Star Witness

by Lisa Phillips

  Except for Doug and Sabine, who seemed to have a profound devotion to this man. That alone seemed to indicate there was something special about him, despite what he seemed to think. “Schweitzer didn’t find you?”

  “I was just having a look around. Heard his car pull in, headed out the gate in the backyard. Everything’s fine, Mackenzie.”

  That wasn’t true. But it was nice of him to say it. As though if it wasn’t then she could trust him to make it that way.

  “Please tell me you didn’t actually break into that house.”

  “Rest assured, no laws were broken. I just looked in the back windows.”

  Had she really been worried he might have killed Schweitzer? Sometimes Aaron acted all no-nonsense soldier and other times he came across like a smooth old West cowboy. The first, she was recognizing, was his work mode. She wondered if the other was the real him. It seemed so...practiced. Was he purposely trying to be charming?

  “So what did you do in there?”

  He studied the road as he drove, giving plenty of attention to his rearview mirror. Was he looking to see if someone was following them? Mackenzie should probably learn how to do that. It might come in handy...what with there being a man trying to kill her and all.

  He gave her a double take. “You okay?”

  Mackenzie turned and nodded to the window. “Sure.”

  “That wasn’t breaking and entering, what I did back there. I only break into criminals’ houses when I’m asked, and there’s nothing concrete to suggest this guy isn’t legit. At least, not yet.”

  She looked at him. “You break into criminals’ houses?”

  He was smiling, but he didn’t look happy. “For my job. The one I do far from here, in hot-as-a-sauna countries where innocent people have no voice and no one to fight for them.”

  “Wow.” It just came out. Mackenzie wasn’t sure why she said it, only that it was an honest response from her heart. “Is that why you do it?”

  “Pays the bills.”

  “So you don’t want anyone to know you have a heart, or that your job involves some kind of higher purpose? You’d rather brush off the notion that you have an ingrained sense of honor.” Mackenzie looked away again.

  When Aaron spoke, his voice was flat. “We can’t all have some grand calling like you, helping turn around at-risk kids. Not everyone feels a sense of destiny at their jobs. For most people, work is just work. You go, you suffer through it and then you go home and try to escape the fact that you have to do it again tomorrow.”

  Mackenzie frowned. Was that really what he thought of the world, that life was drudgery? “I happen to think it’s a big deal that you are a soldier, putting your life at risk for the cause of freedom. It is honorable. Something to be proud of.”

  He pulled the car to the side of the road and looked away, out the side window. When he spoke, his voice was low. “You’re wrong.”

  FOURTEEN

  “Aaron—”

  His head whipped around, his eyes desolate. What she’d been about to say dissipated and she cleared her throat. She couldn’t ask him what he meant. From the look on his face, it would be a while before she could go there. “At least tell me if you learned anything, looking around at the Schweitzers’.”

  He sighed. “Kitchen sink is full. Counters looked crowded with cereal boxes and empty jars of peanut butter, so the neighbor was probably right about the wife being gone. The only other window I could see in was the patio, just a view of the hall. But the shih tzu wanted out pretty badly.”

  “They have a puppy?”

  “A very unhappy one. Nearly yapped my ear off when it saw me over the fence.”

  Mackenzie sighed. “So all we have is a bunch of dirty dishes and a dog?”

  “No signs of a struggle that I saw, no broken windows. The wife is most likely fine, at her sister’s with the kids—”

  “In the middle of the school semester. Without taking the car.”

  “Even so, it’s the most likely conclusion.” He started up the car. “We can follow Schweitzer and see where he goes from here. See if it leads us—”

  The fancy car went by them again, this time in the other direction.

  “That’s him.”

  Aaron pulled out into traffic, a ways back from Schweitzer’s car.

  Mackenzie chewed her lip. Somewhere along the way their conversation had taken a turn for the worse. Aaron was no longer deflecting her with lighthearted banter. He had shut down completely into some kind of business-only mode. So why did that make her want to dig deeper and draw him out of his shell?

  * * *

  Aaron kept a solid distance, but his eyes were on Schweitzer’s taillights. If this was a mission, he would have someone tracking Schweitzer’s phone and giving him the location so he could hang back out of sight. There would be more than one car following the target, and all of this would have been coordinated ahead of time.

  As it was, all he had was a sullen Mackenzie and his training, which hadn’t amounted to much when everything that could’ve gone wrong had. She wanted him to open up and tell her about it, but he just didn’t want to see the look on her face when she found out he was a complete failure—that because of him, a friend of his, who was a good man and a good soldier, was now blind.

  Aaron sighed. He should probably just quit the army as soon as he could. That would be better than living with the shame of what he’d done to the team. He could start his own business, though that would probably take more money than he had. Doug’s idea of a partnership sounded pretty good, not that Doug would be the secretary. Sabine wouldn’t put up with that either, so they would probably have to hire someone to run the office.

  He could maybe see what Mackenzie thought about it. She seemed to have set up a new life pretty well and found something that made her happy. How did she know what that was?

  Schweitzer drove into downtown, which was busy with cars on this hot summer evening. People moved everywhere, some of them probably on the lookout to save the “unnamed woman” from the big bad abductor. Schweitzer turned left well before they reached the Downtown Performing Arts Center. Mackenzie’s disappointment was plain, but it was for the best. She needed to stay clear of places where people would recognize her.

  They followed Schweitzer to a parking garage and wound around the ramp to the top floor where he’d parked. Aaron pulled into a space across the aisle, several cars down from Schweitzer. Aaron turned their vehicle around and backed in so they could see Schweitzer and get out fast if need be.

  Aaron wanted to call someone, to let people who could help them know what they were doing. He needed his team, but he and Mackenzie were all alone. How long would it take before his heart realized his team was never going to accept him back?

  Schweitzer headed for the doors, the entrance to a chain hotel above the garage. But he didn’t push the button. He checked his gold watch and just waited.

  Mackenzie glanced at him. “Should we get out and follow him?”

  “Let’s just hang here and see who he’s waiting for.”

  A car passed them, a red soft-top Mustang he’d seen before. The woman driving the car was the same woman he’d seen at the center. What was her name?

  Mackenzie sucked in a breath. “Eva.”

  She grabbed the door handle. Aaron put his hand on her arm. “Don’t. You need to stay here.”

  * * *

  Mackenzie stared at the scene in front of her as Eva parked and sashayed to the elevator, hitting the button to lock her car over her shoulder. She strode right to Schweitzer, and then there was no doubt. Mackenzie couldn’t pass it off as coincidental when Eva flung herself into the marshal’s arms and they kissed...for long enough that Mackenzie had to look away.

  But if Schweitzer was dirty, that meant Eva was involved i
n more than just an illicit relationship with a married man. She was involved with Carosa, too. How was that possible?

  Aaron started the car and pulled out of the space, not saying anything while her heart tore open. In all the years since she’d had an actual real friend, she had never expected that the first person she would actually want to be friends with would betray her like this.

  As they drove away, a gunshot echoed through the garage.

  Mackenzie squealed and looked out the rear window. Schweitzer lay on the ground. Eva was standing over him with a gun in her hand, pointed at his chest.

  “She killed him. Eva killed him.”

  Aaron didn’t say anything; he just kept driving, as if the dissonant fragments of Mackenzie’s life hadn’t just crumbled all over again.

  “Why would she kiss Schweitzer and then kill him?” Mackenzie sucked in a breath, fighting against the tightness in her chest. “Why did she come to the center? I thought she loved the kids, but she’s a killer, too. She betrayed me.”

  “I know.” He pulled up to the exit and handed the guard five dollars while Mackenzie wrung her hands and tried to get her breathing under control.

  “Why would she do that?”

  Aaron pulled forward and slowed the car to a stop at the exit.

  The windshield splintered, Aaron grunted and the car moved forward as if his foot had slipped off the brake. He gripped the steering wheel again, and they pulled out into traffic.

  Mackenzie saw the red on his face. “You’re bleeding.” She gasped. “You’ve been shot!”

  He drove, blinking even though blood now tracked down his cheek. It was running freely and he was squinting to see out the shattered windshield.

  “You need a cloth or something.”

  “I need a car I can see out of.” He pulled onto a side street but looked out the side window. “And a rifle so I can return the favor.”

  He winced, and Mackenzie dug around in the glove box but found no napkins. What kind of person didn’t keep napkins in their glove box? She grabbed her backpack and found her shirt from yesterday. She balled it up and pressed it against his temple.

  Aaron winced but kept driving. He reached up and took over with the cloth.

  Mackenzie looked down at her hands.

  There was blood on her.

  Again.

  Black spots peppered her vision. Mackenzie struggled to breathe. Aaron called her name, but she couldn’t reply.

  * * *

  Aaron pressed the pedal to the floor and the car tore down the street. He wished he could take his frustration out on whoever had shot at them. Mackenzie was out of it, lost in whatever had made her eyes go distant. But he couldn’t help her right now. If they hung around, they could get picked off by another shot from that sniper.

  He kept one hand on the balled-up piece of cloth, pressing hard against his head. It wasn’t more than a scratch, though it had been made by a sniper round.

  The thing had barely grazed him, going as fast as it had, but the heat and the speed had been close enough to his head that it felt like being kissed by fire. Hopefully his free-flowing head wound would quit bleeding soon and wouldn’t need stitches, because they didn’t have time to stop off at the hospital.

  They were running again. It wasn’t in his makeup to turn tail and do anything other than fight his way out of a situation, and yet that seemed to be what he was doing with Mackenzie at every turn. He should be toe-to-toe with these mercenaries, making Mackenzie safe and clearing Eric’s name, but he was driving away instead.

  He slammed the heel of his palm against the steering wheel.

  This whole situation had done nothing but go from bad to worse, and now Mackenzie’s friend was involved. How could that be possible? There had to be a link between the Carosa family, Eric’s partner at the Marshals Service office and Eva. Though evidently Schweitzer and Eva had been having an affair...at least up until the point she shot him.

  Aaron had already found the on-ramp to the freeway going north. Without really thinking about it, he knew where he was taking her. There was nothing either of them could do for Eric. All Aaron needed was to make sure Mackenzie was safe, and there was nowhere better for that than the cabin.

  Technically he wasn’t supposed to be there, since it belonged to the team. He hadn’t exactly left in good standing, and it grated that he couldn’t go visit his teammate in the hospital. But hopefully when they found out about Mackenzie they’d forgive him for intruding on their private space.

  Then again, Aaron’s face had been all over the news. If his team had seen it, they probably thought he’d gone completely off the rails—from failure to abductor in just a week. How would he ever get his career back after this?

  The cabin would give him and Mackenzie the space they needed to regroup instead of being forced to react to what was happening at every turn. They needed to get ahead of the curve so Aaron could turn all this in their favor for once. He’d always hated playing defense.

  A low moan came from Mackenzie. Aaron reached over and squeezed her hand to try to alleviate the heavy feeling in his chest. “You okay?”

  She drew in a shuddering breath. “Are you okay? I mean, your head and everything.”

  Aaron touched the skin around the wound. It had stopped bleeding finally. “It’s just a graze. Head wounds bleed a lot.”

  “I’m sorry I freaked out.” Her eyes were dark with something he couldn’t see. “It was like a nightmare, but while I was still awake. I was right back in the hotel room with Carosa pointing his gun at me.”

  Aaron focused on the road again. “I’m sorry, Mackenzie.”

  Her face was turned to the side window, and her voice was low when she said, “It felt as though it happened all over again. My chest still hurts.”

  “You were shot?”

  She nodded and pressed her fingers just below her collarbone on the left side, high enough that the damage had healed—because any lower and she’d be dead.

  Aaron squeezed the fingers of the hand he still held in an effort to give comfort, as much for himself as for her.

  Mackenzie was just a friend, if that. It certainly wasn’t rational to think there was anything more between them. So why did he want to stand in front of her like a shield and protect her from everything in the world that might harm her?

  He was no hero.

  But considering what had already happened to her, there wasn’t much Aaron could do to make it worse. Or better, really. And that made him feel useless all over again—knowing she’d already nearly died and spent half her life in hiding. He was torn between anger at his powerlessness and the overwhelming urge to hug her. There were no do-overs, but if he had the power to wipe it all away for her, he would have.

  Eventually the mercenaries would catch up to them again. Which begged the question...how did they seem to know where Aaron and Mackenzie were at all times? First on the way to the restaurant, then the park, the hotel and now exiting the parking lot, they’d been found over and over again. It was a wonder they were both still alive.

  Aaron found a rest stop and pulled off the highway to a far corner that wasn’t lit by streetlight. The whole area was deserted except for a lone semi by the restrooms. “Give me your bag.”

  “Why? Are we leaving the car? How will we get anywhere on foot? There’s nothing but desert here.”

  Aaron swiped the backpack from the floor by her feet and rummaged through it. “We’re not walking. Those mercenaries seem to know where we are every time we turn around. We need to figure out how they are tracking us or we’ll never get away.”

  Mackenzie grasped for the backpack. “Where’s your bag? Are you going to give it to me so I can search through it as if you’re a criminal?”

  Aaron shuffled her things around. “That’s not what I’m doing.�
� His fingers found a rip in the lining at the bottom. Inside was a solid object. He pulled it out. “Thought you didn’t have a cell phone.”

  “I don’t.” Mackenzie’s eyes widened. “I’ve never seen that before.”

  “Really?”

  He studied her. There was no reason to believe she would lead the mercenaries to them. It was more likely that the phone had been planted there. But he had to be sure. “Are you certain?”

  “Some of the kids have phones like that. I’ve never used one. I didn’t buy that.” Was this really happening? “This is unreal.”

  “Actually, it’s very real. This phone is on, which means someone is tracking us. They’ve been tracking us this whole time.”

  “Get rid of it then! Throw it out the window, or, I know! Run over it with the tire!”

  Those weren’t bad ideas, but Aaron had more questions. “Could Eva have put this in your bag?”

  “She didn’t know about my go bag. It was in my hall closet at home. It’s just for emergencies, and since Eric’s the one who told me to have a bag like this, he brought it to me.”

  “Was she at your house any time when you were in a different room, when she could have put it in your bag?”

  “To plant a cell phone on me? That would mean she knew...about Carosa. About everything.”

  Aaron’s voice was hard. “She was having an affair with Schweitzer. She probably did know everything.”

  Mackenzie could barely look at Aaron. Shame filled her in a hot rush that was all too familiar. “I just don’t know how she could have fooled me. Do you think she’s behind all this?”

  “I don’t know, Mackenzie. But we’ll figure it out.”

  “Why would she do this to me?” She sighed. “Do we have to follow her now? Because I don’t know if I can stomach that.”

  Mackenzie didn’t ever want to see Eva again.

  “We’re not following her. We need time to rest and space to regroup, and we’re not going to get that on the lam with a bunch of mercenaries following us.” He yanked the door handle and got out for a second, crouching at the front tire. “Your suggestion on how to deal with the phone wasn’t bad.”