Damek shook his head. “No, or I would’ve taken care of it. And I would’ve told you.” He again muttered in his native tongue. “I can’t believe Sabrina turned. She seemed the perfect mark, the best person to work with us.”
“You and your men need to be careful. You need to stay low. Now more than ever.”
“Don’t worry about us,” Damek said. “We weren’t doing anything anyway, and we certainly won’t now.” He grimaced. “What are you going to do about Sabrina?”
Kline thought about that. “I have to find her, and then I’m not sure.”
“If you want her gone, we can take care of it.”
Kline had already considered that. It would take quite a sum of money to get Damek to get rid of the bank employee, and it might be the best thing to do. Kline couldn’t afford to get directly involved in that murder. It would make sense to have Damek kill her, though. If he did, and the police ever came back to him, it would look as if he was eliminating someone who could tie him to the robbery.
Before that, though, Kline wanted to talk to Sabrina himself. There were some things he couldn’t trust to others, and he wanted to hear what she had to say. He would be thorough with her in a way that no one else would be.
But he had to find her first.
The two men stood in silence for a long while, and then Kline spoke.
“There’s nothing else you need to tell me?”
“No,” Damek said. “I’ll let you know if I hear anything, like I told you I would. You know me.”
Kline did. On the one hand, he hated having to drill the man as he’d just done. Then again, he hadn’t expected Sabrina to turn, either. That changed everything.
“Be careful,” Kline said.
He stepped away from the vehicle as Damek slid behind the wheel and headed down the road. When the car was just a speck on the horizon, Kline walked slowly to his rental and drove off in the other direction.
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO
When Lydia walked outside, her driver was standing by the back door of the SUV, the engine running. As she approached, Jo opened the door with a smile.
Lydia still felt on edge, and she knew she looked it. Upstairs, she’d touched up her makeup, but she couldn’t hide the paleness of her skin, the worry lines flaring from the corners of her eyes. Large sunglasses covered that now, but there was only so much she could do. She got into the back seat and waited for Jo to get behind the wheel. The driver glanced in the rearview mirror.
“Where to?” Jo asked politely.
Lydia had been thinking about that. She wanted to go someplace where no one would know her, where Kline and his people wouldn’t expect her to be. She glanced out the window to the house—she wanted to be far away from here.
“There’s a bar called Remington’s, in Irving.” She glanced at her phone and told Jo the address. “Go there.”
She’d heard her son, Bryce, mention Remington’s, but she’d never been there herself. It wasn’t the type of place she would normally go to, and neither would any of her friends or associates. Which was exactly what she wanted.
Jo nodded and put the SUV in gear. The air-conditioner was running, and it was cool. It should have been refreshing, but Lydia was too focused on other things. She wrung her hands, thinking about the phone call she’d received when she’d been near the pool.
Mackenzie Potts had called, ostensibly to apologize for her words the previous evening. At first, she’d sounded sincere, and had told Lydia she shouldn’t have mentioned anything about JD. But the woman wouldn’t let it go, saying that if something was going on with her husband, she’d want her friends to let her know.
Lydia snorted at the thought, and the driver glanced in the rearview mirror.
“Ma’am?”
“I’m sorry, I’m upset,” Lydia said.
Jo hesitated. “Anything you want to talk about?”
Hell yes, Lydia thought, shocked at the intensity of her feelings. Her mind went back to Mackenzie. She wasn’t sure what to believe, whether the woman really cared about what JD might’ve done, or if she only wanted to pile on from last night. Because she had pointed out more, had said that something had gone on with JD years ago, that there was talk of something illegal. Lydia had no idea why Mackenzie wouldn’t have said something at the time, but she wasn’t going to ask that now. She also didn’t know how Mackenzie had gotten this information.
However, Lydia wasn’t going to give the woman the satisfaction of knowing that she was getting under her skin. Nor was she going to say that Mackenzie’s phone call was a slap in the face, the final thing that made her drag herself from the denial she’d been in.
It was all right there. She’d heard JD with Kline, and she knew he was up to something bad. She desperately wanted someone to talk to, but who? She had friends, but no one as close as her mother had been. Who could she trust that wouldn’t turn on her, creating more rumors, fueling the likes of Mackenzie?
The thought of her mother made Lydia choke back a sob. That brought another concerning look from the driver.
“Do you need a moment?” she asked. “I can pull over and give you some privacy.”
“I’m fine,” Lydia said, knowing her tone didn’t match the words.
Jo kept driving, but she kept an eye on Lydia. Then she spoke again.
“Ma’am, forgive me if I’m overstepping my boundaries, but you don’t look okay. I was worried about you when I saw you by the pool.”
Lydia’s head jerked up. “What did you think I was going to do?”
Jo shrugged. “I don’t know. But you kept getting closer to the edge.”
She laughed bitterly. “I wasn’t going to . . . harm myself. I was . . . deep in thought. There are some things going on, and I’m not sure what to do. You don’t know this about me, but I like the water. It’s calming for me. That’s why I was out there.”
“And then you received a phone call?”
“Yes. I . . .”
