Bourne to Love Emma (RED-Stone Operatives Book 1) (13 page)

            I walked to Mia’s bedroom where she was putting pants
back on over a clean diaper.  When she finished, she lifted Mia onto her hip
and turned toward the door where I was waiting.  I pulled them both into a
hug.  Emma ran her hand down my back and wrapped her arm around my waist.  I
held them close and closed my eyes for a minute.  It would be too easy for
something to happen.  We need to end this now before they get hurt.

            “I’ve got to go talk to John.  Heather is staying
with you two and I’ll be back up in a little while, okay?”

            She nodded and leaned up to kiss me softly.  I
kissed her back and then kissed Mia on the head.  She’d been quiet since her
nap this afternoon, almost like she could sense the turmoil around her.

            “Be careful, Jason.”

            “I will, baby.”

            I walked back to the kitchen to tell Heather I
was leaving and make sure she would stay inside with Emma and Mia.

            “Heather, I’ve got to run downstairs to talk to
John.”

            “Go.  We’ll be fine.”

            I walked to Emma’s freezer and pulled out one of
the ‘boo-boo bags’ that Emma keeps for Mia when she falls and bumps her head. 
Heather raised an eyebrow when I handed it to her.

            “You need to ice your wrist.  It will help with
the swelling and inflammation.  You should probably take something for the
pain, too.  Want me to check with Emma and see what she has?”

            “Thank you.  I’ll ask her for something.  Don’t
keep John waiting, he’s liable to get nasty.  He’s been on edge for a solid
week now between this and the case you’ve been working on for him.”

            “Yeah.  I know the feeling.  I’ll be back in a
little bit and we’ll all go next door.  Keep the door locked, okay?”

            “Thanks for that tip, Captain Obvious.  I think I
could have come up with that plan on my own considering that Emma’s deranged
asshole of an ex-husband tried to knock my brains loose a few hours ago.”

            I sighed.  “Keep them safe.  That’s all I’m
worried about.”  

            She stared at me for a minute before her
expression softened.  “With my life.  Hurry back.”  And she shut the door and
locked it.

            Downstairs John, Frank and two police officers were
in the security office.  There wasn’t room for all of us, but apparently we
were all going to cram inside together for grins.  John nodded at me when I
scooted in beside Frank and watched him rewind the feed again. 

The image showed a person moving
along the shadows on the edge of the garage and then moving from car to car
until it reached Emma’s car.  He was wearing dark pants and a dark hoodie with
the hood pulled low over his face.  He had on gloves, too, dammit.  He stayed
in the shadows and pauses.  After a minute, he made his way to the stairwell
door and tries the door.  Locked. 

            He moved in the shadows back to Emma’s car and
crouched beside the driver’s side door, cupping his hands around his face to
look inside.  He stood quickly and pulls a tool of some kind out of his hoodie
and busted the window.  He stuck his arm through and grabbed something, putting
it in his pocket.  Crouching back down, he was still for a few seconds before
he pulled a knife out of his pants and stabbed it into the rear driver’s side
tire.  Then he circled the car and flattened the rest.

            As he stabbed the front tire on the driver’s
side, he jerked toward the front of the car and crouched against it.  The
camera caught Heather’s car pulling in next to Emma’s passenger side and we
could see her as she turned her car off and grabbed something – her purse –
before climbing out and shutting the door.  She must have said something or
made some kind of noise when she saw Emma’s tires, because the guy jumped from
in front of the car and grabbed her by the wrist, slinging her in front of her
car and her knee and shoulder slam into the concrete pillar.

            “Motherfucker,” John half whispered as he sees
Heather being injured.

            When Heather hit the ground, the guy ran across
the parking garage and out the exit.

            “Frank, pull the feed from outside the building,”
I said.

            A minute later, we saw video from the exterior
cameras.  When Frank backs it up to the right time frame, we could see the man
run out the exit of the garage and head up the block.  He ducked into the dry
cleaners two buildings down and we lost him. 

            We were all silent for a moment before the police
officers started talking to John about how he wanted to handle things.  They
couldn’t make an ID on the guy without fingerprints or being able to see his
face – which we couldn’t on the video we have.  He knew where the cameras in the
garage were and he did a good job not looking up toward them.

            The officers told John that they were going to go
down the street to the dry cleaners and see if they could tell us anything.  Other
than that, though, we were getting no help.  Fortunately, we aren’t relying on
them for help, just for legal charges to be filed.  Unfortunately, we’re
screwed on that for the time being, too.

            John walked the officers out of the security
office and Frank and I stared at the video feed still playing.  I gestured to
the chair and ask “May I?”  Frank stood up and took a step away.

            I slid into the chair and pulled up the garage
feed again.  I ran through it several times before I felt John walk up behind
me.

            He asked, “what are you seeing?”

            I rewound it to when he first walked up to Emma’s
car and then just stood there before he walked to the stairwell entrance. 
“What is this?  What is he looking for?  Why find her car in the lot and then
walk off?”

            I forwarded through the feed until he circled
back to Emma’s car and looked inside before smashing the window.  I zoomed in
on his hand when he pulled his arm back out, but the video was too grainy for
me to see what he’s taking from her car.  “What is this?  What on earth does
she have in her car that he wants enough to risk getting caught like this?”

            I turned in my seat.  “I want Emma to come down
and take a look at this, but I don’t want to leave Heather or Mia alone.  Do
you want them all down here or …”

            “Bring them all down.  We need to discuss what
we’re doing next anyway and she deserves to be part of the conversation.”

~Emma~

            Jason text me to let me know he and John were
coming back upstairs to get us because we needed to see something.  I grabbed
some shoes for me and a jacket for Mia since the lobby tends to be too cool for
her.

            We were ready when they knocked.  Once we were
all in the security office, John asked if he could hold Mia for me.  Jason sat
down at the desk and turned a knob to back up the video playing on the screen. 
After a few seconds, I saw the parking garage.  Jason walked me through what
they had seen and then showed me the video where he broke my car window and
reached through to get something.

            “Can you tell what he took, Em?  He didn’t dig
through your glove box or anything.  Whatever he was after was on the driver’s
side of the car…”

            “Can I see it again?”  I watched as the video
played again and mentally went through what I keep in my car that is within
reach of the window.  Traveling with a baby means I keep a lot of random things
in my car, just in case.  But on my side….  Spare keys to my apartment are in
the glove box.  Maybe that’s not a good idea anymore.  I grimace at how stupid
that seems now. 

            “There’s nothing worth stealing.  I keep a couple
of bottles of water and an umbrella in my door.  I take my purse inside.  There
really isn’t – oh.” 

            “Emma what is it?”  He sounded so far away all of
a sudden and I closed my eyes against a wave of dizziness.        

Jason stood up and then pulled me
into the chair and pushed my head down toward my knees.  I could feel myself
gasping for air and there was a buzzing sound in my ears.  “Breathe, baby.  In
and out.  Breathe with me.”  He crouched in front of me with his hands on my
knees.  I could hear him breathing in and pushing it back out.  I focused on
him.  The buzzing stopped and my heart didn’t feel like it was going to explode
anymore, but I couldn’t sit up yet.

            I felt his hand rub over the back of my head. 
“Em, what is it?  What did he take?”

            “It’s…oh God.  He took my security card.  He can
get in the building now.  He can get inside….”

            I heard John hand Mia to Frank and step out of
the room and start talking on his phone.  I felt another hand on my back and
knew Heather was with me, too.  Jason kissed the top of my head and stood up. 

I heard him and Frank whispering and
looked up.  Frank looked…terrified.  Mia was squirming in his arms.  Jason’s
face was hard as granite and expressionless.  But the muscle in his cheek was
ticking.

            “What is it?”

            Jason glanced at me and then at Frank.

            “Jason.  Tell me.”  I could see his Adam’s apple
jerk as he swallowed hard.  He closed his eyes for a second before he looked at
me again.  Heather squeezed my shoulder with her good hand.

            “The first pass through – when he just found your
car and then tried the door….”  His fists clenched before he forced the rest of
it out.  “Your apartment number is on your parking spot.  He knows which
apartment you’re in now.  And he has a passkey.”

            Frank brought Mia to me and stuttered a little as
he explained, “we made all the mailing addresses a variation of the apartment
number – apartment 6c on the second floor is mailbox 2063.  It’s not a
complicated system, but it helps keep your apartment anonymous in situations
like this.  But since you need a code to get into the garage or you have to
call security, it wasn’t treated the same.  And, since guests often park in a
tenant’s spot, we had to mark them so they were identifiable for everyone.”

            I just stared at Jason.  “He’s coming, isn’t he?” 
I hugged Mia close and tears filled my eyes. 

            “He’s not getting to you, Em.  My only priority
at this point is keeping the two of you safe.” 

            John stuck his head in the room and sent a
pointed look at Jason.  Jason nodded and walked out to talk to him.  Heather
started making faces at Mia when she began to fuss. 

            “It’s going to be okay, baby girl.  Everything’s
going to be okay.”

            A few minutes later, John and Jason came back
into the room.  John was the first to speak.

“I’ve already notified the police
that we identified what was stolen.  I also wiped all the keycards for the
building so they will have to be rekeyed.  No one in the building has a card
that works now except the guards.  Frank, you’re going to have to contact
everyone and let them know they’ll have to come through the lobby and be let
inside until we can recode the rest of the cards.”  He focused on me and added,
“He’s not coming in with that card, Emma.”

            Jason walked to my side and rubbed my shoulder.  “I
talked to John about what we do now.  He suggested that you go home with
Heather and stay with them until we find and eliminate the threat.”  I flinched
at the thought of what he means when he says ‘eliminate the threat.’ 

            “Or, you and Mia can stay here with me – but
we’ll need to stay in my apartment.  Even though we’ve changed the codes and he
can’t get in with that passkey, I don’t want to risk staying at your apartment
since he knows which one you’re in now.  It’s up to you, Em.  Whatever you want
to do is fine.  We just all want to do everything we can to keep you and Mia
safe.”

            I just sat there for a minute.  I didn’t really
need to think about it – that’s not why I was sitting there quietly.  Part of
me was still stuck on “eliminating the threat.”  Because, no matter what it really
meant, I want my life back.  I want to be able to take Mia to the park without
looking over my shoulder, to go out to dinner with Heather without worrying for
both of us, to spend the night with Jason because he wants to instead of
needing to do it to keep us safe….

            “I want to stay here.  I can pack up some stuff
to make Mia comfortable at your place and I can take my laptop and try to do
some work myself.”

            Jason sighs out a breath and visibly relaxes.  My
spirit lifts just a little when I realize that my decision was important to
him, too. 

~Jason~

            While we were waiting on Heather and Emma to grab
what she and Mia would need to go next door for the night, I skimmed through
e-mails on my phone.  I wasn’t lying when I told Emma that keeping them safe is
my only priority.  But I’m not carrying my weight at the office right now and
there are a few things that aren’t coming along like I’d expect.  As that very
thought crossed my mind, my phone rang in my hand.  It was a blocked number. 
Unlike most people, that generally meant it would be someone I worked with and
not a solicitor.