Page 50 of Destroyed With You

“That Buick is now parked on a piece of land outside of Austin near some tiny little town called Thrall.”

“And this is relevant why?” Winston pressed.

“Well, as it just so happens, if you poke through about a million layers of paperwork, which yours truly did—you’re welcome—you learn that the property in Thrall is owned by a company called CLM Accounting.”

“Owned by Bartlett?” Linda asked.

“No clue,” Emma said. “I haven’t had time to dig that far. But considering that Bartlett is an accountant, at the very least I figure—”

“That it’s worth us heading that direction to check it out,” Winston finished for her. “You’re right.”

“Worst case, we’ve lost nothing but time,” Linda said.

“And in the meantime, I’ll keep looking,” Emma promised. “I’ll let you know as soon as I can confirm the property’s his, unless you slap some handcuffs on the man and confirm your own way first.”

Winston glanced at Linda, who nodded. “All right,” he said. “Good work. I owe you.”

“That’s what I’m here for. But call in. I want to know you’re okay. And, guys, listen, I haven’t told anyone here about what you’re doing. But if it gets nasty, and you need help, you know that you can trust us here.”

“I do.” He glanced at Linda, then glanced away. “We’ll keep that in mind.” He ended the call, then looked at Linda again. “I do trust them,” he said. “But I trusted you. I trusted Seagrave. And I’m not liking the way it feels when trust gets pulled out from under you like a cartoon carpet.”

She moved to sit on the coffee table, so that she was right in front of him. She took his coffee away, then held his hands. “That was a long time ago, and I was undercover. You had secrets, too. And as for Seagrave, maybe you can still trust him. That’s what we’re trying to find out.”

“This isn’t a new thing,” Winston said, realizing that was true even as he spoke the words. “It’s this business. If you do undercover work, you hold a piece of yourself back. Always. It comes with the territory. But I never held back with you. Not anything that mattered.”

“Nothing except who you really were,” she said, her voice serious even though her expression was teasing.

“Not even that,” he said. “You always had my heart, Linda.” He felt the sharp pang in his heart. “Did I have yours?”

“Yes,” she whispered. “What we had was real—at least as real as it could be in a bubble of lies.”

He nodded, wanting to argue that the lies didn’t make the emotions any less real. But he understood what she meant, and right then they didn’t have time.

“Thank you for last night,” she said.

“Is it terrible for me to say that I don’t mind that it took until morning for us to get a lead on Bartlett?”

Her smile was slow. “Under the circumstances, he’s a man we really need to find. But no. I know exactly what you mean.”

He leaned forward to kiss her, but she pressed a fingertip to his lips. “No. We need to go, and you know it.”

“I do.”

She pulled away from him. “Time to get dressed and go hunt an accountant.”

* * *

“Here,” Winston said, pointing to the tiny road hidden among the trees. “I think that’s it.”

Linda tapped the brakes and made the sharp turn onto the rutted dirt lane. Trees lined one side of the road, a field for grazing cattle on the other.

As far as Winston could tell, there was nothing but land ahead. He frowned, hoping they hadn’t made a wrong turn on the spiderweb of tiny roads.

For a few silent minutes, the car bounced over the uneven surface. Linda grimaced. “How far?”

Winston checked his phone again. “The GPS is shit out here, but I think it’s just another couple of miles.”

“Well, it doesn’t look like anyone’s following us, so that’s good. Of course it might also be that we’re going to a house that has absolutely nothing to do with Tommy Bartlett. In which case it’s a big old waste of time.”