“So I did this? I made this hell start all over?” I don’t know why I’m asking. I know I’m responsible.
“No. You didn’t do this. Chad did this, but I think you know that.”
“Know this? I know nothing. Nothing. I am living on the run and I didn’t even know what you knew, that my own brother was alive.”
Suddenly I’m against the wall and his hands are by my head. “Shhh. You have to be quiet.”
“I have to do a lot of things. Hide. Change my name. Lie. I have to lie a lot. Don’t lie to me, Jared.”
“Sweetheart--”
“And don’t call me sweetheart, or Lara for that matter. I’m Amy and I’m staying Amy and you’d better not be here to tell me I’m Mary or Casey or Sandy. I’m Amy.”
He stares at me for several beats and says, “Amy. I didn’t come to change your name. I came to save your life and I hope like hell, Chad’s, while I’m at it.”
“How do you even know him? Why do you care?”
He pushes off the wall, leans on the sink, his face turning all hard lines and shadows, like he doesn’t like the story he has to tell. “Back when we were at UT together, my sister was dying of cancer and the insurance wasn’t paying for all of the treatments. I can hack. I told you that, and I’m damn good at it. I started doing it for money and Chad knew. What I didn’t know was that he was in deep with some powerful rich assholes, doing some of his own dirty work.”
“What kind of dirty work?”
“Oil guys is all I know. Your dad got involved and got nervous. Chad took over and formed his Underground of followers. I had a sister who had no one but me. I didn’t want to know more and he didn’t offer.”
My stomach roils with the memory of the stranger handing my father the envelope. I believe what Jared’s saying. It adds up and it feels right.
“Chad needed a job done,” he continues. “And it paid four times any job I’d done and I was getting paid well. He knew I’d keep my mouth shut and I trusted him to keep me out of his loop of people.” His voice tightens. “My sister had five more years because I did that job and Chad and I lost contact. Until the fire. He needed to make you both disappear, and like your brother did my sister, I became your guardian angel and back-up plan.”
“And the man who brought me the paperwork and money to disappear with?”
“No idea. I just created your identity.”
“And Meg?”
“Yes. And Meg.” His voice bites on her name.
“She says she’s Chad’s wife.”
He snorts. “Yeah well, I never heard about a wife. Granted I’ve talked to him all of three times in six years, but I also didn’t hear him asking me to protect his wife on that message. And Chad was a lot of things, but he isn’t someone to turn his back on responsibility, even if love was gone. He’s a man’s man. He’d protect those who count on him to the death.”
“Yes. Yes, he would.”
“I also don’t think Meg would be sticking her tongue down some guy’s throat when she thinks her husband is missing now either, would you?”
“What? What guy?”
He punches a button on his phone and hands it to me, the display showing a photo of her in an embrace with a man twenty-plus years older than her. And I don’t need a forward shot to know that he’s the same man who’d been cuddling up to my mother and arguing with my father. “Who is he?” I look at him. “Who is he?”
“You’ve seen him before.” It’s not a question.
“Yeah. Arguing with my father, then my brother, and sticking his tongue down my mother’s throat.”
His gaze sharpens. “Sounds like we have a lot to chat with Meg about, doesn't it?”
“Yes, we do.” But I barely get the declaration out for the splintering in my brain. I sway and Jared closes the distance between us and grabs me. “Whoa. Easy there, sweetheart. You okay?”
“God, I hate that word.” I suck in a breath, resting my head on his chest and curling my fingers around his shirt. “But yes. Okay. Give me...a minute. Or...two...” Prickling begins in my head and I both welcome it for the memory I need to embrace and curse the timing.
“Amy?”
At the sound of Meg’s voice, my head jerks up, sending shooting pain through my skull and I blink into Jared’s worried light brown eyes. He presses his fingers to my mouth, giving me a silent warning.
I nod, my mind racing. “Yes,” I call out. “I’m fine. I’m sick again. Can you get me a Sprite or something, please?”
“Oh. Sure. Be right back.” Footsteps sound and fade.
His hands close on my shoulders, too intimate, too like the way only Liam should, but not exactly wrong without being right. “We need to move now,” he says. “Are you able to?”
“I’m fine. It’s just--”
“Blood sugar,” he supplies, reminding me of the excuse I’ve used with him in the past. “Right. Heard that before. The only reason I haven’t grabbed Meg and dragged her someplace and forced the bitch to talk was that I wanted to talk to you first. I needed you to trust me. And as much as I don’t want you with that woman any longer than you have to be, we need to get her alone where I can flex my substantial ability to be influential when I want to be. Go with her to a hotel. I’ll follow.”
“And then?”
“We get answers to where the hell Chad is.”
“You think she knows?”
“She seems to know a hell of a lot more than either of us.”
“Yes, she does,” I say bitterly, and the idea that Meg has played a role in hurting my brother seems to have shaken my flashback completely, leaving me with one goal on my mind. Exposing what’s in her head, not mine.
“The sooner we do this, the better,” I say, and he steps away from me, leaving me suddenly aware that his legs have been pressed way too snugly against mine.
He knows too. It’s in the air around us, wrapping us in an awareness that has me cutting my gaze and turning to the door. His hand comes down on my shoulder, and I do not feel the liquid heat Liam’s touch creates in me, but I feel warmth and strength. “If you feel threatened at all, get the hell away from her. I’ll have your back. Like Chad had mine.”
Emotion I can’t afford to feel wells in my chest and I reach for the door, unlocking it and pulling it open. I inhale and exit, leaving my new “protector” behind, and he is that. I don’t doubt it. Jared. I never did. I enter the restaurant, scanning for Meg, but I don’t see her. The front door opens and shuts and I take off running. Bursting through the doors, I have just enough time to see the rental car disappear down the drive.
A white truck pulls up next to me and the passenger door pops open. “Get in,” Jared orders.
Rushing forward, I climb inside, but it’s too late. Meg is gone, like my brother, and Jared is driving us I don’t know where.
Chapter Seventeen
“Now, what?” I ask as Jared pulls the rental truck onto the main road.
“Now we regroup,” he replies, and I can feel the probing look he gives me though his eyes should be on the road. “How did you end up with Meg?”
“How did you find me?”
“I hacked my way to nothing and clearly you dumped your cell phone because it wouldn’t ping so—”
“You had my cellphone pinged?”
“Hacker, sweetheart. Of course I did.”
“But it wasn’t in my name.”
“I saw Liam take you into the cellphone store. I added two and two, hacked the system, and got a lock on it.”
I remember the mysterious call I’d received. “You called my cellphone?”
“Liam had several lines. I had to make sure it was you.”
“You scared the crap out of me.”
“Not my intent. I have to use my tech resources to compensate for working on my own. And speaking of scaring the crap out of someone. What the hell were you thinking using the Amy Bensen ID? That’s how I found you, and I guarantee you it’s how others will, too.”
> I don’t explain. I’m not done asking questions. “And you got here this fast how?”
“I was back in Texas already.”
“And Meg? Where has she been?”
“Disappeared when you did.” He pulls into a motel parking lot a few blocks from the restaurant that used to be my home. “And this is not Liam Stone quality, but it has beds.”
I grimace at the disdain in his voice when he says Liam’s name, and as much as I trust and love Liam, my brother’s worry over him worries me. “What’s your problem with Liam Stone?”
“Money. Money, and let me think. Oh yeah. More money.”
“Money’s a problem why?” I ask, despite money being exactly what has worried me about Liam in the past.
“Chad was in bed with an enemy with bucket-loads of money. Liam has bucket-loads of money and those people don’t grow on trees any more than the green stuff does. It’s a common denominator and it’s dangerous.”
“He’s not dangerous to me or my brother. He is dangerous to anyone who tries to hurt me.”
“If you trust him, then why leave him behind in Denver?”
“How do you know I wasn’t with him?”
“Hacking has a broad reach. He was looking for you just like I was.”
“I got spooked.”
“Stay spooked. It’s safer where he’s concerned. And he’s going to get that same ID flag I did. If I’m right about him, and he’s in this mess up to his neck, he’s going to come for you and we’re going to need a plan for him in this and soon.”
He clearly doesn’t know I’d reunited with Liam and I’m not telling him. “Did my brother say Liam was a part of this?”
“I’d love to lie and get you the hell out from under Liam’s spell. I thought you were out from under it, but you clearly aren’t. But you were right when you said you’ve lived enough lies. I haven’t had any conversations with your brother about Liam Stone, but I don’t like that when I got to Denver, Chad wasn’t there and Liam was.”
“Then do you have one piece of information in all your hacking or otherwise that says he is?”
“No, but--”
“No,” I supply. “That’s the answer. And yes, he has money. That isn’t a sin.”
“Do you trust me?”
“I don’t know you. I’m with you because my brother trusts you.”
“If Liam Stone wants whatever Chad has, he will come for you. If Liam Stone wants you, he will come for you. Either way, we have Liam Stone to deal with. And Meg, who you still haven’t told me how you ended up with.” He scrubs a hand over his jaw and sighs. “Right now we need to get inside where we’ll feel safer. I’m going in to register and I’d rather you not be seen, but I also don’t want you sitting here unprotected.” He reaches across me, his arm touching my leg as he opens the glove compartment and then slaps a gun on the seat between us. “I’ll be as quick as I can. I know you know how to shoot. Chad talked about you a lot. It’s loaded, so lock up until I get back and shoot anyone who isn’t me that tries to get in the truck. I’d say include Liam Stone, but somehow, I don’t think you’d listen.”
He starts to leave and I call, “Aren’t you afraid I’ll take off?”
“You want to save your brother. I want to save your brother. No. I don’t think you’ll take off.”
I open my mouth to reply but he’s gone before I can stop him, leaving me wondering what he has to show me, but then, I’m certain that was his intent. I watch him enter the motel, all loose-legged swagger and bad boy confidence, a different kind of male grace than Liam’s, but still wholly male, still a demanding presence. Though he looks nothing like Chad, he reminds me of him, and I can see them as friends.
Nervous about needing the gun he’s left me, I settle it in my lap, check for the safety, and spend the next five minutes scanning the area, intermittently eying Jared through the glass at the counter. I’m surprised to be calm and unemotional. I’m in that zone I use to use to survive. It used to be my comfort zone, a place I escaped the darkness of my fear, but it’s now an icy hollow place I do not want to visit.
In only a few minutes, Jared saunters back toward me and climbs into the truck, surprising me by reaching for the gun in my lap, covering my hand holding it with his.
Our eyes meet and I can see the heat in his and I’m not sure why. I’m a mess, barely showered and...I just don’t get it, but I’m hoping it’s not going to be a problem. “I’ll let you keep it on one condition,” he negotiates.
“Condition?”
“You have to promise not to use it on me.”
“Haven’t considered that just yet.”
He chuckles and releases the gun to start the engine. “Guess I’m doing something right then. Put it in your purse. I’ll feel better if you're armed. We’re around the back of the building. I didn’t want us to be seen and the faster we get inside and stay inside, the better.”
Ah, I think. The familiar drill and supposed brilliance that everyone thinks is the hermit strategy. Until there’s a fire. It’s a horrible thought and I cut my gaze to the window, thinking of that damn sign “Red Heaven Restaurant.” Maybe it’s a tribute, not a slap, but Sheridan is into oil and thanks to Jared I now know my family was, too.
Jared opens his door and I blink to realize he’s killed the engine and we’ve arrived at our building. I quickly place the gun in my purse and follow him outside, surprised at how little anxiety I feel with Jared, considering the motel. But he knows my brother, and I hunger to hear more about Chad, even more so, I crave the moment I can hug my brother again.
By the time I read the number on the chipped, powder blue door, Jared is already swiping the key. He motions me forward and I enter to a musty smell that I dismiss with the relief of finding two beds that seem to support my trust in Jared. Or maybe it’s all the place had, but I’m going to go with my instincts.
Jared shuts the door behind me and locks it, and I turn to watch him. He unzips his bag and sets a gun on the bed. Now, I’m nervous and my heart lurches, my eyes meeting his. “If anyone comes in that door,” he explains, motioning to the gun, “they meet Berta. And she’s a bitch to swallow.”
“Well then I’m glad to meet her,” I say, though she isn’t any more comforting than his obvious thought that we need her.
His eyes soften, his voice turning all silky and gentle. “Why don’t you join me so we can talk.”
I nod and claim the opposite bed, and we sit with the nightstand separating us, knees a foot apart. He stares at me and doesn’t speak and I do not like the sympathy etched in his brown eyes. “What? Whatever you’re hanging on to and not saying, just say it. You’re scaring me again.”
“I could sit here and weed through how you got with Meg and what you’ve been through but I’m just going to get right to what matters. Four days after I got the message from your brother, I got a second call from him. This time, I answered in time to talk to him.”
Adrenaline pours through me. “Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
“It wasn’t the right time.”
I’m pretty sure that means I’m not going to like what is coming. “And?” I prod anxiously.
“I’m going to shoot straight with you because I think it’s the only way you can make a clear decision about what comes next.”
I clutch the blanket on the bed. “What does that mean?”
“It means, Chad was urgent and whispering on the call, clearly hiding. He said…” He hesitates, a muscle flexing in his whisker-dusted jaw.
“He said what?” I demand.
“He said he wasn’t going to make it through the night and all he cared about was you.”
“No. No. That can’t be. You said--”
“I haven’t given up hope on him. He was calling me to ensure you survived. He’s a survivor too, though, Amy. We will fight for him. I promise you.”
Hope is my enemy. It’s worse than lies. It promises and it takes back. It teases and it rips my heart out. “What else did he s
ay?”
“He told me he left you instructions to protect yourself and 111 is the way to do it, whatever that means.”
“111,” I murmur and at first I think of the locker number at JFK where he’d left me a note but another memory surfaces. He and I had been at a dig site in Egypt, alone in a tent, hanging out as we often did, and Chad was stuffing pieces of paper he’d written on in an old wine bottle.
“What is it?” I’d asked.
“One hundred reasons why and eleven assholes.”
“What does that mean?”
“Nothing I ever want you to understand.”
“You know what it means?”
“It’s his lucky number,” I say, and know what it means and where to find it. “He used it for a lot of things. What else?”
“He told me to tell you he’s sorry this hell happened and he knows you can never forgive him, but he loves you.That was it,” he adds. “The line went dead.”
My breath hitches and I lower my head, pressing my hand to my forehead. I’ve lost him before I ever found him again. No. No. No. I push to my feet and start for the door. Jared grabs my arm. “Whoa. Where are you going?”
“They have my brother. They gave me four days to get them what they want or they’ll kill him. Maybe 111 is what they want. I have to go now.”
“You know what he was telling you with 111?”
“Yes.” I tug on my arm. “I need to go. We need to go now.”
He doesn’t budge. “Who is ‘they’ and how did ‘they’ contact you?”
“I don’t know who ‘they’ are. The man in the photo. Oil people. The Underground. It could be any of them but right now I don’t even care. I just want to know what 111 tells me before they kill him.”
“How do you know they plan to kill him?”
“Meg. She showed me a note and a text message. That’s how she got me to go with her. That’s why I used the ID. There was no time to travel and I had no resources for a new one. I have to figure out what they want.”
“We need to think before we act. They’ll be watching. They could take whatever you’re after from you and kill him.”