“Who’sthey?” Sam asked.
Meanwhile, Jules shook his head. “It went to voicemail,” he said, handing his phone to Sam, who seemed to know from just that bit of eye contact to take it and leave amessage. The former SEAL stepped away from the table, speaking into the phone, his voice low.
“Harper,” Mick gasped. “And whoever he hired to do this. I don’t know for sure, but has to be. I’m pretty sure someone put a GPS tracker on my car,” he continued, pushing the words out as he clearly kept running. “There was a guy over by my car in the parking garage when I left the meeting with Harper on Wednesday, but see, after the meeting, I went back to my house and then I stopped at Em’s—I fricking led them there! But the engine light went on, on my way back to the desert, so I dropped my car at a shop over near the airport, but I picked it up this afternoon and right now it’s parked in the hotel lot, so if someone really is gunning for her, they’ll be watching for her in the lobby, and she’s gonna walk right in?—”
“Okay, slow down,” Jules said as Sam came back to the table and handed him back his phone. He nodded his thanks and checked his thread of text messages even as he continued, “Just take a beat, Mick. We can help you. And we will. We’ll contact the local police and?—”
“Fuck no!” Mick was absolute. “You seriously trust the police? Because I sure as hell don’t. I spent four years in prison for a crime that it should’ve been pretty fucking easy to prove that I didn’t do! Someone got paid off to close their eyes. Harper has connections everywhere and... No! No way am I delivering myself—or Emily—into their hands. If that’s your idea of help, forget it.”
“Okay,” Jules said soothingly. “All right. We hear you. We get it. You don’t want police, we won’t call the police. Just... don’t hang up, okay, Mick?” He didn’t let Mick answer. “Because Sam and I are at least two hours away from you,” he continued. “More if there’s traffic and seeing thatit’s Friday, I’m pretty sure there’s traffic. Do you have a place, away from the hotel, where you can hide?”
“No,” Mick said. “I’ll figure something out—but I’ve gotta find her first!”
Sam leaned in and raised his voice. “If you’re lying to us,” he said, “and she ends up dead, wewilltrack you down.”
Jules looked at Sam. “I’m pretty sure he knows that,” he said mildly as Mick shot back, “I’m trying to keep her alive here! If I wanted her dead, I’d just walk away! I love her, for God’s sake! Oh, shit! There she is! Oh, my God, thank you,thank you! Look, I have to go?—”
“Wait!” Jules said. “Mick?—”
But Mick spoke over him. “I’ll call you back and... Em!Emily! ”
The connection was cut as Mick hung up on his end.
Sam took his phone back as Robin looked from Jules to Sam and back.
“Let’s get in the car, then call him back.” Jules stood up. “Jenk and Lindsey are still sitting in traffic on the 5—Lopez is with them,” he reported. “Deck and Dave are in Deck’s truck—they were trying the 15, but it’s just as backed up. Last message from them said they were stopping for food in Murrieta. Everyone’s at least an hour away if not more, and with this traffic...”
Sam nodded as he headed for the door. “I’ll check with Cos,” he said. “See what he’s got in terms of weaponry and ammo that we can borrow.”
“Grab my case from upstairs—my jacket, too,” Jules ordered as Robin stood up and headed for the kitchen pantry. “And let’s make sure we don’t clear Cosmo out. He’s gonna need to stay here—even if his security team shows up in the next ninety seconds, I—” he glanced over at Robin “—really need him to stay here. Will you let him know?”
“Copy that,” Sam said as he dashed for the front foyer stairs.
Cos and Jane kept a bunch of cloth grocery bags on a hook near the door that led to the garage, and Robin took one down, filling it with bags of corn chips and pretzels, a box of cookies. He grabbed a couple of apples from Jane’s fruit bowl that was out on the counter, too, taking care to leave her one as per her warning. That plus a few large bottles of spring water and caffeine, caffeine, where was the caffeine? There was a two liter bottle of generic cola in the fridge. Robin pulled that out and put it in a second bag with the water.
“Snacks for the road,” he told Jules, who was standing there, clearly worried that Robin was not going to be happy about this little impromptu road trip out to Palm Springs. “Make sure you take a phone charger.
“Already in the car,” Jules said as he took the bags from Robin.
“How can I help?” Robin asked. He knew that Jules had been intending to sift through Devonshire’s tax records again after dinner. “You want me to search the files for... what was it? Santana? And also find that five million dollar payment to Mick, after he got out of jail...?”
“You don’t have to,” Jules said.
“Yeah, I know.” Robin shrugged as he led the way out to the foyer. “It’ll give me something productive to do.” Instead of sitting here worrying. He left that unspoken, but he knew it was understood. “Give me an excuse to call you, too.”
Jules kissed him. “You don’t need an excuse for that.”
Sam rattled down the stairs, carrying both his and Jules’s gun cases, a heavy-looking bag that no doubt came from Cosmo, and their jackets, too.
“Do you believe him?” Robin asked Jules. “Mick?”
“More than ever,” Jules said. “But I have been wrong before.”
“Not that often,” Robin said turning to include Sam. “Eyes open. Stay alert. And keep me posted.”
“You know it,” Sam said over Jules’s “Always.”
“I love you.” Jules said it at the same time as Robin, and smiled. Rushing off to save the day was his idea of a hell of a good time. And this, potentially, was even better, since he had Sam with him.
