Chapter 20 #2
Of course, if I allowed myself to venture into dreamland, there was a secret option three. One where I sold the business and took the inheritance my mom had left me and enrolled in NYU. To chase a degree with no idea where it would take me.
I tipped my head back and stared at the heavily graffitied ceiling of the train car.
Walker Antiques was all I’d ever known. I’d been trained since I was a child to take over the business, and for my whole life, up until now, that prospect had been exciting to me. An opportunity, a gift, not a burden.
My phone buzzed with a message, and I snatched it up, expecting to find a text from Alice.
It wasn’t from Alice. It was much worse.
WILSON ESCAPED. WATCH OUT.
BEHAVE YOURSELF.
Behave yourself.
That was what Lucas had told me just before we went into Tanoshimu. And this message was from the same number that had texted me telling me to run. It had to be him.
I took a deep breath as I processed the text.
Wilson had escaped. He could be anywhere right now, and from what he’d said in the club, he had a way to track my and Alice’s phones. I had no idea how that kind of technology worked so it’s not like I could just disable it.
As the train rumbled into the next station I surged to my feet, wanting to get out and into the fresh air so I could call Alice right now and warn her.
My heart was beating so hard I felt sick again.
If anything happened to her it would all be my fault, and knowing that I’d put her in this much danger was weighing heavily on me.
I jogged out of the station and ducked into the first alley I could find. Trash was piled up on the floor, the bags split open so rats could scutter into them. I tried not to breathe through my nose as I dialed Alice’s number.
She answered on the first ring.
‘Kendra? Are you okay?’
‘Yeah, listen to me,’ I said breathlessly. ‘You need to ditch your phone. Wilson is tracking it.’
‘What?’
‘Wilson is tracking your phone,’ I pressed. ‘He knows where you are right now. You need to dump it and move.’
‘Holy shit,’ Alice said, and I could hear her getting to her feet.
‘Where are you right now?’
‘At Sienna’s apartment. You said it was safe here.’
‘It’s not, not any more. I’m so sorry. Where’s the jewelry?’
‘Fuck, Kendra. The jewelry is in Sienna’s safe. The hidden one, behind one of the bookcases. Even if they break in here they won’t find it.’
‘Okay. I need you to leave and get on the subway,’ I said, looking around as New York rushed by. No one was paying any attention to me, but I knew I couldn’t stop here for too long. ‘And leave your phone on a train. Then switch trains as many times as you can.’
‘Where should I meet you?’ she asked.
While I was desperate to be reunited, I knew I still had something I needed to do first.
‘Meet me …’ I pressed the heel of my hand to my breastbone as I tried to be smart and think fast. Even if I managed to trap Wilson, like I was planning to, he obviously had his people tracking me and Alice all over the city.
People that could potentially still come after us if they didn’t realize their boss had been taken back into custody.
I needed somewhere safe, and public. Somewhere we couldn’t be snatched and dragged into the back of a car or threatened with guns.
Preferably somewhere surrounded by tourists with camera phones who would hit record if anything happened.
‘Meet me at the top of the Empire State Building,’ I said in a rush.
They didn’t allow people to bring weapons into the building, and we definitely couldn’t be easily kidnapped from there. It would also be stacked with security.
Alice laughed incredulously. ‘Really?’
‘Yeah.’ I glanced at the time. ‘At eight p.m.’
That would be enough time to get everything I needed done.
‘Are you sure you don’t want me to meet you where you are? I’ll come to you, Kendra.’
My heart suddenly hurt, and I didn’t know how to handle the twisting emotion in my stomach. I knew she was telling the truth – that she’d come to me, if I asked her to, no matter the danger that lay in wait.
‘Please trust me,’ I whispered. ‘I’ll meet you at eight.’
‘I’ll be there,’ Alice said. ‘Take care of yourself, Kendra.’
‘You too. Remember to ditch your phone,’ I finished in a rush.
‘I will. See you soon.’
I ended the call and swallowed hard. Before I could ditch my own phone there was a call I needed to make, and I prayed I’d have enough time for this conversation before anyone caught up with me.
I found Lucas’s number with trembling fingers. This time, it took several rings for someone to answer.
‘Hello?’
‘Kendra?’
‘Yeah, this is Kendra.’ I slumped back against the brick wall and screwed my eyes shut, pinching the bridge of my nose hard to ward off the threatening headache. ‘What the fuck, Lucas. What was that?’
‘Are you all right?’ he asked.
‘I’m fine.’ That was a lie. Maybe the biggest lie I’d ever told.
‘You know there’s tracking software on your phone? Alice’s too? It was installed when you came to Tanoshimu the other night,’ he said insistently.
‘Yeah, I know that now. I’ve told Alice.’
‘I’m sorry. I really didn’t want to have to take you there, but once Wilson knew you had the jewelry, he wasn’t going to rest until you were brought to him. I had no choice.’
‘Are you a cop?’ I asked.
The immediate silence on his end of the phone was loaded. ‘Not a cop,’ he said tersely, but I read between the lines. He’d clearly been recruited by the FBI.
‘How much trouble am I in?’ I tried to keep the panic out of my voice.
‘With the cops? None. I can’t do anything to stop Wilson though. He either threatened or bribed a cop to help him escape and, even though every officer in this city is out looking for him right now, who knows how long it’ll take them to find him.’
‘You and I both know what he’s looking for,’ I murmured.
It was the one and only ace up my sleeve. I had the jewelry, Wilson wanted it … and I knew he wouldn’t rest until he had it.
‘Don’t do it, Kendra,’ Lucas warned me. ‘It’s not worth it.’
‘It would draw him out, though, right?’
‘I can’t let you use yourself as bait,’ Lucas said, seeing right through me. ‘He won’t hesitate to kill you if he has to.’
My breathing came a little faster now as a proper plan started to form in my head.
It was stupid and reckless, but if it worked, I’d be free.
I needed to lure out Wilson, to make him think I was giving the jewelry away.
I wasn’t sure I could convince him on my own, though.
I needed someone – someone he trusted – to ‘leak’ this information to him.
‘I’m not saying I’m going to do anything,’ I said slowly. ‘But Wilson will still be tracking my phone …’
‘Fuck’s sake,’ he muttered.
‘Well, I’m going back to Walker Antiques, then I’m going to the Met,’ I said. ‘Do with that information what you will.’
‘Kendra,’ he said, his voice a hard warning. ‘I can help you, but I need more time. We should do this properly.’
‘No.’ I’d already made up my mind. I’d been standing in one place for too long, I needed to get moving again. ‘If you want to help, make sure Wilson knows that I’m taking the jewelry to the Metropolitan Museum of Art to donate it to one of their collections.’
Lucas sighed.
‘Would that draw him out?’ I asked.
‘Yeah,’ he admitted. ‘He definitely won’t want you to do that.’
‘Great, I’m going to head there now.’
‘Jesus Christ. Okay. I’ll get things lined up on my end. Please be careful.’
I allowed myself a smile. ‘Thanks, Lucas.’ Before he could say anything else, I ended the call.
I hadn’t been paying attention to my surroundings, so I really didn’t have much of a clue where I was.
When I ducked out of the alley, I found a tiny Italian restaurant, a cell phone repair shop and a street sign for Chambers Street.
Shit. I was way out from my usual neighborhood.
I ducked back into the station to head home – ostensibly to pick up the jewelry, if Wilson was still tracking me. I had to assume he was.
Lucas’s guess had been right. I was going to use myself as bait.
There was a really strong chance I could end up dead tonight, but what other option did I have?
Wilson was going to hunt me, and Alice too, until he got what he wanted.
And at this point, I wasn’t naive enough to think that handing him the jewelry now would just end everything.
He’d been humiliated and lied to, and I knew him well enough to be sure that he’d want revenge.
His network was much bigger than mine, and he had already proved recently how easy it was for him to have people follow me, intimidate me, beat the crap out of me in my own apartment.
I didn’t want to live like this any more.
My stress levels had been through the roof pretty much since my mom had died, and I couldn’t just attribute that to grief and shock and being thrust into taking charge of the business. All of that was stressful, but so was dealing with people like Wilson.
Until this was over, I wouldn’t let myself think about what came next, but I knew something had to end tonight.
Hopefully that thing wouldn’t be me.