Out of Sight

by Michelle Celmer

  It happened so fast, Abi wasn’t sure the exact sequence of events. One second Will was on the ground, stunned, the next he’d produced a knife from out of nowhere and stabbed Mikey in the leg. Mikey screamed and his gun discharged. Then his body jerked, as if he’d been punched, and he collapsed on top of Will. Behind her Vince fired, then jerked, his grip on her hair loosening as he fell to the ground. Then there were people everywhere, appearing from the woods surrounding the road—men wearing jackets that said FBI.

  Where had they come from?

  Abi looked around, stunned.

  One of the agents grabbed her and pulled her away from Vince’s body. “Are you injured?”

  “N-no,” she said.

  “Agent down!” someone shouted, and for a second Abi was confused, then she looked over to where Will lay. They pulled Mikey off him and she saw it. The blood. So much blood, all over the front of his shirt, soaking the thigh of his shorts. An agent knelt beside him, applying pressure to the left side of his chest.

  Abi heard a scream, then realized it had come from her.

  Abi sat on Maureen’s couch, her hands shaking so badly she could barely grip the cup of tea someone had handed her. Every time she closed her eyes, all she could see was the blood. And when she thought of Will lying there helpless, she felt sick inside.

  Adam lay curled up beside her, taking a nap, sacked out from all the commotion. He’d been more excited and curious than frightened by all the men with guns, by the atmosphere of panic when he and the rest of the guests had been herded into the main building until the area was secure. He’d asked about Will a couple dozen times already, and she’d managed to avoid the subject and distract him.

  Four hours had passed and she still didn’t know if Will was dead or alive. There had been so much blood. She had tried to get to him, to help him, but the agents had dragged her away, said they had to keep her safe, in case there were more of them.

  The man that had introduced himself as Agent Robbins, Will’s immediate boss, was standing near the kitchen, cell phone to his ear. She’d been trying to get them to tell her something about Will. Anything. But no one was talking.

  She knew she and Will were finished, that whatever they’d had was over. She just needed to know that he was okay.

  One thing she did know was that there would be no trial, no need for her to testify. Vince was dead. So was Mikey. And no one else had been with them, meaning her secret was safe, no one in the family would find out about Adam. That didn’t mean she was out of the woods. When word got out Vince had been killed and he’d found her, the family would be looking.

  Later that night she and her son would be taken to a secure location and held there while arrangements were made for her new identity. It was the least they could do considering they’d blown her cover. And she’d handed over the key for the safe-deposit box where she’d been keeping the hit money. That part of her life wouldn’t truly be over until that money was gone. She wasn’t sure how she would get by, how she would care for Adam, but she would figure out a way.

  Maureen sat beside her. “Can I get you anything, honey?”

  Abi shook her head. “I can’t stop thinking about him, wondering if he’s okay. I need to know that he’s all right.”

  “I’m sure he will be.”

  “I should hate him for lying to me, for using me, but I don’t. I still love him.” She looked over at Maureen. “Why do I still love him?”

  “Maybe if he loves you, too—”

  “No. There are no maybes. I’m being relocated. He has a life. It wasn’t meant to be.” She looked around at the agents, the commotion. “God, I’m so sorry about this.”

  “It’s okay.”

  “If your name gets out—”

  “Abi, it’s okay. I’ll deal with it. We both knew there were risks, right? It was good while it lasted. And who knows? If my name doesn’t get out, maybe this will be good for business.”

  “Ms. Sullivan?” Agent Robbins said.

  She turned to him, her heart skipping a beat. Maybe he had information about Will. “Yes?”

  “I just wanted to let you know we’ll have you out of here tonight. In a little while someone will escort you to your cabin to pack. Only the things you’ll need to get by. The rest will be held in storage until you’re relocated.”

  She let out the breath she’d been holding. “And my new identity?”

  “It can take several weeks. You’ll be safe until then.”

  “I was wondering…. Will never got the chance to call you. How did you know Vince was here?”

  “We’ve had someone on Vince since Agent Bishop got here. When Vince moved, we followed him.”

  In other words, Will had been bait. She wondered if he knew. “If you knew Vince was coming after us, why didn’t you stop him?”

  “We had to wait until he made a move. I tried to call Agent Bishop, but he wasn’t answering the phone in his room or his cell.”

  “He was with me, in my cabin. And his cell phone battery was dead.” If he had only gone back to his cabin last night, if she hadn’t asked him to make love to her, he would never have been shot.

  “And what about when Vince had us on the road?” she said, her voice rising. “Why did you wait for them to shoot Will?”

  “Vince got there about two minutes before you. We had to get our snipers in place.” He laid a hand on her shoulder. “It was all last-minute. We did our best.”

  Robbins’s cell phone chirped and he answered it. He was quiet for a minute, then asked, “Agent Bishop?”

  Her heart leaped up into her throat. Please, please let him be okay.

  “I understand. I’ll take care of it.” He clipped the phone on his belt and turned to her.

  She looked at him hopefully, but he shook his head.

  “He never regained consciousness. I’m sorry.”

  It took several seconds for his words to sink in, for the tears to well up and choke her. Then pain squeezed so tightly around her heart she couldn’t breathe.

  Will was gone. And it was all her fault.

  Chapter 18

  “We’re almost there.”

  Abi looked out the car window at the passing scenery. She’d never been to Wyoming before, nor had she ever thought she would want to live there, but it was pretty enough. Rough and rugged but peaceful and secluded. She could get used to this. She hadn’t even known until they’d crossed the state line where they were going. But they’d heeded her request that her new home be located in the mountains. At this point, she didn’t care where it was as long as it wasn’t a third-rate hotel.

  The past four weeks had been the longest, most miserable of her life. The agents assigned to her wouldn’t let her so much as walk to the ice machine alone, and Adam was used to being outdoors, being with other children. He’d grown tired of the television within the first two days. He’d driven her and the agents half-crazy with his whining and complaining. She’d tried to be cheerful and keep his spirits up, but it was tough when her heart was broken. And every time he asked about Will, if they would ever see him again, another piece of her heart chipped away until she feared soon there would be nothing left. She didn’t tell him much, only that like the other retreat guests, Will had gone home.

  After two weeks Adam had finally stopped asking. He seemed to forget. She only wished she could, too. But Will haunted her in her dreams. In her sleep he would come to her and hold her and tell her everything was going to be okay, it was all a mistake, he wasn’t really dead. She could feel him and smell him. She would wake with her pillow wet and a pain so deep she wanted to go back to sleep and never wake up.

  Will had given his life for her. He’d saved her. She couldn’t help thinking that if she’d only testified four years ago, this never would have happened. All those people Vince had killed would still be alive. She wished she could get one more chance to see him, one more opportunity to tell him despite everything that had happened she still loved him. And she probably alwa
ys would.

  She would never meet another man like him.

  The SUV pulled off the road and bumped up a gravel driveway.

  “We’re here,” Agent Rodriguez told Adam, who sat with his nose glued to the window, having called out his millionth “Are we there yet?” of the trip not two miles back.

  Both Rodriguez and Agent Roth were childless, and Abi didn’t doubt that after the past four weeks with Adam, they would remain that way for a very long time—possibly forever.

  “We’re there, Mommy! Look!” Adam screeched, bouncing in his seat. The kid was so filled with pent-up energy he was about to pop.

  They pulled up in front of a small cottage-style house with green shutters and overgrown flower beds. It definitely had potential. But she couldn’t muster any real enthusiasm. Maureen, all of her friends at the retreat—she would never see them again. It was good to be starting over—it was what she needed—but she felt inexplicably lonely. No one would ever know who she really was, just the cardboard-cutout identity the FBI had given her.

  When the car rolled to a stop, everyone got out and stretched. Agent Rodriguez grabbed her bags while Roth went up and unlocked the door. “Nicole,” he said, holding it open for her.

  For a second she wondered who he was talking to, then realized it was her. She still wasn’t used to her new name. All of this was going to be an adjustment.

  She stepped inside her new home and turned slowly around. It was small and cozy and looked to be in decent shape. There was a family room, a small kitchen to the back and, to the right, an arch that she suspected led to the bedrooms and bath. All of their things had already been delivered. She’d expected she would have a fair amount of unpacking to do, but there were no boxes. In fact, it looked as if everything had already been unpacked.

  Adam darted past her to find his bedroom. Unlike her, he’d been so excited to see their new home. He’d kept asking her if there would be other kids, if he would have new friends. For the first time in his life he would make friends that wouldn’t leave after several weeks. This would be so good for him.

  “All the information you need is in the packet we gave you,” Roth told her. “Your new ID, social-security card.”

  “Got it,” she said. She walked into the kitchen and opened cupboard doors. They were filled with her dishes and stocked with food. Coincidentally many were Adam’s favorite treats—all new and unopened. Someone must have taken inventory of her cabinets at the retreat. It was more than she would have ever expected from the government.

  “If you don’t need anything else, we’re going to take off,” Rodriguez said.

  “Thank you,” she told them both. They probably couldn’t wait to be rid of her. “I appreciate all you’ve done for us. I know it wasn’t fun most of the time.”

  “Good luck.” Roth flashed her a smile and then they were gone. The entire miserable ordeal was, for the most part, over.

  “Mommy, Mommy!” Adam hopped excitedly in the archway. “Come see my room! It’s just like home.”

  She grabbed the bags containing their clothes and toiletries and followed him to the door on the right.

  “See, Mommy! All my stuff is here!”

  She peered inside, then gasped and dropped the bags at her feet. The room was set up nearly identically to his bedroom at the retreat. The bed and dresser and shelves—they were arranged precisely the same. Not only that, there were things she’d never seen before—new toys, like a foam football and a baseball with a glove small enough for his little hand.

  She went down the hall, past the small bathroom, to her bedroom. Tears burned her eyes. It was a little bigger than her place at the retreat, but like Adam’s room it was set up nearly the same. The furniture was in the same place—even the lamp and clock were on the nightstand on the left side. And like the other rooms, there were no boxes, nothing to unpack. She opened the closet and found her things hanging there.

  This was too weird. Who would go to all the trouble to do this?

  From the other room she heard a knock at the door. Probably one of the agents had forgotten to give her something. She would ask them to thank whomever had gone to such lengths to make their new house familiar and comfortable.

  She walked to the living room and pulled open the door—

  She froze. For several seconds she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t think, just stood there too stunned to move. She had to be dreaming or hallucinating. It looked like him, but…

  This couldn’t be real.

  “Will!” Adam shrieked.

  “Hey, sport.” Will crouched down in the doorway, and Adam barreled past her to launch himself into Will’s arms. Will hugged him hard. “Boy, did I miss you.”

  “Me, too! Mommy said you went home and we wouldn’t see you again.”

  Will stood, Adam clinging to him, and flashed her that crooked grin. “Mommies make mistakes sometimes, I guess.”

  She nodded numbly. He looked paler, maybe a little thin. But his face…

  Adam laid a hand on his cheek. “What happened to your scar?”

  “It’s called a skin graft,” Will told him. “They took the bad skin off and put new skin on. Looks pretty good, huh?”

  Adam nodded enthusiastically.

  There were still scars where they had grafted the new skin on, but his face looked almost normal. So different. “I thought— They said you were—” she began.

  Reality hit her with the velocity of an express train and a sob ripped from her throat. He wasn’t dead. All this time he’d been alive.

  He set Adam down and pulled her into his arms, held her against him. The scent of him, the feel of his body—it was really him.

  “I’m so sorry,” he said. “But they couldn’t tell you.”

  “The bullet wounds—there was so much blood.”

  “I bled like crazy, but both bullets managed to miss any major arteries.”

  “The reports on the news, the memorial service in New York—”

  “All staged. It had to look real if I was going to go into the program.”

  She looked up at him, tears streaming down her cheeks. “Program?”

  “Witness security.”

  “Witness security? You mean you—”

  He stepped back and held out a hand for her to shake. “Jack Traynor. Pleased to meet you.”

  She looked at his hand, her knees feeling weak and shaky. “You left the FBI? For me?”

  “Yep.”

  “Your whole life?”

  “Uh-huh. Everything. As far as anyone knows, William Bishop is dead.”

  “I don’t believe it. No one has ever made that kind of sacrifice for me.”

  He took her face in his hands, grinned down at her. “If I hadn’t left the FBI, hadn’t had the chance to spend the rest of my life with you, that would have been a sacrifice.”

  “Hey!” Adam tugged on the leg of Jack’s pants, a frown on his face. “Your name’s not Jack. It’s Will.”

  “He got a new name, honey. Just like Mommy used to be Abi and now she’s Nicole. So from now on you have to call him Jack.”

  “How come? I like his old name.”

  Jack knelt beside him. “Kinda confusing, isn’t it?”

  Adam nodded.

  “Maybe it would be easier if you just called me Daddy.”

  Adam’s eyes lit with excitement. “Really? Could I?”

  “If it’s okay with your mom.” He looked up at her. “What do you think? Is it okay if he calls me Daddy?”

  She nodded, a new round of tears rolling down her face. He stood and pulled her into his arms again.

  “When I thought you were dead, it tore me apart,” she said. “I love you so much.”

  “I love you, too. I want us to get married and be a family.”

  “I want that, too.”

  “Hey,” Adam said, tugging on Jack’s pants again. “Since I have a daddy now and you love Mommy and you’re gonna get married, does that mean she can have a baby?”

 
Jack grinned. “Sounds okay to me, sport. What do you think, Nicole?”

  “A baby?” she said, gaping at the two of them, her head still reeling. “You don’t think we’re getting a little bit ahead of ourselves?”

  “You don’t want any more kids?”

  “Well, yes, of course I do. Could we maybe get married first, then talk about a family?”

  Jack looked down at Adam. “Your mom has a point. We probably should get married first.” He grinned at Nicole. “I’m free Saturday. How about you?”

  She couldn’t hold back a smile. Five minutes ago she’d been miserable and lonely and suddenly she had her entire life ahead of her—life with the man she loved. Maybe her past was finally where it belonged—in the past. It was time to move on for good, and considering it was Friday, they weren’t wasting any time. “Saturday works for me, too.”

  “So we get married and then Adam can have a little brother or sister?”

  “A brother,” Adam said. “Girls are gross.”

  “Sorry, pal,” Jack said with a shrug. “We can’t make any promises. You sort of get what you get.”

  Adam thought about that for a minute, then sighed. “I guess a girl would be okay, as long as she doesn’t touch my toys.”

  “Well?” Jack asked her.

  “Okay,” Nicole agreed.

  “Hooray!” Adam bounced around the room. “When can we get it, Mommy?”

  “Well,” she told him, “the baby needs time to grow, and sometimes it doesn’t happen right away. Sometimes it takes, um…practice.”

  Adam looked puzzled. “Can’t you start practicing now?”

  She and Jack shared a smile—one that said they’d start as soon as Adam went to bed.

  “Sport,” Jack told him, “we’ll get right on it.”

  Then Jack gave her a kiss, slow and deep and sweet, just the way he always did.

  “I can’t believe you’re really here,” she murmured.

  “I’m really here.”

  “It was you that unpacked our things? Got the house ready? You did all this?”