Chapter Thirty #2
My head spins. I think about how the puzzles were designed for me.
I vaguely remember an email weeks ago asking about my cipher solve rate.
I remember that line, because it seemed so specific and strange.
It seemed like a prank or a scam of some type.
I deleted the email, unanswered, so they must have gone to Eric.
They’ve known all along. How long had they been targeting me? And why?
“I still get immunity when we finish the game together and I bring you to them,” Eric says. “We should get going.”
I laugh-snort. “I’m not going anywhere with you.”
Eric smiles cruelly. “Did you think Dane would protect you? Did you think he was sleeping with you because he cares about you?”
“Howland.” Dane’s word is a warning.
What is he warning Eric about?
“Dane knows about my deal with ProtoDark,” Eric says, looking insufferably pleased. “Because he made the same deal.”
I look at Dane, who is staring daggers at Eric. I don’t believe him.
“He didn’t tell you that?” Eric says, obviously reading my face. “He was going to deliver you to them at the end.”
I make myself meet Dane’s eyes, and the devastation on his face doesn’t make me feel better. In fact it makes me feel a little sick. It can’t be true.
“Dane?” I ask him in a whisper.
He shakes his head and sends a death glare at Eric. “I wasn’t going to do it. Let me explain without this asshole here.”
“Notice that he’s not denying he made the deal,” Eric says. “Dane lied to you to get you to leave Madrid with him.”
Dane’s gaze stays on mine. “That’s not the whole story.”
“That’s…” I can’t finish the sentence. God, I feel so dumb. The man I’ve just had sex with all night had plans to hand me over to criminals. I don’t generally think I’m an idiot, but the evidence is not on my side here. My judgment failed me.
I take a single step away from him—I need the physical distance—and I chance a look at him and see pain on his face. It almost ruins me. But maybe that’s just part of the act.
“I was going to tell you,” Dane says, which is what everyone says when they’re caught.
“I bet.” The words are laced with sarcasm—and behind them is a whole sinkhole of hurt. I can’t look at it right now.
“What do they want me for?” I ask Eric.
“To consult, they said. I guess they reached out to you first, but you ignored them, so they came to me. Of course I asked what they wanted, out of concern—”
“Fucking please, Howland,” Dane snaps.
Eric shoots him a look. “They said they’re interested in someone with your skill set. They were after someone who could solve cryptographic puzzles. They agreed you might be a good candidate for their needs.”
I swallow against a sick feeling. “What would have happened in that meeting with them in Madrid?”
Eric shrugs. “Nothing. They would have just asked you about your work.”
“That isn’t true,” Dane scoffs. To me, he says, “They would have asked you to work for them. They would have made you do it.” His words are like little stab wounds. He knows exactly what they wanted—because he was going to give it to them too.
“Shut up,” Eric snaps. To me, he says, “I don’t think they thought you’d enter the Enigma Challenge.
I’ve been trying to tell you Seaver made the same deal that I did, but you blocked me.
” I can see he’s still butthurt about that.
“I’m here to protect you, Zoe. Tell me the fifth puzzle’s solution and I’ll make sure you’re safe. ”
Before I can tell him to fuck off, Dane says, “It’s tomorrow. June fifth. Have to hike out to it today to Loch na Sealga.”
I shoot him an incredulous look for giving up this information, but his face is stone. Another stab of pain hits me. Yes, fine. Everyone knows that there’s no point in keeping up the pretext of a relationship, however new, when you’ve used someone and it’s all out in the open.
God, I can’t believe this. Did he fake everything with me? The kisses? The sex? Was I just a warm body to him? A means to an end? I think about the way he looked at me, the attentiveness he gave my body. No. He can’t have faked that.
But I can’t trust myself to know.
“Okay, but what’s the actual solution?” Eric uses his sleeve to swipe blood from his nose, where Dane clocked him. The blood isn’t stanched; it flows more freely if anything.
I shake my head, and thankfully, Dane says nothing.
“All right,” Eric says, and he seems a little anxious. “We’ll hike. Zoe, let’s go.”
I shake my head. “Like I said, I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“Let’s. Go.” Eric uses his most demanding tone, one he’s used on me countless times.
I loathe that tone. I never wanted to hear it again.
I shake my head. Eric’s expression is a tight mix of incredulity and fury.
It’s his classic angry-warning look, letting you know that he’s going to explode soon and you won’t like the consequences.
“Get out, Howland,” Dane says.
Eric looks between Dane and me. “You like my sloppy seconds, Dane?”
Dane lunges at him, which is surprising—what does he care, if this has all just been a ruse? Eric steps around the table, keeping it between them.
And then suddenly, somehow, Eric is holding a gun.
“Settle down, Seaver,” he says. He spits a mouthful of blood on the floor.
“Really, Eric?” I yell. “A gun?” I don’t say that I doubt he knows how to use it, but my tone must carry my incredulity because Eric swings his arm sideways into the kitchen and shoots, blowing out the little window above the sink. It’s a small window, and his aim was scarily accurate.
I’m shocked silent.
“As you can see,” Eric says, “I’m not playing around. In case this isn’t incentive enough, know that I have an email scheduled to be sent in two hours to your sister’s company. There’s an attachment full of evidence that she’s been stealing from them.”
My mouth falls open. “She wouldn’t do that.” Christine can be cold, yes, but she has a moral backbone of steel.
“You’re right. But they don’t know that. The email looks like it’s from a company investigating corporate crime. Come with me and I won’t send it.”
“Stealing what?” I press. “She’s a software engineer.”
“The evidence shows that she’s been selling the company’s code to competitors.
” Eric gives a nasty smile. “It was fine work on my part, honestly. Would hate for Christine to lose her job on top of the family home. I have county inspectors scheduled to make a surprise visit to the house”—he checks his watch—“about now. But I don’t want to hurt you, Zoe.
It’s just that you have no instinct for danger.
You need someone to look out for you. I’ll help you put this little fling with Seaver behind you. ”
I glance at Dane and wonder if he planned on a little fling when he agreed to deliver me to ProtoDark. He gives a little shake of his head as though he can see my thoughts.
“Let’s go,” Eric says.
“Don’t do it, Zo,” Dane says.
Maybe it’s that Dane called me Zo. Maybe it’s the low voice meant just for me. Maybe Eric was already teetering at the edge of control. Any of these things could be what pushes him over the edge.
“Don’t fucking call her that!” Eric shouts, turning, and shoots. The sound is shockingly loud, and Dane falls with a grunt. I scream as red blooms around a hole in his pants. Eric has shot him in his thigh.
“Oh God,” I moan, unsure what to do, what to touch, my hands hovering over his leg.
“Zoe,” Dane murmurs, his face drawn with pain. There’s fury in his eyes too. “Don’t…go with him.”
I spin to face Eric. “You shitbag. You utter failure of a shitbag. You—”
“I’m not going to ask again,” Eric snaps at me. “Next time I’ll shoot him somewhere he can’t recover from—and your sister will be ruined. Now!” He screams the last word, making me jump. I’ve heard Eric use many nasty tones, but he’s never screamed that way.
Tears stream down my face as I think furiously how to get out of this situation. I hear the sound of tires on the gravel drive outside, but it barely registers. “Okay! Okay, Eric, I’ll go with you. Give me just a second here.” To Dane, I say, “What can I do?”
“Tourniquet,” Dane mumbles. He’s holding his leg, the tendons in his arm taut with the pain and effort.
I grab a kitchen towel and do my best to tie it around his leg, above the bullet wound, but I don’t know how to make a tourniquet and I don’t have time to watch a goddamn YouTube instructional video.
The sound of a car door slamming comes, and I distantly realize I wasn’t hearing things. Someone is here.
Eric draws in a sharp breath. “Should have come with me when you had the chance.”
The front door opens. A huge figure appears, blocking out the sunlight.
Alexandre Allard looks at me, and his face cracks into a wide grin. “Bonjour, Dr. Wilder.”