Page 45 of Shadow Touched

“That was Leia. Asked me to help her conceala body.”

“What the fuck?” Brim surged to his feet.“She’s at Cindy’s?”

“Yep.”

“God damn it. She’s supposed to be in thehospital. Grab Ghost and meet me by the bikes.”

Cindy lived in a run down, dilapidatedsingle story home that probably had been really nice when it wasfirst built. Passed down through her family, she had let the thingslowly succumb to rot. She had suggested having it refurbished whenthey’d first gotten married, but Brim didn’t want to live in themiddle of nowhere twenty minutes away from the club.

Leia sat on the outside steps, watching asthey parked their bikes. Once the engines had been cut, theabsolute silence of the area was more than a little eerie.

“I thought you’d come alone,” she said toThorn.

“You thought wrong. How could I not tellBrim?”

“Standing right here,” Brim said.

She looked up at him and he stared back,vaguely aware that Ghost and Thorn headed into the house.

“Are you all right?” he asked.

Leia nodded. “Your shadow is gone.”

The implication was clear. “I take it fromyour doing?”

Thorn and Ghost came back out. He glanced athis men, noting that Thorn looked grim while Ghost went to circlethe house.

“Cindy is dead,” his V.P. announcedsolemnly. He flicked at look at Leia. “Stabbed through theheart.”

Leia opened her hand and Brim saw hisbutterfly switchblade. He took it back.

“What did you do, Leia?” he asked.

“You wanted me gone, but there was still ashadow on you,” she said softly. “I had to make sure you were goingto be okay, so I came here, and I took care of the matter.”

“How did you know it was Cindy?”

“I saw her at Wal-Mart. I didn’t know whoshe was at the time, not until I remembered a picture that Marthahad showed me. She was in the background. I took a hunch.”

“What did she tell you?”

“She seduced Knuckles and sent him afteryou,” Leia replied. “But she didn’t care about him. She was the onewho broke into your club. Who told Knuckles where to find you.”

“Cindy was the driver of the sedan,” Brimsaid. “Mac sent me the pictures he was able to gather from hackinginto security cameras.”

“I know,” she said. “I called Kix to getthis address. He had Mac send me the pics, too.”

At that moment, Ghost came back.

“Best way to cover this up, Prez, is byburning it down,” he said. “We stage her in the bed, add acigarette or two … the wiring in this place is so old no one willthink twice.”

“Do it.” Brim held out his hand to Leia.“And make sure we make a huge contribution to the sheriff’sreelection campaign as well.”

While his men took care of his orders, Brimpulled her up next to him and cupped her face.

“Are you okay? Did she attack you?”

“I’m fine.”

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