Garret's Gambit Read online

  “There’s also a chance that she’s taken off because she felt she was in danger.”

  “But you have no way to contact her?”

  “I’ve tried every way I know,” she said. “Social media, text, cell phone, old phone numbers, messages with friends. Everything I can think of, but nothing’s turned up so far.”

  “How was your relationship lately? Is she likely to respond?”

  “I would have thought so, yes,” she said, but again she shrugged.

  “But?”

  “She knew that I didn’t approve of her getting pregnant and having his baby.”

  “Why not?” he said, almost offended at the suggestion that something was wrong with his brother.

  “Because she wanted desperately for her baby to have a father who would be home, and, with all his traveling, in no way does Gregg fit that model.”

  “No,” Garret said. “He doesn’t.”

  “Why are you getting all defensive about it anyway?” she asked, looking at him sideways. “Like I insulted him or something. Look at you. How could you possibly believe he would have anything to do with your accident?” she asked. “Do you really think he’d cause a plane crash over the middle of the ocean?”

  “Only because of what Amy said. That she had information and thought he was involved somehow.”

  “That came from her? That doesn’t add up at all. I just don’t get it. She never said anything about that to me,” she said, sounding upset.

  “Unless …” Garret said, speaking slowly, thinking as he spoke. “Unless she thought that would somehow guarantee that I would come over here and talk to her. She is the last person I want anything to do with, and she knows it.”

  “That actually makes sense,” Astra murmured. “She would try whatever she could to make you come and help look for him.”

  “But then she bails and takes off, so we’re not even sure what the score is right now,” he said, frowning.

  “If she took off,” she said. “What if she was taken instead?”

  He rolled his eyes at that. “Okay, for the moment, we’ll assume that something has happened to both of them. Which makes sense, but I’d just as soon have some proof before we head down that rabbit hole.”

  “What if there isn’t any proof?”

  “Then we’re in trouble,” he said. “It’s pretty hard to move forward, if you don’t know what the hell you are supposed to do next.”

  “I know,” she said, and she did. “It’s just so damn frustrating and frightening. We’ve never been all that close, but I wouldn’t wish this on my worst enemy, much less my sister. I know the pregnancy was weighing on her terribly. Wherever she is, she’s got to be petrified.”

  “I’m sure she is,” he said gently. “And, Astra, despite my history with your sister, I’ll do whatever I can, for both of them.”

  “I know that,” she said, with a nod. “Your own sense of honor won’t let you do anything else.”

  “Sometimes I think that damn sense of honor is a joke,” he murmured.

  “Why is that?” she asked.

  “Because it’s something I can’t get away from. Other people aren’t handicapped by that same set of standards.”

  She knew he was referring, once again, to his brother and her sister having an illicit affair. “The only thing I can say is that, together, they saw something that they really wanted.”

  “Yeah, most people break up first or at least tell you what’s going on. You don’t have to find out the hard way, after the fact.”

  She winced at that because he had found out in the worst possible way. Personally, when they had come out of a bedroom, obviously having just had sex. “I’m sorry about that,” she murmured.

  “It’s not your fault,” he said. “Honestly I’d like to think that I’ve gotten over it, but apparently I’m still bitter.”

  “You think?” she said and laughed. “I think that you just haven’t replaced her yet, and that’s the problem.”

  “I would never replace her,” he said. “I don’t replace something that’s broken or bad. Instead I find something way better.”

  She looked at him with surprise and then shrugged. “I can see that’s how you would look at it, and I’m sorry my sister failed in that department.”

  “Whatever,” he said. “Enough of that.” They were outside her sister’s hotel room now. “Did you ask the hotel to get in early on?”

  “I did and was refused. I’m sure it was searched and all, but I never heard anything about it.”

  He nodded. “Give me just a second.”

  When she stepped back, she whispered, “Are you trying to break in?” Turning, she looked toward the elevator. “What if somebody sees you?” Turning back, he was already inside. She made a startled sound and stepped forward. “How did you do that so fast?”

  “It’s what I do,” he said gently.

  She nodded. “I get that, but—”

  “No buts,” he said, as he gestured for her to come inside. She walked in behind him, and he closed the door.

  “It doesn’t look like it’s been disturbed,” she said.

  “I presume the police know about this because Jonas contacted me about it too. They should have put a lock on the room, so nobody could get in.”

  “Nobody other than you, you mean?”

  “Well, yeah,” he said, without making any excuses for it.

  She always liked that about him. He knew where he was going, what he was doing, and how he would get there. Her sister, who had always been a follower, just seemed to be dragged along in his wake. Astra always wondered what the odd pairing was between them, but, as they had been together for well over a year, and then he’d actually proposed, she’d been stunned when her sister had said yes, but again she was a follower. The only time she had really broken that habit was when she’d had the affair with Gregg. And that had been enough to make Astra sit up and take note of Gregg because that was so uncharacteristic for her sister. Astra realized it must have taken a lot for Amy to do something so unusual like that.

  Anytime somebody’s behavior went off the wall, it was important to find out what the catalyst was. In this case, Astra had put it down to being something her sister really wanted. A baby, which brought up all kinds of other stuff. But, in Astra’s world, it was all good because of all the things that Astra had wanted in her life, one had always been Garret.

  When she’d first met him, she’d been struck by the love bug. And it never disappeared. When Amy and Garret had broken up, Astra had been ecstatic, yet sympathetic, and had just bided her time. To think that it could possibly be the right time now was amazing, and yet the fact that he was still so angry and hurt made Astra very aware of just how much damage her sister’s actions had done.

  Somehow Astra had to get him to see that it really wasn’t just about her sister and her actions as much as it was a broken trust with her and his brother. Working in cybersecurity had afforded Astra the opportunity to learn in some detail why people betrayed each other. It usually boiled down to some fairly common basic elements, but they were always most painful for the person who never saw it coming.

  That’s what this was, all over again. Garret was always very strict about honor and justice and believing in each other and loyalty. That’s why he made such a great team player because he trusted the rest of his team, and he always had everybody’s back. Yet the type of work he did was also very much a loner’s game, but, when he needed help, he had people to call on, and that’s what she presumed he was up to right now. Because, if ever they needed help, it was to get these two people back again.

  The fact that her sister was pregnant had Astra twisted up inside. She didn’t want anything to happen to her family. It was just the two of them left in this world, and to think that her sister was embarking on that journey perhaps alone, in such difficult times, was something Astra didn’t want to think about. She could only hope that this would all come to a good ending. The only way to do that was
to give Garret as much help as she could.

  As she walked around her sister’s hotel room, she said, “It’s almost like she was hardly here.”

  “It’s a hotel room,” he murmured. “How much do people actually put their stamp on it?”

  “My sister is messy, if you recall,” she said. “Everything here has been neatly packed up. As if she was barely here, or she never had a chance to unpack, or she was already packing to leave.”

  He turned to look at her and said, “How do you know that she didn’t actually just pack up and leave?”

  “I don’t know that,” she said. “I just know she hasn’t responded to any communication from me, and she’s obviously not here, nor has she been here in a while.”

  He nodded. “Definitely something suspicious is going on.” He did a thorough search of the hotel room and then looked at the suitcase and said, “I need to check that over.”

  “Go for it,” she said. “She’s hardly here to argue.”

  “And yet somehow I hear her voice screaming at me in the background.”

  She laughed at that. “It’s funny, the things we remember.”

  “Not really,” he said. “The only thing I remember is the betrayal.”

  “Because that’s where you were hurt the most,” she said, with a nod. He looked at her and frowned. “No, I’m not psychoanalyzing you,” she said, with a wave of her hand. “But it makes sense when you think about it.”

  “And what if I don’t want to think about it?” he said. “Your sister is not somebody I ever really want to think about.”

  “And yet this doesn’t give us much chance to do anything other than think about her.”

  He shrugged. “Potentially,” he said, unwilling to buckle.

  She smiled and said, “You have to gamble sometimes.”

  “I’m not a gambler.”

  “I know,” she said, “but sometimes you have to take people on faith. You have to take a gamble on them.”

  “Can’t say I’ll do that again. I did that with your sister. The only way to deal with her is with an attack plan and placing the opening gambit.”

  She winced at that. “Not everybody is my sister,” she said, with asperity.

  “Maybe not, but, once I found out that there were people like your sister,” he said, “you can bet that I pulled back on the trust factor.”

  “Got it,” she said, “and again, not everybody is my sister.”

  “No, but enough are out there,” he said, “that I really don’t want to have anything to do with her, or him for that matter, ever again.”

  She groaned. “You’ll have to get over that,” she snapped.

  “And why is that?” he asked.

  “Because that attitude won’t serve you very well for long.”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “It’s served me quite well so far.”

  “You’re just bitter.”

  “Maybe so, “he said, “but that’s life.”

  “It’s only life if you don’t want to change.”

  He shot her hard look. “Did you have a reason for this crazy conversation?”

  “No, I just thought it would be important to share it with you,” she said, with a shrug. “Did you see anything, in my sister’s stuff?”

  “No,” he said. “Nothing’s here. Her purse is gone. There’s nothing personal—no paperwork, no wallet, nothing like that.”

  “Makes sense,” she said.

  “How does it make sense?”

  “She’d take her purse, if she made a fast run out of here,” she said. “Then obviously something could be going on.”

  “Maybe, but it’s also possible that she was kidnapped from this room, and they snatched her purse too. Or she was out shopping and was taken off the street.” He looked up and frowned, adding, “Because I found no car keys, no hotel keys either.”

  “Oh.” She looked around and said, “No, you’re right. But then those would be in her purse, right?”

  “Potentially.”

  *

  Garret pulled out his phone and called Jonas. “You want to help? Check video feeds of people leaving around the hotel. Amy’s purse isn’t here. I found no hotel key to get in and out. If she’s been snatched outside, there should be video of it somewhere.”

  “Will do.” And, with that, he hung up.

  “That was fast,” she said.

  “No need to prolong it. Either somebody can find her face out there on the cameras or not.”

  “Do you think it’s possible that she was snatched outside?”

  “That makes the most sense to me, yes. Inside, they have to find a way to get her out of here. Outside, she’s already there and could quickly be moved into a vehicle. But unless somebody is actually looking for something like that, nobody’ll go through those hours on a camera feed to find it.”

  “How can they even do that anyway?”

  “Facial recognition software,” he said. “Even then, it’s hit or miss. Takes a lot of time, so you need a lot of computer power to spare to do it.”

  “You have somebody to do that?”

  “I just tagged MI6,” he said. “She’s gone missing on their watch, after all.”

  “Well, they were hardly watching her,” she murmured.

  “Don’t you worry,” he said. “If they’ve been watching for my brother, they’ve been watching for her.”

  “Shit,” she said. “Is there a chance that this whole thing is a government-run deal?”

  He stopped, looked at her, and said, “Better not be. You haven’t seen me angry, but, if I find out Jonas’s involved in this—”

  “The only reason for that would be … what?”

  “Oh, if they are looking for my brother and have no way to find him.”

  “But wouldn’t they contact you about that?”

  “Well, guess who picked us up at the airport? You saw him yourself.”

  “That still doesn’t make any sense.”

  “They work in mysterious ways,” he murmured. “The only reason they’d be interested in my brother is if they think he has something to do with something else.” He pulled out his phone, called Jonas, and said, “Did you take her?”

  On the other end, Jonas squawked, “What?”

  “Did you take Amy? Hoping that she’d lead you to my brother maybe?”

  “No,” Jonas said, his tone forceful and believable. “We didn’t take her.”

  “Good thing,” he said. “You know I’d have your heart, if you did.”

  “Thanks so much for the trust,” Jonas snapped.

  “Just checking.” He hung up his phone, then turned and looked at her. “Nope, they don’t have her.”

  “And you trust him?”

  “Remember that part about not trusting anybody?”

  “But you trust your team?”

  “Give it a rest, will you?” he said, suddenly tired. “I trust those I trust, but, once that trust is broken, it’s hard to get it back.”

  “Good point,” she murmured, as they walked toward the door. “Anything else to be looked at in here?”

  “No,” he said. Just then a knock came on the door. He watched, as she froze instantly. He lifted his finger to his lips, walked to the door to the adjoining hotel room, and motioned for her to come toward him. She quickly joined him, as she heard a card key swiping in the lock at the same moment that Garret got the connecting door unlocked and pulled her inside.

  “You don’t know who it is,” she whispered. “Why are we running away?”

  “Last time I looked, we didn’t have permission to be there,” he said. “Besides, this way we get to know who else is coming in.”

  Just then she heard a voice on the other side of the connecting door.

  “I thought you said you saw them come in here?”

  “I thought I did too,” he said, “but now I don’t know.”

  “There isn’t any room for ‘I don’t know.’ We have to keep an eye on anybody that’s in this roo
m.”

  “I still don’t think she would know anything.”

  “She buggered off on us while we were trying to keep track of her, so we have to assume she knows something,” one man said.

  At that, Garret stepped out of the adjoining room and said, “Hello, gentlemen. Were you looking for me?”

  Chapter 4

  Astra watched through the crack, as the two men stared at him in shock. They were obviously not hotel employees.

  “Who are you?” one of the men asked rudely.

  She heard the crispness in Garret’s voice as he spoke. “Well, obviously, if I’m part of the other suite, I’m looking for the woman who’s in here. She’s with my party.”

  “Sure,” the one guy said, with a sneer.

  Then, in a move so smooth and practiced, she was almost shocked when Garret’s right hand smacked the guy on the side of the head with a light punch.

  “Don’t talk about her that like that,” he said.

  The guy stepped back. “What the fuck?”

  “I said, what do you know about her, and why are you watching her room?”

  “You don’t know anything about me,” the one guy said. “I don’t have to stay here and talk to you.” And, with that, he strode to the door and flung it open, only to see Kano standing there, a grim smile on his face. He stepped in, pushing the two men back into the room.

  “Now you are the guys we want to talk to,” Garret said. “So talk. What do you know about her disappearance?”

  “We don’t know anything. We were just supposed to keep an eye on the room, and I saw these two go in, so I told my boss,” the one man said, as he was still nursing his sore cheek. “And I didn’t need to get punched in the face for it.”

  “Well, you’re the one who’s tracking a single woman,” Astra said angrily, coming into the room. “And why is that again?”

  The men looked at her, looked at Garret, then looked back to Kano and said, “We don’t have to talk to anybody.”

  “Well, you don’t have to,” Garret replied, and, with that, pulled out his phone and said, “You can talk to MI6 instead.” At that, the two men froze. “I thought so,” he said, as he hit Jonas’s number and said, “Jonas, I’m sending you photos of the two men, watching Amy’s room. We’ve got them pinned inside her room right now.”