Face value, p.9
Face Value, page 9
"If they are the bad guys then they'll just be hired help," Kayden said thoughtfully.
"Money trail, K, money trail."
"Is there no one else?"
"Nearest is Adam Brooke and he's still sixty out."
"Shit, Manny—"
"Yes or no. The more I drive round the quicker they'll catch on."
Beckett waited with bated breath. This wasn't happening. The whole visit to the bank for the information from his mom was supposed to be a quick pick up and then back to the safety of his temporary home.
"We're in." Kayden finally said and Manny was virtually high fiving over the comms with a whoop of glee.
"I'm calling Ops," Manny said before the comms went dead.
"Shit." Kayden snapped and then turned to face the front of the 4x4. A beep indicated something happening on the system integrated into the 4x4 which looked a lot better than the standard off the counter sat nav his small car had. "Got it," he said.
"What are we doing?" Beckett asked. He wished he didn't sound so damn terrified. Any heroic wish to bring down the Bullen's had been near beaten out of him by his father and Uncle.
"It's simple," Kayden explained. "Like Manny said, it's the money trail." He reached over and pressed a finger to a small black mark on the outside of the glove box. The smooth glide of a secondary cover revealed a gun and within seconds Kayden had pulled it out. "It's against my better judgment but we may not get this chance again."
"What about me?" Beckett demanded quickly. "What are you doing with me?"
"Listen to me, Beck. Stay in the car. Whatever you see or hear you stay in the damn car. It's bullet proof and Ops will have eyes on you at all times." Beckett watched in utter disbelief as Kayden hefted the weight of the gun and checked it was loaded. This was made worse when he handed it to Beckett and the black heaviness of it lay untouched on his thigh. "Its safety is on. Here." He showed Beckett where the safety was. "Do not get out of the car. Okay?"
"You've given me a gun." Beckett protested. "I don't know how to use a gun."
"If you need to—if you're compromised and there's no help, all you do is point and shoot."
"This is your gun." Beckett couldn't keep the worry out of his voice. "Don't you need your gun?"
"No. Manny is the gun man. He's the firearms expert." Kayden said this so matter of fact like it was something Beckett wouldn't question.
"Manny is the gun man." Beckett repeated weakly. Kayden restarted the engine and pulled a U-turn to head back the way they came for a short distance before following the nav's instructions and taking a left. "What are you then?"
"What?" Kayden asked even as he concentrated on merging into the queue of traffic at the lights.
"Manny does guns, you said. If he does guns what do you do?"
Kayden didn't answer at first. He concentrated on following the snake of cars entering the city and they drove in silence except for the sat nav spitting instructions for another ten minutes. Finally they stopped near the end of an alley that didn't look like the safest place to be. Beckett couldn't see Manny or Austin or any sign of bad guys. Whatever bad guys looked like.
"I use guns, I'm freaking good with guns, but hell, you don't always need a weapon. My body is a weapon," he laughed as he said this and then raised his eyebrows in a leer. "Just stay here. Lock the doors." Kayden was out before Beckett could even acknowledge he'd heard but when the other man pointedly looked at him he scrambled to lock the doors. Within seconds Kayden was gone. Movement from his left made Beckett turn quickly. Over the instant clenching pain in his neck he couldn't help the curse that left his mouth. What he saw was like some kind of choreographed movie scene. Manny had three guys ranged in front of the car in some kind of weird everyone-has-guns face off. Then Kayden waded in to the group, fists flying, and each one was disarmed before they knew what hit them. One by one they dropped to the ground. All the time Manny stood there with his weapon held loose in his hand. When Kayden said Manny did guns, clearly that meant being there with a gun in case something went wrong. One of the guys made to stand but one kick from Kayden in the man's groin and he fell writhing.
Beckett wasn't sure what to think. Apparently his doctor hadn't been lying when he said he had moves. Beckett watched as Kayden rifled through the pocket of one of the downed guys and then he and Manny exchanged heated words as they looked at a wallet they had retrieved. Kayden looked pissed and stalked over to the car. There was a trickle of blood from the corner of his mouth and he wiped it away without a second thought.
"Freaking FBI," Kayden muttered.
"They were Federal agents?" Beckett asked horrified.
"Following Austin." Kayden hit the steering wheel with both hands. "Fuck."
The back door opened and Austin climbed in. Beckett spun in his seat and immediately wished he hadn't as pain wrapped around his arm when he knocked it on the seat.
"I'm taking you both to the bank now," Kayden's tone left no room for argument.
"Did you see what this guy just did?" Austin said with shock in his voice.
"I did," Beckett answered and turned back a lot more slowly to face Kayden. Suddenly there was a whole other layer he could see in the man next to him. Restrained and surgical violence with so much confidence it was inspiring. Damn. "Are you going to get in trouble?"
"For what? Beating on some sorry assed lower level FBI dudes? Nah."
Beckett had so much more to ask but the main thing was to get Kayden to understand how he was currently feeling. It was important. "Sorry," Beckett finally said as they moved into main traffic again.
"For?"
"Doubting you had moves."
Kayden grinned as they stopped on a red. He was clearly high on the fight. Leaning over he stole a quick hot and dirty kiss then pulled back. "God, that felt good. I needed some one-on-one. Makes it better that it was Feds. It's been a while."
Evidently, Kayden lived for the adrenaline rush of a good fight and he still had the smile on his face when Ops came on line to confirm the three FBI guys would be picked up in ten and that the vehicle Beckett, Kayden, and Austin were in was clear.
The smile only went away when they arrived at the bank and parked. Beckett grabbed a handful of Kayden's shirt and pulled him closer until his nose was inhaling the warm scent of Kayden's skin at his throat. The fluttering pulse was racing. It appeared Kayden wasn't unaffected by what had just happened to him or the fact that Beckett pulled him close. With a sudden inspiration Beckett stole a kiss which Kayden immediately deepened. Beckett was hard in his pants and every single worry was being pushed under by sheer delight in tasting Kayden.
A cough from the back seat separated them and Kayden pulled away with a smirk on his face. One that Beckett answered with a smile of his own.
Together the three men entered the bank and Beckett realized it was now or never with the damn code.
What they didn't appreciate is exactly what they would be walking into.
Chapter 11
The doors hissed closed behind them and Kayden walked ahead of Beckett and Austin. He needed to be sure of his surroundings. This wasn't a bank in the truest sense of the word but more a repository of locked boxes with the security of Fort Knox.
"It's quiet in here," Kayden said to no one in particular.
"What is this place?" Beckett asked curiously.
Kayden chanced a look behind him; a confidently smiling Beckett was taking the steps to the foyer two at a time and had the look of an excited puppy. Those damn brown eyes sparkled with the expectation of what they might find in his mom's box. Kayden hoped it was something worthwhile and that Beckett's life hadn't been put in danger for something that would never stick to the Bullens.
"It was a bank in the seventies; now it's a secure site for document repository. Safety deposit boxes and the like," Austin answered simply. "It's minimally staffed and run on codes and keys."
"Interesting." Beckett caught up with Kayden and it was all Kayden could do not to snap at his charge to stay back. He may well have let some of the built-up stress out with those idiots who had been following Manny and Austin, but under all that he remained strung tight. He hated that this wasn't a normal bank. Hated that there wasn't the welcoming buzz of people in lines. It was too quiet and so far he had only seen one guard. Not a good start as the man hadn't asked any of the men to sign in, or show ID or anything. This place really was some kind of free for all for the general masses to store their important stuff and Kayden didn't like it.
A trickle of unease skittered down his spine but impatiently he pushed it to one side. No one outside of Sanctuary knew he was here, or that he had Beckett and Austin with him. The place was quiet.
They stepped into what must have been the main banking hall in a previous life. Tall ceilings and carved columns separated spaces and more security hovered at each gated door. Several inquiry desks were arranged in a semi-circle at one end of the hall and it was to these that Austin strode. Beckett followed and Kayden took up the rear. Suddenly he wished Manny had made it here with him. He felt a little isolated and that never played well in Kayden's experience.
"Can I help you, sirs?" The young woman at the left hand desk looked up from a screen with an expectant smile on her face.
"We need access to a box."
"Do you have your reference codes and your keys?"
Austin held up two keys. "We do." He started asking questions but Kayden had tuned the talking out.
Carefully and without it seeming too obvious he checked around the room. Nothing seemed terribly out of order, but something was nagging at him. Could it be the tall guy over by the other desk who made him nervous? To all intents and purposes he was chatting to the administrator and filling in forms. Or maybe it was the short guy who appeared to be making a call on a cell phone and was idly leaning against the same desk. Frustrated that his normal sense of situation was failing him he tensed when the main entrance to this area opened and a new arrival hurried to another area before disappearing behind a door marked staff. Kayden relaxed only a small amount.
"Can we hurry this up," he said quickly.
Austin looked up from where he was signing something and then he slid the same form to Beckett.
"If you'd like to come with me I will show you to your box." She pressed a button on her computer to hibernate the screen and then gathering the forms and a key card she led the three men to yet another exit from this main room. This door opened into a narrow corridor which ended in a small antechamber of sorts. The wall was line with key pads and each rectangle of black held a number. Kayden hadn't been listening to the administrator's spiel but he assumed the small key that Beckett held with the 674 on it would match the correct box in the wall.
"Your keys will indicate which box is yours. The code you have will need to be entered on the corresponding keypad. This will release the key block and then you will have access to your box."
"How many tries do we have at the code?" Beckett asked nervously. The administrator stared at him like she had never heard the question before. Surely people forgot their codes. Some of these boxes had to have remained unopened for years.
"You will have five chances to input the code. Should there be a problem the system resets and there is a twenty-four hour wait for the next attempt at five codes."
"And after that?"
"Then it becomes a legal matter to gain access or to assess ownership."
She left immediately after dropping this bombshell; the door closed behind her and suddenly the three men were alone. Straight away the tension ramped up in Beckett and Kayden placed a reassuring hand on his arm. Beckett hunched his shoulders and exhaled noisily.
"We are fucked," he said miserably. "I can only remember part of mine."
"Sit down," Austin said softly. He placed paper and pen on the table. "Relax and attempt to remember." Austin himself sat down at the other chair placed around a small table and Kayden leaned back against the only bare wall watching Beckett closely for signs of losing his lunch. He looked sick and nervous.
Austin confidently wrote down his series of numbers and letters, nine in all, and placed it in front of him.
Beckett wrote the five he could remember and then stopped.
"Surely you can remember more than that," Austin commented. He turned his sheet around and tapped on it with his pen. "Look. These numbers mean something to me. The three initials of my name and my birthday. "
"Okay that sounds easy enough," Beckett said with a half-smile. He looked at Kayden and Kayden found himself returning the smile. God, the kid had gotten under his skin in the past few days. "So. This is my birthday," Beckett scribbled his six figure birth date on the sheet. Some of it must have looked familiar as he crossed off two of the numbers with an accompanying 'I already remembered those in the code'.
"No it isn't," Austin said carefully. Beckett looked up and he was obviously confused. "That is Beckett Jamieson's birthday, but your real birthday was two months earlier, in June. Same day and same year though."
"Oh." Beckett bent his head again but not before Kayden noticed the flash of something in his eyes. Frustration? Sadness? Kayden couldn't tell.
"Line your initials and the birthday up against mine." When Beckett did as Austin said they were left with an eighteen digit code.
"Which comes first?"
"We can try both ways."
Kayden kept his eyes on the door as the two others keyed codes in. The first set failed, or at least Kayden assumed it had when raucous beeps sounded and there was no key lock dropping down. The second one produced a more subdued sound and the whir of a key lock. Beckett took a step back, clearly he was overwhelmed. His slim frame spoke of shock and fear at what might be inside and Kayden couldn't help himself. Crossing the few steps to Beckett he embraced him from behind, pulling him to lean back against him. Austin glanced over his shoulder and Kayden could see the blush that rose in the other man's face; he quickly looked away. Kayden didn't mean to make the lawyer uncomfortable but the pain in Beckett's face was obvious.
"You okay?" Kayden asked gently.
"I didn't—I don't—I can't—" Beckett wasn't stringing together anything coherent.
Kayden had answers for everything Beckett couldn't verbalize. You didn't think the code would work. You don't want to see what's inside the box. You can't stop feeling like you are going to be touching something of your mom's and that digs into you and hurts. He didn't actually say any of this though, he simply said, "I know." He tightened his hold and placed a kiss on the side of Beckett's neck. "Let's open this, get whatever is in there to whoever needs it then go home. Yeah?"
"Back to eighteen?" Beckett asked quietly. "Back to being safe."
Kayden's throat tightened with emotion. It wasn't just being exposed outside of the safe house that made Beckett scared. God knows how his thoughts had coalesced to thinking it, but at Sanctuary eighteen Beckett was safe from facing his mom's memory. Beckett was so tense and leaned so hard on Kayden that Kayden had to brace himself and push back.
"How's your head?" He asked instead. Always a good idea to hide feelings and emotions behind the practicalities of medicine.
"Headache," Beckett answered. He turned his head and exposed more neck. Whether by accident or design, Kayden couldn't resist placing a couple more kisses on the warm skin.
"I have meds in the car. You gonna be okay until then?"
Beckett nodded then pressed back one more time before stepping away from Kayden and straightening his spine.
"Okay, Austin," Beckett said with a voice calmer in tone than it had been in a while. "What do you say? Shall we get this box opened and get out of here?"
Austin cast a look at Beckett and nodded and then looked back at Kayden. He appeared uncertain, worried almost. Kayden didn't have time to analyze the expression as Beckett turned his key and the door fell forward. The box was nothing fancy; simple and green it gave little away in its appearance that it may hold enough to destroy a family. Carefully Beckett pulled it from its cubby hole and placed it on the table they had been sitting at. Sighing audibly he slid off the lid and secrets hidden for seventeen years were exposed to the air. Austin leaned over, but it was Beckett who reached in and pulled out the contents. Placing each item one by one on the table Beckett finally showed the inside of the empty box to Kayden and Austin. Then they began the task of sifting through what had been inside.
Photocopies of paperwork, a small diary, a necklace wrapped in some kind of plastic with the warning 'do not open' in sloped cursive and various old style zip drives and floppy discs. Everything was meticulously dated.
"We'll get this whole lot to Manny," Kayden said quickly. "He'll pull off what he can."
"I'll need to take this."
Kayden didn't register Austin's voice at first. It was Beckett who turned to face Austin and whose expression went from introspective from looking at the papers to shocked.
"I'll need to take it all," Austin reinforced.
This time Kayden paid the guy one hundred and ten percent attention and came face to face with the barrel of a Sig.
"Back away Summers," Austin demanded.
Kayden raised his hands, "you're the one with the gun Austin."
"Hell, I saw what you did with those Feds that had been tracking me. I'm not stupid. Now back away. Please." His voice was strained.
"Austin—" Beckett attempted to talk but Austin brandished the gun in his direction. Kayden stiffened. The gun wasn't pointing at him anymore, it was square on Beckett and too close for Kayden to kick it away.
"Don't talk to me, please. I don't want to talk. Just put everything back in the box and no one will get hurt."
Kayden assessed the situation. The table was between him and Austin and the guy was also closer to the door. Beckett was to his right and his expression was one of horror and fear. His own weapon was in the small of his back and to reach that meant compromising the use of his hands.
"What are you doing, Austin?" Kayden asked gently. Holding his hands up in front and away from his body in the universal gesture of innocence he took a careful step closer to Beckett. He needed to be between the gun and Beckett.
