“Hey Mister Groglio,” Nicholas said as one of the neighbors stepped out into the hallway. Heavyset, with a thick head of hair and big circles under his eyes. He smiled at Nicholas before looking at Cassidy.

  “Hey Jeff,” Groglio said. “How’ve you been?”

  “Good,” Cassidy replied. “How about you?”

  Groglio shrugged. “You know me. My sciatic’s been acting up a bit the last few days. I talked to the doctor and they want me to go in for nerve treatment or maybe a full replacement, but I don’t know. I hear that kind of treatment is hit or miss, and it’s not—”

  “Sorry to interrupt,” Cassidy said. “I need to get Nicky back to his mother.”

  “Oh. Yeah, right. Sorry. You know how I can drone on. Good to see you Jeff.”

  “You too. Nicky, let’s go.”

  Cassidy picked up the pace, glancing back at Groglio once before he neared his ex’s apartment. The big man stood in the hallway, seemingly doing nothing. He tried to sneak a look at Cassidy, then dropped his head when he was caught.

  The whole thing was strange and getting stranger by the second. It wasn’t the way Cassidy expected the evening to go.

  The door to Mirana’s apartment was closed. While it needed a coat of paint, there was no evidence of forced entry around the frame or any indication anything untoward had happened. It was a good sign, but didn’t mean things were totally safe. At the same time, he didn’t like the way Groglio was watching him. It seemed the neighbor knew something was off about the Hall family at the moment. Maybe he was nosy and trying to figure it out for himself. Maybe it was something more.

  Cassidy tapped on the panel next to the door. He heard the chime inside and then footsteps rushing toward the door a moment later. It didn’t concern him. No doubt Mirana had checked the door cam, seen Nicholas and had come running.

  Even so, he closed his fist, ready for the person on the other side of the door to not be Hall’s ex-wife.

  He didn’t need to be concerned. Mirana threw the door open, ignoring him to glare at her son. “Nicky, where the hell have you been?” she shouted. “I’ve been calling all of your friends and sitting here thinking someone had kidnapped or killed you.”

  “Rana,” Cassidy said, softly the first time. He didn’t know if he found her attractive because of siphoning or through his own lens on beauty, but he was surprised Hall had managed to land a woman clearly out of his league. She had long, wavy brown hair and big blue eyes set in a small face with a flawless olive complexion, Her trim figure was wrapped in a yellow and blue floral-patterned dress. And she smelled like fresh cut roses.

  “I thought you were in trouble,” she continued, kneeling in front of Nicholas. “People came to the door while you were missing, asking about you. I thought you got hurt or broke the law or who knows what.”

  “I’m fine, Mom,” Nicholas said. “I was waiting for Dad, that’s all.”

  “Rana,” Cassidy said again, putting his hand on her shoulder.

  “Don’t touch me,” she snapped, shoving herself away from him, getting to her feet and whirling around. “You put him up to this?”

  “Rana, I need to know about the people who came around, asking about Nicky.”

  Her eyes spewed fire. “You let me worry about our son all day, and the only thing you care about is the people that were looking for him? They wouldn’t have needed to stop by if you had…” She trailed off, her mind catching up to her fury. The wave of anger broke on its own, her lip beginning to quiver. “Jeff, what’s going on?”

  “Let’s go inside,” Cassidy said.

  Chapter 12

  Mirana led Cassidy and Nicholas into the apartment she shared with Nicky. It was a little bigger than his, with a full bedroom and completely enclosed bathroom in addition to the living area. Unlike Hall’s place, there were holographs on some of the countertops, most of them of Mirana and Nicholas. A couple of them included a man he didn’t recognize. Probably a new boyfriend.

  “Nicky, can you give your father and me a little privacy?” Mirana asked.

  Nicholas shrugged. “Okay.” He went into the bedroom. Cassidy heard a holovid playing a moment later.

  “Tell me about the people who came looking for Nicholas,” Cassidy said.

  “I can do better than that.” Mirana plucked her ClearPhone from her pocket and tapped on it, a small holovid projecting in the air between them.

  It showed a bird’s eye view of the apartment’s doorway. A man and woman stood in it, both dressed in neatly pressed suits and long raincoats. Cassidy didn’t recognize either of them, but their matching clothes were a dead giveaway. “Police wear uniforms,” he said. “Beat Detectives don’t worry about matching outfits. They’re from the Bureau.”

  “The Bureau? As in, your Bureau? UDF Special Investigations?”

  “Maybe not SI, but they’re definitely UDF. What did they ask you?”

  “It’s here in the holo,” Mirana said.

  “We don’t have time,” Cassidy replied, looking her in the eye. “They wanted to talk to Nicholas?”

  “Yes. They said they wanted to ask him questions about some kids in the unit who were caught selling Prime. I told them there was no way Nicky was involved, but they insisted he might know something about it even if he wasn’t part of it. And I know you said Prime is bad stuff and the UDF is having trouble getting it under control so I didn’t see the harm in letting them ask him a couple of questions right in front of me. Only he wasn’t here. He had been missing all morning. I went up to your apartment to look for him but neither of you were there.”

  “He was hiding out in a roto,” Cassidy said. “And you should be glad he was. He saved both your lives.”

  Mirana’s face paled. “What? You just said they’re from the Bureau.”

  “They are. There’s something going on there. I haven’t figured out what. I need you to pack your things and take Nicholas somewhere safe. Anywhere, really, as long as it’s somewhere you’ve never gone before. Hopefully, they don’t want to find you badly enough to look for you.”

  Mirana shook her head. “Jeff, I...What is this about? The Bureau isn’t supposed to go after innocent people. And it isn’t supposed to go after its own.”

  “No, it isn’t. But loose ends.”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It doesn’t matter. All I know is that I’ve been suspicious of a problem for a while now, and the things that’ve happened today have made me more suspicious than ever.” He pointed at the holo. “That proves you aren’t safe here, Rana. Neither of you. I know we had our differences, but that doesn’t mean I want you dead. And I want Nicky safe.”

  Mirana nodded. Then froze. Her expression hardened again. “Why was Nicholas waiting for you?”

  “What do you mean?”

  “He doesn’t usually run off and hide in a roto all day to wait for his father. That’s not normal child behavior. Did you put him up to it?”

  Cassidy almost laughed. Mirana was quick on the take. No wonder Hall couldn’t keep her happy.

  “Jeff…” She kept talking before he could respond. “Are you kidding me? You knew this would happen, didn’t you?”

  “I…” He put up his hands in self-defense, but yet again she got the jump on him.

  “You asshole!” She planted her hands on her hips and put her angry face in his space. “You put our son in danger! You put me in danger! Are you out of your mind?”

  “Rana, wait.”

  “Screw you. You used our son as part of this? Whatever this is.”

  “That should tell you how important it is,” Cassidy hissed, his tone of voice betraying Hall’s typical demeanor. It caught Mirana off-guard, and she flinched away from him. “I knew if they didn’t find him you would both be safe enough. This is bigger than you and Nicky. A lot bigger. I need to figure out where this goes. I don’t give a shit if you’re pissed at me. I don’t even care if Nicky ends up hating me for this. Right now, I need you to pack your stuff and get him out of here.”

  Mirana stared at him, anger and fear combined. Then she broke again as she started toward the bedroom. “Jeff, this is crazy.”

  “I know,” Cassidy replied. “Hurry.”

  She vanished into the bedroom. He went over to the round window at the end of the apartment and looked out. The unit below jutted out a few feet past Mirana’s, blocking direct line of sight to the ground. He scanned the area he could see, searching for clues that agents were loitering nearby. They were down there. He was sure of it. Too late to keep Nicholas from passing on the message and leaving him curious, but not too late to remove them from the overall equation and tie up the loose ends.

  Nevis had seen Hall’s memory of the interaction. She had gone ahead with the transfer anyway. Regardless of the complication, they needed him on the mission to take Garrett down and they didn’t have time to get him another repo.

  No, they needed him shadowing Hall. In spite of what he knew?

  Or because of it?

  There wasn’t time to figure all of that out right now. He had to get Hall’s ex and kid out of danger. Then he could worry about the unexpected complexity.

  “Mirana, let’s go!” he shouted, glancing up as a trio of rotos broke out of the traffic lane, angling toward the rooftop. They were rusted shitbuckets, the kind of garbage gangbangers liked to fly. He didn’t need a crystal ball to know the Bureau had paid the assholes to keep them grounded. He could still risk leading them to the rooftop and his roto, but the people coming in behind them were a bigger concern.

  He’d rather deal with them head-on.

  Mirana hurried out of the bedroom, Nicholas on her heels. She had a single small bag slung over her shoulder. It was all she had time to take.

  “Nicky, whatever happens, I need you to stay between me and your mother,” Cassidy said, kneeling in front of the kid. “Do you understand?”

  “I’m scared,” Nicholas replied.

  “It’s okay to be scared, as long as you stay between us. I promise I won’t let anyone hurt you.”

  The boy nodded. “Okay. I love you, Dad.”

  “I love you too,” Cassidy replied, the words sour in his mouth. What the hell was the Bureau thinking? It was a dumb, rhetorical question.

  He straightened up and moved to the door, pulling his needlegun as he reached it.

  “Jeff, are you saying your own department is trying to kill us?”

  “Not us,” Cassidy said, leaning closer to her face and lowering his voice. “You and Nicky. They’ll do their best not to hurt me.”

  “Loose ends?” she ventured.

  “Yeah. Of the worst kind. Are you ready?”

  She nodded. He could see the fear in her eyes. He could sense Hall’s love for her siphoning through. Hall probably would have kissed her, but this wasn’t a damned holovid. Instead, he grabbed the door handle and pulled it open, leading with the needlegun.

  He nearly took a bullet in the chest as Mister Groglio fired a single round that smacked the plaster just behind him. The large man seemed surprised to see Cassidy come out first and embarrassed he had nearly shot him.

  “Bang! You’re dead, idiot,” Cassidy said as Groglio lowered his gun. He didn’t want to kill the man. He was clearly one of the Bureau’s many undercover agents, assigned to keep tabs on Hall and his family. Because Nevis knew something was up with Hall. And Hall suspected she knew.

  And now Cassidy was stuck in the worst spot imaginable.

  The middle.

  Did Garrett have anything at all to do with this?

  Chapter 13

  “Shit, Hall,” Groglio said, standing in the doorway to his apartment as Cassidy approached him. “I’m just doing my job. I didn’t—”

  Cassidy threw a hard right hook into the side of Groglio’s head, catching him in the temple and knocking him to the ground. He followed it up with a kick that sent the fat man tumbling into his apartment. If he had more than a few seconds, he would have stopped to ask the agent if he had any clue what had precipitated all this.

  Instead, he continued down the corridor. It was clear but he heard the faint tone of the elevator arriving on the floor at the opposite side of the building. Before reaching the next corner he put his arm out behind him and brought Hall’s ex and kid to a stop. Motioning them to stay there, he looked around the corner, then back at Mirana. “Follow me, but don’t come more than halfway down the corridor until I signal.”

  He waited just long enough to see her nod before sprinting down the corridor, racing after the agents who had no doubt unloaded onto the floor just around the next corner. He would be outnumbered. Again. Just like he had been at the Hell Motel, but this time he was a lot older, a lot taller and had a lot more testosterone pumping through his system.

  There were three of them. They came around the corner, guns drawn but otherwise unprepared for his proximity. He threw his shoulder into the first agent, smashing him against the wall and knocking the wind out of him. Pivoting as the man sank to his knees, Cassidy yanked the next guy’s arm down just as he raised his gun to take a shot at Mirana. He pulled him forward, making him stumble. He brought a knee up hard into the stumbling man’s face, breaking his nose. The man cried out and moved away, hands covering his bloody face,

  The first agent staggered back to his feet. Cassidy blocked his sloppy punch with his forearm and then delivered a hard right to his gut. Losing his breath again, the man doubled over and fell to a knee, the wall keeping him from going all the way down. Cassidy didn’t have time to finish him off. He rounded on the third agent just in time to deliver a kick to his gun hand, disrupting the agent’s bead on Nicholas. The round he got off buried itself in the ceiling as Cassidy smashed him in the head with the butt of his needlegun, dropping him where he stood.

  Cassidy threw himself backward into the first agent as he again got to his feet, this time sending him stumbling into the opposite wall. Turning, he rushed the man, jerking the gun from his grip.“I suggest you surrender,” he said, pointing the business end of his needlegun at the man’s chest.

  The agent immediately slid down the wall to sit there, his hands up, palms out. “Look, it’s nothing personal. Business is business. Right?”

  “Just stay down.” Without taking his eyes off the agent, he tossed the man’s gun as far down the hall as he had the ability to throw it. Then he waved Mirana and Nicholas forward. “If you try to get up, you die,” he said, pinning the agent with a hard look. “See you when I see you.”

  The agent’s lack of reaction to the statement told Cassidy that even if the man was SI, he wasn’t part of the Underworld. He didn’t know Hall wasn’t Hall. He probably didn’t know that what Hall had become was even possible.

  He guided Mirana and Nicholas away from the elevator as it arrived at the ground floor. He didn’t know if more agents would be on it, and they didn’t have time to wait and see. He led them to the door to the stairs, holding them back as he entered the landing, again leading with the needlegun.

  The stairwell was filled with noise. The random gang members who had landed on the rooftop were coming down, while another pair of agents were moving up. Taking a moment to listen, Cassidy could tell the goons were closer. The elevator would be rising again any moment now, likely carrying more agents to their position.

  “We’re going down,” he decided out loud. “Nicky, stay between me and your mom.”

  They started to descend, staying ahead of the gang members as they dropped floors. Cassidy considered exiting on one of the levels and trying the elevator again, but what were the odds the agents would just stay in the cab to greet them when it opened? They didn’t need to fight him. All they had to do was get shots off on Mirana and Nicholas. They would blame the whole thing on the gang coming down the steps and then send in a crew to clean up the mess and any other loose ends.

  Even if that happened, Nevis had to know Cassidy would stay on mission. Forty-nine transfers. So close to finishing his contract. There was no way he would give all of that up over these two. Especially when they would wipe this part of his memory anyway.

  Whatever awful things he did, the Bureau would always help him forget.

  He wasn’t at that point yet. He would do his best to get them to safety. He owed it to Hall to try.

  Cassidy reached the nineteenth floor, slowing to a near stop to again listen. He could still hear the footsteps above, further behind than before. There was no sound from below. Cassidy smiled. In some ways, dealing with UDF agents was easier than handling gangs. After all, he and the agents had similar training. He knew what they would try to do in a given scenario. Even if they didn’t follow it completely by-the-book, it gave him a starting point to work against.

  With that in mind he holstered his needlegun and quickened his descent, going hard down the stairs and coming around the corner wildly, putting a little space between himself and his charges behind him. When he reached line of sight with the landing where the agents waited, they fired wildly at him. Tranquilizer rounds zipped past or hit his issued raincoat, bouncing harmlessly off.

  He was on them in an instant, leaping from his landing to theirs and taking both of them down in a heap. Cassidy recovered first, springing back to his feet and rounding on the first agent. She got her hands up in time to block his first kick but the effort pushed her too far back, and she slipped down a step, needing time to regain her balance. Cassidy turned as the second agent tried to grab his leg, pushing the arm away with the outside of his knee. Maintaining his momentum, he brought his other foot up, cracking him hard in the face.

  The first agent brought her pistol up, firing another tranq at him at close range. The round hit his pants, the plastic outer shell of the slug stopped by the unexpectedly resistant material.

  Hall had planned ahead.

  Cassidy pounced on the woman, knocking the gun from her hand, both of them tumbling down the steps. They hit the wall together, the agent cracking her head hard enough to knock herself out, while Cassidy landed on his butt and slid, taking the brunt of the force against his back. He gritted his teeth in pain, looking up at the other agent, who pulled a standard handgun from a secreted holster, ready to fire when Mirana and Nicholas rounded the turn.