Page 17

She slipped over the edge, turned and lowered herself until she dangled a few feet above the ground, then let go and landed with an ungraceful tumble.

She looked around, hoping she hadn’t been seen as she got to her feet and brushed the dust from her jeans.

Then she hurried back to where the RV was parked out front, keeping the oversized vehicle between her and the diner.

Romano was already inside and Lexi thought she’d never been so glad to see anyone in her entire life.

He stood in the tiny kitchen area, unloading a bag of groceries into the cupboards.

Or pretending to. Actually, he was waiting.

For her, she realized. He was probably expecting her to try to comfort him again, the way she’d done before. And dreading it.

She took a couple of steadying breaths, went right to the front, sat down in the driver’s seat and started the motor. Then she put the thing in gear and pulled slowly out of the parking lot.

A second later, Romano was standing behind her, one hand on her shoulder, but only to steady himself, she was sure. “What’s going on?”

“One of them … back there, in the diner.” She bit her lip. Her words were coming out in bits and pieces, and her heart was starting to beat too fast again.

“Easy,” he said, and his hand squeezed her shoulder. She closed her eyes because it felt so good. “Drive nice and slow, Lexi. Take your time. No one’s gonna look twice at a camper, unless it’s careening through town, taking curves on two wheels.”

She eased up on the accelerator, nodding, willing her heart to slow down and not launch into a full-blown episode. Safe now, she kept telling herself. She was safe now.

“You need this?” Romano held her prescription bottle in one hand. She hadn’t even seen him reach for it.

“I don’t think so.”

He returned it to the glove compartment. “Tell me what happened.”

“I went to the restroom. When I started to come out there was a man at the counter, dressed all in black. He was showing his phone to the waitress, and the waitress pointed toward the restroom. I was the only one in there.”

“And?”

“I ducked back inside before he saw me, locked the door and climbed out the window.” She looked up at him to gauge his reaction to that, and was surprised to see him smile a little. “What?”

“The idiot's probably still sitting there waiting for you to come out.”

“Do you think it was?—”

“I have little doubt it was one of White’s henchmen. Just as we pulled out, I spotted a black van parked nearby. How the hell they found us, I don’t know. Maybe they didn’t. Maybe they’re just looking, checking motels and diners up and down 81.”

“I was sure I’d overreacted.”

“You didn’t overreact. You did exactly what I would’ve done. Never hesitate to follow your instincts.”

“I didn’t get our sandwiches.”

“We’ll get some more sandwiches. Actually, I grabbed everything we need to make sandwiches. Some clothes too.”

She bit her lower lip, turned to look at him again. “I’m really scared.”

“I shouldn’t have left you alone in there.”

“It’s all right," she said quickly.

“It’s not all right.” He drew a breath, let it out slowly and finally moved up to sit opposite her in the passenger seat. “It’s been eighteen months,” he said softly.

Lexi almost gasped in surprise. Was he actually going to tell her about his family?

“I worked for the FBI, and I thwarted one of White’s bigger projects. He’d been contracted to blow up a government building in Albany. I pulled his trigger early, blew up his mercenaries instead. In return, he blew up my house. My family.”

“Oh my God. I’m so sorry.”

“I ought to be handling things better by now.”

“It … can’t be easy. And eighteen months, that’s barely any time at all.”

He was staring straight ahead, deep in thought. Lexi had to make an effort to keep her eyes on the road. “After it happened, I resigned. I couldn’t focus on the job anymore. And there are some people who suspect I was involved.”

“How could anyone think that? It’s insane. I barely know you, and I wouldn’t believe that for a minute.”

He looked at her for an extended beat, taking that in, it seemed.

“But you came back out of retirement,” she prompted when he couldn’t seem to find his voice again.

“Not exactly. I have friends still on the job. My former boss, Darren, is one of the closest. He let me know White was after your father’s formula.

Asked me to freelance the case. No one’s gone up against White more times than I have.

I agreed. I thought I could handle it. But I’m not doing too great so far, am I?

” He gave a sad smile. “It’s bringing everything back. ”

“It’s forcing you to grieve. I don’t imagine you have yet. I think you probably pushed your grief down, buried it, tried to just … keep going.”

“It was working fine, up ‘til now.”

“You only think it was working fine. It wasn’t. You’ve been dead inside. Dead people can’t feel. But you’re coming back to life, and that means you have to feel again. That’s what the living do, Romano. We feel. We laugh and we cry, we celebrate and we grieve, we fight and we love. We feel .”

He lowered his eyes, then said, “Turn left at this light. We need to get back on the highway up ahead.”

She did as he said, waiting for him to continue, but her own mind was filling with new thoughts, new fears. One, in particular, that wrapped an icy hand around her heart and chilled it through and through. “Romano?”

“Yeah?”

“You said you only agreed to take this case when you realized White was involved. Will you tell me why?”

He laughed, but it wasn’t really a laugh. More like a short burst of air being forced from his lungs. “He murdered my family, Lexi. Why do you think?”