Chapter 32 #2
Noah kissed her forehead. “We can take care of each other and make each other feel good, and we don’t have to worry about anything else.”
“Yeah. I can handle that.”
He didn’t mention how much he felt for her, too. How an all-too-familiar panic filled him at the thought of saying goodbye.
Chase had warned him not to fall for someone who couldn’t love him back. Sorry Chase, he thought. It’s way too late. For me, it’s always been Dani.
Around ten, the phone rang. It was Noah’s boss, Max.
“Is this a good time?”
“Yeah. It’s fine.” Noah pulled up a chair at the table.
“Is there anything you need?” Max asked.
“We’re all set up, depending on how long we’ll be here.” He looked over at Danica. She leaned against the wall nearby, crossing her arms.
They’d both gotten cleaned up and dressed, and they’d had breakfast. The food supplies here weren’t glamorous. It had been a while since Noah had eaten MREs, but he was used to them. Danica had made faces as she’d choked down the ready-to-eat sandwich.
“Both the police and Danica’s family want you back here ASAP,” Max continued, “but I’m not sure that’s wise yet. We’re still untangling everything that went down last night.”
“Hey Max,” Noah said into the phone, “I’m going to put Danica on speaker with us.”
“You think that’s wise? I have a lot more info on the investigation that might be disturbing. Is she handling this well?”
Noah’s eyes met hers again. She was handling everything better than most people would, under the circumstances.
“We’re both doing great over here,” Noah said. He didn’t want to answer Max’s question directly because Danica would just get annoyed. He pushed the speaker button on the phone and set it on the table. “Speaker’s on.”
“Ms. Foster-Grant, this is Max Bennett. We spoke the other day?”
She sat in the chair next to Noah. “Hi, Max. You have updates?”
“I do. But first, I’d like to hear what happened last night from both your perspectives. We’re doing our own investigation and putting together a timeline of events. I’ll turn it over to the police, though they want to interview you separately, of course.”
Danica said she’d walked into the exhibit rooms to speak to Tori, Blake Halston’s assistant, on the phone. The man with the neck tattoo had grabbed her, and she’d gotten away.
“Do you think Tori intended to lure you away from the gala?” Max asked.
“I wondered about that, but I just don’t know. I’m not even sure what she wanted. I didn’t get the chance to find out.”
Noah filled in the details on the man with the blue bowtie he’d spotted in the atrium. According to Max, when Noah had gone to look for Danica, Tanner had continued to follow the suspicious newcomer.
Blue bowtie had gone straight to the exhibit hall. Clearly no coincidence. He’d been the one shooting at them, probably when he’d realized his friend with the eagle tattoo was under attack.
“But how could they have gotten in?” Danica asked. “The gala was supposed to be secure. How did they bring guns through the metal detector?”
“Somehow, they disabled the alarm on the emergency exit door.” Max continued recounting what Tanner and Rex had told him.
Tanner had snuck up on blue bowtie and knocked him out.
At the same time, Rex had run for the rear parking lot to clear the path for Noah and Danica’s escape.
He’d left his Glock hidden outside for just such an eventuality.
Rex hadn’t run into any bad guys, but now they knew why—the SUV waiting to abduct Danica had been in the next lot over.
Probably waiting for eagle tattoo’s call.
“But here’s the good news,” Max said. “The police tracked down the silver SUV that chased you. Minor shoot-out, but they killed or arrested everyone inside, with no law enforcement casualties.”
Danica rested her elbows on the table. “Thank god. Max, what about Rosie Consuelo? Is she all right? She was returning fire just before Noah and I ran for the emergency exit.”
“Yes, Rosie is fine. She’s been answering questions, though generally the Valoris Security team has been less than helpful. Same with your chief of security. He’s refusing to talk to us.”
Probably because they’d botched everything. But had it just been negligence on Valoris’s part, Noah wondered? Or could someone on the Valoris team have actually helped the bad guys?
“Does Blake know Danica hired Bennett Security to protect her?” Noah asked.
“Oh, yeah. That secret’s out. Everybody’s pissed off and pointing fingers. But thanks to you, Rex, and Tanner, Danica got out safe. And everyone who went to the museum to kidnap her either ended up dead or arrested.”
Her gaze met Noah’s.
“Have the police identified the man with the two-headed eagle tattoo?” Danica asked.
“Not as far as I know. We’re trying to find his identity and known associates. And don’t worry, we haven’t forgotten about the altered video surveillance of him, either. I’ve got every available body on this.”
Danica exhaled, nodding. “Good.”
“There’s something else, though,” Max continued. “The guy with the eagle tattoo had a photo of Noah in his pocket.”