Chapter 6
An hour later, exhaustion pulled at Avery’s eyelids. She blinked, shoved a hand through her hair and glanced back at the Good Night Motel.
Her doppelganger chose that moment to emerge from her room.
Avery sat up, adrenaline spiking, flinging aside the fatigue. “She’s coming out.”
Grant nodded. “It’s that time. She’ll be heading to TJ’s Bar and Grill to meet with Agent Bradley.”
“I should be meeting with Agent Bradley.” Avery pressed her lips together. “I know. I know. If this imposter is working with the killer, we need to give her a chance to lead us to him.”
“If you don’t want to continue down this path, we can confront her at the bar and grill.”
“No. Like I said earlier, I don’t feel like I exist. With no credentials or any form of identification, I’m not sure they’d take me seriously.”
“If it means anything, I take you seriously,” he said with a smile. “Let’s follow and see if she keeps her appointment with your colleague.”
“My colleague,” Avery drew in a breath and let it out slowly. “I can’t imagine what she’ll think of me when she learns I was four days late to my assignment.”
“She’ll be glad you survived. You could’ve been swept away with your vehicle in that flash flood.”
Avery shivered, her memory of getting out of her vehicle clearer since waking in the hospital.
“It happened so fast. One minute, I was suspended over the steering wheel, held in place by the seatbelt. Next, I was fighting my way out of the car, the door barely opening, only to land in the rapidly rising water.”
Grant reached across the console and covered her hand with his. “You got out. That’s what counts.”
Avery nodded, her gaze following the imposter’s movements as she climbed into her rental Jeep and pulled out of the parking lot at the Good Night Motel.
“I’m glad I did. I just remember falling face-first into the mud and clawing my way up the side of the creek bank, then stumbling my way out to the highway. From there, it’s all a blank. I must have passed out.”
Grant’s big hand squeezed hers. Warm, strong and protective. “The doctor said you might not remember everything from that night. The mind has a way of protecting the victim from reliving the trauma.”
“I remember enough to spawn nightmares.” Avery pointed. “She’s pulling into TJ’s Bar and Grill.”
Grant turned into the parking lot of an auto parts store across the street from the bar and grill and parked, leaving the engine running. “We’ll watch until she goes inside, then make a dash for the things you need.”
“I like the plan. Do you think we’ll get back before she leaves?”
“We’ll hurry to make sure,” Grant promised.
Imposter Avery climbed out of the Nebraska rental car and entered the restaurant.
Using Grant’s phone, Avery looked up the address of the big store he had mentioned.
Grant waited a few seconds longer, then shifted into drive and followed the directions to the store.
“I’ll hit the electronics section and find a phone,” he said. “You can go collect the items of clothing and whatever else you need. We can meet at checkout. And don’t worry about cost. I’ll cover it.”
“Thankfully, this is a discount store, not high-end designer clothing,” Avery said. “I’ll find something that’ll work until I can get back to my apartment in San Antonio.”
“You need to file a claim with your auto insurance.”
“I will,” she said. “It’s just hard to do without my phone.”
“You can use mine.”
“All my contacts were on my phone, including my numbers for all my contacts in Virginia as well as the San Antonio Field Office.”
“Let’s start by getting you a phone.” Grant’s brow dipped. “Not that I think the killer will try anything inside the store but be careful. He did attack one of the women at a shopping center.”
Avery nodded. “I’ll keep my eyes and ears open.”
Grant nodded toward the phone. “Keep my phone. Hopefully, they can get me set up quickly with a burner. I’ll call you when I’m done. Aiming for fifteen minutes.” He glanced at his watch.
Avery checked the time on the phone.
They parted ways and set off with purposeful strides.
Avery grabbed a shopping cart and headed for women’s clothing.
She selected a pair of jeans and a shirt and headed for the fitting room.
Once inside, she stripped down and slipped into the black jeans and a black ribbed knit, short-sleeve shirt.
The jeans fit just right, molding to her waist and hips.
Satisfied with the selections, she dressed in the clothes she’d arrived in and gathered the items she’d tried on.
Back out among the racks of clothing, she grabbed a pair of blue jeans in the same size and design as the black ones and two more black shirts and two white versions of the black shirt.
She selected a seven-pack of bikini panties and another seven-pack of socks, which would hold her over as long as she located a laundry facility at least once a week.
Hopefully, the case wouldn’t stretch out that long.
At the killer’s current rate, he’d kill another in the next couple of days. She couldn’t let that happen.
With her cart of clothes, she hurried to get some toiletries, a razor and a good brush. Having been born with clear skin and dark lashes, she’d never needed too much in the way of cosmetics.
The phone rang. She reached for it in her back pocket and answered. “Hello.”
“I have your phone. I’m at the front, ready to check out when you are. No rush.”
“I just need to find a ball cap and sunglasses, and I’ll be there.”
“They have some Texas A&M caps and sunglasses in a display near me. Come to the front.”
“Thanks. On my way.” Avery wanted to get back to TJ’s Bar and Grill, afraid the imposter might leave before they returned. The sooner she led them to the killer, the sooner Avery could reclaim her identity. The woman pretending to be her irritated the fire out of Avery. She’d nail her eventually.
Grant stood at the front of the store, holding a red-and-white Texas A&M cap in one hand and sunglasses and a new cell phone in the other.
Avery’s pulse quickened as it had always done when she saw this man.
Today was no exception. He was tall, broad-shouldered and sexy as hell.
The two years she’d been undercover had been the hardest thing she’d ever done.
Harder still because she’d had no contact with him.
She’d been the one to ask for a divorce.
Yes, he’d been angry that she’d taken the assignment, but they could have worked past it if she’d wanted.
Knowing how dangerous the syndicate would be, Avery had chosen to use that argument as a catalyst to ask for a divorce.
If the syndicate had found out she was FBI, it would have been bad for her.
But the syndicate wouldn’t have stopped at killing the person who’d betrayed them.
They’d have gone after the betrayer’s entire family as a brutal message to those working with them.
They would have found out about her husband and killed him as well. She’d banked on the divorce to keep him out of their sights should she be outed.
Seeing him standing there with the hat, a smile curling his lips, brought back all the good memories of their life together. It made her yearn for that closeness, the laughter…the sex.
Heat rose up her neck into her cheeks and down low to her core. Making love with Grant had been amazing.
As she neared, Grant’s smile slipped, and a frown dented his forehead. “Are you feeling okay?”
Avery ducked her head. “Yes. Why do you ask?”
“Your face is flushed. Are you sure you’re not running a fever or have some kind of infection?” He shifted the hat into the hand with the phone and sunglasses and touched his palm to her forehead. “You’re a little warm.”
She was even warmer with his hand pressed to her skin. “No, really, I’m fine.” Avery pushed the cart into a line and focused on the clerk checking out the customer in front of her.
In her peripheral vision, she could see he was studying her, trying to gauge whether to believe her or not. Finally, his frown lifted, and he moved up beside her to lay the contents of the cart on the conveyor belt.
By the time Grant paid for their purchases, the heat in Avery’s cheeks had cooled. She shoved thoughts of making love with Grant to the back of her mind, determined to focus on finding the killer, not reminiscing about lying naked with her ex-husband.
As soon as she was back in the car and had buckled her seatbelt, Avery pulled her hair up into a ponytail and wrapped it around the base in a tight bun.
Then she pulled on the baseball hat, bringing the bill down low over her forehead.
Once she added the sunglasses, settled onto her nose, she pulled the visor down and viewed the results in the little mirror.
“That should work to keep anyone from making the connection between you and the imposter Agent Hart,” Grant murmured.
“That’s what I’m hoping,” she said, her lips pressed into a tight line. “I’d like to be inside the bar and grill to keep a closer eye on that woman.”
“Good thing I brought a cap with my gear in the back seat.”
“I’ll get it.” Avery unbuckled her seatbelt and turned in her seat. She reached for the duffel bag, opened it and dug around until she found the cap. As she pulled it free, a photograph fell to the floorboard.
She leaned over and fished it off the floor, her heart pinching hard in her chest when she saw the image of the two of them smiling as they took a selfie standing on a boardwalk with a Ferris wheel in the background. They were smiling and happy.
“Do you remember where the photo was taken?” Grant asked softly.
She nodded, her eyes filling with tears. “Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. That’s the SkyWheel.”
“We were on our honeymoon.”
“We didn’t have time to go far, so we agreed on a weekend in Myrtle Beach.” It had been one of the happiest times of her life. They’d laughed, played and walked along the beach at sunset. And he’d kept the photograph, even after she’d filed for divorce.