Night Watch (Kendra Michaels #4)(117)

Silence. “I’ll meet you.” He hung up.

Charles tilted his head as he glanced at her from the driver’s seat. “You’re nothing if not a whirlwind, Kendra. You’re certain all this will come together?”

“No,” she said bluntly. “But it has a chance. And if it does come together, it will be better than your wandering around blindly and letting Griffin find you.” She glanced at him. “That’s the first time you’ve questioned me since I got in the car. Doubts?”

“Yes, and I wouldn’t be blindly wandering. I just don’t have a plan in mind yet. However, I’m perfectly willing to put myself in your hands.” He smiled. “Because even if it doesn’t work out, I’ll enjoy watching you one more time before I have to break out on my own again.”

“I’m glad I have entertainment value.” She picked up her phone again. “Now I have another call to make, and I only hope that I can be persuasive instead of entertaining.” She was punching in the number. “Anyone will tell you that’s not usually my area of expertise.”


Montgomery Field

Lynch was standing in front of the hangar at the deserted airport when their car drew up before it. His hands were jammed into the pockets of his black leather jacket, and his expression was harder than Kendra had ever seen it. He gave a cool glance at Waldridge as they got out of the car. “I thought you might be mixed up in this.” He turned back to Kendra. “I’m here. That’s all I promised.”

“Giancarlo?”

“He’s ordered that his Cessna be fueled up and put at my disposal.” He paused. “I told him I’d let him know later if I’d actually be using it. I don’t like taking orders, Kendra.”

“It wasn’t an order. It was a request. I just didn’t have time to make it a polite one.”

“And any request should have come from me.” Waldridge stepped forward. “I can understand how you wouldn’t want to be involved, Lynch. You’ve done more than enough for me. Forget this. I’ll handle it on my own.”

“You will not,” Kendra said impatiently. “It would be too easy to get screwed up. And I don’t intend to let that happen. I want to get back to my kids and not have to worry about you.”

“Your kids?” Lynch’s expression changed the slightest bit. “What do they have to do with anything?”

“They obviously don’t. Because I’ve had to put their therapy on hold since all this began. And now Charles is becoming all noble again, and it will probably end up having Jessie slicing me open and putting another disk in me.”

“That won’t happen,” Lynch said grimly. “Never.”

“Never,” Waldridge repeated. “It’s time you stepped away, Kendra.”

“Not until I’m certain that this is going to work out.” She was seething with frustration as she turned to him. “Listen to me. Can’t you see? Lynch is perfect.”

“At last I agree with something you’re saying,” Lynch said.

“Be quiet. I can only deal with one thing at a time.” She locked eyes with Waldridge. “Look at him. You saw what Lynch did at that ridge. He’s a damn rock star. Neither of us have probably ever seen anyone as good as Lynch at what he does.”

“Are you saying I need a bodyguard?”

“Probably. But that’s not what he does. I don’t know exactly what he does myself. I know he fixes things. They send for him when everything goes to hell. When a government is crashing. When a cartel needs to be taken down. When someone needs to be found who people don’t want to be found. I don’t know what else. I don’t know if I want to know. But he fixes things.” She punched her index finger on his chest. “And you need to be fixed.”

He blinked. “Indeed? Not only is that humiliating to me, but there appears to be a problem with the rock star accepting the gig.”

Yes, there did, and she was probably doing this all wrong. But she was tired and worried, and her arm was beginning to throb. She whirled on Lynch. “Look, I know I’m asking a lot of you, but Charles is going to go off on his own and set up a lab to finish the Night Watch Project. He got scared off by some of the potential players whom Griffin’s boss brought into the debriefing yesterday. He thinks that he could be drawn into the same nightmare he went through with Dyle. He’s not going to allow it. He believes he has to go on the run.”

Lynch’s face was totally without expression. “Do you think he could be right?”

“Yes, Charles has been through it all before. He knows the signs.”

“And what do you want me to do?”

“He needs a place that’s totally safe, where he’s protected, where no one will ask questions.”

He smiled crookedly. “What? In this world? You’re dreaming, Kendra.”

“I don’t think so. You have so many enemies, Lynch. You built that gorgeous house here that has every security device known to man and could repel a small army. You did that because you wanted to be able to relax within those walls.” She paused. “But you’re not a man who takes anything for granted. You’d prepare for the day when you might have to leave that house and go on the run yourself. You’d have a place set up for yourself that’s everything I described.”