Page 35 of Crowe
“Plus, he trusts you,” Wolfe continued. “That matters.” He picked up his pen and turned it between two fingers. “So. That leads to the big question. Where do we go from here?”
He looked at me like he thought I had the answer. I didn’t, but I’d been thinking about options for days now.
“We can’t keep him here indefinitely,” I said. “He won’t want that, and it’s not a solution. Unfortunately, whatever Corvane paid for Noah, it was enough that he isn’t willing to walk away. Either that, or his pride won’t let him take a loss. But either way, he isn’t going to stop.”
“Agreed,” Wolfe said.
“So we need to give him a reason to stop. Or we need to take away his ability to try.” I paused. “The second one is preferable but harder.”
“Chance can’t move on Corvane without something solid,” Hawk said. “The man is insulated. Everything Kat found is circumstantial enough that a good lawyer will take it apart in forty minutes.”
“Then we need something that isn’t circumstantial.” I thought about Noah in the apartment upstairs. The way he’d slept through the night curled up against my side. “We also need to make sure Noah can still live his life. He has an event coming up. A fundraiser for the Freedom Forward Gala. He’s speaking at it. He’s not going to miss it.”
Gator looked up. “Damn, a public event.”
“I know.”
“With a man actively trying to get to him,” Gator added, just to be thorough.
“I know,” I said again. “But it’s important to him. He agreed to speak before any of this happened. It’s a fundraiser for trafficking victims. It matters to him to do something. Not just to survive it. To do something.”
Nobody said anything for a moment.
“We can make it work,” Hawk said finally. “It’ll take planning.”
“It’ll take more than that,” Wolfe said. “We’ll need eyes on the venue well in advance. Guest list, security layout, exit points. If Corvane or Valen has any idea Noah is planning to attend a public event of that profile, they may see it as an opportunity.”
I wasn’t sure how this was all going to play out, but I knew something had to give. “Noah spending the rest of his life hiding isn’t a solution, and neither is letting Corvane get his hands on him. So we need a plan.” I looked at the closed folder on the desk. “Corvane thinks he’s untouchable. People like that get comfortable. Comfortable people make mistakes.”
Wolfe was quiet for a long moment. Then he nodded slowly. “All right. We keep Noah here until we have a better picture of whatCorvane’s next move might be. Kat will keep monitoring them, and we’ll plan for the Gala as an active operation, not just a security detail.” He looked at Hawk and Gator. “We’ll need to put together a team.”
“I’ll do that,” Hawk said.
“I’ll call Chance, as well,” Wolfe said. “I want to know what he has on Corvane before we do anything else. If they’re already working an angle, I don’t want to screw it up. Who knows, they may fix our problem for us.”
“Wouldn’t that be nice?”
“It would.” Wolfe agreed. “But I wouldn’t count on it, anyway, that’s it for today. I’ll let you all know if I hear anything helpful.”
I pushed to my feet. There was a place one floor up I wanted to be.
“I’ll be upstairs,” I said.
“Of course you will,” Hawk said pleasantly.
I didn’t dignify that. I was almost to the door when Wolfe spoke again. “Crowe.”
I turned.
He looked at me across the office, and there was nothing in his expression but something quiet and direct. “I’m glad you were close enough to get to him.”
I held his gaze for a moment. “So am I,” I said, and left.
Chapter twelve
Noah
When Jackson came back, he filled me in on what Hawk and Gator had learned from the men who’d shown up at the cabin. He didn’t try to sugarcoat it; he just laid it all out there for me. Gregor Valen, Anton Corvane. The layers between them and the reason those layers existed. He’d sat on the edge of the couch while he talked, and I’d sat across from him in the chair by the window. When he was finished, he’d waited, giving me room to have whatever reaction I was going to have.
