Page 129 of Track of Courage

A fist closed around her heart at the idea of leaving town without saying goodbye.

Or ... maybe ... what if? Because her stupid words stuck inside her like paste.“I don’tneed a hero,Dawson. And you need to stop alwaystrying to save the day.”

Um, shevery muchneeded a hero. And if he stopped trying to save the day, she might be dead in a frozen creek bed, or even shot in the head at a cabin, and she wasn’t being even a little dramatic.

But Vic’s words had her attention too. She set down her slice of pizza. “You did?”

“Of course I did. Your dad and mom sent me pictures of you growing up. They knew what it cost me to give you away, andthey were ... well, your mom was sympathetic. She couldn’t have kids—”

“I know.”

“Maybe that gave her grace. Anyway, I’ve been following you and your career for years.” She stirred her Coke with a straw. “I might have even downloaded a few of your albums. And caught the Grammys.”

“You saw the glitter suit.”

Vic laughed. “You have more courage than me.”

She didn’t know about that. “It took plenty of courage to give me up, right?” She didn’t quite mean it as a question, but ...

“Everything I had.” Vic leaned forward, pushed her plate away. “You should know that your dad and I loved each other. And, by the way, we were married. So, there was no ... well, no affair. Although, we did have to keep it secret, so that the chief wouldn’t split us up.”

“He was your partner.”

“In every way. I was wildly in love with him, but we were also a team. Undercover together for five years, working in the gangs department. He’d gone in before me, so when he brought me in, it was as his girlfriend.” She lifted a shoulder. “After a while, we didn’t have to pretend.”

It almost sounded romantic.

“We were trying to get out—we’d gotten wind of a big drug shipment coming in and told the DEA agents. They came in too early, blew Max’s cover, and the gang killed him.”

A story flashed through her eyes, and she looked away.

Keely didn’t want to know the details. “And you ran.”

“I did. I went into hiding until the trial, and by then, it was clear I was pregnant. I was terrified that someone would find us, and I knew I couldn’t run with a newborn, so...” She met Keely’s eyes. “I reached out to his brother. He was a cop in Minneapolis. His wife, Anne, was ... she was amazing. Kind and sweet andreally wanted a child, and I knew that Jimmy would do everything in his power to protect you. So yes. I fled to Minnesota, gave birth, signed the adoption papers, and vanished. For years, I got my mail at a PO box in Anchorage. When I heard that the gang leader, Razor, had died, I ditched the box. Maybe I thought you’d find me one day...” She offered a smile.

“Dad gave me Mom’s journal when she died. She’d written down the address for the old PO box, and I hired a PI to finish the trail.”

Vic sat back. “Why didn’t you say something in the Midnight Sun that day?”

“Why didn’t you?”

A slow smile. “You would have made a good cop.”

Keely smiled back. “Sorry. That’s ... my dad. He always said—never answer a question.”

Vic laughed, a deep chuckle. Funny, Keely always thought she got her voice from her birth mother, but Vic possessed a gravelly, low tone. Sort of like how Keely had sounded when she sang at the community.

“I wanted to give you the space you needed,” Vic said quietly. “I didn’t know why you showed up, but I didn’t want to spook you. I suppose I did anyway. If I had known you were getting on a plane, I probably would have chased you down.”

Keely looked away, out to the street, her throat tight.

An SUV pulled up to the sheriff’s office, and her breath caught when a man—cuffed and angry—was wrestled from the back seat. “They caught him. Or at least one of them.”

Vic turned, craning her neck to see down the street. “Good job, Deke.”

Keely kept her gaze pinned, watching.

Dawson didn’t emerge from the car, nor was he in the second SUV that pulled up.