Somehow my throat uncurled. “He killed Tex.” I pointed to Stone.
“You started all this.” Nance’s words twisted. “Running off. Making us chase you.”
I shook my head. “You? Why?”
She looked at Tex, and I could see the loss in her eyes. He’d entered her life—and changed her.
Nance gazed at the three dead men. Her cohorts. She straightened her back, pulled herself up as if to say, It’s up to me now.
She shot me a dark look, then turned her gun on my mother. My insides fell away.
“No!” Emily pushed her Grand back and leaned across her once more.
“Makes no difference to me.” Nance’s voice sounded dead. “One of these bullets will pass through both of you.”
I stepped toward her. “What do you w—”
“Don’t you move.”
My feet carved to a halt.
Nance swallowed hard. Tears glistened in her eyes. “Hannah. Do you know where the encryption key is?”
In that split second the last twenty-eight hours flashed before me. Morton’s accident, my house break-in, running for our lives, the TV reports, the lies, the panic, the near loss of my daughter and mother. Killing two people.
I was done.
I’d tried and failed. Was no hero. Could put my family in danger no more.
“Yes.” The word fell from my mouth so easily.
“Where?”
Mom was struggling against Emily. “What is happening? Why does she have a gun?”
“Please, Nance,” I said. “They’ve done nothing to you.”
She jerked her chin toward Tex. “That’s not enough?”
“It’s in a stuffed dog. Nathan Eddington’s little girl has it.”
Surprise rippled her face. “How do you know?”
“Morton told me the name. Rawly.”
“Rawly.” She repeated the word as if she’d never heard it. Hadn’t Wade and Harcroft told her? Or had they left her—the female—out of their inner circle?
“Hannah, you weren’t supposed to tell anybody about Raleigh.” Mom sounded indignant.
“Does anyone else know it’s there?” Nance asked.
“No. It doesn’t matter now anyway. It’s almost five.”
But I knew it did matter. This was no longer about tonight. It was about protecting Phase 2 and 3.
“Where does she live?” Nance asked.
What had I done? I could not have a gun turned on a five-year-old. “You can’t hurt her.”
“That’ll be up to you. Where does she live?”
I couldn’t tell her.
“Where?” She shook her gun.
“San Carlos.”
Calculations played across Nance’s face. For the first time it occurred to me I didn’t even know what town we were in.
“You know the address?”
“Yes.”
“We’ll go in my car. You.” She spoke to Emily. “Get up. And your grandmother.”
Emily didn’t move.
“You think you’re going to pull another stunt on me? Get up!”
Emily rose. “Come on, Grand.” She pulled my mother up. Mom swayed on her feet, blinking at Nance’s weapon. A slow stain of horror spread across her face. “Are you a Bad Person?”
Nance drew a shaky breath and turned her eyes once more on Tex. She swallowed hard. Then her jaw set. “Okay, let’s go.” At gunpoint, she marched us into the garage. Emily still limped. She would not let go of her grandmother.
A Ford SUV sat next to the gray van. “Whose van is that?” Nance asked.
I shook my head. “I thought it was Tex’s.”
How little she’d been told.
“You.” She pointed to me. “Drive. And you”—Emily—“sit in the front where I can watch you.”
“No.” Emily’s face whitened. “I need to take care of Grand.”
“Oh, I’ll take care of her just fine.” Nance’s mouth slid into a cold smile. “I’ve done it before.”
But you could never get her to tell you about Rawly, could you?
I locked gazes with her. “If you hurt my mother, I will wreck your car.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Get in.”
I backed out of the garage. Nance told me which way to go. I soon saw we were in San Mateo. Just ten minutes from my home. An eternity away.
In the car, we were quiet. Except for Mom, who asked Nance three more times if she was a Bad Person.
“No,” Nance finally answered, not an ounce of life in her voice. “I’m your friend.”
“Then why do you have a gun?”
We crossed into San Carlos. “You won’t need that weapon.” I glanced in the rearview mirror at Nance. “If you have your badge with you, all you’ll have to do is show it. They’ll let you in.”