1-Chloe-Kate-Bella Read online

  “You’re lucky, you know. You have a pretty nice, normal family. Really fun parents,” her voice dropped and her head shook slightly. “My parental unit should never have bred.”

  “From my perspective, I’m rather glad they did,” Simon wedged himself in the corner of the deck, arms back on the thick simulated wood, one foot bent to rest on a lower rail.

  “The who – is my father, Simon. Have you ever heard of Wetherly Systems?” She looked up to see the slight shake of his head. “It’s not in your field of expertise, so that doesn’t surprise me. But here is where a little background is required…I began an extremely large collective of private schools, exclusive colleges and universities when I was just south of ten years old. I had been raised mostly by nannies to that point, school was like an immense freedom. I didn’t even miss them, the parental units, I mean. They were never a part of my life, the way yours are for you. And that’s okay, really…I’ve built a collection of people in my life that are so much more to me than DNA had ever provided for me.”

  “I learned everything and anything that caught my fancy. I met some amazing people in my travels. After schools came a series of jobs, pretty much used the same way as education. Stepping stones. Name makers. Never paid much attention to the name thing, but it apparently impresses some people a great deal. When Nyssa showed me how much and how extensive my name was, I was stunned,” she looked up at him. It wasn’t hard to see the questions on his face. “Question?”

  “I’m still processing…but yeah…why were you in hiding and how do you know it’s your father stalking you?”

  “I suppose there is an off chance that someone else is searching for me, but they’d use resources at their disposal. My father operates old school, hence the camera, photos and foot patrol,” her sigh was thick. “The problem with puzzles thrown to the wind by other people, is they don’t have the decency to operate in any form of a logical progression,” she said with a frustrated growl.

  “Inconsiderate of them,” relief filled him when she returned his smile.

  “I was over twenty before I realized what my father’s business did, but more importantly to me, I realized how my father’s business ethics were sadly lacking. My grandfather is the only thing that kept any semblance of ethics in his business. I didn’t bother contacting him or talking to him again for a very long time. I knew the personality, I knew it would be a waste of time. Eight years ago, I was working on a system for weapons control and guidance. I wasn’t contracted at the time, I was just fooling around with something in my spare time. My apartment was broken into and my work stolen. My notes, my simulations…all gone. I was incredibly naïve at one time,” she admitted, a sadness in her voice that perhaps she’d just come to realize existed.

  “Now…it is more than possible for one programmer to jump into a stream, figure out where the other person was taking it and even complete the program. Not so much with my work, especially when I hadn’t quite determined where I was going yet. But I had made the mistake of talking to someone who was less than ethical. Evidently some of the ideas were innovative and meant something to someone also working on the same kind of system. I sent out tech feelers…and discovered it was Wetherly Systems that was now attempting to work my ideas into their design. I dropped the whole thing and went back to my life, after making severe changes to my locks and other security things around me.”

  “The idiots never got it quite right. Piecing bits into bits…I heard through the vines over the next couple years that they completed a contract, but there were serious flaws where soldiers were injured because of them. I was livid,” she hissed, her head shaking. “And he knew it and he used that to make contact with me a little over four years ago.”

  Chloe unfolded her legs, knees drawn up and her arms wrapped tightly around them, her chin resting on top as she stared sightlessly into the brightening morning reflected off the water below.

  “God, I was so stupid. I knew what he wanted. I thought I could control the situation. The skills and ideas in my head…they weren’t like the things they’d stolen. They couldn’t get at them unless I wanted them to have them. The single redeeming thing I did, was let Nyssa and Pembrook know where I was going, and why. Without them…” Her slender body shivered at the memories bubbling to the surface.

  “How about a break? A walk on the beach?”

  “I was headed to the market,” Chloe felt the warmth inside her when his hands came out and pulled her slowly to her feet, his arms there for her to get lost in, their strength surrounding her in a protective cloak. “But I want this finished. Maybe talking it out will help me figure out the why part, Simon.”

  Chapter Eight

  Simon set the alarms, and jangled keys as she wandered back from the bathroom, her backpack slid effortlessly onto her shoulders. “Chloe, you’ve never told anyone else this, have you?”

  “I’ve never let anyone this close before, Simon,” she shrugged casually. “I can easily run people off without letting them glimpse the insanity that is family.

  “I’m not running.”

  “I’ve noticed that,” she replied, meeting his grin when his fingers moved over the alarm for the car. There was no hesitation when he leaned against the door, pulling her into his arms.

  Simon just held her for a long minute. He was about to suggest they get in the car when her head lifted from his chest, her palms gliding over his shoulders to frame his face. His lips were parted, tongue out for moisture at the same time her fingers tightened, pulling his mouth to hers.

  Chloe parted her lips; teasing his tongue with her own before tugging his lower lip gently, her full lips settling down more firmly against his. It was beyond warm, she decided; beyond memories; soothing the past and promising a wide open future. She backed away slowly, fingertips tracing the fullness of her mouth.

  “You’re a very good kisser,” she whispered, a smile in her words that had been missing for the last hour.

  “I think I was just along for the ride on that one,” he finally allowed himself to breathe, adjusting his jeans as he opened the door for her. “Get in and tell me where we’re going.”

  Chloe laughed and gave him the simple directions. She snapped herself into the seat belt and put her head back.

  “You said you thought you could control visiting with your father. What went wrong?” Simon drove through the quiet, early Saturday morning traffic.

  “I forgot who I was dealing with. You can’t have standards and….and morals when you’re dealing with an amoral person,” she said simply. “I went to dinner, listened to his proposal that I work for him and laughed in his face. His people had been toying with my program for years and having nothing but grief. Every time they unraveled one part of the design, another one broke. I told him he got exactly what he deserves since they stole it to begin with,” Chloe opened the window and inhaled the low tide salt air as Simon parked near the marina railing.

  “God, I was so stupid,” her head shook at the memory. The bustling of the market not quite ready to open went on fifty feet from them and ignored by both for the moment.

  “Dinner was over. I wasn’t feeling good all of a sudden. I went to stand up and found out I couldn’t…I was dizzy and tired…very tired,” her voice dropped to a whisper. “Next thing I knew, I woke up in one of the bedrooms. At least I was partially awake while he talked. He told me his intentions. It almost sounds like something out of a really bad spy novel.”

  “There was a company in Europe that was interested in a very profitable merger, provided he could produce the programmer who created the original design for the systems control. That was me. The owner of the other company was also there, it was all so blurry at the time…so creepy. He said he could easily break me and would even
marry me to keep me in his control. In his country, I would have no options but to obey. They would arrange things in the next couple weeks.”

  “Chloe…” His voice caught in his throat.

  “Oh, Simon…it was so very weird. They kept me sedated with drugs in my food and water. I couldn’t think straight and had crap for muscle control. One thing I did have, however, was extremely good and protective friends. I saw the news print after I got away. It was plastered all over about the heiress marrying a Middle European business mogul. My picture,” she shuddered at the memory.

  “Nyssa and Pembrook knew it was all a lie,” she laughed brightly. “They can both be incredibly aggressive and assertive if need be. And because of their various high level friends, my father couldn’t ignore their requests to see me for long. He always made sure there was a bodyguard present, but they knew something wasn’t right.”

  “I’m not sure of the threats Nyssa used, but somehow, I was allowed to go out with her to shop for the wedding. God, I was so muddled, so…zombie like, but I went, in a fog, and we had the bodyguard trailing behind us. Somewhere along the route we stopped and Nyssa talked me into this wild sun bonnet, tugging it over my eyes as we walked along the pavement from store to store. She had one similar so I guess the guard didn’t think twice about a couple girls buying hats.”

  “Well, we had a nice lunch…I remember that and Nyssa guided me toward the restroom. Naturally, the guard couldn’t go inside and waited patiently outside. Jess and Pembrook were inside waiting for us. I was never stripped out of my clothes so fast in my life,” she confided softly. “I was…so muddled…so lost. I remember Pembrook redressing me much slower. I heard her talking on her phone and remember sitting with my head against the cold tiles. We seemed to be waiting for something, someone. I don’t know how much time went by…but I remember hands helping me up and onto a kind of stretcher thing. I found out later it was a private ambulance and crew from St. Michael’s, the hospital Pembrook runs.”

  “The guard just accepted the change?”

  “I have to take a trip to Auberdine and get some art supplies to Jessie, Simon. You can come along and meet her. With the hat and the clothing, the guard never knew there had been a switch.” Chloe pushed the car door wide and stepped into the early morning sun breaking over the hillside. She wandered to the bench on the wooden planking and sat staring for a long minute into the myriad of boats bouncing in the water of the marina.

  “I was in the hospital for five days. Pembrook wasn’t all that sure what they have been using, but there wasn’t anything addictive, just sedating. The morning of the second day I woke up with the most horrendous nightmare…the scream brought so many people running into the room…I started exercising that morning for hours and hours, just to wear myself out and maybe work the crap out of my system all the faster. Ariel and Phoebe worked to make me vanish and created the new me, same first name, new last name. New credentials, new diplomas, new everything. I stayed with Nyssa for a few weeks before moving into the apartment I have now and became a partner with her and Phoebe. The nightmares took a very long time to go away…and I was so very angry…and so very frightened of so many things for awhile.”

  “Is that when you began the costumes? A different Chloe every day?” Simon lifted her hand and drew her toward the milling people. Somehow he knew bright flowers, laughing people and life was what she needed.

  Chloe began laughing, her fingers tightened in his, bringing him to an abrupt halt when the traction in her shoes gripped the pavement and wouldn’t move. Her laughter had stopped, her head tilted. She stared at him without speaking for a long minute.

  “Brilliant. You are bloody brilliant,” she whispered reverently, yanking her phone out and pressing a number, one finger held up. “Costumes…hiding in plain sight. Nyssa…I need to know when we put that bid in for the redesign on the weapons systems? I know it’s Saturday…I’m having a light bulb moment…six months ago. Yeah, I know they’re slow. No….nothing to do with it at all. Thanks. Have a fun day!”

  “Damn,” Chloe dropped his hand and paced furiously over the pavement, she stopped to peer out over the marina. Her hands rose and spread out over the wide open space of sky. “I am so very stupid,” she told herself, seeming to study the nothingness in front of her. “How could I be so blind?” She shouted, growling and throwing her hands wide to seemingly scatter everything on the desktop.

  “Chloe? What are you talking about?” Simon gripped her hand tighter. “C’mon, you need something to drink.

  “Okay…Nyssa, Phoebe and I co-ordinate and create together. BUT…all the bids go in because, number one, we receive the offers to bid based on history that Nyssa and Phoebe have created for themselves. I’m a silent partner, reasons given previously. Number two, no one knows who the creators actually are, because it’s all submitted under CPN Designs, Inc. All they know is they receive extreme quality work, tested, on time and on budget. But the point being…no one knows!”

  Chloe’s palm slapped on the wooden picnic table as they passed.

  “That is the missing piece. That is what I couldn’t see until now,” Chloe threw her arms up and captured Simon with a very solid and tight hug. “You’re brilliant. I couldn’t figure out the why because I didn’t connect the dots. He doesn’t want me because I’m his daughter. Maybe he wants me because he needs someone capable to winning a contract for him. We submitted the bid six months ago, but it’s being held up because of something going on at the company also bidding in Europe. All the fake sightings and locations that we planted would have taken about six months to root through before finally landing on the genuine location.”

  Chloe blinked, realizing her elbows were on his shoulders. Nice broad, strong shoulders, she decided, lowering her mouth to his with a soft kiss and a whisper.

  “Put my feet on the ground, Simon. People are staring…smiling, but staring,” Chloe cleared her throat and ignored the pink tinge in her cheeks. She took his hand and led him to the smoothie stand a few feet away. “I’d like a tropical smoothie, please.”

  “Make that two,” Simon laid some cash on the counter and stepped to the side. “So all this is only about a government contract.”

  “I don’t think the word only can be used, Simon,” her voice dropped so only they could hear. “It’s a lot of money. TV shows are a great reflection of how a society operates and greed is the top.” She accepted the tall beverage with a smiling thanks and wandered to sink onto the bench, listening vaguely to the tuning of instruments of a local trio. “So now the puzzle is assembled but the interpretation is incomplete.”

  “How is it incomplete? You know what he wants.”

  “Because he knows I won’t work for him…he also does not know that I’m part of CPN, also bidding on the contract. But…he would know the reputation behind CPN. Which might be why he’s spent so much time trying to find me after all this time.” Chloe slid to the edge of the bench and leaned back in a long stretch. “He thinks that with me and my designs, he can take the bid. Arrogant. Dangerous. How does he think he can…control me,” the words finished in a low whisper, pale lashes widened considerably as she straightened up and stared at Simon. “No…something is still way off…I just feel it…”

  “I didn’t do it,” was his immediate response.

  “We need to leave. Now,” Chloe gripped his palm and pulled him after her. “Now, Simon. Back to your house until I work this out. Damn, damn, damn, damn,” she wasn’t aware of the power in his foot steps until they echoed on the hard wood near the edge of the marina.

  “Chloe, we just got here. Talk to me,” Simon pulled her to a stop by the car.

  “Don’t you see?” Hands went wide into the air, making Simon take a cautious step back. “Don’t you get it? He didn’t just find me…h
e found people around me. People I care about. People I’m friends with,” she growled angrily.

  Before Simon had a chance to respond, his thoughts along the lines of paranoia and conspiracy theories, a dark, late model car stopped a few feet from them. Chloe immediately backed toward the small maintenance shed, one arm out and trying to shield Simon.

  Without taking her eyes from the two doors that opened or the darkly suited men stepping from inside, her foot came up and was down in swift succession on the weathered handles of two large fishing nets. Long pieces of gray wood were flipped casually, pointed broken ends toward the men.

  “Dr. Wetherly…” The driver lifted the sun glasses from his face, his eyes never leaving the make-shift weapons in her hands.

  “You’ve made a mistake. My name is not Wetherly.” Chloe raised one hand slightly when the passenger made a step forward. “I can hear perfectly from right where you are,” she warned softly.

  “I’ve been sent to extend an invitation to dinner at your father’s estate,” the driver made a move around the car door, stopping and swearing loudly when Chloe used the wood sticks in quick, rapid fire movements. Headlights were now shattered.