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“They tried to kidnap me. They shot at me. They were probably the ones who torched my apartment.”
“I don’t understand.” Her brother rubbed his chin. “What do they look like? The men who tried to kidnap you?”
Cath described Paul and his fire-plug accomplice. Les merely shook his head. Uh-oh. Her throat closed. She clutched at her clover pendant. “What’s wrong?”
“That’s not who’s after me.”
“It’s not?” Ohmigod. That meant… She pressed a fist to her sweaty lip. Les must still be in danger. Maybe she was too.
She sucked in a breath and checked her watch. Mitch should have arrived by now. If he didn’t hear them, he’d start looking. Then what? She tugged her brother toward the stockroom doors. “Let’s go back inside. This place back here is creeping me out.”
Les dug in his heels. “No. They could be looking for me out there in the store. I need to get out of New Orleans. How much money do you have in your wallet?”
“If someone is tracking you down, you’ll be safer in jail. I’ve got the name of a good lawyer who can help, but you know you made a mistake.”
“A mistake?”
She nodded.
“I’m not getting killed for some stupid mistake, Sis.” Les stared at her as if she’d lost her mind. “These guys nearly killed a friend of mine.”
Cath pulled a face. “Justin?”
“You know about him?” Les gawked at her.
“He called to warn me.” She signed “warning.” Les’s friend had called Mitch, but details didn’t matter. Right now, right here, the only thing that mattered was getting Les through the double doors twenty feet away so Mitch would see them.
“He had no business calling you.” Her brother’s voice rose.
“It’s okay,” she signed. If Les didn’t calm down, Mitch would have a fight on his hands, and this time, both the people she loved most in the world could be hurt. She took his arm. “What’s your plan?”
She finger spelled the last word. “You’re going to run for the rest of your life? Or are you going to grow up?”
Rubber-soled shoes squished across the concrete floor behind them.
Les grabbed her arm. “Let’s get out of here.”
A not-Mitch baritone rose from the depths of the storeroom. “You can come with me.”
Chapter 23
A silver-haired man stalked toward them down the stockroom aisle. Cath lurched backward. What was the owner of VIP Tours doing here? Lloyd Benedetto stepped into the light, his scowl as black as the gun in his hand.
Les grabbed her arm, all color draining from his face. “It’s him.”
Who was “him”? Les had been on the run from Benedetto? Her stomach flipped.
“Don’t either of you move.” Lloyd Benedetto sounded like the bad guy in an old gangster movie.
Cath’s hands trembled, and she crossed her arms. He didn’t notice this movement, his stony eyes boring into Les. So much for his threat not to move. And exactly how did she think she could use this to her advantage? Huh?
She had no advantages. Mitch with his special forces training would know what to do. But she’d made him wait in the dairy section. Had he seen Benedetto arrive? Had Lloyd shot him? Were she and Les on their own?
Think this through, Cath. Benedetto had come in through the rear door. Mitch would have come in the front. But how did Lloyd Benedetto know she was here? “You followed me.”
His tailored jacket rose and fell with a shrug. “I had no choice. My numbskull nephew didn’t do what he was supposed to do today. I should never have counted on him.”
“Paul?” Incompetent? But still given the promotions she’d deserved? Her old resentment flooded back. She clenched her jaw, sick of the way she’d let these two men take advantage of her.