Page 7 of Still Burning

I’d assume living a lie was exhausting. That was essentially what he’d done.

“This is my favorite part,” Marlana said.

I shifted my eyes from the window I’d been staring at to her. She was looking at me with a smirk.

“What about the other man? The one you said she still calls out to in her sleep.”

I stilled, my eyes snapped to the phone, and my throat thickened.

“I shouldn’t have told you that. I’d had too much to drink,” Eamon replied in a thick Irish accent.

“But you said—”

“I know what I fucking said. And unless I am dead in a grave, he will never have her. He broke her, and I put her back together.”

“What if she still loves him?”

A pause…

“He doesn’t love her. Not enough. Not like I do.”

Silence.

Marlana tapped her screen, then sighed.

“I love a good drama,” she said happily, then swung her gaze from me to Liam. “That was recorded one month before Eamon went to the doctor for the symptoms that eventually killed him. It came from a CIA agent who had placed trackers in several of Eamon’s things, including his phone. Unfortunately for us, it was Eamon who had the trackers, and after his death, his brother found one, then did a clean sweep of getting them out of his house and destroyed his phone. Since then, he’s gotten a device that detects all trackers so that he can check everyone he speaks to about anything he doesn’t want the CIA hearing.”

Liam nodded, but I didn’t move. I was doing good to breathe.

Eamon Murphy’s last words replayed in my head. I hated a dead man. Loathed him. He had known nothing about me orhow I felt for Salem. I’d loved her enough to let her go. He’d not loved her like that. It was his love that had been lacking. Not mine.

“I’m assuming Blaise has already heard this,” he said.

“Of course. It was sent to him immediately. I requested that I get to play it for Tex in person. Blaise agreed and thanked me for my help,” she chirped. “It was worth the trip back down here.”

I glared at her, realizing the quirky woman who came across as flighty was actually calculating. I’d not seen that in her until now. She wanted to punish me and was enjoying it. For the first time, as she looked back at me with a knowing gleam of satisfaction in her eye, I saw the DEA agent.

“To add more drama, the brother isn’t even supposed to exist. Until the CIA started getting recordings of Eamon Murphy’s phone calls to him, there was no record of a Brady Murphy or any sibling at all. No one knows what he looks like,” she said then wiggled her eyebrows up and done before turning serious. “What I am about to share with you is classified information. I could possibly be fired for this, but I do things rather regularly that I could possibly get fired for. So far, going with my gut has always paid off,” Marlana said, looking back at Liam.

He said nothing while he sat, waiting for her to continue. If this wasn’t about Salem, I didn’t give a shit, but it seemed I was going to have to stay and listen.

“We went through Salem’s apartment,” she began, and my attention was instantly snapped back to what she was saying. “When I say we, I mean me and one other. I didn’t want her things completely ransacked—and we’ve been known to do that when searching for something. So, I took the job and made sure to sweep the place but leave it as if we were never there.”

“Was that necessary?” I bit out angrily. “You have that recording.”

Marlana cut her eyes at me. “Yes, it was necessary. Justbecause she didn’t know who Eamon was doesn’t mean there wasn’t something there that could help us nail the Murphy family. A lead to the brother who is a damn ghost. Impossible to find. Anyway”—she shifted her feet and crossed her arms over her chest—“there was a tracker in every sole of her shoes, inside the lining of all her purses and all her coats. My first assumption was that it was Eamon who had done that. He’d want to know where she was at all times. That family has enemies, and since she was clueless about his drug trafficking, he couldn’t exactly send a bodyguard with her everywhere she went. I’m assuming he had someone trailing her though, and she wasn’t aware of it.

“My partner was checking the regular hiding places where things were often stashed when he came across a surveillance camera in the smoke detector in the living room. We found one in every room. I don’t believe she has a stalker issue here. My guess is that the Murphy family had them put there to either make sure she was safe or because she knows something that she doesn’t realize is important information.” Marlana glanced down at her fingernails, as if inspecting her manicure.

My pulse had become a thumping in my temples. Someone had been watching her. How long had she lived on the edge of fucking danger? Fear crawled up my spine as I thought about the things that could have happened to her.

“I’m assuming she wore shoes and brought a purse with her to your compound place. If so, then the Murphys- or the only one who really matters now, Brady Murphy—know where she is at this very moment. The longer she doesn’t return to her apartment, the more likely you will have the Irish drug lord showing up to rescue his former sister-in-law.”

I could feel the tension coming from Liam without glancing at him. He moved then, and I turned my head to see him jerking his phone out of his pocket, a grim expression on his face. When he pressed the contact on his phone, I knew he was calling Micahwithout needing to see it.

“Where are you?” he asked gruffly. “Listen carefully. Do exactly as I say. Go get the shoes, purse, clothing, anything that came with Salem and bring them to me at the bar. There are trackers in her shit, Micah.

“The damn Irish mob,” he muttered.

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