The Hero (Thunder Point #3)(63)

“Oh, Jacob cares. He was in a rage. They left and went looking for you. I have no idea what went on there when I left with Mariah and Mark. I hate to think about it. I managed his family for him and Mariah was not only the youngest woman there, but she was pregnant. I can imagine Jacob just about lost his mind.” She shook her head sadly. “Devon, there’s so much more history to that place than you know—we’ll talk about it someday.”

“Will we see each other again?”

“Of course,” she said, giving her hair a pat. “I don’t know when, but we will see each other again. Tell me about your life now. Are you safe? Happy?”

Devon nodded. “It’s been amazing. An old guy picked us up and took us in. He kept us in his home for a little while.”

Reese frowned. “Does he dominate you?”

Devon smiled. “He’s nothing like Jacob, nothing at all. He said he’d had hard luck most of his life and he was just giving back. He pointed me in the direction of a possible job and I got it. I found a small place to rent, I share a babysitter with my boss, filled the little house with secondhand furnishings. I put in a lot of hours for the doctor, but I do a good job for him and he lets me know he sees it. It’s a small place—people get to know each other easily.”

“You should probably get some counseling....”

Devon laughed. “I’ll see if I can work that into the budget someday.”

“I want you to think about it. Jacob worked so hard at making all the women think they had nothing, no options, no ability to do anything but exist inside his fence. That’s a lot to overcome.”

“Are you in counseling?”

She nodded. “It’s helping. I’ll tell you more about that when we see each other next. We really can’t be in touch right now, but I hope it won’t be too long before...”

“Why?” Devon asked. “Can’t we talk on the phone sometimes? Maybe meet here? Jacob would never come near a police building!”

“If we want the FBI to finish what they started, we need to just live quiet lives until it’s over. Then we can see each other again. I hope it’s not too long.”

* * *

Just as she suspected, Mac was waiting for her to take her home. He had gone back to Thunder Point, but returned for her. When they were in the department car he asked, “Was it okay?”

“It was the most exhausting day of my life,” Devon said. “They wanted details about each person that I’m not even sure I remember accurately. Basically we were slaves and we had a mostly benevolent master.”

“Mostly?” Mac asked.

“Mostly. Let’s face it—he’s a drug dealer.”

Mac tapped his wedding ring on the steering wheel. “I think, a major drug dealer.”

She pulled out her phone. How had she lived so long without this ability to communicate so easily, so rapidly? “And I miss some of the women and kids so much,” she said to Mac.

She texted her boss and Spencer to say she was headed home. By the time Mac pulled up in front of his office, the clinic was dark. “Listen, Devon,” he said, “what you did today was brave. And it was right. You could’ve given us all a different name, hidden right in plain sight, started a new life here and disappeared from your past. Coming to me, cooperating with the feds, that was brave.”

She gave him a weak smile. “I hope it was also smart,” she said.

Fifteen

Cooper’s little apartment over the bar had one bedroom. When it was his turn to keep Austin overnight so Spencer could have a life, Austin slept in the same room with Cooper and Sarah—on the pull-out sofa. It was not optimal. Not only was there no nooky on such nights, but Austin snored like a freight train. He also flopped around on that bed like a fish on the dock.

Cooper wanted to impose on Landon to keep the little guy in the toy hauler, but when he even led up to such a request Landon cleared his throat, lifted a brow and smirked. Then Austin asked Cooper, “How old do I have to be before I get a man cave?”

“Very old,” Cooper said.

The upside was, Austin did make friends right away because Austin was connected with one of the most important people in the town—his own dad. Kids from school only had to see him at the first high school football game to get the message—Austin’s dad was the coach and Austin sat with Mac, Cooper and the others. But instead of Austin being lured away to hang with kids his own age, all the kids who liked the new kid wanted to sit with the in crowd.

“But I thought you enjoyed having Austin around,” Sarah said.

“I do. I’m nuts about Austin. But I would like to have him sleeping down the hall. So I can be myself.”

“You’re a sex maniac,” she said.

“I thought that was your favorite part,” he said, grinning lasciviously.

“You’re hardly deprived,” she pointed out to him.

“True,” he could admit. In fact, since Sarah had bid farewell to the Coast Guard, her days and nights were her own. The September air was still mild and autumn on the beach brought a whole new energy—the after-game campfires had begun and the night was alive with the sounds of teenagers. Cooper dimmed the lights in the bar by ten o’clock to keep the action down on the beach rather than running up and down the stairs for drinks. But he liked to sit with his wife on the deck and watch the partying. Thunder Point had scored a big win over one of their rival schools tonight.