AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Yeah, but I don’t get it. Are you in some kind of trouble?”
“I can’t talk about it now, but hopefully I’ll be back soon.”
“Hopefully? You mean you might not be? Where are you?”
“At a motel, but listen to me. Just stay there for now, okay?”
“Where’s Sophie?”
“Meghan’s looking after her for me. Monitor things, won’t you? And if…” My breath catches in my throat. “If something happens, I’ve got a file in my desk drawer. It says what I want to happen to Sophie. You remember saying you’d look after her if I died? You remember that, right?”
“Shit, Clarissa. What’s going on? Why are you talking about dying?”
“I promise I’ll tell you everything soon. Just, if I’m not back by tomorrow night, dig out that file, okay?”
“Okay, I got it. Please, you’re scaring me right now. Talk to me.”
“I’ve got to go. Someone’s knocking on the door. Speak to you soon.”
I hang up, crossing to the motel bedroom door and almost opening it. Then the sheer stupidity of that hits me. “Who is it?” I shout through, expecting to hear Jack’s voice coming back to me.
“Open up,” a man’s voice says. “FBI. Don’t make me break it down.”
“You got ID?”
“Open the door, Clarissa. Last chance.”
I unlock it, peering out. “ID?”
He flashes me his wallet, holding the card up to my face. “Agent Johnson. I’m here to take you into protective custody.”
“What for?”
“We believe someone has taken a contract out on your life. We need you alive so you can identify the hitman when he comes. All you’ve got to do is sit in the parking lot with me and when he turns up, tell me it’s him. We’ll do the rest.”
“How do you know all this?”
“We haven’t got time to talk about this here. He could arrive anytime. Come with me now.”
He pushes the door open. “Anyone else here with you?”
“Just me.”
“Need to pack anything?”
“Just my phone.”
“Leave it there.”
“What, why?”
“Got a tracker in it. That’s how our suspect knows where you are. He’ll think you’re still in the motel room. When he gets here, we take him out.”
“Are you going to kill him?”
“Not if we can help it. We need him in custody, so the streets are safe. He’s killed a lot of people, Miss Marino. Jack Greene’s one of the sickest bastards it’s ever been my misfortune to track down. Now we got to move. He’s due here any minute. Come on.”
He ushers me down the hall and out into the parking lot. A plain looking blue van is sitting at the far end of the lot, the first light of dawn hitting it as we climb in the front.
