The Promise (The 'Burg #5)(164)

“Oh my God, that’s why you wanted me to call him,” she breathed.

“That’s why,” I confirmed.

“Should I tell him?” she asked.

“If you want, I will. But I think he should know. He has someone shadowing him to protect him, but it doesn’t hurt to stay vigilant.”

“I should tell him,” she whispered. “He knows me.”

I nodded. “I understand that,” I assured her, then I leaned toward her. “But please warn him that he does not go off the beaten path. We can’t let the people who are doing this know how on to them you are or what the people who are working with me are doing.”

She looked so freaked, I wanted to reach out and grab her hand, but I didn’t want anyone to see me doing it.

So I didn’t and just kept talking.

“Now, you gotta trust me. This is huge and what you’ve been doing is making someone antsy. Let’s get this product safely off our catalog and do it without any more good, brave people getting harmed. Okay?”

“Okay,” she whispered.

“You need a minute to get yourself together?” I asked, and she nodded. “Take it, then, babe. But do it scribbling on your notepad, right?”

“Right, notepad, good idea. Just a normal meeting with new scenery between Frankie and Tandy,” she said in a near chant.

I smiled at her. “Just that, honey.”

She nodded again, snatched up her notepad, and started scribbling.

I took a sip of my latte and decided on what was next.

Benny first, obviously.

Then Sal.

I looked to Tandy, who was rabidly scribbling like I was a taskmaster about to pull out my whip.

“Babe,” I called, and she looked to me.

I made my voice low when I spoke again, and even if my words were clear, my tone made them clearer.

“You did good. You did right. You took initiative, even when I told you to back down. You were brave. And you’re gonna save a lot of people a lot of heartache. Literally. I admire you, Tandy.” Her lip started trembling so I finished gently, “Just a normal meeting, honey.”

She forced a weak smile and replied, “Just another meeting, Frankie.”

I grinned at her and took another sip of my latte.

* * * * *

That evening at 5:05, I sauntered to my car just like any other day I’d saunter to my car, except way earlier.

This was because Benny was at my place and I wanted to be with Benny.

This was also because I wanted to get the f**k out of there.

The last was partly because I’d picked up all the evidence Tandy’s crew had amassed from a visibly terrified Peter Furlock. Although not nice to say, he was a man who was squat, dumpy, had thinning light brown hair, and wore thick glasses either due to weak eyes or squinting at a computer screen or a TV while playing a game all the time.

Even so, he was also building up to being a hero because he was smart and brave and doing the right thing, all this I told him in order to get him to calm down, stick with the program, and assure him my “people” had his back.

When he went back to wherever IT people holed up, he looked less terrified but still jittery.

The stuff he gave me was in my computer bag.

So I also wanted to get out of there because the place was giving me the heebie-jeebies. It felt like the walls had eyes and it didn’t help that Heath disappeared at lunch and didn’t come back.

This sent Sandy into a tailspin for reasons that were probably not good. She was visibly nervous. She dropped several things, including a full mug of coffee. She avoided Tandy (and, thus, me) like the plague. And twice, I saw her rushing to the bathroom.

She maybe didn’t feel well.

But she probably went in there to freak out and/or burst into tears.

Something was up with that and it was either what I’d said to Heath or what Bierman had said.

I’d called Benny with the news, giving him the detail on Nightingale Investigations, the firm Tandy’s sister’s friend from Brownsburg (of all freaking places) had connections with. Ben told me he’d relay everything to Sal so I didn’t have to.

This was not because he didn’t want me to talk with Sal. It was because he didn’t want to chance me being overheard by anyone.

Since all the evidence was on three thumb drives, no paper, I was going to hand them over to someone Sal was sending to keep them safe.

That was my plan for the night.

I was also going to cuddle with my man, play with my puppy, look forward to the time when that was my life but in Chicago, and try to forget about all this crap.

Until tomorrow.

I was at my car when my phone in my purse binged with a text. I got in the car, settled, dug out my phone, and looked at the display.

When I saw what was on it, I forced myself to act normally, seeing as they had cameras in the parking garage. And when the text faded to a dark screen, I went to my texts to read it again.

McCaffrey’s. Now. Come by yourself.

It was from Heath.

One thing I knew, I was going to McCaffrey’s.

The other thing I knew, I was not going alone.

I put my Bluetooth in, made the call, and pulled out of my spot as it rang.

“You headed home?” was Benny’s greeting.

“No, I’m meeting you at a place called McCaffrey’s where I’m giving a command performance for Heath, my colleague who disappeared at lunch after a first-thing-in-the-morning meeting with me followed immediately by one with Bierman.”