“No. It was a cheap shot to knock the breath out of me. I’m fine.”
Jenny sighed. “Will this nightmare ever end?”
“I hate to interrupt,” Jay Kennedy said from the door to the parlor.
Jenny took a step back, but didn’t break contact with Cord completely. She needed his strength until all of hers returned.
“Mr. Kennedy. I didn’t hear you come in.”
“Heard you had some excitement.”
“Yes,” Jenny said, sitting again. Cord stayed close as if he didn’t trust anyone.
“If you don’t mind me saying, I’m getting a little tired of having to apologize to you over and over for failing at seeing to your safety.”
“You had no way of knowing.”
“Nevertheless, it’s time.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’m extracting you tonight.”
Chapter 21
All the breath left Jenny’s body. She grasped her midsection and the arm of the chair. Cord squeezed her shoulder.
“Now?” she managed to say.
“Yes.”
“But I don’t understand. I thought it would be tomorrow at the earliest.”
“Given what just happened, I think it’s best to take you tonight. I don’t want to risk anything else going wrong.”
“It’s okay,” Cord said. “I’ll come with you.”
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible,” Jay said.
Cord took several menacing steps forward until he stood inches from Kennedy. “The hell it isn’t. Try and stop me.”
“Stand down, Goins. You know how this works. Jenny’s safety is the primary concern. She’s being relocated—tonight. I’m taking her into custody now, and she comes alone.” A few moments passed as his words settled on the room. “Take a moment and say your goodbyes.”
Miss Estelee had joined them and said, “Mr. Kennedy, why don’t you come with me to the kitchen for a cup of tea?”
When he showed no indication of moving, Jenny said, “Can we have some privacy?”
“I’m afraid not. I can’t take any chances with the two of you leaving. My apologies to you, ma’am,” he said to Miss Estelee.
Cord who had come to stand with her took a step back towards Jay, but Jenny grabbed his arm. “No. Let’s don’t waste what little time we have like this. Fighting with him won’t change anything, and I don’t want that to be my last memory of you.”
He turned to her then, squeezing her arms before pulling her close. Jenny held on for long moments, breathing in his scent, his strength. After some time had passed, she pulled back and looked up into his beautiful face, memorizing every feature.
“When all this began, I never would have imagined that I’d find someone like you in the middle of so much turmoil.”
Cord cupped the side of her face and kissed her; a kiss filled with such desperation and pain. Hot tears spilled down Jenny’s face. Despair became a palpable emotion, threatening to overtake her. Losing her sister had caused unbearable pain, but that pain was nothing compared to this. There were no words to soothe this hurt.
They were both breathing irregularly and clinging to each other when they broke the kiss. “What can I do?” he said, his words ragged, rough.
“Let me go.”
“I’d give up anything to not have to do that.”
“I know,” Jenny whispered against his cheek, kissing every scar on his face, knowing that fresh ones were being torn into him as they were to her. “I’m not sorry that we found each other.”
“It’s time,” Jay said.
Jenny tried to smile, but her face wouldn’t do what her brain was telling it to. She touched his chest. His heart beat strong against her palm. Remembering Miss Estelee’s words earlier, she said, “I’ll always be a part of you.”
She sighed. Looking at the raw emotion on his face, she knew what he was feeling, because she felt it too. She stepped away from him.
“Wait.”
He removed the necklace he said he’d worn since he was a teenager. He kissed the center stone, then slipped the chain over her head. Holding the pendant between them, he said, “Wherever you are, a part of me, the best part if it still exists, will be there with you.”
She slipped her arms around his neck, and hugged him again. Then she took a step back, and another. He held out a hand to her, but somehow, she found the courage to turn her back on the only man she’d ever loved and walk away.
Jenny left that night, angry and determined to take back control of her life by whatever means necessary. When she walked out Miss Estelee’s door, it was as if someone, or if you believe the legends of Angel Ridge, a divine being, whispered in her ear. If even that was too fantastical an explanation, she imagined then that the spirit of all strong, southern women—those who had nurtured her and others—rose up inside her like a tidal wave.
In the words of one great southern heroine, As God was her witness, and in the words of Angel Ridge’s greatest heroine, Dixie, She’d be John Brown if she was about to walk away from the man she loved without having the final say about it. She’d given up her career, the business she’d built from the ground up, her family and friends, but this was quite simply asking too much not only of her, but of him as well. They’d both lived through enough to last a person several lifetimes, and the expectation was that they should also give up their chance at a lifetime together?
During the drive with Jay Kennedy to the airport, she figured she had two options; to lock herself in the bathroom and escape out the window, never to be seen or heard from again, or to wait and come up with a more viable plan. Since she didn’t get the chance to go in a bathroom, she decided on the latter.
She flew with Kennedy to her new home that night. On the plane, someone changed her hair color and hairstyle. They dressed her in a way she would never replicate. Seriously, did they think that relocation required a loss of one’s sense of style as well?
Her new name would be Jennifer Reid—Jen for short. All pertinent identification was handed over to her, including educational credentials to support the position of journalism instructor at a small liberal arts college where she was to begin teaching in the fall. Since it was still winter, she’d have plenty of time to acclimate to her new surroundings and situation.
After two days, she was left alone to unpack and settle in to a small Victorian in the Queen Anne neighborhood of Seattle. In the time that it took for her to unpack boxes and decorate her new home, she also hatched a plan in complete disregard for the dire warnings to not attempt contacting anyone from her former life.
Jenny asked a neighbor if she could direct her to the local library, to which she drove in her new blue Prius, making only one stop. She applied for and was issued a library card and logged onto one of their computers. She set up an email address using the name of her sister’s favorite stuffed animal from childhood. The message read:
Mr. Honey Bear, please call Lilly Rose.
That had been the name of their pet rabbit. And then she supplied the number of one of two disposable cell phones she purchased on the drive over to the library, bought a cup of coffee, made herself comfortable in the magazine section, and waited.
And waited and waited. It hadn’t occurred to her that Frannie wouldn’t call, but as evening approached, she considered that she might have to go home, even though the place where she now lived felt far from that, and come back tomorrow to try again.
Then the phone rang. She answered it right away.
“Hello?”
“Is it really you?” Frannie said.
“Yes. It’s good to hear your voice, but we shouldn’t stay on long. I need you to do something for me.”
“Of course. Anything.”
“Write down this number.” Jenny read her the number of the other disposable cell phone she’d purchased, twice. “Do you have it?”
“Yes.”
“I need you to get that number to Cord Goins.”
“Do you hav
e his address?”
“No. You’ll have to do some investigative work to find him. He lives on Cove Mountain, near Angel Ridge. His place is pretty inaccessible.”
“Does he have a phone?”
“I don’t know.”
“Email?”
“I don’t know that either. But listen Frannie, you can’t let anyone know about this, so be careful about how you go about asking questions. Be sure Grady Wallace doesn’t suspect we’ve talked.”
“Okay.”
“Cord may be hard to trace. No one knows this, but he’s a protected witness, too.”
“You’re kidding me? What did he get involved in?”
“I can’t go into that.”
“I don’t understand. If he’s a protected witness, too, then isn’t it a double threat? You could both get caught in the crossfire of the people you’re being protected from if they ever found either of you.”
Leave it to Frannie to bring up the facts of the situation she’d chosen to ignore. Frannie had always been the cautious one. She’d been more the “don’t look before you leap and deal with the consequences later” type.
“Jenny, what’s this about? What could possibly cause you to need to contact him?”
She sighed. Might as well just say it. “I love him.” And then she forged ahead before Frannie could talk her out of it. “After you contact him, send an email to me at the address you have to let me know when he plans to call. I won’t have the phone on otherwise. It’s too dangerous. I’ll check that email address at noon your time daily. Do you have any questions?”
“I don’t know, Jenny. It’s one thing to not have you here with me. It’s another thing to not have you at all.”
“You worry too much, Frannie.”
“And clearly you’re not worried enough,” she complained. “How’ve you been?”
“All right, I suppose. I’m keeping busy, settling in. I’ve been under the weather and sleeping a lot. I guess that’s a good thing because I would have thought sleeping would be difficult under the circumstances. How are you? What are you doing?”
“I’m back at work, but my heart’s not in it.”
“Quit. Life’s too uncertain to spend your life doing something you’re not passionate about.”
“I know, but it keeps me busy. I need that now more than ever, but I’m looking for something else.”
“Good, good. Did you sell my house?”
“No. I’m going to keep it for now.”
Jenny smiled, happy to know that tie to Angel Ridge was still there. Maybe someday, Frannie would decide to move there and start over doing something she really loved. “I’m glad. I need to go.”
“Can I email you?”
She considered that for a moment. “Only if you use a computer that can’t be tied to you.”
“Is that what you’re doing?”
“I have to go. I love you.”
Jenny disconnected the call. On her way out of the library, she took the back off the phone, removed the battery and the SIM card. She dropped the phone in a garbage can, then went to the bathroom and flushed the card. The battery, she tucked into her purse.
For the next few weeks, she made going to the library part of her morning routine. She found other branches of the library and rotated between them, careful to use a different computer each time. It got harder and harder to get up in the mornings, and when she did, her stomach seemed to almost always be upset.
Frannie kept her updated on what she had done to track down Cord. She found that he had a post office box in Angel Ridge and sent him a letter asking him to email her at a dummy email address she’d set up. She expressed how important it was that he do this, but there was no telling how long it would be before he checked his mail. All the while, she cautioned Jenny against going through with getting in touch with Cord.
Stubbornly refusing to examine the possible negative ramifications of her actions, Jenny settled in for the wait. Spring came, chill and wet in the northwest, but other than the Smoky Mountain skyline she had loved to gaze at from her screened in porch in Angel Ridge, there wasn’t a more beautiful place than the Pacific Northwest. There were steep cliffs dropping straight down to rocky beaches. On clear days, skies so blue that it made her eyes ache. And the snowcapped mountains... Rainer, Mount St. Helens, and Mt. Baker, breathtaking.
Tulips and crocuses came up around her patio, a surprising riot of color in the gray-green landscape. She touched her flat belly. Another surprise she’d found as a shock was the baby growing inside her. It was still hard to fathom that she’d hold their baby in her arms in the fall, but that sure knowledge comforted her in the dark hours of the lonely nights. It was like having a piece of Cord to keep her from losing her mind. Dear Lord, please let him contact me soon.
After another week passed, Jenny decided that she would tell Frannie to go to him, whatever it took. The waiting was simply unbearable. But that day when she checked email, Frannie told her she’d heard from Cord and that he would call in an hour.
Her fingers shook as she searched her purse for the phone she’d carried for so long. Dear God! Had she forgotten to get it off the charger before leaving the house? Just then, her fingers wrapped around it. Dragging in a shaky breath, Jenny willed her heart rate to slow. She switched the phone on and waited.
That may have been the longest hour of her life. She stared at the phone’s display, watching the minutes tick by until 10:59 turned to 11:00. If desire alone could make a phone ring, it would have done so. But three more minutes clicked by before it rang.
“Hello?”
“Do you know how dangerous this is?”
“Cord...” His voice rumbling across the line and in her ear was delicious, even if he was angry. “Thank God you called.”
“I shouldn’t have.”
“It’s safe. I’m using a disposable phone. I’ll throw it away and flush the SIM card as soon as I hang up.”
“Then hang up now.”
“No! Please!”
“What’s this about? Are you in trouble?”
She almost laughed out loud. He had no idea what he’d just said. “I’m safe, if that’s what you mean.”
“Then why take this risk?”
“I want you to meet me in Lakeview, Oregon. Before you say ‘no’, hear me out. I’m moving .”
“WITSEC is moving you there?”
“No.”
“You’re leaving the program?” his voice rose as he said the words. “Have you lost your mind?”
“Yes, I am leaving the program.”
“You can’t—”
“I’ve made up my mind,” she said firmly. When he didn’t interrupt again, she added, “And I want you to live there with me. I want a life with you.”
“Jenny—”
“I can’t think of two more capable people than us. We can relocate ourselves, make it so no one ever finds us.”
“What about your sister?”
“She won’t know where I am. Frannie understands that she could lead the wrong people right to us. She wouldn’t endanger us or herself that way.” She took a deep breath, and continued. “I’m taking my life back. I’m hoping that you’ll join me, but even if you don’t, I’m going. I’m living life on my own terms. I can’t live under this cloud of deception, knowing that I’m being watched and not knowing if the ones watching are assassins, or well-meaning agents or marshals who are just as likely to get me killed as keep me safe.”
Silence filled the line, so she continued. “I’ve already contacted WITSEC and told them I’m leaving the program. I’m driving to Oregon tomorrow. It’ll take me a day to get there. I hope you’ll come, but if you don’t, I’m asking you to respect my decision. I’ve not told you exactly where I’ll be, but there’s a diner in Lakeview called ‘Angie’s’. I’ll be there next week on Thursday morning. If you don’t show, I’ll understand. I won’t come again.”
“Jenny, please.”
“I have to go. I love you.
”
She disconnected the call, disposed of the phone, and the next day, she left Seattle.
Chapter 22
Jenny walked to the coffee shop she frequented most mornings. There were a few customers, but not as many as normal. The cool Seattle rain must have kept people at home. She shook out her umbrella and left it by the door. Keeping her raincoat on to ward of the chill, she took her usual seat in the back, away from the windows that fronted the shop.
Kylie, the barista came right over to her table smiling cheerfully. Kylie was a college student who preferred afternoon classes, so she usually worked the early shift. “Morning, Jen! The usual?”
“I’m feeling adventurous today, Kylie. I think I’ll have a mocha with a dash of cayenne pepper.”
“All right then!”
“And a croissant with that warm chocolate drizzle. I’m really craving chocolate today.”
“Well we can’t have that. My grandmother always said if pregnant ladies didn’t eat what they were craving, it would mark their baby.”
Jenny laughed. “She must have been from the south.” It sounded just like something Miss Estelee would say.
“She was from Georgia. I’ll have everything out to you in a second.”
Jenny rested her chin in her hand and stared out at the misty landscape. Her other hand rested on her slightly rounded stomach. In the beginning, she’d felt really queasy and tired. Now, she was just starved all the time and emotional. The tears came without warning. There was nothing to do about it except let them come. And they had come often in the months since that phone call with Cord when she’d asked him to join her in Oregon.
Almost as soon as she’d disconnected that call, she’d known it was a mistake. All of it. She blamed it on her independent spirit and strong desire to control her life and everything that affected it. She’d been so angry when she was relocated she hadn’t been thinking clearly. Plus there were her sister’s constant letters reminding her of the possible dangers. And, of course, a baby changed everything. Her reckless leap before you look days had to come to an end. She had another life to consider.
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