Page 30 of Forbidden Whispers
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.”