Nowhere to Turn (30 page)

Adam hit his knees and rolled. His heart heavy, he had to push Joe aside and focus on Dani. He whirled back through the house and bolted back to Isaac’s side. “What do you have?”

Isaac held up a mirror. “From what we can see, there’s a woman with a gun on Dani and Simon.”

Dani felt hopelessness sweep over her. So close. They’d been so close. The back door had been almost within reach. She’d cried
out for Adam, and instead, Jenny had shoved the barrel of the gun into her stomach. “Back, get back. Move.”

Dani had done as ordered, keeping Simon behind her. Her son who trembled and shook. Jenny shoved them through another door, down the stairs, and into the basement. Where was Joe? What had he been shooting at?

In the basement, Simon slumped to the floor and placed his head against his knees. Dani went to him and placed her hands on his shoulders. He looked up. “I’m sorry,” he signed.

She stroked his cheek and watched Jenny from the corner of her eye. The woman paced.

“What are you doing?” Dani asked. “The cops are here. It’s over.”

Jenny shook the gun in her direction. “It’s not over until I say it’s over.”

Would this never end?

Dani heard running footsteps above. “Adam!”

“Shut up!” Jenny screamed. “Shut up!”

The basement was one big concrete room that ran the length of the house. A storm shelter of sorts with an outside entrance.

Dani hovered next to Simon, praying Adam had heard her cry. The door flew open and light spilled down the steps. Dani sucked in a deep breath as her eyes fell on a two-by-four inches from her fingers.

Before she had time to think about it, she grabbed the board and swung it around in one smooth move. The side of it caught Jenny on the forearm. The woman cried out and the gun dropped to the floor.

She scrambled for it as footfalls landed heavy on the steps. “Freeze! Police!” It wasn’t Adam’s voice, but it was a sweet sound to Dani’s ears. She dove for the weapon even as Simon moved faster than both of them. His small hands wrapped around the
butt of the gun and he brought the weapon up to center it on Jenny’s chest.

Fear latched itself around her throat. “No, Simon,” Dani signed. “Put the gun down.”

“Not yet,” he said. He panted, the fever flushing his cheeks. His glassy eyes darted from Jenny’s stunned face to the bottom of the stairs where Adam held his hand up to the others on the way down. “Stay there,” he ordered.

He looked at Simon, gesturing as he said, “Simon, I need you to put the gun on the floor.”

“No.” His jaw jutted. Jenny moved slowly, scuttling sideways toward the door centered on the opposite wall. Simon followed her with the gun held exactly how Adam had taught him to hold it.

“I’m going out the door,” Jenny said. “I’m going to disappear. You’ll never see me again.” Her hand fumbled for the doorknob behind her.

Simon didn’t speak, he simply tracked her with the weapon.

Jenny found the knob, turned it.

And stepped outside into the waiting arms of the SWAT team.

Simon’s eyes rolled back in his head and he dropped to the floor, the gun skittering across the concrete.

Dani ran to his side and grabbed him up in her arms.

Adam waited for one of the SWAT members to cover the gun, then slid to his knees beside Dani and Simon. He felt Simon’s pulse and placed a hand on his forehead. “We’ve got an ambulance upstairs. Let me carry him.”

Dani didn’t even realize she was crying until she nodded and felt the tears drip from her chin. “What about Joe?”

“He’s not a threat anymore. He’s dead.”

Adam gathered her son in his arms and carried him up the stairs.

FRIDAY EVENING

Three hours later, Adam found Dani dozing in the chair next to Simon’s hospital bed. Even the creaking of the door didn’t rouse her. She looked innocent. Vulnerable.

Kissable.

He didn’t want to wake her. She needed to sleep. He took a step back and his rubber sole squeaked on the tile floor. She jerked. Blinked. And immediately her gaze went to Simon. He watched her relax at the sight of her son sleeping peacefully. She finally turned her attention on him. “He’s going to be all right.”

“Yes.”

“The doctor said his appendix was ruptured, but that the antibiotics should take care of the infection.” She swallowed. “Thank you for coming after us.”

He moved closer and touched Simon’s hand. “I was scared for him,” he whispered. “And you.”

Dani went still, her gaze searching, curious . . . disbelieving. Then tears filled her eyes. “You really were, weren’t you?”

He nodded. “I really was. He’s a great kid.”

She looked back at Simon. “Yeah. He is.” She took a deep breath and thanked God once again for sparing her son. And herself. “Have you seen your mother?”

Pain darkened his eyes. “I tried. My father told me she didn’t want to see me.”

Dani gasped. “Adam, I’m so sorry.”

He shrugged. “I guess she just needs more time.”

Dani stood and gripped his hands, then she leaned in to kiss him. A deep heartfelt kiss through which she did her best to convey her compassion, her need to comfort him. And he let her. He wrapped his arms around her and held her close. When he lifted his head, she offered him a smile.

“I want to be there for you, Adam.”

She saw his eyes darken. And a measure of peace fill them. “I want that too, Dani.”

Simon stirred and Dani turned her attention to him. She lifted her hands to sign. “Hey, darling, how are you feeling?”

Simon lifted a weak hand and drew a finger down his throat. Adam handed Dani the cup with the straw. She blinked and smiled. “You’re getting good.”

Adam shrugged and held up his iPhone. “I’ve been watching sign language videos when I can.”

Dani helped Simon take a sip of the ice water. When he lay back against the pillow, he let out a breath. “Thanks.”

“Go back to sleep, hon.”

He closed his eyes and Dani rubbed hers. Adam placed a hand on her shoulder and she realized the relief she felt in just his presence. It felt so good not to be alone, to share the burden of her sick child with someone else.

“You need to get some rest yourself,” Adam said.

“I know. I slept a few minutes, but feel thickheaded and groggy.”

“You
look
great.”

She felt the heat climb up her neck and into her cheeks. “Ah . . . well. Thanks.”

He stuck his hands in his pockets. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable.”

Dani let her gaze meet his. “I just laid a kiss on you, Adam. You didn’t make me feel uncomfortable.”

“Did too.”

“Did not.”

They fell silent, then burst into laughter. Adam kissed her, then Dani looked over at Simon and caught him watching them. His eyes bounced between them, then he smiled and let his lids flutter shut.

SATURDAY MORNING

Dani pushed the door open and stepped inside. An older man who looked a lot like Adam glanced up. Confusion creased his brow. “Hello.”

“Hi.” Dani cleared her throat and ran her damp palms down her jean-clad thighs. “Hi.”

“Can I help you?”

“Are you Adam’s father?”

“I am.” Confusion turned to curiosity. “Who are you?”

“I’m Danielle Harding. Adam’s latest client.”

The man’s jaw tightened. “What are you doing here?”

Dani glanced at the woman in the bed. She slept, her deep, even breaths barely raised the sheet. “I wanted to talk to you. To both of you if you would be so kind as to hear me out.”

A brow raised. “Adelle’s sleeping right now.”

“I see that. So maybe I can just talk to you and see what you think?”

He waved a hand toward the window seat. A bench that was also used for family members staying overnight. Dani sank onto it, wishing she had her purse so she would have something to do with her hands. But she’d left it in Simon’s room. She cleared
her throat and clasped her fingers together in front of her. “I wanted to meet you because Adam and I have grown close over the last week.”

“Close?”

“Yes. He kept a killer from succeeding in his quest to kill me and my son.”

That got his attention. “You don’t say.”

“I do say. We spent a lot of time together when we weren’t running for our lives or fighting off attacks from people who were supposed to uphold the law instead of take advantage of the fact that they could circumvent it and get away with their illegal activities.”

He blinked and Dani hauled in another fortifying breath. “Adam was coming to be with his mother when he got a call from Tori that someone had found us. It’s my fault he wasn’t here when Mrs. Buchanan had her surgery. But he wanted to be here, he really did.”

“But he put you first.”

Dani nodded. “He said she would understand. That she wouldn’t want me or my son to die because he chose to be with her.” Mr. Buchanan seemed to be at a loss for words, so Dani pressed on. “He misses you. You’re keeping him at arm’s length and it’s killing him slowly. Please forgive him for whatever it is that’s keeping you apart. He needs you.”

“And we need him.” The soft voice behind her had Dani swiveling to find Mrs. Buchanan awake with tears streaming down her cheeks. “Of course I understand. He has a dangerous job, one of those jobs that demand much of him.” She lifted her wet eyes to her husband. “Much like a politician who has to miss certain events in his child’s life, Adam’s had to choose what he can and can’t do according to the demands of his job. He’s had to make some very difficult decisions over the past year and I’m
going to have to stop wallowing in my self-pity if I want to have a relationship with him again.” She sniffed and Dani handed her a tissue. She took it, but kept her eyes on her husband. “I want to see my son.”

“He’s a wonderful man, your son.”

Adam’s mother’s eyes narrowed and then her lips rose in a small smile. “Well, well,” she whispered.

“What?” Dani asked.

“Nothing.” She lifted a brow at Mr. Buchanan. “Well?”

Dani caught her breath as hope rose. She looked at Mr. Buchanan, almost daring him to refuse.

Instead, she watched his eyes fill as he nodded. “It’s time.”

“Well, thank goodness you guys have finally come to your senses.” Dani turned to find a woman in the doorway holding two bags from a local fast-food chain. Sarah, Adam’s sister. She had to be. The resemblance was uncanny. She looked back at Dani and simply said, “Thank you.”

ONE WEEK LATER

Dani still couldn’t shake the feeling that she was missing something. She frowned as she loaded the dishwasher and put the soap in. Simon was still in the hospital, but she’d left him in good hands. Her mother had flown in from California and the two of them were getting to know one another. Simon was thrilled to have his grandmother at his side.

Her mother had encouraged her to take a break, so Dani had decided to go home. She’d been sleeping at the hospital with Simon, rarely leaving his side.

Yesterday, Adam had presented her with the keys to her new home. She’d found it online and said she thought it would be a great fit for her and Simon. Ron had insisted on helping with the rental expenses and Dani promised him when her house sold she’d pay him back. She really wasn’t comfortable with the arrangement, but it was what it was and Ron had insisted.

Dani decided to be grateful.

Adam’s attention meant a lot to her and she appreciated his help. She refused to allow herself to be suspicious of his motives. She’d seen him angry, she’d seen him tenderly care for Simon, and she’d seen him come after her with a desperation in his eyes
that had stunned her. A desperation to make sure she and Simon were safe.

She turned on the machine and listened to it start up with a quiet hum. She liked her new house. A small rental in a nice neighborhood. Adam was right. It fit her and Simon. No bad memories came with it. Only the promise of the future. A good future.

Outside the sun shone bright, deceiving one into thinking it was a warm day while the temperatures hovered just above thirty.

All should be right with her world now that she didn’t have to worry about Stuart or Kurt or Joe or Jenny or anyone trying to kill her.

And yet it wasn’t. All wasn’t right.

Because something was still very, very wrong.

But what?

She realized it was the letter. The one that Kurt wrote and left in the bag with the other items. Her subconscious had been working on it, and the more she thought about it, the more she didn’t believe Kurt wrote it.

But he had to be the one who wrote it. Who else could have? And for what reason? Dani sighed. She was just going to have to accept that her husband had pulled the ultimate practical joke from the grave.

It was over.

The hairs on the back of her neck spiked and she froze.

And slowly turned to come face-to-face with a woman who looked familiar, but one she couldn’t place. Dani lifted a hand to her chest as though that would calm her racing pulse. “Who are you? Why are you in my kitchen?”

“I was looking for you.”

“Most people knock when they want to enter someone else’s home.” She could feel her pulse beating at the base of her throat. She reached for the cell phone she’d left on the counter.

“I’m not most people.” The woman moved closer.

Dani’s fingers closed over the phone. “Wait a minute, I recognize you. You came to see me after Kurt died.”

“I did.”

“Why?”

“To put the plan in motion.”

Dani blinked. “What plan?”

“Do you know who my father was?”

Dani pressed one button and hit Send. The woman still stood on the other side of the counter, the raised bar hiding Dani’s actions. She looked for a weapon, but the woman’s hands were by her side so she couldn’t see one. But that didn’t mean she didn’t have one.

Confused, Dani frowned. “No. I don’t even know who
you
are.”

“I’m Julie Faraday. Gordon Faraday was my father.”

Dani gasped with shock. “I’m so sorry! I heard about his death. It was terrible.”

“Is that all you can say?”

“What else can I say that would help?” Dani tried to soothe. The longer they stood there, the more agitated the woman became. “What can I do? What do you want from me?”

“I want you to know.”

“Know what?”

“Know that your husband and his stupid practical joke killed my father. Your husband
murdered
my dad and all he could say was ‘Gotcha.’”

Dani held out a beseeching hand. “Please . . . I don’t understand.”

“Then let me explain it.” She lifted her right hand and pointed a gun at Dani’s face.

Adam heard Dani’s voice and another woman talking. She’d called but hadn’t answered his hellos. Adam frowned, wondering
if she’d dialed the number accidentally. With his feet propped up on the desk, he’d been contemplating calling her to ask her if she and Simon would want to have dinner with him.

Just as he was about to hang up, he heard her say, “Why don’t you put the gun down?”

His feet hit the floor with a thud and he stood to bolt over into Blake’s office. With a jerk of his hand, he motioned for Blake to follow.

Blake lifted a brow, but must have sensed his urgency as he stood and grabbed his coat from the back of his chair. “You drive,” Adam mouthed and punched the mute button.

“Where?” Blake asked.

“Dani’s new place.”

Blake nodded and together they hurried out to Blake’s red truck. Adam put the phone on speaker.

Dani was talking, her voice a little shaky, but firm. “I can’t change whatever it was that Kurt did.”

“My father was deathly afraid of snakes after being bitten last year. Almost seven months ago, several of his friends at the FBI threw him a birthday party. Your husband put snakes into a box—” Her voice cracked.

Adam looked at Blake. “Faster.”

“—and when my father opened that box, all those snakes popped out all over him and he had a heart attack and died.” Tears dripped down Julie’s cheeks and Dani’s heart went out to the woman even as she prayed Adam was on the way.

“But I didn’t have anything to do with that,” she whispered. “My husband was an evil, evil man. If he found a weakness in someone, he preyed on it. He did the same thing to me and our son.”

Doubt flickered in Julie’s eyes. Then hardened. “For six months
I’ve planned my father’s revenge. Do you know, I went up to that office and pumped those agents for information?” She gave a hiccuping laugh. “Ralph was more than willing to let me ask questions and talk about my father. He thought I needed to, that it was therapeutic. So I made it a point to go to his office a couple of times a week. Other agents felt sorry for me and told me stories about my father. Like his suspicions about Kurt Harding and how he’d gone to his superior and said he shouldn’t get that promotion.”

“I’m so sorry,” Dani whispered.

“I planned it all, you know. I planted the letters. I set up the safe-deposit box, everything. A couple of weeks before my father died, I was at the office waiting to go to lunch with him and overheard a conversation between Peter Hastings and another agent about some plates they needed but couldn’t get their hands on. And Peter said that whoever had those plates was dead. At the time, it didn’t mean much, but later, as Ralph filled me in on more details, I realized how to set everything up. I wanted Joseph Duncan dead. He was as bad as your husband. All he cared about was money. He stood there and watched my father die. He didn’t even care! Ralph said he even laughed.
Laughed!
”

Dani prayed Adam was listening. “But your father died the same day as Kurt. How did you put it all together so fast?”

“It wasn’t hard. Ralph was at the hospital with my dad when I got there. We were both grief-stricken. He talked and I listened. And the more I listened, the angrier I got. It didn’t take long to plan everything. I had time because I couldn’t sleep, couldn’t eat, could hardly do anything except plan. Within a few days, I had it all laid out.”

Dani’s mind spun, reeling with the information. “Did you plant the letter in my end table?”

“Yes, and the safe-deposit key, and I sent letters to Joe and that
witch down the street, Jenny. And Stuart—” She gave a derisive laugh. “Stuart was so blind with his infatuation for you, I didn’t know if he’d even care about the letter, but he did.”

“And you impersonated me at the bank.”

“You wrote checks for bills and put them in your mailbox. All I had to do was steal one and practice your signature, get a fake ID with all of your information on it, and I was in.”

She made it sound so easy. Dani blinked and forced her mind to work.

“But why hurt me? I didn’t have anything to do with your father’s death. I was scared of Kurt and only stayed with him because I was afraid he’d kill me if I left him.”

“Why hurt you? Because you bought the snakes.”

Dani blinked. “How did you know that?” She could almost hear the woman’s teeth grinding.

“Because the receipt was mixed in with the disgusting creatures. Your name was on it.”

“Kurt sent me into the store. I have a debit card that he allowed me to have and use occasionally. But I only bought them on his order.”

“Then I guess that was one order you should have disobeyed.” She lifted the gun higher and raised her other hand to steady the weapon. “Now you can join him.”

The gun cracked. Dani dove for the floor, expecting to feel the bite of a bullet. She waited for the pain. Instead she heard a thud and, pulse racing, looked up to see Julie Faraday on the floor, a black hole between her eyes.

Adam’s tense face appeared in the window that had been shattered by the bullet.

Dani placed her hands over her face and cried.

ONE YEAR LATER

Adam watched Dani pour herself a cup of coffee. “You want to sit outside on the balcony?”

“Sure.” She offered him an easy smile and followed him to settle into the three-seater swing.

“It’s Christmas Eve.”

“Yes, it is. And it’s a lovely sixty-five degrees.”

“Unbelievable.” He let out a contented sigh, sank down beside her, and took a sip of his tea. “We’re going to my parents’ for lunch tomorrow, right?”

“Wouldn’t miss it.”

“And your mom’s coming?”

“Yes.” Dani’s mother had moved one neighborhood over from Dani, and Adam knew she was loving the proximity. She and her mother were closer than ever. Her happiness reflected on her face.

“Where’s Simon?” Adam asked.

“Playing that game with Mitchell. I would fuss about him spending too much time on it, but he’s doing
math
, for goodness’ sakes.”

“You do realize he’s probably got a genius IQ, don’t you?”

“I do.”

“It’s going to take a lot of energy to keep up with him.”

She gave a low laugh. “Yes, I’m aware of that too.”

Adam cleared his throat and looked down. She must have sensed his nervousness. Or something. “Adam?”

“Yes?”

“Are you all right?”

“Why do you ask?”

She frowned. “Because you’re acting a little weird.”

He stood and walked to the rail of the balcony. “That’s because I’ve been doing a lot of thinking.”

“About?”

He turned to face her. “Us.”

“Us. Okay.”

He couldn’t read her. That fact scared him to death. He was going to have to jump off the cliff without a safety net. “Dani, we met in a crazy way.”

“Yes.”

He found the seat beside her again. It was easier than standing on shaky legs. “But I’m glad you found us. Found Operation Refuge, and I’m glad God brought you into my life.”

Dani leaned forward to kiss him. A long, sweet, lingering kiss that he wanted to deepen and definitely prolong. Instead he pulled away and cleared his throat. “Okay, as much as I enjoy it, stop distracting me. I’ve got stuff to say.”