Page 81 of The Hacker
“No, she leaves now.” Leland was done with this waiting.
Tully grabbed his arm again. “Hey, the FBI has asked her to keep it normal for one more day. Your lady agreed to that because she wants to help. You have to let her make her own decisions.”
“You don’t know what she’s been through. She doesn’t need this too.” Leland stared down at his partner, his jaw clenched.
Tully shook his head. “She’s a strong person and she can handle herself. You have to trust her.” He stared back at Leland. “And me.”
Leland tamped down his anger but then the fear it was repressing rose up. He slumped into his chair again. “It’s making me crazy to sit in this goddamn van with nothing to do except worry about her.”
“Don’t you have a computer program you could work on? That might take your mind off things.”
Tully knew him well, but he was talking about the old Leland. The one who buried himself in work so he wouldn’t have to feel the emotions he didn’t like. “No, I’m going to suffer through this with her.”
Tully gave him a long, considering look. “Not that I want you to suffer, but it’s good that you’re getting your head out of the cyberworld. I’m liking Dawn more and more all the time.”
“Glad to hear it because you’re going to be seeing her more and more.”
“Oho, so that’s the way the wind blows.” Tully smacked him on the shoulder. “I was hoping you’d wake up and smell the coffee.”
“Jesus, Tully, could you mix any more metaphors?” But Leland grinned as elation rushed through him like a clear mountain stream. Sitting in a truck with nothing to do but feel profound anxiety breathing down his neck had forced him to consider some serious matters. Like his grief and how he had buried it. And how Dawn had shown him a way to face it.
“All I know is she’s gotten you away from the office when no one else could,” Tully said. “That argues for some strong feelings on your part.”
Leland thought about claiming it was the Wi-Fi issue that had drawn him out of the office. He’d told himself that often enough. But he was done with avoiding his emotions. “I’d say my feelings are getting stronger every minute. Which explains why I don’t want her hanging around arms dealers who might be pissed off that their buyer is in custody.” He glared at Tully as the image of an unarmed Dawn facing down a machine-gun-toting Chad seared through his brain.
“We’ve been through this before.”
“Okay, but I go in to get her just before the gym closes. I don’t want her to be there without customers to protect her.”
Tully shook his head. “They’ll recognize you.”
“Of course they will. As Lee Wellmont, looking for a refund of his membership dues since things didn’t work out with his personal trainer. Or maybe Lee realizes he made a big mistake letting Dawn go and he wants to make amends.” Leland smiled at the idea of playacting a reunion with Dawn and leaned back in the chair, bumping his head against a monitor. “Jesus, couldn’t you get a bigger van?”
Tully snorted. “You’re just cranky because I won’t let you see your girlfriend.”
Chapter 19
“And breathe out,” Dawn instructed her client, completing the final portion of her last training session for the day. Or rather for the night, since she’d had appointments all evening. She offered her hand to the middle-aged insurance salesman stretched out on the mat. “You worked hard. Make sure to keep hydrating when you get home.”
He allowed her to pull him to his feet. “I work hard every time with you. But it’s always worth it. I feel so much better after I’m done. And I look better too.” He smiled a happy smile before he took a long swallow of water.
Sometimes she loved her clients. Tonight, though, she wanted nothing more than to get the hell out of the gym with its stench of danger. She’d been so tense all day that she could count the knots in her neck and shoulder muscles. It infuriated her that the place where she usually felt secure had become a prison she needed to escape from.
But she understood why the FBI—or whoever was running this show now—needed her to stay. She realized that she hadn’t seen Chad around since Vicky had yanked him into her office. That was weird because he definitely had evening clients.
She shrugged to counteract the clench of anxiety his unusual behavior induced.
“See you tomorrow,” her client said as he started toward the locker rooms.
“Try to stretch before we begin,” she reminded him.
He held up a hand in acknowledgment and kept walking. Dawn wiped down the mat and hung it on the rack before a bad feeling made her stomach spasm again. Chad couldn’t have slipped through the FBI’s fingers, could he? At least she didn’t need to feel guilty if he had. She’d done what they asked her.
Fifteen minutes till closing time and then she could bolt out of there to find out what was going on.
As she walked toward the locker rooms, she noticed that the towel shelves in the treadmill room were nearly empty. She’d check her secret phone for messages and restock the shelves. Better to keep busy than to worry fruitlessly about Chad’s whereabouts.
“Dawn, wait!”
