“A few days.”Holly shrugged, not meeting her eye.
“And let me guess, you want to stay with me.”
“Yeah,” Holly said as if it were obvious.
“Why?Why now?”
“I’ve been on the road so long I was starting to miss family.I saw Mom died a few years ago, so I looked you up.”
Their mother had passed away from lung cancer a few years ago.Because of the deal, Andrea couldn’t visit her or attend the funeral.She felt guilty their mother died alone.It hadn’t been the easiest growing up with her, but she was still her mother.“Why should I believe you?”
“I’m your sister.”Holly blinked, almost looking offended Andrea could ask her that.
As if that meant anything.“I haven’t seen you in nine years.”
“I’ve been busy.Traveling.”
“Making deals with your suppliers?”
Holly’s eyes opened in shock.“What are you talking about?”
“Your illegal activity.”Holly may appear innocent, but underneath all of that makeup and sweet smile was a viper ready to strike at a moment’s notice, and she didn’t care who was in the stroke zone.Friend or foe.Or in this case, family.
“I don’t do anything illegal.”
“Uh huh.”Andrea didn’t believe her, and Holly was giving her non answers which wasn’t helping.“I’m sorry, but you can’t stay here.”Andrea didn’t want to get caught up in her sister’s drama or caught in the crosshairs.
“Andy—drea,” Holly corrected herself at the last second.“Look, I’m on the run from a very angry person.I just need to lie low for a few days, and then I’ll be gone.Please, I don’t have anywhere else to go.”
Tears pooled in Holly’s eyes.It could be a ruse, but Andrea didn’t have the heart to send her away.Who knew the next time she would see her sister?She was probably going to regret this.“Who did you anger?”
“An ex.He was the jealous type.He hit me, so I ran.He’s been chasing me for the past week.”
“And you’re leading him to me?”Andrea squawked.She didn’t want crazy exes showing up on her doorstep.
“He doesn’t know I’m here.No one knows I have family.”
It should have hurt that Holly didn’t acknowledge her, but then again, Andrea always said she was an only child, so it was only fair.
“I’ll stay here inside the house and not leave.Please, Andrea, I just need a few days.I have travel arrangements, but they aren’t for two days.”Her sister’s eyes beseeched her.
“Fine,” Andrea relented.
Holly squealed and threw herself into Andrea’s arms.“You won’t regret this.”
She was so going to regret this.
Chapter 30
Jack had been watching the footage from the boutique for a few hours.He was able to pull up the phone logs from earlier, but the call the sales rep made was blocked and unlisted, so he couldn’t track it.
He used his facial recognition program to look up the salespeople.Nothing was raising a red flag on them.No overachievements made up for fake resumes.It said they had each worked there for several years.
Jack looked up the building itself.He looked into the owner and the bill of sale of the building.Nothing was pointing at WITSEC.Either he was wrong—which was rare—or they were going out of their way to conceal their identity.There was still the possibility it was a cover for Andrea to meet with buyers, but he hadn’t seen her arrive or anyone of interest ping on his system.
The cameras covered the outside, the boutique as well as the hallway he had been caught in, but nothing upstairs.He was going to have to find a way to get in upstairs to check it out.
Jack pushed away from his screen, rubbing his tired eyes.After little sleep this morning and staring at a screen for hours, he was tired.He probably should have gone to Andrea’s earlier like he’d said he would, but he had to get something on this case before Nick got tired of waiting and pulled him.
