Both Ends Burning (Whistleblower Trilogy Book 3) Read Free Page A

again. I smiled at the accumulation of Grace’s shoes near the front door, her wet and muddy boots lined up next to a pair of heels.
    She came to the top of the stairs, draped in a bathrobe. Her hair still wet. An open and empty carry-on bag hung loosely from one hand and tears were streaming down her face.
    Without saying anything, I rushed up the stairs and threw my arms around her. The bathroom vent was still on. Had I told her that was where I’d found the mutilated body of my former trainee? Could I ever use that toilet again and not think of the bloody tie hanging around his neck or the blood pooling on our tiled floor?
    She let me hug her for a few seconds, sobbing quietly, then pushed me back. She lightly touched the bruise on my head from where Glenning had kicked me. “What happened here?”
    “I got in a little fight. It’s nothing.”
    She scowled. “You need to talk to me, Tucker. You need to tell me what’s going on with you, because you scared me half to death with that phone call this morning.”
    I nodded, deflated. “Where are your parents?”
    “They had to fly back last night. My sister is out for a walk.”
    “Seems a little early for a walk.”
    Grace huffed a sigh. “She’s not sleeping well. But forget about that. Please tell me what’s going on.”
    “The people who did this to us, they’re still after me. They think I have some memory card, but I don’t. I gave it to my dad and he smashed it last night.”
    Her eyes shot wide open. “You gave it to who ?”
    I forgot I hadn’t told her about that. The events of the last few days had all morphed into an ugly blur. “He faked his death to hide from IntelliCraft. There’s so much I still need to tell you. I don’t know where to begin. Omar is dead. My dad is alive. IntelliCraft is going to kill us all unless they get what they’re after.”
    “Can’t you just tell them you don’t have it?”
    “I don’t think that would make any difference. They won’t believe me, no matter what I say. If they think I have it, that might buy me some time.”
    “Time for what?” she said.
    I didn’t answer the question, so she walked back into the bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed. Dog came rushing from downstairs and leaped onto the bed next to her, lapping at her face.
    “I see you’ve made a new best friend,” I said.
    She smiled through the tears. “He’s very sweet.”
    Another suitcase sat open on the bed, and Kitty was sitting in it, staring at me. I lifted her out and set her next to it. “You can’t come, Kitty. You’ll be okay here, though.”
    “What are we going to do?” Grace said.
    “We need to go somewhere they don’t know about. Somewhere they can’t find us. We can’t fly there, obviously,” I said, pointing at her third-trimester belly. “We can’t leave a paper trail or they’ll know right away. They’re tapped into my credit cards and my phone. Probably yours too.”
    “What happened to Omar?”
    The corners of my eyes stung. “He didn’t make it. We were almost there, but… they caught him.”
    She shook her head. “I’m sorry, baby.”
    “That doesn’t matter anymore. All that I care about is our safety, and finding a place to hide.”
    “I don’t understand why we can’t call the police,” she said.
    “They’ve proven before that they have cops on the payroll. We can’t trust anybody.”
    She stroked Dog’s fur for a few seconds, then her eyes lit up. “Rodrick has a timeshare at Keystone, at the base of the main ski lift. It’s perfect, and I do trust him.”
    The sudden revelation about her boss’ timeshare seemed off place. How did she even know about that?
    I shook my head. “I don’t want to put him in danger. Rodrick helped me the day I found you. I talked to him several times, so they have to know about him. For all I know, they’ve got him under the same surveillance as us.”
    “No, that’s the thing. It’s his ex-wife’s condo, but he has control of it, for