Chapter Three #2
Faith took her by the shoulders gently. “Jessica, I know this is hard,” she said very seriously once they were out of the room.
“I don’t know what it’s like not to remember, so I can’t put myself fully in your shoes, but I do know what it’s like to…
be a target. To be in danger and need protection.
It sucks and it’s scary and…confusing and weird and frustrating.
But trust me, please, when I say that Zach’s function in this is to protect you. ”
Jessica did believe that. If it was just Zach, she figured she would be going along with it wholesale. Easy and docile as you please.
But it wasn’t just Zach. “And what about Ellis?”
Faith inhaled, studying Jessica’s face. Her smile was sympathetic. “He would never let anything happen to you. I’d bet my own life on that.”
WHEN FAITH CALLED them back over, Ellis felt like he’d already been wrung out. Traversed the seven layers of hell. Who knew there’d be more layers to go?
Jessica still stood, arms crossed over her chest. She glared at him.
Distrust. Anger. Yes, he’d seen all those things in her eyes before. Back when she’d known who she was. When he’d ignored everything he’d promised for his own selfish desires.
It was better than fear, but that didn’t mean it didn’t hurt.
After a few beats of silence, she let her arms fall. Her expression was grim but determined.
She’d always been determined. Always stronger than he expected her to be. That expectation had never been fair to her, born of his own issues, and when she’d known who she was, she’d called him out on it.
But she didn’t know, didn’t remember, and that left her even more of a target. One he would secure. He had to think of it in those old, impersonal terms.
Or he might die.
“Zach, if you really think this is the best option, I’ll do it,” she said. Her voice was soft, but direct. Sure.
“I do,” Zach said. “I’ve got connections. I can poke into this, but it’s best if you’re out of the way and safe while I do, and Ellis will ensure that.”
She wasn’t happy. She wasn’t going to be happy.
He’d considered having Zach be the one to take her.
Zach’s wife might not know the details of every woman’s life in Hope Town, but she understood what it was that Zach did.
She wouldn’t put up a fight. Lucy had shown time and time again her priority was the same as Zach’s: safety for everyone brought into the Hope Town fold.
But the truth was it would be easier for Zach to look into the Caruso family without it ever coming back to connect to Ellis, or even the office he’d been working out of. Zach also had tech connections that Ellis no longer had access to.
It made far more sense for Zach to be the one manning the investigative part of this mission, and Ellis to be the one taking on the protection detail. It also would have killed him to not be the one directly responsible for Kirsten’s safety, so it worked out.
Because as much as he might not know exactly who left that note, he knew where the threat came from. The same crime family that had hurt her, shot him. The same crime family he had almost brought down completely.
But not completely enough. It was why they were here, with these fake identities and this strange pseudo life. They weren’t safe. They were targets.
And he wouldn’t let anyone target him through her.
“We don’t know if someone is watching you.
” Or me. “So we’ve arranged some…sleight of hand, so to speak, to get you to the secured safe place.
You and Faith will go up to Faith’s apartment after you clean up down here, like you originally planned.
Your book club members will be coming over, to make it look like a party of sorts. ”
“I don’t want anyone else to be in danger.”
“They won’t be,” Zach said firmly. “You’re the target here. Besides, we have police backup.”
“Isn’t this getting…complicated?” She looked at Zach when she asked this, but Ellis didn’t miss the quick gaze she flicked his way before turning her attention back to Zach.
Zach shook his head. “Not really, but whatever it takes to keep our residents safe. You know Corporal Fairhurst and Deputy Campbell. They normally patrol Hope Town, and their significant others are in your book club, so it won’t raise any suspicion if they’re here too.
Besides, the more people, the less likely anyone watching is going to notice our one additional member.
Deputy Heather Morris. She’ll be taking on the role of, well, you.
When she gets here, you’ll switch clothes.
She’ll walk back to your apartment after the party. ”
“But—”
Zach held up a hand and Jessica stopped talking.
“She’s a trained police officer. She can handle this.
When I give you the signal, you’ll leave in a crowd with everyone else.
You and Ellis will ride with Corporal Fairhurst to Bent, switch cars and drivers there, and do the same at a ranch outside of Bent.
Then you’ll be driven and dropped off at the location. ”
“The four of us will be the only ones who know that you’ve gone into hiding,” Ellis told her. “Even Deputy Morris only knows that she’s posing as you for the evening. Only Zach, his partner, and I will know your location.”
Ellis hadn’t been thrilled about involving yet another person, but Zach’s partner was former military, had installed all the security at his and Jessica’s buildings, and apparently knew someone with an isolated cabin they could hide out at.
Ellis knew Zach trusted Cam Delaney with anything and everything, so Ellis had to try to extend his own trust.
It was a hard-won thing. Particularly with his nerves strung so tight he thought they’d all just snap at any given moment.
He glanced at Jessica. At Kirsten, because he knew that look on his wife’s face. Though she was trying to look stoic, in control, strong, he could read the vibrating fear underneath.
Because he’d given her too many reasons to fear in their marriage, and in the end, so many of those fears had come to fruition.
They wouldn’t here. Not now. No. If someone was close enough to leave that note, they were close enough to harm. And they’d made their first mistake in giving him a warning.
Because everything he was, everything, would go into protecting her—not for the FBI, not for personal ego or glory—just for her.