Present Day

Victor taxied down the runway of the little airport just outside of Philadelphia in his Piper Seminole. The little aircraft had made the flight back from Gainesville in just half a day. If everything went according to his carefully constructed plan, no one would ever know he’d even left the area.

Flying lessons had provided a release from the constant demands of training in the boxing ring. His daily regimen consisting of hours of working out, sparring, running, working out some more, then sparring again had completely taxed his body. Learning to fly gave him a way to exercise his mind and fine-tune his motor skills. When he’d won his first national championship, he’d bought the plane and stored it in a hangar on an airfield well away from the city. His father never once asked him what he did with the purse from the fight, and he had never volunteered the information.

After storing his plane in the hangar, he drove from the airport. He thought about Ruth and the absolute terror on her face when she’d seen him.

He could only thank God that he’d found himself sitting at the desk next to Marco’s laptop when it sounded an alert. Ruth’s face had shown up on a social media story. He’d deleted the alert and sent Marco to Maryland to meet with some outside contractors who were currently maintaining one of their online casinos. That bought him a good portion of the next two days to fly down to Florida to talk to the kid in the hospital.

It had taken no more than to pretend to be a member of the press following up on such a fantastic story of how she saved this young man’s life. Within five minutes, he had Ruth’s new name and address. Hopefully, his showing up on her doorstep made her scared enough to leave before Marco got back from Maryland and saw a thousand other alerts from that snakebite story and dispatched a Kovalev team to handle her.

As he headed into the Lincoln Tunnel, he worked out the full cover story for his absence. He pulled into the parking lot of a little family hotel and exited his car into the blazing summer heatwave that currently pummeled the city. Absently, he hit the lock button on his key fob as he entered the hotel, ignoring the bored desk clerk. When he got to his room on the fourth floor, he tapped on the door with the prearranged signal. In seconds, the door opened to a striking woman with ice-blue eyes and a mane of brunette hair wearing a denim mini-skirt and a black halter top.

“Hi, Mr. Kovalev,” she greeted. Her tongue slowly stroked her upper lip as she gave him a provocative stare.

As he walked in, he could smell the tang of garlic and tomatoes from the open pizza box on the dinette’s counter. “How was your day, Nina?” he asked, pulling a wad of hundred dollar bills out of his pocket.

She pouted her lip but took the offered money. “It would have been nice to go outside.”

He knew she preferred to sit in the hotel with pizza and free access to the remote control rather than working for his uncle, but he also knew she knew how to play an angle. “I agree.” He looked at his watch. “After spending last night and the whole day together, we should go to a club. Why don’t we go get you a dress and some new shoes, and we’ll hit that new one on Eighth?”

Nina clapped her hands like a little girl. “Oh, Mr. Kovalev, yes! That would be perfect.”

“And if someone asks where we’ve been all day?” Nina had provided him with an alibi a few times in the past. He knew he could rely on her.

She pressed toward him but did not touch him. “I’ll ask them if they want details.” She ran her tongue over her teeth before she stepped back and laughed. “I know exactly the dress I want. You’re buying it, no?”

He gestured toward the door. “Of course. After you.”

Ruth Burnette shed the Mara Harrison identity completely as she climbed into Marshal Dean Tucker’s extended cab truck. The Marshal scratched Major’s ears before letting him jump into the back seat. Ruth secured her seatbelt and watched as they rolled away from her little Florida home.

“This was a good place to be,” she said quietly, feeling a pang of regret at the life she would never have a chance to live.

“Until you made the news.” Dean looked at her in the rearview mirror. “I thought my boss would have an aneurysm when he saw your picture. What were you thinking?”

Thinking back to Jeremy, she gave half a smile. “That a boy would have died if I didn’t act.” She lay her head back and closed her eyes. No matter what, she knew she’d done the right thing. “I never thought about social media, or I would have put a stop to it before it started.”

“Social media has made my job a little more complex than it was fifteen years ago.” He plugged some coordinates into his GPS. “If the newspaper article hadn’t happened, you could have come back here after the trial.”

Keeping her eyes closed, she unconsciously shook her head. “No. It was time to leave.” When she opened her eyes, she saw him looking at her. “The next place, I’d like to continue my surgical residency.”

He nodded. “Getting back to work will be really good for you. I’ll see what we can do.”

“How can you do that? I won’t have to start medical school over again, will I?”

He smiled as he shook his head. “No. We’ll get you a transcript from a medical school. Everything will be arranged for you.”

It stunned her just how smoothly the placement of WITSEC relocations appeared to happen. At least, it had been smooth for her. If she hadn’t had to act to avoid the possible tragic death of a teenager, she wouldn’t have had to disrupt the process at all, but the fact remained that he would have died if she hadn’t acted. The only thing she’d go back and change if she couldn’t change the presence of the snake in the first place was the ignorance that someone might post the story on social media. She wouldn’t make that mistake again.

They drove to the Gainesville airport, stopping at a pet supply store to get a travel cage for Major. She administered the shot to give him a sedative and then led him into the cage. “There you go, boy,” she said, feeling her eyes well with tears for her love for this animal who had protected her so fiercely for six months. “It will all be over soon.”

Clearly already sleepy, Major whined and thumped his tail a few times before settling down and closing his eyes.

“All set?” Dean asked.

“All set.” They walked side-by-side to the security gate. Dean took them over to the TSA Pre-check line and showed his badge and his authorization to carry his weapon beyond security. While Dean sidestepped the metal detector, Ruth put her backpack on the conveyor belt and walked through the security screening. Dean met her on the other side, and they walked to the gate.

Two men and a woman met them there. Dean Tucker knew the tall, dark-skinned man. “Marshal Andrew Brown, this is Ruth Burnette.” They made introductions all around, and Dean handed Andrew a file folder.

He shook Ruth’s hand. “I will see you after the trial when it’s time to place you somewhere new. Andrew and his team will be your detail while you’re in New York.”

As he walked away, she couldn’t help but feel a little panicked and abandoned. Instead of chasing after him, she turned to Marshal Brown and smiled, watching the other two Marshals as they casually took up positions that allowed them to watch everyone coming and going around the gate.

Marshal Brown looked at his watch as they sat in the uncomfortable plastic chairs. “We’ll board early. Do you want a bottle of water or something?”

Worried about Major, worried about the trial, and worried about Victor Kovalev showing up on her doorstep, she pressed her lips tightly together and shook her head. Twenty minutes later, as she fastened her seatbelt, she leaned toward the marshal. “Will it be safe to be in the city so long before the trial?”

“We arranged a safe hotel for you,” Marshal Brown said quietly, shifting to look out the window as the plane taxied. “Court starts Monday. I think we’ll be okay for a long weekend.”

She had four days to wait. At least at home, she’d have had the work at the church to keep her occupied. What would she do with her time? As she contemplated it, she determined that the next four days would be best spent fasting and in prayer.

Four days, then she’d start a new life all over again somewhere else. She’d really enjoyed the friends she’d made as Mara Harrison. Somehow, she didn’t think she’d find another community like that one, but she knew with certainty that wherever she went, God had a plan for her.