Deadly Little Secrets Page 0,108

to do now? What did he mean, in her own building?

Ana dropped into the chair by the desk, confused and tired. Nothing occurred to her, no matter how much her thoughts raced. Tears filled her eyes. He dreamed about her, but he’d sent her away. He could care enough to keep hunting, finding out who’d been searching her, and yet be so cruel.

Now he could turn her inside out with the knowledge that he knew data, and he knew who was stalking her, then hang up because he was too loopy to stay awake. God, she was so confused.

“I guess I’m going to LaGuardia,” she finally said, moving to the computer to change her ticket.

Despite her fears, she started to smile, thinking about Gates’s call. What an idiot to phone when he’d taken medication. “I’d better call Dav, though.”

Picking up her phone, she sent a text to Dav’s phone. He’d asked her to keep him posted anyway.

Dav, just got a “drunk” call from Gates. He says he has a trace on the deep search on me. Says it’s connected. He wants me to come to LaGuardia—I’m in DC headed to NYC anyway. You okay with that? A.

She waited for a call or text for twenty minutes. When none came, and there was still no word from TJ, she shut down and went to bed. There was nothing she could do until morning anyway.

When she arrived in LaGuardia the next day, she went through security and descended to baggage claim. Among the line of chauffeurs and waiting families, a man held a sign with her name on it. She stopped in her tracks, wondering if it were a trick until the man tipped down his sunglasses and she saw Damon, the chauffeur who’d driven them to the restaurant. He smiled briefly, then flipped the shades back up.

He turned the sign briefly over, and it said, “Walk by.”

Creepy. Why did he want her to walk by?

She acted as if she were scanning the overhead signs for the directions to baggage claim, just like half a dozen other incoming passengers. As she walked toward him, he looked at his watch, scanned the paper he was holding, and folded the sign with her name on it.

He took out his cell phone, just as she walked by him, and he fell into step half a pace behind her.

“Yeah,” he said, as if talking to someone. “I’m here, but she’s a no show. Yeah, parked outside Gate Seven. No. No, the flight was on time. Yeah. Okay. The short sedan, yeah, the black ’Cedes.”

He hung up, passed by her, and walked out into the gray New York day at the exit for Gate Five.

Turning down the concourse, she made her way to Gate Seven and stopped, scanning the crossings, noting the busses and the yellow cabs that were parked or slowly moving through the terminal for pickup. Beyond the first lanes, reserved for cabs and official vehicles, were the lanes for personal pickup. She could see the black Mercedes sedan, with Damon standing by the front bumper, phone to his ear.

Her phone rang, and she tapped the small earpiece tucked behind her loose hair.

“See me?”

“Yeah.”

“Come straight out and get in. Leave your bag at the curb, I’ll get it. Mr. G’s in the back.”

“Yes.”

“Welcome back, ma’am,” he added, and hung up.

It couldn’t have gone smoother if they’d rehearsed it. When the door closed, a breath of relief whooshed out, and Dav smiled.

“Cloak and dagger, I believe you call it, eh, Ana?” He smiled and handed her a glass of sparkling water.

“Yeah, not really my thing, despite the showing at the gallery.”

“Hmmm. That was quite the show, in itself.” He chuckled.

“How is he?” The question slipped out before she could stop it.

Dav didn’t look at all surprised. “Still cranky. He doesn’t remember calling you, or he says he doesn’t.”

Ana had already braced herself for that. It was enough though, to know that in his uninhibited moments, he thought of her. It might not get her anywhere, or take them anywhere, but she hadn’t been a fling. With all that had happened, both in Rome and with Gates, she wasn’t sure she could stand it if everything they’d done and felt had been meaningless.

“Detective Baxter,” Dav said, looking straight ahead, “believes that he has identified the sniper.” Dav finally looked at her and she could see the worry, the anxiety that shone in his eyes.

“Really? Gates was the target, then.”

“Oh, yes.” Dav’s chuckle was forced, and she knew