Free DOMINIC (Dragon Security Book 3) by Glenna Sinclair Page A

Emily’s night table was stacked high with books and papers, a few envelopes, water bottles, snack food wrappers, and things I didn’t think I wanted to recognize. I sat on the edge of the bed and began to carefully rifle through it all. It was kind of obvious that the police had been there because there was actually some organization to the mess. And fingerprint dust—though I wasn’t sure why that had been necessary.
    There was nothing on top of the table, but I pulled open the drawer underneath and found an envelope with Edgar’s pseudonym on it.
    Oscar Philips.
    It didn’t look disturbed. I pulled it out and tore a corner open. When I turned it up on end, a flash drive fell out.
    Bingo.
    “Find what you were looking for?” Elizabeth asked from the doorway.
    “Yeah. I think so.”
    I walked over to her and lifted her chin. She was crying, the tears falling silently.
    “I can’t sleep,” she whispered softly. “I can’t eat. I can’t…I miss her so much I can’t breathe.”
    “I know.”
    “She told me that she was leaving it all behind. She said that she just wanted to finish this last little bit, and then it would be over. That we would go wherever I wanted. We were planning a life, Dom.”
    “I know. She told me about it. The Caribbean.”
    She nodded, her tears flowing freely. “It was supposed to be soon. She just had this little bit.”
    “Can you tell me what it was like the last couple of weeks? Did she say anything about someone following her?”
    “No. But she wouldn’t have told me if she’d known.” She wiped the tears from her face with the sleeves of her bathrobe. “But she did mention that she thought she’d done something stupid. She said she’d been going to Denton, watching her sister come and go from work. She thought that maybe someone had seen her do that.”
    Amy gasped. I was torn between comforting the sobbing woman in front of me or the frightened woman behind her.
    I chose Elizabeth.
    I tugged her into my arms and held her close. “We’re going to make this right, Elizabeth. It won’t bring Emily back, but it’ll keep you safe.”
    “Just get justice for Emily. That’s all I care about.”
    I hugged her close for a long minute.
    “I think this will be a huge help.”
    ***
    Another motel room, this one not far from the airport. We were basically back where we’d started.
    Amy didn’t say a word from the moment we left Emily’s apartment until we walked into the motel. I watched her set her things on the end of the bed and then pace, moving in a slow circle on the far side of the bed.
    “Say it.”
    She stopped and looked at me. “There was only one bedroom in that apartment.”
    “Yes.”
    “The pictures on the wall…they were close.”
    “They were.”
    “Where did Emily meet her?”
    “Afghanistan. Elizabeth was stationed at the same base in Fallujah that I was at.”
    “She was a Marine?”
    “She was.”
    “And she and Emily were…”
    I crossed my arms, watching the disbelief slowly melt from her face.
    “She was with Elizabeth before you and she went to Paris?”
    “She was.”
    “And you knew?”
    “I did.”
    “Why didn’t you tell me? You came home, you were here, with me, weeks before that happened. Why didn’t you tell me?”
    “Because it was Emily’s story to tell.”
    She stopped, just stood and stared at me as if she couldn’t believe I was just standing there, as if she couldn’t believe that this was actually happening.
    “You let me believe for two years that you and my sister were lovers. Why didn’t you try to tell me the truth?”
    “Because I couldn’t when it all went down. It would have compromised Emily even more. And after…you wouldn’t answer my calls, Amy. I called you every single day for weeks, and you refused every one of them. And then I sent emails and snail mail letters and you must have ignored all those, too.”
    “Not all of them.”
    “You never answered any.”
    “Because you broke my