Chapter Eleven #2
He climbed off the bed. Looking around, he walked through the room, starting in the bathroom. Checked the closet. Under the beds.
“It’s been a long day and we’re tired,” she said. “We could be paranoid.” Although there was a fine line between paranoia and hypervigilance.
He crossed the room, heading into the kitchen, then halted and swore.
“What is it?” She buttoned her shirt.
“Someone was in the room and it wasn’t housekeeping.” He grabbed something from the dining table and held it up.
A white envelope. With something written on the front.
A shiver slid down Olivia’s spine as she stood up. “Did you check in under your real name?”
“I didn’t see any reason not to.”
Did Audrey contact Shepherd before she was arrested and tell him everything she knew? Olivia didn’t want to imagine that Shepherd had found them, and they were sitting ducks. Anything but that.
She stepped closer to Eli.
There was a single word on the envelope in his hand, typed in all caps. PARLEY.
A discussion between opposing sides of a conflict with the aim of reaching an agreement.
“Open it,” she said. “Read it.”
“Doesn’t matter what it says.” He dropped the envelope on the table and snatched his jacket and hat from the floor. “We’re getting out of here.” He tossed her jacket to her.
Putting on her blazer, she picked up the envelope. It was unsealed.
Eli hurried around the room, collecting their things, and throwing them in their luggage with brisk efficiency.
She took out the note card, slowly, searching for traces of any kind of powder. It appeared clean. The cardstock was bright white, heavyweight, smooth finish. She read it.
Take no further action that will endanger others.
Donald Dempsey, George Maben, and Audrey Carter are dead because of your interference. I could kill you, too, if I wanted.
I’ll prove I have the power to do so. Consider it an act of good faith.
I want to talk to the Aegis agent alone. Tomorrow. 0700.
No FBI or police involvement, or there will be consequences.
Shepherd
There were coordinates on the back of the card, down to the seconds. “He wants to meet me. Tomorrow morning.”
“Nope.” Eli put on his Stetson and grabbed their bags. “We’re not going to worry about the food. It may have been tampered with. Let’s go.”
“Shepherd only wants to talk.”
“No, he doesn’t.” Eli opened the door and started out into the walkway.
“He claims Maben and Audrey are dead.”
Stopping, Eli looked at her. “You mean he either killed them or had them killed.”
“Yes.” Either way, she’d have to check with Trujillo to know for sure while not telling the FBI agent anything about the note from Shepherd.
“Call Trujillo from the truck to confirm they’re dead,” he said, as if reading her mind.
“We can’t tell him about the card. It says no law enforcement.”
“The card doesn’t matter. Any offer of parley is either a trick or trap. We’re not going to find out which one. I’ll load up and meet you downstairs.” He left the room, letting the door shut behind him.
A sickening thought occurred to her.
There was no telling how long Shepherd had been in their room, looking through their things. What if he left more than a note? What if he put surveillance in their room?
To watch their reactions. To listen to their conversation and see if they were going to abide by the stipulated terms.
She wanted to vomit at the prospect.
Olivia stuffed the card in her pocket, hurried outside, and looked over the railing of the balcony. “I want to search the room,” she said, keeping her voice low. There were no occupants in the rooms near them, but there were a few on the lower level.
“Why?” Eli hit the ground floor and headed through the parking lot.
“Just come back and humor me. Please.” She doubted there would be any fingerprints on the envelope or card, but they might find something if he left behind any surveillance equipment.
Eli stopped and looked up. “Let me get everything inside the truck first,” he said, gesturing to the Ram that was about a hundred feet away.
She smiled at him. “Thank you.”
“Like I said. You’re my kryptonite.”
She replaced the smile with a grimace. “Don’t ever call me that again. I’d much rather be your yellow sun.”
A weird look crossed his face, like her words made him think of something surprising and pleasant. He grinned at her. “Got it.”
Turning, he took another step toward the truck, and the Ram exploded. Windows shattered, a gust of heat seared the air, the light on the lamppost burst, and the blast concussion hurled Eli backward. Burning pieces of the truck rained down around him.
Her heart seized. “Eli!” Olivia screamed. She dashed to the stairs, her ears ringing, her hands trembling.
An engine roared to life. An SUV with dark tinted windows pulled out of a parking spot, leisurely, near the entrance, and rolled slowly from the lot.
She didn’t bother trying to get a license plate. She simply ran to Eli.
He was sitting up, coughing, gagging, and trying to suck in air at the same time.
Nausea roiled inside, welling up from the pit of her stomach. “Are you okay?” Frantically, she checked his head, face, neck, and the rest of him. No blood. No scrapes. No shrapnel hit him.
“Yeah, yeah.”
If he’d gotten closer to the truck, he might not have been.
Ignoring the knot in her chest, she helped him ease up onto his feet, ushered him away from the raging heat of the wreckage to the staircase, and made him sit.
Foul-smelling black smoke gushed upward from the twisted metal and still-hot fire. A couple of room doors opened. Someone gasped. Another cursed.
Taking out her phone to call 911 and next Trujillo, she studied Eli’s face. A thin line of blood snaked down his temple to his cheek. The knot in her chest tightened.
She looked closer at him and found the source. A cut along his hairline. She touched it and he winced. The nick was superficial, and she drew a deep breath of relief.
“This was the proof,” she said, almost to herself.
“Proof? What are you talking about?”
She took out the note card and handed it to him. “That Shepherd had the power to kill us, if he wanted.” She glanced at the remains of his truck.
They could’ve been inside when it detonated. It was a close call. Too close.
Resting his forearms on his thighs, he hung his head. “Don’t say it. Please, don’t.”
“I have to go tomorrow.”
Eli sighed. “No, you don’t. Let Lauren and the FBI handle it. We could take a trip. To Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Tahiti, anywhere you like, and talk. About us the way you want.”
If Eli Easton was resorting to bribery, he must truly be desperate.
But she wasn’t foolish enough to take the bait. They’d end up in whichever location, in bed, making love, eating, fighting, having fun, and making love again. But making no headway.
Their pattern was nothing if not consistent.
She caressed his cheek. “When have you ever known me to give up on anything?” Or anyone.
“Never. I haven’t backed down from a fight before either, but this is different.”
Not to her. “I need to hear what Shepherd has to say.” It was the reason they were both alive.
“You’re not going alone. I’m calling in the rest of IPS tonight.”
“That’s fine, but we don’t tell law enforcement about the card. I don’t want the severe consequences to mean a bomb in Trujillo’s car.”
“You keeping Trujillo out of the loop is nothing new. But IPS goes with you. If Shepherd wants you, he has to go through me to get to you.”
And that was precisely what she was afraid of. This mission, her mission, that she pushed him into taking was endangering him, not the other way around. Now he wasn’t going to back off unless she did.
Olivia needed to see this through and somehow do everything in her power to keep Eli safe.