Set Me Free (13 page)

It was a silent, suffocating drive back to Danville. Zach watched Lucy closely, not sure what to say. She kept her eyes out the window the entire time, sniffing every now and then, but never uttering a word. Seeing her so despondent was unnerving. He bet she wanted to run again. He could feel her thigh twitching beneath his hand. He squeezed it once more, hoping for a response, but got nothing.

Uncle Alex watched him through the review mirror, his brows puckered. Was he worried or annoyed? Zach couldn't believe his smooth uncle had punched a security guard on FBI property. Was he out of his frickin' mind?

Zach looked away from the man he had always revered, resting his head back on the seat and letting out a slow sigh.

No evidence.

And now a possible FBI tail.

This couldn't get worse.

Impersonating an agent was hardly points in Lucy's favor. If she got busted for this, they'd surely link it all back to the Tate murders and she had nothing to stand on. Nothing but her word against that of an FBI liar. One who had made a very good name for himself in the law enforcement scene.

They were screwed.

Zach's insides had been on fire since the second Lucy and his uncle burst through that motel door. Their panic was enough to turn his brain to liquid, but he'd held it together. Someone had to remain calm in the chaos and this time around it had been him. Trying to stop his hands from shaking as he paid for the room was basically impossible. He wondered if the guy at the counter even noticed.

He felt sick. Closing his eyes, he tried not to let his thoughts run wild. So Uncle Alex punched the guard. It's not like they killed anybody or stole anything. Surely the FBI had more important things to worry about.

No evidence.

Crap! Friggin' crap!

All this stress and angst was for nothing.

They had no damn evidence!

Were they just playing a losing game? If they kept going, would they just hit one roadblock after the next? It was pointless trying to pursue this if they were just going to lose anyway. Maybe they were better off trying to get Lucy tucked into a safe pocket of the world somewhere.

He hated that idea. He knew he couldn't go with her. Not yet anyway.

Turning to look at the back of her head, he traced the line of her dark ponytail with his eyes, feeling deflated and lost.

Uncle Alex pulled into Zach's driveway and cut the engine. He turned to speak to Lucy, but before he'd even opened his mouth, she pulled the latch and shouldered the door open. The guys all looked at each other, worry cresting through the space around them.

"Are you coming?" Lucy snapped from the front door.

Zach shuffled out of the car and dug out his keys as he approached her. Her heel bobbed erratically, her fingers clenching and unclenching as she waited for him to unlock the door.

"You either need to pee real bad...or you need to calm down."

She threw an evil glare at Elliot's dry statement, which just made Zach laugh manically. The harrowing day was catching up to him. He coughed back his snicker and pushed the door open. She charged past him and made a break for the stairs.

"Lucy!" Elliot shouted as he flicked the door closed behind us.

She froze on the stairwell, clutching the railing as if it was the only thing keeping her upright.

"You can't quit now."

Her blue eyes were vivid as she slowly spun to face him. With her dark hair and pale skin, she looked like Snow White...after eating the apple.

Zach threw Elliot a look of warning, but he ignored it, approaching the bottom step with a pointed finger.

"Lucy Tate. That is who you are. No matter what you call yourself or who you become in this life, you will always, underneath it all, be Lucy Tate...the daughter of Jack and Edith Tate."

The tendons in her neck strained as she drew in a sharp breath.

"You owe it to your parents to keep going."

"Elliot, we screwed up! There's nothing left and now we have to deal with the FBI looking into this! We'll be identified! They'll find us. We're screwed!" She slapped the railing.

Elliot's tongue darted out the corner of his mouth for a second. "They haven't found us yet. We still have time." He sighed, dragging a hand through his hair. "I didn't know your parents, okay. And you probably think I have no right to be talking about them, but I know
you
and..." He swallowed. "And I actually think you're kinda awesome, which means they must have been pretty cool."

Lucy's eyebrows shot up, her blue eyes growing wide. Zach was pretty sure his face was doing the same thing. Elliot was never this nice to people. Zach knew his marshmallow interior existed, but the guy never let anyone else see it.

Elliot walked up the first three steps so his eyes were in line with Lucy's. "Let's just forget about the whole FBI thing for a second and focus on why we're really doing this."

Her forehead creased.

"Because your parents...and you...deserve justice. If it were me, I'd want to honor them, and you can do that by exposing their killer."

Lucy's hands were shaking as she let out a sigh and gripped her forehead. "I want to, but it's too hard. He's too powerful. He'll win."

Flicking a look down the stairwell, Elliot pointed at Zach. "Isn't there some sort of quote about the hardest things to get, being the most rewarding or something?"

There was a stunned pause in the room, before Lucy suddenly snickered.

"You're such an ass, Elliot." She pressed her palms into her eyes and dropped onto the stair. "Why do you have to be right?"

Spinning on his heel, he slumped down beside her, throwing his arm over her shoulders.

"Zach and I are with you all the way...and Alex. You know none of us will be able to let this rest now. And you know we'll have a stronger chance of beating this jackass with your help. He won't win, because we're not going to let him. The little mishap today has just added a certain urgency to our quest."

"Little mishap?" Lucy looked at him incredulously.

"Yeah, well..." Elliot tipped his head. "Okay, a pretty, big, shitty mishap, but still....nothing we can't overcome."

Her jaw shifted to the side as she closed her eyes. "What if you guys get hurt?"

"We'll heal."

"What if he kills you?"

"Then we'll die fighting for something we believe in. That's a worthy death, Lu—"

"You don't understand anything about death!" She slapped his leg. Her lips quivered as she drew in a breath. "Have you ever seen life leave someone's body before? Have you been there when they took their last breath?"

"Yes."

Elliot's quiet response made Lucy's face drop. Her anguished crinkles vanished, replaced with a look of sympathy that only she could really muster.

"I watched my grandmother die." Elliot swallowed. "She was only fifty-five and she'd been raising me since my mom split. She was the closest thing to a mother that I had. And she was beautiful and awesome. Her death was slow and painful. I was nine-years-old and I can still picture it like it was yesterday. I was holding her hand when she passed and it wasn't lovely and romantic like they make it out to be. It tore my heart out."

Lucy gently slid her fingers over his hand. "I'm sorry."

With a shake of his head, Elliot cleared his throat and sat up straighter. His final sniff let them all know that the conversation was coming to an end. "You might disagree with me, but it almost doesn't matter how you lose them. It kills your soul, regardless." He shook her fingers off his hand and pierced her with a stern look. "I just don't see how you can sit back and let this guy win. I mean what if he takes someone else's parents. Hell, Lucy, he probably already has. You can't keep hiding behind your fear. It's selfish. If anyone ever threatened my family I would go after them and tear them apart any way I could."

The vehemence in Elliot's voice made Lucy flinch.

"That's enough, man. She's got it." Zach stepped towards them, glaring at Elliot.

"He's right, Zach," Lucy whispered. "I am being selfish."

"No you're not." He hunkered down at her feet, squeezing her right calf muscle.

Blinking at tears, she pressed her lips together and looked from Alex over to Elliot then finally rested her gaze on Zach.

"We've got even more reason to keep going now. If we can expose Tenner then that will explain what were trying to do today. Prove my innocence, prove his guilt and we might score ourselves a get out of jail free card." Her watery smile squeezed at Zach's heart. She had to be the bravest person he knew.

He nodded back with a proud grin. "So, what's next then?"

They all turned to Alex whose eyes were fixed on the carpet at his feet. "Time for more research, I guess. Let's find out everything we can about William Tenner. There's bound to be something we can snag him on, right? If Jack Tate can find goods on Tenner then so can we."

Elliot, Lucy and Zach rose in unison and descended the stairs, heading for the dining room table, which quickly became their command post. There was a current of energy pulsing through all of them now. Their mission had moved to a critical point and they couldn't afford to give in or screw up now.

Chapter 15

LUCY

"Okay, so William Tenner is the Special Agent in charge of the San Francisco branch of the FBI. We already know that."

My fingers froze around the mug of coffee in my hand. It was starting to dawn on me that the guy had been living right on my doorstep this whole time. The idea of pulling all those cons in the city he lived in made my skin crawl.

"It says here he has one son, fifteen years old. Billy Tenner. "

Oh my gosh, had I met him? What if I'd run a con at his school?

"You alright?" Zach nudged my knee with his as I watched Alex scribble Billy (William Jr.) on the large sheet of paper we'd pinned to the wall. He put a box around it and drew an arrow back to William Tenner.

"Where does he go to school?" Alex poised his pen against the paper.

I tensed, my muscles straining tight as I waited for the answer.

"San Francisco University High School."

I held in my relieved sigh and gave Zach a sharp nod, but he didn't buy it.

It was getting close to dinner time. I was tired, wrung out and in desperate need of sleep, but I couldn't let it show. These guys were working their asses off for me. Elliot had already tracked William Tenner's past from L.A., to Sacramento and then across to San Francisco.

"What is it?" Zach's hand glided up my arm, squeezing my shoulder.

"I saw him in San Fran. The day he killed Shorty. He was at our apartment. He nearly got me, but I managed to run..." I closed my eyes, hearing the glass shatter around me as I threw myself through the ranch slider and then over the balcony.

"When did this happen?" Alex's voice was mercifully soft.

"December." I swallowed. "Just after Marlin was taken."

"Did he talk to you?"

I sipped at the coffee, delaying my response to Alex's question. "A little, he was pretty triumphant at finally catching me. I've become a game for him. He was mad that he didn't get me the night he killed my parents. Your revenge theory might be spot on, you know. Not for my parents, but for me." I shook my head, knowing I sounded completely confusing. "I don't think he meant to kill my dad that night, well not when he did anyway. He was really pissed when that the gun went off. He wanted that information. Whatever my dad had found out obviously scared him. That's why he was threatening my dad with the thought of hurting me. If he'd got to me that night, I have no doubt in my mind, that he would have tortured me in front of my father until he had every scrap of evidence Dad had on him." I gripped my now empty coffee mug until the pads of my fingers started hurting. "When he first saw me in Sacramento after all that time and then realized it was me, I think it must have sparked something within him. Maybe he could never let that night go, knowing there was even a chance I was out there."