Silent Run - Barbara Freethy [87]
“I’m working on it,” Shane said. “I need a little more time.”
“Your time is up,” Victor said.
“Look, she has someone watching her all the time. It’s not going to be that easy to get to her right now. We might have to back off for a while.”
“I’ve waited eight years to see her die; that’s enough,” Victor said.
“A few more days, a week—she’ll let her guard down,” Shane said. “You’ve only been out of the pen a few months—do you want to go back?”
“That won’t happen,” Victor said, nothing but confidence in his voice.
“The police are involved. If something happens to her it won’t be that difficult to trace her back to you—not me,” Shane added.
Dark storm clouds gathered in Victor’s eyes. He hated when anyone questioned his actions. Shane should have kept his fucking mouth shut. But it was too late now.
“Do you think I’m stupid?” Victor asked.
“Of course not. The truth is, I don’t know where she is right now,” Shane said hastily, trying to defuse the situation. “They slipped away after the fire.”
Victor stared back at him. “And you’re not smart enough to figure out how to get her out in the open?”
Before he could answer, Rick said, “The kid, dude, that’s the ticket.”
“I don’t know where the kid is.”
“You didn’t know there was a kid,” Victor said angrily. “You should have been more thorough.”
Shane should have known about the kid. He’d traced her to the apartment, but he’d never thought she was living with anyone but herself. “She doesn’t know where the kid is. She has amnesia.” The last thing Shane wanted to do was take out a baby. He’d fallen a long way from the kind of man he thought he’d be, but that was just too damn far. His life was not supposed to go down this way.
“There are only two people who could have the child,” Victor said. “I now know where both of them
live.”
“Do you want to tell me?”
“Actually, I don’t,” Victor said. “You’re of no use to me anymore. You’ve become a liability. You can’t get the job done, and you know too much.”
Before Shane could move, Rick pulled out his gun.
“Whoa, what are you doing?” Shane asked, putting up his hands. “We’re friends. We’ve been together a long time; I’ve done everything you wanted.”
“Until now,” Victor said.
“Let me try again,” Shane said, acutely aware of the barrel of the gun facing him. “We’re partners. We’re fucking partners. Just give me one more chance.” But even as he said the words, he knew it was too late.
* * *
While Jake was gone, Sarah got dressed again and straightened the bed. She suspected that any reminder of what had happened between them would not be a good idea. Once that was done, she went to the window and peeked through the curtain. It was dark, but she could see rain streaming down in the glare of the parking lot lights. Another storm. For some reason the rain set her nerves on edge. The last time it had rained she’d almost lost her life.
Letting the curtain drop back into place, she paced around the small room, restless, frustrated, confused, and worried. She shouldn’t have let Jake go. She should have found a way to make him stay. If only she hadn’t spoken so quickly. Maybe she could have prolonged the inevitable truth, but in the end it would have come out, and she couldn’t change the facts: She couldn’t remember their history together. That fact brought Jake pain each and every time. And the last thing she wanted to do was keep hurting him.
Wrapping her arms around her waist, she felt chilled. An hour ago she and Jake had been so close she hadn’t known where she ended and he began, but now they were as far apart as they’d ever been, not just physically but emotionally as well. Why couldn’t she remember him? If it had been as good between them as he’d said, why was her brain trying to protect her from those memories? Her mind had already