Colt tried the doorknob on the first set of French doors he came to. Locked. He stepped lightly along the house until he came to another set of doors, which appeared to lead to a living room. When he got there, he heard the sound of a man shouting. Daring a look through the paned doors, he was rewarded with a gut-wrenching sight—a man dragging Kate out of one room and toward another, holding on to the back of her neck. As the piece of shit coward turned toward him, Colt ducked to the right of the door, hidden from sight. The muscles in Colt’s neck and back tightened. He’d kill Boone if he hurt Kate, those two little girls, or the other mother.
As the sound of the scuffle faded, Colt peered through the window again. Jake and Kate had disappeared through another doorway. Colt tried the doorknob; it was unlocked. He slipped inside the house and listened.
Colt heard Jake close by. “Come out here right now, Sarah. Your mommy needs you.” This was followed by the faint sound of Kate’s voice, though he couldn’t quite hear what she said.
Next he heard the unmistakable sound of a fist hitting flesh and the grunt of a woman—Kate—followed by the sound of a body hitting the floor. Colt moved swiftly and silently across the living room until he could peek around the corner into a bedroom. Kate was moaning on the floor. Jake was yelling over her.
On the other side of the house, he heard screeching tires as sirens cut off.
“You could kill me,” Kate said one room away from Colt, “but it won’t change the fact that you’ll be dead soon after.”
“You think so?” Jake answered.
“I know so.” She laughed again. “But before we both die, I want you to know a couple of things.”
“What’s that?”
“First, if I had it all to do over again, I would rat you and the rest of the club out to the feds in a heartbeat. And second, Sarah’s not even your child. You see, I’m not the only one who betrayed you.”
Colt winced at Kate’s words, knowing that she was making Jake angrier. Did she want him to kill her?
He leaned around and looked inside the doorway just as Jake’s fist was coming down toward Kate’s head. He was holding her hands above her head. Colt darted into the room as Kate jerked her head and her entire body to the side, causing Jake to miss his target and punch the hardwood floor. Having freed her hands, Kate punched one hand up into Jake’s face. Blood gushed from his nose as he stood and started to back away. Before he could get too far away, Kate knifed her right leg straight up, catching Jake square in the groin.
“You fucking bitch,” Jake roared. Kate desperately crab-crawled away from her tormenter. Jake, overcome by pure rage, grabbed after his former lover.
Not wanting to use his gun for fear of hitting Kate, Colt sprinted into the room and dove at his target, crashing into Jake from behind like an all-pro linebacker, knocking Jake’s gun across the room. Jake scrambled to his feet and delivered a wild punch that connected with Colt’s left eye, but Colt, unfazed by the blow, returned the hit and added another to it. Jake stumbled backwards. Kate scurried over to the gun and picked it up, pointing it at Jake. “It’s over, Jake.”
Colt froze, wondering if Kate would shoot. He wouldn’t blame her if she did, but he didn’t want her to have that on her conscience.
Colt moved around the room and stood beside her. They both trained their weapons on Jake.
The sound of pounding fists on the front door broke the silence. “Police. Jake Boone, open up. We have you surrounded.”
Jake’s cold eyes bore into Kate’s. “You’re a dead woman, you stupid bitch.” A man with nothing left to lose, he darted toward Kate. Both Kate and Colt opened fire, getting off several rounds each. And Jake went down, dead before he hit the floor.
Chapter 18
Kate
In a small, rectangular room inside the Virginia Beach police station, Kate hugged Sarah with one arm while keeping an ice pack pressed to the left side of her face with her free hand. Jake had gotten one solid punch in, and her left cheek was red and swollen.
“Mommy, I was so scared. I thought that man was going to kill you.”
Kate smoothed Sarah’s hair. “I know honey. I’m sorry you had to meet that very bad man. But you don’t have to worry about him ever again.”
The door to the room opened and in walked Tony, the witness protection administrator Kate had come to know well over the last several years. He was accompanied by a woman that looked to be close to Kate’s age.
“Hi, Kate. Sarah. My name is Shannon. I was hoping Sarah would let me take her to get a snack.”
Sarah threw her arms around Kate’s neck. “I don’t want to leave you ever again,” she whispered.
“You don’t have to leave her.” Shannon turned and pointed at the machines in the room just outside the interview room. “You and I are just going to get something from those machines right there. You’ll be able to see your mom the whole time through the window in the door, and she’ll be able to see you.”
Sarah looked up at her mom, and Kate nodded. “It’s okay.” She pushed Sarah’s hair behind her ear. “I am so proud of you. You have been so brave. I’m going to talk to this man while Shannon helps you pick out a treat. Okay?”
Sarah reached up and held her mother’s face in her small hands. “I’ll be brave, but can we go home after that?”
Kate risked a quick glance at Tony, but then immediately kissed her little girl’s forehead. “We’ll see, baby. We’ll see.”
When Shannon and Sarah were gone and the door was closed, Kate set the icepack down and leaned into the table. “What the hell happened, Tony?”
“There was a breakdown in communication.”
“A breakdown in communication?” she said a little too loudly. A couple of people, including Sarah turned toward the room, so Kate lowered her voice. “That asshole almost killed me and my little girl. That’s on you.”
“I know, and we’re looking into why we didn’t get word about the escape.”
Kate paced around the room. “What about my mother? Any idea how she tracked me down?” When she looked toward her daughter again, she not only saw Sarah, she saw Colt, too. He was kneeling before Sarah and shaking her hand. A sudden, heavy weight landed in the center of her chest. And when her little girl threw her arms around Colt, she couldn’t breathe. Colt had saved her life, and her daughter knew it.
“We’re looking into that as well.”
Colt laughed at something Sarah said, and she was dying to know what it was. How had Colt found his way into Kate’s life so quickly and easily after she’d spent so much time and energy keeping everyone out? She closed her eyes, already regretting what had to be done next. “What now?” she said softly with her back still to Tony.
“We’ve got new identities already set up. Your things have been moved out of your house. You and Sarah leave on flights from Dulles later this afternoon. We thought it would be safer to fly you out of there instead of someplace closer.”
Colt stood but continued to smile down at Sarah. Slowly, he turned and faced the window where Kate was watching him. She swallowed against the lump that formed in her throat. “What makes you think we’re going to be safe under these new identities?” she asked Tony as Colt smiled at her.
“The Witness Security Program works, Kate. This was an extremely rare occurrence. We will make sure you and your daughter are safe again.”
She gave Colt a weak smile, then turned to Tony.
“Fine. How are we getting to the airport?”
“I have a car ready when you are.”
Sarah and Kate got on the plane like they were supposed to. Instead of crying because she didn’t get a chance to say goodbye to her friends, Sarah buckled her seatbelt, squeezed her stuffed owl Kate had gotten her from Harry Potter World, and stared straight ahead.
As the flight attendants went through the safety guidelines, Kate pulled on the pocket in the seat in front of her. Inside was a magazine and information about the plane. She pretended to flip slowly throu
gh the magazine as the flight attendant droned on and on. The item she was looking for fell out of the magazine.
An envelope. Inside were two boarding passes and a piece of paper no bigger than a post-it note with a California address.
After placing the envelope of information in her carry-on bag, Kate reached over and took her daughter’s hand. She held it tightly as the plane took off.
When they were in the air, Kate turned to her daughter. “How about we braid your hair?”
“Okay.” She sat cross-legged in the seat beside Kate. A tear slid down Kate’s face as she braided her little girl’s hair. She glanced around the plane to see if anyone was paying them any attention. No one was, with the exception of one little old lady two rows back who was just smiling at Sarah.
Kate had explained the situation to Sarah the best she could before they left the police station in Virginia Beach. Sarah took in the information while asking only a few questions in her sweet little voice. And when it was time to go, neither of them looked back.
The plan was to fly to Bozeman, Montana, with a stop through Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota. From Bozeman, Kate was supposed to rent a car under her new name and drive to Miles City.
But after being let down twice by the U.S. Marshals Service in the past few days—once when Kate’s mother discovered that she and her daughter existed and a second time by not warning Kate that Jake had escaped prison—Kate had decided to make her own plans.
Kate tied a hair tie around Sarah’s braid. “You’re all set.”
Her daughter ran her hand down the long French braid, and smiled. Sarah sat back against the seat.
Kate knew her daughter was putting on a brave front, but they were both hurting, a bit shell-shocked, really. They liked living in Virginia Beach, and they were happy there. Kate had always told her daughter there might come a time when they would have to say goodbye to that home. But to have it all happen so suddenly and violently was something that would take time to heal from.
Watching her daughter now, studying those great big blue eyes, Kate smiled. There was so much of her daddy in them. Kate was happy that there was only one person in the world who knew the identity of Sarah’s father, and that was former FBI Agent Brooke Fairfax.
She had planned to contact Sarah’s father—an undercover agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives—shortly after Sarah was born, but according to Brooke, her one contact back in Kentucky, Sarah’s father had mourned Kate for months after her supposed death. Later, he met someone, and according to Brooke, he was happy. Kate assumed he had relocated and was safe, but Brooke didn’t share that with her. It was better that way. Safer.
Kate didn’t want to mess with his life by dragging him into witness protection. If the club discovered that he was Sarah’s father or that he’d had anything to do with Kate, they’d kill him. His life was already in enough danger without Kate adding to it. Fooling the club by impersonating a biker for more than a year was enough to get him killed by any true member of the outlaw motorcycle gang.
The pilot came over the plane’s speaker and announced their approach into Minneapolis-St. Paul. Kate grabbed the bag at her feet and got to work. She pulled out a baseball cap for Sarah, and a hoodie for herself.
“Mommy,” Sarah started. “Is another bad guy after us?”
Kate glanced around to see if anyone was listening to them. No one appeared to be. “No, honey. We’re just going to be careful and play a little game, okay?”
She nodded. Kate placed the cap on Sarah’s head and tucked the braid up into the cap to hide her hair.
Next, she slid her arms into the hoodie.
As they left the plane, Kate put the hood up and took Sarah by the hand. As they walked, Kate looked around for any sign that anyone was following them. She had studied the airport’s layout before arriving and had come up with a plan for slipping any possible tails. She didn’t care if good or bad people followed them, she would lose them.
She didn’t even bother looking to see where their next gate was. She went directly to the tram that would take them to another concourse. When the tram arrived, she and Kate got on, but stayed near the door. When the tram signaled that the doors were closing, Kate grabbed Sarah and stepped off.
She quickly turned and watched the reactions of the other passengers carefully. A single man at the other end of the car they’d been in darted forward and tried to get off as well, but the doors closed. Kate stared straight into his eyes, and he hers. She memorized everything she could of the man before she picked up Sarah and ran in the opposite direction back toward the concourse they’d just come from.
Someone had been following them. Good guy or bad, she didn’t know, but she had no interest in finding out. Sarah fired off questions and concerns, but Kate had to ignore her for now. She found a bathroom and locked herself and Sarah inside one of the larger stalls. She leaned her head against the stall door and let out a long breath while closing her eyes.
“Mommy? Are you okay?”
She opened her eyes, then knelt before her daughter. “Yes, honey. Now, remember the game we’re playing?”
“Yes, it’s like hide-and-go-seek.”
“Exactly.” Kate rummaged through their bags, looking for everything she needed to alter their appearances. “What do you think?” Kate held up two different wigs. “We don’t want anyone to recognize us, right? How about we make you look like a boy?”
Sarah giggled. “That’s silly, Mommy.”
“I know, but do you think it will work? ʼCause we don’t want anyone to know it’s you.”
Sarah smiled and nodded, like this was a great game to play in the airport. Kate was relieved that her sweet princess was buying into the idea of dressing and looking like a boy.
She handed Sarah a pair of jeans, a T-shirt, and a pair of sneakers. And she set a wig to the side that would make Sarah look like a little boy.
As Sarah began to change her clothes, she asked, “Mommy, how are you going to change what you look like?”
Kate put on a big smile, trying to put on a happy, carefree face for her daughter. “I’m glad you asked.” She touched Sarah’s nose, and she giggled. Kate pulled out something that looked like a pillow and a new set of clothes. She began to strap the pillow around her stomach, then changed shirts. “Your mommy is going to have a little baby.”
Sarah laughed.
Next, Kate pulled out a black wig and make up to further change her appearance. When she was done, dark hair and make up in place, she turned to Sarah.
Sarah was staring up at her with a confused look.
“You okay, honey?”
She nodded. “You don’t even look like you now.”
Kate knelt in front of her. “That’s the whole point. No one will recognize us.”
“So the bad guys won’t find us?”
Kate pulled Sarah in for a hug. “Right. The bad guys are never going to find us again.” Not even the good guys are going to know where we are this time. She kept the second part to herself.
Kate pinned Sarah’s braid up and placed the short-haired wig on her head, followed by a different baseball cap.
When she was done, Sarah and Kate looked like two completely different people. And because they were inside security, no one was going to check their IDs again.
Kate reorganized their bags, placing their new IDs in a side pocket just in case something went wrong, and put a second set of boarding passes that would take them far away from Virginia Beach, Minneapolis, or Miles City, Montana within easy reach.
“We have one last piece of business before we try out our new looks.” Sarah looked at her funny. “You need a new name. I can’t very well call you Sarah looking like that.”
Sarah thought about it for a second, then said, “How about Alex? It can be for a boy or a girl.”
“I think that sounds like a perfect name.”
“What will your name be?” she asked.
“Mommy, of course.
”
She laughed. She knew they’d be taking on brand new identities when they got where they were going, but for now, Mommy and Alex were starting a new chapter of their lives.
Chapter 19
Colt
Two weeks later.
The sound of the transport plane’s engines roared to life. Colt’s team members were in their seats and ready to get back to California.
The mission the Navy sent their entire team on took longer than it should have, but it took Colt’s mind off of thinking about Kate and Sarah. The last time he saw them, they were leaving the police station in Virginia Beach. Sarah’s tears at the police station had nearly broken his heart, but by the time they were walking out the door, they both looked like beautifully sculpted steel that not even a Category 5 hurricane was going to bend.
Colt knew that he might never see Kate again, but he wouldn’t jeopardize the next steps in getting them settled into a new location under new IDs.
So much could go wrong when placing people under witness protection, and when a child was involved…
Colt bowed his head and closed his eyes, pushing back the emotion he’d been fighting since meeting Kate. He thought that when he got back to work, he’d be able to push her from his mind. He’d known her for less than forty-eight hours before all hell broke loose and a lunatic had nearly killed her.
Colt felt the weight of a hand on his shoulder. He looked over at Wolf and tried to smile like he hadn’t just been thinking of Kate.
“You okay?” he asked.
Colt nodded, then looked away. He simply needed to get home. He hadn’t had a single moment alone to process what had happened, because he and his team flew straight from Virginia Beach to home, then boarded a military plane twenty-four hours later for their mission overseas.
Special Forces: Operation Alpha: Protected in Darkness (Kindle Worlds Novella) Page 8
