Hidden (Nicole Jones #1)(59)

If my father had hired Tracker, no one would’ve been able to get in. Not even me.

Did Zeke hear the story about me? Did he keep an eye on me because of that? I still couldn’t believe that he had any idea about what we’d done. How could he be sleeping with me, knowing I might have stolen millions?

I was wary for the next couple of days, watchful for that car. I thought I’d imagined it the first time because I didn’t see it again. But then, I realized they were smart. There were different cars on different days, two men, two women, a man and a woman. They were changing it up. But I was definitely being followed.

‘I think someone’s following me,’ I told Zeke one afternoon in bed.

He gave a short chuckle and touched my cheek. ‘Paranoid?’

‘No. I’m being followed.’

He leaned back. ‘Why do you think someone would follow you?’ He stared at me in a way that dared me to tell him the truth.

I shrugged. ‘I have no idea. My father, maybe?’

‘But you have nothing to do with your father’s business.’ He paused. ‘Do you?’

I gave him a sly smile. ‘Wouldn’t you like to know?’

Later, when I got out of the shower, I peered around the door and saw him with my laptop open on the bed. I didn’t let on that I’d seen him. I gave him a kiss at the door and he said he’d see me the next day. He had a surprise for me. I went back upstairs and opened the laptop. He’d seen nothing; I always made sure I left no tracks. But I had to be sure. I scoured the system, but there were no clues to what I’d done.

Still, I found Tracker and told him I needed the new identities for me and Ian as soon as possible.

The next day, I met Zeke at the door and led him up to my bedroom, as I’d been doing for the last month. But today would be the last time.

‘I told you I had a surprise,’ he said afterward. He was excited about something. I felt a sense of dread. ‘I told my wife. About you.’

I couldn’t speak for a few seconds. ‘What?’ I finally asked. ‘Why?’

‘Let’s run away together.’ His eyes were a bright blue, and I could see in them that he meant it. That he wanted to run away with me.

‘But—’

‘But nothing. I love you.’

All I could think was, we were just sleeping together. It wasn’t love. At least not for me. He could see it. He could see it in my face. He pulled away from me, frowning.

‘What, Tina? Was I just a good f*ck?’

I reached for him, but he swung his legs over the side of the bed and got up.

‘No, it’s not like that.’

‘Then what’s it like?’ His blue eyes were dark with anger. ‘What’s it like for you? Because for me, well, I told my wife that I loved someone else. That I was leaving her. For you.’

I didn’t feel guilty then, and I still don’t. Not about that. But I ponder Steve’s question. Did I kill Zeke?

‘No. It’s nothing like that. It’s just the money. That’s all it’s ever been,’ I say, unable to look him in the eye. ‘Zeke and I, well, we had a relationship. He was more attached than I was. I guess you can say he got a little possessive.’

‘So how did he end up in Paris?’ Steve is genuinely curious about this, and I want to tell him, but I’m not ready for that particular story yet. I shake my head.

‘I don’t want to take that trip down memory lane right now, OK?’

Steve reluctantly nods. ‘OK. So what’s your plan?’

I smile. ‘You know I’m not going to tell you that.’

‘It was worth a try, wasn’t it?’

‘You get a gold star for effort.’

‘I think I’d make a pretty good detective,’ Steve says. ‘I did find you here.’

‘You did do that.’

‘So tell me what else I can do to help you.’

I look at him warily. ‘You want to help me get off the island without being seen?’

‘Isn’t that what friends do? Help each other?’ But I can see the pain etched in his expression. He will help me, but he doesn’t truly want to. He wants me to stay, for everything to stay the same, despite everything, despite knowing what I have done. He loves me unconditionally, unlike Ian, unlike Zeke, despite their pronouncements. They both wanted something from me, something they knew I couldn’t give them. Steve wants me to stay, but because I must leave, he will help me step out of his life and leave him alone. Because it’s what I have to do.

‘I need to get on the ferry in the morning. I have to take the first one out.’ I had thought I might be able to take the three o’clock, but it’s getting too late for that. The jury is still out on whether I can make the five o’clock, which is the last ferry of the day. It depends on whether I can get myself a duffel bag and the money. I could go straight to the ferry from my house. Steve will never have to know.

He is speaking. ‘No problem. And I’ll go with you.’

‘No, Steve, you can’t.’

‘Yes, I can. And I’ll take you wherever you want me to. Where do you need to go?’

I don’t want to tell him about the train ticket out from Boston, but I see that he’s pretty determined, so I say, ‘Providence.’