Gage’s Goal Read online

  Some things were instinctive, and others were impacted because things were still not quite up to snuff. A camera was in the elevator as well, so they kept their backs to it, until they stepped out on the right floor.

  Once they made it to the room, the door opened easily under the twist of Terk’s hand on the knob. They stepped inside, Lorelei standing behind the door, her eyes huge. She held a finger to her lips, then held up a small device.

  Making a soundless exclamation, Gage took it from her and swept it around the room. And, sure enough, in the lampstand on the far side of the bed was a bug. He took it out and dropped it in a glass of water and then did another sweep. When it came back negative, he nodded. “Okay, it’s clear.”

  “Thank God.” Lorelei then walked over to Gage and picked up his hands and stared at him. “My God, it’s good to see you.” She asked him, “Are you okay?”

  He gave her a lopsided grin, then tugged her into his arms. “Well, I’m really glad you’re asking, but I’m about 50 percent okay.”

  “Well, sorry to say it, but I wouldn’t have guessed even that much, based on that slight limp and the way you look right now.”

  He burst out laughing. “Well, there goes my ego. And here I thought I was doing so well.”

  She shook her head. “Like your ego needs any stroking.” She snorted in disgust. Then she turned and looked at Terk, walking over toward him. “You don’t look so great either, you know?”

  His gaze was strong and steady, as he smiled at her. “We love you too,” he replied gently.

  She flashed him a look and shook her head. “It’s been really tough.”

  “Tell us what happened with your accident.”

  “I don’t even know what to say.” She shrugged, turned. “I was walking across the street to my home, and a car came out of nowhere and hit me. I think the only reason I’m still alive,” she guessed, “is that, in the last split second, I had an instant reflex. I jumped back, so it just caught my hip and leg.” She pointed to her leg, still in a walking brace.

  Immediately Gage frowned and asked, “Is it broken?”

  “No, it isn’t.” She shook her head. “Thankfully it’s just severely bruised and twisted. We thought this would be the easiest way to keep the alignment, while it slowly strengthened again. It’s one of those braces that you put on daily. I had it in my apartment from a prior injury my sister had, so I thought, why not? It does feel better too.”

  Gage bent down and took a look at the leg. “The bruising is pretty bad for ten days later though.”

  “Hey, it looks wonderful now,” she joked.

  He stood, frowning. “When you said it came out of nowhere—”

  “Yeah,” she added, “suddenly the vehicle was just there. I mean, maybe I was daydreaming or something. Maybe I just didn’t see it. I don’t know.” She wrapped her arms around her chest. “But honestly it was freaky the way it happened.”

  He nodded quietly. “Any thought that it might have been deliberate?”

  “Not until I heard about what happened to you guys,” she noted. “Then, yeah, I’ve had lots of thoughts about it since then.”

  “Any conclusions?” Terk asked.

  “Well, I think an asshole out there is hunting me. So it would be awfully nice to find him and to ask him those kinds of questions.”

  “Yep, I hear you there,” Terk muttered. “Give me the details again. Where were you? Which corner was it? What time of day? Where else had you been?”

  Calmly she went over it all again, providing as much detail as she could. “I was at home and decided I was a little short on groceries. So I walked up to the bakery just around the corner.” She pointed in that direction. “On my way back, I was crossing the road.” She walked over to the window, slowly limping her way there, then pointed to the corner. “It was that corner there.”

  “So, you were almost home then,” Terk confirmed.

  She nodded. “Almost, yes. And then all hell broke loose, and my peace and safety were taken from me.”

  “I’m sorry,” Terk said. “It sounds very much like you were targeted, just as we were.”

  “And that’s what I’m afraid of,” she stated. “I just don’t know why they would have targeted me though.”

  “I don’t know either,” Terk agreed. “I don’t know why we were targeted, for that matter.” He faced her. “Have you been back to work?”

  “No, I was given medical leave,” she replied, “and there’s no sign that my job is in jeopardy.”

  “Has your access been reduced at all?”

  “No, actually my boss asked me to do up some reports from here at home on my own time. Whenever I feel like it of course,” she noted, with an eye roll. “So my access hasn’t been limited.”

  “Well, that’s a blessing at least,” both men said.

  She shrugged. “Not really. It’s only a blessing if somebody is not tracking me while I’m at it.” She pointed at the lamp where the bug had been.

  “That is quite possible as well,” Terk agreed. “We also lost somebody else in the department. Bob.”

  She nodded. “I heard about that, but I didn’t think it was related. I heard he had a heart attack.”

  “A convenient heart attack, I’m sure,” Gage noted.

  “It just never occurred to me, until you guys were injured,” she replied.

  “Wait. This corner right here?” Gage asked.

  She nodded. “My apartment is on the other corner over there.” She pointed down the street.

  “Why did you choose a hotel so close to home?”

  “Partly hoping it might deceive them. And partly because I didn’t know where else to go, and at least I knew about this place,” she replied. “Plus, I haven’t been able to walk very far.”

  Terk nodded.

  “Chances are good that you shouldn’t be staying here though,” Gage stated.

  “I don’t have anywhere else to go,” she admitted.

  “I understand,” he answered. “We’ll have to find you a place and keep you safe.”

  “I’d like to stay wherever you guys are,” she told them.

  “Nope,” Gage said instantly.

  She glared at him. “Why not? If this is related to you, I’m already in danger.”

  “Quite true,” he noted, “but we can’t look after you the way you need to be looked after.”

  “Nobody else is around to look after me,” she clarified. “And, if the government is after me, which I hope to God it’s not,” she added, “I can’t fight it anyway.”

  “I would hope it’s not the government, but we don’t know that,” Gage murmured.

  “I know. I know,” she agreed. “And I shouldn’t have said that, but, I mean, you must have suspicions about it.”

  “Obviously,” Gage stated, “and you’re right to worry. It’s just that we don’t have answers yet.”

  “What do you know?” she asked, sounding frustrated.

  Gage frowned, looked to Terk, and then slowly filled her in on some of it.

  “So some of the team is okay then,” she stated quietly, “but not all.”

  Gage shook his head. “No, not all, and we’re not letting anybody know if anybody is okay or not.”

  “Facial recognition would have picked up the two of you,” she pointed out, “if anybody was looking anyway.”

  “Yes, that’s true,” Gage confirmed, “but we must move around some, just to keep our intel going. And, since everybody is still not at full strength, we’re in danger of being taken down just because of our weaknesses. Thus we do some surveillance, which requires the risk of getting around.”

  “The disguises help of course.” She looked at them both again. “I almost didn’t recognize you when you walked in.”

  “Well, it’s us,” Gage stated quietly. “Now the problem is, who is after you, why are they after you, and does it have anything to do with us?”

  “I can’t see how it would be a separate issue,” she replied,
“but I guess it’s possible.”

  “Is there anybody else in your world who would like to see you dead?”

  She looked at Gage quietly and nodded. “Yeah, my ex. We separated over two years ago, and he’s pissed at how the divorce came out.”

  “And is that something he would kill you over?”

  “If he thought it would give him the inheritance, yes.”

  “What inheritance?”

  “My family has money,” she explained, “and I recently came into several million dollars.”

  “But if you two are already divorced, how does he figure he would get access to that?” Gage asked, tilting his head and studying her.

  “Because I got the money before we were divorced.”

  He winced at that. “So doesn’t that mean it depends on how the judge viewed the details of the case?”

  “Yes,” she agreed, “though it all happened in the same time frame, so it’s definitely been an ugly scenario. However, the judge ruled in my favor, so it’s my money, and my ex is definitely not in my will. So I don’t know whether it could have been pettiness or maybe, you know, his final answer. Like it would serve me right. Or who knows? Maybe he has another plan in mind to get the money.”

  “Children?” Terk asked her.

  She shook her head. “No, but I do have guardianship over my sister, who also received a large sum of money.”

  “Guardianship?”

  She slowly nodded her head. “Yes, my sister is under full medical care in a home,” she explained. “She was hurt in a bad car accident, when she was eight years old, and she’s not been capable of living on her own ever since.”

  “So she also has the same amount of money?”

  “More actually,” she noted, “and she’ll need it to see to her care for the rest of her life.”

  “So, as her guardian, you dispense that money as you see fit?”

  “Correct.” She nodded. “Which, in my world, means, looking after my sister. But, in my ex’s world, maybe not. Honestly he wanted her brought home and a nurse hired to look after her.”

  “So, to some people, that would seem a better option than a more institutional setting,” Terk added carefully, looking at her. “Does she know you?”

  She shook her head. “Honestly there’s very little movement, period. She’s more or less catatonic. She eats when she’s told to eat, with help of course. She’s bathed and dressed and looked after on a regular basis. But it’s not a great life for her. Yet having her at home won’t help her. She’s comfortable in the surroundings she knows. Every time I’ve taken her on a day-trip outing or something to enliven the boredom of her life, she experienced full-on panic attacks. So moving her would not be a good scenario.”

  “And why did your husband think it would be better?”

  “Not better, cheaper,” she noted bluntly. “He figured we could hire a nurse for fifty grand a year or whatever, versus the half a million her care currently costs. Of course that includes security as well.”

  “Ah,” he nodded, “so it’s more about money for him then.”

  “Apparently it was always about the money,” she replied quietly. “Unfortunately I was a fool and didn’t recognize it. But I was also in love and thought that, you know, he felt the same way.”

  “That’s not always the way it works, is it?”

  “No, it isn’t,” she agreed. “If he did this, I would have absolutely no problem making sure he spent the rest of his life in jail.” She shrugged. “But I don’t have any way to confirm it was him or not.”

  “You didn’t recognize the vehicle?” Gage asked.

  “No, it was a dark sedan, smoked windows,” she described. “Honestly, my thought at the time, when it went flying by, was an official government vehicle, but I didn’t really have the chance to think.”

  “And, if you did think government, did you happen to recognize the driver?”

  She shook her head immediately. “I didn’t see anything. It all happened so fast, and then I was in the air. Once I hit the pavement, I was unconscious and was taken away in an ambulance. And maybe that’s why I’m still alive,” she added. “People were around. Otherwise the vehicle might have come back around the block and finished the job.”

  “So you definitely feel it was deliberate.”

  She nodded. “Yes, it felt deliberate, and I’ve never doubted that. It felt like he waited until I got to the sidewalk and just sped up toward me. I didn’t really hear it until, all of a sudden, he was there … and bam.”

  *

  “So why did the hospital let you out so early?” Gage asked her studying her face intently.

  Lorelei winced. “They didn’t let me out. I discharged myself.” They both stared at her. “I didn’t feel safe there,” she stated simply. “What if he found me again?”

  “Right. Of course that’s another worry,” Gage noted reluctantly.

  She nodded, grimacing. “The thing is, when I was in the hospital, I felt like somebody was checking in on me one day. I opened my eyes to find a stranger there. I started screaming, and he disappeared, and a nurse flew into my room. She told me that it was all okay and that I’d just woken up after a bad accident.”

  “Did you tell her that somebody had been there?” he asked.

  “I did, but she told me that nobody was around and that I was imagining it.”

  “Great,” Gage muttered, “and, after that, it probably went down on your chart that you were imagining boogeymen everywhere.”

  “Exactly,” she murmured. “When I said I didn’t feel safe in the hospital, and I didn’t want to stay because I didn’t like their lack of security, I’m sure they thought I was paranoid or delusional. I already knew the scope of how that works because of my sister, and I refused to stay long enough for them to label me and to send me for psychiatric treatment.”

  “Good call,” Terk noted, “except it’s left us without any lead to follow.”

  “Exactly,” she agreed, “but it has also left me without anywhere to go. I called you because I’m here, and this is where the accident happened, and I was hoping you might have some information. I really wasn’t planning on dying at this stage of my life.”

  “That won’t happen,” Gage declared immediately.

  She snorted and just looked at him. “You look like shit too,” she stated, “so I can’t imagine that you’ll be a whole lot of help in stopping it.”

  “You might be surprised,” he replied, his gaze hard.

  She raised her hands, palms up. “Look. I’m not trying to insult you. Honestly, that’s definitely not what I’m trying to do, but I don’t know where to turn anymore,” she admitted. “If I can’t come wherever you guys are, what am I supposed to do? I can’t go home, and I can’t spend the rest of my life, sitting in a hotel, where I could be discovered at any moment by whoever bugged this place.”

  “What about the bug? Any ideas?” Terk asked her, pointing to the thing in the glass.

  She frowned, shook her head. “I don’t know where it came from,” she replied reluctantly. “Again I was hoping you would have more answers.”

  “I don’t have any.” Gage quietly studied her. “What’s interesting is that you felt the need to check for a bug.”

  “Yeah.” She nodded, with a shrug. “I’ve been working for the government long enough to become obsessed with security.”

  “When would it have been put in?”

  “Either before I got here,” she noted, “or when I went to the rooftop to soak my leg in the hot tub.”

  “And when was that?” Gage asked.

  “This morning. When I came back, the room felt different.”

  “And again, good instincts,” Gage murmured, then walked over and gave her a gentle hug. “I’m glad you survived whatever this was.”

  “I’m glad you survived too,” she replied, misty-eyed. “The question is, what will we do about staying alive?”

  Terk looked at her. “Have you got much gear with
you?”

  She shook her head. “No, I just grabbed a few things from my apartment. I don’t have much here at all. Why?”

  “Good, less to pack,” he replied.

  Lorelei looked at Terk, hope in her heart. “And where would I be going?”

  He looked over at Gage, who was shaking his head.

  “Don’t do it,” Gage told Terk. “You know as well as I do that it’s too dangerous.”

  “It’s dangerous for her here too,” Terk added. “We can’t just leave her like this, and we have no one to guard her. They’ve already tracked her down, so they know where she’s staying. The next step is to annihilate her, but they haven’t. They brought in a bug.”

  “And now they also know that we’re here or that somebody came and that the bug has been found and removed,” Gage noted, as a reminder. “Therefore, they know that somebody else has tracked her down and that she’s being watched by more than just them.”

  “So, the answer is,” Terk stated, studying his friend carefully, “she comes back with us. Then, using her abilities and her log-ins, she can help us to track down whoever’s doing this.”

  “Done,” she said instantly, glaring at Gage. “You don’t get to say anything about it.”

  “I’m just trying to keep you safe,” he protested.

  “There is no keeping me safe now. Don’t you understand that?”

  At that Gage fell silent; then he nodded reluctantly. “I guess she would be safer with us than us trying to keep her safe here,” he admitted.

  “My thoughts exactly,” Terk replied quietly.

  Chapter 2

  Packed up and in the vehicle, Lorelei winced at the pain that moving so quickly had caused. She refused to allow herself even the tiniest squeak over it though, not wanting to give Terk and Gage a reason to change their minds and to keep her from joining them. She sat ever-so-still as they moved.