“Burner flip? Or burner iPhone?” Aubs asks.
“Flip,” Wyatt and I answer at the same time.
“Fuck. Calling Ryder now.” She hangs up, and Wyatt stands beside my car, staring at me.
“What the fuck is going on?”
“My father wants you dead, Wyatt. Dead like me.” I stare at him as the words sink in.
“Dead?”
“You’re the reason he was arrested. You’re the one who put him in jail. He knows Ryder talked to you, and I need to make sure he’s okay too.” She gets in her car. “Meet me at the inn. I need to hide my car somewhere.”
“Hide your…” Looking around us and the empty parking lot, I turn back to her. “What the hell is happening? I need you to slow the fuck down.”
Stepping into her space, I turn her in the driver’s seat and face her toward me before leaning in to grasp her face in my hands. “Ryder was the one...”
“No! He wasn’t! Ryder uses iPhones, not flip phones for burners. Flips are Daddy’s thing. Ryder would have sent it to Aubs, not to you at the police station. Ryder is careful. He left me and Aubrey with very specific instructions for both of us.Nothing would make him deviate from those unless he told us first. We have a code. It’s the only way we survived growing up with Hugh Chiave.”
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to. Who the fuck did I talk to? I called the same number I talked to Ryder on before. Then a Damon called me? Said he was the right-hand man for Ryder.” I step back, shaking my head, ready to freak the fuck out.
“D would never call himself the right-hand man. He’s his best friend. They’re in this together. There is no hierarchy with them. I don’t know who you spoke to. I just know it wasn’t my brother. Did you say anything about me?”
I wrack my brain trying to remember what I said. “No. I didn’t. I just said I know everything, and whoever is pretending to be Damon said that the target is secure.”
Her face pales. “Fuck. I don’t know which one of us is the target.”
“What do we do now?” I fucking hate this. I can’t fix it. I don’t know what to do in this situation.
“I need to get rid of my car. Portland airport. That was the plan. Ryder will pick it up when he can. I need you to follow me.”
“Okay. I need to change out the cruiser for my own truck.”
“No. The cruiser is better. Hugh won’t try shit if the cops are following me. But wait. Damn it, that will draw too much attention at the airport. The plan was always for me to go in and book the next flight. Is there someone you can trust at the station?”
“You can’t drive that car. You need to go to the inn with Mom and Pops. I’ll get rid of it. We can trust the chief. What do you need from him?”
She closes the door to the truck, pacing back and forth around her car. “I know. Do you have an impound lot?”
“We don’t, but Winter Harbor would. They’re between all the smaller towns with a little more land, so we use their impoundlot for larger evidence storage.” I grip her shoulders. I can’t take the pacing anymore.
“Okay, good. Let’s go.” She takes off toward my cruiser, and I do all I can to run after her. “You have to sit in the back.”
I’m expecting an argument, but I don’t get one. She slips into the back without a word.
Me:I need to talk to you in five minutes. Be in your office. I’m coming through the back with someone, and it needs to be me and you only. No one else.
Chief:I’m here. This sounds serious. Are you sure we can handle it together?
Me:For now we have to. I don’t know who we can trust.
Next I text Cooper.
Me:I need Kane at my house within the hour.
Cooper:What the fuck is going on?
Me:Don’t know. But I know I need Kane and a badass security system upgrade at my house right now. I don’t think mine will cut it.
