She nodded slowly. “I am,” she said, “but what was that?”
“That was us being made by the bad guys,” he said. “We figure he’s the middleman who ordered your kidnappers for someone else higher up in the chain of command.”
“Shouldn’t you have gone after him then?”
“Maybe,” he said cheerfully, “but not when I’ve got you.”
She glared at him. “You can’t let him get away just because of me,” she snapped.
“Listen, Gizella,” he said. “You are our priority, and we won’t do anything to put you in danger.”
She groaned. “Which just means, they win again, and we’ll still be running.”
“What do you think we should do then?” he asked patiently.
“I don’t want to be running scared for another minute. Let’s set a trap and catch them, so they’re done and gone, and we don’t have to do this anymore. So, when we leave tomorrow morning,” she said, “we can really leave all this behind us.”
“Wow, you’re a cheeky one, aren’t you?” Hudson said.
“Not cheeky, just fed up,” she replied.
“Well, a trap isn’t a bad idea, … except the part about you being the bait,” Baylor said. “But let’s find a place out of the public eye, and we’ll talk about it.”
He liked her attitude, but, at the same time, it was dangerous. He needed to keep her safe, and he needed to get her back home again in one piece. The fact that they were taking a sober return trip with two bodies was already heartbreaking enough. The last thing he wanted was to have her hurt or injured any further than the emotional wounds she already bore.
Once inside the shopping center, he quickly pulled her off toward a coffee shop area, where he tucked her into the back corner and ordered coffee and cinnamon buns for both of them.
She asked, “Do I really need a sugar hit?”
“If you’d stop shaking, then I wouldn’t think it was required.” He watched as she looked down at her hands and immediately clenched her trembling fingers. He reached across, grasped her hands, and wrapped them up in his. “I’m sorry,” he said. “That was a shock that I should have prepared you for.”
“You didn’t know what would happen,” she said sadly.
“No, but we’re always aware that these shootings can occur,” he said, “and these attacks have a tendency to come out of nowhere.”
“I just can’t believe so much shit is going on.”
“And I think it’s a case of these people feeling desperate right now,” he murmured, gently rubbing her fingers. She had such long slim fingers, so opposite of his, that he was fascinated with the differences. He splayed out his hand against hers and chuckled at the comparison. It brought a smile to her face, which is what he’d intended. “How do you have such small fingers?” he said.
“They’re not small,” she said. “They’re perfect for me.”
“That they are,” he said with a laugh. She just smiled as the coffee was delivered. He thanked the waitress, and moments later the cinnamon buns arrived.
She stopped, frowned, and looked at him, then asked, “Where’s Hudson?”
“He’s looking for our middleman, our latest shooter,” he said calmly.
She stared at him and said, “He’s out there alone?”
“No, Dane’s out there too.”
“Ah.” She frowned at that. “That sounds better,” she said, staring off in the distance. “But they won’t likely find these shooters, will they?”
“We have satellite tracking up right now,” he said, “but my job is to look after you. I haven’t checked in with them to see if they have any news, but they’ll let me know if there’s any change in the situation.”
“Are we likely to be found here?”
“Is it likely? No. But possible? Yes,” he said. “So that’s why we’re sitting in this back corner, and I’m keeping an eye on the surroundings.”
“How can you keep an eye on everything like that?” she asked in wonder.
He looked at her in surprise. “Remember that part about it’s what I do?”
She nodded slowly. “It’s just so hard to fathom,” she said. “You don’t think about anybody having that kind of an awareness in their life all the time.”
“And we wouldn’t want anybody to,” he said. “The world functions with everybody happily ignorant of all this chaos going on around them, until they brush up against it, like you have.”
“You’re right,” she said quietly. “I had no idea.”
“Your father did to a certain extent—but not like this time.”
“No, I’m sure none of us would have gone on that trip if we’d had any idea it could end up the way it did.”
“Of course not,” he said. “Most people don’t have a death wish. Some out there don’t place any value on life and figure, if death comes, it comes. Others want to go out in a blaze of glory because they think it’ll leave this great legacy, like their name will be revered or something. Yet, all too often, they just become dust, and nobody remembers their name at all, or, if they do, it’s with disgust.”
“So sad, isn’t it? The things that we do and all these weird forms of justice.” He cocked an eyebrow at her. So she went on, trying to explain. “It’s just, you know, all the crazy things we do in the name of justice or in the name of revenge or even in the name of religion,” she said, by way of further explanation.
“Ah,” he said, “you’re quite right. It’s pretty silly when you look at some of it, but, to some people, it’s everything.”
“I’ve never really had any religious background,” she said, “and maybe that was missing in my life.”
As he studied her features, he saw the strain all this had had on her. He understood that this wasn’t a world that most people ever became accustomed to. But he had to admit that he thrived on it, and most of his
