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“Well, there I was, hanging over that cliff, with that heavy canvas bag in one hand, while my truck ground and scraped all the way to the bottom and then started on fire. Those clowns—there were four of them—got out of their vehicles and looked over the edge as though they were afraid of heights or something. I could tell they weren’t about to climb down and make sure we were all dead. But I didn’t know how long I could hold on either.” He paused for dramatic effect and smiled at Jen’s impatient sigh.
Sally was halfway grinning now, and damned if it didn’t seem like all the ugly stuff that had gone between his leaving her and his coming home no longer existed. Interesting that he thought of this place as home.
“A couple of them began shooting down in the canyon. I guess they thought they might get lucky and hit something. Then one of them started talking. It wasn’t English, but I couldn’t hear well enough to recognize the language. And, thankfully, they didn’t stick around much longer.”
Jen giggled, jumping up and down on the floorboards in her excitement, and Luke laughed…until the stricken expression on Sally’s face pulled him up short. His first instinct was to comfort her, but when he touched her shoulder, she tensed.
“Where are we going?” Jen yawned through the question.
“To stay with a friend of mine for a few days, until the heat is off here. Then we’ll get busy finding you and your mom a new place to live.” Luke wrapped his arm around her slender shoulders. “How’s that sound?” Providing the heatdiddie down in Huntington. There was a good possibility it would never be safe enough for Sally and Jen to return and resume their lives, but he’d break the bad news to Jen when it became necessary.
“Good.” She leaned close enough to whisper in his ear. “Mom needs a job too.”
Luke nodded his head. “Right. A job.” Hopefully, one where she wouldn’t be persuaded to date the boss. He now understood her reticence to have the sheriff question Emmett Purnell, because it was highly unlikely he was involved in the destruction of her house. If Luke had known her history, he’d have been okay skipping that step. It stood to reason Purnell wouldn’t take his implication in the crime lightly.
Jen clutched her blanket, pushed herself onto the backseat and wiggled until she apparently found a comfortable position. The seat-belt buckle clicked into place, making Luke smile. She unfolded the blanket and draped it over her body. When Luke glanced in the rearview mirror next, all movement had stopped. Soon her breathing slowed and deepened into a peaceful sleep. Luke lit up the face of his watch. Zero five hundred hours.Hell, it’s morning.
His gaze swept to Sally. Her long brunette hair hid most of her face, but he could tell by her crossed arms and stiff spine she wasn’t asleep. Not even close. “We need to talk, Sally.”
She straightened even more, then slowly turned her head to look at him. Her eyes were wide with dark circles beneath them. Worry drew her brows together, but the rest of her expression was flat, as though she’d turned off her reaction to everything.
Sally squared her shoulders. “Yes, we do. I’m so sorry, Luke. Sorry you got involved in this. Sorry about your truck. Why are you so calm? You should be mad as hell.”
Luke chuckled. “If you knew how many anger management classes I’ve attended since I got back, you’d have a whole different opinion of me. Why would I be angry with you? None of this is your fault.”
“You don’t know that,” she said.
“Yeah…I do.” He reached for her hand and wrapped it in his larger one. “Are you ready to tell me everything yet?”
“There’s not much to tell. I witnessed a murder, and when I went to the police, they arranged for a US Marshal to pick me up. I eventually learned I’d be placed in the witness protection program in exchange for my testimony. When it was all over, they found me a place to live in Huntington.”
Luke squeezed her hand. “Who was it? Who did you testify against?”
Her reluctance was noticeable. “His name is Clive Brennan. A natural-born US citizen, but it turned out his allegiance was with Russia. It was probably a Russian dialect you heard while you were hanging off the cliff. My testimony put him away for fifteen to twenty years, a travesty in itself. Mississippi has a ten-year minimum, so, with time off for good behavior, he was released three months ago.”
Luke frowned. “Why is he after you now? You can’t hurt him after he’s served his time.”
“I don’t know.” Sally’s gaze danced away from his for only a second, but it was enough to make him wonder why she was withholding information.
He wouldn’t push her now. Her emotions were too raw. His presence too new and unexpected. “What about this marshal that’s supposed to show up?”
“Marshal Greg Lambert. He’s been my contact for nine years. I’ve spoken to him a few times on the phone, but I’ve never met him before. Now he’s on his way to pick Jen and me up to hide us away again.” Sally scooped her hair back from her forehead angrily.
“You’re not in favor of that?”
“I wouldn’t care if it was just me, but Jen doesn’t deserve that. She won’t understand. All she’ll know is I’m tearing her away from her friends and the only life she…” Sally’s voice broke on the last word and she quickly glanced away. “She hasn’t done anything to deserve this.”
Sally hadn’t done anything to deserve it either. Luke felt a jagged hole open in his chest at the thought of never seeing her and Jen again. Was a new identity really the best thing for them? The only way to keep them safe? Was he being totally self-serving to want to find another way—to believe he could protect her as well as the feds? She at least deserved another option. “If you decide that’s not what you want, you can count on me. I’ll stay with you all the way, sunshine.”
Sally smiled for the first time since she’d walked out of the forest, and Luke’s heart melted. She squeezed his fingers. “Are you sure, Luke? I mean, I haven’t exactly greeted you with open arms. In my own defense, showing up the way you did brought up all the bad memories. Do you have any idea how much I worried about you…all those months?”
“Inmydefense, I was half loco when they rescued me.” He focused his attention toward the front, emotions swamping him.
“You really hurt us, Luke. You hurt Jen.” Her voice cracked, but she pushed through. “Don’t hurt her again.”
Luke turned toward her, and the plea in her glossy eyes broke him into little pieces. No anger or bitterness lingered in her expression—only a fierce love for the daughter she’d brought into the world. That was one of the things he loved about her. Still, Luke had no trouble believing he’d kiss his chances with her good-bye if he crossed that line again.
He could live with that, because he would no more hurt Jen than willingly return to Afghanistan.
