“Yes, in the kitchen, I believe.” The last time he’d seen his wife, she was baking cookies to tempt Georgina from her room.
“Fine.” With one more glance toward the snakes lining his wall, and one last shudder, she left.
Raimondi chuckled as he leaned over to pick up the boa and place a kiss on its head. “You, my scaly friend, have great timing.”
21
Summer headed straight for the shower. She needed to be alone. Totally and completely alone. David didn’t say anything, just let her be. He knew her well enough to stay away right now. She lathered her hair and thought.
She really didn’t hate his guts. In fact it bothered her that she was having a hard time holding on to her anger.
And that made her mad.
She should be furious. She should be giving him the cold shoulder and doing everything in her power to make him squirm by reminding him of his guilt, his incredible gall to lie and think he would get away with it without suffering any consequences.
So why wasn’t she?
Because she was hurt. Hurt once again. Someone who’d professed to love her the rest of her life had uttered those words as though they held all the meaning of ordering lunch at the drive-thru. It hurt.
Maybe the anger would come back, but right now, she just ached with a sense of loss so deep she wasn’t sure how to even begin processing it.
When she finished the shower, she wrapped the towel around her and sat on the toilet to stare at the wall. What am I going to do, God? How could you let this happen? I thought he was the one you wanted for me and now this? I don’t understand what you’re doing, why you’re allowing this to happen. And I really don’t like it.
Summer wasn’t terribly religious. She’d grown up going to church because her mother needed some free day care a few times a week. But the lessons had sunk in and she’d become a Christian at the age of sixteen at a church youth retreat. She thought maybe it had been because she’d desperately wanted a father to love her and, lacking one in her home, the thought of having one with her all the time, in the spiritual sense, really appealed to her.
Well, of course that was part of it, but there was more to it than that. She’d really thought God had a plan for her life and had tried to live accordingly.
And now this. She hadn’t foreseen anything like this.
“I must have messed up somewhere, God, because I don’t see how marrying a man who wasn’t who he said he was and now running from someone who wants us dead was a part of your plan.” Nausea and exhaustion swept over her. She had to get some rest or she was going to simply pass out.
A knock sounded on the door. “Summer? You all right?”
“I’ll be out in a minute.”
“I’ve got some clean clothes for you. May I come in?”
“Yes.”
He opened the door and passed her a backpack. She took it without looking at him and rummaged through it. It had all of the essentials. “Where’d you get this?”
“A friend. Dress before you come out, okay?”
“He’s here?”
“Yeah.”
Lovely. David was having friends over while all she wanted to do was sleep and shut out the world if only for a brief time. She sighed. “I won’t be long.”
Within minutes she was dressed in her favorite brand jeans and a purple short-sleeved shirt. She pushed the sweatshirt aside for later. Even the undergarments were her size and the brand she favored. She had to admit it felt wonderful to slip on clean clothes. She left the towel wrapped around her wet head and stepped into the living area of the suite. David and another man who looked to be in his early fifties sat on the couch. An arsenal of weapons graced the dark wood coffee table.
The sinking sensation in Summer’s stomach took over again. She swallowed hard. So. This was her life now.
David motioned her over and the man with him stood. “Summer,” David said, “I want you to meet a friend of mine. This is Ron.”
Summer shook Ron’s hand. Salt-and-pepper hair, dark eyes, and a five o’clock shadow made him seem menacing somehow, dark. Then Ron crinkled a smile at her and she saw a light in his eyes that overshadowed the darkness. “Good to finally meet you, Summer.”
“Thanks for the clothes.”
“My pleasure.”
Her nose twitched. She smelled food and her stomach rumbled in anticipation. She nodded to the weapons. “What’s going on?”
David pulled a black backpack from under the table. “Making sure we have what we need to survive.”
She flicked a glance at Ron, then back to David. “Shouldn’t we be leaving? They’re probably tracking your phone.”
Her husband shot her a gentle smile. “I didn’t use my phone. I used the hotel phone to call a number they don’t have in their system. They can’t track us. Yet.”
“But they’ll be checking hotels, right?”
“Yes. They may or may not check this one since it’s so close to where we disappeared. They’ll figure we ran for a while.”
“You hope.”
“Yeah.”
Summer sighed and walked to the mini fridge and pulled out a bottle of water.
Ron asked, “Are you hungry?”
“Starving.”
Ron pushed a brown sack toward her. “Tomato soup and a roast beef sandwich on toasted whole wheat bread. Plus an apple.”
She stared at the bag as though it would bite her. David had married her without loving her and yet he’d managed to find the kind of clothes she liked and had Ron bring her favorite meal. Something he hadn’t had to do. They were running from killers and he thought about small details that would matter to her.
Summer took the bag and moved to the small round table. “Thank you.” She sat in the chair and began eating while the guys muttered back and forth. When the conversation lulled, she asked, “How do you two know each other?”
David paused, exchanged a glance with Ron. “Ron saved my life.”
“Tell me.”
Two simple words that demanded a great deal. He rubbed a hand down his cheek. “Ron was hitchhiking and I picked him up.”
Summer lifted a brow at him. “When was this?”
“About a year ago.”
“November sixteenth,” Ron said.
Summer’s gaze shot to his. “What? That was the week after we got back from our honeymoon. The week you were on that business trip to New York. The one that came up at the last minute and couldn’t be put off.” She laid her spoon on the table. “You didn’t have any business in New York, did you?”
“Oh I had business all right. It just wasn’t what I told you.”
“Of course it wasn’t,” she muttered. She sighed. “So why did you go to New York?”
“I had to get that laptop.”
“But why? You already gave the video to the cops and Sam was in jail.”
“I went to get the laptop. About thirty minutes after I walked out of Sam’s office with the laptop, someone tried to kill me. I knew I had to act fast, so I hid the laptop and flash drive. I was worried Sam would figure out where I’d hidden them and tell Raimondi. I got paranoid. I had more than myself to think of now.” He shot her a meaningful glance. “I got to New York, got the laptop and the flash drive, but I was attacked and,” he shrugged, “the rest of the week I was in the hospital recuperating from a car wreck—”
“You were in a wreck and you didn’t call me?” Summer glared at him.
“I couldn’t. If they found out where I was and you’d come to the hospital, that would have put you in danger.”
The anger faded from Summer’s eyes.
“I had a lot of time to think about my life. That’s when I asked God to make me into the kind of man who deserved to have a wife like you.”
She blinked. “A wife like me?”
“Good, kind, innocent …” He swallowed hard. “Everything I wasn’t, but at that point, wanted to be.” He shook his head and glanced at Ron. “I couldn’t let Raimond
i find that laptop. That computer was the key to getting the guys at the top of the food chain.” He clenched his fingers into a fist. “And I wanted those guys. Carl Hyatt was a good man. He didn’t deserve to die. At the time of his death, there was nothing I could do about it. But now that I had the laptop and the flash drive, I couldn’t lose it. That information meant justice for a lot of people. Sam was just a low man on the totem pole.” He narrowed his eyes. “I wanted the guy at the top and so did the FBI.”
“Oh, David,” she whispered. He could see the horror in her eyes. “But how could you let Carl Hyatt’s death go, how could you not report it?”
He ducked his head and prayed for guidance, for patience for Summer to let him finish telling the story. “I know how it sounds, but you have to understand, that’s the way it works sometimes.” He sighed and shook his head. “So anyway, with Sam in jail, things should have calmed down.”
“But they didn’t,” she said.
“No. They escalated. Sam was connected to the Raimondi family. The mob or organized crime.”
“And they were mad at you because you had Sam arrested.”
“Yes. That was one thing.”
“What was the other?”
“They didn’t care so much about Sam, mostly they were upset because I had Sam’s laptop.” He stood and paced to the table where she sat, then to the bedroom, then back to the couch. “But Sam was one of theirs. He worked for them and made a lot of money for them. They were using our business to launder money, hide weapons at some of the construction sites. You name it, they’re into it. With Sam’s arrest, a full investigation of the company would ensue.”
“I remember seeing something about that on the news.”
“It made the national networks,” David said. “They knew I was the reason Sam was arrested, Sam’s laptop was missing. They put two and two together and came up with the right answer. If they found me, they’d find the laptop.”
“Why would the marshals agree to protect you if you didn’t have anything to give them?”
“Because I agreed to testify at Sam’s trial and I also agreed to get the laptop and flash drive and turn it over to them. Eventually. In turn, Mike convinced me to stay in the WITSEC program for a limited time. But I knew they wouldn’t stop coming for me as long as that laptop was still out there.”
“So you left after our honeymoon to get it. That still doesn’t tell me how you and Ron met.”
Ron stood. “I’ll let David finish his story. I’ve got to be going.” He looked at David. “Let me know if you need anything else.”
“Will do.”
The men shook hands. Ron gathered the leftover weapons and was gone almost as fast as he’d appeared.
David picked up the Smith & Wesson Model 60 and hefted it. Small, lightweight at twenty-four and a half ounces, it would slide nicely into the ankle holster Ron had also provided. The little gun wouldn’t do much in a long drawn-out gunfight, but the extra five rounds were an extra five chances of escape should they need them.
“Pick your weapon.”
She stared at him, her lips tight. “This was why you taught me to shoot, wasn’t it?”
David sighed. “Part of it.”
“And the self-defense training?”
“Yes.” He gave her a slow smile. “But the self-defense training was mostly because I liked the way the sessions ended.” With her in his arms.
She didn’t even blush. Or return his smile. “You can finish your story later. I’m exhausted.”
“Summer—”
“And I still need to call Marlee. Did Ron leave you a phone that can’t be traced, by any chance?”
He fished in his pocket and held it out to her.
22
Summer dialed Marlee’s number and waited, nerves tense, mentally preparing herself for the tirade she knew was coming.
By the end of the third ring, she almost allowed herself to relax. She could just leave a message.
“Hello?”
The tension came back full force. “Hi, Marlee.”
“Summer! Where are you? What are you doing?”
“One question at a time. I can’t tell you where I am. Some bad guys are after me and I have to hide out for a while.”
“Well, thank you very much. I’m guessing it’s the same bad guys that came after me and broke my arm yesterday?” Panic and fear mixed with the anger in her voice.
Summer stood still. “What?”
“Yeah, what do you think about that, sister dear? You get mixed up in something and I suffer for it.”
Her sister’s hard words sliced at Summer’s heart. “Marlee, I’m so sorry.”
“And I think they’re watching the house.” Sobs finally broke through. “Oh, Summer, I’m so scared. I don’t know what to do or where to go. You weren’t answering your phone and Mom and Nick left yesterday to fly out to Houston to meet with that specialist and I’m—”
“They did? I didn’t know they were doing that this week. I thought that was next week.”
“They changed it. And is that all you can focus on when I’m telling you my life is in danger?” Marlee’s high-pitched squeal made Summer grimace.
“Calm down, Marlee.”
“Calm down? Calm down? I—” Her sister’s voice cut off with a scream and Summer blinked.
“Marlee? Marlee?”
“Well, hello, Mrs. Abernathy.”
She froze. And spun to stare at David. He was looking at the weapons, the contentious conversation between her and Marlee nothing new for him. “Who is this?”
His head snapped up. That part was new.
“You don’t recognize my voice?”
“Corbin Hayes,” she said, proud of the lack of fear in her voice.
David stood. Then leaned over to write something on a piece of paper. He held it up. SPEAKER.
Summer pulled the phone from her ear and pressed the button. “Very good, Mrs. Abernathy. Now, listen closely. You messed up our plans when you ran off.”
“Gee, so sorry.” She couldn’t help the sarcasm. An agonized scream echoed through the line. “Marlee!”
“Now play nice or pretty little Marlee here will have to suffer a little longer.”
Summer swallowed. David was writing again. He held up his note. PLAY ALONG.
“I’ll play nice,” she whispered. “Don’t hurt her.”
“That’s more like it.”
“What do you want?”
“The same thing I wanted the last time we met. Your husband and the laptop he stole.”
“I told you I didn’t know what you were talking about.”
“But you do now.” He paused. “I hear an echo. I must be on speakerphone. Who’s there with you?”
“The marshals who’ve been keeping me safe.”
David nodded his approval.
“Ah, well, that means I must be going. I’m sure they’re sending help for poor Marlee. Too bad they’ll be too late.”
Marlee’s frantic scream was silenced with a final click.
Summer turned on David. “You said there was someone watching out for my family.”
“They were. I don’t know how Hayes managed to get to her. Did you call her cell phone or her landline?”
“Her home line.” She ripped the towel from her head. “I’ve got to go to her.”
David grabbed her upper arm. “Summer, you can’t do that.”
“You have a better suggestion?” she snapped.
He sighed and rubbed his eyes. “Yeah. I’ll call Mike. Cops will be at her house in minutes.”
“Then do it.”
The phone rang and Mike didn’t recognize the number. He pressed the device to his ear and barked, “Thomas.”
“Summer’s sister is in danger. Get some cops out there now and get her some protection.” David paused. “If she’s still alive.”
“Where are you?”
“Don’t worry about that now. Get someone out to Marlee’s house. Now. I’ll call y
ou back in ten minutes for an update.”
Click.
Mike growled but got busy. All it took was one call. The cops and an ambulance were en route to Marlee’s house. He dialed the number David had called from.
“They on the way?”
“Yes.”
“Thought you had people watching them.”
“We did.”
“Then they weren’t very good at their job.”
Mike muttered a curse. “I’m expecting a call any mo—” His phone beeped. “That’s Bennie. Let me call you back.”
Click.
He switched to the other line. “What do you have?”
“She’s on her way to the hospital.”
“She’s still alive?”
“Yeah. But it looks like they decided to use her to send a message.”
“Message received. Thanks.” Mike hung up and dialed David’s number again. David answered on the first ring. “She’s in the hospital,” Mike said. “Alive.”
A sigh of relief reached his ear. Then David said, “Good.”
“Now, where are you? You need to let us come get you.”
“Not yet.”
Click.
Mike threw his phone across the room.
David hung up with Mike and Summer pounced. “Well?”
“She’s hurt, but she’s alive.”
Summer flinched. “How did they get to her?” Anger boiled inside her. Could no one make a promise and be depended on to keep it?
“I’m not sure, he didn’t get into that.”
“I’ve got to go to her.”
“She’s three hours away, Summer. Mike’s got US Marshals on her door.”
“And that’s supposed to be a comfort? He had them on her house and we see how well that worked out.”
David snapped his mouth shut. He gave a slow nod, conceding she was right.
Summer paced and ran a hand through her hair. “Look. My brother and mom are out of the state. I’m not terribly worried about them right now, but Marlee …” She bit her lip. “She needs to come with us.”
“What?”
“We need to keep her with us. To keep her safe. If she’s well enough to travel, I mean. She can’t stay there.”
“But the marshals—”
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