Page 51 of Framed

“I know I’m good but you just gave it to me three seconds ago,” replied a less-than-happy Briggs. He’d been asleep when I called, apparently.

I rolled my eyes at the stroke of his own ego. “It wouldn’t have been three seconds ago if you answered your phone two fucking hours ago.” Pretty sure I’d called him at least thirty times.

“This might be a crazy concept for you, a serial insomniac, but I need rest to function. Most human beings do too.”

“Hurry the fuck up,” I snapped. “She’s on the move.” Whoever she was in the car with was not paying a lick of attention. I’d been following them for two hours now. Somewhere around hour one, I stopped bothering to even keep a safe distance.

Jesus, why was she being so oblivious?

I’d been borderline exhausted when I finally got to my truck tonight. I thought Ethel was going to spend the entire night yelling at me about how I treated Scarlett. Granted, I knew I could’ve been less harsh.

But I wasn’t expecting to see her at all, much less at my bar right after a fight. Plus, I had plenty of reasons not to hire her. For one, she was underage. And two, she was instructed to lie low. Nothing about Sweat meant lying low.

“The car is registered to Winter St. James,” Briggs finally said.

Of course, this had something to do with the roommate. The two of them together were going to give me a fucking hernia.

“Based on my location, do you have any idea where they could be headed?” I had a working theory of my own but there was no way she would be headed there. It was too big of a risk, even for Scarlett.

“Honestly, no. Winter’s from Atlanta, so they could be going there. Or…” Briggs’s voice trailed off.

“Or what?” I snapped, irritation laced in my tone.

“She could be going to Tuscaloosa.” He voiced my sinking suspicion out loud. It would be the stupidest idea ever.

“She wouldn’t,” I said. But right then, the blinker on Winter’s car engaged. I watched her take the turn-off that was clearly labeled with an obnoxiously large sign: Tuscaloosa, 30 mi.

“Fuck.”

“Follow her,” Briggs said.

“Obviously.” I hung up on him.Goddamn it, Scarlett. Was she trying to get herself killed?

Sure enough, as I’d feared, Winter drove directly to Tuscaloosa. I trailed behind, not bothering to allow even a car-length between us anymore. My nerves were on high alert as I scanned the surrounding streets at every intersection.

The last thing we needed was for someone to recognize Scarlett. At least it was the middle of the night, we had that going for us.

What the hell is she doing?Did she need to come back here to get something? What could possibly be so important that she’d come here at almost four in the goddamn morning? Not to mention, how in the world did she talk her roommate into driving her all this way?

Unless it was the roommate’s idea. Unless…

I shook my head. No way. Briggs looked into Winter before he assigned her to room with Scarlett. If anything, she should be the last person I was worried about.

Still, I couldn’t shake my nervous system as Winter parked the car out front of City Hall. I had no idea what Scarlett could possibly want here. Records of some kind?Please, tell me she’s not about to break into a government building.

But of course, Scarlett climbed out of the car all alone. Winter remained behind the wheel, the overhead light in the car on as she reached for a book. I noticed, however, as Scarlett walked away, that Winter turned off the light to better watch her roommate in the dark.

I sighed. Hopefully Winter didn’t decide to follow her too, and catch me in the act.

I parked on a side street, out of sight of Winter’s windshield. Then I waited until Winter turned her car light on and settled in to read again before I crept closer to the City Hall building.

A shadow slipped around the far side, toward the library. A faint smile touched my lips, before I schooled it away. Trust Scarlett to head there. She’d always been a fan of the library. A couple times when I’d met her here after school, when Dad took me in to the office, she’d tagged along and brought me down to the library. We could spend hours lost in the stacks—her admiring the books, me admiring the look on her face when she was interested in something…

I shook myself and hurried across the parking lot. Sure enough, the library door was unlocked, open a crack. I eased inside, holding my breath.

It took my eyes a minute to adjust to the dim. I half expected Scarlett to jump out from a bookshelf and ambush me. But I couldn’t see her anywhere in the library. I walked to the door and stuck my head out.

A telltale small shadow was creeping up the hallway.

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