Page 20 of The Ghost Assassin

“His phone is missing. I didn’t see a computer either.”

“I’ll hack his communications if they’re not scrubbed. This feels like a CIA operation to me.”

Nail. Head. Maybe. “What do you know about CIA operations?”

“I hacked a CIA agent once. Hardest fucking hack of my life. I didn’t get shit for my efforts.”

“David Ellis, the Director of Homeland Security. Check him out for me. And Calvin Adams. He’s the new interim director of the FBI. Casey stepped down. I also need you to look at the past feeds in and around the apartment and see if we can find out who was communicating with and visiting Murphy. I think he was playing both sides of the coin—FBI and Society.”

“Holy shit. That’s why you want us to lock down. You think that one side or the other is wiping out anyone who can talk.”

“I’m being cautious, so the next time one of you fools tries to tell me I’m not, in your face. Another thing—I don’t think he was staying at his apartment. He barely had anything there and the place was sterile.”

“A chick?”

“Logically, yes, but don’t hyper-focus on a woman. Maybe the apartment was a cover for something else, or a way to throw a killer off track that failed.”

“Got it. On it.”

“If the apartment makes you feel like you’ll die by morning, call me.”

I hang up just in time to receive a text message from Rich: We’re at a buddy’s mountain cabin, off-grid but the internet sucks. Tic Tac is freaking out without it, but he’s safe. They’ll have to really want him to come out here, and it’s a booby-trapped playdate.

I breathe out and type: Thank you.

This is for him, not you.

I don’t even want to know how sucked in his face is from all the sour grapes he’s been eating this past year. Calling him was a necessary evil though. It protected Tic Tac. I’m not stupid. Kane will understand. Okay, Kane won’t understand, but as long as I keep him and Rich at a distance, everything will be fine. And, of course, I’ll keep them at a distance. I hate stupid. I’m not going to be stupid enough to let them end up in the same place at the same time.

Ever.

Chapter Twelve

While waiting in hellish traffic, I text the Nashville phone number I found on Murphy’s body to Lucas. Now the question becomes why did Murphy have that card for the diner in his desk and nothing else? What was he telling me? Because that’s what this feels like—as if he left that card for me but I’m not sure where that leads me. It’s just a diner. It could mean nothing, but it’s bothering me. I shoot the card to Lucas and type: Yes, I know this is my strawberry pie joint, but it’s the only thing that was in Murphy’s desk and it feels like a message. It has to mean something.

Their pies are famous, he reminds me, as if I’m so stupid I have to be reminded that the pie spot I frequent is on everyone’s radar. When he adds: It might just mean he loves the pie, I grimace.

Just check out the damn diner and look for a connection to something that matters, and see if you can get the camera feed, is my reply.

Don’t take that tone with me, Lilah.

He’s such a baby, which is why I ignore him. Maybe the diner is a link to my mother. She loved that place too, but I’m not sure how. It’s been too long since her crash. That’s when I realize that I haven’t even talked to Lucas about his father and the fact that Murphy suggested he was about to turn on my father. If that’s true, no one seems to believe Lucas had access to that information or he’d be dead right now. Unless…maybe Murphy thought he did. Maybe he urged me to bring Lucas into the mix in hopes he’d hand over that info?

But that implies that he was on our side, working against my father and the Society.

I’m just not sure I believe that.

It’s a half hour later when we arrive at the apartment and holy hell, there’s three of Kane’s men at my door when I exit. I immediately wave them off. Kit joins me on this side of the door and ignores my glower. A few minutes later I’m on an elevator with him alone when he says, “Murphy was assassinated, Lilah. You have everyone close to you undercover. Kane would kill me for leaving you exposed.”

“If the killer’s watching, you’re showing my hand, telling them I believe they’re coming for me and my team, when I need them to feel like it’s a one and done, so stop trying to act like you know what you’re doing. You could actually accelerate the next hit, if there is one. Caution is discreet, not in your fucking face.”

My cellphone buzzes with a text from Ellis: He just landed.

Speaking of in my face. Is this constant locating of Kane a threat or a distraction? This is the question on my mind. Maybe he really doesn’t want me to be thinking about him and Murphy, because I’m thinking about him and Kane. I text Lucas: Ellis is a number-one priority. I need to know everything there is to know about him and how he connects to Murphy.

Where is Tic Tac? he asks in reply. We can divide and conquer.

Off-grid and hiding, I say. It’s time to earn your payday.

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