“Are you in danger?”
“Not much, just helping a key witness hide out. I just want to make sure they can’t track you down and use you to get to me or my witness.”
“Harley, I’m sure that I’m safe here.”
“Mom, please. Just promise me. Empty out the savings account and use cash. Get out of town and go somewhere where there’s a lot of people. How about that casino you’re always talking about? Maybe take Keith and you guys have a nice getaway.” Harley mentioned his mom’s new husband. He was an ex-marine—granted, he’d been retired for about fifteen years, but he was still someone who could help keep her safe.
“I don’t need your money for that.” Harley heard some rustling around and Keith’s voice came through the phone.
“Everything all right, son?” Harley cringed. He hated it when Keith called him that. Not because he had anything against him—Keith was a good man—but because it had been what his own dad had called him.
“Yeah, like I told mom, I’m needing to go into hiding for a little while with a witness. I need you two to get out of town and use the cash I have stored in that savings account I gave mom.”
“So cards can’t be traced.”
“Yes. Please keep her safe, Keith.”
“I will.”
“Can I talk to her again?”
More rustling and then his mom came back on the line. “Harley, you had better stay safe.”
“I will. I told you, Mom, I’m just helping keep someone else out of trouble.”
“All right. We’ve been wanting to get out of town anyways. I love you, Harley.”
“Love you too, Mom.”
The line went dead, and Harley rested his forehead against the steering wheel. His mom would be safe, Keith would see to it. Now he just needed to keep himself and Norah alive long enough to figure out what in the hell was going on.
“Your mom is okay?” He barely heard her, and from the way she recoiled in her seat, the frustration and anger he felt was plastered all over his face.
“Yeah, she’s fine. She and my stepdad are going to go out of town for a while.” He rubbed his hand over his face. “Listen, I need you to think really hard about what it was they could have been looking for. Did Clayton ever give you any files? A thumb drive? Anything at all that someone might want?”
“No. Other than flowers when we first started dating, the only thing he gave me was a bracelet. It was expensive, so I guess it’s possible that’s what they were looking for.”
Harley shook his head. “No, they weren’t jewelry thieves.”
“Then what could they have wanted?”
Harley put the car in drive and headed back towards the safe house. He had no damn clue, but he had better find out. He could call Tom from there and make a plan. His phone rang, and he looked at the screen. The man’s ears must have been burning.
“Andrews.”
“Harley.”
He heard Tom Hewitt let out a breath when he answered. Tom had been his dad’s best friend growing up, and Harley had always seen him as an uncle. Tom took his father’s company over, and when Seattle PD had fired Harley for beating up his mom’s abusive ex, Tom had brought him on.
“Damn, it’s good to hear your voice, boy! Where ya been?”
“I had to take cover for the night.”
“Pretty good cover too, I guess. No one has seen you since the shooting. I’ve been scrambling around all day trying to make sure you were alive and not lying unidentified in some morgue somewhere.”
“Sorry about that. I left my cell in the car with the battery out and only had my burner on me so I could get in contact with Marshall and Lang.”
“No need to apologize, I understand. I’m just glad you’re all right. I heard about Matthews.”
“Yeah. I’m sorry, I should have—”
“Let me stop you right there, Harley. No need to apologize. Shit happens. Marshall said you got the fiancée, though?”
“Yeah, I managed to pull her out of the way. Two thugs just tried to snag her at her apartment also. What’s going on?”
“Hell if I know. Seems we have ourselves the beginning of some sort of shit storm. Tell me she knows something at least?”
“I thought so at first, but now I’m not so sure.” Harley stole a glance at Norah, who stared blankly out the window. “I was actually going to call you. I have no idea what our next move should be. She’s obviously not safe, and I can’t just hide and wait for someone to find her.”
“Where are you now?”
“In route back to the safe house.”
“Why don’t you come here? You two will be safe, and we can figure out what to do next.”
“Sounds good, we’ll be there in twenty.” Harley hung up the phone and tossed it into the center console.
“Where are we going?”
“My office. You will be safe there while we try and put together the pieces of this fucking puzzle.”
Norah nodded and looked back out the window.
6
When Norah walked through the doorway of Hewitt and Hewitt, her mouth fell open. The foyer was larger than her apartment building, and the floors were a shiny tan tile with white walls to complement. A long white desk spanned over half of the bottom floor, and seated behind it were three gorgeous blondes. Not what she expected for the office of mercenaries, which she had decided was basically what Harley was.
The blondes answered phone call after phone call, and each had a fake smile plastered on her beautiful face. She tried to bite back the strange jealousy she felt when their smiles turned genuine in Harley’s direction.
Norah forced herself to refocus, and turned her attention back on the room. Windows lined the walls, letting in a natural light that seemed to bathe the lobby. It was calmer than she had expected. She had expected, she admitted to herself, a dark, dreary room with one-way interrogation windows and jail cells.
“They have brochures with pictures over there,” Harley said, a smug smile on his face. He looked genuinely amused and more relaxed than she had seen him in their short time together.
“It’s just so large, so open. I hadn’t been expecting it.”
“You expected jail cells?”
“Something like that.”
Harley laughed softly and then turned to the tall man in the security uniform. “We’re here to see Tom.
The man nodded. “Head on back, he’s expecting you.”
Norah followed Harley, a sinking feeling setting in when she walked out of the large, open area and into a hallway that felt more like a tunnel. She pushed the feeling aside and continued to follow Harley, moving close enough to him that when he stopped in front of a door, she ran into him.
“You okay?” He turned and steadied her with hands on her shoulders. Heat pushed through the chill where he touched, and she didn’t want him to let go.
“Yes, sorry. I just didn’t want to get lost. This place is like a maze.”
“No problem. I’ll be with you the whole time, okay? Everything will be fine, Miss McNamara. Tom will know what to do.”