Wilde Storm Page 14

  Time to ponder the thought another day. I needed to find Aaron, brief him, and get him up to speed.

  We walked for what seemed like forever when she stopped in front of a tall wooden door, out of place in the rest of this underground steel cave. She used the knocker once, twice, three times, when the door swung open and a wizened old man wearing glasses with lenses as thick as old Coke bottles peered out. “Password?”

  The woman scoffed and rolled her eyes. “Walter. Just let us in.”

  The old man stepped aside, grumbling the entire time. “No idea why he has a password if he lets young whippersnappers like you barge right on through.” He had a hunchback that forced his head down even with his shoulders and white, wiry hair that stuck out in odd angles all over his head.

  He peered at me closely with watery gray eyes. “Ah,” he said after adjusting his glasses, “you have the look of Holmes about you. It must mean Maggie is back.”

  I swallowed hard at that. Who was this man? “Yes. She’s here.”

  “Good. Good then. It’s about time this place had more of a feminine touch.” He glared at the back of Sherlock’s assistant as she strode through like she owned the place. He leaned in and whispered conspiratorially, “She’s kind of a ballbuster.”

  I snorted in amusement. “Have you met my mother then?”

  He hooted with laughter. “Maggie is a damn fine woman. The day Sherlock let her go, I knew he would never be the same.”

  I didn’t tell him my father didn’t exactly let her go.

  “But that’s in the past. Now that she’s back, maybe those two crazy kids can hash their differences out and make it work.”

  I wasn’t holding my breath, especially now that Irene Adler had entered the picture. My mother was going to have to cough up an enormous secret and I didn’t think this was one my father was going to be able to forgive.

  He’d been gracious in allowing her to stay on for a little while, but I was never under the illusion it was permanent. I’d worked it out with him to be able to visit her every once in a while, but I think neither of them wanted me to travel for a while after my accident, so it was convenient for her to stay.

  I should have probably adjusted to the fact that my mother wouldn’t be around here for much longer. Unless my father had softened with age. I snorted with amusement, even as I answered Walter. “Perhaps.”

  He chortled. “You sound as I convinced as I feel about it. Come, come,” he said and led me after the assistant who hadn’t bothered waiting for us before she continued walking through the long corridor. It was a strange room, but I’d gotten used to strange living here. Much like my father’s quarters, clocks lined the walls and sat on every available surface, but these ticked in a discordant jangle. The beat of Sherlock’s clocks ticked with a timing that comforted me once I’d gotten used to them. There was something…off about these. I frowned as I tried to figure it out.

  Walter grinned at the look on my face. “You can hear it. You are indeed a Holmes.”

  “Why are they out of sync?” I asked.

  “Each clock represents a place in either this world or another. In some place and time there, an event has occurred that has damaged the fabric of space and time.”

  My mouth dropped open. “All of these?” I asked in shock.

  “Indeed.”

  “Are they fixable?”

  Walter nodded. “This room is where missions are scouted and sent to your father. He sends Time Soldiers out to fix whatever it may be.”

  “Are they successful?”

  He shrugged. “Successful enough. The world hasn’t exploded yet, eh?” He cracked up, but what started out as amusement quickly turned to wheezing.

  I patted him on the back until he caught his breath.

  “I get a little carried away sometimes. Not everything is fixable. Your father may have a lot of power over time, but he is not a god. Don’t tell him I said that because he might argue. He’s not a man who believes in fate, but I am. Sometimes things happen no one, including your father, can plan for. I like to think these happenings are fate. Your father likes to think someone’s screwing with him. I stopped telling him a long time ago that “person” was omniscient and liked to screw with everyone, but he doesn’t like to listen. I never met a more stubborn atheist. You think he’d seen enough crazy shit to believe in a god. But he doesn’t.”

  I smiled even as his words made me sad. “That sounds like him, doesn’t it?”

  “That it does.” By now, we’d caught up and Sherlock’s assistant made quick work of a locked door. Whether she picked it or had the key, I couldn’t tell. It swung open and all three of us walked in. It appeared comfortable—as comfortable as a jail cell could be. I winced as I saw Aaron and his sister sitting at the table playing cards. They must have been bored out of their gourd.

  Aaron’s face dropped in shock as I walked in. He tossed his cards down and stood. “What’s happened?”

  Gwynne, on the other hand, didn’t seem to be nearly as happy to see me, or even a little concerned about me…or anything else, for that matter.

  “Unshackle him,” I demanded. My father’s assistant refused to move. I pinched the space between my brows and tried another tactic. “What’s your name?”

  “Louise,” she answered.

  “Louise, unshackle him, please.”

  She crossed her arms over her chest like a recalcitrant teenager.

  “Louise, did you really think I’d lead you all the way down here and not take him back with me?”

  She glared at me. “I thought you just wanted information.”

  I sighed. “Last chance, Louise.”

  Fear flared in her eyes for a moment until familiar stubbornness settled in.

  Aaron spoke. “I’d listen to the lady,” he said.

  “The only person I report to is Sherlock,” she hissed and while her attention was on Aaron, I took the liberty of punching her lightly on a pressure point on the bottom side of her neck.

  Louise dropped like a stone. I bent down and dug through her pockets for something to release the shackles.

  Walter gasped, but to his credit, he didn’t run. As I rummaged, Walter began to snort. “You are definitely your father’s daughter.”

  “Walter,” I snapped, “help me find the key to unlocking these shackles.”

  He laughed loudly and pulled a keycard out the pocket of his robe. “All you had to do was ask.”

  I stared at poor Louise lying prone on the floor and felt a flooding of guilt. “Well…shit.”

  He handed me the card and I stood and stepped over Louise. Gwynne snarled at me. “Don’t touch me.”

  I shrugged. “Wasn’t planning to. I only need your brother.”

  Aaron’s expression was pained.

  Gwynne called me several nasty names and after listening to them as I freed her brother, I tsked when she took a breath. “And here I was thinking about leaving the card for you to use after I left.” I waved it under her nose. “Yeah…I think I won’t do that now.”

  With a snick, the electronic manacles fell from Aaron’s feet. He stepped out of them and gave his sister a warning look.

  “I have no idea why you seem to like her so much,” she snapped, her pretty face twisted into a grimace full of hatred and anger.

  I sighed. “Are you in?”

  “Do I have much choice?”

  The way he asked me the question made me think the answer was important to him. “You always have a choice.”

  With a nod to me, he paused and watched his sister try in vain to free herself. And as he stood there with indecision written all over him, he finally straightened. “I think this might be good for you. After all, we wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for you.”

  I heroically kept from reminding Aaron of his role in this comedy of errors.

  Her eyes widened. “You wouldn’t.”

  Aaron motioned for me to lead. “I would. And I am.”

  Walter showed us out with a gr
in and a carefree wave.

  “Sorry about that,” Aaron said, apologizing for the amount of noise his sister was making.

  In answer, Walter dug through his pockets and came up with a remote. He pressed a button and we heard a metallic clank and…silence. “Soundproofing,” he said.

  A wide grin spread across my face. I had a feeling Walter and I were going to be friends.

  12

  I briefed Aaron as we hurried through the halls on our way to find Cass. He didn’t seem surprised at anything I told him. Irene Adler had been on the COTO radar for years prior to this. I found it strange that my father was unaware of her reputation and said as much to him.

  Aaron gave me a strange look. “COTO shares information with your father. Whether or not he chooses to do anything with it is not up to us. Or…them.” Aaron had left COTO once he joined up with us. Since he’d left our compound with the serum, he’d been considered a rogue agent.

  “Curious,” I said, and indeed it was. So it was entirely possible my father knew of her, but he couldn’t have known she had his immortality serum, otherwise he never would have gone in there unprepared.

  “Is COTO aware of anything…strange about Ms. Adler?” I asked.

  “Strange how?” He stopped me in the hallway. I looked back and forth to make sure we were alone, but even that didn’t make me less paranoid. I grabbed him by the hand and led him back to my room. I shut the door and told him to sit down.

  “Strange as in ageless.”

  He looked confused for a few moments. I was about to elaborate, when he whispered, “No. Impossible.”

  “Entirely possible.”

  “How did she—?”

  This was information I was entrusting to someone I didn’t entirely trust, but since I was asking him to risk his life, I thought he should know everything. “Years ago, my mother sold some of his serum to save me and flee this compound.”

  He scrubbed a hand over his five o’clock shadow. “Jesus. How much?”

  “Enough for about three people.”

  He nodded. “So, she’s looking for more.” He looked up at the ceiling and laughed. “Are we ever going to get away from this?”

  “Until my father destroys every bit of it, I think not.”

  “And we both know the likelihood of that.”

  “Yeah.” I went into the bathroom and rummaged through the cabinets for a washcloth, only to gasp when I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror.

  Aaron’s voice from behind me startled me. “You look like a serial killer,” he said with amusement.

  I hadn’t bothered to clean myself up, had gone trouncing through half the compound, and showed up to my father’s secret underground quarters looking like a savage covered in blood. “Awesome,” I whispered. “How come you didn’t look surprised when you saw me?”

  Aaron took the washcloth from me and ran it under cool water from the tap. “It’s not the first time I’ve seen you looking like a psychopath. Kind of par for the course when it comes to you.”

  I winced as the cool rag hit my skin. He rubbed gently, but firmly. “Thanks, I think.”

  “You’d have to do worse than that to scare me off.”

  One of my brows rose. “Like betraying you and your sister.”

  “Penelope…all is fair in love and war.”

  My heart stuttered and skipped a beat, but I stayed as composed as I could. “You aren’t angry?”

  He grimaced as he lifted sticky bangs from my forehead. “How could I? It was richly deserved. I think I’m lucky to be alive, honestly.”

  He had a point. I did fire a gun at him seconds after seeing he’d come back. “You’re a unique individual.”

  He shrugged. “This is a different kind of life. You either go with the flow or the flow runs you right over.”

  He set the rag down on the edge of my sink and let his fingers walk through the top of my hair and behind my ear, presumably looking for the injury. Moments passed. I felt little tenderness despite the fact that I’d fallen through a roof. Most of the pain was in my lower body, but it wasn’t as bad as it probably should have been. Go go gadget healing!

  “I don’t think this blood is yours.”

  I gripped the edge of the sink and met his eyes in the mirror. “Pardon?”

  He lifted one shoulder. “I can’t find an injury. Even one in the process of healing. Do you remember getting hit?”

  I didn’t. I told him what I remembered about Masters and waking up in the other office.

  “Wash your hair out as quickly as possible. We need to leave. Someone sitting close to you in that room sustained a serious injury.” He shut the door behind him and left me there to ponder his words.

  Panic rooted me to the spot for a long moment. I gasped in a long breath of air and turned the sink on full power. Without bothering to grab a towel, I stuck my head under and rinsed until the water ran clear.

  I dried my hair off as best as I could and wrapped it in a large white towel. I stepped out of the bathroom to find Aaron sitting on the couch. He gave me a quick look.

  “I laid out some clothes for you. We should leave as soon as you’re dressed and your hair is put up.”

  I mumbled a thanks and rushed into my bedroom. Black pants, a long black t-shirt, black boots, a pair of cotton underwear, and a black bra lay out for me. I cursed under my breath that Aaron had made himself so comfortable in my rooms, but he’d done a good job picking out clothes that would detract from attention. I dressed quickly and put my hair in a tight braid. Not bothering with makeup, I clipped the stray wet hairs with a few pins and secured the long tail of the braid by tucking it under the rest of my hair.

  I rummaged through my t-shirt drawer and pressed the back portion of it to reveal a secret compartment. I pulled the gun out, made sure the silencer was secured and that it was loaded, and tucked it in the back of my waistband. It wasn’t the best gun I could have chosen, but it was light and would do the job I needed. I wanted to pat myself on the back for my ability to have a backup plan and extra weapons stashed. Just in case. Around here there was always a just in case.

  I called my mother on her cell and asked her to come to my rooms. She hadn’t seen Cass, so I tried to call her on her cell. It had gone directly to voicemail. I left her a quick message and hung up. It would be nice to have an extra body to help us out, but if we couldn’t find her, we’d have to leave. Three was better than one.

  A few minutes later, I stepped out. A knock on the door landed a second later and I opened it to reveal my mother and Cass standing there.

  Cass rushed in like a whirlwind. “I ran into your mom in the hallway. What happened?”

  I rushed through the important parts and watched as her mouth dropped open. “I’ll go suit up and be back in a minute,” she said as she left my rooms.

  Mom watched her go. “She has a quiet, competent way about her.”

  “That she does,” I agreed. “We’ve never worked together, though.”

  “Your father considers her one of his best.” She frowned. “Or he used to.”

  There was not much I could say to that, so I settled for, “Hopefully she still has what it takes.”

  “You don’t have to worry about her,” Aaron said as he handed me a DAR. I took it from him before I realized what he had just done.

  “Where did you get these?” I asked, suspicious.

  “I had them all along, Penelope Wilde. Will you ever begin to trust me?”

  I strapped it to my wrist and refrained from saying anything. He could have escaped at any time. He could have allowed his sister to escape. But he hadn’t. How about that?

  Cass pushed back in the room dressed in black leathers with her hair scooped back in a tight bun on top of her head. She was strapping her DAR to her wrist.

  I punched in where we were going and gripped Aaron’s hand. He tangled his fingers with mine and I tried not to think about how good it felt. “Ready?” he asked. I watched as Cass punched in the same. />
  My mother smiled. “Meet you there.”

  I nodded, and with a press of the buttons, we were gone.

  In the daylight, Waterstone looked a lot less creepy, minus all the weird look alikes coming in and out of the building. My mother showed up moments after we had, but she was dressed completely different from when she’d entered my room. The woman who stood in her place looked nothing like the woman who’d raised me. Gone were her broomstick skirts and long braid swinging over her shoulder. In her place stood a poised, young looking woman dressed in a sharp business suit. Dark eyeglass framed her chocolate colored eyes. She looked smart. Put together. And dare I say deadly?

  Mom resembled Lucy Liu in her Kill Bill days, except dressed more modern. There was a flat, killer stare in her eyes as she studied the Waterstone building. “And here I thought I’d never see this place again.” She sighed, smoothed down her skirts, and turned to us. “Stay here until I radio you.”

  “Mom. That wasn’t the plan—”

  She cut me off. “We didn’t really have a plan. This is the best way. I promise she will let you in.”

  I eyed the briefcase she was carrying.

  “What do you have in there?” I asked, but my heart sank because I already knew.

  “Leverage.”

  “Mom—”

  “Penelope, you don’t engage with a deadly enemy empty handed. You take something they want and then you trick them out of it. Clear?”

  I barked out a laugh. “Crystal. Go do you, Mom.”

  She winked at me, a rare gesture of cheer from my normally stoic mother, and clacked away in a pair of high heels I had no idea she even knew how to wear.

  My mother was a serious badass.

  Aaron whistled low. “Sherlock is a lucky man.”

  I punched him in the arm. “Shut up, dude.”

  Cass snorted in amusement.

  I pulled them around to the side of the building. “Let’s talk about our next steps if something goes wrong.”

  Cass perked up. “We kill them all?”