Behind the Lies (Montgomery Justice #2)(57)

“What did your father tell you, Sam?” Zach said, his voice calm and much too mild for Jenna’s peace of mind.

“He wanted me to hide so we didn’t leave.”

Her son had obeyed his father. Because Sam loved his dad. Because she had betrayed her son.

A chill swept through Jenna’s entire body. She scanned the perimeter with a shiver. “He could be here.”

Zach met her gaze and shook his head. She recognized the reality. If Brad had them in sight, they’d both be dead.

With a quick pop, Zach opened the back of the phone. In seconds, he’d removed the battery and a chip and laid them on a piece of granite. He raised his arm. The sound of rock hitting rock smacked, the echo slamming through the woods. Zach had pulverized the electronics.

He knelt in front of Sam. The boy shrank back, and Zach sucked in a breath. “I’d never hurt you, Sam. No matter what you did or said. A man doesn’t hit the people he loves in anger.”

Her son’s head cocked. “Even if they make you really, really mad?”

“Especially when they make you really, really mad.”

Sam twisted his fingers in his jeans, his brow furrowed in thought. “That’s right. I’d never hit my mommy because I love her.”

Sam launched himself at Zach. “You’re my best friend, Mr. Montgomery.”

He wrapped an arm around Sam, holding the boy close. Zach’s cheek rested against Sam’s hair. He closed his eyes.

As much as her son’s willingness to love Zach made Jenna’s heart swell, guilt and worry choked her. He’d been right. Protecting Sam had endangered them all.

Shaky at the truth, she rose. “What do we do now?”

Zach set Sam on his feet, shouldered the pack, and took his hand. “We go into town, use my credit cards to get a car and some cash, and leave Hidden Springs for good.”

Jenna walked beside them, their steps crunching against the burned pine and grass. When Jenna stepped on the sodden terrain, her feet sank down. The scent of the wet, scorched wood stung her nose. “They have to be tracking your credit cards.”

Zach kicked aside some of the ash as they passed the blackened skeleton of his Range Rover. “Doesn’t matter since they already know where we are.”

They trudged down the driveway to the main road. Zach paused and veered to the side. “We’ll have to stay out of sight as much as possible.”

“You really think they’re waiting?” she asked.

“I would be.”




Zach had been wrong.

No one had been waiting on the road. No gunfire, no explosion, no attack. The unexpected development put his entire body on edge.

Dusk had settled over the mountains by the time they reached the edge of town. Zach shifted Sam’s weight on his right arm, his left still immobilized against his body to protect his shoulder. The poor kid had conked out. His fifty-pound weight normally wouldn’t have fazed Zach. He’d carried three times that amount on a pack he’d lugged into the jungle for reconnaissance nine months ago in South America.

Jenna’s footsteps faltered.

“You all right?” he asked, tugging a few pine needles from her hair. They’d ducked in and around the road the entire way down. Had their circuitous route outsmarted their attackers, or were they just waiting around a corner?

She forced a smile. “Never better.”

What a lie. He lifted his brow. She shrugged as if to say what’s the point in saying no. They didn’t have an alternative.

Zach paused and scanned the surroundings from their hidden position in a grove of pines just outside of Hidden Springs. The thick branches concealed their presence.

An abandoned building across the road would give them shelter. “Let’s go,” he said, and raced across the road, Jenna on his heels. He kicked open the door and lowered Sam to the floor. His shoulder was on fire. He needed some pain meds. A hot tub would’ve been great.

The graying wood had been eaten away by termites. Shots of light beamed on the floor in patterns from the bevy of holes in the walls. Still, they would be out of sight here.

Jenna lowered the backpack she’d carried after Sam had conked out. She spread the space blanket and laid Sam on it, covering him as best she could.

She stood and drew Zach away from her sleeping son. “He’s exhausted.”

Zach toyed with a strand of her dark hair, in such contrast to the pale fatigue on her face and emphasizing the shadows under her eyes. “So are you.”

“I’ll be fine.”

The strength in her voice reminded him one more time why he admired the hell out of her. She had more grit than a lot of the agents with whom he’d gone into a firefight.

“Rest awhile,” he said. He pulled his wallet from his back pocket. He’d used most of his reserves buying gas and food on the road to Colorado. His cash in the cabin—now ash. He fingered his last twenty. Enough to get Sam and Jenna something to eat and drink.

He slid out a credit card. “We’re renting a car,” he said quietly. He touched her face lightly. “Stay here with Sam. Don’t show yourself. I’ll be back with food and transportation.”

“What if—”

“Jenna, I do have a plan. We still have choices. Believe me.”

“I trust you,” she said.