“She alone?”
“Affirmative.”
More clacking.
“Hang on. Ten minutes earlier, she’s out front on the phone.”
“Can you play it for me?”
“Yeah, let me turn the speaker up.”
Ten seconds later, I hear Megan’s voice through my cell. It’s a little rough since it’s not live, but I could hear her clearly.
“Of course, I got it. Don’t question my skills. No, there weren’t any issues. I’ll bring you the dagger only after I see my cut in my account.” There’s a pause. I wished I could see her face. “You don’t believe I have it? I assume you called me because you heard of it over the police scanners. I might work for the Sparks sheriff’s department, but the Straight place is out of my jurisdiction.” Another pause. “I’m always up for another job. You think I can retire at forty on a deputy’s salary? Right. I’ll be there in two hours.”
“That’s it,” Kennedy said. “She ends the call and goes back inside. Then she leaves.”
Holy shit. I tugged on my hair and spun in a circle.
“Can you track her phone?”
More tapping. “Headed toward Missoula.”
“Or, headed toward Spokane,” I snarled. “And Burns.”
I grabbed her coffee mug and tossed it at the wall. It shattered and pieces flew around the room.
“Get back here, and we’ll figure this out,” Kennedy said.
“Figure it out? What’s there to figure out? She was in on it the whole time! Kept pushing me away because she didn’t want me snooping. Jesus, I’m a fucking idiot.”
“Get back here,” he repeated. “We’ll be waiting.”
He hung up, and I grabbed hold of the edge of her counter and leaned against it. Tried not to lose my shit.
The one woman I let in, the one woman I wanted to be mine, and she turned out to be a fucking criminal. A user. Yeah, she’d fucking used me.
I’d stayed away from my family to keep from getting sucked into criminal activities, but here I’d gone and done exactly what I was trying to avoid in Sparks. For a woman.
A woman who didn’t even profess to love me!
Up until the night before, she’d pushed me away. Tried to keep me at a distance, but last night?
“Fuck!” I shouted then stormed out of her house, the front door slamming behind me.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-FOUR
MEGAN
I drove without stopping–hours on the highway. My body was made of lead. My mouth full of ash. It was incredible how different my entire life seemed from ten hours before. Just this morning–a lifetime ago–I’d woken up in Hayes’ arms. We’d shared something intimate. Something big. Foolish me, I thought we were going to somehow handle Burns together and then ride into the sunset.
Now, I face a future of breaking the law. Living in the margins. Never knowing love.
No, that wasn’t true. I’d known love.
I’d known it, and I just choked the life out of it.
I put a hand on my roiling stomach. I hadn’t eaten all day, and I still couldn’t. If I did, I’d just puke again.
That was what leaving Hayes made me feel like.
What hurting him did to me.
Because I knew when he pulled that feed from my porch, he was going to feel the worst kind of betrayal. A betrayal he didn’t deserve.
I remembered Hayes had told me he’d tapped into my security system. That was how he’d learned about Burns, how he’d stunned me when he told me he knew all about the job. I hadn’t given him any answers. He and the other guys with Alpha Mountain had put it all together. Like detectives. Like SEALs.
That meant I had to hide not only from Burns and my father but from Hayes as well. Even though it destroyed me–utterly and completely–I hoped my fake phone call had made him hate me. I needed to be sure he’d let it go.
So I’d had to do more than just a fake call. I had to go to Spokane, or at least in that direction, so their snooping would back up my words. I was Burns’ partner in crime, and I was headed to join him in Washington. Then Hayes would leave me alone. For good.
For his good.
I’d stolen a five-million-dollar dagger. Me. My father and Burns probably had alibis in different states for the time of the crime. If I contacted the authorities–even with me being a sheriff’s deputy–I couldn’t be sure anyone would believe me. Not with the evidence Burns held.
I’d made it all day without crying. Now I could let it out. Give into the tears clogging my throat.
Except they didn’t flow. I was too numb. Too in shock. Too far removed from the Megan Hager I’d been yesterday to even cry.
My heart was too damaged. Too broken.
I had absolutely nothing.
And only now–now that I’d lost everything–could I see just how much Hayes had been offering me. Had I really repeatedly pushed away the one good thing that had ever come into my life?