Page 76 of Sheltering You

Rabie took a fourth cookie, but before taking a bite, he said, “Maybe I know something she doesn’t know. Maybe Dari is nice, and Basma is wrong.”

“Hmm. That’s possible. It’s just as likely—I’d say even more likely, that she knows something you don’t.” Not that it mattered what Rabie wanted—he was nine years old—but Derrick hated to think he thought his sister was taking something away from him by escaping from his brother.

On the upside, at least Dari had been kinder to his brother than he had to his sister.

After lunch, they played countless games of Sorry!, Uno, and Connect 4. They were in the middle of Monopoly when tires crunched on the gravel driveway. Derrick walked to the window.

Two cars parked in front of the house. The driver of the first—a dark sedan the very definition of nondescript—climbed out carrying a cardboard box. She was tall, blond, and very familiar.

Derrick went to the door and pulled it open. “Hey, Alyssa. I didn’t expect to see you here.”

She stepped into the house and gave him a quick hug. “Considering this is my dad’s place, I’d say you’re the unexpected one.”

“Good point.” He backed into the kitchen and gave her a once-over. She had golden-brown eyes and high cheekbones and, despite the run-of-the-mill descriptors, somehow had the bearing of a warrior. She was the tallest of the Wright women at about five-eight, slender, but unlike her sisters, nobody would call her skinny. She was the kind of woman who could take a guy out with a left hook and walk away, brushing lint off her pants.

“Sounds like you’ve gotten yourself into a pickle,” she said.

“Michael called you?”

“He’s unbelievable, that brother of yours. If he ever calls without starting the conversation with, ‘Hey, I need a favor,’ I’ll probably drop dead from shock.”

News to Derrick. He’d had no idea Michael and Alyssa ever talked, much less that she did favors for him. What kind of things did she do for a CIA agent? Deliver cars, for one, but he figured that wasn’t her raison d’être.

“Were you meeting him here?” Derrick asked, then clarified with, “Your dad?”

“No, no. I was in DC for something else. Just lucky for your brother.” She handed Derrick the box. It was heavier than he’d expected.

“Lucky for me, I think.” He set the box on the kitchen counter and peeked inside. Along with a Maryland driver’s license bearing Derrick’s photo beside a fake name, a credit card under the same name, and two cell phones and chargers, there was a Smith & Wesson 9mm semi-auto, a box of bullets, and a holster, like he was some sort of Old West outlaw.

Which was, he had to admit, a little cool.

“Did you do all this?” he asked Alyssa.

“Don’t know what all’s in there, and after grabbing it from the sketchy guy your brother hooked me up with, I don’t want to.” She dug a set of keys from her pocket and tossed it to him. “Michael says it’s clean and should get you where you’re going.”

“What does that mean, it’s clean?”

She moved past him and pulled a couple water bottles from the fridge. “You know Michael. There’s no telling what he ever means.”

Derrick was starting to get the feeling Alyssa knew his brother better than he did.

She opened one of the bottles and was tipping it to her lips when she froze, looking into the living area. She lifted a hand. “Hey there, kiddo. How you doing?”

Rabie said, “Hi,” but didn’t leave his spot by the game board.

Alyssa peered at Derrick, one eyebrow raised.

“Long story.”

“I bet.” She put the cap back on the water bottle. “I’ll let you get on with it. You’ll be back for the party?”

He’d forgotten about the Christmas gathering with Gavin’s family, which they were celebrating earlier than usual this year because Daniel and his family had to fly home soon. They’d come up to help for the whole wedding-gown-shopping thing—and to help with the Christmas tree, which the guys had put up at camp the previous week.

“We’ll be there.” Derrick hoped, and not just because he hated to miss the annual get-together.

He really, really wanted Jasmine safe in Maine again.

If Alyssa wondered who he meant by we, she didn’t ask. “All right. See you soon.” She headed out, calling, “Be careful,” over her shoulder.