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16
Adam was grateful to be home. It had been a busy night. Even though he’d had coffee with his breakfast, he was dead tired.
“There you are,” Sally chirped when he came in. “I was worried about you. Is everything okay?”
He nodded. “Number five has been sacrificed.”
“Another coat?” she said, pointing at the outerwear he’d forgotten to take off.
“Yeah, good thing you bought all those secondhand coats. I’ve needed them.” He smiled. “Only one more sacrifice to go. The most important one.”
She held out her hand. Adam shrugged off the coat and handed it to her. “I’ll be glad when this is over,” she said.
“I just want to make sure the Master is satisfied. We need his protection.”
“No one has ever served him better than you, honey,” Sally said, her sweet smile warming his heart and chasing away the cold. He sat down at the kitchen table. “I need to sleep.” He didn’t tell her about the letter. He wasn’t sure she’d approve. It really wasn’t her business anyway. All she needed to know was what he decided to tell her.
“Well, you go lie down for a while. I’ll see to the kids and make sure they’re quiet, so they won’t disturb you.”
Adam wanted to climb into bed and fall asleep, but for some reason, every time he lay down he started itching. It was irritating. Sally must be using some kind of laundry detergent he was allergic to. He wanted to ask her about it, but he didn’t want to hurt her feelings. She worked so hard. Sometimes, without her knowing about it, he’d rent a motel room so he could wash up and sleep without feeling as if he wanted to scratch his skin off.
“I’ve got to clean the inside of the car,” he said. “Got blood on the steering wheel.”
“Do you want me to do it?”
“No, you already work so hard.” He put his palms on the sides of her beautiful face and kissed her gently. “I don’t know what I’d do without you,” he said, circling his arms around her.
“You never have to. I’ll always be here for you, and so will the kids.”
As if on cue, Gabby and Trey appeared behind her. “Daddy!” Gabby said. “I missed you so much.” She ran over and wrapped her arms around his legs. Trey stood back a bit, trying to be a young man, but when Adam gestured to him he grinned and joined their group hug.
“Have you been serving the Master?” Trey asked, his eyes wide with obvious pride in his father.
“I have, and I’m tired, Trey. Gotta get some sleep. You guys be good today, okay? Obey your mother.”
“We will, Daddy,” Gabby said. “We want to be just like you.”
Adam smiled to himself. His life was perfect. His family kept him going. He was so grateful to the Master for rewarding him for his work.
“Let’s go,” Sally said, disengaging from their hug. “Daddy needs to rest.”
Adam watched them leave and then went back to his bedroom. He was so tired he fell asleep before the itching started.
Logan stood. “More coffee?” he asked.
Alex nodded and handed him her cup. “Thanks.”
As she waited, she continued thinking about Walker. She’d begun to realize they were a little similar. Both of them had troubled childhoods. Walker had found his identity in a book, and she’d found hers in the FBI. Different choices, different paths.
It took Logan a few minutes to brew the coffee. He brought her cup over and put it down on the coffee table in front of her.
“Have you looked outside?” he asked as he lowered himself onto the couch again.
Alex turned her attention to the window in the front of the room. Maybe Harrison was right. The snow was coming down pretty fast. She’d been so concentrated on their case that she hadn’t noticed. Cases, she corrected herself. With Willow and Nettie’s deaths, now there were two cases, not one. She and Logan weren’t assigned to the Wichita murder case, but she knew the two cases were connected. She couldn’t ignore the women’s murders. Of course, until they had an autopsy report, she couldn’t prove Nettie was murdered. Maybe her death had been natural, but it didn’t seem right. It felt like something else. Something wrong.
“Hopefully, this snow won’t cause us more problems,” she said. “We should be in Kansas City. At the command post. Not stuck here.”
Logan shrugged. “We can do almost everything from here, you know. Let’s talk about what happened to Willow and why. It may be tied in to our guy.”
