Page 48 of Duke
“Yeah, I talked to Lear, and he hung up on me.” What he’d said about Thresh registered, then, belatedly. “Is Thresh okay?”
“He was wounded in one arm, but nothing life-threatening.”
“But this is serious.”
Anselm nodded. “Ja. Very serious, in my estimation.”
I circled the Jeep to stand nearer Anselm, leaning back against the hood. “I tried questioning one of the mercs but he wouldn’t tell me shit, except that Cain isn’t what we thought, that we don’t know anything and we can’t get away. He said Cain will find us. Normally I’d have made him talk, but with Temple watching…?” I shrugged. “Chicks don’t dig watching torture, yeah?”
Anselm chuckled. “No, indeed not.”
“What worries me is how they keep finding us. These guys just…show up, like they know where we are.”
Anselm’s features tightened. “That is worrying. You are not ignorant in the art of throwing a shadow.”
“It’s really fucking weird, is what it is. We got out of the basement they had us in, and I didn’t leave any survivors. Then they found us at my stash house, whichnobodyknows about—that shit is under an alias, man, and youknowI’m careful about keeping those clean and separate. Four guys came after me, and again, I didn’t leave any survivors. They found us on the open road, Anselm, on the highway heading this way. Middle of nowhere, just fucking…poof, they appeared and knocked us off the road.”
“And you fought off all eight by yourself? Without sustaining any major injuries?”
I shrugged. “Got lucky. It was close though. Couple shots nearly had my number, dude, and that shit is starting to fuck with my head.”
Anselm was staring at me. “That is quite worrying, Duke. They should not be able to just find you no matter where you go.” He toed down the kickstand and sidled toward me. “It seems too sophisticated and high tech for me to believe this, but…it almost seems as if they put into you a tracker.”
“Like…a tracer?Insideme?”
“It would explain how they are able to keep finding you.” He tipped his head to one side. “But that is an expensive proposition. That technology is not so easy to procure, even if you have the requisite funds. And it seems to be a lot of effort to expend merely for revenge. If he could kidnap you, he could have easily put a bullet into your head and be done. The mystery of his tactics worries me. There is something we are missing, I think.”
I hissed. “And now I led them here, to Harris’s compound.”
“It is only conjecture on my part,” Anselm said. “I do not know for a certainty if you have been implanted with this tracker. We should be safe here for a time.”
“Still, we should get contact Harris.”
Anselm nodded. “Perhaps bring your friend into the house.” His action suited his words and he headed inside, where I noticed the front door had a new biometric lock.
In fact, the windows seemed reinforced, and the door looked heavy…
“Hey, Anselm…looks like you’ve been busy up in here.” I opened the passenger door of the Jeep as I shouted to Anselm.
He nodded. “Harris has been wanting to improve the quality of physical security, so I did that while covering the compound.”
I looked down at Temple and shook her gently. “Hey, babe. We’re here.”
She blinked awake, twisting in the reclined seat, peering at me as she stretched. And goddamn, that stretch…arching her back, pushing her tits out, looking sleepy and sexy and fucking temping as hell.
“Where are we?”
“My boss’s compound.” I couldn’t help brushing a flyaway lock of hair out her eyes. “Safe, for now.”
“That’s what you said about your stash house.”
I grimaced. “Yeah, well…this place is fortified. Plus,” I gestured at Anselm, visible through the open doorway of Harris’s house, “now we’ve got some back up.”
“Who’s that?” Temple asked, pulling the seatback forward and yanking her hair out of the ponytail holder to rearrange it.
“That’s Anselm.”
“The scary German dude?”