And as scary as that might seem, it was more than fine with Robin. He had, after all, fallen in love with a man who always ran toward danger.
Robin smiled back, and Jules kissed him again, then followed Sam out the door.
Palm Springs, California
“That’s insane.” Emily kept walking because God!Shewas who Milton Devonshire had named as heir to his millions?! She was supposed to believe that crazy bullshit?! And now, allegedly, someone had shot up her house and was gunning for her here in Palm Springs...?! Allegedly?! “No one’s trying to kill me—unless you are!”
“You know I’d never hurt you!” Mick—Milt—said as he followed her.
“Do I?” she wondered and he looked pained. Or at least he was pretending to look pained. Was it possible that in addition to being a pathological liar, he was also criminally insane?
She lengthened her stride. If sheweretruly in serious danger, it absolutely was fromhim.
“Em, I’m still me,” he said. He was drenched with sweat from running after her and his eyes were red as if he’d been crying, but so what. Dangerous people cried, too. Probably even more than people who weren’t dangerous. But he held out his phone, the screen unlocked. “Please. Just... slow down. Stop for a minute, here, in public—we’re surrounded by people—and call them.”
The hotel was in sight—just a few blocks away—and she did not want to stop now. There would be plenty of people in the lobby, too. She’d make him sit down and wait for her while she took the elevator up to the room and packed her things. All she really wanted was to get the hell out of town, away from him. Away from her own naive foolishness. Instead of returning to the lobby, she’d leave out the back, get a cab to the airport, fly back home. Even if she had to stay overnight in the airport, it’d be better than this.
Let him get a new room key from the front desk when he realized she wasn’t coming back downstairs.
“Please,” he said again.
“You want me to call some random number on your phone and talk to some sketchy stranger who answers. Why would I do that?” Emily asked. “No, thanks, Milton, I’ll pass.”
“His name’s Sam Starrett, he’s a former Navy SEAL, he works for a personal security agency called Troubleshooters Incorporated,” Milt told her. “They’re based down in San Diego, but they’re opening an office in LA, led by a former FBI agent named Jules Cassidy. He’s the team leader. Use my phone to google them. You can call their main office, except, shit, it’s after hours, but okay, they have an answering servicefor emergencies, and this absolutely is that. They should get back to us pretty quickly, but please, let’s walk away from the hotel. Let’s go back downtown while we wait—there’s always a crowd near the clubs and bars.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
Jules: Age Seventeen
Connecticut
They’d war-gamed this scenario endlessly back in the summer house, with Jules making sure that, whatever happened, Sadie would feel as safe and as confident as possible as she baited Suspect X, aka Trent from Ottersfield.
The plan was for her to arrive at the party, for her and Rod to clash—and in this case it had been a full-on physical fight that had produced the perfect result: Trent and Sadie sitting off to the side of the party as she very literally cried on his shoulder.
As Hobbit had said earlier: Vulnerable.
Check.
But it had occurred to Jules that Sadie had to not just be vulnerable. She had to make it clear that she wasnotgoing to drown her sorrows by having sex with Trent in the back of his car.
And although it was possible that Trent got off on drugging girls regardless of their apparent willingness to have sex with him, Jules didn’t want to bank on that.
So he’d prepped Sadie to be weepy and let Trent get handsy, but then to back off. Which she was doing right now.
As they watched from the thicket, video camera on and recording, Sadie turned her head at the exact moment Trent leaned in to kiss her. His mouth bounced off the side of her face, at which point she acted surprised and then, as if realizing just how close he was sitting, she scooched away, putting quite a few inches between them, and then even climbing down from the table and standing up.
Trent stood, too, pretending it was okay. They were both facing away from the house and Jules could read his lips.I’m so sorry.Again, his demeanor was calm and even kind. A little embarrassed and even bashful.
“I just think you’re so pretty and smart, he just told her,” Shelly whispered as Sadie pretended to like Trent’s compliment. The smile she gave him, though, was far moreYeah, I’d go to the movies with youthanLet’s get busy in the back of your car.
“What’s your battery level, Shel?” Jules asked.
“We’re at eighty percent,” she whispered back.
“Good,” because if something was going to happen, it was going to happen soon, as yes, Sadie pointed toward the house and said something aboutbathroom.
But before she walked toward the house, she reached for her cup of beer and pretended to take a sip, putting it back on the table.
