Collingwood jerked his head and the Storax security men closed in on us. Or rather, on me and my mother, almost elbowing Terry aside. She stumbled blindly out of their way, clearly shattered.
The guard who reached for me was no more than twenty-five, dark-skinned, holding the PlastiCuffs so tight that the bones of his fist showed through. It was nerves that made him rough as he yanked my hands down behind me and zipped the restraints around my wrists. He moved across to pull my mother’s unresisting arms behind her.
“Do you have to do that?” I murmured, letting the pain slide out through the cracks, letting him see it. “How would you feel if it was your mother?”
The young man hesitated, his Adam’s apple bounced like a basketball in play. He shrugged, embarrassed to the roots of his hair.
“I’m sorry,” he muttered. Around him, a couple of the others shifted their feet uncomfortably.
“Do these people know there’s no ‘national security’ involved?” I demanded more loudly, eyes swinging to meet Collingwood’s. “That you’re working on your own, off the books? That, at this very moment, your superiors are as interested to find you—and in what you’ve been doing—as we were?”
Collingwood hesitated fractionally, his eyes meeting Vondie’s as if to check she was going to stand firm. I don’t know what passed between them in that instant, but it must have been enough. He let a smile curve his thin mouth.
“Nice try, Charlie,” he said, and if his voice didn’t have quite the same confidence to it that it had before, I was the only one who seemed to notice. “You sure do know how to, ah, think on your feet. I admire that,” he said with a bit of a chuckle, which he allowed to fade before going on in his most serious voice. “Thank you, guys. We’ll take it from here.” He nodded to the two men who’d just joined him. “The U.S. government sure appreciates your cooperation in the capture and containment of this dangerous suspect.”
“And her aged mother,” I tossed over my shoulder, acidic, as Buzz-cut grabbed my arm. “Don’t forget that heroic part, boys.”
“Charlotte,” my mother managed to protest, but I wasn’t sure if it was the provocation or the reference to her advancing years she most objected to.
Another uniformed security man came out of the office behind Collingwood and whispered in his ear. Collingwood’s face twitched and I knew, in that moment, that they hadn’t got Sean and my father.
“Too fast for your rent-a-mob, were they?” I said mildly. “Shame.”
“Let me go after them,” Vondie said, breathless with the want of it. She reached under her short jacket and pulled a Glock 9mm out of a belt rig. “They won’t get far, I guarantee it.”
“There won’t be any need for that,” Collingwood said grimly, eyeing the pair of us. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned about your father, Charlie, it’s that he’s an honorable man. I think if we offer him and Meyer the chance to trade themselves for you both, they’ll deal.”
“In that case,” I said icy, “you don’t know Sean half as well as you think. The only way you’ll get him in here is if you offer your own head.” I waited a beat. “Detached, preferably.”
“You’re in no position to be clever,” Vondie said, moving in on me with a sneer.
“You never were,” I said. “And you can’t go out looking for Sean and my father with all guns blazing, can you? We wondered why we weren’t picked up on the way down here. But you’re hiding from your own people just as—”
Vondie flipped the gun into her left hand and hit me in the stomach with her clenched right fist. I saw it coming just far enough out to brace, but she put some weight and venom behind it.
I staggered back, heard Terry shout, “For God’s sake, you can’t do this!” but I was concentrating more on staying on my feet at all costs. The pain was a tight crunch in my gut that radiated out in sharp, nauseating waves. I forced myself not to let it show on my face as I straightened.
“I thought so,” I said, as calmly as I could manage. “You punch like a girl.”
Vondie bared her teeth at me, might have gone for a second shot, but Terry stepped between us. She took my arms, steadied me, her eyes on my face. “Charlie, I’m sorry,” she said quickly. “You have to believe me. They approached me days ago, showed me pictures of Agent Blaylock and told me you’d killed her. That if you tried to contact me, I should play along and lead you here. It all sounded so damned plausible. I didn’t have a choice!”
“No choice?” I laughed, and it wasn’t a happy sound. “I would have thought when Storax are signing the checks, they’d have a say in how their hired help behaves, wouldn’t you, Terry?”
Her shoulders dropped. “You think they’re working for us?” she said, and I would have scoffed at the question, but I saw the sudden stillness, the awful realization as it hit her.
“Aren’t they?”
“No,” she said quietly. “We’re working for them.”
CHAPTER 31
They separated us. It was the first thing they did.
Collingwood had me and my mother hustled out of the lobby and taken through into the security area. They had a holding cell back there, presumably used as a secure place to stash intruders until the local law enforcement arrived. Vondie opened the door and shoved my mother inside, twisting a painful lock onto her wrist when the older woman attempted to resist.
My anger flared afresh. I stepped forwards instinctively, but Vondie let go of my mother with a shove and yanked the barred door shut, separating us.
“Sorry,” Vondie said, smiling. “No family rooms in this hotel.”
The outer door behind us burst open and Terry elbowed her way through. She was struggling against the two security men who were trying, somewhat halfheartedly, to detain her.
“Collingwood, you can’t do this!” she snapped. “You’ve violated their legal rights. Even if you had any kind of a case against these people, it will never get to a courtroom if you deny them their right to legal counsel. I’ll stand—”
“You have a sister in San Francisco, don’t you, Terry?” Collingwood interrupted, his voice gentle.
Terry stopped, baffled. “Yes,” she said, frowning. “What—”
“How would you like her hounded by the IRS? How would you like your cousin’s work visa to the UK revoked and her deported in leg irons? How would you like your parents in Concord accused of harboring terrorists and thrown in jail?”
Collingwood jabbed a finger to emphasize each point, jolting her with every new threat, pushing her back. And when she was reeling, he paused, smiled at her almost kindly, let his voice turn coaxing. “You want to do your duty, don’t you, Terry?”
“Of course,” she said. “But—”
“Well, you’ve done it. Now let us do ours.”
For a long few seconds, Terry wavered, gaze skittering between us. She bit her lip, wouldn’t quite meet my eyes. Then, at last, she nodded slowly. “I’m sorry, Charlie,” she said, her voice low, and went out.
The two Storax guards had been standing, dumbfounded, listening to the threats Collingwood made against Terry’s family. They clearly had no wish for their own relations to come under that kind of official scrutiny. All it took to send the pair of them scrambling for the exit was for Collingwood’s gaze to swing in their direction. The door closed behind them with a grim finality.
“You choose your people well, Collingwood,” I said, bitter, aware of a faintly shiny taste in the back of my mouth. I faced him. “But if you’re not being paid by Storax to clear the way for the licensing of this new drug, what the hell are you up to?”