The Collected

CHAPTER 16

If there was one lesson Douglas Burke had taken to heart when he first started working ops, it was always be aware of your surroundings.

He knew he wasn’t a great shooter, or strategist, or even spy. He was adequate, which was okay. For the two years he’d been in the business, his satisfactory skills had kept him employed enough to live a nice life when he was home in Tucson. Hell, he’d been able to buy a decent townhouse, had a cool car, and was even able to score a hot girlfriend.

But he knew, given his shortcomings, if he wanted to survive, he needed to stay alert.

He hadn’t lied to Ellie. He had fully intended on returning from the grocery store. Since they were planning to drive all the way to Los Angeles for their flight to Sydney, he wanted to pick up some snacks for the road. A ten-minute drive to the store, fifteen inside, ten minutes back.

The detour in his plans happened as he drove through his townhome complex to his assigned parking spot. His route took him on the road that passed his place. It was just before he drove by that he saw the woman. Short and thin and brunette. If she’d been taller and had a bigger chest, she might have been his type, but that’s not why he noticed her. She was walking by his place and glancing up at it.

On a normal day between jobs, it probably wouldn’t have registered as anything unusual. But this wasn’t a normal day. The events in Mexico were still fresh in his mind, and though he didn’t have a complete picture of what had gone down, he knew enough to be worried that it could turn into a problem for him.

Hence the trip to Australia. Out of sight, out of mind.

Instead of parking in his regular spot, he found one near the community pool, and snuck back on foot. Across the street from his place were two adjacent townhomes that were currently unoccupied. He hopped over the fence into the patio area of one, picked the lock, and went inside.

Each of the townhomes had rooftop decks, one of the amenities that had helped him decide to buy here. He made his way through the empty townhouse and up onto the deck. Staying low, he moved to the front edge, then lay down and looked out at the street.

His place looked unchanged. Ellie had left the curtains closed like he’d told her to, which wasn’t surprising. He’d scared her into thinking that a psycho ex-girlfriend of his was back in town and trying to find him. He had laced the tale with stories of trashed apartments and disabled cars and public rants. He knew Ellie would want no part of that.

He scanned the street, but there was no sign of the woman he’d seen.

Maybe he’d just overreacted. Just because she’d looked at his place didn’t mean she was trouble. Ten minutes passed with still no sign of her.

Okay, I was overreacting, he thought, relieved.

He pushed himself back to his feet, intending to head downstairs, but as he was turning to leave, he caught sight of someone standing near the end of the pathway that weaved through the homes about a quarter block from his place. From his position, he could only see a hand and partial profile, but it was enough to make him suspicious.

Carefully, he worked his way down the row of townhomes until he reached the one on the corner above the unknown person. Lying down again, he inched out until he could look straight down.

His stomach clenched.

It was the woman.

He watched her for a minute, then pulled back, suddenly afraid she would sense his gaze and look up. There was no question why she was there. The entire time he’d observed her, her eyes had been trained on his place.

As far as he was concerned, there were only two people who could have sent her to look for him: Pullman, who’d want to know what the hell had gone wrong; or the man who’d called himself Mr. Blair. Of the two, it was Blair he worried about most.

Though he’d done exactly what the man had asked-delivering the information about the cleaner’s plan-Burke now thought that Blair had only been playing him, and hadn’t actually intended for Burke to get away. Ironically, it was Quinn who had preserved his freedom, by buying time and ordering Burke to take off.

I’m a loose end.

Burke looked in the direction of his place. “Sorry, Ellie,” he whispered. “Gonna have to take this trip alone.”

Four minutes later, he was back in his car, heading for the freeway.