Chapters (46)
- COVER PAGE
- PRAISE
- DEDICATION
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY-ONE
- TWENTY-TWO
- TWENTY-THREE
- TWENTY-FOUR
- TWENTY-FIVE
- TWENTY-SIX
- TWENTY-SEVEN
- TWENTY-EIGHT
- TWENTY-NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY-ONE
- THIRTY-TWO
- THIRTY-THREE
- THIRTY-FOUR
- THIRTY-FIVE
- THIRTY-SIX
- THIRTY-SEVEN
- THIRTY-EIGHT
- THIRTY-NINE
- FORTY
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- SNEAK PEEK: EXIT .45
He told her not to worry. He said he was waiting to hear back from Beauden Ash at Bluesmoke, and that Beauden would be able to arrange a safe house for them.
Erin shook her head. ‘No, forget it. I’m not going into hiding.’
Maybe he should have just called it a ‘house’. She was probably picturing some Salman Rushdie, author-under-siege type scenario.
He said, ‘They tried to kill you once, I wouldn’t guarantee they’ve given up.’
Erin said, ‘Except they weren’t trying to kill me, were they? I was just an incidental. For the sake of completeness.’
She had a way of putting things.
Vincent said, ‘Yeah, but I imagine they’ll turn on the news at some point. And when they see you’re still alive, they might come and ask you for the thirty million.’
Erin said, ‘And that’s why I’ve got you, isn’t it?’ Something in her tone inviting him to drop the subject.
Vincent said, ‘Do you have family out here? Other than your father?’
‘Not out here. I have a nine-year-old son in Chicago. I share custody with my ex-husband.’
‘Is your son with him now?’
‘Yes.’
‘Okay. They should stay in a hotel until this is all resolved.’
She nodded. ‘That’s probably sensible.’
For a second, Vincent was going to suggest she could send the boy into hiding and leave the ex in the open. But he thought that might be overdoing it.
She went to the window and looked out through the blind. ‘I’m probably better off in LA. I’ll book a hotel. If I stay here, I’ll have a camera on me the whole time. End up on TMZ or something.’
LA. That was workable. He could change her mind on the drive down, convince her about the benefits of a safe house. Vincent said he could pick her up in an hour, maybe get there by eight o’clock, depending on traffic.
Erin said, ‘All right.’ She was still at the window, voice a little distant now, like it was off where she was looking. She said, ‘I don’t know how I’m going to do it. I don’t know how people do it.’
Vincent had the office door open, but he closed it again. ‘Sorry?’
She took her fingers out of the blind. ‘I had to call Tanner’s wife—I called her before you came in.’
Vincent nodded. He worried he might be trapped in something heavy.