Chapter 42
Pierce
Ijerk my hand from the computer as if it burned me.
That’s why Mr. Smith never responded to my emails in Mexico. Why he—she—never showed.
I pick up the laptop and run into the kitchen, dropping it on the counter, making Megan jump, again. “Whose laptop is this?”
She looks at it. “Darren’s, but I think Thea has been using it until she can afford a new one.”
Thea sent me those emails.
No.
Even as I deny it, the pieces click into place like a fully loaded gun.
She found the formula, but she didn’t want to give it to the man who screwed over her family. So she was bringing it to me. Then she was drugged on the plane and forgot all about it and her plan. Or… she made that up and was playing me. To what gain?
If the first option is correct, and I hope it is, that means the drive has to be here. Unless she had another memory, and that’s where she’s gone—to fetch the drive and take it to someone else. A buyer?
How did she come to be in contact with me? I restore the emails she threw in the trash, confirming what I know. She was in contact with the same cryptic email that sent me the job details. I click on the last email and read the short message.
I have found the Russian doctor. I won’t tell you details for your safety, but you should be at the airport at 12:30 a.m. on the 19th. Pierce will keep you and your secret safe.
The email is unsigned, but the way they referred to me by my first name speaks of familiarity. Someone who knows me, knew I would protect her. I can’t let her down.
The drive was on Thea the whole time. It had to be. In her bag… somewhere. All those times I thought people were coming after me, I was wrong.
They were after her.
Someone drugged her on the plane to get that drive, but they didn’t find it. So they followed her to the cafe and stole her purse.
Why was she at the cafe if she’d forgotten about the meeting?
I rip my mind out of the traitorous hole it’s going down, knowing it will only leave me hurt.
I take a mental step back, examining the situation by the facts and not my heart.
I saw the toxicology report. Thea was drugged.
She forgot she set up the meeting time, but in her subconscious she knew she was supposed to be there and wandered in that direction.
I saw Cooper at the cafe and thought he was Mr. Smith. He only had copies of the emails, not the domain. He knew the meeting time, place, and who would be receiving the drive. Not who was passing it off.
SciTech sent Henry after it, and he ended up dead. So who killed him, and how many people are after this drive?
I mutter a curse.
Now Thea is at SciTech, trying to get something she already has. Or had. If it was in her purse it’s long gone, but if it wasn’t…
I don’t register my feet on the stairs until I’m outside Thea’s room kicking down the door. Wood splinters the frame as the door collapses on top of the knocked over dresser. I mutter an apology to the empty hall. I’ll fix it later.
Her suitcase sits fully packed beside her bed.
I unzip the large pocket and dump everything onto her mattress.
She wouldn’t have put it in her clothes; it would have been lost. I run my hands up and down the thick fabric sides.
Then down the back. A small hole, but nothing inside.
If it was there, she removed it. I unzip the front flap, dumping the contents of the pocket.
A few shells fall to the duvet cover, far less than I thought she’d bring home. I pick up the black one.
It’s one of a kind, just like you.
I put it down and keep searching, getting everything out of the pockets. It has to be here. I rip the fabric apart, apologizing to her in my head as I do, and shove my hand inside.
Nothing.
I move onto the contents of her makeup bag. My hands get covered in brown stuff, but there’s no drive.
Where did she put it?
I knock something to the floor, and it lands with a thump. The book she insisted she was going to read, but never got past the first page. It was always close to her. I thought because it was her aunt’s, but…
I examine it. Nothing in the pages. I tear off the dust jacket. There’s the slightest indent in the bottom spine of the book. Could it fit in there?
She’s going to kill me if I’m wrong.
I rip the book in half. Particles of paper burst through the air, and I blow them away from my face.
Something plinks to the floor.
A micro-SD card.
Thea had it all this time.
Sneaky woman.
What was she planning to do with it? Sell it to the highest bidder? Her dad is out of money.
There’s a multitude of feelings happening in my chest, and having run from all emotions for so long, they’re discomforting. I feel slighted, like she used me. Embarrassed because I opened up so much to her.
An image of Thea laughing with her father comes to mind. The words she spoke to me in the car when I asked if she’d still trust me if I’d committed treason.
“I would assume you had a good reason for it.”
If she played me, I have to believe she had a good reason.
If not, well, it will be quite the story for therapy later.
She trusts me; I need to trust her. The Thea I know is terrified of doing something bad. It’s the people here who want this drive, and she didn’t want to hand it over. Because it’s something bad. Why would her father make a dangerous drug?
Maybe he didn’t intentionally, but all drugs have negative side effects.
I rush to the computer, ready to finally understand.
At least now that I have the formula, she may finally be safe.