by Dana R. Lynn
Sophie sighed.
“What’s the plan for today?”
“I’m not completely sure.” He sniffed the air. That coffee sure smelled good. “I think if the others don’t come down soon on their own, we’ll have to wake them.”
“Then what?”
He wished he had all the answers she was searching for. He turned their options over in his mind. “Well, I think it’s clear we can’t stay here. Nor do I believe it’s safe to contact my chief. Not yet. I need to get a burner phone, something that won’t be traced to us. Right now, we’re too close to where your uncle is. It’s only a matter of time before they come looking. That 911 call might have put them off for the time being, because of possible police activity in the area, but it won’t keep them away for long.”
“So,” she began, the studied casualness putting him on alert. “Who is Janet?”
The question knocked the wind out of him for a moment. The temptation to tell her to mind her own business reared up, but he reconsidered. Due to the nature of their partnership, he knew things about her and her family he shouldn’t. Telling her about Janet, although distasteful, might be a way to equal things out.
“I don’t like to talk about her.”
She flushed. “I shouldn’t have—”
He held up a hand. “Its fine. She was my fiancée, two years ago. It was a very short-lived engagement. I spent a lot of time on duty. I was still on the evening shift. Cut into my time with her a lot. She didn’t like that it hindered our social life.” He smiled when she scoffed. “It was also hard because she didn’t understand that after something bad or hard happened on duty, I needed time to decompress. I couldn’t be happy and funny after someone died. Or after I’d arrested a serial rapist. I just couldn’t. So she decided neither could she. She mailed her ring back with a note.”
“Mailed it back? Aiden, I think it was a good thing that relationship didn’t work out.”
He grinned. “Yeah. There’s some truth to that.”
She nodded and leaned against the railing of the patio. Her hair swished forward to block her face from him as she stared at the ground below. He didn’t even think about it, just reached out and brushed the tresses back over her shoulder.
Startled, her gaze shot up to meet his. And stayed there, caught. The electricity they’d both been ignoring hummed.
The door slammed behind them. Aiden jumped back. Sophie’s skin flushed to the shade of a ripe strawberry, matching the scent of her hair.
“Sophie!” Celine shouted, eyes terrified. “You guys gotta see what’s on TV!”
SEVEN
Sophie charged back into the house, aware of Aiden close on her heels. Her heart thundered as she followed Celine to the living room. Brad was standing in front of the television, pale and wide-awake. He gave her a look of sheer horror when she halted beside him.
And stared.
“What?” Aiden practically shouted at the screen.
The morning news was on, and behind the calm, professional smile of the attractive anchorwoman, were pictures of him and Sophie. The caption read, Drug Dealer and Female Accomplice.
Accomplice for what?
“The police are searching for these two people in connection with the suspicious death of a young man who has been missing since yesterday morning.”
Their pictures disappeared and were replaced by a familiar face.
“Cash!” Sophie gasped. Her uncle’s employee, the one who had disappointed him.
Aiden’s hand landed on her shoulder. She quieted.
“Cash Wellman was reported missing yesterday by his employer, Phillip Larson, a respected businessman in the local area. Mr. Larson stated that the young man failed to report for work,” the woman continued.
Sophie’s stomach churned. She knew very well that Cash had reported for his job and Phillip had not been happy with him.
The screen shifted to video. A dive team was pulling a body from the river. The camera angle hid the body and the face, but she knew what they had found.
“Two hours ago, his body was pulled from the river. While the coroner hasn’t given the cause of death yet, the police appear to be treating this as a homicide.”
The camera shifted to the local police representative. “We are taking the death of Cash Wellman very seriously. His employer has informed us that he was last seen in the presence of Adam Steele, a known drug runner, and Larson’s own niece, Sophie Larson. Also in their custody is Celine Larson, Sophie Larson’s twelve-year-old sister. It is unknown at this time if Sophie is an accomplice or a victim of Adam Steele.”
Phillip’s handsome face, somber and sincere, replaced the officer’s. “I am truly concerned about my nieces. I have heard some terrible things about this Steele fellow. He’s very dangerous. My dear nieces are vulnerable, especially Celine, who is deaf. All I want is their safe return.”
The television went blank with a click. Brad was standing in front of them, the remote control in one hand and a rifle in the other. It was obvious he knew how to handle the rifle.
Instinctively, Sophie raised her hands and backed away.
“Is it true?” Brad demanded of Aiden. “Did you kill the kid?”
She could barely hear him over the blood pumping in her ears. What if he shot Aiden? Or what if he called the cops, thinking he was helping?
Aiden snorted. His shoulders were relaxed, but his hands were still jammed into his pockets. It looked like they were fisted. For all his casual appearance, he was feeling the tension just as much as the rest of them. He was just more skilled at hiding it. “No, it’s not true.”
Her gaze bounced to where Brad stood, still not convinced. Of course he wasn’t. Why would Aiden admit to killing Cash?
“He didn’t kill him. He saved us,” Celine blurted out. “That man, our uncle, wants us dead. I don’t know why.”
Brad’s gaze shifted back and forth between them all. If only he would lower the gun.
Levi stepped in the room. “What’s going on?”
“We just saw a story on the news,” Aiden said, lifting his chin to indicate the television. The sarcasm ringing in his voice was impossible to miss. “It appears that Larson killed an employee and is blaming me. Oh, and I also kidnapped the ladies. So I’m a wanted man.”
Brad lowered the gun slightly but didn’t set it all the way down. “Well, the little girl doesn’t appear to be ’fraid of you.”
“I’m not scared of Aiden,” Celine declared, arms crossed, eyes zeroed in on Brad’s face. She scowled. “I’m not a little girl, either.”
“Neither of us fear him,” Sophie assured their host. “He’s an undercover cop who broke his cover to protect us when I walked in on my uncle in the middle of an illegal meeting.”
“Sophie—”
She shot a glare at Aiden. “What could he possibly learn now? Your face is all over the news. We are fugitives and he is holding us at gunpoint.”
At that statement, Brad flushed and finally lowered the weapon. “Sorry. I know you guys are in trouble. But this scared me, knowing that someone accused of murder had slept in my house.”
Sophie turned to Aiden. “What do we do, Aiden? We can’t stay here. It’s too close to town and too close to where we were before, when Phillip’s men caught up with us. And people in the area will recognize us if we stay too long.”
Aiden paced the room, his long strides eating up the room.
“We have to stay underground long enough for my chief to locate the mole in the department. That might be a few days—”
“Or it could be a month!”
He nodded, grimacing. “True. No telling how long these things will take to resolve.”
A thick silence descended.
“I know where you can go,” Levi announced softly.
“Where?” Sophie and Aiden both demanded, th
eir combined voices loud in the small room.
Levi startled, rocking on his heels a bit.
“Sorry, buddy. Didn’t mean to yell,” Aiden apologized. A slow tide of color rippled up his neck. Sophie blinked. It was hard to imagine a man as collected as Aiden allowing his control to slip. Or being embarrassed. Yet, clearly, it was happening. This situation was getting to them all.
“Don’t worry about it. Look, you need a place where you can go, a place where you can hide and regroup, right?” Levi waited for Aiden’s nod. “I have family in Berlin, Ohio. It’s a couple of hours from here, but once you get there, who’d think to search for you there?”
Who, indeed? Berlin, Ohio, was known for a booming Amish population. One of the largest in this part of the country.
“That’s an Amish area, isn’t it?” she asked, just for clarity.
“Ja. I’m not Amish anymore, but most of my family is.” The pain that blurred his eyes for a moment vanished. She might have been mistaken.
“Levi, we’d stick out in an Amish community,” Aiden pointed out.
“You wouldn’t if you dressed Plain.”
Plain. Amish, no makeup, no jewelry.
No technology.
She looked at Celine. And bit her lip.
“Celine would have to remove her processors.” She signed as she spoke so that her sister would be sure to understand completely what was happening.
“What?” Celine’s hands flew to the sides of her head, touching the processors. “Why would I have to remove them? Sophie, you know I can’t hear anything without them. My ears are dead.”
It was true. The surgeries had tunneled through the mastoid bones directly behind her ears so that a thin wire could be inserted into her cochleas, or her inner ears. The receiver was then implanted in the bone itself. The effect was that Celine now had access to enough speech sounds that she was able to understand and participate in most conversations around her. Unfortunately, the surgeries that allowed her to hear with her processors also destroyed all residual hearing, which meant without the technology, she had two completely dead ears.
Sophie couldn’t even comprehend how terrified her sister must feel at the thought of having all hearing stripped from her while someone was trying to kill them.
She moved toward Celine. Aiden was faster. He placed his hands on her shoulders and looked down into her pale face.
“Celine, your sister and I will be with you the whole time. I know you’re scared. But I promise you, I won’t let anyone hurt you. Your safety is the most important thing to me.”
“Are you scared?” she asked Aiden.
Sophie’s heart beat against her ribs. The backs of her eyes stung. She hated to see her sister so tortured.
She was also shocked to see Aiden nod in response. The men she had known in her life would never have shown vulnerability by admitting fear.
“I am scared, Celine. I think we’d be foolish not to be. But fear can keep you alert.”
“How do you... I mean—” She looked at Sophie.
“I think Celine is trying to understand how you cope with your fear.” She raised her eyebrow at her sister to ask if she was correctly interpreting the half-asked question.
“Exactly.”
The sudden bright smile transformed Aiden’s face. He was a nice-looking man. Her breath stalled, and his smile seemed to grab hold of her very heart.
“I’m never alone. Even when everything seems dark and scary, I know that God is near. That’s how I survive.”
God. Of course. She’d let her relationship with Him take a back seat for so long. Yet, here was a man who lived by his wits daily, boldly proclaiming faith in a way that made shame sink into her skin. When had she grown so lax?
First she let her family down, then God.
No wonder Celine was scared. She didn’t understand that her sister was in this for the long haul. Or that she would put her first.
“Celine, Aiden’s right.” She stepped up beside him. “We will keep you safe. You are our priority.”
A sarcastic sneer shadowed her sister’s face. “You say that now, but you practically abandoned us when you graduated.”
Okay. She deserved that. “I know.”
She could see she’d shocked her sister.
“Really?”
“Yeah. I did get too caught up in my career. I should have made more of an effort.” The tears that had been threatening overwhelmed her and leaked out. She knuckled them away from her eyes. “I lost so much time with Mom and Dad. Brian was the only one I really kept consistent contact with, and now he’s gone. I didn’t make time for you, but that’s done. From now on, you will always be more important than my career.”
Aiden’s warm arm, which was looped around her shoulder, was a blanket of peace and comfort. For a moment, she basked in that peace. Then she stepped forward to give her sister a quick hug, dislodging the arm. She missed it immediately but knew that it was better not to rely on Aiden too much.
She had promised her sister to put her first.
It was a plan she intended to keep. But in order to do that, she needed to get her out of this mess alive.
She had no idea how to do that with their uncle still free.
* * *
Aiden let his arm fall to his side and watched Sophie embrace her sister. It felt empty now that it wasn’t wrapped around her.
Ridiculous. He scowled. There was no way he was letting this craziness continue. He’d get the sisters to safety, put their uncle behind bars, then he was out of their lives.
To distract himself from the hollow ache the plan left inside his heart, he turned back to Levi.
“You okay?” Levi asked.
His friend was much too observant.
“I will be. I need to finish this.”
Fortunately, Levi didn’t ask what he was referring to. He wasn’t sure if he could have completely answered that question.
“Why don’t we pack up and I’ll lead you—”
At this point, Aiden held up a hand. Levi faltered and fell silent.
“What?”
“Levi, I don’t think you should come with us. Actually, I know you shouldn’t.” He was aware of Sophie’s presence.
What would he do if he led his friend into danger, too?
“Is it safe for him to stay?” Suddenly Sophie was back at his side. “If they know we were at his house, wouldn’t he still be at risk?”
How had he not considered that? The magnitude of his failure stunned him. “You’re right. Not only that, but our phones were left in his grass out in the field. Levi, man, I—”
The other man waved his words away. “It doesn’t matter. We have always helped each other—it didn’t matter if it was dangerous. It’s not like I’ve never faced trouble before.”
The reference to their joint military experiences washed over him. He pushed away the encroaching darkness that threatened to swallow him, dragging in a deep breath and thrusting his unsteady hands deep into his pockets. With a silent prayer for help, he forced his attention to remain focused on the present. Levi was a bit pale, as well. He rarely let down his guard enough for those memories to surface.
His glance shifted over to focus on Brad. The owner of the house seemed troubled.
“Brad?”
Brad shrugged. “I feel like I should apologize. I trust Levi and I trust his judgment.”
Aiden nodded. He knew there was more on the man’s mind.
Brad sighed. “I let you folks stay for the night. It was the right thing to do. I feel bad that I’m relieved you’re going. You’re in trouble. I want to help. I do. But you need to leave. My wife will be coming home in a few days. And my son will be home today. If it was just me here, I’d let you stay. But I will not put my family in jeopardy.”
Sophie moved closer, her sc
ent tickling his nose, distracting him. “We do appreciate your kindness. I hope your wife won’t mind that we were here.”
His face softened as he looked at the pretty woman standing so close to Aiden. “She won’t mind, ma’am. But that’s how she is. I won’t have her in danger.”
There was nothing he could say to that. A man had a right to protect his family. He would have thought less of the man if he didn’t take his responsibilities seriously.
“I understand. We’ll be out of your hair as soon as we can.” They’d have to plan on the road. “I need everyone to get all their gear together, what there is of it. Wash up, brush your teeth if you can. Who knows how long it will be before you can brush them again.”
At least they’d all had showers. That was one thing in their favor.
It took them another half hour to gather up what they needed. Brad met them at the door with a small backpack. If he were to guess, he’d say the man was feeling guilty about kicking them out.
“It’s not much.” Brad handed the backpack to Aiden. “I made some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, put in some granola bars and mixed nuts and four bottled waters.”
Aiden shrugged into the shoulder straps. “It’s more than we had. Appreciate your kindness.”
Nodding, Brad turned to Levi. “Stop in when you are back home. In the meantime, I’ll drive by your place once a day. Check on things. Get the mail.”
“Gut. I’ll see you soon.”
By now, all Aiden wanted was to be on the way. The spot between his shoulders tingled as if he had a target on his back. In a way he did. They all did. The farther away they traveled the safer he’d feel.
And maybe he’d be able to get a phone to contact the chief. Get an update on the situation. Until then, he had to keep going.
“Should we take my truck?” Levi asked as they began to walk out the door. “It’s just a short walk to the field where we left it.”
Aiden thought for a moment. It was tempting, but he rejected the idea. “No. I think it would draw too much attention. It’s our last known vehicle. I don’t think we can risk it.”
“Wait!” Brad shouted. “I have an old vehicle that we were saving for the crash-up derby in August. It’s still registered, and my son isn’t using it at the moment. It’s not perfect, but it will get you where you need to go.”
