Kye trooped after her. “Let me rephrase. Tell me what’s going on before I throttle you.”
Yard took a deep breath and turned around to face him. “I want to hire you.”
“I’m already engaged, in a manner of speaking.”
“No, you’re doing Law a favor. I want to pay you so you owe your allegiance to me. That means you can’t contact Law about me or with anything you learn about me.”
Kye crossed his arms, feeling a trap opening beneath him. “What do I have to do?”
“I don’t know yet.” She turned and continued toward her Jeep.
“Hold up, Ms. Long, Leggy, and Inscrutable.” He bent down to pick up Lily and slung her around his shoulders. “You need to tell me what’s going on.”
No.” She hopped in her Jeep and turned on the ignition. She glanced at him. “You coming?”
*
“What do you suppose they were doing?” Agent Glaser lowered his Steiner MM30 8x30mm military binoculars, a memento from his years in the marines.
“Searching for something?” FBI agent Jackson couldn’t help it. The younger man Glaser was so intense that he forgot sometimes to think in basic human terms.
“Looked like they recovered a cell phone.”
Jackson nodded. “I’d purely love to know why she threw it away there, and then decided she needed it back.”
“Something to do with Dr. Gunnar?”
“Everything to do with Dr. Gunnar, is my guess.”
Witnesses fled the witness security program more frequently than the public knew. Over time that ache to “get back to real life” could overwhelm even the instinct for self-preservation. But they’d thought the doc was sturdier than that. If only because Dr. Gunnar had brought this case to the feds.
For more than two years a federal task force that included the FDA’s Criminal Investigations Unit, the DEA, and the World Health Organization had been investigating counterfeit prescription drugs entering the United States. Working overseas, Dr. Gunnar had put the pieces together for them, could name sources, drugs, and companies. Every one of those sources would like nothing better than to see the doc disappear. Without him, the case could collapse. Which is why they’d tucked him safely away. His doing a runner didn’t make sense. Unless he was running to instead of from someone.
What they’d discovered by spying on the pair was that Yardley Summers probably knew more than she was saying. And that the McGarren fellow was more than he seemed.
“We’ll keep watch, from a distance, for a few days. Or until Dr. Gunnar’s been located.”
CHAPTER EIGHT
Yardley and Kye drove back to the house in silence. But it wasn’t empty of emotion. Yardley turned every which way the conversation she’d had with the federal agent, looking for unspoken clues in his manner, his tone, his refusal to tell her much.
What she did know: The FBI and the DEA were looking for David Gunnar. Nothing else explained their visit. And they thought she might be his contact.
Her heartbeat quickened as she pulled into the driveway. She had only one mission in mind, to plug in her phone and find out if David Gunnar had been in touch.
There was a reason David had stopped texting. A reason with federal implications. Though it should have frightened her, the thought very selfishly made her feel better. She hadn’t been ghosted. Something big had kept him from her.
She glanced sideways at Kye, feeling guilty for no reason she could put a finger on. One quick kiss didn’t negate a relationship of more than a year’s standing. She wasn’t a teenager, about to blow things out of proportion. So what if it felt nice? But Kye couldn’t be around when she read David’s messages, if he’d sent anything.
David needs me. She’d stopped hoping just when he needed her to most believe in him. Screw what anyone else thought!
She stepped hard on the brake. “Make yourself scarce for a while. I need some privacy.” She didn’t wait for Kye to agree but jumped out, grabbed Oleg’s leash, and headed for the house.
“Feed Lily?”
She paused on the porch and turned. Kye released Lily, who shot straight toward Yardley. “Her food’s in my backpack. She needs water, too.”
Yardley nodded and opened her door, letting both animals through. She did not need to feel bad about leaving Kye in the cold on the driveway. But she did. Damn. He was getting to her without even trying.
She went like a tornado through the drawers of her kitchen utility drawer, impatience turning to giddiness when she found the white charger cord at the back.
Oleg and Lily had followed her into the kitchen. Oleg still wore a muzzle but he didn’t seem overly concerned about the fact that Lily was wandering freely through his territory. He seemed to think he could still get at whatever was producing those wonderful smells in the garbage.