CHAPTER 11
CAMERON
ONE WEEK LATER
“So how’s the ‘having a child without a mother’ thing going?” Hudson asked.
“You really don’t waste any time, do you?” I asked as I clapped his back.
“Sorry. But you’re shit with keeping in touch, and I’m dying to know if you’re really going through with this.”
“Well, I’m not.”
“Oh. Good. Wait. What made you change your mind? Was it my stunning wisdom?”
“No.”
“My dastardly good principles?”
“No,” I said.
“Was it my constant battering ram into your phone and howling about how you’re in a shit position to do this?”
“No. It’s because she got emotionally attached.”
“Women. Can’t live with them, can’t have kids without them,” he said.
“Why are you here anyway?” I asked as I close the door behind him.
“Honestly? I’m glad you’re not going through with it,” he said, is voice taking on a serious edge. “Remember that job I was on a couple of weeks ago?”
“The one you were neglecting so you could give me shit? Yes,” I said.
“Well, you’re not going to like what happened.”
I felt every fiber of my being tense as I turned around to look at Hudson.
“What the hell does that mean?” I asked.
I’d thought about Heather every day. Every damn second since that fucking phone call of hers. I didn’t have the heart to tell Audrey that things had fallen through and that things would have to be postponed until I could find another surrogate. But the real reason I didn’t want to tell her was that I didn’t want to be honest with her. I wasn’t ready to be honest with myself yet about the whole damn thing.
But the look in Hudson’s eye pushed thoughts of Heather off to the side for the first time in a solid week.
“It’s them, isn’t it?” I asked.
“I’ve been picking up some communications from the informants we have in place, and they’re tossing your name around. You have to be extra careful.”
“What are they saying?” I asked. “What is it specifically?”
“They don’t know anything yet. I made sure of it. Not where you are or that you’re living under a false name. But your name has come back up. If they’re talking about you, then someone’s brought you up for a reason. You know how they work.”
“But they don’t have my location.”
“No. They don’t have your names, location, town, nothing. I promise.”
“Shit, Hudson. This is bad. Two fucking years later and they are still after me? This is really bad man.”
“And I’m keeping our tapped lines open for anything that would suggest you’re in trouble. The second I hear something, you’ll be the first to know. But I came up here to try and talk you out of this thing face to face. If they’re talking about you, the last thing you need is to bring another person—or two—into your fold.”