“Hey, Mom.” Annabelle helped herself to a cup of coffee, added some mocha creamer, then slid into a chair at the table.
“Annabelle.” Nancy scooped a warm cinnamon roll onto a plate and placed it in front of her daughter with a fork. “I would ask if you slept well, but I can see you didn’t.”
Annabelle sighed. While she considered what to say, she forked a bite of the pastry into her mouth, closing her eyes to savor the sticky-sweet flavor. “Mmm. Delicious. I had trouble sleeping. Too many things happening.” She raised her eyes to her mother’s concerned face. “I keep worrying if I should have come here. I hate to think I put you in any kind of jam.”
Her mother clucked her tongue. “Now, don’t you be worrying about me. You and my granddaughter are my priority. Always have been.”
“I know, Mom. I just—” She broke off as her cell phone rang. Tensing, she looked down at the number. “Hold on, Mom. It’s Danielle, a woman on my block. Bethy was supposed to go swimming with her daughters yesterday.”
She didn’t comment on the obvious reasons why they hadn’t.
She tapped the screen to answer and took a deep breath. “Danielle? What’s up?”
“Annabelle, are you and Bethany okay?” Danielle’s normally peppy voice was nervous.
How to answer that? Oh, yeah. Just being followed. Oh, and my estranged husband is going into hiding after seeing his boss get killed. Not.
Trying to be upbeat, she said, “We’re fine. On a little trip, that’s all. Why? Is something wrong?”
A slight pause. When Danielle’s voice came again, it was softer, like she didn’t want anyone to hear her. “Listen. I don’t want the girls to worry, but something weird is going on. Mike said there was a car parked across the street from your house yesterday morning. And someone was sitting inside it. There’s no house across the street from you, so why was he there? Mike was walking the dog at lunch and they went right past the car. Mike thought he had surprised the guy. He wasn’t positive, but it looked like the man was looking at your house through binoculars.”
A shiver worked its way up Annabelle’s spine. Danielle might not have been sure, but she had no doubt Mike was right. They were waiting for her.
What would have happened if she had gone home first, the way she had planned?
“Thanks, Danielle. I will call the police. I appreciate your letting me know.”
“There’s more.” Of course there was. “Yesterday afternoon, someone was going around the block with a picture of you and Bethany. He was insisting that he was your cousin and trying to reach you on urgent business.”
Her stomach turning, Annabelle closed her eyes.
She didn’t have any cousins. Where did the man get the pictures?
Annabelle couldn’t get off the phone fast enough. As soon as she hung up, she dialed Tyler’s number.
“The number you have reached is no longer in service.” She wanted to cry at the automated message. Tyler’s phone must have been disconnected so he could disappear. Now what?
Wait a minute. Karl Adams had given her his card.
Jumping to her feet, she ran back to her bedroom to grab her purse. This was not a conversation she wanted her mother to hear. Shutting the door, she began rifling around her purse frantically. After a few seconds, she found the item she was looking for.
Her fingers shook as she tapped his number into her smartphone. When Karl answered, she breathlessly repeated her conversation with Danielle Johnson.
“Hold on, Annabelle. I will call you back as soon as I know something.”
He hung up quickly. Sinking down on the edge of her bed, Annabelle fought to control her emotions. The urge to cry battled with the urge to throw something. She did neither. Instead, she sat tensely, clasping her phone between her hands like a lifeline. Please, Lord, she repeated over and over and over in her mind.
She checked on Bethany. She wasn’t awake yet, which gave her a little more time. Returning to her bedroom, Annabelle paced as she waited. Every minute or so, she looked at the screen on her phone to see the time.
When her phone rang forty minutes later, she nearly dropped it.
“Y-yes?” she gasped.
“Annabelle? You were right to call. I sent someone to your house. It’s been ransacked. I have the feeling that the pictures that man was showing your neighbors were from your wall. There were several empty picture frames on the floor, and it was obvious pictures had been taken from the walls. No doubt someone was trying to find something that would lead them to you. The problem is, there are bound to be many people after you because of the bounty put on your head. Who knows how many people are watching your house. Whatever you do, don’t leave your mother’s house. And stay inside. The last thing we want is for you to be recognized.”
“I won’t! Oh, I’m just so scared right now. What if my mom’s in danger because of me?” She shouldn’t have come. Oh, why had she been so stubborn?
“I understand your concerns. We’re coming to get you. What?” the marshal said to someone on his end. “Here.”
A moment later, Tyler came on the phone. “Annabelle, can you convince your mom to go stay with your brother for a while?”
She nodded. Oh, wait. He couldn’t see her. “Yeah, I think I can do that. I’ll see if she can stay at Ethan’s place.”
“Do it. She’ll be safer at Ethan’s house.”
“Tyler—”
He was no longer on the phone. “Karl Adams again, ma’am. Someone’s on the way. I agree with Tyler. Your mom needs to get out of the house. We’ll see that she’s safe. But you and your daughter need to go into hiding. They won’t stop coming for you.”
Six hours later, she and Bethany were led into a house in Iowa. She’d never been to Iowa before. Now that she was here, though, she had zero interest in looking around at the scenery. Guilt over the disruption to her mother’s life weighed heavy on her. Inside the house, Karl was there. And so was Tyler.
“Daddy!” Bethany ran to her father, throwing herself into his arms as if she hadn’t just seen him for the first time in years a little over a day ago. Her sweet daughter apparently harbored no bitterness toward the man who’d always chosen business over family.
She couldn’t be so blasé. The bitterness she’d shoved deep down inside, for her little girl’s sake, erupted.
“What are you doing here?”
Tyler blinked. “What do you mean? I’m going into witness protection, just like you.”
A familiar tall woman stood up from the table. For a brief moment, Annabelle paused, trying to recall the woman’s name. Ah. Stacy Preston. That was it. Stacy smiled at her and intervened in what promised to be a heated reunion. “Why don’t I take Bethany to see if we can find something fun to play.” She gave Karl a meaningful look.
“Excellent idea, Stacy.”
She wasn’t sure, but Annabelle thought she saw the man wink at his colleague. As she watched, the very efficient female marshal blushed and ducked her head.
Annabelle waited until Stacy left the room with Bethany chattering beside her, then turned to her husband again. “You and I are both going into witness protection. But we are not going together. It’s your fault we’re even in this mess.”
Tyler felt as if he’d been punched in the stomach. Her words knocked the