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The blankets had been shoved aside, and there was a yellow forensics number next to something I couldn’t quite make out. I closed my eyes and pushed the nasty thoughts away. One of my old red silk blouses was crumbled on the floor and looked like parts of it were stuck together as if it had been used to…my stomach rolled. Careful not to step on it, I moved closer and then felt the spins return as I read what was written on the vanity mirror. In black Sharpie were the words, “I’m trained. I hunt. I’ll find you.”
I caught my uncle’s reflection in the mirror as he reached out to take my shoulders, but then he stopped himself.
“Does this mean I don’t need to testify?” I tried to speak clearly, but my voice betrayed my frayed nerves.
“Actually,” Frank spoke up, “it means the opposite. We need you now more than ever.”
“I tried to talk to the judge,” my uncle said, “but he wants to use this case to drive home that a sol—”
“I got it.” I cut him off. I didn’t want to hear the rest. “When?”
“Well,” Frank let out a sigh, “I’m not sure. This changes things. It’ll push it back some.”
“I suspect it does.” I eyed my closet and the few things I’d left behind for Kylee, now tossed on the floor. “I don’t suppose Kylee will want to stay here now.” I put a hand to my stomach and prayed I wouldn’t bring up anything left inside it. “I think I’ve seen enough.”
“Okay.” My uncle carefully took my arm. “I think you have, too.”
I walked with him down the stairs and avoided all the sympathetic faces that looked my way.
I looked at the table that ran along the wall and snatched up the little sailboat my mom had given me when I first moved in. I couldn’t believe I’d left it. It had a polished granite bottom and a carved wooden sail glued to the top. I stroked the grain of the wood. It was lovely.
We headed down the stairs to where the car was waiting. My uncle reached to open the door for me.
“Dr. Knight?” a woman called. I turned to see who it was. She had a weathered face that had seen some better days. “Dr. Ivy Knight?”
“Yes.” I didn’t see the slap coming I just felt it impact my cheek and send me hard against my uncle. My ears rang, and my eyes watered as I blinked back the pain.
“You saw all the signs!” she screamed as the officers grabbed her. “You knew what was going to happen, and you did nothing! You should be stripped of your license.”
My uncle slammed the car door on her screams as I put a hand to my face in shock.
Ty
There was a massive weather system warning for high winds and torrential downpours for the town of Redstone. Thunderstorms were a direct threat to loss of power, and the city’s dispatch center had already put the word out for supplies. We were called in by the mayor to help the city prepare for the storm. We’d started at zero-four-hundred, and only now, hours later, we’d managed a moment to stop, eat, and refuel. The air was heavy and thick, and my skin felt damp and sticky. The low-pressure system didn’t help my head, and a small part of me worried if my headaches would ever go away.
“You can feel the change in the air.” Mike swallowed back some water. “I have a feeling this’ll be a bad one.”
“Me too.” It was true; I felt it in my gut. The storm clouds off in the distance were black as night and had a weird look to them.
“Anyone hear from Doc yet?” Mark looked at Cole. “Shouldn’t their flight be landing soon?”
“Yeah,” Cole checked his watch, “they land in twenty.”
“Where was Doc?” I took a handful of raspberries from a bowl and made a face at how tart they were.
“Handling some business back in Washington. He took Ivy along.” That caught my attention. I hadn’t seen her since the night in my room when Moore called. I’d taken my news directly to Cole, who had Hill’s photo sent to the local police. Though he hadn’t broken any laws, he was dangerously close to discovering the safehouse. The fact that he was still enlisted in the Army meant he should have been back at his own base, not ours. Cole glanced at Daniel, and they seemed to speak without speaking. I didn’t pry. If they wanted me to know what was up with Doc, they’d tell me.
My mind drifted back to Ivy, and I knew I needed to do some damage control with her. Things weren’t right in my head, but she didn’t deserve to be treated that way. It was the main reason I didn’t date. I didn’t boyfriend well. I had a habit of shutting down and letting people in and out of my life at times. But it was a bad habit, and as a male, I knew it wasn’t going to be easy for me. We weren’t a couple. We were both trying to get the physical attraction out of the way so we could just be around one another and be friends. That proved to be harder than we both expected.
“Feel that?” John held his hand up. “Rain’s here.” Tiny drops cooled my skin, and in a matter of seconds, it switched to a downpour.
We hurried to tuck our food away and headed for home.
The rain pounded the windshield as we zigzagged through the mountain roads. Lightning streaked the sky, and thunder shook the SUV as we stopped at checkpoint one.
“Colonel Logan,” the MP squinted to see inside the car, “glad to see you made it up the road all right. They say the other side’s completely washed out.”
“Did Dr. Roberts and Dr. Knight make it back?” Cole asked.
