She half rose from her seat at the booth when he walked into the restaurant, eyebrows raised in a question—or a hundred questions. She started with two of the most obvious. “Is Webb alive? And if he is, what did he have to say?”
He settled across from her and folded his hands on the wooden tabletop. “He’s alive, but he’s in league with the devil.”
Clinging to the edge of the table, she said, “What does that mean?”
“It means Lanier got to him, and I don’t mean in the same way he got to me. Lanier is threatening me. I think he’s rewarding Webb.”
“Webb’s dirty?” She chewed on her bottom lip.
“Yeah, he’s dirty.” Nash brought his clasped hands to his face, digging his knuckles into his forehead. “My guess is that the guy who loves numbers loves them even more when they appear in his bank account.”
Emily whistled. “Does that mean his file on Lanier is already gone?”
“Gone, and he’s going to send me instructions to add code to my file so when I email it back to him, he can destroy it.”
“Can you copy it first? Send it to me?”
“Webb claims that when I send the file back to him, he’ll be able to tell if it’s been duplicated or forwarded.”
“Do you believe him? That could be a complete lie.”
“After the stuff I learned from our IT guy, I don’t doubt it. Do you want to take that chance with Wyatt’s life?”
“What do you think?” She twisted a strand of hair around her finger. “When are you going to do it, or are you? You seemed to think before that we could have our cake and stuff our faces with it—get Wyatt back and prosecute Lanier.”
“I believe that more than ever now.” He downed a glass of lukewarm water on the table, probably leftover from his own breakfast. “Webb knows I’m on leave. I can’t access the Lanier file while I’m on leave. He’s going to pass that information along to Lanier, which buys us time, buys Wyatt time.”
She dug her elbows into the table and balanced her chin on her palms. “While Webb and Lanier are waiting for you to get back to work and implant the code to facilitate the destruction of that file, we’ll be on our way to Phoenix and Wyatt.”
“You—” he tucked her hair behind her ear “—are right.”
She spun her phone on the table to face him, and he glanced down at the GPS app that she must’ve been staring at for the past hour. “Then what are we waiting for?”
“Nightfall, for one. We’re not going to charge into some Lanier property in Phoenix to rescue Wyatt in broad daylight.”
“We can drive to Phoenix, though. I can’t sit around Paradiso knowing Wyatt is with that woman and some guard.” She scooped her hands into her hair and grabbed it by the roots. “I’ll go crazy.”
“With your hair like that, you look a little off balance.” He smoothed his hand over her red head. “First, we’re going to kill some time by going out to the border and retrieving your rental car.”
“I always meant to ask you how you knew I was driving a rental.”
He twisted his lips. “C’mon. I ran your plates. You must’ve taken that into consideration, as the car was rented to Emily O’Brien, not Lang.”
“When I rented that car, I didn’t even know of your existence. I was creating my identity.”
“It wasn’t that long ago we met, was it?” He didn’t wait for her answer. He didn’t want to discuss their relationship right now. “Next, we’re going to check you out of that motel.”
“Which I barely occupied.”
“And we’re going to pack a bag of gadgets and disguises and weapons.”
She formed her fingers into a pistol and aimed it at him. “Let’s not forget the weapons.”
They spent the afternoon doing just what Nash planned. When they finally made it out to the border to get Emily’s car, they found a smashed windshield.
Emily wedged her hands on her hips as she surveyed the damage. “Gustavo and Danny must’ve been really upset when they found this car.”
“At least Lanier’s paying for it, right? What better way to use dirty money than to pay for dirty deeds.”
Once they dropped the car off at the rental company, they started packing. The Border Patrol had confiscated Nash’s service revolver, but he had his personal stash and he was bringing most of it.
Emily surveyed his weapons duffel bag with an appreciative spark in her green eyes. “Nice collection. You have only two hands, though. Are you gonna share?”
“I’ve never dated a woman yet who wanted to share—weapons or anything else.” He zipped up the bag, closing it to her acquisitive gaze. “But I can be persuaded.”
“That’s good because I can be persuasive.”
“I’m aware of that.” He spread his hands to encompass their gear on the floor. “Do you think I’d be doing this otherwise?”
“It has to be this way, Nash. You saw Lanier’s warning—no police. And if he compromised some coolheaded accountant, how many others does he have on the inside? I’m sure his close work with law enforcement in Phoenix has netted him a few very good friends in that department.”
He held up his hands. “You can stop. You already convinced me.”
“You’re just giving yourself an out in case things go south.” She huffed out a breath. “You never needed any convincing.”
He grabbed her around the waist and kissed her hard on the mouth. “But things aren’t going south, are they? We’re Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, and we’re gonna make sure justice is served.”
EMILY CLAPPED HER hand on her bouncing knee. She could hardly keep still on the almost two-hour drive to Phoenix. They’d missed rush hour, but some freeway construction had made traffic slow.
She stretched out her fingers, which had become cramped wrapped around her phone while she watched the red dot. What if the people who had Wyatt had already moved him to a different car seat, and this pinpoint location
