by Debra Webb
SOS
The promising dots that he was responding appeared, and she held her breath.
Relief swam through her veins. A thumbs-up meant he had received the message and would send help. Since there were two thumbs-up images, she assumed Jax had already called for assistance.
Everything would be okay. If they arrived in time. As far as she could tell driving in the dark last night, they were sort of in the middle of nowhere.
A scratching sound whispered through the darkness.
The air trapped in her lungs.
The urge to rush out there and help in some way hurtled through her.
Be still!
This entire case depended on her survival to testify. If something happened to her, the old bastard would get away with everything the same way he had for decades.
She could not allow that to happen.
Glass shattered at the front of the cabin. Next to her, Bob’s body tensed. The door opened.
Ali twisted just enough to see beyond the stair treads. The staircase was open with no risers or anything that would block her view.
With the door open, moonlight arrowed across the floor. The instinct to draw away nudged her, but she didn’t dare move. A shadow blocked the light.
Her heart bolted against her sternum. Bob pressed closer against her, his fur standing up. She gave him the hand signal to stay. He was trained not to move or to make a sound when given that signal.
The slightest brush of a shoe sole against the hardwood. Then another and another. He—whoever he was—moved about in the darkness. Ali held her breath. Tried to make herself as small as possible.
The sigh of his weight settling onto the first tread sent fear roaring through her.
Another brush of rubber against wood as he braced a shoe on the next step.
A grunt echoed in the darkness.
The tread squeaked with movement.
For a moment there were only grunting sounds and fabric rustling. She tried to make out what was happening, but she could only see movement in the darkness. It was impossible to discern what she was looking at other than she understood the two men were struggling.
“Do not move.”
Jax.
His order was directed at the other man. Bob issued a low growl.
Again, the urge to get out there and help somehow prodded at her.
Blue lights suddenly throbbed in the darkness.
Backup had arrived.
“On your feet,” Jax instructed.
With the headlights of the official vehicles shining on the cabin, she could see the man scramble to his feet.
“Hands behind your head.”
He obeyed Jax’s command.
Tanner and two uniformed deputies filed in through the door. Chief Brannigan followed. Someone flipped on the overhead light. Ali squinted until her eyes adjusted to the brightness.
“Everything okay?” Tanner asked.
Jax nodded. “Just caught this scumbag trying to slip in and mess up my vacation.”
The last was an effort to throw the man off. No one wanted him reporting back to whoever hired him that he had indeed found the witness.
Tanner cuffed the man’s hands behind his back.
“I have a few questions for him before you take him away,” Jax said.
“Let’s step outside and have a chat,” Tanner suggested.
Flashlights bobbed in the night. Ali supposed there were other deputies out there searching the area. There was always the possibility that this guy hadn’t come alone.
Before walking out, Jax said something to Brannigan for his ears only.
When the door closed, Brannigan came around to the back of the staircase and couched down. “You all right, ma’am?”
Bob’s tail thumped on the wood floor as if he recognized one of the good guys.
“Yes.” The word was rusty. She managed her first deep breath since waking up.
“I think it’s safe for you to come out now.” He offered his hand.
Ali put her hand in his and scrambled from her hiding place, Bob right behind her.
“Thank you.”
“Anytime.”
Brannigan was like Tanner and Holloway. He wore the cowboy boots and the hat. He had the same polite manners, as well. All this time she’d believed cowboys were overrated. Maybe not. Her mind was whirling with silly thoughts and ideas. She was too tired and too stressed and coming down off an adrenaline rush fueled by fear. On cue, her knees attempted to buckle.
“Steady there.” Brannigan took her by the arm and ushered her to the nearest chair.
She sat, managed another thanks. When she’d composed herself a bit, she asked, “Do we know if he’s one of Armone’s men?”
“I figure we’ll know that any minute now.”
He was probably right.
The phone still clutched in her hand vibrated.
She looked at the screen.
?
Holloway wanted to know if she was okay. She sent him a thumbs-up, and he shot back a smiley face.
She suddenly felt tremendously lucky to have been stashed in Winchester. Everyone had been so nice to her. It wasn’t at all like her first location, where she’d felt like a prisoner, an outsider...a criminal.
Before she could stop the reaction, tears spilled down her cheeks. She felt like a complete idiot. Bob set his head on her knees and stared at her with sad eyes.
Brannigan crouched down beside her chair. “Hey, now. We’ve got the situation under control. No need for tears.”
He stood and crossed the room, came back with a box of tissues.
She pulled out a couple and swabbed at her cheeks. “Sorry. I guess I was due for a little breakdown.”
“I’m certain of it,” he assured her. “We all need a way to blow off steam from time to time. There’s no rule that says you can’t do it this way.”
She sucked in a big breath and attempted to compose herself.
“You need a place to stay until we figure out what happens next,” he said. “I thought you and the marshal could stay in town at the funeral home.”
“Funeral home?” A frown pulled at her weary face.
“Several generations of DuPonts grew up there,” he said with a smile. “I live there with Rowan DuPont. But there’s plenty of room in the living quarters above the funeral home. You’ll be safe there.”
She’d expected to possibly end up in a funeral home before this was over. She just hadn’t expected to be alive.
* * *
JAX MADE SURE Ali and Bob were tucked in for the night before going into the living room. Chief Brannigan waited for him. He’d introduced Rowan DuPont, the owner of the funeral home, to them when they first arrived an hour ago. She had gone to bed soon after, up on the third floor. Brannigan had explained that Rowan’s family had built the funeral home more than a century and a half ago. DuPonts had lived on the second and third floors since. Rowan was the only one left now.
Jax had heard about her. Before her father’s death, Rowan had worked with Nashville Metro. A serial killer had become infatuated with her and murdered her father. In fact, the bastard was still out there, haunting her from afar.
Sometimes it felt like the bad guys won too often.
Kept guys like him fighting an uphill battle.
“Tanner brought me up to speed on the case,” Brannigan said. “He and Holloway will have a new safe house for the two of you by daylight.”
Jax nodded. “Good. I’ll need to inspect my vehicle more closely in the light of day first. The guy pretending to be from the utility company, Teddy Scott, stuck a tracker on my SUV. If I hadn’t been in such a hurry to get out of there I would have thought of that and checked first.”
He wasn’t sure he could forgive himself for that mista
ke. Ali could have been killed. The bastard he’d taken down wouldn’t talk other than to demand a call to his lawyer. A quick cell phone pic sent to a deputy at the jail, and Scott had confirmed the man was the same one who had hired him to look for Ali.
Armone hadn’t sent him. He was a damned investigative reporter from Atlanta. Jax had known something was off when the man broke the glass in the door. What kind of hired killer announced his presence by busting his way inside?
There was always the chance he had a team with him, in which case it wouldn’t have mattered, but one man alone would have wanted to keep his presence unknown for as long as possible.
Outrage rushed through him again just thinking about the kind of person who would put a photo op before a person’s life—including his own.
“I have people who can help with going over your vehicle,” Brannigan assured him.
“I appreciate your support, Chief.” Jax couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so tired. Lots of cases were tough, but this one was taking it out of him fast.
Doesn’t have anything to do with the identity of the witness.
The lie echoed in his brain.
Brannigan shook his head. “The dead husband was one sick puppy.”
Jax knew a great deal about the man professionally, but he knew very little about his personal life. One of the reasons the bastards had escaped justice so long was because of their ability to keep their personal lives as tight as a vault.
“Most of them are.” He’d never met a criminal at Armone’s level who was anything but pure evil.
“Frankly, I don’t see how she survived. It took real courage not to just take the easy way out and end the pain.”
What the hell was he talking about? “I don’t know what you mean.”
Ali had married Harrison Armone of her own volition. Had stayed married to him for five years.
“You didn’t read the file?”
“I read the file Holloway showed me at the hospital, but there wasn’t any information about the relationship between her and him other than the fact that she was his widow.”
Surprise flashed across Brannigan’s face, but he quickly schooled his expression. “I see.”
Jax went inordinately still. “You read a different file.”
It wasn’t a question. What he had been shown was the bare minimum. After all, he was a US marshal, the same as Holloway. He knew who and what the Armone family was. He hadn’t needed all the dirty details.
“I was made aware of additional information.” Brannigan stood. “I think I’ll try to get a couple more hours of shut-eye. You should do the same.”
Jax stood. “I’d like to know what you saw that I didn’t.”
Brannigan held his gaze for a moment. “You should talk to Holloway about that, or maybe the lady in question. Good night, Stevens.”
He headed for the stairs that would take him to the third floor.
Jax walked down the hall to the room where Ali slept. Rowan had explained that it had been her parents’ room. The night-light in the hall cast a dim glow into the room and across the bed. Ali slept soundly.
What had she been through that she didn’t want him to know? Not just her. Obviously, Holloway had made the decision that passing along those personal details wasn’t necessary for Jax to do his job. And it wasn’t.
But he wanted to know.
His gut tied up in knots when he considered the possibilities. There were some sick individuals in this world.
He couldn’t help wondering if he’d stayed in Georgia with her if he could have...
He pushed away the thought. He couldn’t undo the past. He wasn’t even sure he would want to if he could.
Before he started kicking himself for that long-ago decision, he needed to know the truth. He had regretted his decision on some level, sure. He’d been crazy about her ten years ago. He’d wanted to spend forever with her. Whatever forever meant to a twenty-two-year-old guy with a burning desire to save the world.
She had only wanted to get through college. She’d had to delay starting for more than a year after high school to help her father take care of her mother. After her mother passed, she’d resumed her plan. That was how they’d met. She was in college and he’d been at Glynco, and they’d ended up at the same pizza place.
She was the prettiest girl he’d ever seen and so shy. The shyness had really intrigued him. He’d had to dig for every nugget of information. She was the only woman he’d ever taken home to meet his family.
His mother and sister had adored Ali. His father, too. He’d told Jax that she was the one. At twenty-two, who listens to their old man?
The whole family had been upset with him when he moved to Seattle alone. On some level he had known it was a mistake, as well. But he hadn’t taken steps to make it right until it was too late and she’d married a monster. He hadn’t allowed her to creep into his thoughts again...until yesterday.
No point beating a dead horse. It was done. It was over. She was the one who’d married someone else.
He checked the door locks and the security system key pad then slipped quietly into the room where she slept. Bob was stretched out on the floor next to the bed. He lifted his head, eyed Jax for a moment, then relaxed on the floor once more. Jax went into the en suite bath and closed the door before turning on the light.
Rowan had supplied fresh towels and toiletries. He placed his weapon and cell phone on the floor next to the shower, turned on the water and shed his clothes and shoes. He stepped under the hot spray and just stood there for a while, allowing the water to slide over his body.
Every muscle tightened when he thought of the way Ali’s body had felt against his when he’d pulled her to him to whisper in her ear. Even under the circumstances, he had felt that old familiar need to keep holding her, to turn her around and to kiss her the way he used to.
He didn’t want to feel that way. Not after she’d lived with a man like Armone.
Scrubbing the soap over his body, he tried his level best to banish thoughts of her, but she wasn’t going anywhere.
He thought of the comment Brannigan had made. Had he been wrong all these years?
No. He let the hot water wash away the soap then he reached for the shampoo. She’d married the bastard because she wanted to. No one forced her. He’d seen them together.
The idea that he had watched her for days five years ago after he had discovered she was married was another of those memories he would like to evict from his head. No matter that he had been the one to walk away, he had somehow always expected to end up with Ali. When she finished school, if he still felt as strongly about her, he would hunt her down and sweep her off her feet. Dazzle her and change her mind about moving to the northwest. He’d wanted that time and distance to give her a chance to decide what she really wanted. He had been certain his shy, small-town love wasn’t going anywhere. She would be waiting for him. Only he’d been wrong.
He had been an arrogant fool.
She had found someone new.
He had made the mistake of his life.
She was just as pretty as he remembered, but she was with him.
He’d told himself that she couldn’t possibly understand what kind of man Armone was, but his pride had overrode any doubt or sympathy,
He turned off the water and climbed out of the shower. That was the part that didn’t add up. Why would she even go out with a man like Armone? Didn’t she recognize evil when she saw it?
She couldn’t possibly have married him without at least some idea of who he was.
This was the part he couldn’t overlook. That really got to him. That he couldn’t forgive.
She hadn’t looked back, either. Hadn’t tried to call him. Hadn’t called his mom or his sister. She had just gone on with her life and married someone else. That part was on him. No denying
it.
He toweled off and pulled his clothes back on. Whatever Brannigan knew that he didn’t wouldn’t make any difference.
Maybe that made him heartless, but if you didn’t want to be bitten, you didn’t climb into a den of snakes.
Chapter Six
A dusting of snow had fallen during the wee hours before daylight.
Ali stared out the window over the yard behind the funeral home. Funny, it looked like any other backyard. Freud, Rowan’s German shepherd, pranced around the yard as if he wanted to make as many footprints in the snow as possible.
But this was no typical residence. Downstairs people were prepared for their final journey in this life. Funerals and wakes were carried out. She shivered. How fitting that she would be in this place. Her life the past five years had been nothing more than a facade for a dead marriage to a killer.
With a shudder, she pushed the thought away. She’d stirred at some point just before daylight. Jax had been sleeping in a chair on the other side of the bedroom. A lamp on the table next to the chair had cast a soft glow over his face.
Taking care not to make a sound, she had sat up in bed and watched him for a long while. The few lines around his eyes had relaxed in sleep. A day’s beard growth shadowed his jaw. She didn’t want to smile, but her lips formed the expression, anyway. He had hardly changed. Still good-looking. A little leaner in places, more heavily muscled in others. The boy right out of college and psyched about attending marshal training had been full of energy and excitement. This Jax was all man. All grown-up and slightly jaded after a decade in his chosen career.
He was quieter...more still. She suspected all that energy and excitement had calmed a bit and that the newer, deeper emotions were kept close, behind the tin star he carried. But in sleep, he looked so much like the very young man she had fallen so hard for. She had been so naive, which was kind of sad, since she hadn’t started college until she was twenty. Certainly she hadn’t been the starry-eyed eighteen-year-old fresh out of high school. Ali had spent two years taking care of her mother before she passed away. She’d barely gotten three years of college under her belt when her father had fallen ill. Another year at home with him, and then she’d found herself completely alone. Those final two semesters of college had been so lonely. Moving to the big city had seemed like the perfect change.
