“My uncle is not dead,” repeated Lauren. “In fact, you’ve met him.”
“Who is it?” I demanded.
“Do you remember Ben? The guy who owns the bookstore that we hid out in?”
“You told me Ben didn’t know anything about BRS!”
“I also told you that he was my half-uncle on my mother’s side,” Lauren reminded me. “I lied. He’s been hiding out in that bookstore under an alias since before I was born. My aunt thinks he’s dead. I guess now we know why.”
“Hang on,” interrupted Wes. “Are you saying that Flynn sent her own husband to his death just to have a crime to pin on Natasha?”
“It would seem so,” said Lauren.
“I can’t believe Harrison decided to stay so close to Waverly,” I said. “What made him so sure that Flynn or one of the other Raptors wouldn’t find out about him?”
“I asked him the same thing,” said Lauren. “He told me hiding in plain sight was always the best way to go. And he wanted to keep an eye on me to make sure I was safe.”
I took a deep breath. “Lauren, how long has it been since you’ve had a normal family reunion?”
“I could ask you the same thing, Nicole.”
Henry cleared his throat. “All right, let’s get back on track here, ladies. Olivia, can we assume that Natasha wanted something from Flynn in return for the charter?”
“Yeah, she told Flynn that she could do whatever she wanted with her as long as the three of you were safe from the Raptors,” explained Olivia.
I sighed. I had been wrong. Natasha hadn’t abandoned us. She had compromised her own well-being in order to protect us.
“That’s not all though,” said Lauren. “Natasha promised to manipulate Nicole into giving up her attempts to expose the Raptors.”
My eyelids drifted shut. “Of course she did.”
Wes took my hand in his. “I’m sure she only did it to get Flynn to back off,” he said. He looked across at Henry. “What now?”
“We track down this Harrison Flynn,” replied Henry, rubbing his forehead as if he had a migraine. “Without the charter, it’s the only lead we have. If we can prove to Natasha that Harrison is still alive, then Flynn will no longer have a hold over her. Natasha knows more than anyone else about Flynn’s murders. We could’ve bagged the Raptors years ago if Natasha had been willing to share her side of the story. What’s the address of this bookstore, Lauren?”
“Nicole already knows where it is, but I’m afraid convincing my uncle to come forward won’t be as easy as it sounds,” said Lauren.
“Why not?”
“Because he’s terrified of my aunt,” she replied. “It’s the reason he went into hiding. After all, she fully expected Natasha to kill him.”
“I don’t see another way out of this,” said Henry. “Olivia, can you stall Flynn from making any decisions regarding my wife? We’ll need a couple hours to get back over to your side of town and to find this Harrison fellow.”
“I’ll do my best, sir,” came Olivia’s reply.
“Great. We’ll keep you posted on our progress,” said Henry. “Let us know if you need anything.”
“Will do.”
Henry hung up the phone and looked at Wes and me.
“Take two,” he said.
Since Natasha had taken the red pickup truck back to Waverly, Henry asked one of his neighbors closer to the center of town if we could borrow a car. We ended up in a two-door rusty bucket of a vehicle with a groan under the hood, questionably placed snowchains on its tires, and a nonexistent backseat. Henry drove as I navigated, and Wes rode behind us with his knees tucked into his chest. As the car bounced into the parking lot of a bookstore near the Waverly campus called Floorboard Lit, I braced myself. The suspension wasn’t fantastic either.
“Is this it?” asked Henry, peering at the small shop through the window of our borrowed clunker. He steered the car into the nearest parking spot.
“Yup,” I said. I plucked the door lock up. The car was so old that it still had manual locks and cranks to roll the windows up down. It was a miracle the damn thing still ran.
“Hold on.” Wes reached forward to push my hand away from the door handle. “Is it wise for you to go in, Nicole? What if there’s a stray Raptor inside?”
“Out of the three of us, I’m the only one that Harrison has actually met before,” I pointed out. “And he knows that Lauren and I are in this together. If anyone is going to convince him to come with us to Waverly, it’s going to be me.”
“I sure as hell hope he’s got a vehicle we can borrow because all four of us ain’t going to fit in this one,” grumbled Henry. As if in protest, the car exhaled a puff of black exhaust.
I shoved open the stubborn passenger side door and stepped out, rolling my shoulders and stretching out both sides of my neck. It hadn’t been a comfortable journey. I leaned down to look at Henry through the window.
“Keep it running,” I said. “Just in case.”
“From your lips to God’s ears.”
The sun was already high in the sky, beaming down on me. I shrugged off my heavy outer coat as I walked up the porch steps and into Floorboard Lit. Like the last time I had been here, the scent of freshly brewed coffee and baked pastries wafted out from the cafe area of the renovated house. The cozy store would’ve been a perfect place to study, and I wished I had found it before the Raptors had ruined my chances at obtaining my master’s degree.
With a sigh, I wandered past the shelves of books and into the cafe. Harrison, or Ben as he was called nowadays, bustled about behind the counter, tending to a respectable line of waiting patrons with the help of an assistant barista. I watched from the rear of the queue, trying to marry the image I’d had in my head
