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“Okay, I’ve got two things for you.” She strode back into the room, tapping on her phone’s screen with her thumb. “One is White’s current location.”
I jolted to my feet, instantly charged. Thrumming with cold, impatient eagerness. “Where?”
She raised a finger at me, stare still on her phone, thumb still tapping at it. “The other is a name. A contact.”
“Whose?”
An electronic whoosh filled the air a second before my phone vibrated with an incoming message from within my tuxedo hip pocket.
“An old friend of mine,” she said, touching my wrist with a halting hand as I reached into my pocket to retrieve my phone. An unreadable expression tightened her face as her grip on my wrist grew firmer. “He’s…different. Unpredictable and dangerous. But very much on the right side of things. He’s definitely one of the good guys, even if he doesn’t seem to be. When you get to where White is, send him this message: ‘Are you available for puppy pre-school classes?’”
I blinked.
She released my wrist, but I didn’t pull my phone out. She didn’t want me to do so now, so I wouldn’t. “Send that message, and then wait thirty minutes,” she said.
“And then what?”
A slow smile spread her lips, even as an icy menace burned in her eyes. “And then go have fun with your new friend.”
I frowned again. “You’re not coming?”
Turning away, she closed her laptop and tucked it under her arm. “I…have to sit this one out.” Regret threaded through the words, and something like anger.
I wanted to ask why but didn’t. When it came to Lila’s movements and actions, I knew when to push it and when not to.
She looked out for me like I was her son, had done for years, but I’d never been foolish enough to believe my interaction with her was the be-all and end-all of her life. I wasn’t even the tip of Lila’s iceberg.
“But don’t worry,” she said, turning back to me, “you’ll be in good hands. I’m going to check in with Fluffy and Groot now, and then I have to…” She trailed off for a moment. “I have to get back to work.”
I studied her.
She didn’t look scared. She looked pissed off.
“You’ve been told not to go anywhere near White, haven’t you?”
Her jaw bunched. “This is very important, Lucas. Very important. If anyone apart from the name I just sent you says they know me, that they’re friends of mine, don’t trust them. Don’t believe them. If you can, get away from them immediately. Blue should make sure everything’s okay, but if he’s not there, do what you have to do to get away. Do you understand?”
The knot that had taken up residence in my gut since Ronnie’s abduction twisted. “What the fuck is going on, Lila?”
She let out a slow, wobbly sigh. “Think of White as a cancer that has metastasized to every part of the body, and the body is pretty much every aspect of government.”
Ah, fuck.
Her gaze drilled into mine for a moment, and then she hugged me. Fucking hugged me. “I’ve got some tidying up to do, but I’ll see you on the other side of this, I promise.”
She stepped back, squeezed my shoulders once, and strode from the suite.
I stood motionless, gut churning, throat tight, and then pulled my phone from my hip pocket. Stared at its screen.
Lila’s contact’s name was Tacitus “Tac” Kole.
And Aloysius White was a five-hour drive north of where I was.
Looks like I needed to find myself a fast bike. Now.
