him. I’d gotten information about Rebecca in the holding cells, but at his price. He’d been discharged now, but what if this was all part of the plan? What if
“I didn’t.” Chase jammed a hand through his hair. “I trusted him once, and it cost me everything. I have to live with that, but you don’t.”
I staggered back, needing to put some distance between us. He never spoke of what he’d witnessed with my mother—not since he’d first told me—but how obvious that burden was now. I hadn’t been there for him because it hurt too much, and in doing so I’d left him alone.
I missed her. But I missed Chase, too, and somehow that was worse, having him here and missing him. Seeing him every day and feeling a world apart.
“You didn’t lose everything,” I said.
He looked up, and moved toward me slowly, and the look of surprise in his face was enough to break my heart.
“Neither did you,” he said quietly.
The tears came at last. Salty and hot, yet somehow cool and cleansing, too. He didn’t wipe them away, but traced them gently with his fingertips.
Someone knocked at the door.
I was jolted back to reality, to the checkpoint, and Tucker Morris, and the things I’d said to him outside. Chase was right; Tucker
When my eyes were dry, Chase opened the door.
Sean was standing outside, looking sheepish.
“So.” He scratched his neck. “I didn’t know it was him—Tucker—that, you know. You believe me, right?”
I nodded.
“You could have said something,” he added, a little injured. He was too far away to have this kind of conversation, which made him feel all the more distant.
“I’m not going to freak out and stab you or anything,” I muttered.
“Oh, good.” As if waiting for permission, he stepped forward and pulled me into his arms. I tucked my chin over his shoulder, careful not to touch his burned back. I felt stronger with both Chase and him at my side.
“Notice how my hands are above the waist,” I heard him say to Chase, who snorted in response.
Before pulling away, he said, “Something’s come up.”
“What?” Chase edged beside me.
“It’s weird. Probably nothing, but you’ll want to hear it.”
We moved wordlessly past the printing machines toward the office, not running into Cara or Tucker. Maybe Cara really had left to see her cousin. Maybe Tucker had magically disappeared. That would be fine by me.
Billy was sitting on the desk with Marco and Polo. When he saw me, he jumped off, glancing between us as though one of us might combust. I forced my chin up, but wanted badly to blend in with the walls.
“I can’t believe—”
“What happened?” interrupted Chase. I gave him a small, grateful smile.
“Okay, so here’s the thing,” began Marco. “You say
“And I say, ‘Yes, Marco, sounds real familiar.’ And so we come back to the office, and I remember. Last week the carrier from Chicago comes through, saying he’s stopped at a new checkpoint on the way.”
My heart was beating hard, anxious to know where this was going.
“And your friend Sean here remembers that you’re from Louisville,” said Marco. “And I say, ‘That’s where the carrier stopped!’”
“How does Lori Whittman tie into it?” Chase asked when I couldn’t find the words.
“She’s the one!” said Billy, picking up a scrap of paper. “She’s the one that set up the checkpoint in Louisville. The Chicago carrier even wrote down the address so Marco and Polo could see if it was being scouted by the Bureau. Fourteen-fifty Ewing Avenue.”
My knees gave way. I barely registered the hard feel of the floor beneath me. Chase was as pale as death itself. He was right to be. He knew that place all too well.
Fourteen-fifty Ewing Avenue was my address.
CHAPTER
12
“THAT’S not possible,” Chase choked out.
Could it be possible? Who else could it be, in
My hands covered my mouth, as though I’d been speaking my stream of panicked thoughts aloud. I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t make them real. Hope was a dangerous thing. Too much hope in a time like this could destroy a person. Set up unrealistic expectations. Yes. Best to proceed with caution.
“It’s a trap,” Sean said. “Think about it. Why else would a checkpoint in her name come up now, while the Bureau’s hunting for the sniper? They’re baiting you.”
My heart sank like a stone. Sean’s assessment seemed far more likely than the alternative that my mother was actually alive.
“The Chicago carrier had us look up the name and address a week ago.
“But it says that about Chase, too,” said Billy helpfully. “I checked.”
“Are you sure she was dead?” I asked, but my words were so quiet that no one heard me. I repeated myself.
“Yes,” Chase said. “I saw her die.”
“But you got in a fight with Tucker, right? You told me you don’t remember what happened.”
“Whoa,” I heard Billy say.
“Someone hit me,” Chase admitted. “I woke up in a holding cell.” His hands hung slack at his sides. His shoulders bowed. He looked like an old man, and for the first time since before her death, I wanted to comfort
Marco, Polo, and Billy were glancing back and forth between us.
“Maybe she was just hurt,” I said. “Maybe…” I covered my mouth again.
“I guess there’s only one person that knows for sure,” said Sean cautiously.
Chase was far away. My insides, when I could feel them again, were tight as a drum. I whispered his name, needing him to come back.
He looked up, remembering the rest of the room. He coughed. “Right. Tucker.”
“And I told him to leave,” finished Sean.
Chase spun on him.
“How was I supposed to sit here with him knowing…” Sean looked away, like he was afraid of upsetting me again. “Cara was leaving for her cousin’s anyway, so he went with her.”
My heart rate kicked up a notch. What had Sean done? At the worst, he’d given Tucker an out to go straight to the MM. At best, Cara and Tucker would be out in the community, close to curfew, attracting a lot of attention as an unwed couple. One glance at Chase and I could tell he was thinking the same.
“When? When did they go?” I asked.
“I don’t know… twenty minutes maybe,” said Polo. “Marco and I were still looking for the address the carrier left.”
