He answered on the second ring.
“Lucy, I was about to call you.”
“Why?” Kirill must have been informed I left, but why would he call Trevor first?
“I think I found our missing King heir. Why did you call me?”
“Ah…Kirill and I had a fight.” No need to alarm my side of the family for now. If I told them my husband planned to murder me, they would hide me so fast, I wouldn’t be able to see this investigation through. They’d probably ship me out of the country.
The phrase “curiosity killed the cat” rattled inside me, and also what Dom always said about skating into shit. Well, no one was going to fix this except me.
Trevor chuckled. “You need me to make him sweat it?”
“Yes, I’m sure he’s tracking this vehicle. But I hope I got a head start.” I tamped down the heartbreak threatening to wreck me. “You have a name and location of this heir?”
“Yep.”
Thirty minutes later,Trevor and I had switched vehicles. It was one of the De Lucci crime family Patrols. He’d also sent me the information on Chloe Brown. Although she’d gone through many last names, her first name remained the same. But with some luck and with Trevor’s deep connections in bothgovernment agencies and the dark web, he’d been able to track her and could match several clandestine meetings with Bruce Davenport.
Thankfully, she wasn’t far. She’d been hiding out for the past three months in a house near the town of Milford, Pennsylvania, about two hours from Manhattan.
I stopped midway at a twenty-four-hour diner to look over her information. Knocking on her door in the middle of the night was going to get me killed. There were several guns registered to her, including a shotgun. She worked at a gift shop in a tourist center at the base of the Pocono Mountains. Although she had a degree in social services from Penn State and had held several jobs at women’s shelters in the past few years under different names, oddly, there was a block of time unaccounted for prior to her move to the Poconos that Trevor was still digging into.
I stared pensively out the diner window into the dark roadway. Kirill would know I was missing by now. A knot twisted in my stomach. I’d been expecting Trevor to call me back to tell me that Kirill was looking for me. De Lucci territory would be the first place he’d go. My burner was eerily quiet. And I didn’t want to bug Trevor since he told me he was neck-deep in syndicate business.
Renewed tears and anger burned in my eyes. My husband wanted to kill me.
How’s that for trauma?
He hated me so much he was willing to face backlash from Margo.
Kirill was right. I was gullible. And he found a way to get past my defenses and con me into believing him. I couldn’t believe I was willing to give that bastard a chance. Were any of his sob stories true?
It was looking more and more after I saw this through that I was going to disappear. Maybe I could use my knowledge of Chloe Brown for revenge.
I paidfor my apple pie and coffee and continued driving to Milford. Trevor had handed me an envelope of cash. He’d even given me a fake passport and other supporting documents for a new identity. I should stop at a motel.
However, my impatience got the better of me. I was going to case the property. Get the lay of the land. I couldn’t do my breaking-and-entering routine because she had a door camera.
I parked the patrol across the street from the house. It wasn’t a dense neighborhood and had plenty of land around each home. It was a cute ranch house with an attached shed. I was surprised there was no fencing. I turned off my headlights but kept the heater on. It was colder up here, and I was glad I was wearing my coat.
Shadows in the distance approached. A woman and her dog.
Could this be Chloe?
The dog was one of those medium-sized white fluffballs. The woman was in a long coat and a hat, but she appeared shorter than Chloe's height of five-five. I confirmed it wasn’t her when she and her dog passed the house.
I was about to leave when I noticed another person appear. Another woman, judging by how her workout gear clung to her curves. It seemed she had just finished her run because her attire was too light for a walk. My heart pounded when she slowed down in front of my target house.
I couldn’t make out her face, but the height and build fit. She was heading up the walkway when I decided to confront her.
I grabbed my purse and my phone and slammed out of the vehicle.
She turned around. Her hand was on something attached to a gear belt.
“Chloe Brown?”
“I have pepper spray.”
