Chapter 15 #2
“Carefully,” Elissa said. “Their security is impressive, and I don’t want to trip anything at LRH or NCIS. Either would be extremely bad juju. For now, I’m staying with public records, contract awards, lobbying disclosures, and corporate filings.”
“Anything useful?” Kyle asked.
“Useful, yes. Conclusive, no. Give me time. A couple of subcontractors that don’t look wrong on the surface, but they’re sitting in places that make me want to look twice. I need time to trace them.”
“Time’s the one thing we might not have,” Kyle said quietly.
Lachlan took the pen casing out of his mouth. “You think whoever ransacked Maren’s place is still looking.”
“Yes,” Gina said. “Because from their perspective, Maren’s behavior changed after the break-in.”
Colin frowned. “She came home to a ransacked house. Of course she was going to change her behavior.”
“She called the police, exactly as expected,” Gina said.
“That part makes sense. Even going to a hotel for the night. But then she got a warning, packed Juni into the car in the middle of the night, ditched her phone, bought a burner, avoided GPS, and drove straight to Watchdog Security in Lyons, Colorado.”
Colin’s hands curled into fists on his thighs.
“They think she has something,” he said.
“Or they think she knows something,” Lachlan said. “Which might be worse.”
“She doesn’t,” Colin said. “Maren said Mira didn’t leave anything. No diary, no notes, no deathbed confession. Just Juni.”
“They don’t know that,” Gina said. “And the police report didn’t put the target on her. The target was already there. But it may have lit up her trail for anyone watching official channels.”
Colin’s stomach dropped.
“The laptop,” he said.
Gina nodded. “Hospital-issued, stolen from a private residence. Maren reported it. Her supervisor locked down her credentials. That was the correct move. But if anyone has access to the right law enforcement, insurance, or corporate reporting channels, that report confirms Maren Walsh is scared, mobile, and missing property from a targeted search.”
“She did exactly what she was supposed to do,” Colin said.
“Yes,” Gina said. “And someone dangerous may be watching the systems that responsible people use. That doesn’t mean they have eyes on every street corner. But police reports, hospital compliance, insurance, corporate incident logs? Those are the places ordinary people leave tracks.”
That pissed him off more.
Not at Gina. Not at Kyle. Not even at Mira, not exactly.
At whoever had turned Maren’s ordinary life into a trap where doing the right thing might get her and Juni killed.
Elissa’s voice came through the speaker, quieter now. “Colin, how much does Maren actually know? Has she said anything else to you at the safehouse?”
“About Mira?” Colin exhaled. “Nothing. She didn’t know Sean existed until the message. She didn’t know Mira was involved in anything. She sincerely thought her sister died in an accident.” His jaw tightened. “She’s going to ask about what we’ve learned.”
“I know.” Kyle met his eyes. He rubbed the back of his neck. “And this time, she gets answers.”
Colin went still.
Kyle leaned forward. “Maren’s clean. Flint and Elissa have proven that beyond the shadow of a doubt. She’s family now. She’s ours. We’re going to do everything we can to protect her, and I’m not protecting her by keeping her in the dark.”
Gina’s eyes flashed, but not in anger. Was that pain? Colin caught it, but Kyle didn’t seem to.
“Tell her what she needs to know,” Kyle continued.
“Maybe not every technical detail. We don’t need to dump a federal corruption map in her lap before we know what’s real.
But the broad strokes? Yes. Mira’s LRH work.
The encrypted account. The likelihood that whoever came after her thinks she has something. She deserves that much.”
Colin blew out a breath. “Thank you, boss.”
“Elissa,” Kyle said, “keep working the caller. I want a name.”
“You got it.”
“Flint, LRH. Employee records, financials, subcontractors, anyone who puts Warren Voss or his people in proximity to Mira during the window around that encrypted account.”
“On it.”
“Gina, you—”
“I’ll run the threat assessment,” she said. “Defense contractor with deep pockets, possible NCIS compromise, possible body count, and a woman and child who may have accidentally become leverage. This isn’t street-level.”
“No,” Lachlan agreed. “It’s not.”
The silence that followed wasn’t comfortable.
Kyle looked at Colin. “How’s the safehouse?”
Colin smiled despite everything. “Juni threw a tea party. In my honor.”
Elissa snorted over the speaker.
“For you?” Flint asked. “The guy who’s allergic to kids?”
“For me. Seems I’m not so allergic anymore.”
“And Maren?”
“Holding up.”
Kyle didn’t look away. “That’s not an answer.”
Colin looked down at his hands, then back up. “She’s scared. Angry. Trying not to show too much of either because Juni watches everything she does. She wants to trust us. She’s still not sure she can, or that we trust her.”
Gina’s gaze settled on him.
Kyle nodded slowly. “Then we make it easier.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Arden was heading over today with Ellie and Star. And I think it’s about time we had Maren and Juni up to the ranch. In the meantime, Colin, keep them both safe and comfortable. That’s the priority.”
Colin stood up. “Yes, sir.”
He left the office. He was halfway to the exit when Gina caught up to him.
“Colin. Wait.”
He stopped and turned.
She was watching him with those sharp, assessing eyes that missed exactly nothing. “You doing okay with this one?”
No.
“I’m fine.”
Gina’s mouth curved, just slightly, not quite a smile. “Liar.”
“Gina—”
“I owe you a conversation. And an apology,” she said, surprising him. “I want you to understand why I said Maren was on a need-to-know basis at first.”
“You don’t have to—”
“I know I don’t.” Her gold eyes held a steady gaze.
“My family used trust as currency. They knew exactly where I was soft, and they used me. Deliberately.” She said it with the same tone someone might use to talk about the weather.
“And one of the people I trusted most in this world was a traitor. I lost people because of it.”
“I’m sorry.”
She shook her head. “It’s old news. But I still…” She looked away, but not before Colin caught a glimpse of pain in her eyes. “Arden is…she’s a sister to me. I protect her the way I would have protected the people I lost if I’d known then what I know now. That’s not the same as not trusting Maren.”
“But you do now?”
“I do.” She held his gaze. “And Kyle’s right. Keeping her in the dark won’t protect her.”
“Good.”
Gina studied him for a moment. “You were mad as hell that I didn’t trust her.”
“I was.”
“Are you still?”
Since their last meeting, he’d been angry at Gina for something he would’ve done himself in another life.
“No. I understand where you’re coming from now.”
“Good.” Gina nodded, almost to herself. “She’s clean. Time to let her into the family.” She studied Colin again, then smiled. “I can see you agree.”
Before he could answer, Lachlan was standing behind him with Fleur, who trotted past Colin and sat beside Gina’s feet. Lach put a hand on Colin’s shoulder—brief, grounding.
“You’re doing good work, son. Keep doing it.”
Colin nodded and left before anyone else could read him that easily.
He spent the drive back to the safehouse thinking about Maren.
About how somewhere between the gate and a little girl asking if he was her daddy, to pinkie-promising that he’d always come back, this had stopped being just a job and started being something more.
He thought about the way Maren had looked at him last night when they’d both wanted the same thing and chosen not to take it.
About how badly he wanted to get back to the safehouse just to see her again, even though he’d left less than two hours ago.
Back in the garden, he waited until Arden and Ellie had taken the girls inside—Star was flagging and Juni, to her great credit, had declared that Star needed a snack and to rest from fairy-hunting, which was Juni-speak for I also need a snack and a nap—before he sat down with Maren and Mac at the garden table.
The afternoon had gone soft. The sun was angled low enough that the flower beds threw long shadows across the grass.
He told Maren everything.
He watched Maren’s face while he talked, the way she held very still for the parts that were hard and then let herself breathe again at the parts that weren’t. The caller was still a ghost. Trained, probably. The kind of person who planned for not coming back.
“We’re still looking,” he told her, “carefully, so as not to trip anything. Elissa is good at careful.”
Mac stood up and stretched. “I’m going to check on the ladies. Take your time out here.” He went inside, but not before giving Colin a look that said he knew exactly what he was doing.
Maren was quiet for a long moment, looking at the flower beds where Juni had crouched in the dirt an hour ago, hunting for fairies who slept in fuzzy cocoons.
Then she looked back at him. “Thank you. For telling me.”
“You needed to know.”
“I know.” Her hand moved across the table—not reaching for his, just closer. “But you didn’t have to tell me everything you did. You could have kept it vague. Told me you were still working on it and left me in the dark.”
Colin looked at her hand on the table between them.
“Yeah,” he said quietly. “I could have.”
“But you didn’t.” Maren’s fingers curled slightly against the table, stopping herself from reaching the rest of the way.
Colin’s hand moved across the table and covered hers.
“We’ll figure this out,” he said quietly.
Maren nodded, her eyes holding his. “I know.”
Neither of them pulled back.
Maren looked past him, toward the house, where Juni was inside with Arden and Ellie and Star, laughing and safe. For now.
Her stomach clenched.
“If they’re watching normal systems, then they’re watching normal tracks,” she said slowly.
Colin’s gaze sharpened. “What tracks?”
“My car.” She looked back at him. “I watch too much true crime, okay? But if I were looking for me, I’d look for my car. My plates. Cameras. Gas stations. Hotels.”
“Maren—”
“No, listen. Mira and I were born in Iowa. We lived there until we were nine. If I had to run somewhere after my house was broken into, that’s believable, isn’t it? Run to some old family friend, maybe a relative.”
Colin went very still.
“You want us to send your car to Iowa.”
“I want to protect you guys,” she said. “If they’ve followed me here, let’s make them think I kept on going.”