Page 87 of Tracking Safety

Instantly, his chair scraped back as he stood.

Then he saw Jenna in the doorway, and his pulse settled by a fraction.

Her face looked pale in the thin light coming off the range hood. She had her phone in her hand, held against her chest with a tight expression.

He knew that look. Something had happened.

“What is it?” he rushed.

She crossed the kitchen and held the phone out to him. “I got this twenty minutes ago. From an unknown number. No one’s supposed to have this number, Luke. This phone was issued through the marshal service. It’s clean.”

His breath caught, and he took the phone.

The photograph filled the screen, a picture of him and Jenna talking in the church yesterday.

Something cold slid down the back of his neck.

He stared at the image. At his own shoulders leaning toward her in the pew. At the few inches of space between them.

“There’s more,” Jenna said. “Scroll down.”

He did.

A second message, beneath the photo. Six words.

Tell Luke I said hello, Ellie.

Luke’s hand tightened around the phone until he made himself ease his grip.

His mind went to the room down the hall. To Jonah’s blanket and Cora’s nightlight and Liam lying awake staring at the ceiling.

“Luke.” Jenna’s voice was very quiet. “I’m so sorry. I came back thinking it was over. I painted a target on you, and I didn’t even⁠—”

“Stop.” He looked up from the phone. “You didn’t do this. They did.”

“You’re in the picture because of me.”

“I’m in the picture because I sat down to talk to my wife.”

Wife. He hadn’t meant to say that word.

His heart raced. Somehow, hearing it out loud seemed like an acknowledgement of their past . . . and maybe even their future.

But he didn’t want to evaluate that slipup right now.

Jenna went still.

He studied her in the dim kitchen. Studied the careful way she held herself together.

Something in his chest tightened, and he felt a pull toward her.

He didn’t move closer, but he didn’t step back either. “You came straight to me.”

Her gaze held his. “I told you I wouldn’t sit on things anymore.”

He held her gaze. “Thank you for staying true to your word. It means a lot to me.”

She pressed her lips together and nodded.