Lazlo’s Last Stand

Now, in the familiar cold light of a computer monitor, staring at the patiently blinking cursor, she wished with all her heart that she could go back and undo what had just happened.

If only, she thought, life had an escape key.

If I’m wrong about him, then in his mind I’ve just proven he was right all along-I am nothing but a silly schoolgirl with a crush.

How overwrought she must have sounded, especially to someone with his incredible self-control.

How would she be able to face him now? What would she say to him when she saw him next?

It would depend, she supposed, on what he said to her.

That’s it-that’s what I’ll do. I’ll wait and pick up my cue from him.

I wish he’d come, dammit. Let’s get this over with.

What’s taking him so long? What if he really can’t get out of that basin? What if-

She was teetering on the edge of panic when she heard the door next to the study open…then close. Her whole body froze-except for her heart, and that part of her anatomy seemed to have gone a little berserk. Behind her the study door opened. She waited, and it quietly closed.

I won’t look, she thought. And then, No-that’s too childish.

She threw one brief, reckless look over her shoulder and said tartly, “I see you made it.”

Facing the computer screen again, she closed her eyes. Oh, God, he looks so pale. He really is hurting-physically and emotionally. I shouldn’t have hit him with this. Not now.

Without comment, he came and pulled out the chair next to hers and carefully lowered himself into it. When he was settled, he nodded toward the screen. “I take it you have the connection?” His voice was as it always was when addressing her: formal, controlled, calm. As if nothing out of the ordinary had happened between them.

Anger spurted anew into Lucia’s blood and pounded its way through her veins.

“Of course,” she said. Show some emotion, damn you. I know you feel. Show something.

She tapped viciously at the keyboard and a moment later Adam’s face filled the monitor.

“G’day, gorgeous.” The words didn’t quite match the jerky movement of his image, but his grin was irrepressible as usual. “Oops-sorry, mate. Didn’t see you were there, too.”

“Yeah, right…mate.” Corbett’s voice was dry, his breath a soft whisper along her cheek as she watched his image join hers in the small window at the bottom left of the screen. She closed her eyes and held her breath, then realized Adam would be able to see that, too. “You have a report for me.” It wasn’t a question. Corbett’s mouth had settled into a grim line.

“Yeah…right.” Adam’s grin vanished, as well. “News from the hospital is, the boy’s awake and alert. Still paralyzed, though. Mum’s been at his bedside, but that hasn’t kept her from directing all-out war against our guys. It’s amazing what you can discover when you know what you’re looking for. Seems our girl Cassandra has taken over the reins of S.N.A.K.E. And there is some word on the street that taken from dear old Dad is the operative word. For now, everyone’s in hiding, including me.” There was a pause, while Adam fidgeted. “And we had a bit of a security breach this morning.”

Corbett’s body tensed. “Where? How bad?”

“Here-headquarters. Not too bad. We stopped ’em before they got very far.”

Lucia’s gasp was overridden by Corbett’s oath. “A break-in? Impossible.”

“Nope, ’fraid not, mate.”

“How’d they get in? Not through the garage. Our security-”

Adam’s head moved jerkily from side to side. “Nope, the roof. Your apartment, actually. Broke in through the skylight. Didn’t get any farther than the elevator, though.”

Corbett snapped a look at Lucia, who glared back at him. His voice was a furious growl. “Who knew about that skylight? Damnation. This has to be coming from someone-”

“Not necessarily,” Adam interrupted. “Once they’d pinpointed the building, the skylight would be the logical way in, wouldn’t it?”

Corbett swore again. “Tell me you took care of the intruders?”

Adam’s grin reappeared, and this time it wasn’t pleasant. “Goes without sayin’, boss. Unfortunately, none survived our people’s particular brand of TLC, so if we do have a mole, we won’t find out who it is from them.”

“Pity.” There was a pause, during which Lucia watched Adam’s image shift awkwardly. She felt Corbett take a deep breath and heard it catch when the pain hit him. “Any more casualties on our side?” Adam shook his head. Corbett snarled, “Don’t lie to me, man.”

There was another pause, and then Adam said in a cheerful voice that was only partly undermined by his crooked smile. “Under the circumstances I’ll make allowances for that remark, mate. We both know I’m not above a gentle fib on occasion, but I’ve never lied to you, now, have I?” The smile vanished altogether. “Truth is, I don’t know, okay? Tom Schroeder called in en route to a safe house, but he never got there. At this point, that’s all I know.” His grin flashed for a jerky second. “How are you doing? Those ribs feeling any better?”

In the small window on the monitor screen, Lucia saw Corbett’s eyes dart toward her, then as quickly away. She opened her mouth, but before she could say a word, he bit out a savage, “I’m fine. My ribs are fine. If you don’t mind, can we not waste time talking about my bloody ribs?”

“Sure, boss. Right-O, boss. Any instructions, boss?”

“Find me that mole!” Corbett snarled, and pushed his chair back out of the camera’s range.

“What the hell’s eating-”

Lucia cut him off with a hurried, “Signing off, Adam. Watch your back.” She clicked the mouse and his image vanished. Another click closed down the connection. She swiveled her chair to face Corbett, who had gotten to his feet and was pacing restlessly with one hand in his pocket, the other folded protectively across his ribs.

“Would you mind telling me what that was all about?”

In a windowless room deep in the bowels of the Lazlo Group headquarters, Adam sat staring at the entwined pentagrams that made up the organization’s logo outlined on a huge blue monitor, while muttering to himself.

“What the bloody hell was that all about?”

He’d never known Laz to be so edgy before. But then, he’d never known him to be cooped up with a woman day and night, before, either-particularly one he was too stubborn to admit he was crazy in love with.

Adam had felt the tension between them even through the computer screen. Something had happened between those two. Or was about to. He knew, as surely as he would have known if a thunderstorm was about to hit.

Bleakly, he tapped a key and the computer whined into silence.

“Why are you treating Adam like this is all his fault?” Lucia persisted, after Corbett had favored her with one of his superior looks. “He’s not to blame for what’s been happening.”

He looked for a moment as if he would fire off another scathing denial. But then she saw the light in his eyes slowly die, and the lines of his face grow long and strained as he paused to grip the back of a chair and lean his weight on it. “I sincerely hope you’re right,” he said softly.

A wave of cold shuddered through her stomach. “Oh, you can’t seriously think-you can’t possibly think Adam’s the mole.”

His desolate eyes flicked across her face and then moved on, settling on nothing. “It has to be someone close to me. Someone very close. There aren’t that many people who know about that skylight.”

“But what he said is true. Once they’d accessed the roof-”

“Yes,” he said, straightening and rubbing his eyes tiredly, “and he was quick to point that out, wasn’t he? But why would anyone think the rooftop would be the best way in? How would they know to try that first?”

She couldn’t bear the acute misery written in every line and shadow on his face. “It’s not Adam,” she said firmly, her own anger with him draining away like water in sand. “I know it’s not. It must be someone else. It has to be.”