Nina flinched. Would the gunshots ever stop? A guttural sound emerged from her throat. She screamed at Wyatt, words she didn’t even know she was saying. He ran to her and lifted her up, still yelling, and carried her with him while Abe Turnel yelled, “Go! Go!” from his prone position on the porch.
Shots slammed the house in a row closer and closer toward them. The boom reverberated across the valley. Was Steve Adams going to shoot the plane? They would never be able to get out of here then. How had he even found them?
Wyatt set her on her feet and raced across the grass, pulling her along after him, his head low as Steve Adams took shot after shot, trying to kill them as they ran.
Nina’s breath caught in her throat. Wyatt could die, and she would be there to watch it happen. What a nightmare. When would it stop?
Wyatt caught up to Parker, beside the plane. Nina nearly collapsed, but caught herself. It was time to quit being weak. That wasn’t the kind of woman she was, no matter what was happening.
“Let’s go.”
Nina nodded even as Wyatt took her elbow and ushered her inside. The plane engine roared. He had his phone out already, calling for police even as the plane started away.
Wyatt pulled her toward a pair of seats. “We need to draw Steve Adams’s fire away from the ranch. I called the cops. They will keep the Turnels safe.”
She tried to think it through. “Do you think he tried to kill Abe because he talked to us?”
“Tying up loose ends. That’s what you said, right?”
Nina sucked in a breath and blew it out slowly to regulate her breathing. “You’re not a loose end. You’re a serious problem.” Surprise flashed on his face, so she said, “I just don’t think you should sell yourself short. He should be worried, but he isn’t going to stop.”
Wyatt sat on the seat beside Nina as the plane accelerated. She surveyed him, checking for injuries. He seemed unharmed. Nina touched his shoulders, his neck. His face. He was okay.
Nina’s breath hitched. A nice old man who had carried a lot of guilt until that morning had nearly been killed. Thank You, God, that he was able to tell us all that information. Steven Adams hadn’t silenced him. Abe had been able to say everything he’d wanted to say, to relieve himself of a burden he had carried for years—one that had nearly cost him his life when he’d tried to confront Adams.
There was no way she would let Wyatt end up dead. If Steve Adams was trying to torment her by coming after Wyatt, Nina had to spin that to her advantage. To use it somehow to trap the man so they could catch him.
Wyatt touched her face, and Nina realized she was still touching his. The muscles around his eyes contracted. “I don’t want to know what you’re thinking, do I? It doesn’t look good at all. Maybe you could wait and tell me later.”
“Why later?”
“My heart might have calmed down enough by then that I’ll be able to handle it.”
Nina smiled. “I doubt that’s true. You seem to be able to handle anything.” And at this point, that was probably a very good thing. Hopefully, even with all this trouble, Wyatt wouldn’t decide that enough was enough and let her go. He could choose at any moment to walk away and leave her to deal with Mr. Thomas.
Or worse, stick around to help when she knew it was only because it was the right thing to do. Not because he wanted to, out of care for her.
“That thought seemed like it was even worse.” He leaned closer and touched his lips to her forehead. “I’d tell you not to worry, but worrying is probably a solid plan at this point.”
Nina couldn’t laugh, but her quick exhale said enough.
“I’m right here with you, okay?”
She nodded.
“You’re okay. I’m okay. We survived today. Abe Turnel and his family will be safe.”
The plane swerved a little but left the ground. Parker yelled, “Seriously? Seat belts, people!”
Nina smiled and they both sat quickly to buckle up. Her brain spun with questions, the foremost of which she spoke aloud. “How did he know where we were?”
“Followed us somehow. Tracked our phones. If he’s a former CIA agent he knows enough tricks to keep us in his sights.”
“We’re supposed to be getting ahead of him. Playing offense. It was a good idea. Did it turn around and bite us back?”
He didn’t answer for a minute. “Abe will hopefully see it differently despite what we risked. If we catch Steve Adams, that is.”
“You seem so sure.” Nina picked at a thread on the hem of her sweater. “So certain we’re going to catch him.” She glanced up. “What was it you said outside the courthouse...‘I saw your life flash before my eyes’?”
He nodded.
“That happened to me just now.” And despite the fact that she thought Wyatt was their best shot at drawing out Steve Adams, that didn’t mean she wanted anything to happen to him. If there was a better way, she’d have to think of it. Otherwise they didn’t have a whole lot of options left.
“I understand.” Wyatt’s eyes darkened. “Things are happening neither of us expected. We care about each other...” He waited, so she nodded her agreement. “I knew I liked you, but this is more than that. Do you get what I’m saying?”
“Yes.” It was more than just affection for her, too. “But it’s not like anything’s going to happen.”
His brow twitched for a second. “Why not?” He looked confused, hurt even. Oh, no.
Nina swallowed. “We’re friends, and I love that. But, well. It’s just that...”
“Way to let me down gently.” He shifted back against his chair.
“Wyatt—” She didn’t even know what to say. Why was he surprised? The desire to right the wrong done to her father had consumed her life for years but never produced a result. She’d never had the downtime before now to try and obtain her mom’s file even. Now she finally had his real name, and with that came the chance to find him. To bring this merciless killer to justice.
“I just can’t think about a relationship right now. I’ve been all about the hunt for Steve Adams for so long there’s nothing else in my life. I already have to get this wrapped up before school starts in a couple of weeks. Then I’ll be shaping young college minds, and a relationship will be a completely different thing.”
She’d tried to lighten things, but from the look on his face it wasn’t working. “Wyatt, I just haven’t even considered—” was she really going to have to say it? “—romance. Not once, not really.” She was a CIA agent. Who had time for emotional ties, dates, hand-holding and kisses? Before Wyatt, none of those things had ever been a priority.
He was the first man who had ever made her think about any of that. Why is that, Lord? Maybe after Steve Adams was brought in they could go for coffee. Have dinner. Explore what was between them.
“Wyatt—”
He put one earbud in, then the other and shut his eyes. “I’m going to try to nap on the way back.”
* * *
Wyatt didn’t pull his earbuds out until they landed. Even then he was quiet on the drive to the office. Yeah, he was shutting her out, but what else was he supposed to do? Here he was growing closer to Nina, seeing her as more than a friend, navigating those fledgling feelings of attraction, and she had straight up said to his face that she hadn’t even considered him and romance in the same sentence.
Talk about a slap in the face.
Now he had to regroup. He had seriously thought that something was happening between them. He’d been interested and excited about where it was going. But Nina evidently was still only focused on bringing in Mr. Thomas—too focused, if he had any say in it. The hunt had consumed her to the point she didn’t even see what was right in front of her.
Wyatt scanned the underground parking lot as they walked through. Jonah had asked them to check in, probably to reassure himself that they were both fine. There had been a whole lot of near misses the past few days. Wyatt was getting kind of tired of skimming the edge of danger.
If her God was protecting her—and by association, Wyatt—that was all well and good. But what about everyone else? There were some questions that never got answers. He hadn’t been a homicide detective without learning that. Some mysteries weren’t meant to be solved. But if he was going to put his trust in a God he couldn’t see or hear, then Wyatt was going to have to get his answers from somewhere.
Maybe he could sit down with Parker when they had a minute and ask him some questions about why he believed in God. He’d seen the change in his friend, the peace and joy that hadn’t been there before. Wyatt knew it wasn’t all about Sienna. There had to be something to Parker’s having become a Christian or else there wouldn’t have been this definite, lasting change in Parker’s life that he’d seen unfold.
Back at the office, Nina held back to let him go through the door first. Wyatt swiped his key card and signed her in with the duty marshal. Jonah spotted them and strode across the room with that face that meant he had something to say. Wyatt could use a distraction.
“What’s up, boss?”
Jonah lifted his chin. He gave Nina an actual smile, though it was distracted. “Mason Pierce is here.”
Wyatt glanced at Nina, who said, “Emily’s father.”
That was when Wyatt noticed the suited African-American man across the room. Mason Pierce stood in the waiting area outside Jonah’s office. His tie had been loosened, and his sleeves rolled up to reveal a tattoo on the inside of his right arm. Wherever he had put his jacket, it wasn’t here. Pierce had the look of someone who had traveled all day and was anxious for coffee and a shower, and then bed. Even though it wasn’t lunchtime yet.
Wyatt would guess he’d come in the night before on a red-eye flight.
Jonah introduced them, and Mason shook his hand hard enough that Wyatt’s hand nearly collapsed in on itself. “Good to meet you.” He was far more solicitous with Nina. “Thank you. Both of you. For taking care of Emily and my mother-in-law. I appreciate it.”
“Of course.” Nina gave him the smile she’d given to Wyatt the day before. The smile that said, Talking to you is the only thing I want to be doing right now. He’d figured that boded well for the two of them. That she valued his company.
Evidently it was just her being polite.
Still, that wasn’t the only thing swirling in his head. “You were deployed, weren’t you? You got back pretty fast. It’s been less than forty-eight hours.”
He didn’t back down. Mason Pierce had nothing to hide. “I actually wasn’t deployed the last month. I’ve been in DC. Interviewing with the Secret Service.” He shrugged a shoulder. “Gonna need something to do after I retire from the army. I didn’t tell Theresa or Emily about it in case it doesn’t pan out. They want all this cleared up before they’ll move forward.” Pierce lifted one eyebrow. “That good enough for you, or do you have more questions before I can go see my daughter?”
Jonah chuckled. “I’ll call ahead. We have to check your credentials, get you clearance with the marshals watching them. It’ll take time, but we’ll get you there before end of day.”
Pierce sighed. “Got it.”
Nina said, “We can take him over there.”
Wyatt had to shake his head. “It’s not that simple. Even if we get authorization, Steve Adams followed us to Montana today. There’s no way we can go anywhere near Emily.”
“But he can’t be back already. We left right away. Where was his plane?”
Jonah chimed in. “The cops reported in that Bridget heard no more shots after you boarded the plane, and Abe is a little bruised but otherwise fine.”
Nina motioned to Jonah. “See. He wasn’t hiding a helicopter or another plane. He’d have to have driven a ways, and then flown back here. He isn’t going to know where we’re going to be for a while.”
“You’re talking about a career CIA agent,” Wyatt said. “You of all people should know that means he has skills and resources we cannot discount. What if he’s tracking both our phones?”
Nina paled.
“We can’t assume he hasn’t found his way back to Oregon by now. We can’t assume anything about this man until we’re the ones tracking him.”
She bit her lip, but nodded. “We need a plan, then.”
Wyatt didn’t want to put a damper on her desire to see Emily and her father reunited. Nina slumped in a chair while they waited through the procedural aspects of getting Mason Pierce in to see his daughter.
Finally Wyatt got a call. “Yes. Thank you.” He hung up. “Mason Pierce!” When he looked up, Wyatt motioned Mason over to his desk. The man had been napping in the same chair he’d been sitting in when they’d arrived, but didn’t seem to mind being disturbed. “We’re good to go.”
He said to Nina, “Emily wants you there, too. She needs to tell you something.”
“Okay,” Nina said.
Wyatt gave Mason the address, and Mason left first. Nina and Wyatt both left their phones at the office. They also changed clothes, donning what were essentially disguises that would at least throw off Steve Adams. Wyatt extended their drive to the safe house to just over an hour since it was only twenty minutes away. Going around and around in circles had a point sometimes, and today it hopefully helped them lose Steve Adams. If the man had managed to tail them.
Wyatt pulled up around the corner, a prayer on the tip of his tongue. Sometimes the only thing that made the difference between a person being safe and being a victim was the uncontrollable. If there was a God who would keep Emily Pierce safe, Wyatt was willing to ask Him for help.
The marshal outside emerged from the cover of bushes, saw Wyatt and lifted his chin. “Mason is inside.”
The marshal in the house showed them to the kitchen, where Theresa was drying dishes with a towel. She set the mug down and held the towel in her hands, her eyes red like she’d been crying. “Mason is upstairs trying to talk to Emily. The girl hasn’t said one word to me all day.” She shook her head. “I just don’t want to believe she’s becoming a teenager. Not yet. Maybe you’ll help.”
Nina nodded.
Wyatt climbed the stairs after her, not willing to let Nina out of his sight. He hung back in the hall and realized what the noise was. Emily was crying. The preteen looked up from her dad’s shoulder and saw Nina. Wyatt saw her face and knew right away that Theresa was correct. Something was not right.
“He was here,” Emily said.
“What?” Nina shook her head.
“Mr. Thomas. He was here.”