The Lock Box, page 29
Henry smiled and returned the gesture before trudging back toward the front of the building and disappearing inside Huang’s office.
When Locke stretched herself across the cot, she assumed fatigue would knock her right out. But each time she closed her eyes, all she saw were Queen’s baby blues.
Opened extra wide, like in Glebov’s office.
Locke’s own eyes popped open, leaving her staring at the rows of girders on the ceiling.
In her mind, she pictured Queen’s expression just before pulling the trigger. Quivering lip, tears welling up.
Despite the clear implication in King’s nonanswer, Queen hadn’t seemed like she’d wanted to kill her. And Locke really didn’t want to think otherwise. Because if Queen hadn’t felt torn, if everything she’d said and done had just been some cynical lie to gain Locke’s trust …
No.
King was right. In Locke’s mind, Queen was a victim of Huang’s plan, and that was true no matter what else had happened. She didn’t need to know anything more than that.
She realized she owed Henry yet another debt of gratitude.
She could tell him so in the morning.
With that settled near her mind, at least for tonight, Locke began to relax. And when the blackness finally hit, there was no stopping it.
It seemed only seconds later that she heard Evan saying, “Momma.”
Locke bolted upright. To her surprise, he was standing at the side of her cot, wearing a slight smile. Behind him, out on the floor, she could see daylight filling the warehouse.
“Morning,” Evan said.
As her heart rate slowly returned to normal, she smiled. “Morning. Sleep okay?”
He nodded. “I just woke up. Henry’s gom.”
“Gone?”
“I looked for him, but he’s mot here.”
Pulling herself up to her feet, Locke found her right leg offered slightly more support than the night before. She shuffled toward the offices, rubbing the sleep from her eyes.
Sure enough, the door to Huang’s office stood ajar. A glance over to the round table showed King’s half of the loot missing.
Locke turned back to Evan and shrugged. “Last night, he talked about a trip he had to make.”
“I wish he’d said goodbye.”
Images of the Mule and Kori flashed through Locke’s mind. Even her mom. Not saying goodbye was the worst. “Maybe he had an early flight or something,” she said.
Then, recalling that King had been the one who’d knocked her out in Val Verde, she added, “He knows where we live. He’ll probably find us when he’s ready.”
Evan’s eyes dropped to the floor.
“You fell right asleep last night. Are you starving?”
He glanced back up and nodded eagerly. “Will you tell me what happened last might? At the fancy party?”
Locke felt a pinch in her gut, wondering which parts she could actually share. “Uh, sure. It’s a long story.”
“It’s a long way home,” he said.
She took a deep breath. Figuring out how to get there would be her next challenge. It wouldn’t have been easy in normal times, but she expected that traveling into California when it was locked down would make it extra tricky. Her mind started reeling through all the different pieces of how it would work.
Evan interrupted her thoughts. “I love you, Momma.”
She smiled, enjoying the sound of that.
And realizing she never needed it to change.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
UNLESS YOU’RE WRITING an autobiography, you’re writing from someone else’s point of view, but the further that character strays from your own experience, the more work you have to do to try and make that perspective true and believable. And that necessarily involves consulting more people and enlisting more readers during the early drafts. Here, because Monna Locke is further away from my own life than other characters I’ve written, I owe a tremendous amount of thanks to huge number of people thanks for contributing their views and opinions to help round her into shape.
Kim Lim, Sarah Marshall, Jude Mercer, Maddee James, Jennifer Sarja, and others provided invaluable insight into what it’s like to be a mother, a businesswoman, a lover, and a friend from a female perspective. Evan Day, TJ Buttrick, Heath Marcus, Joshua Westbrook, and Anthony Toreson all helped me shape Monna’s military career and its end. Michael Gorges provided some key plotting insights. Dr. Monna Hess contributed a fabulous first name and the priceless line, “like Donna, with an M” that I’ve been meaning to use somehow since I met her twenty-five years ago. Despite the input of all of these people, any errors you find in here are mine and mine alone.
I’m extremely grateful to Matt Martz, Terri Bischoff, and the entire team at Crooked Lane Books for welcoming me with open arms and for working to make this book the best it could be. Once again, Dana Kaye and her team at Kaye Publicity helped me land this book in your hands, and as an author, that’s what it’s all about. Ed Stackler remains the sherpa without whom I’d be out lost, wandering aimlessly around on the mountainside.
More than ever, I owe a huge debt to my literary agent, Cynthia Manson, for her tireless efforts on my behalf. Writing this during COVID, and including COVID in it, made her job all the harder, but she believed enough in me and in the book that she wouldn’t rest until it made it into the world. For that, I am beyond lucky.
Finally, special thanks to my wife Molly and my daughters Makela and Charlotte. Having three such wonderful, complex women in my life provided special inspiration for this one, so I hope I did it justice and gave you someone to root for.
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY
The son of a navy helicopter pilot, Parker Adams chased great white sharks as a marine biologist before becoming a patent lawyer who litigates multimillion-dollar cases for high-tech clients. In his spare time, he writes high-stakes thrillers that feature travel and technology, including the best-selling Seth Walker series. A graduate of Duke University and the University of Notre Dame, he lives in San Diego with his wife and children.
This is a work of fiction. All of the names, characters, organizations, places and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to real or actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2024 by Joseph Reid
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crooked Lane Books, an imprint of The Quick Brown Fox & Company LLC.
Crooked Lane Books and its logo are trademarks of The Quick Brown Fox & Company LLC.
Library of Congress Catalog-in-Publication data available upon request.
ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-63910-703-2
ISBN (ebook): 978-1-63910-704-9
Cover design by Nebojsa Zoric
Printed in the United States.
www.crookedlanebooks.com
Crooked Lane Books
34 West 27th St., 10th Floor
New York, NY 10001
First Edition: March 2024
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Parker Adams, The Lock Box
