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Garrett’s raised eyebrows clearly said he thought Luke had lost his mind. “What? It’s the safest place. Where else would you go?”
“Those jerks trying to run us off the road changed everything. I don’t know the whole story…yet.” He met Sally’s gaze before turning back to his brother. “What I know is if they find out Sally didn’t die in the crash, you can bet they won’t give up. If we go to the lodge, they’ll come after us. Think of Aunt Peg and Rachel.”
The muscle flexing in Garrett’s jaw told Luke he’d made his point.
“What makes you think they won’t come anyway?” Jonathan stood at the rear of his pickup, concern evident in his stance.
“They might, but you’ll be ready for them, and when they don’t find any sign of us, they won’t have any reason to stick around.” Luke glanced between Garrett and Jonathan, their silence signifying they didn’t like his idea one bit, but they apparently agreed with his reasoning.
Sally turned, her hand on Jen’s shoulder. “I can’t ask you to do this, Luke. You’ve done enough. You should stay here with your family.”
Luke tousled Jen’s hair and weighed his words carefully. “I’m aware you haven’t asked me to go any farther with you, but like it or not, I’m not letting you go by yourself.”
Sally shook her head sadly. “You don’t know everything.”
“Then fill me in.” Luke leaned back against the Jeep and crossed his ankles as though he had all the time in the world.
Sally’s eyes took on that deer-in-the-headlights look, darting around the small clearing, finally landing on her daughter.
Jen smiled with maturity beyond her years. “It’s okay, Mom. We’ll keep your secret.”
Sally allowed one sob to escape as she hugged the girl, and it was a moment before she found her voice. “I’m in the witness protection program. I have to assume whoever blew up my home and tried to run us off the road was sent by the man I testified against eleven years ago. The marshal in charge of my case is on his way to pick us up and find us a new place to live…and new identities.”
Luke did the math in his head. They’d celebrated Sally’s twenty-eighth birthday before his deployment. That made her twenty-nine now. She’d been only eighteen when she testified and gave up everything she knew to go into hiding. No wonder her scumball boss hadn’t been able to dig up anything on her.
Her story also made those thugs who evidently wanted her dead a whole lot more serious than they’d been a few minutes ago. International espionage or organized crime could be behind the attempt—something he hadn’t considered until now.
Sally’s guarded expression made it clear she expected him to change his mind. No chance of that happening. “All the more reason we shouldn’t hang around in familiar territory. We need to disappear tonight, before they regroup and come back to check their handiwork.”
She started to interrupt, and Luke held his hand up to stop her. “Your problem became my business when my truck went over the cliff. Those men were trying to kill all three of us…not just you.” He glanced toward Garrett. “Can I borrow your Jeep?”
The keys were already in Garrett’s hand and he tossed them through the air. “Where will you go?”
Luke caught the keys easily. “A place the people looking for Sally won’t know anything about. It’s better if you don’t know either.”
Garrett’s lips settled into a firm line. He obviously wasn’t happy with that answer, but he knew it was the right move. “Check in when you get where you’re going.” It wasn’t a request.
Cowboy whined, his tail moving slowly from side to side, clearly reacting to Garrett’s change of mood.
“We will.” Luke studied his brother’s concerned expression for a silent moment before his gaze swept to Sally, trying to gauge how much argument was left there. He was pleasantly surprised when she slid an arm around Jen’s shoulders, stepped away from him and guided her daughter to the Jeep.
His brother stepped toward him, and Luke shook his hand with a firm grasp meant to convey he had this under control, knowing full well his big brother would worry about him anyway. When they turned away from each other, Luke shook hands with Jonathan before tossing his duffel in the backseat and climbing behind the wheel.
“One more thing, Bro. If you could call a tow truck and get what’s left of my ride out of the canyon before those creeps climb down there and find out there aren’t any bodies or footprints, we might stop them right here.”
Jonathan, returning from his truck, shoved a blanket through the window into Luke’s hands. “Jen might need something comfortable to lay on.” The big guy had such a soft spot where the girl was concerned. Luke could identify.
“Thanks, man.” He accepted the offering and placed it between the seats, then started the Jeep and listened to its quiet purr as the two men stepped away from the side. With one last wave, he shifted into reverse, backed a tight horseshoe and crept slowly down the mountain. After turning right on the county road, where he’d ditched his truck, he drove without benefit of lights, watching the mirrors carefully for another mile or so before he flipped on the headlamps.
An audible sigh of relief came from Sally as the lights lit up the area in front of the vehicle. It was the first sound she’d made since she buckled her seat belt. Jen, bless her heart, knelt between the bucket seats with a hand on each of their shoulders. She should have been in her seat belt too, especially on this damn road, but Jen apparently needed their contact as much as Luke needed hers.In a minute, I’ll ask her to sit down and buckle up.For right now…he reached around her head to pull her close for a kiss on the cheek.
She grinned in delight. “Did it work just like in the movie?”
A tiny sound that might have been a laugh came from Sally’s half of the cab. Luke glanced her way, but she was still concentrating on the view out in front of them.
He swept his attention back to Jen. “Not quite. I revved the truck up and headed for the edge of the canyon.” He made the sound effects and waved his arms in the air, letting loose the steering wheel for a second, chuckling as Jen got into the story. “Then I remembered my duffel…containing the only clean clothes we’d have until we could get to a store. I grabbed it, along with a couple other things I thought we might need, and jumped out at the last minute, like we planned. The duffel broke my fall, which was good, but the bad guys were too close. I didn’t have time to cross the road and get into the trees.”
Sally swung around to stare at him. “What did you do?”
