Behind the Lies (Montgomery Justice #2)(35)

She sighed. “I can’t guarantee your safety. I don’t know who ordered the hit, but I can find out. Let’s meet. You give me the time or the place. I’ll be there.”

“I have business to deal with before I put myself out in the open as bait. First, find out who Brad Walters is, and then we’ll talk.”

The clicking of keys sounded through the line. With enough time, Theresa could uncover everything there was to know about Brad Walters.

“You took a big risk calling me,” Theresa acknowledged. “Hope she’s worth it.”

He didn’t say a word, just ended the call. Damn she was good.




The smell of fresh coffee could wake a dead man. Even one dead tired. Zach didn’t open his eyes. He sensed the light through closed lids, knowing the early morning rays would have created a pattern on the quilt his mother gave him. The smell of dew permeated the room and the soft mattress made him not want to move. He hunched to drag the quilt over his head when the door creaked open. His hand slid under his pillow and palmed the 1911. He didn’t move, didn’t reveal he’d heard a thing.

A small tennis shoe squeaked on the oak floors in a failed attempt to be quiet. Zach released his grip on the weapon. He rolled over and opened one eye, nearly bursting out laughing as Sam froze into place.

He quirked a brow at the small intruder.

“Mommy’s cooking breakfast,” the boy whispered loudly. “I’m s’posed to ask if you like pancakes, but I’m not s’posed to bother you.”

“Pancakes are worth bothering me for,” Zach said, with a groan in appreciation. How long since he’d had a home-cooked meal? Since he’d gone home. At his brother’s wedding almost a year ago, maybe. “Tell your mom I’ll be right there.”

Sam ran from the room. Zach sat at the edge of the bed and tugged on jeans and a black T-shirt. He rubbed his hands through his hair and yawned. Morning had come too early. He’d searched all the databases he could hack into without using his clearance. The phone call had been risky enough. Brad Walters was too much of a mystery. Assassin, computer salesman. Both? He needed details.

With his eyes half closed, he tugged open the nightstand’s drawer, drew out another of his spare phones, and dialed the classified number. The tones repeated in his ear, each series clawing his nerves like a cricket stuck in the walls.

A message came on. “Zach, I have to leave the country. I didn’t finish…” She paused. “…your request. I will. Be careful.”

“Damn it.” Zach didn’t have time to wait for information about Brad. Jenna and Sam could wind up in the crossfire between him and whoever wanted him dead. By afternoon he needed Jenna and Sam to be gone, and he’d follow their lead—in the opposite direction.

Depressed, he padded barefoot into the kitchen, assaulted by the heavenly scent of bacon along with the dark roasted coffee he kept in the freezer. “Java and bacon. I may have to marry you,” he said, breathing in the scents, letting them tickle his palate and revive his mind.

“My mommy belongs to Daddy and me,” Sam said, his voice sharp. “You can’t have her.”

Zach’s eyelids snapped open. The boy crossed his arms and stood in front of his mother, legs apart, mutinous as a five-year-old warrior.

“I know, buddy,” Zach said. “But she sure can…cook. I just wished I could have someone cook for me like that all the time.”

Jenna glanced at him over her shoulder. Her face flushed and she placed a plate on the table. “Eat up, Sam. We have to wash your clothes from yesterday.”

Zach poured a cup of coffee and wrapped his hands around the hot mug. One taste and he moaned, the smooth flavor bathing his mouth in ecstasy. “What did you do to my coffee maker? It never creates ambrosia like this.”

He lifted his gaze to Jenna and the blush crept all the way to her ears. He shoved back a rough oak chair and sank behind the table, taking another sip of heaven. “I don’t want to, but we need to go to town later. For a change of clothes and whatever you need for your trip.”

Jenna turned the bacon over in the skillet. “Is it safe?” Grease crackled as she pushed around the strips with a meat fork.

“It won’t get safer, and I’m not ordering anything delivered here. You’re leaving today.”

Sam struggled to pull out the chair next to Zach. He sat down and frowned. “But I like it here.”

“So do I, buddy.” Zach ruffled Sam’s hair. “But sometimes—”

“We gotta do what we don’t like.” Sam stuck out his lower lip. “I know.”

“How about after breakfast we find you a movie while your mom and I do some grown-up stuff.”

“Mommy does grown-up stuff with Daddy a lot. She lets me watch Dark Avenger when they hide in their room.”

Jenna dropped the meat fork onto the plate where she’d doled out the bacon. Bacon catapulted off the plate. She raced to the sink and tugged a paper towel from its holder to clean up the mess.

Zach jumped up and grabbed the precariously balanced skillet from her hand and set it in the sink. The hot pan sizzled when it hit the water. With a sidelong glance he studied Jenna’s mortified expression. His entire being urged him to comfort her, even as the images of Brad and Jenna curled together slithered through his brain like deadly serpents. As much as it turned his gut, he prayed Brad had taken her to bed and not used the privacy to create more of the faded bruises he’d seen on her arm.