“And that’s what makes you very special,” he said quietly. “Not everybody would have their priorities that straight.”
“Too bad money doesn’t buy us that stuff though, right?”
He nodded. “I haven’t been in a position like you have,” he said. “But I’ve known lots of people and lots of team members who have died. Passing on through disease or from accidents brought on by some of the missions that I’ve done,” he said. “There have been any number of times where I wished I could have reversed history and stepped into their shoes and saved them because they had friends and family who cared. Me? I’m more or less alone and fairly isolated in my world, and it always caused me a great deal of pain to think of the families who were left behind.”
“That is who suffers the most,” she said quietly. Just then Dane took a series of hard turns. She leaned forward and asked, “Why the rush, Dane?”
“Just part of the deal,” he said cheerfully.
She settled back and faced Baylor. “What does that even mean?”
“It means, he’s either getting rid of a tail,” he said, looking around behind him, “or he’s making sure a tail doesn’t find us.”
“I guess,” she said. She settled back, feeling a certain tension coiling tighter and tighter inside her. “Did they ever do an autopsy on my mother?”
“No,” he said. “Did you want one done?”
“No,” she said, “especially after that email. I’m just glad that she got to spend a few more days with my father. It was all she really cared about.”
“And you,” he said. “Remember? She really cared about you. She really wanted you to go on this trip with them.”
“Yes, my father was holding back on it.”
“To what extent?”
She shrugged. “He told me that my coming along might not be a good idea.”
“Interesting, and yet he already knew that your mother was dying, so why would he say that?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “Part of me says, for all the nasty reasons that he could, but I don’t want to be that mean and think along those lines about somebody who’s gone.”
“I get that, but, if you think anything else is in there that we need to know about, then tell us.”
“I will,” she said and settled back into her seat, thinking about it. “I don’t know,” she said. “I think it’s either he thought that the trip itself wouldn’t be all that great, or he wanted the time with my mother himself.”
“Would he be like that?”
“Absolutely,” she said with a laugh. “It was always them, and there wasn’t a whole lot of room for anybody else, but, because I was so close to my mother, he had to make do.”
“Ouch,” he said. “I guess that’s not all that unusual either.”
“No, not particularly, not when you have some men who are fairly possessive about their wives. They don’t always want to let that relationship change, even as it needs to.”
When Dane quickly ducked the vehicle into a dark alley and then into another closed two-car garage area and came to a sudden stop, she sat in the darkness and looked at the two men. “Is this home?”
“For the rest of the night, hopefully,” Baylor said.
She nodded, then pushed open the door and hopped out, Baylor already there to help her. They walked into a small house. She smiled as she looked around. “This is unique.”
“It’s actually very authentic,” he said.
She studied the bright colors on the walls, with murals and tons of religious artifacts. “I hope you didn’t have to move a family out to let me move in.”
“The family passed away many years ago,” he said gently.
“I guess things like this just stay in place over time.”
“As much as we can, yes. It prevents arousing suspicion.”
“I get it.” She walked over to a small chair and sat down, where she could look out the window. “It’s so much sleepier here.”
“A much different pace,” he said, “but it also means that there are many fewer police.”
“Does that mean much less crime though?” she countered. “I’m not sure that’s ever a possibility.”
“Sad, isn’t it?”
“Maybe. So now what?”
“Now we wait for visitors.”
And, at that, she stopped and froze. “Seriously?”
“Yes,” he said, with a glance her way. “As we discussed earlier, we did set up a sting.”
“And I’m bait?”
“You’re the bait,” he said cheerfully.
She should have been overwhelmed with joy, since that is exactly what she’d wanted them to do, but it came off as a bit of a shock. “You didn’t think to involve me in it?”
“You’ll be involved enough,” he said. “We’ve passed more than a few checkpoints and cameras. People know where we are.”
“Oh, crap,” she said, not even realizing that was a problem. “So why did you choose here?”
“It’s easier to defend,” he said.
“But we’re still defending then. Aren’t we better off to go on offense?” she argued.
“Not at this point, no. Because we don’t have anybody to go up against in an offensive maneuver,” he said. “Remember? We’re still not sure who are all the boogeymen in this case.”
She winced at that. “That should be at least the end result from this.”
“Should’ves and would’ves and could’ves don’t count when it comes to this type of thing though,” he said.
“So what does then?”
“Stealth and being first,” he said with a decisive clip.
She looked over at Dane. “Do you agree?”
“Absolutely,” he said. “As soon as you end up in a defensive maneuver, you’re always trying to outrun or to outfox your opponent. It’s time to turn this around.”
“Well, I was on the right track then anyway,” she said.
“You absolutely were,” he said, with a big smile. “You’ve done really well, and you’re thinking very much like you should be.”
“What? That we should go out and take care of these guys before they take care of us?”
There was something so dry in her tone that the others burst out laughing.
She glanced at them. “Glad you guys
