Chapter Thirty-Six
Ana
It’s early afternoon when the sun turns the snow into mush and water drips from the cabin roof and rolls down a hill in a slop of mud. When we finally pack up and load up in the SUV, with Luke behind the wheel, and me riding shotgun, it’s actually with a bit of regret on my part. Once I just let go of what was happening in the rest of the world, I finally understood this little escape with Luke was necessary.
Of course, we’ve gone through all the evidence Darius left behind, but much of it won’t mean anything until we have data access we don’t have with no internet or phone. But I’m ready with pictures of everything to transmit to Blake, as soon as it’s possible. “You know what we never talked about,” Luke says, when we’re about halfway back to civilization.
“What?”
“The money Darius left you.”
“Oh. That. Kind of weird that my dirty partner left me ten million dollars and my stepfather seems to have left me nothing.”
“You inherit in a couple of years.”
“I don’t think there’s any money. I think Kasey got it all, didn’t tell me, and lost it all somehow. Probably gambling.”
“Or it’s more complicated than that,” he says. “We both know there were things going on we don’t understand. The money may have been stolen.”
“The money,” I say. “We don’t even know there was money, really. Maybe it was Kurt who got into some kind of trouble and lost his ass. I’ve certainly considered that, but you know, not for long. The money never mattered to me.”
“Well, we have plenty of money, baby. You’re not going to want for anything.”
My heart warms with his words. “I appreciate that, but all I want is you.”
“And a couple of horses?”
I smile. “I really do want horses. You know I love to ride.”
“Then horses you will have. Check the internet. We should be close enough by now.”
I check my phone and shake my head, but then the internet pops into view. “Scratch that. We are live, Houston.”
“I’ll call Blake. You send that compressed photo file we made to Blake.”
Luke punches in his auto-dial for Blake and allows it to ring on speaker phone. Blake answers on ring one, “Thank fuck, man. We thought you were dead. Where the hell are you?”
“It freaking snowed up in the mountains. We were trapped and had no service.”
“We found the insurance Darius kept,” I chime in. “I’m sending you photos but there is also audio, a lot of audio. We dictated what Darius says in his audio and I’m emailing that to you, as well.”
“All right,” he says. “But I have news.”
My stomach knots with something in his tone. “What news?”
“Your boss is dead. He died in, get this—a car accident, just like Trevor.”
I sit back with a whoosh of air exploding from my lungs and glance at Luke. “And my mother,” I say, but that was when I was a kid. I don’t think it was a part of this but,” I swallow hard and look at Luke, “it was murder. Kurt said he made them pay.”
Luke catches my hand. “Kurt didn’t leave loose ends, but it’s a strange coincidence. Blake—”
“I’ll check it out,” he confirms. “Do we have any idea what put Mike on the wrong radar?”
“Mike was the front man to whatever this operation is. It’s all in the data we’re transmitting. Somehow, they know we were onto him.”
“You should have that data now,” I say, trying to shake the whole thing about my mother off. Her death is not related to this and I’ve long ago dealt with her being caught in the crossfire of Kurt’s enemies. It’s why Kurt trained me. It’s why he pushed me. “It shows delivered, Blake” I add.
The sound of a keyboard clicking under the press of fingers fills the air, and then Blake says, “Got it. Keep talking.”
“They, whoever the fuck they are, seems to know we’re onto them. They’re going to clean this up and make it disappear the way Kurt’s history disappeared if we don’t act fast. We need you to have the team start working that data like ten minutes ago.”
“We need to get to someone who knows something worth knowing before they end up dead, too.” I look at Luke. “The buyer who was supposed to get that package Kasey was handling.” I don’t have to unzip the bag Darius left. The name is easy to remember. “Newman Phillips,” I say. “Can you find him for us?”
“As in the billionaire’s son?” Blake asks.
Newman being the son of Michael Phillips and everyone in Denver knows Michael. He’s the owner of a Denver-based professional sports team.
“Yes,” I say. “Him. Whatever these packages were that Kasey was handling, they seem to attract a lot of wealthy players.”
“Give me a minute,” Blake says, and he literally means a minute. The keyboard sounds start again and in just about sixty seconds exactly he says, “I’m texting you an address. Right now, he’s at the stadium.”
“We’re a good hour and a half out from there,” Luke says. “Can we get eyes on him?”
“Yeah,” Blake confirms. “We’ll get eyes on him. Now let me go dive into the data you sent me. And glad you’re both okay. Don’t go fucking around in the mountains again. I don’t like that shit.” Without preamble, Blake disconnects.
I glance at Luke and we laugh. “I’m thinking he meant that literally.”
“Pretty accurate,” he jokes.
But the lightness of the mood fades quickly for us both. “That whole car accident thing is weird, right?”
“You mean because of your mother?”
“Yes, but that was decades ago. This can’t track that far back, can it?”
“I’ve learned to never say never. How do you feel about that?”
“I’ll feel something about it later, after we kick some ass.” I move on, “Mike’s dead. How did they figure out we knew?”
“As Darius said, they’ve been watching you a long time, Ana. When you showed up right after Darius died, digging around his desk, someone decided it’s time to go off-grid for a while. And when you go off-grid, you cut off the head of the snake that can bite you.”
He’s right. And my fear is they aren’t done finding those snakes and killing them. If they get to the sources of information before we do, we’ll never figure this out. “I assume Mike was behind the meetup we were supposed to have at the ranch,” Luke says. “If he’s dead, the question is, who is in charge and who, if anyone, is showing up to that meeting?”
Who indeed, I think, and why does that question twist me in knots?