Free Worth the Risk by Melinda Di Lorenzo Page A

efforts and turned his attention to Sam directly. In an attempt to shut down the investigation, the stalker had robbed him, taking every note, every lead, every detail, straight out of his apartment. As a result, he’d gone digital and sought a secure but accessible hiding place for his things. And that spot was the shared space between his own bathroom floor and Eileen’s bathroom ceiling.
    So all Sam had to do now to retrieve his notes on the Billing file was to go in from the bottom. And as he locked the door, he looked up and spotted a means of doing it.
    Quickly, he turned on the shower, made sure it was beating down loud enough to block out anything else, then ignored the stream of water. He lifted a leg, placed his knee on the tub’s edge and hoisted himself onto the countertop. He steadied himself, then reached up to press in the sides of the ceiling fan together, forcing the clasps loose, then pulled off the lid. He reached inside and after just a few seconds of feeling around, his hand brushed the right beam and he clasped the familiar little black box. He opened and stared down triumphantly at the three objects inside—a USB stick, a wallet and an even smaller black box.
    But his triumph gave him pause. Because it stemmed not from the retrieval itself or even from the fact that he now had the information and resources to move on with his case. It came almost entirely from the fact that it would help him fulfill his obligation to Meredith.

Chapter 7
    M eredith frowned at Sam as he came back into the room. He’d definitely been in the bathroom long enough to shower. And the water had run the whole time. But his hair was barely damp and his face looked like it had been wiped off, not thoroughly cleaned.
    Suspicious, but not surprising, Meredith thought .
    From the moment he disappeared up the hall, she—like Eileen—was sure he’d been up to something else. So Sam’s not-so-freshly-washed appearance wasn’t the reason her eyebrows knit together. Instead, it was the way he paused and stared at her with an unnerving intensity. She didn’t know what his expression meant. But something about the look made her want to both blush and shiver at the same time.
    Then, abruptly, his face relaxed and he stepped fully into the room and cleared his throat. “I take it you had a nice chat?”
    “Lovely,” Eileen said.
    Meredith wasn’t sure she’d describe being grilled about her life and being told to find some direction as lovely . She definitely could’ve done away with the two-minute safe-sex talk and inquiry into her genetic history. And those topics were the most comfortable parts of the so-called chat. Not to mention that every second heartbeat she spent was another second away from figuring out what had happened to her sister. And in between those heartbeats, she’d been worrying about Sam. He seemed fine. But was he more seriously injured than he let on?
    She fought a head-shake. Lovely? No. Not so much.
    “Meredith?” Sam prompted.
    “Yes. Perfect.” She didn’t sound quite like she was choking.
    Sam’s eyes twinkled for a moment anyway. “Ready to go then, sweetheart?”
    “If you are,” Meredith replied as indifferently as she could manage.
    She swore she heard him chuckle under his breath, but she didn’t dare comment on it.
    And seconds later—with an appropriate amount of gratitude from Sam and a promise to think about everything Eileen had said from Meredith—they were moving down the ladder that extended from the woman’s tiny balcony. Meredith knew why Sam thought this particular escape route was a good idea. The wide evergreen tree that stopped just short of Sam’s own apartment provided cover from the street view. Its thick branches blocked them in from anyone who might happen to be on the ground as well. With who knew how many corrupt cops in and around the building, there was no safer way to make their exit.
    But Meredith kept her lips zipped until they hit the bottom. She kept