Page 115 of Tempt
I hugged her back, grateful for the affection. “I’ll be okay. Eventually.”
CHAPTER27
ZACH
Iflew out to Idaho the day after Christmas.
I sent Mason and Lori an apology text, explaining that an emergency had arisen at work, and I was needed on a job and promising to come back soon. I thanked them for the gifts and said I planned to put the ultrasound photo on my fridge where I’d see it every day. I wasn’t sure I’d actually do it—did I really want that constant reminder of impending grandfatherhood?—but I hoped it would make them happy. I knew I was letting them down by leaving early. I felt even worse when I received no reply to my message.
After checking into a nondescript Twin Falls motel, I met up with Jackson at a place called The Anchor Bistro for a bite to eat. Over wings and nachos, Jackson went over the instructions with me for the job, which included providing the woman and her child with new identities.
“Give them this.” Across the table in our booth at the back, Jackson handed me a large yellow envelope, which I assumed had documents with their new names on them.
I put the envelope on the seat next to me. “Where are they now?”
“Sleeping. They were exhausted.” He took a drink of his coffee. “I’ve got them in a safe house, and it’s being watched.”
“How old is the kid?”
“Little. Maybe two or three.”
My protective instincts went into overdrive. “Are they being tracked?”
“I have to assume someone is trying. The woman—her name is Sophie—is scared and confused. Her husband was obviously involved in something he didn’t want her to know about, and we can’t provide her any details—we don’t even have them—but he took extensive measures to keep them safe.”
“Does she trust us?” I asked.
“Probably not, but we’re all she’s got right now.” He ate a wing and wiped his mouth with a napkin. “Move fast. She’ll be ready at four a.m.”
I nodded. “Got it.”
* * *
Jackson hadn’t been lying when he said the woman was frightened. She was visibly trembling in the front hall of the home where I picked her up. “It will be okay, Sophie,” I told her, meeting her distrustful eyes. “My name is Zach Barrett. And you’re safe with me.”
“My daughter, Eden,” she whispered in a British accent. “She’s asleep upstairs.”
“I’ll put your things in the car while you wake her,” I said. After loading two small bags into the back of the SUV, I went back inside to find the woman standing at the top of the steep staircase, carrying a sleeping child.
Nervous that she would fall, I took the steps up two at a time and reached for the girl. “Let me.”
“But—”
“If anything happens to either of you, I’ll get fired,” I told her, transferring the child to my arms. Sound asleep, she didn’t protest, her head resting neatly on my shoulder, my arms securely around her back. “And I happen to like my job. I’m good at it.”
Sophie gave me a ghost of a smile.
We went out to the car, which idled in the dark under the watch of another Cole Security hire. He opened the passenger-side back door for me and went around to the other side of the car to help Sophie in. I carefully placed the little girl in the back seat and buckled her seatbelt.
Sophie slipped in beside her daughter and covered her with a blanket before looking up at me. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.” I tucked the blanket around the little girl’s legs.
“Do you have children, Mr. Barrett?”
I almost said no. “Yes.”
“I can tell.”
