I couldn’t believe it. I felt so tricked... so lied to. “You... you... how did you even know I’d be here?”
“You listed Ms. Allen as your emergency contact on your resume,and the boys found your car in her garage when you left the jail and didn’t go home. They’ve been keeping an eye on you ever since, waiting for another opportunity to have that discussion you so deftly dodged in the grocery store. That was genius, by the way. After Kirk’s stroke, Nicolai didn’t want to chance that you’d die on him too.” Mr. White chuckled, shaking his head. “Ah well, it all workedout in the end. I was positively delighted when they saw you dressed up and heading for the limo with Mr. and Ms. Allen.”
Tears stung my eyes. I couldn’t believe I’d been stupid enough to walk away from the crowd. Had anyone seen us together? Would they report which direction we’d gone? Addison and Asher were in the same building, yet I’d never felt more alone in my life.
“The boys are goingto take you to collect the property of mine that Kirk left with you, and then we can all get on with our lives and pretend this whole ugly ordeal never happened.”
Right. I knew who he was and could incriminate him; there was no way he’d let me go. I nodded anyway, wanting desperately to believe that he’d let me live.
“All right. It sounds like we’re all on the same page. I’m going to releaseyou, and you’re going to be quiet and go with Nick and Brian. If you make a peep, they’ll shoot you. Do you hear me?”
I nodded again.
“Good. Just give them the money Kirk was stealing from my company and nobody will get hurt.”
I started to object, but he cut me off.
“I know you have it. Kirk told me he gave it to you. He and Nick were on their way to your apartment when Kirk... well, we allknow what happened to Kirk. I’d hate to see something like that happen to you. You understand?”
Tears slid down my cheeks. I finally knew who killed Kirk and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it.
“Good.” Mr. White took my purse and released me, pushing me into Nicolai.
Nicolai grabbed my shoulder and pressed his gun in my side. “Don’t think you’re gonna get away from me again,” he growled,his hot breath against my cheek.
Randal rummaged through the bag Addison had given me, pulling out my keyring. He studied the fob Jake had given me, chuckling. “Nick, you ever seen this before?” he asked, holding it up.
Nicolai shrugged. “Looks like a key fob for a car.”
“That’s what it’s supposed to look like, but there’s no logo on it. This is a prototype. One of my detective buddies wasbragging about it when we went golfing a few weeks ago. I bet this is how the cops found you last time.” He slid it off my keyring. Then he tossed the rest of my keys to Brian. He powered off my phone, wiped down my phone and purse with his handkerchief, and threw them aside.
“Don’t come back without my money,” Mr. White said before leaving me with Nicolai and Brian.
