Luke wondered at times if his life had come together for just such days as this-so many past tragedies and investigations had passed by that when there was a way to stop violence there was very little he wouldn’t do to try and intervene. His sister had hugged him after hearing the news he had made police chief and then cried on him too. She understood the pressures of becoming police chief and the reality of what it would mean for her dream of him settling down to marriage and family. It didn’t preclude it, but it did mean choices were being made for his time and energy and focus, and it would slide getting married further into the background and longer into the future. She loved him, and she understood what life took away even as it gave more responsibility.
And maybe because that was his past, Luke understood better who Amy was and a few of the sacrifices she had made for her family over the past years. She had set aside much of her life and a career to carry the responsibility of seeing justice done-turning in the evidence of those bribed, cleaning up a criminal organization because she’d unexpectedly been thrust into that responsibility. She hadn’t abdicated the task, declared it too hard; she’d accepted and bore it as best she knew how. But everything had an ending, and she was entering that final chapter now. He just hoped he was going to be adequate help to her as it unfolded. There was being prepared and there was being able to prevent-and he knew better than to hope he could prevent the trouble coming. The best he could likely do was be in place to stop it.
He heard her before he saw her, because the dogs heard her and moved together to the edge of thicker woods. She’d come around the lake, it appeared.
“Are you Chester or Wilks?”
Luke smiled as the soft words drifted his way. She’d knelt to greet the dogs, and they were going ecstatic with the belly rubs. She walked his way, his two shadows having transferred their loyalties already. It had to be something about women-they did that with his sister too.
He waited until she was about fifteen feet out. “Hello, Amy.”
“Luke.”
“I see you remembered their names.”
“I’ve a good memory that way.” She walked up the two steps to the back deck to join him. She looked thinner than he remembered, the change obvious in her face and her hands, and her smile was there but not nearly as easy as it had once been.
“Why don’t you warm up inside for a couple minutes. How many do you think were tailing you?”
“There’s been two pretty persistently, on and off, for quite a while now. But I don’t think they were able to pick up my trail coming toward town.”
“Okay. The dogs can go in with you if you like.” She smiled and snapped her fingers. The dogs slipped inside with her.
Luke picked up the binoculars again and turned his attention back to the area, searching, thinking. She’d gone cold twenty months ago. She’d been dodging someone after her that full time, never able to shake them… that spoke more of an investigative team than the enforcer type who would want to be able to do his job in a matter of days, not spend months on it. Even if they hadn’t caught her trail here, they would have seen the same news conference. There was no need to try and follow her when they knew exactly where she was heading. They would have just leapfrogged ahead and been patiently waiting for her to appear. But there was always a chance-Luke watched until he was certain the area was quiet.
He held open the door. “Wilks, Chester, guard.” The dogs moved outside in a rush, dividing up as they went through the door and none of the roaming-around behavior of earlier anywhere in evidence. They looked mean now in a subtle way, hair stiffer, patient, standing to smell the air for anything, anyone. Former police dogs did come with some useful training.
Amy stood by the fire, warming her hands. She’d shed the coat and gloves. Thinner, dressed for the cold, the sweater cream-colored wool, the jeans new, the boots polished. She looked nothing like the lady he had met three years ago. “I think I like you as a redhead.”
She gave a slight smile. “It’s closer to the real me.” “We’ve safely got an hour, Amy. It will take at least that long for someone to try and get in near this cabin quiet enough to avoid the dogs.” He moved over to the oven and slid out the tray. “I know, more food. But you called my cell phone while I was just taking the steaks off the grill, and it seemed the thing to do.”
She laughed and he liked the sound of it. “I can’t say I mind; it’s been a long few days of traveling.” She pulled out a chair at the table, which dominated the room.
“The steaks aren’t going to be my best, but they’ll do on a cold night.”
He waited to see if she had any appetite at all or was simply being polite. Her answers were open enough, her voice calm, but she hadn’t met his gaze for more than a moment since she had arrived. The tension in her was skimming just under the surface.
Not much appetite, he concluded within moments. The fact she wasn’t looking at him told him more. “How close did they get?”
She turned the glass of iced tea he had poured her, looking at the way the firelight reflected through the ice cubes. “Waiting in my home when I came back from work one night,” she finally said softly.
He wanted to reach over and touch her hand, to ask what had happened that night but knew there were some memories just better left alone. “I’m sorry.”
“At least there wasn’t someone dead left in my wake this time. They had someone inside the FBI group; that’s the only thing that makes sense for how they got on my trail.”
“You’ve been running since Minnesota?”
“You’ve been talking with Sam.”
“Finally. I should have realized he was working for you years before.”
“Sometimes keeping people safe can mean being very rude. I couldn’t chance getting in touch, Luke. And Sam… he knew the dangers going in.”
“I know.”
“How are they? Marie and Tracey?”
“They’re safe; they’re getting accustomed to the news of their father and the will. They seem to get along okay with the new cousin.”
“I remember Daniel from high school in a vague kind of way.”
“He’s been a friend of mine for a long time, Amy; he’ll handle this right.”
“That’s good to know.”
She toyed with her food, and he wondered how long she’d been so tight on the edge of breaking. The confidence he’d seen in her years ago was a thing of the past; she had felt hunted for a very long time, and it showed in the strain around her.
“Richard will try to get the money from them,” she said quietly.
“I know. The security guys around your sisters are aware how serious the threat is. No one is taking chances with this.”
“I ran to keep them safe, and now trouble just walked in and swallowed them. Do they know?”
“No, but they’re going to have to be told. For their own safety they have to know the threat out there.”
She nodded and then picked up the glass and walked away from the table to return to the fire and the warmth being cast off from it. “What would you have said, if I had called all those years ago?”
He pushed away his plate before he answered. “Yes, with a condition: that you come in from the cold. That you settle around here where I can watch out for you. I’ll keep you safe. And if I fail-if I can’t keep you alive, then I’ll accept the letter and finish what you began.”
“I left myself open for that counter; I didn’t think of it.”
“Think about it now. Your choice of name, location, job. Just as before. But when you come, this time I’m watching your back. You should say yes. It’s the final steps to freedom, and for that you need to trust someone to help you. Let me.”
He wanted her to trust him, wanted it more than he could explain, but as he watched her struggle with what to say, what to decide, he knew it was still wishful thinking that she’d be able to make that huge of a step right now. “Give me a chance, Amy. This time the cops aren’t going to let you down.”
She looked up, and there was uncertainty in her eyes, a want to believe him and a doubt fixed by experience. She offered a quick smile. “You surprised me, and I didn’t think that was possible anymore.”
