Page 122 of Running to You

“You and your three-letter agencies needed their evidence.”

Eliza said, “I started collecting evidence a year ago, Sam. Michael had nothing to do with that.”

“The place was heavily guarded.” Michael’s voice was cool. “It wasn’t easy to get people in and out. But there wasn’t a single moment after I discovered where she was that I wasn’t trying to figure out—”

“You should have told me.”

“I didn’t want you charging in there and getting yourself killed.”

“I wouldn’t have—”

“You might have. You were at her mom’s house yesterday. You saw the body they left at the bottom of the stairs.” Michael swallowed. “If that happened to you… I wasn’t going to live with that. I wasn’t going to tell Mom and Dad they’d lost you right after they got Daniel back. I wasn’t going to live with the knowledge that I could have prevented it. Maybe that makes me a jerk. A selfish jerk, but you’re my brother, and I wasn’t going to put you in harm’s way.”

“You had no right—”

“You have no right.”

At the vehemence in his voice, Sam shut his mouth. He needed to listen. To ask questions. To try to understand instead of tossing out accusations. He swallowed all the words that wanted release and breathed a prayer. “I’m just trying to understand.”

Michael’s voice was even when he spoke again. “Those guys coming after her right now? They were on the property. All of them. They would have killed you. And if you’d gotten to her, there’s a good chance they’d have killed her too. Even if she’d survived, if she hadn’t escaped… It would not have gone well for her.”

Michael was probably right. Sam would have charged onto The Ranch, demanding to see her. Demanding to take her with him. He’d like to think he’d have been smart about it, but…but it was Eliza. So maybe not.

He caught Eliza’s wide eyes. Was she afraid of him? The thought churned his empty stomach, and he took her hand and held it. He just needed to understand. “That girl, the one whose mom called you. She walked away. Why couldn’t you?”

“By the time I knew I needed to leave, they were watching me.”

“All those guards,” Michael added.

“I didn’t have a car, and The Ranch is in the middle of the desert, miles and miles from the closest town. I needed help. And then I got a message from a person who called himself MC. It came through the business email address—a customer.” She looked across the table and smiled. “He’d bought a few thousand dollars’ worth of coins.”

“It needed to look authentic,” Michael said.

Eliza’s expression was open and trusting. “He told me he was a friend and asked if I was all right, that he’d heard about the Kellers and was worried for me. I had no idea who he was. Honestly…” She shrugged, her cheeks turning pink. “I hoped it was you.” She smiled at Michael. “Not that I’m sorry it was you.”

“I get it.”

“He’s the one who sent me the Bible.”

Sam’s head snapped to his brother. “You did that?”

His head dipped and rose.

“We messaged a lot while he was trying to work out how to get me free,” Eliza said. “By that time, I’d told him about the evidence I had collected, so it was just a matter of him coming up with a plan.”

“And finding help. I couldn’t do it alone.”

“But he checked on me every few days,” Eliza said. “I came to trust him. I told him how stupid I felt for having fallen for all the Kellers’ lies. And then he sent me a Bible in a box beneath a bunch of coins, just in case anybody looked. And he included a note about how I’m precious and loved, how God wanted to forgive me.” Her eyes filled.

Eliza had turned to God, and Michael was the reason.

“And a lock-picking kit?” Eliza added, rather randomly. “I just remembered that.”

“Uh…what?” Sam said.

Michael said, “It was in the box with the Bible. So she could get the papers Keller’d stored in a locked drawer.”

Right. She’d told him about that drawer.