Chapter 34
Luke’s heart thrummed in his chest as he waited to hear what Wes had to say.
“I’ve got a contact pulling records for me,” Wes told him. “I should know more tomorrow. But I’ll be honest with you. This isn’t what I expected. I’d rather not say more until I’m sure.”
“Wes.” Luke kept his voice even. “If you know something—”
“I don’t know anything solid.” Wes met his eyes. “I have a thread. If I pull it and tell you all where it leads before I’ve confirmed it, and I’m wrong, then I’ve pointed this family at the wrong person. Give me until tomorrow. I’ll have something nailed down by then.”
Luke didn’t like it. But he’d known Wes long enough to know the man didn’t withhold things to protect himself. He withheld them to keep people from acting on smoke. He could appreciate that.
Luke let it go. For now.
The silence returned.
After a few moments, Caleb finally spoke. “Listen, since we’re all together, let’s talk about tomorrow. We don’t have the option of skipping it.”
“The hearing.” Naomi shifted Grace higher against her shoulder, and her hand moved in a slow circle over the baby’s back. “Dale desperately wants custody of Grace, and he’s going to do whatever it takes to make that happen.”
“We can’t let him win,” Luke said. “For Grace’s sake.”
By nine, the house had gone quiet. The rest of the day had been uneventful and ordinary—which was welcome.
Right now, Jenna sat on the edge of the guest bed wearing her favorite sweatshirt pulled over her knees, and she listened to Refuge Cove settle around her.
She’d tucked the kids in again tonight. As she did, she tried not to think about the earlier conversation.
An opening move.
That was how Wes had said it. Like the whole thing was a game to the Barones. Maybe it was. For them, people weren’t people. They were pawns.
She drew in a slow breath and reminded herself that the gate leading to the house was locked. That Wes had checked the cameras. That there were more capable, watchful people under this roof than she’d had around her in years.
The reassurance didn’t help as much as it should have. Her old wiring didn’t care about facts. Assuming the worst had kept her alive, and she couldn’t switch that off.
Her thoughts drifted to Emily. She hoped the woman was okay. She wanted to think she was just being paranoid by thinking Emily’s attack had something to do with her. But it was all she could think about.
Her phone buzzed against the nightstand.
Her stomach tightened. No one had this number. That was the entire point of this phone. It had been issued to her through the program, scrubbed and clean, attached to a name that existed only on paper.
She picked it up.
She glanced at the screen hoping for a weather alert or something unimportant.
Instead, an image from an unknown number loaded on her screen.
She told herself to put the phone down. To take it straight to Luke.
But she couldn’t make herself do it.
The image finally materialized.
For a moment her mind refused to make sense of what she was seeing. A dim interior. Wooden pews in rows. Light falling through colored glass in long bands of blue and amber and green.
Then her breath left her.
It was the church.
The one two blocks off Main Street. The one with the polished woodwork and the simple cross at the front. The one Luke had taken her to yesterday morning because it would be empty and safe.
The photograph had been taken from the back of the sanctuary.
Two people sat on a pew near the middle.
Jenna and Luke.