Page 48 of Bad Seed

Harley smiled. “Me and my sweet tooth thank him,” she said as she signed the check to her room.

The waitress giggled. “I’ll tell him.”

Harley tried to guess what was in the box all the way back to her room, but whatever it was, she smelled cinnamon, and the bottom of the box felt warm. Two men were in the elevator when she got on, and out of habit, she moved to the back of the car so she could keep an eye on them. Once she exited the elevator, she kept glancing over her shoulder to make sure she was still alone, and by the time she got back to her room, her heart was pounding.

She was beginning to be concerned. There were too many unanswered questions going on at once. The unknown boss behind the trafficking ring. The mystery she was trying to solve for Ray Caldwell, and the mystery of what was in this little box.

As soon as she reached the countertop of the minibar, she opened it, then gasped. A huge, soft, golden-brown cinnamon roll was inside, drizzled with white icing and oozing layers of butter, sugar, and cinnamon from within the rolls. Without hesitation, she tore off a piece with her fingers and popped it in her mouth.

Sex in a box. Right up there with orgasms.

She ate half of it, then made herself stop, saving the rest for later.

She licked the sugar from her fingers and pulled up Crossley’s text, read it again, then called him. The phone rang twice and then Wilhem answered.

“I knew you’d call back,” he said.

“Why?” Harley asked.

“Because my message was a bit cryptic, and you’re nobody’s dummy.”

She took a deep breath. “What’s happened?”

“Maury Paget, the accountant who agreed to testify, is dead. They found him in his jail cell. He’d been strangled. The federal agent who was in charge of the case is dead. He was stuck in traffic when someone on a motorcycle rode past his car window and shot him in the head. And last night, the warehouse where it all happened burned to the ground.”

Harley was in shock. She didn’t realize she was holding her breath until she felt the room begin to spin.

“Oh my God.”

“If you’re home, find a place to disappear. It’s common knowledge that you’re the one who found out what was happening. I don’t think you’re safe. If you’re on a job somewhere else, be careful. Don’t take calls from numbers you don’t know. They may already be trying to find you.”

“Thanks for the heads-up. Right now, I’m in a secure location… I think. Do you have any idea who’s behind this?”

Wilhem sighed. “My guess is that it’s likely the one who got away…the one we couldn’t identify. Just be careful.”

The line went dead.

Harley dropped the phone and covered her face. She didn’t know what to do. Stay here and possibly put other people in danger, or make a run for it and thenlook over her shoulder for the rest of her life—however long that might be.

This was a waking nightmare. She needed to talk to someone, but not Ray Caldwell. All this would do was stress him further. And if she left, whoever was killing off the people responsible for bringing down the gang wouldn’t hesitate to kill someone here just for information as to where she’d gone.

She thought of Brendan. Ray told her to go to him for help. She knew Brendan’s brothers were with the police, but was a town this size equipped for a hit man?

She sent him a text.

Something has come up, and I need to pick your brain. I promise I won’t make this a habit, but I need some serious advice. Do you have time to stop by again after you get off work?

***

The waitress had just delivered Harley’s message to Brendan, thanking him for the dessert, and he was smiling and remembering the urge he’d had to bury his fingers in all those black curls and kiss her senseless as he was leaving her room last night. He still didn’t know where all this was going, but he wasn’t afraid to find out.

Then his phone signaled a text. It was from Harley. He was expecting another thank-you, but it wassomething else, and even as he was reading it, the hair crawled on the back of his neck. Every instinct he had was telling him this was serious.

See you around 6:00 p.m. if I’m not delayed.

Chapter 9

Harley set aside the audit for Ray and logged into her personal laptop to the files pertaining to the Crossley case, and began reading through it again, wondering if enough time had passed that she’d spot something she’d missed.

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