“I’d hate to be a fly on the wall when they ‘discuss’ what just happened in a minute.”
Out the corner of his eye, he saw Amy wince. He said, “You mean when they fight about it?”
She clipped her seat belt. “If I’d had my purse, I’d have given him my therapist’s card. Seems like they might need someone to talk to.” She sighed. “Where to now?”
Noah tapped the steering wheel as they neared the end of the happy couple’s street. “Sheriff’s office?”
She said nothing, just shifted in her seat.
“I know today hasn’t exactly gone as planned, but we have a vehicle again. So we get to a phone and get out of town. Right?”
He didn’t want to make a promise he might not be able to keep. Right now he figured she was worried about the fact her brother was here, in town. This had to be about reassurance, not reminding her of the risks. “Jeremiah, or any of those guys, aren’t going to get to you. Not if I have anything to do with it. We’ve fought them off so far, haven’t we?”
She nodded.
Noah wanted to squeeze her hand again, but they’d done that a lot so far today. As much as he liked it, what he couldn’t do was get too comfortable. Then he’d start assuming more to it than just helping reassure her in that simple way.
Noah didn’t need to get used to her being with him, needing his support. Within a day or so—maybe even hours if he just drove straight through to the closest office of the US Marshals—they would go their separate ways. She would be sent somewhere else. He might never see her again.
What would that leave him with? Just the memory of a few stressful hours that only came about because he’d been the closest marshal when the call came in.
Given how he suspected he truly felt about her, he’d probably have a broken heart along with the memories. Not more than that. He certainly wouldn’t have her in his life.
Which was exactly the reason he wasn’t even going to think about his feelings. Did it matter that he was seriously attracted to her? Nothing could come of it. Never mind how he felt when she looked at him with that trust clear in her gaze. She believed he would take care of her.
The threat was deadly enough that she had to rely on the marshals. She couldn’t do this alone, and the one they had sent to deal with it was him.
A fact he thanked God for.
He’d volunteered even before his boss could tell him that he’d assigned Noah to do exactly what he was doing now, because he’d been closest to Amy. Everyone else who could be spared was out in the Northwest looking for the escaped prisoners—one of which was here.
Amy shifted in her seat. “I’d rather get out of town than head for the sheriff’s office. Seems to me like just making a run for it will serve us best.”
He agreed. “It will give us the least chance of being seen by anyone else around town if we just go.”
She shuddered. He caught the tail end of it out the corner of his eye. Noah wanted to pull over and take the time to reassure her, but he couldn’t. Not when every time they’d turned around since he’d shown up at her cabin someone had been there, shooting at them. His arm stung, but not as badly as he’d have thought. Only if he moved too far, too fast. Must not be so bad.
Which was good, since he had no opportunity to get stitches right now.
Noah pulled out his phone as he drove the empty streets around the outskirts of town. At least, as far as he could tell, that was where they were headed. Going in the general direction of the highway, with Amy giving him directions.
Noah slowed down and glanced once at the screen, then dropped the phone into the cup holder. Still no signal. Could the cartel really take out a cell tower? Whether they had, or he just had no signal in this town, the result was the same.
They needed to get to a phone.
Maybe at a gas station on the highway. He needed to call the office and inform them what was happening in this town. Tell them to come and round up Jeremiah and all his cartel buddies. Because Noah certainly couldn’t do that himself and manage to keep Amy safe at the same time.
“So long as Jeremiah doesn’t find me.” She ran her palms down the legs of her jeans to her knees. A nervous gesture.
There was something she wasn’t saying. He knew her, from time spent together during the trial. This was more than just not wanting to face her brother. Amy wasn’t hiding something, and he didn’t figure she would lie to him. Still...there was something unsaid here.
“Talk to me.”
“I’d rather he didn’t find me, but that’s not only because I don’t want to see him. Which, of course, I absolutely do not.” She blew out a breath, still doing that nervous gesture.
As much as she didn’t want to face it, Noah figured she was terrified. “What is it?”
“I don’t want him to find me because of Anthony.”
Noah glanced at her for a second, then looked back at the road. “I’m really sorry for what happened to him.”
“Uh...” She went quiet for a moment. “You don’t know?”
“I don’t know what? I heard he was killed in a car accident. Is that not what...oh.” The pieces clicked together in his mind. The teen had been a high-value target who’d needed extra protection. Their bad guy a man who would come after his sister for revenge.
To find out what happened to his son.
They could put witnesses who required an additional layer of anonymity in a different kind of witness protection.
The kind where everyone thought they were dead.
“Amy, is your nephew alive?”
Amy blew out a breath. “I have no idea. I mean, the accident was all a fake. But I haven’t seen Anthony in a year. He could be anywhere right now, doing anything. In danger. Safe.” She lifted her hands, palms up, then let them drop back to her lap. “I have no idea.” Noah said nothing.
“You didn’t know?”
“I wasn’t privy to it.” His tone was even.
“Sorry.”
He shook his head. “They didn’t withhold it for a particular reason. It was just that I had other duties during that time.”
“It was pretty early on. After they got to me, and then you guys showed up to save me...” Not a time in her life she was particularly interested in remembering. Those hours she’d been taken were as bad as parts of today had been. But she had to finish her point. “That was the catalyst. Anthony already didn’t want to be around me. When the cartel’s men got to me, that made it clear we had to make sure they never got to him.”
“So the marshals faked his death.”
“I can’t believe they didn’t tell you that.”
He shrugged then. “I got your full file today. All I did was program your address into my GPS and head out here.”
“I’m glad you did.”
She was so grateful he’d come. Not just because she had the protection of the marshals service, though that was part of it. But it was so much more. It was the fact that it was Noah.
There was no way she would have wanted to do today with anyone else.
“Haven’t you heard from Anthony at all?”
That was a sore subject for her. “No contact.”
“I guess that makes it my turn to apologize.” He glanced at her. “Sometimes it works out like that. No contact is the safest thing for everyone.”
She pictured her nephew in her mind. He would have turned seventeen a couple of months ago. How much had his features changed since she’d seen him last?
She didn’t want to remember that final conversation. They hadn’t left things in a good place.
Understatement.
“What?”
She bit her lip for a second. “I wanted to go with him. Like, they could put him somewhere safe first and then I could come and live with him later.” She took a breath. “He said he’d rather be on his own, or even with a foster family, than ever see me again.” It had actually been a whole lot worse than that, but she was paraphrasing. “He told me he hated me for testifying. For what I did to our family. About as much as he hated his father for being a criminal in the first place. He told me he never wanted to see me ever again.”
Noah reached over and squeezed her hand. Then he pulled his hand back to the steering wheel.
Amy blinked back the tears that filled her eyes. “I really hope he’s okay.” She bit the quiver in her lip, then said, “The last time I saw him he was yelling at me.” He’d said he hated her. Amy had let him go, knowing the truth was that he would be safer somewhere far from her. Hopefully that had remained true in the year since.
She couldn’t think of anything worse than her nephew being on the run, chased by gun-shooting cartel foot soldiers.
Finally, on an open stretch of highway, Amy leaned her head back against the headrest and shut her eyes. Were they free of gunmen following and shooting at them? She wanted to believe she was safe now. That she could trust God to continue to keep them safe—which, of course, she could. He was the same God that He had been yesterday. The same He had been that day Noah and his people had rescued her from that house. And the same God He would be years from now.
A verse she’d read just that morning came back to mind. She believed in Him, with full faith that He would take care of her. Help my unbelief. Maybe that might not make sense to some, but to her it was the truth. That push and pull of trust and doubt. An honest explanation of the state of her heart.
“Okay?”
She opened her eyes and glanced over at him. “Yeah.”
She was okay. Was she all right? Not really. She wanted... Amy didn’t even know what she wanted. Time. Peace. A date with the man she was attracted to.
She blew out a breath.
“Hungry?”
“I could use coffee.” She patted her stomach, not entirely sure she could handle a meal right now. Adrenaline had left an unsettled feeling in its wake, along with a drenching fatigue. Like being caught outside in a rainstorm that pounded the earth with big fat droplets of water.
Nothing like the slow float of fat snowflakes now falling.
Noah shifted in the driver’s seat. She didn’t think much about it, until he adjusted the rearview mirror.
Then he adjusted the side mirrors.
“What is it?” She didn’t really want to ask, but what was the point of being naive about the danger she faced? It was her life. Might as well stand and face it. Try to be brave.
“I’m sorry.” He sighed. “I’m really sorry. I wanted this to be done. I wanted you to be safe.” He sounded quiet. Resigned. Almost defeated.
That was the last thing she wanted. For him to be blaming himself about what was happening. All this was because of her brother.
“I know.” It wasn’t like she blamed him. He’d been shot, and he’d been a total professional all day. She would probably be dead right now if it hadn’t been for Noah. “Just tell me what it is.”
“Someone is behind us. I think it’s cartel guys in pursuit.” He worked his jaw from side to side. “And they’re gaining on us.”