She was alone with him, going God knew where. She’d followed him out of the garage without question—not that she’d had much choice. The men who’d captured her had been tough and determined like Shane. But they’d had a sinister quality that had set her teeth on edge. And if they were connected to the men who were after her brother, then she absolutely understood why Alesandro was afraid for his life.
When Shane volunteered nothing else, she endured the silence for long moments, then finally whispered, “I got you in trouble by taking that phone, then coming to your apartment.”
He still kept his eyes on the road, but his voice softened a little. “It’s better that you came to me instead of taking the information to your brother.”
“That doesn’t exactly sound like a vote of confidence.”
“Sorry.”
Again they lapsed into silence, and she kept her own face forward, casting him sidewise glances as he drove into the night.
As they fled the D.C. metro area, she couldn’t help thinking that her life had gotten tangled up with his rather quickly. Maybe because he’d been stalking her, she thought now. Well, not stalking, but he’d probably been looking for suspects at S&D, and she’d been at the top of his list because she was in the IT department. And then he’d found out she’d had some dealings with Arnold.
But she still didn’t know much about Shane Gallagher, beyond what she’d learned in the past few days. Especially the past few hours.
He’d already proven that he could handle himself in a tight spot. And for that matter, he’d also proven that he cared about her, beyond simply thinking of her as a suspect. He had risked his life to save her in the garage. She had no doubt of that. Still, she wished she was sure that they’d come out of this mess okay.
Her vision had been turned inward. When she saw an overhead highway sign for the Bay Bridge, she asked, “We’re going to the Eastern Shore?”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“It’s an isolated area. You have to go to some trouble to get there.”
Was that truly going to help them? She didn’t ask, looking for the seven-mile bridge that spanned Chesapeake Bay.
“You’ve driven here a lot of times,” she ventured.
“Yeah. What about you?”
“My parents took us to Ocean City a couple of times for short vacations.” She glanced at him. “The bridge is so high. It scared me.”
“The bridge gets to a lot of people. Some drivers freeze up, and the cops have to come and get them.”
“Truly?”
“Yeah.” He gestured into the darkness. “It’s easier at night, actually. You can’t see much.”
“Okay.”
She saw Shane swing his gaze toward her and tried to relax her jaw. It wasn’t just the height, of course. He had said he was taking her to a safe house. All she knew was that he was taking her somewhere. Somewhere isolated where she would have no chance to get away or call her brother. She was sure she had put Alesandro in danger, but she hadn’t been able to make herself do what he’d asked, either. Now that they were leaving him in the lurch, she was sick with worry about him. And worried about herself, if she was honest.
Lincoln Kinkead pushed his chair back from the security console and stood up. Struggling to keep his breathing even, he paced the length of the lobby and came back to where he’d been sitting.
Something was going on here. More than he’d bargained for. Was Gallagher lying about men shooting up his apartment? To buy himself time? That was easy enough to check.
He glanced at the clock and saw he’d missed the evening news. But there was an all-news station in D.C. He could pick up the broadcast at the guard station.
He tuned it in, then waited tensely through a weather report. When the news reader started talking about a fire at a Rockville apartment complex and a dead man in the garage, he cursed. Gallagher wasn’t lying about that. He was wanted for questioning, but apparently he’d decided to run instead of turning himself in.
“Shit.”
Lincoln shook his head. His security chief—the man he’d hired to find the rotten apple in S&D—had just gone rogue. He’d known there was some chance of that. He’d spent a lot of time going over Gallagher’s record before he’d given him the assignment. And spent a lot of time digging into other cases Rockfort had handled. He’d found out they didn’t always follow accepted procedures. But they got results, which was what he was counting on.
Now this.
He stopped and looked at the two security guards, who were watching him with interest.
He ordered himself to relax because he wasn’t going to let them know that the situation was spinning out of control.
“Get me Bert Iverson on the phone,” he said.
A minute later, a sleepy voice came on the line. “Yes?”
“I need you to come in to S&D.”
“What’s up?” his assistant security chief asked.
“A big problem. I’ll explain when you get here.”
Max Lyon looked at his partner, Jack Brandt. They both had police scanners at home, and they’d both been listening when all hell had broken loose at Shane’s apartment. Both had dropped what they were doing and rushed to the office, where they waited for a call from Shane. It didn’t come.
“He’s gone underground,” Max muttered. “Because he doesn’t want to get us involved. At least not yet.”
“I think he’ll call if he thinks it’s safe.”
“Otherwise we may be able to follow the trail of mayhem he leaves in his wake.”
“That bad?” Jack asked.
“I hope not.”
After they’d crossed the bridge, Shane continued up Route 50. He’d been thinking about what they were going to do when they got to their destination. Elena was probably wondering about that, too. But he wasn’t going to share anything with her until they got to the safe house.
Leaving Route 50, he took a winding road toward one of the small towns that dotted the area. Turning in at a driveway, he drove fifty yards further until he came to a gate, where he opened the car window and punched in the security code. When the gate swung open, he took the access road into the darkness, through the woods and into a parking area in front of what had once been an old farmhouse.
“We’re here,” he said.
When he opened his door and got out, Elena did the same. He crossed a short stretch of gravel and climbed the three steps to the wide porch where he stopped at the front door to punch in another security code.
He didn’t look behind him, but he heard his companion climb the steps. When he opened the door, she followed him inside.
The house had been gutted to make a great room with a leather sofa and chairs at one side and a kitchen on the far wall, with a dining area between. He walked across the room and turned on a couple of lamps on end tables, keeping the lighting low. Then he went to the keypad on the kitchen wall and checked all the alarms. When he was satisfied that nobody could sneak up on them, he walked around, drawing the shades.
When he turned, he found Elena watching him.
“We’re staying here?” she asked.
“Yeah. There are three bedrooms upstairs, each with its own bath. The one to the right of the stairs is for female guests.”
“Okay.”
He watched her look around.
“Isn’t it expensive to keep this place vacant?”
“It’s part of the cost of doing business.”
“You mean this belongs to S&D?”
“No. Rockfort Security. Sometimes we need privacy—and security.”
When she nodded, he said, “Give me the cell phone. The one you think has the information Blake stole.”