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“But X won’t be there,” Manny added, “because it would be fucking stupid otherwise.”
“Thank you,” Cicely muttered.
Xavier nodded eagerly. “He wanted to follow you here, Burke. To us. So maybe after you talk to the lady again, you let them follow you. Try to lose them, so they’re not suspicious, but let them follow you to somewhere that isn’t here. Have a bunch of cops waiting for them. Catch them that way. I mean, they probably will send underlings to get me, but at least you’ll have someone to question.”
André tilted his head, considering. “My boss might go for that. We might even get an undercover officer that looks like you, Xavier, to ride with Burke. That way you stay safe.”
“Gee, thanks,” Burke said dryly. “I don’t need to stay safe.”
André grinned. “No problem. Let me work on it. The place would have to have some connection to Burke for them to buy the location.”
“Have him rent an Airbnb somewhere,” Willa Mae suggested. “If they’re watching Burke that closely, they may have an alert on his cards. Especially if one or more of ‘them’ is NOPD.”
André sobered. “True enough. I like that idea, ma’am. Let me work on it tonight. I’ll get back with you later.” He rose but paused when Molly held up her hand.
Her phone was buzzing with an incoming call from Steven Thatcher. “Hold on. This is my old boss. He said he’d check the address the woman gave in South Carolina.” She tapped her phone and held the phone to her ear. “Steven?”
“It’s not good,” he said.
She hadn’t thought it would be. “Can I put you on speaker? My group is here with me.” She did, then held the phone so that they could hear. “This is my old boss, Special Agent Steven Thatcher.”
“Hey, everyone,” Steven said. “The short version—we found the door ajar and a bullet hole in the window. We announced ourselves and entered. Then the place blew up.”
Holy shit.Everyone gasped, including Molly. “Was anyone hurt?” she asked.
“My newbie was thrown to the ground. She has a mild concussion, but she’ll be okay. The good thing is that she kind of resembles you, Molly. Not a ringer, but someone could mistake her for you if they were watching from far enough away. So we said it was you, that you had come to South Carolina to check it out and I’d gone along as backup. You’re in serious but stable condition and there’s an officer standing guard at your door in the hospital. Sorry. I had to think fast. But hopefully it’ll give you some cover for a little while.”
Molly blinked, stunned. Her first thought was for Chelsea. “I need to call my sister in case someone informs her as next of kin. She’ll be beside herself with worry.”
“Already called her,” Steven assured her. “She’s good. But you need to lay low for a while.”
“We’re doing that anyway,” she said. “Too many people are trying to kill us.”
Someone said something in the background, and Steven told them that he’d be right with them. “Molly, I gotta go. I’ll be in touch when I have something I can share from the crime scene. Stay safe, y’hear?”
“You, too. Thanks, Steven.” She ended the call and fixed her gaze on Burke. “That bomb was meant for me.”
Gabe had grown even paler. “Fuck,” he whispered.
Burke nodded grimly. “They take you out and Gabe would be alone. Or if he’d gone with you, he’d be hurt, too.”
The thought of Gabe being injured made her chest hurt. “Xavier’s bait plan just got better,” she said. “And it gives you another reason to contact her—you can tell her that her house was booby-trapped in case she came back. Warn her that she’s still in danger. I mean, we know she was leading us to a trap, but we don’t have to let her know that we know.”
“I agree,” Burke said. “Xavier’s bait plan is plan A.”
“My plan,” Carlos muttered under his breath, and Manny elbowed him. “Ouch!”
Molly shook her head although she had to admit to being a little bit grateful that Carlos was trying to lighten the mood. “The Carlos-Xavier-Manny-and-Willa-Mae plan, then.”
Cicely turned to Burke. “You won’t put Xavier in harm’s way, will you?”
“Not if I can help it,” Burke promised. “Molly and Gabe, are you staying here tonight?”
Molly shook her head. “Gabe, you can, but I want to go home. If they came after DeShawn because he’s connected to André and actually left a bomb in South Carolina for me, I don’t want my sister targeted.”
“Lucien is still there with her,” Burke said.
“I know and I trust him, but I still want to go home.” Don’t fight me on this, Burke. Please.
