No One to Trust (Hidden Identity Book #1): A Novel (8 page)

Summer nibbled on the scrambled eggs Adam had cooked. They were good, but she wasn’t in the mood for food. She felt nauseous and tired and scared and—

“You okay?”

She looked up to see Chase enter the kitchen. “I’ve been better.”

“I’m sure.”

The sympathy in his gaze made her sigh. “I’m his weakness, aren’t I?” she blurted.

Adam glanced up from the paper he was reading. He and Chase exchanged a look, then Chase said, “Yes.”

The fact that Chase didn’t have to ask for clarification on her question said a lot. “They’ll use me to get to him.” She wasn’t sure why she needed to say the words out loud or even have the fact acknowledged by someone else. David had told her as much last night. It was silly to need it confirmed.

Chase took the seat to her right. A purple bruise shadowed his jawline. He clasped his hands in front of him and leaned forward. “That looks like what their plan is right now. They probably thought you knew where the laptop was when they paid you that surprise visit. They were watching your house, watching you. Having Mike show up wasn’t part of their plan.”

David walked in and sat at the table across from her. He looked at Chase and gave a small wince when he spotted Chase’s face. “Sorry about slugging you.”

Chase shrugged. “If it had been my wife, I would have done the same thing.”

The admission seemed to surprise David. Summer thought she saw his shoulders loosen up a bit.

She asked the men, “Mike probably saved my life, didn’t he? Forcing me to leave my house?”

“Yes.” Adam looked at David, then back to her. “Once they realized you really didn’t know where the laptop was, you were expendable.” He paused. “Although, they probably wouldn’t have killed you right away.”

She nodded, grimacing at the thought. They would have kept her to use against David. Just like they would do if they got their hands on her now. She shot a glance at her husband. Lips tight, jaw tense, he stared at the wall across from him.

“I know you may not want to hear this,” Adam said, “but if something like this has to happen, it’s good you and David can be together while it’s going on. A lot of times families are separated and never know what’s happened to their loved one. It can really tear a family apart.”

Summer almost gave him a sarcastic answer, but bit her tongue. He was trying to help.

Chase pointed his half-eaten donut at her. “Raimondi’s cohorts obviously followed you and Mike to the hospital and tried to grab you at the first opportunity.”

She looked at David. “So the only way we’ll truly be safe is if we simply disappear.”

David’s eyes darkened.

“I honestly don’t know that you’ll ever be safe again,” Chase said.

Summer stared at him. “What about after the trial? When they’re all in jail?”

David slapped a hand on the table. “We’ll worry about that later.”

“No,” Summer said, the one word sharp and cutting, “we’ll worry about that now. I’ve spent the last year in the dark. Fill me in with the truth.”

Adam shifted and shot David a look. “Raimondi’s connections reach far and wide. In all likelihood, even if he’s in prison, he’ll have revenge on his mind.”

“So I’m never going to be safe again?” she whispered.

“You will,” David declared. “I’m going to see to it. One way or another you’ll be safe.”

“What about my family?” she asked. “Are they safe?”

David and Chase exchanged a look.

“We have surveillance on them for now,” Chase finally said.

“For now? How long is ‘for now’?”

Another tense look. “We’re taking it one day at a time.”

“I want to talk to my sister.”

“No.” Adam stood. “You can’t do that. You can’t have any communication with your family until after the trial.”

Summer stood, panic flaring. “I have to! You don’t understand my family. They depend on me.” David leaned forward and she cut him off before he could speak. “Yes, I know they take advantage of me. But they’ve got to know I’m all right. I can’t just leave them hanging like this.” She jabbed a finger at David. “You know how she’ll react. I need to talk to her, tell her I’m fine and that she won’t hear from me for a while. And what about my mother? I’m supposed to go over tomorrow and fix lunch for her.” She paced from one end of the kitchen to the other. “I can’t believe this.” She froze as she thought about Olivia Todd. “And what about my clients? I have to be at work on Monday. How long is this going to drag out?”

Adam rubbed his head and sighed. “We can give your sister a call. We’ll have to get a burn phone.”

“We don’t have one with us. Mike can get one.”

“You don’t understand. I don’t have time to wait. This is my
client’s life we’re talking about. Her girls and their future. If her husband gets wind of this . . .” She swallowed hard. “And my family. Just two calls, guys. Please . . .”

“Then we’ll just have to go somewhere to do it,” Adam said. “A pay phone.”

Summer noted he ignored her question about how long this ordeal would last. She didn’t demand an answer. She knew as well as Chase did, this could last for the next three weeks. Her mind started clicking as she mentally delegated her work schedule. Her paralegal, Celeste, would handle most everything for her.

But Olivia was a different matter.

“Don’t you have a secure phone?” David asked.

“Yes, but it would be best to make the call from another location. Raimondi has seriously good computer guys on his team.” He looked at Summer. “They’ve probably got a tracker on all your family’s numbers. Even encrypted cell phones can be traced by the right people with the right equipment.”

Summer felt sick, the nausea she’d felt earlier returning full force. She glared at David, who sighed and dropped his head. She bolted from the room to the bathroom and lost her breakfast.

David helped Summer into the car. She looked pale and wan, worn out from the constant emotional roller coaster he’d strapped her into. With each beat of his heart, his guilt intensified. He had to find a way to get Summer someplace safe until the trial was over. Chase spoke. David knew his words were aimed at the person on the other end of the device Chase had shoved in his ear, so David kept his attention on Summer.

“Marlee doesn’t deserve you.” As soon as the words were out, he wanted to recall them.

She turned cold eyes on him. “And I didn’t deserve you. Sometimes we get what we don’t deserve.”

He winced as the barb hit home. The pain of his betrayal stood clear in her eyes. He curled his fingers into a fist against his thigh, the desire to smash something overwhelming. But he couldn’t. She was right. She didn’t deserve what he’d done.

“Why did you marry me?” she asked.

He kept his gaze on the passing scenery as he pondered how to answer her.

“Stop thinking up a lie and tell me the truth.”

“I wasn’t trying to think of a lie—”

“The truth.”

“There’s a lot about me you don’t know, Summer.”

She gave a soft snort. “Tell me something I
don’t
know.”

He clenched his jaw, then slowly forced himself to relax it. “I wasn’t a Christian when we met, for one thing.”

She lifted a brow. “And you are now?”

“Summer.”

She turned away, but not before he saw the sheen of tears in her eyes. “I told you what my father did to us.”

“I know.” Summer’s father had betrayed her too. He’d divorced her mother and taken her and her siblings away from the woman. Summer had never forgiven him.

“He lied to me. Joshua lied to me. And now you.” A tear slipped down her cheek. The sight nearly ripped his heart in two.

“Summer—”

She swiped the wetness away and looked at him. “So why did you marry me?”

“I love you.”

Longing swept over her face, her eyes softened. Hope surged. She shook her head. “You said, love. Not loved.”

He sighed and closed his eyes. “I needed a good cover. The people after me weren’t looking for a married man with a mortgage. There. You feel better you know the truth now?” His bitter words hung between them.

A low moan came from deep within her, a sound so agonizing he froze for a moment. Then grabbed her and wrapped his arms around her.

Her head fell to his shoulder and he could feel her shaking. “I’m sorry, Summer, I’m so sorry,” he whispered against her hair. Mike and Chase sat silent in the front and David ground his teeth at the lack of privacy.

The two men said nothing, but he knew they could probably hear quite a bit of the whispered discussion. It galled him to have this aired in front of them, but he had no choice. Not right now. He had to convince her while she was willing to listen. “I’ll make it right, I promise.”

A shuddering sigh boiled out of her and she pushed him away. “You used me.”

David said nothing. He had no argument. She was right. And yet . . . “Yes. In the beginning. But not really.”

“What?” Confusion pulled her brows together.

He swallowed hard and whispered, “From the moment we met, I knew you were different. You looked at me with such . . . innocence, such sweetness. I was drawn to you in a way I’ve never experienced before.”

“Of all the banks you could have chosen, you had to walk into mine.”

David swallowed hard. Summer had been at the front of the line to cash a check when her purse had fallen over, littering the bank floor with spare change, a brush, her makeup, all of the things a woman carried. He’d helped her clean up the mess, then asked her for her phone number, then out on a date for that night.

She’d said yes.

And his plan had been born. Make Summer fall in love with him and marry him in a whirlwind courtship.

She let out a breathy laugh. “It only took you two months to get me to marry you. I was a gullible fool, wasn’t I?”

Raimondi gripped his cell phone and held his volatile temper in check. Barely. “Where are they?” He reached out to run a finger down the back of the red-tailed boa. He’d gotten the one-year-old snake two weeks ago. Six feet long, it curled around the base of the lamp on his desk. Just touching the reptile brought his blood pressure down.

“On the move,” Hayes said. “I’ve got our people on them right now. We should have them in our hands shortly.”

“So you say. Did you get the information we needed?”

“Yes. Our source feels quite sure Mrs. Abernathy will not let the fact that her life is in danger stop her from appearing in court to defend her client on Tuesday.”

Raimondi thought about that. “So if we lose them between now and then, we know where to find them on Tuesday.”

“Most likely. According to my source, Mrs. Abernathy is very passionate about helping this particular client.”

His office door opened and Phillip, one of his more trusted hired hands, shoved a trembling young man probably in his early thirties into the room.

Raimondi told Hayes, “Hold on one minute. I need to take care
of something. It won’t take long.” He pressed the hold button and looked at Phillip. “You found him.”

“Wasn’t easy,” the man grunted. “But his girlfriend decided she’d rather keep all of her fingers than hide him any longer.”

Raimondi grinned. “You’re a fast learner, my boy.” He stood and stared at Chico. “You failed me.”

Chico swallowed. “I didn’t mean to. I didn’t know he was undercover, I swear.”

“And because you failed me, you must pay a very high price.”

Sweat broke out on Chico’s forehead.

Raimondi picked up the boa and held it for Chico’s inspection. The young man blinked and backed away. Phillip pushed him back, closer to the snake than before.

“You don’t like snakes?” Raimondi said.

“S-sure. I like them just fine.”

“Oh really?” Raimondi arched his brow. “Well, that’s good to hear, not many people do.” He put the snake back under the light. It curled around the base once more. “Now, down to business. I lost about two hundred thousand dollars’ worth of cocaine thanks to you. How are you going to pay me back? Can you go to your bank and make a nice little withdrawal?”

Chico paled. “No sir. I don’t have that kind of money.”

“No, I didn’t think you did.”

“B-but I can get it.”

“From where?”

“I-I don’t know. Just give me a chance. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

Raimondi pretended to consider it and Chico relaxed a fraction.

“No. No, I don’t think so.”

Chico lost even more color. “Please. I promise. I’ll rob a bank. I’ll do whatever.”

Raimondi nodded to Phillip. Phillip placed his weapon at the base of Chico’s skull. Chico whimpered and resumed begging.

Raimondi laughed. “I’m just kidding. You can leave.”

Phillip dropped the gun and Chico grasped at his chest as though to hold his heart inside before it pumped right through his skin. Raimondi gestured to the door to his right. “Go.”

Chico didn’t wait to be told twice. He pulled the door open and slammed it behind him. Phillip walked over and slid the bolt home.

Raimondi flipped the switch on his computer monitor. He watched Chico rush down the stairs and skid to a halt. Another careless flick of his finger released his friends that slithered toward the now-panicked man who realized he’d just walked into a den of vipers. Literally.

“Idiot. He really thought I would let him go? Oy, they fall for it every time.” Raimondi spoke the words aloud, aware that Phillip had already left the room. On the monitor, Raimondi watched Chico race back the way he’d come and grab the doorknob, which, of course, wouldn’t turn. The door rattled and Raimondi heard a faint pounding, a soft scream. He’d soundproofed the area to the point he could hear some, but not a lot. Raimondi watched the monitor.

Chico turned and pressed his back against the door and, in a panic, kicked out at the first snake, then the next. Fool. If he would just be still, the snakes wouldn’t attack. Raimondi clucked. His victims never failed to disappoint him. They panicked every time.

After the first bite, Raimondi lost interest. For some reason Chico’s screams annoyed him. He would be quiet soon enough and Phillip would be back to clean up the mess.

Raimondi flipped off the monitor, picked the phone up, and reconnected with Hayes, who’d been telling him about Summer’s court date with her client. “Who’s the client?”

“A woman by the name of Olivia Todd. She’s fighting her husband for custody of her two young girls. If Summer doesn’t show up, it’s very likely that Mrs. Todd will lose custody. Her husband’s a well-to-do stockbroker. Lots of money.” He grunted. “And an
abuser. I’m tempted to take the man out and save them the trouble of going to court on Tuesday.”

“No. If you want to kill him, I’m fine with that, but wait until after Tuesday.” Raimondi calculated. “Okay, that’s three days from now. I want Hackett before then, but if he manages to elude us, we’ll have to grab him and his wife on Tuesday at the courthouse. Security is tight there. It’ll be hard to do.”

“I’ve got ways to get past that.”

“Then get it set up just in case we need to go that route. I don’t want to, but there’s too much at stake and I need the laptop and David dead before the trial.”

“Like I said, I’ve got an inside track to the courthouse. We’ll get them there if we have to.”

Raimondi watched the snake slither across the desk and down onto the floor. “I have a feeling David will do pretty much anything to keep us from hurting Summer.”

Hayes snorted. “He’s a former Ranger. He’ll know we’re just going to kill her anyway.”

“Very true, but it’ll be up to him how much she suffers before she dies.”