Midnight Fever (Men of Midnight #5)(34)

The idea of spending "the next while" here was daunting. Still, she was grateful for the shelter and for the thought. And for Nick standing by her side, not so tall but so very broad and so very reassuring.

They'd get through this. They'd camp out here and as soon as Felicity decrypted the flash drive, she'd go to work and figure the whole thing out. Nick had gotten her to safety and she'd take it from here. In that rundown shack. She shivered and hoped there was heat in the shack. Maybe a wood-fired stove? God knew there were enough trees around for kindling.

She pulled in a deep, pine-scented breath. The air was cool and super clean and smelled of trees for miles and miles, with no pollutants at all. It was pleasant and bracing, clearing her head. It wouldn't be so bad. The shack looked desolate and uncomfortable, but they'd manage. 

She smiled at Nick, who was watching her closely.

"Well, what do you think?" he asked. "This was Midnight's place that he bought when he first arrived in Portland. A little hideaway."

"Midnight", she knew, was John Huntington, one of the owners of ASI, and Nick's new boss. She knew Nick really liked both his bosses, John, and Douglas Kowalski.

But … John had had a couple of years to fix the shack up. Why hadn't he? Their headquarters, which she'd visited once on a quick trip to Portland, were spectacular. Cool and elegant and very high tech. The exact opposite of this ramshackle hut. Maybe he'd been too busy building one of the biggest security companies in the country to restructure here.

"It looks, um, cozy," she said. About the only thing she could say that wouldn't sound whiny.

There was something wrong, and she couldn't figure it out. Something about changing beds. Hopefully, there'd be sheets and blankets. Why was she thinking this? Because she'd had a flash where two thoughts bounced together. Nick. And bed. And …

Her eyes rounded and she brought her hand to her mouth. "Oh my gosh, Nick!"

He lifted a black eyebrow.

"My wheelie! I took it with me when I left the hotel!"

He rolled his eyes and looked pained. "Tell me about it. When I saw you'd packed your bag and took it with you, I nearly had a heart attack."

"I left it there! Where Mike died!" She closed her eyes a second, spinning the movie in her head backward. She'd had it in the alleyway. The wheels had made a little grinding noise. But she hadn't had it in the department store, certainly not when she'd made her way down the stairs to the garage level. Absolutely certain of that. "They'll find my suitcase with a dead body! I mean I don't think I have a document in it, but I definitely have a conference folder and-"

"Stop right there." Nick shook his head. "You did, honey. You did leave your suitcase. The police have it, and they know it's yours."

She staggered. The blood left her head suddenly, plummeting downward. Her suitcase in the hands of the police! Was she running now from the law? Her knees trembled.

Nick flashed out a hand, steadied her.

"Easy now. Yes, they have your suitcase, yes they know it's yours, no it's not a problem. I talked to a good friend, Captain Bud Morrison of the Portland PD. They know everything."

Kay couldn't move, could barely breathe. She was shaken to her core. "They know it's mine. Then they know I was there. They must be looking for me."

A cold expression crossed Nick's tough face. "They'd like to talk to you, that's true. But I am not letting you go where you are expected. I told them you were targeted and that you'll be in for interrogation when the danger is over. Bud said that if Felicity can establish a secure link, he'd like to talk via Skype. Felicity refrained from mentioning that there's a secure link already. She can hold him off for a while."

"I don't know-"

"Exactly. We don't know anything and we don't know who was after Mike. It will take as long as we want for a secure link to be established. Let's not think about that now."

Kay nodded slowly. Nick had bought her time, time to process what had happened and what she'd seen. Time to study Priyanka's files. "I'm going to want to see the autopsy results."



       
         
       
        

"That can happen." He nodded. "Either legally or illegally, if you need those results, you'll get them."

"Okay. I'll do my part. When I do go in to talk to the police, I hope to have some data other than me watching him being sprayed and then watching him die." She shuddered.

"Come on, then. Let's get settled in." He slanted a look at her, put one hand around her arm, walked forward up the porch. The front porch steps creaked, Kay noted with alarm. Nick was a heavy guy. It was all lean muscle but he was dense. Each step made the porch shiver.