Love Was Not an Option

Chapter 2-1

Chapter 2

It was Monday evening and two weeks had passed since the disappearance of Alderman Barlow. Nick had followed the story as it went from being in the headlines until it faded to a small item on the third page of the newspaper—and to nothing on television as other grim news took precedence. Online, conspiracy theorists had been having a field day. None of them even came close to what had actually happened to Barlow.

“They never will, if we have our way,” Nick had murmured after reading one of their more outlandish ideas.

Nick was at home, going through his email, deleting what felt like a hundred spam mails before dealing with the rest, when a new one popped up. It was heavily encrypted, as most of them were that came from people he was involved with as Niko. Except Kasper, who insists on contacting me at work. It was a habit he knew he would never be able to convince Kasper to break.

Nick read the message then sent a reply, telling Darwin he’d be there in an hour. After emailing Brenda at work to let her know that he might be a bit late the following morning, he fixed something to eat, changed into a black turtleneck and jeans, and took off.

“What do we have?” Niko asked as soon as Darwin greeted him.

“Trouble,” Darwin replied succinctly, handing Niko a photo with an address written at the bottom. “He was in the wrong place at the wrong time and saw something he shouldn’t have. I sent one of my guys to have a talk with him.” Darwin made finger quotes around ‘talk.’

“I take it he didn’t listen?”

“Oh, he did, and Mr. James said he believed what my man told him. However, my man didn’t reinforce it the way you can. Mr. James has threatened to go public with the information if we don’t pay him off.”

Niko shook his head. “When will people learn that blackmail doesn’t work with us?”

“In this case, never, it seems. So take care of him.”

“Consider it done.”

Niko went directly from Darwin’s house to where Mr. James lived in a small home in a middle-class suburb. He walked around the house, checking to see if there was anyone inside. There was only one occupant, in a back room. Male, from what he saw through the window. It took him no time at all to get inside.

When Niko strolled into what turned out to be a home-office, Mr. James swung around from his laptop, gasping in fright.

“Who are you and how did you get in here?”

“A friend sent me to have a talk with you,” Niko replied. “I suspect you know who.”

Mr. James swallowed hard. “You don’t scare me. If anything happens to me…”

“A letter will go to your lawyer, or a good friend, or some such? How clichéd.”

“It will,” Mr. James replied defiantly. He stared at Niko’s chest rather than his face as he talked to him, as if afraid of what he’d see there. “All I want is enough to move somewhere safe. I told that to the other man your boss sent.”

Niko smiled dryly. “You should have listened to what he had to say. Or more to the point, you shouldn’t have lied to him and then tried a bit of blackmail afterward. Now you have to deal with me.”

“You’ll try to convince me forget what I saw? It’s too late.”

“Ah, yes. The letter or whatever it is. An email, maybe?” Niko walked to the computer, shoving Mr. James’s rolling chair to get him out of the way. With a few swift keystrokes, he brought up the man’s email account.

“How did you do that?” Mr. James asked, even as Niko deleted everything. “It’s password protected.”

“Was,” Niko replied. “Passwords are so easy to find if you know what you’re doing.” He shut the cover on the laptop, unplugged the peripherals, and put it under one arm. Then he wrapped his hand around Mr. James bicep. “We’re going to pay my boss a visit, at which point you’ll promise him you’ll keep quiet, and mean it.”

“No. Please. I don’t want to face him. Let me go. I’ll pack up and leave tonight. You’ll never see or hear from me again.” He stared at Niko, terror in his gaze.

“I wish I could believe you.” Niko smiled at Mr. James. “But I don’t.”

Twenty minutes later, Niko was back at Darwin’s house.

“All taken care of. He won’t be bothering you again.” He set Mr. James laptop down on the coffee table, booted it up, and then downloaded a program that would wipe the hard drive, after deleting everything the man had saved in his cloud program. He was able to do that because Mr. James had, under duress, told him how to access it.

“Is there anything else you need from me?” Niko asked when he was finished.

“Thankfully, not at the moment, although that could change at any time, as you well know.”

“No kidding. Okay, call, well email, if something does come up.”

“Of course.”

They shook hands and Niko left.