“Time for bed.” He scooped Winnie up in his arms and kissed the top of her head. As he went through their normal routine of songs and cuddles before pulling the covers up in the twin bed she’d proclaimed to be hers, every heart stopping moment in the study replayed on a loop. He had almost kissed Delaney. He’d felt so close to her before the bomb dropped.
At Winnie’s request, he sat on the edge of the bed as she fell asleep. He wanted to believe Delaney when she said that she hadn’t been trying to get close to him to get to Winnie, but he’d been betrayed badly before. Words were cheap.
He consoled himself with the thought that Delaney couldn’t take Winnie away, but what was he to do with this new twist? He wouldn’t want to deny Winnie the chance to get to know her mother. How was he going to cross that potential minefield? And, if he did believe Delaney, did that mean there was a possibility of a future together for the two of them?
Did his heart even matter in the equation? He let his chin drop to his chest. I have no idea what the right thing to do is. I need help.
A small vibration below his feet caused him to turn toward the doorway where Delaney stood. Her face had taken on that hard exterior he recalled from their first meeting. She lifted a thumb over her shoulder.
Winnie breathed loudly and deeply, a sure sign she had finally fallen asleep for the night. He tiptoed into the hallway and met Delaney in the living room.
“The trial is tomorrow,” she said softly.
“Tomorrow? I thought we’d have time to—” he’d almost said process “—recover.” His eyes caught sight of two black flip phones on the dining room table that had been snapped into pieces. “You have more news?”
She nodded. “None of the deputies in our caravan today were killed. They were able to capture the armed men.”
He leaned forward. “Does that mean the danger is gone?”
“Unfortunately, no. They were hired men. In fact, they were former contractors for the government—”
He groaned and shook his head. “I don’t like where this is headed. They thought they were hired by the government to kill me?”
“At first, to simply show a presence.”
“Like the time they drove by and shot at the SUV?”
“Exactly. But two days ago they received word to eliminate you and Nancy.” She exhaled. “We think the sniper at the courthouse was part of their unit, but I don’t have confirmation yet. All the digital sanctions they received did look very official. The FBI is sorting it out. The good news is they are off the street.”
“It doesn’t mean the CryptTakers can’t hire someone else using the same phony credentials, though, does it?”
“That’s part of the reason the trial was moved to tomorrow, so it’s less likely another private group can be hired.” She sighed. “The last bit of news is that I talked to Kurt, and his sources couldn’t find any CryptTaker connections to any of the deputies or Bradford.”
“That’s good news.”
She shook her head. “In this case, it’s not, because I still don’t know who planted the trackers in Winnie’s shoes. Can I assume Winnie had more than one pair of shoes?”
“Yes, she has many.”
“So, how did someone know which pair to put the trackers in?”
“Do we know they weren’t placed in every pair?”
She nodded. “Kurt thought of that and asked a detective in the Ames PD to make a visit to your house. No other trackers.” She stepped forward. “Can you think of anyone who would want to track your daughter?”
He sank down onto the couch. He didn’t miss how she emphasized your daughter. She was trying to make peace. He looked up into her eyes. If he could do it all over again, when she’d first told him the news, he would’ve done everything differently.
It wasn’t as if he’d never thought about meeting Winnie’s birth mom. He just thought it’d be years down the road. He’d even researched the right things to say, but they’d all flown out of his head because it was Delaney. How could it be her? The woman he was falling in lo—No. He wouldn’t even let himself think that way. He didn’t want to be in another unequal relationship where the person didn’t feel as strongly about him. He steeled his mind. “First off. She’s your daughter, too.”
A sharp breath from the other room snagged his attention. Well, if Sylvia wasn’t sure before, she knew now.
Delaney blushed. “As soon as we get to the courts, I’ll make sure you’re assigned different protection.” She hung her head. “I won’t deny that I want to be part of her life, but I accept the consequences of my decision those years ago. I won’t push. You can take as much time as you need.”
Her words sounded rehearsed, but they still squeezed his heart. Did she genuinely figure out Winnie was her daughter at the same time he did? He wanted to believe she’d been honest with him, but it was so hard to trust. He shoved away the thoughts and avoided commenting on her statement. He wasn’t ready to make any decisions.
“As far as who would track her, I don’t know anyone in my life that would do such a thing. The shoes... They were an early birthday gift from Trevor. Has her favorite character on them. Everyone that knew us would’ve noticed it was the only pair she would wear ever since she got them, even with dresses.”
“Your stepbrother gave them to her?”
He nodded. “He said he didn’t think he’d be back in the States in time for her birthday.” Bruce didn’t like the look on Delaney’s face. “He may be selfish and a bit materialistic, but he’s always loved Winnie. And I know for a fact that the trackers weren’t in the soles that originally came with the shoes.”
Her brow furrowed. “You said he was in your ethical hacking group from college?”
“Yes, but so were Shannon and a handful of other people I still consider friends. Most of them weren’t great at it. It’s a tough skill to master. They were mostly there to support the few of us who were better suited to it, and because our computer science professor promised extra credit if we learned.”
Bruce ticked off the points on his fingers. “Shannon was great at coding but didn’t have the knack for creating. She needed someone to tell her exactly what they wanted. On the other hand, Trevor is a jack-of-all-trades guy. He could do well at any of the parts of programming if he’d actually put his mind to it, but he wanted so much variety in his life he was much better at visioning and selling.”
“All the same, I’m going to use another burner to see if we can get a location on Trevor. Especially since you thought you saw him.”
“I’m telling you, it couldn’t have been him.” Although he didn’t know why he was being defensive. It hurt that Trevor hadn’t kept in touch. Maybe he needed to step back from his emotions in this and let Delaney take whatever steps the situation required. “But better safe than sorry,” he conceded.
She gave him a pointed look. “You should get some sleep. Tomorrow is going to be a long day.”
“You think it’ll finally be over?”
She stilled. “It’ll either be over or we’ll know it’s time for WITSEC.” Her voice quavered on the last word. They wouldn’t see each other again if he and Winnie went into the program. Unless she came with them. He wasn’t going to say it, though. Not yet. He needed a week to clear his head, but all he was going to get was a night, so he prayed the Lord would work wonders with the time allotted.
Her grandparents walked into the living room. Sylvia wrung her hands, but it was the retired chief who spoke. “I know there’s a lot of tension and things to sort in this room, but we want you to know we will respect your decisions.”
Sylvia stepped forward. “Keep in mind that we would be happy to watch Winnie here while you’re at court for the day. You’ve already seen we are armed and ready for anything.”
Anything. The word filled with uncertainty was what he feared most.
F
IFTEEN
Four in the morning didn’t come as fast as Delaney would’ve liked. She tossed and turned for the few hours she had to sleep. Finally, she grabbed a cup of coffee and stiffened at the strange humming noises coming from outside.
“Don’t worry. They’re prairie chickens,” Grandpa said. “They do the funniest dance, bouncing up and down trying to attract a mate, and it’s always before the day’s light. If you were able to stay longer, I’d make sure you got to see it. Bird-watchers come from all over to see them.”
“You really love it here, don’t you? The prairie life suits you as much as Grandma.”
“Once you find something you love, you do what you have to in order to be near it.”
Delaney almost rolled her eyes. It was obvious he wasn’t talking about the prairie. “I want to arrive at the court before business hours, which means a 5:00 a.m. departure.”
Grandpa agreed with her thinking. No one would expect them to arrive before sunrise. Every move she made today would need to be unpredictable.
Bruce must’ve employed the same strategy of thinking because he came into the living room and asked Grandpa if he could take up Sylvia’s offer to watch Winnie. Grandma overheard and entered the living room, still in her quilted bathrobe. She nodded rapidly and accepted a mug of coffee from Grandpa. Grandma held up the mug but didn’t drink, trying to cover up her giant smile. Delaney wasn’t fooled, though, as she spotted the way her grandmother’s eyes crinkled with joy.
Grandpa was already fully dressed in a flannel shirt and khaki pants—his preferred method for avoiding mosquitos—for his predawn walk around the perimeter of the prairie before breakfast. He didn’t say anything about Bruce’s decision either, but the way he beamed said it all.
As far as she knew, Winnie was their first great-grandchild, but Delaney couldn’t bring herself to say that to Bruce. A fresh wave of shame washed over her at what could’ve been.
They got into Grandpa’s truck but would only drive it for fifteen minutes. She pulled her shoulders back and focused on the country road ahead. They stopped at a storage unit where Grandpa kept old police souvenirs and an extra car he said they’d only used on long road trips to save gas.
Marshal Bradford had offered to send another caravan, but the way Delaney saw it, the more potential digital footprints accompanying them, the more risk of attack. They changed vehicles at the storage unit and got on the road again.
Silence had been her best friend for the past thirty-four months, but it betrayed her during the drive to Des Moines. Instead of soothing her and giving her the headspace to maintain a calm, logical outlook, the absence of Bruce’s voice tensed her muscles. He sat in the seat next to her and perused the fields as the sun crested the horizon.
She stuck to back roads and avoided all highways and freeways. Miles of plains in either direction made her feel even more alone. The car was without a radio, so the minutes ticked by slowly. But eventually the sky grew brighter. On the final turn toward Des Moines, the phone she’d placed in the cup holder rattled. “I forgot to tell you that burner phone is yours.”
He finally looked at her. “Oh?”
“I gave my grandparents a phone as well, with only that number programmed. If they have any questions or problems, they promised to call you. I also gave them another phone to call me in case you can’t answer.”
His eyes warmed, provoking her skin to flush. “Thank you.”
Ten more minutes of torturous silence brought them to within a block of their destination.
“Delaney—”
“Yes?” She sounded too eager, too breathless. She leaned back in her seat and tried to sound more professional. “Is everything okay?”
His gaze went to her lips and back to her eyes. “Promise me you won’t leave today. I know you said you’ll resign from my detail, but before we part ways, I want to talk. No matter what happens in there, I want to...talk.”
His tone held no hint of good or bad. What was he going to say? That he wanted her to stay away for the next fifteen years? Her throat closed at the thought, but if that was his decision then she’d respect it. At least she knew Winnie had a great father. A great father who deserved to find someone who loved him and would support him and...
“Okay. I’ll make sure we find somewhere to talk before the end of the day.” She blinked away the burning sensation in her eyes to finish the journey.
This time, they entered the gate without bullets. Deputies in plainclothes appeared from parked cars and surrounded Bruce when he stepped out. Delaney kept her eye on the skies, the moon barely visible as the sky lightened into a lovely shade of blue. The deputies formed a ring around Bruce until they climbed the steps and were safely within the courthouse.
A law clerk waited for Bruce on the other side of the security scanner. As they crossed over, Delaney couldn’t help but feel she was crossing back over into a life without him. Flanked by other deputies, Bruce disappeared into the elevator, on his way to the pretrial interview.
“Good work. I knew you were the right one for the job.”
Delaney spun around at Bradford’s voice. She’d held back her fury when they’d spoke on the phone the previous night, waiting for this moment when she could express her feelings face-to-face, both for herself and her grandparents. “Did you know?”
Bradford’s face broke into a wide smile. He registered the scowl she knew she wore and a shadow crept over his joyful demeanor. “No.”
“You’re a horrible liar.” She stepped dangerously close to a line she would normally never think of crossing with a superior, someone who had the power to shut down her career forever. But he was more than a boss. Bradford was a friend, or so she’d thought, and the feeling of betrayal ran hot in her veins. “You did know. Otherwise you wouldn’t know what I was talking about. You sent me to my grandparents, and don’t even try to deny that you knew who they were.”
“Oh, that. Yes, I did know about your grandparents.”
“And you withheld the information from Bruce’s background check that would’ve tipped me off to Winnie being my—my—” The anger bubbled up so hot in her throat that it choked off her words. She fought back tears and took sharp, jagged breaths to regain her composure.
Bradford stepped closer and placed a hand on her shoulder. “Now, that I didn’t know about.” He closed his eyes at the sound of her harrumph. “I suspected, nothing more. Her adoption papers were sealed so I had no way of knowing for sure. But when I saw Bruce’s photo in the file...” He seemed to be at a loss for words. “I was in the hospital, in the waiting room, when you had your little girl.”
She shook her head. “I thought you left after you dropped me off. I didn’t see you later. Not until you came when I needed the emergency surgery days later.”
“I also stayed there the night you gave birth. One of the nurses told me you decided to give up your baby for adoption. No one was there for you at the hospital. I knew you were estranged from your family and didn’t know any other way to help except to be there in case you needed somebody to talk to. But when I came to check on you after the delivery, they had given you something so you could sleep.”
Delaney couldn’t hold on to her anger. Instead, tears of gratitude fought to get past her defenses. “I didn’t know you were there.”
Bradford looked up into the sky as if seeing the night again in his mind. “I turned to leave and was walking down the hallway when a young man ran into the lobby, nervous and shaking with excitement. He held a car seat and had a diaper bag slung over his shoulder.”
“You saw Bruce.”
He nodded. “I saw Bruce. I didn’t know his name at the time, but I hung out in the lobby for a little bit. I know I probably shouldn’t have, but I wanted to know if your little girl was going to be in good hands. I knew you had a certain amount of time to legally change your mind.”
“You
were going to strong-arm me into keeping my daughter if Bruce rubbed you the wrong way?”
“I had every intention of doing what I thought was best for your baby, but this man loved her. The lady with him was much more subdued, but she seemed okay. Competent and gentle, at least.”
Tears rushed down Delaney’s cheeks. “I never should’ve let her go. I should’ve been stronger.”
He put his hands on her cheeks and looked into her eyes. “You were doing the best you could with the information and resources you had.”
She closed her eyes. “I couldn’t even fathom ever being able to work again. I thought I was going to end up homeless and alone and couldn’t do that to her. It took me weeks to realize that I would survive, one foot in front of another. I could have made a home for her, but it was too late by the time I realized I shouldn’t have let her go.”
He pulled her into a hug. Delaney stiffened at first, embarrassed that another deputy might see her hugging their boss, but then she decided she didn’t care.
She stepped back. “Is that why you sent for me to come back to Iowa? You thought I was ready to get her back?”
“No. I had no idea Bruce would become a witness. I kept an eye on your career and genuinely thought you would be a great addition to the team.” He shrugged. “I might’ve been a little quicker to become involved in the case after I saw Bruce’s photograph.”
“To make sure I was lead?”
“As for your grandparents, I heard that they won a prairie grant and I always thought that would make a good safe house.”
Delaney noticed he’d ignored her question, but she let it go. “And the perfect forced reconciliation situation?”
He shrugged.
“I suppose I should thank you.” She sniffed and regained her composure.
“Does Bruce know that she’s your...”
“Yes.” The word came out as a whisper.
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