A Little Harmless Lie 4 (17 page)

“Ah, Micah, this is Conner Dillon and he had some questions to ask you. I said I could answer them, but he said he only wanted you. I tried to tell him you were, uh, busy, but he wouldn’t let it go.”

“It’s okay, Harry. You can go.” Harry tossed a nasty look at the man, which was pretty impressive considering that Harry was three inches shorter and there was no way he was as lethal as the man who stood before Micah. This one had the look of a man who knew how to defend himself.

“Do you want to tell me what this is regarding?”

He shook his head. “I would rather talk in private. The things I need to say do not need to be overheard.”

Micah sighed, thinking of the woman up in bed, and the fact this looked like it would take longer than he wanted it to.

“Come on.”

He wouldn’t be nice. He didn’t want to. He wanted to be back in bed with the woman who had turned his world upside down. Micah said nothing as they walked up the stairs to his office.

He closed the door behind Dillon and motioned toward the chairs. He didn’t offer him a drink.

“I guess you’re going to tell me what you want.”

“Is there a reason for the animosity?”

“You smell like a cop.” Micah shrugged. “I don’t like cops.”

“Fair enough, but I’m a former FBI agent, not a cop. Now I run a security firm.”

He pulled out his wallet and offered Micah a business card. Micah took it and read the name, his eyebrows rising.

“Not just a security firm, but one of the top security firms in the country.”

Dillon shrugged.

“So, what do you want with me. I have no need of your services.”

Dillon glanced at the monitors that filled the room. “Yeah, I can see that. What I have to talk to you about is personal.”

“Look, if you want a membership you don’t have to talk to me.”

Conner laughed and pulled up the briefcase he had been carrying. “No. This goes back to my FBI days.” He unlocked the case and pulled out some pictures. “I wanted to know if you know a woman named Marjorie Rizzoli?”

Micah shook his head.

“I know you know Dee Sumner.”

He felt his heart constrict, but he made sure he showed none of his reactions on his face.

“Yes.”

He saw no reason to deny it, because if Dillon knew, then he would paint him a liar.

He set a picture on his desk. Micah hesitated and then picked it up. God, it was Dee. Not the Dee he knew today, this was a teenager with big curly brown hair and a smile that told you she could take on the world. There was no way mistaking those eyes. Big, blue, luminous. Damn.

“What’s this?”

“That’s Marjorie Rizzoli, who has been missing the last ten years.”

For a moment, his head couldn’t comprehend what the man was saying.

“You show me a picture of Dee Sumner from her high school days and try to convince me she’s someone else. I don’t really give a damn.”

He slid the picture back to Dillon, although he didn’t want to. He wanted to hold it for a little while longer. It was a glimpse into a history she didn’t let him see.

“No. That’s Marjorie.” He offered up the other piece of paper he was holding. It was a copy of a news clipping, Dee looking bewildered, surrounded by agents, being hurried along a street. Under the picture was the caption
Rizzoli’s Daughter Turns Snitch
.

Shit. He remembered it now. The Italian princess whose father put a contract out on her. The FBI couldn’t protect her and she was killed in a raid. It had been something he’d heard about Rizzoli after the fire that had destroyed his club. He remembered Evan saying that if Rizzoli had no problem killing his own flesh and blood, he wouldn’t think twice about two nobodies like them.

Micah raised his head. “She’s supposed to be dead.”

Dillon grimaced. “That was my doing. It took a lot to convince the FBI to do that, to make sure that everyone did think she was dead.”

“Why the fuck did you do that?”

“It was the least I could do. Jesus, thanks to a leak within the department, she was almost killed.”

“That isn’t how I remember it. I remember they said she had called a friend, exposing where they were.”

Dillon shook his head. “Even if she had access to a phone, she wouldn’t have done it. She was seriously scared of what would happen to her.” He hesitated. “She saw what they did to that man. They didn’t know she was there, but she watched them torture him. Or at least, heard what they did to him.”

Just the thought of that seventeen- year- old in the picture hearing what they did to the man, the way he had been tortured, made Micah’s blood run cold.

“So what does this have to do with me?”

“She works for you.”

“Worked.”

Dillon sighed, irritation thrumming in the sound.

“Dammit. She’s always one step ahead of me.”

“Maybe that’s where she should stay. Really, Dillon, why is this your problem?”

He hesitated. “I was pulled off the case. I feel that if I had been there, they would have never got to her. And she definitely wouldn’t be on her own.”

Something in his voice told Micah that there was more to it than that. But he knew better than to push. It would show he had too much interest.

“Sorry. She lit out of here about two days ago. She said something about family issues and quit without notice. Odd for her, because she had always been so dependable and claimed to be at odds with her family.”

Dillon nodded and reached for his card. He wrote something on the back. “Here’s my personal cell. If you hear anything, anything at all, please call.”

“Sure, but I doubt she would contact me. If what you say is true, she probably won’t be back.”

“True, but she did stay here longer than anywhere else. I thought she might have some contacts, some friends in the area. Her house didn’t seem like she had left.”

Micah shrugged. “I thought she had left the island, but I might be wrong.”

“It would definitely be her pattern.” Frustration seeped from every word Dillon muttered. Micah said nothing else as he saw Dillon to the door of the club. He wanted to make sure that Dillon didn’t question anyone else. He would eventually, that much Micah knew. But Micah wanted enough time to get Dee out of here and to safety.

Before stepping out the door, Dillon turned. “Don’t be heroic. The woman needs to be protected. Her father’s on trial again, for the same murder, and a few other things. The DA dropped the case before because of the lack of evidence. This time they got one of the participants to turn on Rizzoli. There’s a feeling that Rizzoli will do anything to avoid another trial, including finding any loose strings and cutting them.”

Micah nodded. He watched until the former agent got into his rental and drove away. Then he hurried back to his office. Taking the stairs two at a time, he wanted to get to Dee, to make sure she was all right, that nothing had happened to her. His heart slammed against his chest as he pushed the door open and found the bedroom empty. The sheets were still tangled, her scent still in the air. But he realized now that she had gone out the back way.

Goddammit. Shit. Fuck.

“Micah.”

He turned to find Harry watching him.

“What?”

“That guy is sitting down at the end of the street in a car.”

Double fuck.

“Thanks for letting me know.”

“Is everything all right?”

Micah shook his head. “No. But I am going to make damn sure I fix it.”

Harry left him alone and Micah sunk down onto the bed. She had run. Not trusting him, she had run. It was bad enough that she had lied to him. Dammit, he was pissed and he had every right to be pissed. The woman he loved had been lying to him all along.

But fear was easily bleeding into his fury. She was out there, and he couldn’t get to her. He wasn’t sure he could shake Dillon. Granted, there was a good chance he could, but he wasn’t sure. He didn’t trust the man. He was a cool one, but to have tracked her for ten years... that was a little obsessive. What was it that Dee had said?

People could be bought.

There was every chance the man had been bought by her father. Conner might have been by the house, but if Micah went there now, he would probably follow. If Micah led them to her, he would never forgive himself.

He scrubbed his hand over his face, trying to cool the raging anger coursing through his blood. He needed to make sure she was okay. He needed to touch her. He needed to spank her ass red for lying to him. A lie by omission was still a lie.

Micah reached for the phone and called the one person he knew he could trust. He answered on the third ring.

“Evan. I need your help.”

Dee turned in to her driveway, almost running over her mailbox. She gave it no thought as she scrambled out of the car. She should have run weeks ago, but she hadn’t had the nerve. Couldn’t. She dropped her keys on the porch, twice, then finally got her door open. She rushed inside and slammed it behind her. She listened, waiting for any creak, any evidence that someone was here. Dammit, she had been stupid. Now and then. She’d rushed into a house without first checking it out. After what she had heard in the office, she should be on alert.

But she couldn’t stop the fear bubbling in her chest. It wasn’t only her safety, but the fear that Micah would hate her. He hated liars, he had told her that. And that is what she was. A liar, a cheat, a dumb girl who still couldn’t take care of herself.

She felt another tear trickle down her cheek. Shit. She was crying again. The man, the situation... she hadn’t cried much in the last ten years. She hadn’t had the time. But now she didn’t seem to do much else.

She would have to leave. She had known that for weeks, had felt it was time to move on. But that would have meant giving up the time she’d had with Micah, and she hadn’t wanted to do that. Even now, there was an ache in her chest that was worse than the fear pumping through her blood. She had no choice. She couldn’t trust Dillon. He’d been the one she’d turned to time and again, until he’d left. And then they were attacked. She had figured out there had to have been a leak. John had been right. Someone had told her father’s men where she was.

With a sigh, she walked quickly through her house gathering her things. She always kept a case ready to go, cash handy and a whole identity waiting to be used. She walked into her bedroom, pulled the case out and opened it. She reached for her book, knowing she would need something to help her ignore the way her heart was hurting. But as she reached out, a large hand wrapped around her wrist and another slipped over her mouth.

“About time you got home, sis.”

Chapter Thirteen

Micah grimaced when he walked through Dee’s house. Nothing much looked out of place, except the bedroom. A suitcase sat on her bed, her clothes still in her opened drawers.

Evan walked up behind him. “She ran.”

Micah shook his head even as the fear he felt choked him. “Look.”

Evan stepped in the room and whistled. “She left without a pack. That doesn’t look good.”

They both knew how she had been living. They had never been hiding from a murderous brother and father. But they had always tried to stay one step ahead of trouble when they had been living on the streets in Atlanta.

Micah forced himself to walk around the room, his footsteps almost silent. He was careful not to mess with anything. He wanted everything left just like this, so he could figure out where she was and who had her.

“I take it you’re going after her?”

“She’s been abducted, Evan. Of course I am.”

Evan sighed. “You would be going after her even if she’d run.”

Micah raised his gaze. “I love her.”

“Yeah, that much is easy to see. Well, you track her down. If anyone can do it, you can. I’ll take care of things here, and maybe we can do something more to that Dillon guy.”

Micah smiled a bit at the memory. They’d pulled the old banana in the tailpipe to get out of the club. Dillon would probably not be happy.

He looked over the room and then opened her closet. His blood ran cold. There in the corner was a wrapper, potato chips. Salt and vinegar. He remembered the face she made, saying her brother had loved them. Shit. The bastard had been lying in wait to grab her.

He would kill him.

“Let’s go to the airport.”

Evan looked over at him. “Why?”

“If they left the island they would have taken a plane.”

Two hours later, he had the information he needed.

“Not very bright using a private jet,” Evan said.

“Never said that family was very bright. She ran right into the arms of the family she was trying to avoid.” Micah bit out every word, trying to keep his irritation and fear at bay.

“Not like she did it on purpose.”

“She should have known.”

Evan glanced at the security line. “Listen, don’t be too hard on her. She doesn’t know anything else.”

Micah frowned. “Don’t even try and get me on her good side. Once I get her, I am definitely going to make sure that she understands who is in charge. I still can’t believe she ran.”

If anything happened to her... a lump rose in his throat. God, he couldn’t think about it. If he did, he would go crazy.

“I know how you feel. I went through all that with May.”

Micah looked at him.

“Just go easy.”

“You want me to be soft?”

Evan sighed and shook his head. “I just keep remembering something May said about her. She mentioned that Dee always looked like she was on the outside of every group, looking in. She wanted to be there, wanted to be one of the group, but she held herself back.”

Another twist of pain filled his chest. That was exactly how she’d always looked. Micah wanted to kick his own ass. He knew now he’d been worried about asking too much, worried that she would leave him. The fear had kept him from finding just what darkness lurked in her life. Why hadn’t she told him?

“She probably didn’t have a choice,” Micah said.

Evan nodded. “But as Dillon said, she stayed here longer than any other place. There has to be a reason.”

“She liked her job.”