Page 28

Jo shivered.

The discussion went on. The questions continued. The rain picked up. And the cold got colder. Why were they standing out here on the covered porch behind the bait shop? The rain came down hard and fast, and suddenly she was back in the camper.

Bullets slamming into it.

Naomi was screaming.

And Cole had covered Jo’s body with his. The man had been a human shield. Her chin trembled, and she looked away.

“I have to get out of here.” She turned and fled the porch, hurried through the fishy bait shop and out the door.

Splashing through puddles, she jogged to the Yukon and found it unlocked.

Then Jo got in, shut the door, and breathed a sigh of relief.

Through the window, she saw Cole standing at the door of the shop, concern on his face.

The Yukon suddenly came on. He must have unlocked the Yukon for her with the fob and turned it on too. He turned to speak to someone.

She drew in a few calming breaths.

Why is this happening , Lord? I just can’t take this anymore.

Cole jogged over to the vehicle, then took his time walking around it. She lost sight of him in the mirror. What was he doing? Then he got in on the driver’s side. Pursing his lips, he looked at her, his concern-filled gaze roaming her face. “I know you’re not okay. That was rough back there.”

“You were a soldier. How do you recover from someone shooting at you?”

The compassion on his face was more than she could take.

“Come here.” He leaned toward her and wrapped his arms around her, bringing her as close as he could with a console in the way.

He held her, and she forced back sobs. “Can it just be over already?”

Her question was rhetorical, and the fact that he didn’t answer but just kept holding her instead told her that he understood. She just needed to talk. Cole instinctively knew what she needed. When to listen. When to give her space.

And when to hold her. His presence sent all the anxiety running. The sound of bullets in her thoughts died away.

Finally, he said softly, “I’m so sorry this is happening to you.”

He leaned his cheek against the top of her head. Jo felt safe and secure in his arms. And she felt cherished.

She didn’t want to move, but she eased away. “I’m okay. Thank you for that. I just ... I needed...” To be held. She couldn’t finish the sentence.

“I understand.”

And he did, and that’s what she loved about him. Loved? “I know.”

Crime-scene tape wrapped the area around the camper— what was left of it. How had they even survived? “Do we know anything about Naomi?” she asked.

“She’s in critical condition. Normally, I would suggest we go to the hospital, but I don’t think that’s safe. Not for her. Not for you.”

“I keep thinking that I could know the reason all of this is happening deep down inside and it’s just eluding me. It remains hidden from me. There must be a reason someone is after me.”

“And we know more than we did,” he said.

“Yeah, like what?”

“Naomi said your mother had known her brother before . She told us to look up ... something. I just couldn’t understand her. Could you?”

“I’m thinking on it. It didn’t make sense. Free ... that’s all I could understand.”

He shook his head. “She knows something vital. Honestly, I wish she had led with that.”

“Could the shooter have been after her and not me? Could the ferry killer have been there to kill Mason after all? She and her brother had information.” Jo’s shoulders tensed.

“Yeah, she said that your mother and Mason had known each other before. But we know that because they met in the parking lot. If what Naomi said is true, your mother contacted him. So they definitely knew each other.”

“So, what did she mean by ‘before’?” she asked. “Naomi mumbled the word ‘free.’ Free what? She was cut off by bullets. And I could have completely misheard.”

“So let’s focus on the before aspect then,” he said.

“Maybe it was before some incident that was free, which doesn’t make sense, or they knew each other before some point in their past lives.

” What exactly was her mother’s past? Jo hadn’t been left with her ancestry handwritten in the pages of a family heritage Bible.

She’d simply been told all her grandparents were gone.

“Which means we’re missing a lot of pieces,” he said. “But we now have a lot more pieces. I’ll send this new information to Allison.”

Jo didn’t have to just sit here and wait for the answers to fall into her lap or for Allison to find all the answers.

She could at least search the internet at the safe house, even though it didn’t always give the correct answers.

She’d already searched on her father’s real name and never found him.

Clearly, Allison was a master at intelligence. Jo had only her art skills.

“So, you talked to the sheriff longer than I did. What did you learn?”

“The sheriff is forwarding the security footage. I’ll hold him to it. I left a voicemail with Rick in Michigan to let him know what’s happened. I don’t know if Naomi told him what she told us about her brother, but she hadn’t told me.”

“Why do you think she held back?”

“I have a theory or two. One, she might not have known all of it herself. Maybe Mason told her this news not long before he was killed. Or maybe she wanted me to discover what I could on my own without the additional information.” He shrugged.

They were still sitting in the parking lot. Two county vehicles remained.

“It’s time to get out of here.” Cole shifted into reverse and steered them out of the parking lot and away from the chaos. Jo sank down in the seat, wishing she was on the other side of the nightmare.

“Where are we going? What about the house, Cole? Do you think it’s still safe? What if this man who’s after me follows us?”

“I’ll make sure he doesn’t.”

“How can you be one hundred percent sure he won’t?”

“He has a BOLO out on him now. He’s on the run.” Cole held up his cell. “I have his picture right here. Sent it to Hawk. I sent it to everyone.”

“But we can’t see the eyes.” Even so, Jo was already drawing his face in her mind, completing the sketch by adding the eyes from the ferry killer. Would it be their man?

“We have enough for now, and I have a feeling that his full face will be discovered soon enough. Someone will figure it out,” Cole said.

“That’s what I used to do, the kind of thing I did with my job. I could—”

“You don’t have to, Jo. I don’t want to put you through more trauma. We’re all watching out for you.”

Yeah. Everyone except for her father. Oh , Pop...

“ I’m watching out for you.”

Jo couldn’t help the surge of emotion, but she needed to hide it, so she stared out the window at the harsh gray of a cold March.

The clouds and constant rain, the rough water of the Hood Canal, part of Puget Sound, and the woods.

Endless miles of Olympic National Forest. At least here, in the Pacific Northwest, the lush forest green brought a sense of hope.

Evergreens might lose their dead needles, but they continued growing new ones and never appeared bare, no matter the harsh conditions. And Jo needed to be more like that. She needed to have that same perpetual fortitude. She needed to be like an evergreen.

All those months and years working side by side with her mother, solving crimes, and she could never have imagined this scenario.

And Pop? She’d let herself trust him. Lean into him.

Trusting was a risk she had been willing to take, and now she paid the price.

At least he’d said goodbye, and she knew, as far as he was capable, that he loved her.

Pop had been Ransom Driscoll.

Before...

Was it possible that her mother had been living under a new identity? Where did Jo fit into all this?

Who were my parents ... before?

Well, her mother was dead and gone, but her father was still alive, as far as she knew. And while Jo drew breath, she wouldn’t stop until she got answers. Cole squeezed her hand, drawing her attention back to the moment.

“Are you okay?” He squeezed her hand again.

His tenderness pinged around inside. “Under the circumstances, yes, I’m as okay as can be expected. How about you? You risked your life out there, you know.” Again.

“I never should have agreed to meeting her or talking to her inside the camper.”

“I don’t blame you for what happened. We’ll both do better next time.” She freed her hand from his.

After all, they weren’t together, and it felt inappropriate to hold his hand for too long, especially after she’d laid down the game rules.

She had to try harder to ignore the thrumming inside at his nearness.

The warmth that erupted in her heart when he looked at her long and hard.

And his heroics ... being willing to step out and take a bullet for her.

To dive into dangerously cold water to pull her from a sinking vehicle.

“I hope there isn’t a next time in terms of a precarious situation. I mean, to keep you out of danger.”

“As long as questions remain, I’m in danger. You’re in danger.”

“We need answers. So let’s get back to the house—as long as no one followed—and talk to the Washington and Michigan detectives and see where we are. Learning who this hitman is could lead us to who is behind this.”

She expected the feds would get involved at some point, if they weren’t already, considering the multiple states and agencies involved. “We don’t have to wait on that, though. We need to go to Michigan.”

“What are you thinking, exactly?”

“We know that my father isn’t who he said he is. Naomi mentioned her brother knew my mother before ... so I think ... is it possible that my mother wasn’t who she said she was either?”

Cole didn’t answer. Windshield wipers struggled to keep up with the rain as he accelerated the Yukon, steering along the wet road, passing cars, leaving anyone who might follow behind. A man on a mission.

Then, finally, he said, “Anything is possible. And if that’s the case, if she, too, was living under an altered identity, then...”

“This has to do with them both. It’s not two different investigations. It’s just one, with one question. What does their past have to do with my present?”