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Gideon nodded. “The business is doing well -- we have to turn jobs away because we can’t hire and train people fast enough. And they made the safe house comfortable in case someone was stuck here for a while. We’ll be fine here.”
She and Gideon would be together twenty-four seven. She drew a steadying breath. Was that a good thing? Or a bad thing?
Alex doubted Gideon would want to be stuck in this cabin with her for God knew how long. But here they were.
She felt Gideon’s gaze on her. Taking a deep breath, she turned to face him.
He held her gaze for a moment, then gestured at the suitcases next to the dressers. “You want to make sure you have everything? And we might as well put our stuff in the dressers. Who knows how long…” He cleared his throat. “I’m sure Mel and Devlin will get this straightened out quickly, but no point living out of a suitcase.”
God, could this be any more awkward? If they’d come here before her colossal blunder yesterday, they’d probably be in one of those beds right now.
“Yeah, good idea,” she said. “Which bed do you want?”
She glanced at him and saw the answer in his eyes. The one you’re in. But when he caught her watching him, the shutters came down. His expression was once more unreadable.
“The one closest to the door,” he said after a long moment.
She nodded and moved to the other bed, the one closer to the living room. Heaving her suitcase onto the bed, she checked and found everything there.
She frowned as she emptied her suitcase. The bottom was lined with bricks of hundred-dollar bills. Far more than she’d taken from Jerry’s safe.
Gideon?” she called, staring at the money.
He turned to face her. “Yeah?”
“C’mere. Take a look at this.”
When he rounded the bed to stand beside her, he stared at the stacks of money. “You took that much money out of Trotter’s safe?”
“Hell, no,” she retorted. “I took about one of those stacks. I have no idea where the rest came from.”
Gideon picked one up. Flipped through it and smiled as he tossed it onto the bed. “Mel loves tricks.” He picked up another pack from the suitcase and handed it to her. “Flip through that one.”
When she did, she realized that there was a hundred dollar bill on the top and the bottom of the stack, but the rest were made of newsprint. It was roughly the same color as the edges of the bills. She glanced at Gideon and smiled. “She made it look like these bricks were all money. And that I’d taken a lot more than I had.”
Gideon smiled back. “Yeah. If we get into a situation where we have to turn over the money, they’ll think they’re getting a big payoff. Might be enough to buy us some time to take action.”
Her tote bag was beneath the fake money bundles. She stacked the bundles inside, and they barely fit. The rest of Jerry’s money was fastened together with a rubber band, and she found it in the outside pocket of the suitcase with her own stacks of money and the files from Jerry’s safe.
“You’ve got a lot of cash there,” Gideon said, no inflection in his voice.
“I had it in my office safe,” she said. “I took it out of the bank during a previous case. My client threatened to kill me if the verdict didn’t go his way. I took fifty thousand dollars out of my account, bought a gun and kept it all in my safe. Just in case. Just in case came the day after I heard you talking to Jerry. When I snuck into the house after Jerry left for the gym, I got some clothes, my money and gun, Jerry’s money and files, and took off.”
“And what happened with that old case?” Gideon asked.
“I’d recorded him, and the judge declared a mistrial. Threw him in jail until the next trial. Where I will not be representing him.”
Gideon smiled. “You’re pretty damn smart.”
Alex shrugged one shoulder. “I record a lot of my clients. It’s not necessary for most of them, but you never know.”
She left her money and the rest of Jerry’s in the front pocket of her suitcase, along with the files, put her clothes in the dresser and her toiletry bag on top of it. Then she closed the suitcase, zipped the pocket and set it in the corner.
Across from her, Gideon unpacked his suitcase quickly and dumped everything in drawers. As she worked, he headed for the door. Shoved his arms into the larger black vest, then shrugged his jacket on over it. Pulled on his hat and boots, then slid his gun into the jacket pocket. “I’m going to check things out. Scout around the cabin, see what’s close by. Look for any signs anyone’s been around. Lock the door behind me. And keep your gun with you.”
Without waiting for her to answer, he opened the door and stepped outside. Pulled it closed behind him.
Was a recon walk around the area necessary? Or did he just want to get away from the tension in the cabin? She had no idea.
