Next Exit, No Outlet Read online

  Blake’s brown eyes met hers.

  “I understand more than you think I do,” he replied, his voice just as low. “The more people who know about you and know where you are, the more people are at risk. What you need to understand is that I’m a Marine. You’re not responsible for me. I’m responsible for me. No matter what happens here, I’ll take care of myself.”

  Alina smiled faintly. “You Marines. You always think you’re so invincible.”

  Blake grinned. “Maybe we’re just too stubborn to die.”

  Damon came out of the kitchen with two beers in his hand.

  “Or too dumb,” he said as he passed.

  “Or that,” Blake admitted.

  Damon walked over to where Michael had retrieved his laptop and set it on the table in the dining room. He handed him one of the beers.

  “Working again?”

  “I’m just checking my email,” Michael said, opening the laptop.

  “Don’t get too comfortable,” Angela called from the kitchen. “When I finish helping Stephanie, I’ll be ready to go.”

  Alina suppressed a sigh and looked across the bar at Angela.

  “You can’t go anywhere tonight,” she said. “We have to figure out the vehicle situation.”

  Angela stared at her, pausing in the act of stowing a box of cheese crackers in one of the cabinets.

  “What vehicle situation?” she asked. “My car’s right outside.”

  “You can’t take your car.”

  Stephanie looked up sharply while Angela gaped.

  “What you mean I can’t use my car?” Angela demanded. “Why not?”

  “If you’re being followed, that car is like a beacon,” Alina said calmly. “I’m not saying you can’t leave, but you’ll have to wait until tomorrow when we can sort out a different vehicle for you to use.”

  Angela closed the cabinet door and turned to face her, setting her hands on her hips.

  “This is ridiculous,” she said. “You’re being completely paranoid. You can’t just keep me here!”

  “Angie, calm down,” Stephanie said, putting the last of the groceries into the refrigerator. She closed the door and turned to gather up the empty plastic bags from the kitchen island. “She didn’t say you couldn’t leave, just that you can’t leave tonight. If I’ve learned anything over the past two days, it’s that it’s better to be safe than sorry. Just stay here tonight and tomorrow we’ll figure out something.”

  “What about my cat?” Angela demanded. “I can’t leave her all night.”

  “Your cat will be fine,” Alina said. “It’s only for one night.”

  “Easy for you to say. Your pet goes and hunts for his own food.”

  “Missing one meal is not going to hurt Annabelle,” Stephanie said with a laugh. “That cat has enough fat on it to last a few days.”

  “And you!” Angela spun around to glare at Stephanie. “You’re supposed to be on my side!”

  Stephanie blinked.

  “I am on your side! But I can see why it makes more sense for you to stay here tonight. It’s already after nine o’clock, and there’s no way to get a rental car all the way out here this late. It makes sense to wait until the morning.”

  Angela threw her hands up in the air and stomped out of the kitchen into the dining room. Picking up the wine bottle, she refilled her glass.

  “This is all so unnecessary,” she complained. “All of this just because I thought I might be being watched. Why can’t I take my car?”

  “Use your head, Angie,” Alina said. “Blake’s car had a tracking device on it, Stephanie’s car must have had a tracking device for them to pinpoint exactly when she would be crossing an intersection, and Michael was followed up from DC. Are you seeing a pattern yet?”

  “And it’s not entirely just because you thought you might be being watched,” Stephanie added, hobbling out of the kitchen and into the dining room. She picked up her half-empty glass and took a sip of the red wine. “There’s a lot more to it than just paranoia, Angie.”

  “Well, I wouldn’t know anything about that, would I? No one tells me anything!”

  Alina pinched the bridge of her nose and Blake glanced at her sympathetically.

  “Did you know this was what you were getting yourself into when you agreed to have Stephanie come here?” he asked.

  Alina nodded tiredly. “Unfortunately.”

  Stephanie picked up her wine glass and turned to carry it into the living room, heading for her spot in the recliner. Angela watched her go then looked at Blake and Alina.

  “So what now?” she asked. “We all just hunker down here and hope for the best?”

  “Well, I don’t know about anyone else, but I’m in the middle of a case. I’ll be working,” Blake said, getting up and following Stephanie into the living room. As she settled herself in the recliner, he sat on one end of the sofa. “I’ll call Rob in the morning and let him know we’re safe. Then I’ll get back to work.”

  Angela looked at Michael.

  “Tomorrow is Sunday,” she said, “but come Monday morning, what are you going to do? Come with me to work?”

  “You’ll have to work from home,” Alina said, standing up. “You can’t go into work right now.”

  Angela swung around to glare at her.

  “And just what am I supposed to tell my boss?” she demanded. “I’m sorry. I have to work from home today because my best friend has lost her mind and thinks I’m in danger? Please.”

  “I’m sure you’ll think of something,” Alina said, turning to walk into the living room.

  Michael closed his laptop and looked at Angela.

  “We’ll figure it out. You can always tell them something happened to the car.”

  Angela brightened. “That’s true. I could say it has to go into the dealership.”

  She turned to go into the living room and Michael stood, picked up his chair, and followed.

  “If you’re going to keep having full houses like this, you’ll need more furniture,” he told Alina, carrying the chair into the living room and setting it between the recliner and the sofa. He straddled the seat and draped his arms over the back.

  Alina glanced up from where she was settling herself in the opposite corner of the sofa from Blake.

  “There’s always the floor.”

  Angela dropped onto the sofa between Blake and Alina and looked around.

  “It’s not that bad,” she said. “You could probably fit another recliner in here and that would take care of it.”

  “Or I could just stop letting you all invade my house.”

  “Hey, this is all your fault,” Angela retorted as Damon perched on the arm next to Alina. “You’re the one who won’t let me leave.”

  “What about you?” Stephanie asked Alina, pointedly going back to the original topic. “With all of us here, what will you do?”

  Alina shrugged.

  “I’ve got work to do,” she said flatly. “I’ll be gone most of the day tomorrow, so I’ll set the security system so that you can go on the deck and into the back yard to take Buddy out, but no further.”

  Stephanie stared at her. “You’re leaving?”

  Alina raised an eyebrow in question and Stephanie frowned.

  “Out of all of us, you’re the one most in danger,” she said. “This whole thing started because someone tried to kill you!”

  “And they failed.”

  “You won’t let me leave here because someone’s trying to kill me. Guess what? They failed too. So what’s the difference?”

  “The difference is that it’s me.”

  “Do you have any idea how dumb that sounds?” Angela asked, looking at Alina. “Because it’s you? What, are you bulletproof?”

  Alina opened her mouth to reply, then paused. There was no good response to give Angela without giving her too much information. If Angela knew even a fraction of what Viper was capable of, she’d have a heart attack.

  “No, she’s not,” S
tephanie said grimly. “Lina, you can’t have one rule for the rest of us, and one rule for yourself. If we have to stay cooped up, so do you.”

  “This isn’t a democracy. It’s not up for debate.”

  “That might be the most arrogant and egotistical thing you’ve said yet. And it’s utter BS. You should have to stay put too.”

  Alina felt her patience wearing thin and she looked across the living room at Stephanie, her eyes narrowing.

  “Do you want this bastard caught?”

  “Not if it means putting you in the cross-hairs,” Stephanie shot back. “You’ve spent the past twenty-four hours making security decisions for everyone in this room, everyone except you.”

  “I’m hardly a priority right now.”

  Angela gasped.

  “You should be your first priority,” she exclaimed. “Lina, you need to take some self-care classes. You know, I took one last year and it really opened my eyes. I didn’t even realize that I was abusing myself so badly until I took that class. You need to take time for you, and make yourself a priority. After all, if you don’t take care of yourself, how can you take care of anyone else?”

  Alina felt her other eye begin to twitch.

  “I’ll keep that in mind next time I have a free weekend,” she murmured, aware of Damon’s silence beside her. She didn’t dare look at him, knowing if she did, she would find him laughing.

  “Angela’s right about one thing,” Stephanie said. “You can hardly help us if you’re dead, now can you?”

  Alina rolled her eyes.

  “And I can’t help you from here. At least, not entirely,” she qualified.

  Stephanie’s face flushed red with anger and she glared across the room at her.

  “You know what? You’re being selfish and reckless, Alina. Look around you! Everyone in this room has been affected by your decisions. John’s dead, I took a bullet in my leg, and Angela got pegged with pieces of the Virgin Mary! Hell, Damon almost died when a bullet that was meant for you hit him instead! Now they’re coming after me and, more than likely, Angela too. Now is not the time to think you’re invincible. After everything that’s happened, you owe it to us to stay hidden and safe until this gets sorted out!”

  As she spoke, Stephanie’s voice got louder until she was almost yelling. Alina watched her, her mask sliding into place as she spoke. Her whole body stiffened and she was unaware that one of her hands had closed into a fist until she felt Damon’s calming hand on her shoulder. Taking a deep breath, Viper relaxed her hand and forced the onslaught of anger and frustration back down.

  “Wait, Damon’s gunshot was meant for you?!” Angela shrieked, turning to face Alina. “What the hell? No one told me that! What happened?”

  “Damon got shot, that’s what happened,” Stephanie told her. “We didn’t tell you because we didn’t want to alarm you, but I think we’re beyond that now. The shooter was aiming for Alina.”

  “It’s really not as dramatic as it sounds,” Damon told Angela over Alina’s head. “They weren’t a very experienced shooter.”

  Alina pictured him laying a pool of blood on the flagged stones of the balcony in Singapore and her lips tightened. They were experienced enough. It was only through quick thinking on her part and the skill of a local surgeon that she was able to stabilize Damon and get him back to the States, saving his life. It was every bit as dramatic as it sounded, but she knew he was trying to de-escalate the conversation, not make it worse.

  “You could have been killed!” Angela exclaimed. “How is that not dramatic?”

  So much for de-escalation.

  “But I wasn’t.”

  “That’s not the point!” Stephanie said. “The point is that every time she goes out of this house, she’s in more danger than we are! She needs to stay put until this guy is caught.”

  “I’ve never backed down from a fight, and I’m sure as hell not starting now,” Alina said grimly, standing up and moving restlessly away from the sofa. She began to pace the length of the living room.

  “Yes, and how has that worked out for you recently?” Stephanie demanded. “Oh wait, that’s right. You’ve been shot at and attacked more in the past two months than probably ever happened while you were on active duty with the Navy!”

  Alina glanced at her from near the sliding doors.

  “That’s hardly a fair comparison. I was parked at a desk for most of my time with the Navy.”

  Stephanie made a strangled noise and threw her hands up in the air.

  “And you say Angie’s stubborn!” she exclaimed. “You’re being ten times worse than her right now. My point is that you owe it to me, Damon, Angela, and Michael to take your own security into account and stay safe! You owe it to John! He’s the one who kept all those emails safe all these years. You’re just going to toss all that away by throwing yourself into the front line and getting yourself killed? And what about Dave? How do you think he’d feel about that?”

  At the mention of Dave, Viper’s lips tightened and her whole body stiffened as a wave of anger surged from deep inside her. Taking a deep breath, she forced the emotion down again before it led her to do or say something she would regret.

  “Are you done?” Michael’s voice sliced through the suddenly charged silence.

  Stephanie looked at him and nodded, seeming to realize that perhaps she had gone too far.

  “I think you’re forgetting something,” Michael said, his voice cold and hard. “If it weren’t for Alina, both you and Blake would be in the morgue. If she’d been hiding here and playing it safe, and hadn’t been throwing herself into that front line you’re so opposed to, you wouldn’t have made it out of the hospital.”

  “Gunny, you don’t need to defend me,” Alina said, her lips twisting.

  Michael shot her an unreadable look and turned his attention back to Stephanie.

  “She doesn’t owe us anything,” he continued. “Hell, we all owe her more than any of us can repay. How many times has she saved us individually in the past year? How many terrorist attacks has she prevented right here in New Jersey? None of that was her job. None of it was her responsibility, but she did it because it was the right thing to do. Now fighting is the right, the only thing to do, and she’s the only one who can do it. As for Dave, I can tell you this much, he would be damn proud of what she’s done, and if she backed down now, he would kick her ass. Maschiks don’t run, they fight. And I’ll be damned if I’m going to sit here and listen to you whine about her doing her job. The fact is she’s trying to fix mistakes that all of us have made. She’s going to war for us. The least you can do is show a little gratitude, and a little respect.”

  Michael finally finished and a heavy, uncomfortably charged silence fell over the living room.

  “Ok, I think we all need to calm down and take a breath.” Blake was the one to finally break it. “Stephanie’s not attacking her, she’s just voicing her opinion.”

  “That was more than just an opinion,” Damon murmured.

  Blake grimaced. “Probably should have left the brother out of it,” he told Stephanie.

  She scowled. “I stand by what I said.”

  “And so do I,” Michael retorted. “You’re being a bitch.”

  Stephanie gasped and Angela’s mouth dropped open. Alina felt an unruly laugh bubble up inside her and she turned away to pace toward the hallway, biting her bottom lip.

  “That was uncalled for,” Angela said, glaring at Michael. “Granted Stephanie can be a little outspoken, but she’s got a concussion. She’s been through a lot in the past couple days.”

  “And Alina hasn’t?” Michael demanded incredulously.

  Angela shrugged.

  “I don’t know anything about what Lina has been through because everyone seems to think I’m not able to handle the truth, but I know about Stephanie. She was shot in the leg, for God’s sake!”

  “Mike, calm down. Getting into a fight over this isn’t going to help anyone.” Blake tried again to def
use the brewing fight. “Steph shouldn’t have brought up Dave, I’ll give you that, but let the rest go.”

  “Why shouldn’t I bring up Dave?” Stephanie demanded contrarily. “I happen to disagree with Michael. I think Dave would be appalled that Alina is going to continue to take reckless and unnecessary risks while she makes me and Angela stay out of sight. It’s a double-standard, and Dave hated double-standards.”

  Michael glared at her.

  “I hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but you obviously didn’t know Dave very well,” he said. “It’s not a double standard. She’s protecting you while she finds the bastard responsible for all of this. Dave would have done the same thing.”

  “He absolutely would not!”

  Blake dropped his head into his hands in defeat.

  “Steph, you just can’t help yourself, can you?” he muttered.

  “Well, I knew Dave pretty well,” she said belligerently, “and I don’t appreciate being told that I didn’t.”

  “Oh, I’m aware you knew my brother a lot better than you ever let on,” Alina said coldly, stopping behind the sofa and pinning Stephanie with a steely glance. “But in this case, Michael’s right.”

  A pregnant silence fell over the group and Stephanie’s face paled.

  “What are you talking about?” Her voice was soft but it sounded like it boomed across the room. “What do you mean?”

  Viper’s gaze never wavered.

  “Michael’s right. Dave would have done the same thing I am. He was a fighter. You may have been sleeping with him, but you clearly didn’t know what made him tick.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Stephanie stared across the room at Alina, the blood draining out of her face.

  “How do you know that?” she whispered, her lips white.

  “It wasn’t me!” Angela said quickly, throwing her hands up in the air. “I didn’t say a word!”

  Damon got up and went over to remove Stephanie’s empty wine glass from her hand before she dropped it. Turning, he glanced at Angela questioningly and she wordlessly held out her glass. He took it and turned toward the dining room. His eyes met Alina’s and he shook his head faintly. Alina wanted to shrug and make a face, but she refrained. Instead, she glanced at Angela.