Hidden (Nicole Jones #1)(58)

My stomach growls despite myself, and he grins. ‘Nice to see that you’re still alive and well,’ he says. ‘Come on, it’ll get cold.’

But I am still thinking about what he’s told me. ‘Who found him?’

‘No one we know. Couple of tourists here for the first time. Too bad about that.’

They will always associate Block Island with a dead body now.

There are two chairs in the room, and we pull them over to the desk. I pick up a burger and after I take a big bite, let out a long sigh. ‘Thanks for this.’

Steve is watching me as I eat. He is trying not to let on that he is, but his eyes are following my every movement.

‘So, I guess all the police on the island are at the Bluffs now,’ I say, mulling this over in my head. This is what I thought of last night, that the body could be reported and I could make my escape.

‘That’s right.’ He knows what I’m thinking. That I could get away now. But I still have something I need to do before I go, and I’m not a hundred percent sure that no one is watching for me, even now.

‘Is there an APB or something out on me? I mean, because Reggie’s been watching you and they’re probably watching the ferries, too.’

Steve takes a deep breath. ‘Frank hasn’t advertised that they’re looking for you. I think he’s still hoping you’ll turn yourself in.’

I let that lie. ‘I’m surprised Jeanine didn’t come with you.’

‘I didn’t tell her I was coming.’

I see a twinkle in his eye. ‘You didn’t tell her you sneaked a peek at her caller ID.’

‘You had a reason not to tell her where you were.’

‘I had a reason not to tell you, either.’

Steve wipes his mouth with a napkin, but he still has some crumbs in his beard. I lean over and brush them off, and he reaches up and takes my hand. ‘Nicole, I think it’s time we talked seriously about what to do.’

His hand is warm and rough, and I carefully pull mine out of his. ‘I know what I’m going to do.’ I meet his stare, and he knows. He is struggling with it, though, just as I have been these past days.

He suddenly drops his head into his hands and whispers, ‘What am I going to do without you?’

I get up and put my arms around him, my face in his neck. We stay that way for a few minutes, until finally I straighten up and go back to my chair. He looks at me then, studying my face as though he wants to imprint it on his brain so he will never forget me. I don’t need to do that. He will forever be a part of me.

‘I’m a fugitive,’ I say, my voice sounding too loud, although it is barely above a whisper.

‘But what you did was a long time ago—’

‘Steve, I stole millions of dollars. They will throw me in prison.’

‘Where will you go?’

I am thrown a little by the change of subject. ‘I’m not sure yet.’

‘Will you be able to let me know?’

‘I have been living here for fifteen years and I never told anyone from my other life where I was.’ Until that stupid postcard. I will not make the same mistake.

‘But it’s me,’ he argues.

I want to tell him that I will let him know. I want to tell him that someday we will see each other again. But I can’t. It would just be another lie.

‘Why can’t I go with you?’

‘Your life is here.’

‘So is yours.’

His words sober me. He is right. Or at least, my life used to be here. It has been slipping away ever since I saw Ian in the parking lot at Club Soda.

‘Will you see him again?’ Somehow Steve knows I am thinking of Ian.

‘No.’

‘You ran with him once before.’

‘And then I ran away from him.’

Steve’s face grows dark, and he looks deep into my eyes. ‘What happened with Zeke Chapman? Did you kill him, Nicole? Is that really why you’re on the run?’

I first noticed the surveillance car outside the house about two weeks into my affair with Zeke. It followed me to the gym. I could make out a man and a woman inside. They kept a safe distance away, and even though they didn’t pull into the gym parking lot, when I drove home later I spotted it again in my rearview mirror.

‘We’ve got a problem,’ I told Ian when I called him. We had been careful not to see each other, except in crowded clubs, since we’d done the job. We wanted to make sure a good period of time passed before we were seen together, just in case. We told my father Ian had gone back north, when in fact he was staying in a friend’s house in Coral Gables.

‘Are you sure?’

‘Pretty sure.’

‘It’s that agent. The one you can’t keep your hands off.’

I had told him about Zeke to make him jealous. He had been distracted the last couple of months, despite the job, and I worried there was another woman. But I didn’t tell him the reason for getting involved with Zeke. Instead, I said it was to make sure that the FBI weren’t onto us. ‘He’s OK,’ I said.

‘I don’t think so. Maybe he’s with you because he suspects you.’

I’d already had that thought, and I’d tried to push it away, but it wouldn’t go. Zeke showed up for the first time right after we did the job, checking up on my father, but what did he know about me? Did he know that I’d hacked into my father’s business accounts when I was a teenager? My father had been angry, but then he bragged about me. Said because of me, he knew he needed better security on his computer system. He hired experts who claimed they were the best in the business. He had no idea I still got past their firewalls and safeguards. I knew everything that was going on in my father’s business, and I knew where all the money came from and was funneled out to.