Colters' Gift (Colters' Legacy #5)(42)

“What the f**k was that?” Liam asked in a low voice.

Noah blew out his breath. “She’s holding back something. She hasn’t told us everything.”

“Goddamn.” He took a steadying breath. “She doesn’t trust us yet.”

Noah shot him a disgruntled look. “Do you expect her to this quickly? It may not be so much an issue of her trusting as it may be something big. Something that terrifies her. Look at it from her perspective. We barge back into her life, bust her for lying to us, and ‘oh by the way, we want a relationship with you.’ It’s a lot to take in such a short period of time.”

“Yeah, I get it,” Liam muttered. “What the f**k do we do now?”

Before Noah could respond, the bedroom door opened and Lauren stepped out, her face drawn and blotchy. There was a look in her eyes that Liam didn’t like. He couldn’t even put his finger on what it was exactly, but the woman who’d bolted into her bedroom was not the woman walking out right now. And that scared the shit out of him.

“Lauren?” he began hesitantly. Hell, he was at a loss for words. Not an affliction he usually suffered.

Her gaze skittered to him, and he was taken aback by the pain in her eyes. Worse than the pain was the fear that reflected in those soft brown eyes.

She was scared to death.

“I have to go back to New York,” she said, in a flat, emotionless voice.

Noah’s complete what the f**k? look mirrored Liam’s own reaction.

“Whoa, wait a minute here,” Liam said. “We need to talk, baby. Tell us what’s going on.”

She took a deep breath, squared her shoulders and then glanced to Noah, then back at Liam again.

“I have to go back. Immediately.”

Noah finally found his tongue.

“Tell us why,” he said bluntly.

Her lips trembled, and it was evident that she was clinging to her composure by the barest thread. One hand was fisted into a tight ball at her side and the other was shaking, her fingers quivering even when she tried to press it to her leg.

“I have to go to the police,” she said quietly. “I know he has cops on his payroll, but I have to try. I can no longer stand here and do nothing. Someone has to stop him.”

Liam could stand it no longer. He crossed the room and gently grasped Lauren’s shoulders. “Come sit down. Please? We’ll talk it out. You tell us why you need to go to the police and we’ll figure it out together, okay?”

For a moment he thought she’d argue, but then she sighed and let him walk her to the couch. Noah still stood by the coffee table, his brows drawn together in confusion—and worry—as Liam seated Lauren and then sat next to her.

“What the hell is going on, Lauren?” Noah asked.

Her balled fist was now in her lap, and slowly, she opened it until Liam could see a computer memory disk in her hand.

“I took this from him,” she said in a near whisper. “Or rather, I copied information from his laptop before I left.”

Oh shit. Liam glanced up at Noah to see the same grim fear in his friend’s eyes. This didn’t sound good. Not good at all.

Noah shoved the coffee table out of the way and knelt in front of Lauren. He didn’t try to take the disk from her hand, but he took her other one and rubbed it between his palms.

“What kind of information?” Noah asked.

“Contacts. Records. Business and financial records. Entries detailing his client lists. When and where they met with what girls. Remember the whole hoopla over the high-profile madam case several years ago? This is basically the same thing, only it proves Joel for the pimp he is. And he has some big-name clients. Politicians. Doctors. Lawyers. Famous people. He runs a very big business peddling . . . women.”

She nearly choked on the last word and it ended in a quiet sob.

“Women like the one he killed for talking to you about me.”

“Now, baby, we can’t prove that,” Liam began.

She shook her head. “You and I both know that’s exactly why she died. It’s not a coincidence that the day after she talks to you she gets beat to death. You know it and I know it. Let’s not try to make it what it isn’t. The simple fact is, if I’d gone to the police with this information instead of running like a scared rabbit, that woman would be alive.”

Liam swallowed hard. This was going south fast, and he had no idea how to get things back on track.

“Why didn’t you tell us about this before?” Noah asked. “I get why you didn’t when we were in New York. But why didn’t you tell us when we got here? When we found out the truth about Joel?”

She raised her head, her gaze so dull and filled with self-condemnation that it made Liam hurt.

“Because I was afraid that you’d want to do the right thing, and I was too self-absorbed and afraid to do it myself. I had this hope that I could just move on with my life, pretend Joel never existed and continue to live in denial. If I didn’t think about what he did or the other women he’s hurt, then it wasn’t real.”

“Then why did you take the time and the risk to copy this information if you never intended to do anything with it?” Liam asked. “If he found out—hell, if he knows you took something from him like that—you have to know he’ll come after you.”