“We saw a man walking around the perimeter of the house just as we arrived,” he said. “Do you know anything about him?”
Liam.
They think fucking Liam is the criminal?
“I…you’re talking about the older-looking guy? The rugged-looking one?”
“Sure,” Officer Michaels said, starting to rattle off some descriptions that went in one ear and out the other. Had I misunderstood Liam? Was he actually…
No, that was absurd. I could be fooled, but I wasn’t a complete idiot. It was virtually impossible for me to believe that Liam could have masterminded something like that—and all to kill me? He may have been an agent of some kind, but I was of no value in terms of seducing. I was just a woman that wanted him to love his child and me.
And me?
And me, I suppose.
“He came to rescue me,” I said, “so I would be stunned if it were him.”
“Perhaps someone looking to collect on insurance? Perhaps someone who believed if he came to rescue you and your little girl, it would eliminate suspicion?”
“He did rescue us,” I snapped.
That was it. I wasn’t going to say anything more about Liam.
“He’s not the guy you’re looking for. I can assure you of that. I didn’t see anything, and I don’t know anyone who could have done this, but that guy is not the man in question.”
The two officers exchanged looks. I felt like I knew what that look meant: “She’s protecting him. He did it, but she’s not going to say anything. Nothing we can do.” The look only made me feel all the more assured that I had Liam and not local law enforcement on my side.
“Is there anyone else you can think of that might have motive?”
I debated for a second just not saying anything. What were local cops going to do to hunt down someone from Miami who once worked for the Department of Justice? But if it at least took the heat off Liam for something he didn’t do, maybe it was worth it.
“Sean Price,” I said. “He’s an ex of one of my good friends who came to visit. Serious stalker. Look up his case. Had some issues in Miami. Think he might be here.”
Again, the cops looked exasperated while trying to appear polite, as if they were the heroic angels. Fucking pricks. I was a little snappy; what could I say.
“Look, I’m feeling tired and would love to talk more, but maybe when I haven’t just worried about if my daughter would make it or not, so can you come back later?”
“Of course,” Officer Bradley said, leading him and Officer Michaels out the door without hesitation.
The conversation had only further cemented the need to have Liam on the case. But if he had the cops on his tail while he was on Sean’s tail…yeah, that was going to get a bit ugly.
I just hoped Charlotte and I recovered soon enough. We needed to get out of this hospital and back into Liam’s protection.
Chapter 20: Liam
It didn’t much matter now how deeply Emily was sleeping.
When I got to the hotel, I pulled into the first parking space I found, jogged through the lobby, sprinted up the stairs, and opened her door without much regard for quiet. She rolled over in a hurry, a remarkable shift from her slumber earlier. She visibly relaxed when she saw me, but she still looked like she was suffering the effects of thinking I was Sean.
“Good news, you’re here and you’re safe,” I said. “Bad news, Sean is here. He burned down Kelly’s house.”
“Oh my God, is she—”
“Alive, and so is Charlotte. He got Bucky pretty badly too, but he’s getting tended to at the vet’s office, so he’s fine.”
I looked around the room, doing another scan. One could never be too careful, even in environments you’d already been in. Masterminds knew amateurs weren’t the best at covering their six, whether literally or metaphorically.
“They’re at the hospital, which is obviously a more secure location than here. With that said, I can’t protect two women who are staying in two places. So get dressed. We’re all going to stay with Kelly.”
“OK, that’s great,” Emily said, perhaps trying to find some reason for optimism in an otherwise messy, ugly day, “but will we be able to stay there for long? I can’t imagine they’d want us spending the night—”
“I have a colleague en route who will help us,” I said, “but he won’t get here for at least another four hours, I’d say. And if I absolutely have to go before my colleague arrives, I’ll make sure a cop stands watch over you two.”
Emily looked frazzled but determined. She got out of bed, grabbed her coat and a few other things, and followed me. She looked like she wanted to talk, to just get some things off her chest, but I was not that guy. The only person that could make me even consider being sympathetic and talkative was Kelly.
Emily knew how I worked. Once the mission was done, I’d be a little more open—a little. But until then, I kept my mouth shut, my eyes and ears open, and my brain focused on nothing but completing the mission.
And in this case, that meant murdering fucking Sean Price like I should have all those years ago.
Every time I drove up to a building with a client inside, I got nervous. There were always little windows of time in which the client was vulnerable; sometimes, those windows were as soon as you got the mission and had to find them. Other times, like here, they were when you had to step away to take care of something small for the larger mission.
And every single time, I
