She may trust Levi Cooper with her life, but not any part of her heart.
Been there. Done that. Saved the hurt.
Waiting to discuss the details was fine. She was cold, wet, emotionally overwhelmed and at the moment, easily swept up into the idea of danger she’d been cautioned about her entire life. She didn’t know if she believed Levi’s gun sighting, but she wanted to see the letter her father had written.
Her father’s precautions had kept her safe for twenty years. But she had no intention of traveling to wherever the marshal wanted her to talk with more experts. Nothing would bring back the memories.
Nightmares were just nightmares.
Speeding through the first couple of yellow lights seemed normal. He was on edge and she’d been lost in thought. But when Levi gripped the wheel tighter, slowed for the yellow, then sped up through the red, she knew there was a problem.
“You could give a girl some warning.” Her bare feet were pressing hard on the floorboard, trying to stop the car, then just keeping her in her seat.
“How did they find us? Nobody followed from the cemetery.” He slammed his palm on the steering wheel.
“Honestly, if you think I’m going to fall for—”
She turned around to see a black car run the light, causing a chain reaction crash with crossing traffic that tried to avoid a collision. She verified her seat belt was tight and clenched the dash again. “I don’t believe this is happening.”
“Believe it.”
Levi drove like a professional racer, darting in and out and around the cars in their way. Skidding around corners in the rain. The black car stayed right with them—never gaining, never falling behind.
“You can’t keep driving like this. You aren’t that lucky. They won’t have to kill us because you will.”
There was no difference in Levi’s expression. No recognition that his thoughts may have gone to her father’s death in a car accident. He seemed to concentrate on his driving too much to look at her, but she could stare nowhere else except at him. If she watched the cars or the road or paid too much attention to the close calls, she’d begin to panic. She couldn’t control the helplessness building in her throat. It was buried deep inside somewhere and bubbled to the surface every time there was a near miss with a car.
“Why aren’t the police following us yet?” she asked, keeping her focus on Levi’s eyes. “Wouldn’t that get these guys off our backs? Can I call them?”
“It might, but I think it’s both good and bad. So let’s skip the local explanations and go straight to the airport.”
“Skip talking to the police and just leave town?”
He slowed to exit the highway they’d been traveling on for a short time. Jolene looked at the road in time to see a sign for Lambert-St. Louis International Airport. So all his turns had been deliberate, heading here. Nowhere near where her chosen hotel was located. He’d planned this and she hadn’t noticed where he’d been going.
They passed through the airport entrance and the black car continued down the road. They weren’t being followed any longer. They were safe.
For the moment.
“I didn’t think they’d like the security cameras at the airport. I need you to use your phone and call the airline.”
“You want me to leave now?” At first the cost of changing her ticket made her cringe, but at least she’d be sleeping in her own bed tonight. That thought made her sigh with relief. “My ticket to Atlanta is for tomorrow and all my stuff’s at the hotel.”
“Nothing that can’t be replaced or shipped?”
“Fortunately, no.” No makeup, no toothbrush. A trip to the store on the way home instead of straight to bed. Her bed. Was he coming with her? The thought tied her stomach in more knots.
He slowed the car to a crawl waiting for people crossing the street. He acted so calm and casual, leaning against the door, his hands relaxed on the steering wheel instead of his previous death grip. It was infuriating how he could turn the adrenaline on and off. Her heart was still beating fifteen hundred miles an hour and her stomach was still ten miles back.
“My duffel’s already in the trunk. Your hotel is too risky. These men know your name, where you live, what you do. I’m not sure how they found out, but it’s a safe bet they’ve already tracked you through your phone.”
“I’m not throwing away my phone.” Or giving up my life. Changing my name. Leaving everything behind. Or taking you home with me to my one bedroom apartment.
“Who asked you to? We’ll take out the battery.”
“Oh.”
Her heart had jump-started at his answer. What did he have planned? He parked in the first spot on the highest garage floor. No one was in sight. Just the rain beating a strange rhythm that made her nervous. Or being in close quarters with Levi did.
Or maybe it was the realization that someone believed she could recognize her mother’s murderers and had attempted to kill her. Of course, that could have something to do with the urge to lose what little she’d had for lunch.
“If they’re tracking my phone, why use it to change the tickets?” she asked. “We could just go inside.”
He raised his eyebrows and grinned. With chocolate-colored wet hair curling on his forehead and dirt streaked across his dimpled cheek, he looked like a sweet, innocent little boy who had made his first mud pie.
“You want them to know about the ticket change?”
He nodded.
“Because we aren’t going to use them.”
“Right again. We’re taking the train.”
“Then how do I get back? Won’t they just track me from wherever we’re going?”
“We can’t let that happen,” he said flatly.
“Just so we’re clear, I have no intention of returning to Boulder.” She’d already asked a college friend to oversee the sale of furniture and shipping of her father’s things. “I can’t talk to anyone about what I didn’t see so it won’t do any good to go back.”
“You have to try. They were very clear that I can’t take you into WITSEC until you’re an actual witness.”
“You’re confusing me. Just tell me where we’re going so I can say no.”
“I was thinking about Dallas.”
No. No. A thousand times no.
“But Dallas is where...”
“Where your mother was murdered.”
Chapter Two
“I’ll never go back. Dad said never to go to Dallas or even Texas.” Jolene’s phone dropped to the floorboard.
Levi had assumed she wouldn’t like his idea. He didn’t like it, either. What he hadn’t counted on was the absolute terror that reached the depths of her beautiful eyes. Just the thought of Dallas and she went somewhere far away.
“You did warn me ‘no’ would be your answer. Unfortunately, it’s the only plan I’ve got.” Partly his, partly her father’s, but the only one.
She hadn’t liked anything he’d said—today, yesterday or last week. When he’d made the official notification of her father’s death, they’d had a moment. Minutes remembering someone they cared about, remembering how they’d met four years ago.
When he’d explained he was a U.S. Marshal and her dad had been under his watch, the moment was gone. She had four years of lies. That’s all she could see and he didn’t blame her. For him it was a relief to tell the truth. It would be a bigger relief to let her know he’d been keeping tabs on her, making certain she was safe while living in Georgia.
One thing at a time.
The current problem was how to change her mind so he could save her life. How could he get her to admit she was in serious danger? He couldn’t jump over, dash around, or break through the barricade she held in place. She hadn’t spoken to him unless it concerned getting her dad’s body to St. Louis. She acted like a person who couldn’t accept her life was gone.
He understood that.
But this was different. She needed to listen to him.
Suppressing h
is natural tendency to issue an order took effort. He wasn’t used to anyone doubting his advice, not to mention his word. And he wasn’t used to those needing his help flat out rejecting his expertise.
“This is ridiculous,” she said, seemingly bounced back from his announcement. “Right now, I’m not convinced there was a shooter, but if there was, how do you know the shooter was after me? It could be you he wants.”
“I wasn’t followed from Colorado and your mother’s murderers didn’t have a clue I knew your father.” No sugarcoating. She needed to realize these men were out for her blood. He’d tell her about the second shooting later. “Say there wasn’t a shooter. How do you explain the sedan following us?”
She shook her head, denying the obvious. “Why isn’t it possible someone at your end sold out my dad?”
“Twenty years, Jolene. Twenty years of safety.”
“Twenty years of safety just confirms there’s not a problem.”
“Based on your father’s letter, I disagree. He told me you saw the murderers and if you remembered, you’d be in danger.”
“See, that’s your flaw. If there was any truth to the letter, I’d have some type of memory. Some clue that what you’re claiming is true. And there’s nothing. I’ve never remembered anything about that day. Ever.”
Joseph’s letter stated she’d had dreams that were becoming more frequent. Her reluctance to admit the possibility seemed more like a determination to convince herself. The look of terror on her face only convinced him she needed his help.
“You’ve never had a dream that seemed a bit too real?”
“Everyone does that.” She shrugged.
“About murder?”
He’d struck a chord. She might not understand what could have been happening to her for several years, but he did. He’d seen it with other witnesses when the trauma began to wear off or another happened. Maybe Joseph had noticed.
“Words, motions, sounds, smells...they all work with the subconscious, Jolene. You heard the man yell ‘gun.’ Why didn’t you move? Can you remember?”
“What do you mean? He yelled and you knocked me down the next second. I’ll be bruised for days.” She rubbed her shoulder, but her confusion was commonplace when blocking traumatic events.
“That’s not what happened.”
“Of course it is. You’re overreacting.” She shook her head, frowned, rubbed her chin, began to chew on her nail, then wrapped her arms around her middle to still her hands.
He could see the fright, see her chest rise and fall faster. Outside, the rain eased up to let the sun poke through the clouds. Levi saw the greenest eyes he’d come face-to-face with sparkle as they filled with tears.
“It’s there, isn’t it? A memory just out of reach.”
“I was inside a toy box. My mother was stabbed to death downstairs. I couldn’t have seen it.” Her eyes closed as she dropped her face into her hands again. “My father saw it, but not me. I didn’t.” Her voice ended on a whisper.
“Jolene, I’ve read the report and I don’t think you know what really happened. You’ve convinced yourself you didn’t see anything which was fine when you were five.” He used two fingers under her chin to draw her gaze back to his eyes. “I can’t protect you until you remember.”
The tears came for real. She covered her face with her hands and in the tiny space of the front seat, pulled her knees to her chest and shrank into a ball.
Maybe he should hold and comfort her, but he snagged her phone instead. It was safer. He really wanted to wrap his arms around her shivering body and warm her up. The urge to hold her confused him because he wanted to keep holding her.
Not a good idea.
Before she’d left home, the one time he’d allowed himself to get that close had resulted in an ill-timed kiss. He still wasn’t certain who initiated what, but it hadn’t been a good idea then and was a terrible idea now.
“I’ll give you a few minutes while I change the reservations and take care of some details.”
Trying to be patient and talk her around to his point of view wasn’t working. She would come around when the reality of the situation hit her. She had to. She didn’t have a choice. But just in case she thought it would be a good time to take off on her own, he switched the car off and took the keys before he left her alone.
Levi sat on the trunk of the vehicle in the drizzle left from the storm. He couldn’t get any wetter. His jaws ached from grinding his teeth. Proof that the decision he’d made had been difficult and large. It wasn’t about to get any easier by cutting himself off from the support he’d had over the past eight years.
Jolene’s cell allowed him to change her reservation with the airline. Too easy. He also sent a text to her work supervisor—the number clearly identified by scrolling through her history. Also too easy.
“Sweet Mother.”
If anyone obtained her phone information, they’d have her entire life at their fingertips. His gut twisted at the thought of what they’d do to her. What might have happened if he’d just released the body and not attended the funeral.
Removing the battery, he checked for “extra” electronics that may have been added by the men who wanted her dead. Nothing he could find, but it didn’t mean they weren’t there or that they hadn’t simply cloned her phone.
Watching through the window, his witness who wasn’t a witness had stopped crying. He walked from the car facing the ramp they’d used to the roof, keeping an eye out for a black sedan. One phone call, then he could get moving again, get her safe. But that one phone call might change his life.
Might? Try would.
He could ask himself why. Grind his teeth a little more and debate it. Or just hit his speed dial and get it over with. He shoved her phone in his pocket and pulled out his own.
“Hey, Levi, what happened? You didn’t check in today.” Sherry Peachtree had answered on the first ring, still at the office, still his commanding officer for at least five more minutes.
“Someone took a shot at Jolene Atkins this afternoon. The letter the Department of Justice sent and the one I brought in from Joseph said—”
“I know what the letters stated. I also remember you were told it wasn’t a matter for the Marshal Service.”
“I gave my word.”
Silence. He felt obliged to fill it, justifying his reasons for pursuing. Trying one more time for approval. He didn’t understand why Sherry could compel him to do anything, but filling the silence had been the case since they’d met.
“I knew Joseph. He wouldn’t have written a letter unless Jolene were in serious danger.”
“By writing a letter, he put his daughter in danger. We’ve already attempted to bring her into the program.” In the background a door opened, then a muffled voice confirmed the department shouldn’t be involved. “You know the DoJ can’t prosecute without a reliable witness. You need to walk away.”
“Not gonna happen.”
“If things go badly...”
“They won’t.”
“They will. And we can’t help you,” she said.
He could lose everything or fulfill his promise to protect Joseph’s daughter. “I figured as much. This decision already cost the life of one witness.”
“Jolene Atkins is not a witness and you have no proof of foul play in her father’s accident.”
Silence.
He wouldn’t fill it this time. There was no need. He’d already said what he had to say.
“I’ll approve your request to extend your leave, escort her home and fly back to Denver. That’s all I can do. You’re on your own.”
Silence. This time she’d disconnected.
“Damn it.”
“I’d like to see the letter, please.”
He knew the voice was Jolene’s, but that didn’t stop his hand from automatically going to his weapon as he swung around. He didn’t draw it, but her eyes were focused on his sidearm.
“Later. We’ve got to get moving.”
/>
“You’re assuming that I’m coming with you.”
“Yes, I am.”
“I wasn’t in the toy box, was I?” She sounded sad and defeated.
Had she accepted things weren’t as they seemed? He wanted to reach out and lend her some courage. More so than in the car. He couldn’t. Instead he walked toward the rental, asking a question he knew she had only one response to.
“Coming?”
* * *
JOLENE PEERED AT the last-minute passengers boarding the train. She was careful to stay out of a direct view through the window, looking through the opening in the drawn curtains. Her escort had pulled them closed but she felt so confined she needed to see a larger space, an open area. She’d separated them a couple of inches.
She needed the train to move. Leaving Levi’s protection wasn’t an option at the moment. She’d been taught there were certain precautions to take when you disappeared. The first and foremost was to use cash for everything. Her emergency stash was in a safe in her apartment. All she had was a credit card and driver’s license unless they made a withdrawal from her inheritance money.
Another reason to stay was to find answers. After being lied to for the past four years, she still believed Levi even though she couldn’t remember hearing a gunshot this morning. Something pulled at her mind, a dark place that shouted, “Danger! Danger!” She didn’t want to return, but somehow that place was the key to having any type of a normal life.
Her father had never visited in the two years since she’d left home. Each time she’d asked, he’d had an excuse. The flu, car trouble, papers at his job, home repairs...all sounded like legitimate reasons. His favorite excuse was that old habits were hard to break. Day trips were all they’d managed—never far from Boulder.
So she’d gone home, met at the Denver airport both times by Levi. Driven in his black SUV, obviously an “office” vehicle. He’d taken precautions and she’d been blind. It was easy to believe the past no longer had control over her life.
Fantasy is easy.
Dangerous Memories Page 2