Norah woke slowly and stretched, her body aching from the events of the day before. She wished like hell everything had just been a bad dream. But when she looked at Harley sleeping next to her and saw the stitches on his forehead, she couldn’t let herself believe it hadn’t happened. Not even for a moment.

Reagan was dead.

She had killed two men.

Clayton hadn’t died that night at the banquet.

There was no way of getting around any of those facts. As much as she hated it, the thing that bothered her the most was the last one. Clayton was alive and he was going to be coming for her. Why had he wanted her bracelet? The fact that he had asked for it personally meant that it mattered in some way. Was it simply because it was expensive?

“Hey.”

Norah turned to see Harley’s sleep-

filled eyes watching her.

“Hey.” Her voice didn’t even sound normal to her, and by the look of worry on his face, Harley had recognized it also.

“How are you?”

“I’m okay.” She offered him a slight smile. “Achy from the accident.”

“Maybe we should get you checked out. You didn’t get the amazing hospital trip I got,” He joked.

“Nah, I’m fine, Harley. The impact wasn’t on my side, and I feel fine other than some achy muscles. Believe it or not, that wasn’t my first car crash.”

“Oh yeah?”

“When I first started driving, a drunk driver pushed me off the road and into a ditch. Totaled my car, but after a few stitches and a cast on my wrist I was fine.”

As she talked, Norah stared at the blinds of the closed window. She could hear the cars driving on the street below, people headed to work and their daily routines. Why couldn’t she be one of them? “Did you get my bracelet?” she wondered.

“We did. Gerry has it; he and Marissa are taking a look at it.”

Norah’s eyes filled with tears. “We have to tell someone about Reagan. She can’t sit and rot in my laundry room.”

“Already taken care of, Norah.” His arms came around her, and she let herself be pulled back against his chest.

“Thank you,” she said as a single tear rolled down her cheek. “I’m glad you found me. I didn’t know where else to go. I know it was stupid to go back there, but I didn’t know where else to go. I had to wash his blood off me. I guess it was good, since we found—” Her throat choked up. The lump grew, and more tears threatened at the thought of her friend.

“I’m glad you went back there, Norah. When Marissa got word of the men in the hotel room, I thought the worst—” Harley choked back his own tears.

What he had thought had nearly driven him to a level of rage he had never reached before. “What happened to her isn’t your fault, Norah.” Harley released her and turned her to face him. He brushed a strand of hair from her face. “None of this is.”

“Harley, she begged me to leave him. Her ex had been abusive, so she noticed all of the signs. She told me I deserved better and that I shouldn’t feel trapped by him. Do you know that I hadn’t even talked to her in almost six months?” Tears filled her eyes and began to spill town her cheeks again. “She was my best friend and I shut her out because Clayton told me he didn’t like the way I acted around her. Now she’s dead and I can never tell her how sorry I am that I didn’t listen.”

Norah held her face in her hands, and Harley wrapped his arms around her. He knew nothing he could say would ease the ache in her heart for Reagan.

She pulled away and wiped her cheeks. “What if I’m just as bad as he is, Harley? I stayed with him even when he hit me. I had to know on some level the type of person he was, and I stayed. Then I killed two men yesterday. And you know what’s bad? I don’t feel guilty about killing them anymore.” Anger pushed through her tears. “I don’t feel bad because they probably killed Reagan and would have killed me.”

Harley cupped her face and wiped the tears away with his thumbs. “You are nothing like him, Norah. You hear me? You are absolutely right, they would have killed you.”

He knew that no matter what she thought, the deaths of the men ate at her. They would for the rest of her life, just like the weight of the bad men he had killed did.

“You cannot even for a second believe you are like him, Norah. You are a good person, one of the best, and you would never hurt anyone unless you had to.”

“I just—”

“No,” he interrupted. “Not even for a second do you blame yourself, okay?”

Norah nodded.

“I love you, Norah.”

Her eyes widened, and he smiled.

“You—”

“I love you,” he said again. “I’m not saying it so you’ll say it back. I understand you have been through a lot. But I just wanted you to know where I stood. I have fallen madly in love with you, and when this is all over I want to spend the rest of my life showing you. Forget about everything else going on right now, we will take it one step at a time. All I want is for you to know that when this is all over, I plan on taking you on an amazing first date.” He grinned.

She smiled softly and kissed him. “I love you too, Harley.”

Harley’s smile widened. “Really?”

“So much, Harley. I’ve never said it to anyone before, so I wasn’t sure how to tell you.”

“I think you did a pretty damn amazing job.” He pulled her in for a kiss.

They broke apart when a knock sounded at the door.

“You two up?” Gerry’s voice sounded rougher than usual, and Harley assumed he and Marissa had spent the night arguing. He hoped they had worked things out not only for themselves, but for he and Norah as well. They would all need to work together if they were going to bring Clayton and Tom down.

“Yeah, we’re up,” Harley said without taking his eyes off Norah.

“Great. Be downstairs in a few, we have some things to talk about.”

“See you then,” Harley said, and pulled Norah in for another kiss. “I love you,” he whispered again, and she smiled against his mouth.

---

“WE FIGURED OUT why the bastard wants the bracelet so badly,” Gerry said when Harley and Norah finally emerged from their bedroom.

“What is it?”

“It has a chip.”

“What?” Norah said, and looked down at the bracelet in Gerry’s hand. The twenty-six-carat princess-cut tennis bracelet had been the nicest thing Clayton had ever bought her. It had shocked her when he had given it to her nearly a year ago, because he hadn’t ever gotten her anything before.

He had always told her he wanted to make sure she wasn’t with him simply because he had money. She had understood and had never asked for anything because she hadn’t given a damn about his money. She had cared for the good person she had believed he was. Wasn’t she an idiot.

The excitement over the gift had worn off quickly, though. She had seen the receipt sitting on his desk shortly after he had given it to her. He had spent over a hundred and fifty thousand dollars on a bracelet for her, when people were starving on the streets. It had bothered her, so she had only worn it whenever they had charity banquets where looks mattered more than they should have.

She had never brought it up with Clayton, though; she knew he didn’t value money the way she did, and he would have just brushed her concerns aside. She couldn’t deny that a selfish part of her wanted to make sure she didn’t give him a reason to take it away. Not because it was expensive, but because he had given it to her and she had foolishly believed that had meant something.

“What kind of chip?” Harley asked, taking the bracelet from Gerry’s hand.

“Not quite sure. It can only be read with a particular device, probably one that Clayton has on hand.”

“Why would he put a chip in my bracelet?”

“Could be a way for him to store information without worrying someone might access it.” Gerry rubbed his hand over his beard.

“Or it could be a way for him to pass information along to someone else undetected,” Marissa added.

“But any time I wasn’t wearing it I had it locked in my safe.”

“Did anyone ever come over to you while you were wearing it?”

“Of course they did. It’s a hundred-and-fifty-thousand-dollar bracelet, Harley.” Norah couldn’t hide the irritation in her voice.

Had Clayton used her as an information carrier? What type of information had she been responsible for transferring?

“Not what I meant, Norah.”

“I know, I’m sorry. There was a man and his wife who would find me at banquets to look at it. They asked me to see it every time because he said he wanted to get his wife one.” She pinched the bridge of her nose. “I don’t understand, though, there would be easier ways to transfer information. Why didn’t Clayton put it in something he was wearing, why use me?”

“Not sure.” Harley handed the bracelet back to Gerry. “Can you find a way to read it?”

“Unlikely,” Marissa answered. “What about you call your cop friend?”

“Cop friend?” Norah asked.

“Friend is a little strong. I knew him back when I was a on the force; he is now the lieutenant for Seattle PD. He is who got me out of custody.”

“When were you arrested?”

“After the accident. Turns out I was fired and used as a plant in Tom’s company. They thought I would turn him in once I figured out what he was doing. Only I found out too late.”

“Seems I missed a lot.”

“Some,” Marissa said with a smile. “Speaking of, aren’t there some things you’d like to share, Gerry?”

Norah turned to look at Gerry, whose face had gone a shade paler than normal.

“Would have preferred to do it in my own time, Marissa.”

“Time’s up,” she said simply, and crossed her arms over her chest.

“What am I missing?”

“First of all, I would like to start off by apologizing.” Gerry looked at Norah. “I never meant to cause you any pain.”

“Pain? What are you talking about?”

“In 1990, I was sent to Seattle to gather some intel on a company believed to be selling secrets. I stayed with a woman named Angela McNamara for the weekend.”

“So you knew my mom.” Norah crossed her arms over her chest.

“It’s a little more complicated than that.”

“How much more complicated?”

“I knew her before she met the man you knew as your father.”

“That’s not possible, because I was born in October 1990. She had already been with my dad for a year.”

“That’s not true,” Gerry said, and rubbed his hands together in frustration. “I’m your biological father.”

Norah stared at Gerry. Her mind couldn’t quite wrap itself around the bombshell he had just dropped on her head.

“I’m sorry.” She put her hand up. “You are telling me that you’re my father? That the man my mother was married to when I was born was not? If that’s true, and I’m not saying I believe you, than how long have you known?”

“I found out shortly after your eighteenth birthday.”

“Are you kidding me?” Norah fumed. “You’ve known for eight years? Where the hell were you?”

“By the time I found out, you were already an adult and living on your own. I was afraid that if I told you—”

“That I might need something from you? That I might want to know the man who abandoned me?”

“I didn’t know, Norah. I never would have left, I swear. I never even talked to your mother again after the weekend we spent together.”

“Did you know she was a druggie and a drunk? That both her and her husband left me alone for days, sometimes weeks at a time? That one day they stopped coming back? I was homeless and on my own at the age of fourteen.”

“Norah, I—”

“No.” She put her hand up. “I get it, ‘you didn’t know,’ but the second you found out you should have told me. If not then, maybe you should have said something when Harley and I showed up on your doorstep.”

“Let her go, Gerry,” Marissa said softly when Norah stormed out of the room. “She will come around.”

“How can you be so sure? You certainly haven’t forgiven me.” He turned and left, leaving Marissa staring after him and Harley staring after Norah.

“Well, that went swimmingly,” Marissa said, and turned around to face Harley.

“You should forgive him, ya know.”

“I know. I think I already have, it’s just hard to swallow when someone you love hides things from you.”

“Love?”

Marissa laughed. “A story for another day, Harley.”

“I’ll hold you to that.”

“When this is all over and we are vacationing somewhere beautiful, we will tell the two of you all about it. I promise.” She smiled. “I guess I should go after him.”

“Yeah, I need to check on Norah.”

“She is going to need time to process it all. Just try to not let her take too much time.”

“I won’t. I’m not convinced we have a ton to spare.”

---

“HEY CAP, WHAT’S up?” Zach looked up from his computer to the portly man standing in the doorway.

“What are you working on, Murphy?”

“Just doing some research into a case that just came across my desk.” He handed him a file. “Woman found tortured and killed in the laundry room of Norah McNamara’s apartment.”

“Found by who?”

“Two uniforms who I sent over to do a welfare check.”

“You thought she would go back to her apartment?”

Zach lowered his voice. “After those two meat heads who abducted her were found dead, I figured it wouldn’t be too far of a long shot.”

“Did you find her?”

Zach eyed him warily. Something was off. Captain Wickham rarely left his office, and certainly didn’t ask so many direct questions about a case they were supposed to be under the table about. Zach had a hunch, and it wasn’t a good one, so he lied.

“No. Just the woman’s body.”

“No recent activity?” Wickham pressed. Something was definitely off.

“No sir. Something going on?”

Captain Wickham came inside and shut the door gently behind him.

“There are some things that we may have misinterpreted.”

Zach straightened in his chair. “What’s that?”

“It’s possible Harley isn’t the man we thought he was and that Tom Hewitt really has nothing to do with any of this.”

“Excuse me?”

“Listen, I’m telling you to devote all resources to tracking Harley and Norah down. Find them, they are at the bottom of this.”

“And Clayton Matthews?” Zach tried to hide the anger in his tone, but knew he was doing a shitty job. Had the captain flipped sides?

“There is no solid evidence supporting any of the claims that have been made against him. We need to start looking into Harley Andrews closer, and that’s an order, Murphy.”

Zach ground his teeth together. What the hell was he supposed to do now? His fucking hands were already tied with all the other dirty cops. With the captain on his side, he at least had some form of support. But now? It was as if someone had taken his damn hands all together. Fuck!

“This is bullshit.”

“Watch your tone, Murphy. I’m telling you that there is nothing there, do you understand me?”

“But we—”

“What we know is that an attempt was made on Clayton Matthews’s life. He was nearly killed, as was his fiancée, and now the fiancée is secretly missing, as is the man who is suspected of trying to kill him. What we know is that we need to find Norah McNamara before she is harmed in any way. Do I make myself clear?”

“You know this is wrong.” Zach ground his teeth together.

“You drop this, Murphy, or I will see to it that you never work for the police force again, do I make myself clear?”

Zach gritted his teeth. “Yes. Sir.”

“Good, good.” Wickham turned to leave. “You do good work, and you’re good at following orders, Murphy. Let’s keep it that way, shall we?” Without waiting for a response, he shut the door behind him.

Zach stood and gathered what information he had on Matthews and Hewitt. He needed to get it out of his office and fast. It wasn’t far off to think someone may want the information gone, and he’d be damned if his hard work went down the drain and these fuckers got off.