Eye of the Falcon (Psychic Visions #12)(88)

Eagle turned to look at her and asked, “You okay?”

She nodded. “What happened?”

Hawk answered. “I woke up to voices outside my room, talking about bringing in reinforcements. They wanted to get answers from you, once and for all.”

She gasped, sinking back in her seat. “Answers for what?”

Hawk shook his head. “I don’t know. We’re heading into the city to see the detective who is the brother of another friend of ours. And, if we get a chance, I thought you may want to see Angus.”

“Is that a possibility?”

“Yes. He might be willing to talk to us.”

She stared out the window, thinking how quickly her life had shifted. “It would be good, I guess. I had hoped to meet more of my family. The trouble is knowing who my family really is.”

“Exactly,” Eagle said. “And word travels fast, especially now they know about you. I don’t trust them.”

She cracked a smile in his direction. “That’s because you like being in control, and this situation makes you uncomfortable,” she said smoothly. “You were probably a bad-tempered child growing up too.”

“Hey, that’s not fair,” he said mockingly. “I might’ve been a challenging child. But I wasn’t bad.”

She rolled her eyes at him and looked out the window. “At least I had few hours’ sleep.”

“You actually had five. That’s all we could give you. After Hawk heard the men, he came and got me. We did a quick look around the place to see what we were up against. That’s when he brought the car around back, and I raced up to get you. Two, three, four, five, or even six guys—no problem. Twelve guys, maybe no problem. But six guys with guns, twelve guys with guns …” Eagle shook his head. “No way.”

“At least we could have gone down and picked up coffee on the way out.”

Hawk gave a snort. “Maybe if the pub had been open, we could have ordered some to go, but that would have given us away. Nothing is open yet. We’ll get to the city and have breakfast then.”

“We have a drive to go yet,” Eagle said to Issa. “So, if you can, close your eyes, and get some more sleep.”

That she would like to do, but she didn’t think it would be possible. Not to mention so much was going on in her head that didn’t make any sense. She turned and looked at Eagle. “Did you bring all the stuff?”

He nodded. “It’s possible it all came from a robbery in Paris twenty years ago. They’re quite well-known pieces.”

Her shoulders sagged. “I was hoping they weren’t.”

“What I don’t know is why they were stuck in the back of that closet.”

“Yeah, it was strange.” She nodded. “I told my mom and dad about that spot. Not very many other people knew. I was friends for a while with one kid there when I was growing up. Arian. But I’m not sure his family thought I was a good influence on him. It was odd. He’s the one that I exchanged notes with in the closet all the time.”

The men didn’t say anything.

She smiled at the memory. “Nothing major. Just a picture one day, a feather another, that kind of thing.” She shrugged. “It was sweet. And made me smile.”

“Who was that?”

“The pub owner’s son, Arian,” she said. “I never saw him again after we left—I never saw anyone from here after that.” She frowned and shrugged. “So much of my history is from that part of my life, and most of it is almost impossible to remember. Just images, feelings, impressions, more than actual events.”

“I’d say that’s pretty normal, given the age you were.”

She got caught up in the memories as they drove steadily toward the city. “I want to go back there later.”

“Only if we have to,” Hawk said.

When she didn’t respond, Eagle turned to look at her. “Why do you want to go back?”

She sighed. “I feel like they need closure. As much as I do.”

“Maybe they do. But that doesn’t mean they will get it.”

Close to forty minutes later they pulled into the city limits. Up ahead was a fast-food chain. Hawk pulled in and said, “I need a pit stop. I think we all could use some coffee.”

When they’d all had a chance to use the single bathroom, they went to the counter and ordered coffee. A clock hung on the wall behind the counter. “What time does the station open?” Eagle asked Hawk.

“We’ve still got another hour. Probably half an hour on the road to find the address. Do you want to grab some breakfast here?”

“I was actually eyeing the muffins. Maybe that would do.”

Hawk ordered six to go. Once they were back on the road, he divvied them up.

“You sure we weren’t followed?” she asked.

“We weren’t followed when we left, but it’s pretty obvious we would’ve been heading toward the city. Maybe they put a tracker on the rental car. I don’t know. Why? Have you seen anyone?”

“Honestly, these days all I do is look around and think I see someone.”

“We are being followed in a sense. But it’s our guys, not them.”

She stared at Hawk, her jaw dropping. “You mean, you have somebody keeping an eye on us?”