by Lisa Harris
“What is this?” Sienna looked at the whistle.
“I’m giving it to you.”
“Me?”
“Happy belated birthday, Sienna.”
“That’s thoughtful of you.” Sienna had no idea what was swirling in Dana’s head. She wondered if she could go around wearing a whistle on her neck.
“It’s sterling silver. Sorry it’s not gold.”
“I don’t care.” Sienna put it around her own neck.
Dana expelled a breath. “That felt better.”
“What felt better?”
“It was so heavy around my neck. Like a noose, you know?”
“This whistle?” Sienna asked.
Dana nodded. “Please keep it for me?”
“I thought it was a gift.”
“Yes. It’s yours now. But it’s also my insurance.”
“What are you talking about?” The last thing Sienna wanted was to be responsible for something that wasn’t her own. “What is this? Does it even work?”
“It works.”
And another last thing Sienna wanted was someone else’s used whistle.
“I’ll explain later.” Dana touched her stomach. She got up, drew a deep breath. “I’m thirsty again. Do pregnant people get thirsty all the time?”
“I have no idea.” Still staring at the whistle, Sienna had second thoughts about the gift.
Dana opened an old refrigerator in her studio kitchen. Behind her, a farmhouse sink backed up against a wall with a small window. Outside the window, there was a fence that seemed to be too close to the ramshackle house. The sun was setting and the fence looked dark and weary.
“Would you like some water?” Dana asked.
“Yes.” But she almost said no, when she saw Dana pour unfiltered water from the sink faucet into a plastic cup she had picked up from the countertop.
Was that cup even washed?
Sienna was going to put the necklace into her crossbody bag when she realized she didn’t have it with her. She must have left it in Earl’s SUV, together with her phone and pepper spray inside.
She was about to put the necklace into the pocket of her ripped pants when she heard shattering glass.
Her eyes snapped up just as Dana collapsed to the ground, the plastic cup bouncing off the old linoleum floor. The kitchen faucet was still running. The window above the sink looked broken.
“Dana!” Sienna gasped as the house went silent.
Sienna threw herself on the ugly green rug between the coffee table and the couch, and held her breath. She wished she had her phone with her.
She could not call Earl. Could not call 911.
The only Person she could call was God.
Help me, Jesus!
From the corner of her eye, she saw someone move in the hallway between the kitchen and the bedroom. She looked up to see the figure moving toward her, dressed in black from head to toe, with a ski mask and goggles.
Sienna froze when she saw the silencer pointed in her direction.
“Give it to me.” It was a low male voice.
He sounded like he could hurt her.
“Give what?” Sienna bravely asked.
“What she gave to you.”
“She was getting me water.”
Ninja grunted. “You’re not stupid.”
“Thank you for the vote of confidence.”
He inched closer. “Now.”
“I don’t know what you’re—”
A blast blew Ninja back, his weapon flying out of his hand. He landed on the green carpet, blood seeping out of his ski mask. He went still.
Sienna screamed.
Chapter Two
A strong hand touched Sienna’s arm.
“It’s me. Let’s go.” Calm, quiet voice. Deep, soothing voice.
Earl Young.
Sienna scrambled to her feet, holding on to his hand as he pulled her up. She reached down to grab her Mary Jane that had fallen off her foot. She put it back on, and reminded herself to wear boots the next time she made a house call, in case she needed to run to safety or something.
Around them, half a dozen heavily armed people swarmed the small living room, wearing helmets, protective armor, and vests that said “FBI.”
Someone came up to them and talked to Earl. Sienna could hardly recognize her in her protective armor and goggles. But as soon as she started speaking, Sienna knew that was FBI Special Agent Mariana Kimball.
“Once again, Sienna.” Kimball smacked her lips to show her great disappointment. “Why are you doing this alone when you can have federal forces with you?”
“She wouldn’t have talked,” Sienna defended herself.
“Did she?” Kimball asked.
“Well, we were getting to it.”
Kimball shook her head. “You need to leave now. You cannot be seen here.”
“Thanks for coming, Agent Kimball,” Earl said. “And please cut her some slack. She’s losing her job, and she’s losing her freedom.”
Before Sienna could say anything, another agent approached them but he spoke directly to Kimball. “Ma’am, she’s still breathing. Paramedics are on the way,”
“Dana!” Sienna tried to get to her friend.
“Visit her at the hospital later. We need to get you to safety.” Kimball pushed her back and strong-armed her through the crowd of other agents toward the front door. To Earl, she said, “Where’s your vehicle?”
“Two houses down,” Earl said.
“Give me the key and we’ll move it for you.” The agent waved to an unmarked van by the curb. “Go now. We’ll talk soon.”
“Wait,” Sienna said to Earl. “I left my purse in your SUV.”
“No, you didn’t.” Earl reached in between two shriveled-up bushes outside the front door, and retrieved her crossbody bag. It was covered with mud and dirt. “Sorry about that. I had no time to find a place for it. I heard the first shot and thought you were…”
Dead?
“It could’ve been very bad,” Sienna said. “Thank you.”
Agent Kimball opened the van door for them. “Earl, thanks. You got here a second before we did.”
“A minute.”
“Splitting hairs.”
“Still, you owe me dinner.” Earl chuckled.
“No, I don’t. Get in.” Kimball pointed to the backseat.
“Don’t you want me to drive?” Earl remained standing by the van door.
“No, Earl. My guy will take you to the safe house.” She waved for someone to come over. She handed him the key and told him where to take Earl and Sienna.
“Nice to have a chauffeur,” Earl said.
Kimball ignored him. She looked Sienna up and down. “Next time you visit a witness, don’t go alone. If you want to stay alive, never leave his side.”
“I was nearby,” Earl said as he helped Sienna into the van.
“Are you defending her?”
“Just telling you I rushed in as fast—and as safely—as I could.” Earl got in and sat down next to Sienna. He turned to the agent. “Sorry about your guy in the car. I couldn’t get to him in time.”
“Can’t be in two places at once,” the agent said.
Or can you?
As Sienna listened to them, she recalled what Dana had said to her. In the yacht two months before, the two half brothers had a long conversation. Dana said she wasn’t in the suite with them. But she seemed to indicate that she had an inkling of what they were discussing. How could she be in two places at the same time?
Sienna reached into her pocket. The necklace and whistle were still there. Would she need to turn them over to the FBI? When? Maybe after she figured out what the whistle was?
Then again, the FBI had more resources than she did.
Sienna knew she had to talk to Earl about the evidence she was now hiding—momentarily—from the FBI.
Agent Kimball left them to wait for an ambulance that pulled up in front of the house. In the surreal moment, Sienna hadn’t hea
rd the ambulance siren at all. Sienna watched the paramedics roll a stretcher into the house.
“I need to go to Dana.” Sienna unbuckled her seat belt.
“No.” Earl stopped her. “If we don’t get out of here, Dana might not be the only one shot.”
As the driver drove the FBI van away from the crime scene, Sienna realized her blouse smelled like cigarette smoke. She tried to fan it away.
Buckled in next to her on the bench seat at the back of the van, Earl turned to her. “Are you okay?”
“Do I smell like smoke?” Sienna asked.
“A little.”
“I need a shower. Will they let me go home?”
“No. We need you alive. We’ll be at the safe house until it’s time to go to the airport.”
Sienna’s eyebrows rose. “If I can’t go home, then my friend from church can’t go to my house either, right?”
“No, but I paid someone to keep an eye on your house.”
“Is he going to feed my cat?”
“You have a cat?” Earl looked like he had missed a major piece of information.
“Helen didn’t tell you?”
“No.” Earl grunted. “What’s the cat’s name?”
“Wyclef.”
“Really.”
“Yeah. So who’s going to feed my cat?”
Earl sighed. He called someone on his phone and told him what Sienna had asked.
“You just have to, okay? Yeah, man. I’ll let you talk to her,” he said, then handed the phone to Sienna. “Tell him where the cat food is.”
“Hello?” Sienna said into the phone, telling Earl’s guy where the pantry was and how often the water bowl needed to be changed. “Why don’t you just stay in the house instead of coming and going? You can sleep in the guest bedroom. Yes, eat whatever you want. I’ll be home this coming weekend.”
When she hung up, Earl stared at her. “You invited a stranger to live in your house.”
“You trusted him. Helen trusted you. It will all work out.”
“Otherwise you’ll sue us.” Earl chuckled.
The van driver also chuckled. “Don’t sue me. I got nothing to do with your cat.”
Sienna breathed a sigh of relief now that her cat was going to be taken care of. “Do you have pets, Earl?”
“Nope.”
“Well. They do take effort and energy.”
“I’m too busy,” Earl said. “No time.”
“Speaking of time, God sent you just in time,” Sienna said before she remembered to self-correct what she said to people at work and in general.
Many times, nobody in her secular world wanted to hear talk about God. They would tell her to keep her religion to herself. It wasn’t a religion as much as a relationship with God through Jesus Christ, but Sienna was tired of explaining.
Now, in the trenches, her true self had emerged. She had called out to God back there in that house after Dana was shot, and God had answered her prayer.
I’m alive. Dana’s alive.
“Glad you believe in God,” Earl said quietly.
“Do you?”
“There are more people in this world who do than you can see.” Earl pointed to the torn fabric of Sienna’s pants. “Are you hurt?”
“Ah, no,” Sienna covered her exposed thigh with a palm. “Battle with the armchair.”
“A spring sprung?” Earl chuckled.
“My friend has been shot, and you’re laughing?” Sienna snapped.
“I’m not. Trust me. I’m a serious guy.”
“I led them to her.” Sienna blinked.
“We don’t know that.” Earl’s eyes met hers.
It was twilight outside, and Sienna couldn’t remember the color of Earl’s eyes. They were dark now, and still staring at her. They were kind eyes, but she had seen him shoot the assailant point-blank in the head.
Minutes later, he made a joke about some armchair.
“I don’t understand how you could go from killing a man to commenting about an armchair.” Sienna turned away to look outside the window.
Interstate 75 was jam packed with rush hour traffic going north, but they were spared from the congestion since their van was going south toward the airport.
Sienna glanced at the driver. Other than the lawsuit remark, he hadn’t said any other word to either one of them.
“Does he know where to take us?” Sienna asked.
Earl nodded. “We’ll stay overnight at a safe house until the FBI debriefs us, and then we’ll fly to the conference in Savannah.”
Sienna closed her eyes. “Maybe I don’t want to go. I don’t need to do this anymore. I was told I could go straight into WITSEC even without this last task.”
“That’s why I’m here,” Earl said softly. “I’ll make sure you’re okay.”
“No.” Sienna glared at him. “You cannot guarantee my safety. I should never have called Helen Hu.”
Then again, she had no one else to turn to. She had known Helen since they were kids. Helen Hu’s mother and Sienna’s mother had done some business together. When Sienna found out that Helen was now world famous for her private investigator successes, she’d called, hoping to only get a piece of advice on how to proceed.
Instead, Helen had immediately sent this dude Sienna had never met before—all the way from Savannah, the hometown she hadn’t visited in years. Next thing she knew, the FBI found out she had called Helen Hu. And lo and behold, they agreed to let Earl be a part of the ruse.
Because of his special skills, they said. Whatever they were.
Two disposable civilians.
Sienna closed her eyes. “I should have stayed with Dana. I’m a familiar face.”
“I don’t think the paramedics would let you get close if they’re busy working on her,” Earl said.
“Am I next?” Sienna asked.
Earl was silent.
“Am I?” Sienna asked again.
“I don’t want to scare you. The truth is, I don’t know.”
“Then I’ll tell you, Earl. If we don’t take down GOOP, I’ll be dead.”
Chapter Three
“That bad, huh?” Helen Hu was sipping coffee in her office in Athens, Greece, as she listened to Earl talk about his afternoon gone awry.
Earl had gotten out of the shower and changed into a tee shirt and track pants, making himself at home in the safe house. After he talked to Helen, he would go downstairs to see if the debriefing was over. Somewhere at the back of his mind, he wondered if it had been wise to leave Sienna with FBI Special Agent Perez downstairs, but he was sure Sienna was in good hands.
While he had been in the shower, Agent Kimball had texted him to let him know that his SUV had been delivered to the safe house and was in the garage two floors down. He texted back to say he appreciated being a part of the project.
Kimball didn’t reply.
On the laptop screen in front of him on a small desk in his assigned bedroom, Earl could see pretty much the entire wall behind the table where Helen was sitting, including a giant clock. It was past three o’clock in the morning over there. He regretted calling her so late in the night, but then she was still wide awake.
To Earl, it made no sense for Helen to handle things stateside, to cover for him while he was away on an undercover mission. Thing was, neither of them could trust any of the other Hu Knows, Inc., employees to take charge of the Savannah headquarters while he was out here in Atlanta, keeping Sienna safe from unknown enemies. However, with Hugo in Brussels and Helen in Athens, there was no one else in charge of their Savannah office except Earl.
Helen liked to run her offices lean and mean. In other words, shorthanded.
“As soon as we find out who would kill to prevent her from whistleblowing, the sooner this will be over,” Earl said. “And then I’ll be back in Savannah and you can go back to your normal sleep pattern.”
Helen Hu nodded. “I put you in this situation.”
“She’s… It’s like…” Earl couldn’t put
his thoughts together.
“I’m sorry. I thought you could handle her better than Cade can.”
Cade Summer. A new hire at Hu Knows, Inc., he strutted around like he knew beans about beans the moment he earned his PI license.
“I didn’t send him to Atlanta. He’s single and looking for a date. Sienna might be uncomfortable,” Helen said.
Earl wasn’t sure what to make of it. He was single too. What was Helen saying? “Strangely enough, I think we’re a good fit—her friend thought we were actually dating before we even said anything.”
“Go on.”
“What?”
“You sound like you wanted to say something else.”
“Like what?”
“I don’t know. She’s a very sweet lady or something?”
“She’s slightly paranoid and uh…”
“When was the last time you were tongue-tied?” Helen chuckled. “Were you going to say that she’s distracted?”
Earl shrugged. “She doesn’t sit still and she doesn’t trust the FBI—and possibly me.”
“It’s only been one day. You have until next weekend.” Helen smiled. “One week at an oceanfront resort, all expenses paid.”
“A resort twenty minutes away from my own house. Woo hoo.”
“Free is free.”
“That’s what I keep telling myself.” Earl prayed he wouldn’t regret taking up the assignment. How hard could it be? His Special Ops training from long ago and the many years of PI work since then had prepared him for this. Besides, staying at a five-star hotel and eating for free were too appealing to pass up.
He had even packed two pairs of swimming trunks to alternate so that one could dry while he swam in the other. He should have brought two pairs of flip-flops and packed more sunblock lotion, but whatever.
“By the way, when you get there, if you see Donovan Moss, you might want to say hello. Keep us on his mind,” Helen said. “He has connections worldwide. We could always use new clients who can pay.”
It was typical of Helen to remind him that it was a business trip, not quite a vacation. The last time he had an all-expenses paid vacation was when he was shot up badly while on assignment in California. He missed the rest of the adventure that his friend, FBI Special Agent Jake Kessler, was on, but Earl did get a month off, lazing on the beach on Tybee Island while recuperating from his wounds.