Total pages in book: 54
Estimated words: 51825 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 51825 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 259(@200wpm)___ 207(@250wpm)___ 173(@300wpm)
“How safe is your apartment?”
“I’m a Love should say it all, but I’m also a Love whose mother was murdered and whose father is corrupt. It’s Fort fucking Knox.”
“We’re talking professional assassin here, Andrew.”
“I get that. We’re locking down. The place is well stocked. We won’t stop on the way, and we won’t leave until we get the all-clear.”
My lips flatten. “Put that other irritating guy in the car back on.”
“Lilah,” Lucas says. “How’s it going?”
“Like Hallmark’s Christmas in July. Irritating as fuck. What about the cameras on the street?”
“Looped. Every single one that would give us anything helpful.”
“His phone is missing. I didn’t see a computer either.”
“I’ll hack his communications if they’re not scrubbed. This feels like a CIA operation to me.”
Nail. Head. Maybe. “What do you know about CIA operations?”
“I hacked a CIA agent once. Hardest fucking hack of my life. I didn’t get shit for my efforts.”
“David Ellis, the Director of Homeland Security. Check him out for me. And Calvin Adams. He’s the new interim director of the FBI. Casey stepped down. I also need you to look at the past feeds in and around the apartment and see if we can find out who was communicating with and visiting Murphy. I think he was playing both sides of the coin—FBI and Society.”
“Holy shit. That’s why you want us to lock down. You think that one side or the other is wiping out anyone who can talk.”
“I’m being cautious, so the next time one of you fools tries to tell me I’m not, in your face. Another thing—I don’t think he was staying at his apartment. He barely had anything there and the place was sterile.”
“A chick?”
“Logically, yes, but don’t hyper-focus on a woman. Maybe the apartment was a cover for something else, or a way to throw a killer off track that failed.”
“Got it. On it.”
“If the apartment makes you feel like you’ll die by morning, call me.”
I hang up just in time to receive a text message from Rich: We’re at a buddy’s mountain cabin, off-grid but the internet sucks. Tic Tac is freaking out without it, but he’s safe. They’ll have to really want him to come out here, and it’s a booby-trapped playdate.
I breathe out and type: Thank you.
This is for him, not you.
I don’t even want to know how sucked in his face is from all the sour grapes he’s been eating this past year. Calling him was a necessary evil though. It protected Tic Tac. I’m not stupid. Kane will understand. Okay, Kane won’t understand, but as long as I keep him and Rich at a distance, everything will be fine. And, of course, I’ll keep them at a distance. I hate stupid. I’m not going to be stupid enough to let them end up in the same place at the same time.
Ever.
Chapter Twelve
While waiting in hellish traffic, I text the Nashville phone number I found on Murphy’s body to Lucas. Now the question becomes why did Murphy have that card for the diner in his desk and nothing else? What was he telling me? Because that’s what this feels like—as if he left that card for me but I’m not sure where that leads me. It’s just a diner. It could mean nothing, but it’s bothering me. I shoot the card to Lucas and type: Yes, I know this is my strawberry pie joint, but it’s the only thing that was in Murphy’s desk and it feels like a message. It has to mean something.
Their pies are famous, he reminds me, as if I’m so stupid I have to be reminded that the pie spot I frequent is on everyone’s radar. When he adds: It might just mean he loves the pie, I grimace.
Just check out the damn diner and look for a connection to something that matters, and see if you can get the camera feed, is my reply.
Don’t take that tone with me, Lilah.
He’s such a baby, which is why I ignore him. Maybe the diner is a link to my mother. She loved that place too, but I’m not sure how. It’s been too long since her crash. That’s when I realize that I haven’t even talked to Lucas about his father and the fact that Murphy suggested he was about to turn on my father. If that’s true, no one seems to believe Lucas had access to that information or he’d be dead right now. Unless…maybe Murphy thought he did. Maybe he urged me to bring Lucas into the mix in hopes he’d hand over that info?
But that implies that he was on our side, working against my father and the Society.
I’m just not sure I believe that.
It’s a half hour later when we arrive at the apartment and holy hell, there’s three of Kane’s men at my door when I exit. I immediately wave them off. Kit joins me on this side of the door and ignores my glower. A few minutes later I’m on an elevator with him alone when he says, “Murphy was assassinated, Lilah. You have everyone close to you undercover. Kane would kill me for leaving you exposed.”