I grumbled in frustration as I opened the front door, ready to call Bray and yell at him for blowing my cover. To my surprise, a man in a suit stood there waiting for me.
“Ms. Daniels,” he said.
I startled at the sound of my real name. A few seconds passed as I tried to assess the threat this stranger posed. He had a familiar air about him, but I couldn’t place it. He was stocky and solidly built. Like the kind of guy who threw heavy weights around a gym and could kick down a door. In truth, he was the same shape as Bray only shorter and more compact. I eyed his hip and noted the telltale bulge of a weapon. Then I saw the discreet coil of an earpiece disappearing down his collar and understood he was not here to harm me.
I closed the front door and stepped out onto the porch with him. “Yes?”
“I need you to come with me,” he said and pointed at the SUV.
I noted it was empty, and realized he was the driver I’d been seeing through the window for the past few days.
I took a step back, alarmed. “Why?”
“Because Agent Bray said so.”
The sound of his name reminded me I was annoyed with him. Even so, I wasn’t about to pass up an opportunity for a free ride away from here. “What’s going on?” I said and started down the front path alongside him.
Instead of answering, he pulled his phone from his jacket pocket. I watched him dial it and press it to his ear. It rang only once before someone answered.
“Do you have her?” Bray’s voice came through the other end. My heart stuttered at the urgency it carried.
“Yes, sir,” the other agent said.
“Let me talk to her.”
He held the phone out to me.
I took it. “What’s going on, Bray?”
“I need you to go with Agent Simmons,” he said. The note of alarm in his voice made my stomach clench with worry.
“I am, but why?”
“I’ll tell you when you get here.”
“Get where?”
“We don’t have time for questions right now. Justplease, get in the car with Agent Simmons.”
I glanced up and down the street and saw nothing out of place. No immediate threat other than a gardener buzzing a Weedwacker over the neighbor’s lawn. Still, my curiosity was too strong.
“Okay, but I’d like to know—”
“Wallace was murdered!” he blurted.
I stopped in my tracks. The air in my lungs became solid.
Bray continued, his voice strained with fear and urgency. “I just obtained information Agent Wallace was murdered, Olena Nova’s prison sentence was shortened, and she is being releasedtoday, and there’s a hit out on you, soget in the fucking car, Erin!”
A loud ringing filled my head as if a gunshot had gone off nearby. I wasn’t sure if it was memory, a premonition, or just plain fear, but I handed the phone to Agent Simmons and walked straight for the SUV.
CHAPTER18
Agent Simmons drove me to the local station in Oakland. The long ride around the bottom of the bay gave me plenty of time to think about what Bray had told me.
Wallace had been murdered.
Olena was getting out of prison early—today.
