Dangerous Surrender(25)

Locked out of all of them.

This was definitely Taylor’s doing. His fingers tightened around the steering wheel as wave after wave of uncontrollable anger raged through him. She was dead no matter what happened. If he had to strangle the life out of her himself, he’d do it with no problem. No one stole from him and got away with it.

* * *

“You okay?” Roman asked quietly from the seat next to Taylor. He slid the pad of paper where he’d just finished his statement about yesterday’s events onto Detective Hurley’s desk.

They were sitting in Hurley’s messy, small office. Unlike what she’d seen of police stations on television and from her experience as a teenager when her mom had taken her down to the police station to press charges against her stepfather, there were quiet offices on the second floor above the main first floor. Hurley had dropped them off here, given them paper to make their statement and said he’d be right back.

Taylor had already finished scribbling down what she knew about yesterday and refused to look at Roman, but nodded. “Yeah, I’m good.” She could feel him drilling holes in her with that intense gaze of his, but she didn’t care. She’d heard what he said about wanting to get rid of her. It hurt her more than she’d realized, especially after that kiss they’d shared.

Well screw him. She wanted to be gone too.

Wrapping her arms around her middle, she turned completely away from Roman, looking at a big bookshelf on one wall. Thick notebooks and what looked like procedural manuals were stacked on it. On the top shelf was a picture of Hurley wearing a football uniform and holding a helmet under his arm. “Did he play pro football or something?” It would certainly make sense considering how big he was.

“Nope,” Hurley said, stepping into the room and making her nearly jump. Carrying a manila folder and a cup of what she assumed was coffee, he nodded at both of them. “I played in college, but got injured. I was never going to go pro anyway.” She didn’t hear any wistfulness in his voice and he continued quickly, not giving her a chance to respond. “I’ve got good news, bad news, and just news.”

“Good news first,” Roman murmured, sitting up at full alert, his body coiled tight, like a predator.

She hated that she was remembering what he looked like without his shirt on and how she’d felt with his big body pressing her down against his bed… Wait, Hurley was saying something. She snapped her gaze to where he sat behind his desk, his expression grim.

“The good news is that the bullet tested positive for your blood type,” he said, looking at Taylor. “I guess Powers Group has that information on file?”

She nodded. “Yes. I travel a lot with Hugh—used to travel with him—sometimes internationally so they’ve got most employees’ pertinent information in case there’s ever a disaster.”

“Until they do a DNA comparison they won’t know for sure that it’s you, but it’s sure not Neal Lynch’s type. Which brings me to the bad news. He’s in the wind.”

In the wind? “He’s…gone?”

“Yeah,” Hurley said, his mouth pulled into a tight line. They went to pick him up this morning and he was already gone. Doesn’t look like much is missing, but a woman he’d brought home last night was there and had no idea he’d even left. They’ve run his cell phone records and he received a call from a burner phone about ten minutes before Oceanside PD showed up at his place. Now he’s either ditched his phone or turned it off because they can’t track him. Not the actions of an innocent man.”

A heavy feeling settled in the pit of her stomach. Despite the hurtful words Roman had said earlier about her, she glanced at him. His expression was unreadable, but he reached out and squeezed her hand in silent support. She looked back at Hurley. “Timing of that phone call can’t be a coincidence.”

“Nope. And the call originated from somewhere in Vegas. So it could be the guy who came after you yesterday. My money’s on it being him because I don’t believe in coincidence.”

Iciness settled over her as she tried to digest everything. Neal and whoever he’d hired to come after her were still out there.

“What are they doing to hunt him down?” Roman asked.

“They already got a warrant and have frozen all his assets so he doesn’t have access to any money right now. He could have accounts we don’t know about, but they’re digging into all his records trying to find out if Lynch’s got any extra houses or something that will lead them to him.”

“What about the man who came after Taylor yesterday,” Roman continued, his body language never changing.