Unbroken (The Secret Life of Amy Bensen #3.5)(22)

He presses me to the wall, blocking my body with his, and this time it’s him shouting. “Are you hurt?”

“No. I’m not hurt. We have to catch her.”

Betty appears in the hallway. “What’s happening? What’s wrong?”

“Call security,” Liam orders, offering no further explanation, shifting his attention back to me. “Was she alone?”

“I don’t know. I think yes. We have to catch her.”

“The only thing I have to do is keep you safe. She could be leading us into a trap.”

Tellar rushes to our side. “Why do we need security?”

“Meg was here,” I gasp. “She cornered me and then took off. Short black wig and thick glasses.”

“Is she alone?” he asks, clearly in the same mindset as Liam.

“I think so. She thinks someone is following her. I think there’s a gun in her purse.”

He eyes Liam with a silent question and Liam nods. “Yes. Go get her.”

Liam had barely finished the sentence before Tellar is on the move and Betty is claiming his spot next to us. “Security’s on the way. What can I do to help?”

“Secure the boutique,” Liam states. “No one in or out.” He glances at me. “Go change. I’ll be right there.”

I nod, eager to get out of here, but once I’m at the end of the hallway I can’t stand the idea of being shut inside the dressing room without knowing what’s going on. I go back to find Betty missing and Liam talking with a security guard. Seconds tick by that feel like hours before the guard makes a call on his radio and Liam turns toward me, motioning me into the dressing room, his long strides closing the distance between us.

I enter the room with him on my heels, and I quickly unzip my dress as he shuts the door. “What the hell did she want?” he asks.

“Confirmation that Chad’s dead,” I say, shoving the dress to the ground and stepping out of it.

Seeing my struggle with the dress and hanger, he takes over. “I knew someone would nose around, thinking that he’d set up his death again. I just didn’t expect it to be Meg.”

“She says Jared is helping the CIA.”

“How does she know that?”

“Someone close to Rollin. But that would mean that the Chinese turned Jared over to them. He’s a world-class hacker. Would they do that?”

“Did she say what he’s doing to help the CIA?”

I give a shake of my head. “No. She didn’t seem to know. If it was a witness protection program, she wouldn’t know, right?”

“Right. There could be any number of other options, though. He’s a double agent of some sort, or the two countries simply made a trade deal for something more valuable to the Chinese.”

“So, in light of those things, is knowing where Jared is a good or a bad thing?”

“We’re not making any assumptions based on the claims of that woman with her track record for deception. We’ll investigate. We’ll figure it out.” He withdraws his phone from his pocket. “Finish getting dressed. I want out of this store.”

I cover his phone before he can dial. “Wait. I need to tell you something else. She said Sheridan, Rollin, and everyone in the consortium supporting Sheridan . . . they all might get moved to regular courts and be granted trials.”

“And she told you this why?”

“She wanted Chad’s help, and now wants ours. She thinks her testimony would be incriminating and therefore she’s in danger. Someone is tracking her.”

“You know this could all be fabricated to try and pry our secrets out of us, right?”

“I do. But what if it’s not?”

He cups my cheek and kisses my forehead. “Take everything she said with a shaker of salt, baby.” He releases me. “And whatever happens, we’ll deal with it like we always do.” He gives me a once-over. “Clothes, baby. We need out of here.” He punches the auto-dial button on his phone.

“She says they have reach beyond the prison, no matter how secure.”

“And that ‘reach’ might be her, trying to bait us,” he says, shifting his attention to his phone, listening a moment before quietly saying, “Meg just paid Amy a visit. Call me.” He pauses a beat. “Now.”

Chad, I think, pulling on my jeans, hyper-focusing on the zipper to fight the ball of emotion in my stomach. Will he call us? I’m not sure that he will. I reach for my shirt on the floor and Liam grabs it first, offering it to me but holding on. He searches my face, understanding in his eyes as he lifts my shirt and pulls it over my head. “He will call back,” he assures me. “He’s not gone, Amy.”

I give a choppy nod and my fingers curl around the paper in my hand. “Oh.” I offer it to him. “She gave me this number. She said we can leave a message and she’ll call us back.”

“And we’d do that why?”

“To help her.”

“I repeat. And we’d do that, why?”

“She offered to help me get revenge for Chad’s death.”

“And she took off running, why?”

“She got spooked, is the only answer I have.”

He doesn’t look convinced. In truth, I’m not either.