Witness in Hiding

by Lisa Phillips

  Jude didn’t let up. “He didn’t hurt you. Does he have other plans for you?”

  She lifted her gaze to his. “I don’t know.”

  That was the truth—ish. Zoe did know why the man wanted her, she didn’t know what he was going to do with her.

  Jude sighed, then started up the car.

  “Are you taking me to the police, or turning me into your people?” She’d come so close to actually getting herself and her son and sister out of this. Instead, this was the end of the line. Unless she could somehow convince Jude she hadn’t done anything to warrant being turned in.

  Could she talk about it? That night had been so harrowing she didn’t even know if she could say it out loud.

  “I’m not taking you in,” he said in a tight voice. Trying to convince himself?

  Zoe glanced out the window, relieved he wasn’t pushing her. If she asked, would he drive her where she wanted to go? There was only one way to find out. “Take the next exit.” Zoe needed to hold her son. “Please.” Her voice sounded small even to her own ears.

  He took the exit. He could drop her a few streets over from the house her sister had rented with cash, and he would never know where she was headed. So long as he didn’t follow her. She’d have to be careful.

  Jude said, “I really want to take you back to the office. You have no idea how badly I want to do that.”

  Zoe nodded, whether he saw it or not. She knew he’d locked the rear doors of the SUV while she’d been laugh-crying. She hadn’t been oblivious.

  “Maybe you should.” It was tempting. So tempting. “But you should know, the last time I talked to the police I was followed home that same day. I never heard from the officer again, and I didn’t want to call him if he was the one who betrayed me. After that, I went to my local church. I guess I figured at least God would be on a minister’s side.” She shook her head. What a mess. “No one can help me, Jude.”

  “Maybe I can.”

  “I can’t trust you with what I know. As much as I want to, I can’t tell you what I saw—” She slapped a hand over her own mouth to stop the flow of words.

  “Why get in my SUV if you don’t want my help?”

  “I don’t even know what I want.” Maybe that was a lie, maybe she wanted the connection of someone else in the world—apart from her son and her sister—knowing she was here and that she needed help. Just knowing.

  Jude frowned, but headed in the direction she indicated. Ten minutes later he pulled into the neighborhood behind the one where the house was located. She could cross the park behind this street and cut through to the street behind.

  “What is...”

  She glanced over and saw him peer through the passenger window to a cloud of smoke. Zoe cracked the door and a waft of burning wood hit her nostrils.

  “Fire.”

  THREE

  Zoe practically dived out of the car and set off running down the street. Jude got out and locked the car, then chased after her as she ran down an alley between two houses.

  He pursued her toward the fire. Her house? Did she know if there were people inside?

  At the end of the alley, he stumbled off the sidewalk onto grass. The fence gave way to an open space. Trees and a playground. Jude had spent many Friday nights hanging out at parks just like this as a rebellious teen, pushing back against his father, a pastor. He’d excelled at doing what everyone said was wrong and had the scars to prove it.

  Zoe tore across the park like everything she loved, or cared about, was in danger. Was she married? She had no ring, but some people didn’t wear one. She could have a husband or boyfriend at home, though in his opinion no man worth anything sent a woman into a dangerous situation alone. And that was exactly what she’d done. Zoe had walked into—and out of—that Laundromat by herself.

  Jude didn’t know whether to be impressed or exasperated by her.

  He followed Zoe until the source of the smoke was in view, a tiny square house whose peeling paint was now melting from the siding. She raced down the sidewalk, and he knew what she was going to do. It would be so tempting to go inside and try to save whoever she had left behind. To play the part of hero, instead of waiting for the fire department. But it was too dangerous—the fire was too advanced.

  He pumped his arms and legs and caught up to her just as she was about to cross the grass. Jude grabbed her. Before she could wriggle out of his grip, he wrapped his arms around her. “Don’t. You can’t go in.”

  Hot wind blew at them as the flames licked at the house. All around the outside it was on fire. “Let me go!” She kicked her legs, but Jude didn’t release her.

  “You can’t save them.”

  “I have to. Tyler—” She grunted, and struggled against him.

  The knowledge she had a man in her life stung, even though there was nothing between them. “The fire department—”

  “Let go of me.” She kicked at his shins.

  A neighbor ran over. “I hooked up my hose.” He thumbed the end and the pouring water sprayed in an arc.

  Jude wrestled with Zoe, but she kicked him again. Then elbowed his side. He sucked in a breath and released his grip only a fraction, but it was enough for her. Zoe broke free. “Aim for the front door,” she ordered the neighbor. “I have to get Tyler out.”

  She raced for the wet, scorched door. Jude ran with her. Zoe reached for the handle with her bare hand.

  He yelled, “No!”

  She turned to him, her gaze as scorching as the fire. “I’m going in and you aren’t going to stop me.”

  “That handle will burn the skin off your hand.”

  Before she could bluster, or do anything else crazy, he kicked the wood beside the handle. The door splintered, but the lock remained intact. What on earth?

  He checked the lock without touching it. A black substance had been poured inside the mechanism where the key would be inserted. To keep whoever was inside from getting out?

  Jude shuddered. Zoe stepped up beside him, and he said, “Be careful.” If she was going to risk her life, then Jude would go with her and make sure she didn’t get hurt simply because her instinct to protect this Tyler overrode her common sense.

  He held her elbow as she clambered over the broken door. Inside was thick with smoke. Jude unbuttoned his shirt, thankful his father had instilled in him the need for an undershirt, and ripped it in two. He handed half of his dress shirt to her.

  “Tie this over your nose and mouth.” He couldn’t help adding, “This is reckless. You aren’t a firefighter, are you?” He was pretty sure she wasn’t. A firefighter would have known about the handle.

  “I’m not a firefighter.”

  “Then we should go outside. This is crazy.” They couldn’t even see anything, and yet Zoe knew where she was going. “Is this your house?”

  She shot him a look, then yelled, “Tyler!” A second later, she yelled, “Ember!”

  Who was Ember? “Who are we looking for? They probably ran out back when the fire started.”

  “Tyler is my son.” Zoe made her way down a hall. “Ember is my sister, and she was watching him.”

  “Your son?” He looked around. The outside had been far more burned than the interior seemed to be. The fire still raged, and yet in here there were no visible flames. It was like someone had doused every wall and door of the exterior and set it ablaze. Inside was scorched and hot, but not burning. Had Zoe’s family been trapped inside a house burning down from the outside?

  He shivered. “How old is Tyler?”

  “He’s seven, but he’s tall for his age so everyone thinks he’s older.” There was a note of pride along with the worry. “I hope they got out. I do.” She coughed. “But we can’t wait to check while they could be suffocating in here.”

  “Instead it’s us
who are suffocating. Firefighters have equipment for this.” He choked out the words through his raspy throat, but she wouldn’t be swayed. “Thirty seconds. If you don’t find them, I’m getting us out of here whether you agree or not, Zoe.” He paused. “Is that even your real name?”

  “Of course it is.” She pushed open a door with her foot. A master bedroom. “Tyler. Ember.” Zoe moved to the closet. Door open, empty. He followed her to the en suite bathroom. The curtain had been pulled down and discarded and the shower was running.

  A squeak came from Zoe, and she rushed over. Jude followed to see what had caught her eye, and saw as she did the two huddled in the bathtub. Both soaking wet, a young woman with dark hair was curled around a little boy. The woman had a nasty burn up the outside of her arm.

  Zoe crouched. “Tyler.” She touched the woman’s cheek. “Em.”

  Jude reached down and pressed two fingers to the woman’s neck. She couldn’t be more than nineteen. This was Zoe’s sister?

  Zoe gasped, but he said, “She has a pulse.”

  The boy’s eyes snapped open. “Mom—” The word dissolved into coughing and Zoe reached for him. The woman never stirred.

  Zoe held her son to her. “Tyler.”

  “We couldn’t get out, Mom. He trapped us inside.”

  Tyler wrapped his arms around her neck, and Jude found himself wanting to soak in the sight of the two of them so closely entwined. The way he’d done with his mom as a kid when he got hurt. But there was no time for that now. “We have to get out of here.”

  He picked up the woman and they trailed back outside, and he handed the woman off to two EMTs. A firefighter strode over. “Anyone else inside?”

  He looked at Zoe, who shook her head. She still hadn’t released her son.

  “Why’d you go in there? You could’ve died, and we’d have been pulling out four instead of two.”

  Jude waved the man away from Zoe, then said, “Go see the EMTs, okay?”

  She nodded. She didn’t need the fire chief’s ire, even if it had been a crazy idea to go inside. He flashed his badge at the man. “Jude Brauer, Secret Service.” Like that justified his actions.

  “It was a dumb move.”

  Jude didn’t back down. “They were trapped in there, but now everyone’s safe.”

  The firefighter muttered something and wandered off. Truth was, Jude didn’t want to think about why he’d followed Zoe into the house. What mattered was that her son and sister were alive, and none of them were too badly hurt.

  So why didn’t he think this was even close to being over?

  * * *

  Zoe pulled Tyler to her in a hug and just let herself feel his skinny, little-boy body against hers. His arms around her back, he mumbled something against her jacket. She relaxed her arms and he leaned back to look up at her with his soot-covered face. “I’m fine, Mom. But Aunty Ember isn’t.”

  Zoe nodded. “Let’s go see.”

  He needed to get checked out, as well. They walked hand in hand to the ambulance Ember had been loaded into. She still hadn’t woken up. “Is she going to be okay?”

  The EMT had Tyler sit up inside the ambulance, which he thought was awesome judging by his grin, and put an oxygen mask on him. “Breathe deep, kiddo.” Then he pointed at Ember, passed out on the bed with an oxygen mask already over her nose and mouth. “She’s your babysitter?”

  “My sister.” Ember was her stepsister, but that qualification didn’t matter to either of them. Neither did the nearly ten-year age difference between Zoe and Ember. They were still close, and her younger sister had risked her life for Tyler.

  Was that how the killer had found the house? Zoe hardly spoke to anyone in her old life anymore. Still, it was possible the house had been discovered because of their connection.

  The EMT said, “I’m going to need some information on your sister.”

  Zoe reminded herself this wasn’t an interrogation and answered his questions. Personal information, medical history. Finally, Zoe had maxed out on her ability to be cordial. “Is she going to be okay?”

  They wouldn’t be asking all that stuff if Ember wasn’t going to make it, would they? She didn’t want Tyler to hear it if Ember was still in danger, but she couldn’t wait any longer for an answer.

  “We need to get her to the hospital before we’ll know for sure. Are you coming?”

  Zoe glanced back to where Jude stood, still talking to the firefighter. Should she go?

  “You and your son need to be checked out, as well.”

  She nodded and tore her gaze from him. “I know.”

  Still, she saw realization dawn at the last second.

  The EMT said, “He isn’t coughing. I suppose if you keep a close eye on him tonight, his pediatrician can see him first thing. Doesn’t have to be at the hospital.”

  A hospital could be the safest place for them at this point.

  “That sound okay?”

  Zoe nodded. She glanced at Jude again, and he saw it. Broke off his conversation to make his way over to her. “Everything okay?”

  “They’re taking Ember in.” Would he send them with her, call someone to protect them? She wanted it to be Jude. But how could she ask that when they barely knew each other?

  Tyler tore off the mask, his eyes pleading. “I wanna stay with you.”

  Zoe nodded. She felt the same way.

  Her son looked up at Jude like he was one of those expert warriors from his library books. The ones who fought bad guys on a daily basis and won, unscathed. Every time.

  The EMT shook Tyler’s hand, which her son thought was hilarious. “Take it easy, kid.” Then he looked at her. “If he so much as coughs twice...”

  She nodded. “I’ll watch him closely.”

  “You, too.” He gave her a pointed look. “Your son will likely be fine, but I don’t want you taking any chances. Smoke is nothing to mess with.”

  “Understood.”

  Tyler launched himself from the ambulance into her arms. She hugged him and then lowered him to the ground. The doors were shut, and the flashing lights receded. She turned to Jude, not really knowing what they were supposed to do now.

  Tyler tugged on her hand. “Jude, this is Tyler. My son.” She smiled down at him. “Tyler, this is Jude.” She leaned down slightly and whispered, “He’s a Secret Service agent.”

  Tyler’s eyes widened and he looked at Jude with something a lot like awe. “Sweet.”

  Jude chuckled, but Zoe just couldn’t find the energy to do the same. She said, “What are we supposed to do now?”

  His eyes widened at her question.

  “I’m sorry. I don’t even know why I asked you that.” He didn’t know them, and certainly didn’t owe them anything. “You helped me get Tyler and Ember from the house and I never thanked you.”

  He shook his head. “Of course.” And yet he hadn’t even known she had a son when he ran into that burning house with her.

  “Seriously, I can’t thank you enough.”

  Why did she want to fall into his arms for a hug? Or maybe cry. Or both. But she couldn’t, because Tyler was relying on her to be strong. No one except Ember had helped her with him since her husband signed away his rights and left with his girlfriend.

  Men couldn’t be trusted. She knew that. And yes, she meant all men. Zoe had never met one who kept his word and didn’t eventually choose himself over the people he should have cared about. She knew the trust issue went deep, because she’d even had a hard time fully trusting God.

  Now she had no idea what she was going to do. Where they would live, or how they would even have clothes for tomorrow. “My duffel bag.” She glanced toward the park. “I left it in your car.”

  “All locked up.” He patted his pocket. “After we make sure the police are
good, we can walk over—”

  “Why do we need to talk to the police?” There were a couple of their cars here, the officers checking out what was happening.

  “Because the fire was deliberately set. They’re going to open an investigation and they need our statements.”

  Zoe didn’t know what she could tell them. She hadn’t even been here at the time the fire was set. Meanwhile her son and sister had been trapped inside with nothing but the knowledge they were about to be burned alive.

  Jude frowned. “We just need to make sure we’re free to go.”

  “I’m free.” She could just leave, couldn’t she?

  So why then did she feel trapped?

  “Zoe—” He stepped closer to her.

  Stars blinked in the edges of her vision.

  “Mom?”

  Tyler’s voice sounded far away.

  “Zoe.” Jude’s warm hands settled on her shoulders. “You need to take a breath.”

  “I don’t want to talk to the police.” The words came out broken. She couldn’t catch her breath. It hadn’t gone well the last time, and he knew that. “I’m free to leave whenever I want.”

  “The way you left the Laundromat? That’s running, and it doesn’t mean you’re free—it means you’re being chased.” He leaned in close. “Breathe, Zoe.”

  She didn’t want to be having this conversation in front of Tyler, but Jude wasn’t giving her another option. “We’ll be safe. We just need my duffel and then we’ll be gone.”

  “Where? Where are you going to go?”

  “Does it matter?”

  Jude sighed. Zoe moved to go around him, to get out of there. He sidestepped.

  She frowned at him. “Let us go.”

  “I’m not keeping you here, I just want to make sure you’re safe.”

  Zoe nearly laughed then. “We will be. I’m going to make sure of it.”

  “How?” He crossed his arms.

  “I don’t need your help. I already thanked you for what you’ve done. Please come to the car with us and I’ll get my stuff and you can forget all about us.”

  “Like that’s going to happen.” The words were muttered, but she heard them nonetheless.