Page 12 of Critical Strike

“Look, I’ll send you what I have on Wallace, although it’s not mu—” Rick muttered a curse under his breath.

“What?”

“File on Claire Wallace had been locked. I can’t get into it anymore.”

Luke had no idea what to say about that.

“Look,” Rick finally said. “Someone way high up is looking for this woman and not through normal channels. I’ll see if I can find anything else, but it looks like they’re closing it down on my end. They’ll probably say it’s an Internal Affairs issue.”

“Thanks for trying, Rick.”

“Listen, Luke. This whole thing stinks to high heaven, and now you’re right in the middle of it. Until we know what’s going on, you guys be careful.”

“We will.”

Luke hung up and looked around at his brothers, who all wore matching grim expressions. They’d heard enough to know this had just gotten ugly.

Luke needed answers. They all did.

The quickly falling night drew his attention outside. He wasn’t supposed to talk to Claire until tomorrow morning, but this couldn’t wait. She was the only one who really knew what was going on.

And it was time for her to start talking.

Chapter Four

“No!”

Claire threw her hand out toward Julia, but it was no use. The other woman slumped against the floor, her eyes open but lifeless.

A force on her waist pulled Claire backward. She screamed and thrashed but it did no good. She couldn’t get away from what was dragging her down.

“Mee...rrow.”

Claire froze.Meow?

In an instant, Julia was gone. Claire opened her eyes. The pressure on her waist was Khan, pawing at her in concern, nothing more. She was in the bed of the motel room Luke had left her in hours ago.

Pressing her palm to her forehead, she found her skin slicked with sweat. Another nightmare. It had happened every time she’d closed her eyes. Sleeping shouldn’t be this hard when she was this exhausted.

She’d barely slept since the moment Julia’s lifeless eyes had looked out at her from where she’d hit the floor.

Three days since Julia’s death, and the terror eating Claire from the inside was only getting worse.

She dragged herself out of bed and into the shower, washing off the last of the nightmare.

The water, as hot as she could stand, washed over her. She was alive, and that was the most important thing.

She had rushed home after fleeing Passage Digital. She knew it wouldn’t take them long to figure out she was the one Julia had been communicating with.

She’d parked down the street and sneaked into her house. She needed to run, but there was no way she was leaving without Khan.

She’d thrown what she could in a bag and grabbed any cash she’d had squirreled around the house. She’d been just about to slip out the back door when two of Ballard’s men broke in through the front.

“Remember, no guns. When she comes in here, we’ve got to make it look like an accident.”

“Mr. Ballard said the best plan will be to put her with the other body and run a car off a ravine. Won’t raise many red flags.”

Claire had stuffed her fist up to her lips, so frozen with fear it had taken all her strength to move.They were really going to kill her.Somehow, she got herself and Khan back out through the side kitchen door and down the block to her car, although not without bumping into a neighbor’s fence and taking a spill that resulted in a bruised face.

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