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“Shit.”
“Exactly…”
“So, whoever it is knows we have it and knows that even on the black market the necklace is worth more than the bounty on my head. A bounty we didn’t know about until Fletch told me about it.”
“I was thinking the same thing. Do you think it’s Fletch?”
Claire shook her head. “I doubt it. I don’t think he’d blackmail me, and he sure as hell wouldn’t take stolen property. The only way he might even threaten to out me is if he was trying to get the necklace back, as his company was hired to protect it. Even if he was trying to save me from myself and break our network apart, I can’t see him threatening me. I just can’t see it being him.”
“I agree. Fletcher seems like a pretty straight arrow. I just can’t see him doing that, and for the record I can’t see him trying to collect the bounty.”
Claire nodded. “Agreed. I think if he thought it was somebody else, he’d be all over it, but I think there’s something between us and I don’t think he wants to harm me. It has to be either some scumbag at Lloyd’s of London or one of the other insurance agencies—somebody who has access to that information.”
“I’m scared, Claire. The note said they have evidence and if we don’t pay, they’ll out you and collect the ten million.”
“So, not only has he threatened me, but he’s also let everyone else who had access to the chatroom know that there are ten million reasons to rat us out.”
“But they don’t know our names.”
“But they’ve seen my face. No. I don’t think any of our couriers would turn on us. Like us, they’re true believers. Remember how we had to argue with them to let us even cover their expenses? No. I don’t believe they’ll turn. Someone else has somehow broken in and is looking for a big payday. Any chance it could be Fletch’s IT guy?”
“Nah. He’s a total geek; he was only a black hat hacker because he believed he was fighting the good fight. If anything, I think he’d want to help me. And the note said they have ‘evidence,’ but that could be a bluff. We have only one hundred, sixty-three hours and forty-three minutes until they blow up our world.”
“How do you know that?”
Mia turned her laptop around so Claire could see the screen. Up in the left-hand corner of the screen was a bomb with a lit fuse showing the initial time given and next to it was a stopwatch counting down the time until the blackmailer would expose them. The time shown on the bomb remained constant while the stopwatch continued to count down the seconds, minutes and hours.
Tic-Tic-Tic
CHAPTER13
CLAIRE
She sat with Mia, sipping their coffee, contemplating what to do.
“There are just so many more people who without us will never be able to recover what was stolen from them,” said Claire. “We need to find out who is behind this threat and if they have any real evidence. For all we know they simply have conjecture and suspicion. But maybe you should go to Aruba or the Amalfi Coast for a couple of months…”
“I’m not leaving you alone to deal with this,” Mia said, interrupting her.
“I would not be alone. I could always appeal to Fletch’s protective nature, throw myself at his feet and beg for mercy.”
“You suck at begging.”
Claire grinned. “True, but I got a lot better at it last night. Fletch responds positively to the word please.” Mia rolled her eyes. “Besides, and more importantly, you would still be able to support me via the internet.”
“I know you had a great time last night, but I do find it a bit suspicious that you steal the Grenadine Necklace—the only one his company had been hired to keep safe, and then we get the threat. I don’t want to burst your bubble, but guys who look like Fletch don’t usually date girls who look like us.”
Mia had a point. Could Fletch have been playing her?
“I don’t want to think that, but I also can’t say positively that it isn’t him.”
“I don’t think he has the skills…”
“But Carter does, and Carter works for him and seems pretty damn loyal. But then again, Fletch does believe in our cause, just thinks there are legal ways to do the job.”
“But there aren’t.”
“I know, but he wants to believe that in the end, right will win the day. But we know he’s wrong and that in the end, we’ll be the ones who come out on the right side of history. I think it’s more likely that he’d take me in for the bounty. Ten million dollars is a lot of money, and he did know about it.”
