Sullen gray skies hung low over O’Hare airport in Chicago when Hunter helped Abbie into the backseat of a black corporate sedan identical to the next ten picking up passengers. Thanks to his brother’s assistant, the car was waiting when the flight Hunter had chartered under the last name Johnson landed at noon.
“Give me a minute,” he told Abbie, who nodded before he closed the door and stepped away after instructing the driver to start the car.
Hunter pressed the number in his new cell phone for his brother, sure by now he’d raised more than a few concerns. The pilot of the jet Hunter had taken the night he and Abbie fled Chicago had very likely relayed a bizarre story to Todd by now.
The call went through and his brother picked up. Hunter said, “I owe you a lot of answers I can’t give right now.”
A few seconds ticked off while he waited for a reply.
Todd sighed heavily. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
“What about that girl?”
Hunter had to be careful about what he said since Todd’s phone wasn’t secure. “Everyone’s fine. Just wanted to say thanks and I’ll swing by soon as I can.” That might be a very long time, but he did mean it.
“You’re always welcome, but I’m not in my apartment right now.”
“Where are you?”
“In Pia’s place downtown on Wacker. Before you say anything, listen to me.”
Good advice if Hunter could follow it, because anything he said right now would probably piss off Todd.
“The divorce was both of our faults. We were hot to trot for each other, made a baby and got hitched, then found out it takes more than sex to make a marriage.”
“How can you trust her? She got pregnant.” Hunter couldn’t hold back. Todd knew how women used children against their husbands and Hunter didn’t want to watch his brother gutted a second time.
“That wasn’t her fault.” Todd heaved another long breath. “Not entirely. I didn’t use a condom a couple times, but I was crazy about her… the bottom line is that I really love her and she really loves me. She has no reason to trust me either. I acted like an ass after we divorced. Not like you and I had much for a marriage role model. Pia and I just didn’t know how to be married, and my temper didn’t help, then Barrett came along. We’re both spoiled to some degree, but we’re learning how to compromise.”
“Sure you want to go through this again?” Hunter heard the sincerity in Todd’s voice, but was Pia truly committed to making this work?
“If you mean having my heart shredded, no.” Todd’s good-natured laugh was something Hunter hadn’t heard in a while. “But neither does Pia. She’s gone through hell with this and loves me. I found out from a good friend Pia only pretended to be happy when she was out in public so she wouldn’t look like the pathetic loser still in love with her ex-husband. She hasn’t seen anyone else since we broke up. Me either. We’re going to make this work. We’re talking like we never did before and, hell, I’m just so damned happy to be with both of them again.”
Hunter finally accepted the contentment and peace he heard in his brother’s voice. Todd had been thrilled when he got married, but the divorce had soured him to the point Hunter hated to even hear Pia’s name.
He might have misjudged her. He’d never heard Todd speak so passionately about anyone or anything he’d wanted. But his brother clearly wanted his family.
To his credit, he went after them.
“I admire you,” Hunter said quietly. What he didn’t say was that he envied his brother for carving out a slice of normal life in spite of being a screwed-up Thornton-Payne. Good for Todd.
“Thanks. You need anything else?”
“Nope. I will catch up with you, but I’ve got to take care of some things first.” Hunter started to hang up and paused. “Tell Pia I’m happy for both of you.”
When Todd hung up, Hunter contacted Gotthard next, but this call would be secure on both ends.
Gotthard answered his cell phone with a cautious, “Yes?”
“It’s me. New phone.” Hunter put his back to a concrete wall in the parking deck and kept an eye on foot traffic as people dragged carry-on luggage nearby.
“You have trouble?”
Hunter ignored the irritable reply. Gotthard might have had another bad night with his wife. That relationship was tanking fast. “Did Joe send someone to meet me early?”
Gotthard would understand that he was asking if Joe had sent a team to bring Hunter in. “No. He needs you to finish this job.” Meaning Joe still wanted Hunter to insert into Kore. “You still good?”
“Sure.” If Joe hadn’t sent a team, then who had come up Hunter’s mountain? “What’d Joe decide? Am I handling all of this or is he inserting a female agent?”
“He said it’s your show. You’ve got eighteen hours. Don’t waste it.”
Less time than Hunter had hoped for, but he let out a breath he was holding. Joe was leaving the plan for accessing Kore’s files in Hunter’s hands. “I hear you.”
“By oh six hundred. Sooner would be in your favor,” Gotthard warned in a clipped tone.
Hunter realized he was hearing more than Gotthard’s usual grumpiness. Something to do with this mission bothered the big guy. “We got a problem?”
“Maybe. Our contact hasn’t checked in since sending the last missive yesterday. I’m… concerned someone might have discovered the connection.”
That would suck in more ways than Hunter could count and explained why Joe was letting him enter Kore solo. Hunter was expendable. If Linette got burned as the mole she’d probably face hideous consequences. The minute she gave up her method of contacting Gotthard the Fratelli would use her to track and expose BAD.
“That may not be the case.” Hunter hoped he was right. “If the contact is involved in the current Fratelli operation the contact won’t be as free to access a computer if others are around. Just have to be patient.”
And hope like hell Linette hadn’t been found out.
“That could be.” Gotthard still sounded as though he’d been hit in the gut with a telephone pole, but he shifted back to business. “Why’d you ask if Joe sent a team? You have unexpected visitors?”
“Yeah.”
“Got an idea who?”
“The list is too long.” Hunter joked wryly rather than mention the JC killer since he hadn’t told BAD that JC was the attacker he’d confronted at Abbie’s. “We’ll kick around possibilities later. Gotta roll right now.”
“One more thing. We checked out Tatum, that doctor taking care of the Blanton woman’s mother. He died early yesterday morning. Police are calling it suicide.”
Shit. Couldn’t there be one bit of good news for Abbie? “How’d he do it?”
“Looks like drugs. The autopsy will tell, but no note. Tatum lost his wife five months ago and was devoted to raising his two small girls. No suicidal tendencies, no note, but the police found a spoon stuck in the body. It’s the JC killer’s.
Police don’t know what they have. We found a spoon at Abigail Blanton’s apartment, too.”
“Our boy is getting around.”
“Abigail’s neck-deep in all this.”
Hunter understood the warning from Gotthard-don’t get tangled up with Abbie-but he couldn’t admit to anyone he was shielding her from BAD as well as the killer. “I’ll keep that in mind. Be in touch.”
He pocketed the cell phone and climbed in the car next to Abbie. She had on a new pair of jeans and a pink knit top from the several outfits he’d bought her in Gillette, Wyoming, before they took off for Chicago. She’d stuffed her clothes plus a few toiletries in an oversized black canvas shoulder bag.
“Where are we going?” she asked.
He gave her credit for not hounding him all the way there. He’d put in a call to her mom’s medical center when they reached Gillette, but her mother had been out of the room having tests. Abbie had deflated at missing the chance to talk to even her sister Hannah. She’d mentioned a second sister, Casey, but just said they weren’t on speaking terms.
He’d told her she could try again in Chicago. The police had to be searching for Abbie by now and BAD would have both the medical center and Kore Women’s Center under surveillance. If he exposed that he had Abbie, he’d have no chance at catching Eliot’s killer or getting into Kore to gain a bargaining chip with Joe. Not if they locked him up. All his training warred against what he’d already put into motion, but every minute they spent on the run could be the last one of Abbie’s freedom. “We’re going to the medical center to see your mother.”
The smile she gave him lit up her whole body. “Thank you.”
“But we can’t go in through the front doors.” Joe’s people would grab her the minute they saw her. When she nodded her compliance, Hunter instructed the driver to head to the Oakbrook Shopping Center west of downtown Chicago, where an associate from Hunter’s CIA days waited. Their sedan arrived at the parking area for the mall close to two o’clock.
He directed the driver to park next to an ambulance sitting by itself, then told him, “If we’re not back by five return to the office.” That gave Hunter three hours. If he and Abbie hadn’t returned by then he wouldn’t be coming back. Plus, he had a meeting with Kore’s senior vice president at four o’clock.
A wiry guy in his thirties with sharp eyes and quick movements climbed down from the ambulance driver’s seat and shook hands with Hunter. “Everything’s in the back.”
“Thanks, Ned.” Hunter rushed Abbie and her purse from the sedan to the rear of the ambulance, then Ned shut the doors.
She sat on the gurney and looked around. “We’re going in as an emergency? Won’t that be a bit high profile?” The vehicle started moving. She fell sideways.
“Not going to the emergency entrance.” Hunter caught her by the shoulders, righting her, and sat down on the gurney. He leaned down and dug through a duffel, pulling out a maternity top. “Put this on.”
“I’m pretending to be pregnant?” She eyed him. “What about you?”
“I’m your doctor.” He discarded his jeans and the faded green T-shirt came off next, exchanging them for a dark suit hanging on the wall of the truck. The white doctor’s coat went on next.
By the time the vehicle parked at the rear of the medical center, he had an ID clipped in place. Abbie had pulled a sleeveless pale yellow maternity top sprinkled with daisies over a long-sleeved white T-shirt that hid a half-round foam piece.
She looked up at him, smiling. His breath caught. She’d make a beautiful mother.
Had Eliot looked at Cynthia and thought that?
Ned opened the back doors, jostling Hunter’s thoughts. “Wheelchair’s inside.”
Hunter jumped down and lifted Abbie to the ground. A short guy with a receding hairline and stained scrubs opened the back entrance for them. For as nonthreatening as the guy appeared, Hunter knew he was not medical personnel but one of Ned’s men who had reconned the facility.
Ned gave Hunter directions to the floor for Abbie’s mother, then said, “You’ve got twenty minutes.”
“Got it.” Hunter ushered Abbie to the wheelchair.
At her mother’s room, she pulled the foam piece from under her blouse, dropping it on the chair, then opened the door.
Where the halls had smelled antiseptic, this room reeked of sickness. Her mother had a semiprivate room, but the second bed was currently empty.
Abbie paused. Hunter looked down to find the misery she’d been holding in check clouding her face. They couldn’t stay long so he gently pushed her forward. “Go see your mother.”
She took a tentative step, then rushed over and carefully hugged her mother, whose eyes didn’t open. Tubes ran everywhere and her breathing was shallow. By the yellow tinge of her skin Hunter assumed her liver was still deteriorating.
He hadn’t told Abbie about Dr. Tatum’s suicide… murder. Hadn’t wanted her distracted while they got inside.
“Where’ve you been?” a female voice demanded.
He turned toward the doorway, where a woman stood, wearing black pants and a wrinkled cotton shirt a darker brown than her straight hair. Similar to the skinny-looking Abbie he’d orignally met.
“I’ve been trying to find out what’s wrong with Mom, Hannah,” Abbie answered.
“Where, pray tell, have you been doing that?” Hannah carried a cup of hospital coffee to a side table and sat it down. “And who’s this? He’s not Mom’s doctor.”
“He’s just a friend. He’s helping me,” Abbie answered in as snippy a tone as her sister’s. “I can’t tell you what I’m doing or where I’ve been, or where I’m going when I leave here, but I am working on something that might help Mom.”
“Oh, I see, you’re doing something investigative and important.” Hannah’s sarcasm whipped across the room to slap Abbie.
Hunter started to step in, but Abbie pushed past him. “Will you give me a break for once? I probably don’t even have a job anymore.”
“You don’t. I tried calling your office to find you and they said you were terminated.” Hannah enjoyed sharing that too much. “If I could have found you, it would have been nice to have some help getting Mom a doctor. The new one’s so young I’m not sure the ink’s dry on his diploma.”
Abbie backed up, stunned. “New doctor? What do you mean?”
“Tatum. He committed suicide.”
“Oh, my God.” Abbie reached for the chair next to her and sat down. “Dear God.”
“Yeah, it’s the pits,” Hannah agreed. “His little girls have lost their mama and daddy in the same year.” She took a sip, eyeing Hunter. She put the cup down, discarding it along with her catty snarl. “I can’t do this alone, Abbie.”
“I don’t mean for you to, but you have to believe me when I say I’m really close to finding something that might help.” Abbie got up and walked over to Hannah. She put her hand on her sister’s shoulder. “Can you trust me for once and just believe me? I’ll worry about my job once we get Mom turned around. But I need you to stay with her while I’m doing this. I’ll come back as soon as I can.”
Hannah didn’t look convinced. “Where are you going?”
“To see someone Dr. Tatum told me about. Please don’t ask, because I don’t want to involve you if what I’m doing goes really bad.”
Hannah nodded. Her eyes teared up. “They said you were with that Wentworth woman when she got shot.”
Abbie swallowed. “Yeah. Is Gwen still alive?”
“Aren’t you watching the news?”
“Not really. I’ve been on the road.”
“She’s hanging on, stable. Oh, and the police stopped by looking for you. They weren’t happy I didn’t know where you were. I gave them the message some guy left with the nurses about you traveling.” Hannah slashed a glance at Hunter that should have left a mark, then her eyes lit with a sudden revelation. “A guy came here looking for you.”
Hunter checked his watch. They had to go, but Hannah had raised his interest. “Who?”
Her sister glared silently until Abbie told her it was okay to tell him. “He didn’t leave his name. Said he was a friend of Abbie’s from the television station and wanted to get in touch, but he didn’t even have a card. Wore sunshades he wouldn’t take off. I hate to talk to anyone when I can’t see their eyes. He said he couldn’t go without glasses. He had a blood birthmark right here.” She pointed above her right eye at her forehead. “Ring any bells?”
“No.” Abbie looked at Hunter, who told Hannah, “The less you say about Abbie being here the safer it is for her.”
That alarmed her sister. “Is she in danger?”
Hunter hated to pull Abbie away, but they had to go. “Abbie, it’s time.”
“For what?” Hannah said, and stepped up beside Abbie, putting her arm protectively around her.
Abbie hugged her sister. “I’m okay, but he’s right. Keep a lid on my visit. He’s helping me get what we need. I hope to find out something today or tomorrow.”
Hannah hugged her sister back, then Abbie went over and kissed her mother’s cheek before reaching Hunter’s side. Pain and worry wicked through her gaze, but she soldiered up, ready to go.
He turned her toward the door as it opened. A half-put-together-looking young woman with long wavy brown hair and pudgy cheeks entered wearing burgundy corduroy pants and a gray sweatshirt. She stopped the minute she saw Abbie. “You finally managed to fit Mom into your busy schedule?”
“Get out of my way, Casey.”
This had to be the younger sister. She gave Hunter an up-and-down perusal. “He’s not Mom’s new physician, so what’s going on? You using this place for hunting grounds?” Her lips twisted in a sour frown; she was clearly trying to embarrass Abbie.
Hunter considered several ways to put this mean-hearted sibling in her place. That would only undermine Abbie, whose shoulders slumped, but her voice didn’t waver when she replied.
“How’s the pig, Casey? Caught him sleeping with any relatives lately?”
Hunter put everything together when she referenced the “pig” who she’d indicated had thought he was trading up to a newer model “without pesky morals.” Abbie had caught her fiancé sleeping with her sister.
Not so clichéd as she’d joked bitterly this morning.
They had to go and he was damned tired of seeing Abbie attacked. He put his arm around her. “Ready, sweetheart?”
Casey’s mouth fell open at the endearment.
He kissed the top of Abbie’s head and led her out. She didn’t say a word all the way to the ambulance. Once they were inside the vehicle again and moving, Hunter’s cell phone buzzed. No one should have had this number, but he wasn’t overly surprised to find Gotthard on the other end when he answered.
“Got something you need to hear before you go into Kore,” Gotthard started in. “Tatum took a drug that induces cardiac arrest. The police now question Tatum’s suicide and are trying to figure out what the killer’s spoon means. They’ve tied the spoon to the ones found at Gwen’s home and the Blanton woman’s apartment. The only common thread is Abigail. The authorities haven’t gone public with anything but the FBI is avidly searching for her.”
Hunter closed his eyes. Fuck.