Myles had already finished his omelet and pushed away his plate. “So you had to run and hide again.”
“Only this time I had the government’s protection. Virgil made a deal with them. If they’d put me in WitSec, he’d go undercover to help them bust another gang that was taking over Pelican Bay. He’d just come out of prison, so he was believable in the part. And he had the motivation.”
“When was this?”
“Four years ago.”
“He was trying to save your life.”
“And my children’s.”
“It sounds rather opportunistic of the government.”
She swallowed another bite. “The gang problem was getting so bad they were beginning to panic. They considered it a win-win.”
“But they were gambling with his life!”
“Yes.”
“I take it he came through.”
“It didn’t go as smoothly as we would’ve liked, but he did what he could. A lot of bangers in both groups—the Hell’s Fury and The Crew—were brought up on new charges through his efforts.”
He stretched out his legs and crossed them at the ankle. “So is anyone from the Hell’s Fury after you?”
“I’m sure they’d love to find us. But it’s The Crew that’s been the most determined and successful. For them, what Virgil did was a personal affront. They’re the ones who knew him so well, who’d basically lived with him as a brother for fourteen years. And when he left, Rex eventually went with him. That didn’t go over too well with The Crew, either. The familiarity they have with both men has given The Crew an advantage.”
“They managed to track you down, even in WitSec?”
“That’s why we left D.C. two years ago.”
He drained his glass. “How do you think they did that?”
“They had to have had someone on the inside or someone with access to insider information.”
He nodded, then motioned for her to continue eating, and she dutifully raised her fork to force down a few more bites.
“So how well do you know the guy who’s coming after you?” he asked. “Ink?”
“Well enough to know he’s the most dangerous, deranged individual I’ve ever met.”
“Are you the one who shot him?”
“No, that was Rex, but Ink blames me because Rex did it to save me.”
“Did Mia see it?”
“Yes.”
He cursed under his breath. “Poor thing.” He leaned closer. “I guess you never really know who your neighbors are, do you?”
The conversation had been so serious it took her a few seconds to realize he was joking. “No. What dark secrets are you hiding?”
His mouth slanted to the left. “I’ll never tell.”
“Tell me about your family, then.”
“What about them?”
“Are your parents alive?”
“Yes.”
“And where are your siblings?”
“I have only one brother. He’s in Arizona, too.”
“How often do you see him?”
“Once or twice a year.”
She remembered Myles and Marley packing up for vacation last summer. They’d gone to Disneyland for a few days but spent at least a week with his family. Marley had told her all about it when she’d come over to babysit Mia and Jake for a couple of hours one afternoon. Marley had also stayed with her maternal relatives at the end of the summer, and Myles had been home alone. Vivian had definitely noticed that. It was probably about the time he’d first begun to return her interest.
“Here, I’ll take that.”
Somehow, she’d managed to eat all her food. And she actually felt better because of it. “Thanks. It tasted great.”
He took her plate to the sink. “Make yourself comfortable while I change the sheets on Marley’s bed, okay?”
After he’d rinsed off the dishes and put them in the dishwasher, he headed upstairs.
Vivian tried to wait, but she was so full and so sleepy she couldn’t keep her eyes open another second. She wandered into the living room, where she sat on the couch, and the next thing she knew Myles was carrying her up the stairs.
23
He’d found her. At last. After all the months of sitting in prison and planning this moment, it had arrived.
Ink almost couldn’t believe his good fortune. Her house was right there, just like L.J. had been told.
But that wasn’t all he saw. Ink knew he wasn’t the only one who’d noticed when L.J. grabbed his arm and motioned to the house next door. “Look, a cop!”
A cruiser sat in the driveway. But Ink wasn’t worried about it. There was no one inside. The cop who normally drove it wasn’t even on duty. He had to be in his house, asleep, like the other neighbors on the street. “He probably lives there. No big deal.”
“No big deal?” L.J. looked as if he was about to have a heart attack. “This is crazy, man!”
“Stop! He won’t even know we’re around.”
The kid was so nervous he kept glancing behind them, shifting from foot to foot, sighing aloud or doing any number of other irritating things, like hocking a loogie every five seconds. Ink was about to tell him to go wait in the truck, which they’d hidden behind some trees part-way around the lake. He didn’t want L.J. to ruin his victory. But he needed a wingman, someone to help if the situation got out of control, especially with a cop possibly living next door. He didn’t want to risk getting caught before his revenge was complete. He still had Virgil and Rex on his list.
Fortunately, he wasn’t too worried that he’d run into problems. If he played it smart, he’d be in and out of her house without creating a disturbance, and be long gone by morning. It wasn’t as if she lived all that close to her neighbors. The cop wasn’t far away, but the other three homes were strung out like pearls falling from a broken necklace—like that one of his mother’s he’d once broken, on purpose.
She’d been so sorry to lose that strand of pearls…?.
Remembering her tears, he smiled. He’d kept a handful of those milky-white globes in his pocket for days, so he could reach in and touch them whenever he wanted. They’d been a gift from her father, all she had from him, and he’d taken that away from her.
He was going to take more than a string of pearls from Laurel, although he liked the idea of using a necklace to choke her. He could creep into her room and find something like that, the belt of a robe or a pair of panty hose, maybe. She’d wake up when he slipped it around her neck, but she’d be disoriented and groggy and, before she was lucid, he’d yank the necklace or belt so tight she wouldn’t be able to breathe. Her eyes would fly open and show him the terror he wanted to see.