“Everything you ran also said she lived in North Carolina,” Kieran added.
Sutton sucked in a quick breath. Her eyes swung to me. “Jason met her there. He was on a trip. They fell in love and eloped. It was a scandal because it all happened without anyone knowing, and Jason had been dating someone else before he went there. It died out as quickly as it happened when Richard Westcott had his wife forced out of their home so he could bring in his twenty-something-year-old pregnant girlfriend.”
“Jesus,” Jess said with a soft laugh.
I grabbed Sutton’s attention and lowered my voice. “I’m gonna explain what happened after I finish this call, but I need to talk to them first.” When she didn’t move, I gave her a pointed look. “You can’t be here for this part of the conversation.”
Her jaw lifted. “And you want me to trust you.”
I released an edgy laugh. “Fine. If you attack me again, I will lock you in this room and sit outside the door to make sure you can’t leave unless it’s with me. Don’t think I won’t.”
Jess and Einstein were laughing so hard I could hear them even though I’d taken it off speaker.
Putting it back on so Sutton could hear, I said, “I need everything you have on Veronica’s case, Einstein.”
“Sending.”
I kept my attention on Sutton when I said, “The reason we might have a problem—”
“Sutton knew we helped Veronica and her parents escape,” Kieran said, his tone as lethal as ever.
“Exactly.”
Sutton’s body turned rigid and her mouth formed a thin line.
“Either you knew Veronica was escaping or she’s had contact with you,” Einstein said matter-of-factly. “Considering your hostility and what you said to Conor, I’m going to assume the first is unlikely. So, I’m going to put another or in there and leave it at that.”
“Even if you’ve had contact with her, she would’ve told you that we couldn’t relocate you to the same place as her. She also knows the risks of contacting anyone,” I said firmly. “So, I’m taking out the second option.”
“Agreed,” Kieran mumbled. “Now is when you tell us how you knew.”
Sutton didn’t respond.
And from the few times she’d done this already, I knew she wouldn’t.
“I’m gonna talk with Sutton,” I said with a weighted sigh. “Will update later.”
“You should’ve been gone a long time ago,” Einstein said quickly.
“I’m aware.” I ended the call and tossed it onto the desk next to the laptop.
No sooner had it stopped sliding than it was ringing again.
It was Einstein.
“I know how behind we are, Einstein,” I said in way of answering.
“Kieran and Jess haven’t seen any suspicious vehicles or people,” she said distractedly. “I’m doing what I can from here while Mav goes through the files. Now, put the angry one on the phone.”
I put it on speaker and held it out to Sutton. I didn’t let her take it.
Sutton’s eyes darted from the phone to me and back again. “Hello?”
“You really love throwing up those red flags, don’t you?”
The corner of my mouth tipped up at Einstein’s boldness.
Instead of a comeback, Sutton’s shoulders hunched. “I heard what happened to you. And I-I’m so—” A strangled sound climbed up her throat. “I’m so sorry.”
“Yeah. Well. It happens, I guess.” Soft. Subdued. So unlike Einstein it was alien. I knew it would continue for some time, but I didn’t like it. “But that’s why I’m calling. I don’t know what this new information about Veronica will mean for you and us or why you actually contacted us in the first place. Any other case, we’d probably pull Conor out of there. But after what happened, I know none of us would be able to live with ourselves if Zachary made it back to the two of you.”
Sutton lifted her head to look at me.
Something I couldn’t comprehend fought and raged inside her.
Questions sat heavily on my tongue, begging to be heard.
Why are you here?
Why did you contact us?
What are you running from if not your husband?
“And, Sutton, we no longer know where he is,” Einstein said, shame coating her words. “He had disappeared by the time they found me. He could easily be in Brentwood, which is why you need to let Conor get you to another place until we’re sure Zachary isn’t following you. After that, we can relocate the two of you to a place he’ll never be able to find you.”
“Why did you send me the scariest man you had?”
I barked out a laugh that was quickly echoed by Maverick and Einstein.
“Take me off speaker.” The laughter in Einstein’s voice abruptly faded. “And hand over the phone, Conor. I know you’re holding it.”
I tapped off the speaker and gave Sutton the phone, but I still watched her intently as she studied me, listening to whatever the genius had to say.
Once she ended the call, she slowly gave the phone back to me, her eyes never leaving mine.
I could see a change in them, clear as day. That anger and hate had shifted to confusion and unknowns. It wasn’t trust, but it gave me the opportunity I needed.
I curled the phone in my grasp and folded my arms over my chest. “I’m prepared to explain what I have to in order for you to believe me. But we need—” I swallowed back the words and paused for a moment. “It would be smarter and safer if I got us somewhere else first. Once we’re there, I will explain what I know. If you have questions that I can’t answer, I’ll find the answers.”
“Okay.”
That small, surrendering word nearly knocked me over.
“Grab everything. We need to move as fast as we can.” I looked around the room. “What can I help you with?”
Instead of moving in a frenzy like I needed her to, she just stood, watching me. “You’re really here to save us?”
The oxygen escaped my lungs in a rush.
I wanted to ask what she thought I was doing here.
I wanted to know why she was so suspicious.
I wanted a glimpse into the mess of thoughts in her head.
I lifted my arms before letting them fall again. “Sutton . . . yeah.”
She nodded as she turned for the bathroom. Just before she reached the door, she looked at me. “Where are you taking us?”
“Can’t say. We’ll continue a false trail while remaining in something similar.”
“That won’t work.” Before I could ask her what the hell she was talking about, she knocked on the door and asked for her daughter to open it.
Alexis came out the same way she had before, glaring and looking at me the way her mother did. As if she didn’t trust me and wanted to be rid of me.
Awesome.
“I need you to start grabbing our stuff from the bathroom. Do you think you can do that?”
Her daughter nodded and disappeared back into the small room, and Sutton turned to me.
“Zachary knows where we’ve been.” She cleared her throat and glanced at me. “That’s what you said. Right?”
“He does.”
“Then he’ll expect us to stay in a place like this. Even if we do a . . . a false trail, or whatever you called it. He won’t expect me to go somewhere nice, because that’s the kind of place I would want to be in. That’s the kind of place I’m used to.”
“And if you’ve been doing the unexpected, he’ll expect you to continue to.”
A shaky breath left her. “Right.”
“Smart. All right, I’ll have Einstein look for places while we pack.”
“I also . . .” She worried her bottom lip as she glanced to the desk. “If he knows where we are, then I can’t trust that computer. I don’t want to take it.”
I ran a hand through my beard as that suspicion swirled and grew and then nodded. “Go pack, I’ll take care of it.”
I had Einstein on the phone before Sutton had pulled out o
ne of her suitcases.
“Well, you sure do like hearing my voice,” she said when she answered.
For a second, my eyelids closed.
For a second, my free hand curled into a fist.
For a second, I let all that pain and sorrow tear at my chest before I shoved it away and focused on the job at hand.
“I need you to look for the nicest place around here,” I said quietly. “Somewhere a wife of the Tennessee Gentlemen would go. Get me a reservation and directions.”
“Here I thought one of you would have a hard request for once,” she murmured dully.
“And tell me how to destroy this computer’s contents.”
I could practically feel her excitement pouring from the phone before she spoke. “Well, at least I get to do something fun.”
Sutton
I looked around one of the most luxurious suites the resort had to offer.
Lexi and I had come here for girls’ days and shopping trips. Zachary had brought me here for dates and weekend getaways.
I tried not to show the immense relief I felt being in a place like this.
I didn’t want Conor to know that I felt so at ease, so at home here.
But I did, and I could tell Lexi did too.
One look at Conor, and I knew I didn’t have him fooled. He’d been watching me intently, which seemed to be something he did often.
It was almost as unsettling as the way I found myself watching the terrifying man back. But for the life of me, I couldn’t figure him out.
This avenging angel who was saving us . . . when I had been so sure he was there to harm us.
Absurdly tall and broad and, with each breath, looking as though he were bearing a weight I couldn’t begin to imagine. Blond, unkempt hair and beard that matched the tattoos I kept getting glimpses of near the collar of his shirt and swirling down his muscled arms to his fingers.
But his blue eyes stood in contradiction.
Warm and kind, and, even when narrowed into the calculating glare he was giving me, there was something so gentle about them.
The man was devastatingly handsome in a dangerous way. Though, I was loath to admit it, even if only to myself.
“Do I want to know how you got us into this suite on such short notice?”
“Einstein,” was all he said, as if that was all the explanation I would need. He let his attention shift around the room before resting on me again. “Guessing this is better?”
Of course it was.
It didn’t smell like stale beer or have cockroaches in it.
Not to mention, I felt safer here than I ever had in the two months trapped in the motels and supposedly surrounded by FBI agents.
Men I hadn’t seen a glimpse of when we’d gotten into Conor’s truck or while driving here.
Conor had noticed the way my attention had constantly pulled toward the mirrors, saying, “If you’re worried about being followed, I can assure you that we aren’t.”
Except, they had been there the first day we’d been forced into the motel by Zachary—all six of them. And every day following, one of them stopped by at exactly nine in the morning to give us food and let me know if they were moving us to another motel or not.
Zachary had even known about the time I’d run from the room to answer Einstein’s phone call at the front desk. I’d been sure whoever was watching us had informed him.
It hadn’t hit me until Conor said we weren’t being followed that I’d never seen any of the agents except at nine every morning. The cars they transferred us in were never in the parking lots whenever I peeked out the windows, and it made me wonder if they’d ever been watching over us at all. Maybe Zachary had only made me think we were being protected and kept in place.
An illusion, as he’d told Einstein.
I hated that man with every fiber of my being.
My shoulders lifted in something that I hoped came across as a shrug when I finally replied, “Yeah, it’s fine.”
A disbelieving laugh fell from Conor’s lips. “Right.”
“I don’t need a place like this to be better.”
He took a step closer to me, which was really more like three, and let the corner of his mouth lift into a small smirk. “I don’t know many people who could stay in those kinds of motels long and not run around in excitement once they get out. Especially someone who travels with five bags and bedazzled heels.”
My mouth opened in horror, my hands rose in a vain attempt to swat away the words. “Those are diamond encrusted.”
“Jesus. Thank you for proving my point.”
“Excuse me for having money and using it,” I said through clenched teeth. “I’ll try not to flash it in front of the likes of you again. If this room is too uncomfortable for you, you’re more than welcome to stay at the motel.”
“The likes of me?” His brows lifted, and his smirk shifted into a full smile.
And that smile changed everything about the intimidating man in front of me.
Because it was boyish and bright with deep-set dimples peeking out through his scruffy beard.
It was beautiful.
Damn it, it really did look like Prince Charming’s.
I jolted when I felt a small hand slip into mine, and it was then I realized how close Conor and I had gotten to each other.
I stepped back and cleared my throat . . . and then cleared it again when I still couldn’t form the words. “I’m sorry, that was rude.”
He shrugged. “It’s what you think.” Before I could respond, his stare fell to Lexi. “Bet you’re hungry.”
She didn’t answer. I wasn’t surprised.
She hardly spoke to anyone other than Nadia and me.
“Well, I don’t know about you, but it takes a lot to keep me going, so let’s order food.” When Lexi didn’t respond, Conor slowly nodded and then forced a smile at me. “She’s definitely your daughter.”
I pulled her closer and narrowed my eyes.
“I need coffee. A lot of it. And a shower.” He took a step back and clapped his hands. “Einstein’s already running security on the place, but I need to know that you won’t do something stupid the moment I let you out of my sight.”
“Like leave?”
His hardened stare told me everything.
That he heard the bite in my tone. That he saw my protective stance, slightly in front of Lexi. That he still didn’t trust me, just as we didn’t trust him.
“Yeah,” he said after a moment. “Like that.”
Conor was almost to the room when I relented with a sigh. “What do you want for breakfast?”
He stopped walking but hesitated before he turned. “Told you I’m a pretty easy-going guy, Sutton. Trust me, and I’ll trust you. Work with me, and I’ll help you in any way I can. Feed me, and I’ll be happy.”
“And if I do none of that?”
He glanced from Lexi to me and then shrugged. “I’ll still be the guy protecting you.”
“You promised me answers,” I said in way of announcing I was in the suite’s living room that evening.
Answers I desperately wanted.
I wanted to know the truth behind Vero. I wanted to know why she left and where she was. I wanted to know why I was lied to about her disappearance.
I wanted to know why Zachary had lied to me at all . . .
“I thought answers would be better given after your daughter was asleep. You could’ve told me earlier if I was mistaken.” Conor glanced up from his computer when I didn’t respond. “I also told you what I didn’t know, I would research. I’ve been doing that.”
I wrapped my arms across my stomach and walked hesitantly toward the couch he was on. When I spoke, my tone was gentler. “And are you done?”
A breathless laugh left him. “No way in hell.”
He turned his laptop so I could see the screen and then minimized the page he’d been on, revealing files upon files.
Conor started scrolling through them, never stopping as he sp
oke. “See all these different files? There is a general one, one for each family that has ever been a part of the Tennessee Gentlemen, as well as files for their payrolls, the bank accounts they have in different parts of the world, front companies, hidden companies, and trafficking. Anything you could ever think of, and anything you’d forget to think of, is in here. Each file is anywhere from a hundred pages to thousands.”
“Jesus. How did—” Dread crept through me like a disease. “Is Alexis in there? Am I?”
He nodded solemnly and watched as I sank to the couch.
For long moments, I couldn’t speak.
The lump in my throat grew as I wondered what could be in the file about us. Wondered what Zachary and his family could be into that there would be files on us at all.
“What does it say?”
“I don’t know.” Honesty dripped from his words, and he blew out a sigh before shifting the computer back to him. His hand moved to it, but after a second’s hesitation, he dropped it and glanced at me. “I’m not investigating the two of you; I’m protecting you. If you want me to know every detail of your life, I’ll let you tell me.”
My exhale sounded strained. “Thank you.”
“The rest of my team is also studying the files and looking at the crimes. However, I am learning everything I can about your husband and his family, as well as Garret Vaughn, Jason Woods, Veronica Woods, and Aaron Thornton.”
I nodded, but the movement didn’t seem like my own. I didn’t feel attached to it. “Why them?”
Conor leaned back and folded his hands behind his neck, showing a muscled chest and arms in a way that was wholly distracting and completely unnecessary.
I blinked quickly to tear my eyes from him and focused on the couch as he spoke.
“Seems the Tennessee Gentlemen were able to go unnoticed for so long because they don’t do their own dirty work. Their illegal money went through so many different washers before it came back to them that it was nearly impossible to trace. But Zachary and the guys in your generation seem to have changed the rules and have been getting their hands really dirty for about a decade now.”
This isn’t real.
This isn’t real.
This isn’t real.
Limit (Rebel Book 3) Page 5