Page 54 of Old Flame

“Good,” she said. “You’re awake. I need to give you the lowdown on today.”

I turned and swung my legs around, letting my feet fall to the floor to face her.

“I have to give my statement to the police, and since you were impossible to clear from the security footage because the bastard had grabbed you, then you will need to do the same. You don’t know much, so just tell them the truth on everything up until Lick shot Hatter. The camera doesn’t clearly show him or what he was doing with the hand he didn’t have wrapped around your neck. You will tell them that he had his gun pressed to your back and that he moved it to point it at Lick. That Lick shot him in self-defense. That’s it. Easy.”

She wanted me to lie to the police? I was a terrible liar. What if I messed up or stuttered the words—or worse, forgot what to say? What if they could see his other hand in the camera and she didn’t realize it? I’d go to jail for false testimony, wouldn’t I? And if I did get away with it, then that would only make the Lord guy even angrier and put me on his shit list. I’d never be safe.

“I…” What did I say? Telling her all this would make me sound ungrateful that Lick had saved me. But didn’t she see that this was a bad idea?

“You look pale,” she said, dropping her hands to her sides with the towel dangling from one of them and her wet locksfalling around her face. “This is easy, I swear. The investigator just needs you to say that it was self-defense so he can clear Lick from killing that guy. That’s it. He already knows what happened. Blaise has handled everything. You just go tell the little white lie, and I will tell it, and all will be fine. Regina and I are telling the same story since we clearly had a view of where Hatter’s hand and gun were.”

I frowned. “What? Who is Blaise, and what do you mean, the investigator needs me to…lie?”

She sighed. “The less you know, the better. It’s not a trust thing; it’s for your protection. Just know that Blaise is Liam’s son-in-law, and he is powerful. He and his, uh…men handed over Lord and those with him to the DEA last night. That’s all they care about. What happened to Hatter and Kendrix aren’t important to them when it all boils down to it. They just have to legally document their causes of death and prove that there is no one who should be held accountable. We tell them what they want us to say, and then we leave,” she explained.

“Oh, but we aren’t free to go back to our lives just yet. Lord’s reach is wide, and there are those under his command who are free. Trust me, I want to go home too. But this is the safest place for us. At least until everything is handled and the Landiagos—or what is left of them—aren’t seeking revenge. Blaise will handle that too.”

I sat there, silent. I didn’t know this Blaise guy, but she sure seemed convinced he had it under control. How had I ended up in this mess? I was a curator, for crying out loud. I’d been one in Boston years, and the most exciting thing that had ever happened to me there was that Bill Clinton had come in once to see the ’90s Era exhibition we had held eight years ago.

“Look, I know this is a lot. But your boss was into some illegal shit with dangerous people. You couldn’t have known that when you took the job. But it happened, and thankfully, you’d metme.” She smiled then. “Because this isn’t my first rodeo with things like this. When your dad is in an MC and your brother is raised in one, you see all kinds of things. Being here is not something I want to do, and under any other circumstances, I would refuse, but this is better than witness protection. And right now, you and I would most likely be shot dead within hours if we were to leave.”

I was going to have to stay in this…this…place with Rome across the hall for an uncertain amount of time. I’d convinced myself we’d only be here for a few days. When would I get my life back?

“What about the others I worked with? Marlana and Banner? What have they been told? Will they be safe, going to work, or has the gallery been closed down?”

Pepper tightened the towel she had wrapped around her and scrunched her nose like she didn’t want to answer that question. My stomach sank as dread pooled inside of it. Had something happened to them already?

“Banner Roe is safe. He was advised to go back to his hometown in North Dakota for an extended visit,” she said. “And Marlana Newbury is a DEA agent who was working undercover. They’d figured out that Kendrix was affiliated with Lord, and they were going to use him to get to the Landiagos.”

Stunned. No…that word was not strong enough. It didn’t quite fit the description. A bulldozer could not have floored me as thoroughly. Holy shit.

Pepper sighed. “It seems Marlana hired you because of your appearance. She hadn’t been able to get close enough to Kendrix, so she needed someone she could use to distract him. Their curator was offered a much better job with more money in order to get rid of him and get a female in there who was…well, hot. Someone Kendrix would pursue, giving Marlana more opportunity to dig into his connection to the Landiagos.” Shelet out a small laugh. “It’s fucked up, I know. When Liam told me this last night, I was shocked too. She did not seem like an undercover agent. Her name isn’t even Marlana, but I don’t know what it is. After meeting with his son-in-law, Liam relayed the information to me and Micah.”

I was staring at the wall. All the interactions I’d had with Marlana. Her quirkiness and inability to stay focused on a task. I’d believed she was the most ADHD person I had ever met. And I had felt bad because I thought she liked Kendrix. But she had hired me because she knew Kendrix would like me.

“She should have been an actress,” I finally muttered.

“That’s kind of what undercover agents are,” Pepper replied. “But, yeah, she was good. I liked her, but I think she’s a bitch now. It was a shit move to hire you and put you in the middle of this without you knowing what was going on. They should have brought in someone he would have been attracted to who knew what they were getting into. Using you was fucked up.”

Yes, it was. I’d been used. By the DEA. What the hell? Was that even legal?

“The cops are supposed to be here in an hour. We are meeting with them in the library at the end of the hallway.”

I looked at her in confusion. “Library?”

There wasn’t anything at the end of the hallway other than the last room, which was Micah’s. The other end had nothing there.

“It’s their meeting room—or rather Liam’s. Works as his office here too.”

“At the end of what hallway?” I asked, still confused.

She wagged her eyebrows at me. “It’s hidden,” she replied. “The door blends in with the wall. But it’s there.”

I didn’t move to get up. I was scheduled to lie to law enforcers in an hour, and those officers me to lie to them.

The woman I had started to become friends with at work wasn’t who I had thought she was. I didn’t even know her name.Had the story about her ex-husband cheating and leaving her for a younger woman all been some made-up cover? Did she even have a little boy? If not, who was the kid in all those photos she had shown me and who she had to pick up from preschool?

A dull ache began behind my eyes, and I pressed my temples with my fingers. I had wanted to start a new life. I’d come here, thinking it was my way of moving on after losing Eamon.

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