What had she been thinking, giving him her iPad? She’d stripped off any identifying information or apps so he couldn’t get far. And she’d given it that ridiculous password to keep up with the persona of the clueless camper.
In truth, she’d intended to simply give him the tablet and drive away.
But he was coming back.
No, no…She needed to go back to being a ghost.Don’t give in to a pair of blue eyes, Nimue.She was smarter than this.
She ignored the uncomfortable pressure that squeezed her chest, pulled her dark hair back into a loose bun, and set to work securing everything for the move. With a few clicks, the hum of her laptop fans stopped, and she laid the monitor flat before securing it with a strap. At least she’d visited the fill and dump station yesterday, so she’d be good for a while. She collected her outside camera, secured everything, and headed out, on her way to her first camping spot, near the overlook. She would grab her cameras and move on.
She’d just turned off the main stretch when the phone rang and Emberly’s face popped up on the screen. Nimue accepted the call, then tapped a few buttons to ensure that no one could tap into the feed.
“Morning, Em.” She propped the phone on the dash, Emberly’s voice filling the cab on speaker.
“What’s the status on Liam?” Emberly asked, her tone heavy with concern.
Nimue’s face warmed yet again. His status this morning was looking pretty spectacular. Maybe she wouldn’t mention that.
“I erased every post that could’ve linked back to me.” Nimue navigated the bus around a bone-jarring rut. “Tagged photos, geotags, comments—all gone. No way the Bratva can trace me through them…unless the accounts repost. I’ve been checking, but so far so good.”
“Good, but you know scrubbing posts isn’t enough, Nim.” Tension threaded through Emberly’s voice. “On the off chance they saw it before you took it down, you need to keep an eye on Liam.”
Wait—what?Nimue’s grip tightened on the steering wheel. She eased the bus between towering pines but stopped farther back than she had last time. “I was just getting ready to move the bus, maybe find a different campground. In, say, Idaho.”
“No. You need to stick around and make sure the Bratva hasn’t found him.”
“Em. Watching Liam means getting closer to the village, risking exposure. I’m barely holding it together as it is.”
She killed the engine, and thick silence settled around her. The endless cycle of hiding, of running, pressed against her ribs like a vise.
Emberly sighed, the sound crackling through the speaker. “I know it’s a lot, but Bratva don’t hesitate. If Teresa is hunting you and Liam’s in her line of sight, he’s as good as dead. I’m not saying follow the guy twenty-four seven, but maybe become his friend. Enough that you ask the right questions and pick up if he’s seeing anything out of the ordinary. And hang around enough to see any shadows.”
“And then what? Knock the bad guys over the head with my laptop? Em, I’m not a Black Swan. I don’t?—”
“And then you call me. And Stein. And I hop on a plane and…Aw, I knew it was a bad idea to let you scamper off.”
“You can’t babysit me forever.”
Silence.
“Okay, listen. Fine. I’ll…stick around.” Nimue stepped out of the bus, morning air warming against her skin.
“Have you even seen him?”
“An hour ago. He took my iPad.”
“What?”
“He needed photos of kids who were where they weren’t supposed to be, and I needed an excuse after I broke into the office the other day.”
“So he trusts you. That’s a place to start. Use that to build that connection when he brings the tablet back. It’s just like establishing a field contact. The key is to get him to offer you information without giving too much up in return.”
Just what she wanted. A contact. Liam’s abs flashed through her mind again. She was pretty sure that in all the years Emberly had been a Black Swan, her field contacts hadn’t caused the same reaction.
“He has bigger problems than one lone eccentric camper. And I’m pretty sure he doesn’t trust me—he just needed what I had.”
“Well, he has solid instincts. After all, you are hiding something from him. Those instincts will serve him well if the Bratva do show up. You need to find a way to spend time with him. Build the trust, just enough for you to keep an eye on him.”
Why did being Liam’s friend put her more on edge than hiding from the Bratva? Because there was something about him that made her desperately want a real friendship.
