Mail Order Soulmate

by Jean Oram

  Zach’s free hand automatically went up, a silent signal to Catherine to halt. Her footfalls were steady, crunching on the snow behind him, her distant chatter about how fast he’d been walking cheery. She didn’t stop, and he figured she hadn’t come around the last corner yet.

  The familiar man in front of him said nothing, simply held eye contact, his hands in the pockets of his heavy-duty pants.

  “Whitman,” Zach said.

  An all-star agent for British intelligence. MI6. Their paths had crossed working on gang connections that extended across the globe, and Whitman was responsible for more arrests in the area of money laundering, murders, thefts and disappearances than any other agent he knew of. Zach could break his way into anything, but Simon Whitman could find a way to capture anyone.

  But what was Simon Whitman doing in the mountains above Blueberry Springs outfitted in winter camo gear?

  Simon.

  Catherine’s Simon?

  No. Surely not.

  The man gave a barely perceptible nod, as though he could see inside Zach’s mind, watching him make the neural connections that helped him catch up with their story.

  Zach nearly had to sit.

  Agent Simon Whitman was Catherine’s Simon. And that meant he was also Xavier’s “deceased” father.

  But he was very much alive.

  Catherine bumped into Zach’s back. She’d been feeling giddy with happiness as she followed him up the path. Zach had been acting with such tenderness over the past few days it had left her feeling as though she was on a permanent high. She knew they were simply in the I-can’t-believe-how-lucky-I-am-to-have-discovered-you-and-nothing-can-go-wrong honeymoon phase of their relationship, but she was happy. Lighthearted and happy.

  How could she not be? Her husband was not only carrying her heavy baby up the mountainside, but had suggested the whole excursion, not only to help her deal with the onset of yet more cabin fever, but to watch the sun set over the town.

  Romantic!

  So completely swoon-worthy.

  Yes, she was happy. Giddy for the way this man was cherishing her and letting her into his life.

  She was special.

  His special someone.

  “Is there a deer?” she asked, grabbing his coat after running into him. She glanced up and the hair on her neck prickled, sending shivers straight down her spine.

  Something was wrong.

  She peered around Zach’s broad shoulder and felt as though her legs were about to give out under her.

  Simon.

  Simon was alive.

  Alive!

  No. It couldn’t be him. She had to be seeing things. It wasn’t him. It was someone else dressed all in white, like a snowy angel.

  She squeezed her eyes shut, took a steadying breath, then reopened them. The man tipped his head, watching her in that way of his that told her he was real as well as very much alive.

  How though? He’d died. There’d been a funeral. Had they buried an empty urn?

  Why hadn’t he told her he had survived the crash? Where had he been hiding? Why hadn’t he taken her with him?

  Her family hadn’t run him off the road.

  He hadn’t died because he’d been a part of her life.

  The rush of relief went as quickly as it had come as questions filled her mind. How had he found her? How had Simon, who was supposed to be dead, managed to head Zach and her off on a mountain path, with a look of determination and purpose in his solid gaze?

  Fear coursed through her veins. If he’d found her…

  She looked over her shoulder and edged closer to Zach.

  “Simon?” Zach said, breaking the silence.

  Zach knew Simon?

  She took a step away from her husband, no longer certain about anything. The whole scene felt bizarre, totally illogical. But she couldn’t escape, because Zach had Xavier. In fact, he’d insisted on carrying him. And now she was trapped, unable to run.

  “Why are you here?” she asked Simon, finally finding her voice. “You—you died.” She was shaking, her mind sprinting like a frightened jackrabbit, trying to find the exit, the answer. Anything that might save her.

  “I couldn’t tell you,” Simon said, his tone even and emotionless.

  She felt lightheaded and as though she might need to bend over, the full shock of seeing him sinking in.

  Her baby’s father was alive.

  He’d been her boyfriend. A man she’d trusted. A man who might or might not have betrayed her family. They’d both been on the run for months, and the part of her that had feared he’d been killed by her family wanted to weep. He was alive.

  But he’d left her pregnant, alone and on the run.

  And for what?

  She swallowed hard, trying to slow her thoughts. Nothing made sense.

  Beside her Zach shifted his weight, and her attention snapped to him. “Why do you know him?” she demanded.

  “He’s Xavier’s father?” There was barely a question in the statement. Zach’s eyes were unreadable. He’d closed himself off from her.

  She focused on Simon whose gaze kept straying to her son. Hers. Not his, not theirs. He’d left her. Faked his death and abandoned her. He’d caused all this—the fear, the need to hide from the world, unable to trust anyone. Unable to figure out what had truly gone on, and how severe the threat to her and her son actually was.

  “Why are you here?” Catherine stepped forward, ready to deck Simon for being so selfish. For failing to be honest, for hiding things from her.

  “It wasn’t safe to come sooner.”

  “And it’s safe now?”

  He didn’t meet her eyes and her rage intensified.

  “Were you the snitch?” He still didn’t look at her. “Did you cause all of this? Did you put a target on my back?” His actions had threatened everything, hadn’t they? And then, because he was either stupid or selfish, he’d burst into her new life and threatened everything once again.

  “You need to leave.” She pointed down the mountain even though he didn’t look up to meet her fiery gaze. “Now. I never want to see you again.”

  What if she and Xavier weren’t safe here?

  Simon moved toward her, but Zach stepped between them, shielding her. “She’s a civilian.”

  The man tipped his head, having one of those silent conversations she’d seen Zach and Logan have. “We need a minute,” he finally stated, and Zach reluctantly eased to the side with an audible sigh.

  “Make things right,” he warned him.

  “No.” Catherine felt as though her eyes were daggers, slicing Simon, but he didn’t seem to notice. “No,” she repeated, this time to Zach. She was not talking to Simon. There was no way to make this right. She felt like crying at the futility of it all. To have come so far, to have built so much with this man, only to have to leave it all behind once again.

  Zach’s shoulders drooped as he said, “It’s probably for the best if you hear him out.”

  “No.”

  “I’ll be just down the path if you need me.” When he met her gaze, there was nothing there. Just a wall. He was shutting her out, shifting aside instead of stepping up and claiming his spot beside her, and it hurt worse than it had losing Simon. As Zach shuffled down the path, he moved as though a part of him had broken.

  She longed to reach out to him, but he was a part of this somehow, and she felt as though she could no longer trust him—the only person she’d ever felt she could.

  “I don’t have much time, Patty,” Simon said, leading her to the clearing.

  “I’m no longer Patty.”

  He still had that same rugged look, that serious, thoughtful expression and that way of gazing at her that made her feel as though she was seen by him. It was similar to Zach’s. Only Zach made her feel like he cared, while Simon? She swallowed hard as the truth sank in. He wasn’t here for her. He was here for himself. He needed something, and whatever it was, she was determined not to give it to him.
/>   “I’m married,” she stated.

  “I wanted to give you this.” He held out an envelope. It was thick. Thick with payoff. “For Xavier.”

  She crossed her arms across her chest so she wouldn’t automatically take it as he pressed the envelope closer. She wasn’t taking his bribe. Taking his money would be accepting the way he’d taken her life and thrown it away. “How do you know Xavier’s name?”

  Simon glanced down the sloping trail, and Catherine followed his gaze to where Zach was pacing, just out of earshot. He kept one hand on Xavier’s back as though afraid the boy would vanish if he didn’t touch him. Simon finally looked at her, his expression pained.

  “How do you know Zach?” she asked. “Did he tell you where to find me?”

  “Zach will keep you safe.”

  “What do you mean?” The grim set of Simon’s jaw told her there was danger lurking. He’d stirred a pot and now she had to pay the price. “Do they know where I am? Is someone looking for me?”

  “Zach’s an associate—a retired one. He understands.”

  “Understands what?” Her stomach was threatening to drop out, as well as her heart. The world was spinning as things clicked into place, forming puzzle pieces she wanted to deny.

  Zach was an associate?

  Simon’s envelope of cash. A payoff for being involved with him. But the worst part was that Simon had said Zach understood.

  Understood Simon. Understood how to break and enter. How to keep things hush-hush.

  He had secrets. A past.

  Zach had said no thief would dare mess with his home.

  Now she knew why.

  He was just like her father.

  She’d found him because Leo, also a friend of Simon’s, had recommended she come here.

  And she’d been naïve enough to listen. To trust him.

  Simon was an associate, Zach was an associate.

  No matter how hard and how far she ran, she’d never escape her family’s reach. She would be on the run for the rest of her life.

  She staggered toward the lookout bench as her legs lost their strength.

  But instead of Simon catching her, Zach did, her son still strapped to his chest. When she looked up into Zach’s eyes, she knew what she saw was real. But she’d thought she’d seen that in Simon’s eyes, too, once upon a time.

  And Simon had played her. He’d put her life and Xavier’s in danger.

  She shook off Zach’s grip on her arm, vowing that this time when she ran nobody was going to find her.

  Nobody.

  Zach wasn’t sure what Simon had said to Catherine, but he knew it couldn’t have been good.

  His wife shook off his touch, jerking the carrier clips that had Xavier strapped to him. Within seconds, the small child was clipped to her instead, his words falling on deaf ears as she mindlessly turned to flee.

  “What did you say?” Zach growled at Simon as Catherine fled down the mountain path.

  He couldn’t believe the agent was Xavier’s father. That he’d left her to figure this all out on her own. There was the idea of civilian casualties, and then there was this betrayal that had her and her child unprotected and on the run. He wanted to string the man up by his toenails.

  Simon shook his head, face averted. “Classified. Go to her. Keep her here, keep her hidden, keep her safe.”

  Zach clenched and unclenched his fists, his chest was cold without Xavier snuggled against him, cold without Catherine’s trust. He feared he might never get her back.

  “For the record, I hope you rot in hell,” he said to Simon as he turned to run after Catherine.

  He caught up with her partway to the parking lot, the engagement ring safe in his pocket. How had everything gone so wrong so quickly?

  “Catherine, wait,” he said, jogging up behind her. He struggled to use a calm and soothing voice that would settle her, instead of the panicked one that threatened to burst forth at the idea of losing her.

  What had Simon gotten her involved in? Was he the stalker she was trying to hide from? Or was it worse? Much, much worse?

  Her jaw was set and she’d thrown up that wall he’d worked so hard to scale. He could practically see her securing every padlock at her disposal to shut him out.

  Helpless, he followed her down the trail, pleading with her. Her boots slipped on the packed snow as she hurried to get ahead of him, and he feared she’d fall and hurt herself and Xavier. He dropped back despite wanting to strong-arm her into listening to him. Moments later she burst into the parking lot, and Zach slowed once again as he caught sight of Logan reaching out to her.

  He could hear his friend’s deep voice saying, “Hey there, my sheila, what’s up?”

  She bolted in the opposite direction.

  Zach picked up his pace, fearing she was about to disappear no matter what the risk might be.

  Catherine tore across a snowy meadow, lungs and legs screaming for her to slow down, wishing the packed path she was on went straighter so she could get to the house faster. Get the diaper bag and disappear.

  Forever.

  Why had she left it at home? How had she become so complacent so quickly that the diaper bag was just one more thing to carry, and she no longer felt the need to bring it everywhere if she could get away with simply bringing an extra diaper? It wasn’t about the diapers!

  Xavier was fussing at the rough treatment he was receiving as he bounced in the front carrier. She pressed her hand against his back, supporting his head and holding him close, but continued to run as though someone was after her.

  She darted a glance over her shoulder, but nobody was there. Not Zach, not Simon, not Logan. She slowed her pace so she wouldn’t twist an ankle, but kept moving toward town, the warm little houses with their puffs of wood smoke and furnace exhaust creating clouds above them. It might appear idyllic and safe, but she no longer felt that.

  Simon hadn’t died, but had been tracking her. Had come to pay her off, possibly leading someone else right to her in the process. There was nobody she could trust.

  She had been living with a man who was associated with the family she’d tried to escape.

  She’d been trying so hard to lead a different life that she hadn’t even seen what was right in front of her. Again.

  She reached the house, surprised and relieved to find Zach wasn’t already there waiting for her.

  He wouldn’t be long.

  She needed to hurry.

  “What did you say to her?” Logan asked. There was a hint of lighthearted amusement in his tone, but his eyes told Zach he was well aware that something serious had happened on the mountainside.

  “Why was Simon Whitman up there?” Zach demanded.

  “Simon?”

  “Who’s Simon?” Ginger asked, coming around the car, her brow furrowed. “What happened with Catherine?”

  Without looking, Logan held up the car keys for Ginger to take. He said to her, “It’s time for you to head home and stay there until I say otherwise.”

  Ginger’s mouth opened to protest, but instead she took the keys, her confusion turning to concern as she said, “I love you. Be safe, okay?”

  Logan turned briefly to Ginger, placing a kiss tight against her lips before releasing her, his attention back on Zach as Ginger started the car, pulling away.

  “What did Whitman want?” Logan asked.

  Zach’s chest hurt like someone had knifed him. “He’s Xavier’s father.”

  Logan’s expression turned thoughtful.

  “We need her history,” Zach said. “All of it. Who’s she hiding from? How is Whitman involved? Why did he leave her unprotected and on the run?”

  He wanted to hit something. Hard. Rage was ripping through him with the force of a category five hurricane, tearing away his resolve to simply be an average citizen. He needed to act. Needed to pull favors. Needed to dig to the bottom of this and get Catherine to safety.

  Something was very, very wrong.

  “I thought you
wanted to see if you could handle normal life,” Logan said carefully.

  “That was before an active M16 agent crashed my marriage proposal, in the middle of nowhere.” Zach froze for a second as things clicked into place.

  He swore under his breath.

  Simon Whitman was the one responsible for taking down the Davies gang in the UK.

  “See if Catherine’s real name is Patty Davies. And find out which nightclub she used to work in.” He’d bet anything it was the one Simon had infiltrated when he’d gone undercover to make his arrests. Had he used her to gain insider information on her family? Was she an active part of the crime family? She’d said she was alone by choice. Was the choice face prison, or run away and assume a new identity in a foreign country?

  Had he been harboring a fugitive?

  Although if Catherine was in fact Patty, journalists covering the story believed she’d been trying to escape the family for some time. She’d told Zach she’d unwittingly helped commit a crime at the nightclub. Her shame and agony over having a hand in the money laundering had been genuine.

  His best bet was that Simon had used her, then faked his own death to give himself a way out, leaving Catherine with no choice but to flee.

  Whitman hadn’t taken care of her. He’d put her in danger. But what was the specific danger? Her own family? Were they blaming her for ending their empire and putting them behind bars?

  She was Patty Davies, wasn’t she? She was the missing woman on the news that he’d worried may have been a casualty in the massive takedown. She was alive and had been living with him. And he hadn’t even made the connection.

  Zach hated that he’d missed that. But even more, that Simon Whitman might have just painted a new target on his wife and child.

  “Find out where Jerry Davies is,” Zach said, dread creeping in. Missing these things had lost them time. Time they needed to stay ahead of what was coming.

  “He escaped jail,” Logan replied.

  “I know,” Zach said grimly. “And I fear he might be looking for payback.”

  Xavier was howling in his carrier as Catherine grabbed the car seat from its spot at the door, along with the diaper bag. Two more steps and she’d be gone. The front door opened and she braced herself for the upcoming confrontation with Zach as well as his well-earned confusion.