Penny got in the SUV, a look of relief mixed with the anxiety marring her expression. “Thank you.”
“For what?” he asked gruffly.
“For standing up to your boss.”
“I wasn’t just standing up to him,” Jake replied. “I meant it when I said I plan to protect you. No matter what.”
She shot him a surprised but grateful look. “I appreciate that but right now you need to find my little boy.”
“I’m going to.”
Zeke checked with Max again, hoping for any reports that could help. “I’ve got Cheetah by an open window and we’re heading west, sir. Old Fork Road. We’re on the road now but nothing yet.”
“Stay on it and be careful,” Max replied. “I’ll send backup if you and Harper need it.” Then he added, “Zeke, I know he’s your brother and you want to keep him alive but—”
“I understand,” Zeke bit out. “I know my duty, Max.”
He ended the call and slung his phone into a cup holder.
“I’m surprised they haven’t yanked you off this case,” Penny said. “It must be hard, tracking him down like this.”
“My job,” Zeke retorted, wondering if she wanted to pick a fight.
She didn’t say anything else and he regretted being sharp with her. “It’s not easy but...if I can get to him first I might be able to take him in instead of—”
“Killing him,” she finished. Then she went silent again.
Zeke had to wonder how she felt about that. Did she still love Jake in spite of everything?
Anxious to get this over with, Zeke turned the truck toward the west and started searching for the road they needed. He prayed they’d also find the thug who’d taken Kevin before the man could meet up with Jake Morrow. Because if that happened, he feared they might not ever see Penny’s son again.
Zeke tried to keep her talking while he kept watch on Cheetah in the back, his snout searching the air and the woods rolling by. He told Penny he needed to hear her story and gather any details she might remember. But she knew he was just as curious about her as she was about him. He obviously didn’t trust her since she’d been involved with Jake. She couldn’t blame him for that. Look where it had gotten her.
“How did you meet Jake?”
She swallowed and held tight to the bottle of water in her hand, memories she’d tried to bury coming to the surface. “I’m a wilderness guide,” she said, her voice raw and low. How could she talk about this when Kevin was out there, afraid and in the clutches of dangerous criminals? But she did talk. Anything to keep from crawling out of her skin. “We literally ran into each other a couple of years ago on a hiking trail.”
“He hiked a lot,” Zeke recalled. “All over the world.”
Shooting Zeke a quick glance, she added, “He wasn’t out on a leisurely hike that day. He told me he was a federal agent and explained how it could get dangerous for me to be in the area.” She smiled but it hurt to do so since every muscle in her body was coiled like rappelling rope. “But he hurried back and asked for my phone number, in case I saw anyone suspicious. He called me the next night but it wasn’t regarding the case.”
Looking straight ahead, she said, “We were inseparable after that. He had some downtime once he finished the case and...we spent two weeks together, hiking, kayaking and fishing. He even made me practice my shooting skills. But after I had Kevin, I didn’t want a gun in the house.”
She stopped, gulping in the air she couldn’t seem to find. “I don’t want to go down memory lane, Zeke. It hurts too much. Can’t you make this SUV go any faster?”
Zeke reached out and squeezed her hand. “Penny, don’t think about that shot you made. You didn’t know—”
“I should have been more careful,” she choked out. “I can’t get the sound of those cries out of my mind.”
“The noise could have scared Kevin,” he said. To reassure her, he added softly, “Besides, we haven’t confirmed that Kevin is with the suspect.”
She shook her head and wiped her eyes. “I should know. A mother would feel that and when I heard that baby cry out, I knew in my heart it was Kevin. Jake would at least get Kevin to a doctor if he’s hurt, right?”
“I have to believe that, yes,” Zeke said, the look in his eyes full of concern. “Jake wasn’t always this bad. Obviously, you saw some of the good in him.”
She shot Zeke an anguished look. “He sweet-talked me into seeing the good, yes. Which makes me pathetic.”
“He always was a sweet-talker,” Zeke said. “Jake has charisma and he can persuade people with a flash of his dimples. He usually had a pretty girl hanging on his arm.”
Penny took in a breath at hearing that. “I certainly fell right into that pattern with him. I ignored that nagging feeling in my heart that made me question his long absences and all the secrecy. He was probably off having flings with other women the whole time he was with me.”
Zeke shot her an apologetic stare. “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said that. I don’t know much about his escapades except what he deemed fit to tell me.”
“It’s okay,” she replied, her head down. “I’ve turned my life around because of Kevin. My faith is strong now. I can overcome what Jake did to me but right now, I want to find my son.”
Stopping between two roads, Zeke glanced back to where Cheetah sniffed the air again. When he seemed satisfied that they were still on the right path, Zeke turned southwest and said, “Jake fooled me, too. For a while there after he joined the FBI, he had me thinking we could be true brothers. Even encouraged me to follow in his footsteps to become a law officer.”
“He never mentioned you,” Penny said, wishing she’d known all of this from the beginning. She could have reached out to Zeke and maybe helped with the search for Jake. But instead, she’d run away like a coward.
You were trying to protect Kevin.
But she’d failed at that when she’d returned here.
If she’d reported Jake’s demands to the authorities all those months ago, she might not be searching for her son right now.
That realization made her blurt out one of the things gnawing at her. “I have to wonder if Jake contacted me that last time only to get information on whether your team was searching for him. He asked a few pointed questions about anyone coming around to see me, but he promised he’d take care of us. I’m not used to depending on a man but I sure wanted to believe him. For a while I did believe him.” Pushing her fingers through her hair, she said, “But everything changed.”
“How so?” Zeke asked, his eyes on the road.
She took a sip of water. “He called one day out of the blue but sounded kind of off, you know? He kept referring to his days at Quantico and how this job meant so much to him, how people trusted him and depended on him. Then he said something else that struck me as odd. He said he’d lost trust in the FBI and his connections at Quantico and he wasn’t sure about anything anymore. He wasn’t sure of his next step. And that’s not like Jake.”
“No, it’s not. But I can see him wanting to be able to take care of you, so maybe not being able to do that had him worried,” Zeke said, his gaze sliding over her face. “You’re pretty and capable. Jake likes strength in women. He must have admired that about you.”
“I don’t feel so strong,”