Sanctuary Buried WITSEC Town Series Book 2
Page 35
That wasn’t exactly true. Remy had a medical degree—among others—she just didn’t regularly practice medicine. But she was all they had until someone more qualified entered the witness protection program.
Abigail muttered, “Maybe I’ll go talk to Sheriff Mason again. The military would have to fly someone in if there was a medical emergency. Why wait until it’s too late?” She glanced at Beth, looking her up and down but not meeting her eyes.
Like she was a specimen.
Beth brushed off the thought and shook her head. “I think I’m just going to go talk to Remy.” She tried to smile.
Abigail followed her to the front hall where Beth slipped on her shoes and wool coat.
“Some air and a walk will do me good.” She didn’t wait for Abigail to argue with her some more. She hadn’t been lying about needing air.
The walk to Remy’s would take twenty minutes, which was about the farthest distance between two residential houses if you didn’t count the outlying ranch or the farm. That was because Remy lived on the south side of Main Street, while Beth and her mom had been placed on the north side of town when they arrived. Now she lived in the same house, with her mother-in-law in the guest room.
Beth’s foot caught, and she almost tripped. Quickening her pace, she made it to the back of the gym, Sleight of Hand. She wasn’t going to hide in the studio room and dance right now. Maybe later today if she felt better. It wasn’t a work out, but there was something about ballet that always seemed to clarify her focus.
Today she ducked around the corner and leaned her back against the outside wall of the gym. Squeezing her eyes shut, Beth’s heart cried for her mother. She’d left Sanctuary early one morning to meet up with Beth’s father. And she never came back.
John had told her the grisly details, but she almost wondered if not knowing the details would have been better.
Beth put her hands to her thighs and leaned forward to suck in breaths. Her mom was never coming back. Only Pop’s God knew where Sam was. She’d always thought that if God loved someone that meant He would keep them safe. But He hadn’t kept her parents safe. Did that mean Sam was going to die, too?
Beth swallowed down the emotion and straightened. This wasn’t going to end if she fell apart. Losing it would not help the situation; in fact, it would probably make it worse.
Crossing Main Street at the east end, Beth could see the farm stretched out before the mountains. The idea was for Sanctuary to be as self-sufficient as possible, and Dan Walden, the farmer, was doing an excellent job growing produce year-round in his green houses. He also raised small animals. If it didn’t smell like compost over there, she’d have walked down the road to his farm weeks ago just to shake his hand.
The sun had peaked over the mountains, and the sky was blue. The air still held that January chill she was used to from living years in New York. Maybe one day she’d move to New Orleans, or some tiny beach town on the Texas coast. She’d sit on a bench in old lady clothes and tell all the younger folk about the years she danced on stage in New York and the time she was in witness protection. Of course, no one would believe her.
“Mornin’.”
Beth smiled at Hal’s aging biker face and grabbed his leather-jacketed forearms—complete with tassels. She leaned up and kissed his cheek. “Sight for sore eyes.”
He chuckled a deep, rasping sound.
“Walk me to the doctor?”
“Sure, darlin’.”
Beth slipped her hand through Hal’s arm. “How is the radio station treating you?”
He squinted toward the sun. “Did you know they call my music ‘golden oldies’?”
“The nerve.” She laughed. “It’s not old, its classic.”
“Quality is what it is.”
Beth smiled.
“You’re not fooling anyone, you know.”
She glanced sideways at him.
“Okay, so you’re fooling most of them. But not me.”
Or Michael. “I know.” She pressed her lips together, and they walked. “I’m…okay. Well, not ‘okay’ exactly. But I’m okay.”
Hal snorted. “That’s what I mean.”
She squeezed his arm with hers.
“What do you need?”
She needed Sam. But she said, “Nothing.”
Too much would be risked if Beth didn’t finish this to the end. People’s lives, the safety of this town. Why did this have to be a WITSEC town? Every one of these people had been threatened enough, some of them horrifically. Regular people wouldn’t be less at risk, but she’d come to care for the residents of Sanctuary. Even the ones she didn’t know. Most went out of their way to share their condolences with her. She’d made friends with Frannie and Matthias, with Nadia Marie, the salon owner, and Andra, the sheriff’s wife.
After years of living in the back-stabbing, cut-throat world of professional dance and being the recipient of cold looks and snide comments, she hadn’t realized what good people were like. Or how they treated others. It was the first time in her life she felt part of something good and honest.
Now she just had to not get them all killed.
They stopped at the gate of Remy’s house, and Hal turned to her. “Want me to walk you inside?”
She kissed his cheek again. “It wouldn’t hurt if you asked Abigail out for coffee, or maybe even dinner. Give me a night off.”
His eyes widened.
“You’re not going to take one for the team and help me out?”
“I’m not sure, ah…” He coughed. “That my lady friend would, ah, approve exactly.”
Beth laughed, delighted the man had found someone. “How long has this been going on? Who is she?”
“Ah…” His gaze searched the street.
“Maybe you can buy me a coffee and tell me then. You could bring her.”
He swallowed. “Maybe.”
Beth knocked on Remy’s door, the smile still on her face. The people here, the sunshine, it all helped to chase away the darkness and the memories of the mother she’d never see again and her father, who had never missed seeing whatever new show she had danced in.
When Remy didn’t answer, Beth turned the handle. No one locked their doors in Sanctuary, except the store owners. Although entering someone’s house was at-your-own-peril. The mayor’s wife had been murdered a few months back, before Beth had come here. The pastor had been killing people for years, and he’d nearly killed Frannie, too.
Statistically, the future wasn’t too bright.
“Remy?”
She knocked on the wall as she walked down the hall.
The living room was empty, the coffee table covered with open books and scattered papers. At the back of the house, the dining room had been converted into an office with a bank of computer monitors. The tower under the desk hummed, and papers had been tacked all over the walls. Remy’s precise sprawl was over nearly every inch of the room from floor to ceiling. Calculations?
Remy was face down at her computer.
Beth nudged her shoulder. “Hey, doc.”
Remy sucked in a breath and straightened, mumbling. “You kissed me.”
Beth laughed. “Good dream?”
Remy pushed her frizzy red hair back from her face and blinked at Beth. “Oh, it’s you.”
“You seem disappointed.” Beth glanced around. “Not exactly a sterile examining room.” A wave of nausea crested over her, and she put her hand on her stomach.
Remy jumped up, returning seconds later with a bottle of water. She broke the seal and handed it to Beth.
Ice cold liquid tumbled down her throat, easing the ache in her stomach. “Thanks.”
“Morning sickness?”
Beth shrugged. “Wrong time of the day. I always threw up closer to lunch.”
Remy’s lips twitched in a smile. Her glasses lay on the desk, discarded along with a balled up tissue and an empty mug. Without her glasses, Remy’s eyes were an unusual shade of green. “Something you ate?”
> It was going to sound crazy if she admitted she thought her mother-in-law might be trying to kill her.
“Food poisoning will work its way through your—”
“Okay, now I feel sicker.”
Remy smiled. “Drink plenty of fluids, and I’ll come check on you later tonight.” Swishing her mouse back and forth on the desktop, Remy typed faster than Beth could keep up. She pulled up a calendar and then entered a note for that day. She turned back to Beth. “Everything okay otherwise?”
Beth thought for a moment. “Everything is still the same.”
Remy nodded slowly. Then she brushed off whatever she’d been thinking and smiled. “Want to hear the heartbeat?”
Beth grinned. “Yes.”
Remy crossed to a desk on the opposite side and pulled out a hand-held monitor. No matter what happened over the next few weeks, if this baby boy’s life was put in danger, Beth would call Sam and get out. She’d been taught every life was precious, but this baby was in her. Sam’s baby was in her.
And there was no way she was going to let him get hurt.
**
Snowflakes clung to his beard and hair as he climbed the hill, the backpack snug against his back. Hunger gnawed at his stomach, his lips dry and chapped.
Nearly there.
The rim of the mountain was almost a mile above the basin below, firmly entrenched in January snow. At the top, his eyes scanned every tree, every bush, but he saw nothing. Swinging his backpack around, he drew out a sensor and waited for it to boot up.
As soon as the display lit up, it began to beep with a proximity alarm. Motion sensors. Heat sensors. This place had it all.
But he was prepared.
**
An hour later, three hundred miles away in an air force control room, an alarm went off.
“What’s that?”
Ensign Darren Hall, whose wife was pressuring him to start their family before he was ready, and who’d had way too much to drink the night before, glanced at the screen. This was the most boring job in the world; monitoring a science experiment on Idaho wildlife for the Department of Agriculture. He was supposed to have been flying fighter jets, but he’d failed the medical exam.
Darren shook his head and took another sip of military strength coffee. “Don’t worry about it. Probably just a deer.”
Sanctuary Breached is available for purchase at your ebook retailer.
Also By Lisa Phillips
Love Inspired Suspense
Double Agent
Star Witness
Manhunt
Easy Prey
Sudden Recall
Dead End
Security Detail
Coming soon in 2017 – Homefront Defenders, Yuletide Suspect
Denver FBI
Target (A prequel story)
Bait
Coming soon in 2017 – Prey
WITSEC Town Series
Sanctuary Lost (Bk 1)
Sanctuary Buried (Bk 2)
Sanctuary Hidden (Bk 2.5, part of the Team Love on the Run anthology #1)
Sanctuary Breached (Bk 3)
A Sanctuary Christmas Tale
Sanctuary Deceived (Bk 4)
Sanctuary Forever (Bk5)
Find out more at
www.authorlisaphillips.com
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