Page 27 of Taylor’s Warrior

Looking back, those few days had been terrifying. Wyatt dying the way he had, the advice from her father, her father’s own nervousness… she hadn’t known what to do for the best, so she’d listened to the man who’d brought her up. Everyone at work had assumed she was grieving the loss of Wyatt—they’d had no idea what else was going on in her life.

“So, I did as Pops said, and I waited. When he finally came to my apartment, he looked as if he hadn’t slept for days. He told me not to ask any questions, just to do as he said, and the first thing he said was I had to quit my job.”

Taylor doubted she’d ever forget that Sunday morning, and her father visiting her before six o’clock.

Rhys gave a low whistle. “That’s a serious ask. Did you?”

She nodded, and with that memory there came a rush of remembered grief and confusion.

“He also told me to set up a mail forwarding service, one that would forward parcels as well as letters, and to send the details to him at the address on the piece of paper he pressed into my hand. It was for a service he’d already arranged, and it would forward everything I sent to a post office box he was going to rent when he got to wherever he was going. He told me to do the same. He said it was so we had a means of communication that wouldn’t leave an electronic trail. I asked him what was going on, but he wouldn’t tell me.”

Rhys’ features settled into a pensive frown. “Didn’t that send up a red flag?”

There was no censure in the question, just curiosity. “It did, but I refused to acknowledge it. I told myself I was imagining things, that this was Pops and he wouldn’t do anything wrong. So, when he told me to get out of the city and disappear, go somewhere out of the way and make a new life, I believed he had good reasons. He made me promise to do it, and as soon as I did, he… left. It was the last time I saw him, the last time I spoke to him.”

Even now, part of Taylor still couldn’t believe it was all for real and still ongoing. “I felt as if I’d stepped into the pages of a spy novel. Crazy as it was, I told myself he must have been trying to protect me from something he couldn’t tell me about. It was the only way I could make it all make sense at the time.”

“So, what did you do?”

Hindsight cast a shadow over the memory. “Exactly what I was told. Over the next few days, I quit my job, organized the mail forwarding, and arranged for my belongings to go into storage. I could only carry so much. My apartment came furnished, so I didn’t have a lot of furniture to deal with, and just as soon as I could, I went to the bus station and took the first bus out of the city. It didn’t matter where it was headed, but doing that over and over, I ended up in Texas—came out of the bus station in town, with no idea where to go.”

Rhys shook his head. “Doing what you did… I can’t make up my mind whether you were incredibly brave or incredibly stupid, going off like that without a plan.”

“There wasn’t time. The way Pops told it… I was terrified. Too focused on making arrangements and too exhausted to think about the finer details. I guess a lot of it was instinct. I was incredibly lucky, though.”

A fond memory coaxed her lips into a smile. “Dee, the original owner of Honey Fields, happened to be passing the bus station. She saw me looking lost and took me in, no questions asked, gave me my first job and helped me start a new life. She even helped me cut all remaining ties to my previous life in New York. I still can’t believe the timing of it all. If I’d left the bus station seconds earlier or seconds later… I don’t know what I would have done without her.”

“And what about your father?”

Taylor let go of a deep sigh. “Until a few days ago, all I could have said was since the day he came to my apartment and set everything in motion, the only contact I’d had with him had been by snail mail, using false names to remain under the radar—whatever you consider that radar to be. As of a few days ago, I can’t tell you because I don’t know.”

“So, what happened a few days ago?”

“Everything blew up.” It certainly felt as if her life had been blown apart. “To begin with, his letters arrived like clockwork. Then they became less frequent. Initially, the change worried me, but the letters were still coming, and he sounded fine. As time went on, the gaps between letters became longer and longer. I kept checking, but there was nothing. I kept sending my letters, asking him what was happening, but there was still nothing.”

Taylor swallowed a mouthful of coffee. A stiff drink wouldn’t be unwelcome. “A few days ago, that changed. I received a package containing a flash drive and a large envelope with the logo of a company you might have heard of—Kilburn DefenseTech.”

“KDT? I know the company by reputation. Leading-edge defense technology that goes for a high price.”

“And my father’s employer. As soon as I saw that logo, I had a feeling it was bad news.”

“Did you open the envelope?”

Taylor shivered. This was the moment her life had gone haywire and her peace of mind had vanished. “I did, because it wasn’t sealed. The two inside it were. The smaller one was addressed to me. It was from Pops; someone was coming for him, I wasn’t to access the drive or open the other envelope, and I was to keep everything until he contacted me. Oh, and I wasn’t to tell anyone about it, either.”

“What made you take it to Nick?”

“When I read the first line, about someone coming for him, it gave me a really bad feeling. I had no idea who it might be, and I realized I couldn’t handle the situation on my own.”

“I’m glad you did. It was the right thing to do. Was there anything else about the note that stood out?”

“It was handwritten but looked as if it was done in a real hurry. Other than that, nothing special.” Taylor shrugged.

“So, you received the envelope and the drive with instructions not to access either, and not to tell anyone you had them. Once you decided to take everything to Nick, did you take a look at the drive?”

Taylor finished her coffee. It had cooled to the point of being virtually undrinkable, but she didn’t care. “No. I didn’t look at any of it, only the note for me. I took it to Nick and he… took over. He took a look, and now he’s got friends and the company counsel investigating it.”

Rhys nodded. “Do you think maybe your father stole the information from his employer?”