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“Not necessarily,” Riley said. “Nieves could have left on her own.”
“She wouldn’t leave Le—” I stopped.
Nieves was first and foremost a mercenary. She might very well leave her sister. Sure, she’d hightailed it out of Vegas as soon as she’d heard about Leta being hospitalized, but that also meant she got to leave before giving me the information I was trying to pry out of her.
“Except,” Riley continued, “leaving her purse still doesn’t make sense.”
“Unless she wanted us to think she’d been taken.”
“True.” My sister paused a moment. Then, “Someone still needs to talk to Leta. In person. Not over the phone. Someone could be standing over her telling her what to say.”
“Good point.” And one I hadn’t thought of, because I’d been too focused on Zee. “In fact, Nieves might not be missing at all. She probably isn’t, as I have top notch security on both of them. I don’t want you going there, sis. She’s up to something.”
“I’ll be fine. Matt’ll be with me, and we’ll have security as well.”
“Yeah…” Still, I didn’t like it. Matt was a great guy, but he was a country boy with a big heart who had no idea what we were dealing with.
“Reid?”
“I’m here.” I sighed into the phone. “Don’t go.”
“I think I already said—”
“Don’t. You may have a fake ID, but Matt doesn’t, and he’s already been linked to you. He’s your husband. Where he is, people will look for you, and you’re not allowed to leave New York.”
“I’ll go alone, then.”
I held back a scoff. “Did I not just say you can’t leave New York? Besides, Matt won’t allow that, and neither will I.”
“Yeah? Neither one of you is my boss.”
“We don’t claim to be. Does he even know about this plan of yours?”
A pause.
“Well…?”
“No,” she finally said. “Not yet.”
“I rest my case.”
“Someone needs to get out there,” she said. “Soon.”
“Agreed. I’ll take care of it.”
She sighed. “Fine.”
“We’ll keep you in the loop, sis. I promise.”
“You’d better.” She ended the call with a short “bye.”
Damn. If only Steve could get me those papers sooner, I’d have time to do a hop to Helena and deal with Nieves and Leta myself.
But he couldn’t.
I sighed again.
Since when did I let something as silly as no ID stop me from doing something?
Since the fourth of never.
I quickly called Rock. “We’re going to Helena.”
“Say what?”
“Yeah. You and me. It’s on the way to the Pacific, anyway. Sort of. If we head north.”
“Why?”
“Because Riley has this ridiculous idea that she and Matt are going to talk to Leta. I talked her out of it, thank God, but she’s right about one thing. We need to deal with them.”
“I agree. Helena it is, then. But how?”
“Steve’ll have our papers in twenty-four hours. He said he can’t do twelve.”
“Pay him double.”
“This is the best he can do.”
“Give me his number. We’ll see about that.”
“Dude, I—”
“Just give me the number, Reid.”
I rattled off the number into the burner phone.
“I’ll call you back,” Rock said.
My heart thumped against my sternum. Rock wouldn’t be able to do this. No one could. Twenty-four hours was a godsend.
A few minutes later, though, Rock’s burner number appeared on my burner. “Yeah?”
“Done,” he said. “They’ll be couriered over within the hour.”
My mouth dropped open. “What the hell did you have to give him?”
Silence for a moment. Then Rock’s voice.
“You don’t want to know.”
20
Zee
I awoke again.
This time, I could see clearly. I was in a bedroom. Sort of. It was a room with a bed, anyway. The mattress was comfortable, and the blanket was soft and warm, though I didn’t need it. The room was hot. Really hot. My skin was sticky and clammy.
I sat up. A window broke into the wall across from the bed. Sunshine streamed in. The glass was etched, so I couldn’t see out and no one could see in. A table sat next to the bed, and on it, a pitcher of water and a now empty glass.
The woman. Diamond. She’d said to call her Diamond.
Interesting name.
I got up. My legs were shaky, but they worked now, thank goodness. I remembered well the feeling of trying to reach for the water but I couldn’t make my arm move. Whatever I’d been given was leaving my system now. Of course, someone might come in and force more of it into me.
Two doors. I walked toward one and touched the knob. Locked. The other, on an adjacent wall, was unlocked. A toilet, sink, and shower. Stocked, too. A toothbrush and toothpaste. Soap and shampoo.
We mean you no harm.
Diamond’s words. Perhaps they were true. Why else would they leave me personal items? Plus, I was still clothed. Not naked as I’d been when I’d awoken in the concrete room in the sub-basement of the Wolfe building.
Wolfe building.
Reid.
Was Reid looking for me? Or was it good riddance?
