Page 29 of Stolen Goods
“Jo?” she asked, tone unnaturally high and laced with panic. She never cursed.Never.But if there was ever a time to start, this was it. “Jo? What the hell is going on?”
“Addy!” Jo exclaimed, sounding exactly the way Addy always imagined she would. Cheerful and confident, energetic and infectious, but most of all, loud. Not in an annoying way. In an enthusiastic way, as though her whole body were a bubbling volcano of thoughts and emotions, and every time she opened her mouth, they came bursting out, full of life. The sound put a smile on Addy’s face, because this was Jo. The Jo she’d always pictured in her head. The Jo she recognized. “Oh my God, Addy, I can’t believe— Thad is such a— This is— Are you all right?”
Addy opened her mouth to answer, but nothing came out. Was she all right?I’m in a cheap motel with the most wanted man in America. One of my closest friends is a completely different person than I thought. Members of the Russian mafia have apparently been following me for God knows how long and tried to kill me last night. Or kidnap me. Or…I don’t know. Something. No. I’m pretty sure I’m not all right…She swallowed. “I’m…alive?”
“Ugh, God, I’m such an ass. Of course you’re not all right! But you will be. I promise. Thad will take good care of you. He’s not as much of an idiot as he seems, and he’s nothing like the man the news is trying to portray. He’s protective and caring. And, well, he knows I’ll hunt him down and murder him if anything happens to you, so there’s that too.”
Was she joking?
Addy didn’t know real from fake anymore, so she stayed quiet.
“I won’t actually murder him…” Jo murmured, as though sensing Addy’s hesitation. “I’m not a murderer! I swear! I’m just your everyday expert hacker and, well, art thief turned FBI informant…” Jo swallowed audibly on the line. Addy had never seen Jo’s face in a photo before—Guess now I know why!—but she imagined she was currently scrunching her nose in dismay. “I’m not helping, am I?”
Not really.“Um…”
Jo sighed through the phone, loud and rumbling, forcing a strong breath of air through her lips. “Did Thad explain anything?”
Addy flicked a quick gaze in his direction, but looked at the floor as soon as she met those burning gray eyes, like hot charcoal smoldering on a grill. “Um, no.”
“Of course not,” Jo said, words coming out like an audible eye roll. “Basically, I’m Jo, the same Jolene Carter I’ve always been, and, well, now you know why I never talked very much about the family business I didn’t want to be a part of. My father is—” She paused for a moment, a heavy silence. Addy closed her eyes, fighting to remember anything she’d seen on the news. The truth came back at the same time Jo continued, voice a shade darker than it had been before. “My fatherwasan art thief, a very infamous one, and that’s all I thought the business was. Turned out, I was wrong. There was a whole big thing with Thad’s father, and the Russians, and arms deals, but, well, it’s too much to go into it now. What it boils down to is five years ago, some very evil men threatened to kill me if Thad and my father didn’t do what they said. To keep me safe, they made a stupid, idiotic, completely reckless deal, and now it’s fallen apart. Hence, the current shitstorm. Are you following?”
Jo was a thief. Thad was a thief. Her father was a thief. Something with the Russian mob. And now the poop had hit the proverbial fan.
“I think so…”
“Okay, good, here’s where it gets complicated.”
It’s not complicated yet?Addy stifled a groan.
“I made a deal with the FBI—which is another long story I can’t get into, but remember that neat freak I moved in with?” Jo’s tone shifted, gaining a warmth it hadn’t had before. “He’s a federal agent.”
Addy nodded, sighing internally as her body melted at the idea of a love story. Even in the most trying times, the hint of romance made her swoon.Just my luck, the one part of the story I might actually like to hear is the one part we don’t have time for.
Jo rushed on, sentences tumbling out like one jumbled thought. “When the Russians realized I turned, they went after Thad and my father, though I think that was probably their plan all along. Anyway, they murdered my father and tried to murder Thad too, but he got away. In the past two weeks, the Feds have started making arrests and rounding up the men mentioned in the files I gave them access to. But when it comes time for trial, the whole case might hinge on eyewitness testimony, and Thad is the only eyewitness.”
Addy swallowed, subtly peering through her peripheral vision, watching as the man in question stalked back and forth across the small room, eyes staring at nothing yet somehow laser focused, fingers rubbing the sexy bit of scruff covering his chin—
Wait, sexy?
No, not sexy.
Dirty and, um, unkempt?
She looked away, shaking her head as she whispered, “But didn’t he, um— I mean I overheard, well— Isn’t he running away?”
She’d tried to be quiet, but Addy didn’t miss the snort that traveled across the small expanse of the room. She refused to acknowledge the sound.
“He’s not running,” Jo said in an exasperated voice. “I mean, he thinks he’s running, and he said he’s running, but he’s not running. I know Thad better than he knows himself, just like he knows me, and he’s a much better man than he gives himself credit for. He’ll do the right thing. He just needs a little push in the right direction. Or, you know, an all-out shove. Same thing.”
Addy dropped back down onto the edge of the bed, sinking into the mattress. “So where does that leave me? What am I supposed to do now?”
“You need to stay with Thad.”
A rush of fiery panic, and maybe something else, shot across her chest. “What? I can’t go home?”
“The safest place in the world for you to be right now is next to Thad, trust me. For one, no one else in the world has better incentive to help you steer clear of the Russian mafia—since if they find him, he’s dead. And two, he’s good at what he does. He won’t get caught. I don’t care what anyone says, the police, even the Feds, can’t provide better, or more motivated, protection than that. And you need protection, because as soon as your face hits the newsreel today, you’ll be involved. There’s no stopping that now.”
Jo was right. The realization came sharp and fast, like falling off a cliff into the unknown, no way to turn back. Addy thought of her small-town police force—men she’d known her entire life. Big John, whose belly was showing the effect of spending all his nights off at the bar, and Fred, who was nice, sure, but spent most of his time handing out speeding tickets or chasing down drunk teens. What would he have done in the face of murderous hitmen?
