Freak (11 page)

“Loki had nothing to do with my kidnapping,” Tom said, almost to himself.

Natasha snorted. “Of course not. It was all Yuri. Even Loki's coma. It was all orchestrated to gain access to Gaia.”

She said it like it was the simplest thing in the world. Like she hadn't just told him that his own daughter—his only child—was susceptible to the world's leading psychotic. How could she do this? How could she talk to him like he was an enemy, like he was the scum on the bottom of her shoe? How could she do this to him—to
them?

“I want proof,” he said firmly. “I want proof that Yuri is still alive. Proof that you're related to Katia.”

Natasha sat back in her seat, suddenly bored. “Go to the safe house in Alphabet City. Under the painting on the wall is a safe. The combination to the safe is three, twenty-two, seventeen. There will be a box inside. There you will find everything you're looking for.”

Tom was out the door before she finished the sentence.

I
am the worst father in the history of the earth. I brought a daughter into this world, and from the moment she took her first breath I have failed her in every conceivable way. I protected her from nothing. Quite the opposite, actually. All I've ever done is
put
her in
harm's
way.

I lost her mother. I let my insane brother worm and scheme his way into her life. Let him influence her. I left her with George Niven—an alleged friend who turned out to be a traitor. And then I left her with Natasha, who not only tried to kill her, but who was working for a man who wants to take her and groom her to become head of one of the most evil institutions ever known to man.

My daughter grew up not only without parents, but having to face the worst possible threats on a daily basis. Not only did she have to deal with the normal
anxieties of adolescence—boys, school, friends–but she had to fight off my enemies. She had to fight for her life every day and I wasn't there to comfort her, to guide her, to give her a shoulder to cry on.

I'm a sham.

If this turns out to be true—if Yuri is alive—I have to take him out. He will not have my daughter. I don't care if I have to move her to Alaska or Australia or the Amazon. But this time, I will protect her. I will do whatever it takes.

Even if I die trying.

Resignation

“GET AHOLD OF HER, DAMN IT!
Grab her around the arms!”

“She's freakin' strong, man!”

“She's just a girl, for Christ's sake!”

The muffled voices came through the dark shroud that had been yanked over Gaia's head. She struggled and fought against the viselike grip of the man who held her, kicking her legs out, flailing back and forth, but it was no use. She was being dragged backward toward the door, off her feet, the heels of her boots squeaking against the hardwood floor.

What the hell is going on?
Gaia wondered. Were these the same people that had taken Dmitri? And kidnapped her father? How had they known she would be here? They had, after all, come prepared. They had black sacks for blindfolding and a precision uncommon to run-of-the-mill burglars and drug fiends that might prey on a recently deserted apartment.

Yep. This was planned. Planned, of course, for her. The resignation settled over Gaia's shoulders like a steel blanket. Someone was still after her and they had anticipated she would come looking for Dmitri. Whoever they were, she'd walked right into their grasp.

Gaia heard Jake sputtering and cursing and struggling somewhere in the darkness and she was suddenly
thrown to the floor. Her spine was slammed against the hard surface and a foot pressed into her sternum.

“Jake?” she called out, coughing against her will. “Jake, where the hell are you?”

“I'm right here,” Jake's voice replied. He was still standing—somewhere over her. And he sounded like he was trying not to sound scared.

“Not for long,” one of the voices said with an obvious sneer. “Kill the kid. We don't need him.”

Gaia took a sharp inhale as a rush of adrenaline burst through her veins. She reached up into the darkness, grabbed the ankle attached to the foot that pinned her down, and flung it left with all her might. The guy went down hard, kicking her in the jaw as he went, but the rest of the attackers were surprised enough to give her a few seconds.

She jumped to her feet and whipped the black sack off her head. Jake was pinned against the living room wall, his arms tied behind him, the barrel of a gun pressed into his forehead. Gaia saw the gun-bearer's thumb pull back the safety.

“Duck!” she shouted.

Jake hit his knees and Gaia, aware that there were three other men converging on her from all sides, tackled the gunman to the ground. The firearm skittered under one of Dmitri's massive bookcases and the attacker looked up at her, stunned. Gaia brought
her fist down right in the center of his face, knocking his head back against the floor. His whole body went limp as he fell unconscious.

“Gaia! What the hell is going on?” Jake shouted.

Gaia turned around and saw all three of the other men advancing on her slowly, arms outstretched, like she was a rabid lion. At that moment she felt like one. These guys had messed with the wrong girl at the wrong moment on the wrong night. They were about to feel a lot of pain.

“Don't do anything stupid,” the guy in the center said.

They were all wearing black ski masks with just the eyes cut out, but this guy's eyes were the kind of extremely light blue that was almost clear. The skin around them was pale and his eyebrows were so blond they were barely visible. He was scrawny. Too scrawny to take her unless he had some serious skills.

My first target,
Gaia thought, nearly salivating.

She bent at the waist and rushed the guy, flying right past his two friends and tackling him onto the glass coffee table, which shattered all around them. She pinned him down with both hands to his neck and reached up with her back leg to kick one of the advancing attackers in the face. He flew back into a bookcase and didn't get up again. Then the guy beneath her lifted both legs and kicked her over his head, where she tumbled awkwardly into the side of
Dmitri's favorite chair before quickly scrambling to her feet.

“Gaia, I can help if you'd just—”

She whirled over to Jake, who had struggled to his feet, and whipped off his blindfold. He looked relieved to see her alive, but that lasted less than a second. His eyes widened and Gaia instinctively ducked at the same moment Jake did. A huge vase shattered against the wall right where their heads had been.

“My hands,” Jake said, crouched to the floor.

Gaia tugged at the cloth that bound his wrists and, surprisingly, it came apart easily. When they stood up again, it was two on two. Scrawny Guy and his bigger buddy faced them down, but being against the wall, Jake and Gaia were at a distinct disadvantage.

Suddenly, Scrawny Guy let out a battle cry and rushed Jake. Jake ducked his punch yet again and Scrawny Guy cracked his knuckles against the exposed brick wall, crying out in pain. Gaia saw the blood out of the corner of her eye.

So maybe the wall
wasn't
a bad thing.

She and Jake exchanged a look and the battle began.

Gaia attacked the bigger guy with a flurry of punches, ducking and weaving anything that he tried to counter with. He was slow, but she could tell that if one of those right hooks hit home, she could be down for the count. Gaia concentrated her power on his
head, hoping to knock him out the same way she'd knocked out his friend. But suddenly, there was a crash off to her left, and Gaia turned to see if Jake was all right.

Big mistake.

Jake was fine—it was the Scrawny Guy who was down and struggling to get up, having taken a potted plant to the head. But when Gaia turned around again, there was a fist coming right at her face.

Uh-oh,
Gaia thought.

Her eye exploded in pain. Sparks seemed to flash across her plane of vision as she sprawled across the floor. Her cheekbone felt as if it had just been smashed with a tire iron.

Head pounding, Gaia flipped over onto her back and saw a boot coming for her gut. It was about to hit home when she rolled away, gaining as much momentum as she could. She slammed into the bookcases and grabbed a shelf to leverage herself up, but she was only halfway to standing when the same boot hit her squarely in the center of her lower back.

“Stay down, bitch!” the guy said.

She could hear Jake and Scrawny Guy, still duking it out behind her as she tried to catch her breath. Scrawny turned out to have more stamina than she'd thought. The bigger guy backed away from her to help his associate, seemingly satisfied that she would take his advice. That was when she saw it: the gun handle,
sticking out ever so slightly from under the bookcase.

Gaia grabbed it and whirled around as she stood, still regaining control of her breathing. She pulled back the safety and aimed.

“Don't move!”

The big guy stopped in the middle of the living room and Scrawny Guy looked at her like a deer caught in headlights. Jake hit him with one swift elbow to the back of the head, knocking him out. Then he walked over, crunching across the broken glass on the floor, and stood next to Gaia, never taking his eyes off hers.

“Turn around,” she told the last man standing.

He did as he was told, arms raised to shoulder height out at his sides.

“Don't do anything stupid, kid,” he said, eyeing the gun.

“Who sent you?” Gaia spat. Her hand started to shake and she reached up with her other arm to steady herself.

“Like I'm gonna tell you that,” he said.

“I think you will,” Gaia said, taking a few steps toward him. She was starting to feel weak. Her head was getting groggy. It was coming and it was coming on fast.

No. Not yet,
she begged.
Not until I find out what is going on.

Her eyes stung with unshed tears as her hands continued to tremble with exertion. She thought it was over.
She thought she was free. Who the hell was trying to kidnap her now?

“Tell me!” Gaia said through her teeth, struggling to ward off the blackness.

“Gaia,” Jake said.

“Look, you're gonna have to shoot me. Cuz I tell you, and I'm dead, anyway,” the guy said, smirking.

“All right. Enough is enough.”

Jake walked around behind the thug and took him down the same way he'd taken out Scrawny Guy. Gaia let her arms go limp. As her knees went out from under her, her mind was racing.

Who took Dmitri? Who's after me? Who . . . ?

Suddenly she felt Jake's arms around her, stopping her fall. He lowered her to the floor and sat cross-legged with Gaia across his lap. The darkness was coming more intensely now, enveloping her, dragging her down. She felt him slip the gun from her fingers and she tried to speak, but it was too late.

Right before she blacked out she felt the touch of his lips against her forehead.

All True

TOM WAITED IN THE HALLWAY, HIS
back up against the wall as the tactical team swept the premises of
Natasha's safe house. His patience grew thin, even though he'd only been there no more than two minutes. He needed to get inside. He had to get inside.

He couldn't believe that any of the things Natasha had told him were true—not until he saw proof with his own eyes.

Kurt Handler, the squad leader, stuck his helmeted head out of the apartment and flipped up his clear eye-guard. “We're all clear, sir,” he said.

“Get them out of there!” Tom told him. “I don't want anything moved.”

Handler pressed a button on the side of his helmet and spoke into the built-in microphone. “Blue team, move out!” he said. Seconds later, half a dozen agents tromped out of the apartment and headed back down the stairs. Only Handler stayed behind, guarding the door with his M-16.

“It's all yours, sir,” he said with a nod.

Tom's hands were clammy as he slipped past Handler into the small apartment. It was sparsely furnished, the walls painted a bland white, but he didn't take in much detail. A forensics team could comb the place later. For now, all he cared about was the safe.

He picked the framed poster off the wall and revealed a small door. As he worked the combination, his fingers were calm and sure, as they'd been trained to be for so many years, but he was barely breathing. This was it. The moment of truth.

The door swung open with a creak, and inside Tom found stacks of currency from countries all over the world, along with a dozen or more passports from various nations. He pushed everything aside and felt the back of the safe for the box. The box she'd said would be there. The box he almost hoped he wouldn't find.

His fingers grazed a sharp edge and Tom's heart froze. He grasped a small metal box and pulled it out, being careful not to disturb the other contents of the safe. When he opened the box his knees felt slightly weak. He walked over to the ratty couch and sat down.

There, right on top of a stack of photos, was a picture of two young girls, smiling with their arms wrapped around each other. One he recognized immediately. The blond hair, the wide grin, the dimple in one cheek, the gold lavaliere necklace hanging around her slim neck.

Katia. She looked so much like Gaia had at that age, she was like a double of her daughter.

And the other girl was undoubtedly Natasha. Her hair darker and fuller, her smile more reserved, her eyes mischievous. There was no doubt in his mind that he was looking at a younger version of the woman he'd interrogated earlier that night.

Also obvious in the photo was the resemblance between the two girls. The high cheekbones, the sloped noses, the set of their eyes. They had their
differences, but they were clearly related. Cousins. No doubt about it. They could have been sisters.