Page 8 of Under Fire

“Since he wants to follow me, I know just the place to lead him. Goodbye, Mr. Dangerfield.”

***

Locke heard a distinctive click in his ear. “What the hell!” Hollis Calloway was being followed by no telling who, and she hadn’t given him her location. Whatever she was trying to prove could very well get that pretty little ass of hers killed.

He tossed her business card on his coffee table and began pacing, totally rattled, and that’s the one thing he didn’t do. Get rattled. Now he was pacing, which is something else he never did. People paced to release nervous energy while coping with emotions. He never fell within that category.

Not until today.

He checked his watch. Maybe he should call the police anyway…and tell them what? He couldn’t identify the car she was driving because when she left his place, he had been checking her out and not her car. The person tailing her was in a black SUV, and they left here headed west. He knew that much. He also knew that wasn’t enough.

Not able to stand it, he picked up her business car and called her again. This time there was no answer. What if she couldn’t handle things as she assumed? And she had said the guy tailing her had been parked in front of his place when she had arrived. Who was he? With the special phone Locke had, he would have detected if the man had tailed him, and he was glad for that. He had been busy earlier in the week driving around doing those personal interviews.

If the man was tied in any way to the Halifax case, this could mean danger for Hollis Calloway because he had a feeling those involved were stone killers. “Call back, dammit!” he hollered into his phone as if it could communicate that demand to her.

As if it had, his phone rang, and he quickly answered, figuring it was her when he saw it was her number. “Hollis?”

“Yes, Locke?”

He frowned. Why had he felt comfortable calling her by her first name? Doing so made it okay for her to call him by his first name, too. “Where the hell are you?”

“I’m here with him.”

He rubbed the top of his head, fighting off confusion. “Him, who?”

“Nick Underwood, the guy who was following me. Just so you know, he was ordered to locate Karl Halifax and thought you would eventually lead him to where he is. He followed me because he assumed I was Halifax’s girlfriend and that I was leaving your place to go to him. Do you want to question him before I turn him over to the police?”

“Yes. Where are you, Hollis?”

“Within five miles of where you are. At the Townsend Marina.”

“Isn’t that place abandoned?”

“It was until Nick followed me here. Now Charlie and I are making sure he doesn’t go anywhere. Isn’t that right, Nick?”

Locke lifted a brow as he grabbed for his jacket, pausing long enough to grab his pistol from behind the plant where he had placed it earlier, to slide it into his pocket as he headed for the door. “Who’s Charlie?”

“My Glock. I’ll see you when you get here.” Then she ended the call with a click.

***

When Locke arrived at the abandoned marina, he saw Hollis had things under control. The guy Nick was kneeling beside his vehicle with his hands interlocked behind his head. And from the flash of fear in the man’s eyes, it seemed he was glad to see another person arrive, whether friend or foe.

That made Locke recall his first encounter with an FBI agent at eighteen. The man had such an overbearing and controlling disposition that Locke had been outright terrified. Just because Hollis wasn’t an FBI agent anymore didn’t mean she didn’t act the part. Did that mean she enjoyed the power she had over people? But then, he decided not to be so quick to judge when he saw Nick’s size and Hollis’ torn blouse and soiled skirt. Evidently, bringing Nick to his knees hadn’t been easy for her. The man had found out the hard way that there were some women who could kick ass just as fiercely as a man.

“It took you long enough, Locke.”

He fought back a smile at that before saying, “Evening traffic was a bitch.” He then walked over to the man with several bruises on his face and a busted lip. “Who hired you?”

The man glared at him. “I’m not telling you a damn thing.”

Locke nodded. “You can stay silent, but when the cops get you in the interrogation room, they will have you singing like a canary.”

“I won’t tell them a damn thing either.”

“Doesn’t matter. They might say you did anyway, just to see what happens. I would hate for the person who hired you to believe you spilled your guts and consider you a liability.”

It didn’t take long for Nick to blurt out, “Today was my first day in town, and the person who hired me was Earl. That’s all I know. I’m not even from around these parts.”