He headed toward the back door then turned when she didn’t follow. His eyes bored a painful path into her. “Don’t do this,” he warned.
Alexis shuffled toward him, her legs weak, her brain whirling with all the questions she had. How did she know this man was who he said he was? She certainly hadn’t recognized the badge or the name of his agency. And his story… God, it was crazy! She could be walking straight into something horrible instead of fleeing danger. Grief and terror mixed inside her with confusion and alarm. What should she do?
Her panic blossomed. She picked up the photo she’d looked at earlier. Then she tensed her body, pivoted and ran straight for the front door.
Her fingertips were brushing the doorknob when he grabbed her from behind.
“What in the hell do you think you’re doing?” He twisted her around to face him, his breath hot against her cheeks. “Are you crazy? Do you want to die?”
“Let me go.” She pushed at his hands, but for all the good it did, she shouldn’t have bothered. His fingers were steel bars wrapped around her arms. “I don’t want to leave. I don’t want—”
“Good God Almighty! I thought you were bright.” He shook her slightly, his tone so toxic she stopped her protests. His grip tightened. “Your father told me you had your mother’s brains. Was the poor man daft or was he lying to me?”
Alexis froze. Her father had teased her with those words a million times, his smile as wide as the gold band on his finger, the wedding band he, just like her mother, never removed. Ever.
One by one, the details added up and Alexis’s heart sank from the weight of them.
The man read her reaction immediately. He jerked the small frame from her fingers and stuffed it into his coat pocket. Then he turned and headed for the back door, yanking Alexis along behind him.
GABRIEL PICKED a no-name motel on the edge of the interstate three hours away. The place was run-down and deserted, which was exactly why he’d picked it. Paying cash, he then drove the van to the last room at the back of the low concrete-block building and parked, turning to look at Alexis as he switched off the engine. She was sitting on the floor of the vehicle and barely seemed aware of where they were. Her entire life had just been turned upside down and he was the one shaking the globe. If she ever found out the truth, the glimpses of resistance he’d witnessed earlier would pale in comparison to what would follow.
He pushed his thoughts aside and climbed out of the van. With one hand on his weapon, he let his eyes sweep the parking lot. As they’d escaped through the back of the Missions’ house to the van, he’d thought he’d heard a car drive by the front, but his men had told him to leave and he had, without looking back. He studied the empty blacktop before him now, then he twisted the door handle and reached inside. “Let’s go.”
She didn’t resist. Climbing out of the vehicle without a word, she walked beside him to the door of their room. The fact that his hand was wrapped around her upper arm assured her cooperation. He kept a steady hold on her until they stepped inside and he’d thrown the lock behind them.
The tiny room was clean, but that was all Gabriel could say about it. A small table in one corner was propped up by a telephone book, its lamp askew, the chair beside it worn and threadbare. Gabriel knew nothing about decorating, but the last time he’d seen a spread like the one stretched over the sagging bed, the year had been 1970-something.
He strode toward the bathroom and flipped on the light. A harsh fluorescence lit the room. He checked behind the shower curtain, then made the mistake of glancing into the mirror.
He’d aged ten years in the past forty-eight hours.
His skin was the pasty color of an old man’s, his hair spiky and dark. A black shadow covered his jaw-line and circles of exhaustion hung under his eyes. He scrubbed his face with his hands and looked again. God in heaven, no wonder Alexis Mission had been scared of him. He scared himself.
A sudden squeak sounded in the room behind him. His hand on his weapon, Gabriel pivoted and pushed through the door…then he relaxed. Alexis had lain down, the box springs so worn they creaked under even her slight weight. Walking over to the bed, he studied her but her expression was blank when she looked up at him.
“Are you hungry?” He glanced over his shoulder to the parking lot beyond the window. “I’ve got some stuff in the van if you are.”
She stared at him for a moment, then without a word she rolled over and faced the wall.
He stood silent and still. For now, she’d shut down, her emotions and reactions too raw and exposed for her to even comprehend, but later she’d have more questions. He’d seen it happen before. Gabriel turned to the chair in the corner and dragged it to the door with one hand. Propping it under the knob, he sat down wearily, his body unsteady, his mind drained. He wished he could sleep but knew he couldn’t.
A long time would come and go before he could experience that luxury again.
ALEXIS CLUTCHED her paper coffee cup, the steam rising slowly between her face and Gabriel O’Rourke’s. They were sitting inside the van, somewhere off the main highway, exactly where she had no idea. He’d woken her after what felt like only a few hours’ sleep, and they’d gotten into the vehicle, driving for a full hour before he was satisfied enough to stop and get them coffee from a run-down all-night diner. She wasn’t too sure what he was doing, but she suspected he was checking to see if they were being followed. The knowledge didn’t make her feel any better. Neither had waking up and realizing he’d been watching her as she’d slept.
He was trying his best to fool her, but she was sure the man sitting in front of her knew more than he was letting on. She swallowed the pain and confusion that filled her. “Who do you work for, again?”
“You’ve already asked me that and I’ve answered it. Asking me again is not going to get you a different response.” A lock of dark hair fell down on his forehead before he pushed it back impatiently. “It doesn’t matter anyway. All I’m here to do is make sure you understand what has happened and what’s going to happen next.”
Despite everything he’d said, she couldn’t accept—didn’t want to accept—what he’d told her. It wasn’t possible, she kept telling herself. “I—I can’t just walk away like this. No funeral. No services. It’s not right.”
His glance went to the deserted highway that ran beside them, exactly as it had at least a dozen times while they’d been sitting there drinking coffee. When his eyes came back to Alexis, they held a different kind of darkness from before, and she trembled, despite herself.
“I thought you understood.” He leaned closer, his manner hard and impatient. “I don’t know how to say it any other way than I’ve already said it a thousand times. You can’t see the bodies or bury them. It would take too much time. In fact, we’ve already…taken care of that.” He held out his hands almost in defeat, the first gesture he’d made that seemed human to her. “I’m sorry, Alexis, but they’re gone.” He shook his head. “They are gone.”
She wasn’t sure if it was his voice or the use of her name, but all at once his words sunk in, the reality of what they actually meant ripping into her with a force that tore her breath away. The last vestige of her denial was destroyed along with it.
“They’re dead,” she whispered.
He nodded, a tinge of something that looked like pity crossing his expression before he could prevent its appearance.
“Toby’s only four,” she said inexplicably.
“He was four.”
His use of the past tense didn’t escape her, but Alexis refused to let herself cry. She wouldn’t let him see her do that. It took everything she had, but she composed herself, then looked up. Gabriel O’Rourke stared back. His eyes held the total force of his intensity