Chapter 10
—Follow your own inner compass.—
Lucy jerked awake at the sound of her phone ringing. She’d finally dozed off after poring over the files Leighton had left for her. She wasn’t sure how much of it was true but it certainly rang true. Some of the files were marked classified. And the recording she’d listened to? Her uncle had been talking to someone about “buying goods,” and while the conversation had been vague enough that she understood it wouldn’t hold up in court, it sounded shady. Like he’d been talking about buying…guns maybe. Or drugs.
While Leighton might not work for the government, he must know someone who did to have access to so much information.
When she saw her uncle’s name on the screen she tensed, tempted not to answer it. But she had to, especially after last night. Trying to keep her voice as normal as possible, she said, “Hello.”
“Lucy. How are you?”
“Okay. We had a rough night last night. Some of the security was compromised, which I’m sure you already know.”
“I do. I’ve already been informed of the situation. We’re taking measures to correct it.”
She wondered what else he’d been informed about.
“I hear you had a run-in with Marco.”
She sat up against her headboard and pulled her knees up to her chest. Sunlight filtered in through her bedroom window, bathing her blue and white comforter. “I did. And I’m a little confused about his behavior.”
“He knew the man from last night. They’ve had issues in the past. He is not to be let back into our hotel. I’ve already alerted the front desk that he’s to be added to our list of people to eject.”
That sounded strange. “Okay. But why? I don’t understand anything about last night.” Which was pretty close to the truth.
“It’s just personal stuff. Marco used to date the woman he was with. It’s all bullshit,” he said lightly. “But I don’t want the man in my hotel or casino.”
Yeah, that definitely sounded strange. And fake. Her uncle wouldn’t care if Marco and some random guy had dated the same woman. That much she knew. He was definitely lying. “Okay. Fine with me.”
“You said you knew him?” her uncle asked.
“About as well as any other guest. I did go out to lunch with him and show him some of the city. He said he was looking to buy real estate.” She figured she’d better not lie about that. Because it wouldn’t be that hard for her uncle to find out she’d gone out with “Mr. Johnson.” She certainly hadn’t kept it a secret. And right now, she wasn’t sure anything in her life was true so she was going to be as honest as possible about everything she could. But she wasn’t going to tell him that Leighton and the woman had been at her condo last night. Or about the information Leighton had left her.
“Okay, good. If he contacts you again, let me know.”
She snorted. “I seriously doubt he’ll bother contacting me. Do you think he could be involved with the security breach from last night?”
“It’s definitely crossed my mind. We’ve got it under investigation.”
“Have you heard anything new about Atkins, the guy we fired? Has he been working with anyone?”
“I don’t believe so. Security hasn’t closed the investigation yet but so far we just have evidence of him working alone. It seems as if he got some security codes from some employees who quit and was able to figure out which rooms weren’t being used.”
Lucy didn’t buy that for a minute. They changed their codes often, and when someone was fired or let go they changed all the codes again. They cared about their guests’ privacy. But she didn’t want to push him now—she didn’t want her uncle to suspect she knew he was lying. “Okay. Just keep me informed.”
“I will. I’ll be in town tonight. If you’re free for dinner, I’d like to see you.”
“Just let me know when and I’ll be there.” If she said anything else, it would definitely look weird.
Once they disconnected, she lay back against her pillow even though there was no way she could sleep. She’d barely got to sleep at all. Her mind had been running overtime.
A stranger had walked into her life and dropped a bomb in it. And she didn’t think he was lying. More than that, she didn’t think the woman from last night had been lying. The fear and pain Lucy had seen in her eyes had been so real. She didn’t think anyone could act that well. And why would they anyway? They hadn’t asked Lucy for anything either. Not really. Leighton had said he wanted her help stopping trafficking and that…was pretty damn noble.
She scrubbed a hand over her face and picked up her personal cell phone instead of her work one. Then she called the number Leighton had given her.
He picked up on the first ring. “Yes?”
“I want to meet in person. But I don’t think you should come back to my condo.”
“I’ve got a place we can meet.”
“Okay.” She listened as he told her where to meet him. Lucy wasn’t sure she trusted him, but at this point she had to talk to him, had to get more details.
Because something very wrong was going on at her uncle’s hotel. And after what she’d seen and read in those files…she wasn’t sure she knew what kind of man her uncle was at all.
* * *
“What do you think?” Leighton asked Gage, who was sitting across from him at the island countertop. They were the only two awake at this point. Leighton hadn’t been able to sleep well after the interaction with Lucy, and Gage was a machine who seemed to never rest regardless.
“Well, she didn’t mention anything about you or Maria to her uncle.” Gage had heard the entire phone call since they’d hijacked her phone.
“Yeah, she was honest about going out with me but she didn’t offer up any other information. And I get the feeling he was fishing.”
Gage shook his head. “He must think she’s stupid.”
“I don’t think it’s that. He probably just doesn’t expect her to question him. And he brushed her off with an easy story. A stupid one, that she could punch holes in if she wanted, but easy enough to explain away.”
Nova stumbled into the kitchen, her dark hair pulled up in a bun. She half grunted at him but dropped a smacking kiss on Gage’s face before stumbling to the coffee pot. “You guys are up early.”
“No rest for the wicked,” Gage murmured.
“I don’t even understand what that means,” she muttered. Then she sighed in happiness as she took her first sip of coffee.
“At least she agreed to meet with me,” Leighton said. And Lucy hadn’t pushed him on the location. Something that bothered him. He wasn’t setting up a trap, but she didn’t know that.
He’d hoped she would call last night. After he’d left her place, Leighton and the others had tried to figure out where Maria had been held based on the descriptions she’d given them. They hadn’t had any luck but they were going to try again today. The city and roads here were confusing—and many were currently under construction. His GPS wasn’t even fully correct here. It was a clusterfuck everywhere, and even with Gage’s hacking skills they hadn’t been able to retrace Maria’s steps.
“Yeah, but I don’t know that it’s a good thing,” Gage said. “She could be trying to set you up.”
“You’re meeting with Lucy today?” Nova asked as she sat down next to her fiancé, mug in hand.
“Yeah. She just called.”
“I can go with you, and I think a woman should be there. I’m a more calming presence than Skye. She can be kind of intense. And this woman has just learned that a whole lot about her life is a lie. It probably wouldn’t hurt to have another woman present.”
Leighton looked at Gage.
“I swear to God you’d better not be asking Gage if it’s okay for me to go,” Nova muttered.
Leighton picked up his own coffee and kept his mouth shut.
“I’m going,” she said, making the decision.
“Works for me,” Leighton said.
Gage just frowned but didn’t respond one way or another.
“I’m going to take a shower.” Nova stood, yawning even as she picked up her mug. “Just let me know what the plan is.”
“I’ll be up in a couple minutes,” Gage said. Once she was gone, he continued. “I need to show you something. I didn’t include it in the file last night for Lucy because I don’t know if we should tell her or not.”
“What is it?” Leighton asked, surprised Gage hadn’t told him about this before now—whatever this was. He always shared information with the crew.
“It’s…” Instead of turning his laptop around, Gage got off his stool and strode to the breakfast nook by a panel of bay windows. He’d set a bunch of files on the table earlier. He grabbed one manila folder and came back to the island and set it in front of Leighton. “Read it. For the record, Hazel knew about this. And she didn’t tell us. She didn’t tell you. And I can’t help but wonder why not.”
Leighton flipped it open and started reading, his stomach coiling tight as he did. “Holy shit,” he said. As he looked over everything, including a file that was most definitely classified, he glanced up at Gage. “How’d you get this?”
“I’ve got friends too.”
If this was true… “So her uncle killed her parents and made it look like a murder/suicide?”
“It looks that way. There wasn’t enough evidence to do anything about it years ago and he wasn’t on the FBI’s radar like he is now. He was someone they were keeping an eye on, and wanted to take down, but his empire wasn’t like it is now.”
“His own brother,” Leighton muttered, still reading. Apparently Kuznetsov’s brother had been planning to testify against him for murdering a local store owner who wouldn’t pay protection money. Lucy’s father hadn’t been squeaky clean, but he hadn’t been a lowlife either. From this file, it appeared as if he didn’t mind taking stuff that “fell off a truck” but he wasn’t a murderer. The man who’d been murdered had been a father of two young girls. That was what had pushed him to go to the Feds. And it had gotten him killed.
“Yep. Her father was going to turn evidence against him. Kuznetsov must have had his own contact within the FBI because he killed his brother before he could do anything.”
“Jesus. This will hurt her.” That being an understatement.
“Honestly, I don’t know if we should tell her. I think you should make the decision because you’re the one who’s interacted with her.”
Hell. Leighton didn’t want to make that kind of decision. Even if it would fully bring her over to their side, he didn’t know if it was necessary. For some reason, he found he cared very much about Lucy’s feelings. He didn’t want to hurt her at all. “Is this guy retired? The one who gave you all this?”
“Yeah. This never sat well with him either. He considers Kuznetsov his ‘white whale’ case.”
“You sure Hazel knew about this?” Leighton couldn’t understand why she wouldn’t have told him.
“I honestly don’t know how she couldn’t have known.”
Leighton tucked the information away, planning to call Hazel after he’d met with Lucy. Now he needed to grab a shower himself and head over to the meet point. He ignored the way his heart rate kicked up at the thought of seeing sweet, curvy, sensual Lucy.