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She exited the door to the main area of the bank and turned toward Dorothy’s desk. That was when she saw them.
A man and a woman in dark suits were talking to Dorothy, whose eyes were bugging out of her face. They bugged out even farther when she caught sight of Claire. Dorothy pointed at her and the man and woman turned in unison.
A chill zipped down her spine and her step faltered.
The two feds pivoted toward her, the female reaching inside her jacket.
A flood of adrenaline surged through her. She clasped the purse tighter, wrapping her arms around the money and the two thumb drives still inside. Her long stride got longer. She put her head down and made a beeline for the door.
“Ms. Chadwick,” the woman called behind her.
Claire shoved through the glass doors and took off down the sidewalk toward the car. Mike must’ve seen her in the rearview mirror because the engine growled to life at her approach.
“Ms. Chadwick, stop.” This time it was the male who yelled after her, but she had no intention of stopping for him, either.
Despite her high-heeled boots, she took off in a run, extending her hand in readiness for the door handle. When her fingers tucked around the cold metal of the handle, she could hear the flurry of someone sprinting behind her.
She tugged open the door and scrambled inside the car. The man had caught up with her and made a grab for her coat as it flew out behind her.
“Claire?” Mike’s voice gave her strength and purpose.
“Go, Mike! Just go!”
That was all he needed from her. No questions, no answers.
He floored the gas pedal and the car lurched away from the curb, flinging the door open and shedding the government man hanging on to it.
Chapter Seven
The familiar streets of Brooktown passed by in a blur. Mike had slowed the car down a few blocks past the bank to give Claire a chance to close the door and loosen her death grip on the seat.
Now only their heavy breathing filled the silence between them as Mike maneuvered through the streets at high speed. His gaze darted between his rearview and side mirrors, and then he suddenly screeched to a stop before the bridge.
He charged out of the car, disappeared in the front and then popped up holding the tracking device.
He stepped away from the car and chucked the device into the water. Then they sped across the bridge.
After another five miles or so, he balanced his palms on top of the steering wheel and flexed his fingers. “What happened back there?”
“I opened my safe deposit box to put the drives back and found this.” She unzipped her bag, plunged her hand inside and withdrew the packets of neatly stacked bills. “Money.”
Mike swore. “How much is it?”
“I didn’t stop to count it, but there are six stacks of varying denominations.”
“So, your natural response was to stuff the cash in your bag and run from the FBI?”
She jerked her head around. “I was scared. How do I know those two aren’t working for Spencer?”
“We don’t know anything at this point. I saw them enter the bank, and it gave me pause. In fact, it set off low-level alarm bells in my head.”
“Exactly.” She formed her fingers into a gun and pointed at him. “When I discovered the money, I freaked out. How could a bank make a mistake like that? I didn’t want to leave the stacks in there for one minute and there were no bags in the room, so I put the bundles in my bag, and I was going to bring them to Dorothy.”
“Who’s Dorothy?”
“She’s the bank employee who has the safe deposit box keys.” She dropped the money in her lap as Dorothy’s words flashed across her mind. “Mike?”
“What is it? Do you think Dorothy put it there?”
“No, but she made a comment that didn’t make sense to me at the time. She mentioned something about how she remembered my box number because she’d just opened it earlier this morning. I thought she was confused, since I’d been in yesterday, not this morning.”
He picked up on her thought. “Unless she opened your box for someone else this morning.”
“She can’t do that, can she?”
“If that someone has a key, she can. Anyone can get into a safe deposit box with the right key and the box number.”
