to Troy,” she whispered. “I was mad that he dragged me into that whole mess, but . . . dead?”
“Yeah, me too.”
It pissed Heath off. Maybe he’d give Craig a call tomorrow to see what he could do to help bring this son of a bitch down. They’d stopped Veronica from selling the microchip—maybe he could do more to help catch the buyer, whether it was this Keith Saunders guy or not.
“I can almost see wheels turning in your head,” Lyn said.
He gave her a half smile. “Troy was trying to get out of the game. Killing him”—especially in such a violent manner—“wasn’t necessary. Whoever did it needs to go down.”
She sighed. “There it is. That toll I was talking about earlier. You’re wired like Gavin . . . can’t let an injustice go.”
“I know you don’t—”
She put a finger over his lips. “I’m not saying it’s wrong or bad. The opposite, actually. The world needs people like you. The warriors who stand in the gap and fight for those who can’t fight for themselves. Pushing their own needs and pains to the side to get the job done. It makes me proud to know you. To be part of your life.”
He yanked her to him. “You’re becoming the most important part of my life pretty damn fast, Almost.”
“Good. Because I like it.”
He kissed her—hard and hot and wet. He normally wouldn’t put on such a public display of affection in front of family and friends and kids running around, but he could no more stop himself than he could stop his next breath.
“You’re amazing, Lyn,” he finally whispered against her mouth. “And I—”
“Aunt Charlie, are you okay?” Jess’s voice rang out across the entire area. “I think you just peed yourself.”
The entire area got quiet once again as everyone spun to look at Charlie. She was still sitting on one of the picnic tables, staring down at her shorts, which were indeed wet.
A few seconds later, Finn was at her side. Charlie beamed up at him. “I think it’s time to meet our son.”
Chapter Twenty-Four
The party moved to the hospital. Little Thomas Bollinger may not have had much interest in coming out of his mother’s belly, but once he got on the move, he didn’t hesitate.
Kid had Linear Tactical blood in his veins, after all.
Finn rushed Charlie—almost in active labor before they made it off Linear property—to the hospital, Annie Griffin riding with them. By the time everyone else had cleaned up the cookout and made it into town, Thomas had just about made his way into the world.
Even with Annie as a hospital employee, the staff balked at the sheer number of people there to see the couple and baby. The Linear family took up nearly the entire waiting room.
Once they heard both mother and baby were doing fine, most decided to go on home and leave the visiting for the literal family. Lyn held Heath’s hand as they walked out to the car in the hospital parking lot.
“Things are never boring around here, that’s for sure.” An enormous grin split her face as they got into the car.
He smiled too. “I didn’t think I’d like a town the size of Oak Creek, but small-town life has suited more than I thought it would.”
He drove through town and came to a turn. “My house? Or would you like me to take you back to Peyton’s? And, before you ask, I vote for my house.”
“My vote is for your house too.”
For multiple reasons. Because she’d been ready to jump his bones most of the afternoon. But also because she’d like to get another couple hours of work in on the Pictish. She wanted to be as familiar with the dead language as possible when Kendrick’s program was ready to help her begin translating.
She would hopefully have answers for Heath soon. She couldn’t wait to share that with him.
“What’s that grin about?” he asked as he pulled into the driveway at his house.
“It’s a surprise.”
“Blayd.” His handsome grin got downright carnal as he opened the car door and helped her out. “Does it involve more panties?”
“Croatian?” She giggled at his exotic expletive as she walked toward the front door, his hand on the small of her back dipping lower by the second. “I would’ve thought you’d gotten your fill of panties yesterday.”
His hand slid over the curve of her butt. “You obviously do not know how a man’s mind works. Showing us something as sexy as that leads us to wanting much more, not less. Never, ever less.”
“In that case, I better order some—”
Her words fell away when his arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her behind him. And not in a sexy way.
The voice that had been low and playful a heartbeat ago was now hard and focused. “Stay behind me.”
“What is it?” she whispered.
He pointed toward the door. “That wasn’t cracked open when we left here this afternoon.”
Keeping a hand on hers, he stepped inside and flipped on the lights.
Someone had broken in.
“Stay right here. I want to make sure no one is still in here.”
She nodded as he tucked her into the corner by the front door, then went searching the rest of the house. She pressed her hand hard over her heart in an attempt to encourage it to settle back into a normal rhythm. Her pills were on the kitchen counter.
He was on the phone when he walked back toward her a couple of minutes later. He held his hand out toward her and led her toward the kitchen.
“Looks like a snatch and grab,” Heath was saying into the phone. “I don’t keep much cash lying around. Firearms were hidden. I assume they were looking for whatever they could take quickly and got out. I’ve already checked to make sure the building is secure.”
Lyn pulled away from him and grabbed her pill bottle next to the sink. She took one, not even bothering with water.
“Yeah, she’s with me. We’ll wait for you here. Thanks, Gavin.”
She slumped back against the counter. “A break-in?”
He nodded, looking back into the living room. “Yeah. Took the flat screen and both of our computers.”
Her eyes flew to the table. “Oh no. My laptop.”
Had she made an off-site backup for her work on Heath’s Pictish? She’d sent it in pieces to Kendrick but wasn’t sure that included all of it.
He squeezed her arm. “Are you worried about your dissertation? Oh God, please tell me you had it backed up somewhere besides just your laptop.”
“I did. My dissertation is backed up in multiple places. You don’t have to worry about that.”
“Thank God. I know no town is perfect, but I wasn’t expecting this. Oak Creek is basically Mayberry. We might still be able to get your laptop back. Was there other critical stuff on there?”
She couldn’t keep it from him any longer. “I didn’t want to say anything in case it ends up being nothing.” But it wasn’t nothing, she knew that. “Last night I woke up with an idea about my dissertation and was working and you started saying your gibberish in your sleep.”
“Crap. I know I do that. I’m sorry—”
She put a finger over his lips. “I recorded it, and, long story short, I accidentally played it backward.”
“Backward?” The thought obviously hadn’t occurred to him.
“Heath, I don’t think it’s gibberish at all. I think it’s a version of Pictish, which was the language spoken by the Pict people of Scotland.”
“I don’t know what that is.”
“You wouldn’t. It hasn’t been spoken in two thousand years. It’s a dead language. Only studied academically, and even then, not widely.”
“Can it be translated?”
“That’s the tricky thing. Written, it could be translated immediately. But spoken, it becomes a lot more problematic. It’s dependent on certain algorithms for oral usage. Without knowing that, it could almost be its own secret language.”
He stared at her, taking it all in. “Is it possible to decipher with an algorithm?”
“Yes. Definitely yes. It would take me weeks to try to do it by hand, but it could still be done. I sent the info to Kendrick, and he’s already started developing some software that can do a lot of the mathematical basis for me—it can help distinguish the pattern used when it was put in your head so I can translate it. We were hoping to have something to tell very soon.”
He looked back at the table where her computer had sat. “With your computer gone, is the information lost for good?”
She couldn’t stand the look of heartbreak on his face. “No. At worst, it would set us back a couple of days. I would need to try to re-record your gibberish, download it again, filter it through my academic software, and then have Kendrick do his magic. I was so excited last night I’m not sure if I backed up the information to the cloud. As soon as I can get on a computer, any computer with internet access, I’ll be able to check.”
She hoped she had backed up everything. She had jotted down all her initial thoughts and considerations last night. She wasn’t sure she would be able to remember all those exactly.
It wasn’t long before Gavin showed up with Noah in tow.
“You both okay?” Gavin asked, pulling Lyn in for a hug.
“We’re fine,” she said. “This must have happened while we were at the picnic or the hospital.”
Heath told Gavin and Noah what had been taken. When Gavin heard Lyn’s computer was missing, he had the same concerns about her research.
“My dissertation is fine. But there was some other data that might’ve been lost.” She didn’t want to mention it was about Heath unless he wanted to mention it. “It’s not critical, just a hassle.”
But evidently, Heath didn’t mind sharing. “Lyn might have made a real breakthrough on the shit inside my head.”
Both Gavin and Noah turned to her. She shrugged. “Looks like my advanced degree in dead languages might end up being useful after all.”
Gavin nodded. “Okay, I’ll get the crime lab in here to check for prints right away. But I’ll be honest, the chances of us getting your stuff back are pretty slim.”
Bon sang. She hated the thought of having to start again. “I’d really just like to get on a computer and see if I backed up the data.”
