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“I’m leaving.” I take my coffee and my pounding heart, and I start toward the hall Felix came from. “I’ll grab breakfast in the city, and if I’m lucky, I’llbe on the plane back to Copeland before either of you are done with your workday.”
“You’re being rude, Doctor Cutie.” Felix calls along the hall, so his words hit my back with gentle pats. “I like spending time with my little sister, but you’re out here like a robot, incapable of showing emotion.”
“She has emotion,” Micah rumbles arrogantly, “she’s just skilled at bottling that shit up.”
Isit in the back of a Malone town car with Theodore Harrison minding his own business. His presence is a reminder that I’m being protected, but his silence is an assurance that he knows I’m not here to chat. And though I wish I could wait him out, sneak away to the bathrooms of the courthouse and make this phone call in privacy, ironically, it’s far safer I do it with Micah’s guard as a witness and not, say, a state fucking prosecutor in the stall beside mine.
Taking out my phone and checking the time, I feel bad knowing it’s still early in Copeland. But not so bad that I put the device away again. Dialing, I bring the phone to my ear and wait… and wait… and wait, while I study the side of Harrison’s face. The short stubble on his chin and the slight upturn of his lips that implies he’s entirely pleased with his life and career.
Finally, the line connects and voices echo all over.
“Minka?”
“Hey,” my reason for calling drops away within a single beat of my heart, “where are you?”
“Crime scene.”
“Another cop is dead?”
At that, Harrison’s head moves just a fraction of an inch in my direction. Listening, but discreet.
“No. But an attempt. Shooter’s in the wind, no one is hurt. Are you driving?”
“Yeah, heading to Manhattan. Fletch and everyone okay?”
“Everyone we love is fine,” he soothes. “Everything is fine, I promise. You call for a specific reason, or because you’re bored during your travels? Either is fine, but maybe I could call you back in twenty if it’s the se?—”
“Micah knows.”
Silence hangs for a long, torturous beat, so all I hearis the chatter and rumble typical of a crime scene. Until eventually, when I’m not sure I could stand another moment of quiet, he asks, “Micah knows what?”
“Heknows! He just named names over morning coffee, Archer. I can’t say the things he knows, because I have an audience right now, but I know you’re smart enough to figure this out.”
“Hang on, Fletch.” Holding on to his cool like it’s a loaded gun, he excuses himself from their scene and moves so the shuffle of his feet on the ground reverberates into our call. Then I catch the distinct sound of a car door opening and slamming shut. “What the fuck, Minka! You told him?”
“Oh sure! Because he’s my best friend and Iloveto gossip. No, Archer! I didn’t tell him. He said he knows because he’sobservant.” I drag the word out, mocking it in hope to dispel a scrap of the tension sludging through my veins. “Didyousay something to him?”
“No, I didn’t say shit. I’m not in the business of gossiping either. Fuck!” He bases his palm on the steering wheel. “What else did he say?”
“Just that he’s observant, and he wondered when you figured it out. He said I wouldn’t have married you without you knowing, therefore, you’re in on it too. He asked if I confessed or if you knew.”
“Jesus.”
“He said he hasn’t told anyone else. That he’s not going to. I guess he just felt smug knowing something he shouldn’t, so he wanted to let me know how smart he was.”
“And what did you say?”
“That he didn’t know what he was talking about. Then I left, got in the damn car, and now I’m talking to you. What the hell am I supposed to do with this? The bigger our circle gets, the more lips that tend to flap. There’s a reason we’re not spilling these secrets over to Tim or Aubs.”
“Felix doesn’t know?” Temper makes way for calm. For consideration. “Did he tell Felix?”
“No. He specifically said he hasn’t. And when Felix walked into the room, Micah changed the subject.”
“So you had a whole fucking conversation about this?”
“Under duress! And I remained passive the whole time. I admitted nothing. Now I’m trying to pass this information on to you, while sitting in a car with staff loyal to the men we’re discussing. What the hell, Archer!?”
“They’re loyal to us all. This isn’t a them and us situation, Minka. We’re them. We’re all Malone.”
