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Sonny shook his head. “Damn. I knew something was off. Listen, I don’t want her to see this in the papers or on TV without a warning. Either call her or tell her in person that we’re going to release the sketch. Assure her that since Charlie Raines has regained consciousness, the public will assume it was Charlie who gave us the information.”
“She is moving out of the hotel into her rental property in a couple of days. My family and I are going to help her settle in after everything is unloaded,” Aaron said.
Sonny was surprised Aaron had become this friendly with her. “Okay, that’s good to know. Whatever day you need time off to help her move, let me know. She’s the key witness to this whole thing, and it’s our job to keep her anonymity and identity safe. Reassure her of that.”
“Yes, sir, and thank you. I’ll let her know about the sketch before anything airs.”
The dream was an old one.
The scar upon Dani Owens’s psyche that would not heal.
She was back in her old apartment in Monroe with the sound of gunshots still ringing in her ears when she came out of the closet, her weapon aimed straight at Tony.
One shot. That’s all it would take to remove him from the face of the earth, and she would be safe. The thought was still in her head when she pulled the trigger and shot his legs out from under him instead. His screams of pain were so real she woke up with a start, her heart hammering. Despite the comfort of her air-conditioned room, she was drenched with sweat.
She threw back the covers and staggered to the bathroom, turned the shower on full blast, and, withoutwaiting for warm water, took off her nightgown and stepped beneath the pounding spray.
An hour later she was just getting ready to go downstairs for breakfast when her cell phone rang. When she saw the name that came up on caller ID, her heart skipped. It was Aaron Pope.
She paused to answer. “Hello?”
“Dani, it’s me, Aaron. Have you got a minute?”
“Sure,” she said, and sat back down. “What’s up?”
“About the fingerprints on the journal. We got results back from the lab, and yours were the only ones we could identify. The man who dropped the journal isn’t in the system.”
“Oh no,” she said. “So how do you proceed?”
“That’s why I’m calling. Chief Warren wants you to know ahead of time that we’re releasing the composite sketch. There’s no need for you to worry about it. The public will assume Charlie provided it. We just didn’t want you to feel blindsided by it, okay?”
She shuddered. She couldn’t help it. She was losing control again, and it was scary.
Her silence was all the answer Aaron needed about how she was taking the news.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry this feels threatening to you, but I’m here for you, okay? And on a better note, my family is all hyped up to help you move, so keep me updated on their arrival day and time, okay?”
She smiled at the thought of seeing him again. “Yes, okay.”
“Awesome,” Aaron said. “Have a good day.”
“You, too, and be safe,” Dani said, and then dropped her phone back in her bag and left her room.
All the way through breakfast, she kept remembering the last time she’d moved. It had been from her childhood home outside of New Orleans to Monroe. But her parents had been alive then, and she was still trying to process Aaron Pope’s offer to bring his family to help her get settled in.
He was tall, dark, and handsome, and a cop, but she was unsettled about trusting another man and, at the same time, rattled by her attraction to him. All she had to do was calm down and remember that he wasn’t out to win her over. He was just being kind. It did not, however, stop her from thinking about him.
The very first thing she’d noticed about him was that he smiled first with his eyes and was good at not giving away what he was thinking, likely from his years in law enforcement. On the surface, she liked him. But she didn’t know if she trusted him. Or maybe it was herself she no longer trusted. Tony Bing had done a number on her. She’d slept with a man who tried to kill her. She didn’t trust her own judgment anymore.
Charlie Raines was on the move. They’d unhooked him from everything long enough to get him from critical care to a private room. He was still groggy andinclined to go to sleep in the middle of a sentence, but he was cognizant enough that he’d told his parents the extent of what he could remember. Only now he didn’t know where they were or if they knew he was being moved.
“Where’s Dad? Have you seen Mom? They won’t know where to find me,” he mumbled.
An orderly at the foot of his bed gave his leg a quick pat. “Don’t worry, Charlie. They’re already waiting for you in your new room.”
Charlie sighed. “Yeah, okay,” he said, and then closed his eyes because watching the overhead lights moving past his line of sight made him nauseous.
As they rolled him onto the elevator, he had a moment’s sensation of falling and quickly opened his eyes to see what was going on. Once he realized it was just the elevator moving downward, he closed them again.
