“Wait, that came out wrong,” Hugh called out, holding out his hand even though I was out of reach. “I was tasked with turning him into a confidential informant.”
I stopped. “The police paid you to turn him into a CI?”
“I am the police. Well, sort of. I’ve been undercover for the last three months trying to take down the organization that used Teddy to launder money. And it’s ringleader, Victor Simmons.”
Teddy was an accountant, a white-collar criminal, and he’d been arrested for stealing money from his clients. He was doing time. He’d claimed to steal in order to make ends meet, and I’d believed him until he’d stolen from me, too, and was believed to have a million dollars stashed away.
We’d broken up, and he’d gone to jail. He was the first and last man I gave my heart to.
“You’re an undercover cop?” I asked.
He nodded.
“Where’s your badge?”
“I’m undercover,” he said, opening the toiletry bag and tearing into the bar of soap. He winced when the sharp movement must have pulled on his wound. He continued, “Teddy wasn’t the brightest tool in the shed, and I wasn’t the only one that he told about you.”
I tilted my head. “What about me?”
“That you’re his ex-girlfriend. You still have his things, don’t you?”
I snapped my mouth closed. “I have them in storage until he gets out of jail.”
“It’s good that you don’t have them here. You’ll have leverage.”
I stepped back into the bathroom. “What else did he tell you?”
Hugh’s lips twisted at the corner. “He told me about your telepathy and that you can use astral projection to spy on anyone you want.”
Chapter Five
My mouth parted, and I snapped it closed again before narrowing my eyes. “That little shit.”
A sexy grin slipped onto Hugh’s lips. “You can’t be too hard on the guy. He loved you. That’s the reason I’m here. I promised to keep you safe in exchange for you giving me his ledger.”
I shook my head and dumped the towels on top of the toilet. “Looks like you’re the one who needed to be saved.”
I spun on my heels and stomped out of the bathroom.
“He claimed you’d make the perfect spy one day, and I might have to agree,” he called out after me.
With each step I took down the stairs, blood boiled stronger in my veins. Teddy had shared my secrets with a complete stranger, and for all I knew, he might not be the only convict who knew about my abilities.
Maybe I was in trouble.
I walked back into the kitchen and started the noodles to go with my dinner. I lifted a worried gaze out the window to consider the rain falling outside. If the weather didn’t stop soon, I’d be stuck battling to stay awake and alert with a unwelcome guest under my roof.
I glanced at my cell phone again. No signal.
The weather radio updates were my only company. The rain wasn’t scheduled to stop until tomorrow evening on Faith’s wedding day. Even then, my sisters might need to find a boat just to come get me. No way would they let me miss the wedding just because of where I chose to call home.
Fifteen minutes later, I was sitting down to a bowl of spaghetti and a glass of tea when Hugh emerged in the kitchen doorway. A new pink sheet was strapped around his hips.
“I see you found my linen closet.”
His gaze landed on the place setting across from me.
“Have a seat before you fall,” I said, gesturing to the bowl. “I put your jeans in the dryer. They should be done soon. Sorry, I couldn’t do anything for your shirt, but I might have one of Teddy’s still around here somewhere.”
“Thanks,” Hugh said, sliding his big frame into the seat and pressing his palm against his shoulder as he eased down.
“Who shot you?” I asked, unable to stop myself. Shaking my head, I rose, and fixed Hugh a bowl of spaghetti and a drink.
He was frowning as I set them in front of him. “The same guys that will be here when the rain stops and the flooding goes down.” His gaze lifted to the window. “We need to be gone before the water recedes.”
“I hope you have a boat.” I twirled my fork in the noodles on my plate.
He didn’t reply; instead, he was shoving food into his mouth as though he hadn’t eaten in days.
“What do these guys think that I have?”
Hugh finished chewing and swallowed. “They think you have Teddy’s ledger and access to the cash he stole from them.”
I raised a single brow and shook my head. “I don’t remember packing a ledger. I would have turned it over to the police had I found anything resembling that; besides, Teddy didn’t trust me.”
“Teddy swears he left it in his things. Is there somewhere he could have hidden it?” Hugh asked.
He’d hidden it well if I hadn’t spotted it. Granted, there had been a lot of emotions rolling through me at the time a search warrant had been served on me and Teddy had been dragged out in cuffs.
I’d hit all the emotions in a single day until there were none left inside. Maybe that had been the final tear in my damaged heart.
“So what are you? Fed? You aren’t local. I’d know if you were.”
He raised a brow. “You get in trouble that often?”
I sat back in my chair and grinned. “My soon-to-be brothers-in-law make up half the force.”
“Looks like your sisters have better choice in men,” Hugh said, silently watching me.
“I agree,” I said, rising from my chair. After rinsing out my bowl, I turned to lean on the counter. “So, listen, here’s the thing. My sister is getting married, and if I miss the wedding, it won’t be your bad guys who scare me. My sisters will hunt me down and skin me alive.”
“They’ll be walking into danger if they come out here. I hope they know how to shoot.”
I wasn’t about to reveal all of our family secrets. Not to a total stranger who claimed to be an undercover cop.
“I can’t really help you except to show you the storage area, assuming we get out of here without drowning. My astral projection only works when I know the person.” Or, in Hugh’s case, a body acted like a magnetic pull to mine. “I don’t know your bad guys, so there’s no chance of me going to spy on them, and they aren’t here for me to use my telepathy.”
“I was kidding about you being a spy.”
My brows dipped. “Why is that?”
He took a long sip of his tea. “If you could read minds, then you would have already kicked me out.”
I didn’t respond, even though I really wanted to know what he was thinking.
“Then it’s settled. I’ll take you to the storage shed, and then we part ways.”
“Actually,” he said, leaning back in the chair, watching my face, “you’re in danger until we stop Victor. So, I’m afraid you’re stuck with either me or another cop I trust. Once I check in with the brass we’ll get you squared away.”
That’s what he thought. If and when my sisters found out what was going on, heads were going to roll, and the bad guys would be history. I wasn’t worried. Not in the least.