Page 5 of Just Now

“What do you mean, Cami? What way are you going to try to get in touch with Liam?”

“I have his laptop,” she explained. “I’m able to hack into some of his home’s devices. I can set up a line of communication that way. It’ll be a very discreet way of reaching out to him and requesting that we meet.”

“I don’t think you should do it alone,” Kieran insisted. “If you meet up with him, I want to be there. It’ll mean less risk for you, and also, what if he says something about Ethan that rings a bell for me?”

“I don’t know.” She looked at him dubiously. She did not want to put him at risk. And she had to accept that in these circumstances, doing this meant there was going to be danger.

“Ethan was my brother. I know Jenna was your sister—sorry, I didn’t say that right. I mean, she is your sister,” he said hurriedly, reddening in his confusion. “She’s disappeared, not—not anything worse, that you know of. But I also need answers. Two heads are better than one, right? Especially since the FBI has Ethan’s computer. They came to the house and took it a couple of weeks ago.”

“They did?” Cami said, feeling appalled. “Who? Connor?”

“No. Someone else. I’m not sure who,” Kieran said.

In all the shock of Ethan being shot and then fighting for his life in the ICU at a time when she was busy on a case with Connor, she hadn’t thought about what would happen to his laptop. Only recently had she realized that there might be important information hidden away on it, and that Ethan might have been doing his own research, too.

What if the bad agents had taken it? Most likely they were going through that computer with a fine-tooth comb.

Were there any messages between her and Ethan on that laptop? She was pretty sure there were, and if they read them, they would see that there had been more between her and Ethan than just a working relationship.

That would mean the shooter who’d come after Ethan that night might now know who she was.

“What about his phone?” He’d organized everything on his phone. Their dates, their drinks. The outings that she couldn’t think about now without a painful pang of grief.

“They took that too, a while ago. It wasn’t until later that they came back for the laptop,” he said.

Cami’s gut twisted. With the phone, they would definitely know who she was. Even the arrangements for that night when he’d been shot were on the phone.

Maybe it had fallen into good hands, and the bad guys hadn’t gotten hold of it, she hoped, but she knew she couldn’t rely on that being the truth.

“We have to be careful,” Cami said, her voice low. “I don’t want to put you in more danger, Kieran. I won’t forgive myself if anything happens to you.”

“I can take care of myself,” Kieran said, his voice firm. “And I won’t let anything happen to you either. We have to do this, Cami. For Ethan, for Jenna, for ourselves.”

Cami hesitated. Kieran was right, she needed someone else to help her, especially someone she could trust. And she could trust Kieran, she knew that. But the risk was still there, and she worried about what would happen if they got caught. This wasn’t just a case of getting into trouble. This was a case of getting dead.

“Yes, two heads are better than one,” she agreed. “But I also need to check with Liam. He was scared. He might not want to speak to anyone else. And if he clams up and won’t say anything, that’s a worst-case scenario.”

“Okay. I see that. But if he is willing to, will you keep me in the loop?”

“I will.”

They walked on, in step with each other. It was weird to feel this closeness with Kieran. He was so much the same kind of person Ethan had been. She got the impression the brothers, just two years apart in age, had shared a lot. The same sharp intelligence, the same quirky humor that she saw flashes of in both. And she could clearly see that Kieran had the same integrity and the same desire to find out the truth.

“I’ll try to set something up,” she said. She’d make sure it wasn’t traceable. She’d use the dark web. She would not let this backfire on her.

Even though Cami knew it might already have. Whoever was on the other side might even now be trying to find out who the woman was who’d run down the street with Ethan on the night he was shot, and who’d hidden away from the gunman.

That search might lead them to her.

It filled her with cold fear, but paralyzing as that feeling was, she knew she had to fight it.

They were approaching the campus buildings again. Cami tossed her coffee in the trash, and Kieran did the same.

“It was nice seeing you,” she said.

“Likewise,” he agreed. Then he added, stammering slightly, “I know this might seem—well, it might seem weird. But I’d like to—when this is over, I mean, when we have some closure—I’d like to go out for a drink with you. As friends, I mean.”

He wasn’t doing this well, and he was blushing again, Cami saw in surprise. But she was even more astounded to realize that she wanted to go for a drink with him. She wanted to see him socially. There was something about him that she instinctively felt drawn toward.

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