He made a face and took a big bite of the sandwich.
Colt’s phone buzzed, then rang. He looked at the caller ID. His audible intake of breath caught as he glanced up at Maren. “The US Marshals.”
A mix of hope and concern dropped into Maren’s stomach, and she set down her fork, pushing the rest of her lunch away.
Colt put the phone on speaker and turned the volume to low. “Colt here. I’m with Officer Maren Anderson. What news do you have?”
“Hello, Colt. Hello, Maren. This is Deputy Walker McCane with the Denver Marshals office. I wanted to let you know our protectee, Vinnie Homer, received a text from Opal Anderson with information for where to meet her.”
Maren grabbed a napkin and a pen from her backpack and wrote down the information as Walker gave it. “Can we trust Vinnie?”
“That, I’m not sure,” Walker said. “The guy’s still detoxing. If given half a chance he’d rabbit.”
Maren remembered how desperate Vinnie had been for a fix, and he would run away like a scared rabbit if the marshals weren’t careful. “You can’t let that happen.”
“He needs to stay clean,” Colt added. “We can’t lose another person to these drugs.”
“We’re doing our best,” the marshal said.
“Thank you, we appreciate the info,” Maren said and pushed the end button on Colt’s phone. “Let’s go.”
“Not so fast,” Colt said, holding up a hand. “What if this is a setup? What if Shadow got to him somehow?”
“That’s the chance we have to take to find Opal,” she said. There was no way she was letting an opportunity to find her sister pass by.
“I understand and admire your determination,” Colt said. “But I don’t like the situation. We have no way of knowing what we will be walking into. It could be a trap. Shadow has to be aware by now that you’re not Opal.”
Maren weighed his words. “The risk is worth it to me.”
“We’ll need reinforcements.” Colt sent off a text to Emmett, alerting the task force leader to what was happening.
Colt’s phone dinged with an incoming text. He glanced at it. “I was expecting a reply from Emmett, but this looks like a text message from Walker.”
Maren’s heart lodged in her throat. Had something happened to Opal? “Read it.”
“It says, ‘This is a text from Opal on Vinnie’s phone that I’m forwarding.’ Below, the forwarded text reads, ‘Tell the jumping bean I can’t wait to see her.’”
Tears misted in Maren’s eyes. “That’s Opal’s childhood nickname for me.”
“Because of the gymnastics,” Colt said.
She gave him a watery smile. “You remembered.”
“Yes.” His green gaze bore into her. “I have a feeling I’ll remember everything about my time with you.”
His words settled over her like a cozy blanket. As much as she wanted to reciprocate the sentiment, she couldn’t. Not now. Not when she was close to finding her sister. That had to take priority. But she didn’t look forward to the day when she and Colt separated and went their own ways.
Despite his misgivings, Colt accepted the body armor from Emmett. After informing the task force leader that they had heard from the US Marshals and there was a meet set up with Opal in Pike-San Isabel National Forest, Emmett had insisted that Colton and Maren gear up.
They’d headed straight for the task force’s armory located in a large room adjacent to the training center, filled with various types and sizes of Kevlar vests, ammunition and weapons.
“Here, use these Bluetooth ear comms,” Emmett said, handing both Colt and Maren a small box. “You’ll have about a mile range. But be aware, in the forest, the service can be spotty.”
Colt put the earpiece into his ear canal. “I’m still not sure this is a good idea.”
Maren’s gaze snapped to him as she strapped on a thin black bulletproof vest over the task force T-shirt she’d changed into earlier that day. He missed the flowing dress she’d worn at his parents’ house and the way she’d let her hair cascade over her shoulders. Now, it was braided in a thick pleat.
“I told you I will do whatever is necessary to get my sister back,” Maren stated, her tone firm. “Coming in with the full might of the task force would scare her. She would never trust anything I said if I came after her with a small army. It has to be just me.”
