Behind the Lies (A Montgomery Justice Novel) (23 page)

She slipped away from Sam and crawled over to him. “You’ve been up all night.”

He didn’t answer, but picked up his stick and stirred the coals, anything to avoid the temptation sitting next to him.

“You attacked me last night,” she said. “On purpose. I want to know why.”

Stunned, he flickered his gaze to hers.

“You hurt me.”

“I know,” he said quietly. “I’m afraid for you and Sam. I’m afraid you’ll leave here and make yourself vulnerable.”

Jenna hugged her knees to her chest. “I was fourteen when my father was killed in a car accident. Since my mother died of cancer when I was a baby, I was placed into foster care for a while. Then my uncle found me and took me in. He was nothing like my father. Uncle Sal was a dealer, but he was my only family.
He had no clue what to do with a fourteen-year-old girl. I went from being raised by a dad who loved me to taking care of myself. When my uncle was flush, he ordered pizzas; otherwise, we didn’t eat. If I wanted to go to school, I had to find my own way. He got busted when I was sixteen, so I ended up on the streets for a while. When I was eighteen he kicked me out for good.”

“I’d wondered where you learned to hot-wire my truck.” Zach studied the woman who hadn’t seemed to fit her image. Now he understood.

“While I was on the streets a mechanic taught me how to get any car running in less than thirty seconds. I think he felt sorry for me and gave me a job in a garage that doubled as a chop shop. That and picking a few pockets on the rich side of town earned me enough to eat without walking the streets.”

Zach wanted to jump into her past and fight for the little girl who had no one. Her life could have turned out so differently. “How did you stay out of jail?”

“I was really, really good at what I did.” She smiled. “I met Brad the summer I turned eighteen, when I palmed his wallet. I should have known then he was bad news. No normal computer jockey would have felt me lift that wallet.” She picked the stick up from him and toyed with the coals. “Whatever you may think, Zach, I’m not a girl who believes life is all fairy tales and roses. My dad’s heart broke when my mom died, but he never let it stop him from making sure I believed in the future. I won’t let you or anyone else take the same dream from Sam. No matter who his father is.”

She leaned back against the rocks. “The irony is, I forgot about my dad’s lessons until I met you. You pretend to live your dreams, but you don’t. So thank you for reminding me of the truth I want Sam to know.”

She rose and walked out of the cave. Zach couldn’t stop himself. All he wanted was to scoop her into his arms and hold her close. He’d seen more beautiful women. He’d made love to more beautiful women, but none compelled him to action like she did.

Zach glanced at Sam, but the boy was still sound asleep. He followed her into the wilderness and pulled her into his arms.

“What are—?”

He nipped at the lobe of her ear, and she shivered under his touch. Her hands roamed down his back and he wanted to purr.

“If I were a true superhero, I’d be able to resist you. Guess this proves I’m a mere mortal after all,” he said softly.

His lips hovered over hers. His hand circled from her shoulder to her back, and she plastered herself tighter against him. She circled his waist with her arms, in a never-ending gift.

He needed to feel. She made him feel again.

She parted her lips.

His mouth pressed slowly to hers.

A loud explosion sounded much too close. The ground shifted under his feet.

Zach tore his lips from hers and jerked his gaze to the horizon. The sky had turned red with fire. He knew the location. His haven. His solitude. The last of his communications and equipment were a fiery ball.

They’d been found.

T
HE FIRE HAD
consumed everything. Hours later, ash still floated through the wind, peppering the cove of trees and ground around Jenna. Nothing remained of Zach’s cabin—his
home
. Family pictures had hung on the walls, unlike his La Jolla mansion. The California estate had been a movie star’s show house—the one that appeared in magazines or on television shows. She’d believed the glass and stone to be a reflection of Zach’s soul. Now, she knew better.

The powder prickled her nose, and a small cough escaped her. They’d watched from afar as the firefighters doused the blaze, then soaked the land around Zach’s house. Wet cinder and twisted metal littered the ground.

The devastation choked her throat. She pulled Sam closer into her arms, holding him tight. She rocked him close, her eyes blinking back the burn. He stuck his thumb in his mouth, watching Zach’s every movement.

Sam’s Dark Avenger knelt at the edge of the structure where a small pipe emerged from the ground. He hadn’t let a modicum of emotion or dismay show. He’d set his jaw and, after the firefighters finally disappeared on their trucks, he’d begun sifting through the little that remained of the cabin.

Zach dug in the debris. He pulled out a lump, then flicked the ash and dirt away. Jenna leaned forward, squinting. She
couldn’t quite make it out.
Metal, perhaps?
His face froze like stone. He clutched the item before picking his way back to them.

“The car’s toast,” he said, stating the obvious. “So is the helicopter.” He tossed the metal gadget in his hand, then stuffed it into his back pocket. “Whoever did this was a professional. The detonator wasn’t jerry-rigged.”

“I’m sorry,” Jenna said, tightening her arms around Sam. A detonator meant explosives. She
knew
who had destroyed Zach’s house.

He shook his head. “No,
I’m
sorry. Once the paparazzo showed up, I should have gotten you two out of here. It was only a matter of time.”

He knelt down in front of her and Sam. The icy-blue depths of his eyes held no blame, only concern and sorrow. He said nothing about Sam’s escapade delaying them. Her gaze darted from his. They both knew the truth. If not for Jenna and her son, Zach would have been starting a new life, with everything he needed.

Now, he had nothing.

“We have to create new identification,” he said, stuffing what remained of their supplies into his backpack. “Then we get you as far away from me as possible.”

“I agree we should separate, but not for your reasons.”

Sam whimpered in her arms. Jenna shushed him and met Zach’s gaze, unwilling to flinch. The time had come to stop hiding the truth from her son, no matter how much it hurt. “Brad did this. When I researched his so-called accidents, he set explosives near gas lines. It fits.”

“Whether Brad or my company set the charges doesn’t matter,” Zach said. “It doesn’t change what we have to do.” He slung the pack onto his good shoulder. “We can’t hang around any longer.”

Sam tugged at her shirt.

“Not now, baby.”

He tugged again. “Did Daddy burn down Mr. Montgomery’s house?”

Jenna winced and crouched down to stare at her son. “We don’t know, Sam.”

“He was mad when I talked to him,” Sam whispered, burying his face in her shoulder. “I’m sorry, Mommy.”

Sam’s words drained the blood from her face. She lifted her son’s chin. “When did you speak to him?”

He swallowed a loud gulp. “I was mad ’cause Mr. Montgomery kissed you. I called Daddy. I didn’t mean to get the house burned down.”

Jenna’s hands clawed into the earth at her sides, the pine needles digging into her palms. She gripped the dirt in a futile attempt to keep her wits. “How did you get hold of him?”

“I stole Mr. Montgomery’s phone,” Sam said, head bowed. “Am I in as much trouble as Daddy?”

Jenna could do nothing but close her eyes and hold Sam close. “Oh, baby.” She shook her head, her chin brushing his soft hair. She met Zach’s somber gaze.

“Daddy’s not a real bad guy,” Sam said, his lower lip quivering, the uncertainty tingeing each hopeful word. “He just got mad. I’m sure he’s sorry.” Sam pulled the phone from his pocket.

The muscle over Zach’s jaw pulsed. He let the pack drop off his shoulder and stretched out his hand. Jenna handed the phone to Zach.

“What did your father tell you, Sam?” Zach said, his voice calm and much too mild for Jenna’s peace of mind.

“He wanted me to hide so we didn’t leave.”

Her son had obeyed his father. Because Sam loved his dad. Because she had betrayed her son.

A chill swept through Jenna’s entire body. She scanned the perimeter with a shiver. “He could be here.”

Zach met her gaze and shook his head. She recognized the reality. If Brad had them in sight, they’d both be dead.

With a quick pop, Zach opened the back of the phone. In seconds, he’d removed the battery and a chip and laid them on a piece of granite. He raised his arm. The sound of rock hitting rock smacked, the echo slamming through the woods. Zach had pulverized the electronics.

He knelt in front of Sam. The boy shrank back, and Zach sucked in a breath. “I’d never hurt you, Sam. No matter what you did or said. A man doesn’t hit the people he loves in anger.”

Her son’s head cocked. “Even if they make you really, really mad?”

“
Especially
when they make you really, really mad.”

Sam twisted his fingers in his jeans, his brow furrowed in thought. “That’s right. I’d never hit my mommy because I love her.”

Sam launched himself at Zach. “You’re my best friend, Mr. Montgomery.”

He wrapped an arm around Sam, holding the boy close. Zach’s cheek rested against Sam’s hair. He closed his eyes.

As much as her son’s willingness to love Zach made Jenna’s heart swell, guilt and worry choked her. He’d been right. Protecting Sam had endangered them all.

Shaky at the truth, she rose. “What do we do now?”

Zach set Sam on his feet, shouldered the pack, and took his hand. “We go into town, use my credit cards to get a car and some cash, and leave Hidden Springs for good.”

Jenna walked beside them, their steps crunching against the burned pine and grass. When Jenna stepped on the sodden terrain, her feet sank down. The scent of the wet, scorched wood stung her nose. “They have to be tracking your credit cards.”

Zach kicked aside some of the ash as they passed the blackened skeleton of his Range Rover. “Doesn’t matter since they already know where we are.”

They trudged down the driveway to the main road. Zach paused and veered to the side. “We’ll have to stay out of sight as much as possible.”

“You really think they’re waiting?” she asked.

“I would be.”

Zach had been wrong.

No one had been waiting on the road. No gunfire, no explosion, no attack. The unexpected development put his entire body on edge.

Dusk had settled over the mountains by the time they reached the edge of town. Zach shifted Sam’s weight on his right arm, his left still immobilized against his body to protect his shoulder. The poor kid had conked out. His fifty-pound weight normally wouldn’t have fazed Zach. He’d carried three times that amount on a pack he’d lugged into the jungle for reconnaissance nine months ago in South America.

Jenna’s footsteps faltered.

“You all right?” he asked, tugging a few pine needles from her hair. They’d ducked in and around the road the entire way down. Had their circuitous route outsmarted their attackers, or were they just waiting around a corner?

She forced a smile. “Never better.”

What a lie.
He lifted his brow. She shrugged as if to say
what’s the point in saying no
. They didn’t have an alternative.

Zach paused and scanned the surroundings from their hidden position in a grove of pines just outside of Hidden Springs. The thick branches concealed their presence.

An abandoned building across the road would give them shelter. “Let’s go,” he said, and raced across the road, Jenna on his heels. He kicked open the door and lowered Sam to the floor. His shoulder was on fire. He needed some pain meds. A hot tub would’ve been great.

The graying wood had been eaten away by termites. Shots of light beamed on the floor in patterns from the bevy of holes in the walls. Still, they would be out of sight here.

Jenna lowered the backpack she’d carried after Sam had conked out. She spread the space blanket and laid Sam on it, covering him as best she could.

She stood and drew Zach away from her sleeping son. “He’s exhausted.”

Zach toyed with a strand of her dark hair, in such contrast to the pale fatigue on her face and emphasizing the shadows under her eyes. “So are you.”

“I’ll be fine.”

The strength in her voice reminded him one more time why he admired the hell out of her. She had more grit than a lot of the agents with whom he’d gone into a firefight.

“Rest awhile,” he said. He pulled his wallet from his back pocket. He’d used most of his reserves buying gas and food on the road to Colorado. His cash in the cabin—now ash. He fingered his last twenty. Enough to get Sam and Jenna something to eat and drink.

He slid out a credit card. “We’re renting a car,” he said quietly. He touched her face lightly. “Stay here with Sam. Don’t show yourself. I’ll be back with food and transportation.”