Thread of Betrayal by Jeff Shelby Page B

put the phone back in his pocket. “They served their purpose. We have no further interest in them and we don’t need to draw any attention their way or ours. Ellis will return them home safely.”
    Lauren exhaled.
    “But they will be reminded that they never saw us or met us or had this conversation,” Anchor added.
    “How does that happen?” Lauren asked.
    Anchor smiled. “You don’t want to know, Ms. Tyler.”

TWENTY-THREE
     
     
    “Do you want to see what’s in here?” Lauren asked.
    We were sitting in the hotel bar. It was late and most of the tables were empty. A group of businessmen sat at the bar, nursing drinks and watching ESPN on the TV mounted on the wall. Anchor had excused himself and told us he’d be back in an hour. He didn’t say where he was going and we didn’t ask. We’d gone to the bar, both of us claiming to be hungry, but judging by the picked over food on our plates, we weren’t starving.
    Now, she had Elizabeth’s bag open.
    I shook my head. “I don’t think so.”
    “There’s nothing crazy in here.”
    “That’s fine. But I don’t think so.”
    She set the bag on her lap. “Why not?”
    I shrugged. “I don’t know. It just freaks me out.”
    “Why?”
    “I honestly don’t know,” I said. I picked up a French fry but didn’t eat it. “I just don’t want to see. It doesn’t feel good to me.”
    She stared across the table at me. “It makes me feel closer to her. To see what’s in here. To see her driver’s license, her lipstick. Brings her to me.”
    I nodded. “Good. I’m glad. It’s just different for me.”
    She nodded, but I wasn’t sure she understood. I wasn’t sure I did, either, but I thought it was tied to getting my hopes up. I’d been burned too many times before and I wasn’t going to let the thread of hope I was clinging to morph into anything more. Not yet. I needed to keep some distance.
    “Anchor scares the shit out of me,” Lauren said. “If I hadn’t already mentioned that.”
    “He’s on our side,” I reminded her. “That’s all that matters.”
    She toyed with her fork, moving around pieces of lettuce in her salad bowl. “You think he would’ve killed that guy if he’d lied to us?”
    I thought for a moment. “Maybe. I don’t know.”
    “Are you okay with that? With working with someone like that?”
    I pulled my napkin from my lap and tossed it on my plate. “Being okay with it has nothing to do with it. He can help us. That’s all I care about.”
    “So if he had intimated he was going to kill that guy, you would’ve let it go?” she asked.
    “It’s irrelevant,” I said. “He’s not going to kill him. Probably going to kick the crap out of him. Scare him. But that’s it. So it’s irrelevant.”
    “I’m asking hypothetically.”
    I leaned over the table. “Look, that kid was a scumbag. Who knows what else he’s done to people? He had zero problem stealing from our daughter and leaving her high and dry. He wasn’t sorry, even with Anchor and Kitting standing there. He didn’t care and he’ll run the same game tomorrow. And all I care about is getting Elizabeth back safely. Anchor can help us do that. So do I give a shit if Mikey or some guy like him ends up being collateral damage? No. I don’t. All I care about is finding Elizabeth. That’s it.”
    My words came out sharper than I intended, but I meant everything I said. I didn’t care about anyone else, especially some piece of crap thief. And I didn’t have a problem working with Anchor or Kitting, as long as they could get me closer to Elizabeth. I’d come too far to start worrying about the gray ethical areas we might or might not have been entering.
    Lauren laid her own napkin on the table. “Okay.”
    “Hey, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to bite your head off,” I said. “But she’s the only thing I care about.”
    She pursed her lips. “I could never care about just one thing.”
    “I know that.”
    She started to say something, then