A Little Harmless Secret (18 page)

“Do you have any backup tonight?” Conner asked.

“Devon’s here,” she said, trying to come up with a way to get out of the house undetected.

“I mean for both of you. If you want, I can stay.”

“When Devon gets done with Rory, we’ll see what he says. Can you excuse me for a moment?”

He nodded and she slipped out of the room. As she walked up the stairs, her mind started racing. She should have known something was going on. Every turn in the case had been reported by one person. The one person she thought she had been protecting.

Other people would never catch on to who it was. In fact, she might be the only person alive who could connect all the dots. The name was the giveaway. She dressed as fast as she could. She grabbed her Glock and strapped her knife holder to her ankle. After grabbing her knife, she slipped it into the holder. She turned toward the door, but she stopped. There was only one person on her mind for so long, now she had two.

Both of them were in her heart and he needed to know how she felt. And she needed to provide for her daughter.

She grabbed a piece of paper and wrote down a few words, explaining what she was doing and where she was going. And she did the one thing she thought she would never do before ending the note. She placed it on the dresser in plain sight, and this time, she slipped out down the stairs and out of the house.

* * * *

After getting off the phone, Devon and Conner discussed the possibilities of who it could be. It would have to be someone her father knew and someone who was still around. That really narrowed the field, but not enough. After a while Devon realized it had been close to thirty minutes since Ali left the room.

Devon stepped out of the office.

“What’s wrong?” Conner said as he followed him out.

Devon shook his head and walked up the stairs. The sense of urgency growing with each step he took. He made it to the top of the stairs and ran down to her room.

“Ali!” No answer. And no one in the room. He ran through the bathroom to the other bedroom and found it empty too.

He knew there had been something wrong, but he’d thought it was something else. She had been tired and all the information was a little too much for even him to take.

“Dev,” Conner yelled. Devon ran back in and found Conner holding a piece of stationary.

He handed it over and pulled out his phone.

Devon,

Well, it’s my turn to run. This is my fight not yours. It was never yours. I know that now. My father had only looked at your research to know the person responsible for this problem.

I am leaving this note for you. And, there is information in my safe deposit box and in my bag. It names you as the father of my child. Please, if I don’t return from this, love her like I do. You are the only person I trust her to. Protect her. She is the most precious thing to me on this earth and beyond.

Love,

Ali

He looked up and found Conner hanging up this phone. “I talked to Sean since he knew them. There is one person that came to mind. Her cousin.”

He shook his head trying to piece it all together.

“How did Sean know?”

“The first job he ever worked with MI-6 on a joint task force had one grating person, and that was Millicent Hughes. Her name on the job was Xan Winslow.”

The name clicked. “Fuck.”

“Exactly.”

“At least I know she’s not flying back to England.”

Conner shook his head. His frown turned darker.

“No, Millicent is here. There was a hit from here on the island. I mentioned the hotel and I know Alicia. She’s going to go after her.”

She left him, left to go die. “And now we are. Let’s go.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Alicia had to fight the guilt that swamped her as she sped down H-3 on her way to Waikiki. She’d found it ridiculously easy to roll Devon’s car down the driveway before turning it on and taking off. She waited until she knew Devon didn’t follow her right away to call her cousin. She dialed the number, Millicent answered before the first ring finished.

“Alicia.”

Her voice was warm but it chilled Alicia to the bone. Millicent had been waiting for her…lying in wait for her call.

“Where are you?” she asked.

“No greeting? I thought you’d want to catch up.”

Oh, she could see the sarcastic smile on her cousin’s face. She always liked to think she was smarter than everyone else. Alicia had always ignored it, thinking it came from her need to belong to the family. Now, it was annoying the bloody hell out of her.

“Cut the shit, Millicent. I don’t have time for it.”

“So crass.” She sighed dramatically over the phone. “I’m staying at a resort in Waikiki, but it is a bit too busy to meet.”

She knew what that meant. “What you mean is that you don’t want witnesses.”

“Tsk, tsk, Ali. Don’t you trust me?” The sickly sweet tone made Alicia sick.

“Don’t call me that.” It made her ill to think of Millicent using the nickname Devon and her father had used for her. “And of course I don’t trust you. You killed my father.”

“Be nice or I will have to dig deeper on why you had a little girl’s room at your house in Seattle.”

Her blood iced over. The first thing that came to her mind was to tell her cousin to go bugger herself, but she refused to lose it. With what Millicent had done so far, she probably wouldn’t think twice about killing Bridget.

“Just tell me where to meet you.”

Her cousin sighed again, but she finally rattled off an address.

“I’ll be there. Not sure how long.”

“You’ve got half an hour.”

She clicked the phone off then turned on the GPS. She didn’t need it until she got closer, but she knew that Devon would be looking for her by now. This way he could find her.

She stepped on the gas as she came through the mountain to the other side of the island.

* * * *

Devon cursed when he found his car missing.

“Damned spook,” he growled, making his way to Conner’s car. He dialed his sister’s number. Micah answered.

“What’s up?”

“Is everything okay there?” he asked.

He heard the sheets rustling and Micah moving around. “I haven’t heard a thing.”

Then a slight pause and Devon had to pray for patience. He knew Micah was walking down the hall to Alana’s room to check on Bridget.

“Girls are both asleep in bed,” he whispered.

Devon released a breath he didn’t know he had been holding.

“What’s going on?” Micah asked.

“Ali found out who put this all in motion and then decided to run off to Waikiki to confront her.”

“Well, you know how to pick them. Need me?”

He knew his brother-in-law would come without a second thought. Devon would trust Micah with his life, but he needed his brother-in-law to protect something much more important.

“I’ve got Conner with me. I’d rather you be there to protect Bridget. I’m not sure what they know about her.”

“You got it.”

He hung up the phone as Conner took off down H-3.

“Do you know where you’re going?”

“I know that her cousin doesn’t know the area and she was somewhere in Waikiki. It’s late, but she isn’t going to meet her at the hotel. At least this way we can keep an eye out for your car.”

He nodded. The fact that she had stolen his car while he’d been sitting in the office discussing what they should do still pissed him off. She’d turned the tracker on his car and now she was speeding off to meet the woman who had killed her father.

“What about her phone? It’s a long shot, but you never know.”

He had gotten her a new phone when they left Seattle and it was on his plan. He punched in the number and it didn’t come up right away. Then…it beeped. It showed her already on H-1 nearing Honolulu.

“You were right,” he said. “Go into Waikiki.”

Conner listened to his directions and said nothing else for a few minutes.

“You need to keep your temper so you don’t cause any problems,” he said finally.

He glanced at Conner then looked ahead. “I will, but when I get her alone after this, we’re going to have a serious talk.”

With each mile they covered, Devon’s irritation grew. He could not believe the woman actually left him to handle it on her own. Running off in the middle of the night to face the woman who killed her father and put a hit out on Ali and Bridget.

Conner shook his head. “Being pissed now is going to make you stupid.”

“I’m mad and I can use that. I know how to control it.”

Conner said nothing as he made his way off H-1 and followed Devon’s instructions to the park. They rolled to a stop behind his car. There was another car there, a rental. The GPS for her phone was still moving. He held it up and showed Conner. They both pulled out their guns and carefully got out of the car.

* * * *

Alicia saw the light just when she was about to give up. Just as her cousin had said, she was sitting in a pavilion with a small overhead light above her head. As she approached her from the side, Alicia searched the landscape. She no longer trusted the bitch she considered her sister. Nothing stood out to her, but that didn’t mean anything. She didn’t know the terrain well. She just hoped her senses would be as sharp as they once were.

“There’s no need to try and be quiet. I know you’re out there.”

Bloody hell. With a sigh, she stepped up on the cement and faced her cousin. Lord, she really didn’t look good. Only a few years older, Millicent didn’t age that well. Her hair was threaded with gray hair and was a mess. In fact, she looked like she hadn’t washed it in days. While she was still in shape, her face showed the years. She looked at least ten years older than she was. She was also holding a pistol with a silencer.

Ali said nothing when faced with her cousin.

Always allow the bastard to do the talking. They always like to brag of their exploits, Ali girl.

It was hard to deal with the emotions now swamping her, but she bit her lip. She wanted to scream at the girl she had known. The one who had been her confidant, her best friend, and the person she told everything to. Until…her father’s death. Something had told her to keep the truth from her. Maybe Ali has sensed the cold calculating bitch that lay beneath the façade.

“Oh, if you could see your expression,” Millicent said, amusement dancing in her voice. “You look so hurt. What’s the matter, Alicia, did you think we were friends?”

“No. We were family.”

Millicent’s humor faded. “Yes, your father said the same thing.”

Just hearing that, knowing that her father had faced off with Millicent…and she still killed him, left a hollow feeling at the bottom of her stomach. She could only think of one question.

“Why?”

“Why what?” she asked in that sickly sweet tone again.

“Why did you have to sell secrets?”

“I guess you never suspected before now, did you?”

Alicia shook her head.

“My father didn’t just die. He did the same thing as I did. He had to. Circumstances left him with no choice in the matter.”

Ali had guessed someone had held the job before Millicent. “He was the first Xan.”

“Correct. See, your father had all that money, but well, mine had none. We suffered while your father and mother lived a lavish lifestyle.”

They hadn’t really had an extravagant life. The house had been willed to her mother and her father had lived off what he earned. They had always traveled but it had been for the job.

“They both had a trust…the same amount. Your father started out with as much money as mine.”

Millicent shrugged. “Yes, well, father liked to live life to the fullest, as did my mother. We did have a lot of fun. Fun that always seemed to take so much money.”

Glimpses of Millicent’s parents with expensive cars, clothes…anything they could seem to get their hands on. Even as a child, she had been able to see the difference between the brothers.

Alicia shifted her weight on her feet and Millicent held her gun up. “Don’t forget, I don’t have a problem killing blood relatives.”

She had guessed, but now she knew. “So that answers that.”

Millicent leaned forward. Evil painted an ugly smile on her face. “Yes, I killed him, but I had no choice. He found me out and then he went on to tell me he would help me. Like your father would make sure I didn’t go to prison.”

She swallowed the lump in her throat. Of course her father would have done that. He would have seen that as his responsibility to help Millicent. And because of that, he was now dead.

“You were our family. You could have come to us for help. You didn’t have to sell secrets.”

“Yes, of course. Poor, little orphan Millicent being saved by the benevolent uncle and her perfect fucking cousin. That would be just brilliant.”

“It wasn’t like that.”

She tossed some of her stringy, greasy hair back. “Yes. It was. When I came to live with you, you never accepted me.”

She searched through her memories, but could not come up with what her cousin was talking about.

“And so you took him away from me?” she asked. Unable to hide the pain I her voice, it quivered.

“I’m sorry but are you missing the point—he was going to turn me over to be interrogated. He kept saying he would take care of me, make sure that I could be saved the jail time. I just had to turn secrets over to the British.”

“He would have done it, and he had the power and contacts.”

“I didn’t want that. Don’t you understand? I am sick to death of your father and you. So fucking bloody righteous you two. Never did a thing out of line.”

“You could have talked to me about it. I would have helped you.”

“I think not, Alicia. Are you telling me you will save me?”

She opened her mouth, but Millicent wasn’t going to listen. As her cousin stood and stepped closer, Alicia saw it there in her eyes. No empathy, no love…and just a little mad. The woman was not playing with a full stack.

Now or never, Ali girl. Take that little bitch down.