Burned: Black Cipher Files #3 (Black Cipher Files series) (22 page)

Susan was not answering his communication efforts. But he knew one way to get her to talk to him.

Oliver watched the van but still there was no movement. He must have been mistaken about the house being under surveillance. Finally, he was ready to make his move. But he still had to make sure no one saw him.

Oliver put his rental car into gear and drove away from the house slowly. When he hit the next intersection, he turned left and then turned into the alleyway behind the house.

He parked one house down from his in-laws and pulled the syringe from his duffel. He’d hoped to avoid this solution for several reasons but the most important was he hadn’t really wanted to deal with the girl’s problems.

But if he didn’t get the formula and notes from Susan he was dead. Self-preservation won every damn time.

He tucked the syringe in his Seattle Seahawks windbreaker pocket and exited the car. He approached the back door, holding the thick, heavy Wonder Bar jimmying tool alongside his thigh.

Oliver lifted his fist and rapped against the back door, hard enough that his knuckles stung from the force. Susan’s sister-in-law peered out the back curtains. Her fearful gaze widened as she saw him. She started shaking her head and her mouth formed the word
no
even as she jammed the curtains back into place.

Yob.
Fuck.

He banged again. This time even harder.

But she didn’t come back to the door. Oliver shrugged. Guess he’d have to do this the hard way. He wedged the Wonder Bar between the frame and the door near the doorknob and cranked until the flimsy door cracked under the pressure. God bless the Americans and their inventions. A sledgehammer would have been so much noisier.

Oliver forced his way inside the house. In his peripheral vision, he saw the frying pan coming toward his head. Instinctively he threw up his left arm to block the blow. The impact reverberated through his entire body.

“Fuck!” He roared and swung back with the Wonder Bar, catching his sister-in-law in the temple. She dropped like a sack of flour and blood poured from her wound onto the Saltillo tile floor.

Bliad.
He fought the urge to spit on the bitch.

The blinking red light from their house alarm pad indicated that she’d pressed the silent notice button for the police. He sprinted through the house looking for his daughter. He knew it would take the security company a few minutes to verify the alarm was set off on purpose. On cue, the home phone began to ring.

He pulled the syringe from his pocket and started searching for his daughter.

Susan couldn’t ignore him now.

Twenty-Seven

October 21

San Luis Obispo

Zeke sweated in the back seat. Dammit. How did they find him so fast? He didn’t have a tracking device implanted like some of the field agents. He was only a programmer who spent most of his time in the office working on code and developing unhackable encryption programs or trying to hack into other programs. There was no need to implant him.

Could they have put in some sort of nanobots when he’d gotten the original DNA-enhancing drug? That had never been mentioned by the scientists but still, they had located him pretty damn quickly.

Clearly his evasion choices were too easy to predict. He needed to step up his tactics or he’d be in prison before he could blink.

And then it occurred to him. “Which car were they around?”

“The Range Rover.”

“My rental or the one I switched plates with?”

“Yours.”

The rental company tracking device. Zeke wanted to slap his forehead. Dammit. He knew better than most people how many ways an individual could be tracked.

Zeke knew Sunshine was still pissed because he hadn’t answered her question about how else they intersected. Her idea of a Venn Diagram was actually a good one. It might not hurt to diagram out all the different variables and see if there was anything he was missing.

“We need to lay low for a bit.”

“Where are we going to do that?” He hadn’t imagined the snippiness in her voice. As a matter of fact if she hadn’t been driving he wasn’t sure she wouldn’t have just rolled out of the car at the last stoplight.

He needed to find a hole-up/hide site. To do that he needed a new phone and the internet.

He had an idea. The beach wasn’t a very defensible position which was exactly why it made a lot of sense. The NSA would be searching specific locations, train, bus stations, the highway, even possibly the little airport in San Luis for avenues of escape from the area.

And they likely wouldn’t think about him staying here, right in plain sight. The surfboard racks on top of the car they borrowed would be more camouflage. Even if they looked twice at the car in a beach parking lot, they’d likely assume it was owned by beach rats out to catch some waves.

They could hit the beach and he could look for a more permanent solution to his problem.

He knew Sunshine wasn’t going to be keen on the idea. But they didn’t have a choice. Zeke needed to find a safe place for them to hide while he figured out what the hell he was going to do next.

“I have a few ideas. But we need supplies.”

They should switch license plates on the Honda again. “We need to hit a Target to get camping gear and some other supplies.”

She shot him a dark look in the mirror. “Camping?”

“Yeah. Misdirection. We’re not actually going to camp, but if anyone remembers us they’ll remember the gear.” And they’d be prepared for anything, even the possibility of sleeping outside in case they did end up camping. Hopefully it wouldn’t come to that. However they both needed a change of clothes and to alter their appearance. “Can you get me to the nearest Target?”

Once they arrived, he had Sunshine park at the end of the lot. Zeke crammed his faded Billabong hat with a ragged brim over his curls and pulled the bill low over his forehead.

He studied Sunshine, wondering if she had anything in her bag to change her appearance.

“What are you looking at?” Her eyes were narrowed, the gray mere slits in her face.

He was about to have one pissed off woman on his hands. “I think you should cut your hair.”

Her eyes rounded and her long graceful fingers went straight to the thick braid that hung down over shoulder. “Wha—”

“I know, I know, it’s a symbol of your feminine mystique.”

“Excuse me?” She propped her fists on her hips and her eyes sparkled with annoyance in the morning light. She hissed, “I wear my hair this way because it’s convenient, I could give a rat’s butt about my hair but I think I deserve at least an answer as to why I need to cut it.”

Zeke took a step back, impressed at her wrath. And oddly turned on. “We need to change our appearances.”

She snorted. “And you think that cap is going to do it for you?”

He jerked back. “What?”

“We need to buzz your hair,” she countered. “Right now that curly mop is pretty damn distinctive. And if you’ve forgotten they’re after you, not me.”

As far as they knew. And dammit, she’d nailed it. “Jesus. You’re right.”

She nodded smugly.

“Okay so we need hair clippers, hair dye, tent, lantern, food, a new phone. Several new phones.” Zeke ticked items off on his fingers as they walked toward the entrance and the giant red Target sign. He’d never done anything as mundane as shop with a woman.

He knew she wanted answers. “And before you ask, let’s just get through shopping first.”

“So many questions, so little information,” she snarked.

“I’ll tell you what I can,” he finally said. “Once we’re someplace less public.”

“You promise?” Sunshine gave him the side eye but he could sense her feeling a little lost. “Because right now I feel like I’ve put my trust in a guy who isn’t being completely honest. And frankly I’m more than a little freaked.”

Zeke understood. He was freaked too. So he shared something as they walked into the store. “I’ve never done this before.” He ducked his head and looked at his feet.

“Done what?” she asked softly.

“Gone shopping with a girl.”

“I’m hardly a girl.” The shadows in her eyes were too ancient for her to be merely a girl.

“You know what I mean.” He felt stupid telling her that but she needed something from him so that she would know that he was vulnerable too.

“Yeah. I’ve never done this either,” she said.

Zeke balled his fist and held it for her to bump. “Let’s do this.”

She nodded, and if her chin trembled a little, he was going to ignore it. Because emotion was not in his wheelhouse. It wasn’t even in the neighborhood of his skillset.

They walked in to the store together, Sunshine threaded her fingers through his and put her head on his shoulder. “As an act, in case anyone is watching.”

“Ah, act normal.”

She snorted, then blurted out, “I know nothing about normal.”

“Yeah. Me either.” Something they had in common. “But we’re both smart. We’ll figure it out.”

“Good point.” Sunshine’s mouth lifted and her eyes brightened.

The pleasure he derived from that little sign of happiness was a surprise.

Zeke tugged Sunshine toward the sporting goods section. He thought about the weather. San Luis, West Coast, in October. It was going to be cold tonight.

Zeke picked the sleeping bag with the lowest temperature rating that Target carried, but that was still only the 3 Season bag. Hopefully he could find them a house to hole up in. But if they ended up sleeping outside, a long shot, they needed to be prepared. They were going to have to keep warm together.

As he imagined himself and Sunshine entwined inside the tight bag, other parts of him warmed up. Zeke mentally added condoms to their shopping list.

A Target employee in a red vest smiled inquisitively at them. “Need any help picking out equipment?”

Great, they would have to find the only helpful box store employee on the planet.

“We’re good.” Zeke smiled and leaned across the aisle to grab a high powered battery- operated lantern. “Thanks.”

“Well if you need anything, let me know.” The kid’s gaze lingered on Sunshine. And Zeke’s possessive meter rose. Not cool to be checking her out when it was clear they were together. But Zeke couldn’t call him on it, they couldn’t afford to draw any extra attention.

“Pretty sure we’ve got this.” Zeke slung his arm over Sunshine’s shoulder, letting the kid know that not only that they could handle their shopping, but that he and Sunshine were a couple.

She stiffened slightly. The kid smiled nervously and slunk away.

As soon as the employee was far enough away that he wouldn’t hear them, Zeke said, “Time to get the clippers and the hair dye.”

Sunshine raised her eyebrow. Her fingers twitched as if she wanted to grab her braid. She’d said she wasn’t attached to her hair, but her fingers were curled around the braid in a very protective manner.

“We need to disguise ourselves.” Of course, Zeke’s baddies were more likely to see through any disguise that he used, especially if they ran his face through any facial recognition software. But it still didn’t negate the fact that he needed to alter his appearance and so did she.

He was ready to do whatever it took to keep her safe and him out of federal prison. Instinctively he rubbed his palm over the hat that was hiding his curls. “I’ll shave my head.” He shrugged. “But we still probably need to color your hair or cut it.”

As he said it, Zeke’s heart clenched. He remembered last night, her hair surrounding their bodies in a private, warm curtain, blocking out the rest of the world. “No cutting your hair,” he backtracked huskily.

“Why not?”

“I changed my mind.” He needed to have some visual reminder of last night.

Her eyebrows lifted in surprise. “No argument from me. Besides, they don’t know we’re together, right?”

Zeke contemplated her question. After entering Target, even paying in cash, chances were that if there were eyes on the store, whoever was after him would verify that he did in fact have a companion. He hated to be paranoid but he was well aware of the advances in facial recognition software. He just had to hope that the main places the NSA was staking out were transit hubs and not the local shopping centers. No need to scare her but he wouldn’t lie either. “Hard to say.”

She swallowed. And he knew she understood what that implied.

They finished their business in subdued fashion, power-shopping, picking out everything they needed, electronics, camping supplies, and even some new clothes and shoes, in about half an hour. No dithering over colors or even what was essential. Since it was one of those super Targets they were able to buy groceries as well. Of course, Sunshine had no idea what he had planned.

They loaded their eclectic purchases onto the checkout belt. He gripped the hair clippers, the last to go on the conveyor system, too tightly.

Zeke could feel the worry wrapping around him like a killer wave wrapped around an unsuspecting surfer. He wouldn’t let anything happen to her.

“Jeez, don’t be such a baby.” She teased completely misinterpreting his angst. “It’s just hair.”

He pretended to shudder and placed the last item on the belt.

While they’d been shopping, Zeke had been thinking about his problem. Problems.

The more he thought about it the more he was beginning to think that the only person who could save him was Susan Chen. If he could find her, bring her in, and get her to reveal her secrets, maybe just maybe he could clear his name.

But now that he was burned, he wasn’t going to be able to do it alone.

Zeke decided it was necessary to get in touch with Jamie and Lucas. Of course, he couldn’t call Jamie, her incoming calls might be recorded by the office. But he could call Lucas Goodman. Her boyfriend. And yes, if you’d asked him two weeks ago if Jamie would date someone long enough to have them qualify as an actual boyfriend, he’d have said not just no, but no way in hell.

Zeke had been slightly in love with Jamie. Just like he’d been slightly in love with Anna before Jamie. And now he was slightly in love with Sunshine but somehow this felt different and he didn’t know why.