AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Nobody?” Leilah repeated in disbelief. “Yeah, right.”
“It’s true. Listen, you’re right. Idon’twork for Jake, so I’ll tell you what I do know. Just sit down, okay? All the pacing is making me nervous.”
Until Chelsea said it, Leilah didn’t realize she was pacing. Actually, she was prowling back and forth across the office floor like a panther or one of the other big cats Omar compared her to.
“Sorry. I move when I’m agitated,” she explained, dropping into the guest chair in front of Chelsea’s desk.
Chelsea perched on the edge of her desk. “Yeah, I noticed.”
“Okay, I’m sitting. Now talk to me. Please.”
“Ryan called not long after Jake finally got home. It was almost one in the morning. All Jake told me was that Ryan’s car blew up when he used the remote starter. It was only a few minutes after you and Omar left.”
“That much they told me.”
Chelsea nodded. “Jake asked me to put together a bag for Ryan and then left to pick him up.”
“What kind of bag?”
“Essentials—clothes, food, toiletries. I charged one of the clean burner phones that Jake keeps in his office and programmed everyone’s numbers into it. Yours, too, of course.”
“Wait. Back up. Your man has a cache of burners at his home office?”
“Among other things. What can I say? He has an unusual job.” She gave Leilah a little shrug.
“Huh. Okay, go on.”
“I put on some coffee and got some snacks ready. High-protein stuff that would fuel him for a while. When the guys arrived, we got some food and coffee into Ryan, and then sent him on his way.”
“How?”
“How?” she repeated.
“His Accord is a charred husk of metal. What’s he driving?”
“Oh, my Subaru.”
“And you and Jake honestly don’t know where he went?”
Chelsea shook her head thoughtfully. “I don’t think Jake wanted to know. And he doesn’t want you to know anything because whoever’s trying to kill Ryan might try to get to him through you. The more you know, the more danger you’re in.”
Leilah narrowed her eyes. “Then why are you filling me in?”
“Well, for one, because you came busting into my place of business like your hair was on fire. But, more than that, Jake did this to me, remember? When you found that tracker in my key fob, he told everyone not to tell me.”
She did remember. “Right.”
“Andyoutold me.”
“Because I don’t work for Jake West either.”
“That and because you knew I had the right to know. Look, I love Jake, obviously. He genuinely means well. But he’s wrong about what people—civilians like us—can and can’t handle. And I’ll tell you something else, I got the very strong sense that Ryan wanted me to tell you what I could.”
The fist of anger gripping Leilah’s chest loosened. “Really?” Leilah blinked back the tears that threatened to fall.
“Really,” Chelsea assured her with a gentle smile.
“And you don’t haveanyidea where he went?”
