by Jodie Bailey
And there was nothing he could do about it, because there was no telling where she’d be tomorrow.
As Rich’s truck rolled into view behind him, Trey eased his truck back into motion. The engine revved higher as the grade grew steeper.
Rich kept his distance, just in case Trey didn’t give the accelerator enough gas.
Macey sniffed and stirred. She stretched her arms over her head, then glanced around as though she wasn’t sure where she was. When she spotted Trey, her forehead wrinkled in a way he’d call cute under other circumstances. Then her eyes focused and she set her face toward the windshield.
Trey turned his attention to the lane in front of him. “Sleep well?”
“I guess.”
“You were out for a while. At least since before Hickory. I think everything finally caught up to you. I know when I was overseas, I got to where I could sleep anywhere, even standing up.”
“How about we don’t let it get that far.” She stretched again and petted Kito’s head when he stuck his nose between the seats and rested his chin on the center console. “The sky’s pretty.”
Trey looked up from the road and let the truck ease to a stop again. Rich would understand why and had probably already stopped anyway.
To their right, the mountain dropped away about twenty feet from the vehicle and opened up the view of a broad valley. Wispy morning clouds blazed like flames across the sky, set afire by the sun that wasn’t yet visible over the mountains. It was a sunrise that rivaled the most beautiful he’d ever seen. Part of him wanted to take Macey’s hand and just sit, to share a beautiful moment together. His hand dropped from the steering wheel and inched toward hers.
Macey was intent on the view. “It’s like that saying, ‘Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky at morning...’”
“‘Sailor take warning.’” Trey finished the adage with her and withdrew his hand. For a moment, he’d forgotten this was a mission and Macey was fleeing for her life.
Suddenly, the crimson sky wasn’t beautiful. It was an ominous reminder of the danger that stalked them.
He glanced in the rearview. Rich had stopped about thirty feet behind him, and both he and Dana had their faces turned to the sunrise. If only he and Macey could have had that. Now that Dana worked with Rich and was out of the WitSec game, they were planning a future.
WitSec. Trey gripped the steering wheel and eased onto the accelerator for the last short climb to the Thompson house. It was possible Macey could be whisked away from him into hiding soon. She’d been his mission for so long—first to investigate and now to protect—that it had never occurred to him she could become someone else’s responsibility.
Yeah, that sunrise was a warning, all right. In more ways than one.
When he pulled up to the sprawling two-story white farmhouse, his commander’s truck was already sitting to the right of the three-car garage built to resemble an old pole barn. Captain Harrison stepped out of the house, holding a coffee mug, and pointed to the center and right garage bays, which already stood open.
So they weren’t even taking chances with his truck being out in the open way up here. This was full hiding. Some would say the captain was overly cautious, but as a former SF soldier and police chief, he was the smartest and most tactically cunning man Trey had ever met. He’d trust Gavin Harrison with his life and had done so more than once.
As soon as they parked, Macey slid from the truck, opened the rear door and grabbed Kito’s leash. “Where can I walk him?”
“You can take him to the side of the garage. Just don’t wander too far.” Captain Harrison appeared in the garage doorway as Rich pulled into the middle bay.
Macey nodded and stepped into the fresh morning sunlight. In the light, she looked different somehow. Tired and stressed, but there was something else, some sort of something that exuded the kind of calm she hadn’t managed to achieve earlier when she’d been fighting to hold herself in check. Maybe she’d rested better than he’d thought.
Captain Harrison watched Macey round the corner and waited for Rich and Dana to join them. “We don’t have a counselor on the team, but I’ve got a call in to Amy. She’s got experience with this stuff. It might be good for Macey to have a chat with her. Soon as y’all give me the go-ahead, she’ll come up and be an ear for her.”
“Smart.” Rich stretched his arms above his head and leaned back, a motion Trey mimicked. The drive had been long and nerve-racking, even after Rich and Dana had pulled in behind him to provide rear cover. “Amy’s probably a good idea.” Rich turned to Trey and lowered his arms. “You good with that?”
Trey didn’t know Amy Maldonado well, but he’d heard stories. Dana had been a part of the team protecting Amy from human traffickers who’d wanted her dead.
Dana elbowed Trey in the ribs. “Might not be such a bad idea for you to talk to Sam, too.”
Sam. Amy’s husband, who had fallen in love with her while protecting her. He’d definitely understand how Trey was feeling, but Sam couldn’t do anything else in their current situation.
Trey wanted to elbow her back but he refrained. As far as he knew, the commander was in the dark about Trey’s feelings for Macey. He’d like to keep it that way until he could tell him on his own.
Unfortunately, the way Captain Harrison watched him as he took a sip of coffee said he already knew.
“You going to keep drinking that coffee in front of us or are you planning to offer us all about a gallon of the stuff.” Rich didn’t wait for an answer but brushed past Captain Harrison and headed for the house. “Some of us have been up for over twenty-four hours.”
“Some of you need to stop being heroes.” The commander turned and followed Rich and Dana, but not before a quick glance behind Trey and a raised eyebrow.
When Trey turned, Macey was walking back with Kito on his leash. The dog bounded and pulled in every direction, keyed up and wriggling over the multitude of squirrels and birds that chattered and chirped in the woods surrounding them.
Jerking the leash to rein him in, Macey flashed Trey a quick smile. “He’s in husky paradise. If I let him off this leash, he’ll terrorize the squirrels until he either catches one or drops from exhaustion.”
Trey actually found himself laughing. Kito was legendary for his squirrel hunting. He’d never managed to actually catch one, but the dog’s hope sprang eternal.
“Good thing he’s into chasing them or I might have been home the night that...” Macey trailed off and sank to Trey’s bumper, wrapping Kito’s leash around her hand. She stared at the large white farmhouse that had been in the Thompson family for generations. “I was so mad at him that night for taking off. I couldn’t figure out how he’d gotten out of the house, but I’m guessing he bolted when those men opened the door. If he’d stayed inside or run in a different direction instead of past me, I’d have probably walked right in on them. They’d have disappeared with me before you’d ever gotten home.”
“Or if I’d gotten the call five minutes later...” Trey sat beside her on the bumper, his shoulder brushing hers. It was enough.
With his trademark doggy sigh, Kito dropped to the ground at their feet, panting from the exertion of trying to get those squirrels.
“I guess that’s more of what you were talking about earlier, how God is in control even when we don’t see it. He didn’t keep all of this from happening to me, but He’s made a way through it. I thought a lot about that on the ride last night before I fell asleep.” Macey rubbed the toe of her Converse lightly along Kito’s belly. “I thought about a lot of things.”
Trey’s heart picked up the pace. He’d never been the type to talk about salvation a lot, although he’d had some intensely personal Jesus conversations with others.
“I did some praying, too.” Macey stopped petting the dog.
Trey’s head snapped up and his eyes locked on hers
. “You did?” He tried to keep his voice level, but it cracked in a way he’d normally find embarrassing.
Macey smiled softly. Clearly, she’d heard his flashback to puberty. “Since He’s so good at taking control, I decided to let Him have it. All of it.” This time, she reached for Trey’s hand instead of the other way around, and the feeling ran up his arm in a way no other touch ever had. “I don’t know how this is going to end, but He does. And in some strange way I can’t explain, I’m okay with Him knowing. I’m not okay with the situation, but I’m okay with Him being in charge of it. And I have to trust that He’s nothing like my mother. He won’t take off when the excitement is over.”
“He won’t.”
“And neither will you.”
This was a feeling Trey had never felt before. Something in him shifted. The emotions that had been growing changed into something deeper, rarer. It was something he’d never felt with any other woman, not even Gia. There was no way to explain it. It was peace. It was joy. It was a calm spot in the midst of this storm that battered them both.
Macey felt it, too. It was in her expression, something undefinable. That sense of calm he’d noticed when she’d climbed out of the truck earlier.
In some way, it was a new freedom that defied explanation, but one that settled in his heart with the same kind of certainty he’d had when he’d prayed about taking the assignment with Overwatch.
This was true. This was right. This was exactly where he should be.
He planted his foot and angled toward Macey, watching her eyes to see if her thoughts ran parallel to his. Something told him they did, but he needed to be sure.
She dipped her chin, then lifted it, holding his gaze in a way that let him know that, yes, she’d felt that atomic explosion in her emotions, as well.
Every other time he’d ever wanted to kiss a woman, it had been physical attraction drawing him. This time, it was more. If he kissed Macey, it would change both of their lives forever.
And he was ready.
FIFTEEN
Macey met Trey halfway. This wasn’t something she’d planned. When she’d sat and he’d settled beside her, she’d only meant to tell him she was different from how she had been when they’d fled her home. She had given over her life to the control of Someone larger than herself, to the One that Trey trusted.
But when she’d said that, it was like a door had opened between her and Trey. Like God had somehow given her permission to feel again.
Not permission to. The ability to.
As his lips met hers, she gripped Kito’s leash and Trey’s hand tighter. If she could hold on to this feeling forever, she would. In the midst of a storm, this was peace. This was joy. This was a sense of wholeness she’d never felt before. Not in her job. Not in her family. Somehow this was a gift from God that she never wanted to give back.
But it couldn’t last.
When Trey pulled away, Macey let him go. She had no other choice.
He stayed a breath away from her, and she could feel his reluctance as much as she could feel her own. Finally, he stood. “We can’t.”
Pressing his lips together, he turned his face to the sky. “We can’t do this. An hour from now, you could be under someone else’s protection. For now, you’re safe here. I’m guessing the commander would be okay with you having the run of the place as long as you stay in sight of the house. Arch Thompson isn’t here, but he’s got several acres, fenced well enough for even Kito to roam without getting into too much trouble. But I don’t know how long my chain of command will let you stay here. They’ll most likely insist you go into some sort of protective custody.”
And she’d stay there until every single unknown person who was chasing her was caught. “I might never see you again.” The pain sliced her heart. Why? Why would God let her find Trey only to snatch her away from him? She was too new at reading God’s mind. And she was afraid of what she’d find there if she could.
* * *
She looked up at the house and let her gaze wander the unfamiliar property. This wasn’t a place of peace. It was a place of necessity. A place of hiding. It wasn’t Trey and her on a romantic sunrise date. Inside that house, three people were strategizing a way to protect her and to take down a group of dangerous men and women.
Kito seemed to sense her tension once again and he rose to rest his chin on her knee. She buried her fingers in his neck fur. “What happens now?”
Trey watched the door through which the rest of his team had vanished. His forehead furrowed. “I’m not sure. I was pretty much in charge up until my cover was blown. Now it all goes higher than me. Probably even higher than Captain Harrison. There are decisions to be made.”
A door creaked and both of them turned toward the house. From the porch, Trey’s commander waved him over. Far from the welcoming look he’d worn a few moments earlier, his expression was now tight and concerned.
Macey might have found her peace with God but, in her situation, a little bit of fear was warranted. It washed over her like a boiling wave. Whatever that expression on the commander’s face was, it was about her, and it wasn’t good.
Trey swept out his hand for her to lead the way to the house, but Macey tightened her grip on Kito’s leash and shook her head. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t face going inside. Out here, in the fresh morning sunlight, the slightly chilled air and the scent of trees, there was a sense of peace, of a closeness with the God she was only beginning to recognize. Indoors was...
Well, in her mind it was dark and closed off and stale. If things went the way she suspected and Trey had hinted, indoors with the blinds closed was going to be her life for the foreseeable future. She was going to soak up every small freedom while she could. “Can I stay out here? I’ll stay in sight of the back of the house, like y’all asked. I just can’t face being cooped up right now. It feels like prison.” A shudder hit her stomach at the word. Prison was exactly where she would have landed if it hadn’t been for Trey’s belief in her innocence.
Trey glanced at the house. “Stay in sight. If I look out and don’t see you...” He pointed toward a large bay window to the left of the back door, but his expression said it all. Even a man like Trey, fearless to the core, had his concerns. “I’ll be right by that window.”
His fear scared her more than anything, if she was being honest.
He jogged to the house as Macey sank onto the truck’s bumper, holding Kito’s leash loosely in her hand. Everything in her life was moving a thousand miles an hour. When she pumped the brakes, all she got was a pedal that hit the floor without slowing her speed.
Kito rose from his position at her feet and rested his chin on her knee.
“You’re my good boy, aren’t you?” Macey patted his head, then ran both hands around his neck, scratching beneath his collar. It was bound to be uncomfortable, but there was no way she was taking the leash off. Those squirrels would have him twelve miles away before she could even register he was gone. If she lost Kito now, it might be the single thing that finally devastated her.
Bending low, she rested her forehead against his and exhaled. It might have been Olivia who’d brought Kito home, but the dog had definitely become Macey’s.
She shut her eyes. It was probably the one good, true gift Olivia had given to her.
A soft sound from the corner of the garage pricked Kito’s ears. He pulled away from Macey and faced the area where Macey had taken him when they first arrived.
Macey stood and let Kito lead her to the corner. He pranced the way he always did when he needed a little bit of relief. “Didn’t finish the first time, did you?” Ruffling his neck fur, Macey unraveled the leash from around her wrist and held on to the loop at the end, letting him lead the way.
She glanced back at the house. If Trey happened to look, he’d guess where she was, knowing she’d already had to haul Kito around the barn once be
fore. It would only be a second anyway. He’d never even know she was gone.
They rounded the corner and Kito paused at a bush in the landscaping along the side of the barn. While he did, Macey turned to catch the view, which was truly one of the most beautiful she’d ever seen. The valley was filled with the thick fog that had earned the area the Blue Ridge nickname. The mist was a deep purple contrast to the orange-and-pink sky above. Given her awakening overnight to who God truly was, the view was almost like a blessing over her life.
A tug at her hand jerked her back into the present and she moved to tighten her grip on the leash, but it was too late. A squirrel darted across the small clearing and into the woods, and Kito pulled the leash from her hand, disappearing into the trees.
“Not again.” Knowing that dog, he’d run straight off the edge of the world when he got to a cliff. She gave chase, running alongside the barn and into the woods at the back. She paused, listening for the sounds of Kito crashing through the brush.
Twigs and leaves rattled to the right.
Macey turned on one heel and started running, but the sight in front of her stopped her feet and her heart.
In a small clearing, illuminated by the early morning sun, a hooded figure appeared, pistol in hand and aimed directly at Macey’s heart.
* * *
“Can you say that again?” Trey sank into the seat at the kitchen table and glanced out the window. Macey had rounded the corner of the barn with Kito a minute or two earlier, and he had to remind himself she was fairly safe here.
But the words the commander had just said almost made him forget to double-check on her whereabouts.
Leaning back against the island in the kitchen, Captain Harrison crossed his arms. “DNA came back on that sample you collected from the window at Macey’s house. It’s a near-perfect match. Olivia Whittaker is alive. Either that or she has an identical twin none of us knew about.”
Olivia. Alive. The faint scent of coffee hanging in the air was almost enough to nauseate him at this point. This was more than Trey’s mind could put together. Running on fumes after being awake for far too long wasn’t helping, either. The whole thing was surreal. “She faked her death? How?”
