13
Naomi is gone.
The words spun through her head over and over as she ran through the woods, the backpack pulled tight so she could tie the ends around her waist and keep it from bouncing. She hadn’t had time to check to see what was in the backpack; she just knew that Ty and Senora had seemed prepared for anything, and the backpack would be enough for now. She would make it work.
She’d been so close to them when Senora had said the words, but somehow, they’d missed her. It was all well and good; she was never getting into the car with them again. They were one of them, and they couldn’t be trusted. She’d already been slipping away and well behind them when Senora had opened the door and said the words that were still ringing in her ears.
Naomi is gone.
Now, if she could just get her feet to quit weighing her down and the voices to quit swirling in her head, that would make this bearable.
She snorted but didn’t manage a laugh. Bearable. There were bears in the woods, and there were bears in that house that wanted to take her. She’d gotten away from them three times now, four if she counted this time. Still, Senora had seemed so trustworthy and genuine. But when Jessica had rolled the window down a crack, she’d heard enough to know that Senora was one of them, and she couldn’t trust any of them. Jessica was better off trusting herself and no one else. She was going to find the nearest town and figure out where she was, and then she was going to go back to New Edmonton and get Evie. Matt wasn’t going to win this one.
She jogged on in silence, her breathing slower than usual. Sure it was from whatever drug Ty had given her, she ignored the extra slow breathing and the heavy, led-like feeling in her legs. The more she ran, the faster she’d work the drugs out of her system. She just had to push through it. Just push through it.
Naomi is gone.
Evie isn’t hers.
There’s a family in Spokane.
Matt didn’t marry her until two years ago.
How old is Evie?
How old is Evie!
HOW OLD IS EVIE?!
Jessica wanted to scream out, but she didn’t. The thoughts were there and her own voice, declaring something she didn’t believe about coincidences. Something so simple, yet she had no idea where it had come from.
Naomi.
Jessica reached up with her hands, grabbing fistfuls of hair and yanking, trying to pull the thoughts out of her head. She was Jessica, mother of Evie. Sweet Evie, who would be four in December. Her sweet, precious Evie. The child she’d given birth to and loved more than she’d loved herself.
Do you remember giving birth?
She didn’t remember. She didn’t have to remember. Evie was there, sweet and sassy as could be and every bit like Naomi.
Jessica, she corrected herself, moaning under her breath against the pictures that flashed through her head. The deplorable, dog kennel conditions of her captors. The darkness and the light. The sterile, hospital feel and the little room that was all hers. The pictures of a woman that looked like her in another life, hiking in the forest with a black, curly-haired dog.
Curly-coated Retriever, she thought, and she knew it was right. But she’d never seen a dog like that. And her kidnappers had kept her in a dog kennel. In the dark.
She latched onto that image, but it faded, replaced again by the small but cozy room with the pictures on all the walls.
Naomi.
“My name is Jessica,” she whispered out loud in the darkness.
Were they coming for her? Would they assume she’d run directly across the street and into the tree line? Would that buy her some time when she’d snuck from the other side of the Jeep toward the house until the house was between her and Senora, and the window above her head was dark and high, like a bathroom window? She wouldn’t have been seen, and they wouldn’t think she would take the long way through the fog and into the woods on the bear’s property. And now, she was running in the dark as fast as she could without being able to see much, and she couldn’t hear anything but the sound of her own breathing and the manic, constant, intrusive thoughts that were plaguing her.
They weren’t the good guys. Ty was wrong. They had held her captive, and they’d battered her.
She tried to pull up the memory of the incident that had left her face bruised and swollen, but nothing would come.
Still running, she could see herself running as if she were in two places at once. The second place, the place of her memories, was superimposed over the shadows in front of her. In her mind’s eye, she saw herself turn to look over her shoulder, and before she could stop it, she ran full force into a tree. She was knocked off her feet and onto the ground, knocking the wind out of her. In the present, her body reacted to the image, breathing out so forcefully that it hurt.
They beat me, she insisted, and the image played again and again. No matter how much she denied it, each time she ran into the tree and came away with a busted lip, a black eye, and a swollen cheek.
You ran into a tree, Naomi, a voice inside her taunted. It was a tree. It was a tree. No one hit you; you ran into a tree, the voice sang. Jessica shoved her fingers into her ears, still running in the dark night.
Tears flowed down her face, and the eerie fog parted and swirled around her with each step. Her mind was playing tricks on her. She didn’t run into a tree. They hurt her. They kept her in a tiny little cage like a dog-
In a room with a large bed and the softest rug she’d ever felt beneath her bare feet.
The internal battle raged on, and she couldn’t stop it. There were flashes of her as Jessica, snuggling with Evie on the couch, then another flash of herself hiking down a trail in the woods, stopping to take a picture of a beautiful waterfall with her cell phone’s camera.
She didn’t know when she’d stopped running or when the world she was in at that very moment slipped away and left her wading in a sea of confusing memories. The images spun around her head, and she sat down hard in the damp grass, tears streaming unchecked down her face.
She didn’t know what was real and what wasn’t. If you’d asked her the day before, she would have told you that Evie’s birth was quick and easy and that Evie had been the perfect baby. But when Jessica tried to pull the memories of that day up, she couldn’t remember the actual birth. She couldn’t even remember being pregnant.
Who forgot being pregnant?
“No, no, no,” she said, shaking her head miserably.
Evie was her child, and she wouldn’t stop until she found her and got her away from Matt. Even Senora agreed that Matt was dangerous and would be going to jail. Evie would need her mother, and Naomi was her mother.
Naomi? Jessica thought, realizing that even in her own musings, she’d called herself Naomi. How could that be? It wasn’t true. The bears were lying, and they’d convinced Ty and then Senora that Jessica was crazy and that she wasn’t the person that she thought she was. This whole time, Senora had been her champion, and now Jessica was alone and lost. She didn’t know what city she was in or even what state at this point. And she was out in the woods again, in the darkness, trying to find her way around in the dark.
She wanted to stand up, but the grief was too much. She wanted Evie, wanted to hold her snuggly little self in her arms and breathe the scent of the baby shampoo that Jessica still used, even though Evie was almost four. Jessica inhaled and choked on a soft, miserable sob. Her thoughts were scattered, and she felt completely and utterly broken.
Her memories were falling into place right now, with each one feeling more like a scene from a movie than her life. The terrifying images that she’d clung to had begun to fade away, and all she could remember was the fight with Matt and then the nice, quiet, sterile rooms of the Campus.
Jessica hugged herself, rocking back and forth as she keened in agony. It felt like her heart was ripping in two, and the voices in her head wouldn’t stop. She was losing her grasp on reality, and she felt like she would fly apart and explode at any second.
What had caused the fight? Why had she stepped away from the obedient, sweet wife she’d been for as long as she could remember and turned into a strong-minded, independent woman?
The picture. It was the picture that had done it. She closed her eyes, trying not to push too hard and shove the memory back into the vault she’d created to protect herself. The change in her hadn’t been from giving birth; it had been because of the picture.
She could almost see it: the white and yellow plumes of the duster as she quickly tidied up before Matt got home. Evie was asleep, and Jessica had forgotten to keep an eye on the cleaning lady that came once a week.
Jessica had paid the woman and sent her on her way when she walked by the shelf filled with family photos in ornate frames and noticed the layer of dust on the frames. She’d checked the time and decided that she needed to take care of the frames before Matt came home, and then she could change and greet him before she left for her afternoon jog.
She’d been in a hurry, and she’d knocked one of the frames down and onto the floor. She’d cringed, waiting for the ugly sound of breaking glass, but the glass had held firm on the soft carpeting. The back popped off, and the picture fell out as the frame tumbled a few times before coming to a stop. Quickly, Jessica bent down to retrieve the photo, then gently pulled what turned out to be two photographs apart.
Behind the photo that she’d walked by daily for more than a year was another picture she didn’t remember seeing. She flipped it over and read Matt’s familiar cursive, which was neater than any man’s handwriting that she’d seen.
Jessica Marie Baker and Evie Renae Baker
Evie’s date of birth was hastily written beneath the names. Jessica flipped the picture over again, a smile on her face as she held it close and peered at the tiny baby in the picture which had obviously been taken from across the room.
Jessica gasped when her eyes fell onto the face of the woman holding the baby just as the front door opened behind her.
She turned, her face stricken when her eyes met Matt’s.
“What are you doing?” Matt asked, face pinched with anger the instant he saw the picture.
“The frame fell, and the picture popped out with the other one. Matt, who is this woman?”
“That’s you,” he said, closing the distance between them in three quick, angry steps. “Who else would it be?”
Jessica shook her head.
“That’s not me,” she said.
“Jessica, you’re being silly,” Matt said, yanking the photo out of her hand and putting it into his suit pocket. “Have you eaten today? You look a little flushed.” He put his hand on her head as if to feel for a fever. “Are you feeling well?”
Jessica slapped his hand away.
“Who is she?” she asked through clenched teeth.
“Stop this!” Matt shrieked, spittle flying from his mouth. “Stop what you’re doing, Jessica. This is you with Evie on the day she was born. Who the hell else would it be, Naomi?”
Matt stopped, looking at her with eyes that were wide. She’d heard it; he’d called her another name. Jessica looked at him, then Evie had started calling out to her. Her little voice came through the monitor in a hushed whisper. She had heard them fighting, and she was scared.
“Mommy,” Evie called out into the monitor. “Mommy, I need you.”
“We’ll talk about this later,” Jessica said. “You’re hiding something, and I’m not going to let your secrets tear this family apart. Evie deserves better than that, and so help me, Matt Baker, I love you.”
She turned and went up the stairs before he could say anything, scooping Evie up from her bed and twirling the little girl around until her sweet little giggles filled the room.
“Is daddy mad?” Evie had whispered into her ear, chubby toddler arms wrapped around Jessica’s neck.
“Daddy had a rough day at work,” Jessica lied. “So, we’re going to order pizza and have a movie night.”
Evie had smiled then, kissing Jessica on the cheek and declaring that she was the best mommy in the world, then climbing down from her arms and running to change into her favorite princess dress.
Jessica had been kidnapped two weeks later, and until tonight, she hadn’t even remembered the picture.
Naomi.
She tried the name out, her eyes still squeezed shut against the deluge of tears that wouldn’t seem to quit. This was a nightmare, and she knew that they were wrong. They were all wrong. Evie was her little girl, and she was Jessica Baker, mother, housewife, and survivor. They weren’t going to break her. She was going to escape this mess, and she was going to find her little girl to protect her from the monster who called himself a husband and a father.
She had to move. The longer she sat there, weeping, the more likely it was that they would find her. She couldn’t let them find her, even if she didn’t really understand who they were. She’d made a promise to Evie, and she wasn’t going to let her little girl down.
Jessica stood, slipping the backpack off her back and opening it carefully. She found the self-filtering water bottle she’d used earlier, as well as several meal replacement bars and a small can of bear spray with a carabiner on the end so she could hook it to her clothes. Leaving the bars for later, she grabbed the bear spray and put it in the pocket of her hoodie. Then, she took a quick sip of the cool water and put it back before slinging the bag back on her shoulders.
Walking now, she was feeling rather confident. She’d seen enough in the soft glow of the moon reflecting off the low-lying fog to know that she could survive off what was in the backpack for at least a week. But that wasn’t the best part. The best part was that she’d seen a pocket stuffed to the brim with cash, and that was what was going to get her back to her Evie. If she kept heading away from the house into the woods, she would find a road. With the money she had, she would find a way to get back home and collect Evie. Matt was too arrogant to change the codes on the keyless entry pads on the house, and even if he did, Jessica remembered the override code. She would get into the house, take the keys to one of the two cars that were in her name, and she would go to daycare and pick Evie up. It was that simple. She just had to make it out of the woods and find her way home.
She started jogging again, keeping her eyes and ears open in case there were wild animals around. She had a plan now, and she had the means to make that plan a reality. She felt completely content and confident that this would all work out. It had to work out.
Didn’t the good guys always win? She knew she was one of the good guys, and she had no doubt that Matt was firmly on the side of evil. Why else would he bludgeon her with a shovel and dump her in the woods to die? There was no good reason to do that.
Not to mention having her kidnapped in the first place. Had he paid extra for the brainwashing? Was it his idea to make her think that her name was Naomi?
Her head was spinning, but at the same time, she felt clearer. The drugs were wearing off, and even though her reflexes were still kind of slow, she felt much more in control than she had.
The little voices in the back of her mind slowly died down, and then they were gone. She was herself again, Jessica Baker on a mission to save her sweet Evie from living her life with a man who would do the things that he’d done to the mother of his child. He would pay for what he did, and if she had anything to do with it, she would make sure that he never saw the light of day again. It was the only surefire way to protect Evie, and if Jessica had to get on the witness stand and bare her soul, she would. She would do anything for Evie.
If she had to, she would lay down her own life for her child. Her child. Matt could say whatever he wanted, and the bears, Ty, and Senora could believe him, but she knew in her heart that she was Evie’s mother and always had been. She would hold onto that love, and just like it had before, her love for Evie would protect her from the lies and the doubts, and she would find her way home.
These people had no idea who they were dealing with, and an entire herd of bears wouldn’t stop her. They were in over their heads, and Matt was about to find out that nothing he could pay would get rid of her.
She couldn’t wait to see the look on his face.
*
“You guys need to leave,” Michael said, standing beside their Jeep. “I know you want to help find her, Senora, but she’s been gone for at least thirty minutes. She could be anywhere.”
“This place is surrounded by woods,” Senora said. “We can’t just leave her to fend for herself.”
“She took my backpack,” Ty said. “She’s not as bad off as she was last night.”
“The men are coming. If she’s in these woods when they get here, we’ll find her.”
“Where else would she be?” Senora demanded.
“There’s more than one road that winds through the woods here. If she finds a road, it won’t be long before she finds a ride.”
“This is a nightmare,” Senora moaned.
“It’s going to get worse if you don’t leave. No one can know that you know about the Campus.”
“I don’t know anything,” Senora insisted. “No one has told me squat. I just know that there’s a woman out there that thinks that she’s a widower’s dead wife, and she’s halfway through some kind of brain scrubbing program that’s supposed to undo the brainwashing done by Matt Baker.”
Ty stared at her.
“I know that’s not entirely what’s going on, and there’s more to it than that. But I’m not an imbecile.”
“I never said you were.”
Senora’s phone rang in her pocket, and she jumped. Michael stood in front of them calmly, but Senora was sure he was nervous. Senora didn’t want to leave without Jessica, no matter what Ty said.
Naomi, she corrected herself as she pulled her phone out and stared at the Caller ID. Her stomach dropped. It was Betty.
“Hello,” Senora answered.
“What are you doing at Michael’s house?” Betty asked without saying hello. “You need to leave, and fast. J is coming your way, and all our heads are going to roll if he catches you there. Senora, you’re supposed to be on vacation.”
“I can’t; everything’s going to shit and-”
“You don’t have a choice,” Betty said. “Get in the car now; please trust me.”
Senora motioned to Ty without hanging up.
“We need to go.”
“That’s what I’ve been saying,” Michael said.
No longer calm, he sounded exasperated.
Ty jumped into the driver’s seat and took off as soon as Senora was in the passenger seat.
“We’re leaving now. Are you happy?” Senora said.
“No. They’re so close. Tell Ty to hurry up.”
“I heard her,” Ty said, pushing the accelerator down and hurrying down the road that led to the highway.
“I can’t leave while this is going on,” Senora told Betty again.
“You don’t have a choice,” Betty said. “I overheard a conversation between J and Patterson.”
“Overheard? You mean you tapped J’s signal?”
“That’s impossible, even for yours truly. I tapped Patterson’s phone. They’ve given up trying to keep you away from Ty, but they’re both sure that it’s love or lust or something in between. You have to get on that plane tomorrow, and you need to put on one hell of a show.”
“Why?”
“They have an agent booked on that flight. You’ll be under surveillance once you hit the islands, and they’ve been instructed to watch you like a hawk until they’re sure that you’re really on vacation.”
“Okay.”
“You have to sell this. Or just do what comes naturally. You know that you have the hots for this guy.”
Ty choked then grunted, but Senora knew he’d heard Betty. Her voice carried through the cabin of the vehicle, even though Senora had the volume turned down as low as it could go.
They were on the highway now, and Senora watched traffic on the opposite side as four dark, unmarked cars pulled off at the exit they’d used not long ago. Even in the daylight, there was no way to see the passengers in the heavily tinted SUVs, but Senora still tried. J was in one of the vehicles, and she was dying to know what he looked like.
“They just missed us,” Ty said, keeping his speed steady even though the SUV taillights were already disappearing around the curve. “That was really close.”
“You two have enough time to get to Senora’s car, pack, and then head your sweet cheeks to the airport to catch your flight.”
“What about Jessica?” Senora asked.
“I’m going to keep an eye on the situation with the Naomi Jessica girl. I don’t know what’s going on, but I know that it’s not an FBI operation.”
“J’s gone rogue?”
“No. J is doing what he’s always done. He runs the show, and he only brings us in when he needs to.”
“That doesn’t seem right.”
“There are a lot of things that go on around here that you don’t know about.”
“I’m starting to realize that.”
“I have to go. I don’t want anyone to know that I talked to you.”
“Thank you, Betty.”
“Thank you for trusting me. You almost got caught, and then both of us would be toast.”
Betty hung up then, and Senora returned her cell phone to her pocket.
“Your friend is a real hoot,” Ty said.
“She’s amazing, and she just saved us.”
“She sure did. So, what’s the plan?”
“You heard her. We go to the islands, and we put on a good show. Hopefully, you can spot our tail, and we can play along until they leave.”
“Do we have to play?”
She sucked in a quick breath and hated her body for responding to his loaded question with a flood of heat. How did he still affect her the way he did? He’d been great in bed, but Senora usually managed to separate herself from that. But Ty had this magnetism about him that she couldn’t resist, and the thought of putting on a show for whoever was tailing her sent her into panic mode. What if she let her guard down and let him in and her heart was broken again?
What if her heart was broken again? The words struck her, and she realized that the thought had seemed quite natural to her. And it was the first time that she’d allowed herself to admit that being torn away from him had broken her heart. That was why she’d thrown up so many walls and shut him out. Being brought into the office had been abrupt and jarring, and she’d felt like she was drowning. That feeling wasn’t like her, and she knew immediately that she’d fallen hard for the tall cowboy from Texas who just happened to be a Werewolf.
She’d been so scared, but rather than admit it to him, she’d shut him out and walled off her heart. Now, she was here with him, fighting the same fight, and she couldn’t help but feel that closeness again. She had feelings for him, and letting herself feel those things and displaying her affection in a very public way was going to bring those walls crashing down.
Senora wasn’t so sure that she could handle that.
“Senora?”
“I’m sorry.” She shook her head, trying to shake off the dread that filled her. “I’m fine. We’ll figure it out.”
“What’s there to figure out?”
She let out a heavy sigh and sat up a little straighter. No time like the present to clear up a few things.
“I don’t know if I can do that again?”
“Do what? Do me?”
She laughed.
“Can we be serious for just one second?”
“Of course.”
“I don’t know if I can let myself fall for you and then walk away again.”
He didn’t seem shocked by her words. She wasn’t sure how she felt about that, but it was obvious that the only one who didn’t know that Senora was in love with Ty was Senora.
“Who says you have to walk away?” Ty asked quietly.
“Someone is worried about us working together. Why else would I be chained to the desk, and why would you have a tail anytime you tried to contact me? There’s something they don’t want us to find out, and I can’t live my life looking over my shoulder.”
“They? I’m surprised to hear you say that. Weren’t you the one giving me grief for my conspiracy theories?”
“Not all conspiracy theories are of the tinfoil hat variety. There’s something going on, and we need to be careful.”
“What does that have to do with your heart? I think you’re trying to talk around what you mean, rather than just being honest with me. Why can’t you just be honest with me about how you feel?”
“It’s not that easy for me. I’ve spent so much of my life guarding my heart, my life, my privacy. I don’t know how to open up. And what if I do, and then you leave? Where does that leave me?”
“So, you can break my heart, but only in an effort to spare your own and make us both miserable?”
She turned to look at him in the darkness while he sped down the highway, but she didn’t say anything. He nodded without taking his eyes off the road.
“Hit the nail on the head,” he said. “That’s not how life works, Senora. You don’t get to hide your heart from me just in case I might break it. That’s not fair to me, and it’s not fair to you. I deserve better, and I hope you wouldn’t settle for anything less than the strongest, most passionate love of your life.”
His hand reached out and took hers. For a moment, she tried to pull away to protect herself from the flames that spread through her every time he touched her, but he held fast.
“Sometimes, the hardest thing is to let things happen naturally. You’ve done nothing but hurt yourself closing yourself off the way you did. That’s not the way to deal with your feelings for me.”
“You don’t get to decide how I react to feelings that are bigger than anything I’ve ever dealt with.”
“You’re right, I don’t. But I get to decide what I won’t accept for myself.”
At some point, he’d turned down the long dirt road to the cabin while Senora was focused on their conversation. He pulled behind the cabin and turned in the seat to face her.
“I’m not going to put on a show for anyone,” he said. “What I want to do is to go on vacation with you and enjoy some time together.”
“What about Jessica?”
“There’s always going to be a Jessica and a Naomi. There will always be an Addie and a Hannah. Somewhere, there’s an Emma waiting for someone like you to save her. But you can’t always be that someone. You have to take care of yourself, or you’re going to crumble under the weight of all this. We need to lay low for at least a week, and you need a break from work to recharge so that you can be all the way present when you’re out saving the world. And I don’t want to hold someone who’s only sleeping with me to put on a show for another agent.”
He gathered her hands in his and brought them to his lips. He kissed each knuckle gently, one at a time, until he’d kissed each hand several times.
“Senora Edwards, I love you with all my heart and soul. I have from the moment I saw your pretty face and you opened up your mouth and you were nothing like I expected. You blow me away, and you’re more woman than most men can handle. You’re more woman than I deserve. But I will not be some cheap play, and I’m not going to pretend to have feelings for you when I have very strong feelings for you. I’m staying here unless you want me to get a hotel.”
“I have to go home and pack.”
“I think that’s the best idea.”
“For you to stay here alone?”
He nodded, and she felt lost. She didn’t want to leave him here.
“I’m not coming with you to your house, because what I’m about to say is going to require you to sleep on it. I’m not willing to settle for anything less. If you want to join me on a vacation in the Caribbean, I need you to be all there. None of this walling yourself off so you don’t get hurt. You mean the world to me, but I’m not going to beg you to be with me.”
His words tore at her heart, as did the pain that he hid so well. In trying to protect herself, she’d hurt him. She felt awful, but she didn’t know what to say.
A single tear slid down her cheek, and so gently that his touch felt like a whisper, he wiped away the tear and kissed her forehead.
“I love you. You don’t have to tell me the same. I know you love me. What I need to know is if you’re going to give us a chance. If you’re not, I’ll understand. But if you can’t, then don’t show up for the flight. I’ll know that you can’t, and I’ll be hurt, but I love you enough to let you go if that’s what I have to do.”
“Forever?”
He chuckled softly, but she could tell it was a reflex more than humor at what she’d said. He was trying to shield himself from the pain; too bad the pain he was shielding his heart from was her doing.
“I’ll always be your friend and your partner. But if you don’t show up tomorrow, I’m going to need some time to get my head on straight and get it through my thick skull that we’re never going to be more than friends.”
“So, that’s it?”
“All or nothing,” he said.
“That doesn’t seem fair.”
“It’s more than fair. And if you don’t show up, I’ll make a big production of getting drunk and having a pity party over the rejection. Totally for show, of course.”
This time, Senora did laugh. Even when the conversation was heavy and his heart was on the line, Ty was so easy-going. He was an amazing man, and Senora felt like a complete ass for ignoring him the past few months instead of meeting her feelings head-on and working with him to find a solution to their current situation.
“Fine,” she said. “If I show up tomorrow, I’m all in. We can enjoy the Caribbean as a couple, and there won’t be any need to put on a show for the agent tailing us.”
“Exactly. And once the tail is gone, I’ll get with my sources and see where we stand with Naomi.”
“And Evie.”
“You’re right, and Evie. No matter who Jessica Baker really is, Matt Baker is a monster, and something needs to be done. But we need to go through legal channels to get him taken care of.”
“You promise that she’ll be safe with the WereBears until then?”
“She will. They know what they’re doing, and she needs help. It’s not her fault, what happened to her. But we have to trust that they’re going to take care of her. Michael wouldn’t mislead me. He’s a good guy, and if he says that she’s safe with them, then she’s as safe as she can be.”
Senora nodded, but she could feel her heart clenching. The entire situation was so messed up, and she still didn’t know the extent of what was going on. What she did know was that there was a sweet little girl caught in the middle and a woman who believed that she’d given birth to a child that wasn’t really hers. Senora wasn’t certain that there could be a happy ending that would satisfy everyone involved, but she was going to do what she could to make that happen. It was the least she could do, and she couldn’t just hand it over to the justice system and hope everything went right. There was too much at stake.
Senora got out of the car, and Ty met her by the door, pulling her into a hug that caught her totally off-guard.
“We’re going to make everything right,” he said. “Matt Baker isn’t getting away with this, and we’re not just going to walk away and hope that justice is served.”
“Even if I don’t get on that plane tomorrow?”
“Even if,” he promised.
He tilted her chin and leaned down, kissing her with such aching sweetness that she let a tear escape before she could stop it.
“I’m not going to let you down,” he said when she pulled away.
“I believe you,” she said. “I believe in you. I know that you won’t let Evie down.”
“Get some rest. You have all day to decide what you want to do.”
She nodded, then he opened the door to her Audi and helped her in.
“I’ll see you tomorrow” almost escaped from her lips, but she settled for something that wasn’t a promise she might not be able to keep.
“Sweet dreams,” she said. “And thank you for everything.”
His large hand covered hers for a moment, and then he was gone, going into the rented cabin without a backward glance.
She eased the car away from the cabin, then drove slowly down the road and out onto the highway.
A glance at the clock had her groaning. It was so late, and she still had quite a drive ahead of her. But it would give her time to think, and hopefully by the time she was home, she’d be exhausted enough to fall right to sleep and let her subconscious deal with everything that was weighing on her.
She kept her eyes on the woods that surrounded the highway, half expecting Jessica Baker to pop out of the woods at any moment. But that wasn’t possible. They were almost a hundred miles from where she’d escaped, and there was going to be an entire group of specially trained bears in the woods looking for her all night. And Ty had assured Senora that the bears would take good care of Jessica, and she would emerge as Naomi Martin, the woman she used to be. Maybe she would forget all about Evie, and a relative of the little girl would step up and take her in. Then, Naomi could go back to the life she’d had before she’d been kidnapped and turned into a mindless automaton, and Evie would still be safe. No matter what, Matt Baker was going to spend the rest of his life behind bars.
Senora wouldn’t rest until she made sure that happened.