“Fine. Thanks.” He held out the chair that sat the farthest behind the tree for Hannah, then surveyed the dining area and the picture window that looked out on the town square. A dozen or more patrons dressed in professional garb sipped beverages and nibbled sandwiches, and only one had even noticed when they had appeared from the back, just glancing at them from half-lidded eyes. Another employee stood behind the counter, filling a display case with cookies.
The teenager returned a moment later, two coffees in hand, a design decorating the top of each beverage. He left them on the table, a nervous glance shot at Derek and a hint of a smile aimed at Hannah.
Derek scooted his chair a tad to the left to get a better view of the courthouse and the street between them. If he could get visual contact with the Mafia heavies, he would feel much better about their safety.
Hannah sipped her coffee, the motion drawing his attention away from his surveillance. “Shouldn’t we hide?”
He forced his attention back to the street. Focus, man. “We are hiding. In plain sight. We’re just sitting here having a coffee, being normal. Who’s going to notice us? But maybe we should pull out our phones to look more like everyone else.” He shot a smile at her, willing her to relax. He was tense enough for the both of them. “From this spot, we’ll see them first anyway.”
Sparky returned and placed a plain chocolate-chip cookie in front of Derek, but he turned to Hannah and handed her one in the shape of a heart with a dollop of pink icing. His face was the same color as the icing, and he stuttered out, “Would you like a c-c-cookie?”
Hannah flashed a dazzling smile at him, and Derek’s own heart flip-flopped. Sparky’s color deepened, and he turned right into the branches of the ficus. He pushed it aside and disappeared again. Derek hid his smile at the boy’s awkwardness around a beautiful woman, but he couldn’t blame him. Hannah had made him splutter plenty when he was a teenager. She still would if he didn’t force himself to stay focused on the task at hand.
A man holding a hand to his face walked by the window of the coffee shop. Derek jerked back, farther behind the tree. It was the bulky man who had cornered them in the closet. His eyes were probably still stinging from the chemicals Hannah had thrown at him. At the sound of a shout, he turned, and the scrawny man ran up to him. Neither of them looked like the man in the newspaper who was, most likely, Hannah’s birth father.
Derek nudged Hannah and nodded toward the window. She followed his gaze and visibly started when she saw their attackers. To her credit, she didn’t make a noise or get up to run, so as not to draw attention to them.
Should he take a photo? It seemed a big risk that might expose them. Before he could decide and retrieve his phone, the two continued on together outside Derek’s view.
At least he’d had a good, long look, and Hannah probably had a mental image as well.
The question that plagued him was where was Hannah’s birth father? Wouldn’t he be close by, giving the orders? Supposedly, their abductors had been taking them to him, but he had yet to be seen or identified.
“So what happens next?” Hannah had sunk back into her chair, the cookie and coffee abandoned on the table.
“We continue to lie low.” He sipped his coffee to show her all was well. “Let the other agents do their jobs. If the local police have caught those guys that took us from the airport, that would help. But the one time we had them, as they exited the parking garage at the library, they escaped.”
“We can’t just let them go. They’re guilty,” she said as she picked up her cup.
“As much as I admire your zest for justice, Hannah, there’s nothing I can do at this moment in time.” But a glance at the front of the restaurant froze the blood in his veins.
The two thugs were back, and they were looking in the café window.
NINE
“They’re back.”
Hannah froze with her coffee cup in midair as Derek’s throaty whisper reached her ears. Without moving her head, she lifted her eyes to see the two men framed in the window.
“Just sit still.”
She didn’t need Derek’s instruction to know not to move. The men weren’t exactly tyrannosauruses who saw only things that moved. Staying still wouldn’t make them invisible. Yet, any movement on their part could draw attention to them.
The thugs turned to stand with their backs to the window, probably staring at the courthouse across the street. One was on the phone, perhaps getting orders from Hannah’s birth father. What would she give to be able to listen in on that sinister conversation?
Derek moved slowly to pull out his phone, and then pretended to scroll, all while furtively watching the men. Hannah copied him, watching them from under her eyelashes as best she could from her position behind the ficus tree. The thug on the phone apparently ended the call because he put the phone in his pocket. Then, the two turned in a circle, surveying the area around them. But as they glanced in the café window, they continued turning.
Hannah wanted to sag in relief at not being noticed, but fear had sunk its claws into her spine, and she found she couldn’t relax. “What about going back through the tunnel?” There was no way the guys outside could hear her on the inside amid the hubbub of the lunch crowd, but she couldn’t force her voice above a whisper.
“No. I don’t think that’s going to be necessary. Anyway, can you imagine the ruckus we could cause if we suddenly popped out of the janitor’s closet?” He tossed a smile in her direction, and it had the intended effect. She sat back in her chair and sipped her lukewarm coffee.
“How do we get out of here, then? And when we do get out of this coffee shop and away from the courthouse, then where do we go?” It was beginning to seem an impossible situation, and it hadn’t even been twenty-four hours. Would she ever be safe again?
Derek sipped his coffee. Was he trying to buy some time? Hannah was beginning to wonder if he knew what he was doing. Yes, she trusted him, but trust didn’t always come doubt-free.
The large group of office employees who had filled the tables toward the front began to stand, one by one, and move toward the register to pay their individual bills. Hannah nodded toward the crowd. “What now? They were shielding us from street view, and now everyone is leaving.”
A smile ignited Derek’s face, and his dimples deepened, as his face lit with an idea. “They can still shield us. Get your last sip, and grab your bag.” He caught Sparky’s eye and signaled him over to the table. “What do we owe you?”
The teen glanced at Hannah, his cheeks pinking. “Nothing, sir. I got this.”
Derek stood and clapped him on the shoulder. “We appreciate it.” He retrieved his wallet and handed the boy a card. “If you ever have interest in the FBI, shoot me an email.”
A huge grin spread across his face. “Thank you, sir.”
Hannah lifted her bag across her shoulder and fell in behind Derek’s long strides toward the crowd that was now filing out the door.
Derek took the door handle from another woman and gestured Hannah through. “I’ll be right behind you.”
She nodded and stepped through, mixing into the crowd. Out on the sidewalk, she glanced back. Derek had let another couple of women through the door, then fell in beside the two men at the rear of the crowd.
A woman who looked about Hannah’s age walked next to her, wearing a smart black A-line skirt with a pink blouse and a coordinating scarf. Maybe if she started a conversation, she would look more like she belonged. The men were looking for a single woman, perhaps with a single man. They might not even glance at a crowd of professionally dressed people.
She summoned her courage and offered a compliment, the best way to start a conversation with someone she didn’t know. “I love your scarf.”
The woman turned to her, her eyebrows scrunched in confusion. A moment of silence passed between them,
and Hannah began to wonder if this plan of Derek’s would work.
But then the woman spoke. “Thank you.”
Hannah found herself scrambling for what to say next. Her new companion paused, taking a long look at Hannah. “I got it at that consignment shop in town.”
Whew. They could talk about shopping. “That one on Maple Avenue?”
The woman nodded, her eyebrows not relaxing.
“I haven’t been in there. Do they have a good selection?” Hannah kept her face toward her companion, but she wondered if she should look around for Derek or the bad guys.
“I think so.”
They stopped at the light, waiting for the Walk signal. The crowd bunched around them, and Hannah, looking at the ground, spied Derek’s shoes a couple of people over. She breathed deeply. Perhaps fresh air would help her think clearly. “What are their Saturday hours? I’m so busy during the week that I don’t have time to shop until the weekend.”
“I know what you mean. Making those ends meet.” Her companion’s facial features relaxed, as the woman apparently accepted this stranger who was making conversation. “They’re open all day on Saturday. You should be able to find a time to drop in.”
The light changed, and the crowd moved on, Hannah keeping pace. They crossed the street and walked past the courthouse, toward a two-story office building on the opposite street.
As they stepped onto the sidewalk, now half a block from the Callahans’ office building, Derek appeared close by, but not right next to her. He nodded at her, then toward the Callahans’ office. She said goodbye to her companion.
The woman waved. “Nice talking to you.”
“Likewise.” Her stomach lurched as she stepped away, alone for the first time since leaving the coffee shop. Derek was following, perhaps a couple of yards behind. But she still dared to look around, hoping her expression was casual enough to convince any observer that she was simply admiring the flowers. A man in a suit was just coming out of the courthouse, but he didn’t seem menacing and didn’t look at her at all.
A few minutes later, she pulled open the door to the office building and stepped into its marbled coolness. She quickly moved to the side, away from the glass doors and the street view. Derek followed right behind, pushing the door closed behind him and moving to her side.
“You all right?”
She nodded, swallowing past the dryness in her throat.
“I don’t see any evidence of it, but it is possible they’re monitoring the Callahans’ offices. I don’t want to stay long.” Derek stared again out the front door, then cupped her elbow and steered her toward the elevators. “We’ll just keep thinking. And praying.”
In the third-floor office suite, Mallory Callahan registered surprise to see Hannah again. “You’re back sooner than I expected. Everything’s all right, then?”
Hannah turned to Derek for some help with an explanation, but he was silent. When she didn’t answer, Mallory gestured to a client chair. “Everything is not all right?”
Hannah sank into the chair. Derek followed to the other chair. She squeezed her eyes shut, but a renegade tear escaped and betrayed her difficulty. “No. It’s not all right. There’s been nothing but trouble since I left here yesterday.”
Mallory’s eyebrows shot up. “What’s happened? Are you safe now?”
“We obviously made it here all right, from The Green Bean, so I think we’re safe.” Derek reached over to take her hand.
Despite the flicker of question in Mallory’s eyes at his gesture, Hannah didn’t push him away. She was too desperate for something solid to hold on to. “It’s a long, complicated story, but basically we’ve been on the run since we left here yesterday.” Hannah filled her boss in on what had transpired as Derek added details to the narrative.
As they concluded the tale, she brushed a stray hair off her forehead then laid her hand in her lap, an effort to look professional. Was it really just a few weeks ago that she started her summer position here? Yet today, here she was, on the run and feeling disheveled without even a change of clothes. She would never take for granted her shower or her closet again.
Mallory sat forward, leaning her forearms on the desk, a knowing look in her eyes as she made eye contact with Hannah. “Good thing you have a dashing and gallant protector.”
Derek withdrew his hand from hers, the disappearance of the warmth and firmness leaving her cold and empty. But the heat of a blush crept up her neck and into her cheeks. Her face was probably flaming red. “Yes” was all she could choke out.
“Lots of people interested in contact with their birth parents start with the online registry. However, if your parents haven’t registered, and it seems from the circumstances that they would not have, then that won’t help you. It’s not an overnight process anyway, so at this point in time, you probably just need to sit tight and stay safe.”
“Father said that there was some sort of danger surrounding my adoption, but he wasn’t sure what. Now, I’m getting worried about my birth mother. Since this all seems to be connected, what kind of trouble might she be in right now?”
Derek leaned forward. “Obviously, we don’t know her. But considering the circumstances of her choices in giving you up for adoption, she’s probably pretty tough and able to handle herself. And we have agents searching for her, to protect her as well.”
Mallory nodded in agreement. “I’d say that’s a fair assessment. Now what about you? How are you taking the new knowledge of being adopted? I know a good counselor if you want a referral. That’s a big chunk of news to digest.” Her face softened with an empathetic smile.
“My parents didn’t want to admit it at first. Even though I understand that they were trying to keep me safe, it hurt to know that they had kept a secret from me for so long.” She released a long, quavering breath, fighting back tears. “And then they talked on and on about the social circles they live and work in. I don’t see how that matters. I’m their daughter. Aren’t I more important than a business colleague or a friend at the country club?”
“My parents divorced when my sister and I were in high school, and it felt like my father didn’t love me anymore. But eventually, I saw that that wasn’t true. We don’t always understand the things that happen in our lives, Hannah, but we need to keep trusting God and stay focused on His will for us, not turning to the left or to the right.”
“That’s exactly right.” Derek’s soft voice wrapped around her.
“What about looking at it from their perspective? You know the society they live in better than I do. Are the people really that way?”
Hannah turned that question around in her mind, letting events and people from her childhood and high school years float through her mind’s eye. “I’ve seen some heinous behavior in that circle. A young man I went to preparatory school with met and married a girl from the local high school. She was sweet and smart and friendly, but she wasn’t from one of our families. The boy was told that in no uncertain terms his parents disapproved of her. He married her anyway, and although his parents haven’t broken with him completely, they are cold and distant and he’s shunned from family activities and communication.” Her parents would never treat her like that. Hannah was sure of that. But to see them treated in that manner from their so-called friends? She wouldn’t be able to do anything that might cause that to happen to them.
“So they really were protecting you,” Mallory said.
A hush fell over the office.
“They love you. Profoundly.”
Hannah’s heart swelled with affection for the people she called Mother and Father. “Yes. I think they do.”
* * *
Derek inhaled deeply, a renewed vigor to keep Hannah safe coursing through his veins. Despite the difficulties he had had with her father, Hannah’s relationship with her parents was worth fi
ghting for. He wouldn’t be able to face himself in the mirror if something happened and her parents had to suffer the loss of a child. He let out the breath. Who was he kidding? He couldn’t bear to lose Hannah, either.
“I know I said we were safe, but we ought not stay in one place too long right now.”
Hannah turned to him, her pretty brown eyes wide with worry. “All right. Where to?”
“I want to talk to Reid for a moment. Consult with another law enforcement officer.”
He stood, and Hannah followed. They said goodbye to Mallory, then headed down the hallway to Reid’s office.
“What about tracking through your phones?” Reid’s first question was one Derek had already thought of.
“No. I’ve checked, and there’s nothing that I can see. I did find one in a watch that Hannah received through the mail. The package said it was from Dad, but she calls her dad Father. Hannah was rather surprised, but I found the device and destroyed it last night. I think we’re clean now.”
“Best be on the lookout then. They won’t give up. There are probably a couple of thugs with eyes on this place right now, waiting for you two to emerge.”
His heart sunk to his stomach. He’d been thinking that exact thing, and it was not reassuring to hear Reid confirm it.
“What about a vehicle?”
“We don’t have one now. I was going to rent something at the airport, but obviously that didn’t pan out.”
Reid held out his hand, palm open and up. “You’ll take mine. I’m parked around front, but I’ll go get it. I don’t look anything like you, and they aren’t searching for a single male. I’ll drive it around back.”
“I can’t take your car.”
“You can, and you will. It’s the least I can do. Besides, that Cherokee can handle a little action. She still has plenty of maneuvers left in her, but I’ll pray it doesn’t come to that.”
“Thanks.”
As Reid took off through the office’s back door, Hannah dug into her bag to extract a tissue. Exhaustion etched all over her pretty face, she moved to the window and stared down at the parking lot. “So, we’re going back on the road?”
Deadly Disclosure Page 13