For a moment, Travis stood there. Frozen. Feeling the past he’d given up on and his present world colliding into an uncomfortable tsunami of emotions deep inside his chest. Jess had a lead on the very criminal Travis had let slip away. She was going to risk her life to positively identify the man. And she’d come all this way to ask for his help.
Dominic nestled deeper against his chest. The little boy burbled something that sounded like words quietly to himself and Travis suspected he wondered why they were still standing in the darkened staircase, in between two floors. Dominic had always loved bright lights and movement, especially the paper butterflies Willow and Travis had made for the ceiling fans and Willow’s picture book. But it was as if Travis’s feet were rooted in place.
“You found the Chimera?” he repeated.
“I did.” Uncrossing her arms, she ran her hand through her hair. “Which wasn’t easy to do, because when we took down their main operation, he disappeared overseas. But the dark web auction of the witness protection files back at Christmas was so valuable that criminals took risks they wouldn’t have normally taken. If it wasn’t for Seth, it probably would’ve all disappeared without law enforcement ever accessing any of it.
“From what we can tell, the main source of the Chimera’s power rests in the fact no one has ever made a positive identification of who he even is. Once someone manages to positively identify the man behind the alias and issue a warrant for his arrest, his days will be numbered.”
True enough. Complete and utter secrecy had been the Chimera’s main source of power. No one knew if he was a wealthy businessman, politician, member of law enforcement or celebrity.
But knowing Jess, she wouldn’t just identify him and get out. She’d take him down if she could.
“Two days ago, Seth matched indicators in the IP address the Chimera used in the auction to a brand-new and highly exclusive nightclub opening later this month on the West Coast,” she went on. “We created a false identity for me, and I applied for a job. I fly out there in seventy-two hours.”
Three days. His heart stopped. He had less than three days before Jess walked into the lair of the most heinous criminal he’d ever investigated.
“Obviously more time would’ve been ideal from our end to get the operation put in place,” she said. “But I’m just thankful they gave us almost a week. Seth created my fake identity based on intel you and I had gathered in our old case files, so barring any major unseen catastrophe, it should hold long enough to get me in the door.”
But would she ever make it back out again?
“You can’t be serious,” Travis said. “If the Chimera discovers you’re a cop, he’ll kill you.”
“And the Shiny Man might’ve killed you,” she said. “Whether it’s a big international threat like the Chimera or a small local one like the Shiny Man, we take them down. This is what we do.”
What she did. What he used to do.
He ran his hand over his head, before setting it back around Dominic’s body. The little boy was growing heavy in his arms. He’d recently figured out how to crawl and wouldn’t want to be carried around much longer.
“What were you thinking?” he asked. “That’d I’d wrap up my entire life in Kilpatrick in three days and join in on this operation?”
“Behind the scenes,” she said. “Like Seth. Who, may I remind you, is also in witness protection and who we’ve done a crackerjack job of keeping safe.”
His head shook. He couldn’t. There was absolutely no way. And yet, now that he knew what she was doing, how could he let her risk her life alone, to infiltrate a vicious gang to take down the criminals who’d targeted him?
“It’s a suicide mission,” Travis said. “They’ll take one look at you and see an easy mark. You’ll be like a bunny rabbit walking into a wolves’ den.”
“Well, that’s the point, isn’t it?” she asked. “It’s why I’ve got to be the one to go in undercover and take them on. They’ll never suspect I’m a detective, I know the organization better than anyone, except maybe you. Plus, they took you away from me.”
How was he even being tempted by this? The day he’d entered witness protection he’d never imagined he’d ever want to be anyone other than who he was. But that was before he’d met God, kicked his bad habits, found peace and made friends. There was no way he could turn his back on Patricia and the kids.
“Now that I’m here, seeing all this, I realize how foolish it was of me to ask for your help,” Jess said. “Obviously, I made a big mistake coming here. Notwithstanding the fact you’re facing your own bizarre Shiny Man criminal that I fully intend to help you catch and see arrested before I leave town. But honestly, I really missed you, Travis. Like, a lot. And maybe I got overly enthusiastic about the idea of working with you again.”
An odd lump formed in his throat. “I missed you, too.”
Only he hadn’t missed working with her. He’d just missed her.
And now, as he stood in a narrow staircase between the second and third floor of the building that had been his home for the past five years, still with someone else’s baby in his arms, staring into the beautiful eyes of the woman he’d never been able to forget, he couldn’t believe how foolish he’d been to ever let himself imagine a life with her.
“Well, I thought this was just a run-of-the-mill fake-identity, witness-protection situation for you,” Jess said, “and that you’d jump at the chance to be back in the game.” Her slender shoulders rose and fell. “Clearly, I was wrong.”
She moved pass him and kept walking down the stairs.
For a moment the urge to reach for her welled up inside him. Instead he pressed back against the wall, let her pass him and then followed her down the stairs.
“Don’t get me wrong...” he said, finding himself talking to the back of her head, just as he’d sketched her with his back to him in picture after picture. “Part of me really wants to. I really liked working with you and it means a lot that you thought of me. Four years ago, I’d have jumped at the offer. Maybe even two years ago, I don’t know. But the town of Kilpatrick is my life now. Patricia’s become like the mother I never had. And these kids...” His voice trailed off.
She’d reached the bottom of the stairs and he followed her out into the hallway.
How could he explain what it had been like to hear Willow say her first word or to watch Dominic roll over for the first time?
“Like I said, the Tatlows were really there for me,” he tried to explain. “Somehow they roped me into family meals and babysitting Willow almost from the get-go. Ever since Amber and Geoff died, I’ve been doing my best to help Patricia raise them. Watching the kids, making meals, picking them up and dropping them off from school and daycare, whatever she needed.”
Jess stopped and turned back. She slowly ran a hand over Dominic’s soft head, her fingertips lightly brushing Travis’s as she did so.
“You do realize being in their lives might put them in danger one day,” Jess said. It wasn’t a question. “Your cover could still get blown. Or the RCMP could insist you move. And how can anyone really have a relationship with you in this town when nobody knows who you really are?”
His phone rang in his pocket. Immediately, Jess reached out her hands for Dominic. He placed the little boy into her arms and pulled out his phone. Caller ID told him it was Willow’s kindergarten teacher, Alvin. “I have to take this.”
“Understood,” Jess said. “I’ll join Seth and Willow and give you a minute.”
She turned toward the kitchen, tossing her hair around her shoulders just enough for him to catch a glimpse of the hidden earpiece she used to communicate with Seth. In the past, he’d rarely seen her with her hair down, and usually just in those fleeting moments when she’d let her ponytail out before tying it back up again into a tighter one. He’d never been quite sure if she was more attractive with her hair up or down. But one thing was clear. She was even more beautiful now than she’d been in his memory.
Equally focused and determined, though.
“Your instincts are really solid,” she added. “I’m sure you’ll crack this Shiny Man thing in no time.”
She disappeared into the kitchen and the door swung shut behind her.
“Hello?” There was a pause. He could hear the sound of sirens down the line.
“Travis? Hi, it’s Patricia.” The elderly woman’s voice was faint. Her words were slow. “Alvin’s letting me use his phone. I’m with him and Cleo in the ambulance. They’re taking me to the hospital in Sudbury.”
Sudbury? The major city had a much bigger hospital than the clinic in Kilpatrick or even the closest small hospital. But it was also an hour away.
“I’m here,” he said, not knowing what else to say. “Willow and Dominic are with me, and they’re great. An old friend and her—” Colleague? Friend? “—brother are visiting from out of town and they’re helping me keep an eye on the kids.”
There was another pause. This one was longer than the one before and he suspected it was taking her a lot of effort to talk.
“It’s okay,” he said softly. “You focus on resting. I’ve got the kids and they’re safe.”
“I have a tumor in my brain,” Patricia said, and the words seemed to suck all the oxygen from his lungs. “The doctors have known about it for weeks but said at my age it might be safer to just leave it alone than biopsy or remove it. But now, because of the fall, I’ve been warned that when I get to the hospital they’ll be reevaluating things and if things don’t look good, they might be sending me straight into surgery.”
“Oh, Patricia, I’m so sorry,” he said, again his words felt beyond inadequate. He didn’t know what outcome to pray for. “You’re incredibly strong. We’ll all be praying, and if anyone can get through this, it’s you.”
The kitchen door swung open as Willow shot around the corner and ran for him. She wrapped both of her arms around his leg. He held up a finger to tell her to be quiet. Willow clasped her hand over her lips and nodded seriously.
“The paramedics warned me to make any important calls now,” Patricia said. “Just in case I can’t make them later. I want you to promise me that if anything happens to me, you’ll adopt Willow and Dominic.”
Jess, Dominic still in her arms, rushed out into the hallway after Willow, mouthing that she was sorry. Travis looked from the little boy with a cheeky grin to the little girl down by his feet. An ache spread through his chest. Of course, he couldn’t adopt the children. He was living under a fake identity. Travis Stone didn’t exist.
“Listen to me,” he said. “You’re going to be fine.”
“Don’t talk nonsense,” Patricia said. “We both know nobody can promise that. I already told my lawyer my wishes and it’s in my will. I was waiting for the right time to ask you, but you’re always so hard on yourself. My son and daughter-in-law are gone. The children need a family and you’re the only family they have left.”
Silently, Jess coaxed Willow away from Travis with a smile and a crooked finger. Moments later they disappeared through his study, taking more than one piece of his heart along with them.
“I don’t want to go into surgery with this on my heart,” Patricia said. “I need to hear you promise me you’ll take care of my grandbabies.”
Travis closed his eyes.
Help me, Lord, I can’t adopt them. But I can’t let them go, either.
“I promise I’ll take care of them.”
It took Jess less than five minutes of looking to find the orange reflective construction worker’s jumpsuit stuffed behind a trash can in the alley at the bottom of the fire escape. With gloved hands, Jess slid it into an evidence bag, not that she expected they’d be able to pull anything from it, considering the rain and the fact Shiny Man had been wearing both a mask and gloves.
She walked back up the fire escape ladder to where she’d left Seth on the second floor. Travis’s face had been serious when he’d finished the call, collected the children and gone downstairs to the bookstore. Although she’d told Travis that she’d be right behind him and join him in a moment once she gave Seth a quick hand, Seth didn’t exactly need her help. If she was honest with herself, the real reason she’d first told Travis to go ahead without her was to grab a quick breath away from that odd awkwardness she’d felt moving through the air between her and Travis.
Of all the unexpected things that had hit her since she’d arrived in Kilpatrick, that inexplicable and unspoken tension between them was somehow the most surprising. And somehow the hardest to get her head around.
“So, let me get this straight,” Seth called as she reached the study window. “We’re now dealing with two criminals. A very, very big one called the Chimera, who went on the run to Europe after you and Travis took down his major organization, and a small-time ‘Shiny Man’ of Kilpatrick, Ontario, who startles people with flashlights?”
“Looks like it,” Jess said. She tossed the jumpsuit through the window and then climbed in after it.
“With no connection between them?” Seth asked.
“None that I can see,” she said. “Beyond the fact they both chose the end of June to enact their plots.”
She suspected Chimera had good reason for that: he ran an entertainment-based cover business. Did the Shiny Man?
Seth shook his head. “You don’t think it’s weird that we came here to get Travis’s help on investigating the really big bad guy he’s hiding from, and instead we’re now trying to track down some little bad guy in an orange jumpsuit with a flashlight?” he asked.
“No, I don’t,” Jess said. “Maybe the qualities that drew Travis to becoming close to Patricia and her family are the same ones that lead them to being victims of the break-in. Maybe something Travis did after moving here, in witness protection, led him to being a target of this Shiny Man. I don’t know. I’ve seen investigations into one criminal spawn into all sorts of other unexpected side investigations, just because criminal circles tend to overlap. In my line of work there are no ‘big bad guys’ and ‘small bad guys.’ There are just criminals and it’s my job to stop them all.”
Whether they trafficked dozens of people like the Chimera or terrified one amazing little five-year-old girl. She paused and looked around Travis’s study. The room definitely had all the usual signs of a struggle, including what looked like the contents of Travis’s desk scattered across the floor. But judging by the number of books that had been knocked off the shelves, the Shiny Man had also been looking for something. She picked up a small antique handgun off the floor. Even with the barrel welded shut, she imagined it was still worth a hundred dollars. Not to mention Travis’s laptop hadn’t been touched and there was probably sixty dollars in cash still in the remains of a broken glass jar.
“Travis said he was late picking the kids up,” she said. “Maybe our Shiny Man hadn’t been expecting to find anyone here.”
“Except he definitely went after Patricia,” Seth said. He held up a small tablet computer. “Watch this.”
The video was black and white, and both the quality and angle were terrible, but she could see clearly enough that Patricia had been standing on a rolling ladder when the masked Shiny Man had slipped through the back door, slowly crept up on her and pulled a weapon like something from a horror movie.
“He’s got a gun trained on her,” Seth pointed out, “and it looks like he’s going to shoot, or threaten her at gunpoint, but instead his flashy light goes off and he drops the gun. When the light stops flashing, Patricia’s on the ground, he’s got the gun back and is running up the stairs to Travis’s apartment.”
Where Willow and Dominic were. Jess’s chest tightened as it dawned on her just how much worse the situation could’ve been.
“None of this makes sense to me,” Seth said, setting the tablet down on the desk. “Why pull a gun only to accidentally drop it?”
“Because he’s an amateur, he’s nervous, or both,” Jess said. “Doesn’t make him any less dangerous, though.”
“Well, I don’t know how long we’re going to be here,” Seth said, “but I’m upgrading the entire security system in this apartment, the bookstore and Patricia’s house before we leave. Because this whole lack of a system they’ve got here is painful.” He shook his head. “This is why I couldn’t be a cop.”
“Because you don’t like doing legwork?” she asked.
He laughed. “No, because I don’t like problems I can’t solve. Travis is in witness protection because the Chimera put a bounty on his head. Even if I had missed some online chatter about Travis’s identity being uncovered—which, believe me, I didn’t—anyone working for someone like the Chimera would either take him out with an instant shot or kidnap him for questioning. Instead, his place is tossed by a total amateur.”
An amateur in a rather effective disguise, who’d been wearing gloves.
“Actually, it’s not the slightest bit unusual for someone who’s been the victim of one type of crime to be targeted by completely different criminals,” she said. “People look for soft targets.”
“Did you see the size of Travis’s biceps?” Seth snorted. “Believe it or not, I was a high school athlete once before I became a computer chair doughboy, and I know how much work and time it takes to build up that much muscle. Nobody could say Travis is soft.”
True. But physical weakness wasn’t the only type of vulnerability. And the fact the Shiny Man was an amateur didn’t make him any less dangerous.
“I’d better get downstairs,” she said. “He’s going to want to take the kids home.”
“Did you figure out your cover story?” Seth asked.
“I’m an old friend.” She turned toward the door. “And you’re my brother-friend-colleague. But we’ll go with ‘brother’ for short.”
“And did you figure out why he has sketches of you up around the apartment?” Seth called after her.
“Apparently the back of my head is a dead ringer for that of the imaginary woman who left him at the altar,” she said.
Seth was chuckling about that as she walked into the hallway. She hit the bottom of the stairs, followed the sound of chatter down the hallway and came out into a somehow both large yet cozy bookstore.
It felt like over a dozen pairs of eyes turned to look at her at once, of every demographic from children to the elderly. Three men in volunteer firefighter uniforms stood by the coffee counter. A group of teenagers and young parents sat around a colorful carpet on which Dominic and several other babies were playing. A man with a trim white beard and a green Harris’s Bakery apron was talking to an older woman with long dark braids by a shelf of thrillers.
For a moment her eyes alighted on the uniformed cop by the door and, to her surprise, he met her gaze. He was in his early fifties, she guessed, with the build of a man who still hit the gym, dark hair that was graying at the temples and eyes that seemed to scowl despite the neutral line of his mouth. A warning shiver brushed her spine. Who was that?
“There you are,” Travis called. He crossed the floor to her, his arm outstretched.
“Yup, here I am.” Her smile felt oddly wobbly, but she figured that might be good for her cover.
A wide and lazy grin crossed Travis’s face, but she could tell it was tight at the corners and more than a little uncomfortable. He reached her side and lightly touched his hand against the small of her back, sending a gentle warmth through her core.
“Everyone, this is my friend Jess.” He turned toward the room. How many people in this town had heard the rumors about his fictional ex-fiancée? How many would wonder if it was her? “I’m sure she’s looking forward to meeting everyone, but she and her brother drove a long way to get here today, it’s been an exhausting day, and she arrived to the chaos of Patricia’s accident. I’ve got to take Willow and Dominic home. So, I’ve got to kick you all out and lock up. But I promise, I’ll call the community phone tree the moment I hear anything about Patricia.”
She glanced to his face and met his eyes, and for the first time could see the depth of worry floating there. He knew something—something that was bothering him a whole lot, but which he wasn’t yet ready to tell her. For a moment Jess stood there, waiting for some clue to what her next line should be, when Willow made a beeline for her across the room and launched herself into Jess’s arms even before Jess realized she’d opened her arms to catch her.
“Where’s Seth?” Willow asked.
“He’s still upstairs, but you’ll be seeing him later,” Jess said.
“I told the police about the Shiny Man,” Willow said.
“And I told them there’d been an intruder in my apartment and we’d scared him off,” Travis added. “You don’t need to make a statement, if you don’t want to.”
“Actually, I want to,” Jess said. She pulled away from Travis, took Willow’s hand and strode across the room toward the uniformed cop, feeling Willow skip as she walked beside her. “Excuse me, Officer?”
A polite smile crossed his lips as a neutral and far more professional look filled his eyes. So apparently he knew well enough to hide the previous flicker of hostility.
“Can I help you?” he asked.
“I’m Travis’s friend, Jess Amie.” She reached out her right hand to shake his, keeping her left looped through Willow’s.
“Nice to meet you.” He took her hand and shook it briefly. “Gordon Peters, district chief.”
“I hear Travis and Willow told you about the intruder—” she said.
“It wasn’t an int’uder,” Willow interrupted loudly. “It was the Shiny Man!”
Something flickered briefly in Chief Peters’s eyes. Like he’d been tempted to roll them and caught himself. Okay, so clearly he didn’t believe her.
“Well, I need to confess that I pulled a gun on him,” Jess said.
The cop’s eyebrows rose. But it was nothing compared to the sound of Travis’s sharp intake of breath behind her. She reached into her pocket, pulled out the antique weapon from Travis’s study and held it up.
“It looked like he and Travis were fighting,” she said, “and I guess it was instinct.”
And I’m not saying this was the gun I pulled. I’m just holding it up.
She dropped the weapon into the officer’s hand. He turned it over and glanced at the welded muzzle. Then he handed it back.
“I think I have all the information I need,” he said. “If you think of anything else significant or spot this orange-clad man, call the police immediately.” Chief Peters turned to go then paused. “And please tell Patricia, I hope she feels better soon.”
Twenty minutes later Jess was sitting in Travis’s red pickup truck as he drove down Main Street and out of town, while Seth trailed behind them in her car. The sun was setting, turning gray clouds dark blue, as she sat in the front passenger seat, with Willow and Dominic in the back. She couldn’t help but notice that car seats for both kids were already in the truck and that when he plugged his phone in, it automatically opened to a playlist of children’s tunes. He turned on the music and set it to play out of the back seat speakers. Then he waited until Willow was distracted by singing to Dominic before saying anything more than small talk.
“That was a cute trick with the g-u-n,” he said, keeping his voice low and a watchful eye on the kids in the rearview mirror. “What was the point?”
“Because the intruder knew I pulled a g-u-n,” she said. “I don’t know if the S-h-i-n-y M-a-n was someone in that room or how fast rumors spread in this town, but I didn’t want them thinking I was hiding anything.”
He nodded thoughtfully. “Smart.”
She resisted the temptation to point out she was good at her job. Especially since she wasn’t quite sure why she was feeling defensive.
A blue sign told them they were leaving Kilpatrick and invited them to come back soon. The smattering of buildings faded behind them. For a few minutes they drove through trees, then turned off the rural road onto a narrower unpaved road. Travis slowed the vehicle to a crawl and took one more glance at the rearview mirror.
“My landlady might be going into surgery,” he said, raising the back seat music even louder and lowering his voice even more to ensure they wouldn’t be overheard. “She has a brain tumor and the fall might’ve aggravated it. Someone will call when they know something. But in the meantime, I’m going to be awake and watching my phone.”
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered.
“Thanks,” he said.
The truck slowed and the trees parted. A two-story farmhouse lay ahead. A wide wooden porch swing rocked gently on the long front porch.
“Is Willow’s room on the second floor?” she asked.
Travis nodded as he parked the truck. “The kids share a room. It’s around the side.”
Seth pulled in behind them, turned off the engine and hopped out of her car.
“I can’t leave the kids,” Travis said before opening his door. “They need me. I’ll do what I can to help you prep for your mission against the Chimera and I’d appreciate your help in turn figuring out who the Shiny Man is. Won’t be the first time we’ve worked two cases at once. But I’m not going anywhere and I’m not leaving Kilpatrick.”
Something firm and protective rumbled in his voice.
“Got it,” Jess said.
Travis plastered a grin on his face and got the kids out of the vehicle in turn, promising them he’d make spaghetti for dinner. They all started toward the house and motion sensor lights clicked on to greet them. But still, Travis’s tone of voice and the look on his face twisted something inside her chest.
As much as he might need and even appreciate her help, Travis didn’t want her there.
Her footsteps stopped as they reached the porch.
“I’m going to join you guys in a minute,” she said. “I need to make a quick phone call to my and Seth’s friend Liam.”
RCMP detective Liam Bearsmith was steady, level-headed, and the longest serving RCMP officer on her and Seth’s team. He’d seen it all and survived to shrug it off. In her experience, he was the perfect person to talk to when she was rattled.
“Sounds good,” Travis nodded. “Cell phone reception is better outside the house.”
Seth’s eyebrows rose. “You want me to join you, Jess?”
“No, I’m good,” she said.
Seth’s sense of humor was always good for lightening the mood. But right now she needed something other than that. She waited as they went inside and closed the door. Then she pulled out her phone, opened the Contacts file and found Liam’s number. Her thumb hovered over it. Then she paused and walked around the side of the house.
Lord, I need Your guidance. I feel really confused right now. I felt like I was meant to come here, but apparently not for the reasons I thought. Help me know what I’m doing here and what I’m supposed to do.
The motion sensor lights switched off, plunging the world into darkness before she’d barely taken ten steps. She walked further away from the house and pressed Liam’s number. Thick trees pressed up against the narrow dirt laneway on both sides.
“Liam Bearsmith,” His stern and professional voice was there in an instant.
“Hey, Liam, it’s Jess,” she said, even though she knew he had Call Display. “I’m guessing Seth filled you in.”
“He did,” Liam said. “I heard you left Travis at the altar.”
Was it her imagination or did a hint of laughter move through his voice?
“Don’t believe everything you hear.”
The movement to her right was so sudden she barely had time to try to reach for the gun at her ankle before she felt a sweet-smelling rag clamped down hard over her face. There was a fleeting glimpse of the shiny orange sleeves of a construction jumpsuit. Then her head was yanked back hard and the barrel of a gun pressed into the side of her head.
“Drop the phone.” The voice behind her was menacing, male and distorted like he was speaking through a voice box. “You and I are going somewhere quiet to talk.”