Rowan looked at the hard drive. “What’s on it exactly?”
“I haven’t opened everything. I was scared to.” Lauren folded her arms across herself. “But Thayer told me there were at least two deaths he’d connected to Vince. A stunt coordinator a few years back—officially an overdose, but Thayer found messages suggesting Vince had been threatening him for weeks before it happened. And a camera operator more recently. Painted as unstable online before he died.” She swallowed. “Same pattern both times.”
The chill shivered through Rowan’s chest.
Wes had said something exactly like that.He builds the story before he neutralizes the problem.
She’d become the next story Vince was building.
“How many people know you have this?” Rowan asked.
Lauren’s eyes met hers. “Just you.”
Rowan looked at the hard drive another moment, then back at Lauren. “Are you sure no one followed you here?”
“I was careful.” Lauren hesitated. “IthinkI was careful.”
The distinction between those two things sat heavily in the kitchen.
CHAPTER 45
Wes drove fasterthan he should have.
The mountains blurred past outside the windshield while his mind kept working through what Calloway had told him.
He knew what that pattern looked like when it was aimed at someone.
He’d been watching it aimed at Rowan for days.
His grip tightened on the steering wheel as he called her again.
Again, the call went straight to voicemail.
The unease that had begun in Charlottesville grew heavier with every passing mile.
He tried once more.
Nothing.
Finally, Wes pulled up Caleb’s number. He didn’t want to get Caleb upset for no reason, but this very well might be a good reason.
Caleb answered on the second ring. “Everything okay?”
“No.” Wes switched lanes fast enough to earn an angry horn from the car behind him. “Where’s Rowan? Have you talked to her?”
“Hold on.” A paused sounded. Then, “Naomi and I just left the prison with Grace. I’m going to put you on speaker—Naomi’s here.” His voice shifted slightly. “I actually just got off the phone with Millie. She mentioned Rowan headed to my mom’s house to grab something she left there.”
Wes’s stomach tightened. “Did she say what?”
“Something from her childhood room, I think.” Caleb’s tone had already changed, sharpened. “I didn’t think it was a great idea. I wish she’d taken someone with her.”
“Is she answering the phone for you?” Wes asked.
“I haven’t tried yet. Naomi is calling her right now.” A brief silence stretched across the line. Wes counted the seconds without meaning to. Then Caleb came back. “Voicemail.”
His throat tightened.
“Listen, Calloway found another death connected to Vince.” Wes kept his voice even. “Someone who’d been planning to expose him. Vince spent weeks building a public narrative around the guy first. He said he was unstable, erratic, falling apart. Then he died.”
