Safe by the Marshal's Side

That seemed to be his argument for everything. It’s better if you stay inside. It’s better if you don’t call your family. It’s better if you sit in the back of my car and be quiet and let me figure everything out.

“It’s not like I’m going to tell anyone where we’re going.”

“I know.”

“Then tell me. I’m an adult. I have a child. I think I have the right to know.”

“You picked a bad night to assert yourself, Annie.”

“The way I see it, I should have asserted myself a long time ago,” she replied. She’d spent a year going by a new name, living as a different person and doing absolutely everything Hunter had told her to do. She hadn’t questioned him because she’d wanted to protect Sophia.

The baby. Don’t let anything happen to the baby.

Joe had gasped those words with his last breath. Late at night, when it was quiet and dark, they’d echo in Annie’s head until she had to get up and touch Sophia’s cheek, make sure that she was okay.

“Only you can decide that,” he said calmly. “But for the record, I’m following protocol. That’s what’s kept you safe for a year.”

“You’re not the only one who wants to keep me safe, Hunter. I have a vested interest in it, too. I have a baby who needs me. I have to make sure I’m around for her.”

“She’s not really a baby anymore, is she?” he asked. “A couple of days ago, she said my name. Clear as day.”

He was trying to distract her. A new move for Hunter. He usually stuck to facts and figures and orders. Maybe he sensed how close to the edge of panic she was.

Her parents had told her not to testify.

They’d begged her to move to a new town, stay away from St. Louis and forget what she’d seen. They’d been afraid that if she agreed to testify, she’d end up like Joe. At the time, Annie had thought that Joe had been an innocent bystander, a guy who’d gotten in the way of a robbery and been killed because of it. She’d wanted nothing more than to see his killers thrown in jail, so she’d refused her parents’ advice.

She’d received a lot of new information since then, but she still wanted the men who’d killed her husband to pay for their crimes.

“Someone found me at the safe house, Hunter,” she finally said. “Talking about Sophia won’t change that.”

“I know, but I thought it might help you relax.” He glanced into the rearview mirror, offering a rare smile. It changed his face, made him less austere and more approachable.

“It’s hard to relax when someone wants me dead.”

“We don’t know that there’s a price on your head.”

“But you think that Saunders and Fiske want to keep me from testifying against them. You told me that if they killed Joe, they wouldn’t hesitate to kill me.” She’d believed him because she’d seen the look in Luke Saunders’s eyes after he’d shot Joe. Triumph. Excitement. Just thinking about it made her stomach churn.

“Unless they’ve been able to arrange for the hit from their prison cells, what happened tonight could just be—”

“I saw the person at the back fence. I know something was tossed into the yard. Don’t try to tell me that it was some New Year’s reveler. I’m not going to believe it.”

“I wouldn’t lie to you, Annie,” he said quietly, and she thought that he probably meant it.

But Joe had said the same thing so many times, she’d almost stopped hearing it. He’d said it when checks bounced or electricity bills weren’t paid. He’d said it when she’d asked why he was home late from work or why their money always seemed to disappear.

She’d believed every lie he’d told her.

She wouldn’t make that mistake again. Not with anyone. Even a guy who seemed to be honorable.

“Everyone lies sometimes,” she responded. “And you getting me to relax isn’t a solution to our problem.”

“Trust me, I know that. I’m taking this situation very seriously. The whole team is. We’ll figure out how you were found, and we’ll make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

She wanted to believe him, but nothing had happened the way it was supposed to in the past year. She blinked back tears. She’d cried an ocean of them since Joe’s death. Every time she thought she was cried out, more tears came.

Not this time, though.

A new year. A new beginning. No more tears over things she couldn’t change. She was going to take control, make her life what she wanted it to be. What she thought God wanted it to be.

Hunter turned down a well-lit street lined with tall apartment buildings. Not as quiet as the street the safe house had been on. Lights shone from most of the apartment windows and a few people milled around in a small courtyard between two buildings.

Hunter bypassed the taller apartment complexes and pulled into the parking garage of a four-story building that sat on a small corner lot. Several cars filled spaces in the dark enclave. He parked near a door, shifting in his seat and looking straight into Annie’s eyes.

He had the darkest eyes she’d ever seen, his eyelashes thick and just as dark. She didn’t know why she was noticing. Maybe because it was easier than thinking about getting out of the SUV with Sophia, walking through the parking garage and into the building, the hot breath of danger still on her neck.

“What are we doing?” she whispered as if someone outside the SUV might hear.

“Waiting for Marshal Summers.”

Annie knew the woman. She’d been at the safe house several times in the past month, her dark hair pulled back, her brown eyes kind. They hadn’t spoken much. Just a few hellos and goodbyes. Not enough to get to know her well.

A black sedan pulled into the space beside them, and Serena Summers got out. All business in dark slacks and a heavy coat, she opened Annie’s door and gestured for her to get out. “Let’s go. I don’t know about you, but I’ll feel a lot better once you’re inside that building.”

“I need to get Sophia.” She reached for the car-seat buckle, but Hunter was already opening the door on Sophia’s side.

“I’ll get her. You go with Serena.”

“But—”

“I won’t let anything happen to her. I promise,” he said.

Don’t promise me anything, she wanted to say.

But he was already unbuckling Sophia.

Arguing out in the open where anyone could see her seemed even more foolish than trusting him to take care of Sophia. Besides, she might have learned hard lessons about trust from her marriage, but she knew Hunter would do everything he could to protect Sophia. She just hoped it was enough.

She got out of the SUV and hurried into the building with Serena. The place was quiet, any tenants tucked behind closed doors. Two elevators stood on the far wall of a brightly lit foyer. Serena led her there, sliding a card into a slot next to one of the doors, her foot tapping as she waited for it to open.

As soon as it did, she urged Annie in, holding the door open as Hunter hurried in behind them. Sophia snuggled in his arms, her head against his shoulder, her thumb in her mouth. She smiled sleepily as she saw Annie.

“Momma, hold me!” she said, her little arms reaching for Annie.

Annie took her from Hunter’s arms, loving the solid weight of her. She didn’t think she’d really known the depth of God’s love for her until Sophia came along.

“Where’s we going?” Sophia asked, pressing her hand to Annie’s cheek and looking into her eyes.