Chapter 6
six
. . .
Armin
“Close protection turned out to be tougher than anticipated with this particular client.” I’m slumped in a ridiculous modern chair in Vance’s corner office.
Amazing view, and I don’t give a damn about it. All I care about is finding her.
I stare into the grain of his massive mahogany desk, armed with a screaming headache and a new shake to my hands. Plus the cold fear in my heart that she’s already been hurt.
Or worse.
“If I’d’ve known your real angle on this case, I never would have brought you on.
” Vance keeps his back to me, eyes on Halo City’s skyline.
At least he’s not browbeating me from the other side of this damn desk.
It’s a breathtaking sunrise this morning, red sun and sky.
I’d woken alone. The loft was empty. Mia’d gone and she hadn’t come back.
“This is what happens when we don’t do our due diligence. ”
Regret is the most I’ve been able to drag out of Vance so far. What I really want, what I came here for, is a lead on Mia’s whereabouts. Though he’s got no incentive to share info. I can’t expect him to keep me on after all this.
But I can’t do this alone. And I’m not going to stop trying, that’s for damn sure.
“I stuck my neck out for you. Evie wanted another day to look into it. I said no; I said why? He’s ex-military, former sheriff. She’s a simple witness protection case. What could go wrong?”
Between the woman I’d die for and the man I work for, I’ve chalked up a big zero on desired outcomes in Halo City. Shit. What did I expect?
Well, not to be drugged by her, for one.
Doesn’t seem like a good time to bring that up.
A sharp knock saves me from this lecture. The door opens and a well-dressed woman pokes her head in, bright eyes. Probably wasn’t drugged against her will last night, unlike others in this office. Evie March, Vance’s right hand. “Can I have a word with you?”
“Stay,” Vance says to me, without looking back, and he strides out.
One-word commands are about my speed right now.
Beneath his stoic exterior, Vance has every right to be mad as hell, and I can’t blame him.
I hid my stakes in this case from the start.
I needed the backing of a major security firm, and the cover story of close protective services, and I knew he’d never go for it if I leveled with him.
So I’d misrepresented myself, the situation.
And the situation is FUBAR: even here in Halo City, I’d bet my billion-plus USD that Halo Protective Group has never taken on a client and a bodyguard who are both wrapped up with a crime kingpin, the former his employee, the latter an ex-sheriff from Harvey’s old stomping grounds who never quite got it together enough to put him away.
Not for lack of trying.
Harvey Blagas isn’t a known quantity in Halo City. He brings his own entourage of grimy surprise dangers: the newly corrupted Assistant DA, for one. And Martin Velnias.
If Vance knew Mia and I had a history, he never would have hired me. Ditto if I’d told him I was really the one bankrolling her protective services.
My mind is hard-pressed to create compelling arguments in my favor, alternating between a rolling haze and waves of acute anxiety thanks to the Rohypnol Mia snuck into my drink.
The anxiety wins, and I’m forced up out of the chair to pace in front of Vance’s expansive pane of glass. He’s got a good view of the harbor, skyline. Not a low-rent office. Smacks of success. Mia would have been better off if I’d stayed out of it, hired one of Vance’s guys.
I can’t help but wonder if her body’s floating in the harbor by now. I have to clasp my hands tight to keep them from shaking.
The door opens. I whirl.
Evie leads. Vance closes the door behind him. No facial expression on either, but his cheeks are flushed. So are Evie’s.
Mia and I are a problem yelling can’t solve.
“Keep the vehicle, use the apartment. You’ve still got total access to our arsenal.” Evie’s words are careful and clipped. “We’ll pass on all the intel we get. Stay in touch for as long as you’re in town. But the contract’s null. Both contracts. Line 13’s off from now on.”
“Did you find her?” I try to sound bored like they do but my voice betrays me. If Mia dies while I listen to some fucking legal disclaimer I will raze this whole city.
She nods.
Vance’s mouth is a grim set line. “You’re on your own.” He holds out a piece of paper.
I yank it from his hand and I keep going until I’m out the door.
“She’s alive for now,” Vance calls.
“But be quick.” Evie’s voice echoes after me down the hallway.
I break into a run.