About five minutes out, they passed two police cruisers with their sirens blaring. They were headed toward Waller’s house at top-speed.

  “Looks like they’ve got somewhere important to be,” the cabbie said.

  “Yeah.” Bear didn’t take his eyes off the scenery passing them by. “Hope everyone is okay.”

  He tuned out the cabbie’s reply, choosing to let the drive lull him into a trance.

  When they made it back to the city, Bear found the cheapest hotel room cash could buy and kept a low profile. After a bite to eat and a hot shower, he crashed for the night, falling asleep to the news. They were still running the story about the bombing in Germany, saying authorities had a suspect but that no information was to be released at the time so as not to hinder the investigation.

  Bear chuckled. Even if they were trying to haul Jack in, they’d never find him. It was a dead end.

  Bear woke up refreshed the next morning. He grabbed coffee on his way out, knowing full well it was going to be some of the worst he’d ever had. He didn’t care. He just wanted the most amount of caffeine in his system in the shortest amount of time. He didn’t even taste it on its way down.

  Mateo had wanted to meet by nine in the morning. Apparently, he had plenty of other things to do in the city and didn’t want this to put him behind schedule. Bear had almost asked him what he valued more, his life or his precious schedule, but he’d decided to hold his tongue. The guy was already freaked out. Better to not make it worse.

  But it was good to know Mateo’s work ethic wasn’t slowed down by a little thing like murder.

  Bear took the train out of the city and decided to walk the couple miles it would take to get to the warehouse. It was in an industrial part of town, and he wanted to get a lay of the land in case this whole thing went sideways.

  All things considered, however, Bear was feeling pretty good about the meeting. It didn’t sound like it would be hard to convince Mateo to switch sides, and if he could get the eccentric billionaire to point the finger at Hughes, then the Director of National Intelligence’s entire plan went up in smoke.

  But that was also the exact reason why Bear was being so cautious. If he was feeling this at ease about the meeting, then something was bound to go wrong. Hughes was too smart to let Mateo out of his sights for long. The window they had was narrow, and if Bear had to run protection on Mateo until they got him somewhere safe, it was going to take a lot more resources than he currently had at his fingertips.

  It took some effort, but Bear forced himself to be more aware, more vigilant. There was no point in going into this thinking he was ahead of the curve. That kind of mentality always had a way of biting him in the ass in the end.

  So, Bear stood by and waited. He kept his eye on the warehouse entrance. He waited for his watch to tick closer to nine. The morning was quiet. There was a touch of fog in the distance. It was cooler than it had been over the last few days. Bear decided to make his move.

  Why was it that his instincts were always right when he least wanted them to be?

  13

  Mateo had given him the code to the warehouse. A little number pad next to the door unlocked it soundlessly, and Bear pulled it open, greeted by a burst of stale, dusty air. Mateo had mentioned that this particular warehouse wasn’t used as often anymore. Bear had to agree. It smelled like it had been part of the Industrial Revolution.

  Bear let the door click shut behind him, and immediately all the hair on the back of his neck stood on end. It could’ve been because he suddenly felt trapped. He resisted the urge to test if the door would open back up behind him. It also could’ve been that he didn’t know the layout of the building—the rooms, the levels, the exits. He also resisted the urge to grab his gun for reassurance.

  Once Bear made it through the entrance, which was just a simple hallway, the building opened up in front of him. The warehouse was completely open from top to bottom. Skylights three stories up lit the entire building, shining light into almost every corner. He was thankful the sun was out today.

  Along the walls were stairs and catwalks leading to side rooms. Mateo had told him his office was on the third floor, right-hand side. He’d be waiting inside, and they’d have half an hour to come to some sort of agreement.

  Mateo had conducted the phone call like he was setting up a business meeting, not like he was meeting the one person in the world who could possibly get him out of the mess he’d created.

  Bear stood in full view of the entire building for a solid minute. He took it all in, searching every corner for movement. He kept his ears open, but only heard the wind whipping through an open door somewhere. If Mateo was here, he wasn’t making any sound.

  Even though he would’ve liked to clear the entire building before he holed himself up in a room with a man he barely knew, Bear moved to the right side of the building and began climbing the stairs. Again, he resisted pulling out his Glock. The hairs on the back of his neck were relentless, and he felt a pit forming in his stomach. Maybe his initial conclusion that this was far too easy was right on the money.

  There was no purpose to having offices with windows in a place where your view included four steel walls and a bunch of shipping containers. But that didn’t make Bear wish any less that he’d be able to look into Mateo’s office before opening the door into the unknown.

  But there was no point in delaying the inevitable.

  Bear threw caution to the wind, grabbed the doorknob to Mateo’s office, and flung the door open. He braced himself to react, either by grabbing his gun or diving out of the way if the scene that greeted him was less than favorable.

  What he wasn’t expecting was Cara Bishop.

  What’s more, he definitely wasn’t expecting to see her standing over a dying Thomas Mateo with a bloody hunting knife in her hand.

  Bear blinked once, twice, three times, and then grabbed his gun from his waist, and kept it pointed to the ground. He looked from Cara’s pale and shocked face to Mateo’s bloody chest. He was gasping his last breath just as Bear entered the room.

  Cara was covered in blood. It was all over her hands, either where she had plunged the knife into his chest or where she had pulled it out. The knees of her pale pink pants were also bloody. Had she knelt by his side while he died?

  “I-I found h-him like this,” Cara said, turning to Bear. There were tears streaming down her face. “I-I just w-walked in a-and found him.”

  Bear opened his mouth to respond when he heard a door slam somewhere in the building. He cocked his head and listened to the echo. It sounded like it came from the back of the building.

  Bear walked up to Cara cautiously and pulled the knife from her hands. He wiped it down and tossed it to the side. He cast a single glance at Mateo, but his blank eyes and still body told Bear that it was too late for him.

  Instead, Bear grabbed Cara by the hand and dragged her out of the office behind him. He kept his ears open for any more sounds, but the warehouse was dead silent. Even the whistling wind from earlier had quieted down.

  Bear led Cara down the stairs quickly and quietly. He kept his hand around hers, and he couldn’t help but notice how much she was shaking. His anger that she hadn’t listened to him was abated by his instinct to make sure she was okay.

  When they reached the bottom of the stairs, Bear took in her complexion. She was still pale, but there was a flush to her cheeks that made him think she wouldn’t pass out on him. Her eyes were wild, and she still had a death grip on his hand.

  “I need you to hide while I try to find whoever did this,” he said.

  “What?” Cara’s voice was shrill. “No. You can’t leave me.”

  “It’ll only be for a minute. I just need to make sure we’re alone.”

  “No, please,” she begged. “Please, you can’t leave me. Please.”

  “Okay, okay, okay.” Bear held back a groan. Having her in tow would complicate matters. “Stay right behind me, okay? In my shadow at all times.”

  Cara nodded vigorously.

  “And I’m going to need my hand back.”

  Cara looked down at their interlinked hands and let go. She immediately latched onto his elbow. Not ideal, but something he could work with.

  Bear turned toward the back of the building and made his way along the outer wall. Every step closer to the back door made Bear feel more and more sure they’d missed their opportunity. When he reached the back entrance and tried to open it, finding it locked, he knew he was right.

  He cursed under his breath.

  “What’s wrong?” Cara whispered.

  “Whoever did this kept the back door propped. It locked when they escaped. They’ll be in the wind now.”

  “What about us?” Cara asked. “Are we locked in here?”

  “Let’s find out.”

  Bear led her back the way they had come and found the front door still opened. The wind whipped as they made their way across the street to an empty storefront down the road. No one else was in sight. Whoever had killed Mateo was either long gone or watching them from the shadows. Bear stayed vigilant.

  The storefront wasn’t locked. The fact that it wasn’t covered in dust and a few bookshelves had been moved to form a little barrier against the wind told Bear that the homeless had probably taken up residence here recently. They’d likely moved closer to the city once the weather had turned. It’d be a little warmer there, plus their chances to make a little money were higher.

  Bear maneuvered Cara to a plastic chair sitting in the corner. He found a large scrap of a sheet and began wiping the blood off her hands. The fabric wasn’t exactly clean, but it was better than leaving her the way she was.. Mostly, the sheet just smeared the blood around and turned her hands pink.

  She was still shivering, and Bear noticed her eyes had that distant look he’d seen more often than he cared to admit. Some people just couldn’t handle tragedy. He couldn’t blame her. Something like this hadn’t been in the job description.

  Bear took off his jacket and draped it around her shoulders. He knelt in front of her and waited until her gaze focused in on him. Once he knew she was paying attention to him, he only had one thing to say.

  “Tell me everything.”

  14

  “I-I don’t know,” she stammered. “I was just there and then he was just dead.”

  Bear shook her shoulders gently. “Listen to me, I can only help you if you tell me exactly what happened. Every detail. Everything you remember. You’re a journalist, right? This is your job. This is what you’re good at. You told me yourself. Give me the facts.”

  Cara took a deep breath and Bear saw something shift inside of her. She was going into investigative mode. Her voice was still quiet, but it was steady. The shivering had almost stopped.

  “I found out Mateo was meeting with someone this morning. My source suggested I arrive early and hide close by. Record the whole thing.”

  “Who’s your source?”

  Cara shook her head and kept her mouth clamped shut.

  Bear stood up and paced the length of the room. He fought to keep his voice level. “I need to know everything. Everything. Your prints could be all over that place. Do you understand how much trouble you’re in? You have no idea how big this goes.”

  Cara stood up and matched Bear in anger, if not in height. “I do know how big this goes. I know about Hughes, remember? All the way to the White House, that’s how far. In more ways than one.”

  “What do you mean in more ways than one?”

  Cara waved away the comment. “This isn’t the time for that. I can’t tell you who my source is. It’s a deal breaker. Full stop.”

  Bear considered, for the first time, that Cara’s source might be bigger than he initially thought. Could her source be in the White House? A staffer? An old friend or former flame? Someone bigger who had gotten wind of Hughes’ plan and wanted to do the right thing without exposing themselves?

  But Cara wasn’t going to budge, and something told Bear that no amount of force or coercion was going to change that. But there was still a growl in his voice when he spoke. “Keep talking.”

  Cara sat back down and pulled Bear’s jacket tighter around her shoulders. “I knew the code, so I snuck in. Found Mateo’s office and hid in the next room. I had everything set up. I’d be able to hear their whole conversation and they wouldn’t even know I was there.”

  Bear kept his mouth shut. It was a stupid, reckless thing to do. Before talking to Mateo, he would’ve checked the surrounding rooms to make sure they were alone. He would’ve looked for recording devices.

  But interrupting her again wouldn’t do him any favors.

  “Mateo was there for only a minute or two before someone walked in. He seemed surprised.”

  “Did he say who the other person was?” Bear asked.

  Cara leveled him with a look. “Don’t you think that would’ve been the first thing I said?”

  “Fair enough.”

  “Mateo seemed surprised. Asked what the other guy was doing there. Asked what was going on. The other guy said, ‘Fixing your mistakes.’ His voice was deep, steady. He didn’t sound angry. More like he was resigned.”

  A shiver passed through Cara as she recalled the events. Tears started gathering in her eyes, but she wiped them away and kept talking.

  “There was movement and Mateo groaned. He sounded surprised again. He tried to say something, but couldn’t. I heard him fall to the ground. I stayed as quiet as I could. I just kept praying that the other guy didn’t hear me. Didn’t see me. Even when I heard him leave the room, I was too scared to go see what happened.”

  Bear knelt in front of Cara. “What’d you do next?”

  “Counted to sixty in my head. Three times. I heard Mateo groaning. I knew what I was going to find, but you just…can’t prepare for something like that. When I eventually went out there, I saw blood everywhere. Mateo was covered in it. His hands, his chest. It was all over the floor. And he was trying to pull the knife out of his chest.”

  Her eyes were distant again. Recalling the events was like muscle memory now. She wasn’t reliving it anymore. She was stating the facts. Still, a tear dropped down her cheek and disappeared into one of the folds of Bear’s jacket.

  “He was panicked. I just wanted to help. I don’t know why I did it. I know you’re not supposed to. I knew my prints would be on it. But I couldn’t just leave him like that. He was so scared.”

  Bear decided to help her along. “So you pulled the knife out.”

  Cara nodded. “He was trying to say something, but I couldn’t hear him. It was like he didn’t have enough air in his lungs to speak. And then thirty seconds later, you came in.”

  Bear stood again. Her story made sense. Maybe if they hadn’t heard someone else leave the building, he would’ve questioned it a little more. As it was, Cara seemed totally innocent in this situation. Not that the authorities would see it that way.

  As if on cue, Bear’s ears perked up at the sound of sirens in the distance. “We’ve gotta move.”

  “We shouldn’t have left the scene,” Cara said. “It’s going to look suspicious.”

  “It already looks suspicious,” Bear replied. “Trust me, the cops aren’t our friends right now.”

  “Trust you?” Cara said. “I don’t even know you.”

  “And yet you seemed so surprised when I wasn’t willing to risk everything to trust you yesterday. I guess we finally understand each other.”

  “Doubtful.”

  Bear sighed. Fighting wasn’t going to get them anywhere. “You know how high this goes. You don’t think the cops are in on it? At least some of them? If they find you covered in blood at the crime scene, they’ll charge you with murder before you can even ask for a lawyer. Mateo was a public figure. This is a high-profile case. They’ll want to close it quickly.”

  When Cara didn’t argue, he assumed she agreed with him.

  “Is your car nearby?” Bear asked.

  She nodded. “It’s two streets over.”

  “Then let’s go.”

  Bear left their hideout with Cara on his heels. The sirens were coming in quick, and the two of them wasted no time running to her car. Bear held out his hand for the keys and she handed them over wordlessly. He checked for tracking devices and found none. When he figured it was safe, they piled into the car and sped off toward the city.

  The journey was silent. Cara kept pulling the coat tighter around her shoulders. Bear cranked up the heat in the car. She stared at her bloody hands. He stared at the road ahead.

  Cara was first to break the silence. They were driving along a side street filled with businesses. It was mostly bars and restaurants, but a few retailers dotted the sidewalk. Bear stopped at a red light and scanned the area. He checked the rearview mirror. His side mirrors. He cranked his head to the left. Cara spoke from the right.

  “Bear?”

  Bear twisted his head toward her. He followed her gaze to the shop sitting outside the passenger window. They sold electronics. Their shop window was full of TVs that played the news. Bear and Cara’s faces plastered the airwaves. Wanted for murder. Extremely dangerous.

  Cara choked on a sob. “Oh, God.”

  Bear was still trying to process it. How did that happen so fast? It had been, what, twenty minutes? That meant this had been the plan all along. If the hit went off successfully, Mateo’s murderer would call it in and they’d run the story on the news.

  A car honked. Bear’s gaze snapped to the vehicle behind him. A man threw up his arms and gestured toward the light. Bear looked forward. It was green. He put his foot to the gas pedal and eased forward, gaining momentum slowly and steadily.

  “We need to lay low,” Bear said. “We need to get somewhere safe.”

  Cara didn’t say anything. He was beginning to take her silence as approval.

  Bear pressed down on the gas pedal a little harder.