CHAPTER1
HAZEL
This half skyscraper did not belong in the small coastal town. I didn’t belong either.
Clouds covered the sky, the summer sun unable to break through the cover. I stood outside the tall building, which towered over the rest of the structures in Pelican Bay. I saw no signs or activity in or out of the building, making it appear deserted. Yet, my contact promised this was the place to meet him. They had to be inside or else I wasn’t sure how I’d live through the week.
Damn it.
Did I make a wrong choice?
The building looked like a great place to kill me and hide my body. I checked the deserted street one last time and tilted my head to the sky, watching the swirling gray clouds work their way toward the ocean at the end of the long street.
Fingers crossed the weather didn’t indicate how the day might end for me.
I parked blocks away and walked, hoping I’d see if someone tailed me. My heightened anxiety hadn’t turned me into a superspy in the last twenty-four hours, but I was getting good at looking over my shoulder without turning my body all the way around.
That had to be good for something. I just wasn’t sure if I’d live long enough to find out what.
I put my hand on the large glass door and hesitated another moment, clutching the metal handle hard so my shaking fingers weren’t as obvious. The whole situation had me terrified. I’d never been on the run before and didn’t want to die. My stomach threatened to throw up everything I’d eaten since 2010, but I pushed onward.
You’d freak too if everything in your life shattered overnight.
Two days ago, I’d been a regular, boring woman. I went to work Monday through Friday and spent my weekends reading romance books and watching reruns of old TV shows on Netflix. The most exciting thing going on in my life involved scrolling the local animal shelter website and trying to calculate when to adopt my first pet.
That’s exactly what I’d been doing when my boss came knocking on my door at 9:30 on Monday evening. I’d logged off and had been getting ready to go to bed—yup, I said I led a boring life—when his fist hit my door so loudly he almost woke up the entire apartment complex.
Sean wasn’t a terrible boss, but we weren’t exactly “outside of work friends.” His visit definitely came as a shock.
He wouldn’t have known where I lived except he’d given me a ride home two years ago after the company Christmas party. That and he probably had it in my employee file somewhere.
“Sean?” I asked, only opening the door halfway. His clothes hung off him like someone tried to rip his jacket from his arms, and he hadn’t stopped to fix it.
He gazed at me as if he wasn’t looking at me but seeing ghosts behind me. It was so chilling I even turned to look and make sure I was alone in my apartment. “Hazel, they’re after me.”
“Who is after you?” I asked when he stopped to take a breath.
He fumbled in his pocket and returned with a small black thumb drive. “I don’t know when they’ll catch up to me. Put this in a safe place. You need to take it and hide it for me.”
He pressed the drive into my palm, and I expected to feel the Earth rumble under my feet or see a flash of lighting—anything to alert me of my impending danger. Where were my warning signs?
I couldn’t blame my situation on anyone but myself because I took the drive from him, still trying to make sense of his ramblings. Looking back, I should have stopped to ask a few more qualifying questions.
The one I asked wasn’t great. “Where am I supposed to hide it?”
As you can tell, the severity of the situation had not hit me. And frankly, Sean looked slightly drunk. I’d seen him tie one on at the Christmas party the year before, but he never seemed a guy to get wasted on a Monday night.
“They’re everywhere. Hide it somewhere nobody will look. This information could bring down the entire company.”
“What information?” I asked, looking at the thumb drive and getting ready to hand it back. I didn’t have time to bring down a company, especially the one writing my paycheck.
Except when I looked up from my hand, Sean had left. His retreating form as he ran through the parking lot of my apartment complex was the last I saw of him.
Weird.
“Shawn!” I yelled after him.
He turned with panic flashing in his eyes. “Keep it safe, Hazel.”