Page 61 of Tracking Safety

Jenna’s first instinct was to reach for him. To touch his face. To try to offer him comfort.

But she reminded herself that wasn’t her right. Not anymore.

Sorrow echoed through her heart at the reminder.

She tucked her hand into her pocket so she wouldn’t be tempted.

Instead, she asked, “What did you find outside?”

“Main breaker was tripped. We found boot prints heading toward the back of the property. Whoever cut the power is gone.”

“So it wasn’t—” She stopped, wondering if her words would sound out of touch. So it wasn’t the contract killer who’d taken a shot at me earlier?

“We don’t know who it was.” His eyes met hers. “Could have been the Hendersons. Could have been someone else. Caleb and I are going to pull the security footage tonight and see what we’ve got.”

She looked at the floor and then back at him. “Luke⁠—”

“Jenna.” He looked at her for a long moment—at her face, at whatever he found there—and when he spoke again his voice had lost some of its edge. “It’s been a long day. For both of us. I think we need to leave the rest of it until morning.”

She understood. She did. The day had held more than most people weathered in a month, and they were both running on empty.

She knew he was right. “Okay.”

He started toward the main room and then paused without turning around. “Did Naomi show you where you’ll be staying tonight?”

“She did.”

“Perfect.” He moved into the main room.

Jenna stood in the entryway alone a moment, her hand resting on the post at the bottom of the stairs.

She’d told herself that coming back would be hard. She’d told herself that a hundred times in the past month. She’d thought she’d accounted for all the ways it could hurt.

But she hadn’t accounted for the ache of standing in a house full of people she loved and still feeling the distance. For Luke being kind and careful and completely unreachable all at the same time.

Standing here was doing her no good. Maybe rest was the best medicine.

With that thought, she climbed the stairs and headed toward her bedroom.

Luke lay in the dark and listened to the house settle around him.

Before coming upstairs, he and Caleb had checked the security footage. The camera covering the utility box had captured the image of a figure at the edge of its range—a man wearing a dark jacket, with a ball cap pulled low. He’d been moving fast and deliberate along the side of the house.

The footage was grainy, and the face was angled away, but the man’s build could fit Travis Henderson. They’d sent a screenshot to Micah and left it at that.

Luke put his arm behind his head and tried to make his mind go quiet.

It didn’t.

In one day, all his explanations had all fallen apart. He tried to put it back together and found that he couldn’t. The pieces didn’t fit the same way anymore.

Jenna hadn’t left because she stopped loving them. She hadn’t left because something in her had broken or because she’d chosen a different life over her family.

She’d left because of a man who terrified her.

Luke had thought he knew her. But he hadn’t even known her real name.

What else didn’t he know?