Defiance (The Protectors 9)

After parking the bike in the garage, I reached into my pocket and pulled out my keys. I removed the key for the SUV and handed it to him. “It has a tracking device in it. Leave it wherever you want and I’ll pick it up.”

Nathan took the key and I resisted the urge to snatch it back from him. I moved past him and into the house. Mickey was waiting for me as usual, and I went to the kitchen to search out the bag of cat food I kept there. The cat’s happy meows greeted me as he waited by his bowl. Minnie appeared a moment later, but she held back, her yellow eyes on me. David had been her favorite, and while she’d warmed up to me eventually, I suspected she still mourned her true owner. My thoughts drifted to the day David had brought both kittens home. It had been two months before his death, and he’d been so excited about having something to care for in my absence, that I hadn’t even considered arguing about the new additions. And I’d never even once thought about giving them up after his death, even though owning pets hadn’t been conducive to my new lifestyle. It had been nearly fifteen years since I’d lost David, and I knew that although the cats were both healthy considering their age, I’d be losing them at some point in the near future.

Which meant I’d be losing one of my final links to David.

“If I stay, I need to know it’s as an equal participant in all this.”

I turned to see Nathan standing inside the entryway to the kitchen. I straightened from where I’d been petting Mickey and said, “Within reason.”

“Vincent-”

“There are things I can’t tell you, Nathan,” I interjected. “If you ask me how I know something or how I found out some piece of information, I might not be able to tell you. It’s to keep you safe.”

He studied me for a moment and then nodded. I watched as he walked towards me and then placed the SUV key on the kitchen island. Then he held out his hand. “The watch,” he said.

I smiled at the fact that he’d known I’d picked it up. I pulled it out of my pocket and handed it to him, trying not to touch him as I did it.

“If you emailed Preston and my assistant, does that mean it’s safe?”

“From my computers, it is,” I said. “I’m using what the assailant used…fake IP addresses so he can’t figure out our actual location.”

“I don’t want you to speak for me anymore,” he said. “I want to email them myself, and anyone else I need to reach out to.” He held up his hand when I opened my mouth to speak. “You can read every email I send, if that’s what you want. I just…I need a little normalcy back.”

“Fine,” I said with a nod. It wasn’t an unreasonable request. “But you limit yourself to only the people you need to talk to, and if you need to use the phone, you clear it through me first. I have a special secure line that isn’t traceable.”

“Okay.” Nathan put the watch on. “What’s next? How are we going to find this guy?”

His use of the word “we” sounded wrong to me, since I always worked alone, but I remembered his comment about needing to be a part of this…needing to be equal. “I have a couple of things I want to do to see if he’s hacked any of your accounts or any of the people closest to you. If I don’t find anything there, I’m going to set up a trap for him.”

“What does that mean?”

“Chances are he’s been watching you for a long time, and not just physically. Judging by the hardware he used the other night, he’s not your average stalker,” I hedged. “I’m probably not the only one who’s been monitoring your email and phone. If I can’t find him, I’ll bring him to me by sending messages that will indicate your location, only it won’t be your actual location.”

“You’ll bait him?” he asked.

I nodded. “He’ll think you’re holed up in a cheap motel somewhere. By now he’s figured out that you didn’t go to the cops to report the attack. And he’s probably gone back to your house and discovered you haven’t been back.”

“Won’t he figure it out? I mean, he must have sensed the same thing about you…that you weren’t just some random guy.”

“He was brazen enough to attack you in your home, Nathan. He wanted to send a message. Whatever his beef with you is, it’s not going to go away anytime soon. Either he’s getting paid a lot of money to take you out, or he’s got more personal reasons. In any case, he’s not going to let someone like me stand in his way. He’ll just come better prepared next time. And he doesn’t know what I’m capable of…at the most, he’ll assume I’m hired muscle and nothing more. I’ve been careful to make it look like the email you sent to Preston and your assistant came from a library in Charleston – he’ll think we’re still in the area but just lying low. And that we’re not smart enough to realize he’s monitoring you electronically.”