Crave

For no good reason, Matthias’s central processor started to spark and smoke, images flitting in and out of his mind in a mad jumble that made him think of dice rolling across a felt table. And then from out of the chaos, he saw Alistair Childe being held up off a filthy rug by two operatives in black as his son was injected with enough heroin to put an elephant into a perma-nod.

Danny . . . oh, Danny, my boy . . . Like that Irish bar song, only not musical at all when a father was hoarsely crying out the words.

“Boss,” his number two cut in. “Talk to me. What’s going on.”

So level-voiced, but it was a false pragmatism. The soldier was no doubt worried that the wheels were falling off again—that just as he had two years ago, he was going to have to drag Matthias into his fighting boots once more.

“Do not kill him,” Matthias heard himself repeat. “That’s an order.”

“I know, so you can do it. He’s for you. You have to take him.”

For a moment, Matthias felt an inescapable, tantalizing draw . . . “No,” he blurted, shaking hmself. “No, I don’t.”

“Yes, you must—”

“Just follow the fucking order without commentary or I’ll find someone else who will.”

With a curse, he hung up, sent a signal back to Isaac and then tried to find some solid internal ground to stand on. Shit, all of sudden, he felt like he had two different voices in his head and not only were they pulling him in opposite directions, neither was his own.

Fortunately, the return transmission from Rothe cut into the struggle.

“Matthias,” came that old, familiar voice.

“Isaac. How are you.”

“Where? When?”

“Always so to the point.” Matthias pushed his knee into the bottom of the steering wheel to keep the sedan on the road while he massaged the pain in his left pec. “I’m sending someone for you. So you stay put.”

“Unacceptable. I can’t be picked up here.”

“Dictating terms? I don’t think so.”

“Grier Childe is not going to be involved in this. I’ll turn myself in at midnight tomorrow in a public place.”

“And now you want to tell me when? Fuck you, Rothe. If you want her to stay out of it, you’ll do what I tell you to. Or do you think I can’t get past that fancy security system of hers on any night of my choosing?” Silence. “Surprised that I know about the damn thing? Well, there are other tricks to that house, Isaac. I wonder how many of them you know about.”

See, this was good. The back and forth was clearing out some of that fuzzy, foggy, waffling shit—and it reminded him of the reason behind Daniel Childe’s death: good ol’ Albie’s flapping gums.

A shot of adrenaline woke him up even further as he wondered just what kind of plans Isaac and the retired captain might have been hatching while he was out cold at the side of the road.

He cleared his throat. “Yeah, you stay tight—and in case you’ve gotten any bright ideas from that father of hers, let me set you straight. If you do anything to expose me or my organization, I will do things to that woman that she will survive physically and never heal from. And know this: My reach extends beyond my own grave.” More silence. “You’ve met the father—don’t deny it. And I’m well aware he’s been trying to take notes on XOps for the last decade. No bright ideas, Isaac. For her sake. Or I’ll ignore you and come after her. I’ll let you live a long life, knowing that you are the reason she’s ruined from the inside out—”

“She’s not part of this!” Rothe hissed. “She’s got nothing to do with me or her goddamn father!”

“Maybe. But shit happens. And I assigned her to you for a good reason—which panned out better than I thought. I never expected the two of you to get so personally involved—or did you think I didn’t hear what the pair of you got up to in that guest bedroom of hers last night?” Matthias fought against the pain in his chest, feeling as if he were drowning. “Don’t make me hurt her, Isaac. I’m getting tired of all that, I truly am. Stay where you are—I’m sending someone, and you’ll know when he gets there. And if you and her and her father are not there when he arrives, I’m going to have him find her, not you. You follow instructions and I’ll make sure no one but you gets hurt.”

Matthias hit the end button and tossed the phone onto the passenger seat.

Wincing, he struggled to keep the car heading straight as the agony behind his ribs swelled to unmanageable levels. Under the onslaught, he briefly thought about driving over to the Caldwell International Airport again, but he decided to keep driving because he needed to get a grip and that was going to take time. And privacy.

Squeezing his left pec, he pulled over and tried to breathe through the pain in his chest. Which didn’t really help much . . . to the point where he wondered whether this was it. The Big One. Just like what had killed off his father.

Looking out of the front windshield, he realized he was in front of a church.

For no good reason, he turned off the engine, picked up his cane and got out. He hadn’t been in anything remotely God-like for years and to be limping toward its huge double doors felt . . . wrong in a lot of ways. Especially given everything that was waiting for him in Boston. But his number two needed time to get things set and Matthias . . . needed this heart attack to either get organized and kick his bucket or shut the fuck up.

Inside was warm and smelled of incense and lemon floor polish. The place was huge, with hundreds and hundreds of pews spanning out in three directions from where the altar was.

Matthias didn’t make it all the way to the back. He collapsed in a sit about halfway down the side aisle, all but falling onto the wooden bench.

Moving his cane between his knees he looked up at the crucifix . . . and began to cry.

CHAPTER 36

After he cut off the communication with Matthias, Isaac shoved the Life Alert transmitter into his sweatshirt. What he wanted to do was put it on the granite counter and smash it with his fist. Then maybe light the pieces on fire.

Bracing his hands on the kitchen sink, he leaned into his shoulders and stared out at the back garden. Almost eight a.m. and the place was all but pitch-dark because the houses in the neighborhood were packed so closely together. No clue whether Jim’s buddies were still back there. No word from Jim.

But Isaac had other problems right now.

Shit. All things considered, the fact that Matthias was savvy enough to be suspicious wasn’t a news flash. But the nail-on-the-head component to what was hopefully just speculation put Isaac in a tight one. If he left now, he ran the risk of Grier and her father getting slaughtered. If he stayed . . . they were probably going to be made to watch him die.

Mother. Fucker.

“They got in touch with you.”

He looked over his shoulder. Grier was fresh out of her shower, her hair down and drying naturally.

“Isaac.” Her face grew tight. “Did they get back to you?”

“No,” he said. “Not yet.”

To make the lie stick, he pulled out the transmitter and let it dangle, banking on the fact that she wouldn’t notice that the light was now off.

“Is that thing working?”

“Yeah.” He put it away as she came over. “How’s your father?”

“On the phone again in the bathroom.” She glanced at the clock. “God, I thought last night would never end.”

“I just want Jim to show,” he said as she started to make coffee by the sink.

“Do you think . . . he really is dead?”

At this point—maybe. “No.”

Sitting down on one of the stools, he watched her pop the top off the Hills Bros can and put the filter into the