Olivia’s hand rose to her lips as the sense of safety she’d felt just moments ago while tucked inside the security of Daniel’s arms was replaced with the sudden reality of just how much danger they were still in.
They were trapped. They couldn’t leave. They couldn’t get help.
So that was why Chloe had resorted to drastic, if misguided, actions to get her away from Daniel when she’d thought he was a threat. It was no wonder her sister had lost it when Trent had threatened to arrest Daniel. With no way to take Daniel to the station, he was basically looking at handcuffing him and leaving him in a motel room for who knows how long. “You think the Faceless Crew might be here?”
“It’s just a guess,” Trent said. “But a well-grounded one, unless they have a hideout somewhere in rural Ontario. Depending on where they were headed, they might not have been able to get on the highway. This is the only motel in the area. People have been arriving steadily through the night. At last check, there were about forty people staying in the motel and another eighty or so staying in the campgrounds. We haven’t tried going door-to-door yet to see if there are any other law enforcement officers here because I’m not in a hurry to blow my cover. For now, it’s best to presume that the circle of trust starts and ends with the four of us.”
Daniel ran his hand over the back of his neck. “How long until they expect the roads to reopen?”
“Road north, maybe by sunup,” Trent said. “Highway to Toronto could be shut until early afternoon. Last I heard anyway. Electricity and phone could take days in some areas. So I’m sorry, but it could be at least a day or two until we get a forensics crew out to whatever remains of your house. Now, if that covers everything you want to know, then, as you can imagine, I have quite a few questions for you.”
“And I’m happy to answer them the best I can,” Daniel said, “but first I’ve got to go get Sarah. I’ll wake her up and bring her back here. We can continue this then.”
“Understood,” Trent said. “I’ll come with you. I’ll need you to let me know if you recognize anyone from the Faceless Crew. Hopefully you’ll spot the one guy whose face you saw, but at the very least you can tell me if someone’s build looks familiar. Besides, you’ll have a much easier time finding Rita and getting her to let you talk to Sarah if I’m with you.” Trent scooped the photo memory card up off the table and gestured to Chloe. “I’ll get my laptop set up and maybe you can upload these photos while I’m gone so we can see what we’re looking at there. I’ll take a walkie-talkie so we can stay in touch. Also, someone should probably check in with the front desk about getting us new rooms where someone hasn’t kicked in one of the doors.”
Chloe nodded and followed Trent into the other room.
Olivia looked up at Daniel. “I’m coming with you, too.”
“No, you’re not,” he said. “There’s still a heavy storm out there, and the Faceless Crew have already made at least two attempts on your life.”
“Just like they’ve tried to kill you.” She stepped toward him until her toes brushed against his. “I can handle myself.”
“I know.” His hands brushed down her shoulders and onto her arms. “You’re a live wire, Olivia. Which is awesome in a whole lot of ways. But not at a time like this. I want you to stay here with your sister, where you’re safe. Lock the door and don’t open it again until we get back.”
He brushed a kiss over her forehead and started toward the other room. She just stood there a moment, watching him go. She could still feel the tingle of his lips on her skin. But this time his tenderness left her feeling anything but cared for. Didn’t he realize he was talking to her like a child? She had so much respect for him. So why did it seem as if he had so little respect for her?
“No.” Her voice seemed to echo in the wood-paneled room. He stopped in the doorway and looked back. “Look, I appreciate what you’re trying to do, Daniel. But it isn’t your call to make. You don’t get to lock me up in a room and tell me to sit tight. I’m an adult. I’m a reporter. I’m not going to just sit by and let you sideline me.”
“You’re not a reporter anymore!” His hands shot up as though he didn’t know whether to shake her or kiss her. “Don’t you get that? Not right here. Not right now. Maybe you came up here yesterday as a reporter chasing a story. But now that story’s gone. Sarah won’t want to see you. I still have no idea why she’s so hostile toward you. But the fact she was willing to trade you an interview in exchange for my friendship really worries me. It’s immature and manipulative, and things between Sarah and I are complicated enough already with you being an additional complication. So I think the best thing for everyone is if Trent and I talk to Sarah without you there. I want to keep you and her as far away from each other as possible, at least until everything calms down and she’s ready to make peace. If I don’t see you before we leave, I’ll try to touch base later. Okay? I’m just glad to know that for right now you’re somewhere safe with someone who I know will take care of you.”
He turned and started toward the other room without even waiting for an answer.
“You can’t control everything, Daniel.” The sound of her voice made him freeze in the doorway. But he didn’t turn back. “You have such a huge heart. All you want to do is to protect everyone, and I know you’re trying to manage everything the way you think is best. But it’s as if you think if you just try hard enough you’ll be able to hold your world together by sheer force of will. But Sarah’s not Mona’s little baby anymore. She’s not even that teenager you saved from ending up in the foster system. She’s months away from being a legal adult. She’s going to be whoever she chooses to be, right or wrong, no matter how hard you try to protect her.”
He didn’t look back. She didn’t step toward him. A long silence filled the space between them as she watched his shoulders rise and fall, and listened to the storm raging outside the windows.
“Well, I guess not everyone’s as comfortable with chaos as you are,” he said. “I won’t leave her well-being up to chance just because she wants the freedom to ruin her life on her own terms. It’s easy enough to stand outside the life of a person you’ve only known for a couple of hours and decide they’re doing it wrong. But I can’t talk about this now.”
Daniel walked out and shut the door behind him.
She stared at the thin, scuffed plywood separating them, as if her eyes weren’t yet ready to look away. Her heart felt numb, like the sensation of having adhesive ripped off your skin that nanosecond before the pain kicked in. Daniel was hardly the first person to decide she had no place in their life. Yet it was as if, as he’d walked out the door, he’d somehow accidentally knocked down the protective wall she’d built around her heart, leaving it aching for something she’d always craved and never known.
Her sister appeared in the doorway with a laptop in her hands.
“They’re gone,” Chloe said. “But the laptop can’t read the photos on the memory card. He could barely get it into the slot.”
“Probably because it was bent. I’ll jiggle it.” Olivia took the machine. Her voice sounded so tired it almost cracked. “Ricky, my photographer friend, showed me how. Reporters have damaged cards before and he’ll just jiggle it around inside the slot until something makes contact.”
She pressed the memory card as far into the slot as it would go, and then up. The card was in so deeply now it would probably take tweezers to get it back out again, and she wouldn’t be surprised if she’d managed to damage the laptop slot.
The machine whirred. A window popped up on the screen. Five thousand photos started downloading. She sat down as a sigh of relief left her lungs. “I’ve got it. It’s going to take a while, but we should have something by the time Trent returns.”
“Just Trent?” Chloe asked.
“Daniel doesn’t want to bring Sarah back here, because he thinks I’ll set her off. And since protecting her is his priority, that means he’ll stay with her. We didn’t exactly say goodbye. But I wouldn’t be surprised if I never saw him again.”
“I’m sorry. I can tell you really like him.” Chloe pulled a wool blanket out of a cupboard and dropped it over Olivia’s shoulders. “Daniel likes you, too, you know. He likes you a lot, actually. I don’t know what all has gone on between you two. But it’s pretty clear he’d willingly risk his life to keep you safe.”
“Because he’s a former bodyguard. He’d risk his life for anyone.” Olivia leaned back. “Don’t get me wrong, he’s a great guy. But you should have heard him trying to tell me to stay here and lock the door.”
“He’s overprotective because he cares about you,” her sister said gently. “Look, I know this is a strange concept for people like you and me, considering how little attention Dad gave us. He was so focused on his own life he didn’t think anything of letting us walk home from a new school, in a new town, all by ourselves. Remember that time we both got locked out in the snow because he ran off somewhere without checking whether or not we were inside? It taught us not to rely on any man. But not all men are like that. By the look of things, Daniel’s pretty much the opposite of that.” A smile crossed Chloe’s lips. “I’m not saying that Daniel doesn’t need to lighten up and loosen up, too. But maybe you could use someone like him in your life.”
Someone like what? Reliable? Dependable? Steady? Rock solid?
Somebody she could count on not to let her down?
Olivia didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. Sure, of course she wanted to find someone exactly like Daniel. But it seemed the last thing he wanted was to find someone like her.
“Maybe. But he’s too far the other way, Chlo. He can’t compromise. He can’t take risks. I’m not even sure he knows how to listen. Being with a man like that would be like being wrapped in plastic bubbles and locked in an ivory tower. Even if Daniel was interested in keeping me around in his life—and I honestly don’t think he is—I need more than just someone who wants me to be safe. I need someone who wants me to be me.”
* * *
A group of Leslie Construction workers were drinking in a picnic pavilion and staring out at the rain. Young ones, mostly. Trent sauntered over, his stance loose and his posture arrogant. Daniel followed half a pace behind.
The guy might be a pain sometimes. But no one could say Trent wasn’t cut out for this kind of undercover work.
He was only sorry he’d missed out on hearing Constable Henry’s “chipper” voice. Would’ve been fun to compare the two.
Connor and Jeremy sat on a table passing a bag of chips back and forth. Jesse was standing next to an open case of beer. Jesse’s eyes flitted over Daniel’s face for a moment, as if evaluating whether or not Daniel was about to start trouble over his stolen moment with Sarah. Then a grin spread across his face as though the young man was happy to see them. Daniel almost rolled his eyes. At least Sarah wasn’t out drinking with them.
Jesse grabbed a beer out of the case and pitched it to Trent overhand.
Trent caught it with his left hand and threw it right back to Jesse. “Hey, any of you know where I can find Hawk and Rita? This guy’s looking for Sarah.”
There was a muttering of laughter. Then a couple of the guys pointed out into the woods.
“Hey, why don’t you come hang out with us a bit!” Jeremy stumbled out toward them, his wobbly legs showing that he was way past sober. He jostled Trent as though they were two fans bodychecking each other at a sports event.
“Hey, man, watch it!” Trent yelped so loudly he almost swore. “I think my collarbone’s busted or something.”
“Whoa, sorry!” Jeremy raised his hands and only then seemed to notice the sling. “What you do to it?”
“It’s nothing.” Trent grinned. “Danny boy and I just had a bit of a dustup back at the motel. He didn’t think the lady I was talking to was treating his lady right. You know how it is.”
A laugh rolled off Trent’s shoulders as if the whole thing was one big joke. A chuckle moved through the crowd as the guys laughed along with him.
“Who won?” Connor called.
“Go take a look at the motel railing. Then you tell me.”
The men were still laughing as they walked off.
“Danny boy?” Daniel raised an eyebrow.
Trent chuckled for real this time and didn’t answer. They pressed on through the rain until the pavilion party was out of sight.
Trent took a quick glance around, but there was no one there but trees and rain.
“Look,” he said, “between taking down Hawk earlier and being willing to fight me, they’re going to be looking at you a bit different now. The crew never had any respect for you, because basically they thought you were nothing but a pathetic idiot who Mona made a fool out of. Nothing personal, but it’s not exactly easy for guys like that to get their heads around why you stepped up to become Sarah’s guardian. I mean, everyone knew how wild Mona could be. They all know about her laundry list of short-term boyfriends—some of them were even on that list. In their minds, you’ve got every right to hate her. None of them can imagine doing anything to help the kid of a woman who’d treated them that way.”
Daniel shrugged. “It was the right thing to do.”
“Yeah, maybe. But they don’t get it. How many of them think that way? Whole lot of them were willing to look the wrong way while Brian was cheating people, until they got cheated themselves.”
“So the cops thought I’d become Sarah’s guardian in order to launder money, and the Leslie Construction guys thought I’d done it because I was a wimp. Good to know.”
“Hey, don’t shoot the messenger!” Even in a sling, Trent managed to partially raise his hands. “The construction crew didn’t think you were a bad guy. They just figured you were way too hung up on Mona to have eyes for anyone else. Looks as if they were wrong.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Another chuckle. “Just stop beating yourself up for decking me back at the motel. Please. We both misunderstood what was going on, you weren’t fighting dirty and it’s not your fault the rail broke. Any decent guy who I’d respect would’ve done exactly what you did if they thought someone they cared about was in trouble. They just probably wouldn’t have done it anywhere near as well. Besides, you helped me maintain cover, which is important because I’ll need this identity intact even after the case is closed. I’ve been this guy on a couple different operations so far, as he’s a handy cover to keep around.”
They kept walking. The ground was slick with mud. Wind buffeted against their bodies. Lightning flashed in the sky above their heads. They started to jog. A tent blew past them, only to get stuck in a tree a few yards away. He could see glimpses of flattened, scattered campsites within the woods. Presumably their occupants had fled to the safety of the motel.
Unbidden, Olivia’s face filled his mind. She was like a storm. Beautiful. Powerful. Wild. If I was strong enough, I’d let myself love her. But she could turn me and my life inside out without even trying.
They reached Rita’s trailer. Trent banged on the door. “Hey! It’s me. Anyone awake in there?”
Hawk opened the door. He took one glance at Daniel and swore.
“No way.” Hawk slammed the door again. Trent rolled his eyes.
The door was pretty flimsy, Daniel noted. He could probably break in if he needed to. Just hoped he wouldn’t have to. “Look,” Daniel said, “I’m not here to cause trouble. I just want to see Sarah.”
“She doesn’t want to see you!” Hawk sounded drunk. There was the murmur of voices inside.
Daniel leaned against the trailer wall, feeling suddenly too tired to stand. It had been the longest night of his life. He’d never felt so defeated by circumstances.
You can’t control everything, Daniel. Olivia’s words flickered through the back of his mind. You have such a huge heart... But Sarah’s not Mona’s little baby anymore... She’s going to be whoever she chooses to be, right or wrong, no matter how hard you try to protect her.
Daniel took a deep breath and prayed. Lord, I’m tired. I’m sore. I’m soaked. All I can think about is the argument I just had with Olivia. I don’t have the patience for Hawk right now. Please help me figure out what I can control and what I need to let go.
“Hey, Rita?” he said. “It’s Daniel. Look, I know you’ve never much liked me. To be honest, it’s mutual. Definitely, I could’ve been nicer to you. I’m sorry about that. We both probably made things harder for Sarah sometimes than it needed to be.” Silence fell within the trailer. No response. Hopefully she was listening. “Hopefully we can agree that we both want what’s best for Sarah, even if we can’t agree on what that is. I don’t know if she told you, but someone broke into my house tonight and tried to kill us. I’m worried sick about her. I don’t know if she’s hurt. I don’t know if she managed to call the police before the cell phones went out. Please, Rita. I’m not ordering. I’m asking.”
There was a long pause. The door opened. Rita stood there. There was a scowl on her face, but at least the door was open. Hawk sat behind her at the small plastic table.
“Thank you.” He stepped inside and out of the rain.
“Whatever.” Rita rolled her eyes. She walked down to a closed door at the end of the camper. “You’ve got five minutes. But she’s not going anywhere with you.”
Trent followed them in. He dropped into a seat beside Hawk. “There’s a bad storm brewing, you know. You’ll all be safer in the motel. You don’t want to get flooded out.”
Rita rapped on the door. “Sarah? Baby? Daniel’s here. Just wants to make sure you’re all right.” She glanced back at Daniel. “She’s mad at us. She wanted to go partying with some of the younger guys. But we knew they’d be shooting up. Hawk and I told her we weren’t letting her get mixed up with drugs under our watch, and that she had to stay put with us.” She rolled her eyes. “We’re not the total monsters you think we are.”
“Thank you.”
“Anyway, I don’t know about the police. I didn’t know someone had attacked your place. She didn’t tell me what she was doing here and I don’t ask questions. She did use my phone to try to call someone, though.” She turned the handle and pushed the door open. “Sarah?”
Rita screamed.
The camper window was open.
The tiny bedroom was empty.
Sarah was gone.