Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 88718 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88718 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
“This is Nancy Dawson and Tom Lane.”
“LAPD, special task force,” Tom offers.
“Why are you in our home?”
“Tom is the cop, Colt. He’s the one I saw that night,” Hollis tells me.
“Leave,” I say, my voice deadly calm.
“No,” Hollis speaks up. “I’m sorry I’m not doing very well at explaining. I’m just relieved that it’s all over.”
“Okay, baby.” I kiss her temple, resting my hand on her thigh. I then turn my gaze to Tom. “Start talking.”
He nods. “Special Task Force also means undercover. I was undercover the night Hollis ran into us in the alley. We had to stay in part. I wanted to tell her that she was safe, my partner Hannah too, but Hannah couldn’t leave what looked like a drug bust to chase after an innocent bystander.”
“You were dealing?”
He nods. “Yeah. We had been working on this bust for months. I was playing the part of the crooked cop, stealing drugs from the evidence room.”
“It wasn’t real drugs,” Nancy speaks up. “It was manufactured to look that way. That night was the big bust. Hollis just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.”
“The messages?” I ask them. “She’s been getting messages.” I look over at Hollis. “Did you tell them?”
She nods. “I did.”
“I can explain,” Nancy says. “That night, Hollis being in the alley wasn’t all that went wrong. There were supposed to be two men meeting Tom that night. One of them didn’t show up. One was arrested, and Tom got away. Obviously, we let him. However, they knew he was a cop and insisted on a copy of the police report. Hollis was mentioned. Not her name, but a woman. They were insistent that we, the police, knew who she was. We didn’t know that night, but we found her.”
“That’s why I went to the shelter. I had a note.” Tom reaches into his pocket and pulls out a piece of paper. “I was going to hand you this, but you ran.” He holds out his hand, and I reach for the note. “I was being followed, so I had to sound menacing. When you’re undercover, you never know who is lurking in the shadows. You never know who you can and can’t trust. That note was the only way for us to let you know that you were safe. He didn’t see you that night, Hollis. It was only me,” Tom says reassuringly.
“Here.” I hand Hollis the note, but she shakes her head.
“You read it.” She places a kiss on Milo’s head, making my heart leap out of my chest. I love how she loves my son.
Nodding, I unfold the small piece of paper and begin to read.
Hollis,
My name is Tom Lane. I am an undercover cop. You ran into me and my partner,
Hannah, a few weeks ago. You’re safe. They didn’t see you. If you have any questions,
call this number and ask for my partner, Hannah. She can explain everything.
Tom
“There’s a number for you to call.” I hold it up to show it to Hollis.
“So, this all could have been avoided. I was afraid, so I ran. I’m so sorry,” she says, her voice cracking.
“You did what anyone would do in your situation,” Nancy tells her.
“What about the messages from her website? Nothing you’ve told us this far explains those,” I tell them.
Nancy nods. “We mentioned an unidentified woman in the police report. That wasn’t good enough for them. They wanted to find her. We had to prove we were working on it.”
“A few times I’d been working on my computer, and they would walk in. I was on your website looking for clues as to how to find you, so I flipped over to your contact page and sent the message. Luckily, I scrolled so that the name of your business wasn’t showing, just the contact form. Me sending those messages, they kept him from looking for you himself.”
“So, why didn’t you just send her a message explaining all of this?” Chase asks.
“We couldn’t do anything that might compromise the bust. We were close to getting the other guy, and him running was the last thing we needed,” Nancy explains.
“You put her at risk.” I stare him down. “You were careless. They could have easily got your computer and tracked her down. How do we know she’s safe? How do we know there are not others coming after her?” Hollis makes a sound but quickly disguises it, hiding her face in the top of my son’s head.
“My computer never left my side. We have tracking software on it just in case. We know that my files were not compromised.”
“So, this is what? All over?” Chase asks as his phone rings. “My wife,” he says, leaving and going to the kitchen to talk to Gabby.
“Is it over?” Hollis asks.
“It’s over,” Nancy assures her. “You can come home.”