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Speaking quietly so Mrs. Stempski couldn’t hear, he did the only thing he could think to do to get her to come along. He scared the hell out of her. It fucking gutted him to do it, but it was better than getting a call that she’d been killed.
“Jen, the Masters brothers were found dead. They were tortured and then shot in the head. This Bandon guy isn’t screwing around. I know you’ll never love me the way I love you, Jennie. And I’ll find a way to live with that. But, I won’t lose you, and I won’t lose our baby. You are leaving with me now, whether you like it or not.”
Jennie stilled and watched him wide eyed. He hated to scare her like that, but she needed to understand what they were up against. She needed to know the truth so he could protect her.
She nodded her head, saying nothing, but he knew she’d acquiesced. She would let him protect her, at least for the time being. He let out the breath he’d been holding and shut the door, then raised a hand to wave at Mrs. Stempski.
He pulled away from Jennie’s home, not at all sure when or if he’d ever be able to bring her back to it.
Chapter 26
Jennie stared out at the yellow lines of the road. It seemed they’d passed miles and miles of them. She finally cleared her throat to break the uneasy silence that filled the cab of Chad’s truck.
“Where are we going?” she asked. She kept her head against the window, facing away from the man who was her friend, a lover of sorts, the father of her baby—and now, quite possibly, her savior.
“A cabin in New Hampshire. I rented it a couple of weeks ago under a fake name and paid cash. It’s near a small town so we’ll have access to anything we need, but secluded enough that we won’t run into people much. When that lease is up, we’ll move to another secluded spot.”
“No room service?” Jennie let a teasing tone enter her voice but the sadness, the shock over what was happening was still there. She could hear it, and she knew he would, too.
She got a laugh out of Chad though. “Sorry. Not this time. I have a few dry things packed in the back. Cereal bars, juice boxes, dog food for Zeke. We’ll stock up on more when we get there.”
“I don’t have any clothes,” Jennie said almost to herself as she realized she was in the shorts and T-shirt she’d slept in.
“I packed you some last week. I came in while you were at work and packed a bag full of stuff from the back of your closet that you wouldn’t notice was missing. Mostly dresses so you can wear them later in the pregnancy,” Chad said.
She turned to her traitorous dog that lay sleeping in the backseat. “Do you let everyone walk in when I’m not home?”
Chad laughed. “Only people with sausage treats. We’ll get you some new clothes eventually. I brought enough cash for us to manage for a while. Jack plans to use my credit card around town and I’ll call Kelly and have her get one of your cards from your house and use it. If Burke runs our cards it will look like we’re still in town.”
Jennie looked down at her purse on the floor. “You left my credit cards at my house?”
“Yes. And your phone. I have disposable phones for us. Andrew’s driving over to see your parents today. He’ll fill them in. Make sure they know you’re safe. He’ll bring them disposable phones so we can call them later to let them know we got to the cabin safely.”
“How do you know how to do all this, Chad? Why do I get the feeling you could make us disappear forever if you needed to?”
Chad didn’t answer her. He kept his eyes locked on the road.
“I think you owe me at least that much, Chad. Tell me what’s going on.”
He rolled his eyes. “You know how I served three tours as an Army Ranger?”
“Uh huh,” Jennie said, watching him. They all knew about his time in the military.
“I didn’t.”
“Excuse me? What? You…what?” She sputtered.
“I did eight years in the military as a Ranger. The rest of the time my family thought I was serving overseas, I was working for a private company. I hooked up with three of the men I served with after I was honorably discharged. We did freelance work around the world.”
“A mercenary! You were a mercenary!” Her eyes practically bugged out of her head.
He laughed. “No. I mean, technically, I guess you could call it that, but we did a lot of work extracting people from dangerous places. We were occasionally hired to rescue people who’d been kidnapped, and other times we helped people disappear when they needed to. We could do things the U.S. military couldn’t do. But, I swear, we got paid enough that we were able to be selective. We could pick and choose who we wanted to work for and we always made sure we were on the right side.”
Jennie shook her head, unable to process what he’d told her. He really could make her disappear as long as she needed to. She could hide forever if these people came after her.
The enormity of the situation was hitting home a little at a time, but things still felt a bit insane to Jennie. Okay, a lot insane.
How could this be happening? It wasn’t enough that she was pregnant. That the baby inside her wasn’t her husband’s. Now she might have a crooked building inspector after her? On what planet does this happen? Because it wasn’t supposed to be happening on hers.
