That was how he found us.
My jeans dirty and grass stained because I was kneeling in the garden, hugging his dog like she was my life raft.
“You all right?”
I jerked back from Akiva to find Ramsay blocking out the sun, a towering shadow of masculinity above us.
Akiva gave a happy bark and lunged onto her hind legs, pressing her forelegs to Ramsay’s torso as she greeted him.
He rubbed her down with one hand. “Hiya, sweetheart,” he murmured gruffly. “Down, Akiva. Down. Good girl.”
I stood, moving to the side so I could see Ramsay better. He petted the top of Akiva’s head as his stare pierced mine. Awareness scored through me like always. “What?”
Ramsay slowly raised his free hand, and something flickered between the clamp of a pair of pliers. “Take it by the handle,” he commanded but in a much softer tone than usual.
Curious, I did as he asked and brought what I realized was a photograph to my face.
I froze at the candid shot of London about to get into a cab in New York. There was a bright red circle around her head.
“Turn it over.”
Almost afraid to, I slowly flipped it.
Nausea rose and I swallowed back the sensation, not knowing what to feel more. Terror or fury.
“It arrived in an envelope with no name or address. Do you know what it means?”
Ramsay’s tone was so gentle. Coaxing. Not demanding.
Yet I could barely take in his words.
“Cell.” I thrust the pliers back at him. “Do you have a cell I can borrow?”
He frowned. “Have you forgotten yours?”
I shook my head. No, it was in the back pocket of my jeans. An unwitting traitor.
Ramsay pulled his phone out of his shirt pocket.
“I need to make an international call. I’ll pay you back.”
He impatiently waved off my offer, and I took the phone, fumbling for my own so I could find an email from Perri. At the bottom of the email was the number for the newspaper office. I dialed it on Ramsay’s phone and walked to the end of the garden for privacy.
Thankfully, Ramsay stayed put. I kept my back to him as I called the newspaper and asked to speak to Perri. They took my name and I waited until eventually I connected to Perri’s work phone.
“Tierney? What’s going on?”
“Our phones are tapped. They tapped our cell phones. Or at least they tapped mine. How?”
Perri let out a curse. “Are you sure?”
“Yesterday I said the wordsNothing will stop meto you on the phone. Today I got another unaddressed envelope and inside is a pap shot of my best friend London, the only family I have left, and she has a big fucking target drawn around her head. On the back of that photo are the wordsThen maybe this will stop you.”
“Oh fuck,” Perri hissed. “Fucking, fuck, fuck.”
My heart was pounding so hard I could barely hear over it. “What do we do?”
“Dump your phone and get a new one. New number, everything. I’ll send you a burner phone so we can safely stay in contact. That’s if you still want to do this?”
