Love Inspired Suspense January 2014

by Shirlee McCoy

  “What are we waiting for?” Annie asked quietly, her tone soft and easy, just the way it always was. Whatever stress she was feeling, whatever fear, it wasn’t in her voice.

  “Just waiting for an all clear,” he replied, shifting in his seat to look her in the eyes. “You and Sophia won’t be coming back here.”

  “I know.”

  “I’ll grab some of your things later. What do you want me to get?”

  “Sophia’s going to want the stuffed dog her daddy gave her. The little brown one with the floppy ears. It’s on her bed.”

  “What about you?”

  She shrugged, thick strands of dark hair sliding across her shoulder. “I have a small suitcase in the closet. It’s packed with clothes and baby supplies.”

  From what he’d observed in the past month, that was typical of Annie. Organized, prepared. “I’ll make sure to grab it for you.”

  “Thanks. Why do you think it’s taking so long for the all clear? Do you think someone is outside waiting for us to leave?” she asked, glancing at the garage door.

  “I don’t know, but we’re not going to take any chances.” He kept the answer brief, his body tense and ready for whatever action he needed to take. Drive away or go back into the house—either option would work. As long as it kept Annie and Sophia safe.

  His radio crackled, Serena’s voice filling the quiet SUV.

  “It’s all clear,” she said. “No sign of trouble out front.”

  “We’re on our way. You’re following us to the next place?” He didn’t give any indication of where they were going, didn’t want to take a chance that someone had somehow tapped into their conversation.

  “I’ll be right behind you,” Serena said.

  He stabbed at the garage door opener and pulled out of the garage. Darkness pressed in on the SUV windows, the trees and grass white with ice. It was the first morning of the New Year, the streetlights pouring soft yellow light onto the road and the ice-coated foliage. It would have been beautiful if Hunter hadn’t been so convinced that danger was lurking just out of sight. He could feel it, his skin tight with adrenaline, his senses alive. Every shadow, every swaying branch or rustling leaf hinted at trouble.

  Across the street, headlights flashed. Serena signaling from her unmarked car. They’d worked as a team before. Despite her grief and anger over Daniel’s death, Hunter trusted Serena to do her job and do it well.

  He glanced in the rearview mirror, met Annie’s eyes.

  “It’s going to be okay,” he said, because he thought she needed the reassurance.

  She nodded.

  She probably didn’t believe him. He couldn’t blame her. She’d been promised that she’d be safe in St. Louis, told that she wouldn’t be found, that she and her daughter had nothing to fear. He’d said all those things to her on the plane ride back from Milwaukee. They should have been true.

  Someone had found Annie, though.

  Who?

  How?

  That was the better question.

  No one but marshals working the case knew where the safe house was located. Hunter had gone to incredible lengths to make sure they weren’t followed when he brought Annie to her appointments with prosecuting attorneys. Long rides out into the country and back, circuitous routes through the heart of downtown—all of it designed to throw off a tail or to spot one.

  There’d been no indication that they’d been followed, but the safe house had been compromised. Logical reason dictated that someone had leaked the information, but Hunter wanted to think anything other than that.

  Too bad he couldn’t.

  He rubbed the back of his neck, glad that Annie was keeping her thoughts to herself. It was probably tempting to throw accusations. After all, she was doing the feds a favor by testifying. She’d been promised a lot of things that had made Hunter cringe. Things that could never really be promised—a new life, a new home, a chance to put the past behind her and to put her husband’s killers in jail.

  All Hunter had promised was that he’d keep her safe.

  He intended to do that.

  Nothing and no one was going to keep that from happening.

  TWO

  One hour and five minutes.

  That was how long Annie had been sitting silently in the back of Hunter’s SUV. Sophia had drifted off to sleep minutes after the ride began. Annie wished she could fall asleep as easily. She was exhausted, but too wound up and scared to close her eyes.

  Hunter had said everything would be okay, but it didn’t feel okay. It felt as if she was running away again, killers on her trail.

  An image flashed through her head—blood on old linoleum. Joe gasping for breath. She thought she could smell the sharp scent of gunfire in the air.

  “Where are we going?” she asked. Anything to stop the memories.

  “Another safe house,” Hunter responded tersely. He’d been on his radio twice since they’d left the safe house. Neither conversation had made him happy. Not enough information to go on. That was what he’d told her when she’d asked for an update on what had been thrown into the safe-house yard.

  That hadn’t surprised her. In the time that she’d known him, he’d proved to be a man of few words. Usually that didn’t bother her. Live and let live. That was the way her parents had raised her. Be kind, be patient, show love. Those had been the tenets of their faith, and they were the keystones of Annie’s, too.

  Right at that moment, though, she was out of patience with Hunter. “Can you be a little more specific?”

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “It’s better if you don’t know the address.”

  That seemed to be his argument for everything. It’s better if you stay inside. It’s better if you don’t call your family. It’s better if you sit in the back of my car and be quiet and let me figure everything out.

  “It’s not like I’m going to tell anyone where we’re going.”

  “I know.”

  “Then tell me. I’m an adult. I have a child. I think I have the right to know.”

  “You picked a bad night to assert yourself, Annie.”

  “The way I see it, I should have asserted myself a long time ago,” she replied. She’d spent a year going by a new name, living as a different person and doing absolutely everything Hunter had told her to do. She hadn’t questioned him because she’d wanted to protect Sophia.

  The baby. Don’t let anything happen to the baby.

  Joe had gasped those words with his last breath. Late at night, when it was quiet and dark, they’d echo in Annie’s head until she had to get up and touch Sophia’s cheek, make sure that she was okay.

  “Only you can decide that,” he said calmly. “But for the record, I’m following protocol. That’s what’s kept you safe for a year.”

  “You’re not the only one who wants to keep me safe, Hunter. I have a vested interest in it, too. I have a baby who needs me. I have to make sure I’m around for her.”

  “She’s not really a baby anymore, is she?” he asked. “A couple of days ago, she said my name. Clear as day.”

  He was trying to distract her. A new move for Hunter. He usually stuck to facts and figures and orders. Maybe he sensed how close to the edge of panic she was.

  Her parents had told her not to testify.

  They’d begged her to move to a new town, stay away from St. Louis and forget what she’d seen. They’d been afraid that if she agreed to testify, she’d end up like Joe. At the time, Annie had thought that Joe had been an innocent bystander, a guy who’d gotten in the way of a robbery and been killed because of it. She’d wanted nothing more than to see his killers thrown in jail, so she’d refused her parents’ advice.

  She’d received a lot of new information since then, but she still wanted the men who’d killed her husband to pay for their crimes.

  “Someone found me at the safe house, Hunter,” she finally said. “Talking about Sophia won’t change that.”

&nb
sp; “I know, but I thought it might help you relax.” He glanced into the rearview mirror, offering a rare smile. It changed his face, made him less austere and more approachable.

  “It’s hard to relax when someone wants me dead.”

  “We don’t know that there’s a price on your head.”

  “But you think that Saunders and Fiske want to keep me from testifying against them. You told me that if they killed Joe, they wouldn’t hesitate to kill me.” She’d believed him because she’d seen the look in Luke Saunders’s eyes after he’d shot Joe. Triumph. Excitement. Just thinking about it made her stomach churn.

  “Unless they’ve been able to arrange for the hit from their prison cells, what happened tonight could just be—”

  “I saw the person at the back fence. I know something was tossed into the yard. Don’t try to tell me that it was some New Year’s reveler. I’m not going to believe it.”

  “I wouldn’t lie to you, Annie,” he said quietly, and she thought that he probably meant it.

  But Joe had said the same thing so many times, she’d almost stopped hearing it. He’d said it when checks bounced or electricity bills weren’t paid. He’d said it when she’d asked why he was home late from work or why their money always seemed to disappear.

  She’d believed every lie he’d told her.

  She wouldn’t make that mistake again. Not with anyone. Even a guy who seemed to be honorable.

  “Everyone lies sometimes,” she responded. “And you getting me to relax isn’t a solution to our problem.”

  “Trust me, I know that. I’m taking this situation very seriously. The whole team is. We’ll figure out how you were found, and we’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

  She wanted to believe him, but nothing had happened the way it was supposed to in the past year. She blinked back tears. She’d cried an ocean of them since Joe’s death. Every time she thought she was cried out, more tears came.

  Not this time, though.

  A new year. A new beginning. No more tears over things she couldn’t change. She was going to take control, make her life what she wanted it to be. What she thought God wanted it to be.

  Hunter turned down a well-lit street lined with tall apartment buildings. Not as quiet as the street the safe house had been on. Lights shone from most of the apartment windows and a few people milled around in a small courtyard between two buildings.

  Hunter bypassed the taller apartment complexes and pulled into the parking garage of a four-story building that sat on a small corner lot. Several cars filled spaces in the dark enclave. He parked near a door, shifting in his seat and looking straight into Annie’s eyes.

  He had the darkest eyes she’d ever seen, his eyelashes thick and just as dark. She didn’t know why she was noticing. Maybe because it was easier than thinking about getting out of the SUV with Sophia, walking through the parking garage and into the building, the hot breath of danger still on her neck.

  “What are we doing?” she whispered as if someone outside the SUV might hear.

  “Waiting for Marshal Summers.”

  Annie knew the woman. She’d been at the safe house several times in the past month, her dark hair pulled back, her brown eyes kind. They hadn’t spoken much. Just a few hellos and goodbyes. Not enough to get to know her well.

  A black sedan pulled into the space beside them, and Serena Summers got out. All business in dark slacks and a heavy coat, she opened Annie’s door and gestured for her to get out. “Let’s go. I don’t know about you, but I’ll feel a lot better once you’re inside that building.”

  “I need to get Sophia.” She reached for the car-seat buckle, but Hunter was already opening the door on Sophia’s side.

  “I’ll get her. You go with Serena.”

  “But—”

  “I won’t let anything happen to her. I promise,” he said.

  Don’t promise me anything, she wanted to say.

  But he was already unbuckling Sophia.

  Arguing out in the open where anyone could see her seemed even more foolish than trusting him to take care of Sophia. Besides, she might have learned hard lessons about trust from her marriage, but she knew Hunter would do everything he could to protect Sophia. She just hoped it was enough.

  She got out of the SUV and hurried into the building with Serena. The place was quiet, any tenants tucked behind closed doors. Two elevators stood on the far wall of a brightly lit foyer. Serena led her there, sliding a card into a slot next to one of the doors, her foot tapping as she waited for it to open.

  As soon as it did, she urged Annie in, holding the door open as Hunter hurried in behind them. Sophia snuggled in his arms, her head against his shoulder, her thumb in her mouth. She smiled sleepily as she saw Annie.

  “Momma, hold me!” she said, her little arms reaching for Annie.

  Annie took her from Hunter’s arms, loving the solid weight of her. She didn’t think she’d really known the depth of God’s love for her until Sophia came along.

  “Where’s we going?” Sophia asked, pressing her hand to Annie’s cheek and looking into her eyes.

  Joe would have been so excited to hear her talk. He’d been longing for the day when she would say more than Dada, Momma and the few other words she’d perfected in the months before he was killed. Now she could, and he was gone, undone by his gambling addiction, murdered by men he’d owed money to.

  Her throat tightened at the thought, the tears she’d decided not to shed burning the backs of her eyes.

  “A new house,” she responded, her voice thick and watery.

  The elevator doors opened, and Hunter took her elbow, leading her into a wide corridor. His fingers seemed to burn through her long-sleeved T-shirt, the feeling so surprising, she shrugged away.

  Hunter let Annie go. There was no need to be overly protective. The five apartments on this floor were empty, each one secretly rented by the U.S. Marshals. It was easier that way. No danger of tenants seeing a high-profile witness and leaking the news to the press. No need to do background checks on people who rented the apartments.

  Serena used her key to open the door at the end of the hall. The place hadn’t been used in over a year. There’d be a layer of dust on everything and an air of neglect that couldn’t be helped. He knew Annie wouldn’t complain. She never did. He still wished they’d had time to make the apartment a little more kid-friendly. Some toys. Safety covers on outlets. A crib.

  He frowned.

  They’d need to improvise for the night. Tomorrow, he’d buy one of those portable cribs his sister used for her son.

  “Here we are,” Serena announced as she flicked on a light. “Home sweet home until the trial.”

  It didn’t really look like a home. Just a couch and a coffee table. No throw rug on the wood floor. No pictures on the wall. A small galley kitchen connected to the living area, the appliances stainless steel, the cupboards white. It was fancier than the little house Annie had lived in before entering witness protection. Hunter knew that for a fact. He’d seen pictures of the crime scene. The kitchen with its mustard-colored appliances and peeling linoleum floor. Thanks to her husband, Annie hadn’t had much to brag about.

  Hunter didn’t think she was the kind of person who cared. Still, if he ever got married, he’d want to do a lot better for his family than a run-down house in a questionable neighborhood. He knew that wasn’t possible for some people, but Joe Delacorte had made enough money to provide for his family. He’d just preferred to spend it gambling.

  “The place could use a little cleaning,” Serena said, running her finger through a layer of dust on the granite counter that separated the living room from the kitchen. “Sorry, Annie. I didn’t have enough notice to get it done.”

  “It’s okay.” Annie set Sophia down, smiling a little as her daughter toddled across the room. “But, unless this place is outfitted for a toddler, I’m going to need a couple of things before morning.”

  “Like?” Serena pulled out a sm
all notebook. Obviously, she was ready to make a list and head out to find whatever was needed. He could have told her exactly what Annie would ask for. Diapers, baby wipes, apple juice and some sort of toasted oat cereal for Sophia to snack on. Nothing for herself.

  Hunter walked down a narrow hall and opened the first door to the left. A master bedroom with an attached bathroom, it had a wide window that looked out over an alley. A queen-size bed sat against one wall. A dresser stood in front of another. He flicked on the light in the bathroom, ran the water in the sink and tub just to make sure everything was in working order.

  There were towels in a small linen closet. Soap. Shampoo. None of it for babies.

  “Hey, Hunter!” Serena called. “I’m going to see if I can round up some supplies. I’ll be back as soon as possible.”

  “It might be difficult to find a place open, but don’t go back to the other location. We don’t want to clutter the scene,” he responded as he walked back into the living room.

  Annie had settled onto the floor, Sophia spinning in circles beside her. The little girl’s giggles made him smile. He’d always loved kids, but his life was too busy, his job too demanding to think about having a family of his own.

  “The local Walmart will probably be open. If it’s not, I’ll stop at a convenience store. I can at least get—” Serena consulted her list, stabbing at one of the items. “Diapers, wet wipes and Cheerios. The rest I can pick up tomorrow.”

  “I’ll radio you any information that comes in.” He glanced at his watch. So far, there’d been little to go on. The bomb squad had arrived at the safe house within minutes and converged on a gift-wrapped package that had been found in the yard. No explosives, but the team wasn’t taking any chances. They’d bagged the package and transported it to their forensic lab. It would be opened there, everything handled in a sterile environment so there’d be no risk of contaminating evidence.

  Serena walked out of the apartment, and Hunter slid the bolt home. The apartment’s second bedroom was set up with a computer that was hooked into the building’s security system. He could monitor the exterior of the building from there. They hadn’t been followed. He was sure of that, but it didn’t give him any peace.