“What’s wrong, love?” he finally asks. “Are you in trouble?”

“Not yet, but I will be.”

“What do you need?” he asks. “Name it.”

I’m weak with relief. Thank God Erik is willing to help.

“I need a team to clean up some audio and video tapes,” I say. “I could do it myself, but I’m running short on time. I have to turn them in to the ATF Monday morning, so we only have the weekend. Can you help me?”

“Do you really need to ask me that?” he asks. “I would be rotting in jail if it wasn’t for you. I’ll pull a team together. Give me a few hours. Do you have a location for us?”

I give him the address of the rental house.

“See you tonight,” he says before hanging up.

Chapter Twenty-Three

Sam

––––––––

Jesse and Trish are sitting at the kitchen table having breakfast when I walk into the house.

“Look what the cat dragged in,” Trish teases. “Rough night? You look like hell.”

Jesse takes one glance at my face and puts down his coffee mug.

“What’s wrong?” he asks.

“Lila’s gone. She left in the middle of the night without a word.”

“Did you guys have a fight or something?” he asks. “You said things were going good with her.”

I pull out a chair and slump down into it. Trish pours a cup of coffee and silently hands it to me.

“Things were going great,” I reply. “Or so I thought. Obviously I was wrong. We didn’t have a fight. In fact, last night was fantastic. Couldn’t have been better. Too fucking bad it was all part of her act. Has been the entire time. She outsmarted me.”

“Are you sure she’s gone for good?” Jesse asks.

I nod. “I’m sure. She took her laptop and a couple of personal things. Left all of her clothes and everything else back at the house. On her way out of town, she swung by the shop and picked up the surveillance bug. I’ve already been there this morning and it’s gone. The bug was still under my desk yesterday when I checked.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Jesse says. “How did she get into the shop? Was the deadbolt lock broken?”

“No. She must have duplicated the keys somehow. She’s so damn smooth I wouldn’t be surprised if she lifted them off me and made copies without me even noticing. There were plenty of opportunities.”

“Did she take anything out of the shop? Papers? Bank statements?”

“I didn’t take time to check. Hell, I don’t know what she did or didn’t do. Who knows? She’s gone now and we’re screwed. We need to call Flint.”

Trish is standing quietly at the sink listening to our conversation.

“What’s going on?” she asks. “What bug? What aren’t you two telling me?”