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O utside, Sadie took several deep breaths and asked Morrison, “Now that you have Don, even though he’s not able to talk yet, will that help?”

“Terk’s team and our forensic guys are doing a full analysis on everybody in his circle right now,” he shared, with a simple nod.

“So, in a way, yes, and hopefully enough that we can get to his known associates. We’re also inputting his physical measurements to run against some of the street cams to see what else we can find and who was with him at various times. ”

“Right, even now I hope his apartment building has cameras.”

He nodded. “They’re on that too.”

“ Great ,” she muttered, as she walked closer to him. “So, what are we doing now?”

“Going back to your place,” he replied, “and either we’ll stop for groceries on the way or we’ll order in. In case you hadn’t noticed, it’s quite late in the day already.”

“I noticed,” she agreed, “and I’m pretty beat.”

“So, what do you want to do? Go out for food, pick up food, or order in?”

She considered it. “Maybe just pick up groceries and cook?” He looked at her in surprise. She shrugged. “Something comforting, like pasta maybe.”

“Good enough,” he said, hiding his grin. He led the way back to his vehicle, where she quickly took the passenger seat. As they headed to the grocery store, she was already yawning. “Will you make it long enough for pasta?” he asked her.

“If we do something simple, yeah,” she muttered.

“But now that Don’s in the hospital and seems to be safe, I’m really exhausted.

” They made a quick trip into the grocery store.

By the time they were back in the vehicle and headed home, it had seemed as if only a few minutes had passed.

“I can cook when we get in,” she offered.

“I’ll do it,” he noted. “You’re obviously exhausted.”

At her apartment, they headed up to her place, with Morrison carrying the one brown paper bag with groceries in it. She stopped outside the elevator and looked back, then frowned at Morrison. “Those don’t seem to be any of Terk’s men.”

“You’re just noticing them?” Morrison asked.

“Are we being followed?” she asked in a low voice.

“I would say so,” he replied. “I wanted to see if they try to head up the elevators with us.”

“But they’ve already seen our faces, which means they probably know where I’m living.”

“That would be my take on it too,” he said.

“When did you pick them up?”

“At the hospital parking lot.” He shrugged it off. “Terk’s been alerted. Now the question is, what will we do about it?”

“Shit,” she muttered. “I just wanted to go home, collapse in my chair, and relax. They picked one hell of a time to interrupt my plans.”

“We can still try that, but I suspect we’ll get company very quickly.”

She stiffened. “Do you think they’re part of the jewelry heist crew?”

“I’m not sure,” he told her, “but I don’t like anything about this.”

She stared at him. “There’s a rear entrance, so we could just head out the back, grab a cab, and go somewhere else.”

*

Morrison nodded. “I was just about to make that suggestion.” He nudged her forward and around the corner.

A set of security mirrors high up on the walls let Morrison watch as the two men walked in through the front door, hopefully not seeing Morrison as he led Sadie quickly in the opposite direction.

As he got to the outside door, he looked back but saw no sign of them.

“They’ll be at my place already, won’t they?” she asked.

“They are by now, yes. I suspect, if we give them another few minutes, they’ll come back out again.”

“Now I can’t go back home because, if they know I’m there, they’ll just be on my case all the time. This is a nightmare.”

“Agreed,” Morrison stated, as he led the way out. “We can’t use the same vehicle now either.” He quickly phoned Gage. “Hey, we need a pick up. We were followed back to her apartment.”

“Be there in five,” Gage replied. “Keep walking down the street. I’ll find you.”

And, with that, Morrison led her around the corner to another side street. At the end of that, they just kept walking. “Where are we, and why are we here?” she asked, looking up at him with a puzzled expression.

“Gage is coming to pick us up, but we don’t want to be where we’re expected to be,” he explained, his senses on high alert.

“I can’t believe that anybody is following us now,” she noted, and then she stopped. “Those men weren’t cops, were they?”

“If they were, they didn’t announce that, nor tell us that they were on guard duty, so that always makes me suspicious. From what I saw in the mirror, they are probably part of your brother’s crew.”

“Shouldn’t we be trying to follow them instead?”

“Yeah, don’t worry. Terk’s team is already checking the street cameras, trying to ID them,” he shared, with half a smile.

“Oh, I didn’t even think of that.”

“These guys must not be energy workers, or they would have already disrupted the energy feed to the cameras. So it wasn’t them putting out the cameras at the heists,” he noted. “Chances are, it’s been your brother.”

“How many people were involved in these heists?” she asked.

“We’re assuming four, three inside and a driver.”

She nodded. “So that would be my brother, these two, and potentially one more.”

“Which could still be the driver, which is Penny it seems.”

“Oh, crap, I didn’t think of that.”

“At least we got out the back way, and we’re still walking,” he said. “As long as nobody picks up that we’re out here, hopefully we’ll be okay,… at least until Gage gets here.” At that, he shifted into an alleyway.

“Are you pulling me into an alleyway on purpose?” she asked, her voice hushed.

“Yeah, I sure am. I don’t like anything about what’s coming up behind me.”

“Crap,” she muttered. “How come I can’t see or feel anything?”

“Because your energy is tuned to your brother right now, not necessarily to anybody else,” he suggested in a hush. “You seem to place family over everything.”

“Of course, for me it has been everything. It isn’t for you?”

“No. Right now it’s all about security, and that security has definitely been compromised. It feels as if we’re being hunted, and I want to ensure that nobody finds us.”