Page 10 of Hunted in Hope Town

Because as much as he might not know exactly who left that note, he knew where the threat came from. The same crime family that had hurt her, shot him. The same crime family he had almost brought down completely.

But not completely enough. It was why they were here, with these fake identities and this strange pseudo life. They weren’t safe. They were targets.

And he wouldn’t let anyone target him through her.

“We don’t know if someone is watching you.” Or me. “So we’ve arranged some…sleight of hand, so to speak, to get you to the secured safe place. You and Faith will go up to Faith’s apartment after you clean up down here, like you originally planned. Your book club members will be coming over, to make it look like a party of sorts.”

“I don’t want anyone else to be in danger.”

“They won’t be,” Zach said firmly. “You’re the target here. Besides, we have police backup.”

“Isn’t this getting…complicated?” She looked at Zach when she asked this, but Ellis didn’t miss the quick gaze she flicked his way before turning her attention back to Zach.

Zach shook his head. “Not really, but whatever it takes to keep our residents safe. You know Corporal Fairhurst and Deputy Campbell. They normally patrol Hope Town, and their significant others are in your book club, so it won’t raise any suspicion if they’re here too. Besides, the more people, the less likely anyone watching is going to notice our one additional member. Deputy Heather Morris. She’ll be taking on the role of, well, you. When she gets here, you’ll switch clothes. She’ll walk back to your apartment after the party.”

“But—”

Zach held up a hand and Jessica stopped talking. “She’s a trained police officer. She can handle this. When I give you the signal, you’ll leave in a crowd with everyone else. You and Ellis will ride with Corporal Fairhurst to Bent, switch cars and drivers there, and do the same at a ranch outside of Bent. Then you’ll be driven and dropped off at the location.”

“The four of us will be the only ones who know that you’ve gone into hiding,” Ellis told her. “Even Deputy Morris only knows that she’s posing as you for the evening. Only Zach, his partner, and I will know your location.”

Ellis hadn’t been thrilled about involving yet another person, but Zach’s partner was former military, had installed all the security at his and Jessica’s buildings, and apparently knew someone with an isolated cabin they could hide out at. Ellis knew Zach trusted Cam Delaney with anything and everything, so Ellis had to try to extend his own trust.

It was a hard-won thing. Particularly with his nerves strung so tight he thought they’d all just snap at any given moment.

He glanced at Jessica. At Kirsten, because he knew that look on his wife’s face. Though she was trying to look stoic, in control, strong, he could read the vibrating fear underneath.

Because he’d given her too many reasons to fear in their marriage, and in the end, so many of those fears had come to fruition.

They wouldn’t here. Not now. No. If someone was close enough to leave that note, they were close enough to harm. And they’d made their first mistake in giving him a warning.

Because everything he was, everything, would go into protecting her—not for the FBI, not for personal ego or glory—just for her.

Chapter Four

Jessica sat in Faith’s apartment surrounded by people she knew, people who had become her friends over the past two years, and felt like she’d been split into two.

There was the woman who’d lived a life working in this bookstore, participating in this book club, embodying Jessica Smith and trying to be happy with that even if she’d known her entire past was a mystery.

And then there was this other part, where she felt like she was floating above it. Someone else. Someone who knew things just out of reach.

It must be Ellis’s fault. Because he stood in the corner, tall and broad and intimidating, illuminated by the soft white glow of Christmas lights Faith had up everywhere. His eyes only ever left her to glance out the window into the dark outside.

Everyone was being too nice. Even Albennie. Like they knew. But it didn’t make sense because Zach and Ellis had said they wouldn’t. But they knew something, because everyone was treating her like fragile glass even while they pretended to have a little holiday party.

And something about that started to…mesh up with what Faith had said down in the store. Faith said she knew what it was like to be in danger, to be a target. And Albennie had been kidnapped last year. There were all these women who trusted Zach Simmons and his little Hope Town.

Were they all the same? Targets of something? Did they all know who she was, while she was in the dark? She wanted to demand answers, but everything kept happening too fast.

Deputy Morris arrived, and Jessica had to change clothes with her. They weren’t exactly the same size. Heather was a little smaller, but they had about the same color hair, and with some heeled boots and a hood pulled up over her face, there’d be no reason for anyone to know she wasn’t Jessica.

“Now, I just need your keys, then I’ll walk over to your place. You’ll just sit tight until Zach gives you guys the signal.”

Jessica hesitated, but Heather was patient and encouraging and eventually Jessica handed over her keys. After Heather was gone for a while, Gard Fairhurst got a text from Zach that it was time to move on to the next step.

She and Ellis would get into his truck with him and Lia, his girlfriend, and head to his house in Bent. Step one. Jessica didn’t want to, but everyone seemed ready and willing to do Zach’s bidding.

So when the word came, everyone hopped into action. Coats and shoes and bags. Down the stairs from Faith’s apartment to the parking area in the back. In the shuffle of bodies, hat pulled low, Jessica was nudged into the back of a truck. Ellis scooted into the seat next to her.