“What is the plan? Watch my apartment and try to catch him breaking in?”
“We’ll go in rotations. The coffee shop will stay open—once the windows get fixed—but it’ll be worked by two undercover FBI agents and Katelyn.”
The mention of my friend makes my blood run cold. “No. She’s pregnant, Zane. She can’t be there.”
“Garrison will be, too. And Jack is setting up shop in your apartment while you’re gone. She’ll be protected. Plus, she’s refusing to let anyone else take the lead so that—in her words—you have a business to come home to.”
“Not if he decides to come after her the same way he did me. Glass won’t stop a bullet.”
“The kind we’re putting in will,” Zane replies with a grin in my direction. It dies, though, as we make a left down a back road that leads to the other side of the marina.
“What about Mom?”
“Tessa and I are moving into the other side of her duplex. We’ll be there to watch over her.”
I nod.
Family dinners.
Church on Sunday.
Afternoons at the diner.
That’s what I’ll be missing. All because some psycho decided to make me his next target. For eighteen years, I carried the weight of what happened to Violet, wondering why I was the one who survived and she didn’t.
Why did he pick her?
And this whole time, he was going to come after me, too.
Zane puts his truck into Park, then turns toward me. “There’s a satellite phone on the boat. If anything happens, you call me. We’ll come straight for you.”
“I know.”
“I love you, Anastasia. Thank you for doing this. For trusting us.”
My throat constricts. “I love you, too, Zane.” Leaning in, I wrap my arms around my big brother and squeeze. When I pull back, I see that Sawyer has stepped off the boat. He’s shed his sling and is walking down the pier toward us, a serious expression on his face.
He pulls my door open, and I climb out.
“Hey.”
“Hey,” I greet. “You ready for an endless amount of time at sea?”
“If it’s with you, absolutely.” He flashes me a sweet smile, then takes my bag out of the back passenger seat. “Truck followed me a few miles, but I lost him.”
“You get a description?”
“Already texted it to Jack,” he replies. “Could be nothing but worth checking in.”
“Followed you—” I turn toward Sawyer. “Were you pretending to be bait?”
His expression is one hundred percent guilty. “I might have driven your car.”
“Sawyer! You are still healing.”
He pokes a finger into his own chest. “Feel sturdy enough to me.” Then, he turns back to Zane. “Everything is ready to go, Cap.”
Zane looks from him to me. “Do I have to say it?”
