The Chaos Kind (John Rain #11)(57)

“Pull up next to it,” John said. He was holding the Glock. “Slowly. So I’m next to the driver-side window. And be ready to gun it.”

She rolled forward as he’d asked, giving it almost no gas, her foot poised to mash the pedal if there were any problems.

As they got closer, she could see the driver. An attractive Asian woman. Kanezaki’s sister, John had said. Yuki. And a pretty brunette in the passenger seat. Maya, presumably. Was she holding a stuffed animal? No, it was an actual dog, some kind of terrier. Good God, they weren’t here just to babysit. They were going to be dogsitting, too.

They stopped. Yuki nodded and rolled down her window. John did the same.

“Hey,” John said. “It’s good to see you.” There was a surprising note of warmth in his voice.

Yuki smiled. “Isn’t one of us supposed to say The moon is blue or something like that?”

John laughed. “I think that’s only for people who don’t know each other.”

Delilah was surprised—John hadn’t mentioned that he knew Kanezaki’s sister. And the laugh was a little unlike him, too. Under any circumstances, and especially now, when he’d been so focused.

“You look good,” Yuki said. “The greeting card business must agree with you.”

Delilah recognized the reference to the old Get Smart series. Was this woman flirting with John?

“I’m retired, actually.”

This time, it was Yuki who laughed. “That explains it. I was wondering what you were doing here in the Hampton Inn parking lot at ass-dark thirty picking up one of Tom’s, uh, State Department colleagues.”

“Same thing a soccer mom is doing dropping her off.”

Delilah didn’t know what that meant. Some kind of inside joke. God, they really were flirting. And just a half hour earlier, she’d been worrying about how he was reverting to his old, killing self.

Delilah leaned toward the passenger-side window. “Hello,” she said. “I’m Delilah.”

“Good to meet you,” Yuki said. “Tom said you’d be coming.”

John glanced toward the back of the van. “The kids aren’t here this time? Rina and Rika, right?”

One quick exchange—which Delilah herself had initiated—and she was just the driver again, an afterthought.

Yuki nodded. “You have a good memory. They stay up later these days than when you met them, but not this late. Actually, they’re going to be waking up soon. Luckily I have an understanding husband who’s going to take them to school while I sleep in.”

Delilah wondered whether the husband reference was for her benefit. It irritated her to think she might have unintentionally shown something the woman was responding to.

“Maya?” John said, leaning forward to look past Yuki.

The girl nodded. “Yeah.”

“Tom told me what happened tonight. I’m sorry.”

The girl nodded again. The dog whined and licked her face.

John got out, holding the Glock low alongside his leg, and scanned the area. Then he walked around to the passenger side of the van and opened the door.

“Come on,” he said. “Let’s keep moving.”

The girl came out, holding her dog. John escorted her to the back of the SUV, his head swiveling as they moved. She looked exhausted, her face puffy, no doubt from crying. He closed the door behind her, then went to Yuki’s window.

“You should go,” he said. “Your brother is careful, and I seriously doubt anyone would have followed you—they would have been here already. Still, you might want to take an indirect route home. Go through some residential neighborhoods where there’s no traffic. If it seems like anyone is following you—”

“I can handle myself.”

“Sorry.”

“It’s okay. Tom says you micromanage.”

John did another scan of the lot. Now that they had Maya, he seemed focused again. “He’s probably right,” he said.

Yuki looked past him toward the back seat of the SUV, then back at John. “Take care of her. She’s really . . . She’s having a rough time.”

John nodded. “It was good seeing you.”

“Same.” She glanced at Delilah and added, “It was good meeting you, Delilah. Thanks for helping Tom.”

“Of course,” Delilah said, trying to inject a note of warmth into it. “It was good meeting you, too.”

Yuki rolled up the window and drove off. Delilah watched as the taillights hit the street. “Nice woman,” she said.

John nodded. “Yeah.”

The taillights disappeared. Delilah pulled forward. “Attractive, too.”

He was looking at the sideview. “Yeah,” he said again.

Okay. Either he was being deliberately obtuse, or he was focused, as he needed to be. Or both.

Probably she should drop it. Or at least, bring it up later. After they’d picked up the other two and were done caring for all these strays that had been thrust upon them.





chapter

forty-three





LARISON


After dropping off Manus at the airport, Larison had driven to the Silver Cloud Inn—a hotel overlooking Commencement Bay in Tacoma. Dox had suggested it as a random place to regroup and spend the night. Larison knew the randomness had something to do with it, but figured if it overlooked a body of water, Dox was hoping for a little ambiance, too. The man was so head-over-heels about Livia it almost pained Larison to give him a hard time about it. Not that a little pain was a sufficient impediment, of course.