In Need of Protection

by Jill Elizabeth Nelson

  He shrugged. “The case is a matter of public record now, so I don’t see why not.”

  “Okay. Go ahead.” She leaned forward, elbows on knees, mirroring his posture in a suggestion of empathy.

  “Joseph—that was his name—reminded me so much of my own grandfather it was eerie. My granddad had passed away a few years earlier, and I missed him a lot. This guy had similar looks and mannerisms, some of the same speech patterns, and they even laughed the same way. It was instinctive for me to trust him. What I didn’t realize until it was almost too late is that this man and my grandfather didn’t share the same character.”

  “Am I sensing a betrayal theme here?”

  “Sharp, as usual.” He turned his head her way and smiled.

  Their gazes locked, his face inches from hers. Lara’s heart went pitter-patter like a schoolgirl with a new crush. The man simply took her breath away, especially in this moment of open vulnerability. If it didn’t sound sappy, she’d say she could see into his soul and it was beautiful.

  Ethan’s gaze drifted toward her mouth. Lara held her breath, unable—no, unwilling—to pull back.

  Then he looked away and sat up, breaking the connection. He was doing that warm-cool thing again, even as he was attempting to explain to her why. She drew in a deep breath. His withdrawal was for the best. This was no time or place for romance. In fact, kissing her would probably be a breach of professional ethics for him.

  Lara cleared her throat and took a sip of her tea. The warm fluid soothed her tight throat. Of course, she was relieved the intimate moment had passed. If only she could make herself believe she wouldn’t give her right arm to experience that kiss. The Draytons might be the biggest threat to her life, but the man next to her was becoming the biggest threat to her heart.

  * * *

  Ethan gulped down a big breath of air. That was a close call. He’d come within a millisecond of kissing the woman he was supposed to be protecting. Next to him, Lara sat stiffly sipping her tea and not sparing him a glance. Had she, too, felt the urge to join their lips together? If so, did he dare hope she was disappointed the kiss hadn’t happened? Or was she offended that he had again sent her that conflicted on-again, off-again message?

  Clearly, he’d have to level with her 100 percent. He needed her to trust him protect her the way she deserved to be protected. Lara was a gem in every way, and he couldn’t—wouldn’t—allow the Draytons to deprive the world of her or take possession of little Maisy.

  Ethan rose and went to the rocking chair. “I’m sorry about that. Usually, I’m able to maintain complete professional distance, but honestly, with you, I’m struggling. Not because I don’t like you but because I do. Too much.”

  Color washed up Lara’s neck and onto her cheeks. “Really?” The word squeaked out her mouth.

  “But that’s not okay. Not right now. This feeling reminds me of the time I let my guard down with someone under my care. Innocent people were nearly killed because I allowed the relationship to become so personal that my professional judgment was impaired.”

  Her eyes narrowed and she canted her head at him. “I see. Well, sort of, since you haven’t finished your story, but I totally agree that now is a terrible time to allow feelings to develop and relationships to become personal. I’m struggling with that myself.”

  “Really?” It was his turn for a word to pop out in a higher-than-normal tone of voice.

  His heart did a little jig. She was attracted to him? That was great. No, that was terrible. Ethan scrubbed a hand over his face.

  “I guess I’d better finish telling you what happened. Then maybe you’ll understand the risks of clouded judgment in our sort of situation better.”

  “Go ahead, please.” She set her mug on the side table and fixed her gaze on him.

  “My partner at the time and I were sequestered with this family for several weeks. The toddler was adorable but active and a challenge. The kid didn’t seem to take to me, hence my earlier comment about questioning my compatibility with children. The boy’s mother was jittery and scared, which may have contributed to her child’s wild behavior. The father was determined to do the right thing by testifying and putting this dangerous man behind bars, but I could tell he was scared, too.”

  “Understandable.” Lara nodded at him.

  “Right. But Grandpa seemed the cool, calm and reasonable hand at the helm of the family unit, and by the end of three weeks, I respected and trusted him completely.”

  “But?”

  “Yes, big but in there. What I didn’t know was that he was the most frightened of them all but hid it behind a jolly mask. I had started equating him with my grandfather, who was a true stalwart, steady as a rock. But in reality, this guy was all bravado and no foundation. He had no faith or trust in me—or more accurately, in the marshals service.”

  Lara frowned. “He didn’t believe you’d be able to protect him and his family?”

  “Correct. Since there was no reason to believe our location was compromised, we were allowed to go outdoors for some recreation. The house we were in was on a secluded beach, so we would take the tot down to the water’s edge to build sandcastles and run off some energy.

  “But one day, Grandpa said he was too tired and wanted to take a nap while we were at the beach. I totally understood—or thought I did—that the old guy just wanted some peace and quiet and alone time. I didn’t blame him a bit. I was gone about ten minutes helping the little family take all the equipment down to the beach—chairs, umbrellas, toys and whatnot. By the time I got back to the house to keep watch, the damage had been done. I just didn’t know it yet.”

  Wide-eyed, Lara leaned forward. “What did he do?”

  “He got on my laptop and made an internet call to one of the bad guy’s pals, betraying our location on the condition that he, his daughter and his grandson were spared.”

  Lara gasped and covered her mouth with a hand. “That’s awful. Let me guess. A short time later, you were ambushed at that beach house by hired thugs, much like the ones we’ve been fighting off.”

  “You got it. A small army of them, as it turns out.”

  “Was anyone hurt?”

  “Only minor injuries on our side, thankfully.”

  “You and your partner held off an army?”

  “Briefly. A short time before the attack came, I noticed someone had been on the laptop recently, and I knew it wasn’t me or my partner. There was only one person who’d been in the house alone for any length of time. I confronted Grandpa, and he caved pretty quickly. Confessed what he’d done out of sheer panic at the prospect of what the bad guy might arrange to have happen to his family if his son-in-law testified. I called the situation in, and as we were preparing to vacate the house, the attackers arrived. My partner and I held down the fort under fire for hair-raising minutes and then the cavalry arrived from multiple law enforcement agencies.”

  Lara was shaking her head repeatedly. “That’s—that’s amazing! Did the son-in-law ever testify?”

  “He did, but his relationship with his father-in-law was shattered by the man’s betrayal. And, as you can imagine, it devastated the man’s daughter that he was willing to sacrifice her husband’s life. I didn’t stay in touch, so I don’t know how the family fared in the long run, but the stress was huge, so—” He ended the thought with a wordless shrug.

  “I don’t see any reason to blame you for the incident.” Her words were spoken hotly, as if she were ready to step up and defend him.

  He held up a quieting hand and lowered his head, staring at his shoes. “The marshals service investigated the incident thoroughly, and my partner and I were commended. They determined there had been no violation of procedure. After all, it’s not reasonable to suspect a person you’re protecting with your life would reach out to the enemy. But I’ve always blamed myself for getting too comfortable with the m
an and allowing him the opportunity.”

  Lara sniffed as she stood up and took his empty mug from him. “To me, it sounds like you treated him with common courtesy. No more nor less than anyone should receive under your supervision. Do you want my honest opinion?”

  “Sounds like I’m going to get it.” He gazed up at her, and something thawed inside him at the fierce earnestness of her expression. The woman was the essence of sincerity and transparency.

  “I don’t think you feel guilty on a procedural level.” She wagged a finger at him. “You didn’t do anything wrong and your head knows that. I think you’re blaming yourself for being fooled by someone who turned out to be untrustworthy. Like it’s a sign of weakness. News flash! You’re human. We all place trust where we shouldn’t from time to time.”

  Ethan rose with a frown “In my position, I can’t afford those kinds of mistakes. People’s lives are on the line.”

  She stuck out her chin, undaunted. “Too bad. You’re going to make mistakes whether you can afford to or not. It’s how quickly you recover from those mistakes and take the next right action that counts. Trying to be the ice man and shutting out personal feelings is not the answer.”

  Ethan spluttered a laugh. “Are you sure you didn’t major in philosophy in college?”

  “Psychology, actually. Photography was my hobby until it became my profession.”

  “Interesting. Well, right now I believe my next right action is to urge you to go back to bed and get some more rest. Morning’s coming quickly.”

  She glanced at her watch. “Three a.m. That means I should have time for three more hours of shut-eye before the pint-size princess wakes up demanding her breakfast.”

  “You know Maisy’s schedule already?”

  “It’s on her mother’s list for me, and the timing proved true yesterday morning. Hopefully, our wild day didn’t disrupt that schedule. I’ve heard it’s good for babies to have a routine.”

  “Off to bed, then. Thank you for hearing me out.”

  “Thank you for telling me. I know it was difficult.” She sent him a soft smile as she headed away.

  Ethan’s heart lightened as she retreated up the stairs. Is that all he’d really needed? To unburden himself to someone who not only understood but was willing to call him out on his attitude? Not that he was sure she was right. He’d have to give some thought to what she’d said. Later. When this was over.

  He’d give his people more time to come up with leads, but it could well come down to the last-ditch ploy of using Lara for bait. He still needed to figure out how to reel in the Draytons without her getting hurt or Maisy coming anywhere near her ruthless relatives.

  The following days passed uneventfully and stretched into a week. They fell into a cycle of sleeping, playing with Maisy, hiking outdoors with lots of picture taking, cooking and eating together. Lara said routine was good for the baby, and apparently routine was good for the adults, as well. He and Lara were markedly more relaxed around each other but still both vigilant.

  She continued to be the sort of protectee who asked lots of pertinent questions. In fact, they spent a little while each day discussing options for drawing the Draytons into the open. The conversation always ended with him recommending they give his people a little space to find the crooks another way. Any scenario that involved her as bait felt too risky.

  Ethan found Lara as attractive as ever, but they seemed to have reached a tacit agreement that exploring personal feelings was off the table. For now, at least. Caring for the baby was a handy buffer between them.

  Lara’s forest ranger friend, Jake, brought them a burner phone, and Ethan used it morning and evening to check in with Terry. Ethan had given him the serial number of the tracker they’d discovered in the baby toy in hopes of it leading to the purchaser. No results on that yet, but to Lara’s relief, they found out that her mother was recovering nicely from the injury she’d received during the kidnapping attempt and had been taken to a new safe house that hadn’t been on record when the US Marshals Service computer system had been hacked. Also, Alex Bingham, that kidnapped computer tech, had awakened from his coma and was expected to recover completely, though the ketamine had ensured he didn’t remember much about his ordeal.

  Other than those bits of good news, there were no fresh leads on finding the Draytons. Hearing daily that there was a lack of development was the only unwelcome aspect of their routine.

  Jake had also brought them a shotgun, which Ethan kept loaded and ready for trouble.

  A week to the day after they’d arrived at their national forest haven, Jake arrived on their front porch to deliver the groceries and infant supplies they’d asked him to pick up. Ethan took one look at the tension lines around Jake’s mouth and moved outside, closing the door after him. Lara was inside, humming to Maisy as she fed the child a bottle.

  “What’s going on?” he asked Jake in a low tone.

  “I don’t know how much time you’ll have to make yourselves scarce, but I think your enemies might suspect you’re holed up in this forest.”

  TEN

  Lara opened the door and stepped onto the porch, cradling the baby in her arms. “Don’t be trying to hide anything from me,” she told the two men, glaring from one to the other.

  “How did you know?” Ethan scratched his head.

  “When Jake shows up, he marches right in.” She motioned toward her forest ranger friend, then jerked her chin at Ethan. “You don’t go outside and close the door.”

  He raised his hands in a surrender gesture. If this were a time for levity, she’d laugh at the red on his face.

  “Spill!” she ordered Jake, who also had a slightly pink face. “What happened?

  He raised the bags he carried in his hands. “I got this stuff at the grocery store in Big Piney. As I was checking out, I noticed a couple of burly hard cases standing around watching people. An old friend who works there was checking my groceries and started to make conversation. ‘You got company with a baby?’ he says. Those hard cases perked right up.”

  “Did they approach you?” Ethan relieved Jake of the bag holding the baby supplies.

  “They started to trail me as I headed for my truck in the parking lot, but just then, a cop car pulled in. The officers got out and started asking these guys questions. Evidently, the presence of strangers lurking around like scary vagrants had bothered other folks, and someone had called the police to check them out.”

  Lara popped the empty bottle out of Maisy’s mouth, put the child on her shoulder and began to pat her back. “So you got away without being followed?”

  “Yeah.” Jake frowned. “But I’m not fooling myself that they won’t come looking for me as soon as they can, expecting to find you three. And they’ll know where to hunt me up. They saw me in my uniform, and this is the only national forest in the vicinity. I’m sorry, but those guys and some of their pals might even now be preparing to storm the forest.”

  Lara’s heart dipped into her toes. This refuge in the forest had seemed idyllic, a calm cocoon of protection for their little pseudofamily to rest in. Something about it had felt like time had stopped for them while the outside world went on spinning. Now the respite was at an abrupt end, and the threat was closing in again.

  Ethan jerked a decisive nod. “Our presence in the forest is known—or at least suspected. Drayton’s people will be along anytime to search every campground and cabin for us. We need to get out of here ASAP.”

  “Won’t take me more than a few minutes to repack my go bag,” she said, heading into the cabin with Maisy, who had done her burping and was now cooing and blowing bubbles. The men followed her inside.

  “I’ll throw together Maisy’s things,” Jake offered.

  “Do it,” Ethan said. “I need to call Terry about our situation and ask him to send in whatever law enforcement is available. Then we have to get goin
g.” He turned toward Jake. “Buddy, you need to warn your fellow rangers and other personnel throughout the forest and tell them not to engage these guys. None of you are trained to handle the kind of trouble hired guns can dish out.”

  “Don’t worry. I’m out ahead on that.” He winked at them. “On my way here, I got on the radio and instructed my people to give the runaround to any strangers asking questions about a couple with a baby staying in the forest. Tell them, ‘Oh, yeah, I saw them here’ or ‘Oh, yeah, I saw them there.’ Should buy us a little time to get away.”

  “Us?” Lara stared at her friend.

  “Jake’s going to have to hang with us,” Ethan said, “until we shake our pursuers and can disappear again. If Drayton’s goons spot him, they’ll do more than ask semipolite questions, because he’s the guy who was seen buying our supplies.”

  Tears stung the backs of Lara’s eyes. “I’m sorry I got you caught up in this mess.”

  Jake shook his head at her. “Don’t be. I’m honored you came to me.”

  “We’re going to get through this.” Ethan’s tone commanded confidence.

  Lara met his rock-steady gaze, and her fluttering pulse settled into a more natural rhythm. If anyone could get them to safety, it would be this man. She laid Maisy on a blanket near the hearth and left the child kicking her feet and trying to grab her toes while she went to the loft to pack. Ten minutes later, she arrived back downstairs, a strap of her go bag over one shoulder and carrying a few of Maisy’s things to stuff into the child’s diaper tote. Ethan and Jake already had everything else put together and were carrying it out to the pickup.

  “Last load,” Ethan told her. “Let’s go.”

  Jake headed for his forest service truck, and Ethan led the way to the pickup they’d arrived in. In one hand, he carried a heavy-duty backpack bulging with supplies. In the other, he held the shotgun provided by the forest ranger. Maisy was yawning as Lara snapped the baby carrier into place in the center position of the back seat. She buckled herself in next to the child.