Chapter 20
“What the hell is going on? Am I now on the run from the FBI? Are they going to raid my house? Do I need to change my name? What’s the plan?” Clover peppered questions at Micah before he’d made it out of the sheriff’s station parking lot.
Micah digested all the questions before asking, “Do you want to change your name?”
“No! Come on, details.” She turned around in her seat to look behind them.
But he wasn’t worried. They had at least seven minutes, but probably ten, before anyone even knew Clover was gone. They’d come looking for Sinead and her but wouldn’t want to push the lawyer.
“The Feds just wanted to ask you some questions—allegedly. But they can’t deny you legal counsel.”
“Then why am I not just answering their questions? They asked about Monday. That’s when I saw Ilena.”
“Saw her, talked to her… They’ve got you on video. They want to know what you talked about.”
“Yeah. I figured. I didn’t say anything, by the way.”
“I didn’t think you did.”
“Sinead told me to dump my phone.”
Micah nodded, because he’d told her that. “Do you have everything backed up?” He wasn’t just going to destroy her phone without double-checking.
“Oh yeah.”
“Good.” He pulled over into a half-full parking lot of the local grocery store. “I’m going to run it over.”
Sighing, she handed it over, then he did just that. Once he was done running it over until he was certain it was destroyed, he picked up a few of the parts and tossed them into the back of a few different pickup trucks.
He’d been in this parking lot before, knew where the cameras were. But even if he didn’t, he’d turned on a jammer that would screw up the cameras for the next sixty seconds, making everything look like a glitch.
“Talk,” Clover demanded as he returned to the driver’s seat. “Also, thank you.”
“Of course. I’ve got your back.” He’d do anything for her, something he was certain she didn’t fully understand.
“I got worried when you didn’t show up at the safe house…
” He gave her the truncated version of everything.
“I called your brother—so he’s aware of everything.
Then I talked to Sinead and Krystal, who is very much annoyed with me—”
As if on cue, his burner phone rang, the displayed number another burner he’d given to his sister. “Hey, you okay?”
“Yeah, but they know she’s gone,” Krystal whispered, a slight echo to her words.
“Are you going to take any flak for this?”
“Nah, I’m good. Just…be smart.”
“I will.”
“Love you even if you give me more gray hairs than my boys.”
Micah half smiled at her big sister tone. “Love you too—and you don’t have any gray hairs.”
Krystal snickered, then hung up.
“So…you set this up so I could get out of there without answering any questions. Why? Isn’t this going to make them come after me harder?”
“Maybe, but I wasn’t risking you lying to them, by accident or otherwise. The Feds are tricky and right now they’re desperate to find Maeve. If they think for a second you’re involved, they could hold you with some trumped-up bullshit. And that’s not happening.”
“I seriously doubt the FBI—”
He shot her a sharp look. “My sister is amazing and I trust her with my life. I also know that she would never fake evidence or any other kind of shit like that. But she’s basically the only person in law enforcement I trust…
” He paused because that wasn’t entirely true.
He had a few contacts he trusted, but they weren’t relevant for this conversation. “If you want to go back—”
“No. I mean, how’s that going to look?”
He snorted softly. “Sinead will handle things.”
“You’re sure?”
“Yeah. I already talked to her. She’ll smooth things over, tell them you had an emergency and left.”
“You’re positive?” She sounded dubious.
“She told me she could handle it.” And he trusted the woman. “Here’s a burner… All your calls are already forwarded to this.”
“And the FBI doesn’t know about this one?”
He shot her a sidelong glance. “Please.”
She held up her hands in mock surrender. “I was just asking.”
“I wasn’t sure if they had a warrant to track you, so…” He lifted a shoulder, glanced in the rearview mirror before pulling down an alleyway behind a string of small restaurants and a dry cleaner.
A white Honda CRV was waiting.
“Let’s go.”
“Ah, we’re just leaving this?” Clover sounded unsure, but followed after him.
“Someone will pick it up.” Cormac, to be specific. As they pulled out of the alley in the CRV, he called his brother.
“Hey.” Cormac’s tone was neutral.
“SUV is there.”
“I’ll grab it in ten minutes, move it where we discussed.” His voice was oddly tight.
“Thanks… Everything okay?”
“Nope. I’m at your house cleaning up that whiteboard like you asked.”
Clover gave him a quizzical look.
“In case the FBI saw us together at the gas station,” he murmured.
Because they had massive resources, they might be able to convince a judge to get a warrant for his place—the one on record.
Normally he had nothing that anyone could use against him but he’d never cleaned up the crime board they’d set up.
“Thanks,” he said to his brother, still wondering about Cormac’s tone.
“We’re going to talk about one of the pictures you’ve got tacked up,” Cormac growled, then hung up.
“Uh, what was that about?” Clover asked, still glancing around at their surroundings as if she was afraid they’d be pulled over at any moment.
Which was understandable. “I have no idea.” He’d deal with Cormac later. Micah only wanted to deal with this right now.
“We’re going back to the safe house?” Clover asked in surprise when he turned in that direction.
“Just to pick up the women.”
“You think the FBI—”
“I honestly don’t know. If they had a warrant for your phone, they could have tracked your movements. I don’t want to risk it.”
Clover was silent as she leaned back against the seat and looked out the window.
They didn’t have to wait at all for the three women once he pulled into the garage. They must have heard the door opening, because moments later they all filed out, tossed their bags into the trunk, then got into the back seat.
“I’ll have someone bring all the food over to the new place later,” Micah said as he shut the garage door behind them.
They didn’t respond. Not that he blamed them.
They were all scared. And now that the FBI had linked Clover to Ilena, it made things even trickier. This whole situation was a powder keg just waiting to blow up if they couldn’t get a handle on it.