“That’s a long story,” I said in what I hoped was my most impeccably calm and smooth voice possible—I sure as hell didn’t want to have to be explaining all of this right now. “I’m still working on it. Once you find Sean, I’ll come down and help you finish what I should have done two years ago. But for right now, I’ve got my hands tied here.”
“Never thought we’d be playing divorce court over here,” Burke said dryly. “Tell me, before you send anything over, what does this Sean guy look like?”
“Well—wait, are you on your way to Miami now?”
“We’re DOM, Liam, don’t act so surprised.”
It was true. I guess I’d disassociated myself a little bit much after Scott’s philandering. But I was still technically part of the group, and I was going to fucking act that way.
“Black-haired, brown-eyed, pale white skin, skinny and tall, maybe six-foot-four. He knows what I look like, but he doesn’t know you.”
“Ah, compromised?”
“Long story.”
“You’re full of long stories, huh, Liam?”
I brushed it off.
“Just find him but don’t do anything to him until I get there,” I said. “This one’s on me for not pulling the trigger. I thought he would wise up when he realized I had him by the balls, but I guess not.”
“I’ll make sure you get the kill shot.”
“Good. See you soon.”
We disconnected. Pulling out a tablet that I carried with me most everywhere we went, I began uploading the files on Sean and Emily to send to Burke. A lot of it was essentially what I’d received two years ago, and the only thing that had really changed was the idea that I was going to spare Sean some mercy since I could ruin him if he went back after Emily.
But, hey, since he was forfeiting that, it wasn’t like we had to hold back on anything.
Now, Emily, I thought. You’d better get your ass here and not get caught at the airport.
Last thing I need is for Kelly to have more heartbreak.
I couldn’t believe that I was now thinking in terms of that.
I’d parked my car in the nearest visitor’s lot, waiting for Emily to come down. The most recent possible flight from Miami had just landed, but it would take a few minutes for even the most hurried person in all of Denver to get through the beast of an airport. Still, every minute that passed left me wondering if something had happened to Emily.
Such was the nature of being a DOM.
And then I saw her.
She looked exhausted. I already knew she wasn’t the type to exaggerate things, but I think I had still somehow underestimated how she’d look when she got off the fucking plane. She legitimately looked like she hadn’t slept in a week.
She looked around. I did the same, looking for anyone that looked even remotely like Sean. It wasn’t out of the possibility that he’d changed his hair color or grown a beard; in fact, given that he worked for the DOJ and knew how criminal masterminds operated, I’d say it was quite likely.
For now, the area seemed clear. No one looked at her, no one followed from a distance; as far as the crowd was concerned, she was just an exhausted traveler.
But one could never be too careful in spots like this.
“Liam!”
She saw me. I looked to her, nodded, and waited for her to come to me, all the while keeping an eye out in my periphery vision to make sure no one was following her. That was, still, not the case.
She came up and embraced me tightly. I politely returned the favor; I did not feel like I’d earned such a hug until Sean was dead or removed from the picture entirely.
“Are you all right?” I said.
“Fine for now.”
“You get the feeling you were being followed on the flight?”
“Not really, but in the airport…”
She was a mess. I’d never seen her look this bad, even when we first worked together. I suppose thinking you’d killed the monster, only to see it rear its ugly head, was even more frightening the second go-around.
“You’re safe with me,” I said. “Get in the car. I’ll take you to Kelly.”
The poor girl looked like she was holding back tears. She did as commanded. I did one last sweep of the area, even checking the people working traffic to make sure nothing was amiss. I felt…acceptably certain that wasn’t the case, but there was no such thing as absolutely certain in my line of work.
As we pulled out of the airport, I fucking hated how crowded the whole thing felt. When we got to Breckenridge, we’d have a much easier time seeing if anyone was following us, but from this spot, any of the several dozen cars around us could be tailing us. And who was to say Sean didn’t have some connections in the Denver area that could do his dirty work for him?
It wasn’t paranoid. It was common sense. To everyday working Joes and Janes, maybe it was paranoid. Not for me.
“You look beat,” I said. “You can lay down the seat and take a nap. You’ll be safe here.”
“OK,” Emily said. “I could use the sleep.”
“Could?” I said with a hint of a smirk. “Lie down. I need the quiet to figure out a plan, anyway.”
It was like I’d given her permission to do something she’d waited ages for. She put the seat down, closed her eyes, and within what felt like a minute, she was asleep—or at least very calm with her eyes closed.
I thought through how we would do this. I didn’t like the idea of bringing Emily over to Kelly’s place; it was too isolated for us to get help if
