For all the FBI really knew, he had gone postal and mowed down everybody in that warehouse on Sunday night. If it became expedient for the bureau to pass him off as a veteran suffering from P.T.S.D., then that’s what they would do, and no one, probably not even the woman sharing a stolen truck—and a wanna-fuck-you-bad kiss with him—would believe otherwise.
Chances were good that he wouldn’t be around to see the smoke clear on this case. He wouldn’t be available to exonerate himself for the warehouse massacre. He’d wind up on a slab, growing cold in infamy. But by God, he wasn’t going to take the fall for The Bookkeeper’s handiwork without putting up a hell of a fight.
This morning had been a close call. As sure as he was still breathing, that engaged cell phone had brought people running to that damn tub, and in all probability Doral Hawkins had been leading the pack. If Emily hadn’t awakened him when she had, they’d all have been shot in their bunks.
Risking his own life was a job requirement. Risking theirs, no way.
Mind made up, he said, “You mentioned a friend yesterday.”
Honor looked over at him. “Tori.”
“Aunt Tori,” Emily chirped. “She’s funny.”
The gender of Honor’s friend shouldn’t have mattered to him at all. He was surprised by how glad he was to learn it was a woman. “Good friend?”
“Best friends. Emily thinks she’s family.”
“You trust her?”
“Implicitly.”
He pulled off the road, rolled to a stop on the shoulder, and dug his cell phone from his front pants pocket. Then, turning to Honor, he laid it on the line. “I gotta dump the two of you.”
“But—”
“No buts,” he said emphatically. “Only thing I need to know, when you’re free of me, are you going to call in the cavalry?”
“You mean Doral?”
“Him, the police, the FBI. Last night, you enumerated all the reasons you came with me. One of them was mistrusting the authorities. Does that still hold?”
She nodded.
“Say it.”
“I won’t call in the cavalry.”
“All right. Do you think your friend would hide you for a couple of days?”
“Why a couple of days?”
“Because that’s how long Hamilton gave me.”
“He gave you less than that.”
“Will she hide you?”
“If I ask her to.”
“She wouldn’t betray your trust?”
Without an instant’s hesitation, she gave an emphatic shake of her head.
“That means she can’t call in the cavalry either,” he said.
“That would be the last thing Tori would do.”
It went against his nature, as well as his training and experience, to trust anyone. But he had no choice except to give Honor the benefit of the doubt. As soon as he was out of sight, she might very well sic Doral Hawkins on him, but that was a risk he had to take.