Crushed (25 page)

Her grandmother had once used this method to lose a cop that'd been chasing her for speeding. Sophie didn't know if it would work, but she figured it'd been worth a shot.

She could feel her heart pounding in her chest. It seemed like it was loud enough to alert everyone in the neighborhood of her location. Her eyes searched for her review mirror. She noticed a flash of lights as a car passed. A few moments later lights flashed by again.

The car seemed to be scanning the road, unsure of how she'd escaped. The last bend in the road had blocked her from view long enough to hide. She silently prayed that she wouldn't be found.

It took her five minutes before she finally felt safe.

"Rob?" She whispered into the earpiece. "Are you okay?"

"I'll be fine." From the way he was speaking she knew he was still being tailed. "Did I get all of them?"

"I just lost the one that was tracking me. What's the plan now?"

"Call Luke to come pick you up."

"What?" Her mouth dropped open in shock.

"Call Luke." He urged. "I talked to him before we left. He'll be waiting for your call."

"What happened to not working with him?"

"Look, I promised I'd protect you, and that means I had to make some sacrifices. Luke was the best back up plan I had. Listen to me, please."

"Okay." Sophie slowly shifted herself back into a sitting position. She absentmindedly glanced to her side, where an eerie white face was smiling back at her.

Her first response was to scream as loud as she could. The earpiece fell out as she jerked away from the glass.

The sound of Robert's voice yelling in the background brought her back to reality. She cut on the engine, sending the car flying in reverse.

The stranger had parked his car at the bottom of the driveway, having noticed her car parked inside. She noticed another person sitting in the passengers side, and impulsively rammed the side of their car with her own.

The guard outside of her car was struggling to run back to the drivers side. Sophie pressed the accelerator the floor as she shot down the road again.

The fear that surrounded her now drove her to new limits. She was terrified beyond anything she'd ever felt. The image of the white face pressed close against the glass wouldn't leave her. She'd come so close to getting caught...so close to getting killed.

It took her a few minutes to realize Robert was still screaming on the other side of the line.

"Rob?" She asked shakily.

He was too furious to be relieved. "What happened?" He demanded.

"They found me. I'm fi..."

"Don't ever scare me like that." He sounded distraught. "I thought you'd been killed."

"Well, I came about as close as I'm willing to get."

"Are they still behind you?" He was calming down now.

"No, I did some damage to their car. It gave me just enough time to escape."

His voice was stricter than it had been before. "Call Luke immediately. I want you to call me too, when you're home."

"What about you?" Her voice was still shaky.

"I'll be fine. Like always."

She wasn't reassured in the least.

"Don't be reckless." She whispered.

"You're one to talk." She knew that Robert was searching for the words to comfort her. "On the bright side, at least we got what we were looking for."

"It won't be worth it if you get hurt." Sophie's eyes narrowed as pain gripped her heart. It was such a strange feeling, but she didn't question it.

"I guess I'll have to get home safely then."

They both drove in silence for a moment longer.

"I won't let you down." Robert whispered before hanging up.

Sophie pulled off the road, giving herself a moment to recover. She bent forward and closed her eyes, letting the fear inside her pass through.

Then, with shaking hands, she dialed Luke's number.

CHAPTER TWELVE

The dress represented more than just fashion. It was a reminder of my task, and a threat of what would happen should I fail.

Waiting was torture. It felt like every nerve in Sophie's body was screaming with anxiety.

Robert was supposed to be back. He should've been home hours ago, and his absence was never more obvious.

Even though she was surrounded by people, Sophie felt alone. The kids were lying curled up on the couch, asleep after having waited up all night for them to return. Luke sat next to her, his hand closed around her own. His eyes were shut, but she had a feeling he was still awake.

Maybe it was because she was new to this business, but she was the only one who couldn't calm down. The others didn't understand, or maybe they understood too well. To Sophie, this process was new. She had never felt this anxious waiting on someone to return.

She simply didn't know what to think. Rather than not trusting Robert, she had more faith in Slavsky's men, and what they would do to him when he was caught.

Luke, sensing her escalating fears, squeezed her hand tightly. "He'll be fine." He whispered, still not opening his eyes.

She couldn't explain how much she wanted to believe him. She trusted Luke, but he wasn't the person she needed to assure her.

"What if..." was the question dominating her mind. What if he'd made a mistake? What if he hadn't been able to get away? What if Cleo's influence wasn't enough to get him out of this mess?

Luke's one comment couldn't make up for those questions.

Sophie glanced towards the living room window as a flash of lights flickered by. Her heart caught in her throat, and she jumped from the couch. Never in her life had she moved so quickly. Throwing open the front door, she sprinted out into the driveway in time to see Robert exiting his car.

He glanced at her with wide, tired eyes. Before he could react, she had wrapped her arms around him. He stiffened at the contact, but didn't break away. In seconds he'd relaxed, and his arms wrapped around her as well.

"You have a talent in surprising people, darling." He lifted her chin to stare into her still frightened eyes. "Don't tell me you thought I'd failed."

Sophie pulled away, burying her head against his chest. "Thank you." She whispered. "Thank you for not getting caught."

His eyes softened. "I'm insulted you didn't have faith in me."

Luke had followed her out of the house, and was watching them with a blank expression.

"You did good, kid." Robert said, nodding in appreciation to Luke. "Thanks for taking care of her."

"It wasn't for you." Luke replied darkly.

Suddenly, Sophie felt someone hug the back of her leg. She turned to see Teddy wrapping his arms around both her and Robert.

"Welcome back." He said groggily, as he grinned up at them. "I missed you."

Robert and Sophie glanced at one another, and they both smiled. All of Sophie's fears faded as she realized everything was fine. She was even too relieved to feel embarrassed by her spur-of-the-moment hug.

"It's about time." Rylan commented from behind them. "We thought you'd never get home."

"I was caught up in traffic." Robert replied, winking at them. "Let's not wake the neighbors." He motioned for them to go back inside.

"I'll fix you guys something to eat." Gwyn said when they'd reentered the house. "I have a feeling this will be a long night."

Sophie knew she was right. Their mission was over, but the work was not finished yet. They still needed to dig through the file and find any information they could use.

"Okay, Ted, it's time to go to bed." Rylan picked up a protesting Teddy.

"Thanks for waiting up." Robert ruffled Teddy's hair, and Sophie gave him a soft kiss goodnight.

He still seemed irritated that he had to leave, but he was too sleepy to argue.

Robert turned to Luke, obviously expecting him to leave as well. Sophie noticed their locked stares, and pointedly took Luke's hand.

"He deserves to know everything we do. Without him, I wouldn't have made it home safely tonight." Sophie led him upstairs before Robert could comment. She knew from experience that he was angry with her, and pointedly did not meet his eyes.

She led Luke to her room, figuring that Robert wouldn't want him in his. However, Rob surprised her by motioning for them to follow him upstairs. His eyes were cold, but he seemed like he'd accepted Luke's presence for now.

When they'd closed the door to his room, he tossed the file towards her. It was larger than she had imagined. The moment she'd opened it, she realized she didn't understand half of what was going on. The file was written in some kind of code.

"Do you understand this?" She asked, her eyes darting to Robert for help.

"I don't at the moment, but I will soon." He sat down at his computer, and began typing furiously at the keyboard.

Luke offered out his hands for the file, and Sophie handed it to him. He flipped easily through the pages.

"They ran into a lot of problems." He commented, staring intently at the file. "It seems like every new lead ended up failing."

"Slavsky must've been furious." Robert replied, still focused on his computer. "I'm surprised the case ended up being closed. Max wouldn't have given up, and Slavsky wouldn't have accepted failure easily. Something must have happened for them to stop searching."

Luke nodded in agreement. "They must've attracted some powerful people."

"My thoughts exactly. Their search might've alerted others to what they were trying to find. A treasure hunt becomes more difficult when everyone's searching for the same prize."

"Do you think the police were involved?"

"I hope not. If that's the case, our job just got a hell of a lot more difficult."

"Why is that?" Sophie hated trying to keep up with them.

"Believe it or not, there are certain police forces that are unaffected by bribes. Particularly one branch to be exact. If the paintings your parent's stole were valuable enough, they would've done everything in their power to find them."

"Or to catch Max and Slavsky with them." Luke added.

"Wonderful. We needed another challenge to overcome." Sophie sat down on Robert's bed, feeling exhausted.

"Hand me the file." Robert ordered, and Luke obeyed. In seconds he'd lost himself in working on his computer and scanning the pages.

Luke turned to sit down beside Sophie. He reached for her hand, and she allowed him to take it. Earlier, when they'd been alone in the living room he'd done the same thing. She didn't question his motives like Robert would have, and was happy to consider him a friend. Now, his hand offered her more warmth than she could hope for.

"Thank you." She whispered to him. "I was a mess earlier. Sorry about that."

"Don't worry." He smiled shyly at her. "You handled the situation better than I did my first time around."

"Liar." She accused, grinning.

"No, seriously. I was a ball of nerves for almost a week thinking I'd screwed up. I locked myself in my room, terrified the police were going to barge in."

Sophie couldn't smile with him at his story. To Luke, it was just another memory, but to Sophie, it was a reminder of what he'd had to experience alone. The fear she'd gone through tonight was something she couldn't imagine facing alone. Before coming to this house, she'd been similar to Luke. Now that she had others surrounding her, she felt a burst of sympathy for him, who didn't know what it felt like to be supported.

She glanced towards Robert, wondering if he cared about how unfair they were being to Luke. He'd been unexplainably helpful to their mission, having been willing to drop everything to come find her in the middle of nowhere. He'd easily broken his loyalty to Max to help them, despite having been pushed away earlier.

She knew what would come next. Robert would insist that Luke leave without knowing anything. The fact that he'd helped them wouldn't matter at all in Robert's eyes.

Luke squeezed her hand, and in his expression she could see that he understood. He knew he couldn't stay, and he was prepared to leave. She also saw that he wanted to stay, to be apart of this mission, and maybe even their family.

Where Robert put up walls to block her out, Luke seemed like he was willing to welcome her in. His eyes weren't guarded, but innocent and sincere.

"Really, thank you for tonight. I won't forget it." She smiled at him again, her heart clenching when she saw how much her smile affected him.

No matter how much Robert wanted to push him away, Sophie recognized this feeling.

She'd already made Luke a part of their makeshift family.

"Done." Robert interrupted, turning back to them with a confident smirk.

"Done as in you've decoded it?" Sophie didn't try to cover her awe. He'd already gone above and beyond what she'd expected of him today.

"I've got a program working on it right now. The earliest I can see it being finished is tomorrow morning." His eyes slid to Sophie and Luke's locked hands, and his eyebrows raised. "I think we've all had enough fun for the evening, so this'll be a good stopping point."

"What about Slavsky?" Luke stared intently at Robert.

"Cleo had an excuse already worked out. Apparently, we were checking his security measures by breaking in. She wanted to make sure her guests didn't have anything to be concerned about."

"I bet he's pissed right now." Sophie commented darkly.

"Probably. Cleo has her ways of working it out though." Robert trusted Cleo way more than Sophie was willing to. "Well, Luke, I think it's time you left." He didn't try to hide his hostility.

Even though his expression was defiant, Luke stood up, pulling his hand away from Sophie's. "I was serious about wanting to work with you guys. I know you don't trust me yet, but I can prove that I'll be helpful."

"Thanks for the offer." Robert replied in a mocking tone.

"Why can't he help?" Sophie shot a glare at Robert, irritated by him already. "If he was going to tell Max about us, he would've done it already."

"You think so? If he was smart he would've already told his boss. If you were Max in this situation, what would your first order be? Working with us would be a lot easier than searching for the paintings on his own." While Rob was directing his words at Sophie, he was staring at Luke intently.

"If you really thought that was the case, you wouldn't have called me tonight." Luke replied, his eyes narrowing.

Sophie felt the tension build in the room. These two had some unresolved issues between them that she felt were driving this argument. She only had to look at Robert to know he was ready to fight.

"So, if you're not in this for Max, why are you helping us?" It was a solid question which Sophie wanted the answer to as well. "Sophie's reasons are obvious. She has no choice but to comply with Cleo's demands. I'm not secretive about my motives. I've been on this case before either of you even knew about it. I enjoy the challenge, and potentially the reward for succeeding. The only person who's motives are unclear is you."

She knew from his expression that he was zoning in on his real point in starting the argument.

"If Max finds out about this you're dead. Whether we succeed or not doesn't affect you at all. If we lose, you'll lose nothing. If we win, you'll gain nothing. You aren't a person who takes risky challenges just for the hell of it, so what's your reason?" Rob smiled, as if he already knew. "It's been fun pretending you're in this for her." He motioned to Sophie. "It makes quite a good story if you think of it that way. However, I feel like you're not the white knight you pretend to be. Let's cut to the chase, and say you're in this for your own gain."

Sophie glanced at Luke just in time to see a dark look pass over his face.

"Whatever information you think you're going to find on Max doesn't exist." Robert's voice had become quiet. "I know you want to get away from him, but this isn't that kind of mission. We're not in this to take down Cleo and Max."