Page 76 of Protecting Kelli
“You need to come back to your place. I’ll take Kelli to a hotel.”
“Don’t be stupid. Stay put. Both of you. I’m good here. I kind of like your kitchen. And I’m currently binge watching your DVDs ofCriminal Minds. I know it’s on streaming, but there’s something so old school about watching it on disc.”
Frustration ate at Flash. “We need to find him. Stop this shit.”
“I agree,” Smiley said. “Which is why I told Tex to step things up. To get that chick from New Mexico involved.He’s busy. Has his hands in a million different pies, as usual. We need someone on this exclusively. And…I think her name is Ryleigh, or something like that…she’s just as good or even better than Tex, even though he doesn’t like to admit it. She might be able to find this asshole, tell the cops where he is, maybe even provide the evidence they need to lock him up for good.”
“All right. If you need anything—and I meananything, Smiley—you call. Understand?”
“Of course. I’ll see you at PT in the morning.”
When his friend hung up, Flash looked up to see three sets of eyes locked on him.
“What happened?”
“Is Smiley all right?”
The first question came from Kevlar, the second, not surprisingly, from Kelli.
“There was an incident at my apartment complex. Everyone is fine.”
“Williams,” Kevlar said. It wasn’t a question.
“Most likely,” Flash confirmed.
Kelli frowned. “What should we do?”
“For now, nothing except stay vigilant. Keep our doors locked, our eyes open. You aren’t going to like this, but I’m going to need you to stay inside Smiley’s apartment while I’m at work. If you need something, you can order it to be delivered, or let me know and I’ll pick it up on my way home.”
“I can drive her somewhere if she needs to go out,” Remi volunteered.
“I appreciate that, but this asshole might know about you and the other women by now. I don’t want himdeciding to follow one of you to find out where we’re staying. And Idefinitelydon’t want him using you to get to either Kelli or me.”
“Should I leave?” Kelli asked quietly. “I can go to Florida. Or New York. Hell, Maine. It’s pretty rural there.”
“No!” Flash exclaimed. He took a deep breath. “No. Smiley is going to ask Tex to put his computer genius friend from New Mexico on this exclusively. She’ll locate Williams, so the cops can put him away. We just have to be patient for a little while longer.”
Kevlar frowned. “I don’t like this.”
Flash snorted. “Neither do I.”
“I’m willing to be cautious, but what if this computer personcan’tfind him? I don’t want Brant to win by having you and I hiding and not living our lives. And what happens if he’s not found before you guys get deployed? Am I supposed to hide in Smiley’s apartment forever? That’s not acceptable. I want to live my life! I want to start classes at the community college so I can become an electrician and fix Jessyka’s sign.” Kelli was breathing faster now, almost panicking by the time she finished speaking.
Flash shoved his chair back, reached over, and pulled Kelli out of her seat. He settled her onto his lap so she straddled him and they were eye-to-eye, holding her face in his hands. “Do you remember what I told you before Remi and Kevlar arrived?” he asked.
He saw her swallow hard, then nod.
“You think any of that can happen if we have to hide out? It can’t. So I’m going to fix this. I’m going to find that coward and make sure he knows he picked the wrong people. The day he decided to put us in that bus was his downfall, he just doesn’t know it yet.”
“I don’t want to lose you,” Kelli whispered.
“Lose me? How?”
“If you kill him, you could go to jail.”
“I’m not going to jail,” Flash told her confidently. He wasn’t going to promise that he wouldn’t kill Williams—because if he got the chance, he was definitely taking the man out. If the guy simply went to jail, the opportunity for him to get out would hang over their heads forever. And Flash had no doubt that if Williams was let out of prison, he’d be gunning for them once again.
He didn’t know how, or when, but Brant Williams was going down. He wasn’t going to stand in the way of Flash and Kelli living the life he saw in his fantasies. No fucking way.
