“The trip, I understand. I would be too. That’s perfectly normal.” She pauses. “What else are you afraid of, Savannah?”
I reach for my necklace and clasp the snowflake pendant. My throat tightens with thoughts of Cole, but no words come out because I don’t even know where to start.
“Savi, when you get back, I want you to come to Shadows and spend Saturday afternoon and evening with us. It’s been too long since you’ve been home, and everyone misses you. I understand you need your space, but it’s not healthy for you to isolate yourself from everyone who loves you.”Home.The word drips with emotion. I miss everyone terribly. How can I say no to Sue?
“All right,” I whisper in fear my voice will break. I look up and see Keith speaking with the security guard. He’s eyeing me as I say goodbye to Sue.
Chapter Three
“You ready?” Keith asks, reaching for the handle of my suitcase. I follow him out into the morning frost. It’s still dark, making everything seem that much colder. The SUV is still warm, and we drive in silence all the way to the airport. It saddens me that Keith is pulling away, but can I blame him? It’s what I told Cole I needed. Isn’t it what I want, the chance to find myself? I can’t do it if I have Keith taking care of me every day, so I keep my mouth shut, face forward, and try to push back the sneaking fear that’s dancing along my spine.
The airport is quiet, with hardly anyone around. Keith hands me my ticket as someone approaches us. Keith holds out his hand and gives the man a firm handshake.
“Savannah, this is Agent Hahn. He’s on Frank’s detail. He’ll be traveling with you to Washington and making sure you’re well briefed before the testimony.”
I nearly fall over right there. Keith isn’t coming; he won’t be my rock as I go through all this.
“You’ll be fine, and I’ll be here to pick you up when you return.” My heart slams into my stomach, looking for a way out.
I’m mute. All I can do is give a slight nod and follow Agent Hahn to the gate, where we walk out to the tiny plane and board. The plane that will drop me off at the feet of my worst nightmare.
As soon as we are in the air, I mentally check out.
Cole
Cole listens to his father brief him and his team about a target who needs to be extracted from Mexico City. They are possibly holding a child for ransom, and the parents happen to be the owner of the Garrisons’ Casinos, one of the biggest casino companies worldwide and known to have a shady side. They’ve been asked to check it out and see what they can come up with.
Keith knocks and steps inside the door, halting the conversation. “Savi is on the plane. She should be there within the hour.”
Mark’s jaw drops as he shifts in his seat. “You didn’t go with her?” Keith shakes his head, and Mark turns to look at Cole. “Why didn’t he go?”
“We have to work,” Cole mutters, picking up a file, but apparently Mark has more to say.
“Ummm, what?” Mark pushes himself out of his chair and stares at them. “You mean Savi is on that plane by herself?”
“Let it go,” Daniel warns.
“No! Someone should be with her. She’s facing The American and Lynn! Cole, you should be there, not hiding behind your desk.”
Cole drops the thick folder, making John jump. “You don’t think I want to be there, Mark? You don’t think it’s turning me inside out that my girl is a state away and only an arm’s length from the people who tried to kill her? I wasorderedto stay behind and do my job. I wasorderedto leave for Mexico when all I want to do is be in that courtroom with her. I’m not hiding. I’m following orders since I didn’t last time. Ihaveto, for the sake of everyone, especially for the sake of Shadows’ reputation.” His anger is seeping out of him as he looks at Mark, who has backed off and is nodding. He gets it now.
Paul’s phone rings, taking some of the tension from the room. “We have a hit. We should get moving.”
Savannah
I shake the entire drive to the Washington base. Agent Hahn is friendly, but I just want to stay in my zone, turned off, not answering questions about the weather. We really have nothing in common. I think of Sue, wondering if I should call her just to hear her voice…but that’s not the voice I really want to hear.
“Hello again, Savannah.” Frank smiles as he greets me at the car. “Please come inside.” He hands me a visitor badge and leads me into a large gray building where everything is muted, from the color of the walls to the people’s clothing, and even their voices. “This is my office. Can I get you anything?”
“Coffee would be great, thanks,” I say in a quiet voice to fit the surroundings, then take a seat across from his dull metal desk littered with papers. On the wall are a few pictures of a younger version of Frank starting out in the Army. He has an arm around a taller man. They seem to be close by the way they are laughing, and there is another with Frank and the same tall man, but a more recent one. A pretty young woman with dark hair and deep blue eyes is wedged between them with a huge, happy smile. She is gorgeous. I move my gaze over and spot two other photos with President Obama and former President Bush. Medals hang in wooden boxes, and an old-fashioned rifle sits in the corner as though waiting to be mounted. He probably never got around to doing it. He hands me a coffee before he takes a seat. “Thank you.”
Flipping open a file, he gets right to it. “So, you were first taken from your condo in New York by a Raul Paru.”
“Please jump right in,” I mutter, taken aback. “I don’t know who Raul Paru even is.” Frank hands me a picture, and it takes me a minute, but then I see it, and the memory comes flooding back. My cut leg, the cold, thick substance which later I found out was blood and the smell in the van. “The painters? These guys were painting my condo the week I was taken. I remember his belt buckle,” I say as I press my finger against the buckle in the photo. I’ll never forget that Texas longhorn belt buckle.
“Yes, they were scoping out the place, watching you, learning your habits.”
I hand the picture back and remember Lynn making a comment about how you can buy those belt buckles on any street corner. I feel the wind being sucked out of me. That bitch! I can’t believe she knew what they were doing because she fucking hired them. I wonder how many other times I ran into people she had hired to help take me out.