Aftershocks (31 page)

“Pull over,” Kell told Henricksen, and he immediately swerved to the shoulder. Once he’d thrown the car into park, he twisted to look into the back and Zoe showed him the picture. He cursed.

“When did you get that?”

“Just now. The number’s blocked.”

“We can trace it. But it will take time.” He cursed again and dialed his own phone, taking Zoe’s from her and relaying information, presumably to an agent on his team. He thumbed the screen and she knew he had to have spotted the message. For a moment his eyes met hers in the rearview mirror. She silently begged him not to tell Kell what it said, and for some reason, he just cleared his throat and dialed his own phone once again. When he was done giving more orders, he pulled back onto the road and drove quite a bit faster than the speed limit.

“What are you going to do?” Kell asked him, his arm firmly around Zoe. She could feel fine trembles in his torso and knew his own fear was growing.

“Keep investigating,” Henricksen growled in a way that invited no more questions. “I have to keep your phone, Zoe. I can give you another one temporarily.”

“Okay.” Her throat burned with everything she wanted to ask, but in actuality, what the FBI did no longer mattered. She didn’t need her phone back for the message on it—
Which of your boy toys is next?
—to burn itself into her brain. That had taken all of three seconds, and it made her decision so much easier. There was only one thing left to do. The problem was that she’d never convince any of them to let her do it.

She huddled in Kell’s arms the rest of the way to the airport, planning, scheming, visualizing tricks that were going to annihilate her stupid love triangle if done right.

Henricksen parked in the drop-off zone and got out, scoping the area before opening Zoe’s door. “Here.” He handed her a small, cheap-looking smartphone. “From my equipment bag. Not a lot of bells and whistles, but there is GPS,” he joked, winking.

Zoe nodded, not sure if she was picking up on a message or if it was wishful thinking. “Thank you for everything,” she told him, holding out a hand that he ignored in favor of a hug.

“We’re here for you. Don’t worry.” It was inadequate reassurance, and an odd thing to say, but when she pulled back and caught his eye, she thought maybe he understood her best of all.

“Keep me posted.” As if he’d need to. The glint in his eye confirmed it. But he promised and walked them inside to the departure counters before he left them. Kell grumbled about FBI protection being more important now, but Zoe didn’t respond, and he went silent as they paused to check the departure TVs. She let him hold her hand, struggling not to distance herself and make him suspicious. But every touch about killed her.

“There’s one that goes to Cleveland in an hour,” Kell said. “We can connect to Boston from there.” He let go of her to pull up an app on his phone, tapping in the codes to pull up flight information. Then he scrolled, his features pulling tighter the longer he did. “That’s the only one that will get me there fast. The others all have multiple connections.”

Grant probably wouldn’t get here by then. She could make this work.

She turned and braced for the best acting job of her life. She’d completely blown it last month when she left. Now, everything hinged on convincing him. “I think Grant’s right.”

Kell’s jaw flexed, and a sharp pain went through her knuckles when he grabbed her hand. “I would rather keep you close. I can protect you. Grant can come with us, then someone’s always—”

“No.” She shook her head and cupped her free hand over his. “I won’t put Olivia at greater risk. Pat might not have the resources to go after both of us. You need to be with her.”

“We can hire additional protection.”

She raced through possible arguments against it, urgency buzzing in the back of her brain. “There’s no time to do it right. You have to make sure it’s not someone Pat could have planted. I know it sounds farfetched,” she said before he could, “but you don’t know him or his followers.”

Kell blew out a breath and looked around the bustling airport. “I don’t know what to do. I can’t leave you.”

“Yes, you can.”

“No, I mean— I know Neely can handle your protection. But I’m going to have to get a ticket now if I’m going to make that flight. Look at the security line.”

“I’ll get tickets to Miami for me and Grant. Then I can go through with you.”

“Except how will you get the ticket to Neely?” She watched him examine the way security was laid out. There wasn’t any way she could pass it directly through from one side to the other, another thing Zoe was counting on. “You can come through to the gates, then come back when he gets here. They’ll let you back through security as long as you have your boarding pass and ID.”

It wasn’t ideal, but Zoe nodded. She’d find a way. As long as she was moving forward.

They went to the kiosk to purchase tickets. “Let Neely know what’s happening,” Kell told her once they were standing in the long, slow-but-steady line. “Did you tell him about Carling’s photo?”

She shook her head, ducking it to look at her phone so Kell wouldn’t see the tears stinging her eyelids. Too many people had gotten hurt in all this, despite her best intentions. “Dammit.” She sniffed as quietly as she could, blinked hard, and waved her blank phone. “I forgot this isn’t my phone. I don’t have Grant’s number. I’m sure Henricksen notified him, so—”

“Here.” Kell pulled up his contacts. “I have it. We need to exchange numbers, too, while we’re at it.”

“Of course.” She added the numbers to her contacts list, then slowly typed out a text. She didn’t want Kell to see what she said. When he shifted his attention to the TSA agent, she sped up to finish.
I decided to go back to Boston with Kell. Flight leaves in 30 min.
Rounding down, but that part was the least of the lies.
Need to get the totems, and that’s most likely direction Pat will go
. She didn’t think that was true. He was most comfortable in his own space. He’d go back to Ohio and keep incentivizing Zoe to go to him. Grant would realize that, but hopefully he wouldn’t think Zoe would be as stupid as she was about to be.
Call you when I get there
.

Then she shut down the phone and followed Kell through the scanners.

“Our gate’s down that way.” He pointed.

“Okay.” She looked around for the restrooms. “I need to use the bathroom first.”

He walked her over and said he’d wait outside. Like there was an alternative. She followed the maze of the giant room of stalls until she reached the point farthest from the door he stood outside. The room was crowded overall, but few people made it back this far. She checked the cell signal. Four bars.

She had to time this right. Her plan was to text Kell that she had an upset stomach and he should go, not miss his plane waiting for her. It had to be so close he wouldn’t have time to argue, but early enough that he could make it to his plane. She watched the seconds hand on her watch sweep around, and around. Five words into the text message, her phone buzzed. She jumped, bobbled it, and almost dropped it on the tile floor. With a curse, she called up the text that had just come in.

Neely’s here. He didn’t get your text, but I updated him on the plan. He’s waiting outside security.

Crap. He’d gotten here far faster than she’d expected him to. But that was okay. He couldn’t get through without the ticket.
I’ll be out soon. Upset stomach. Go ahead and get on your plane so you don’t miss it.
She hit send and bit her lip, bouncing her knee as she watched the screen. It darkened, and she thumbed it back on. A woman stepped out of a stall and went to the sink to wash her hands, frowning at Zoe’s legs. Her anxiety was making her look suspicious. She gave a wan smile. The woman moved her lips and quickly left out the other door.

Finally, the phone buzzed again.
I don’t like this. Let me know once Neely’s with you
.

Okay. Stay safe
. It felt weird not to sign off with “love you,” but she had no right to that already, and what she was doing now was just piling on to the death of their relationship.

The minutes dragged, slower and slower, while the conversations in her head rambled faster and faster, as if she had to convince them—or herself—that she wasn’t being too stupid to live. Their plan was falling apart, and they didn’t have time to wait for Pat to make another move. With the photo of Carling, the FBI finally had something to act on, but she couldn’t sit on her ass and wait when there was something she could do.

Ten minutes after Kell’s text, she finally left the bathroom. And ran right into Grant, standing outside the door with her luggage.

“What— You— How’d you get through security?”

He shouldered his bag and hefted hers, heading toward their gate and forcing her to walk with them.

“Bought a ticket.” He fluttered the paper he held between two fingers.

“But I have a ticket for you.”

“I know, but I wanted to get Stone his suitcase, and I knew he was about to take off. He told me you were stuck in the bathroom.” He studied her, as if he could see her twisted intestines through her T-shirt. “I caught up to him at his gate and came back to meet you. You okay?”

“Fine.” That probably wasn’t the best response, but she was already trying to figure out plan B, now that sneaking away before Grant got here was off the table.

“You wasted money,” she said after they’d walked swiftly for a good half a minute and she realized she wasn’t acting normally. It was the logical thing to say. Would her delay make him suspicious?

But he just shrugged and adjusted his duffel. “It’s a refundable ticket. I can turn it in at the gate if there’s time.”

It didn’t matter whether there was or not. She nodded and they kept walking while she ran through a few scenarios, most of which ended with Grant handcuffing her to him, before she hit on one that might work. Less lying, more timing. She’d already set it up, in fact.

When they got to the gate, the attendant was calling to board first class. Her heart started to pound. This was going to be much harder. She stood at the end of the aisle to the check-in desk, waiting for Grant to get his ticket taken care of while they called for passengers to board, row by row. Her muscles tightened with tension as they got in line and moved slowly toward the attendant. Their boarding passes scanned, they strode down the jetway. Her head throbbed in time with her heartbeat. Any second she expected Grant to call her on her plan, and when he stopped her halfway to the plane, her heart leaped into her throat.

“Don’t worry, Zoe. Kell and Olivia will be fine, and I
promise
you, I’ll keep you safe.”

She had to swallow so she wouldn’t choke on her response. “I know you will. I trust you.”

“I hope so.” He slid his hand through her hair and braced the back of her skull. “We’re not helpless kids anymore. We
will
beat them at this.”

She would. Somehow.

The line inched onto the plane and down the aisle. People clogged the narrow space, stowing their bags and collecting reading material before cramming themselves into their seats. Zoe shifted her weight, put her hand on her stomach, and hunched a little as they moved into the first class section.

“You okay?” Grant, behind her, asked.

“Yeah.” She craned her neck to look past the crowd, then back over her shoulder, as if gauging distance. The bathroom behind her was closer. “I can’t wait. You go ahead, I’ll be right there.” She squeezed past him, her head down because she knew there was no way she could hide her intentions from him, not this close up. She grabbed the handle of the restroom door just as he caught her arm, and he released it immediately, looking sympathetic. She heaved a sigh as soon as the bolt was shot home.
Please, Grant, go sit down. Pleasepleaseplease
. She could hear the line of people shuffling past, random coughs and murmurs, a couple of grumbles and exasperated breaths before things seemed to flow better. She imagined Grant had given in and moved on down the narrow aisle.

The seconds hand on her watch swept slowly around again, then again. They were due to leave the gate soon, but the weight of people outside the bathroom door made her wonder how far behind they were going to be. She had to time this right. Grant had to be unable to get off the plane. Another minute went by. Another. People moved faster past the restroom door, the walkway clearer.

Finally, one of the attendants said, “That it?”

“I’ll check.” A moment later she confirmed, “Yep, that’s all of them.”

Zoe burst out of the bathroom and darted past the startled attendants, swinging out through the door and onto the jetway. She ran full out back toward the gate, moving so fast she thought no one even called after her, and God, she hoped they didn’t think she was a terrorist. She slowed as she neared the main door, which was closing. “Wait!” she called, and a round, rumpled face topped with dark gray curly hair peered around the edge of the door. The woman saw her and quickly pulled the door open.

“Just can’t do it, sweetie?”

Panting, Zoe shook her head. “No. I thought I could, it’s important enough to, but…”

“I understand. See it all the time!” She patted Zoe’s hand and closed the door behind her. “You’re not alone, dear.”