Chapter 9

Noah didn't move hishead, but his eyes slid to Maggie. The other man now had a tight grip on her upper arm. Her eyes were wide with shock, and she was staring at the knife.

"Answer me!" Dagger-head said.

"I—I don't know."

The man's lips tightened, his eyes narrowing. "We know you were here with Valentina last night. And we saw you getting questioned at her place by the cops this morning. Now you're driving her car. Did you kill her?"

"What? No!"

"Then where. Is. She?"

Noah's mind was reeling. Who were these men? They'd apparently seen him and Maggie at Valentina's earlier. And now they were here. Had they been following them all day? And what was this about the Porsche being Valentina's car?

"He told you, we don't know," Maggie said. She now looked more angry than scared. She tried to shake off the other man's grip to no avail. "And it's not Valentina's car. It's Noah's.

Dagger-head frowned. "What are you talking about?"

"Go ahead," Maggie said with a lift of her chin. "Check the registration."

Noah wondered what Maggie could possibly be up to. How was this helping?

"Gimme the key," Dagger-head said.

Noah handed it to him and he tossed it to the other man, never removing the knife from Noah's throat. "Open it, Johnny."

Johnny did as commanded. Still keeping Maggie in a tight grip with one hand, with the other, he opened the car door and rifled through the glove box contents, pulling out the paperwork.

"She's telling the truth, Nick," he said a moment later. "It says the car is registered to a Noah Riley."

Nick's gaze slid from Noah, to Maggie, back to Noah again. His lip curled. "Just who exactly are you, Mr. Riley? And how did you come to be the owner of Valentina's car?"

Noah wasn't certain how to respond.

"You better start talking." Nick pressed the point of the blade into Noah's neck hard enough to draw a drop of blood. "Because if you don't, maybe I'll just slit your throat. After all, it's one of my favorite things to do." Nick's mouth curved into a humorless smile.

"If you do that, then you'll never know where she is," Maggie said quickly.

"So, you do know something," Nick said.

"Maybe they're cops," said Johnny.

"Now there's an idea," Nick said slowly, a light coming into his eyes. "Check their IDs, Johnny."

Johnny released Maggie's arm and retrieved her discarded purse from the ground. He squinted at the contents of her wallet, then shook his head. "Doesn't look like it."

"Check his," Nick said.

Johnny came around and pulled Noah's wallet from his back pocket. He searched through it, then shook his head again. "Just a regular ID."

"Well, Mr. Riley," Nick hissed. "If you're not a cop and you're—"

Just then the sound of wailing police sirens broke the stillness around them.

"That's right," Maggie said, looking smug now as she slipped Noah's cell phone out from the pocket of her dress. "I called 911. And the police will be here any second."

Nick and Johnny exchanged a quick look.

"Let's go," said Johnny, sounding worried.

Nick let out a stream of curses, but he didn't yet remove the blade from Noah's throat. "You have no idea who you're messing with, Mr. Riley. We will figure out exactly who both of you are and how you're involved in this."

As the sound of the sirens grew closer, Nick and Johnny turned away and vanished into the night.

Seconds later, the police car pulled into the parking lot.

"Over here!" Maggie called, waving her hands over her head.

Noah pulled Maggie close and looked down at her with concern. "Are you okay?"‘

"I'm okay," she said, leaning into him.

With his free hand, he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket to dab at the drip of blood trailing down his neck. "How did you call the police?"

"It's a trick I learned a couple of years ago," Maggie said. "If you press the power button fast five times in a row, it automatically dials 911 and they can see your location."

"Oh yeah," Noah said with a slow nod. "I completely forgot about that. Wade told me about that trick about a year ago. He even turned off the countdown beep in my settings for me so it wouldn't alert anyone if I did it." Then he smiled at her. "Thank God you think fast on your feet."

"And I had your phone in my hand," Maggie said, giving it back to him.

By now the police had parked beside them and two officers exited the vehicle. After taking their statement about what had happened, one officer searched the parking lot while the other put out an alert to the rest of the force to be on the lookout for Nick and Johnny.

"You've sure had a rough day, haven't you, Mr. Riley?" the officer said once he was off the radio. He'd introduced himself as Officer Bryan. Although Noah had met a couple of his brother Wade's co-workers since moving to town, Officer Bryan wasn't one of them.

Noah shook his head, feeling overwhelmed. "I definitely have," he said, then added, "Should I be worried about what they told me about this Porsche belonging to Valentina Romano? I already told the officers this morning about my memory loss. And I have no clue how it supposedly became mine. But all the paperwork says it belongs to me."

"Let me check on it," Officer Bryan said. He took the registration out and slid into his patrol car, tapping on the small computer keyboard inside it.

A moment later, he got out and handed it back to Noah. "It's definitely yours. And I don't see anyone else's name associated with this car."

"So weird," Noah said.

The officers left just as clusters of people began exiting the boat.

Noah glanced at the screen of his phone. It was now just after midnight. He looked at Maggie. All of her earlier bravado seemed to have disappeared. She looked small and completely spent as she leaned back against the car with her eyes closed. He had an overwhelming urge to gather her in his arms and just hold her close. The urge was so palpable that it was actually painful to resist. So, he shoved his hands into his pockets and cleared his throat. She opened her eyes and looked up at him.

"I feel like we should wait until tomorrow to do our hospital visit," he said.

"I think you're right," Maggie said, stifling a yawn. "Why don't you drop me off at home and we can pick this back up in the morning."

"Yeah, um, I don't think I should take you home."

Maggie frowned. "Why not?"

"I hate to bring this up, but Johnny saw our IDs. That means they may know where we live."

Maggie stood up straight, instantly more awake. "I didn't even think of that!"

"I'd feel a lot better if I knew you were safe, Maggie. So, I have a suggestion."

"Yeah?"

"I think we should spend the night together."