Chapter 48
“You’re sure her room is empty?” I yell at the hotel manager through the phone on the way to Amelia’s apartment.
“Yes, oh, wait. She left a note.” I hear a piece of paper and then he starts reading from it. “Hey Agent Underpants…” he pauses. “Wait, is that really your name?”
“No,” I growl and press harder on the gas. “Please continue. I don”t have time for this.”
“Right, sorry. ”I went to the salon to meet Leah.””
The salon. I merge to the right and then turn off the main road.
“I know what Liam is after,” he continues reading. “The jewelry box. I’ll get it and bring it back, then we can set a trap to catch him. Or you can do it your way since you’re the FBI agent.”
“Is there anything else important?” I grit out.
“Um, she said she gets why you’re so afraid. But she’s brave enough for two. And when she comes back she’s going to, um, kiss you.”
She won’t get the chance because I’ll kiss her the second I find her. If I find her.
“Is that all?” I ask, my voice thick with emotion.
“She, uh, said she misses you, uh, Agent Sexypants.”
I nearly swerve off the road. I’m making her read that note to me when I find her. “Thanks.” I hit the off button and drag in some necessary air. Everything is going to be okay. It has to be.
My mind has run through every worst-case scenario in the past hour and my heart is about to detonate.
I can neither confirm nor deny if it’s legal to microchip humans, but I’m considering it after I find her again.
The traffic is ridiculous and I’m still ten minutes from the salon when my phone rings.
“Caleb,” Cruz says.
“Did you find Fischer?”
“Not yet, still watching tapes. He took a call and then disappeared. But Caleb, it’s not Liam,” she says. ”I mean, Liam didn’t hire Justin to watch Amelia. It was someone else.”
“Explain.”
“Matthias was sure the man Justin talked to wasn’t British. He could have sworn he was Scottish.”
Scottish? “So, he was using a different accent.” That’s the only explanation.
“No. Liam only reached out to Justin six months ago.”
The first phone call. “How do you know?”
“We were finally able to restore Justin’s burner phone and found messages to Liam on the dating app. They were using it to communicate.”
“If he wasn’t the one who hired Justin, why did he reach out to him?”
“That’s the funny thing. Liam figured out Justin was watching Amelia for someone named Sawyer.”
There’s someone else now? Great.
“The conversations were vague, but we’ve gathered that Liam managed to convince Justin to turn on Sawyer.”
“Because of the stupid box.” I hit the steering wheel, then curse when the car in front of me decides to turn without a signal.
“What box?”
My grip on the steering wheel tightens as I speed up. “The jewelry box that belonged to Scarlett Winthrop.”
“Oh. That makes more sense now. According to Liam’s messages, evidence is in the box. Do you know where it is?”
“Yes, Amelia has it.” But what kind of evidence could fit in a box that small?
“How did she get Scarlett Winthrop’s jewelry box?”
“She thought it was an heirloom.” That freaking box. I should have taken it from Amelia when I had the chance. “All of this to protect Liam from getting caught for his crime.”
“According to the messages, Liam didn’t kill Scarlett.”
“Then who did?” I ask, but I already know the answer. “Sawyer.”
“Yep. He was head of security that night.”
“Find me that man,” I shout.
“Already on it.” She hangs up, as I swerve into the parking lot of the salon.
The lights are off down the whole street. Dang it, Amelia. Why did she come here?
And who met her? The rapid beating of my heart tells me it wasn’t a simple meeting with Leah.
I jump out into the rain and peer through the salon window, but there’s no one inside. The door is unlocked though. Someone was here.
I turn on my flashlight, holding it up with my gun. There’s a hairdryer on the ground and a toppled cart. I tiptoe further into the salon when something catches the corner of my eye. A plant is laying on the ground, surrounded by pieces of ceramic glass and blood.
I swallow down the lump in my throat.
Why did I ever leave Amelia’s side?
A picture comes through on my phone. The security guard, Sawyer. He’s younger in this photo, but it doesn’t hide his defining features. I’ve seen that face before. The first night I saw the box in Amelia’s possession, and again the night of Justin’s murder.
It’s Gary.