Chapter Eleven
Grace wanted to hurry back to bed and hide from what had promised to be a glorious summer day. If what Callum had said was true, everything she’d done to hide had failed. She stared at her phone and willed his voicemail to pop up onscreen. Not even a missed call.
More than hiding under the covers, she needed to leave. She had put Alicia in a dangerous position, and another layer of guilt pancaked upon the ones she usually, hopefully stoically, carried.
Grace paced the living room and wondered if she should trust Callum’s safe houses. Or she could go anywhere in her underground network. No, that would put others who had helped her over the years in the same position as Alicia.
Maybe she should update her parents, and there was a conversation with Hayden that had to be had. She stifled a groan. There were so many things she needed to do that very second that she couldn’t move.
Grace shoved her phone into the pocket of her robe and walked toward the stairs. Her movements were too jerky. Her nerves trembled in her hands. “I have to leave. I’ll write Alicia a note—”
“Hang on.” Callum blocked her escape. “We’re not running away.”
He had said “we.”
“I’m not running—”
“Yeah, Grace. It’s what you do; you run. You hide. If you don’t see that, then you need to take a minute to reflect.”
She stepped around him, completely in agreement but having no idea what else to do. “It’s all I know.”
He grabbed her arms and recentered her in front of him. “We’re not playing defense unless it’s the right course of action, and I’m not convinced it is. Later, maybe. Right now? No.”
“But—”
“And running before Alicia has even walked her dogs won’t help anyone feel good about the situation.”
“He could show up here. It doesn’t matter that there weren’t cameras and listening devices. Dominic has an agenda, and I don’t understand it.”
“We’ll get there. We’ll understand it.”
He kept saying “we,” and it knocked the panic out of her bit by bit.
“If he showed up right now?” Callum smirked. “Let him knock on the door right this fuckin’ second. That would be the easiest way to solve this problem.”
His confidence balanced her panic. “He’s crazy—”
“I’m ready for him.”
She shivered, and the last shreds of doubt were erased. Was Callum really what she needed to stop Dominic?
He stroked her arms. “If he gets near you, I will annihilate him.”
She tipped her head back to meet his steadfast gaze. He would keep her safe. She hadn’t remembered what safety felt like until right now. Her chin dipped, and Grace leaned into him. Her forehead pressed against his sternum. Callum wrapped his arms around her. “It will be okay. I promise.”
All of these promises… She believed him. The warmth of his embrace melted her against his chest, and she let Callum cocoon her in his strength.
Argos and Toto pitter-pattered down the stairs. She inched back, pressing against his arms until he let go. The dogs reached the living room, and Alicia followed, adjusting her glasses to rub her eyes.
“Good morning, early birds. It sounded like you two were going to kill each other.” Alicia tossed a sharp look at Callum. “Everything okay?”
“We’re fine.” Grace rubbed her arms. “We had to compare notes on an issue or two, but it’s resolved.”
Alicia eyed both of them.
“I took you for a morning person,” Callum casually added.
She side-eyed him. “You’d better brush up on your people-reading skills. I’m only awake because you two had my boys up and ready for the day a full thirty minutes before my alarm. Want to tell me about the notes you loudly compared? I tried not to listen. Manners, and all.”
Grace scratched behind Toto’s ear. “People have been trying to call and email me, but I haven’t heard from them.”
“People, who?”
“Specific people,” Callum said. “Important people. Attorneys.”
Alicia cast her gaze between them. “Well, that sounds suspicious.”
“Sure does.” Callum let Sherlock nuzzle against his leg. “No telling who else has been reaching out.”
“Callum had tried to reach me before he showed up at the library,” Grace explained.
Alicia’s gaze swung to Callum. “You did?”
He nodded.
“And you didn’t mention that before?” She rested her hands on her hips.
The corners of his eyes tightened. His lips thinned as if he were trying to hide a smile, and something close to appreciation registered on his face. The more they interacted, the more they seemed to like one another.
“We got off to a rocky start,” he conceded.
Alicia hummed and walked toward the dogs’ leashes. “I suppose.”
“I’ll walk your dogs.”
“Is Dominic outside?” Alicia asked.
His lips twitched. “Not that I know of.”
“Is there a big baddie with a gun out there?”
“Nope. Haven’t seen any sign of that, either.”
“Then I’ll walk my dogs, thank you very much.” She clipped on the dogs’ leashes. “How did Dominic mess with her phone calls?”
“What’s the point in asking?” Grace slumped. “Unlimited resources. Dark web people. Sociopathic tendencies. That’s the answer to almost every Dominic question.”
“He’s not infallible,” Callum said, but raised his shoulders.
“My office is working on how. When we know the how, we’ll have a better handle on the why.
But given who’s not getting through, I’d say we have the basis for a good working theory.
” His phone chirped again. “Maybe we have answers already.”
Callum answered the call, listened as they watched, and ended the call with hardly a word.
Judging from his expression, that wasn’t a great phone call.
Nervous energy turned Grace’s palms clammy.
Sherlock threaded in and out of Callum’s boots as if the cat had heard the phone call as well and understood that things weren’t moving in the right direction.
Grace reached for her tepid coffee and wrapped her palms around the mug. “Don’t look at us like that. Spit it out.”
“As it turns out…” he cleared his throat and narrowed his gaze on her, like once again, another round of understanding had made itself clear, “it’s the office of an assistant attorney general who would like to have a word with you.”
Her stomach bottomed out. Grace mouthed, “Assistant attorney general, like, of the country?” She turned to Alicia. “What the hell is happening? I’m supposed to be dead.”
Alicia blinked her eyes wide and then let out a low whistle. “Those would be quite the phone calls to miss.”
Grace shook her head. “I’m not going through the Dominic Marino show again.” She knew nothing that would warrant that many people reaching out to her. “I can’t.”
Or worse, the government was upset that she’d ditched witness protection years ago and faked her death. That was fraud. That was a valid reason for her attorneys to try to reach her. The attorney general’s office probably wanted to throw her in jail. “They’re going to arrest me.”
“No. That’s not it.”
“Are you sure?” she pressed.
His lips flattened. “They wouldn’t employ resources like that for this type of arrest.”
“Then what do they want?”
“I don’t know, but you have to meet with them.” His halfhearted smile offered no support. “I’ll take you there. We’ll schedule the meeting and control as much as we can.”
“No way in the world—”
“You do it this way, or they’ll send federal marshals.”
“So they do want to arrest me,” she said as Alicia snapped, “Marshals? What for?”
Callum held up his hands, palms out in defense. “Don’t shoot the messenger, ladies. I don’t know what they want to meet about. Any guess is based on a whole lot of inference.”
“So infer away,” Grace demanded.
He stared at the ceiling and thought. “Given who Marino is and how he wriggled his way out of a conviction, I’d bet the DOJ would like another shot at him.”
“Meaning?”
“Like I said—”
“You don’t know,” Alicia snapped. “Got it. But what is your guess?”
“No one will give us anything yet,” he admitted. “So we have to ask why. There are specific reasons litigators keep their mouths shut.”
“I don’t know what those are,” Grace said. “Extrapolate.”
“Maybe they’re convening a grand jury.” He held up his hands again. “For what? No idea. But Marino burned the DOJ. They probably want to burn him right back.”
“Can’t we just ask about that?”
He shook his head. “No. I believe the process is confidential.”
“For what?”
“What does it matter? Everyone probably has the same end goal: get Marino behind bars again. We won’t know anything more until you talk to them.”
“I can’t handle another go-round with Dominic.” Grace collapsed onto the couch. For a fleeting second, she considered hiding from the world by burying her face in Callum’s pillow. Breathing him in might be the only thing to keep her from losing her mind.
As if knowing how close to the edge Grace was, Sherlock jumped onto her lap.
She dropped her chin onto the top of his soft head. “I haven’t seen him in years. Haven’t talked to him.”
Callum remained quiet. Tension ticked in his jaw. She didn’t like that an explanation wasn’t immediately forthcoming.
“It doesn’t make sense.”
“It’s not going to make sense to us.” He rubbed the back of his neck. “What if Dominic didn’t track you down to scare you—not to repossess you, for lack of a better word?” His lip curled in disgust before he shook it off. “Rather, he’s making himself known to keep you from speaking with the DOJ.”
That hadn’t occurred to her. Then again, she hadn’t known anyone was looking for her. The Department of Justice wasn’t even a blip on her radar.
“He won’t want you to talk to the AG’s office, even if you don’t think you know anything. It opens up a liability that he can’t control.”
The three of them stewed over his idea. It made sense, but something didn’t sit right.
“If Dominic is doing that, why would he block you?” Alicia asked Callum. “You’re an old family friend. Not involved with the attorneys or the DOJ.”
“He isolated me from friends when we were married.” She bit her lip. “Dominic’s doing what he knows how to do.”
“We’ll know more once you sit down with the attorneys.”
“No. I can’t.” She shook her head. “Someone in one of those offices is probably on his payroll. Maybe in all the offices. He covers his bases.” But that didn’t make complete sense either.
Dominic had been clear. Until death do us part.
She threaded her fingers through her hair.
“Maybe it’s both. He’s warning and terrorizing me. Twice as much fun.”
Tension flexed in Callum’s jaw.
“That’s it, isn’t it? He’s giving me options. I stay quiet, I stay his wife, or I’m dead like the world believes. And, bonus points for him, I don’t speak with the attorneys.” She’d bet he loved every second of this.
“Honestly? I don’t know,” Callum said. “The DOJ won’t share details before it’s ready for the world to know. Their investigations are confidential.”
“Like that ever slowed down Dominic.”
“My office is in contact with the attorneys you worked with during his trial. There will be some kind of amnesty or immunity that protects you.”
“For the fake death issue?” Alicia asked.
Issue sounded as if Grace was late in paying her taxes. She had actually ensured that all of her finances were on the up and up.
Callum nodded. “That’s the least of anyone’s concerns.”
Alicia led Argos and Toto toward the front door. “We should have called you years ago. All right. I’ll be back in five. Go about your shouting or hugging or whatever you two are doing.”