Page 81 of Tracking Safety

He put his hand on Liam’s shoulder. “Come on. Let’s go home.”

CHAPTER 32

Jenna fell into step behind Luke and Liam and let the woods close around them. He’d tried to text the family, but there was no service out in these woods.

The path back seemed longer than the path out.

Her adrenaline was fading, and her body was paying the bill. Her hands had started to shake somewhere around the ridge. Her knee throbbed from where she’d gone down on the root. Her lungs felt tight.

She pressed her palms flat against her thighs as she walked and concentrated on the simple task of putting one foot in front of the other.

Liam was okay. She kept returning to that fact and whispering silent prayers of gratitude. Things could have turned out so much differently.

Luke walked beside their son but didn’t crowd him. He’d already said what he needed to say, and he’d left it at that.

She’d always admired that about him.

Ahead of her, Liam’s foot hit a rock, and he started to stumble.

Without thinking, she reached out and grabbed his arm to keep him upright.

He startled and froze a moment. A few seconds later, he found his footing and moved forward again.

Her hand fell back down to her side.

Liam hadn’t pulled away. It was a small victory—but a victory, nonetheless. Jenna would take it.

The trees began to thin as the path climbed toward the property line. Through the branches she saw the pale frames of the cottages and, beyond them, the broad white shape of the farmhouse.

She should have felt relief at the sight of the house. At the fact Liam was beside her—and that he was safe.

Instead, dread lingered in her stomach.

Gerald Moss’s obituary was still on her phone.

She hadn’t told anyone. Not yet.

The work continues.

She was waiting the right moment to share the news with Luke. But there was never a right moment for news like that.

She’d left two years ago because she’d made a decision in fear.

And that choice had cost her everything. She had to learn from her mistakes.

She watched Luke’s back as he walked ahead of her. He still thought the threat against her was an open question. He thought that the danger might yet stay at the edges of his family’s life instead of moving into the center of it.

He didn’t know what she knew.

And every hour Jenna let him keep believing that was an hour she spent making the same mistake all over again. Choosing his comfort over his right to the truth. Choosing quiet over honesty.

She’d promised herself last night that she was done being the woman who disappeared into her own secrets. She’d vowed she wouldn’t run again. That she wouldn’t keep secrets.

The path leveled out, and the tree line gave way to the open lawn. Ruby appeared in the doorway, one hand pressed to her chest.

Luke let Liam run ahead to his grandma. Then he turned and waited for Jenna to catch up.

He looked exhausted. The fear he’d been hiding for the past hour had left its marks in the tightness around his eyes, in the gray cast beneath his tan.