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Hours later, Haley heard the key turning in the front door. She rose from the couch where she had been anxiously awaiting Luke’s return.
Luke looked weary as he walked in, holding up the carrier she’d seen him toting that first day in the woods. Relieved that he’d remembered, she approached and glanced through the gridded top, spotting a tuft of black fur.
He set the carrier on the carpet, prompting Jane to meow. Haley hastened to unclasp the top.
“Thank you,” she said, easing the lid open and peering inside. “I was so worried about her.”
“You care.”
Haley glanced up, surprised by the statement. But a lot of people were surprising her today.
Luke ran one hand through his hair as he looked out the front door. “I brought all the cat things I could find, even though none of the items were covered by the search warrant or entered into the evidence log.”
Haley flashed him a grin. “I won’t tell anyone.”
She expected Luke to at least smile in return, but he just stood by the door. She wondered if he always acted this humorless when a woman occupied his house. It was no surprise the man stayed single.
He took a step outside. “I’ll get the items from my car.”
“Okay.”
As Luke disappeared, Haley reached into the carrier to stroke Jane, who arched her back against one of the sides. It didn’t take long before the cat started purring, at which point Haley pulled her out and set her on the carpet. Jane sniffed the air and wandered around the living room, ignoring her human companion as she surveyed her new surroundings.
Luke returned with two plastic bags and a full litter pan. Haley took one of the bags from him.
“I take it you’re a cat person,” he said.
Haley extracted Jane’s food and water dishes, filling them both with generous portions and setting them in the kitchen. “Yes, I guess. I’ve had several, years ago.”
Jane wandered over to the front door, spurring Luke to slam it shut and flip the deadbolt. Jane glared at him for a second before turning her tail up and resuming her home inspection. Luke watched her, his jaw tensed tightly enough to cause permanent muscle damage.
“I take it you’re not a cat person,” Haley observed.
“What gave it away?”
Haley relocated the litter pan to the far corner of the kitchen, where Luke would be less likely to step in it. He might view such an incident as grounds to tote Jane to the pound.
“Not all cats get stuck in trees all the time,” she told Luke. “Most of them learn from their mistakes after the first or second time.”
Luke didn’t say anything. Apparently he couldn’t muster up even a trace of amusement over Jane’s antics. He was definitely not a cat person.
Haley pointed to the second bag still clenched in his fist. “What else did you bring?”
Luke set the bag on the carpet. “Just a couple toys I found lying around.”
Jane trotted over to the bag before turning her attention to the couch. She sniffed one corner.
“You should have brought her a scratching post,” Haley said. “Now she’ll claw your furniture.”
Luke eyed the cat, absently replying, “Jane’s declawed.”
Haley thought about her visit to Jenna’s house, when Jane had sat in her lap and kneaded her thighs. Her little paw pads had slid right over the denim of Haley’s jeans. The cats she’d had in the past always used their claws, digging into whatever surface they were working no matter whether that meant puncturing Haley’s skin underneath.
A prickle of unease worked its way through her body as the implications of Luke’s statement sank in. Declawed cats couldn’t climb trees, could they? They would have nothing to give themselves a decent grip. And if Jane couldn’t tree herself, what had Luke been rescuing her from all those times in the woods?
Haley played through her first meeting with Luke, the Saturday she’d arrived in town. She remembered the animal carrier he’d had with him, the same carrier now on his living room floor. The gridded metal lid offered the only view inside. She hadn’t considered the carrier’s construction before, but now the lack of air holes troubled her.
The design suggested that whatever Luke transported inside of it didn’t require air.
A chill ran down her spine. Could Luke have been in the woods that Saturday to harvest the marijuana she’d located, planning to secure his spoils in the animal cage? Jenna lived close enough that he’d merely have to follow the trail to the eastern edge of the woods and cross the street to reach her house. Anyone watching would assume he intended to reunite Jenna with her runaway cat, never suspecting the carrier contained more foliage than fauna.
That would make Luke the third partner.
Haley broke out into a cold sweat as she ran through each of her previous encounters with the man. The first time she’d met him, he’d seemed annoyed, angry even, that she’d ventured off the pedestrian trail. At the time, she’d written off his response to a bad temper, but maybe she’d oversimplified things. Maybe Luke Justice had resented her discovery of the drug organization’s inventory.
She swung her gaze toward Luke, who still stood by the front door. He watched her, his resigned expression suggesting he knew she’d figured him out.
“That marijuana belonged to you,” Haley said, her voice sounding high-pitched and foreign. She reached behind her, grabbing onto the kitchen counter for support.
Luke didn’t deny the accusation. He probably figured there was no point in feigning innocence anymore.
She recalled how Luke had never asked her to lead him to the marijuana plants when she’d mentioned stumbling upon them. If he hadn’t known about the cannabis already, wouldn’t he have wanted to verify for himself that the plants weren’t actually weeds she’d labeled by mistake?
Of course he would have, Haley considered now. The only reason he would assume she’d correctly identified the plants was if he already knew he couldn’t discredit her claim. Given how he viewed everything else she told him with acute skepticism—even doubting her gender identification of The Farmer—she could kick herself for not questioning his reaction earlier.
“You and Jenna have been partners all along, haven’t you?” Haley said, her throat constricting. “That means the person I actually saw near the marijuana that day was John Ramirez.”
Luke crossed his arms, the gesture stretching the fabric of his shirt around his torso. “Correct on both counts.”
Her eyes traveled to Luke’s waist, where his holstered gun bulged from his side. He made no move to retrieve it. Maybe he didn’t plan to use it, Haley hoped. She didn’t really feel up to fending off two armed attackers in one night.
But more likely, Luke felt confident that he could unholster his semiautomatic, disarm the safety, aim it at Haley, and pull the trigger all before she could reach the front door.
She suddenly missed Jenna’s inept handling of her own firearm.
She tried to swallow, but her mouth had dried out. “What are you going to do with me?”
“I haven’t decided yet. Luckily, I have all night to figure out a plan.”
Haley’s eyes widened as he reached for something strapped to the back of his belt. She didn’t know whether to be relieved or more terrified when he pulled a set of handcuffs into view.
“Right now it would be in my best interest to make sure you’re disabled,” he said.
Haley felt hypnotized as she watched the chains dangling between them, the metal reflecting the light inside the room. Luke broke her trance when he stepped toward her, prompting her to back up. When her spine hit the kitchen counter, a scream bubbled up her throat and slipped past her lips.
“Shut up or I’ll hurt you,” Luke said, grabbing ahold of her left arm. “Nobody can hear you anyway.”
The merciless look in his eyes made her believe him. She choked back the rest of the scream, but she did make an effort to fight him off. She might as well have been flailing against a steel trap. He was too strong for her, and it didn’t take him long to wrench her arms behind her back and handcuff her wrists together.
She strained against the handcuffs, gasping for air as she struggled to keep a level head. Her breaths were coming in such quick, static bursts that she feared she’d pass out. And she couldn’t afford to faint. She needed to think of a way to escape from this predicament.
“I faked my report, you know,” Luke said as he yanked her into the living room by pulling on the handcuffs.
Haley drew in a breath, trying not to dwell on the pain shooting through her wrists. “What do you mean?”
“My police report, the one I took when we first met.” The edges of his mouth lifted, but the expression looked more like a sneer than a smile. “I fudged some things.”
Haley had figured as much, given that he obviously wouldn’t want to finger one of his partners. “You made a note that the man I saw was Hispanic.”
Luke led her to the loveseat and pushed her face-first into the cushions. By the time she twisted around to face him, he had—smartly, she thought—backed away far enough so she couldn’t kick him.
“Both John and Ricardo are Hispanic,” Luke said. “But yes, I added that to help paint a better picture. I also included some details about seeing a man on the trail. He didn’t exist, of course.”
“Why?” she asked.
“To frame Ricardo.”
Haley’s heart was pounding so hard she was having trouble hearing past the blood rushing through her ears. But she forced herself to stay focused. Like with Jenna, if she could keep him talking maybe she would have enough time to figure out a way to escape.
“What do you have against Zepeda?” she asked.
“Nothing. But Victor hates him. I knew if he thought Ricardo was guilty he would go to any length to convict him, leaving the rest of us off the hook.”
“Why not just do nothing? Ramirez ran away. And once you told him about the police seizing those plants, he wouldn’t have come back. You had no reason to frame someone innocent.”
Luke regarded her down the bridge of his nose, as though she’d disappointed him. “I didn’t want you to identify John.”
Haley thought about how she couldn’t recognize John Ramirez even after her third sighting of him. “You didn’t have anything to worry about,” she told Luke, not bothering to hide the self-flagellation from her tone.
Luke studied her, his face expressionless. “I might have if I didn’t influence you.”
Haley pictured the drawings of Zepeda that she’d been shown, both Luke’s and the professional sketch done by the Lane County Sheriff’s Office. “How did you know it would work?” she asked. “I could have just as easily remembered who I saw and dismissed your little sketch as someone else.”
“But you didn’t.”
Haley opened her mouth to reply, but no words came out. After all, he was right. She’d always thought she had a relatively good memory, but Luke Justice had shattered that illusion.
He leaned against the couch armrest. “Besides, the benefit outweighed the risk. I knew if I could pin responsibility on Ricardo, that would blind Victor to all other possibilities.” He chuckled, but the sound contained no mirth. “The man really does have a one-track mind.”
“So you used us,” Haley said.
Luke shrugged. “You both let me.”
A fresh bout of self-disgust washed over her. He was right about that. She couldn’t believe she’d been so gullible.
In fact, when she thought about it, she and Victor both had their own personal agendas, to the exclusion of everything else. She’d been so consumed with catching Michael’s suppliers that she would have been willing to believe anything leading to that paramount goal. And Victor evidently had been so possessed by his desire to make his wife’s lover pay for their betrayal that he hadn’t noticed how his officer had been manipulating him.
“If you hadn’t wandered off into the woods where you didn’t belong, I wouldn’t have had to frame anyone,” Luke said.
Haley wanted to spit on him, but he was too far away. “Don’t pretend I pushed you into setting up an innocent man.”
“I’ve had that operation running for five years now. I never encountered a hitch until you came along.”
With Mindy scurrying around town spreading gossip like a rodent spreading disease, he must have taken great pains to keep his business a secret during the past five years. She was both impressed and incredulous.
“Who in town knows about the organization?” Haley asked.
“Just Jenna and myself. I was always very careful about selecting the end dealers we did business with. We only sold to people without any local ties. My caution proved to be well worth the effort.”
“Are you in charge?”
He locked eyes with her. “Yes, I’m the leader.”
She wasn’t surprised. Luke had the sort of cold personality that would make him well suited to lead an illegal enterprise. As evidenced by her love for Jane and her reluctance to shoot Haley, Jenna lacked the ruthlessness necessary to be as effective. And she didn’t know John Ramirez, but she suspected it would be difficult to manage a drug ring while on the road six days a week.
“What about all that talk of wanting more police responsibility?” Haley said.
“The more responsibility I could assume on the force, the less likely it would be for Victor to patrol the woods and discover the cannabis. As it is, Victor still insists on performing officer duties to stay fresh, although he’s taken on more administrative functions recently thanks to our budget constraints. I hoped that one day he would fully entrust me to keep the woodlands of Sobaco safe for our citizens.”
Haley suppressed a scoff.
“Fortunately, Victor never did venture far enough from the trail to see what I had planted out there,” Luke said.
“What about Brian?”
“Brian hates the outdoors. I believe he patrolled the woods once when he first started. After that, we both agreed that I would handle that particular chore.”
“Weren’t you worried somebody would spot you?” Haley wondered what would have happened if she’d stumbled onto the marijuana ten minutes later and, in addition to witnessing John Ramirez tending to the crops, she’d also spied a critical member of Sobaco’s police force helping him. Luke probably would have shot her on the spot.
“That location is pretty isolated,” Luke said. “People tend to stick to the pedestrian path and not wander where they’re not supposed to.” He eyed her meaningfully, his inclusion of her as an exception not escaping her notice.
Haley could only glare back at him.
“And I always have an excuse for being out there,” he continued, gesturing toward Jane, who was now curled up on the far end of the couch, oblivious to the tension between the humans. Luke smirked as Jane stretched her jaws into a yawn. “That cat is the most unambitious animal I’ve ever seen. I doubt it would have the gumption to step off the porch, let alone cross the street and venture into the woods. But it makes for a good cover.”
Haley jerked her chin toward the carrier. “So you tote that thing around under the guise of rescuing Jane, but really you’re filling it with pot.”
“Yes. That carrier paid for itself tenfold when I had to salvage what I could after you threatened to expose the grow location.”
“What do you mean?”
“After you went home that Saturday, I collected what I could of the cannabis and brought it to Jenna’s. I didn’t want to lose my whole crop when I returned to seize the rest of the plants as police evidence. Plus, I needed to make sure we didn’t exceed any reporting limits or Victor would have had to turn the case over to the feds.”
Haley pictured Gertrude wedged behind the police station’s reception desk, bags of pot surrounding her. She hadn’t thought the amount of marijuana matched what she’d seen in the woods, mistakenly concluding that Victor must have pilfered some of the evidence in order to frame Zepeda. Now she knew the true reason for the discrepancy.
“How did you know you could trust Jenna and John?” Haley asked.
One corner of Luke’s mouth lifted up, as though her question amused him but not enough to break status quo and actually laugh. “Well, ‘trust,’ of course, is a relative term. Can you ever really trust another person?”
Haley considered how she’d trusted Luke just this past weekend and silently admitted he made a valid point. “Maybe I should have asked how you selected your partners.”
“Jenna and I go way back. We grew up here together, so we’ve known each other since we were kids. Jenna’s got a good heart. She’s not a backstabber like a lot of the people you run into nowadays.”
“What about John Ramirez?”
“I met John about six years ago.”
When it became clear that he didn’t plan to volunteer more information, Haley snorted. “So, what? You happened to be shopping at Moreno’s buying fertilizer for your marijuana, and on your way out the door you asked John if he’d like to traffic drugs for you during his delivery route?”
“Not exactly.” Luke planted one hand on his hip. “I’m surprised you haven’t heard the story of me and John yet, given how chummy you and Mindy Larkin have become.”
Haley’s head spun at the mention of the Wheelbarrow waitress. “What does Mindy have to do with this?” Surely everyone in Sobaco wasn’t as crooked as Luke and Jenna.
“Nothing, but she is a chatterbox. When I busted John for his burnt-out brake light, Mindy talked about it for weeks.”
His statement sent a little jolt through Haley’s body. “John Ramirez was the guy with the outstanding warrant that turned out to be nothing?”
“One and the same.”
She tried to process what that meant in terms of drug trafficking but came up empty. “How did he end up involved with you and Jenna?”
“Our partnership didn’t happen overnight. We didn’t form an alliance until about a year after I questioned him.”
“Okay.”
“I admit I was rather inexperienced at the time. Here in Sobaco we don’t deal with too many major crimes, and I didn’t know much about conducting a serious interview. So, yes, I questioned John about the outstanding warrant, and my questions may have been slightly inappropriate. But that actually put me in John’s good graces. You see, he knew if that warrant had been legitimate he very likely would have walked because of how I handled the situation. He appreciated that, even if such an outcome was far from intentional on my part.”
Haley could see why John might be grateful for his booking officer’s ineptness. She supposed from a warped criminal perspective, an ineffectual cop could prove to be as powerful an ally as a business cohort.
“And that warrant wasn’t a fluke,” Luke added. “John had been in and out of jail for various things over the years. He was no stranger to breaking the law.”
“So you viewed him as a potential partner in your own illegal activities,” Haley supplied.
Luke nodded. “Jenna saw him at Moreno’s about a year after I stopped him for that taillight. He’d turned independent and was making regular deliveries for them. That’s how Jenna discovered he didn’t have any hard feelings about how I had handled his interrogation.”
“And you became friends.”
“‘Friends’ is pushing it. When I broached the issue of us starting a business together, he was eager to hear how we all might supplement our income a little.”
“How did he know you weren’t setting him up? I mean, he knew you were a cop. Didn’t he think you might be mad that he’d caused you so much trouble with that whole brake-light fiasco?”
Luke took a seat on the couch, and Haley tried not to envy his ability to relax his arms against his sides. Her own arms had started to go numb from being forced behind her for so long.
“John knew we couldn’t prosecute him unless he initiated the solicitation,” Luke said. “He could have pleaded entrapment otherwise.”
“Okay.”
“And I was pissed at Victor, not John. I did botch that interrogation, but Victor was the one who turned my mistake into a big deal.”
“Mindy said you had to attend some sort of training session on how to interview people.”
“On my off time, no less.” Luke stared at her for a long moment, his intensity making her uncomfortable. Underneath his calm exterior, she knew a calculating man lurked. “You know what I learned as part of that class?” he asked.
Haley shook her head, although from his cold tone she suspected she wouldn’t like what he had to say next.
“I learned all about how to manipulate eyewitnesses into making false identifications. That sure came in handy when I framed Ricardo Zepeda as the man you saw in the woods.”
Haley wondered what Victor Lamb would think of Luke using what he’d learned in his mandatory course to more effectively breach police protocol.
“Ricardo’s lived here for years,” Luke went on, “so I know what the guy looks like. I hoped by telling you I ran into him and providing a—albeit amateurish—sketch, you would start to remember him as the person you saw.”
“Which I did,” Haley said, sick over how easily she’d fallen into his trap.
“Don’t blame yourself. It’s psychological fact that our memories are pliable. And Victor had his own part in it too.”
Haley looked at him. “I thought you said he wasn’t party to this.”
“He wasn’t, but he did stray from suggested procedure. For starters, he shouldn’t have shown you that composite of Ricardo.” Luke shrugged. “Although he saved me the trouble.”
“I wondered if you knew about that sketch.” When Luke eyed her quizzically, she added, “Was Victor also trying to frame Zepeda?”
“Knowing Victor, no. Most likely, once he realized all the evidence pointed to Ricardo, his zeal got the better of him.”
Haley felt somewhat relieved that at least one person on the police force wasn’t corrupt. And she could understand how, once he thought Zepeda was guilty, Victor’s desire to nail the man might have triggered him to overlook a few details in the departmental rule handbook.
Luke watched as Jane shifted positions on the opposite end of the couch. Once she settled down, he turned back to Haley. “Of course, even with your testimony I needed concrete evidence placing Ricardo in those woods. So I planted that water bottle and hori-hori, thanks to your claims of seeing a knife that day.”
“How did you manage to snare items with Zepeda’s DNA and fingerprints on them?”
Luke snorted. “Haley, who do you think handled the transfer of evidence to the county labs for testing?”
Learning that Luke had dirtied the evidence really didn’t surprise her, but his confession still made her ill.
“I had everything in place.” Luke pursed his lips. “If only Tracy Lamb had minded her own business.”
“How could she when she knew Zepeda wasn’t involved?”
“In order to vouch for Ricardo’s innocence, she would have to admit to their little affair. I didn’t think she’d be willing to do that.”
Haley processed his assumption, finding herself loathing the man across from her even more. Apparently in Luke’s world, people didn’t admit to indiscretions simply because doing so could keep an innocent person from going to prison.
She wondered if Luke had ever cared enough about another human being to consider making a sacrifice on their behalf. Probably not, she decided. The man didn’t have a heart, and he likely viewed love as a disability.
The sound of a car driving up diverted their attention. From the way Luke stiffened, Haley didn’t think he was expecting anyone.
The wall clock indicated it was approaching midnight. Who would pop in uninvited this late at night? The police surely would have phoned first, and Jenna was dead. That left John Ramirez as the most likely candidate. Although his route placed him somewhere in Washington right now, if Luke had reached him immediately after Haley’s 9-1-1 call had come in, he might have managed the drive during the past five hours.
But if Luke was expecting John Ramirez, why did he look so tense now?
Haley’s heart pounded as she thought about what a surprise visitor meant in terms of an escape. Perhaps she could enlist this person’s help.
Luke shot her a warning look before sidling up to the front window and peeking between the blinds. He cursed, the profanity skyrocketing Haley’s hopes. Whoever was outside wasn’t someone Luke wanted to see.
“Who is it?” she asked.
Luke ignored her question. Instead, he bent over to snatch a plush mouse out of the bag on the carpet, one of the toys he’d brought Jane. Haley’s eyes widened when he approached her with it clutched in the steel grip of his hand. Before she could draw in enough air to scream, he shoved the mouse into her mouth.
“Keep quiet,” he commanded, as if she had a choice.
Luke grabbed her arm and wrenched her off the loveseat. She contemplated kicking him, but unless she could somehow twist around to line up his shin with her shoe the gesture would be futile.
“Don’t try anything,” he hissed, his mouth close enough that she could feel his hot breath on her ear. The sensation made her want to retch, but she nobly held back, deciding such a reaction wouldn’t be wise with a toy mouse crammed in her mouth.
Luke pushed Haley in front of him, nudging her from behind. He held the handcuffs just loosely enough for her to move on her own but without enough slack for her to change course or position. She wondered briefly whether he’d learned all the tricks he was using to overpower her tonight in the police academy.
She let Luke guide her, figuring he wouldn’t hurt her right away. Most likely, he planned to stash her somewhere until he could get rid of his unwanted guest. Maybe being alone would grant her some time to figure out her next move.
He forced her through his bedroom and into the adjoining bathroom, where he shoved her facedown into the bathtub. The sensation of her head hitting the cool, hard porcelain caused her heart to flutter in panic. Maybe she’d gotten everything wrong, and Luke intended to drown her this instant.
The doorbell rang. The tinny tune unleashed a surge of hope that touched every cell in Haley’s body. With the lights still blazing in the living room, Luke would either have to answer the door soon or arouse his visitor’s suspicions.
She heard Luke fumbling with something as she lifted her cheek from the tub. Before she had time to assess what he was doing, he yanked one of her arms up, forcing her to scramble to regain her footing before he dislocated her shoulder. She nearly fell as Luke repositioned her into the bathtub itself.
Her arm protested as Luke twisted it into an unnatural angle before dragging it over the shower rod. Just as she realized he must have unlocked the cuffs, he fastened them again, only this time with her hands in front of her body as he secured her to the shower rod. She wasn’t sure she preferred this position.
He glared at her. “Don’t try anything funny. I’ll be right back.” He turned on the dehumidifying fan and slammed the bathroom door shut as he left.
Haley strained to listen, but between her thumping heart and the hum of the fan, she couldn’t pick up any sounds from the living room.
Something moved against her leg, nearly causing her to jump through the ceiling. A lightning bolt of pain shot through her wrists as the metal of the handcuffs dug into bone.
When she recovered enough of her wits to glance down, the sight of Jane leaning against her leg inspired so much relief that she felt lightheaded. The cat must have snuck into the bathroom before Luke left to answer the door.
Haley tried to calm herself by lengthening her breaths. She needed to think of a way to alert Luke’s visitor to her predicament before Luke ran him off.
Jane grew bored of rubbing against Haley without receiving any strokes in return. She wandered over to the other end of the tub and settled down, shifting a couple times to get comfortable against the drain before resting her head on her paws. Haley marveled at the cat’s choice of bed, wondering why she hadn’t curled up on one of the plush bathmats instead. If Haley had her own way, she certainly wouldn’t choose to spend another minute in her current position.
As Jane’s eyes slipped closed, Haley surveyed the bathroom in search of something that could generate enough noise to alert Luke’s visitor to her location. With her hands bound to the shower rod, she’d have to settle for something within reach of her feet.
She inventoried the items on the counter, deciding that she could try kicking all of Luke’s toiletries to the floor. But would that cause enough of a commotion? She’d have to try. They were the only objects within reach.
She tried not to topple over as she raised one leg into the air. But before she could twist sideways, her eyes locked on to the water knob above the bathtub nozzle.
She paused mid-contortion, remembering what Jenna had told her about Jane nearly drowning as a kitten and how Jane had flipped out when a few drops of water had spilled on her.
Haley looked between Jane and the bathtub spigot, her brain tingling. If she turned on the water, would the shock of being drenched startle Jane enough to meow? Haley hoped so. At any rate, Jane was sure to make a bigger commotion than a toothbrush holder and deodorant stick falling to the floor.
Her new strategy in place, Haley positioned her shoe above the dial. Then she said a silent prayer and pressed her foot against the knob.
A torrent of water gushed into the tub. Jane shot up so quickly that Haley fell against the side of the bathtub enclosure. The cat bolted to the door and let out a deathly howl unlike any Haley had ever heard before. She clawed at the crack beneath the door as if her life depended on her ability to escape from this bathroom.
Haley said a silent apology to the cat, a flash of guilt searing through her. Although Jane’s reaction was everything she had hoped for, the feline’s obvious distress still knotted her stomach.
She couldn’t gauge how much time passed before the bathroom door banged open but figured it couldn’t have been more than ten seconds. Jane darted through the opening, her tail puffed up like a cotton-candy wand.
Victor Lamb’s eyes darkened when he spotted Haley. He yanked his phone out of its holster and pressed a button. “Gertrude, get Lane County over to Luke’s. Now. He’s involved.”
He hung up and pulled the mouse from her mouth. Haley started to thank him, but the words that tumbled past her lips ended up being the first thought that popped into her head.
“What took you so long?” she asked.
