Page 181 of Pieces of Her (Andrea Oliver 1)

He should be worried.

Laura felt a wave of nausea as she realized what had just happened. Nick had threatened Andy. He had told her to choose. Laura had made her choice. It was all happening again.

I don’t want to hurt our child, but I will.

The door opened.

She told Mike, “He threatened my daughter. If he comes after us—”

“We’ll take care of it.”

“No,” she told him. “I’ll take care of it. Do you understand me?”

“Whoa.” Mike held up his hands. “Do me a favor and call me first. Like you could’ve called me before you went to that hotel room. Or when you were in a shoot-out at the mall. Or—”

“Just keep him away from my family.” Laura got a burning sensation in her spine that told her to be careful. Mike was a cop. She had been held blameless for Paula’s death, but Laura of all people knew the government could always find a way to fuck you if they wanted.

“He’ll be in a SuperMax,” Mike said. “He won’t be writing letters or getting visitors. He’ll get one shower a week, maybe an hour of daylight, if he’s lucky.”

Laura took out the earbuds. She dropped them into Mike’s hand. The burst of adrenaline was tapering off. Her fingers were steady. Her heart wasn’t quivering like a cat’s whisker anymore. She had done what she’d come here to do. It was over. She never had to see Nick again.

Not unless she chose to.

Mike said, “I gotta admit, I thought you had a screw loose when you told me to figure out a way to get that piano moved.”

Laura knew she had to stay in his good graces. “The petition was a clever trick.”

“Marshal School 101: you can get an inmate to do anything for potato chips.” Mike was preening, his chest puffed out. He clearly loved the game. “The way you kept looking at the piano like a kid staring at a bag of candy. You really worked him.”

Laura saw Andy through the window in the door. She looked older now, more like a woman than a girl. Her brow was creased. She was worried.

Laura told Mike, “I will do whatever it takes to keep my daughter safe.”

“I can name a couple of corpses who found that out the hard way.”

She turned to look at him. “Keep that in mind if you ever consider asking her out on a date.”

The door opened.

“Mom—” Andy rushed into Laura’s arms.

“I’m fine.” Laura willed it to be true. “Just a little shaken.”

“She was great.” Mike winked at Laura, as if they were in this together. “She worked him like Tyson. The boxer, not the chicken.”

Andy grinned.

Laura looked away. She could not abide seeing pieces of Nick in her child.

She told Mike, “I need to get out of here.”

He waved for the guard. Laura almost tripped over the man’s shoes as they exited back through security. She waited for Andy to get her purse out of the locker, her phone and keys.

“I’ve been thinking about something,” Mike said, because he was incapable of being silent. “The old Nickster didn’t know you already confessed to transporting the gun to Oslo, right? That’s why you got two years in the slammer. The judge sealed that part of your immunity agreement. He didn’t want to exacerbate international tensions. If the Germans found out an American smuggled a gun from West to East for the purposes of murder, there would’ve been hell to pay.”

Laura took her purse from Andy. She checked to make sure her wallet was inside.

Mike said, “So, when you told Nick that stuff about the gun, he thought you were implicating yourself. But you weren’t.”