by Linda Conrad
He wanted to reach out to her, drag her into his embrace and give her a big hug. Ten years in this business meant he knew how hard leaving friends and relatives behind could be on a witness—especially one that was innocent of any crime.
But he couldn’t afford to show weakness right now. He needed to be the strong one. He needed to be the one who would save her and her son. And he would do that by going somewhere he had once sworn never to go again.
“I’ll pay you back for that. I’m sorry…” He shut his mouth and turned his back so he couldn’t see those eyes. “I’ve had an idea for a place we can hide out. But I need a phone. Did you find one anywhere?” Instead of fisting his hands, he polished off the orange juice.
“I used the motel office phone last night to call the neighbor and also my boss about our leaving the café open and shot up like that. But those were local calls. I don’t think the manager will let you make a long distance call from there.”
Figured. “How about your neighbor? The one taking care of Mikey. Think she’d let me use her phone if I left her plenty of money to take care of it?”
Sitting on the bed, to both keep his head from spinning and to jam his feet back into his boots, Sam glanced up at Grace.
She was staring down at him with an odd expression. “To tell the truth, I hadn’t planned on sticking with you. I was going to insist you give me enough money to get out of town and then we’d split up. I have to think of Mikey.”
His hands stilled with his foot in midair. “Grace, no. I swear…”
She held up her hands. “Don’t worry. I’ve changed my mind. I know none of this is your fault.”
Hesitating, her expression telegraphing depthless fear, she screwed up her mouth and then said on the next breath, “Mikey and I will go where you go. Do you need help with those boots?”
Seconds later he was standing on his booted feet and looking for his coat. “No. Let’s start moving. I need to run a couple of quick errands before we pick up the baby.”
* * *
Quick errands? Sam hadn’t been joking when he’d said “quick.” In less than an hour they’d gone to a car dealership and traded in the old heap for a brand-new snazzy pickup with four doors and a full backseat.
He’d paid the difference in cash. She and the car dealer had both been stunned to see him dredge up a duffel full of currency and casually count out the money. It was all she could do to keep her mouth shut. That much cash could get a person in a lot of trouble.
Their next errand had been to the discount store to buy a car seat and a load of diapers for Mikey, some new jeans and a warm leather coat for her. Sam bought a couple of throwaway cell phones, tossed one in her direction and crammed the other in his coat pocket as they left the store.
While he drove them to her neighbor’s house, she couldn’t resist asking, “Why are you carrying so much cash? Aren’t you worried about being robbed?”
That brought on a smile, but he didn’t turn. “Being robbed is the last of my worries. I’m armed, remember? And using cash is the best way to disappear and leave no trace. Be grateful we’re not trying to get away from Serrano’s men on credit cards. Those records are too easy to trace if you know what you’re doing.”
“Wouldn’t you need government assistance to obtain those kinds of records?”
“Theoretically. But computer hackers could bust into any system and retrieve all the info they want—without leaving a trace.”
“Oh.”
That information made her tremble. Sam had been right. She didn’t know nearly enough about how to disappear in a way to keep herself and her baby safe.
She needed him. At least for a while. But she was determined to pump him for information. Someday, she wouldn’t need Sam Chance, or anyone else, to save her. She and Mikey could truly disappear on their own. They must find a place where Serrano’s men would never find them. Never.
Sam parked the truck down the block from the neighbor’s house. As they climbed out, Grace could hear sirens—and they seemed close.
Suddenly panicked, she started running toward the neighbor’s house. Mikey!
“Grace, wait!”
She wasn’t stopping for any reason. Mikey was her whole life. All she had left. Her life would be nothing without her baby.
Dashing straight down the quiet street to the neighbor’s front door, she found the hidden key in the bush and barged right in. “Caroline? Mikey! Where are you?”
No answer.
Sam came through the door and shut it carefully behind him. “Any sign of a struggle?”
She ignored him and started for the kitchen.
“Careful, Grace.” He pulled his gun and took her elbow to slow her down.
Grace was about to jerk her arm free and keep going when Caroline came around the corner carrying the baby in her arms. “You’re here.” Grace’s knees went weak as she reached for her son.
Sam put his gun away and stepped behind her back, letting Grace lean against his chest for strength while she cradled Mikey.
“As you can see, Mikey’s fine,” Caroline said quietly. “But there’s been trouble. I just got off the phone with Charlie. Apparently the desperados who are after you broke into your apartment over his garage, trashed it and set it on fire.”
“Are Charlie and Mary okay?”
Caroline nodded and folded her arms across her stomach. “Scared to death—and worried about you two. They heard noises coming from the apartment after you’d left, so they sneaked out the back door. Called 9-1-1 from Charlie’s cell, but the fire had already been set and the men long gone before the cops arrived.”
Grace breathed deep of her son’s baby powder and closed her eyes for a moment, so happy to have him in her arms that she could barely stand still. “I’m glad they’re all right. Was the garage badly damaged?”
“Looks like it’ll take a few thousand in repairs to put it right.”
Crushed that she had been the cause of all this chaos, Grace vowed to find a way to pay them back.
“They need to stay away from their place for a few days. Maybe a week.” Sam had been quiet all this time but now he stepped out from behind her in order to make his point.
Caroline looked him up and down then turned back to Grace. “This your U.S. Marshal? The one you mentioned?”
Not her Marshal. Though for a second Grace wished it could be true. No sense wishing for something that could never happen. She wasn’t even sure she wanted any man—ever.
Sam stepped forward and stuck his hand out to Caroline. “U.S. Marshal Sam Chance, ma’am. Assigned to the WITSEC Program. Miss Grace and her son are under my protection.”
Caroline thought about it a moment and then shook his hand. But as she did, she said, “Figure Grace was doing better on her own, son. No offense, but she don’t seem all that safe with you.”
Grace bit back a chuckle, jiggled Mikey in her arms—
And kept her mouth shut.
“No, ma’am. But I aim to right that situation from here on out. In the meantime, your neighbors need to move away from home for a while.”
“That’s what the police told them, too. They’re going over to Abilene to visit Mary’s sister for a week or two. Just till the café and the apartment can be repaired.”
“Oh, look at all the trouble I’ve caused.” Grace’s heart twisted at the thought of everything her kind friends were going through because of her. “I’m so sorry. I…”
Caroline came closer and put her arm around her shoulders. “Never mind, honey. This ain’t none of your doing and we know it. This here lawman didn’t search you out to arrest you. He’s here to protect you.
“Besides that,” Caroline went on, while hugging her and Mikey close. “We know you. It don’t matter what’s behind all that’s going on here. No one could convince me you’d done one blessed thing to bring any of this on yourself.”
Mikey reached out his arms and clung to Caroline’s neck. Grace felt the same way. She hated leavin
g these wonderful people behind.
Suddenly she knew what must’ve propelled Sam to her rescue. The obsessive need to protect a friend. And the only way for her to do that was to leave town and never look back.
“I’m afraid we have to go now, Caroline. Maybe you should leave for a few days, too.”
Caroline took a half step back and picked up the baby’s diaper bag. “Maybe I’ll do just that. Been meaning to take a shopping trip to San Antonio for a long while now.”
Grace turned and handed the baby over to Sam’s care. Mikey’s eyes widened and his face puckered up for a few seconds. But when he realized whose arms held him, the baby collapsed against Sam’s broad chest and stuck his thumb in his mouth.
Grace pulled Caroline close for a full-out hug. “I appreciate all you’ve done. I can never thank…” The words choked her with emotion.
“Now, honey. I know how you feel. Charlie and Mary, too. We just wish there was something more we could do for you and the baby.”
Caroline sighed and stepped away, handing over the bag. “Don’t tell me where y’all are going. I don’t want to know. But be safe.” She turned to face Sam. “You’d just better keep her safe, son. Or you answer to me.”
“Yes, ma’am. I’ll protect both of them with my life.”
Nodding sharply, Caroline sniffed and tilted her head toward the door. “Go on with you, then. And drive carefully.”
As they made their way back to the new truck, Grace couldn’t keep the tears from welling up in her eyes. She used her free hand to swipe them off her cheeks.
“Don’t worry,” Sam said quietly. “I’ll send your boss a little more cash to make things right when we get where we’re going. They’ll be okay. It should take Serrano’s men a few days to figure out you and the baby have left town for good. And I’ll call the sheriff and have him keep an eye on your friends’ places in the meantime.”
“Thank you, Sam. That makes me feel a little better.” But the tears wouldn’t stop clouding her eyes.
“You all right?” Sam pulled the keys from his jacket pocket and unlocked the door.
She didn’t answer him but simply shrugged her shoulders. Grace wasn’t sure she would ever be really okay again.
But she had Mikey. That’s all that mattered.
“Where are we going from here?” she asked as the two of them strapped Mikey into his seat in the back.
“If you’ll drive us out of town, I need to make a phone call to double-check something. There shouldn’t be any problem, but I need to tell them I’m coming.”
“Tell who?”
“Just drive. I’ll let you know where we’re going after I make my call.”
Well, she’d already decided to trust him with their lives. Even if her stomach rolled at the idea. Still, if she trusted him that much, she should turn over at least a little of the control—for a while.
But ohmygod, was that really the right thing to do?
Chapter 4
“Keep driving east on I-10,” Sam told Grace. “We can cut north at Ozona.”
The baby apparently hadn’t wanted to leave Caroline behind. He’d cried and shrieked while they buckled him in his new car seat. Sam didn’t suppose the boy’s mother was any too happy about leaving her dear friend, either. Grace had been silent and thoughtful for the past fifteen minutes.
It had taken Sam most of that time to settle Mikey down. Finally, with his teething ring in his mouth and the steady sound of wheels against the pavement, Mikey’s eyes fell closed and he was snoozing peacefully.
“We’re staying in Texas?” Grace’s voice held a note of terror. “Do you think that’s smart? Who knows how many people Serrano has bought off in this part of the country.”
“You came to Texas, didn’t you?”
“I was planning on traveling through. If I hadn’t run into Charlie and Mary, I would’ve been in Florida or New York by now.” She swallowed hard. “Besides, I wanted a place where people speak my mother’s language. I want Mikey to grow up knowing Spanish.”
“That’s also his father’s language.”
Grace shot him a narrowed look, but quickly returned her attention to driving.
No, he hadn’t wanted to push her buttons. It was just an observation. But he promised himself from here on out to keep his mouth closed on that subject until Grace wanted to talk.
“Let me make this call,” he said to break the icy silence. “If everything’s okay, we’re going to a place where Serrano can’t have anyone in his pocket. Trust me.”
She bit down on her lip but nodded her head.
Sam dialed a number he hadn’t thought of in more years than he could count. But the digits came to mind easily.
A familiar voice answered the call. “Bar-C.”
He pushed aside the heap of memories, both good and bad, assaulting his mind with that one word. “Hello, Travis. It’s me.”
“Sam.” Not a question. Sam had known Travis would never forget his voice. “It’s been too long, big brother. Is everything all right?”
The last time the two brothers had spoken it was Travis letting him know their father had been killed while in prison. Not exactly the best of memories. But one that stayed buried with all the other nasty recollections in the back of his mind.
“I’m okay. Everyone all right there?”
“Things are about the same here. Why are you calling, Sam?”
“I need a favor. I need a place to hide out for a while. Maybe quite some time, actually.”
“Hide out? You change sides in the past few years?”
“I’m still a U.S. Marshal, Travis.” His brother was a hell of a joker. “In fact, I have a witness and her child with me. But I need you to keep that information quiet.”
Travis snorted through their connection. “You mean the WITSEC Program has run out of safe houses? What’re our government bureaucracies coming to?”
“Not amused, brother. I’ll tell you all about it when I see you. Can you make room for us or not?”
The tone of Travis’s voice changed immediately. “Of course. The old homestead house has been sitting vacant since the rest of us moved out after Dad’s death. That isolated enough for you?”
Sam seldom thought about the house where he grew up as isolated. But compared to the rest of the ranch, it certainly was.
“Then you actually built that new big ranch house and office space that you were talking about after Dad died?”
“It’s been ten years now, Sam. Not so new anymore. Stop here on your way in. I’ll show you around and feed you while a few of the hands get the old house cleaned up and stocked.”
“We’ll be there in a couple of hours. Okay?”
“Okay.” Travis hesitated a second and Sam could hear his younger brother deciding what to say through the silence. “I’m glad you’re headed home, Sam. It’s been a long time. I’ve missed you.”
A lump formed in Sam’s throat but he gritted his teeth and swallowed it back. Damn, but this trip down memory lane was going to take him through certain hell.
“Thanks for everything, Travis. See you in a little while.” He hung up before his voice could crack.
* * *
Out of the corner of her eye Grace watched Sam sit quietly and stare at the phone that he continued to hold in his hand. A good five minutes after he’d said goodbye, he hadn’t moved an inch. The conversation with his brother had obviously unnerved him.
Taking another glance out the back window like Sam had trained her to do, she found the same mostly empty stretch of rain-soaked highway that they’d just passed. No cartel vehicles seemed to be following. Hopefully they had gotten out of town without being spotted by Serrano’s men. Things looked good so far. But she wasn’t willing to let her guard down yet.
Deciding to break the silence, she cracked, “You have a family? No kidding. And here I always thought you must’ve come into this world fully formed. Guns, cowboy hat and all.”
Sam shook his head and finally
put the phone away. “Heh heh. Very funny. You’re going to get along real well with my brothers. They’re big jokers, too.”
“I didn’t know you were from this part of the country. You never mentioned growing up in Texas.”
That did bring a smile to his face. “Talking to witnesses about your distant past isn’t part of the job description. Didn’t you have enough on your mind already?”
Grace kept a watchful eye out the windshield. Steady rain began turning to sleet and she needed a tighter grip on the wheel.
She hadn’t cared for how Sam had put his last statement. She’d always imagined that the two of them were on their way to becoming good friends. At least until one of Serrano’s men had shown up in Denver and scared her into running.
Of course she hadn’t exactly spilled her guts about her past life to him, either. But Sam already knew most of the bad parts. Just not the ones that really mattered.
“You’re frowning. Are you tired? The roads are icing. You want me to drive?”
She shook her head. “I’m fine. Not tired at all. But I want to know more about where we’re going. And why you are so sure Serrano won’t already have men there.”
Sam sighed and pulled the cowboy hat lower on his forehead. “Not crazy about telling tales on myself. But I guess you’ll hear it all soon anyhow.”
His shoulders went up as though to protect him from the words he was about to speak. “I was born and raised on a Texas ranch and that’s where we’re headed. It’s located in a pretty isolated county where everyone knows everybody else and Serrano’s gang wouldn’t stand a chance of setting up shop there. What else do you want to know?”
“When did you leave?”
“At nineteen. I joined the army.”
