Hunted, A Romantic Suspence Novel (8 page)

Even Luke got into the act by telling her jokes throughout the meal. As he watched his younger brother bring a rare smile so easily to Katie’s face something knotted inside Matt.

She should look that relaxed and happy all the time. Why wouldn’t she smile for him like that?

“So how much trouble is the little lady in, son?” His father’s question was barely louder than a whisper.

“Up to her neck, Dad.” Matt took a bite of his mother’s prize-winning pecan pie.

“Any fault of her own?”

His father had a way of cutting to the chase. He always had. Whenever any of his four children were in trouble, he always wanted to know the facts. His father was a fixer. The sooner the problem was laid out to him, the quicker he could come up with a solution. Matt liked to think he took after him.

He shook his head. “The only thing she did was put a monster behind bars when no one else would stand up to him.”

“This is the same lady who had her tire shot out yesterday?” Dave asked him.

“One and the same.”

“I take it you convinced her to tell you who’s after her?”

Matt sat back in his chair. “Not exactly.” He filled them in on what had happened last night and Katie’s history with her stepfather. “Somehow he’s arranging these attacks on her. I can feel it.”

“Is there anything we can do?” Jake asked.

“I was hoping you’d ask. Any way you could quietly get your hands on the visitors log at the Lewisberg Federal Pen where Strict is being held?”

“Quietly?” Jake leaned closer, and the other men at the table seemed to be waiting for an explanation.

“She’s been in the Witness Protection Program. Instead of going to them for protection, she ran.”

Dave whistled softly. “She thinks someone sold her out.”

Matt nodded. “That’s the way I figure it.”

“How do you feel about that?” Dave asked.

Everyone in his family knew Matt believed in the police system and doing things by the book. Katie’s fear was real and probably well founded. He’d have to deal with his own beliefs later, when she was safe. “I’d like to stay under the radar for a while on this.”

Jake sat back in his chair. “How soon do you need the info?”

“Tomorrow would be good, Jake. I know it’s a holiday, but I don’t know how long I can keep her from taking off.”

His father squeezed Matt’s shoulder. “She’ll be much safer with you than trying to hide on her own, son.”

Matt studied the quiet woman seated on the room’s far side. As if she knew he watched her she lifted her face, her gaze meeting his. His heart beat harder. “I know, Dad. I plan to stick close to her.”

A tingling of awareness floated across Katie. Matt was watching her again. He hadn’t taken his eyes off of her for more than a moment since they arrived. Half listening to the banter between Matt’s sister and youngest brother, she looked to where Matt sat quietly talking with the other men. Their gazes locked.

They were talking about her.

Instead of feeling offended that he would share her problems with others, a warm sense of security filled her.

Her body flushed under his intense gaze. Something in this strong, dutiful man called to a part of her she’d long ago thought buried—her hope. The hope of a young girl wishing for a white knight to come to her rescue. Hope of love for a frightened teen. Hope of peace for a young woman.

With great effort she broke the sensual contact with Matt and turned to watch the game of checkers his brother Luke played with their nephew. She’d learned Nicky was from Russia, but adopted by Sami and her husband Jake. All of Matt’s family seemed open and welcoming to strangers, even one with such danger riding on her shadow as herself.

This whole day with his family felt surreal. Growing up she’d read about families such as this one. People who enjoyed spending time with each other. Holidays filled with laughter. Some vague part of her memory tugged at her. She’d experienced this feeling long, long ago.

“Won’t your parents be missing you this holiday season, Katie?” Mary Edgars asked.

“No, ma’am. My father died when I was six and my mother when I was just thirteen.”

Mary took her hand and squeezed it, a soft smile on her face. “Then we’re lucky to have you all to ourselves for the evening, dear.”

Heated embarrassment flushed Katie’s face. No one had ever considered it lucky to have her around. She doubted this kind woman would continue to think that if she knew all the things she’d done in her life or the danger that clung so tightly to her.

“Actually, we can’t stay any longer, Mom.” Matt’s deep voice sounded behind Katie.

She gave him a questioning look over her shoulder.

“There’s snow in the forecast and the sky is getting dark.” He held out his hand and she placed hers in it without hesitation. In his other hand he held her coat. “We have a few things to take care of before it gets late.”

Katie smiled at Matt’s mother. “Thank you for a lovely lunch, and the perfume.”

“You’re welcome anytime.”

If she knew me, she wouldn’t say that.

Her thoughts dragging her into the dark place of her past, she busied herself putting on her coat. While Matt said farewells to his family, she stood at the door, holding tightly to the first gift she remembered ever receiving, and watched. Sadness and longing crept through her. She wouldn’t see any of them again.

Finally, Matt took her elbow and opened the door.

“Where are we going?” she asked as they headed for his car.

“To get some extra protection.”

“We aren’t headed back to the house?” Katie asked Matt as he pulled his truck onto the I-71 interstate again. Soft snow flurries danced in the headlights in front of them.

“Nope, we’re going to my apartment. I left my Glock there for the holidays. I’d feel better if I had it with me.”

On this holiday he needed his gun because of her.

She studied him in the flashes of light that filled the truck’s cab whenever they passed beneath a streetlamp lining the freeway. His jaw had set in that same stubborn way this afternoon. “You should take me to the bus station.”

“No can do, sweetheart.”

“Why not? You can’t keep me prisoner forever. I need to get out of town. Everyone will be safer if I do.” She ought to punch him. When she’d called him yesterday, she hadn’t known he’d get so muleheaded about things.

He shook his head. “Think, Katie. Your first instinct is to run, right?”

“Yes. It’s the smart thing to do.”

“But your stepfather believes he knows you well, right?”

She nodded. “He thinks he’s an expert on everything.”

“Then if you go to the bus station, or the airport, he could have someone waiting for you.” He glanced at her then focused on the road once again. “The smart thing is to do the opposite of what he expects from you. Stay and find some way to catch whomever he sent to kill you.”

“I did that once. It’s hard to stand up to someone so powerful, so evil, by yourself. Sometimes it’s almost impossible.” A shudder ran through her.

Matt’s hand settled over hers. He squeezed it. “You’re not alone this time.”

As much as she wanted to take comfort in the warmth and strength in his touch, she couldn’t get drawn into his tempting offer. “I can’t stand having another innocent die because of me, Matt. For both of us, it would be best if I just left town.”

“Well, good thing you aren’t making the rules this time. Until we figure out who Strict has sent after you, you’re staying with me.” He gripped the steering wheel again, his knuckles white with tension. “Besides, where would you go? Do you have a plan? Is there someone somewhere who can protect you?”

Katie stared out the passenger-side window at the gently falling snow. He had no clue what he was getting himself into. When he discovered all the things she’d done in her life, he’d come to regret this decision. Long ago she’d come to the conclusion that her life would be a solitary one.

She’d put her dreams of love and marriage away the day she learned to load and fire an AK-47 assault rifle. She’d learned self-defense and hand-to-hand combat to survive at fourteen. By sixteen she knew how to pack C-4 explosive and wire her own bombs. Every lesson protected her from the wrath of the man who controlled her life.

Absently she rubbed her thigh. Every lesson came hard and with a price.

The biggest lesson was not to trust anyone.

“And if I decide to go?”

“I’ll follow you then press charges for holding me at gunpoint.”

“You’d really do that?”

“In a heartbeat, sweetheart.”

They drove on in silence through the darkening evening, past houses decorated for Christmas. Red, green, blue and white lights twinkled on roofs, doors, trees and windows, creating a glittering visual symphony for those who celebrated the season. She remembered once driving through neighborhoods with her parents to see all the lights. It was one of the few happy memories she had of her childhood.

Matt pulled off the highway into a subdivision of townhouses. He drove through the area and parked near a group of homes on the last street. When Katie made a move to climb out of the truck, he stilled her with a hand on her arm.

“I heard you tell my mother that both your parents are dead. You don’t have any other relatives to go to? No aunts or uncles?”

“My father died when I was so young, I hardly remember anything about him or his family. We lived on our own for a while, but Mother didn’t have many skills to provide for us. She

was an only child and wanted us to belong to a family. Then my mother met Strict.”

A shudder racked her body. “At first she seemed happy being married again and believing all his lies. Eventually, instead of the hero she wanted, he turned into a monster. Her disappointment in her choice, his maniac obsessions, and the oppressive environment we’d begun to live in took their toll on her.”

“What happened to her?”

The tender compassion in his question put another chink in her armor. To fight her threatening tears she stared out into the dark. “She gave up her quest for happiness when I was thirteen.”

“She killed herself?”

“If you mean did she take a gun and blow out her brains, no. She came down with pneumonia one winter. I think she just never put up much of a fight.”

He slid one hand beneath Katie’s chin, turning her head so she looked at him. “And she just left you to fend for yourself among the scavengers in Strict’s pack of wolves.”

“You want me to say I hate my mother?” Katie laughed bitterly. “The psychologists the Marshals made me see tried that tack. I don’t need to face that I lived in a hell. Believe me that fact is well ingrained in my brain. But I won’t hate the woman who tried her best to raise me and provide for me. She just wasn’t tough enough to take on the devil.”

“And you are.”

She pulled her chin out of Matt’s hold. “Yes, I am.”

“Why?”

“Because he made me that way.”

She jerked open the car door and climbed out. Seething, she stood next to the truck trying to calm her anger. She didn’t need Matt using psychobabble on her. Not now when she needed to focus all her attention on staying alive. Couldn’t he see that?

Count to ten. Get yourself under control. Don’t let him see your pain. If you hide it, he can’t use it against you.

“Which one is yours?” She nodded at the row of townhouses.

Matt finally climbed out of the truck cab and waited for her to come around the front of it. “The one on the end.”

She should’ve known. Easiest place to see trouble coming and fewer innocent people to worry about if it did. Lighting just above the door prevented anyone from making a sneak attack. Perfect place for a cop to live.

“Are your neighbors at home?” Katie asked looking at the darkened doorway next to Matt’s just as he finished unlocking the door. The femininely decorated wreath suggested at least one female neighbor.

He paused with the door an inch open. “Margo and Rachel are flight attendants. They do overnight flights to Europe and Hawaii on a regular basis.”

“I suppose they’re tall and beautiful?”

“Does it bother you that I have two sexy neighbors?” he teased, leaning a little closer to her.

Katie stared into the twinkling humor of his eyes for a moment, then out of habit she glanced at the top of the door he was inching open.

Oh, God. No.

White nylon rope stretched over the doorframe’s top.

“Matt!”

With all her might she lunged her shoulder into his bigger body. The surprise of her attack gave her enough power to knock them both to the ground just as an explosion came from the door’s other side.

Glass and wood shattered around them like flying shrapnel.

Instinctively, just as it had been drilled into her for years to do, Katie covered her head and neck with her arms. Then searing pain in her shoulder, hip and thigh blocked out everything else.

Marshal Castello sat in his office reading the crime scene investigation file. The report told him little about the incendiary device that blew up Katie Myers’ car. Everyone else in the department was home with their families on Christmas day. But he had a major problem to solve, a missing witness to find, and a departmental leak to fix.

If the bomb maker left a signature, the quirk each bomb maker used that identified the bomb as his own handiwork, Frank hoped to use it to pinpoint the member of Strict’s family that stalked Katie.

What about Katie? Had she blown up her car herself to draw off the hit man on her trail? She had the skills.

Last night he’d arrived a few minutes before midnight at the hospital to retrieve her. Just as he’d pulled into the emergency room’s ambulance bay to watch for her, the explosion from her car erupted in the parking lot. He’d run with the hospital security to the fire, afraid he’d find her body in the wreckage. It took two hours for the fire department to contain the area and confirm that no one lay among the rubble.

So where was Katie?

He’d interviewed her coworkers and found out she’d left the nursing unit just before midnight as she’d planned. But from that moment on, no one had seen or heard from her. She’d completely disappeared.