Hidden Witness

by Shirlee McCoy

  “The nightmare you had says something different.”

  She tugged her hand away and didn’t respond.

  “It isn’t something to be ashamed of. I had nightmares nearly every night for a while. I spent a lot of time in counseling dealing with that and a few other things that resulted from my military years,” he said as he eased around a curve in the road. They’d reached one of the farmhouses that edged the road, the light from its front porch reflecting off a pristine white yard and a long driveway. No cars visible, but there were fresh tracks in the snow. Odd since all the lights in the house were off.

  He tensed, pressing on the gas, giving the SUV a burst of speed as he rolled past. The road was slippery and hazardous, but several vehicles had left tracks in the layer of slush and snow.

  “What’s wrong?” Anna asked, her voice tight with concern.

  “Your seat belt is on, right?”

  “Yes.”

  “Good.” He accelerated more, the SUV fishtailing as headlights appeared on the driveway and a car sped toward the road, sliding out behind them, high beams glaring in his rearview mirror. A dark car. A sedan. Front-wheel drive and unable to keep up in the icy conditions, it spun into a ditch, exhaust puffing into the dark sky. More headlights appeared, flashing on the road ahead of them.

  Moreno’s men had found them again.

  Which only confirmed what Mac had already suspected. Someone close to him, who knew about the mountain cabin and the roads in and out of it, had betrayed him.

  River?

  One of the ranch hands?

  Lucas?

  He didn’t know, but he planned to find out, and whoever it was would pay.

  For now, Mac was sticking to his plan. Get to a town where he could buy a burner phone. Contact Seamus. Line up more manpower to help protect Anna and find the leak.

  First, he had to outrun their tail.

  He cut to the left, bouncing off the road and into a field he knew connected to the highway, picking up speed as the SUV’s tires found traction on frozen dirt and foliage.

  Lights flashed as a vehicle tried to follow them into the field. It bottomed out and got stuck in a small ditch.

  Mac stayed focused. His hands on the steering wheel, his mind spinning through endless possibilities. Someone he cared about had betrayed his trust and his loyalty. Eventually, he would allow himself to hurt over it, to mourn.

  For now, his one goal, his only goal, was to get Anna to safety.

  EIGHT

  Annalise had been through a lot in her life. She’d spent her childhood watching her mother be mistreated by men who had taken advantage of her kindness and her fragile mental state. She had spent her tween and teenage years helping run the home, making sure bills were paid, and doing everything she could to make certain her mother was okay. College had been years of working odd jobs and long hours, commuting back and forth to school because she didn’t want to leave her mother. She knew her mother would be okay on her own, but the bond between them had been forged through years of taking a combined stand against the unfairness of the world and of life. She would have stayed home during law school if she could have, but it had been too far, and her mother had insisted she pursue her dreams.

  If Anna had known the outcome of leaving, she wouldn’t have gone. Just like if she had known Gabe was a lying, cheating hypocrite, she wouldn’t have married him. She certainly would have changed the outcome the day of the shooting, if she had known that the car rounding the street corner contained an assassin.

  Life had taught her that she had no control. She should have used that to fuel her determination to enjoy the moments she had, to live every day with joy and enthusiasm. She should have taken vacations and gone shopping with girlfriends instead of working on cases that she had already spent dozens of hours prepping for.

  She should have bought the house in the country she and her mother had once dreamed of. The quiet property with the fenced yard and room for a dog and cat and chickens.

  Instead, she had made sure her life was carefully structured. Predictable. Ordered. Organized. Mondays were for laundry. Tuesdays and Thursdays for working out at the gym. She ran five days a week. Six if she didn’t have court on Monday morning. She paid her bills on the same day every month. She ate out once a week, got together with girlfriends after church on the third Sunday of every month.

  And now, she was going to die in an icy field, far away from friends that she hadn’t spent nearly enough time with. No family. No husband. No children. Not even a pet to mourn her passing.

  She swallowed down grief that she had no business feeling.

  She’d had a good life. A great one. Even with all the struggles and heartaches, she had always had blessings to be thankful for. If she had things she was sorry for, they were her own doing.

  And, if she could go back, if she could change things, she would.

  She gripped the dashboard as the SUV bounced across snow-covered grass, powered up a slippery hill and fishtailed onto the highway.

  “Maybe you should slow down,” she managed to say through gritted teeth.

  “We lost them in the field. I want to put some distance between us and any patrol cars that might be heading this way,” he responded, still accelerating, slush and ice flying onto the windshield.

  “If we spin out and die, that will defeat the whole purpose of driving like a maniac in snowy conditions.” The comment slipped out before she could stop it.

  Mac didn’t seem to take offense.

  “I may not seem to be taking precautions, but I’ve driven in worse conditions in a vehicle a lot harder to control in icy weather.”

  “If that’s supposed to make me feel better, it doesn’t.”

  “I’m not going to do anything that would risk your life.”

  “Or yours?”

  “You’re my priority.” He took a curve in the road, the SUV fishtailing again, headlights still off.

  “Why?” she asked. She really wanted to know. Not some canned answer about accepting a job and having to follow it through to the end. Mac could have abandoned her at any time during the night, and she wouldn’t have faulted him for it.

  “Do me a favor. Open the lockbox. I want to see if my grandfather’s stash of cash is still there.” He was changing the subject, rattling off the combination so quickly she had to rush to grab the box from the seat and spin through the numbers.

  As a distraction technique, it was effective.

  For a few moments, all she was thinking about was getting the box open. Once the lock popped, she lifted the lid and stared into a box filled with money. “When you said a stash, I thought you were talking about a few dollars.”

  “Is it more than that?” He glanced at the box, his eye widening. “I guess we have enough for a burner phone.”

  “And a plane ticket back to Boston,” she murmured. There were several hundred-dollar bills, a dozen fifties and enough twenties that she couldn’t have carried them in her purse.

  “Not yet,” he said.

  “What?”

  “We’re not going to Boston yet. If we can find the leak and get a firm connection with Moreno, the prosecutor will have an even better case, and you’ll be that much safer until the trial. When is that? A couple weeks?”

  “Are you trying to distract me?” she asked, counting the twenties and then carefully removing ten before closing and locking the box.

  “Yes.”

  “At least you’re honest about it.”

  “Why wouldn’t I be?”

  “People aren’t always. Not when they want something.”

  “The only thing I want is to get off this highway before we’re spotted,” he replied as she reached over and tucked the money into his coat pocket.

  “I’ll leave the rest in here.” She slid the box under the seat, trying not to focus
on the road again. On the slush. The ice. The snow. According to the dashboard clock it was nearly four in the morning. The sun should rise in a few hours. The temperature would rise with it. The snow would turn to rain and traveling would be safer.

  She shifted in her seat, looking out the back window. The road was empty. “I guess we lost them.”

  “For now. Someone who is working with them knows me well enough to know about the cabin and to know what road I would take to access. They were waiting for us.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “For?”

  “It isn’t fun to be betrayed by someone you care about.”

  “No, it isn’t. But, I’ll deal with that after we contact my friend and figure out who leaked your whereabouts to Moreno.”

  “Do you think your friend will help us?”

  “Yes. We were Navy buddies. We look out for each other.”

  “Like you and Marshal Avery?”

  “Yes.”

  “It must be nice to have people you can count on like that.” She faced forward again. A road sign announced the off-ramp that led to Pine Bluff.

  “You don’t?”

  “If you don’t slow down, you’re going to miss the Pine Bluff exit,” she pointed out, ignoring his question.

  “Changing the subject?”

  “Yes.”

  “I won’t ask why. Until after this is over.”

  She didn’t ask what he meant.

  “Pine Bluff?” she repeated. “The exit is right there.”

  “I think it’s better to drive a while longer. Pine Bluff is the last decent-sized town between us and Abilene.”

  “Exactly. You’ll be able to get a phone there and make your call.”

  “But we won’t be able to stay there for any amount of time. Anyone who knows this area knows Pine Bluff. Moreno’s henchmen have already seen the SUV. They know what I’m driving, and they’ll be looking for it. I want to hole up somewhere until I can get backup that I trust.”

  “Your friend in Dallas?”

  “Yes.”

  She frowned, biting her lip to keep from asking all the questions that were filling her head. She wanted to know how long they had served together. What they had done in the Navy. If they had been injured. When they had gotten out. She wanted to ask if they visited every year or just kept in contact via phone.

  She wanted to ask about Mac’s past.

  His life in the military and his life as a child. His family. His goals.

  That scared her.

  Mac seemed like a good guy. She had never seen him lose his temper or mistreat someone. She had never heard him say a bad word to anyone, criticize harshly or demean a client or employee. He had a steady, even way of approaching life that made the people around him comfortable. He was obviously protective and dedicated to keeping his word.

  But, that didn’t mean she should be looking at him any differently than she did other men in her life. She certainly shouldn’t be wondering about his past. She shouldn’t be getting attached to the idea of getting to know him, of spending more time with him, of learning everything there was to know about his life.

  But, she was, and she knew it.

  And, that was a surefire way to be hurt again.

  She frowned, pulling the borrowed coat closer and settling deeper into the seat. She needed to return to Boston and her life. That was what she should be focused on. Anything else could only bring her trouble and heartache. Sure, she had been lonely sometimes. There had been nights when she had returned home after a fifteen-hour day and longed to have someone to talk to, but she had tried marriage. It hadn’t worked out. She’d had roommates during law school. That had been fine, but she didn’t want to clean up messes that weren’t hers, fight for shower time or try to figure out laundry schedules. She wanted to share her heart, but she didn’t want it broken again.

  “Maybe a dog. They never lie to you, and they certainly don’t cheat, and any messes they make are just because they’re dogs. Not because they’re slobs,” she murmured.

  “What’s that?” Mac asked.

  “I think I’ll take a catnap while you’re driving,” she replied. She closed her eyes before he responded, leaning her head against the cold window and praying that the nightmare would be over soon and that she could return home to Boston and the safe, predictable life she had built there.

  * * *

  She wasn’t sleeping.

  The cadence of her breathing was too uneven, her body too tense, but Mac didn’t bother asking why she was pretending. They both had troubles they were dealing with. They both had private struggles and secret pain. She had every right to keep her own counsel, to sink into herself and let the world fade away.

  He exited the highway, merging onto the interstate. It was a straight shot to Abilene. A hundred miles of nothing but ranchland and farms, homesteads and a few small towns. Another two hundred miles from there to Dallas. He had made the trip a few times over the years, visiting Seamus and a few other buddies who had settled in the area. It had been a few years, though. The ranch took up all his time and energy. As much as he tried to keep up with the lives of his friends, he sometimes went months without checking in.

  Seamus wouldn’t hold that against him.

  If he could, he would help.

  If he couldn’t, he would know who could. Unlike Mac, Seamus stayed in close contact with old friends. He had a network of people across the country who he had met and made friends with. His tough, hard-edged exterior belied a softer exterior. He would do anything for a friend. Even put his life on hold to help. In a fight, though, he was a formidable opponent. He fought hard, and he fought to win. He had been the guy everyone on their SEAL team had wanted as a flanker. The person who everyone trusted implicitly. He had been injured in the same IED explosion that had ended Mac’s military career, but his face had still been the first one Mac had seen when he had come out of surgery.

  The drive to Abilene took less than two hours, snow slowly turning to sleet and rain as Mac drove south and connected with Interstate 20. He expected to be pulled over by the state police, but traffic was sparse, police presence nil. Hopefully, River was focusing state and county attention on Pine Bluff, targeting resources in that direction.

  It was still early, the sun just edging above the horizon as he pulled into a Walmart parking lot and parked the SUV close to the entrance. There were several vehicles parked nearby and a few eighteen-wheelers on the outskirts of the parking area.

  “We made it,” Anna said, straightening in her seat. “Let’s go in and get the phone. I don’t know about you, but I’m anxious to get back to my life.”

  She started opening the door.

  He reached across her and held it closed, his forearm brushing her muscular thigh. She stilled, all the excitement and energy reined in as she stared into his eyes.

  She was beautiful.

  There was no question about that.

  Large eyes. High cheekbones. Smooth skin with just a few freckles on her nose and cheeks. Fair hair that she usually pulled back from her face. A slim, muscular figure. Mac had spent years telling himself he was too busy to pay much attention to the women who came and went on the ranch. He had plenty of highbrow clients who were there for a good time, more than a few single women who had been actively looking for a partner. He had no time for games. Even if he did, he wouldn’t have played them. For the past few years, he had accepted the bachelor life and been happy with it.

  Now, he wondered if the reason he hadn’t been noticing the women who came and went was because none of them had been the right woman.

  Until Anna, there had been no one who drew his attention and kept it. Until her, he hadn’t given any woman more than a passing glance.

  “Sorry,” he said, pulling back, his arm sliding across her thigh again. She blushed, the warmth in h
er cheeks obvious even in the dimly lit interior of the SUV.

  “No need to apologize,” she said brusquely. “We’re both adults. I think we can handle a little unintentional touch. Now, how about we get moving?”

  “I want you to stay here.”

  She’d grabbed the door handle again, but she didn’t open the door. “Why?”

  “Because River probably issued a BOLO for us. If not because he is involved, then because he is worried about us and wants to get us in custody before Moreno’s men find us again. The police will be expecting a man and a woman together. If this were normal shopping hours, there would be dozens of couples walking in and out of the store. It’s not. You stay here, ducked down so no one can see you. I’ll go in. I’ll be out as quickly as I can.”

  “I don’t like that idea.”

  “Have you liked any of my ideas so far?” he asked as he took the twenties she’d tucked into his coat pocket and put them in his wallet.

  “I’m sure if I think long enough I can remember one that I was keen on,” she replied. Her voice was light, a half smile on her lips, but he could see the concern in her eyes.

  “It’s going to be okay, but just in case something unexpected happens, I’ll leave you the keys.” He took them from the ignition and placed them in her hand, folding her fingers over them and squeezing gently. “I’m also going to give you my friend’s business card. His name is Seamus Murphy. He owns a security company in Dallas. Tell him I gave you his contact information.” He took the well-worn card from his wallet and set it on the dashboard.

  “I would rather not have to do that,” she said, her voice raspy and dry with fear. He didn’t want to leave her in the SUV any more than she seemed to want to be left, but they were a lot more noticeable together than they were alone.

  “You won’t. Like I said, this is just in case something unexpected happens.”

  “Do you know how many times unexpected things have happened to me? Do you know how many times my life has been thrown into turmoil because of stuff that shouldn’t have happened but did?” Her voice cracked, and she looked away. He wasn’t sure if she was referring to the shooting in Boston or something else, but he didn’t want to leave her defeated and uncertain.