H
Done. You owe me.
Fox
I’m not done yet. I’ll be in touch shortly and you can add it to my tab.
H
Is this about the woman?
Fox
Isn’t it always?
Larry huffs. “What?” I snap.
“She’s the DA’s missing wife.”
“Yeah, I got that. Your point?”
“My point is that if you hand her over, Gideon will back off.”
I open the cab door and resist the urge to punch my lawyer. He’s just doing his job and is clueless to the kind of danger Gideon poses to Honor.
“Alternatively, she’s your ticket to freedom, Fox. Get her to come forward as a witness, and all of this disappears.”
I climb inside the cab and slam the door closed in his face. “JFK,” I snap at the driver.
He nods and speeds off. I retry Honor’s phone, but it rings out. Again and again. My finger hovers over the sheriff’s home number. Dragging in law enforcement to a potentially volatile situation where Honor’s details will enter the system and raise instant flags is risky, but doing nothing is worse. No, it’s time to call in the friendship card. I hit call and wait for him to answer.
CHAPTER 41
HONOR
My heart can’t take the betrayal.
Going on the run and calling the police to deal with the intruder would be the smart thing to do. But emotions don’t make us smart, they make us human. I’ll be damned if I’m going to leave behind the woman who has shown me more kindness and compassion than my own mother. Is it a coincidence that they broke in the one night Fox is away? I don’t believe so.
I block Duke from following me outside of the pool house.Sorry, buddy, can’t have you growling and giving away our position.Whoever is creeping around in the main house is most likely on the hunt for me at Gideon’s bidding, but they must not know I’m staying in the pool house. If they did, they wouldn’t waste time searching the mini mansion.
I click the gun’s safety off before sliding the key into the kitchen door and turning it as softly as I can manage. The click sounds loud in the dead of night, and I hold my breath as I inch the door open and slide inside the house. I let out a shakybreath and wipe my slick palms on my thighs before silently moving through the downstairs, finding each of the rooms deserted.
The next floor is going to be a little more tricky. Samuel and his team have bits of wood and toolboxes strewn everywhere. But I’m not searching the house, I’m going to reach Helen and get us the hell out of here. All I have to do is evade him. I’m assuming it’s a guy, given Gideon’s sexist view of the world. I’m also assuming there’s only one of them. My heart thunders in my chest. Shit, I hope there’s only one.
The door to the master suite is open an inch, and there’s a whisper of movement in that room. Helen never leaves it open, but she also moved into the guest room while the work is being done. I turn left down the hallway and side step the slightly creaky floorboard as I move silently. I twist the knob of the bedroom Helen will be in and slide inside. I close the door as far as I can without actually letting the latch click into place.
I spin around to find Helen sitting bolt upright in bed. I put my finger against my lips and shake my head as I stalk toward her.
“My gun is my lock box in the master bedroom,” she whispers. I don’t know how she knows what’s happening right now. Maybe it’s the fact that I’m skulking around in the dark with a gun and a silk nightgown. Nothing screams relaxed about this situation.
“We are going to leave. I think there’s only one of them. They are in your bedroom right now. Stay behind me. If he spots a loaded gun pointed at him, that should be enough of a deterrent.”
“Okay.” She slides off the bed and hovers behind me as I snatch a quick look around the corner. The master suite door hasn’t moved. Either he’s put it back exactly where it was, or hehasn’t left it yet. Isn’t it strange that it doesn’t take a flighty DA’s wife that long to search a room?
I raise the gun and steadily point it at the door. I jerk my head, indicating Helen should move past me and down the stairs. She inches around me, and as soon as I hear her pad halfway down, I turn to follow. Loud thumping comes from the right, and I swivel to see a huge dude barreling toward me. He throws my arm up and to the left as I pull the trigger. The recoil slams me back against the wall, my head bouncing painfully off it while the loud blast makes my ears ring. The shot goes wide, lodging in the opposite wall, and terror slicks down my spine.Fuck, I missed.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see Helen scooping up a two by four. She swings it like a professional baseball player and smashes it over his head while he’s busily trying to disarm me.
