They’d met the once. Why was he reminiscing when he obviously needed help? “Yeah, it was a blast. Have you called Jim and gotten a new passport? You need to move and fast. I’m in the same boat quite frankly, as evidenced by my earlier message.”
“Chelsea, I sent you a package.”
She shrugged as Simon stared at her. “A package, why?”
Another sniffle from Al. “I needed someone to know.”
Where is the package? Simon mouthed the question.
“Where did you send this package? What addy did you use?” She had a dozen different e-mail addresses. She used them for different reasons and with different people, but Al could figure out all of them. He was that good.
“I didn’t do digital.”
Now the room really went cold. Fuck. He was serious if he’d sent a hard copy. “To my home location?”
Had he sent her the damn bomb? What the hell? Or was the package the reason she’d gotten the bomb?
Simon was suddenly behind her. She could feel his heat and she knew she wasn’t alone. Somehow she resisted the urge to lean back into him, to beg him to put his arms around her. It was right there, always there. The minute she’d met him, she’d felt that instant connection that seemed to be more about her girl parts than her brain. There was this weird part of her that truly believed that Simon would take care of her.
There was the sound of sniffling and a hard cry before his voice came back on the line. “I’m so sorry. I couldn’t think of anyone else who would do it. I shouldn’t have given them your name. I should have just done what they said.”
Tension ran along her spine. What was he trying to tell her? “Who, Al? What are you talking about? Who were you working for? The Russians?”
It made her halfway sick, but the Russian mob was pretty much into everything these days. She had to hope it wasn’t her father’s syndicate. Her cousin’s syndicate. Her father and uncle were dead and Dusan led the syndicate now. Dusan, who had oddly helped her. She could remember when everyone was looking for the man who had almost raped her and Dusan had looked back at her and Charlotte and given them a solemn nod before turning back to their father and claiming that he knew where the man had gone. Dusan had claimed her almost rapist was a drug addict and he’d gotten lost in the scene. Strangely, she rather thought Dusan would let her be. If it was Russians, at the very least it wasn’t her blood. It gave her an odd sense of courage.
“Worse. So much worse. Not mob. Not Yakuza. They’re everywhere.” She heard a hiccupping sound. “I’m so sorry, Chelsea. I wish I’d kissed you that day. You remember the time we spent together in Europe. Sometimes I still feel the wind in my hair and the sun on my face. I really do. That was a beautiful day.”
She’d met him once in Italy. They’d had pizza and talked incessantly about the craft of coding. Not once had he seemed like he wanted to kiss her. Actually, she’d kind of gotten the feeling he played for the other team. She’d been very comfortable around him. Al had been the kind of guy she could actually talk to. Of all the people she’d met through her hacking and bargaining, she’d probably been closest to Al.
The voice changed abruptly. “As you can tell, Miss Dennis, he’s very apologetic. How long he remains that way is up to you.”
There was not breathy panting to this voice. Smooth. Calm and collected. The professional had arrived. It made her go cold.
“Who the hell are you?” She couldn’t imagine who had found Al.
No hesitation at the question. He simply moved forward. “I represent a group of men interested in maintaining a certain level of balance in the world. What Mr. Krum has done threatens that balance. He took a very reasonable work order and chose to misuse his power. You wouldn’t want to be a part of that, would you?”
“Hang up the phone, Chelsea,” Simon ordered.
“Oh, my. That sounds like a British accent.” The voice over the line came through so much clearer than Al’s had. “Might you be with Simon Weston? That is helpful information.”
Simon’s hand came around, but she was faster. She moved away. She couldn’t let him hang up the phone. Al obviously needed her, and she wasn’t going to let him hang. “Who are you?”
“I’m the man who is going to kill Albert Krum if you don’t tell me where you are. I need your physical location. You’re obviously not at home. I’ve sent people there. Are you with Weston?”
“Hang up that bloody phone, Chelsea.” Simon didn’t keep his voice down this time.
But she couldn’t listen to him. Al needed her. “Don’t hurt him.” Albert Krum wasn’t violent. He could be a bit mercenary but then he’d helped her take down some nasty organizations, too. He’d helped her move money from some big corporations to orphans in the Sudan. He’d played pranks on dumbass CEOs and he sent her links to YouTube videos where dogs did cute things. Al was her friend. Her real friend. She couldn’t let him hang.
“I don’t want to, but one does what one must, Miss Dennis. It’s my job and I’ll do it if you don’t tell me where the information is. He sent you a file folder. I can’t tell if he did it by mail or in virtual form. His lie detection was inconclusive. I only know that he sent the information to you and he truly cares for you. He believes you two are friends. I have a gun to his head right now. Is he your friend? Do you want me to pull the trigger? He won’t tell me where he sent it except to you.”
“Don’t.” She couldn’t be the reason he died. She just didn’t know the information this guy needed. “Maybe he sent it to my home. I’ve been gone for a couple of weeks. I didn’t get all of my mail. I’ll go and look.”
She’d already looked and someone had sent her a damn bomb. In two different ways. It wasn’t at her place. But in that moment, she would promise him anything to make sure Al lived.
That smooth as silk voice didn’t hesitate. “No. Your home has already been thoroughly searched. It’s not there. Where else would he have sent it in order to reach you? I’m not foolish, Miss Dennis. I know who you are. You’re The Broker. You have more than one address. Tell me now or I’ll put a slug through your friend’s brain.”
If Al wouldn’t tell them then he was serious about it. “I don’t know, but I can find out. I do have more than one place he could have sent it to. You have to give me time. I can’t just hop on the net and find out. Some of those places require a personal visit. Give me time.”