Hidden Sins by Karice Bolton Page B

checking for something from Sean. Regardless of how many times I told Sean I didn’t need to know nor did I care, he usually kept me apprised of all the new hires. And sure enough an email had landed in my inbox from Sean with the subject “You’ll Never Guess”. My stomach tensed as I became one step closer to confirming that Hannah was indeed working at Buttons. I clicked on the message, which brought up Sean’s new hire confession. It had taken seven years, but he no longer felt that all blondes were the devil’s spawn. Things were looking up. Too bad he was going to have to fire her.
    I hit reply and began typing a message back to Sean congratulating him on his breakthrough while encouraging him to reconsider his latest hire. My blood was pumping harder as I thought about when she was going to start and how to get her out of there if she already had. I could literally taste the fury pulsing through my veins when I thought about other men looking at her. But just as I was about to hit send, it occurred to me that Buttons was safe. Membership was exclusive. I could watch her, keep her safe, and get her to trust me. I was always rational and this was the rational thing to do. So why was I so impulsive when it came to Hannah? There had to be something to it, and I was sure if I wanted to enlighten my shrink about it, she’d have a field day with it. But I was smarter than that. These feelings would be going nowhere. I would be telling no one.
    I took the last swallow of wine and motioned for the flight attendant. I needed a beer. Scanning the news articles about NLC was quite informative. They had done a good job of keeping a squeaky clean image. But one thing was quite concerning. A series in one of the smaller newspapers was conveniently stopped when the journalist passed away. There was no explanation as to why the last two articles were never published. It was as if the series never existed beyond the first three articles. I took note of the journalist and kept scanning information that led nowhere rather quickly. What if the journalist had figured something out? But that wouldn’t explain why the newspaper wouldn’t finish up the series. I rubbed my fingers along my temple as I thought about how to infiltrate a tight-knit community like the NLC.
    An email from the detective came over. He must’ve gotten my message. I quickly opened it up and wasn’t surprised at the formality. It was a typical bland email, going over the events that had transpired and the steps that had been taken. As I read through the report listing what the man had said to Hannah, it became apparent that whoever was after her had no intentions of stopping. They wanted to find out what she knew, and after they found that out, she’d be discarded. That much was clear. From what I read, Hannah didn’t tell the officers anything from her past so that had put them at a definite disadvantage. If she was unwilling to trust the police, why did I think I’d be able to gain her trust? This was going to be a lot more difficult than I’d imagined.
    I closed the detective’s email and began looking up the individuals who’d been affiliated with the NLC. I didn’t have the luxury of time to find the pieces to the puzzle. If one person already knew where Hannah was, they all did.
     
     

Hannah
     
    Somehow I’d managed to stuff the chair and the last of my boxes into Rikki’s car and was on my way over to the new place. It was almost nine o’clock at night, but I was fighting the clock for a reason no one knew but me. I wanted to be situated in my new place with no ties to my old one before Donald Jamison was let out of jail. I’d decided to call in my truck to the city for impound as well. It was eight-hundred dollars down the drain, but I couldn’t afford to be seen in it now, especially since he was going to be out of jail. I said my goodbyes to everyone at the house, and Rikki was sweet enough to let me use her car to go back and forth.