Shadow Woman: A Novel Read online

  Oh God, that so freaked her out just thinking about it. She should just throw the damn thing out the window.

  But not yet. There had to be a better way, a way that would confound them and cost them valuable time. And just because the cell was the most likely item didn’t mean she could just assume that was the means they were using.

  Lizzy drove west on I-66, her mind spinning as the miles passed. Thinking about the cell phone made her think about the people she called. That was a very short list: Diana. It was a sad testament to the past three years of her life that she didn’t have anyone to call but one friend. And she didn’t dare call her, not with that damn phone.

  Wait. Sean would have a phone, right? Everyone had a cell phone, these days.

  She’d gone far enough. Lizzy took the next exit and pulled into the parking lot of a closed service station. Stopping at the side of the building, near the back, she got out and opened the rear door, and tugged and pulled until she got a groggy Sean out of the car and on his feet. For someone so skinny, he sure was heavy.

  She put her arm around him as she urged him forward, using the opportunity to pick his wallet from his back pocket.

  “This way, sweetie,” she crooned, leading him toward the Dumpster just behind the building.

  “This isn’t my house,” he said, sounding confused.

  “No, we’re just making a quick pit stop.”

  “Oh. That’s okay.”

  “You know, Sean,” she said as she lowered him to the ground as gently as possible, behind the Dumpster where he’d be out of sight from the street and the gas station, until morning at least, “you really should give up drinking. It doesn’t agree with you at all.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” he said, as if he’d heard that before. He sighed and leaned back, then he was asleep again, his head lolling against the side of the Dumpster.

  She swiftly, lightly patted his front pockets and located his cell. She used two fingers to ease it out. Then she got back in his sister’s car and drove away.

  She drove farther west for a few minutes before she keyed the phone, making it light up. It was an expensive smart phone; too bad she couldn’t keep it a while longer. No way could she call Diana at home in the middle of the night to say goodbye, or anything else, but she hated to just disappear.

  She dialed Diana’s work number, and when prompted, hit the key that would allow her to leave a message.

  “Hi, Diana,” Lizzy said, and for a moment the voice was … hers. It was the easy voice of the woman she’d been for the past three years, not the voice of the woman who would roll a drunk and disable a motorcycle. “Just wanted to let you know that I won’t be in today.” That was an understatement. “Or tomorrow.” She hesitated to say more, not wanting to let them know Diana meant anything to her, but then realized if they’d been watching her all this time, if her phone had been bugged, they already knew. There was no hiding it at this point. “Thank you for being such a good friend. I’ll miss you, but things are going on and … I quit. If I’m ever able to get in touch again, I will. Take care.” She ended the call before she started crying.

  Damn it, they’d not only stolen part of her former life, now they’d cost her her home, her job, and her friend. If she could ever get her hands on the sons of bitches who were doing this to her—

  She pulled into the right lane, rolled down the passenger window, and violently threw Sean’s phone out of the car. It might survive the landing, but probably not. If they triangulated the call they’d be able to tell she’d been in this area, and, like the passed-out Sean, the clues would lead them west.

  She was like Gretel, but without a Hansel leaving breadcrumbs to lead them home.

  Chapter Twenty

  The little shit had completely tricked him. Xavier was torn between fury and laughter. On the one hand, she’d really pissed him off by vandalizing his Harley, but on the other hand, pretending to go out the bathroom window had been a slick move. He was proud of her. Exasperated as all hell, but proud.

  She’d been on foot and he figured he could easily catch her, but then what? She’d fight like a wildcat, in which case he could either knock her out and sling her over his shoulder—not a good thing on a public street—or he could not knock her out and throw a fighting, screaming Lizzy over his shoulder, also not a good thing. Cops would be all over him within five minutes. Okay, ten, considering the part of town they were in. Either way, he was now on foot and had no way of transporting her anywhere.

  His best option was to just let her go; it wasn’t as if he couldn’t catch up to her later, as long as she didn’t figure out there had to be a tracker on her somewhere, and ditch everything she had with her, including her clothes. The Lizzy he knew wouldn’t hesitate to do exactly that. The fact that she was still partially Lizette threw in an unknown factor, making it harder to predict what she would or wouldn’t do.

  He had to deal with his motorcycle, too, get the spark plug wires replaced. The motorcycle was still the best way for him to travel anonymously.

  He also needed to come up with a plan, move some people into place. If Felice thought he wouldn’t hit back, she was bat-shit crazy. No way would he let this go unanswered.

  It went without saying he’d be burning his bridges in this country. Taking out a high-ranking employee of the NSA would bring down all kinds of shit on his head, especially if Al had gone along with Felice in the assassination attempts. He’d thought about it some more and even though Al would have used different people and different methods, that didn’t mean he hadn’t agreed to let Felice handle it. Xavier couldn’t assume Felice was acting on her own authority.

  If she could use the NSA’s resources to track both himself and Lizzy, they were probably as good as dead. The average citizen had no idea of the extent to which their own government spied on them. But if she did use the NSA, that was an official link between them that might bring up questions. She could resort to that later, but for now Xavier bet that she would still be using her outside sources. As she lost each battle, she’d escalate to the next step.

  That wasn’t Xavier’s way. One step at a time was stupid. If it were him, he’d go straight for the big guns, annihilate the threat, and move on. Why waste time dicking around?

  But getting to her wouldn’t be easy. She’d take precautions now, after her first attempt had failed. He might have to take out Al at the same time, something that would be infinitely more difficult. And he had to deal with Lizzy.

  Tactically, he should remove the threat first, then go after Lizzy. That was what Felice and Al would both expect him to do, to follow training and deal with the immediate threat. But even though he’d been protecting Lizzy all these years, none of them knew that he and Lizzy had been lovers during most of the training and operation phase. Al thought it bothered Xavier because a woman had been killed during the action, and afterward he had become more protective, angrily rejecting the need for the memory wipe that they’d performed anyway. When he and Lizzy had been together, they’d gone to great lengths to keep their relationship private; hookups and affairs did happen between operatives, but because of the extremely sensitive nature of the mission, they’d both thought their connection should be kept on the down-low.

  That was then. This was now. When it came to Lizzy, to hell with tactics. She was on the run, she was scared, and Felice would still be searching for her. Xavier wanted to get to her first. Even if she didn’t remember him, even if she was now running from him as much as she was from Felice, he could calm her down and get her to a safe place, convince her that he’d never hurt her. He wanted to know how much she remembered, how much of Lizzy had surfaced. The essence of Lizzy was back; that she had even partial recall was more than he’d ever hoped.

  He placed a call, knowing his chops were going to get busted, big time. “I need a tow for the Harley.” He gave his location, and waited for the fun to begin.

  There was a pause. “You have an accident?”

  He could just say it