Page 23 of Threatened

It seemed like a small eternity before a knock sounded on the door, and he let Carlisle in. He’d never been so glad to see the guy in his life. There was a female officer with him as well. She introduced herself as Cora Mertz.

Carlisle pulled him aside. “I brought her along because she’s great with kids. She’s got two of her own at home. She’ll stay here with the twins while you and I go after Kylie, okay?”

“Okay.” Gage had reservations about leaving the babies with someone he hadn’t fully vetted personally, but there was no choice now. He’d have to trust Carlisle’s judgment. He watched while Cora went into the room where the twins were fussing now that they’d woken up and was stunned to see her quiet them down with ease. Soon, she was bouncing a baby in each arm and they were happy as clams. He was forced to rethink his feelings once again.

“Right. Let me get my shoes and a jacket and we can go. Kylie said she was heading to the drug store near here. It’s maybe half-a-mile walk.” Gage pulled on socks and sneakers then grabbed his windbreaker and headed back out to the living room. After kissing each twin’s head and showing Cora where everything was, he left the suite with Carlisle and they boarded the elevator to the lobby. As they rode down, he noticed the security camerain the ceiling and an idea occurred. “The hotel should have footage of Kylie when she left.”

“Way ahead of you.” Carlisle gave him a curt nod and stepped closer to the back wall when they stopped on the next floor down to let on more people. He leaned closer to Gage and said, “I stopped at the front desk on my way up here and requested the footage. The manager didn’t blink an eye or ask for a subpoena. I’m guessing this isn’t their first rodeo.”

Gage wasn’t sure if he should be happy about that or alarmed. Part of him wanted to run right back upstairs and grab the twins and get the hell out of there. But then he remembered Cora and her sidearm and her vow to protect the twins no matter what and he refocused again on Kylie. She was out there without protection, and she might be dealing with Japanese gang members and who knew what else. She needed him.

And he damn well intended to be there for her.

They exited the elevator and walked over to the front desk where the manager waved them back into the office. He replayed the security tapes from a few hours earlier and they clearly showed Kylie cutting through the lobby then walking outside and across the parking lot. Alone. The footage cut off as she walked out of the frame.

So, somewhere between the hotel and the drug store most likely their mystery thief had confronted her. He clenched his fists at his sides to keep from punching something. If that asshole so much as hurt one hair on her head, he’d go ballistic.

They were at the hotel entrance when Carlisle’s phone rang. “You got it?” he asked as he answered the call. He listened for a few seconds. “Thanks.” He hung up and turned to Gage. “We’vetriangulated Kylie’s cell signal. We’ve got a lock on her location. It’s not far. Come on, let’s find your Kylie.”

Gage jogged after Carlisle as the police detective headed down the street.

She wasn’t his Kylie yet, but with luck, one day maybe she would be. But first he had to find her.

13

Think. Dammit. Think.

Kylie squeezed her eyes shut and forced herself to concentrate. Mr. Hirohito was a smart guy. There must be a reason behind his fear. Something more than just paranoia. She must have caught something very incriminating without even realizing it. She quickly ran through her time in the Tokyo house, searching for anything suspicious that might have been interpreted as her spying on him.

To be honest, she’d only seen him a couple of times while she’d been working. She worked mostly with Mrs. Hirohito. But there had been that one day. She’d been arranging the Zen garden outside. The house had floor to ceiling windows in several rooms, including the office. She’d had her laptop sitting on one of the benches while she worked so she could refer back to the design she’d planned. During a break, she’d noticed Mr. Hirohito was having a meeting. The person with him had been tall, dark, vaguely familiar.

Focusing on that memory, she tried to concentrate on that face. Where had she seen it before? It was just out of her mind’s reach, and then suddenly it came to her in a rush of adrenaline. He was that banker that she’d seen on the news recently. The one who was copping a plea deal on a bigtime embezzlement case. Her stomach sank to her toes. If Mr. Hirohito had been involved in that somehow, then he’d want to eliminate any witnesses or evidence linking him to the banker. He must’ve seen her taking photos of the landscaping and assumed she’d been taping him. When she’d quit the job so suddenly and headed back to the US, it had probably confirmed his fears that she was spying.

“Get me into your computer so I can destroy the files,” the thug growled closer to her face.

She thought about complying, handing over her password and letting him see that she didn’t have anything incriminating on his boss after all. Except shemight. She might have accidentally caught something that day. And if she did, then what? It hardly seemed likely he’d just let her go at this point.

No, the laptop and its files were the only leverage she had. She couldn’t throw that away. Playing along, at least a little longer seemed her only option. Perhaps if she could somehow get him to let her use the laptop, she could get a message to Gage somehow.

“I can give you my password, but it won’t get you to the files,” she said, trying to sound confident. She actually did have a second password to access her files. She added that extra layer of protection thanks to advice from a former client who worked in cybersecurity. Her assailant snarled and brought the tip of the knife close to her cheek again. “And my agency would have changed that second password since I had to report the laptopstolen. I swear, that’s true. I mean, I could try logging in myself to get access.”

“Nice try.” The guy snorted. “You think I’m stupid? You ain’t touching that computer.”

Okay, she needed a different tactic. “If they’ve changed the passwords, I’ll need to get into my account at the agency to get the new ones. It’ll be done through a series of codes that verify that I am who I say I am.” She swallowed hard, her throat dry and scratchy. “I’m the only one who can do that.”

He shook his head and loosened his hold on her throat, but only to grab her by the nape and shove her forward, toward a car parked on the other side of the dumpster. “Move.”

Terrified, Kylie dug in her heels. “No. I’m not going anywhere with you.” Her chance of survival sharply declined if she got in a car with him. That was on all of the true crime shows.

“You want to type? The laptop’s in the car.” He wrenched her arm to get her to move forward before forcing her to her knees on the pavement next to the rear door of the black sedan. Unfortunately, because of the dumpster and the building, they weren’t any more visible to most people than they’d been before. The thug kept the knife near her face with one hand while he opened the car door with the other and grabbed her computer from the backseat. It landed on the ground near her knees with a resoundingthwack. Thank goodness she’d gotten the warranty with it because that sounded screen-crackingly loud. “Type. Now!”

Fingers shaking, she managed to get the laptop open and was surprised to find not only was the screen not broken, the batterystill had half a charge. The password box showed in the middle of the screen, the cursor blinking at her as if mocking her.

The thug was standing over her, the knife held against her cheek. She felt the sharp tip dig in. “Type!”

Oh God. Okay. She needed more time, but there wasn’t any. All the flaws in her plan were becoming clear—such as the fact that she had no idea how to send a message to Gage. She wasn’t connected to any network out here in the alley. Once she logged in, she wouldn’t be able to access anything other than her locally stored files.

And once this man had access to that data, he’d kill her.

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